In Past Times Maybe but Not so Much Today

In times past, the Olympic games were the most elite athletic event in the world. Not so much today. For years, we have applauded our world-class female athletes. Remember Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mary Lou Retton, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles...  They’re legends of which movies are made of. Their resolution, achievements, and grit made us proud to be Americans, showcasing skill and discipline that took years of blood, sweat, tears and years to cultivate. Young girls looked up to them and were inspired to pursue their own dreams. But what if Jackie had been forced to race against men? Or Mary had been forced to compete against men? Or Katie had been forced to swim against men? Or Biles forced to compete against male gymnasts. What if, after all their years of training and imagining, their accolades had been taken away because they were forced to compete against men? For today’s Olympians, this could become a reality. Powerful institutions in our country and around the world have embraced radical ideology to the detriment of the privacy, safety, and fairness of our girls. Sadly, the media, schools, universities, and even our federal government, to include presidential candidate, Kamala Harris have bought into a lie, and they want the rest of us to live according to this prevaricate, too: that’s what makes us men or women is our own identity, not how God created us.

What’s Good is Bad, What’s Bad is Good

I’m voting for Trump, not because he is a saint or a man untarnished. He like most of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As a Christian, Constitutionalist, Conservative, and retired Army Vet following a 30-year soldier’s journey. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Did not Thomas Jefferson also say, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." George Washington, often referred to as the “Father of Our Country,” said “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be attentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." James Madison said: "We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We stake the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the “Ten Commandments of God." Regardless of the duo who will represent the Democrat Party this coming election, their present leadership is shifty and, in my estimation, shady. America needs a full-on overhaul. The U.S. Constitution must remain in play. I believe President Trump only wants what’s best for all People. To love America, to Honor her, to love one another, to Unite the People and “Make America Great Again.” What’s wrong with that? I shake my head when I hear the left and their media darlings parroting each other as they talk claptrap. By their words, policy decisions, organization affiliations, lawfare behavior, degradation of America’s National Defense capabilities... they loathe our Republic, its Constitution as founded, liberty and justice for all. This nation, though imperfect, has made them wealthy. They’ve taken everything good and ruined our lives. They see things differently. What’s good is bad, what’s bad is Good. It’s shameful.

Use What You Have, Do What You Can To MAGA

Just thinking... America is facing a constitutional crisis. It's a crisis that involves a fundamental political question: Who rules whom? The Constitution established a limited government in which the people ruled through their elected officials. Under this form of government, America became the freest and most prosperous nation in history. Today, however, our constitutional system is one that increasingly exists in name only. The Constitution of "We the People" is being replaced by an elite, out-of-touch, and unaccountable administrative state that rules without the consent of American citizens. What does this mean? This means we live in an era of growing bureaucratic despotism, manifested in an administrative state that bypasses the Constitution, rejects the separation of powers, and replaces the rule of law with regulations. Is there hope for a turnaround? Yes! How so? Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow, pray for Donald Trump, our next president. Pray that he may know the will of God, and that he may have the spiritual courage and grace to follow it. Deliver him from all selfish considerations and evil. Lift him above the claims of politics. Lest we forget; Dreams are lovely. But they are dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. Put differently; Use what you have. Do what you can to “Make America Great Again.”

The U.S Constitution and We the People

Did the U.S. Constitution not establish a limited government in which the people ruled through their elected officials? Furthermore, under this form of government, did not America become the freest and greatest nation in history? Yet, as we celebrate America’s Independence Day, this 4th of July 2024, our constitutional system is one that increasingly exists in name only. The constitution of "We the People" is being replaced by an elite, out-of-touch, and unaccountable administrative state that rules without the consent of American citizens. This means we live in an era of growing bureaucratic despotism, manifested in an administrative state that bypasses the Constitution, rejects the separation of powers, and replaces the rule of law with regulations, and dare I say fiats. How pray tell, did we get from where we were in 1776 to where we find ourselves in 2024. Real history always tells the tale from the beginning to the end. Lest we forget, truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.  In the early years of our nation’ s founding Thomas Jefferson hit the nail on the head when he cautioned future generations with these words of wisdom: “Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity has a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”

It has been said and reinforced by Historians and Statesmen alike that “All healthy societies are bound together, not by the power of a state and its military... but by the power of a culture.” In America’s case, our culture was a fusion of Enlightenment sources such as individualism, self-government, and especially the reformed traditions of Christianity. Consequently, this hybrid-Enlightenment was the source of political shared aims at the time of the founding. It worked because it was impenetrable to the power or faculty of sight that people could read their own tradition and communities into it. The result was a “practical morality” A similar, even if vague understanding of family life, the gender roles, work, civic decency, public responsibility, and the relative importance of faith and the practices that went along with it.” Today, however, diverging issues have fractured this moral consensus. Abortion, gender roles, sexuality, and the authority of religion became mainstream causes of public and political contention. Consequently, cultural opponents have largely stopped trying to legitimate their positions through an appeal to common American traditions of political philosophy. Rather, “the only thing that matters to each is defeating their opponents.” As a result, we are seeing a “narrative of injury” whereby an adversary is not a trustworthy opponent but an enemy. The result is a “shared cultural nihilism.” From what I have been seeing and or hearing via social media posts, MSM news accounts and group discussions as it relates to a “narrative of injury” is that we are presently there. To deny otherwise is irrational to the point of being absurd.  Today’s culture is “fundamentally oriented toward dehumanizing the opposition; it is fundamentally about a symbolic and cultural annihilation.” Is there hope for America and its cultural decay? If we see the immorality of our culture as an imperative summons to pray and work for moral and spiritual awakening there is hope.

In today’s political environment, if a serving or an aspiring politician could persuade every American citizen to accept all their political views, opinions, beliefs... it would not make those views, opinions, beliefs... correct. Nor would it change what is true. As President Ronald Reagan warned: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” To that end, we must remain vigilant, strong, ready, willing and faithful to both God and country. Unlike both Jefferson and Reagan, today’s President of the United States, his Administration, and many within the Legislative branch fall wide of the mark.

 

 

 

 

Bragg's "Trumped-up Charges" and Conviction is Lawfare

The breadth and impact of this action by 12 jurors, as if they were auditioning as 12 “Pinocchio’s” for Judge Merchan’s “Geppetto”, advanced our worst fears about their inefficaciousness or failure to be fair and impartial. In the face of Soro's “bought and paid for” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s irrational actions, running years-old misdemeanors through a food processor, he created as never before heard of, much less seen in case law that made bookkeeping entries into felonies. And the jury chose to parrot Manhattan’s DA not one, not some, but all "kit and caboodle" of Alvin Bragg’s “trumped-up” charges… choosing to be swayed by convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen into an historic smear of a former president of the United States.

To call the jury weak willed, week kneed or spineless may seem too harsh, but let’s face it: among the men and women of this jury all are simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.  Additionally, two of the jurors were two second tier lawyers… and a lawyer served as foreman of the panel. Search your heart and ask yourself if you really believed that Manhattan attorneys would weigh the evidence and find it wanting would in fact deliver a not guilty verdict, knowing that they would have to return to their law firms and face the music after “letting Trump go free.” Ditto for the rest of the jurors. They each raised their right hand and swore an oath to be fair and impartial, but obviously peer pressure and ultimately prevented them from voting not guilty on even one of the 34 Bragg-manufactured charges.

Unfortunately for the Biden White House which orchestrated this 3rd World facade of a trial and their acolytes in media and entertainment like the unhinged Robert DeNiro performance outside the courtroom befitting a straitjacket. The Manhattan judgements will not “sink” Donald J. Trump. He will likely gain in the polls as Americans express their revulsion over the Joe Biden/Merrick Garland/Alvin Bragg...  “lawfare” rolled out for no other reason than to convict a political rival who is soaring in the polls.

The historical parallel for what’s coming for Democrats this November can be found in the words of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto who planned the 7 December 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor which thrust the United States into World War II. Yamamoto reportedly wrote in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Skepticism in Biden’s Ability to Lead

Given his standing among voters as evidenced by reputable polls, Biden can only be seen as a vulnerable incumbent. While anything can happen between this post and 5 November 2024 (election day), his approval numbers have remained in the high 30 to low 40 range for much of the year. Those numbers are a proxy for how people feel about his handling of the big issues, otherwise known as economy, immigration, foreign affairs, crime, gun control, homelessness, social activism, his cognitive state, religious freedom... I like most Americans continue to express skepticism in Biden’s ability to handle numerous issues, including international crises and economic policy. About two-thirds of Americans say they are not too or not at all confident in Biden to make wise decisions about immigration policy or to deal effectively with China. Nearly as many express low levels of confidence in him to work effectively with Congress, to make good decisions about economic policy or to navigate an international crisis.

Over the next few months, I will be delivering to you, the reader, various issues, and concerns .... that need to be appropriately addressed if we are to survive as that nation upon the hill that President Reagan famously expressed in his 1989 Farewell Address to the American people ... a shinning city upon a hill: “in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.” Reagan built on the phrase preached by Puritan pilgrim John Winthrop in perhaps the earliest example of the idea of American exceptionalism in a 1630 sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity.” He said, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” Furthermore, the origin of the phrase is found in the Bible, Mathew 5:14-16... You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and puy it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Reagan declared in his farewell speech that America “rediscovered” its commitment to world freedom, so must we do it again in 2024. If the United States is to be respected again on the world stage and looked to for leadership. The key, according to President Reagan, was a return to “common sense” that “told us that to preserve the peace, we’d have to become strong again after years of weakness.”

Dilemma of Progressive Education

In the words of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Throughout most of our nation’s history, Americans learned about and valued these notions. Alas, because of the Left’s hijacking of historical education in too many of our public-school systems and post-secondary institutions of higher learning. This is especially so, in many of our elite universities. Some may say this is trivial and this too shall pass. What is not trivial is the attempt to spread anti-American ideology into practically every single area of American life... and the fact that too many in positions of authority straightaway retreat when confronted by appropriateness, aka political correctness and anti-Americanism.  

The current college protest theatrics illustrate the vexing dilemma of radicalized or progressive education, which seeks to rewrite America’s history and erode or undermine same. Intentional miseducation or indoctrination is usually perpetrated in a surreptitious and gradual way to render mute the kind of informed patriotism that is essential to preserving liberty. Instead of learning to love America, students today learn to hate it.  

 

The current anti-Israel and anti-America disputation, like the hysteria for toppling, removing, desecrating... historic statues and the antisemitism that we currently witness daily is the bitter fruit of this leftist progressive educational agenda. To right this wrong we must confront this destructive ideology with the truth about American history and history in general. And we must nurture an informed patriotism among the young if our liberty is to be preserved. As always, “an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” The caveat, the educated citizenry must be prepared to defend it.