Modern Fascism: Liquidating the Judeo-Christian Worldview

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8251071-modern-fascism

Always sad when I can't find a good review so I can be really lazy -- if you follow the link back to Goodreads, there may be some there now.

National Socialism (Naziism) gave Fascism bad name, as the intellectual elite certainly didn't want to besmirch "socialism" because they wanted LOTS more of it. It turns out that what they actually wanted was and is Fascism, but post Hitler, the marketing was a bit off. A good common man shorthand description of Fascism being "Crony Capitalism" the currently operant but disguised ideology of Western civilization. Big (and ever bigger and more intrusive) Deep State Bureaucratic governments, in league with ever more powerful and government cozy business like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Alibaba (Chinese Amazon, but bigger) ... and the list could go on. Fascism? We're there! 

This cabal of power is heavily controlled by the Davos Elite -- guys like Bezos, Gates, Buffett, etc, who collectively own the media (this post has been "fact checked" and may contain information not directly beneficial to Democrats and the Davos Elite, but I repeat myself). Such messages are almost enough to allow sentient people to realize we are not in "Kansas" or America anymore -- however if you do become enlightened, you may get "cancelled". 

A nice short definition of Fascism from the book: 

Fascism is a worldview. The elements of this worldview derive from romanticism, Darwinism, and existentialism. They are part of the mainstream of Western thought. As such, they were basic assumptions of the intellectual elite of the 1930s. They remain so today.

 So what are these Fascists working to accomplish? 

This new worldview defined itself against the existing spiritual framework—that of the Jews and their Bible. In rejecting not only the Bible but objective meaning, transcendent morality, and the authority of language itself, the fascists arrayed themselves against the Word.

So why do these Fascists hate Jews and Christians so much? 

According to fascist theorists, the Jewish influence—that is, the idea of a transcendent religion and a transcendent moral law—was responsible for the ills of Western culture. The target of the fascists was not only the Jews but the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The book gives a lot more worthy and convincing detail, however the simple truth is that Western civilization is well down the path to being Fascist already, with a lot of pressure to rapidly move deeper into centralized, bureaucratic, godless, religion suppressing, anti family culture. Readers of this blog being well aware of this for a long time. Sadly, very few in the modern world have any clue since education is mostly Fascist indoctrination, and understanding of history / reality is punished. (it isn't "woke", so it has to be "cancelled") 

I could quote forever, however I'll leave it at this: 

A set of ideas is emerging from today’s academic world that is startlingly reminiscent of what the fascist theorists were saying in the 1930s: individual identity is a myth, insofar as identity is really determined by culture and ethnicity; laws and social conventions are only masks for power; human-centered values are part of a corrupt Western civilization; the transcendent meaning of reason, objectivity, and language is an illusion.

 

Biden Bars, 25th Amendment

 https://babylonbee.com/news/teachers-unions-promise-school-will-resume-as-soon-as-they-are-done-campaigning-for-biden/?utm_content=bufferc48cf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR0EeCSOKO8CGTNhV7tEO9WsAxeRRbA9mHEYz_Ski0zZJVVYYz0XT37osUw

Why the red bars? Anybody with a moment of graphic design knows that bright red bars are going to draw the most attention. 

Some of my thoughts: 

• They wanted to use the hammer and sickle in red, but thought that might be too obvious. 
• They are making it clear that "Red America" will be put behind bars when they win. (where else would you put deplorables? 
• It makes it clear that this is really the "Bid Harris" election ... Joe isn't a factor. 
  

While I'm speculating ... 

Why is Pelosi talking 25th amendment now? 

I do like the yellow ... "or such other body of congress may by law provide". So all you really need to remove the president is a majority in the house! Cool! Welcome to the banana republic of N America. 

So what do I think? 

It's a goal line taunt.

They know the election is totally rigged in their favor and they want to show us that they can do whatever they want, so we need to get on bended knee now before we get the lash.  My hope is that Biden wins with 200 million votes compared to Trump's 65 million, and at least a few people find it strange that out of 230 million eligible voters, 265 million voted. I'm not sure of that though ... note that 244 US counties have more registered  voters than live adults, and nobody seems to care about that. 

Oh, the link at the top is just entertainment for this likely waning time when we can laugh. It is harder to laugh in the Gulag. 

VDH, The Rotting Scraps Of Civilization

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/the-fragments-of-a-civilization/?fbclid=IwAR2JpRg2UB7aRMJeNktS0TZqohEAAMZc1y7UNrrgeZJ3DWUKvvDiY-X36Do

The linked leads off with a recounting of what has now become brutally obvious ...

Translate all that, and the evidence grows that Hillary Clinton, in felonious fashion, paid for the Steele dossier to subvert an election and, after the election, to destroy a presidential transition and indeed a presidency itself — government efforts that historians one day will assess as the most intense effort on record to destroy a U.S. president.

As most of what VDH writes, the linked deserves at least a scan. It concludes thusly ...  

So we are in revolutionary times, even as we snooze about a recent systematic effort, hidden with great effort by our own government, to destroy a prior presidential campaign and transition, and now a presidency.

We are asked to vote for a candidate who will not reveal his position on any major issue of our age, because he feels to do so would enlighten the undeserving electorate and thereby cost him the election. So we continue to sleepwalk toward a revolution whose architects warped our institutions in 2016–2020, and they now plan to alter many of them beyond recognition in 2021.

Translated, that means that they don’t regret what they did in 2016–2019, only that they belatedly got caught for a brief time.

And so by changing the rules after 2020, they are vowing never ever to get caught again.

Biden Unchained

 https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/shut_up_clown_fool_liar__the_vile_debate_spewings_of_joe_biden.html?fbclid=IwAR2K6F7jDP_lmJ0YmQyXXHy_ft9IoF5gvLDjzcvJ0LjEQF1Ro4JjGR5s7Lo

I don't waste my time watching "debates" -- I'm certainly voting a straight R ticket because the Rs are the least objectionable alternative in "Wokeistan". It is possible they won't send me to a reeducation camp -- or a mass grave for "Deplorables". 

I have of course heard that may Rs were "disappointed" -- what sane person would not be in a country where Hillary (and may other Ds) declare that Biden should not concede under any circumstances, and ACB is a member of a "weird sect" (Bible believers) that believes men are divinely ordered to head families? 

Apparently. the "debate" showed that the narrative "Biden nice civil guy" is exposed to anyone that cares. I doubt that many do, however the truth is better than fiction. 

Somehow, Biden always brings this Batman scene to mind -- he has that Jack Palance sort of vibe about him. 

Primary Source For Russiagate Proven As Russian Spy

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/09/25/dossier_source_was_russia_spy_suspect_and_the_fbi_knew_it_125358.html

If the US had any credible MSM left, everyone would have known this before the "Russiagate" hoax got off the ground very early in the Trump administration. We know the Deep State, MSM, and global media-elite complex never accepted the results of the 2016 election ... and they still don't, their plan is power takeover by any means this time. 

So the bottom line is that as anyone who paid attention to the minimal MSM reporting on the Strzok/Page texts, the FBI was seeking to stop Trump even before the election, 

The FBI was well aware that their main "source" was a Russian spy:

The FBI long suspected that a major source for Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier was a Russian spy, according to newly declassified documents. In other words, the bureau knowingly relied on the word of a suspected Russian spy to spy on a Trump campaign aide wrongly smeared as a Russian spy: Carter Page.

So we knew this long ago, but now, anyone that even cares a tiny bit knows beyond reasonable doubt that our Federal "institutions" are massively (irretrievably?) corrupt. 

By July 2010, the FBI was applying for a FISA warrant to put Danchenko under surveillance. But before the FISA application was approved, Danchenko left the U.S. The FBI closed the investigation.

Come the end of 2016, the Crossfire Hurricane team at the FBI knew that Danchenko was the source of Christopher Steele’s extraordinary allegations. The Crossfire crew also knew of the 2009 investigation that gathered evidence Danchenko was a Russian spy.

And yet, even with reason to suspect that the materials produced by Danchenko were Russian disinformation, the FBI agents investigating the Trump campaign continued to treat the Steele dossier as if it were something to be believed.

How many people care? I fear not nearly enough. 

The Stakes : America At The Point of No Return

This link should take you to all my notes and comments on Goodreads. 

The book is unimaginably great, and sadly, probably all but unreachable to most Americans because in this age of distraction, the general population is so convinced that a quick hitter high entertainment value tribal tidbit is all they need to bother with. Something long enough to provide required context, is by design something to avoid. Let the experts deal with it, surely we can trust them! 

It turns out that Michael Anton is the "Decius" that wrote an incendiary column in the fall of 2016 -- commented on by me here.

The point of it all is that we are either "at", or (as I believe) beyond the point of no return for America. That fabled nation that believed in GOD GIVEN rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" ) ... or maybe conferred by "the thing" as the current candidate for president of "The Party"(TP-D) prefer. "God" is a bit uncomfortable if you worship the relativism of "if it feels good, it IS good"! 

 

This book summarizes what I had predicted from my study of 100s of books, articles, etc of 20+ years. Basically: 

• Democracy is either dead or in hospice in the once Constitutional Republic (but no longer) of America. 
  
  
• We are in or headed quickly for "Bluetopia" / "Wokeistan". Essentially current California (or the burning cores of our TP controlled blue cities)  -- a place where only the very elite of the 1% or the bottom "20%" can live "decent" (though very different definitions of "decent") lives.
  
  The top 1-5% look a lot like a little better version of the old "American dream" -- nice homes, great schools, safe communities, bright futures, etc.
  
  The "hollow middle" either increasingly leave, or live like college students in crowded "dorms" (2 bedroom apartments with 5-10 "living" in them) in increasing nasty "ring suburbs" ... even if they make like $200K a year! 
  
  The bottom lifestyles look like a welfare subsidized much better version of Mexico, Guatemala, Somalia, etc -- the shell of what once America is still a significant step up from a lot of the world. The elite Wokerati is planning that as the target lifestyle for the masses.
  
  If TP wins, there will be nowhere to go, so we Deploreables will get what the elite has decided we deserve.
  
  
• The world is being "Davosized" -- the 1% get 99% of the good stuff and the 99% get the shaft. (like 8 guys have more wealth than the bottom half of the world). 
  
  
• Since our elites receive only a very narrow "education" (really rat race indoctrination), "our betters" have a complete lack of "native intelligence / common sense", and have no choice but to parrot whatever the TP "experts" bleat. 
  
  
• We are a nation that is demoralized and "stuck" ... covered well in "Decadent Society"  

I found this quote to be rather chillingly aligned with one of my main observations. Rather like pre-reformation Western civilization, where questioning anything might be seen by the Popeish elite of that day as "burn at the stake, heresy". 

More sinister is the insistence that you deny reality—for example, affirm that a man is really a woman—or profess things you don’t actually believe: say, that the world will end in twelve years “because of climate change.” As with all cases of religious intolerance, outward conformity is an unsatisfactory defense; the inquisitors must be satisfied that, in your heart, you really believe. Hence insufficient fervor for elite California’s latest enthusiasm is taken as sufficient proof of heresy. There is no political or cultural check on any of this. Millions of Californians may disagree on this or that point and even resent being bullied, but there’s no way to know because they never dare say so—not if they want to stay and continue to earn a living.

In order to survive in Wokeistan, you need to increasingly convince the Elite that you BELIEVE what they demand you believe. BLM "mostly peaceful"? Sig Heil!  Showing ID to vote is racist? Ya Vol! Killing the baby after it is born? Yes master! 

Fear is the universal solvent for rationality. 

This is a decent review, where I stole the following conclusion: 

Anton is praiseworthy in that he is at least still seeking peaceful outcomes. For those who would paint his work in a negative light, ask yourself who else is doing the same. Armed violence is in our streets, and cities are burning in the face of those Anton calls the Wokerati. The old solutions no longer work.

Both left and right say that the solution is to vote the other out of power at every level, but neither has the votes. War is the obvious solution, but not a good one. This book wisely tries to imagine a new working way.

I like this review as well if you don't think you can handle the book. If that is the case, I HIGHLY recommend finding a way to read chapter 7. 

By far the most striking interlude in the book comes in Chapter Seven. Anton describes his ruling class oligarchy in detail — the tech monopolists, the woke universities, the leftist foot-soldiers, the neoliberal economists, the sock-puppet Democratic leaders, the administrative state — and then games out what might happen if their project hits the wall. Contemplations range from the mild (continued geographical sorting along political lines), to the less mild (secession), to the apocalyptic (civil war). These are, to put it lightly, troubling scenarios. In recent days Anton has warned of another: that the Democrats might be plotting a coup in November.

The fact that the RINO ruling class wanna be Republicans hate Trump is one more impetus for me to like him (not love, LIKE!). "There is very little wrong with Trump that more Trump won't fix". 

If TP triumphs, we will get to experience the interior of a totalitarian hell updated from the Gestapo, and KGB versions. With modern surveillance technology, will there really be any difference between inside and outside the reeducation camps? Will your mind even realize it has been captured? 

 

We Live In Teddy Kennedy's America

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/reflections-on-the-devolution-2.php

The linked makes the case that the "Borking of America" on July 1 1987 was a critical point in the devolution of America into a broken leftist "Wokeistan". I agree it was a key point, however I maintain that Chappaquiddick,  was the extreme turning point -- metaphysically linked with the Moon Landing. 

God is not subtle -- hubris and the fall are eternally linked, and to any with even the most minimal of faith, the truth remains obvious. 

As Bronner suggested, Senator Kennedy’s unconstrained opposition to Bork’s appointment has indeed had profound effects in the practice of “judicial politics.” As Steve put it in The Age of Reagan, “the subsequent public campaign of the activist Left was stunning in its breadth, depth, and dishonesty.” We saw it recur preeminently in the confirmation proceedings following the nomination of Justice Thomas, but not just there. It has become something of a template for liberal attacks on mainstream conservatives beyond the realm of judicial politics.

The tone set by Kennedy in connection with the Bork nomination lives on among Senate Democrats. We live in Edward Kennedy’s America not only in the consequential legislation that he sponsored and saw through the Senate, but also in the afterlife of the vulgar political sham on which Senator Kennedy relied to spark the defeat of Judge Bork’s confirmation.

"Ted Kennedy" is a great answer to "how was America destroyed". 

Roe v Wade (January 22, 1973) cemented the fact that whatever the nation was, it was no longer a "Constitutional Republic" under which Roe would have required the recall of any supporting judge, since it was in no way Constitutional. The idea of "rights" found found nowhere in the Constitution, but only in a  paranormal "penumbra", having more basis in witchcraft than law. Finding a "right" for women to vote, rather than going to all the trouble of the 19th Amendment was the Constitutional way to CREATE a new right -- which everyone understood in 1920. Voting is never really a matter of life and death -- abortion is. 

Teddy was the warlock that reified the witchcraft of conjuring "rights" out of the spirit world with no consideration of such mundane things as Constitutional Amendments. 

In Teddy Kennedy's "america", babies die by the tens of millions, "protected classes" riot and burn cities, "schools" indoctrinate children on hatred of parents, God, tradition, and patriotism, and even the basic truths of man and womanhood are denied. 

To a significant degree, America died with Mary Jo Kopechne on July 29, 1969.

Is It OK For Liberals To Make Public Death Threats?

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/09/are-liberals-responsible-for-the-consequences-of-their-death-threats.php

This is of special interest to me because I have heard Nils Gilman on Steven Haywards podcast (as he mentions in his post). 

Nils has 14K twitter followers, and is a lefty in good standing -- employed by an institute with a $500 million endowment. The fact that Steve H reaches out to converse with him is one of the reasons I follow Power Line and especially Steve Hayward -- he has civil discussions with guys like Nils!

I'm quite saddened by this event. I'm 2/3 through "The Stakes", Anton's an excellent chronicle of the decline of Conservative / Constitutional / small R republican America. 

This development gives much more creedence to Anton's point that the left is already resorting to violence -- the only real question is if the "silent majority" is going to finally stand up, or just die quietly.

Are there enough "Americans" to stand up and demand that we return to being a great Constitutional Republic, or are we "Wokeistan"? 

Hunter Biden vs Donald Trump Jr

 https://www.nationalreview.com/news/senate-report-details-hunter-bidens-extensive-foreign-business-dealings-and-obama-officials-efforts-to-distance-themselves-from-it/

We know that Hunter Biden had a host of corrupt influence peddling activities, and we know that since he is a D, the MSM doesn't care. He is on "the right (left) side of history". 

The Biden's aren't the only corrupt family in left wing American politics ... the Kerry's play for pay as well, and daddy is happy to lie about it. 

The day after Hunter joined the Burisma board in May 2014, Kerry’s stepson Christopher Heinz, who was a business partner of Hunter’s, emailed his father to inform him of Hunter’s appointment to the board and to distance himself from the decision. Kerry’s staff followed up with a briefing on the press inquiries prompted by Hunter’s board seat, according to their testimony before the committees.

Neither Kerry nor anyone else in the administration appears to have intervened to put a stop to the younger Biden’s influence peddling.

When asked by a reporter in 2019 whether he had any knowledge of Hunter’s work for Burisma, Kerry responded “I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No."

 Mitt Romney likes to criticize Trump -- most likely because he has a son Matt, a principle in Solamere Capital, which Mitt is involved in as well. 

In March 2013, Mitt Romney became chair of Solamere’s executive committee and a member of its investment committee, and Solamere’s bare website currently lists him as the executive partner group chairman. The site only describes the company as “a collection of families and influential business leaders leveraging their broad networks and industry expertise to invest strategic capital.”

Isn't it nice to have "broad networks". Mitt needs to keep pretty close to THE party line -- you know, THE Party (D) rather than his supposed party --R! 

Just imagine for a minute if it was Donald Trump Jr who we were talking about rather than Hunter! Any chance MSM interest would be a bit higher????  

Breaking The Two Party Doom Loop

A classic case of false advertising. My title would  be "OMG Trump Got Elected! How to get us back to the single party Deep Totalitarian State we had FINALLY got!"

“Our expert respondents perceive a consistent, ongoing decline in the overall quality of American democracy from 2015.”

Indeed ... the Civil War could have been a sign of decline ... or maybe FDR court packing, a plethora of unelected alphabet unconstitutional bureaucratic agencies with their own judiciary, etc, etc.

Only one other time in American history has the party system resembled this arrangement: the 1860s, when the United States fought a civil war and then tried to recover from one.

Well, actually 1800 as well. The conflict has been the same from the start -- between those who desire a centralized ever more powerful federal government not burdened by the restrictions of following the written Constitution and the separation of powers vs those who believe in the liberty provided by following the written Constitution which specifies divided and LIMITED government.

"Control vs Chaos". America was founded as a "center right" country with that bias to the creativity of "chaos" ... the unknown, the free, the unpredictable, vs the "control" of monarchy, giant centralized bureaucracy, the "central committee", the "experts". We were founded to be more Han Solo than Darth Vader.

At least he is a little honest ...

As a lifelong Democrat, I tend to see the Republican Party as driven by radical extremists and primarily responsible for the escalating breakdown of democratic fairness.

I'm not going to spend a bunch of time giving the counter argument to all he has to say ... go look at my comments on goodreads if you want more of that.

What is the "doom"? It is limited government to this author, as it has been since the beginning of the "progressive" era. Why does he want "4-6" political parties? To weaken the impact of voters -- the same reason the Framers architected 3 branches of the government. They wanted it to be LIMITED! "Divide and Conquer" (in this case conquer the electorate). "A house divided cannot stand" (or at least not be as strong as it could be if it was united.

We were SO close!

At the height of the hidden four-party system, from the late 1960s to mid-1980s, American democracy was far more responsive and flexible than today, and landmark legislation flowed out of Washington, solving some big public problems.

A good counterpoint to this narrative is in the book "The Great Society" by Amity Shlaes which argues in a continuation of her excellent "The Forgotten Man" .

A lot of the book just repeats old leftist mythology ... "The Southern Strategy" or the execrable "Dog Whistle Politics".  Much of leftist orthodoxy is based on the loaded question, the classic, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet" is easily transformed to "Do you even know how racist you are?"

If you are a true believing leftist and want to "win", I highly recommend
"Rules For Radicals" -- it is more honest than this book and the methods it espouses have made a TON of "progress" in moving this country to the totalitarian state Drutman desires.

Would ranked choice voting and a handful of chaotic parties assist in that effort? Probably. However mass panic leading to marshal law as we may be experiencing as I write this may well achieve it without wasting time reading this fictionalized view of America history.

Capitalism, Government, Harvesting The Young

Are You Ready To Consider That Capitalism Is The Real Problem?:

In February, college sophomore Trevor Hill stood up during a televised town hall meeting in New York and posed a simple question to Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives. He cited a study by Harvard University showing that 51% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 no longer support the system of capitalism, and asked whether the Democrats could embrace this fast-changing reality and stake out a clearer contrast to right-wing economics.

I can only guess that Trevor and even the author of the column do the breathing thing, and I further assume that their feet were on the ground .... however it seems questionable if their "heads are there to move them around" -- although I'm sure he is smarter than a college freshman.

Assuming this, they are also subject to the effects of markets -- and government, which they conveniently fail to talk about. The US economy was definitely "mixed". The BOistan economy is about as "capitalist" as a casino in Vegas. It is rigged to allow DC which our founders would have thought would be full of "servants" to be the wealthiest area in the country to win, just like "the house" in Vegas. It can't be otherwise -- if you don't MAKE, you have to TAKE -- in Vegas from your gambling patrons, in the case of government from the citizens and future citizens.

There are a set of things in the universe that "just are" -- they aren't "good or bad", they ARE! Accepting the reality of what IS can be hugely helpful, both personally and societally -- it is like having basic clue on reality. (a REALLY high bar for 18-29 year olds!)

Therefore, "Government" is IN the market system as well, as everything/everyone is, and obviously has to be. The government takes resources from some parts of the economy, takes a portion for themselves,  and gives to others to protect and expand their interests through buying/selling goods, votes, benefits, taxes, just as all of us do. The big difference between government and the rest of the market is that it never produces anything -- it only moves resources around. It is a bit like the financial sector, but with no profit motive, and FAR fewer controls. (

The government MAKES the rules, and decides where, when, and on whom they will be enforced -- very rarely will the government itself, or any of it's favored friends -- Democrats, media, unions, higher education ... but I'm just repeating myself.

Before BOistan, there was a nation called the United States. That nation had a magical thing called LIMITED government. There were checks and balances as well as Constitutional restrictions  (that nation actually followed a written constitution) on how powerful the government could become.

These restrictions were modelled after markets. When there is a huge need for a product, the price goes up and more providers start to provide that product causing the price to go down until there is a "balance" where price provides a constant indicator to the market as to how much to provide. If there were really big needs, the government could get things like "2/3 majorities" or "Constitutional Amendments", but otherwise it had to live with it's limits.

Government got rid of the limits, so it is now like the Mob entering a market. The market is  STILL "a market", it is just "black / corrupt / criminal" -- like the market for drugs in prison. Let's take healthcare as an example -- first The Mob (government) decides who can play in the market through licensing, regulation, fees, taxes, etc. Then they execute "pay-offs" -- certain groups, say unions, elderly people, the poor, doctors, etc are "paid off" ... provided "protection", or "deals", with at least the tacit assumption that they will support the Mob (government / Democrats). Some are provided lucrative deals -- like the doctors and the lawyers. Since most of the politicians are also lawyers , it helps to think of lawyers as highly paid hit men. Usually they just financially destroy you -- but if they have to, prision, and even the death penalty is in their power.

Sometimes other "protection rackets" rise up -- to provide "insurance" for a price. In the medical crime area we call it "insurance" (wink, wink). There is usually an uneasy peace with the various insurance providers -- the Mob (gov) would like to have ALL the action, but given proper kick-backs, cover, etc, they see it as beneficial for the "insurers" to have a piece of the action.

Mobs (gov) tend to be greedy. Where individuals formerly went to a doctor who dealt with their problem one on one with minimal mob/gov oversight, good doctors that provided good service at a good price were successful, and bad doctors found other employment.

As gov/mob increasingly entered the picture, certifications, costs of entering the profession, limits on how many doctors there could be, regulations, taxes, fees, records, kickbacks, requirements for increasingly expensive "insurance" (mobs breed mobs), etc grew without bound -- more and more players desire a piece of the action, and since the gov/mob is getting pay-offs from all of them, they encourage that generally non-productive (for us, VERY productive for them) "growth".

"The Real Problem" always comes down to human nature -- we tend to fall into believing that "someone else will solve our problems" -- and the "someone else" in this mortal coil always becomes corrupt and creates greater problems than what they were supposedly solving. Eventually economic collapse, violence, poverty, hopelessness, etc result because the "Real Problem" is **US**!!!!!

If that wasn't bad enough, look at the people who the article is listening to -- Americans 18-29! The eternal fount of a lot of things -- wisdom definitely not being one of them!!

You will always see the "mob/government" trying to increase the set of people who support them, which will always mean things like surveying younger people, lowering voting ages and reducing any sort of restriction on voting (citizenship, ID, etc), because while there is indeed a "sucker born every day", as the suckers age, some of them learn by experience and become aware adults -- no matter how much the gov/mob works to prevent that, however, the encouragement to dependence becomes ever stronger.

FICA, Medicare, Welfare, low income housing, etc, etc all seek to make a greater and greater percentage of people dependent on the government, and both intentionally and unintentionally weakening family, church and local community. 

As we saw in the USSR, are starting to see in China (Hong Kong riots, Corona), North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela,  etc, the "dream" (nightmare) of socialism rises until if fails massively and people are reduced to living by the raw "survival of the fittest" -- and then the natural mechanism of ACTUAL Capitalism (not corrupt crony capitalism) arises, wealth /' culture / religion result, and the cycle begins again.

Since most people find history boring, we get to repeat it with war, starvation, corruption, etc at various levels of horror -- the "fruits" of our fallen nature.

Narcissistic Civilization Threat

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ambigamy/202002/how-humiliate-absolute-narcissist

I was struck by this quote ...

No society has ever found an antidote to an absolute narcissism epidemic. Instead, the epidemics have died eventually simply because no one can pretend they’re righter than reality forever. Such movements eventually lose their battle against reality, though often causing mass destruction in the process. The most likely cause of humankind’s eventual extinction is runaway confirmation bias of absolute narcissist movements whether through world domination or the conflagration that results from infallibility battles between opposing absolute narcissist movements.

I'd argue that Western civilization had the antidote up to "the late 1800's" ... the PRACTICE of Christian living. However, Darwin, Nietzsche, Lenin and others, ushered in godless materialism, and in the early 20th century, mankind paid for the worship of this "golden calf" with more than 100 million lives.

My view is that the root causes of this "Societal level Narcissism" are the twin terrors of absolute thinking and human nature. "The cure" is humility ... the daily recognition that "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God", and the practice of allowing Christ to change the heart through the Word and the Sacraments.

For 200 years in America, a Christian base and an intellectual elite that believed in Natural Rights was enough to make a great nation.

 Much of modernity would either tell you that there is no such thing as "reality", it is all a "social construct". Secular materialist positivist humanism would tell you that there DEFINITELY IS, and they are RIGHT! My guess is that the author of the linked would have a lot of trouble with Moral Believing Animals. Because ,,,

For example, if they play prude, saying, “Don’t be a mean name-caller,” say to the audience, “This fool doesn’t even notice that name-caller is a name. We all name call. We’re all mean sometimes. I’m trying to name call with precision, and I’m mean where I think meanness is earned. This absolute narcissist doesn’t care about name-calling or meanness. They pretend to care when it helps them pretend they’re eternally right and righteous. Pitiful.”

One wonders why the link author is so adamant that the people he labels as "Absolute Narcissists" must be "humiliated"?  Why "humiliated" vs "calmly challenged", "exposed to other points of view", or some such vs "humiliated"? My very biased guess is that he has Trump in mind, and believes he could be "humiliated". Perhaps.

And thus the Narcissistic Civilization Threat. We see clear evidence of this threat on both the "Trump Train" and the Bernie / Bloomie candidacies ... and if we dig just a little, it's everywhere, because when it comes to our basic beliefs, we ALL accept them on faith and faith alone -- for humans, there really isn't any "objective reality", only the "narrative" that each of us has.

My view is that Trump is far less a threat since he supports Christians being allowed to worship -- not so clear in Bernie / Bloomy.

The Rediscovery Of America, Jaffa

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41116095-the-rediscovery-of-america

I've discovered Harry Jaffa via the Power Line Podcast with Steven Hayward ... it is a great discovery. The subject book now has a LOT of tabs and markings, so if I lend it to anyone, laughter is assured!

The theme of the book is Natural Rights, and understanding that if one does not believe in Natural Rights, then the Declaration of Independence, America, and Western civilization have no foundation.

Page 108; "The mind frees itself from all sense perception whenever it employs a universal, that is, a common noun -- the ground and basis of what we call common sense -- is at once the basis of the most common experience, and the greatest of all miracles. It exhibits the mind detached from matter, understanding material things simply because it is detached from them." 

Page 109, "A philosophy or metaphysics that denies the metaphysical freedom of mind that was axiomatic for Jefferson can have no part in liberal education, for liberal education means education in freedom and for freedom. It means education in the metaphysical reality of such a universe that the Declaration of Independence proclaims." 

He states a truth I believe to be self evident on p154; "Of all the words that have poisoned public discourse, none has done more damage than the word "value" used as a synonym for moral or political choice".

If there are no "self evident principles", then all is "value" ... a relative term, so it seems sensible for you to have "your values" and I to have "my values" -- which "Moral Believing Animals" would state is not possible. We ALL believe in SOME set of universally applicable truths, and if we don't have significant intersection in those foundational beliefs, we have extreme difficulty communicating, because our human nature is irrevocably tribal outside of a shared moral reality.

Jaffa has harsh words for Bork, Harvey Mansfield, Rehnquist, Bloom, and others who call themselves "conservative" because they have knowingly or unknowingly denied universals -- in which case, John C Calhoun, defender of slavery was correct -- "Morality" just means "power" as in "Might is right". 

A superb book to discover the cost of the denial of universals -- deny god and you get Nietzsche and "all is permissible".  You can't prove (or disprove) God, however if you refuse to believe in him there is a definite earthy cost, and I believe an even harsher eternal cost.

The Joy Of Hatred

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/media-bias-cnn-don-lemon-did-trump-a-huge-favor/

The link discusses a recent obvious example of media people reveling in their hatred of the common "Blue Collar" Americans that live in "red state - flyover country". They proudly hate them, and firmly believe that they are honorable and just in their hatred. Hating the "Trumpkins" is a badge of honor, a "virtue" they are proud to signal.

And as in the Old Testament days of "an eye for an eye", our human nature begets hatred in return -- so we reap what we sow. We can no more change our flawed human nature without divine intervention than a tiger can change it's stripes.

Thus we now have a nation bathed in mutual hatred and a cold (so far) civil war.

2k years ago, Jesus came and presented a radically new and completely inhuman  idea -- the idea of loving our enemies! Completely impossible for unrepentant humans, but as proven by many "sinning saints" in Christ, at least significantly possible through the Grace of God.

Much like the slow and often painful process of "getting in shape", bit by bit, step by imperfect step, Western civilization increasingly became a significantly Christian civilization., While still just in it's toddler phase, it unsurprisingly came to the much premature confidence of "MINE"! "MYSELF!".

The slowly maturing faith practice "ran into the street" (like a toddler breaking away from mom)  of a number of wars, including the devastation of two world wars, and after being given the "car keys" of the bomb, it at least partially buckled down enough to best the class bullies of Hitler and Stalin (at fearsome cost). Like teenage "victories" however, the the assumption was immediately made that there was no "controlling authority", and a detour was made to the siren of pleasure, and rejection of authority (God).

Like all analogies, attempting to map the stages of an infinite God's plan to mere human activity is futile. A fool such as myself might imagine that it would be obvious by now that such a plan in no way fits the model of Historicism, Socialism, or Progressivism -- the World Wars alone would seem to drive home the fallicitious assertion that "progress is inevitable" in purely human terms (more "stuff", more "pleasure" -- and all of it perpetually requiring less effort! (but always bereft of any spiritual consideration)

Reading the Old Testament shows a God willing to let his children suffer terrible lessons on the path to accepting his Grace -- banishment to Babylon, many lost wars, etc. Free Will is a benefit with an eternal price -- either the light yoke of following Christ, or the eternal devastation of letting Satan and "the flesh"  have mastery.

Today, one of the "sides" mostly rejects the idea of divine authority --  "higher power", while the other "side" may claim God's authority, their faith is largely in "cheap grace" -- no need to accept the humility of kneeling in submission, and realizing the constant human failure to love the "other". Virtue signalling of "good works" in raising others taxes, or celebrating the sin of others is counted as righteousness in the secular faith.

America, and in general all of Western Civilization blundered into the idea that we were "progressing" to some undefined  "heaven on earth" of an ever more powerful centralized impersonal bureaucracy taking the place of the Christian God.

The creation of the European Union (EU) in the late 20th Century, and then the election of Obama in 2008 in the US seemed to have "sealed the deal" on Statist, Socialist or near-Socialist, centralized, Deep/Administrative elitist control.

The Statist/Socialist "victory" was at least delayed by the beginning of Brexit in the UK and the election of Trump in the US in 2016.

The Deep/Administrative State was not amused.

The Brexit vote in the UK was fought by the elite with vengeance, and the election of Trump was never accepted by the American left wing -- investigation by the Deep State started before he was elected, and has continued up to his impeachment by the house, to be officially rejected by the Senate in the next couple days. Brexit has just finally been completed after a battle of 1,317 days.

The age old battle of "the people" (the "Bourgeois", the "Commoners", the "Deplorables", etc) vs the Elites, the Davos overlords, the Betters, etc, continues.

In the US, Democracy worked from 1800 to 1865, then failed spectacularly with the Civil War. It failed again in 2016 as the "losers" failed to accept the results of an election -- how costly that failure is remains to be fully seen, however the linked article shows that hatred is again strongly evident.

Can democracy work without Faith? Not according to John Adams !

Humans LOVE to feel superior, and hatred of "the other" and virtue signalling about how strongly they hate that "other" is a major source of joy once the soul is given over to "The Dark Side".

Once we abandon God, might is right, and all "sides" seek "justice" in power! The "other side" is demonized and any "tired old ideas" of "loving your enemy" are abandoned to the dark and delicious feelings of superiority over those who fail to see the "wisdom" of your "truth". 

Welcome to the Jungle! 

Churchill's Trial, Larry Arn

https://www.amazon.com/Churchills-Trial-Churchill-Salvation-Government/dp/1595555307

https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/mass-effects-in-modern-life.html

It's a "trial" in the sense of difficult challenges he dealt with, not a court trial.

A delight to at least students of Churchill. While much of our study of Churchill focuses on his life prior to him being summarily dumped from office in 1945 after having saved the nation and the world from the scourge of National Socialism. Naturally, the British people were ungrateful and anxious to be coddled in the warm reptilian embrace of socialism. As one of history's certified great men, Churchill was not particularly angry -- he understood human nature very well and realized that ever since the Garden of Eden, man has been extremely prone to accept false promises.

The quote we all need to keep before us as the population again, even efter many harsh lessons, returns to the siren song of Socialism:

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

From his "Crazy Speech" that helped him lose the 1945 election:

I declare to you, from the bottom of my heart, that no Socialist system can be established without a political police…No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp, or violently ­worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance.

I'm reminded of the excellent "Liberal Fascism" which covers the "why" of this statement in more detail. It is human nature to work for our own gain, and do be the ones who decide how the fruits of that gain are apportioned -- we may well be very generous, however there are few among us who joyfully pay our taxes. Increasing force is required to achieve the goals of any form of Socialism, be it labled "National" (Nazi), or a cover for Communist (USSR).

On page 225, Arn recounts an interesting observation from actual excellent politicians in a Democracy from Churchill ... "They are quite downcast and offended when the (nasty) cartoons stop. ... they murmur; " We are not mauled and maltreated as we used to be. The great days have ended.""

Democracy is messy, Totalitarianism in any form is very quiet with the exception of massive STAGED hordes of shouting masses all of coerced single mind "Heil Hitler"! The people "loved" the leadership of the USSR -- as long as they were forced to at gunpoint -- and then the "beloved" statues came down. 

On p 182, Arn summarizes the population of a modern near-Socialist state, numbed by the "Mass Effects": 

"Their opinions shaped by the "machinery" of the press and widespread diffusion of standard  views. Education was "universal and superficial", it produced "standardized citizens, all equipped with regulation opinions, prejudices and sentiments according to their class or party". 

Sounds a lot like much of the current population of the west!  

Christianity Today, Everyday, Forever, And Politics

https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2019/12/24/a-response-to-the-editor-of-christianity-today-n2558477?fbclid=IwAR2EZ25iUsFo_kM6SICjJRm_ZQy8zXMR__twVIwseTn-NS_YCinRlPaD9PU

My view of following Christ is that it is such a higher calling than politics that our passion for it is best set a decent bit down our priority list. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and he had nearly nothing to say of a tyrannical and often oppressive Roman government.

The  desired priority list of a Christian as defined in the Bible seems something like:

1. Christ ... God, the Church, The Apostles Creed, ... 
2. Community -- Family (as defined in the Bible), Friends, Neighbors, etc 
3. "The Poor" -- when possible, PERSONALLY helping them, and then "as personally as possible", in stewardship of what organizations we support. Not attempting to outsource the responsibility to the government by "voting correctly", etc

... and of course we could go on, and I won't.


Priorities require some sort of "order", which requires some definition of right/wrong, better/worse,  ... things like written and followed Constitutions, which if they are to continue to exist in a democracy, require a defined population (eg bounded/bordered) that understand at a basic level what things like "order", "law", etc mean. `

Since there are no even remotely perfect politicians, are always required to vote for a FAR less than perfect candidate -- and different types of failings will affect people differently. Praeger makes a decent case for many of the reasons that anyone of conservative mindset will support Trump over any known Democrat alternative ... support for life, appointment of judges that seek to defend a written Constitution, policies that produce decent political results (like definfined and enforced borders, voter ID), good economy, religious freedom, etc

What Dennis does not make clear in my mind is the maybe (to him) too obvious point that the present criteria would make all previous presidents with the possible exception of Harrison and Madison as being needful of impeachment.

"Laws" that are only enforced when "your side" wins, are political policy weapons, not "laws" -- best defended as political vs moral issues.

The two supposed "criteria" of the current "impeachment" are 1). Seeking help from a foreign government to investigate potential crimes by the son of a potential future candidate to oppose his re-election 2). Obstructing congress

As stated in the NY Times ... article:

Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election.

Actually, he asked a foreign leader to look into fairly well known case of the SON of a former US VP and POTENTIAL nominee for US president in 2020. To the extent Americans accept this standard as legitimately "impeachable", Obama certainly ought to have been impeached, since we now know that his administration investigated and encouraged foreign governments to investigate Trump before and during the time he was the opposition party candidate for president -- when in fact the Mueller Report and subsequent investigations have shown there was no legitimate reason to begin such an investigation. (The FISA court was lied to).

Article 2 fails to recognize that we have three branches of government explicitly opposed (see Federalist 10) ... the President is SUPPOSED to often obstruct Congress! It is a MAJOR part (separation of powers) of the Constitution that he (and they!) swear that they will defend! (Although, without at least some form of transcendent authority (religion) what does "swear" actually mean? )


The President is the head of the Justice Department, so initiating and participating in criminal investigations ... domestic and foreign, is is part of what he does. If someone running for president (and now apparently their family) is immune from being investigated, we we have established a radically new standard. Is this a new standard we want?

In jeopardy of being investigated for criminal activity? Run for president! You have immunity!

How "Christianity Today" would even begin to attempt to establish support for Trump as in any way "immoral" (and from the POV of CT, it appears that they mainly define "morality" as what they said in '98) is difficult to comprehend.

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

To the extent we are Christians, it is never about OUR behavior -- for we (and I'd assume CC) daily admit we are filthy sinners, totally undeserving of God's Grace and in desperate need of constant humble repentance and forgiveness. It isn't WE who ultimately defend life, it is GOD! (Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart ...")

None of "we" humans have "moral standing" to judge anyone / anything from a "Christian" POV. We certain can, and are commanded to DISCERN (with Christ's Grace) what is Biblically moral!

To the extent we try to set our (or our leaders, or anyone else but Christ's) behavior up as the moral standard, we are just giving more evidence to the  fact of how far WE ... including our nation, churches, etc have fallen! Nobody will come to Christ based on our imagined "goodness/righteousness" -- we can HOPE AND PRAY that we do far better, but we daily confess it isn't going to be enough!  (I'd argue that Billy Graham did far better though!)

Certainly Clinton broke the law ... he lied under oath, he had sex with an employee at the office, something that any of us would be legitimately fired for, and then lied about it. Only by a new standard under which all but 2 former presidents would have been impeached, and if justice was served, removed from office, could Trump be validly impeached OTOH.

We are called to be the best citizens we can be, so I see it as our duty to know as much as each of us are able about our laws, things like attempted coups, etc, and present that case as nonjudgmentally (very difficult!) as we can! In general, conservatives are quiet people -- a major part of the reason that Trump is hard for them to support -- his personality (and behavior) is not what they approve of.

It appears that CT may have made it's own case against their opposition ...

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

In CT's view, one wonders what constitutes "morality", and their right to pass judgement on the "dumbing down" of such. In John 1:8 after the interaction with woman caught in the act of adultery, We see:

 "Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

My imperfect understanding of the NT is that it is heavily weighted to the condemnation of earthly religious authorities who presume they, as opposed to God, are to judge. Even Christ says "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone."

While Satan certainly wants the world to believe that the imperfection of Christian morality is a valid cause for harsh judgement and accusation, does CT really see it the same way and want to admonish others to follow them? Does Christ tell us to argue constantly about who has the bigger "log" in their eye?

I believe that one of of Satan's chief weapons is seeking to equate the Christian defense of BIBLICAL morality with "hate and judgement", and worldly lack of consideration of Biblical morality with "love". Having any type of standard means having  DISCERNMENT ... one has to know what the standards are to follow them. And a base fact of life is that we all DO have standards of some sort -- often accidentally, often poorly followed, author definitely included!

The sad part of "Christianity Today" (both as a magazine and in reality) is that many Christians hold their acceptance by the world to be more important than their adherence and support for the standards of God. James 4:4 is not one of their favorite verses ... "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
And in the end, I believe Satan's "chief weapons" will look like these ... this post was getting pedantic.

It is HARD to avoid judgement of a person that disagrees with us on very tough issues like life, sexual morality, God having defined marriage as only between the two observable sexes, and personalities that we find "offensive" ... etc

It is so hard we have no hope of it without God's Grace given in Christ ... pray to accept and stay in that Grace!

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

The Sane Society

https://www.amazon.com/Sane-Society-Erich-Fromm-ebook/dp/B00BPJODJO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I'll start with a couple of Fromm's statements from the forward ...

This book is a continuation of Escape from Freedom, written over fifteen years ago. In Escape from Freedom I tried to show that the totalitarian movements appealed to a deep-seated craving to escape from the freedom man had achieved in the modern world; that modern man, free from medieval ties, was not free to build a meaningful life based on reason and love, hence sought new security in submission to a leader, race or state.

The main point in this last part of the book is not so much the belief that each one of the recommended measures is necessarily “right,” but that progress can only occur when changes are made simultaneously in the economic, socio-political and cultural spheres;
that any progress restricted to one sphere is destructive to progress in all spheres.

I find that a lot of Fromm's analysis is cogent -- however as he moves to "solutions" he largely rejects spirituality in favor of "culture, politics, economics" which I find to be ignoring the spiritual core of humanity and believing that by mechanistically dressing up the zombie like corpse, one can build a "perfect society" ... the socialist dream, which tends to end in some sort of "final solution".

The aim of the whole socio-economic development of the Western world is that of the materially comfortable life, relatively equal distribution of wealth, stable democracy and peace, and the very countries which have come closest to this aim show the most severe signs of mental unbalance!

The "enlightenment" view of modern man is materialism ... everything, including us, is just matter -- there is nothing else than matter, and "Man is the measure of all things".  Since this tends to be discomforting, the most common goal state of current man is to become "Comfortably Numb".

Especially in America, we have the strange idea that if "everyone" agrees with us, we must be right (the sad error of democracy)! In fact, "political correctness", "wokeness" and "intersectionality" assert that if some people refuse to "wake up", we likely need to force them! Fromm courageously states the obvious ... 

The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.

He also makes a statement that at this point in my studies seems painfully obvious ...

It may be said in passing that the real problem of mental life is not why some people become insane, but rather why most avoid insanity.) Both the mentally healthy and the neurotic are driven by the need to find an answer, the only difference being that one answer corresponds more to the total needs of man, and hence is more conducive to the unfolding of his powers and to his happiness than the other. All cultures provide for a patterned system in which certain solutions are predominant, hence certain strivings and satisfactions. Whether we deal with primitive religions, with theistic or non-theistic religions, they are all attempts to give an answer to man’s existential problem. The finest, as well as the most barbaric cultures have the same function—the difference is only whether the answer given is better or worse.

In order to assess "better or worse" one needs to know "the good", which is an ancient difficult question. Fromm clearly rejects the materialist "more stuff = the good", but he is unclear on what the right answer might be.

The human condition without transcendence is extremely uncomfortable (thus the seeking of pleasure, avoidance, distraction, "numbness")  ... in the material world, we can try to "love" (in my opinion, always failing without faith in God), to create, or ...

There is another answer to this need for transcendence: if I cannot create life, I can destroy it. To destroy life makes one also transcend it. Indeed, that man can destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life; he transcends himself as a creature. Thus, the ultimate choice for man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.

Here we see how abortion and euthanasia are modern forms of "transcendence".

On page 102 we find the core of the religion of liberal/progressive/woke culture ...

Virtue is to be adjusted and to be like the rest. Vice, to be different.

As is covered so well in "Why Liberalism Failed", when the price of your "freedom" is to fully conform to the ever changing "values" of a culture that believes that tomorrow is always "better" than today, you find you can never be assured of not somehow being "different" ... you may have just not got the latest memo, and now MUST state that "Epstein hung himself! -- and anyone who doubts this obvious "fact" is a racist, sexist, deplorable!

Fromm is a firm believer in "socialism will EVENTUALLY get it right" ... the last part of the book. Apparently he has failed to read Solzhenitsyn.

Why Liberalism Failed

For the non-academic, "liberalism" here is classical liberalism -- individual rights (especially property), government at the consent of the people, and freedom of economic activity (often capitalism).

This book is so important I'm including a negative review -- from of all places, National Review!

Now, I am not sure the higher purpose that religion offers its adherents can ever be replaced by any other human enterprise. Nor do I discount religion’s positive contributions to the building of community, or to the development of our culture. I am just not convinced that there was ever a way for religiosity to have fully survived Charles Darwin. Even if secularization is in some ways undesirable, it is at least partly inevitable. Most of Europe, for one, has renounced Christianity. Deneen mourns the death of God, and understandably so, but as a political theorist in modern society he cannot just assume that the strength of organized religion can be easily regenerated. He must grapple with, rather than just complain about, the rise of secularism. And his inability to cope with it, ironically enough, serves to demonstrate the wisdom of liberalism — for part of liberalism’s genius is that its pluralistic capacity to foster freedom of association can incorporate atheists and people of faith into the same body politic.

And then a "less negative" review from David Brooks of the NY Times!

When your argument is that the only remaining "ism" after Communism, Socialism, and Fascism have failed many times is ALSO a failure, it is not all that surprising that pretty much everyone in the modern intellectual elite would have a lot of negative things to say about your thesis.

NR shows it's true colors by siding with godless atheism as a "value" of the liberal project, and Brooks vacuously points out that something so old can't possibly be wrong ...

Deneen’s book is valuable because it focuses on today’s central issue. The important debates now are not about policy. They are about the basic values and structures of our social order. Nonetheless, he is wrong. Liberal democracy has had a pretty good run for 300 years. If the problem were really in the roots, wouldn’t it have shown up before now?

I think if Brooks read just a little closer, even in his own review, he would see his problem ...

The problem, Deneen argues, started at the beginning. Greek and medieval philosophies valued liberty, but they understood that before a person could help govern society, he had to be able to govern himself. People had to be habituated in virtue by institutions they didn’t choose — family, religion, community, social norms.

  While liberalism was far from perfect in basic construction, the fact that up until maybe "1930 or 1940", "culture" at least in the US still involved the CULTIVATION (root of "culture") of the basic virtues of governing yourself as Buckley expertly pointed out in "God And Man at Yale". Unfortunately NR, founded by Buckley has obviously strayed from this key quote from that work ...

"The duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world, and the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level".

Without the transcendent foundation of Christianity, a country like what America was is impossible -- Buckley saw that in 1950, Reagan saw that in the '80s, and by 2008, such knowledge was all but gone -- which is why Rod Dreher outlines "The Benedict Option". And Reagan often talked about it. 

NR may find that Nietzsche was right and god is dead ... however, God doesn't agree, and that is far more important. Nietzsche IS very dead and NR is showing definite signs of mortality. Evolution is MECHANISM -- it is a HOW, not a cause. To the extent it operates, it operates in a universe that it did not create, and it operates because of underlying principles in that universe that were not created by evolution.

If I write a program you like and you say, WAIT! You used C++! (a programming language, "mechanism"), therefore you do not exist! You would be using the same argument as "Darwin disproves God".

Whatever science "proves" (and it can only EVER prove by induction), the fact remains that for the vast majority of "common people", "the rank and file", Faith and Hope found in religion and family is the only way to a decent life in THIS world. For those of us that believe, the life in this world is only the preseason for the next, but for the purposes of this book, we are dealing with the here vs hereafter.

Shorn of the deepest ties to family (nuclear as well as extended), place, community, region, religion, and culture, and deeply shaped to believe that these forms of association are limits upon their autonomy, deracinated humans seek belonging and self-definition through the only legitimate form of organization remaining available to them: the state. Nisbet saw the rise of fascism and communism as the predictable consequence of the liberal attack upon smaller associations and communities.

("deracinate" -- remove from native environment and/or culture) Once both social and economic "liberalism" have "freed" you from all your "obligations" save to the State, you find that the State is never going to be able to love you or even "care" about you, since it MUST, (by definition) consider you a 100% interchangeable "citizen", "consumer", "taxpayer", etc. that is to be treated "equally".

Our “community” was now to consist of countless fellow humans who shared an abstract allegiance to a political entity that would assuage all of our loneliness, alienation, and isolation. It would provide for our wants and needs; all it asked in return was complete devotion to the state and the elimination of any allegiance to any other intermediary entity. 

Say that when you discover that you are completely alone with only a cold uncaring state as a constant companion, you decide to make some friends of your fellow "citizens". Remember the root of "culture" so gleefully fled and then destroyed was "cultivation" -- both you and they needed to have an actual culture to CULTIVATE what it means to be the sort of human that can have meaningful relationships with other humans.

These three cornerstones of human experience—nature, time and place—form the basis of culture, and liberalism’s success is premised upon their uprooting and replacement with facsimiles that bear the same names.

So now you realize that you truly NEED to relate to other HUMANS in order to live, but you find that both you and your peers are not humans of the sort that relate, but rather deracinated "individuals". The problem has cartoon simplicity!

Finally, we find we are really "all on the same side" to the extent we lost our transcendent faith. We are one big "liberal tribe" mistakenly thinking we are "left and right"! Each a generic greedy, self-centered consuming pure creature, shorn of anything "higher" than the self save the all encompassing state!

People who are “uncultivated” in the consumption of both food and sex, Aristotle observed, are the most vicious of creatures, literally consuming other humans to slake their base and untutored appetites. Far from being understood as opposites of human nature, customs and manners were understood to be derived from, governed by, and necessary to the realization of human nature. 

Since we are now mostly atomic individuals who are proud of **OURSELVES**, we choose our vaunted "identity" -- through what we consume, where we live, where we go to school, our sexuality, our degrees, our tats,  .... always our "own creation", or more accurately, the creation of a godless state and godless corporate marketing tricking us to the false belief of our "independence".

The book ends with the following ...

After a five hundred–year philosophical experiment that has now run its course, the way is clear to building anew and better. The greatest proof of human freedom today lies in our ability to imagine, and build, liberty after liberalism.

I STRONGLY recommend reading this fairly short work. Almost certainly it will make you uncomfortable no matter what your political, religious, or philisophical stripe. Which for me is one of the most important things a book can do -- because only through pain can there be growth!

The fact "both sides" hate it is an awfully good recommendation!

Triggered, Donald Trump Jr

https://www.amazon.com/Triggered-Left-Thrives-Wants-Silence/dp/154608603X/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=triggered+donald+trump+jr&qid=1575240709&sr=8-3

Seeing a hardcover at a good price at Costco, I did an impulse buy, not really expecting much. (What is the most expensive vehicle to drive? Answer -- a Costco shopping cart!)

No idea if it is ghost written, all made up, etc., but it certainly doesn't read that way. DJT JR comes across as smart, hard working, common sense / common people, a "real guy".

He is an avid outdoorsman -- fisherman and an hunter that would rather drive around in his pickup than go to fancy events.

On page 94 he does a great job of laying out the Hart-Celler act pushed by Teddy Kennedy that threw open the doors to mass immigration largely targeted at new likely Democrat voters. "Heart to cellar" might have been a better title because it was a move designed to "change the base" so that the US would be more left wing -- and it "worked", if you like division, crime, and massive welfare rolls -- and "The Party" (TP-D) does!

On page 218 he covers the Sarah Jeong, a NY Times reporter who posted "White people marking up the internet with their opinion like dogs pissing on fire hydrants" on Twitter ... which was not popular with conservatives, but received no general sanction from her employer or the MSM.

Candice Owens posted "Jewish people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants" as an experiment ... and was banned from Twitter. If you only listen to the MSM, you have never heard about this ... here is more detail.

The book is a fairly rational response to "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS) from one of the targets of TDS. If you are a Trump supporter or rational moderate, I highly recommend it. If you are a confirmed TDS person, it is likely a bridge too far.

As a conservative Christian, as I read it I thought of my own prejudices against divorce and womanizing .... although I do understand the temptation!

Christians are "saints and sinners", and thus ALWAYS in some degree hypocrites. I have many divorced and remarried friends and relatives, and I certainly know of affairs as well. As Christians, we are commanded to not judge -- which in general, I'm more successful at than the "lust of the flesh" -- eating, drinking, overly enjoying the view of a pretty lass, etc. My faith requires that I frequently confess ...

Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.

As I observe TDS, I am reminded of my youth in a fundamentalist Baptist church that delighted in condemnation of "The World" ... Lutherans, Catholics, non-believers, etc which drank, smoked, chewed, and did all manner of "sinful" things. As I watch TDS, it is clear that judgement of others and pride in our own "works righteousness" is a particularly strong evidence of human nature.

Condemnation of Trump somewhat exceeds the Baptist condemnation of "worldliness" -- possibly because the Baptists had full faith that those worldly folks were bound for the fires of eternal judgement, while they were bound for eternal paradise. The doctrine of Hell, while uncomfortable, like exercise and self denial, does have the effect of better allowing us to not mete out our various punishments in this life. "Justice is mine saith the Lord".

The underlying message of the book for me was in showing the danger to free civil discussion which harsh judgement and "virtue signalling" in the present engenders. The idea that by "cancelling", or "doxing", blocking their speech, refusing to talk to them, unfriending, posting hateful memes, and in many cases, even beating then up ("Antifa").

The de facto single party rule of TP, RINOS, Deep/Administrative State, MSM, AFSCME, NEA, etc has been challenged by Trump, and Russiagate showed the lengths to which that cabal will go to defend it's rule.

As the Scribes and Pharisees of old and the Baptists of my youth loved to "Virtue Signal", so the TDS people of today are absolutely convinced that the height of "morality" is showing how much you hate Trump!

The dark side of hatred is always present. What the left has realized and leveraged forever, ridicule is among the strongest weapons. The Sith of Star Wars reveled in hatred, and used it's dark power. However, we often forget that while the Jedi attempted to not give in to hate / anger, they still used lightsabers. Jesus said to love your enemies -- he didn't say not to have any.

Trump is the first person of the "more right than recent Republicans" to at least pull out the lightsaber of ridicule!

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/trump-russia-probe-robert-mueller-time-for-truth/

The linked article is an excellent SHORT summary by the almost always excellent (but not always short) Victor Davis Hanson. If you read this blog, you know that the entire Mueller probe is a travesty, but one of the underlying issues is the unraveling of a basic human value -- the presumption of innocence. 

Instead of presuming Trump innocent unless he finds evidence of Russian collusion, Mueller started with the assumption that the reckless raconteur Trump surely must be guilty of some lawbreaking. Thus, it is Mueller’s job to hunt for past crimes to prove it.

Getting Americans to buy fully into the idea that members of TP ("The Party"-D) are inherently innocent, or if not innocent, "absolved" (see Slick Willie, Hildebeast, BO, the Kennedys, etc). To be in "opposition" to TP is itself a crime in BOistan, so the task is reduced to "finding the specifics". They already know you are guilty of not being a member of TP, the unforgivable sin, the only question now is; "What ELSE are you guilty of?".

BOistan is charting new waters for the region once known as the USA, although extr -- it is proving it is a "crime" simply to win an election and not be TP (or a suitably TP-like RINO). 

No president has ever faced impeachment for supposed wrongdoing alleged to have taken place before he took office — not Andrew Johnson, not Richard Nixon, and not even Bill Clinton, who lied about his liaisons with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. With the effort to go back years, if not decades, into Trump’s business and personal life, we are now in unchartered territory.

There are LOTS of new waters in BOistan ... if you want to run in California and have a 501C, all it takes is someone to ACCUSE you of "coordination", and the burden of proof is on YOU to "prove yourself innocent" rather than on the state to prove you guilty! Welcome to the gulag comrade!

Victor would like to see some of the FBI agents and even Hillary investigated for a few of the crimes already uncovered and KNOWN relative to coordination on the Steele Dossier, wiretapping and spying on the Trump campaign. That would be an excellent idea -- if we ever again live in a state not ruled by TP!