When Edward Gibbon embarked on his great history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, he began his narrative with the accession of Commodus. Marcus Aurelius, the father of the new emperor, was a man who, in the noblest traditions of the Roman people, had combined the attributes of a warrior, a statesman, and a philosopher; Commodus was none of these.
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This month is the annual novelist writing month known as NaNoWriMo in which novelist attempt through perseverance and will to complete a first draft of a novel. I had hoped to complete this challenge, but don’t feel that I am in a position to do so up to my standards for two reasons. Firstly, I simply don’t have a story idea in mind and didn’t put in the adequate time in preparing to construct a novel. While I could write and let the pieces fall as they may, I don’t believe the end product would leave me satisfied to say the least. Secondly, I would at some point attempt to try my hand at constructing a historical fiction novel of some kind. This endeavor would require extensive research on my part and thus I must attempt it I believe next year after doing the appropriate research and formulating my story. That doesn’t mean, however, that I have no intention of writing at all, which is why I created this page in the first place. Therefore, I will simply try to post new thoughts and musings on my site for the duration of the month. My hope is that I gain some good habits that I can keep going forward. I’ve done the same thing with my Goodreads reading challenge which I’ve done a fairly good job at catching up on and maintaining throughout the year.
The 2018 congressional elections are taking place tomorrow and it would be pretty remarkable to not know this was happening at this point. It seems to me that its getting to the point of borderline harassment when it comes to people telling you to vote. Constant bombardments from emails, ads, and the patricians telling people to vote in my mind seems like a complete waste of energy. What if one does not wish to vote? And why should one be party to a ridiculous electoral system that gives two marginally different candidates and feeds into the current moral crisis? I believe it should be ones prerogative to do so. Moreover I think that its somewhat silly to expect people who have no knowledge of the political system to have undue influence on political proceedings. Its not that I wish for them not to exercise their right, rather I don’t see the rational behind voting uninformed. Perhaps its time to say only those qualified to vote are able to do so. While this idea won’t be popular with certain people, I think its actually quite sensible that certain expectations are met when wanting to perform civic duties.
It appears that most Americans have abandoned their senses and are being consumed by politics in an unhealthy way. For example its not satisfactory to merely disagree and wish to take an opposing political position in today’s society. Today its been deemed perfectly reasonable to infer how people are thinking based on their political leanings and to confer upon people the most vile and nefarious characteristics. I see it rather regularly in social media exchanges where the end goal is simply to get as many views and likes, which is simply a form of self affirmation, as possible leaving no discussion to be had. I’ve not heard a single policy position being bandied about by either party. Republicans were hyper focused on getting their tax cuts which they now have and appear to have run out of ideas. I suppose they could push to defund Planned Parenthood but I don’t see that occurring. Nor do I see a concerted effort to completely repeal and replace Obama care i.e. ACA which leads me to believe that Republican enthusiasm will be diminished. Democrats will appear to be highly vocal and emotional on the back of their 2016 electoral defeat but appear to also be out of ideas outside their extreme dislike concerning President Trump. From my observations they appear to be a ship without a rudder and completely incapable of utilizing Trump’s boorish personality to their advantage. Furthermore they seem to be perpetually outraged over the most absurd things but never long enough for them to do any damage to Trump politically. Notice how all of the post-election Russian collusion talk has suddenly died down and is completely out of the news cycle along with Mueller. I don’t think this is a coincidence. We saw the same thing happen with the Kavanaugh confirmation coverage.
But that being said I’ve not quite decided what I will do for this election. Traditionally I have not participated in the past in mid-term elections mainly out of dismay for the political process. Additionally I live in a largely Republican congressional district and Democratic senatorial state which likely won’t see any changes anytime soon. Therefore my vote likely won’t decide any elections this year barring a historic collapse which is not projected to happen. Don’t be fooled by people saying this is the most important election in the history of this country. Are people so historically illiterate that they believe an essentially meaningless election in 2018 is up there in the pantheon of elections like 1860, 1828, or 1912? This one won’t hold a candle to those. Its also a bit jarring to see people so completely disgusted by Trump that they are willing to abandon their ideological and political policy positions just to go against him. This seems to not only be unprincipled but a case of cutting off the nose despite the face. Do these individuals really believe that partisan rhetoric will die down with deposing Trump? It appears some naively do. I there lies my biggest disappointment with this electoral process. These are state and district elections taking place yet everyone is making the election revolve around the President. This is either an indictment of the office of the presidency holding too much power or people losing perspective because they are no longer connected to their surrounding communities. I would suspect a bit of both.
At various points throughout the year I decided to tune out the news coverage because it was getting to the point of sheer boredom. The constant lies everyone was telling and the forced outrage was not why I ever was interested in politics and current events. Moreover, I find the more emotionally invested people are becoming in the political process the more I have found my own views becoming more apolitical. Why must I be emotionally invested in man’s political games of power? As a Christian I find this utterly reprehensible and a completely digression of human interaction which is ironic since most feel they are far more advanced and progressive now. Rubbish I say. I predict that people will look back on this period and be highly confused as to what happened as they see a country deeply divided but not sure why with so much growth and prosperity. They will view this period as largely unremarkable in the annals of time.
Around the same time, a New York University psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, was formulating a theory about why liberals and conservatives have such a hard time productively conversing.
After mucking around in a lot of survey data, he came up with this basic idea: Liberals and people of the left underpin their politics with moral concerns about harm and fairness; they are driven by the imperative to help the vulnerable and see justice done. Conservatives and people of the right value these things as well but have several additional moral touchstones — loyalty, respect and sanctity. They value in-group solidarity, deference to authority, and the protection of purity in mind and body. To liberals, those sincerely held values can look a lot like, in Dr. Haidt’s words, “xenophobia, authoritarianism and Puritanism.” This asymmetry is the fountainhead of mutual incomprehension and disdain.
That didn’t go far enough for fellow Democrats who called on her to rebuke the demonstration.
“It’s very disappointing and uncalled for. If Rep. Abrams does not rebuke what happened, she will lose a lot of support,” said state Rep. Scott Holcomb, who is neutral in the race. “This isn’t how Democrats want this primary race to be conducted.”
Evans joins the ranks of other Democrats who have been booed or heckled at Netroots events: Nancy Pelosi was booed and heckled in 2013, Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley’s speech in 2015.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Netroots of the democratic party: bigoted, intolerant, impolite, immature, ugly, thuggish, incoherent.
If this is what being a democrat looks like, Georgians will say “thanks but no thanks.”
Antifa believes it is pursuing the opposite of authoritarianism. Many of its activists oppose the very notion of a centralized state. But in the name of protecting the vulnerable, antifascists have granted themselves the authority to decide which Americans may publicly assemble and which may not. That authority rests on no democratic foundation. Unlike the politicians they revile, the men and women of antifa cannot be voted out of office. Generally, they don’t even disclose their names.
I recently came across an article from Occupy Democrats which if you are not aware is a left leaning organization that makes lots of memes and images that get shared amongst the left. I typically just simply scroll on and ignore such partisan rubbish as I do with the right wing Republican equivalent. However this time I figured I would address the overarching problems and cognitive dissonance on display within their movement. Rather than leave a comment and argue against a wall which typifies political discourse nowadays I will address all the points here:
1. Nothing, including an arcane, racist section of the constitution, can change the fact that 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary than for Trump. It’s either a democracy or it isn’t. If he had won by 3 million, I would sadly admit that Trump is the President the American people wanted. But that’s not what happened.
Firstly Michael lets cut out the disingenuous notion that because a person won the electoral college but not the popular vote they are illegitimate. Its funny how Democrats are so quick to point this fact out yet I would bet they would have said no such thing had John Kerry beat Bush back in 2004 which he came close to doing by electoral vote. Moore is being a partisan buffoon at this point. Furthermore he is putting on full display his inability to comprehend the basic civics that the US government’s foundation is built upon. The US government is not a democracy and has never been a democracy. The US constitution would have never been ratified back in 1788 if the plans for government called for mob rule. Back to the 2016 election though. If one were to look at the states one would see that Trump won 30 states to Clinton’s 20 states. If one were to look at the votes outside the states of California and New York,Trump carries the election by 1.8 million votes. So in other words its not that Trump doesn’t have the will of the people he simply doesn’t have the will of California. I think the other 48 states are okay with that especially the small states as shown in her crushing electoral defeat. The Republicans not only won the presidential election despite all major outlets predicting Trump’s chances in the single digits but they also won the senate and house majorities. That is a mandate.
2. He is not well and needs help. He has a number of serious mental disorders that make him unfit to hold office — and they are on display every day in one cringe-worthy tweet after another. He is a full-blown malignant narcissist. He displays sociopathic tendencies. He will say one thing and 30 seconds later say the opposite. He is disconnected from the truth. And he has a stunning lack of human empathy. These behaviors make him a truly dangerous occupant of the Oval Office.
This is all conjecture and typical fear mongering that was prevalent throughout the election. If you want to say that Trump has an ego and is inconsistent in his principles that is fair game. But when you start saying ridiculous things like “truly dangerous” in hopes that people will swing to your view out of fear you lose credibility Mr. Moore.
3. The Russians interfered with the election in order to get him elected. Even Trump now admits as much. That alone makes the election tainted and should be voided. We spend trillions on ridiculous weapons and ineffective police state-style homeland security measures to defend us against those who would “destroy our way of life” — but we are to remain silent when a foreign government is caught trying to get THEIR candidate elected as OUR president? AND they succeed! This is a joke of monstrous proportions — and the fact that conservatives, Republicans and patriotic good ol’ boys are actively defending this foreign aggression into our country confirms to me what I’ve feared all along: that they really hate our form of democracy, our Bill of Rights, our belief that “All men (sic) are created equal,” our one person-one vote system, that whoever scores the most points wins and that people of all religions are welcome here. They don’t believe that, and I’d respect them so much more if they would just simply admit it.
No such evidence has been presented to the public to show definitive Russian state sponsored hacking to get Trump elected. Does it not come off a bit strange that Russia would hack our documents and emails only to distribute them to the public untainted? Surely there would be some liberties taken with the material or tampering with the evidence so why did no such actions take place. Furthermore Moore does not seem to grasp even how Podesta was hacked in the first place. Podesta was hacked from a very rudimentary phishing email which he likely clicked on stupidly. A phishing email hardly sounds like the full power that the Russian SVR is capable of unleashing. Why are Democrats constantly harping on the Russian boogeyman without any substantiated evidence beyond conjectures? Why are Democrats so incapable from their failed candidate in Clinton to the DNC head organization of maintaining a secure and working computer network? Do Democrats not have IT people? Finally the extent of Russian interference could have played in the election has not been clearly defined and until it is defined this stance of Moore’s is pointless partisan harping.
4. The FBI clearly chose sides, and FBI Director Comey’s interference in the 10 days before the election most-definitely helped tipped the balance to the FBI’s preferred candidate, Donald J. Trump. That our own federal police would so brazenly attempt to throw the election to the person with the least votes is mind-boggling, frightening and must be stopped. Attorney General Lynch must immediately, today, appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate what to me appears to be a criminal offense. If this is true, I want to see FBI Director Comey in handcuffs and behind bars. Short of murder and a few other heinous acts, is there a worse crime in our democracy than the highest ranking cop in the land attempting to throw the election?
There is nothing to suggest that Comey “chose sides” throughout the election. He could have easily taken a side back in September when he publicly admonished but opted not to criminally prosecute Clinton for crimes that most public servants would have been prosecuted for. The whole reason they even had to trot Comey back out there for the press was due to Anthony Weiner and the investigation into his misdeeds. The idea that this is somehow just short of murder in Moore’s mind is completely baffling and shows he has clearly lost grips with reality. Moore also fails recall the fact the Lynch was compromised herself due to her interactions with the Clintons. Oh and see point #1 to explain why we are not a democracy.
5. Trump has nominated in Rex Tillerson the most powerful corporate CEO in the world as “our” Secretary of State. Why would the quarter-billionaire head of the world’s richest corporation want a “government job?” So that he, a personal friend of Putin’s, can get the US sanctions lifted off Russia so that his company, ExxonMobil, can get back to their exclusive oil deal with Russia — which will eventually net ExxonMobil three TRILLION dollars. This is nothing less than a bold, audacious robbery in broad daylight — and it says a lot about you and me that they think they can get away with it.
This is all theory and a bad conspiracy theory at that. I don’t agree with his pick but this sounds like something Alex Jones would say.
6. Trump has potentially committed a number of felonies — and a felon simply can’t sit in the Oval Office (I can’t believe I even have to state that). From his admitted sexual assaults to whatever he’s hiding in the tax returns, to possibly evading taxes, to his committing fraud with Trump U, to his long list of conflicts of interest — the chance of us having to suffer through his impeachment trial in the Senate is just too much to bear.
Donald Trump is, as John Lewis said, NOT a legitimate president. He is unfit, unstable and was elected with help from the Russian government. John Lewis has announced he will not attend the Inauguration, and eight other members of Congress today have joined him. Call (202-225-3121) or write your Congressperson and insist he or she not attend the swearing in of an illegitimate president. It’s the least you can do short of standing in front of this runaway train. — Michael Moore
There is nothing to suggest that Trump has committed a felony. This idea that Trump is not “legitimate” is a ridiculous one and shows the idiotic mind gymnastics the left is currently doing to undermine the will of the American people. They assumed Clinton would win but she lost and now everyone under the sun is to blame except for themselves and their out of touch party. John Lewis can be an American hero of the civil rights movement and yet be completely and utterly wrong on this front. Him calling Trump illegitimate calls into question who he believes to be legitimate in the first place. Is any president who Mr. Lewis dislikes suddenly illegitimate? If you don’t want to attend the inauguration then simply don’t attend. However if you are going to open your mouth and say ridiculously partisan nonsense and spout Democratic talking points which are not corroborated by hard evidence then perhaps Mr. Lewis is unfit to serve in the US government any further.
Acerbity [əˈsɜːbɪtɪ] 