Mob Rule, Mob Rules: Part 3, Section 1

(Part 1, Part 2)

Trumphantism: Donald J. Trump & The Post-Trump World

By: E. Kyle Richey

Earth to America: Crashing til Landed

Marred by 2020 the world braces for impact in 2021. Humanity has witnessed a paradigm shift, yet the dust still settles as outcomes and consequences remain to be decided. Donald J. Trump, United States 45th President has lost an election which determined the cascading trajectory of the United States of America. Now is the time to understand what we are leaving behind as American’s and the world enter the fragmented universe of 2021. 

The irony of collapse is eventually a replacement appears. No power, however impressive, lasts forever per the testimonies of time by empires that long lay in ruin. Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome lay in ruin while continuing to influence the present; they may be in ruin yet their voices speak an eternality of what is to come, “an end and new beginnings,” they whisper.  

Transitions from beginning to end are never definite in degree, but shared similarities showcase potential possibilities for historians and political thinkers alike to study and consider. 

In 1992 a profound and controversial book was published, The End of History and the Last Man (1992) by Political and Social theorist Francis Fukuyama. Immediately in his introduction Fukuyama premised that liberal democracies are the pinnacle of a free and open society, an end of history, while acknowledging stable nations such as the United States or France would continue to have issues due to an “incomplete implementation of the twin principles of liberty and equality (p. xi).”¹ Within the end of history and fasts-forward to 2018 with the publication of Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, both works acknowledge a demand for universal recognition (an idea from the philosopher Hegel) or dignity according Fukuyama, a place where all are seen heard, and known. Yet the ideal turns toward the ideological as demands of recognition include no forms of discrimination or disrespect felt by oppressed groups giving rise to a new totalitarianism, a “soft totalitarianism”² whose overarching hand comes largely from corporations whose cooperation with governments make them complicit actors of the state. This is Modernity’s present conflict and a test concerning history’s end due to its irreality and polarizing affect of identity politics: 

Being a citizen of a liberal democracy does not mean, moreover, that people will actually be treated with equal respect either by their government or by other citizens. They are judged on the basis of their skin, their gender, their national origin, their looks, their ethnicity, or their sexual orientation. Each person and each group experiences disrespect in different ways, and each seeks its own dignity. Identity politics thus engenders its own dynamic, by which societies divide themselves into smaller and smaller groups by virtue of their particular “lived experience” of victimization (p. 164).³

Specific to the United States of America, a serious conflict is taking place concerning its future in the world as it continues to dim in the night sky. Our nebulae is fading while false promises of return continue from Trump to Biden. The election of 2020 further marks a crisis of culture and legitimacy. Black Lives Matter, ANTIFA, and additional Marxist movements in the areas of culture and political life are merely one revolt competing against another. Attempts in the final weeks of the Trump Presidency to override the Capitol was an extension of a radical right of QAnon conspirators and Alt-right fascism determined to prevent what they believe was an election stolen and an America quickly fading in front of their eyes. As Anne Applebaum from The Atlantic observed, extremists are emboldening one another.⁴ Events in America today are reminiscent of Germany as Marxist’s caused anarchy in the streets and out of frustration far-right extremist groups -began to take the streets ending in bloodshed and a revolution that brought about Adolf Hitler into power.

Would it be hard to believe that both sides of the the quarrel in America today carry legitimacy and illegitimacy? A conundrum for sure but a postmodern reality as conflicting interpretations⁵ swirl us into further disaster. Internally outcomes mean a warring between a weak versus strong state, however, a much larger powers hover over the once great nation. China, Corporatism, and Globalism each carry a new weight on the shoulders of Uncle Sam.

Socialist Technocrats riding of the back of Capitalism are aiming for a Great Reset in the midst of C-19.⁶ Spiraling out of control, disillusioned by their grander, they believe they can land a plane already in flames with President Biden and Vice-President Harris at the throttle. In order to comprehend the erosion and decay; to predict the outcomes that are likely to arise in 2021; and to understand the pinnacle of modernity—late modernity, a perpetual state⁷ of totalitarian incantations⁸—we must first review President Trump and the American ethos of 2016 that built up to this point. Mob Rule, Mob Rules did not develop overnight but it is rooted in the unsettled nature of mankind whose fears, wants, needs, and desires collide in a world of duality with the Self at the center of an unraveling universe that is the End of History & the Last Man.   

America’s Second Postmodern President

Donald J. Trump was an enigma and an archetype representative of the reverberating tensions in the modern world. America’s 45th President was not in the mundane category as he set a new standard for future leadership in the political landscape—an all gloves off approach. His own outrageous behavior polarized the most moderate into unmarked territories while enflaming political baselines. To call the man evil ignores the good he committed himself to doing while President, yet to call the man good evaporates his offensive oddities that perturbed Conservatives and non-Conservatives, Christians and non-Christians alike. The now former President was our first purely postmodern President; a genius capable of fragmenting and uniting in ways not thought possible in modern America.⁹ He successfully made the ecological landscape appear upside-down and right-side up, greatly due to the fact that American society at present is itself fragmented and united, engaged and disengaged, troubled and relived.

As I engaged on the EKR Report, it is important to reiterate here:

It is my belief that America’s 45th President Donald J. Trump was a complete postmodern President; a manifestation of late modernity’s yearnings for a hero and a villain. Trump just so happened to represent the radical right, the alt-right, but it is questionable if President Trump was indeed a man of the right or a man who took advantage of their woes. Previously I have mentioned that I believed Trump to be the first postmodern president, but I stand corrected as Barack Obama was the first (another topic to be sure). However, in reaction to thematics of Obama, Donald Trump entered center stage to fill a void in the political right, a strong arm who could MAGA his way though Washington. QAnon and the Alt-right are blatant examples of the modern malaise that is postmodernism. 

Continuing that thought-line I presented Donald J. Trump as a Postmodern Nebuchadnezzar:

Manifestation being the keyword President Trump embodies the essential postmodern stigma. He is the result of an ecological convergence within late modernity—a billionaire titan hungry for an abundance of power and wealth in order to make a legacy and the presidency was the perfect construct at a point of political strife…

President Trumps election and win in 2016 was understandably a response to the status quo, a push against the vanguard found in the Democratic and Republican parties that elected George W. Bush and Barrack Obama, respectfully, and a reactionary response from the public to the potential presidency of Hillary Rodham Clinton. People have grown weary of globalism, capitalism, socialism, war, and even peace. Citizens are worn.

And the election of Joe Biden is a reaction to Trump and Trumphantism, however, is also a response to the ills that minorities and progressives argue are repressing them. They too are enraged by hate speech, discrimination, low wages, and an expensive bloated healthcare system.

Combined a catalyst has been formed of good versus evil; light versus darkness. The postmodern stage has been set and the audience is watching:

In his book, Simulacra and Simulation, the postmodern thinker Baudrillard argues that within the United States a switch took place between the image relationship of art forms and reality; the image now has ontological priority over the real. Signs and Symbols have become the reality rather than the actual world itself thus resulting in life itself becoming “film-like” as he puts it:

It is not the least of America’s charms that even outside the movie theaters the whole county is cinematic. The desert you pass through is like the set of a Western, the city a screen of signs and formulas.”

Continuing:

A simulacrum is a representation of something or someone. Donald Trump, I am arguing, is a simulacrum due to the sociopolitical economic environment of the United States. He is a superficial force Americans had to contend with as either good or evil; right or wrong. Trump was not one but both. A master of media, Trump knew exactly how to market himself as savior and king as much as antichrist and tyrant. Christian professor and author of the book, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth In A Distracted Age, Alan Noble describes our media saturated society—what I see as a postmodern product of late modernity the emerged from secularism, technology, and science— Nobles writes that the:

[C]onstant engagement with media also invites us to unreflectively adopt ethical and political positions, creating a hodgepodge worldview. From a film on the treatment of animals in amusement parks we develop a fleeting concern for animal rights. A documentary on modern farming practices makes us see shopping local and organic a moral issue.

Are the events we are witnessing real? Who is telling the truth? What will become of the human estate? Former President Trump offered America one way forward and it was a way that now nearly half of America sought to maintain rather than surrender. So much so that a cabal raided the Capital. While another half, a half fearful of Trump and “his” America, elected Joseph Robinette Biden Jr to repose from a sudden decay in their vision of democracy.

Disturbingly there is a serious disconnect between needs and wants for the average American citizen versus the conflicting natures found in Washington. Following that logic, the innumerable hands influencing decisions in the American political system has designed a wide range of conflicts in terms of visions and, as I have termed it, a collision of ideas that relate to the competing visions of the nation and the world for that matter.¹⁰ 

If the controversial terminology Deep State¹¹ means anything it is that there are far too many actors involved in the decision making of the U.S. Government beyond its traditional capacity of the three branches of government and their inability of functional overwatch. Additionally, Deep State as I define is a clear cooperation, not conspiratorial, between the State (i.e. the Federal, State, and local governments including its many agencies) and private entities (i.e. Corporate entities such as Media conglomerates, Banks, and Private Military Companies); a layering of networks that has become the security state entwined with a global economy called neoliberalism. Modernity procured a “Too Big To Fail” attitude because our interconnected global economy is dependent upon its own continual success. Security and prosperity are its goals. Civilization is not post-modernity, its in the thicket of modernity. Postmodernism— philosophically and ideologically—acts a reflective state that mirrors modernity’s crisis. This is the present Market State¹² out of which Trump triumphed, at least, momentarily.

Never A One Man Show

Trump became President in the midst of a rise of authoritarian figures, nationalism, and Brexit.¹³ But he also stood as a bulwark against socialism, critical race theories, and leftist radicalism. Yet he adopted agendas that aligned with alt-right motives.¹⁴ A man who was bitter and vial towards those he disliked and quick to dispose all those who showed a lack of Trump style loyalty. Paradoxically, Trump was willing to stand against our greatest enemies in the world including China and rail against the greatest evils such as abortion; the paradox would also have bizarre relations with our greatest enemies—Russia and North Korea—that themselves left many perplexed.

Mob Rule and Mob rules goes both ways. Once a society or group accepts a particular culture to the extent of an unwavering obedience that is when the mere obedient citizen morphs into the crazed devotee.¹⁵ In such a state of mind the individual joins a collective consciousness that bestows an ideological framework with its authoritative structures, a tyrannical voice speaks over the disillusioned. Granted that both authority and legitimacy are each necessary means to gaining such societal clout. Without that respect the people protest, rebel, and eventually turn into revolutionaries. Todays status quo can be tomorrows tyranny as the vanguard can be heroes and mob alike. No modern government is unaware of the populist pull.

With the populist shift in the recent decade as seen in the election of President Trump a void continues to grow in the desire of American political stability. As previously written in part 2 of this series:

Donald Trump was not Russia’s (forever) President Vladimir Putin nor North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, however, the current President fit well within mob tactics. Portrayed as a hero who was set on “draining the swamp” it was clear that the Washington outsider brought in his own muck. 

Biden is the pendulum swing further to the left. Hardly a stabilizing force considering the policies the President and the democratic party have adopted.

Life’s A Riot

            Movements and the groups who fight for their beliefs can quickly be perceived as either just or unjust depending on which side a person stands. The avant-garde of the new or the progressive versus the conservative institutions or the reactionary, these are only a set of varying “stances” a person can be part of. However, where do hate groups, real hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Nation of Islam, or Neo-Volkisch stand in the spectrum of differences between progressives and conservatives? They may share similar accepted norms and mores of general society, but their responses are dehumanizing, threatening, and often violent. Truthfully, they have no justification in relation to either the avant-garde or the establishment considering that these movements of hate are beyond even the fridge of accepted beliefs and are considered fraudulent in their cause. Yet liberalized governments tend to protect even the most hateful. Such a decision hardly premises legitimacy but it begs the question, How do liberal democracies successfully funnel extremist groups within their countries? That question relates to the United State most recent socioeconomic and political trajectories of riots and movements via Black Lives Matter and the Alt-Right. And it is a central topic as the 46th President Biden intend to tackle “white supremacy” after President 45 attempted to address the radical socialist left. It is therefore essential to understand Black Lives Matters, ANTIFA, and the Alt-Right; to see them as archetypical trajectories of what lays ahead in the radicalism that has overtaken the American Dream that is no more.

————

Next Time: Mob Rule, Mob Rules: Part 3, Section 2 Trumphantism: The Alt-Right, Black Lives Matters, ANTIFA, and the Fate of American Liberty

References

¹ Dreher, Rod. (2020). Live Not By Lies: A Manual For Christian Dissidents. New York, NY: Sentinel

² Fukuyama, Francis. (1992). The End of History and the Last Man. New York, NY: The Free Press

³ —. (2018). Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 

⁴ Applebaum, Anne. (2020 October 30). The Answer to Extremism Isn’t More Extremism. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/left-and-right-are-radicalizing-each-other/616914/

⁵ As a point of reference I am using Jean Baudrillard’s usage as he explained this loss of the real in how we interpret events around us. In his example, he used Watergate. This is directly quoted from Simulations (1983) Translated by Phil Beitchman, Paul Foss and Paul Patton, “All hypotheses are possible, although this one is superfluous: the work of the Right is done very well, and spontaneously, by the Left on its own. Besides, it would be naive to see an embittered good conscience at work here. For the Right itself also spontaneously does the work of the Left. All the hypotheses of manipulation are reversible in an endless whirligig. For manipulation is a floating causality where positivity and negativity engender and overlap with one another; where there is no longer any active or passive (p. 30).”

⁶ World Economic Forum. The Great Reset. https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/; and for further commentary on events see: Doane, Thomas. (2020 November 1). The Convergence of the Progressive Telos. Truth In Focus. https://edwardkylerichey.org/2020/11/01/the-convergence-of-the-progressive-telos/

⁷ Richey, Kyle. (2020 October 26). PostModernity: A Perpetual State of Modernity. https://edwardkylerichey.org/2020/10/26/postmodernity-a-perpetual-state-of-modernity/

⁸ —. (2020 November 2). Totalitarian Incantations: Late Modernity’s Radical Manifestations. https://edwardkylerichey.org/2020/11/02/totalitarian-incantations-late-modernitys-radical-manifestations/

⁹ —. (2020 August 20). Mob Rule, Mob Rules 2020: Part 2. https://edwardkylerichey.org/2020/08/20/mob-rule-mob-rules-2020-part-2/

¹⁰ —. (2020 November 2020). Too Divided To Stand: Election 2020 & The Future of America. https://edwardkylerichey.org/2020/11/06/too-divided-to-stand-election-2020-the-future-of-america/

¹¹ Several references: Lofgren, Mike. (21 February, 2014). Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State. Moyers On Democracy. https://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/; Kaizen, Michael. (Fall 2017). The Rise of the Security State: From the Great War to Snowden. Dissent Magazine. https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/world-war-i-aftermath-security-state-nsa; Healy, Gene. (1 March, 2015). National Security State. (Book Review) National Security and Double Government By Michael J. Glennon. https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/national-security-state; Epstein, Richard. (20 October, 2019) How Bad Constitutional Law Leads to Bad Economic Regulations. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/how-bad-constitutional-law-leads-bad-regulations/600280/

¹² A great reference point for understanding the Market State is from Constitutional scholar Philip Bobbitt’s, The Shield of Achilles, including on page 347 where a small set of graphs or “plates” he calls them demonstrate the evolution of the state including a small definition of each entity. The Market State according to Bobbitt “will maximize the opportunity of its citizens.”

13 Greven, Thomas. (2016 May). The Rise of Right-wing Populism in Europe and the United States: A Comparative Perspective. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation. http://dc.fes.de/fileadmin/user_upload/publications/RightwingPopulism.pdf

¹⁴ Wilson, Matthew. (2020 July 17). Donald Trump and the “Alt-Right”: How Much Connection Is There. ISPI. https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/donald-trump-and-alt-right-how-much-connection-there-26990

¹⁵ Richey, Kyle. (2020 August 20). Mob Rule, Mob Rules 2020: Part 2. https://edwardkylerichey.org/2020/08/20/mob-rule-mob-rules-2020-part-2/

Thy Week, Thus Far: Anti-Trumpist Revoluionaires, Perverted Corruptible Men, & the Coming Judgement Upon Us All

11/11/2020

A Weekly Wednesday Dose of Truth

Articles, Podcasts, and Videos

The Trump Accountability Project. A horror show in the making. This organization comes in light of a Biden victory for the next President of the United States. Frightening when you read the fine print from this site:

Because we all stand united for Biden right? RIGHT?! To be clear, there are no unsubstantiated claims allowed at TIF. Yes, we are a Christian and a Conservative (Primitive Conservative, see details) organization but lying (a sin) and a lack of objectivity (a bad idea) is simply poor research. But this is not unity in any far stretch should the Biden Administration allow this nonsense. Yet it comes as no surprise, Biden tweeted (or whoever Tweets for Biden) a day before the election:

I believe LGBTQ+ rights are human rights — and they are on the ballot tomorrow.

Why mention LGBTQ? Because GLADD has their own list: Trump Accountability Project (TAP). The radical left are doing exactly what a totalitarian regime would do which is make a list and go after the people on that list. And they are also changing definitions to words, ideas, and concepts such as “Preference” and “Racism” to meet ideological Woke standards.

To any progressives who may read or follow Truth In Focus I would implore you to reconsider the ramifications of making lists, word changes, and threats as a means of unity for your beliefs or we all may end up looking more like this:

Mandatory Credit: Photo by The Art Archive/Shutterstock (5850842k) People from the rivers and mountains, Chinese propaganda poster, 1949 Art (Political Posters) – various Location: William Sewell

The McCarrick Report (Official Report). Nothing easy about this report from the Vatican concerning the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now 90 years of age, for his years of rape of adults and children alike. Pages 2 and 3 from the report:

This Report does not examine the issue of McCarrick’s culpability under canon law, since that question has already been adjudicated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. While the Secretariat of State’s examination was not focused on discovering the precise nature of McCarrick’s misconduct, numerous individuals who had direct physical contact with McCarrick were interviewed in connection with the Report. During extended interviews, often emotional, the persons described a range of behavior, including sexual abuse or assault, unwanted sexual activity, intimate physical contact and the sharing of beds without physical touching. The interviews also included detailed accounts related to McCarrick’s abuse of authority and power. The individuals’ full accounts, which proved extraordinarily helpful to the examination, were carefully reviewed, were made available to Pope Francis and are preserved in the Holy See’s archives.

There is a large swath of reporting on this document which will be linked here: 1) Rod Dreher, 2) American Magazine, 3) Wall Street Journal, 4) Vatican News, 5) First Things.

A few key takeaways. First, people (popes, pastors, priests, bishops included) will mislead, lie, and greatly harm others. All are susceptible to sin. It reminds me of the ongoing investigation of the late Ravi Zacharias who suspiciously owned Spas (what kind of Christian Apologist does that?) that he has now been accused by at least three women to have performed sexual acts before them. An official statement was released by RZIM back in October:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom. 3:23)

What remains a fundamental rule in life regardless of a political candidate, evangelist, or a relative is to never idolize the individual. Everyone is capable of committing horrific crimes. Dr. Jordan B Cooper, an ordained Lutheran pastor, an adjunct professor of Systematic Theology, and a Ministry Fellow with Christian Union at Cornell University, has a superb Youtube page, Just & Sinner, where Dr. Cooper recently provided his own analysis on the matter of Zacharias worth watching: Thoughts on the Ravi Zacharias Situation.

Back to McCarrick, according to the Catholic New Agency Theodore McCarrick is off hiding in seclusion like the coward he is. Leah Libresco, basically a catholic superwoman who was a former atheist and is a freelance journalist (also author), tweeted the following:

And that is exactly what we are going to do here at Truth In Focus. If you have ever been a victim of abuse or are presently facing abuse please reach out to us. We will fight for you. No matter who you are. This a promise written within the TIF Statement:

To be a Voice for the Voiceless, a Defense for the Defenseless.

TIF November Issue (2020) comes at the wake of a radical leftist soft-totalitarianism that seeks to devour all that is human and humane. Read. Share. Support.

All month long articles, book reviews, and testimonies concerning the radical left are here for readers to peruse. Quoting from my own article, By Virtue of Desecration: Liberation & the Sexual Moral Erosion of America:

Pornographic as Good

Very much a part of adulteration but importantly distinct as pornography is seen as freedom of speech as a right to sex and a right to sex work are seamlessly integrated into modern liberalized societies. Christians and Conservatives are not free from this burden as pornography runs rampant in churches, colleges, and states. Technology has expedited the profane and the obscene as another commodity in the free market. Under no false pretenses is the pornographic a liberator or an adjudicator of justice rather its is a master over its slaves and a harsh judge over impoverished souls. Youth today have succumbed to its anguish. It is time to cancel porn forever.

Or consider reading Kaleb ‘Kal’ Demerew review of Heather McDonald book, The Diversity Delusion titled, Totalitarian ‘Diversocrats’ and American Higher Education: A Review:

Mac Donald argues that totalitarian ‘diversocrats’ threaten the pursuit of humanities, truth, and science in university, promoting niche fields that provide narrow support to the ‘diversity’ project. Examples of this include the replacement, rather than supplementation, of classical curricula in classical rhetoric, oratory grammar, and literature with abstract study areas in fields like gender, race, and sexuality studies. For Mac Donald, this reflects a narcissistic turn, as these policies assume that students can only gain value by learning about things that they can relate to experientially. In the process, this approach may undermine the transmission of nuggets of knowledge considered more neutral, especially those in the humanities.

Thirdly, read the striking correlation between Soviet Russia and America today by Brandon Galbreath in his article, “In-Doxycated“:

In today’s crazy postmodern society Christians cannot really define themselves with words such as orthodoxy or heterodoxy (heresy). Indeed, both words by definition are clearly direct opposites, such as right vs. left. However, the “doxy” of ortho vs. hetero is really just a paradox. What I mean by that is heresy can easily be orthodoxy because, the side of truth sometimes loses against a more powerful force of heretics. As Alister McGrath characterizes it, “heresy is the orthodoxy of history’s losers”(McGrath 2009, Heresy: A History of Defending Truth).  We have not seen this much tension and uncertainty since the brink of the Civil War. Sadly, most media outlets work for the radical left and are not concerned in the interest of truth. So, we must take a “heresy” in today’s context as a social and political approach, where heresy is seen as an ideology used in world views struggling solely for power. We see this today in the political and social clash that has divided America once again.  Truth has simply been destabilized for the absorption of power. 

Ironically, the title of the Communist Party’s source of news for the people of the Soviet Union was called  Pravda, which means truth. Pravda emerged as a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union after the October Revolution in 1917. One of the most controversial events that the Soviet Union with Pravda lied and falsified the truth was the Katyn Forest Massacre. 

Take a look at the November Issue: The Radical Left & Their Coming Judgment Upon Us All

Speak Now, Cause What Comes Next Isn’t Pretty

(Quick Thoughts)

In a 52-48 vote Amy Coney Barrett was elected as the next Supreme Court Justice replacing the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Yay! Okay, moving on. I wanted to speak on Ecclesiastes 3:7, “a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;.” Amy Coney Barrett represented real women of faith, motherhood, and leadership. Beyond all the madness a mom of seven children who successfully graduated from Notre Dame Law School, lawyer, judge, and now Supreme Court Justice is a testimony for the ages. Why? Because she actually cared about her family while working and upheld her faith despite it being a central point of anguish in the eyes of the radicalized left. ACB reminds us that you cannot offend anyone if you are already deemed offensive. Therefore, speak up or forever hold your peace.

This victory is bound to be short lived regardless of who wins the coming election. Radicals will continue to protest and burn; deride and maim all they deem offensive. Christians must prepare for the coming persecution. Even if Donald Trump wins, he is only one man. Our federal government has reached beyond its limits. Corporations and special interests parade the capital. Globalism is shifting power and authority into elites who go unaccountable. Time moves onward while D.C. is slowly eclipsed by a paradigm shift not yet complete.

[Y]ou cannot offend anyone if you are already deemed offensive.

Whatever was once “the way of life” now stands at the precipice of an elite who simply do not give a damn. Beyond politics is a world now facing environmental disaster. Climate change falls in line with the ravaging of resources, pollution of water sources, declining ecosystems, and animal/plant extinction. Mark my words, no one man nor nation can withstand the coming tide.

Humanity is incapable of seeing once faltered political eyes settle in. Plato, it is surmised, wrote the Seventh Letter (my favorite letter) where he is describing events in Sicily. He becomes distraught by the corruption writing:

When, therefore, I considered all this, and the type of men who were administering the affairs of State, with their laws too and their customs, the more I considered them and the more I advanced in years myself, the more difficult appeared to me the task of managing affairs of State rightly. For it was impossible to take action without friends and trusty companions; and these it was not easy to find ready to hand, since our State was no longer managed according to the principles and institutions of our forefathers; while to acquire other new friends with any facility was a thing impossible. Moreover, both the written laws and the customs were being corrupted, and that with surprising rapidity. Consequently, although at first I was filled with an ardent desire to engage in public affairs, when I considered all this and saw how things were shifting about anyhow in all directions, I finally became dizzy; and although I continued to consider by what means some betterment could be brought about not only in these matters but also in the government as a whole, [326a] yet as regards political action I kept constantly waiting for an opportune moment; until, finally, looking at all the States which now exist, I perceived that one and all they are badly governed; for the state of their laws is such as to be almost incurable without some marvelous overhauling and good-luck to boot. So in my praise of the right philosophy I was compelled to declare that by it one is enabled to discern all forms of justice both political and individual. Wherefore the classes of mankind (I said) will have no cessation from evils until either the class of those who are right and true philosophers attains political supremacy, or else the class of those who hold power in the States becomes, by some dispensation of Heaven, really philosophic.

Wherefore the classes of mankind (I said) will have no cessation from evils until either the class of those who are right and true philosophers attains political supremacy, or else the class of those who hold power in the States becomes, by some dispensation of Heaven, really philosophic.

A perfect description of the United States right about now. We need those philosophers or we too will face the similar fate, but this time it may be at a global cost.

Lord Hear Our Prayers.

The Presidential Retrobate… err Debate of 2020 (Round 1)

(Quick Thoughts)

Sad, horrific, terrible, a mess these are the words that come to my mind when reviewing the first presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden. Nothing good came out of this debate. Trump lost it and Biden provided little. Biden comes out the winner tonight because he was less aggressive than Trump but not because he is “the better candidate.” Clearly the issues have a great effect on the American voter. Biden stands for Abortion, Trump does not; Biden supports BLM, Trump does not; Biden advocates stricter gun laws and you get the drift. And judging by character Trump failed in helping his case.

I wanted to highlight a few things that caught my attention.

Both Trump and Biden made outrageous claims concerning their times in office. President Trump claiming he, “Brought back the Big Ten football” is laughable and Biden’s claiming he was the guy who “brought back the car industry” is equally bizarre considering the economic and political complications while he was Vice-President. Let us hope no political figure has such immense power as to control the opening or shutting down of a company or institution nor the ability to even control an economy (which no President can).

As for the voter fraud debate while it exists there is little evidence supporting there are mass levels of it occurring. Trump has a point concerning ballot harvesting i.e. when a third party collects and delivers a ballot. Even Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard has concerns with ballot harvesting. There is real value in having people vote in person but a mail in a ballot must be sent through a protected source aside from a third party.

Biden gaffed concerning his beliefs about the Green New Deal, as reported from his own campaign website:

Biden cannot deny his support for the Green New Deal (which he did) while believing it is crucial. Whatever the Biden Plan is (you can read it from his website) it is the GND under a new name and likely a few changes.

Both men inappropriately blamed the deaths of thousands on each other as Biden pinned the entire Cvd-19 crisis on President Trump, ignoring completely the actions of States and Governors and Mayors on top the mixed reactions by the populace, and Trump remarked that Biden killed Veterans for his lack of providing better healthcare and services, a statement that lacks truthfulness and context.

The only promising facts for Trump was his support for Amy Coney Barrett whom Biden was completely wrong in arguing that the people have a voice in the selection of Barrett and that the present election is preventing that right. Nope. Trump is well within his right to select a Supreme Court Justice as I have covered pointing out this has always been a political issue, hardly “the people’s” decision. Also Trump was right to stand against the racist “anti-racism” and “White Privilege” training taking place in the federal government. Another subject that I have started to address on numerous occasions.

Honestly, the fact checking required by tonight’s debate is appalling. I took notes and marked each statement that required a fact check only to surmise that these two grown adults acted shamefully. Normally a debate can set a tone and possibly provide some real insight about each candidate and their beliefs, but the only insight tonight was that the two men running for the Office of the Presidency are worrisome.

Those are my thoughts.