Biblical and Constitutional Politics
While I Was Occupied
(Various Updates, Roger Stone, Ralph Northam, Sarah Sanders)
Part Three
This third part of this now four-part article is continued from While I Was Occupied (March for Life, Women’s March, Abortion, Kamala Harris, AOC, Howard Schultz) Part Two. This Part Three will address one of the final two issues that occurred while I was occupied with tech and other issues, update some issues I commented on previously, address two new issues related to the governor of Virginia, plus cover one additional new item.
SOTU Update
The first update is in regard to the State of the Union Address (SOTU). The SOTU is now scheduled for next Tuesday, February 5, 2019. That is a week later than originally planned. It will go on as normal, in the House Chambers, since Nancy Pelosi reissued her invitation.
I hope President Trump takes the advice I gave in regard to what he should have done in his primetime Oval Office address a couple of weeks ago. He needs to use every method possible to help the average American understand how vital it is that a Border Wall is built, that there is a security and humanitarian crisis at the border, that a Wall is vital for effective border security according to all of the border security experts, which is to say those who put their lives on the line every day trying to secure our southern border, and how the lives of both American citizens and those who are trying to enter our country illegally are being put at risk due to the lack of an effective Border Wall.
He should also mention that it was the Democrats who were responsible for the recent government shutdown, that three time they voted against paying the furloughed government employees and those who were working without pay. Do not let the Dems and the MSM pin the shutdown solely on him, while he was just trying to do his Constitutional duty to protect our borders.
The Dems will be sure to try to refute all of this in their response. And who they chose to give that response is a bit surprising, “Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address” (Trib Live. Stacy). I discuss this gubernatorial race in my book Tearing the USA Apart in regard to the voting shenanigans that occurred, Stacy’s inability to accept defeat, and the blaming of her defeat on racism and sexism.
But here; I will say, I find it strange the Democrats are choosing a loser to give the response. But that is probably because they are hoping Stacy runs for the US Senate in 2020, so they are showcasing her now. As with the entire government shutdown and the Dems opposition to the Wall, the Dems only objective is winning back power in 2020, not the good of the American people.
Economy Update
On February 1st, the January 2019 jobs numbers were released. It was predicted they would be very poor due to the government shutdown. And in fact, unemployment rose to 4.0% due to the shutdown. But that was because that number included the 400,000 furloughed workers, who will all now be getting their back pay.
Moreover, a very high 304,000 jobs were added, almost twice the expected number, and wages rose 3.2%. Those are very good numbers. In addition, in Part Two, I said it was estimated the shutdown would cost the economy $6 Billion, $300 million more than the $5.7 Billion Trump is asking for the Wall. But it turned out that the shutdown only cost the US economy $3 Billion, so it was not near as a drag on the economy as expected, as $3 Billion is a drop in the bucket compared to the $20 Trillion US economy.
Meanwhile, the stock market is rebounding, with the Dow now over 25,000 once again. January 2019 was even the best January for the market in 30 years.
Overall, despite the shutdown, the economy is still humming along very well. But Dems would stop that economic growth in its tracks by their far-left proposals. In Part two, I said AOC was calling for a 70% top marginal tax rate. But now Rep. Omar (whom I also mention in Part Two) is one-upping AOC and calling for a 90% top tax rate.
Arthur B. Laffer, co-author of Trumponomics, was on Martha MacCallum’s FNC show The Story on January 31st. He said that every time the US has tried raising taxes on the rich, it has led to a recession. But every time taxes were lowered on the rich, it led to an economic boom. But these Dems with their “soak the rich” plans seem to be totally ignorant of economic history.
Border and Shutdown Update
Trump is still standing firm that he will not make a deal with the Dems that does not include $5.7 Billion for his Border Wall. Nancy is standing firm that there will be no money for a Wall. That insistence on Nancy’s part is despite the fact that many in her own party are now admitting the need for some kind of “physical barrier” at the border, though they are hesitant to call it a “Wall.”
It is clear at this point that Nancy cares little about border security but only about not giving Trump a “win” with a Border Wall, while the word “Wall” seems to be a new “offensive” term among Dems. Call it anything except that and maybe a compromise can be made. So silly.
That said; with Trump and Nancy both entrenched in their positions, Trump is probably correct when he tweeted that the three-week delay is “a total waste of time.” Come February 15th, there will be no agreement, and what I said before will happened—there will either be another shutdown, or more likely at this point, Trump will declare a National Emergency, reallocate money from elsewhere to build the Wall, and the court fights will begin.
More Dem 2020 Candidates
Corry “Spartacus” Booker officially declared his candidacy for 2020, so you can add him to Kalama Harris, Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Andrew Yang.
That is quite a list already, and many more are sure to jump in. It should be fun watching them all see who can run the farthest to the left to garner the votes of the now Socialist Democratic base. But such a far left-candidate stands little chance of winning the general election, unless he or she can deceive the majority of Americans that Socialism, despite its many failures and total lack of any successful examples, will somehow work here in American, when it has failed every place else it has been tried.
Cory announced his candidacy on February 1, the first day of Black History Month, indicating his campaign, like Kamala’s, would also be about identity politics. But he is more moderate than Kamala. He has already said he is not for Medicare for all, though he was for it when he was being considered as Bernie Sanders’ running mate in 2016. But then, Kamala has now backtracked on her statement that she wants to end all private insurance. But the logical outcome of a Medicare for all plan would be to put all private insurance companies out of business.
Moreover, as previously mentioned, like Kamala, Cory was one of the twelve Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. And again, that performance forever disqualifies him from higher public office in this writer’s mind. It was not just his silly “Spartacus movement,” but that he, along with the rest of the Dems on the SJC, ignored the right to due process and presumption of innocence that should be the backbone of our judicial system and societal mindset. The horrid results of ignoring such will be seen in Part Four of this article.
Roger Stone
Roger Stone was arrested early Friday morning, January 25, 2019. He is a longtime associate and friend of Donald Trump. If you are a viewer of CNN or MSNBC, you probably thought this was “the biggest event that happened during the time I was occupied” that I mentioned previously that would be covered in this third part of this now four-part article. I say that as, those two networks covered this event non-stop for days after Stone was arrested. They only paused for few minutes when the government was reopened to cover that event, then they went back to obsessing over this one.
But no, this was not that event. That biggest event will now be covered in Part Four. This event was actually only a minor one of little consequence for the average American, except for one possible and scary exception. That exception is the manner in which Roger was arrested.
The Arrest:
Roger was arrested via a predawn raid by 29 FBI agents, dressed in full SWAT gear, with 17 vehicles, plus police dogs. Roger was then not just handcuffed but shackled hand and foot. Meanwhile, his poor deaf wife upstairs was terrified, not being able to hear what was happening but knowing something was terribly wrong. Their dogs were also in a tizzy.
What is Roger charged with to necessitate such a heavy-handed arrest? Is he an alleged mass murderer? An alleged drug dealer? A weapons dealer? A human trafficker? No. No. No, and No.
As with every other Trump associate Mueller has indicted, he is just charged with process crimes: lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice. That’s it. What are at best white-collar crimes. No violent crimes whatsoever. In fact, he doesn’t even own a gun, nor a passport, so there was no risk he would fight back, and he wasn’t a flight risk. He was such a little threat that he was released on bond two hours later.
As Roger said in his press conference after he was released, Mueller could have just contacted his lawyer, and he would have surrendered himself without all of the fanfare and risk. I say risk, as again Roger’s wife is deaf. Fortunately, Roger had the foresight, when he answered the pounding at his door in his bare feet to the sight of two “assault rifles” pointed in his face, to immediately tell the FBI agents that his wife was deaf. If he hadn’t, they could have easily given a verbal command to his wife, and when she didn’t respond, shot her. Such tragic accidents have happened before when such a show of force is used by law enforcement.
Now, sometimes such a show of force it is necessary, such as three days later, on January 28th, when five Houston police officers were shot trying to serve a search warrant to a drug dealer. But Roger was not a drug dealer, nor was he a flight risk. He is a 66-year-old man, who is well known, so it I would have been difficult for him to flee unnoticed.
This same type of heavy-handed tactic was also used when Mueller had Paul Manafort arrested. Paul also was charged with white color crimes, and this tactic was totally unnecessary then too. As such, why is Mueller using such tactics? There is no logical reasoning other than theatrics and intimidation. And that should scare all Americans. If these two men who are charged with non-violent crimes can be arrested in such a dangerous way, you could be next.
That said; there “just happened” to be a CNN reporter and camera crew stationed outside of Roger’s home when the FBI came pounding on his door. The reporter claims it was his good “reporter instincts” that had him there. But many are speculating that Mueller tipped him off, just so that the optics of the arrest would be filmed. There is, however, no evidence of that and no reason to doubt the reporter’s story.
The Charges:
As for the charges, these are again process crimes with no underlying crime to them. Such is all we have gotten from the Mueller investigation—crimes cased by his investigation. But still, lying to the FBI and/ or Congress is a crime and very wrong. I discuss such in my Tearing Apart book.
However, that discussion is in the context of bearing false witness against someone, which is to say, breaking the Ninth Commandment. Here, the lying is to protect the person himself, but from what? There is no evidence of any underlying crime, which is to say, no Russian Collusion that Roger is supposed to be guilty of.
The charges are in regard to Roger’s alleged contacts with Wikileaks, prior to its releasing of the hacked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails. Mueller is claiming Roger had direct contact with Wikileaks, while Roger says he did not, but only knew what was reported by an intermediary or in the news.
Furthermore, Mueller says Roger lied when he said he only talked via phone to that intermediary, when in fact Mueller has possession of texts and emails between them. Roger says he simply forgot about the latter, with that correspondence having happened a couple of years before.
This is similar to Jerome Corsi, whom I reported about before. Both of these are older men with less than perfect memories, and for that, their lives are being destroyed. Even if they are eventually found innocent, they are both going broke defending themselves against these charges. Roger is so broke, he has now set up a defense fund in order to be able to continue to fight these false charges. If the reader wishes to contribute to it, it is Stonedefensefund.com.
It would be good to do so, as it was being broke that led to Michael Flynn previously pleading guilty. He probably wasn’t. But he had not choice but to make a deal, as he was broke, had already lost his house, and with no more assets to sell, he just gave up. But Roger has vowed to fight to the end and refuses to lie to make a deal. The same goes for Corsi. They will not ruin their integrity, break the Ninth Commandment, and bear false witness against Trump, which is what Mueller is trying to get them to do, as he did with Michael Cohen.
My Take:
This whole Mueller investigation is a travesty and corruption of the US justice system. Law enforcement is supposed to investigate a specific crime and find the perpetrators. But this whole witch hunt has been an investigation in search of a crime. In the process, all it has done is caused process crimes to be committed, with no underlying criminal activity.
After Mueller finishes his investigation, and no evidence of Trump/ Russian collusion or obstruction of justice is found, President Trump should pardon every one of his associates that Mueller has charged. The lives of all of these innocent men will still have been ruined. But they can at least live the rest of their lives free, and not spend them in prison. That is, with the exception of course of Cohen, who turned on Trump, broke the Ninth Commandment, and bore false testimony against him.
Ralph Northam
Ralph Northam is the Democratic Governor of Virginia. Two events got him into hot water this week that have many calling for his resignation. This section will address these two issues.
Abortion Comments:
Ralph had a radio interview on Wednesday, January 30th, in which he tried to explain Virginia’s proposed new abortion law that was discussed in Part Two. I heard a clip from this interview before I posted Part Two, but I didn’t comment on it, as I knew there was more to the story. I thus waited until I heard the full story to comment. That is far unlike what happened with the big issue to be discussed in Part Four.
But here; the original clip made it sound like Ralph was saying that any time a woman gave birth, as the baby lay on the counter, she could talk with her doctor about whether to let the baby live or not. But then more complete context was released. And it made it clear Ralph was only talking cases “there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s non-viable.” I discuss the word game of calling a preborn baby a “fetus” in my two volume God’s Sex Plan. But here, Ralph is also using that term for a newly born baby.
That said; it was not clear from the clip exactly what Ralph meant by “severe deformities,” if that only meant ones that would lead to the baby being nonviable, or if it was a separate category. Assuming the latter, it must be asked, how severe must the deformity be for the child to be considered for execution? Missing an arm? A leg? Deaf? Blind? Spina bifida? Down’s Syndrome?
If it includes the last one, then the human-interest piece Bret Baier always includes at the end his FNC show Special Report on the same day as he reported this controversy would be quite ironic. It concerned the National Champion Clemson Tigers’ equipment manager. He is so beloved, the team got together and bought him two tickets to the Super Bowl. He also happens to have Down’s Syndrome.
The joy on his face at the news that him and his father would be going to the Big Game belies any idea that the life of such a person is not worth living. But if abortion advocates had their way, all such people would never be born, or with this law, executed after birth.
But then, maybe Ralph meant only birth defects that would lead to the baby belong nonviable. Defenders are explaining this means the baby would die within a couple of hours anyways. But it must be asked, “How does the doctor know that?” Doctors are not infallible. Maybe the child will live for four hours, or six, or two days, or a week, or maybe a month, a year or longer. Does not the dignity of all human life mean we should at least give the baby that much of life? Who’s to say a short life is not worth living?
But then, pro-abortion advocates don’t believe in the sanctity of all human life, so in their minds, some lives are just not worth living. But the Christian view is that all life is sacred and should be protected from womb to tomb, as I detail in my Sex Plan books.
That is why I was glad to hear Republican Senator Ben Sasse is fast-tracking his proposed, “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.” It would do as it is named, protect babies who survive abortion from infanticide. In fast-tracking it, Sasse declared about Virginia’s proposed law:
We’re talking about killing a baby that’s been born. We’re not talking about some euphemism, we’re not talking about a clump of cells. We’re talking about a little baby girl who’s been born and is on a table in a hospital or a medical facility and then a decision or a debate would be had about whether or not you could kill that little baby. We’re talking about the most vulnerable among us, and we have a public official in America out there again and again defending a practice. This is infanticide that we’re talking about (National Review).
Yearbook Photo:
The second event that got Ralph into hot water is a photo surfaced on Friday, February 1st from his 1984 medical school yearbook. It was a picture of two young men, one in blackface and one in a full Ku Klux Klan (KKK) outfit, hood and robe. I will mention blackface and KKK hoods again in Part Four. But here; Ralph has acknowledged that he is one of the two, but he has not identified which one. But either way, that is a very racist ad vile picture, of that there is no doubt.
This picture has both Republican and Democratic lawmakers calling for his resignation. Even the head of the DNC has called for him to resign, as have all of the currently announced Democratic presidential candidates.
This event is similar to Brett Kavanaugh’s 1982 high school yearbook being used against him by the Democrats on the SJC during his confirmation hearings, that I discuss at length in my Tearing Apart book.
In both cases, something that happened three and a half decades years ago is being used to try to disparage a now much older and wiser person. I discuss Brett’s explanations of his yearbook comments at length in my Tearing Apart book and why they in no way should have derailed his nomination to the Supreme Court. And now, I must be consistent and say this photo should in no way be cause for Ralph to resign.
The reason I say that is I am a Christian. And as a Christian, I believe in forgiveness and that a person can change. In fact, that is the heart of the Gospel. As I discuss not just in my Tearing Apart book, but also in my Sex Plan books and in many of my other writings, Christ died for our sins. That means, we can be forgiven, be as if we had never sinned, be given a fresh start in life. That is what is meant by being born again and being a new creation in Christ (John 3:3; 2Cor 5:17). To deny that such forgiveness and a fresh start is possible would be a denial of the Bible and the Gospel.
I discuss this point at length in my Tearing Apart book, and I discuss the idiocy of holding something someone said or did decades ago against them in that book and in my Sex Plan books. But the USA has moved far from a Christian worldview and belief in the Bible. That is why decades old words and actions are now being held against people, with no possibility of forgiveness or redemption. I will address this point at further length in Part Four.
But here; given the preceding, Ralph has asked for forgiveness and says he has changed, that he is no longer the person who dressed in such a racist manner back then. I believe him and accept his apology. But the Rage Mob will not, so I predict in the end, he will be forced to resign. And Ralph’s will be yet another life ruined by the Rage Mob to add the ones to be discussed in Part Four.
2/7/19 Update:
The preceding two sections were written and posted before Ralph Northam’s press conference Saturday afternoon, February 2, 2016. For my updated comments after that press conference, see my two-part article Ralph Northam and the Rage Mob.
Sarah Sanders’ CBN News Interview
On January 30th, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had an interview with CBN News, on of this website’s Standard References. In it, she stated:
I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that He wanted Donald Trump to become president, … That’s why he’s there and I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about (CBN).
Needless to say, liberals have pushed back on these comments. They object to Sarah thinking she has a pipeline to God. But Sarah was just expressing general theological truths, and on these points, Sarah is correct. God does have a calling on the lives of each and every one of us. As far as wanting Trump to be President, God is in control of raising up and tearing down national leaders. I detail both of these points and show they are Biblical in my book The LORD Has It Under Control: What the Bible Teaches About the Sovereignty of God (see for instance Esther 4:13; Daniel 2:38; 5:18; 1Cor 12:1ff).
That Trump has accomplished much that evangelicals can support is seen in my list of his accomplishments in my article Why Vote Republican? Why Vote Democrat?
Liberals have also pushed back by saying God could not possibly have wanted such a sinful man as Donald Trump to be President. In saying this, they are assuming Trump is guilty of the sexual sins he has been accused of, of the ill-regard towards women he has been accused of, and that he is a racist and an anti-Semite. In my God’s Sex Plan books, I show that the claims about Trump in regard to women are not true. In my book Tearing the USA Apart, I show Trump is not a racist nor an anti-Semite.
Sarah makes many more comments that right on Biblically and politically which are worth reading or listening to. A link to the interview is in the References.
Part Four of this four-part article will address the last and biggest issue that occurred while I was occupied and one new issue that has personal relevance to this writer.
References:
Standard References, plus:
SOTU Update:
Trib Live. Nancy Pelosi invites Trump to give State of the Union on Feb. 5.
Trib Live. Stacey Abrams to give Democrats’ response to State of Union.
Economy Update:
AMX News. The best January in 30 years could mean good things for the stock market in 2019.
Yahoo! Finance. U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in January, unemployment rate rose to 4%.
Border and Shutdown Update:
Politico. Trump on national emergency: “There’s a good chance we’ll have to do that.’
More Dem 2020 Candidates:
Trib Live. Sen. Cory Booker joins the 2020 presidential race.
USA Today. Who is running for president? Here's a list of the candidates who have declared so far.
Roger Stone:
Breitbart. Mueller Probe Arrests Roger Stone.
CNN. Video shows FBI at Roger Stone’s house.
NBC News. Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone arrested as part of Mueller probe.
NBC News. Five Houston police officers injured in firefight, two suspects dead.
Ralph Northam:
CBS News. Ralph Northam's yearbook page shows man in KKK costume and another apparently in blackface.
Fox News. Ralph Northam apologizes for medical school yearbook photo with blackface, KKK robe.
National Review. Ben Sasse Will Push Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in Senate.
Washington Times. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam defends bill allowing abortion during labor.
Sarah Sanders’ CBN News Interview:
CBN News. EXCLUSIVE White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: “God Wanted Donald Trump to Become President.”
While I Was Occupied (Various Updates, Roger Stone, Ralph Northam, Sarah Sanders) Part Three. Copyright © 2019 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).
While I Was Occupied
(Covington Students Fiasco and Boy Scouts No More)
Part Four
From Kavanaugh, to Incivility, to Caravans, to Violence, to the 2018 Midterm Elections, and Beyond
The United States of American is being torn about by political differences more than any time since the 1960s and maybe since the Civil War of the 1860s. This division was amplified by political events in the summer to fall of 2018. This time period could prove to be seminal in the history of the United States. This tearing apart came to the forefront and was amplified during the confirmation proceedings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. This book overviews the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation proceedings in detail. It then overviews these additional major events that occurred up to the end of November 2018.
The above article was posted on this website February 2, 2019.
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Biblical and Constitutional Politics