Tagged: america

I Propose A Guessing Game

Read the following paragraph from a news article and guess the year.

I offer that the first and major clue is the last line, “…got into the papers.”

This puts us back before the internet. So pre-90s.

I’m not from New York. I have only visited once. There may be names that a New Yorker would know are old and therefore help date the event. But I don’t know them.

The idea that people are fighting about the elevation of a flag is immemorial, so that doesn’t help. But add “American” to the kind of flag and obviously we’re post-1776.

A quick review of steel’s development indicates post-1856 and Bessemer Process.

“Medical students” as a phrase immediately calls to mind post-WW2, so post-1945.

This means, if you guessed anywhere between 1945-1990, I’d say you “won” my game. Congratulations!

Of course, the true winners of the true game are those who can withstand the “hype” to which the news cycle demands undying attention.

The real date is 1970. That means for 65 years we have recorded evidence that some Americans want to lower the flag and others want to raise it back up. Or, 65 years of “Same $&@%, different day.” Or, 65 years of “Nothing to see here; move along.”

My Money on What Bongino “Saw”

I’m so tired of conspiracy theorists. Lunatics one and all. I can’t even listen for amusement anymore. Thanks for nothing, guys.

Want to know where my money is bet on Dan Bongino’s claim?

Bongino’s talent, if you ever listened to his podcast, is keeping an audience in suspense. It’s an impressive skill, but ultimately no different than selling nothing burgers.

Want to know what he “saw”?

He will soon report that what he saw was bureaucracy.

That’s it.

I Want to Know Obama’s Thoughts

Like many of you, I have now seen (again?) the video of President Obama explaining to us why he had to deport illegal immigrants.

I don’t think showing that video to the rioters and the Democrats will do anything.

What I want to know is Obama’s actual, honest-to-goodness thoughts about his political children and grandchildren. Does he own them? Does he disown them? Does he believe that the CA Mayors and Governor (and elsewhere’s Dem leaderships) are proper democrats?

I want to know Obama’s thoughts.

My Fellow Americans, Do You Know Who You Are?

Here’s a passage from James Fenimore Cooper’s Afloat and Ashore, circa 1840s. (We would call it a YA adventure novel.)

“So I will concede that money is the great end of American life—that there is little else to live for in the great model republic. Politics have fallen into such hands, that office will not even give social station… (Italics mine).”

This is from a speech made by the main character, a 17 yr old.

My point is this: Do you honestly think MAGA or AOC is capable of increasing your opinion of politicians? There is at least 180yrs of evidence to support the idea that you’re a fool if you do.

The disdain you feel for politicians is in your blood no different than your blood is in your body.

It Sounds Like My Wife and I

As the family listened to Zelensky and Trump last night at dinner, though I knew my wife (Dark MAGA) could tell Trump(/Vance) won, I also had to chuckle because the argument Trump/Vance made was almost precisely the one I often find myself making.

“Recognize the facts!” we say in unison to the weak.

Unlike all the hypsters and hucksters, I am not worried about the future on the world or family scale. But I do confess that in both situations I am not sure what happens next. In my marriage, all I see is predictable error after predictable error. Will this end in tragedy? Probably not. But maybe.

What will happen on the world stage? I don’t know. But I like the historian (can’t recall his name, Stephen Kotkin?) who said, “War is always a miscalculation.”

The Left’s Only Sound Play

Like how comedians must stick to particulars to be funny, the Left must stick to generalities to regain power.

The Left’s only sound play is to claim as a baseline, “Well, whichever Republican was elected after Biden would be perceived as doing well, comparatively.”

This is sound because it is essentially true, it concedes reality, and, importantly, it provides the currently missing foundation for the future. It also undercuts the “cult of Trump” with exacting precision, no small desire of the Left, though not essential to the cause. For readers with the ability to see nuance, it also offers a distracting element. No one is talking anymore about whether Trump is even a Republican. But the Left should want that debate to resume because any interruption of focus counts in the quest for power.

Will the Left use such sage advice? Of course not. Why not? Because they, as we all saw for four years, are not of sound mind.

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Why share such sage advice? Why spend time considering it? Because I desire the history books (which will draw heavily from this blog…) to show how even the meekest of those with common sense knew what the Left needed to do, but the Left was intrinsically weak.

We Are Trump’s Loving Wife

The classic American marriage contains the beautiful scene of a husband unexpectedly finding that his wife has granted permission to “go big”.

My favorite illustration of this was captured by a commercial, some years ago, where after the husband puts the new big screen TV into the TV stand, he stands back, admiring his TV. The wife walks in and is not immediately impressed.

Baffled, and fearing the worst, he asks her, with trepidation, “What?”

She answers, “It’s just that there is a lot of…space.”

The scene continues with the husband microscopically examining the fit of the new bigger screen TV. He is squinting and running his hand along border between the TV and the TV stand. His wife comes in this time, and is visibly strained.

She says, “It is fine.”

He responds and concludes the anecdote with, “I can still see light!”

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As you no doubt have seen, there are red/blue county maps of America making their way around the web and one headline I saw claimed, “There are no blue states.”

Translation: there are blue counties in otherwise red states, and there are states composed entirely of red counties.

Implication: All of the United States of America, not merely the 75,000,000 voters and electoral college, just told Trump, like a loving wife, “Treat yourself!”

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Yes, that’s the best analogy of the passing scene, I should think.

Power Vs. Acquiring Power

Trump is about to be the man who defeated the first female nominee and the first Black female nominee. I do not come across many, if any, comments on this fact of the election cycle.

It seems to me that there is a continuum of reasons why this is not discussed. On one end, there is the noble (and therefore extremely unlikely) notion that the formerly fun “men vs. woman” schtick is so abhorrent to us woke folks that it is unworthy of our time. On the other end, there is the sober fact that leadership in Republics has never been about sex.

Leadership, I propose, is about power. And while there are many different types of power, there is only one way to gain power: you must take it.

Hillary Clinton did not take the power. Kamala Harris’ entire political career seems to be defined by accepting power.

As for Trump? His career, his notoriety, and his very real power comes solely from his constant belief that there is a power vacuum and he is the man to fill it.

We’ve all seen the clip of 30-something Trump declare he just may have to run for president. And whatever he was thinking until 2008, by the time he saw Obama’s lack of power, Trump obviously convinced himself that there was more power for the taking—and he took it. Who can forget Obama’s smug, “At least I will go down as a president”? Would a powerful man say that?

So ladies, take note. In not having been president, it has never been about you being women. People care that you are weak, just like Obama was weak. And people want power in the presidency. That’s all it is about.

Two Church-Related Thoughts On a Sunday

1. About the Bible: Us Christians love the underdog. We teach ourselves the Bible through this perspective. As a seminarian, I prefer to read the Bible from as neutral of a stance as possible and see what it has to say—and persuade others to do the same. For example, Moses made his tribe (the Levites) the priests (or, cynically, the tribe that doesn’t have to work for their food). Another big not-underdog is David’s Mighty Men. Forget the whole “demonstrated proficiency with a weapon of war” aspect of the infamous David and Goliath battle. Instead move to the fact that, in the same inspired account, he kept mighty men around him.

I ask you, dear sensitive snowflake reader, can you see how, in and of themselves, these facts merely dethrone your love of the underdog, and have nothing to say about the content of Scripture still?

Content, people. Content.

2. The Black Baptists were at it again this morning. Many, I’d say most, are veterans, and so the whole Arlington thing was naturally on their mind. Obviously it was brought up as evidence against Trump. As I sat among them, I couldn’t help but imagine what I would say if given a chance to speak. (Keep in mind, I am not voting for Trump. I just maintain that he had this thing won for a long time. And I’m white.)

After some consideration, I think I would say, “I will happily list many, many negative aspects of Trump and the Republican Party as a whole (though I do not know much about the Republican Party) which will be seen when they serve in the administration next term. I am curious if you all would do the same about Kamala. I am under the impression that Blacks think she is perfect. I know you think she is beautiful. I know you think she is smart. I know you think she is joyful. I know you think she is kind. I know you think she is good. I know you think she is sexy. I know you think she is strong. I know you think she is motherly. I also know that those all *might* actually be true descriptions. But I just heard that you believe in one god, and you just said his name is Jesus. Please list some negatives.”