Thursday, March 14, 2024

Life's Mountain Ascent

A long time ago, the Prophet Moses ascended a mountain called Pisgah. From that lofty perspective, he was able to view the land below, where his people would settle, after their escape from slavery in Egypt. Since those days of ancient history, Moses’ last ascent before leaving this world has been an inspiration for many people. 

Several millennia of time have passed since that Exodus ascent.

In our present era, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke prophetically on the night before he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. Harkening back to Moses’ historic example, our nation’s pioneering Civil Rights leader said:

“. . . I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”

Dr. King was one of many Americans who have found inspiration in the mountaintop quest and its accompanying  experiential peak.

For instance, on a lighter note, John Denver brought forth a song in 1972, about his personal mountaintop challenge, a life-changing experience on a Rocky Mountain peak.  In one verse, he sang: “. . . Colorado Rocky Mountain high, I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky. You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply. Rocky Mountain high. . .”

Mountn

I, too, have had mountaintop moments of inspiration. In 1975, I left my homeland in the Deep South and moved to Asheville. Near that vibrant North Carolina city, I ascended Mt. Pisgah, which had been named after the biblical peak from which Moses glimpsed the promised land.

During my 5-year season in Asheville, I attempted to start a newspaper, which we named The Eagle. On the masthead was printed a line from Denver’s song: “. . . though he would be a poor man if he never saw an eagle fly.”

The newspaper didn’t pan out. But at least, I won't be a poor man. haha!. We saw our Eagle fly for a few issues. . . I suppose, just for the experience of it. The learning experience was worth the effort. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, eh? Now I write novels and blogs. Go figure.

But soon after that, I was given, thanks to Tom Behrens, access to a Nashville sound studio. Among the eleven songs that I managed to record there, Mountaintop was my tribute to Moses and to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  The song was included in my 1977 album, Something for Everyone, Songs of Rowland.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hQNMr0A48

This tribute song and five others can also be heard on Spotify: 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hP0FJaURz0jJ3zRIrHHsu

http://www.careyrowland.com 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

RIP: Republican Party

Well, it was a good run, while it lasted, for 170 years.

 The Republican party, founded by Abe Lincoln and an alliance of anti-slavery ex-Whigs and Free Soilers, was founded in 1860. But now, in 2024, it has ceased to exist.

Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, became the first Republican President. His principal duty during those Civil War years was to preserve the Union and to eliminate the practice of slavery in the rebel states of the South. During that war, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, setting free the slaves. He then promoted the 13th Amendment, which Constitutionally abolished slavery.

Lincoln Dedication

After Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, Ulysses S. Grant served as the second Republican President.

Other Republican presidents followed in later years:

 Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush.

The last Republican president was donald trump. When his term was terminated by American voters in 2020, he concluded his term in office by mounting an insurrection against the US Congress on January 6, 2021, thus disqualifying himself, as per the 14th Amendment, Section 3, from ever holding the office again.

Insurrection

During the three years following his term in office, donald trump has absconded the Republican party, terminating the GOP’s traditional role as defender of the Constitution, destroying the party’s historical emphasis on the rule of Law. 

donald trump’s Make America Go Astray (MAGA) rebel faction absconded the Republican party in 2016. Since that time, the main purpose of the MAGA has been to assist donald trump is his campaign to establish his identity as the most obnoxious jerk to ever occupy the oval office. For that role, he has earned his place in the history books. 

Glass half-Full 

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Supreme Court foot-dragging

 We the People have Federal Justice Department that acts on our behalf to protect us from criminal activity.

On January 6, 2021, the outgoing President summoned a destructive mob to attack our U.S. Representatives and Senators as they were preparing to count votes. In so doing, donald trump was attempting to steal the election so that he could continue his occupancy of the White House.

The former president's attempt to steal the election is a crime that is now being indicted by our US Justice Department. A special prosecutor, Jack Smith, has been appointed to raise the charges against trump. 

In trump's attempt to delay the trial, his lawyers dreamed up a fantasy defense that he was somehow immune from prosecution just because he was a president. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, after hearing arguments, that trump is not immune from prosecution that would hold him accountable for his attempt to steal the election.

Now, our US Supreme Court has decided to render a judgement on the DC Circuit Court's decision to deny trump's so-called "immunity."

SupCourt

If  our US Supreme Court unmasks itself as a delay-inducing institution whose revised purpose is to enable trump's purloined hegemony over our government. . . then loyal American patriots may find it necessary to storm the Supreme Court while it is in session, in a manner similar to the trump-magas attempted occupation of our Congress on January 6, 2021.

WillBeWild

Let us hope that our Supreme Justices decide to do their duty in a timely manner. The Court must thereby allow our Peoples' prosecution of the chief insurrectionist in a timely manner, especially since the question of trump's fantasy "immunity" has already been settled. 

We the People need to have all the facts of trump's Jan6 attempted coup--we need those facts to be public-- as we prepare to vote in November.

Glass half-Full

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Mactrumph, a play

 A tragedy by Willem Shakespurs

Act 1, Scene 1,  whereupon Mactrumph and Bankeroo, at a swamp near Ovalhovel, happen upon the three weird magas, November 2020,  Thunder. Enter the three weird magas.

Magahags

Hag Eastman: This election shall be tempest-toss’d. Oh, look what I have, a magaplot, fully loaded for insurrection. But hark! a drum, a dumdum  drum! Mactrumph doth come!

.Enter Mactrumph and Bankeroo.

Mactrumph: So foul an affair I have not yet seen. But lookee here, who might this be? 

Hag Rudy: All hail, Mactrumph, thane of N’York!

Hag Bannon: All hail, Mactrumph, bane of AtlanticCity!

Hag Eastman: All hail, Mactrumph, who shall be KING hereafter!

Mactrumph: excited, Stay! you rowdy speakers, tell me more!

Hag Eastman: Double, double, toil and trouble, election will turn and cauldron will bubble!

Hag Bannon: Mactrumph shall ever powerful be, when maga hoods shall move against congress’ game!

Hag Rudy: Mactrumph shall ever POTUS be, ’til Judges’ gavels shall Mactrumph’s game unravel!

To be discontinued. . .

Glass half-Full

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Let America Be Good Again

 Hey, y’all listen up.

“I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in; I was naked and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and you didn't bother to visit me.”

Jesus Christ

“When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of you?”

Then he will answer them, “I’m not kidding, y’all. To the extent that you didn’t do it for one of these, the least of my people, you didn’t do it for me.” 

Let 'em in, y'all. Your paranoia is poisoning your once-great democratic republic. Let 'em in--the humble masses are yearning to be free!

And if that wasn’t enough, he said. . . “I bless those of you who are poor in spirit, who are humble; I bless you who are gentle; you will inherit the earth (while the magamaniacs are trying to take it over by force, by playing their riotous trump cards.)

The strangers are not poisoning your blood. They are bringing in new blood, as your forefathers did.

I bless those of you who hunger for things to be done righteously. I bless you who are merciful—I will show y’all mercy (when your time comes.)

Not only that, but I will bless you who are pure in your motives and your intentions.

I will bless you who make peace; ( really, you are my people.)

Yep, that’s it; that’s the bottom line: 

Blessed are the Peacemakers!

King of Soul

Sunday, February 11, 2024

The Court's Avoidance of Duty

January 6, 2021: You’ve heard of that day, right?

If you haven’t heard about what happened on that day, you must have been on a desert island somewhere, or perhaps sleeping in a hayloft while the little foxes were out in the barnyard trying to spoil the vines and get drunk on the grapes of wrath. 

Seriously, though . . .

  On that historic day, our former Vice President, Mike Pence, saved our Republic from what might have been a fatal attack. He acted alone, very bravely, in his persistence to perform his Constitutional duty: to assure us— the American people— that our Electoral votes would be properly counted, to determine who would be our President during 2021-2024.

On that fateful day, Vice President Pence’s dutiful action seemed to be a singularly solitary decision. But we later learned—thanks to the US House Special January6 Committee—that Mike had some help. He had help from God.

You think I’m kidding? I’m not kidding, y’all. Here’s how it happened. For one thing . . . Greg Jacob, Pence’s assistant, was seeking divine wisdom when he turned to the Bible for some guidance. He later testified that, in that hour of extreme danger, hidden with Pence and others beneath the Capitol. . . he was reading, in the Old Testament, about the ancient prophet, Daniel, who had endured a similar test in his role as advisor to an ancient emperor. (See Daniel chapter 6.)

Meanwhile, in tense those moments, our Vice President made two very important phone calls. He called former Vice President Dan Quayle for advice. He also called Judge Michael Luttig. 

Today, February 11, 2024, I listened to Michael Popok’s  interview with Judge Luttig. They were discussing a new case—the 14th-amendment “insurrection” case that is currently before our Supreme Court.

Luttig

If you are a citizen of these United States, I recommend that you listen to this interview on YouTube, or, as the saying is these days, “wherever you get your podcasts.”

In their discussion, Judge Luttig calls Section 3 of the 14th Amendment “the Constitutional safety net for American democracy.”

Hear the Judge explain the importance of that “safety net”:

Popok and Luttig

Judge Luttig's explanation clarifies the present controversies surrounding Section 3 of the 14th Amendment . . . better than any other explanation that you may hear anywhere. 

But hey, there was a constructive development in another Washington court last week: the decision by the DC Circuit Appeals Court, 3-Judge panel, that donald trump—like any other citizen— has no immunity against criminal indictment and conviction. Popok and Luttig also discuss that decision, which enables Prosecutor Jack Smith to proceed in his insurrection case against trump in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s DC Circuit court.

If, however, you are weary of all these legal perplexities, perhaps you will find some amusement in the song I composed when Justice Kavanaugh was being nominated, a few years ago, by the Senate Judiciary Committee: 

Ballad of Brett and Blasey

Glass half-Full 

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Federal Election Consistency

 Our US Constitution states the following words in the 14th Amendment, Section 3, to whit:

"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold an office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemiesthereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

Like any dutiful American who is fortunate enough to have some time to comprehend a Supreme Court live argument, I listened to one today. 

SupCourt

It’s not every day that we have the privilege of eavesdropping on decisions of such national importance. But thanks to Ben Meiselas on YouTube, I was able to drop in, aurally. I stumbled upon it suddenly. Unexpectedly, there it was.  Sounds of lawyerly arguments and Judicial questioning were intersecting with my brain waves as I retrieved my Constitution for reference. 

Constitution

I will not attempt to explain what I heard, except that I did hear the voice of every Justice as they posed questions for the two lawyers.

As usual in this scenario, any comprehension of what I thought were the main issues was eclipsed by the complexity of legal fine points and references to previous Court decisions. 

When the Court concluded their session, Ben Meiselas returned on my laptop screen with a few comments, including his assessment that the Court would decide against  Colorado’s decision to remove trump from the ballot.

And I must say that I would, in that case, agree with the Court, even though I, and so many of us Americans are doing everything we can to keep trump out of the White House.

As an American citizen who takes every opportunity to vote in elections, I do believe that all of our States should have identical candidate choices in Federal elections. 

I fully agree with all my compatriots across the nation who are making every effort to see trump suffer extreme punishments for the insurrection that he provoked on January 6, 2021.

But I also believe that, in any election in which a President is being elected, the candidate choices should be the same in every state.

So, in that respect, a Supreme Court decision that assures consistency in all states’ ballots is of a higher order than other ballot considerations.

As for donald trump suffering the penalties of his crimes, that will have to be decided by the Judges and/or Juries who are hearing  prosecutions by Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Letitia James and their legal teams.

"Let Justice roll like the waters, and Righteousness like a mighty stream!" (saith the ancient biblical prophet, Amos)

Glass half-Full