In the Absence of Truth, Bullshit Prevails

       In the words of DMX, "In the absence of truth, bullshit prevails."  Such is the case when the AG meets with the spouse of Hillary Clinton, even as she is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.  Also, Citizen Kane has yet to remark on the extraordinary decision of King's Bench, in which they struck down a Texas law holding abortion clinics to the same standards as other medical clinics.  So much for, "Safe, legal, and rare."  One out of three ain't bad, eh Bill?
        The problem is that modern politicians are indifferent to the truth.  Loretta Lynch is indifferent to the truth.  Hillary Clinton is indifferent to the truth.  The Supreme Court is not only indifferent to the truth, but also to the Constitution.  Donald Trump has proven that he is indifferent to the truth.
        How will anything ever get better in this country as long as those who govern us tell us what benefits them instead of the truth?  The truth is often said to be offensive to the ear.  Those who tell the truth are becoming fewer and fewer in this country.

Appeal to the Delegates

       Estase has been trying to get the attention of Republican primary voters since last July.  Now he is addressing the Delegates to the Convention.  Since my first post ("Price?  No Man Can Say"), proceeding through early posts ("The Trump Narrenschiff" and "Citizen Kane and the Constitutional Crisis"), and concluding with "The Trump Narrenschiff, Part Two," "Fear and Stasis," and "Fear and Stasis, Part Two."  The point of these blogposts has been to make four basic points.

                       I.  Trump shows no signs of being a conservative.  His record includes support for gay marriage, socialized medicine, abortion and gun control.  Any alteration of these historic Trump stances can be explained as political posturing.  Trump has personally supported liberal causes, giving money to the Clintons and Chuck Schumer.  Trump personally invited the Clintons to his last wedding, raising the very real possibility that this whole candidacy was a favor to Hillary Clinton.
                    II.  Trump is out of his depth.  Trump's positions are bumper-sticker slogans.  He has no political experience.  His promises include things that may not even be legal, like banning Muslims from entering the country;  or things that are absurd, like jailing women for having abortions.  Donald Trump appeals to Michael Savage because he has run a shock-jock campaign for president, where being abrasive and extreme has been seen as some kind of a virtue.
                   III.  Trump is dishonest.  Donald Trump made crazy charges about Ted Cruz having multiple mistresses and Rafael Cruz assassinating JFK.  He went from admitting Cruz was legally qualified to run for president to endorsing Lawrence Tribe's claim he was not.  Trump is a chronic womanizer.  Anyone who has practiced so much dishonesty in his life and in this campaign is not fit to hold high office.
                   IV.  Trump is incapable of being elected.  A candidate who has insulted Hispanics, Jews, Catholics and women is bound to be unpopular.  When that candidate only succeeded in garnering 39% of primary votes, how is he capable of winning a general election?

       If you are a Delegate, and are reading this, you are the last line of defense between Republicans continuing to exist as a reputable party, and being forever branded as George Wallace-style knuckledraggers.  I'm not even just worried about who wins the 2016 Presidential Race (although it's important).  Donald Trump being the Republican candidate for 2016 means the end of the Republican party representing optimistic conservatism and limited government.  He represents a radical break with everything Republicans have stood for since the days of Charles Sumner and Abraham Lincoln.  You cannot let this man destroy what so many have fought for.

Neither Here Nor There

    Not content to insult Hispanics and Muslims, or to have surrogates like Ann Coulter insult Jews and Catholics, Citizen Kane has now attacked Orson Welles.  You've got it folks, art reverses life.  The egotistical one apparently describes the man who depicted him several years before his birth as a brilliant wastrel.
       This election cycle has been too bizarre for words up to now, and it doesn't seem to be getting any more normal.  A longtime Democrat, and friend of the Clintons and Chuck Schumer with mob ties has somehow finagled his way into being the likely candidate of the Republican party through a mixture of cynical manipulation and gullible primary voters.  Estase isn't egotistical enough to think the Donald knows about the guerilla war he has been staging against his candidacy.  So it's really just a weird coincidence that Citizen Kane even mentioned Orson Welles.  Just like it's really a weird coincidence that a radical Muslim shot up a gay nightclub last weekend.

U.S. Army Promotes Movie

       Everybody knows the Obama Administration is in thick with the entertainment industry.  (Bought a DVD lately?  Notice that they created an office, complete with scary-looking emblem, devoted solely to movie piracy?)  In 2008, every entertainer from Neil Young to Henry Winkler was boosting a relatively unknown Illinois Senator as the nation's salvation.  Obama is said to have sent personal text messages to Scarlett Johansson.  (And any look at Michelle will tell you why.)  Other than Wall Street fat cats, Hollywood provides the lion's share of funding for liberal causes.
       Even in light of the incestuous relationship between Democrats and Hollywood, it was still shocking to see an Army recruiting commercial that was mostly a plug for the new Independence Day sequel.  How is it that a U.S. military that skimps on weapons and stopped feeding troops hot breakfasts now has the money to shill for Hollywood?  The advertisement in question says nothing about actual service in the real U.S. Army, but focuses on a make-believe force defending Earth from aliens.  You know, if what Oh Blah Blah meant when he promised to fundamentally transform America was letting men in women's restrooms, forcing nuns to buy abortion drugs for their employees, and using the Pentagon budget to get everyone to see a movie, I can safely say that Estase isn't feeling the change.

A Time for Stoicism

       With regards to Lil' Sweet, the character used to sell Diet Dr. Pepper ("Awesome Adverts"), it seems I may have spoken too soon.  The other day, Estase saw a brand-new Lil' Sweet commercial.  In a world where people still impersonate Elvis Presley forty years after his death, perhaps a Prince-inspired character still makes sense after the death of the Purple One.
       This is a shout-out to the voters of Indiana:  we Illinoisans can feel better about our bad electoral choices now that you chose a womanizing liberal liar who favors socialized medicine over Ted Cruz.  Smooth move, Ex Lax.  
        This is a time for Stoicism.  It seems almost inevitable that whoever is our next president, they will be a disaster.  What is beyond our control is nothing that should disturb us.  Cicero managed to be content even as he was exiled, even as he saw a tyrant destroy the Roman Republic.  One's own morality and excellence are all that we have control over.  To be concerned with anything we can't do anything about is a recipe for unhappiness.  
       Human curiosity, however, impels one to ask why otherwise rational commentators have gone on the Trump bandwagon.   Why does Michael Savage live in San Francisco, ground central for liberal craziness?  So he never runs out of material.  Why does Michael Savage support Citizen Kane, when it's clear he's not a conservative;   and even were he a conservative, he has no way of defeating Hillary Clinton given his habit of insulting entire groups of people?   Because Hillary Clinton being the next president of the United States is good business for someone whose job is castigating liberals.  Think of all the groups Trumpsters have insulted--Muslims, Hispanics, Jews, Catholics.  What are the chances in a general election for someone who has alienated most of the country?  Estase has been in Facebook exchanges with people who called him a liberal and promised to deport him as soon as Citizen Kane is elected.  Some of the die-hard Trump supporters clearly aren't playing with a full deck.  People who wear tinfoil hats aren't an important voting bloc.

Abuses of the Court Party

       "The very desire of that body to have such a trust contrary to law reposed in them, shews that they are not worthy of it.  They certainly will abuse it;  because all men possessed of an uncontrouled discretionary power leading to the aggrandisement and profit of their own body have always abused it:  and I see no particular sanctity in our times, that is at all likely, by a miraculous operation, to overrule the course of nature. . . .Whoever has taken a careful view of public proceedings, so as to endeavour to ground his speculations on his experience, must have observed how prodigiously greater the power of the Ministry is in the first and last session of a Parliament, than it is in the intermediary periods, when Members sit a little firm on their seats. . . .It is no inconsiderable part of wisdom, to know how much of an evil ought to be tolerated;  lest, by attempting a degree of purity impracticable in degenerate times and manners, instead of cutting off the subsisting ill practices, new corruptions might be produced for the concealment and security of the old.  It were better, undoubtedly, that no influence at all could affect the mind of a Member of Parliament.  But of all modes of influence, in my opinion, a place under the Government is the least disgraceful to the man who holds it, and by far the most safe to the country.  I would not shut out that sort of influence which is open and visible, which is connected with the dignity and the service of the State, when it is not in my power to prevent the influence of contracts, of subscriptions, of direct bribery, and those innumerable methods of clandestine corruption, which are abundantly in the hands of the Court, and which will be applied as long as these means of corruption, and the disposition to be corrupted, have existence amongst us."  Edmund Burke Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, pgs. 66, 75, 77.

Champion of the Discontented

       "But an addressing House of Commons, and a petitioning nation;  an House of Commons full of confidence, when the nation is plunged in despair;  in the utmost harmony with Ministers, whom the people regard with the utmost abhorrence;  who vote thanks, when the public opinion calls upon them for impeachments;  who are eager to grant, when the general voice demands account;  who, in all disputes between the people and Administration, presume against the people;  who punish their disorders, but refuse even to inquire into the provocations to them;  this is an unnatural, a monstrous state of things in this constitution. . . .I will not believe, what no other man living believes, that Mr. Wilkes was punished for the indecency of his publications, or the impiety of his ransacked closet.  If he had fallen in a common slaughter of libellers and blasphemers, I could well believe that nothing more was meant than was pretended.  But when I see, that, for years together, full as impious, and perhaps more dangerous writings to religion, and virtue, and order, have not been punished, nor their authors discountenanced;  that the most audacious libels on Royal Majesty have passed without notice;  that the most treasonable invectives against the laws, liberties, and constitution of the country, have not met with the slightest animadversion;  I must consider this as a shocking and shameless pretence.  Never did an envenomed scurrility against everything sacred and civil, public and private, rage through the kingdom with such a furious and unbridled licence.  All this while the peace of the nation must be shaken, to ruin one libeller, and to tear from the populace a single favourite."  Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, pgs. 53, 59-60

Awesome Adverts

       Estase has railed against offensive television advertisements.  So it behooves him to give credit where credit is due.  The death of Prince will be mourned by music enthusiasts everywhere, but will also be mourned by those of us who loved Lil' Sweet, the Prince avatar used to sell Diet Dr. Pepper.   These commercials were funny to all of us old enough to remember Prince's heyday.
        Geico Insurance has the best ad agency in America.  Geico's ads are funny and/or cute.  The people at Progressive Insurance, however, are being robbed.  Progressive Insurance has annoying, stupid ads.  The pig on the zip line was genius, as was the swipe at Alec Baldwin where the pig is on an airliner, and is told to put away his phone.  Bravo!
        A company called Slack has created an adorable commercial involving anthropomorphic animals at work.  Estase hopes they air the heck out of this ad.  In a world where vulgarity and gross-outs are commonplace, some ad agencies keep it clean and funny.  Rest in peace, Lil' Sweet.

Bible Inscription

George Faris was born July one {17}76
George Faris was born July the 26, 1770
George Faris was born July the 16, 1721

John C. Hollister his Bible presant from his stepfather the above

John C. Mallis son of Benjamin Hollister and Elizabeth his wife was born in the year of our Lord 1803 April the 4th

Molly Fisher daughter of Jacob Fisher Viletty his wife was born in the year of Lord 1807 January the 7th

                                                  MDCCXCIII
                                                           1793


If you have any information about the family referenced in this inscription, kindly leave a message.

Fear and Stasis, Part Two

      There are several points of comparison between the pissed off British electorate of 1770 that inspired Edmund Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents and the segment of the American public who find Citizen Kane attractive.  The British rogue John Wilkes was the Donald Trump of his day.  His damning sin was bucking the Earl of Bute, but what he was denied Parliament for was his insult to George III in North Briton #45.  The first time Wilkes was denied his seat, the Middlesex electors were at least allowed to elect a replacement.  The second time, the ministry named a Colonel Luttrell to fill Wilkes' spot.
       The grievances of the British in 1770 were the weak legislature caused by an intrusive executive power (namely, Lord Bute and the Court faction), the fact that competent leaders were unwilling to enter office because of the undermining of ministries (as happened with Pitt the elder and Lord Rockingham), and a public feeling that the executive was overwhelming the legislature.
       The grievances of the Trump faction today are similar.  They include a pushover Congress that does everything the President asks, Congressional leaders who are scapegoats for executive programs, and a public uninterested in empowering Congress.
        The problem with the backers of Citizen Kane is that they want to deal with an emasculated Congress, not by restoring the proper functions of Congress (e.g. by returning to actual budgets, rather than continuing resolutions;  an end to finances being designed in the White House), but by replacing one autocratic President with another autocratic President.   Two years ago, Estase was lamenting the nomination of Sci-Fi Bruce Rauner for Illinois governor.  Estase felt that Rauner's position on abortion was unacceptable, and that Rauner basically wanted to enter public life as a rich man's hobby.  Citizen Kane is forty times worse than Bruce Rauner.  Virtually no position Trump takes is based on facts, reflection or experience.  Limited government and constitutionalism are meaningless to him.  All Trump promises to be is a different type of autocrat.  His ego is so out of proportion to what he is that it is not saying too much to call him a meglomaniac.   His history as a liberal is too well-established for any person to take him as anything other than a Democratic plant.   He refuses to rule out a third-party candidacy, yet another sign that his intention is not to defeat Hillary Clinton, but to split the vote to ensure her election.  Why Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh defend Trump defies logic.  It probably will damage the Republican brand forever if a xenophobic authoritarian enters office as a Republican.  So, unlike the British in 1770, there exists today in America discontent, but a strange, incoherent discontent that aims to remedy a disorder by the same disorder.

The Discipline of Confusion

     "A sullen gloom, and furious disorder, prevail by fits:  the nation loses its relish for peace and prosperity, as it did in that season of fullness which opened our troubles in the time of Charles the First.  A species of men to whom a state of order would become a sentence of obscurity, are nourished into a dangerous magnitude by the heat of intestine disturbances;  and it is no wonder that, by a sort of sinister piety, they cherish, in their turn, the disorders which are the parents of all their consequence.  Superficial observers consider such persons as the cause of the public uneasiness, when, in truth, they are nothing more than the effect of it. . . .One mob is hired to destroy another;  a procedure which at once encourages the boldness of the populace, and justly increases their discontent.  Men become pensioners of state on account of their abilities in the array of riot, and the discipline of confusion."  Edmund Burke Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents p.45

Fear and Stasis

      It is my conclusion that the Sturmabteilung (SA) has been resurrected, and now constitutes the Citizen Kane campaign.  Estase knows that Keith Olbermann really abused the whole Hitler-analogy thing with George W. Bush.  That being acknowledged, it is hard to think of a political campaign that features a candidate who obviously has not thought seriously about any topic whatsoever.  Nor can one think of a campaign that has encouraged its supporters to engage in violence on its behalf.  Citizen Kane actually offered to pay the legal bills of a man who sucker-punched a protester at a rally?  He keeps his campaign manager even as he's accused of battery himself?  In Weimar Germany, the street battles between the Communists and the Sturmabteilung were one of the signs that Germany was becoming a dangerous, uncivilized place.
       The racial opinions of Citizen Kane have been talked to death, so Estase won't belabor them.  His "platform" is a mishmash of half-thought-through platitudes.  This week's bizarre comments on abortion are not, as his campaign claims, a failure to properly communicate.  They are the result of Trump's utter lack of seriousness.  They are the result of a campaign that literally stands for nothing coherent.  They are pandering, an incoherent idea that someone who doesn't care one way or the other about abortion formulated because either 1)He actually supposes that abortion opponents want to jail women who've had abortions, or 2) He supports abortion, and is ironically making an absurd proposal as a kind of reductio ad absurdum argument for abortion.  People who have been reading Q.E.D. since my first post on the subject (Price?  No Man Can Say!) know which of these Estase prefers.  I believe that the Trump candidacy, from its very inception, is an elaborate ploy by Hillary Clinton to create a bogeyman whose positions are so extreme, and so unattractive, and yet so charismatic, as to draw attention away from legitimate conservatives.  The whole National Enquirer debacle, where the best candidate of the Republican field is derided as "Pervy Ted," who is accused of having multiple mistresses, is a perfect example.  Trump is attempting to destroy a legitimate conservative, not because he wants to be president, but because he wants Hillary Clinton elected president.  By the time Citizen Kane is done making preposterous, unhinged, arguably racist comments, the old harridan from Rose Law Firm will look like a moderate grown-up by comparison.

Blandinsville Boys Parole

       In the summer of 1862, when men responded to the second call of President Lincoln for 300,000 more troops to serve in the army to preserve the Union, about six full companies responded from McDonough county {ed.-Illinois}.  
       Two of these served in the 78th Ill., two in the 84th and two in the 124th.  One of these, Co. C of the 78th, was known as the "Blandinsville company," its members being largely composed of men from the northwest part of the county.  Many of the new regiments, the 78th among the rest, were hurried to Kentucky to repel the invasion of Bragg's army.  As the confederates fell back and the Louisville and Nashville railroad was repaired, the 78th was one of the regiments that was divided into one or more companies at a place to guard bridges and track against General John Morgan, who was busy with his army of raiders some 2,000 to 3,000 strong doing everything possible to tear up this only line of supply to the Union army, that then, under Rosecrans, was pursuing and driving Bragg out of the state.  Co. C was stationed at the bridge over "Rolling Fork;"  it was surrounded by Morgan's 'terrible men' and, finding resistance futile, surrendered.
       We give below the parole of the company and the oath the men took, not to take up arms against the Confederacy until properly exchanged.  It will be interesting reading to the younger generation, as it gives one feature of the history of the war little known;  it will interest older ones because they will remember the ones paroled, some of whom are yet living at Blandinsville and vicinity or in other locations.  Most of them, however, have crossed the river to futurity, some of them being killed in battle after their exchange.
       C.L. Spielman was captured with the rest of the boys but was overlooked in making the parole.  He was taken, along with two others, to Gen. Morgan in person, who ordered the three of them to be set at liberty.

                                              "Headquarters Army Ky.,
                                               Rolling Fork, Dec. 28, 1862
                          We the undersigned, belonging to the United States Army, having been taken prisoners by the Confederate States' forces under command of Gen. John H. Morgan, on condition of our being released on parole, do solemnly swear that we will not bear arms against the Confederate State or perform any military duty or aid or abet their enemies in any way whatsoever during the war until regularly exchanged under penalty of death, nor will we disclose anything that we have seen or heard in the Confederate States' army to its prejudice.
                                               Joel H. Jenks, Fifer
                                               Privates--Thos. Boyton, Marion Bond, Henry Carnes, Marshall Cline, Thos. Davis, Geo. Dowell, Wm. Freeland, John Forest, John Galbreth, John Green, John Gorham, Elisha Hamilton, James Huddleston, John Harmin, John Hainline, John W. James, W.E. James, Joseph H. Keithley, Perry Keithley, Silas Mesecher, Wm. Mesecher, F.T. Mayhugh, John Mayhugh, Laban Mayhugh, George Martin, Nathaniel Midcap, Josephus Marshall, W.F. McGee, John Monahan, Sylvester Ruddle, Peter B. Robbert, Henry Venning, John Rush, John Worley, A.J. Stafford, Jas. Welsh, Andrew Wilson, Jesse Warner, Henry Warner, John Woodside, Philip Chaffin, Michael Chaffin, Lewis Hendricks, Cyril Tift, Marion Sherry, Richard Terry, Wm. H. Duffield, F. P. Brown

                                                 I certify that the within named men, belonging to my company, have this day been regularly paroled, according to the cartel regulating the exchange of prisoners between the United States and the Confederate States.
                                                     Capt. CHARLES R. HUME
                                                      Co. C., 78th Regt. Ill. Vol.

From Blandinsville {IL} Star Gazette, 29 SPB 1910, pg. 6

Unmasking the Devil

       "But when a man's fancy gets astride on his reason;  when imagination is at cuffs with the senses, and common understanding, as well as common sense, is kicked out of doors;  the first proselyte he makes is himself;  and when that is once compassed, the difficulty is not so great in bringing over others;  a strong delusion always operating from without as vigorously as from within. . .And, first, with relation to the mind or understanding, 'tis manifest what mighty advantages fiction has over truth;  and the reason is just at our elbow, because imagination can build nobler scenes, and produce more wonderful revolutions than fortune or nature will be at expense to furnish. . .How fading and insipid do all objects accost us, that are not conveyed in the vehicle of delusion!  How shrunk is everything, as it appears in the glass of nature!  So that if it were not for the assistance of artificial mediums, false lights, refracted angles, varnish and tinsel, there would be a mighty level in the felicity and enjoyments of mortal men.  If this were seriously considered by the world, as I have a certain reason to suspect it hardly will, men would no longer reckon among their high points of wisdom, the art of exposing weak sides, and publishing infirmities;  an employment, in my opinion, neither better nor worse than that of unmasking, which, I think, has never been allowed fair usage, either in the world, or the play-house."  Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub (p.119)

Moloch

English and French Constitutions Compared

         "They {French revolutionists}measured their land, and divided it into equal geometrical departments, without the slightest regard to difference of soil or population, variety of manners, or diversity of temperament;  and in this Laputan state that great country still remains. . . .If for its associations, could not these Utilitarian legislators understand that, in destroying the associations that clung to the name of Brittany and Burgundy, they were destroying so many wholesome elements of vigorous and enduring government?  Their sentiment required that they should still dwell in Paris, beautiful and famous Paris.  Were they so blind as not to see that the outraged sympathy, which would have recoiled from styling the capital "the city of the Seine," was equally offended when the old dweller in Toraine found that he was suddenly transformed into an inhabitant of the department of the Loire? . . .In France, thanks to Equality and its crabbed fruits, there were no prejudices to shock;  but when we read of the sudden transplantation {by Louis XVIII} of institutions gradually established in the course of centuries by the phlegmatic experience of a Saxon people {i.e. England} into the most southern soils of Europe, the glittering and barbaric Sicilies, and a country which is the link between Europe and Africa, and which in the fertility of its soil, the temperature of its climate, and the character of its inhabitants, resembles Morocco more than England, we seem to be perusing the mad pages of a political novel poured forth by the wild and mystic genius of some inmate of a German University. . . .Are we never to learn that a Constitution, a real Constitution, is the creation of ages, not of a day, and that when we destroy such a Constitution we in fact destroy a nation? . . .The Constitution founded on the Sovereignty of the People has run even a shorter career than the Constitution founded on the Equality of Man:  one of the most gifted and civilised nations that ever existed is enthralled by an iron despotism;  the liberty of the press is utterly destroyed;  trial by jury virtually abrogated;  arbitrary imprisonment in daily practice;  the country covered with Bastiles, and the Bastiles crowded with State victims. . . .English equality calls upon the subject to aspire;  French equality summons him to abase himself.  In England the subject is invited to become an object of admiration or respect;  in France he is warned lest he become an object of envy or of ridicule.  The law of England has invested the subject with equality in order that, if entitled to eminence, he should rise superior to the mass.  The law of France has invested the subject with equality, on condition that he prevent the elevation of his fellow.  English equality blends every man's ambition with the perpetuity of the State;  French equality, which has reduced the subject into a mere individual, has degraded the State into a mere society.  English equality governs the subject by the united and mingled influences of reason and imagination and aspiring to reason, has, in reality, only resolved itself into a barren fantasy.  The Constitution of England is founded not only on a profound knowledge of human nature, but of human nature in England;  the political scheme of France originates not only in a profound ignorance of human nature in general, but of French human nature in particular;  thus in England, however vast and violent may be our revolutions, the Constitution ever becomes more firm and vigorous, while in France a riot oversets the government, and after half a century of political experiments one of the most intellectual of human races has succeeded in losing every attribute of a nation, and has sought refuge from anarchy in a despotism without lustre, which contradicts all its theories and violated all the principles for which it has ever affected to struggle."  Benjamin Disraeli, Vindication of the English Constitution (1835) 

Tory Manifestos, Part Three

       "But the republican model of the House of Russell was Venice;  of their plebian allies, Geneva.  The Peers, to reduce the power of the Crown, now supported by the great majority of the nation, called in the aid of the Puritans, and to obtain the aid of the Puritans attacked the Church:  the Puritans, to insure the destruction of the religious establishment, allied themselves with the Peers in their assault upon the King, whose office, apart from the ecclesiastical polity, they were inclined to respect, and even to reverence. . . .Their cry was, "Civil and Religious Freedom"--that is, a Doge and no Bishops:  advocating the liberty of the subject, the Peers would have established an oligarchy;  upholding toleration, the Puritans aimed at supremacy. . . .Instead of "swamping" the Tory House of Commons by a Septennial Act, they have moulded it to their use and fancy by a reconstruction which has secured a prepondering influence to their sectarian allies:  instead of restricting the royal prerogative in the creation of Peers, they have counselled its prodigal exercise;  but before they had only to confirm their power in the House of Lords, now they have to create their power. . . .The House of Commons remodelled, the House of Lords menaced, the King unconstitutionally controlled, the Church is next attacked, then the Corporations, and they do not conceal that the Magistracy is to be the next victim:  and the nation is thus mangled and torn to pieces, its most sacred feelings outraged, its most important interests destroyed, by a miserable minority arrogating to themselves the bewildering title of "the People," and achieving all this misery and misfortune, all this havoc and degradation, in the sacred name of liberty, and under the impudent pretence of advancing the great cause of popular amelioration, and securing the common good and general happiness."
                                           Benjamin Disraeli ,Vindication of the English Constitution                                                                             (1835)

Tory Manifestos, Part Two

       "The vast majority of the people is unrepresented and must ever be represented.  No Government of any form or frame can last without the existence of some irresponsible power in its structure, and if the House of Lords were rendered elective to-morrow, what is to check, what is to guard the people of England against the irresponsibility of the constituency and the Representatives of that constituency styled the House of Commons?. . . .But the Commons of England have exercised despotic power before this, and compared with their infamous tyranny {ed.--the Long/Rump Parliaments}the recollection of the rule of the stoutest tyrant that ever waved in this island a solitary sceptre is a dream of bliss.  Let us not, in God's name, try them again;  but if we are mad enough the Republic of jobbers will not last long.  Some brawny arm will soon be extended to 'take away this bauble.' . . .Never let us forget that the House of Commons, when they had got rid of the House of Lords, voted 'trial by Jury' a breach of privilege;  that they doubled the taxes of the country, and loaded it at the same time with enormous debts;  that they divided the public money openly among themselves;  bored men's tongues with red-hot irons who refused to answer their questions;  and sequestered the property and imprisoned the persons of all whom they styled, or chose to consider, malignants."  Benjamin Disraeli, Peers and People (1835)

The Trump Narrenschiff, Part Two

       Last week, a caller to The Savage Nation defended Oh Blah Blah and accused Michael Savage of practicing identity politics.  Imagine anyone at once defending Barack Obama, and at the same time accusing someone else of practicing identity politics.  The Obama administration is the final beneficiary of forty years of Afro-American Studies, Women's Studies, Chicano Studies, and Queer Studies.
       What's ironic, though, is that so is Citizen Kane.  Citizen Kane is the face of identity politics turned on its head.  Instead of rousing people to vote for someone to avenge their minority ethnic group, Donald Trump is the stereotypical closed-minded cracker.  Estase is of the opinion that it's all an act.  Citizen Kane is present to militate the Democratic faithful by creating an image that Republicans (despite the fact that Trump is a newcomer to that label) are on a mission to be the anti-Obama.  Trump is the "Fear and Stasis" candidate that Hillary can use to defeat the rest of the GOP candidates with, and then watch as he conveniently self-destructs by one last, inexcusable flub.
       Trump is an old friend of the Clintons.  He tried to hide a Twitter post where he bragged about voting for President Obama.  The fact that professional conservatives like Limbaugh and Levin think this guy is wonderful says nothing other than that they are incompetent.  They should yield their microphones to someone who actually has a clue.  Estase cannot recall an instance more emblematic of mass delusion in his life.  Ross Perot looked like a policy wonk compared to this egomaniac with bad hair.  Pat Buchanan looked like a squishy moderate compared to the shockingly inflammatory language Citizen Kane employs.

Citizen Kane and the Constitutional Crisis

       In the wake of an obvious terror attack in San Bernadino, CA, our Attorney General, Loretta "Worse than Holder" Lynch vows to infringe the First Amendment rights of Americans on behalf of Muslims.   Gee, it's not like Senate Republicans knew Loretta Lynch would ignore the law, or anything.  Loretta Lynch admitted she would ignore our current immigration laws during her confirmation hearings.  Her predecessor ignored DOMA and the federal narcotics laws by allowing states to ignore Federal laws banning marijuana.  Lawlessness is the defining characteristic of the Obama Justice Department.  Yes, the responsibility partly lies with the Obama Administration.  But if "Republican" Senators like Illinois' Mark Kirk would do their job of judicial oversight, the Obama Administration would not be so audacious in ignoring not only the statutory law, but even the Constitution itself.   There are three basic branches to the government, but current constitutional practice is turning the legislative branch into an irrelevance, and the judicial branch into a puppet of the executive branch.  As for the regulatory branch (e.g. EPA, etc.) the legislative branch has ceded so much of its involvement that the presidency is, in fact, becoming the liberal dream of an elected monarchy.
       Unfortunately, GOP front runner Donald Trump seems also to be totally on-board with the presidency being an elected monarchy.  One of the side effects of The Donald's having no knowledge of politics is that he has no political theory at all.  He doesn't know the Constitution from a hole in the ground, and thus he is not making an issue of how the balance of powers has been perverted in this country since 2001.   Citizen Kane is a total fraud who is taking advantage of how bland and boring his competition is.  If Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal had more stage presence, they might be on their way to the Oval Office.  We aren't electing a host for the Tonight Show, people.  Get a grip, and realize that a time of great national danger is no time for an amateur president.