Tag: civil

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President-Elect Trump Promises Massive Crackdown On The Deep State

In one of his post election posts on X, President-Elect Donald Trump promised to “dismantle the Deep State.” This as you know, was a central theme of his presidential campaign so it should come as no surprise to anyone. The question now is whether he will actually deliver on this seemingly tall order that may play well on the campaign trail, but prove very difficult in terms of actually pulling it off.

Different people have different notions as to what the Deep State actually means, or whether it even exists, but the general consensus is that they are powerful but unelected bureaucrats, who control the levers of power behind the scenes, and span different administrations (both Democrat and Republican)–essentially a permanent unelected ruling class, who ruthlessly protect their power from “outsiders”–ambitious people they don’t approve of/like. They use the instruments of government(the ABC agencies we shall not name) to crush their perceived enemies.

Trump has cast himself as one of those outsiders, and he points to his endless criminal prosecutions as proof of the Deep State coming after him. He has repeatedly singled out the FBI as one of the key instruments of the Deep State that he wants hollowed out.

Whether or not the FBI has become an instrument of the Deep State as Trump alleges, is a question Yours Truly chooses to sidestep for now–way above my pay grade. What Yours Truly finds very encouraging about Trump’s proclamation however, is that during his 4 years, maybe, just maybe, we may achieve something I have begged and prayed for for quite a long time now, and that is, a Church-type Committee to look into the abuses of our intelligence agencies.

The last time we did an audit of our intelligence agencies was way back in the 1960s so reasonable people will agree that a fresh audit is way past due. A lot of “dirt” was uncovered in the previous audit (cointelpro being the main one) so smart money is that 70 years after that, there are bound to be some let’s just say, “interesting” new programs to be “unearthed”. I for one, would keep my eyes open for the notorious Targeted Individual program, which our intelligence agencies have categorically dismissed as a conspiracy theory. A Church-type committee would be the perfect venue to get to the bottom of this supposed “conspiracy theory”.

Yours Truly has long advocated for the enactment of a new Church-type commission to investigate the abuses of power by our intelligence agencies. Though President-Elect Trump doesn’t outrightly call for the creation of such a commission, reasonable people will agree that his recent post on X is the most serious attempt yet by a modern American president to rein in our out of control intel agencies, and for that, he deserves a lot of praise. Whether he will keep his promise is a different matter altogether.

President-Elect Trump is known to desire things/issues that cast him aside from other American presidents in terms of greatness. Well, 70 years later, historians are still talking about the historic Church Committee hearings, and the administration that was in charge then. If Trump pushes for a new Church-type committee during his four years, historians will also be talking favorably about his administration 100 years from now, especially if a lot of illegal government activity is uncovered.

President-Elect Trump should also know that a much overdue audit of our intelligence agencies is an issue that enjoys tremendous bipartisan support despite the media’s depiction of it as a partisan MAGA issue.

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Is MAGA Trumpism A Form Of Political Religion?

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An interesting segment on MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight (01/1624) show delved into the strange daliance between Evangelical Christians(predominantly White), and the politics of former President Donald Trump, often referred to as Trumpism, or MAGA Trumpism. The alliance between these two strange bedfellows has led many to question whether MAGA Trumpism has become some sort of political/civil religion.

The MSNBC segment came against the backdrop of Trump’s massive win in the Iowa Republican presidential primary, and specifically, his command of the White Evangelical vote, which polls placed at 53%. Back in 2016, when Trump first ran for president, he only received 21% of the White Evangelical vote in Iowa, a clear sign that he has now consolidated the White Evangelical vote in Iowa, and arguably nationwide.

Host Alex Wagner posed this question to her guest, Author Tim Alberta, who’s also a staff writer at The Atlantic (2:07): “I wonder in your estimation, what it means to be an Evangelical in this country, at this moment?”
Tim Alberta responded in relevant part: “We are beginning to flirt with this territory where definitionally speaking, Evangelicalism has far more to do, at least in the perception of the greater public, with political engagement, partisan political identification, than it does with any particular theology or any real religious conviction, and if you take it a step further, if you look at the exit polling, if you look at some of the social science around this, if you look at the fact that during Donald Trump’s presidency, more and more of Donald Trump’s supporters were self-identifying as Evangelicals even though they were simultaneously attending Church less and less often, I think one might reach the uncomfortable conclusion that perhaps the best definition now for what it means to be an Evangelical, is to be a conservative White Republican Trump supporter, and that is a tragedy on any number of different levels, but I think most profoundly, it’s a tragedy for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Host Alex Wagner then interjected with this profound question (3:50): “If the Gospel is no longer part of the equation, what is it replaced by…do you think MAGA-ism has become a placeholder for a certain kind of religion?”

Tim Alberta: “Yes…I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush, the Evangelical community is large, it’s huge, and it’s complicated…but…we are reaching a place where we are being confronted with some uncomfortable realities about what it means to be a part of the Evangelical movement and frankly, where the line blurs between sort of religious identity and political identity, and is there a merging of the two, and frankly I think that there’s always a danger in politics…of sort of turning political conviction into religious conviction, or worshipping at a certain altar that is not an altar to God, but is an altar to political idolatry or to political identity. That is a danger that has always been there, but it is I think uniquely dangerous in this moment, and to be clear…we have examples from the not so distant past, of a sort of political religion, or at least a civil religion, supplanting, competing with actual religion, and I don’t think that we’re all that far removed from that in this country now, looking at just what happened…in Iowa.”

To conclude the segment, Tim Alberta floated this interesting scenario, which gets right to the fallacy of the Evangelical-MAGA Trumpism alliance. He said (8:19): “If during Barack Obama’s presidency, or while he was running for president, if you had heard him talking with, or promoting a video saying that he was a shepherd to all of mankind, the Evangelical movement would have been up in arms [and rightly so], I mean this is heretical, this is blasphemous and yet, Donald Trump seems to get a pass time and time again for doing these things that no other politician, Republican or Democrat frankly, would get a pass for doing, and we should ask ourselves why. If the answer does not at least start to flirt with this terrain of civil religion, or political religion, then I think that we’re not being honest with ourselves, and if we are being honest with ourselves, if we are willing to engage with the very uncomfortable topic around what happens when Trumpism becomes civil religion in this country for millions of millions of people, and what that might imply moving forward, then we are doing a disservice to our prularistic democracy.”

Bottom line folks, we’ve always operated on the separation of church and state doctrine, and have for decades, shunned foreign theocracies like the ones in Afghanistan and Iran. Author Tim Alberta is absolutely correct when he says, we need to be honest with ourselves, and admit that there is no difference between the Evangelical-MAGA dalliance in the American political scene, and the theocracies in Iran and Afghanistan. Simply put, we need to make a decision as to whether we want to continue with the separation of church and state doctrine, or whether, that time-honored tradition has also been sacrificed at the altar of MAGA Trumpism.

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Dem Rep Jayapal Questions FBI Director Wray Over Warrantless Searches

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Rep Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) appeared on CNN’s The Source show (07/12/23) where she discussed among other things, her questioning of FBI Director Christopher Wray about warrantless searches at a recent House hearing. Specifically, Rep Jayapal wanted to know why the FBI and other federal agencies are buying vast quantities of personal data from data brokers, and how the agencies use this warrantless search data.

Rep Jayapal dropped a bombshell during her interview, telling host Kaitlan Collins that if the FBI doesn’t provide a satisfactory answer to this important question, she will have no other choice but to vote against reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) when it expires later this year–a very big deal.

What makes this a very big deal, you ask? Well, Rep Jayapal heads the House Progressive Caucus. If she decides to vote against reauthorizing FISA, you can rest assured that nearly all House Progressives will vote with her, killing FISA.

Asked by host Kaitlan Collins whether she was satisfied by the answers she got from FBI Director Wray, Rep Jayapal said she wasn’t, adding( 1:29), “We do have significant concerns, It’s not just I. The Office of Director of National Intelligence(ODNI) is where the report came from, that said that the FBI is purchasing large amounts of data from these data brokers, and that information contains everything, from your location information, your medical information, it could contain information about all kinds of private things that American people understandably don’t want the FBI to have…These are warrantless searches…they are backdoor searches. The information is used in ways we don’t know…”

Bottom line folks, Rep Jayapal is absolutely correct that warrantless surveillance by the FBI and other federal agencies is out of control, and in serious need of a fix. We’ve become accustomed to hearing members of Congress threatening to block FISA reauthorization over the same surveillance abuses, only to have them cave at the end due to pressure from the national security establishment. Something however tells me (not exactly sure what that is), that 2023 may be the year members of Congress finally drop the hammer on FISA, or as legal eagle Jonathan Turley puts it, the year they decide against being “chumps”.

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Green Party Presidential Candidate Cornel West Addresses “Spoiler” Charge

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U.S. presidential candidate Cornel West (Green Party) appeared on CNN’s The Source show (07/13/23) where he among other things, addressed the charge that he’s playing the role of “spoiler” for incumbent President Joe Biden in the upcoming 2024 election. You’ll remember back in 2016, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was blamed for helping Republican Donald Trump eke out wins in the key battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, thus securing enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Coincidentally, the same Jill Stein is now Cornel West’s campaign manager, as former President Trump appears poised to be Biden’s Republican challenger in 2024.

Asked by host Kaitlan Collins about the spoiler charge, and the fact that Jill Stein, who many blame for sinking Hillary in 2024 is his campaign manager, West dismissed the charge, adding(2:50): “The Democratic Party is so unsocratic, as well as undemocratic…Examine yourself. Examine why it is, you did not speak to the issues of poor and working people, and therefore you lost. If you’d rather lose than change and examine yourself, then you’re going to have third parties popping out all over the place because people are suffering out here.”

Asked whether he plans to endorse President Biden if the presidential race gets too tight, Cornel West gave quite an interesting response–the kind you’d expect from a seasoned intellectual like him. He said both Trump and Biden are bad choices for the presidency because Trump is leading us towards a second civil war, and Biden is leading us towards a third world war (an obvious reference to Biden’s pro-Ukraine stance).

It remains to be seen what effect Cornel West’s presidential run will have on President Biden’s reelection prospects. Will West cost Biden the White House in 2024 like Jill Stein cost Hillary Clinton in 2016? Only time will tell. What’s impossible to ignore however is the Trump-Jill Stein nexus when it comes to U.S. presidential elections, especially given the fact that they are both very friendly with Russia’s dictator Vladimir Putin, an avowed U.S. foe. This image of Jill Stein dining with Putin and other Kremlin officials, formed the basis of the allegations that she was a spoiler candidate in 2016.

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How Many Americans Are Wrongfully Caught Up In The Counterterrorism Dragnet? Congress Must Act!!

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A segment on Fox and Friends Show(04/11/23) delved into a bombshell new report that the FBI launched a domestic terrorism investigation into Catholic Churches in Virginia, with an aim to root out “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology”. As expected, this, as was the case with the counterterrorism investigation into conservative parents protesting at their local school boards, has led to valid questions as to who else gets wrongfully caught up in these counterterrorism dragnets?

Fox and Friends host Ainsley Earhardt put it best when she posed this question(1:24): “How many other memos are out there? How many other investigations that we don’t know about?”

The question Ainsley raises is one that has been raised since the Patriot Act’s passage(2001), and reasonable people will agree that after more than two decades of unanswered questions, the national security establishment needs to be compelled to shed some light on this issue. Simply put, there is no longer any excuse for Congress looking the other way, when there is overwhelming evidence that there are indeed a lot of Americans caught up in the counterterrorism dragnet, even though they have nothing to do with terrorism. Abusing counterterrorism resources is in itself, a national security problem–leads to loss of confidence from the public.

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