Feeling a little whimsical this morning. I found this cute graphic on Instapundit and decided to run with it.
Anyways, here’s the upshot: Sen Ted Cruz just joined the ranks of the “mathematically impossible to-get set” with his stunning loss in New York.
As I predicted the other day, any attempt to explain this humiliating defeat any other way is going to like special pleading. It’ll do nothing but make him look like a masculine Tracy Flick (from the movie Election.) Wholly unappealing in a candidate, especially when you’re running against an uber-alpha male like Trump.
Here’s what this means for Cruz: he can continue to make the case that Trump won’t get the magic 1237 before July. That’s it. What he can’t convince anybody is that he can get the nomination locked up on the second or third (or subsequent) ballots in Cleveland. Being a strong Constitutionalist is not the same thing as assuring the Trump-skeptics that he’s the more electable candidate.
And that’s what the Trump-skeptics demand –an “electable” candidate. If Cruz can’t convince them that he’s the one who can carry Michigan, or New York, or New Jersey (and there is no way he can make that case now), then he’s going to go home empty-handed from Cleveland, if he’s lucky. Most likely he’ll get a shiv in the back.
Now, I understand that the GOPe is still pining for The White Knight who will ride his steed up to the podium, receive the crown to loud acclaim and then ride off into the sunset to do battle with the dreaded Hildebeast. But that ain’t gonna happen. There are no White Knights. Not in either party.
Trump, whatever his flaws, utterly destroyed the GOPe. If he continues to win –and then trounces Hillary–he will then destroy the rice bowls of the consultant class. For that alone, we should be eternally grateful.
Trump is a crony capitalist who would have wasted his daddy’s fortune were it not for the power of eminent domain. His career is full of lawsuits and bankruptcies and much of his supposed fortune is a pulled-out-of-thin-air figure for the value of his “brand name” – ie a load of postmodern, reality-free hogwash.
The only difference between him and the other Establishmentarians is that he’s more vulgar and better at playing the media game to whip up the mob than any other candidate we’ve seen. He is precisely the type of demagogue the Founders warned against.
That is the way I read it too, Matt. Yet my boss who is an astute and successful business man who does it the right way is all on board as a Trumpanista. “If anyone but Trump is elected, it means the destruction of the country. Interestingly it is not so far removed from the messiah complex many supports of Obama had (including a certain GOA bishop Savas).
Why does my boss feel this way? He hates Obama and because Trump seems to echo the anger my boss has at Obama and his policies.
Trump is a bit like the angry pseudo-prophet in the movie Network: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”
There is real anger for real reasons over a wide-spread portion of the electorate. Trump is trying to capture that to get elected just like any good populist. If he follows the usual road once he is elected, his policies will centralizing and authoritarian. Freedom is not really on his agenda.
For some, like me, I am beyond anger and have chosen to opt out as no candidate at any level will represent me and all are quite likely to betray me either directly or passively.
I have moved into the camp that at least recognizes that the only good things come from God. When a political system such as ours has totally abandoned God, no good will ever come of it. Now I have to really learn to live by the Psalm 120/121:
Ok, so then who is your guy ?? This guy ?? ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNa5w9js48s
The “anointed” Ted Cruz who brings the spoils of War to the Priests ?? Is Cruz going to sit
in the Oval office draped and adorned as Solomon in the Temple ??
I don’t have a guy or a gal. I have decided to opt out entirely as they are all corrupt, venal or stupid. Most are all three.
The way I see how all the “Karl Roves, Romneys, Bushes, Grahams” etc. neocons, all the Dems-Libs-Progs attack Trump, how Black Lies Matter attacks him, the rabid Sanders supporters, their lewd protesters that spit and on and on informs me he must be better. Trump has a lot of good ideas, ending NATO welfare, doing at least something about immigration, jobs-economy-trade he is better than Hillary-Obama or Sanders unless you want US to become Sweden, Goldman Sachs does not completely entirely control him like Hillary and so forth. Trump is not going to be a complete and total bungler disaster creator in the Middle East like Hillary-Obama already have been. Trump however still may have some “blank spots” and that we will see in a single term. Anyway, for a single term, 4 years it’s hard to imagine that he could be anything near or close to as bad as Obama, Bill Clinton himself mentioned the “awful legacy” of the past 8 years ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9bsP2As3uc
Lemme guess… Mr. Warren is a Trump supporter, and Mr. Stankovich is for Sanders?
I am a social democrat who is looking for a May Day parade to attend after Paschal vigil.
I suspect you would be a washout guessing people’s weight at the county fair. This is the first time in my adult life I do not plan to vote. Duh.
This is the first time in my adult life I do not plan to vote.
Myself, as well.
For me, it’s the first time in 20 years that I have voted. But if Donald wins the primary, I’ll pass in the general.
Me too. Apparently Stephen Sondheim is the real master mind: Send in the clowns.
Ditto. Well, not exactly. In the Texas Primary I wrote in “Pine Straw”. Somebody posted a photo of a collection of various signs for the candidates–“Cruz”, “Trump”, “Sanders”, etc., which you often encounter on the road side. Behind them all was a homemade sign which read “Pine Straw 303-842-3365”. So, I voted for “Pine Straw”. I’ve never done anything defiant in my life but, I figure the folks who actually control the nominating and electoral process work on the assumption that I’m just another chump so, yeah: “Pine Straw” it is.
Mr Trump resonates with so many Americans (or at least with Republican-voting Americans) because he offers the opportunity to “stick it” to the ruling class. Which is refreshing, since for so many years the ruling class has “stuck it” to the Republican electorate. For too long, the Republican ruling class has used the appropriate words to rally Republican voters to vote for them (“we will enforce immigration rules,” ” we will fight legalized abortion on demand and repeal Roe v. Wade,” etc.). Then when they get to D.C. they do nothing except go to tea parties with Nancy Pelosi and “get along.” Case in point is the Senate Majority leader from Kentucky, the one who looks (and talks) like a turkey (sorry, but he sort of does). He is the poster boy for ineffective Republican leadership.
The Republican talking heads on the news can babble all they want about how Mr Trump is “not a true conservative,” blah blah blah. But most Republican voters these days don’t care about that. Kasich has an excellent record as an Ohio governor, but again, this is not the year for “excellent governors” to be sent to D.C. to become “excellent Presidents.” This is the year for the outsider to “stick it” to the ruling class. Hence, Mr Trump.
As an Orthodox Christian, my chief beef with Mr. Cruz (aside from the fact that he does behave like a whiny Tracy Flick from the movie “Election” — if you haven’t seen it, view it once the Fast is over!) is his over-the-top Pentecostalism. I’m sorry, but I don’t want a pastor-in-chief. America has (for too long) has combined political and religious leadership into one (“to be a good American means to be a good (Protestant) Christian”), and the kind of Christianity that Mr. Cruz peddles does not lead to Christ, I don’t think. Honestly, the reports that I read that Mr. Cruz (and his dad) think that he has been “anointed” by God to lead America make me nauseated. There has only been one “anointed one,” the Χριστός. For those of us who are Orthodox Americans, the last thing we need is for non-Christians to get the impression that to be a good Christian means to have a Christian faith like Mr Cruz’s Pentecostalism.
At least with Mr Trump, he does not pretend to be God’s “anointed one.” Heck, he brings more baggage than you see at the airport, with his 3 marriages and all. But Trump certainly does not portray himself as holier-than-thou. I can’t say the same for Mr Cruz. I think the last thing Orthodox Christians in America need is Mr. Cruz as President.
good points .. I’ll add my “two cents” to yours ..
As funny as it may sound, there’s already talk of impeaching President Trump.
It would probably suceed making the US a defacto parlimentary state with the Supreme Court the shadow house of Lords. Impeach Trump’s VP at the same time and the coup would be complete
Paul Ryan may end as President after all.
The political process we have enjoyed these many months is splendidly entertaining precisely because of its true nature. It is pure theater. Trump is an accomplished television actor, just as Ronald Reagan was an experienced movie actor. An actor is what the political landscape architects hire when they have to provide illusion for the masses – in this case the crowd that watches Modern Family or Better Call Saul, instead of say, wrestling. In reality we are ruled by diabolically inspired tyrants who amuse us with diversions while they corrupt and enslave us.
That Mr. Barker is spot on. Reagan at least had a well formed theory of governance, something that no one who followed had. Send in the clowns.
Bread and circuses. Peddling fear and loathing.
None are remotely qualified to hold an office of public trust, much less acess to the war and tax machinery of a national government.
Anybody who votes in this charade is participating in the delusion–lotus eaters all.
God help us.
I voted for Clinton in 1996. I voted for Al Gore in 2000. I voted for Bush in 2004. I voted for Obama in 2008. In 2012 I voted for Gary Johnson. I and my wife campaigned for Hillary until meeting her at a rally a little over a month ago. All these votes were for liars and con artists. Lately I have come to realize that no matter who is officially in charge, the same agenda is pursued. Today I am thinking of a line from the Joker in the movie The Dark Knight, “Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order.” Maybe a Trump presidency can be enough of a shock to derail business as usual. I am not holding my breath. My wife would kill me for voting for Trump. Although I must confess I am tempted.
Obviously, Mr. Cahill, safeguarding the life of preborn babies is not a priority when you vote in U.S. presidential elections. To be sure, nor is it for many of our fellow Orthodox Christians in this country.
Archpriest Alexander,
Defending the unborn for me is balanced out with policies which give them opportunities and a viable life after they are born. I personally disagree with abortion. So does my wife. We personally disagree with gay marriage. But everyone in both parties accepts the law as it is. For over forty years, despite the rhetoric, polls, and polarization, everyone has allowed the same agenda to go forward. Am I guilty for living here? What I mean is am I responsible for a bipartisan agenda because I have voted with the hope of trying to make things better for all Americans?
Any Christian worth the name should be embarrassed and ashamed for openly admitting to voting for the likes of Barack Obama; he who voted against a measure when in the Illinois senate that would have required doctors to provide medical assistance to babies who survived the hit attempts on their lives at the hands of abortionists. Ditto for campaigning for Alinskyite, abortion loving Hillary Clinton.
Shame!
Can you honestly say that your votes for pro Life candidates have in any way made a difference in four decades? Abortion was made the law of the land under a Republican president, written into the Fourth Amendment by Supreme Court justices who were mainly Republican appointments. Over the last forty years, poor children have gotten poorer. Their standard of life has declined. Is that truly Pro Life? So I fail to see how your voting record is in any way better than mine. The abortion agenda prevailed with Pro Life and Pro Choice administrations and congresses.
If a candidate does not have the ability to recognize a human life, he/she is not fit to have the powers of the presidency.
That’s not to say all pro-life candidates are fit, by any means. But it’s too fundamental an issue to let slide for the sake of other, less-important issues.
(And yes, we should fight for a better life for our fellow citizens. But more fundamental is the right to survive until birth in the first place.)
I agree. But the Pro Life Republican Congress can’t even muster the courage to defund Planned Parenthood after it was caught red-handed trading in the remains of aborted fetuses. How Pro Life is a vote for such people who lack the courage of their stated convictions? How is it that the abortion agenda prevails no matter who is in office?
Yup. That pretty well says it Jeff. There is no “making the US a better place” that is founded on the death of babies, the slavery of debt and the madness of egalitarian hedonism.
We are all gulity of placing our faith in the princes of men and the created thing more than in our Creator. Romans 1 is a pretty good description of the world we have crafted.
May God forgive us all.
The agenda is monolithic and independent. No matter who we vote for, it prevails. So the problem is the system which supports an untouchable agenda.
This topic, on the one hand, is quite simple in that it speaks to the destruction of life in its most vulnerable and helpless form (“And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe did leap in her womb.” Lk. 1:41) and cries out to heaven. Yet, on the other hand, it is an extraordinarily complex topic that attracts commentators who utilize polar-opposite “tactics” – “outrage” without action, and appeals to impotence-affecting “agenda” – that for all intents and purpose equally result in indifference and paralysis. It seems to me that what is so astonishing – and at the same time frightening – about the Obergfeld v. Hodges decision is how easily it walked through the CA Supreme Court all the way to the SCOTUS untouched & unchallenged. It portends the depths of immorality that is to come.
Further, quite to the contrary of what is stated above, Planned Parenthood was never caught “red-handed” committing any illegal act as related to fetal tissue or body parts; and it certainly was not for a lack of trying, as there have been twelve separate Grand Jury & prosecutorial investigation of Planned Parenthood nationally over the past year, without a single indictment. We need more Planned Parenthood investigations like we need more Benghazi investigations. But I would also note that Michael Bauman was the only one to comment regarding my post several weeks ago of the UCLA-trained physician who transplanted the kidneys of an aborted fetus into a living rat, with every intention, at some point in the future, to pursue this practice as a solution to the shortage of transplantable organs for human infants. And who will tell parents with a dying child that such an act is unethical & immoral?
Was Fr. Alexander Webster’s comment appropriate? Of course it was. As is his call for “men of muscle,” bishops who will again assume the voice of moral authority and stand up against the “tyranny” of a morally bankrupt society. And so were the observations of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, who saw us awash in a sea of secularism & indifference and said “No” to “religion,” and “Yes” to the Church. From this we need to “move on?” You need to move on. You are not up to task at hand, and no one should be propping you up regarding the basic issues of the sanctity of human life. You kill the dialog and hasten the paralysis.
Yeah, the video tapes of Planned Parenthood recorded selling the remains of aborted foetuses weren’t a smoking gun. I don’t need to write anymore. Just phoney posturing at war with reality.
A similar ploy regarding transplantable organs for babies was floated in the UK recently: those women pregnant with little ones who were unlikely to survive to birth (e.g., anencephalic and similar conditions) would be “encouraged” to carry the pregnancy to term and allow the National Health (!) Service to harvest the organs for transplantation.
The article is at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3478477/NHS-harvest-babies-organs-Bombshell-new-proposal-mums-pregnant-damaged-babies.html .
I need hardly say that I was revolted to the core of my being–dare I say my soul?–by this proposal and do not understand how someone with an M.D. after his name, having sworn to the Hippocratic Oath, could support it. (There are PRO and CON statements provided, each by a medical doctor.)
Then destroy the system and restore the Republic.
Like you, Peter, I pray for the destruction of the GOPestablishment. I believe that Trump is the agent of that destruction (hence my use of The Ghostbusters metaphor).
If Trump does nothing else (besides destroy the cult of Political Correctness which sustains the Oligarchy), he would have done a singular favor for all clear-thinking people everywhere.
George and all,
Has anybody read the Pope’s new encyclical called The Joy of love? I just got through reading it for the second time and have made a number of notes on it however I am led to the inescapable conclusion that this document completely reformed the Roman Catholic Church’s moral teaching on a number of issues but for us Orthodox it is my sincere opinion that this completely and utterly closes the door to any type of rapproachment with the Roman Catholic Church. I was not open to it before but now not even the ecumenists in the Orthodox Church can engage in any Rapproachment with Rome.
So disappointed in Pope Francis once again. Pure and unadulterated moral heresy and confusion. I sincerely hope OUR Holy and Great council in June goes nowhere near this evil stuff.
Wow, just simply wow! Rome has truly fallen. However for us Orthodox she already had fallen. Now more than ever.
Peter
The document is a perfect example of how “mercy” has become permissivism.
Any further dialogue with the Latins is intellectual masturbation. They are not going to change their teachings. Read the canons of Vatican I; it’s not going to change. Why bother?
Did Father Arida become Pope when I wasn’t looking?
Cruz and Kasich are now ceding states to each other to deny Trump 1,237 delegates. THE GOP IS COMPLETELY CORRUPT! !!
Good bye Republic. Hello oligarchy. I’m done.
Peter
What supports the oligarchy is the shared love of worldly power. They will do anything to get and hold power. PC is a part of that but Trump will not be a break from that. He will be the only exception to the rules.
He is, IMO, one more step in the direction of the Nietzchean vision of the Ubermensch. We are the herd. That is all we are.
The problem is that the culture has already been lost. We on the Right, whether Traditionalist and/or Conservative or even secularist Country-clubbers, haven’t come to grips with that fact.
When the Pope can come to the GOP-controlled Congress (yes, you read that right) and not dress them down for continuing to fund the fascist-originated Planned Parenthood for chopping up pre-born babies and making money off them, then we’re already worshiping Moloch.
The only reason I’m supporting ‘Trump is because (a) he fights back against the Mainstream Media and does not accept their memes and (b) he’s a nationalist. That’s all. This is not the time of Eisenhower or Reagan. It ain’t even the time of FDR and JFK.
Like Europe, we are plunging headlong into a new Dark Age and maybe –just maybe–a Trump interregnum can embolden true men to rise and throw off the shackles of the twin pillars of diabolical nihilism (that would be feminism and homosexualism) and maybe in a generation, the normal hierarchies will reassert themselves.
George,
I don’t know if I can support anyone but my family and my parish. I don’t believe Trump will do anything for any of us except annoy us. If he annoys the people who have brought us the culture we have, that could make for an entertaining distraction for fifteen minutes. Then what do we do for the rest of the four years he is president? Do I honestly believe he will change things? No. My only hope is that he might upset the agenda. I won’t be voting against him is all I can honestly say for the moment.
Jeff,
I don’t know if you have noticed but the Republic is lost! We are not losing the Republic because we have lost it. Trump’s election can only do one thing: Clear out the Managers (i.e. C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man) and give us a moment to re-group and hopefully re-assert our Constitutional Republic. Maybe it cannot be done, but we have to try. Now if it’s God’s plan that America stay lost and Constitutional Republic stay dead fine, but let us at least try.
Peter
I don’t know anything about republics. There is a government; then there is an agenda it doesn’t seem to address, much the less interfere with. Trump is an annoying phoney to me. If he manages to actually deliver on any of his anti-establishment rhetoric I will be surprised.
A Republic is what we are, and our Constitution is the glue that holds us together and protects us as Americans. Give up if you want, but I was born here and my kids future is here. If voting for Trump to just destroyed the evil GOP establishment that used and abused us and has allowed baby killing to continue and SSM to become the norm of the land is a good start. I’m fighting. You can sit back and bitch. I’m not. I owe that to my kids, and to every American who has fought and died for this Republic, in vain or not.
Peter A. Papoutsis
I wish you all the best. Truthfully, I don’t know what to believe and think. I do know that it is mostly all a put on.
Apathy. The sin that does the most damage.
I don’t see apathy and ambivalence in the face of a corrupt and broken political system as sins. I see forebearance as a virtue. I have no desire to be drawn back into the swamp of politics. I am happy just being Orthodox.
It is broken and corrupt because good people checked out long ago and decided to get out. When they got our the corrupt came in to fill the void. We may possibly have a chance to destroy the very system that has given us all this bad stuff and you want to sit it out? Ok enjoy being Orthodox until they start looking at your priest’s sermons, and making your beliefs legally a hate crime.
Or worse the acceptance of evil by the continued voting for “the lesser of two evils” which has been the dominant reason for choosing a candidate among the people I know for decades. I finally came to the conclusion that if I had to hold my nose to vote it was better to vote a write-in or not at all.
My own electoral reform measures:
1. If we have to have elections, put a “None of the above” choice on the ballot;
OR
2. Make public office service mandatory for elective office then make a list of all Constitutionally qualified people in the country for President, etc and select them by drawing them out of the electoral punch bowl. No campaigns. Some one could refuse to serve if and only if there was some extreme hardship that prevented it. One someone had severed in a particular office, they would be ineligible to serve in that office again until all other qualified people had served. Along with that it would have to become easier to terminate civil servants (the bureaucracy) for malfeasance and misfeasance.
George, all populist politicians do what Trump is doing. When elected, all populist politicians substitute their own will for the good of the governed. Trump will be no different.
Obama is also a populist BTW so do not expect anything different in the style of governance. You may like Trump’s autocracy better than Obama’s but it will still be autocracy.
That is what we have now in our oligarchic state: autocracy of the Executive or of the Legislative or of the Judicial. Sometimes, as with the approval of sexual deviance and hedonism, all three acting together.
Michael, if voting for Trump will destroy the evil GOP ESTABLISHMENT, and I do mean EVIL, then go Trump go. Burn them down. That’s a good start.
Peter A. Papoutsis
Actually, Michael, I think that Trump will at least try to do exactly what he says he intends to. The one thing where I think he is being less than candid is abortion. I am usually suspicious of Damascus road conversions on that matter. But as for the rest of it, I think he really means most all of it and that it actually is “what he really wants to do”. Now, that means different things to different people and probably his opponents sense that he’d never say certain things so outrageous if he didn’t actually believe them. That’s why he scares them sh*tless. Not being a small “d” democrat, I support no one for president. Voting only encourages bad behavior. The real limitation with Trump is that he has to deal with Congress and the Court to get much done and they will restrain him considerably. But if he is elected, I expect to be thoroughly entertained by the tornado that will result when he actually starts trying to implement his ideas.
Both Cruz (unqualified IMO) and Kasich (establishment/liberal RINO also IMO) are only in this to try to prevent Trump from obtaining the magic 1237 before Cleveland.
That fact is not in dispute, both admit it openly. That fact should be enough yo anger anyone who is a republican. If the ONLY reason your candidate is on the ballot is to attempt a spoil of the vote, he’s not worthy of your support.
Consider also that between the two, Trump and Cruz, they will have the vast majority of the delegates in the convention. The only way to change the rules is by majority vote. Rule 40b says that only a candidate who has won a majority in 8 states can benefit from having their name placed in nomination on the convention floor. It is unlikely the Cruz delegates or the Trump delegates will vote to change that rule and increase the competition for their guy. So then the Cruz camp thinks they can force it into a second vote or maybe a third vote and convincing enough Trump delegates to cross over.
Then there’s the people that have declared they would rather vote for Hillary than Trump. There are also those who declared they would vote for Hillary before Cruz also. There are democrats that have declared they would vote for Trump before voting for Hillary.
Bottom line…no one, NO ONE can predict this election and I hope that when in the privacy of the voting booth, more people vote for a republican candidate then vote for a democrat. I really would like the USA to survive past my death. What happens the day after I die, I don’t care. As long as I live, I hope the USA survives. If a democrat like either of the candidates currently running becomes president then I don’t think the USA will survive.
In 2014, Senator Cruz said to a crowd of largely Arab American Christians, ” If you don’t stand with Israel, then I don’t stand with you.” I was outraged by that ill chosen remark; he sounded like a foreign agent of the Likud Party. He adheres to the heresy of Christian Zionism. I’m still very resentful of the fact that the Israeli government tried to sucker the US into a war with Iran. In his farewell address, President George Washington so eloquently averred, “In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others, should be excluded. If poor George was aware of our country’s foreign policy, he would turning over in his grave. America was a great country from 1789-1797. Not anymore, no, not by a long shot.
Mr Millman, for what it’s worth, I took Sen Cruz to the rhetorical woodshed over that one soon after he gave that speech. For all his brilliance and conservative bona fides, he lost me there. Hopefully, because of that speech, the American people as a whole will begin to question the dangerous heresy of Christian Zionism.
He lost me there as well. Prior to that outburst, I saw Cruz as a real contender. Glad he took the mask off.
Let us also not forget what “Christian” Zionism is: theological cover for Neoconservative war-mongering. Somebody has to provide the foot-soldiers for the Trotskyites who man the think tanks of the Establishment. Might as well be the sons from the Red-state megachurches.
No.
Christian Zionism is just a mistaken way of understanding The Church, which is the New Israel.
We orthodox Christians — per the words of Christ — are Israel. We are not Jews, but we are the Israel of God according to the terms of the New Covenant, which annuls and replaces the Old Covenant. Our contemporary 21st-century Jews are NOT Israel, but they aren’t happy to hear that.
Jesus Christ — Yeshu’ah ha Moshiyakh — is the difference, and let’s all thank Heaven for that.
Damn right. Good for you for saying it George.
Peter
Christian Zionism is NOT a political anything.
Rather, it’s a sort of judaizing movement in fundamentalist Christianity which seems to think that jewish reclamation of the Holy Land will eventuate in the construction of a new jewish temple and the restoration of animal sacrifices and all the other functions of the jewish priesthood, and so provoke the return of Christ.
People who think this way are dead wrong since they think that anything we human beings do will influence God.
According to the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ will return and all the world will know it when it happens, but there is NOTHING we can do to cause it. This is a divine prerogative, far above our abilities.
Fr James, respectfully, I beg to differ. I’ve known some Christian Zionists over the years and have gotten exceedingly alarmed at their war-mongering-on-behalf-of-Israel worldview. It’s truly scary. Some even advocate genocide agains Arabs. It’s basically whatever Bibi wants, Bibi gets.
Now, as a realpolitik, quasi-isolationist myself, I have no qualms about a Jewish state in the Middle East. I know that crimes were committed in setting it up but that’s the nature of all statehood, ethnogenesis and what-have-you. Greek independence wasn’t a walk in the park, nor was Irish, American or Mexican independence for that matter. I just have major reservations about the wholesale shackling of American interests to that of another ethno-state and the willing blindness of millions of otherwise earnest Christians to the reality behind this shackling. And the theological heresy that enables it.
God gave that land to Israel, not the Jews.
Mr. Millman, George Washington was the first and last president who really attempted to follow the Constitution.
Was the Constitution, then, a good thing, after all?
The constitution was flawed from the beginning. Patrick Henry and certain others were right when they argued, “We should have amended the old fabric, the reason for which the convention was called.”
The Constitution was centripetal in nature relying too much on human beings to resist the temptation to power and be always rational.
It would work fine if such denial of self prevailed AND the rest of us as de Tocqueville warned we would be OK until we realized we had the ability to vote ourselves public money.
So we have the tryanny of the many led by those who lust for power. As in Rome any Cicero who arises will be persecuted and slain at least metaphorically.
The Constitution was an ideological hope not based in reality. The hope had exhausted by the Civil War but not fully extinguished until the Viet Nam war.
The ideological binge we have been on since had turned ever darker becoming increasingly and openly nihilistic.
Excellent point Mr. Millman! In Defense of Christians was founded to advocate for the persecuted Christians of the Middle East. The organization’s gala dinner on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 was attended by over 1200 people including patriarchs and bishops of over a dozen Christian churches from countries throughout the Middle East. Please watch and listen, ” If you don’t stand with Israel, then I don’t stand with you.”:
Cruz’s comments in part (0:42): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOOZ6aPooSk
Cruz’s entire speech (5:15): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ZVihACwQ0
I really don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the people who support Trump because he opposes the anti-life, anti-marriage, anti-Christian bipartisan oligarchy that currently sits in power. Trump is not the destroyer of that oligarchy; he is in fact one of its most vulgar products.
And given the state of our culture, if you think that his victory will provide a base from which a more genuinely Christian culture might re-emerge, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
I have said it before and will say it again IT IS NOT ABOUT TRUMP! It is us the people who have woken up since 9/11, the economic meltdown of 2008, and now the kabuki theater of the elites unmasking themselves to show Americans that THEY NOT US are in charge. What we do with this revelation from here on out depends on us not Trump. Trump is NOT the answer he is the beginning, I hope, of staring the very long road back to sanity. If the American people squander it by staying home and just happy “being Orthodox “, or giving up on the Constitution because of human frailty then don’t ever complain again about how bad this country is. You may not have actively done it, but you passively allowed it to happen. This is no laughing matter.
The people perish without a Vision. This Holy Scripture deems it impossible, that the Christ did not give us a Vision. Or else a contradiction of the Truth happened and the Christ was incompetent on this matter.
Love God and serve Him alone, man to man: Live by the Word of God and not bread alone: physical nature to spiritual nature: Do not tempt God: God to man. Each relationship contains spiritual life, which brings forth fruit, some 3o fold, 60fold, and 100, fold.
Mr Bauman, respectfully I address here, to explain why it was still necessary for the Constitution to depend on resistance to temptation. That is what the Vision does. The dynamic of spiritual warfare is incorperated , as esscencial to the Christ’s Vision ,against the devil temptations. NOTHING ELSE WILL WORK, this is the Way of Peace in a world where we are enduring tribulation. The Vision is short and simple, Absolute Truth. The Holy Scripture comprises the Vision, 100%. It is totally the EXACT Word’s Of Jesus Christ. No man will ever convince me This explanation of the Vision is not God’s Absolute Truthful, revelation to the human heart.
Our Constitution, of necessity needed to call upon a free people, so they can offer a free will offering. Somebody , then was receiving Divine guidance, if only they did what it said. But we did not do the Vision in the country. obviously.
I think Donald Trump is going to surprise a lot of people.
Incidentally, shame on those who would not vote.
There is no shame in not participating in evil. The shame lies with us all in participating in the evil for too long.
You’re absolutely wrong. What is truly shameful is to stand around stroking yourself on the back for your perceived moral superiority while the communists, totalitarians and, especially now, Islamic supremacists plunge the western world into darkness. In case you haven’t noticed, the Muslim Brotherhood has 6 advisors in the White House, and Americans are gradually being compelled to observe Islamic blasphemy laws. I could despise Trump, and I would still vote against that.
There is shame. More shame than you realize. God didn’t give us freedom so we could throw it away.
I Vote Against You – Pat Condell (On the value of voting—if not for something, then against something.)
I live in a state that has voted for every Republican candidate for President since FDR. My vote for President makes no difference.
My state is also nearly broke thanks in large part to a public pension plan that was not funded by the participants at all until quite recently and whose public education lobby has hijacked 63% of the state budget, but that is not enough — they want it all and have managed to get a federal court to support their efforts so that our budget is fundamentally uncontrollable.
The Congressman from my district is a minion for oil companies who until recently did not understand there were Christians in the Middle East.
One of “my” Senators does not any longer actually live in the state. A deficiency that did not keep him from being reelected because his democratic opponent was even sleazier. The other Senator has a name that is similar to moron and who acts that way every chance he gets.
I am unable to actually communicate with any of these folks just there e-bots and staff paid to deflect actual communication.
None of them represent me nor do they care to.
I would like to vote but the way it stands now I will only do so if there was a ballot choice “none of the above” that would force a totally new election if it garnered 50% of the vote.
I refuse to give any support for the illusion.
Sympathizing with your view of this state of affairs, I am myself a strong believer in political participation, especially at the local level. I have run for local public office twice, and though I (mercifully) lost, it was a good experience and I’m glad I tossed my hat into the ring. My wife is a local public office-holder and hasn’t lost an election in over 25 years. She is extremely dedicated– and is not paid.
We have a duty to engage in the affairs of this world in this way, in my opinion. The stepping-back from public participation by large segments of the responsible citizenry is very regrettable. It is impoverishing the “political pipeline”, so to speak: where local boards and councils used to have plenty of small businesspeople– the lawyer, the insurance agent, the real-estate person, the builder, etc.– now they are becoming dominated by public-sector and non-profit sector people. Precisely because the others now hold aloof from the fray. And so we have a shortage of candidates at every level.
As for state pension systems, it is possible to have political responsibility. We luckily had that in Washington State in the late 1970s; the result is the old pension system (ended to new entry back then) is 85% funded, and the “new” one, which now dates back over 35 years, is fully funded. It can be done, but many states never stopped kicking the can down the road.
Thanks for the shame one. I am one who would not vote. I cannot stomach either Clinton or Trump but may vote reluctantly because of appointment of justices to the Supreme Court. The new president could appoint as many as 4 justices during the next 4 years. I do believe the choices Trump would make would be conservative, more consistent with my ideology and that intended by the founding fathers. If I vote I will be a one issue voter–Supreme Court justices.