Things are getting hot and heavy in the body politic. Democrat senators are openly using the most scabrous language possible when talking about the President. This is unprecedented (at least in my lifetime.)
Frankly, I’m bewildered. Should those of us who voted for Trump just throw up our hands and say ” to hell with it! Maybe the liberals and cuckservatives are right: Trump is a cancer on the country. Let’s throw him out and things will get better.”
If there was a slight chance for things to get better I suppose you could make that case. But there isn’t. And it seems that The Man from Flyover Country agrees. (My thoughts below.)
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
* * *
From the desk of The Man from Flyover Country:
TO TRUMP OR NOT TO TRUMP, THAT IS THE QUESTION – REVISITED
By Michael S. Pappas
Ah, the entertainment! I wrote that in May, 2016. Fast forward nearly 3 years, and I dare say I was pretty close if not spot on.
What we are witnessing is, as I said back then, “braggadocio, pomposity, attention-drawing, and “other theatrics, and lo, and behold, we have a political candidate”, only then I ended the sentence with a big question mark, hardly believing what I was seeing at the time.
The question a few years ago, perhaps not asked overtly by enough, was whether what many really wanted, i.e., “results, performance, integrity, common sense”, would that ever overcome “crummy deals, sucking up to the electorate just to get elected without following through, inconsistent and wimpy foreign policy, and absolutely abysmal tax and economic policies.” We see now that if it was ever possible, that time may be now.
It was, back then, whether it would be the “status quo” or “straightforwardness, creativity and a break-out of the status quo?” It was that “we all know where the status quo has gotten us, so can the un-political alternative be all that bad to take a chance on?”
Were we getting anywhere with the same old, same old? How about “Lots of offering of out-of-the-box solutions, even if just offering with little substance. As much outrageousness as one human being can possibly muster. And promises, if not overt, of creativity, of problem-solving, of “this will not be business as usual”.
I suggested then that we all grab a glass of hooch, as it was promising to be interesting. Not that I’m any great sayer of the sooth. But rather few were actually saying what many were not only thinking, but hoping.
Refill that glass.
As a non yank, and non trump lover, as to me no different than Hillary. All out of the elite play ground. And he is an obnoxious human- less being with the class of a bar drunk at closing time, and yes we know about his deep Christian faith and morals , But if anyone wants trump gone, the way is to defeat him openly and massively in 2020. All trump lovers if they want him, have to go out and vote for him in same way.
I don’t like him, putting it mildly but he duty elected and will be again or not. As for kushner and barbie doll, don’t ask me what i think as may tell you, but the hypocrisy of the sisterhood et al over the Clintons and his serial abuse of females aided by Hillary, never mentioned. They all the same load of excrement. As the Armenians say of Greeks and turks, ‘ They deserve one another’! After all the Donald funded Hillary til he saw the dollars Sign potential beconing.
Ps. Can we have investigation into trump involvement in interfering in Uk political process?. We all know until 1963, that greek elections decided in graveyard votes and from american Embassy. Then 21St April 1967 CIA coup. My uncle had career in army so knew well.
Every leader of a world power is always interfering in the elections of other countries. It has been going on forever. Why anyone should be shocked or surprised is beyond me.
The worst such interference in recent memory was the Clintons taking Chinese money for Billy boy to get reelected. Seems to me some transfer of technology from us to China took place too. Much worse than anything Trump is accused of and real. Demos did not care about it and neither apparently did the repos
you have it backwards the worst of the clinton stuff is false an the trump stuff is not only true but worse than you think
at least the trumpists on this site own it you try to come across as above it all but are every bit the rigid right wing ideologue as the rest of em
DS Thank you for pointing out my sins.
I have two choices: do not participate in the electoral farce or vote for those who are not yet actively trying to destroy me. Why should I vote for someone who thinks I am a moronic idiot? The Democrats obviously do not want my vote.
Seriously, how can anyone vote for a party that proclaims pro-life beliefs as immoral? How can I stand silent in the face of that when silence means consent?
To an ideologue every opposition is seen as another ideology. I fear you are correct that Trump will pursue aggressive actions far beyond reason and the scope of his Constitutional authority. So, there is a Constitutional remedy: Congress not funding the wars. They do not seem to have any problem doing that with other things.
Even though I do not like the result of the war over the border wall, Congress is, in that case, exercising their Constitutional authority.
The immigration system in this country is a mess. Good hard working people who try doing it legally are frustrated every day. Really bad folks are let in again and again.
That kind of situation in many areas of life shows the total failure of the law: the law hamstrings and penalizes those who are law abiding while enabling those who are not.
One little story: a dear friend of mine many years ago needed welfare because of a horrendous marriage situation. She had little money and five kids. She answered all of the questions honestly and was denied aid. Then a long time user if the system took pity on her and showed her how to game the system and she got the aid.
There is much more to that story but too long.
If not trusting the government makes me a right wing ideologue, I guess I am. Trump is sleazy, the Clintons totally corrupt, Obamas equally so, the Bushes are the blonds of the political world, Reagan troubling, etc. But the last good President we had was George Washington.
Your argument is the only one I know of with much force for an Orthodox Christian to vote Republican – the bloated, Mammon-worshipping oligarchs of that party are for now content to let us worship in peace – whereas the shrieking, Baphomet-worshipping sexual predators of the other party have now been mobilized with the spirit of antichrist to the point where they are working actively to destroy every temple in the USA. Since both parties serve the same Prince, I don’t expect this differential to hold up forever, but since it seems to be there now that is a mild reason to prefer the one side. I don’t judge any Christian for staying out of this farce entirely, however.
Michael Karloutsos, leftist activist son of the Greek Richelieu, was openly predicting a Trump victory? How did he KNOW?
U will soon have Johnson in Uk. Now Nothing good can be said of this joker that is printable.
The only interests this fool has are his own. The english are having to face some life reality. Either a serf of USA or some sort of european agreement cos YOU, CHINA, INDIA, are not going to give them trade deals that benefit them too much. After all u expect yr politicians to work for you ( sometimes, occasionally, !!! ?) They in for rude shock. But they are insular as USA is, but you are a huge continent and empire. They, a tiny european island.
Here’s the thing: clowns like BoJo are not the problem. They are the reaction to the problem
Trump “happened” because the ruling classes of most western “democracies” are/were inept, evil and malodorous.
George thst is exactly it. They are symptoms of an illness that i have seen developing over last few decades. People have had enough. And of the arrogant hypocrisy and looking down on love of country or city ( they all based somewhere, living nowhere.) May was lampooned when she said this a yr or two back,but was quite true.
The contempt if not outright hatred that the modern elites feel for the people they rule over is palpable.
They deserve a great comeuppance.
Exactly. That’s why we have elections. And separation of powers. And term limits. And why the Congress has the power of the purse.
Trump now, Trump again and again –unless you want to continue the Bill Ayers, Weatherman, Saul Alinsky, Barack Obama, infanticide, weak, unproductive, unaccountable, no borders , cannabis as a sacrament, transgenders as its unassailable priests, hostile to Christianity, model of America. You can’t profess all this righteous Orthodoxy on this site and then tell me you want Biden, Bernie, Buddhagig, or any of the women who’s First Platform is White Males ruined our country and must be eliminated. The Democrats are line for line , scene for scene, chapter and verse, the. Bolsheviks of 2019 and the Jacobins of our era.
Well stated. The choice is stark, and I don’t want to live in a commie-trannie nation.
For the life of me I just cannot understand all this total lack of civility since President Trump was elected. And why, just because the Democrats lost!
This should be a lesson to the Democrats that their candidate was so bad that she lost to a non politician. This alone should say enough. Not to mention their candidate was planning on continuing the Obama legacy. You know, the one that was scandal free!
Not to mention President Obama was one of the worst President’s this country has ever had. At the very least, since WWII.
Whether one may like him or not, one should be honest and admit. In President Trump’s first two and a half years, he and his administration have accomplished much more than many have in their total eight years in office.
Like it or not, it is “promises made and promises kept!” Much much more than we could ever say about the previous administration.
Here’s to another four more years. Keep America Great 2020!
I think your blog has become too politicized. There was some entertaining reading in the past. Now you have gone way beyond that. Too much politics involved. Of course, if your readers want that, it is fine with me. Found a lot of informative articles in the past in church relating issues. That was the main reason I became a reader. Now, Trump bashing or Obama bashing though…..does not get us any place. Personally, I have had enough! Thanks.
Looking forward to reading your blog which will be written in a manner you find acceptable and where you won’t have anyone questioning your editorial policies. You’ll be publishing sometime soon, right?
You mean like Nick Cobbs turning on his pro-abortion sock puppets?
i agree. I have added some but I do not want religious faith and political view point held together. If we are Orthodox Christians than we follow Christ and are able to judge our politicians ( Greek and english ones for me) and decide accordingly. The Church has enough issues to keep us busy.
I choose neither Skylla nor Charybdis. Vote Trump and you vote for wars of aggression on israel’s behalf and all the abominations that follow it ( but hurray for the stock market ). Vote the left and vote for infanticide and also wars of destabilization ( Libya et al ). Neither side can budget, both sides lie to our faces while p***ing on our shoes. A vote seems wasted.
To BlueHorseshoe: I am astonished, but pleased, to see so truth-filled a post on this blog. Thank you.
Hi AWC, and thanks.
I think most on this blog are in earnest with regard to their positions. And George has a tough row to hoe what with all of us wildcats in a knotted burlap sack!
Yes, the sincerity is palpable. (That is praise, not sarcasm.) It just is no longer is an environment that I care to visit often.
“I choose neither Skylla nor Charybdis. Vote Trump and you vote for wars of aggression on israel’s behalf and all the abominations that follow it ( but hurray for the stock market ). Vote the left and vote for infanticide and also wars of destabilization ( Libya et al ). Neither side can budget, both sides lie to our faces while p***ing on our shoes. A vote seems wasted.”
I love this post, Blue Horseshoe. Great one. I have not voted for a few years now, as I know that I am entirely disenfranchised.
I’ve heard it said (very accurately) that our current Republican/Democrat system is essentially a power-sharing agreement between two political factions that serves to disenfranchise most Americans (me among them).
For the serious Orthodox Christian, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats accurately captures our outlook on how society should be governed. Yes, it’s probably “easier” for many Orthodox Christians to vote Republican since the Democrats have said clearly that there is no place for those in favor of protecting life from conception in their party. But by no means are the Republicans a “Christian” political party – certainly not.
(Surprisingly, the NYT did a front-page piece a few days ago on the plight of those who identify as pro-life but who also want to be Democrats. I was shocked that the NYT wrote about this. I personally don’t see any point in trying to identify with either the Republicans or Democrats — both fully embrace secularism as a fundamental frame of reference, something that no Orthodox Christian can identify with — but Democrats are probably more overtly hostile to Orthodox Christian faith.)
There are a couple guys at my parish who self-identify as Republicans and always talk at coffee hour about the status of the Republican party in our county. This kind of thing really bothers me – I don’t want our Orthodox parish to become the place where disgruntled Republicans come to congregate. I don’t think that they are terribly mature in the faith, and perhaps they look to the local Republican party for a sense of community and belonging – who knows. We all have a need for community and belonging, but we should find that in the body of Christ, not in a political party.
Call me the classic stereotype of an Orthodox Christian, but the older I get the more solidly I become a constitutional monarchist. I truly believe that the only way to govern a society as Christ intended — with love as a guiding principle — is via an Orthodox monarchical system. Of course, one first needs a predominantly Orthodox country for that to happen. But there is no way that either the Republicans or the Democrats could ever govern with love as the guiding principle, whereas an Orthodox monarch in a constitutional monarchical system could.
What kind of sandwich would you like for lunch? Ham or PB&J? You don’t want a sandwich, you want tacos – you say. Again I ask, what kind of sandwich? It’s a dialectic and the oligarchs win every time. They set the menu and control the outcome no matter what you decide. You feel as if your choice matters so you don’t revolt. A sandwich you get. Oh well, we’ll get em 4 years from now in the next election. Back to the bread and circus. Don’t forget to volunteer your children for the next Zionist war in the Middle East at halftime of the big game. So called democracy is nothing more than a hidden monarchy of the banking powers. Wake up everyone.
Actually, I think the choice is usually between hamburger and ground beef.
U will soon have Johnson in Uk. Now Nothing good can be said of this joker that is printable.
The only interests this fool has are his own. The english are having to face some life reality. Either a serf of USA or some sort of european agreement cos YOU, CHINA, INDIA, are not going to give them trade deals that benefit them too much. After all u expect yr politicians to work for you ( sometimes, occasionally, !!! ?) They in for rude shock. But they are insular as USA is, but you are a huge continent and empire. They, a tiny european island.
Mike U totally right. It’s an oligarchy of left or right. U had the left. Now u got the right and israel runs USA, it’s as clear as day and yr kids going to die for israel.
Assuming the Left and Right aren’t just pretend choices, coordinated to get us to the same destination, it might be helpful to some to learn like me the other day that industrial capitalism and finance capitalism are things that are important to this conversation. The latter is what the developed world’s been under for a while and is said to be good for creating bubbles, corporatism and globalism, whereas the former benefits more people than just the filthy rich and is of course more useful to the nation. Before I came across this I couldn’t have known that a big part of Trump’s desire was to bring America back from finance capitalism to the industrial kind. So much of a true conservatives views fit so well with the industrial model as do those of progressives with with the finance.
Two points that come to mind: (1) I’ve seen some finance capitalism sympathisers claim that although America gave away its manufacturing industry, it replaced it with technology and was therefore no worse off. An argument against this would be to imagine what America would be like with both manufacturing and technology. Who says it had to remain the same or move backwards? (2) Either trump is a genuine fly in the ointment for the globalists or his push for a return to industrial capitalism is a show for the purpose of the globalist agenda. One way it might be useful in this way is how it lends itself easily to the current trade war with China. I personally can’t think how a trade war like this could be used by globalists, but it hasn’t stopped me bringing it up.
Thank the good Lord above. It seems the dominoes are finally beginning to fall. And the so called illegal intelligence gathering that seemingly was conducted by the Deep State and yes, under the so called “scandal free” Obama administration is finally being exposed for what it was.
Once again, thank God the Dems candidate lost. Because of this, the truth is slowly but surely coming out. No one would have ever thought this would would come to light!
And as the well known saying applies … “the fish stinks from the head down!”
The truth is the Dems thought they had the 2016 election in the bag. And because of this, they had the nerve to conduct this illegal intelligence gathering and knowing if their candidate won, it wouldn’t be revealed. Well, guess what … “surprise!”
The same applies to the Dems 2016 Presidential candidate’s e-mail cover up.
Stop being “hypocrites” and remember the same laws apply to all citizens of this country. May they be Democrats, Independents, Republicans or no party affiliation. The law is the law!
Shame on them for thinking they would get away with it. And may justice once and for all prevail. Amen!
Thank the good Lord above. It seems the dominoes are finally beginning to fall. And the so called illegal intelligence gathering that seemingly was conducted by the Deep State and yes, under the so called “scandal free” Obama administration is finally being exposed for what it was.
Once again, thank God the Dems candidate lost. Because of this, the truth is slowly but surely coming out. No one would have ever thought this would have come to light!
And as the well known saying goes … “the fish stinks from the head down!”
The truth is, the Dems thought they had this election in the bag. And because of this, they had the nerve to conduct this illegal intelligence gathering knowing it wouldn’t be revealed.
The same applies to the Dems 2016 Presidential candidate’s e-mail cover up.
Stop being “hypocrites” and remember the same laws apply to all citizens of this country. May they be Democrats, Independents, Republicans or no party affiliation. The law is the law.
Shame on them for thinking so. And may justice once and for all prevail!
As I previously requested from earlier today. Since my original post finally surfaced from Tuesday, June 18th at 8:54am.
Please be so kind and delete my second post directly above from yesterday, Wednesday, June 19th at 12:02pm.
Thank you so much!
I kindly request for a 3rd time that my above post from Wednesday, June 19th at 12:02pm be deleted. It is a duplicate.
As I stated, my original post from Tuesday, June 18th at 8:54am finally appeared. Thank you ever so much for your assistance.
Having worked on WordPress, I can tell you that, depending upon the options, the administrator often cannot see what is “above” from a reader’s POV. They often cannot even see the dates. You may want to use your cataloging system as a point of reference for the administrator, e.g. “Please remove GOA123, as it is a duplicate.” Or if it’s just a regular post, reference the first few words, e.g. “Please remove the duplicate message beginning with, “I’m not sure if everyone knows this but. . .”
Apropos of nothing at all, I ran across this today on Breitbart:
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/07/25/historian-unearths-evidence-that-istanbul-directed-armenian-genocide/