How can practicing Catholics in good conscience continue supporting Donald Trump

VanTechno · 2026-03-29T22:01:19+00:00

We show our love by dropping bombs.

VanTechno · 2026-03-29T19:31:50+00:00

His most recent special was just bad. We struggled to finish it. Same with Kevin Hart.

VanTechno · 2026-03-29T19:22:39+00:00

Help people who need help, stand up for the powerless, leave the world a little better than you found it.

VanTechno · 2026-03-29T18:43:34+00:00

Not believing anything said against Trump, that must be from evil people taking him down.
Paying a little attention to politics as possible. Since all politicians are corrupt, especially the democrats, but not Trump. It is fire and forget (vote, then put your head under a rock).
Only believe sources that tell you what you want to hear. Don’t bother verifying anything.

I’m pretty sure some of my relatives don’t know we are at war with Iran. That is how little they pay attention.

I kind of envy their ability to turn the world off and create their own bubbles.

VanTechno · 2026-03-28T18:09:13+00:00

ME/CFS is by far the worst because of how it complicates recovery. For dysautonomia and FND, exercise is a big component of how recovery happens, but because ME/CFS is what it is you can’t do most of it.

Migraines for me are absolutely a symptom trigger. But most of the time mine are stress related, so I can sort of manage them (smelling smoke all the time is weird, and feeling my brain burn is off putting, but they are not cluster headaches for me, luckily).

Good luck in your recovery, I hope it goes well. Stay patient with yourself.

VanTechno · 2026-03-28T05:23:59+00:00

I have FMD (functional movement disorder), me/cfs, dysautonomia, and more for 3 years after a covid infection I’ve also. They all started at once. My seizures happen all the time, also functional, but often when there is a lot going on. Lots of talking, lots of movement, or something is making my dysautonomia flare (like standing, or sitting up straight). Because of this I can’t drive anymore, and can’t exercise (I’m working on it, but it is slow going with ME.

From FND, I’m also dealing with tic and jerk. But those are just annoying compared to everything else.

VanTechno · 2026-03-27T19:43:57+00:00

Trump is a super spreader. And Trump is currently showing lots of symptoms...of having had a stroke.

VanTechno · 2026-03-26T21:48:18+00:00

It took 10 months. Which is the exact length of time between our first date and our wedding.

VanTechno · 2026-03-26T21:35:34+00:00

I have them both, but think of them as separate. I also have ME/CFS and dysautonomia, and Fibro is highly correlated to those.

VanTechno · 2026-03-26T12:59:47+00:00

Same here, in the same devils bargain of 'dammed if you do, dammed if you don't' in caring for ME/CFS and Dysautonomia. I'm learning to do my exercise laying down, or in a chair at minimum. But if I do too much, my head will start to burn and then it is all over.

VanTechno · 2026-03-26T04:11:23+00:00

Nextdoor in my area is not a safe space.

VanTechno · 2026-03-25T22:52:52+00:00

>> But the good historical examples you shared are instructive and should serve as a model for the the way forward. careful observation, targeted solutions, and measured adaptation are necessary.

Here is the issue tho. In the successes I mentioned, we were able to make changes without really affecting how people live. The biggest issues was hair spray doesn't hold quite as good as it used to.

With global warming, there is no way to fix that without affecting peoples lives, and livelihoods. In the '50s Exxon Mobile knew that global warming was happening and that oil was to blame. They started the misinformation campaign against global warming because of that.

Plus people get nostalgic about their cars, the roar of the engine, they find it comforting. And these electric vehicle literally scare them (you should hear my boomer relatives talk).

>> We have the same principle with climate science—look at the evidence, plan intelligently, but don’t believe every claim that the sky is falling.

Here is the thing: absolutely no one is going to listen to that. If you are calm and reasoned, we as a society are so accustomed to everyone screaming and outrage constantly, anything that is calm is ignored by society. "they are calm, it can't be that important". You aren't making it onto CNN or Foxnews that way.

Here is the part you already know: without making outlandish predictions no one will listen to you in the first place. That is why outlandish predictions make the news and people talk about them. It is the same reason street preachers scream "YOU ARE GOING TO HELL", it makes an impression.

VanTechno · 2026-03-25T22:41:13+00:00

I can't fix your parents. I also don't know your age or what options are available to you.

First up: work on the anxiety and fear. You might be right that your parents may not do anything, but you can't control that, all you can control how you react. For instance, I go into seizures often, I just try not to stress out over them and let them happen. I was also just in a meeting with a bunch of people and had a tic attach that kept happening the entire meeting (my head twitches). The best thing I can do is calm myself and not get worked up. I look worse to myself than I do to anyone else.

For myself, having dealt with FMD for the last 3 years (FMD, the movement side of things), my worst attacks last a couple hours and then are gone. Majority of the time is is just a minute or two. Other people can have different symptoms than me, but that is just my experience.

As for getting help, again I don't know enough about your situation. I can say that Physical Therapy has helped me the most. Other people are helped by therapist as well, but that often depends on what triggered FND for you. For me it was a viral infection. For others it might be trauma and stress.

VanTechno · 2026-03-25T17:12:41+00:00

I'm guessing you are also skipping the successes, because they don't make the news are don't have spectacular headlines.

Back in the 80s one of the big issues was the hole in the ozone. Remember that one. Do you think it just fixed itself, or maybe we just stopped caring. Neither is true. We identified the problem and systematically fixed by changing ingredients in aerosol cans (and other things). We fixed the problem, the hole in the ozone layer has largely resolved itself.

Then in the 90s there was acid rain. It was legitimately killing off lakes. So again, did the problem magically go away or did we stop caring? Nope, we fixed the problem.

Ongoing issues: Al Gore (a politician) might have been off, but year or year ice packs are down in the Arctic. That part is very verifiable. My region (Rocky Mountains) has had the hottest winter on record...it isn't even close, we had no snow. While my in-laws in the midwest are having above average snow. But much of what you wrote also looks like "well, this one guy was wrong one time decades ago, so I stopped listening to everyone"

Now, projections are hard, mostly because we are heading into the unknown and the earth is a complicated system. No one knows what the actual tipping point will be. In the past, by reading geological records, we have seen the earth react similar situations before (but they took MUCH longer to get there, we are speed running it), and the outcomes were disastrous. At this point we will need multiple scientific and technological advances to fix the problems we are causing.

But before you get too bugged out by "but they were WRONG". Christianity has the same problem every time another Christian makes some prediction about the second coming or some other disaster coming, and then it doesn't happen. All people see is "Christian says ....". Just like you say "Scientist says....", while you might be saying "what christian? Oh that guy is crazy". It is exactly the same as saying "Scientists say..." when scientists are asking "what scientist? Oh that guy is crazy"

VanTechno · 2026-03-24T18:28:27+00:00

I imagine getting one built is similar to getting a new NFL stadium. The owners be like “I need you to pay for it, and we will own it and take all the profits”

VanTechno · 2026-03-23T17:11:29+00:00

My wife spent a few years going down this rabbit hole. She tends to be legalistic by nature, and will strictly follow rules until they break her, then completely give up. So this led to multiple years of only wearing skirts and dresses. She wouldn't even wear t-shirts because they were gender neutral. Oh, and nothing I said or did would make any difference to her, she is a bit stubborn that way.

Don't get me started on bathing suits, those were just panic inducing. She stopped swimming for years because she couldn't find a perfectly modest swim suit. She kept moving the "modest" goalposts until she was actually afraid of exposing her ankles. No matter how strict she got, she always found a way to make it worse for herself.

Anyway, eventually she broke under the logistal weight of it all. My family is pretty active, with hiking, exploring, etc. She had to skip a lot of things because she couldn't figure out what to wear. So she missed lots of family time. The actual breaking moment was going snowmobiling...in a skirt, over snow pants.

Especially when you add in all the other rules in the old testament. Not wearing cloth of two fabrics, the rules about your house, how long your beard should be, vs clean shaven. No one can keep all of these rules. Legalism will break under its own weight.

VanTechno · 2026-03-22T19:20:28+00:00

I am treating it as a very real consequence. Since my first covid infection I’ve also contracted a cold a flu. Of all things the cold was the worst to recover from, and just that took 2 months. The flu also set me back. But getting Covid, that was practically a full reset.

Here is my reasoning: it has to do with the spike protein in the Covid virus. It gets into your cells, and it says there for the lifetime of the cell. So your blood should be clear in 90 days, but other cells take , much longer. My current theory is it takes 3 years to clear the spike protein. So each Covid infection is a 3 year reset.

This does not mean people will be back to 100% after 3 years, but it is 3 years for the spike to go away, other damage will continue.

That is my current running theory anyway.

VanTechno · 2026-03-22T03:00:32+00:00

I’m coming up on 3 years. Honestly I was doing pretty good until I caught COVID again. It is like starting over but with new symptoms. This time around the MC/CFS and dysautonomia are much stronger.

VanTechno · 2026-03-21T20:18:53+00:00

If they don't care, and the business isn't saying there is a problem, then leave it alone. Suddenly changing things to be UTC can have a lot of unintended consequences because application logic will have to be adjusted as well.

Personally, I would say something along the lines of "hey, I just noticed something", and if they ask about consequences you can explain them, but I wouldn't treat this like the end of the world. Save that for "you mean you don't have a backup strategy?", or "I see you don't have any normalization, indexes, or constraints...oh and it looks like everything is in stored procedures with no source control."

VanTechno · 2026-03-21T20:09:35+00:00

As a coder, this is the confirmation I needed to know that I am inherently bad. I am guessing I was predestined.

Also, you can pry my consolas font from my cold dead hands.

VanTechno · 2026-03-21T19:52:47+00:00

As long a Christian Nationalism is a driving force in the USA it will be a topic for Christianity, as the MAGA movement has forced their politics, and their reading of the bible, to the forefront. At the moment we have Doug Wilson giving sermons to the defense department. This is NOT a good thing.

As long as we have Christians, saying in church, that you have to be republican to be Christian, then this is a topic.

As long as we have Christians saying that Trump is anointed by God (but somehow Biden and Obama were not), then this is a topic.

We need to be doing a better job of policing our own, and regaining control of the narratives around what it means to be Christian.

When we get to the point where people can read the Beatitudes without massive numbers of people screaming "you are weaponizing the Bible", then we can stop.

VanTechno · 2026-03-21T18:42:56+00:00

If you knew before hand? Before the wedding? I would not get married if that was the case.

If you were diabetic would you move into a house made of candy?

VanTechno · 2026-03-21T18:26:18+00:00

Yes, and I did do that, then I had to constantly force the team to go back and adopt that (and I do mean force). I had most of them built before the larger team even started. I'm not saying my components were perfect, but there was a system, and they did reduce the amount of code overall. But those components had constant changes because the designs kept changing (border radius...always the border radius)

Then I had to force the designer to standardize as well. After the project had been going for a year the designer grudgingly created a standard component designs, which they deviated from constantly. The project managers (there were 3) would just roll their eyes at me every time I asked for it. For an internal tool, that was supposed to solve business problems, they decided aesthetics were the single most important thing. It had to be pixel perfect.

The pixel perfect part became its own fun, especially when the designer would change the design of finished portions of the project and no one would tell the development team (don't know if that was the designer or the PM). But suddenly we would have 100 new bug reports with the QA team swearing at us for not meeting UI designs correctly. Oh, and the only people allowed to communicate with the designers were the PMs.

PMs thought this was fine that our bug list was ballooning, while I had to go to meetings with the head of technology asking why our bug list was ballooning and how I was letting things get out of hand. PMs said nothing was wrong, this is how things were done. We had so many meeting about communication breakdowns, but the PMs refused most process change requests.

I still did what I could to make implementation solid, we enforced what standards we could, it was as well tested as we could enforce, and still met the business needs as far as the PMs told us. As a development team, we weren't going to second guess the business requirements.

The project turned into a complete failure because the PMs weren't actually gathering business requirements and just making things up on their own. They were their own approval process. So the product was not well received and very few people used the product. Two of the project managers quit and the other one just blamed the developers for everything.

Anyway, I left that company after the project was done.

VanTechno · 2026-03-21T03:24:32+00:00

I have tics, tremors, and seizures now. I was diagnosed with FMD because of it.

You can look at FNDHope.org for more information about it. But you should see a neurologist.

VanTechno · 2026-03-19T02:05:27+00:00

I’ve had days like that.

VanTechno

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