Category: Politicians and Journalists I Admire

Posted on

The Case Against Trump

I was standing there about 100 feet from the former president, Donald J. Trump, as he introduced a young, energetic Harvard Law School grad named Ron DeSantis. DeSantis was all politics at the Pensacola Airport Hangar a few years ago. He went on to win an election for governorship over a thug later found in a Miami hotel with male prostitutes. Imagine the tyranny if we, happy Floridians, had that embodiment of sewage leading us during COVID!

These introductory remarks, resembling the start of a happy ending, are the prequel to the following statement: Donald J. Trump, who gave us much happiness and made the right enemies during his solitary four years, is acting with much buffoonery.

Trump is looking to take credit for developing the COVID-19 vaccines, which continually appear to have been a wrong move for history and humans. But apart from that, it was a great idea. And let us not forget that Archbishop Trump put the high-priest of sadistic arts, namely Antonio Fauci, to lead the task force. Fauci was such a fraud that fraud was feeling timid about its definition.

Years later, Trump continues his idiocy tour, accusing Ron DeSantis of sundry things. Now, don’t think I am so naive as to assume Trump is some rookie insult connoisseur. The man masters in insult; frankly, it was worthwhile, needful, helpful, charming, and funny. Seriously, the man has a gift. But again, this is one of those moments when his gifts need to stay close to his Mar-a-Lago staff instead of addressing them to what some–mainly me–consider one of the great benedictions in Florida history.

DeSantis took on COVID like a prophet. He publicly perspired priestly oil on C-SPAN, and we all watched in amazement how he stood there against all odds and challenged the status quo. Yes, he could have done more earlier, but again, our expectations for politicians could be higher.

Trump is being Trump. And I just wish he would stop it! I am not asking for something extraordinary. I am asking for a year of monastic living. That’s it. But I know this won’t take place. So, I think it’s time DeSantis answered a fool according to his folly and exercised that sharp rhetoric to prove his record.

There is no mistake I wish to preserve Florida’s sanity for four more years, but the more I hear Captain Tan-tan poke fun at one of my heroes, the more tempted I am to make Florida America again.

Posted on

The Florida GOAT!

Let’s just pause our week and thank a stellar man in his 40’s. Let’s thank him for holding the fort down and pressing on without succumbing to the fears of the millennials Monday-morning quarterbacks running around. Let’s thank the man who won the Superbowl of 2020 hands down, and has my vote for MVP in 2021.

Let’s thank Ron DeSantis.

We could take the time to speak of Tom Brady’s capacity to de-throne himself and re-assume that throne in a little start-up company called Buccanners Inc. But in actuality, let’s face it: De Santis is the real GOAT at the end of the day.

Imagine for a moment if Andrew Gillum had won Florida. Now, that you imagined it, go and spit that thought out in the backyard. Progressivism would have shattered our beloved state. Progressivism and leftism are the viruses Florida cannot afford. From the beginning, DeSantis took this Covidness seriously enough to not let it destroy the state’s economy. True, there is a lot of recovering to do, but Florida is hundreds of miles ahead of most states, save South Dakota–peace be upon Gov. Noem.

The Superbowl would not have happened in another state; no other state would have had the capacity to host 25,000 people in a stadium, because most other states are still panicking as if this is March 2020. Vaccines, natural treatments: nothing will take the panic-state of the liberal states of America. Florida went for Trump because of DeSantis and because we did not play the politics game CNN-style.

My first perusal of the news cycle this morning consisted of the hysteria of the Left over the festivities in downtown Tampa after the Bucs’ victory. In fact, the trend in twitterdom is that every time a “journalist” sees a gathered group in Florida not distancing more than the assigned rule, they begin their mockery lap across Twitter. It’s humorous, actually. Then, their friends join to mock those imbeciles taking life with a grain of sugar and salt and margaritas and a good steak. “Those Floridians are murderers taking all this life and showing off their liberties like normal human beings!”

Let’s also remember that DeSantis was one of the first governors to say that worship is essential. These words matter, because back then Mother Los Angeles and sister New York wanted to keep the family within the confines of 600 ft., which can be easily afforded for a meager $1,700 a month. Thanks, Cuomo! But Florida allowed rental properties and beach condos to flourish. The housing market is booming in my neck of the woods. In South Florida–four hours to the south of the Superbowl host, for you outsiders–2020 has been magical for the market. The same South Florida that went for Trumpito went for casitas mucho as well.

Thanks, DeSantis! You’re the GOAT! #RonDeSantis

Posted on

When Conservatives Take All the Blame

The fall-out of the events on January 6th at the U.S. Capitol resulted in the well-orchestrated pronouncements of justice-warriors. We know what to expect from the pagans, but it’s a whole different story when the evangelicals who were silent during BLM and Antifa’s destruction-crusade across American cities begin to claim the demise of Trump voters enthusiastically. According to these political purists, if we supported Trump in any way, we are guilty by association and must acknowledge that “our guy” destroyed the Republic and caused the death of democracy. We should surrender our cause and accept defeat and go back to hiding. Shame! Shame! Shame! Walk the plank of blame!

No matter who we are, whether we were simply living quiet and peaceable lives, or whether we repudiated the acts of juvenile turds, or whether we say, “bad people did stuff,” the scarlet letter is cemented. It’s important to remember that such evangelicals have quietly borrowed from the terrain of the left, accepting easy bribes for quick respectability awards. For a long time, they have written lengthy articles on TGC and other notoriously effeminized websites exalting victimhood virtues while rebuking the slightest move away from their established narrative. Whatever that narrative is, it’s not what we fine people would uphold.

I was reminded of a wedding I officiated where I made the “controversial” statement that a woman ought to submit to her husband, and a husband must love his wife. In my world, such statements do not require explanations. To my shock, I discovered that the bridesmaids scolded the beautiful bride after the wedding. They were terrified that she would invite a minister that would make such archaic remarks about a wife’s role. In our day, many within the church add so many footnotes to Paul’s exhortations on submission that by the end, we are left wondering if Paul failed to hire an editor when he penned his words. Similarly, evangelicals on the left are eager to pounce on conservatives like us if we happen to share any item on the Republican menu. They want us to cower and do penance on behalf of the scattered zealots who align in any way to our cause.

As of today, Donald Trump has been excommunicated from every major platform, political figures who supported himTrump are now being ridiculed, conservative voices are being unmistakably targeted, Twitter accounts mysteriously deleted, Parler is receiving the wrath of techno giants like Apple and Amazon, and the signs point to increased specialization in detecting people like us as aggressors and apologists for riots and mayhem.

Well, bless their hearts! Atheists practice the same ethic when it comes to the crusades. They ask in a victor’s tone, “How can Christianity be true if Christians killed people in an unwarranted war?” Without delving into the futility of such assumption, we should really take heart and remember that the righteous ones are always the ones who are equal opportunity offenders, or as I like to put it, “equal opportunity ethicists.” By now, there is sufficient evidence to prove that a group of thugs defending the Trump agenda invaded the Capitol–in some cases with the aid of officers and in others by force—to stop formal proceedings from taking place. As one Trump supporter stated, “I got caught up in the moment.” Let that moment give him something to think about in a cell for the next many years. Others easily influenced by the totality of stupidity followed. No, this was not a righteous revolution; this was the Jewish zealotry of Jude’s day in action. It was the exertion of an over-realized eschatology that will scar the Trump presidency for decades to come, but it should not scar everyone who voted option A vs. option Witch of Endor.

The point is that we are not participants in the acts of anyone who acted unrighteously. None of us have to assume vicarious guilt for another. Calvary already accomplished such a feat. I have read enough reports from people who were merely in D.C. to voice their concern for the election’s integrity. Right or wrong, they have that right. Whatever else happened is the fault of scoundrels who should be rightly brought to justice. But make no mistake, such scenarios will be used abundantly to make generalized cases condemning a whole class of people. This is identity politics served raw.

Let me close with a summary of the Trump era as we move forward.
From the beginning, we all knew the sorry state of the Republican Party. I wrote back in 2016 that Trump won because there was no one else eager to speak plainly about what must be done. Trump succeeded, and his success is a sign that politics, as we know it, will never be the same. The Trump era emboldened people to choose and made a mockery out of independent voters…whatever that is.
But the lesson that strikes me to this day is just how little it takes for a leader to make substantive changes like de-regulation, abandoning childish international alliances, selecting imperfect but sane justices to the Supreme Court, inspiring the Pro-life agenda, protecting the church, avoiding unnecessary foreign wars, and a host of other important factors that move the Conservative voice forward. Still, Trump was a weak candidate. We all knew that, but his narcissism and pursuit of childish displays on social media and mediocre decisions at 3am, and a history of Cretan immorality, all of that, and everything else, is still better than a Clinton and Biden presidency. If Trump moved the conservative agenda forward in a few crucial ways, imagine what a fervent and decent candidate could do in office?

The lesson is that the evangelical left will eagerly look for scapegoats to accentuate their cause. The conservative voice should look to the brouhaha of January 6th and learn that zealotry is stupid, criticize the imbeciles who did what they did, and move on to better things. Conservatives do not need to defend everything done in the name of conservatism. We call that discernment. We should be ethical enough to condemn whatever does not harmonize with biblical standards and pursue the greater good as a result. After all, January 20th is not the death of conservatism; it’s an opportunity to properly advocate for healthier priorities. 

Posted on

Climate Change Hysteria

Noah Rothman writes a phenomenal article at Commentary concerning the climate change hysteria overtaking the media. He focuses on the media’s outrage over recent comments from American Enterprise Institute scholar Danielle Pletka. Rothman summarizes Pletka’s concern:

Pletka went on to note mitigating phenomena that, in her view, don’t receive due attention. The last two years were typified by the “biggest drop in global temperatures that we have had since the 1980s,” she said. Pletka added that carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. are declining even after America pulled out of the Paris accords, and American industry has shifted away from burning so-called “dirty coal,” unlike its European counterparts.

She also added that “we shouldn’t be hysterical.” It was that latter comment that led to visceral reactions from the media. Rothman notes the outrage over that simple statement from Helene Cooper who noted:

“I actually think we should be hysterical,” she said. “I think anybody who has children or anybody who can imagine having children and grandchildren, how can you look at them and think this is the kind of world that through our own inaction and our inability to do something, that we’re going to leave them?”

Pletka’s great sin was her “refusal to accept a straight-line projection at face value.” Rothman concludes:

You might see now why some advocates prefer hysteria to caution and skepticism, and why those who shatter the serenity of the echo chamber are so valuable.