Donald Trump is in many ways a heroic figure. That is in the Classical Greek sense of the word.
We Greeks know a thing or two about such men. Herakles, Achilles, Ajax, and many others, all had great, extraordinary qualities. Qualities that made them seem superhuman; qualities that made men follow them to the gates of Hades. And other men to fear them. Yet they all had a fatal flaw. Trump is no different. His fatal flaw was to believe that, by dint of his powerful personality, he could overcome his many enemies. Surrounded by traitors, he felt that he could defeat them.
Now this was not an unreasonable expectation. He was the son and grandson of immigrants who came from the outer borough of Queens, eventually to conquer the Manhattan real estate market; perhaps the most savage municipality for such endeavors in the United States. That was no mean feat. As the song “New York, New York” goes, “If I can make it there/I can make it anywhere”. Against tremendous odds he conquered everything in his path. The Presidency was his first –and only–stab in politics and he took it from entrenched parties.
This was a herculean effort. And he did it. So why not give in to your pride? After all, you’ve pretty much won everything else that you’ve put your hand to.
And you can’t say that he didn’t give his last job the old college try, can you? Herakles however conquered all his tasks, including clearing out the Augean Stables, the ancient Greek version of The Swamp. And so, he kept men and women such as John Bolton, Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley and others, too numerous to mention, close to him, hoping to tame them. Or failing that, to at least keep a close eye on them, a la Michael Corleone in The Godfather: “keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”.
Alas, he failed. The Swamp is simply undrainable. (He did however, reveal that there is a Swamp. And that was no mean feat.)
And that, not his Twitter account, was his flaw. I’ll say this till I’m blue in the face: he didn’t lose because of his Twittering or his boisterous, braggadocios personality. Because didn’t lose, as he clearly won re-election. It’s one thing to lose, it’s quite another to have an election stolen from you. That is why Joe Biden, and the entire Establishment, is quaking in fear. And why the stigma of illegitimacy hangs over the President-reject. The hysterical words and actions of the Establishment since November 3rd clearly indicate that.
Not that things won’t go south for the Establishment. They will. They have completely misread the Capitol Hill “riots” and are doubling down on their stupidity. Despite the hundreds of riots that ravaged the great cities of America, the hundreds of lives lost, the tens of millions of dollars in damage, when the riots came to them on Capitol Hill, they panicked. And thus they learned the wrong lesson. As Talleyrand said of the Bourbons of France, “they forgot nothing, they learned nothing”. What we saw on January 6th will come back in spades. Already censorship, unsustainable bail-out packages for Blue States, and Marxist government ministers who believe in White Privilege, are in the offing.
Having won a bitter victory by fraud and deceit, they can’t see that it was a pyrrhic one. And so they will become totalitarian. They have to. Otherwise they will never enjoy what their overlords in Beijing call “the Mandate of Heaven”. In any event, things are too unsustainable as they are for us to return to any semblance of “normalcy”. They won’t –they can’t–get any better. It’s just not possible based on the realities on the ground.
Don’t believe me? Then let’s see what Scott Adams (no conservative or Republican) has to say about where Biden stands right now: 
I can see so many ways that Biden will f*%k things up that it won’t be humanly possibly to document them in their entirety. Indeed, tens of thousands of bloggers working 24/7 won’t be able to keep up. Jimmy Carter will look like a candidate for Mt Rushmore by the time Biden “slips in the shower” and is forced to resign.
But that is a story for another day. I am convinced that Trump and Trumpism will be vindicated. The nationalist/populist genie cannot be put back in the lamp. The people, once tasting victory will not go back to the Obamaesque days of controlled decline. (Not that it will be “controlled” this time around.)
For now I will sing the praises of President Trump and his movement. And for that, I can think of no better characterization of Trump the man and historic presidency than these words spoken by another presidential bull in the china shop, Theodore Roosevelt.
And here is a list of the many stunning accomplishments of Trump’s first Administration: https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/
Excellent post, George! You nailed it on the head. And the Man in the Arena is quite appropriate as well. Trump will be remembered well, in the same breath as Reagan likely. The thing to remember is that everything his detractors are saying now is only political ammunition, not facts or truth.
“He did however, reveal that there is a Swamp. And that was no mean feat.”
Yup.
As to the current state of affairs: This too shall pass.
Nate, if you honestly believe that Trump took office during a time of “prosperity” then there’s really point discussing anything with you. If you really believe that Obama presided over a time of peace and prosperity then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d love to sell you.
For one thing, it displays an amazing lack of proportion; secondly an historical amnesia; and third, a horrible misunderstanding of economics which includes jobless rates, homeownership, minority participation in the workforce, etc.
And most of all, a complete ignorance of all of the warmongering that went on during Obama’s tenure compared to Trump’s many peace overtures –some of which were successful.
Matt 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers:
for they shall be called the children of God.”
“Matt 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
We needed a St. Constantine, or St. Olga vs. the Drevlians, or countless other Orthodox saint rulers bringing “Jesus peace,” not “hippie peace.” Instead, what we got was Trump doing his best impression of Gandhi.
Ezekiel 13:10:
Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built, tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-want-revenge-antifa-anarchists-activate-after-biden-inaugurated
Nate, I must believe that you are either a trust-funder or work in the public sector, either way with a guaranteed income. Trust me, the Obama years were the most meager “expansion” we ever experienced post-WWII. Those of us who worked in the productive (private) sector knew better. Much better.
Indeed, things were so bad during his “expansion” that blacks were turning on him.
Yes, the stock market rose under his watch (but not nearly as high as it did under Trump). But he doubled the national debt as well. (And yes, on Trump’s watch the debt went up as well but not as a percentage of GDP.)
Something new from the Antiochian Archdiocese:
https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/833
Looks like ROCOR may be my next jurisdiction.
Wow. Thank you for sharing this.
You’re welcome. I’m fairly disturbed but not surprised. Looks like we are going to have to endure a Sergianist 2.0 style takeover of the Church where the majority of the episcopacy and presbyterate are compromised with the worldly powers and small groups of the faithful live a catacomb existence, keeping the Faith alive. Come quickly Lord Jesus!
There’s another option: when the churches are empty, the monies will dry up.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/ohio-priest-suspended-three-months-face-defrocking-attending-stop-steal-rally/
An Ohio Archpriest has been suspended for three months and faces possible defrocking for attending the Stop the Steal rally in DC on January 6.
There is no allegation that Archpriest Mark Hodges, who is connected to the St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Dayton, was part of the protest where people entered the Capitol — simply that he attended the rally portion of the day.
Hodges has been “suspended from all priestly functions” effective Jan 12, according to a short statement on the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the Midwest website.
“My beloved bishop had questioned the wisdom of a priest attending,” Hodges told the Journal-News. “I think part of the problem is I viewed that ‘Stop the Steal’ rally as expressing extreme concerns over voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election.”
Hmm, did the OCA criticize Abp E when he marched? Is there some favoritism at work in their praise, acceptance versus criticism/punishment? Is not a posture of defending “fairness” common to both?
Another tragedy for the OCA.
If Fr. Hodges were my parish priest, I would work tirelessly to CUT OFF THE BISHOP’S MONEY, until we got out priest back.
It seems that bishops are a necessary evil. Sometimes I wonder if they are necessary at all, or if it is just they themselves who perpetuate that myth. From my observations, a small parentage of them are worthy of the calling. Some are outright disgusting. And they so well conceal their real lives and activities that we, who provide the cash which floats their boats, will never know the truth.
A “parentage” of bishops is a useful collective noun.
It helps us to understand who is legitimate and who is not.
This is why all bishops should not only be well-formed monastics, but actually living in monasteries, or at very least in some kind of small brotherhood, even after their episcopal consecration. They are not ‘private citizens’ and should not have ‘private lives.’
I hope the hierarchs take note when that happens, because it breaks my heart that all the blood, sweat and tears that we have been pouring into our churches and communities over the years seems so under appreciated that they feel they can treat us like children and not like adults who voluntarily subscribe to the religion they are supposed to exemplify.
Precisely. Stop giving these ecclesiastical grifters your money and they have NOTHING. (no marketable skills, nothing they can get a job with , they are completely destitute without the laity supporting them.).
Oh gah. Please tell me that the Antiochians aren’t going “woke.”
And I really hope that the Assembly of Bishops has chided Archbishop Elpidophoros for getting political…but you can understand I have my doubts they have done that.
Now that Biden has said that Patriarch Bartholomew is “Christ-like” get ready for his ego to be cranked up to 10
Petros,
Come on. You’re being ridiculously naive. Abp E runs the American “Assembly of Bishops,” which is more appropriately called the mafia arm of the Constantinopolitan Church in America. Which is why all Churches in the Russian jurisdiction have left it, as they should. The “AoB” does absolutely nothing other than push C’ple’s agenda.
People can kick the can down the road all they want, but many have known this for years: C’ple and any jurisdiction with it are going to Rome, barring some come-to-Jesus miracle. But Christ will never interfere with anyone’s free will. He wants us to want to come to Him and His Church of our own desire.
It’s been playing out this way for years, and it continues. Faithful Orthodox Christian bishops, clergy, and laity are going to have to ally with either the traditional Orthodox Churches in communion with the Patriarchate of Moscow or the modernist churches in the Constantinople wing, which are well on their way to becoming the newest Uniates.
A good rule of thumb is that if one is among the 20% or so of the world’s Orthodox Chrisitians that follow the “new calendar,” one should consider if his spiritual state would be healthier elsewhere. The Orthodox Christian vs modernist/nearly-Uniate divide closely follows the traditional/”older” Church calendar vs the “new calendar” divide.
I wish it weren’t so, but such is our reality. The Antiochian Archdiocese is no exception.
Sadly all true FTS. Re calendars, I have always heard NC/OC but I was surprised and pleased when a Patristic priest who is NC wrote that ROCOR is on the “Traditional calendar”. Seems fitting.
I prefer the term ‘Church calendar.’ I’m in a new calendar parish (neither GOARCH nor OCA, thankfully) and it pains me. As soon as I can move close enough, I’ll be attending a ROCOR parish, but, until then, one can only wish.
AB Elpi opened the multifaith prayer service for Biden and Harris yesterday. The man is on a roll and has made his political support fairly clear. As has the OCA by suspending Fr. Mark Hodges for simply attending a rally.
Excerpts from Metropolitan Joseph’s letter posted online a day or so before the inauguration:
1) “Our expectation is that all the faithful will wear the face-coverings in church, and we expect our clergy not to encourage their flocks to disobey the letter and the spirit of our directives.”
2) “We also reiterate that the clergy must wear a mask when interacting in close proximity with the faithful.”
3) “While there was confirmatory testing done on a stem cell line tracing back to the 1970s, neither I nor any of the bishops believe this indirect connection is an impediment to the faithful receiving these vaccines in good conscience. Whether or not the vaccine is safe or adequately tested is a question beyond the scientific knowledge and training of our bishops or clergy; this conversation should solely be between the faithful and their doctors.”
4) “As for the conspiracy theories, I do not believe this warrants discussion other than to say this is unacceptable for our clergy to engage in such things. I would like to point out that you are a priest of this Archdiocese, and you venerate my name on the antimension before offering the Holy Anaphora. You owe obedience to Christ and the Gospels, the Mother Church of Antioch, this Archdiocese, and my office as the Metropolitan Archbishop not to internet personalities you find on Facebook and YouTube –whether they be priests, bishops, or monastic elders. ”
5) “I believe too many of us want to do these restrictions temporarily and take the vaccine to have life return to a previous “normal” of engaging in passions and lusts. God wants to see that a deliverance from this pestilence will bring about a “new normal…”
6) “We can adopt the worldly strategies to fight this virus, but we must not forget to utilize the heavenly ones. Let us stop raging about the inconveniences of the worldly strategies in order to focus ourselves and our flocks on the heavenly ones. ”
7) “I am pained to say, beloved clergy, that if my previous directive was not clear enough to dissuade you from this kind of behavior, I need to warn you that I must begin to bring disciplinary actions against those who are disobedient.”
1) “Our expectation is that all the faithful will wear the face-coverings in church, and we expect our clergy not to encourage their flocks to disobey the letter and the spirit of our directives.”
2) “We also reiterate that the clergy must wear a mask when interacting in close proximity with the faithful.”
This is distressing. We have recently been give essentially the same directive in our parish (which is in a different jurisdiction). I cannot, in good conscience, collaborate with this irrationality and will not. While one cannot say that masks do no good whatsoever, their efficacy is, frankly, small. If the wearer is breathing–let alone speaking or singing–air is getting through, both in and out, and around the edges, and from there diffusing into surrounding the room. A colleague told me just yesterday that her son from California had visited for Christmas. They were glad he came, but “nervous to have someone visiting from California,” and they “all wore masks.” But, folks, if they dwelt in the same house for long the virus (if present, which apparently it wasn’t) was escaping into the air and they were breathing it, masks or no masks. Yes, the masks may stop some small amount of virus that may be on water droplets–but not the majority of it which in aerosol form. The point is that masks provide incalculable, but minimal and only temporary benefits at a cost that is equally incalculable, but spiritually large and lasting in that they are dehumanizing, veiling the visage of person made in the image of God and reinforce our fears and reduce our fellowmen to the status of potential germ bearers that are putatively threats to each other’s survival–as if there were any such thing since we are all doomed to die and after that judgment. The hierarchy is dealing the Church a fatal blow from which She will not recover. They make us think we are doing something effective and are “in control”, and erode our trust in Providence and the good will of Christ God. The Church is, so to say, killing herself. But suicide befits this generation which is already inured to mothers murdering their babies in the womb, if it’s their choice. Besides, we are a society that profits from the products produced from their remains and yearns for cures said to come from the use of their cells and organs. The materialism and nihilism is deep and broad and is infecting even the Body of Christ. Perhaps, as did Her Lord, She must die and let Him raise her from the dead with the new heavens and a new earth. My heart weeps. Pray for me, a sinner.
lexcaritas
Amen
Lex, your words are poignant and stand for themselves.
If I may speak on a more mundane level, I have a question to any and all (especially epidemiologists): when people are sleeping, are they masked? If respiration is the mode of transmission, then why aren’t we masked during sleep? After all, do we not breathe during our slumber?
Just asking.
Only if one has sleep apnea
? the only healthy masks ?! Thx Michael ☺️
Lexcaritas, you can shout that from the top of my roof any day. Well said.
Lex, God bless and keep you my friend. However, the Church will not die.
And the very Patristic belief about the Divine Energies in the Temple and their healing effects spiritually and physically are totally ignored, in fact presumed not to exist. When even some ROCOR priests (or Archbishops) do not remind us of or teach this Truth, heart-breaking, because knowing opens our eyes to Truth and great healing and wonder. Our state of ignorance of the Holy Fathers is great in this country and I pray that those who do know will also teach openly the great Truths of the Fathers. I am very grateful for those priests who do and the wonderful Orthodox bookstore, archbishop and priests at St. Seraphim’s encouraging this reading when I converted in 2008. I know many priests and parishioners are not so fortunate. May God help us remember or learn from the Holy Fathers and Tradition what our beliefs and our differences from the secular are. Very different understanding and illumination.
The Church is our spiritual hospital and the Temple, Divine Liturgy, icons, Holy Communion are the one place where Heaven is present on earth in a mysterious but absolute way, as mysterious and real as the incarnate Christ, we learn from the Fathers and Tradition. And participation in them is utterly healing and necessary in the Traditional manner.
Regarding the last paragraph. So true. I have learned this personally.
SHAME on Met Joseph for his statement #3, in which he not only fails to even mention the word “abortion”, but is very clearly turning a blind eye to the inconvenient truth regarding this topic. “Do as I say because I’m the Metropolitan, and I have determined using cell lines from abortions in the past and currently happening is not important.” Unbelievable. Anyone who is prayerfully considering what to do, please read this in full. The specifics begin around halfway thru the article.
‘A hill worth dying on’: Expert explains how aborted baby cells taint COVID vaccines | Opinion | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/a-hill-worth-dying-on-expert-explains-how-aborted-baby-cells-taint-covid-vaccines
Note this article discussing how the unborn babies used for vaccines were ALIVE at tissue extraction: https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/the-unborn-babies-used-for-vaccine-development-were-alive-at-tissue-extraction
…and please listen to the interview.
It’s fascinating – but horrifying.
I agree with you and do not know what to think of this news:
https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/12/28/metropolitan-nafpaktos-coronavirus/
http://www.bio-orthodoxy.com/2021/01/a-blessing-and-gift-of-god-metropolitan.html
Here’s my take: most men who are fighters fall into one of two categories: those who can fight to the end and those who have one or two good fights in them.
It’s my opinion that Met Hierotheos Vlakhos fought heroically at the Robber Council and prevented it from its finalization. At the very least he deprived it of its legitimacy. Either way, that was a huge victory for the good guys.
But it took everything he had. As a man, a warrior, he had no more to give. And so now he’s more or less capitulated to the globalists.
This is extreme. Met Vlachos is one of the best defenders of the unique truth that Orthodoxy holds, against those who would reduce it to either intellectual statements or passionate rituals. It was wrong to create the cell line from the aborted child, and this fact cannot be changed. But to say that the origin taints the current use seems similar to me with saying that the sexual sins of some of Jesus’ ancestors taints His bloodline… We need neither reject the current good on the basis of past evil in origin, nor need we call that origin good on account of the current situation.
The Nazis were wrong to experiment with human exposure to cold, but it does not seem wrong to use what they learned to prevent people from dying of hypothermia…
Nonsense. The priest at Byzantine Texas has expressed it with great accuracy. He said (in regards to Met. Joseph’s statement): “Is he saying that if you don’t make a vaccine using our unborn, but instead use the unborn for “confirmatory testing” it’s ok? That’s like saying shooting innocent people in a firing line is unacceptable, but using those same innocent people as targets to sight rifles first is fine.”
Metropoltan Hierotheos of Vlachos and Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus and any other Orthodox or non-Orthodox Christian who receives this vaccine…and claims to be pro-life…should be ashamed of themselves. I pray that they repent…because they will answer for it one day.
No, it’s more like saying that it’s not a moral problem to use Oneida silverware, despite it originally being used to fund a sex cult. Or treadmills, despite originally being used as torture devices (weird but true!)
The hierarchs aren’t calling for more use of aborted fetuses for research. Or saying it was retroactively OK to have used them. They’re just saying that an evil origin does not make all that results from it evil, as well.
Thank you. The other is Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus. Same for him I am sure. Much thanks.
Just as I was getting used to the schismatic words and actions of Met. Hierotheos….Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus gets the vaccine. Is there ever going to be a time when our bishops take a stand for the truth? What will they say when the long term effects of this untested jab begins to take its toll. Will they disavow their so-called “symbolic gestures?”
Amen and thank you.
Wow! Priests are silenced as the COVID Kool-aid flows! What may be the most disturbing part of this letter relates to the vaccine. It is known that the pre-trials used a line of aborted fetal cells from the 1970’s…and yet all the Hierarchs proclaim this is okay and you can receive the vaccine in good conscience. Lord have mercy, what has become if us?!?
*** This Antiochian priest was filmed and broadcast on American television shamelessly peddling the vaccine in African American neighborhoods just a few months ago, and is now interviewed (this month!!) with THIS Metropolitan’s blessing:
https://religionunplugged.com/news/2021/1/13/qampa-with-rev-paul-abernathy-an-orthodox-priest-combatting-vaccine-skepticism
Excerpts:
Antiochian Orthodox priest Rev. Paul Abernathy is on a mission to provide resources to skeptics in his Pittsburgh, Pa. parish and community—skeptics of the COVID-19 vaccine.
For months, Abernathy has visited majority Black communities door to door, discussing their views on the COVID-19 vaccine, answering questions and even ushering in a Moderna vaccine trial in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh to ensure their research was racially diverse and increase confidence in the vaccine.
He says: I believe that the voices of today’s religious leaders are extremely important regarding vaccine acceptance. It is important in terms of the moral authority that religious leaders have. With this, I believe religious leaders have a great burden of responsibility in times of crisis in which the must offer guidance, leadership and example of how to negotiate the complexities of the crisis. With this, religious leaders are extremely relevant, not only to their respective faith communities but also to their communities and nations at large.
This has been further exacerbated by the Trump administration which is widely viewed as legitimately being a White supremacist regime. For this reason, when people reflect on the government’s involvement in vaccine development and distribution, government failure and betrayal is the historical context in which many examine this vaccine. This can mean that people don’t trust the very vaccine that the government plays a role in.
__________
So, it’s clear this Metropolitan has an agenda and with this letter and the above interview with one of his priests has been caught in a giant double standard.
Zero credibility. Works for the globalists.
Father Paul Abernathy is not a shill. He may he wrong but he is not a shill.
“Father Paul Abernathy is not a shill. He may he wrong but he is not a shill.”
Well, here’s the definition of the word:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/shill
And here’s a quote from the third paragraph of the article:
“Abernathy is the CEO of the Neighborhood Resilience Project that is leading the vaccine acceptance effort.”
He’s a useful idiot, as Lenin would say.
He is not just wrong. He is way off base. This is very disturbing.
Concerning Metropolitan Joseph and Abernathy pushing vaccines on poor black families, they might want to know civil rights activist and baseball great Hank Aaron DIED weeks after getting the vaccine. Maybe he had something else going on, but….?
Mikhail, I agree. Lord have mercy. I’ve never chanted, whispered, sung, and wept that prayer as much as I have in the past six months. The Church’s response to the virus, the church closures, the violent riots in cities… It is quite something to live through.
I wonder if the bishops will say anything about the new Covid detention camps (for repeat offenders/deniers) happening in Germany? Also, the quarantine camps being constructed in China? I guess that might be delving too much into politics.
“We are adopting mitigating strategies (wearing masks, social distancing, cleaning, asking those with symptoms to stay home, etc.) that hopefully work together in tandem”
Notice it has always been “social distancing” and not “physical distancing.” Now consider the actual social division that has resulted: “One of the most divisive issues throughout has been the wearing of masks.” Words have meanings, meanings have affects, affects have effects. You’d think clergy of all people would understand this, and not blindly adopt the nomenclature, and with it the inherent logic, of an entire system of thought that is hostile to Christianity as a whole.
For every cleric who is theologically literate,
there are probably a dozen or more
who are just systems people.
All too true Brendan. Well said.
Excellent commentary on this by the ByzTex blogger, a priest in (I think) ACROD. The comments at the bottom are a dumpster fire, as is usual over there. Lots of trolls, unfortunately, and our poor Mr. Bauman seems to rile them with his Orthodox POV.
I love this line…very true…but very sad.
“The swamp is undrainable”
Just so you know I’m no lefty, I’ll say this: Biden supports continuing the massacre of the innocents, and the unreality of gender identity as the left conceives of it, among many other terrible policies.
…But c’mon. Trump lost. Even after what, 60 court cases? Plus a hail-Mary play at the Supreme Court, attempted pressuring of state GOP leaders to “find me the votes”, etc. If there was fraud, they had their chance — many chances! — to make it public, known, and make a change. But the evidence they claimed was either demonstrably false, or was a moving of the goalposts (complaining after state Republican parties agreed back in April or May to consent decrees about how mail in votes would be handled, etc.)
His refusal to concede, his belligerent rhetoric, his antagonism toward his own VP! This is not what a Great Man does in defeat. And you do your readers a disservice by endorsing such a childish response.
For those who believe it was stolen, the incentive to learn from defeat is gone. For those who believe it was stolen, the notion that persuasion of the masses is the way forward is gone — in favor of raw force (as we saw earlier this month). And, even in the worst case scenario of an over-powered reaction to the actions of right-wing extremists, such conspiratorial obsession does nothing to prepare the average Christian conservative to live in a society that does not support their worldview. It leaves folks with a sense of “dropping out” from the culture, rather than learning to navigate and try to evangelize it. And the proof of this is to be seen in how the next generation either rejects their faith or deepens it.
Trump was never a Boy Scout, nor was he ever even a Cyrus or Alexander or Herakles. He’s Biff Tannen from Back to the Future — his greed, vanity, and corruption was a known quantity even 40 years ago. And he has done nothing in that time to disabuse the notion. Faust may have found a way out of his bargain with the devil, but it remains to be seen if the Republicans can survive their deal with Trump. Some on the left are detached from reality, and would like to see a “Social Credit” system brought to our shores. This is true, and frightening. But 75 million people were willing to give power to a man who openly abused his powers, gave voice to known lies, and who made it clear he didn’t even care about the things he shouted in order to get elected. (Is Hillary locked up? Is the wall built, with Mexico paying for it? Has Obama’s real birth certificate been made public? Is his tax audit finished, so we can see his returns? Has the draft of his healthcare replacement bill been posted? — No, this and more was all just to whip people up into a frenzy.)
Trump made his supporters put him first. I’ve seen one Biden flag (maybe two?) but countless Trump flags, often accompanied by loud music, loud trucks, and loud people. He did nothing to build trust in the nation. He did nothing to strengthen local participation in the democratic process — only sowed distrust. And rather than strengthen our position with our allies against very real threats like the rise of China, he has (except perhaps in increasing NATO funding by other members) further eroded our standing in the world, both legally and in terms of reputation.
I do not believe Biden will usher in a return to virtue, or a change in the trends that already are pushing us in the direction of a further liberalized notion of person, race, and gender. If anything, his cabinet may accelerate things.
But I can’t imagine he will go golfing 20% of his days in office (Trump golfed 308 times by end of 2020, over 4 years). And I don’t expect Biden to retweet “The only good Republican is a dead Republican”. Like it or not, he’s also probably going to be more effective at passing the legislation he’s talked about, and making executive changes, too. It will be a presidency with a real train of thought. The breathing room will give folks the opportunity to get involved in their local politics, if they so choose.
So to anyone who would try to advance a conservative cause in America, use this time to focus on what’s real, and what’s actually present & possible. Center your life on Christ, prioritize your family and your parish, then your neighborhood & city. Attend boring meetings, read about boring policies, volunteer for boring shifts at polling places. The world belongs to those who show up. Checking out in favor of alternative facts is not going to secure the next generation — or even the current one.
Mr Keller, the fraud, which was widespread, patent, and deep was well-documented. The fact that most courts refused to listen to the evidence was not Trump’s fault. Nor is it evidence that the fraud did not occur.
As for his golfing, I don’t know who golfed more during their respective presidencies, Trump or Obama.
As for the flags, so what? All they are signs of popularity, no different than lawn signs. Your point? (In fact, it makes my point, does it not?)
No, he was not a Boy Scout. Name me one President outside of Calvin Coolidge who was.
As for his supposed “greed” are you not aware that he never received a salary while in office? That doesn’t sound like greed to me. In fact it sounds quite the opposite. And patriotic.
He did not concede for the same reason that Al Gore refused to concede. And John Kerry. Personally, I’m glad he dragged this out til the last minute as Biden deserves no respect and no legitimacy.
“ Mr Keller, the fraud, which was widespread, patent, and deep was well-documented.”
Mr. Michalopulos! Please show us proof that the fraud was widespread and well-documented. None of the claims of fraud we have seen so far pass the smell test.
First, was the claim there was widespread counting of votes without observers present (so far this was shown in only one district in Georgia, the results for which were promptly disputed, without changing the end result). Then there were the legions of dead that voted Biden (conservative group from PA that presented this case could not convince the judge their list was accurate). After that we had the big stink about not matching signatures on ballots (not a problem in more than 15 states, since it’s not a requirement there, but just since you’re asking – it was a requirement in 4 of the 6 disputed states). There were theories of statistical anomalies, propagated by people that know as much about statistics as I do about endocrinology. Finally, my favorite – “they suddenly stopped the count after midnight!”. Suddenly, everyone has forgotten how routine it was in years past for vote counting to be suspended late at night, to be continued the following day, and now the only reasonable explanation is that CCP goons used that time to truck in Biden ballots.
The burden of proof is on the accuser. Democrats can’t prove to Republicans how they didn’t steal the election. That’s ridiculous. And the Republicans can’t seem to show how they did.
To Mr. Keller – you are absolutely spot-on with your last paragraph. Everyone loves to be a culture warrior fueling the big flames of national politics (though our effect on it is close to nil), while very few are actually interested in getting involved in the boring day to day stuff (where no one cares who you voted for in the presidential, and there isn’t much space to opine on things like the decline of Burkean conservatism) that can actually improve our lives.
Sir, have you not seen those graphs which showed a vertical spike in Biden’s votes at 4:00 am in several different states? Have you not heard of the 6,000 votes in Antrim County, MI that were switched automatically from Trump to Biden? Have you not seen the crates of ballots that were pulled out from under the tables in Georgia? Have you not heard of the algorithms that were changed in several states once the Trump totals came in (hence the vertical spike)? Have you not heard of the thousands of affidavits from poll watchers who saw signs of malfeasance? Have you not heard about how GOP poll watchers were forbidden from getting anywhere near the polling stations when the votes were counted? Have you forgotten how the windows of poll watching stations were boarded up with plywood so that observers could not see inside?
I suppose you feel that O J Simpson was innocent as well?
Got any credible links?
All of this was reported on the MSM. Are you saying that the MSM is not credible?
“MSM” is not a monolith. Each org may be better or worse, more biased or less. I have looked into these claims and found additional context which appears to render most (not all objections, though; GA did find 2 cases of technical fraud, due to the death of the voter after mailing in the ballot, but before the vote was counted) of these objections inert, which is why I am curious to see the sources you would reference.
Awaken With JP on YouTube had the funniest presentation of the very credible data. I’d post the link but the network I’m using at the present moment won’t allow me to access YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/user/AwakenWithJP
David, almost every single one of those court cases was dismissed due to grounds of legal standing, NOT due to lack of evidence.
No one in this administration, dare I say virtually no democrat in government, deserves respect or legitimacy. They tied Trump’s hands for four years with fake Russian collusion and fake impeachment and lies and calumny and threats and viciousness…on a scale I have never seen before in my life. His closest allies betrayed him. Hollywood called for his assassination while they held his bloody severed head in effigy. Virtually every MSM “news” agency spewed hatred, lies and violence toward him and his supporters on a level that would make Pravda blush. Trump and his supporters were labeled as racists and misogynists at every turn. It was disgraceful and it makes me sick to my stomach. When all else failed, they weaponized the Wuhan flu and cheated at the polls. This is the reason we are in such dangerous times. There was nothing too extreme for the left in order to gain power. They even allowed cities to be occupied, looted, and burned to the ground while countless civilians and police officers were injured an/or killed.
Repent and trust in God. Persecutions may be on the horizon.
The fact of the matter is that no court took up the matter, including the Supreme Court, and neither did the DOJ, FEC, etc., or various state-level agencies. Even Texas’ complaint was about changes to the process, not a dispute about outcome. If there’s evidence, Trump had a lot of opportunity, and all the resources of the Presidency to do so. Many claims were made, but the substance was lacking. What evidence do you believe is “well-documented”?
The golf is less important (other than Trump taunting Obama for it) but he managed to fit in more golf in 4 years than Obama did in 8… Projection is a primary trait of Mr. Trump.
As for the rest… I dunno, it looks a lot like putting one’s trust in a specific prince & son of man. If someone with his character and big business ties ran as an “outsider Democrat”, it would be an absolute spectacle. And indeed, that’s just what Trump was, to anyone willing to consider him without prejudice.
“Even Texas’ complaint was about changes to the process,
not a dispute about outcome”.
Err… not exactly. If the Supreme Court had chosen to uphold Federal Law,
the illicit electoral law changes in the swing states would have been undone;
which would have resulted in all their College Electors going to Trump.
Trump would then have become the legally elected 46th POTUS.
But SCOTUS ran away from its duty and a sham POTUS was installed.
Christopher,
This is the best, most dispassionate, objective article that I have read on the Presidential election outcome, analyzing trends and data:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-2020-election-what-happened-a-political-scientists-memorandum/
I, for one, would be totally fine if a thorough, transparent, open investigation took place and concluded that yes, while the results might seem strange, the presidential election results stand as solid and accurate.
But that’s not happening and can’t happen. There’s simply not enough time between election day and Jan 20th to do so. To be fair, many R’s earlier in 2020 brought to the courts complaints about election irregularities waiting to happen and were told by the courts that they couldn’t do anything without an actual election result. Then once the election resulted, the courts said they should have acted earlier. A nice trap of legalese. Same way that most of these court cases were dismissed based on legal technicalities, not based on the objective data.
The fact remains that millions of bright, thoughtful Americans agree that blatant election irregularities seem to have occurred. But no one is investigating. Absolutely no one. And those who are looking into it are derided as disgruntled Trumpers, which most of us are not.
Tens of millions of Americans have completely lost faith in our election processes (me included). I no longer trust American elections to be fair, since it seems that, with the right people in certain positions, election results can be tweaked to get a desired result.
Telling people like me to “shut up and go away” won’t work. It only intensifies our disgust and skepticism with the election system. It intensifies our knowledge that corruption is at the highest levels in America (the USA is now Mexico at the federal level).
I’m astonished that people who dislike Trump seem to be totally OK with this as long as Trump is gone. The American system does not work and will — without question — become a third-rate corrupt state without faith in our election integrity. Yet people seem totally OK with this as long as Trump is gone! I don’t get it.
I’m no Trump fan. You’d never catch me at any political rally, MAGA or for Biden (not that anyone ever went to his rallies anyway…) or otherwise.
But to tell people like me that “oh come on, election irregularites didn’t happen, just get over it” is offensive and won’t work. It’s a power play to silence political opponents.
Each state, and often county, conducts their own election & audit. You say “no one is investigating”, but people really have and still are. (GA for example did find a two votes that needed to be thrown out because the voter had died before election day)
There needs to be a central national (not federal) center for aggregating ALL information that people are able to submit and have considered, and mounting a well-funded sharing of information with the public, by any means still possible under this regime.
For instance, from my individual research (comparing voter roll and 8-digit registration numbers of people claimed by GA to have voted, I have the name and last Georgia addresses of 500 people deceased between 1990s and early 2020 that were marked as “voted”.) That right there should tell you that any state official (governor, secretary of state, other) claiming that signature verification of 5,000,000 ballots was done twice is a liar.
Also, I have the names and last GA addresses and date moved of over 5,000 (found so far) moved-out-of-state. This should be a felony under GA law to vote from out of state, IF they had actually voted, rather than their registration numbers being supplied by a third party. But no interest in checking and prosecuting, from state authorities. No one (law offices of main legal actors, RNC, etc.) seemed interested, since I never heard back.
Send it to: The Office of the Former President Donald J. Trump Palm Beach County, Florida.
Thanks! Just to improve the chances of at least some mail ever being delivered rather than discarded by the USPS, I’ll be on the lookout for a precise street address available, and maybe Priority Mail to differ from a a few million other pieces of mail. I hope the effort goes well.
Very well said, FTS.
FWIW, the constant dismissive attitude by the Establishment and its many acolytes, plus the feverish attempts by the Social and Corporate Media to silence any and all dissent it going to result in an explosion.
Once a government loses the trust of its people (and the quashing of dissent is a sign of that), then it cannot last long.
Things were different in dictatorships that were governed by ideology (e.g. communist governments) as long as the basic needs of the people were met (free medical care, subsidized housing, etc.) but those regimes existed before the age of the modern information explosion.
On the other hand, authoritarian regimes that are homogeneous and whose governments look out for the ethnic/racial interests of the majority population (e.g. China, most Muslim regimes, etc.) tend to be very stable. The people will put up with restrictions in information provided that their heritage is upheld and exalted. If they are non-authoritarian (e.g. Poland, Hungary, Israel), they are extremely stable.
So what’s my point? The US’s claim to fame is found in our national creed –the Pledge of Allegiance–which states “…liberty and justice for all”. Once we lose that and we are in great danger of losing that with the creeping censoriousness of the Establishment, then the bonds between the rulers and the ruled will snap, irrevocably.
FTS, your post really made me stop and think. If you really don’t have a “bone” in this game, and yet feel you’re being told to “shut up and go away” – that’s a problem for this country. All I can say is that I don’t have this feeling, and this is not because I’m just happy Trump is gone. Like you, I wouldn’t call myself a political hack, and really don’t take much of an interest in national politics. However, very early into the process of contesting these elections it became clear to me that Trump was attempting to use some very cynical, Lukashenka-esque tactics which you would expect to see used in the former-USSR and Middle East, but not here at home!
Now, as to the article you’ve linked – I don’t understand how one could argue that this is the “the best, most dispassionate, objective article that I have read on the Presidential election outcome, analyzing trends and data“. I actually went to the trouble of reading it, and was very disappointed. I was willing to give the article the benefit of the doubt, but found the author citing nearly zero facts in support of his thesis (the article itself was quite long). Though he begins claiming impartiality, offering to lend the lens of a political scientist, he continues on to blurt out things like:
“[…] the “winner” that this system produced this year will be perceived as corrupt, frail, and mentally challenged. Biden had to be literally dragged over the finish line.”
I can write an entire post on the historic nature of Biden’s win. Everyone gushing about how Trump got 10M more votes this election to reach his 74M, doesn’t talk about Biden’s 81M. But that’s for another time. The core of the issue is much simpler, in my mind. It’s true, that there are many strange things about an incumbent president racking up 10M additional votes, and somehow losing. Especially so, in the context where not a single incumbent Republican congressman lost his seat. Stranger still, that this is in the context of a lower black turnout than for Obama or Clinton. It’s puzzling certainly, that the historic bellwether counties seemed to vote the wrong way this time around. However, all of this is explained away – very convincingly in my opinion – by the fantastic run of bad luck this president has had (as many presidents around the world have, I suppose), with this current pandemic. Now I hope you understand I really am impartial in this too. I don’t blame the president, as many do, for a catastrophic mismanagement of the crisis, though I think a lot of his statements throughout this period were unhelpful and confusing. I think his administration did many things well in regards to streamlining and speeding up the process of vaccine development. Perhaps if the election were to happen a year later, the narrative could be different and more positive.
The fact is that right now the United States tops the world’s list of Covid-affected countries (we can argue about whether or not India and Brazil are testing sufficiently, but I hope you see it’s beside the point). The pandemic has gone through the economy like a hurricane, leaving millions unemployed and hundreds of thousands of small businesses shuttered. All the while, the stock market is breaking new historic highs, and rich people are getting richer than ever before. I think a lot of people looked at this situation, and blamed the president. The general chaos in his administration where people got fired monthly, also didn’t create an impression that there were adults in control. Those with the curiosity to see what’s happening in other parts of the world could see that things here were much worse (with few exceptions, like the UK under Boris). The effort to suppress mail-in votes through transparently crooked maneuvers with the Postal Service only got the Democratic base further mobilized, while discouraging Republicans from participating in it through claims it was rigged (hence the extreme Biden-bias in the mail-in votes). All of this, is what did Trump in, and there’s nothing unusual about it, in my mind.
There is such a thing as the Constitution, which states in plain language that only the State Legislatures are allowed to make election laws, not governors or judges.
Christopher… and you believe yourself free of prejudice regarding Trump? That is impossible unless you have been incommunicado for as long as Trump has been in the public eye. The rest of your post indicates you have not been incommunicado.
You are also posting on an opinion blog.
Mr Keller, I forgot to add that as for the “Faustian bargain” that the GOP supposedly made with Trump is ephemeral: they did everything in their power to prevent him from getting the nomination and then when during the first two years of his presidency (when the GOP had the House as well as the Senate) did everything to prevent a lot of his agenda (not all of it but a lot).
No, my friend, Trump was essentially a Third-party candidate who took over the GOP in a hostile-takeover sort of way. That’s the first time that that happened I believe.
Your last paragraph is spot-on.
Honest question, Nate. When you refer to the ‘federal response to COVID-19 being one of the worst failures,’ what would you have done differently? And, also, honest question, what hundreds of thousands dead?
What I’d like to know is how many people died of the common flu last year? In 2019, ~60,000 people died from it.
In 2020 I expect they were all classed as COVID deaths.
After all, did not every one have a fever and a cough?
Believe it or not, I’m dead serious, Brendan.
If anybody knows the number of people who died of the flu in 2020, I’d like to know.
I’m dead serious too, George.
Unless an autopsy was done,
how would anybody tell the difference?
And how many autopsies were done?
In the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board in Scotland, doctors were told that if anyone died with a fever and a cough they were to be classed as a Covid death. The same happened in Minnesota, as the State Senator Dr Scott Jensen testified. The figures are irredeemably skewed – and screwed.
Nobody knows is the only sensible answer to your question.
And therein lies the rub.
Washington State announced that the number of flu deaths for 2020 was exactly zero and the state epidemiologist could not explain why such a miracle happened.
Well, I guess the answer to this miracle is the same phenomenon of how thousands of the Deceased-American demographic rises from the dead and votes.
The reported (emphasis on reported) death rates from influenza are by far the most telling aspect of the ‘numbers. The levels of flu this season can only be described as close to impossibly low by historical standards. Compare this season…
https://hive.rochesterregional.org/2020/01/flu-season-2020
…to the last 20 years (scroll down to Table 1)….
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html
By these measures (according to the logic of some) Trump has virtually wiped out the flu, thus saving somewhere between 12,000 and 61,000 lives this year.
Oh wait…no, they must have died from COVID-19 instead. My bad. It is Trump’s fault. Wait…that’s not right either. The season isn’t over yet. Biden will have saved all those who would have been victims of influenza.
In any case, let’s not question, much less think about, among the strangest of anomalies to occur in the recoded history of influenza. After all, whose narrative could it possibly serve?
…Or maybe social distancing, masks, shutting public places down, etc all lower the rate of transmission for most diseases transmitted this way?
Christopher, except that ‘positive cases’ of COVID are skyrocketing in states with tough lockdowns – that is, if you believe the testing kits, wherein fruit, goats and soda test positive, too.
Seriously?
If you want, get a hold of me offline, I have some ocean-front property in Arizona I can sell you real cheap.
This really just comes down to whether you believe in Germ Theory… If the flu, COVID, etc., are caused by viruses, and these are transmitted by breath/particulates or whatever that is more likely to spread when contact with others is increased, then a decrease in overall population contact should mean the rate of disease is less than it would have otherwise been. Not zero, but less. This is also why quarantines have been used for millennia to combat infectious disease, and why medical personnel often wore masks even prior to COVID…
I prefer to call it “antisocial distancing”.
In summary:
Q. “Why aren’t there any influenza cases?”
A. “Because people are wearing masks and social distancing.”
Q. “Why are Kung Flu-sorry-Covid case numbers exploding?”
A. “Because people are not wearing masks and not social distancing.”
In Newspeak, the word is “doublethink”.
Truly. Cognitive dissonance at it’s best. The people who engage in this double-think need to cut it out, otherwise their heads will explode.
Tony Heller, from real climate science . com, in talking about the blatant inconsistencies in the media, said it best: “it makes no sense. But if you see it in terms of an agenda, it makes perfect sense”
Beautifully put, I thought
If that’s so, then how are coronu cases (“cases”) rising?
Christopher,
I was, of course, being facetious. Now I will get real.
The measures you mention may, in fact, (and likely did) impact the number of flu cases (and deaths). The flu vaccination rate this season is also among the highest in recent decades (193 million doses distributed in the US. or approx. 25 million more than last year). However, neither of these factors by themselves account for the incredibly (as in “not credible”) low numbers. Something else is at work, and I don’t pretend to know precisely what it is. What I do know is this is an extreme anomaly that no one seems to be paying attention to. If this was a non-COVID-crazed flu season the CDC and epidemiologists would be studying the reasons behind it in order to (hopefully) duplicate the success of this flu season, but no one (to my knowledge) has even taken note of it, let alone try to figure out why,
Sure, and there likely are some inaccuracies in reporting of deaths as COVID based on symptoms, but the combination of a relatively small amount of that with the measures of masks, distancing, vaccination, closure of “nodes” like schools & malls, etc., would all contribute. And we can compare how other countries are doing with the flu numbers, to also help correct the data.
Nate, are you aware of the concept of comorbidities? Are you also not aware that per 100,000 people, the US has a lower mortality rate than Spain and Italy?
Curious: why don’t you mention the deaths from New York? Is it because this, worse state, is governed by a complete moron with a “D” after his name?
I never said it was a “blue state phenomenon”. I have pointed out several months ago (in April I believe) that there were significant differentials based on ethnic/racial lines. And of course the comorbidities.
The US ranks #1 in obesity. Mexico is #2. Black Africans have less susceptibility to COVID while American blacks are more susceptible (due to the inability to absorb Vit D through the skin). Hypertension is also a risk factor; again certain ethnicities are more prone to hypertension than others.
Spread these factors (and others) across the Lower 48 and it also explains a lot.
Nate is also being deliberately disingenuous & argumentative (some call this trolling), as he’s comparing apples and oranges and knows it. It’s crafting the data to fit your desired conclusion. University researchers do it a lot…
Countries must share criteria for what they call a “COVID death” in order to compare death rates across countries. They must also have similar criteria for what they call coronavirus disease. They must also care to collect and report their own population’s data! Most countries don’t have the resources or desire to do this.
The United States’s criteria for calling a disease/death coronavirus-related are different from other countries’ criteria. Other countries also don’t care to collect and report their data to the same detail that we do. Comparing numbers across countries is naive and doesn’t work. Yet people do it, usually to “prove” their desired point that the American response to COVID was bad because of Trump (because Orange Man Bad).
Many of these same people probably wish that the WHO would just run healthcare everywhere in the world. But thesepeople would never want to get care themselves in such hospitals. Even communist leaders leave their own country to get better healthcare elsewhere. Misery for thee, but not for me. Very Gavin Newsome.
The Brothers Gracchi – How Republics Fall
A salutary tale…
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODI1VOOoey0
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC2Hvg7RdSY
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpFmzkxd-HI
4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpL7xwCBM34
5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZWu6PsUHI
There are, I think, lessons to be learned from the fall of the Gracchi,
and from the fall of the Roman Republic that followed it.
I would like to know how many days during the Presidency of Trump was he on the firing line for some lie dreamed up by the Dems. Most people would fold over that pressure. The fact that he went about being President and taking care of the nation while constantly being stabbed in the back speaks volumes.
Trump lost the midterm elections by 8 points, the largest margin since WWII. Unlike Cinton and Obama, both of them suffering defeats in times of economic crisis or stagnation, the Republicans were defeated in a time where the economy was thriving. That was a very good clue of what was coming. Trump apeal to the working class, talking about blue collar jobs coming back to the U.S, and smal rural towns simply didnt work with the suburban and urban voters, the ones who grow the most. It didn’t work with the Democrat leaning suburbs of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and it certainly didn’t work with the Republican leaning suburbs of Dallas that went from giving Romney a 40 points victory in 2012 to a 12 point victory to Trump last year. There is no way to win an election like that, plus a global pandemic and economic decline. Many conservatives still claim that the election was a fraud. Well, good luck with that. Blame others for what you have done wrong, if that is conservatism then there are no conservatives left in the U.S.
And yet, he got 11 million more votes than he got in 2016.
Joseph, you are basing your assumptions on deceptive data spewed out by the MSM. The same MSM that tells us that Biden got 11 million more votes than Obama when he got 85% of the black vote.
In other words, your assertions are incorrect, not because you are a propagandist (which I don’t believe that you are) but because we have all been fed fraudulent data.
As to the suburbs, while they have been trending purple, I believe that they trended back to the red thanks to the urban riots (which began encroaching on the suburbs)? You want proof? In 2016, Trump got 52% of the white woman vote. In 2020, he got 54%, an increase.
The “white woman vote” is a proxy for the suburban vote.
Trump increased his vote share in every demographic group: blacks, Latinos, observant Jews, and women. He doubled the percentage votes he got from black women vote (from 4% to 8%).
To believe that fraud played no role at all in Biden’s blow-out, one would have to point to which demographic(s) he actually beat Trump in. (Perhaps he got a higher number of dead people?)
…Why do you trust the numbers about Trump getting 11M more votes, when they come from the same sources that say Biden received still more?
Good question. Maybe because they couldn’t depress his numbers? When one is engaged in a criminal enterprise, one is forced to take the option that maximizes his desired results.
It’s an established fact that when one commits vote fraud, one party waits until all the other party’s numbers are in, then –and only then–does vote harvesting begin.
Still, I can’t help but notice that you didn’t answer my points regarding the various demographic sub-sets in which Trump increased his share of the vote.
If you can explain to me how Biden got a lesser black vote share than Hillary and still won, then we can have an honest debate.
It’s the oldest trick in the book.
Well, I think the increased share of black & latino voters, at least in some areas, is a sign that they really considered Trump to be either more pro-life, pro-police, anti-war, anti-illegal immigration, anti-tax, or all of the above, than Biden. (And indeed, he is, and those are good things!) I do not think Trump didn’t have at least some good policies, and given the way the Dems try to force people into a class/racial conflict, I can imagine that would be off-putting (as it also is to me!).
But the mere idea that it is surprising to gain in minority demographics and still lose isn’t itself evidence or the beginning of evidence. I would guess that there were more white people who have been eligible voters that typically sit elections out, than minorities, just on the basis of them being the larger group. If it’s say, 10% of each group, and there’s twice as many whites, if you get 10% to get off the couch, from all race groups, you may still win over someone who gets a 25% of minorities who normally sit out to go vote.
There’s talks of Trump starting a new political party. If true, this is a brilliant idea. I know people scoff at the idea of a 3rd party, but, if Trump were to start a party, it would be the 2nd..not 3rd. I think it would send the current Republican Party back to the stone ages.
The current 3rd largest party are the Libertarians and their membership is ~700K. If Trump does this then a large portion of the 75 Million (more like 80 million) people that voted for him will be joining his party, myself included.
If people don’t think this is possible look no further than the Brexit Party in England, in the span of a few months since starting they managed to annihilate the two major parties there.
It can be done and if someone is going to succeed, it’ll be Trump. He needs to also start his own news network (also rumored), and I would imagine Hannity & Carlson may be looking for a new home soon.
Just read two headlines. Biden set to undo much of what Trump stood for and Biden wants unity. What a roller coaster ride!
On a religious note, guess we can look forward more to this now that Biden is president:
https://spzh.news/en/news/77143-shmygaly-dogovorilsya-s-glavoj-fanara-o-perevode-v-pcu-khramov-upc–istochnik
Russia might not be waiting until November to excommunicate and anathematize Pat. Bartholomew after all
In America, I’m guessing this year we will start seeing an Orthodox realignment with a ROCOR/Serbia/Georgia team (just a hunch). If one of those groups is wise they would create a Greek Vicariate for the parishes and monasteries that are looking to leave GOARCH. My guess is the Greeks are more likely to join the Serbians than ROCOR, but, that is just a widely speculated guess.
It seems Antioch may be moving in the same direction of GOARCH, but, I sincerely very much hope I am wrong.
Probably not enough for a fully functioning vicariate, but ROCOR has already started up a couple of “Greek rite” parishes, from what I’ve seen and heard. There’s at least one in Canada, and maybe a dozen or so parishes and missions in the lower 48, not to mention parishes within ROCOR that were already a little Greek to begin with, dating back to the days of the Boston schism, when some parishes stayed with the Russians. There’s at least one Palestinian parish in ROCOR now, too.
I dunno, Petros…I think that a Greek vicariate would work better within ROCOR than (with) the Serbians. After all, there were a number of traditionalist Greek parishes in ROCOR some years back, so they have past experience with the them, which the Serbs do not. (But then again, that’s just my take.)
Roosh is Refreshing! Monomakhos males, read on: https://www.rooshv.com/president-joe-biden-is-a-blessing. Love to hear what you think about his analysis and call to action…
Since the beginning of Christianity is to repent, I think he has a point: repent or die. Love God in thought, word and deed (love your neighbor as yourself). “Fear not, for I have overcome the world”.
Right now I see fear ruling on our side: in the Bishops and in those who wnat something different from the Bishops and those that say AXIOS.
Right now I see fear ruling on our side
I don’t think I have ever seen such fear in the Church.
In our bishops, this fear has seriously undermined their authority.
Very bad, because the Church utterly depends on that authority.
Indeed.
Father Pat,
This widespread fear among our episcopate is awful, especially in light of the fact that the most common command from Christ in the Gospels is “do not be afraid,” or “fear not.”
It’s as if many in the episcopate (and yes, it’s more common among the more westernized/American episcopate) have just absorbed the terror that the 24hr “news” shows are so fond of spewing forth.
Which is why it’s imperative that our bishops be “not of this world.”
I’m not saying to ignore coronavirus, but what I am saying is to have balance and perspective.
American public life, toxic as it is, is downright terrible at offering balance and perspective.
By all means our bishops should continue to echo Christ and reassure us to “fear not.” If a bishop is not channeling to us to be careful and responsible but to above all “fear not,” we should leave and follow shepherds who do so.
This is why our faith is so at odds with modern society. Modern society tells us 24/7 that we “must live in fear;” Christ and the Church teach the exact opposite.
“Right now I see fear ruling on our side. I don’t think I have ever seen such fear in the Church. In our bishops, this fear has seriously undermined their authority.”
People are afraid of the vaccines, many by now dismissing the virus itself as a hoax, nothing but the flu, as seen in locations/countries that didn’t mask up and lockdown. The vaccines are feared as the real source of future mass sickness and depopulation going forward, and as the Mark of the Beast, or at least pre-cursor to it, as vaccine passports. Nobody is afraid of the bishop, when the bishop is following along with society, and his boss is following after Constantinople, and Constantinople is taking them out of Orthodoxy and into union with Rome, and Rome is taking everyone into One World Religion and pushing vaccines/Mark of the Beast. So it would be a mistake to do what the Met. of Antioch in America just did, dismiss this line of thinking as conspiracy theories, double down on masking, and use the loaded phrase the “new normal,” as seen in how that was received here.
Nobody is afraid of the bishop, when the bishop is following along with society,
When I said “fear of the bishops,” I didn’t mean people are afraid of the bishops.
Does evil exist? Yes. Is the western world more evil and less Christian today than it was not so long ago? Yes. What’s one main characteristic of evil? To pretend to be virtuous while working towards nefarious ends. Then I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if there’s not a conspiracy even under my bed.
Only today have I become aware of Metropolitan JOSEPH’s snappy response to the oppressive government in California.
https://orthodoxyindialogue.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/joseph-_civil-disobedience_-letter.pdf
Bravo!
Myst, fear is, I think purposely, being exacerbated. Good public health practice is focused on treating people, not the disease. Facuci and others, including Trump have focused on treating the disease, not people. It is terrible public health. It is, however, good politics. Fear divides people. I do not like Met Joseph’s letter but I have decided not to allow it to further divide us. Clearly, the driving force behind his letter was fear management and perceived division.
Trouble is he and the other Bishops are out of their depth.
The real problem is that I see fear powering my side as well. The fear leads to unnecessary and counter productive reactions, not solutions.
So, do we come together and allow God to overcome our fears or not? Our government (Republican or Socialist would not like that)
And yes, President Trump is a class act:
https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/22/trump-offers-to-let-national-guard-stay-at-the-trump-hotel-d-c-after-parking-garage-outrage/
Btw you can send your support for Fr. Mark Hodges to the Diocese of Midwest (OCA). I intend to email.
Phone: +1 (312) 202-0420
chancery@domoca.org
Good to have the specific info Petros, thank you. I will try to alert my pro-life friends in the OCA. I have heard from a trustworthy source that the OCA Holy Synod in the main is “for Biden” which translates to unOrthodox at a minimum. I pray that is not true, but if so, it would explain much, sorrowfully. I pray their statements, policies and actions will reveal a different and more Orthodox spirit and mindset, evident in their treatment of Father Mark.
For Biden?
That makes them and GOARCH, then, at least. Sad!
Just a thought. We could begin to send notes to President Trump thanking him for his love for this country. Also pray. He needs surrounding by love.