Donald Trump is again taught the meaning of Homo proponit sed Deus disponit but it obviously won't do him any good

 

 Man proposes but God disposes.

The locution belongs to Thomas von Kempen (1380-1471), Imitation of Christ 1.19. It is the template for the American adage that "the president proposes but the Congress disposes".

In America the power of the purse rests in the people's representatives in the House and Senate assembled. It does not rest in the hands of one man.

Donald Trump has once again been taught this lesson about who's boss around here, and that the president can't always get what he wants.

On Thursday he suddenly sprang the wish for an elimination of the US national debt ceiling entirely, which is what Democrats have long wanted. He then hedged for at least an extension of the time limit for a decision about it through Jan 30, 2027 after the primaries, but he didn't get that either, let alone an extension into 2029 after he's out of the picture. Congress taught him similar lessons multiple times during his first presidency, but he obviously learned nothing.

The compromise passed by the House and the Senate overnight funds the government through March 14, 2025, and forces Trump to deal with the debt ceiling in 2025. He promised to primary any Republican in 2026 who voted for that.

He's going to be very busy!

He'll have to primary 170 Republicans in the US House lol, which I'm sure will smooth the way to getting passed what he wants passed there the next two years lol.

Trump's threats aren't just rash. They are idle, and self-defeating to boot, displaying nothing so much as his impotence.

Democrats who said they feared another Hitler were just lying to their fool followers, or were the fools themselves.

 

 

Paul's ideas of imitation, from which we get Imitatio Christi, are quite contrary to the teaching and intent of Jesus

Paul's idea of imitation is a repudiation of Jesus' radical ideas of eschatological repentance, which involved flight from traditional social conventions in order to escape the imminently coming judgment. In point of fact Jesus' idea left nothing positive to imitate. This is why Schweitzer could speak of Jesus' ethic as a negation of ethics.

Paul's "way" on the other hand was a rationalization of those conventions after the failure of the eschaton and the impending failure of the parousia. Instead of rejecting traditional social roles he simply accepted them and invested them with new meaning.

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

-- I Corinthians 4:15ff. (RSV)

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit;

-- I Thessalonians 1:6 (RSV)

As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

-- I Thessalonians 2:11

Paul is, in fact, all over the map on this, spilling a lot of ink on the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as fathers even though he knows we have but one father, God. He seems completely ignorant of the teaching of Jesus, which rejected all human fathers in favor of the fatherhood of God. Paul notably also does not use the language of "following" as found in the gospels ("come after me", "follow me"). Instead he speaks of mimesis, which in its turn is foreign to the gospels.

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, 

-- Romans 4:16

And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 

-- Romans 9:10

As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.

-- Romans 11:28

... all our fathers were under the cloud ...

-- I Corinthians 10:1

But ye know the proof of him [Timothy], that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

-- Philippians 2:22

The whole thing degenerates into the familial as the pressure of the delay of the parousia re-invigorates traditional human social roles:

Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

-- I Timothy 1:2

Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;

-- I Timothy 5:1

To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

-- II Timothy 1:2

To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

-- Titus 1:4

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And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

-- Matthew 23:9