Ted Cruz delivers false piety Texas style

I have standards. I really do. I try hard not to repeat stories about Republicans that are untrue or just grossly exaggerated. It's the Boy Scout in me. But sometimes when I do tell the truth, it sounds like fiction. One of those moments is here.

Recently, Ted Cruz, the Texas Senator, sent me an email, one Christian to another. He really did. Cross my heart and hope to die.

So let me testify, as Christians do, that I am not now, and have never been one. I eat pork and fish without scales, but that just makes me a bad Jew, not a good Christian. I figure, looking at my buddy Ted's long record in the Senate, that he is not much of a Christian either. I think biblical Matthew would agree with me. "By their deeds shall ye know them. Does a man gather grapes from thorns or figs from briars?"

Here is what Cruz or his holy ghost wrote: "Dear Norman, this message may be a bit different from what you're used to, but frankly, it's quite personal and important.

I'd like you to read this passage with me from Hebrews 13:3. 'Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison and those who are mistreated as if you yourself were suffering.'"

The suffering he mentions has taken place in Nigeria, China, and Sudan, where Christians have been, and are, being persecuted. I wish he had also listed a closer place where he, today and without my contribution, could help the natives. It is called Minnesota There, innocents, especially children, are virtually under house arrest, parents fearful that a federal cop might grab a kid for deportation. Kids peer out at America the beautiful but are unable to play in it and become prey to guys in uniform — a bit like China, Nigeria, or Sudan.

Many of the target kids are dark-skinned and Catholic, much like the victims in foreign lands. Cruz should start here where he can exert some power, not just to raise money, but to protect people from abuse.

Minnesota is an occupied territory, looking like a police state. Recently a woman, a journalist and Black, was greeted one morning when she woke up by two dozen uniformed ICE enforcers. She was a reporter at a protest taking place in a church. ICE claimed she was part of the protest which is illegal in a church. They were there to arrest her for doing nothing more than her reporting job.

Her neighbors saw an army as if a small war was about to begin. She was not about to flee, and a single cop or even a single phone call would have brought her to the courthouse or police station. Her serious work had become a source of tears for her family and suspicion in her neighbors.

No one I know believes in a police state — not in Nigeria, Sudan, China, or Minnesota. And abuse doesn't come cheap. One careful report estimates over $300 million spent by Trump occupation forces in Minnesota — good for the economy, bad for democracy.

Possible headlines

The Cruz Doctrine: Worry About Far Away