19. April 2026

In the Coming USA War on The Vatican, Ricketts Will Choose Either His Faith or Our Country

With the pre-attack rumblings emanating from his President and Pentagon Secretary, Senator Cosplay is about to (as they say in chess) "Get forked". That's because he's a very devout follower of his party's executive leadership AND he's a very devout follower of his religion.

And the latest country targeted for an unannounced, Pearl Harbor-style attack is The Vatican, and their leader, Pope Leo, who the administration wants out and pronto. It may be a relatively quiet kidnap-and-imprison-the-leader followed by a USA-installed leader with only a handful of deaths like the Venezuela Adventure generated. Equally, and more likely, the administration will repeat their Iran model that they report as a success: the quick death by missile of the spiritual leader, followed by strikes on Swiss Guard sites and the 65 schools the Vatican has placed through Rome. Given the lack of religious understanding the Pentagon has displayed in our War on the Iranians, their A.I. targeting systems may not know the College of Cardinals is not a school and that a USA-loyal replacement is likely to come from the members of that body.

If it's quick enough, if the President takes up the role of Pope as a side job or chooses someone like Jared or Charles Kushner to pick up the title, Ricketts, given his style, won't have THAT hard a decision to make. He'll have to mop up his image with his Roman Catholic and Quaker constituents, sure, but it will be a fete-accomplee as the French say, a done deal like the Argentine Soybean Bailout paid for by USA's Midwest Farmers, that he can shrug-emoji
( ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ ).

But what happens if USA's Catholics aren't excited about the administration killing their Religion's CEO & Spiritual Leader even if USA inherits all that gold leaf and art, even if those treasures become part of the new White House Ballroom project? Or if Italy, with actual armed forces chooses to intervene? Or more challenging, if Pope Leo escapes the kill zone and sets up a resistance?

The War on The Vatican could last longer, days. And then Senator Cosplay would have a major decision...

Would He Choose His Country or His Church?

It'll be a seriously difficult marketing dance for him.

There no doubt Ricketts is a devout Roman Catholic. He adheres to belief in his church's most radical anti-birth control wing, not only forbidding women impregnated by rapists from getting help, but is opposed to ALL forms of birth control, not just abortion. These are not positions most USA Catholics hold, but some do. Ricketts has made enforcing these religious touch-points part of his view of governing Nebraska and USA.

But his loyalty to his party's leadership may trump his religion on any given issue.

For example, he's followed recent Republican Party teachings against the Ten Commandments. He's been an all-out cheerleader for the Death Penalty, not only with his vivid public enthusiasm for it, but with the most important currency in his life, big money. He opposes not just the Sixth commandment, but his out-of-state University of Chicago M.B.A. initiated him into a spiritual practice entirely dedicated to the most assertive and intentional transgressions against the Tenth Commandment he and I were warned about in Sunday School and CCD. In M.B.A. spiritual practice, allowing organizational or personal morals to stand in the way of ROI is sacrilege. If a hospital, for example, deploys resources away from billing and collections towards anything beyond the minimum medical quality or services quantity necessary to retain the most profitable patients, it is sacrilege. Your peer group and M.B.A. golfing buddies will ridicule you and maybe even not invite you to the hottest cocktail "soirees".

He'll Choose USA Over His Church…We THINK. Here's Why

He's turned his Senate position into a prolific cash machine, reaping tens of million$ in stock speculation armed with his access to knowledge of intel he gets at work. To keep capturing the big-time capital gains, he needs to hold onto his job. Pope Leo XIV can't do much about that, but Donald Trump, who wants to control the Vatican and its assets and pronouncements, CAN affect Ricketts's continuing as a Senator.

Additionally the business opportunities of a Vatican takeover are very high and have to pull at his M.B.A. spiritual practice. Just one example, they could extend the business of selling pardons that has blossomed since Clinton, Bush Junior and Trump "monetized" that presidential power. Current price for a Presidential pardon starts at $2 million, but it's apparently five or 6 times that for pardoning international drug lords.

Understand: That business was invented by the Vatican. It's called "Indulgences". In exchange for actions picked off a Church-provided menu of to-dos or cash, a sinner could buy eternal salvation. As every M.B.A. knows from the Milton Friedman's famous University of Chicago Case Study, this worked brilliantly until 1567, when Pope Pius V, who Trump called "Prius Vee, the stupidest Pope ever", erased the cash option in a move Chicago M.B.A.s consider sacrilege.

If Trump took the papacy for himself or appointed a business colleague like Kushner, the party could capture that cash stream and create additional business growth through services around that core business. Indulgence brokerages (yes, Ricketts' experience would give him an inside track on that one), church-related legal services, televised reality shows of proceedings, merch and so much more).

The IPO for this M.B.A.d Vatican would probably be, if not the biggest ever, would be the biggest since Tesla went public. The markets would love it. Party loyalists would be able to get in before the general public, and even the other party's leaders would find ways to reap rewards in pre-IPO stock speculation.

There's one small additional factor that pushes us toward thinking Ricketts will choose a Patriot stance over his Church. It's not a slam-dunk reason, but a finger on the scale: Voter demographics.

The Roman Catholic percentage of Nebraska adherents is shrinking, down to 19% in 2020. Undoubtedly, some of Nebraska's Catholics will adhere to the patriotic USA side and against their Church. The remainder, an already-religious minority and shrinking over time, will have to decide if Ricketts has sinned in supporting the Death Penalty for Leo XIV.

In a state as Red as this one, that might be a low electoral risk.

Will this be tough for Dan Osborn? Nobody's asked him yet, so we'd like to hear if like Ricketts, he would support the death penalty for Pope Leo XIV for that Pope's opposition to the War on the Iranians. I don't know what the Polymarket's odds are on that, but we wouldn't bet on it. Too much of a Catholic, too much military experience and band of brothers to hunger for extra deaths, little interest in stock speculation. That's our guess. But someone should ask him and get him on the record if this is one issue on which he could agree with Ricketts.

It'll be tough for Senator Cosplay, for sure. Not an easy decision. But between his two devout spiritual practices, we suspect his M.B.A. spiritual core will make him gravitate towards USA and away from The Vatican.