…. On leadership.
“A ruler who is attending to lying words, All his ministers are wicked,” Proverbs 29:12.
We have a president who feeds on and broadcasts lies. It is no surprise, then, when his underlings also engage in lies.
As they say, everything rises and falls on leadership.
Given the current situation in our country, food for thought. The parallels are undeniable; what is troubling is that they primarily involve not a senator, but a sitting president.
9 March 1954, CBS studios, “Tonight See it Now” program, Edward R Murrow’s closing monologue:
“Senator McCarthy succeeded in proving that Reed Harris had once written a bad book, which the American people had proved twenty-two years ago by not buying it, which is what they eventually do with all bad ideas. As for Reed Harris, his resignation was accepted a month later with a letter of commendation. McCarthy claimed it as a victory.
“The Reed Harris hearing demonstrates one of the Senator's techniques. Twice he said the American Civil Liberties Union was listed as a subversive front. The Attorney General's list does not and has never listed the ACLU as subversive, nor does the FBI or any other federal government agency. And the American Civil Liberties Union holds in its files letters of commendation from President Truman, President Eisenhower, and General MacArthur.
“Now let us try to bring the McCarthy story a little more up to date. Two years ago Senator Benton of Connecticut accused McCarthy of apparent perjury, unethical practice, and perpetrating a hoax on the Senate. McCarthy sued for two million dollars. Last week he dropped the case, saying no one could be found who believed Benton's story. Several volunteers have come forward saying they believe it in its entirety.
“Today Senator McCarthy says he's going to get a lawyer and force the networks to give him time to reply to Adlai Stevenson's speech.
“Earlier, the Senator asked, ‘Upon what meat does this, our Caesar, feed?’ Had he looked three lines earlier in Shakespeare's Caesar, he would have found this line, which is not altogether inappropriate: ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’
“No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.
“This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
“The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully.
“Cassius was right. ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’
“Good night, and good luck.”
First, the attempt on Trump from a rooftop. Now the assassination of Charlie Kirk, also from a rooftop. Event security can no longer be fixated on ground level threats. In both of these instances, cellphone videos showed the attackers in rooftop positions before they attacked. Both would likely have been discovered before they were able to do anything if inexpensive drone technology had been leveraged. Ground level security is no longer sufficient at public events. It’s time to take to the skies for event security.
So we had yet another mass shooting on a military base, this one at Ft. Stewart. It brings to mind once again the unfulfilled promise made by Donald Trump TEN YEARS AGO to do away with so-called “gun free” zones in the US, including military bases, on his FIRST DAY IN OFFICE:
“I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools, and — you have to — and on military bases. My first day, it [the executive order - added] gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones,” Jan. 8, 2016, at a rally in Burlington, Vt.
Consider his remarks to the NRA Leadership Forum in Louisville, KY on May 1 the same year:
Each of the injuries and deaths that have occurred during his terms in office could possibly been prevented - that blood is on his hands.
Mr. President, finish the job. Fulfill your promise. Write and sign the executive order doing away with so-called “gun free” zones.
TRUMP EXPLICITLY STATES HE GAVE IRAN PERMISSION TO BOMB OUR BASE IN QATAR. HE SAYS EVERYONE WAS EVACUATED FROM THE BASE “EXCEPT THE GUNNERS, THAT’S WHAT THEY CALL THEM, THE GUNNERS.”
HE LEFT PEOPLE ON A BASE THAT WAS ABOUT TO BE ATTACKED AND HE WAS GOOD WITH IT, GAVE THE ATTACKERS PERMISSION TO ATTACK!!!
AND HIS SUPPORTERS ARE GOOD WITH THIS?!
He has released ai pictures portraying himself as a super hero, pope, and ripped sith lord, and he has compared himself to Jesus on multiple occasions.
And who can forget his digital trading card images?
This is how Trump sees himself - and how he wants the world to see him.
Paranoid, malignant narcissist with antisocial tendencies and delusions of grandeur - these pictures show it all. And now he believes he rules the world, “I run the country and the world,” Trump, April 28, 2025 interview with the Atlantic Magazine.
AND he has his finger on the button.
We are in SERIOUS TROUBLE.
I posted the following on Yahoo; it was rejected immediately by Yahoo censors. I appealed the rejection, it was reinstated. It was no sooner reinstated when it was again rejected, with an advisory from Yahoo that no further appeals would be allowed.
So I now post it here:
“When questioned who from Greenland invited the delegation, the president replied, ‘A lot of people ... people from Greenland are asking us to go there. We have many, many requests from many, many people, some officials too.’"Ok, we call his bluff. There is a record of every call, email, snail mail, telegram, smoke signal and talking drum received by the White House. On behalf of Americans everywhere, we demand that he produce the records of all the communications he supposedly received from Greenlanders inviting/begging him to send ANY delegation to Greenland or expressing a desire to become part of the USA.
