This and That

Every time I look into the Holy Book, I wanna tremble.
When I read about the part where the carpenter cleared the temple.
For the buyers and the sellers, were no different fellers,
Then what I profess to be.
And it causes me shame to know we’re not the people we should be.

Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water.
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea.
Take a look at yourself and you can look at others differently,
By puttin’ your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.

Put Your Hand in the Hand  -  Ocean  (1971)
Covered by Anne Murray (she actually recorded it first), Elvis Presley, Joan Baez and Loretta Lynn amongst others

…..

Here’s another missive with multiple topics. Based on the feedback y’all give me, you seem to like these anyway. Besides, it’s hard in today’s world to talk about just one thing because so much is interconnected. There may be a few items here about which you have not heard.

Christian Nationalists: Democratic strategist James Carville recently said on TV that “Christian Nationalists” were the greatest threat to America today, considerably more than Islamic terror. He is not alone. This new term is showing up on lots of “mainstream” leftist media outlets with many echoing Carville’s warning. This is a convenient new object of leftist hatred. There are already “White Nationalists” (white Republicans and independents) and “Zionists” (non-leftist jews) but with the word “Christian,” you can conveniently sweep in blacks and Asians and anyone else who believes in Jesus, as enemies of the state.  

If this were truly a thing, I think the “Christian Nationalists” are doing a pretty bad job at being much of a threat. The percentage of people in America self-identifying as Christian has been dropping dramatically for decades as has church attendance. Atheism and other forms of disbelief in God, however, are on the rise.

Although I wouldn’t use the term as he does, in my opinion, much of the cause of America’s societal ills today are that we are not the Christian nation that we used to be. We need more Judeo-Christian believers and ethics. Not less.

James Carville is not a wing nut. He is a mainstream Democrat and a very influential one. If this is where they really are, I don’t see how there can be any reconciliation between left and right in the near future.

Graphite: You probably do not think much about graphite. Why would you? But it is an essential ingredient to make Lithium batteries that are in EVs and other electronics. It is needed in large quantities. China controls 90% of this material worldwide. They just announced that they are going to restrict exports. We should not be so dependent on any one country for materials that are needed in so many components of the economy. The green leftists should either get off the EV mandate or allow mining for these materials in North America. Of course, they will do neither. The environment and the economy will both suffer.

Martin Niemoller: For those of you not familiar with the name, Niemoller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany. He opposed Hitler’s efforts to bring the church under Nazi control and was imprisoned in Dachau and other concentrations camps but survived the war.  After the war, he made this famous statement:

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

I see the Biden “justice” department (the quotation marks are intentional) investigating, charging and imprisoning many Americans for political reasons and not for actual crime. If I may adjust Niemoller’s statement for present day America:

“First they came for the people in red hats and I didn’t wear a red hat so I did not speak out. Then they came for parents at school board meetings and I was not a school-age parent so I did not speak out. Then they came for Catholics in churches opposing abortion and I was not a Catholic so I did not speak out. Then when they came for me….”

California Deficit: For over a year now, I have warned that California’s surpluses would become deficits as spending increased and revenue moved out of state or just vanished. The official projection for the next fiscal year is now a $68 Billion deficit. That’s big. Much more than the rainy-day fund. Projections are that these deficit levels will continue for several years, even without a recession. What will California’s one-party government do? Tax increases will encourage more out-migration which is where a lot of the revenue problem lies. But they love spending in Sacramento. And unlike the Feds, they can’t print money. I don’t know what they will do. Neither do they.

Can you see my crocodile tears?

“Elite Universities”: So “Kill the Jews” is OK to shout out but if you call someone by a pronoun other than their preferred pronoun you can be kicked out of school for hate speech. I am not making this up. That is Harvard’s policy at present. The current president of Harvard also has plagiarism and number of other problematic issues in her past which have been papered over because she is black and a leftist. Yet, the board at Harvard decided to agree with over 700 faculty members and keep her on the job. The Marxist rot in these universities is deep and wide and will require much effort and time to correct. In the meantime, I would not send anyone to any of these universities or hire anyone from who attended there.

The one good thing this has done, is expose that the left is not “anti-racist” or anything of the sort. They used to support women’s sports but now allow men to play thereby eliminating women’s sports. They said “believe all women,” until women accused Democrats of abuse and then those women are to be destroyed. There is no consistency in any of their positions. They are about authoritarian control and replacing western culture with Marxist culture. They will jail or remove anyone that says something they don’t like but will protect even the most heinous actions as long as those actions support leftism. These universities have been engines of innovation and growth in our meritocratic nation since its founding. Now they have become agents of Marxism, discrimination and decline.

House GOP: Kevin McCarthy and Patrick McHenry are leaving. I know them both well. Rumors are that there will be more. People don’t leave at the peak of their careers for no reason. I watched a bunch of Dems do this in the run up to 2022. They left because they thought they would lose the majority in the upcoming election. They were right. These Republicans, I suspect, also believe that the House GOP will lose the majority in 2024 and that the caucus will be run by Trump acolytes in the time ahead.  As traditional conservatives, they don’t like either of those things. There can also always be a tempting private sector job offer out there.

Kamala Harris: Remember her? She’s apparently still Vice President although it’s hard to be sure. But she has recently been talking about a serious and major epidemic in America – Climate Anxiety. I am not making this up. Apparently, it ranks up there with being addressed by the wrong pronoun in the sphere of public health crises. It’s a good thing she is focused on this instead of those minor things like drug use and fentanyl deaths and teen suicide and crime and murders.

Guyana: Like graphite, this is probably not a word you think about much. But it is a country in South America with a lot of oil that happens to be next to Venezuela. Venezuela is planning to take over part of it. The part with the oil of course. How come all these aggressive moves by unfriendly countries have been going on so frequently since Joe Biden became president? Any correlation?

Debate: Some of you have asked why I did not comment on the last GOP debate. I did watch it. But we are not learning much from these debates anymore. DeSantis is the most capable governor in America but not very charismatic. Haley is a traditional conservative trying to distance herself on gender and policy. Ramaswamy is an acerbic and unlikable blowhard who is smart and does say things that need to be said. Christie is good at debates and is there to try to keep Trump from being the nominee. I’m not sure any more debates will change any of that. And of course, DJ Trump still leads massively in every state and these debates may move the numbers around below him but thus far haven’t put a dent in his lead.

The song at the top of this blog reached number two on the Billboard Pop chart in 1971. The number one song was Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World.” Ocean’s version was in the top 10 for seven weeks, which was a long run back in those days. That’s the Pop chart, not the gospel chart. Can you imagine a song with these lyrics being number two on the Pop charts today? On the Country charts, it happens a lot. (In his song “This is Country Music,” Brad Paisley points out that you are not supposed to be “tellin’ folks Jesus is the answer,” but in “country music, we do”) But not the pop charts today. Again, we Christian nationalists are not doing a very good job.

I Remain Respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast & Live Free