Tag Archives: 2018 mid-term elections

November 6, 2019 · 21:48

“To Abandon Facts is to Abandon Freedom” The Trump Effect

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

After a long day yesterday we went out and hung out with friends for quite a while at Gordon Biersch. Then we came home and just watched television and read. I waited until this morning to check the election results and was quite pleased for the State that I will officially be a citizen of once I retire from the Navy, the Commonwealth of Virginia. So I didn’t write anything.

Tonight is kind of a reflection on the words and actions of President Trump, his family, and his cult like followers have been conducting themselves as public impeachment hearings loom in the wake of very unfavorable results for Trump and the GOP. I began to think of Historian Timothy Snyder’s words from his book On Tyranny which was published not long after President Trump’s election in 2016. Snyder wrote:

”The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions—even when that is exactly what they have announced that they will do.”

Dissent is not disloyalty, opposing the President’s policies, obeying one’s oath of office when seeing criminal or potential criminal actions being undertaken is not being a communist or enemy of the state. Asking such questions is not treason. Our founders wrestle with this. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.“

In spite of the Democrat victories in 2018 and 2019 and the upcoming impeachment hearings, neither the President, nor his supporters in Congress, nor his propaganda department or his cult led by charlatan preachers like Paula White, the new spiritual advisor at the White House will stop the lies and will stoop to no low in order to retain power. For them neither the law or the Constitution have any meaning. Trump is the law, and what he says is coming directly from God according to Reichsbishofin Paula White.

Between White’s outright heresy and Trump’s lies, supported by those of his family, his partners in the GOP and the blind faith and belief of his propaganda network and cult the truth does not matter. Oaths of office don’t matter, only loyalty to Trump. Snyder wrote:

“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis to do so. If nothing is truth, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”

I figure that even if Trump is legally removed from office through impeachment or loses the 2020 election that the damage is done and that it will take a generation for the country, it’s laws, and institutions to recover. Thirty years ago when the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet system fell apart it would bring forth universal democracy and freedom. I figured that the dictators were on their last legs, but I was wrong, even the United States is not immune to the lure of authoritarian rule. I believe that the next year will be very dangerous. Some of Trump’s preachers have promised that she he be turned out of office that they will kill those who opposed him.

So, until tomorrow,

Peace,

Padre Steve+

1 Comment

Filed under ethics, History, laws and legislation, leadership, nazi germany, News and current events, Political Commentary

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

November 7, 2018 · 23:59

The Crisis is Upon Us

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

The election is over, and save for some recounts in tightly contested races the Democrats have won the House of Representatives with a convincing win despite many overwhelmingly gerrymandered districts in Red States, while the GOP increased its majority in the Senate. The Democrats also made significant headway in State races and for the first time in many years now hold a majority of governorships.

In response President Trump behaved as any tyrant would have. He attacked the press, he suspended the press privileges of CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta after an altercation in which after the President berated Acosta a female staffer attempted to take a microphone out of Acosta’s hands.

During the press conference the President said that he would “work with Democrats” but would go to war if the new House majority exercised its constitutional right to conduct investigations into the President and his administration’s actions. But unlike his spineless GOP majority these Democrats will mean business and will not back down in the face of the President’s threats.

But there’s more. Following his Press Conference, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to resign immediately from his post and replaced as Acting Attorney General, not by Deputy Attorney General Ron Rosenstein, but by his Chief of Staff, Matt Whitaker, an outspoken critic of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller who now replaces Rosenstein to oversee Mueller.

The multiple effects of these actions is chilling for our constitutional system of government. The direct attack on individual members of the press is an assault on the First Amendment, and the firing of Attorney General Sessions and his replacement by a non-Senate confirmed aide was unprecedented.

We are now in completely uncharted territory. Never before has an American President attacked the foundations of the American system of government, but quite obviously, President Trump has no respect for his office or the Constitution. With a Lame Duck House still in office and a Senate majority he may well attempt to create a crisis in which he could try to seize unlimited power before the Democrats can officially take control of the House of Representatives.

Outside of the secession crisis of 1860 and 1861, this is the most dangerous moment in the history of the American Republic.

I do not know what tomorrow will bring but I do not think that it will be in any way comforting. I expect that we will lurch from crisis to crisis until the President attempts to seize absolute power. It is a moment that I dreaded since the President announced his candidacy in 2015.

Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Until tomorrow,

Peace,

Padre Steve+

5 Comments

Filed under History, News and current events, Political Commentary

Tagged as , , , , ,

November 6, 2018 · 20:22

Hold the Line: An Election Night Evening Out, Beer, Friends, and a Toto Concert

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

Well shit. We didn’t get our absentee ballots from West Virginia so we could vote so we did what we normally would do and went to Gordon Biersch to eat and drink, especially for me drink. However, this afternoon a friend of ours got us tickets to the Toto concert at the Sandler Center in order to try out the new hearing assistance systems at the concert hall. Since Judy has worn hearing aids for almost 52 years and has all the latest gear for a profoundly deaf person who functions in a hearing world this is a chance to give him feedback on how the system works. My hearing aids are temporarily kaput until the Navy can get them fixed I am trying a set of the new headphones that work with the system.

placeholder://

This is actually good because if we weren’t here I would be tuned in to the latest election results that we cannot influence. Of course once the concert is over and we are home I will begin to check things but sanity sometimes requires that we take a few hours off to enjoy the good things.

I won’t forget my days as a college sophomore rolling out pizza dough at Shakey’s Pizza in Stockton California to the tunes of American Top 40 and hearing Toto and their first hits Ninety-nine, Hold The Line, and Africa. I loved them and I never thought that I would get the chance to see them. So this is pretty cool.

So until we actually know something about the election results and what it may portent for our country and the world, I wish you a good night.

Peace,

Padre Steve+

2 Comments

Filed under Loose thoughts and musings, music, News and current events, Political Commentary

Tagged as , , , , , ,