DEMOCRATIC FASCISM
Just as there can be a Socialist Democracy, so there can be a Fascist Democracy, in which a people’s freedom is not taken away from them by dictatorial force, but is voluntarily surrendered.
Just as a socialist government can be an unelected dictatorship (like Cuba) or a freely elected democracy (like Sweden), so can a fascist government.
Democratic fascism, or a fascist democracy is no more of an oxymoron than democratic socialism or a socialist democracy. Instead, it is the most accurate description of what America’s political system has become.
This did not happen overnight. By a patient strategy of what I call Fabian Fascism taking many years, the American people have been persuaded, unwittingly and almost unconsciously, to voluntarily give up their Constitutional freedoms.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/12/24
The Arc of History
Postmodern Failure
Jack is leading another of his incredible tours this week and will return next week.
Watching the news, studying the journals and events of the week, from a Boeing 737 Max airliner losing a door in flight to the strange absence of the president, secretary of defense, and assistant secretary from the chain of command, at the same time, with no designated responsible persons identified, made me ponder just what is going on?
Whether intentional or accidental, the week's news did everything possible to hold up shiny objects and divert attention from the collapse of the Trump persecution in Georgia and the woes of Hunter Biden before Congress and the IRS.
So what is going on? We are watching the failure of Postmodernist philosophy and a scramble by the left to find a new totalitarianism.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: EXPLAINING THE WORLD WITH A SHRUNKEN HEAD
Back in 2007, I gave a talk to a small group of conservatives in Washington DC. It was recorded by C-Span. I hope you find it informative and entertaining. My talk lasted 26 minutes, the rest is Q&A, during which I was asked good questions. Enjoy!
AMERICAN ROULETTE
SKYE’S LINKS 01/11/24
It is still morning in America - if you vote with your feet:
Entry-Level Jobs Pay Six Figures In This Gritty Part Of America
On the other hand, if you haven't voted with your feet, you are all too likely to be stuck in a far left swamp of cult beliefs:
The 5 Strangest Features Of The Modern Left
But there is hope! The omni-BS is failing in more and more situations as more and more people push back against the official unreality For example:
St. Louis Mask Mandate Rescinded Less Than 24 Hours After Woke Health Officials Get Trigger Happy
There’s lots more cool stuff – jump onboard!
THE WORLD’S MOST UNUSUAL VINEYARD
The grape vines of Pico Island, one of nine islands of the Azores in the Atlantic, are enclosed within walls of black basalt rocks called currais (corrals). For over 500 years, the Portuguese villagers have been constructing thousands of miles of these currais walled enclosures to protect the vines from wind and sea spray.
The vineyards of Pico are so extraordinary that they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the wine is uniquely good! You can order a bottle here. Best, though, is to experience Pico and its viticulture yourself. That’s what we did last June on our Atlantic Paradises adventure with your fellow TTPers.
We had a wonderful time – and you will too this coming June. You won’t believe how much adventurous fun you’ll have on our Atlantic Paradises 2024! Click to join us… (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #213 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
AGIOS LAZAROS
We’re all familiar with the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead four days after his entombment in John 11:1-44. But what happened to Lazarus afterwards – what did he do with the rest of his (second) life?
He left Judea to live on the island of Cyprus. There he met Paul the Apostle and his evangelizing partner Barnabas who was a Cypriot. They appointed him the first Bishop of Kition (present day Lanarca), where he lived for another 30 years, then upon his second death was buried for the last time.
A church was built over his marble sarcophagus which has undergone many resurrections itself over the last two millennia. But here it stands today after all those ravages of time, Agios Lazaros, the Church of St. Lazarus, over his still-preserved sarcophagus. On every Lazarus Saturday (eight says before Easter), an icon of St. Lazarus is taken in procession through the streets of Lanarca. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #165 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FANI, YOU IN A WHOLE HEAP A’ TROUBLE, GIRL!
The news out of Georgia is getting interesting. According to one of the co-defendants in the case that Fulton County DA Fani Willis brought against Trump and others who challenged election results, Willis’s special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, not only raked in $654,000 but is also Willis’s lover-boyfriend.
That’s shocking corruption on its face. However, things got even more interesting when Wade’s bills showed him having long conferences with the White House in 2022.
Michael Roman is one of the co-defendants in Willis’s case alleging that challenging an election in Georgia (something Stacey Abrams has been doing professionally for years now) is a criminal act when Donald Trump does it. On Monday (1/08), Roman filed an absolutely stunning motion with the trial court alleging that Willis was having an affair with Wade.
Let’s not stop there, though. As the old Ginsu knife commercials used to say… But wait! There’s more! We can add a whole new level of stench to the smell coming out of Fulton County.
ASHES, ASHES, AND WE ALL FALL DOWN
American law enforcement is working through a historic question of purpose and direction. The public and the national thinkers have a broad spectrum of things they believe about what we should be doing, and how we should be doing it.
There is an equally large debate mirroring this within law enforcement. Are we nurturers? Warriors? Secretaries? Mental health specialists? Role models? Ideas abound. Meanwhile, the calls for service keep coming and all politicians want us to help them get elected.
Jack asked me to comment on this article from the American Thinker titled, “If it all goes wrong, with whom will the police side?” The police aren’t supposed to have a “side”; our mandate is to enforce the law. But, the American understanding of law and order in some circles is devolving into a strongman concept of the legitimacy and exercise of power-- if you have it, use it; and the implications be damned.
Democratic considerations are an obstacle to getting what we want; not a responsibility to uphold. This is not American thinking. It is Soviet, Mongol, Mexican, or fascist thinking, and it is getting the nod from way too many people who ought to know better in governments across the nation at all levels.
The question in this article is: “Should our government decide “our democracy” is in imminent danger and it’s necessary to suppress dangerous insurrectionists like Catholics and soccer moms, would America’s federal, state and local police play along?”
THE WORLD’S BEST MOONSHINE
Santo Antão island, Cape Verde. The world’s best moonshine, which the islanders call grogue, is made here. There are ten islands comprising the country of Cape Verde, some 400 miles off the West African coast of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean. For hundreds of years, Cape Verdeans have been making grogue but the folks like the fellow here on Santo Antão have perfected it.
You’ll find their stills out in the sugar cane fields, where they put the cane in to a press called a trapiche, then cook down the molasses in an old oil drum into a clear distilled rum that’s up to 140 proof or more. This fellow is pouring me a sample to taste in a coconut shell. You have to be really careful because it’s so smooth and silky it goes down like water – making it very easy to get quickly wasted.
If you like it – which of course you will – he’ll pour fresh grogue into an empty plastic liter water bottle and sell it to you for six bucks. People are always partying in Cape Verde, and why not with all this grogue. They don’t mix it with anything except some lime juice and an ice cube. Really fantastic. Come to Cape Verde and have great time yourself! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #171 photo ©Jack Wheeler)