- Meg on This is bad for the Church: “Whenever I see a person who very much needs to go touch grass (here’s looking at you, TexasAbuelo) invade an otherwise thoughtful space on the internet, it makes me sad that there are fewer and fewer institutions that provide an opportunity to meaningfully engage in community in uplifting ways. It’s such an important part of grounding people and constantly teaching them how to interact with other people in thoughtful and respectful ways. I am no longer an active participant in the church — I haven’t been for years, and I will never be again. Nevertheless, I think churches are a critical part of the infrastructure of society and it makes me sad to see how many people have lost communities of faith and replaced them with some of the saddest possible behaviors – mindlessly scrolling the internet or watching cable news. The loss of institutions that ground people in reality and bring them closer to their fellow man is a crisis. We should all be sad about things that exacerbate that.” Mar 19, 12:49
- on Devotional Meditations as a Genre: “I also see a faithful life in very practical terms — we are here to live our lives among our fellowman, and it is through those interactions that we learn to love God and to love others. Practicality (or maybe better said as principled practicality) is better than dogmatism.” Mar 19, 05:26
- on Hunger: “Trump made it very clear what he thought of foreign aid before the election (and, frankly, compassion in general). I know you didn’t vote for him, Jack, but anyone who did and expected foreign aid to continue…”You knew what I was when you picked me up.” Clinton downsized the government in cooperation with Congress–he worked with them to pass relevant laws. Trump is downsizing the government in defiance of the law and the Constitution, which gives Congress the power of the purse. Clinton had a plan for what government should stop doing and what it should continue doing, and then let go of people who were doing the former and retained people who were doing the latter. Trump (or rather Musk) is getting rid of people without considering what they do (“all probationary employees” or “everyone we can scare off with a ‘fork in the road’ message”). There’s a contradiction here. Trump broke from GOP orthodoxy by telling his supporters the government *should* take care of them–no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, etc.–and it made him very popular. Now his administration has been overrun by techno-libertarians who are rich enough, or young and stupid enough, to think they don’t need anything from the federal government. But Trump’s supporters do. I don’t know how this plays out. Will Trump’s supporters turn on him when services they count on stop functioning? Will Trump turn on Musk when his supporters start complaining? Will the courts prevent things from actually going that far? But to get back to Jonathan’s point, the modern economy is complicated, and the federal government plays a big role in it. It’s one thing to thoughtfully change that role. It’s quite another to burn it all down with no plan for what comes next. That really could cause hunger in America, not just Africa.” Mar 17, 13:12
- on Hunger: “I simply do not understand being unable to say that it’s wrong to cause people to starve.” Mar 17, 09:45
- on Hunger: “jader3rd, Yeah–I wish Trump had at least kept the money flowing for humanitarian aid. That said, he may have had other reasons for stopping the flow of aid than doing an audit. And one of those reasons might be that he wants folks to know–on both ends of the flow–that he means business. Even so, I’d like to see him turn the spigot back on sooner than later–at least for humanitarian aid. I can’t help myself–I don’t mean to be combative–but I don’t remember the mainstream media being nearly as vocal about downsizing the government during the days of Clinton as they are today.” Mar 17, 01:26
- on Hunger: “Jack, I see that you’re interested in cleaning up wasteful bureaucratic shenanigans. That’s great. I found this recent podcast https://www.npr.org/2025/03/12/1237991516/planet-money-doge-government-size-rego to be very informative on the topic. In it I learned how a previous Presidential Administration cut the Federal workforce from 3 million, to 2.1 million. So it can be done. Are you familiar with any medium or large organization that halts payments to perform an audit? I’m not. That’s not how good organizations operate. Especially when they are mandated by law to make the payments. Given that the Federal Government isn’t a private organization, but a public one, anyone can audit the government. You can do it. A Presidential candidate can do it. A Presidential nominee can do it. A President-elect can do it. It was bit more difficult to do it before 2006, but in 2006 the US Treasury Department started publishing daily accounts of where all of the money was going. I would think that a Presidential candidate who is sincere about their desire to cut waste would have looked at these public records and put a plan in place on how to reduce waste before being sworn into office. A “pause” in payments is neither an effective nor sincere desire to make government work better for the people.” Mar 16, 12:11
- on Hunger: “Viewing from a distance in Australia, it seems that Trump is far more worried about people killing each other in Ukraine, than he is about people dying from starvation and disease in poverty-ridden countries. It’s a tragedy unfolding before our eyes. Perhaps after his visit to SLC he thinks that the Church is going to pick up the slack? Hopefully, we can, before more people die.” Mar 15, 22:26
- on Hunger: “Jonathan, I agree with most of what you say–I don’t love Trump. I do however believe that a lot of what he says is pure–albeit sometimes strategic–bluster. I could be wrong–but I’d be surprised if the tariffs on Canada and Mexico stay in place or that the Palestinians are relocated or that he even comes close to deporting as many people as he says he will.” Mar 15, 18:24
- on The Former Bell at Temple Square: “Even if it isn’t the Nauvoo bell, it has gained a certain connection with Temple Square. It seems a shame to remove it.” Mar 15, 16:22
- on Hunger: “Jack, it’s reasonable to identify normal Republican-ish things that the government is doing. Those Republican-ish things are fairly popular and a lot of people voted for them. But I’m begging with you to understand that repeatedly threatening the independence of our closest ally is not a normal Republican thing to do. Previous Republican administrations hated tariffs and economic uncertainty. Pardoning violent insurrectionists and drug market operators and securing the release of human traffickers is not what people elect Republicans for. The aid that was keeping African children from being born with AIDS was an important priority for George W. Bush. Identifying wasteful programs and then cutting them is the normal Republican thing people were expecting, not a slash and burn approach to American soft power. After people die and babies are born with AIDS, it can’t be undone.” Mar 15, 15:08
