A Time for Truth

 

by

Gadfly

The title of this article is inspired by William Simon’s book, A Time for Truth, published in 1978.  In his Preface to the book, Milton Friedman observed, “The socialists and interventionists, who have wrongfully appropriated in this country the noble label ‘liberal’ and who have been the intellectual architects of our suicidal course, will suffer no severe personal injury—at least in the near future—if they fail to recognize the error of their ways.”

The book was a serious look at the state of America and the evolution of our political institutions in an apparent deliberate drift toward socialism.

I read A Time for Truth on a French troop train as an Air Force captain and fighter pilot with my wife enroute to Berlin in 1980.  Berlin was an occupied city in communist-controlled East Germany.  We had an opportunity to see and taste the stark contrast between socialism’s austerity and the American-led West’s prosperity.

That was 40 years ago.

A Domestic Enemy Hiding in Plain Sight 

           Now for a bold headline in the Air Force Magazine, dated December 22, 2020: “Brown: ‘Shame on Us’ if Military Diversity Efforts Falter.”  Brown is the Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Jr., who took command of the Air Force on August 6, 2020.  As a black officer, it seems ironic that his advancement to the very pinnacle of success in the Air Force is in stark prima facie contrast to his call for more diversity and inclusion.

              To justify his emotionally judgmental call for change, Brown uses as a springboard a recent Inspector General (IG) report that documents racial disparity based on some disciplinary statistics and anecdotal evidence.  The report provides two very important qualifiers.  First, the report does not complete a root cause analysis to understand factors contributing to the disparities (i.e., do most recruits come from inner cities that do suffer from systemic racism?).  Second, the report states: 

Finally, please note that the identification of racial disparity does not automatically mean racial bias or racism is present. This Review focused on the existence of racial disparity, but it did not specifically assess racial bias or individual acts of racism within the DAF, which may cumulatively contribute to racial disparity overall. Thousands of black service members and civilians reported experiencing issues ranging from bias to outright racial discrimination. These experiences indicate bias and isolated individual acts of racism may contribute to the racial disparities identified in this report (bold italics added for emphasis).    

What is wrong with this picture?  For decades now, the military has installed Equal Opportunity (EO) offices in all units.  They are required by law to collect, process, and adjudicate complaints of racial discrimination.  EO offices are also mandated to submit quarterly, semiannual, and annual reports.  The IG report mentioned above provides absolutely no data from decades of EO reporting.

Moreover, when the US Air Force Academy football coaches published on July 7, 2020 a video in support of Black Lives Matter and the Superintendent claimed systemic racism, I filed two Freedom of Information Act requests for: data on the number of racial discrimination complaints filed for the past 15 years, of those filed how many were validated, and of those validated what was the nature of discipline imposed.  Over five months later, I am still waiting for answers.     

Is it possible that facts do not support the narrative? 

More seriously, how does such a diversity narrative affect the cohesiveness of a fighting force? 

If blacks feel oppressed and whites are being shamed, how does that unify?  It does not.

Manning Johnson, a former American communist (who happened to be black and now deceased), bemoans how he was duped by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in his book, Color, Communism, and Common Sense (available here).  The thesis of his book, based on his lived experience, is that the Communist Party in America deliberately exploited black racism before the Civil Rights movement in the 60s.  The animus from perceived discrimination or oppression was easily weaponized. 

The Manning Johnson experience was not isolated.  One can easily visit the CPUSA website here to see the comprehensive and extensive involvement in American politics.  CPUSA has been in continuous existence since it was established in 1919.  As one can see from its website, it has successfully infiltrated and coopted America’s Democrat Party.  Its National Chair gave CPUSA credit for the successful 2018 midterm elections.  It is not yet known to what extent the CPUSA influenced the outcome of the 2020 election.    

Our institutions, to include our military, have been infiltrated by a dangerous ideology:  Critical Race Theory (CRT).  CRT derives from Critical Theory, advanced in the early 30s by scholars with the Frankfurt School.  Critical Theory puts an academic happy face on Marxism.

The Air Force’s affliction with ideology--and submission to a domestic enemy--is not an isolated case.

Knock It Off, Knock It Off, Knock It Off[1]

As we reach the end of the year, 2020 anno Domini (AD), it is a good time to reflect upon this particular year within America’s historical context.  This has been a troubling year for Americans, as well as the world, mostly stemming from ideology and actions imposed upon others by political elite.

Context

           Let us start with a brief discussion of time.  We are all aware of the passing of time, a concept that connects past with present realities and an anticipated future.  Time is an a priori concept:  we know it exists, yet we cannot prove it through mere observation of phenomena in a scientific sense.  For each of us, there is a beginning and an end—a finiteness of time.  Yet, our finite time is a subset of a larger set of phenomena that has no beginning and no end—the infinite unfolding of reality.

           History is a concept that involves the recording of observable past events with some analysis for meaningful explanations of motivations and implications related to events.  We link these events to a lineage of time based on a Gregorian calendar (named after Pope Gregory XIII).  My graduation diploma recorded my Bachelor of Science degree “. . . in witness whereof we have set our hands and fixed the seal of the United States Air Force Academy this sixth day of June in the Year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three.”  This background is important in realizing that two thousand and twenty years later, our historical timeline begins with the birth of Jesus Christ.

           One’s view of the world (epistemology) can influence how one observes reality and then processes it.  For example, a positivist makes no prejudgment about phenomena.  She observes it and then analyzes/evaluates data associated with a phenomenon to draw conclusions from it.  A positivist typically begins with a hunch (a “small t” theory) based on already being somewhat familiar with the phenomenon.  This is how Charles Darwin developed his seminal work, On the Origin of Species.[2]

           Then there are normativists who observe the world the way it ought to be, based on an adopted set of norms, and set about to make it so.  This view often involves denying tradition, rewriting history (such as The 1619 Project), or erasing history to make an imagined future possible.  This is what progressivism is all about.  Political elite, with a normative world view, impose ideology and corresponding values on others, even if it requires coercion, to progress toward utopia.

           The famous British scientist and atheist (and apparent normativist), Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion, implies Darwin was an atheist by quoting a passage from the first edition of The Origin of Species.  It is a powerful closure to Darwin’s research:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.

There are six editions of The Origin of Species.  In editions two through six, Darwin inserted “by the Creator” to say more clearly “. . . originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one . . ..”  For Dawkins, it appears acceptable to deceive the reader.  Moreover, if the idea that science is the discipline of knowing (i.e., “scio” is the Latin root verb meaning “to know”), then to imagine the possibility of an atheistic scientist seems oxymoronic.[3]  On the other hand, in his own book, The God Delusion, Dawkins does conclude from his tortured logic that “God almost certainly does not exist.”  This may explain why those with a normative worldview prefer ideology over truth.  They can choose what to believe, whether true or not.

           Human behavior is a challenge for scientists.  Unlike physical phenomena, such as weather, human beings have intention and motivation that influence actions (behavior).  Scientists can observe behavior, yet only infer motivation or intent; even asking a person what motivated her action assumes honesty in the response.  Of all the living creatures, only human beings possess the capacity to lie, which makes ethical and moral behavior a mixed bag.[4]  For example, a behavior may appear to be noble while the motivation is based on devious ulterior motive.

Truth versus Ideology

           Let us begin with definitions. 

Truth is “the body of real things, events, and facts: ACTUALITY.”

Ideology is “a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture.”

Ironically, many people treat ideology as if it is truth.  A good way to understand the difference is in Plato’s set analogy as depicted below:

Beliefs can be true or false.  Many beliefs are fictional, based on myth or folklore.  Only when a belief can be validated as truth does it become knowledge.  Thus, science is the pursuit of knowledge based on truth.  Yet, when truth is available in the form of data from EO reports, the myth of systemic racism is a preferred belief (ideology) because it better supports the power of political elite (even those in the military uniform[5]).

America’s Drift Away from God

The first half of the Twentieth Century involved major foreign wars—World War I, World War II, and Korea.  The latter two involved opponents characterized by godless ideologies--communism and fascism.  These ideologies contrasted with a very religious America. 

Ideology tends to conflict with faith in a supreme being.  In America, secular humanism (a “demigod” religion) now competes with traditional religion.  This accelerating trend appears to have begun around the 1960s symbolized by the US Supreme Court ruling in Engel v. Vitale, which claimed prayer in school was unconstitutional.

Satan has lieutenants working on his behalf.  Saul Alinsky, who dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer, trained or inspired many lieutenants, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  Mikey Weinstein, an Air Force Academy graduate, represents a campaign on behalf of the Aesopian Military Religious Freedom Foundation to liberate America’s military from religion. 

While many would have no interest in Engel v. Vitale and others would consider it trivial in the grand scheme of things, this one act changed conditions in a way that opened the door for socialism (as well-documented in Simon’s A time for Truth). 

To further develop this point, the following is an updated excerpt from my article, “Socialist Infiltration of America,” published August 9, 2019: 

Younger generations have not been taught any of socialism’s history.  Rather, the focus has been a new form of patriotism:  a progressive patriotism that looks toward a perfected future—utopia.  It is pure socialism.  Progressives have been successful in taking prayer out of schools and other public venues, facilitating a trend toward atheistic nihilism.  According to Gallup surveys, those affiliating with Judeo-Christian religions have decreased by well over 30% since 1956 (when 99% of those surveyed affiliated with Judeo-Christian religions).  Other surveys show similar declines in church membership, with Catholics showing the sharpest decrease (likely a result of the public narratives on abuse scandals—even though there are mitigating circumstances such as communist and homosexual infiltration as reported by Bella Dodd in her memoir, School of Darkness, and Enrique Rueda’s analysis of the homosexual political movement in The Homosexual Network:  Private Lives and Public Policy). These trends allow the state to increasingly fill in as the moral authority.

Karl Marx would be proud of socialism’s success in America.  Education has played a critical role.  In the Manifesto of the Communist Party, education is mentioned 68 times.  The Manifesto states: “All children will be educated in state establishments from the time when they can do without the first maternal care.”  Last year, Democrat-led Colorado approved funding for all-day kindergarten.  Nation-wide, teachers’ unions exercise tremendous power in classroom curricula, manipulating the composition of school boards, and funding political candidates.

Conclusion

As we approach a new year, it would be prudent to understand where we are as a Nation and to be prepared to surrender to its current drift or to resist it to restore the essence of what America was intended to be as a Constitutional Republic.  For those in America’s military in particular, to include its veterans, be prepared to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. . . . So help me God.” This truly is a time for truth.

 

---

[1] In a fighter training scenario, when circumstances are getting increasingly dangerous, at least one fighter pilot in the scenario is expected to call over the radio “knock it off, knock it off, knock it off” to reset the conditions.

[2] The complete title is The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.

[3] Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes for Health, was an atheist until the age of 26.  Then, to find justification for his atheism, Collins read C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.  According to Collins, this book shined a light on a reality beyond pure science and compelled his conversion to Christianity.

[4] For an excellent treatment of this topic, see Christian B. Miller, The Character Gap:  How Good Are We?

[5] For more on this theme, see my article, “A Praetorian Guard?”

Transformational Leaders and Christian Dissidents

by

Gadfly

           Most of mainstream media, Democrats, and others claim former Vice President Joe Biden is “the President-Elect.”  What does this mean? 

The left and anti-Trumpers claim the contest is over.  Biden won; Trump lost. 

Yet, none of the 50 States have “certified” voting results.  The Electoral College has yet to meet, which is the ultimate milestone to determine which candidate scored 270 or more votes.

           Trump has yet to “concede” the contest.  Biden calls this refusal “an embarrassment.”  Of course, tough guy Biden, who wants the mantel of President, does not mind the use of bullying tactics.  As much as one may despise the President of the United States, telling him to “shut up” or calling him “a clown” during a nationally-televised presidential debate does not sound presidential.  Feelings of contempt are difficult to hide, even during a nationally televised debate. 

And lest we forget, Biden was part of a January 5, 2017 meeting in the Oval Office with President Obama when they (led by the FBI and CIA) hatched a “Russia collusion” conspiracy against President-elect Trump.  The multi-year, multi-million dollar Mueller investigation followed to no avail; and a failed politically-driven impeachment further sought to undermine the Trump presidency.

More recently, a Hunter Biden hard drive surfaced with evidence of criminal activity (involving Ukraine, China, etc.), homegrown pornography, and other incriminating material.  The New York Post broke the story (and unfortunately revealed the name of the whistleblower), followed by extensive coverage by Fox News.  Not intended as an October surprise (I was personally involved trying to get the drive to the right authorities for a year), it was quickly censored by the mainstream and social media.  Worse, the shop owner involved has been slandered as a Russian agent and a hacker. 

Amazingly, this experience reminded me of Walter Cronkite’s prophetic preface in a 1983 Penguin edition of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.  Here is an excerpt of the preface: 

           “Big Brother” has become a common term for ubiquitous or overreaching authority, and “Newspeak” is a word we apply to the dehumanizing babble of bureaucracies and computer programs.

           Those coinages have passed into the language with lives of their own.  They are familiar to millions who have never read 1984, who may not even know it as a novel written thirty-five years ago by English socialist Eric Blair, who became famous under the pen name George Orwell.

           Seldom has a book provided a greater wealth of symbols for its age and for the generations to follow, and seldom have literary symbols been invested with such power.  How is that?  Because they were so useful, and because the features of the world he drew, outlandish as they were, also were familiar.

           They are familiar today; they were familiar when the book as first published in 1949.  We’ve met Big Brother in Stalin and Hitler and Khomeini.  We hear Newspeak in every use of language to manipulate, deceive, to cover harsh realities with the soft snow of euphemism.  And every time a political leader expects or demands that we believe the absurd, we experience that mental process Orwell called doublethink.  From the show trials of the pre-war Soviet Union to the dungeon courts of post-revolutionary Iran, 1984’s vision of justice as foregone conclusion is familiar to us all.  As soon as we were introduced to such things, we realized we had always known them.

           What Orwell had done was not to foresee the future but to see the implications of the present—his present and ours—and he touched a common chord.  He had given words and shapes to common but unarticulated fears running deep through all industrial societies.

           George Orwell was no prophet, and those who busy themselves keeping score on his predictions and grading his use of the crystal ball miss the point.  While here is a novelist, he is also a sharp political essayist and a satirist with a bite not felt in the English language since the work of Jonathan Swift.

           If not prophecy, what was 1984?  It was, as many have noticed, a warning:  a warning about the future of human freedom in a world where political organization and technology can manufacture power in dimensions that would have stunned the imagination of earlier ages.

           Orwell drew upon the technology (and perhaps some of the science fiction) of the day in drawing his picture of 1984.  But it was not a work of science fiction he was writing.  It was a novelistic essay on power, how it is acquired and maintained, how those who seek it or seek to keep it tend to sacrifice anything and everything in its name.

           1984 is an anguished lament and a warning that we may not be strong enough nor wise enough nor moral enough to cope with the kind of power we have learned to amass.  That warning vibrates powerfully when we allow ourselves to sit still and think carefully about orbiting satellites that can read the license plates in a parking lot and computers that can tap into thousands of telephone calls and telex transmissions at once and computers that can do our banking and purchasing, can watch the house and tell a monitoring station what television program we are watching and how many people there are in the room.  We think of Orwell when we read of scientists who believe they have located in the human brain the seats of behavioral emotions like aggression, or learn more about the vast potential of genetic engineering.

           And we hear echoes of that warning chord in the constant demand for greater security and comfort, for less risk in our societies.  We recognize, however dimly, that greater efficiency, ease, and security may come at a substantial price in freedom, that law and order can be a doublethink version of oppression, that individual liberties surrendered for whatever good reason are freedom lost  (bold italics provided for emphasis).

           Biden campaigned with the slogan, “a battle for the soul of the nation.”  By its implications, he flaunts an image of moral superiority.  Yet, keep in mind, Satan also fights for our soul, whether individually or collectively.  Biden represents a political faction that fights for abortion, same-sex marriage, the demonization of those who oppose these notions, and a whole range of policies to give the national government almost total control of our lives—nationwide COVID-19 mandates are simply a dress rehearsal.

           With the context just provided, it is now time to talk about the essay’s title:  Transformational Leaders and Christian Dissidents.  To transform is “to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of.”  Former President Obama confessed that, under his leadership, his election would lead to the “fundamental transformation of America.” 

Evidence of America’s transformation under Obama’s leadership is already apparent.  While this would sound politically incorrect to the left, a racist nation would not have elected a black man to the presidency.  A survey by The Wall Street Journal revealed “Optimism over race relations in the U.S. has slid since its historic high in January 2009, when 77% of Americans polled—79% of whites and 64% of blacks—described such relations as good. In the new poll [July 2013], 52% of those polled felt that way, including 52% of whites and 38% of blacks.”

So, what happened since the January 2009 healthy view of race relations?

Obama took command of his first term in January 2009. 

The Trayvon Martin incident occurred in February 2012 (Obama told the public, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon”), which spawned the creation of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization. 

It was not until the Michael Brown incident in 2014 that BLM became a national force advancing the notion of systemic racism. 

The George Floyd incident (May 2020) provided the needed kindling for a political campaign (and the corresponding riots in mostly Democrat-controlled cities) against President Trump, who has been characterized as an obstacle to an “anti-racist” movement.

BLM leaders, and its fellow Marxist faction called Antifa, are set on transforming America.  Their leaders are anti-family and anti-Judeo-Christian. 

Political leaders, such as Biden, have acquiesced to an “instrument” role in advancing this anti-America agenda.  As I discovered from his complicity with foreign agents in Ukraine and China, Biden simply lusts for power.  In the process, the elder Biden prostituted his own son to carry out unethical and illegal foreign dealings for financial rewards.  This is the man who had a foreign prosecutor fired for trying to shine sunlight on Burisma corruption.  This is the man who battles “for the soul of the Nation.”

In the end, Joe Biden might be crowned as America’s President.  He may even enjoy the support of millions who join him in transforming America from the “shining light on the hill” to another political elite-ruled Venezuela. 

He will never own my soul, nor the soul of millions of Americans who believe in a just and merciful God and in the transformational leadership of a nonpolitician who fought to make America great again.

The ultimate transformation here might be spiritual, but not in the way Biden represents.  Many Christians have enjoyed a comfort zone of material plenty.  Now, many of us are recognizing the implications of secular humanism and its atheistic Marxist manifestation.  We have a moral duty to resist this dangerous transformation, to save our souls, to transform the way we live our lives, and to set an example for others. 

Live Not by Lies:  A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher (published this year and recommended to me by “Orville,” a Christian leader and close friend) greatly inspired me along these lines.  I highly commend it to you. 

The most significant take-away from this book is that those who lived under totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century unanimously observe that America in 2020 is manifesting pre-totalitarian conditions.  That is why I wrote this article.  Therefore, I am a Christian dissident.

The Divide Is Not Political: It Is Between Good and Evil

 by

Gadfly

           Presidential election day is three days away.  Millions have already voted.  Nearly half favor President Trump.  Nearly half favor former Vice President Biden.  Somewhere between 10 to 12% are undecided voters. Americans (and the rest of the world) wait with great anticipation for the outcome.

           The contest has typically been described as a political divide.  One side favors conservative (previously called classical liberalism) values:  individualism freedom, private property, limited government, free markets, ground in Judeo-Christian traditions.  The other side favors progressive (modern liberalism and socialism) values:  collective freedom, less emphasis on private property, a powerful central government, a command economy (with far more government control through regulatory regimes), grounded in a secular-humanist (strongly undergirded by Marxism) religion (atheistic in its manifestation).  In the end, it is the religious component that speaks far more loudly about the divide.

           The left’s pro-choice position is the most potent religious toxin of all the left’s values.  It justifies murder of an innocent child in its mother’s womb, or in some states, immediately after a live birth.  Such depravity!  The protective instinct in a loving mother’s moral fiber has no limit.  I saw it in my own wife and the extent she disregarded her own safety and comfort for the wellbeing of her children (and now grandchildren).

           The left’s code of social justice requires relegating individuals to a tribal existence in identity groups.  The dynamic has nothing to do with justice.  It is all about exercising power by political elite.  Members of these identity groups are mere pawns for the selfish exploitation by their political masters.  Manning Johnson discovered this and wrote about it in his 1958 book, Color, Communism, and Common Sense (available online here).

Manning Johnson, Circa 1958

           Identity group tribalism, and its corresponding politically correct code, did not just happen.  It manifests the outcome of at least three generations of an educational system deliberately controlled by John Dewey-inspired progressive education that is closely aligned with the political philosophy of Karl Marx.  Rod Dreher, in his recently released book, Live Not by Lies:  A Manual for Christian Dissidents, writes about the pre-totalitarian conditions in America through interviews with former residents (and survivors) of communist and fascist nations.  Here is one sobering story about a family in a Soviet Bloc nation:

“My father was the pastor of our congregation.  All sorts of pressure was put on him,” [Yuri] Sipko recalls.  “When I was a child, all I knew was that I wanted to be like my father.  I saw that he was able to stand alone, with dignity and courage, against all his enemies.”

When Yuri was still a boy, the Soviets sent his father to prison for five years for preaching.  His mother, along with several other women in the congregation, was left alone to raise the children.  These mothers read the Bible to the kids, prayed with them, wept with them, and taught their little ones what to live for.

One day, Yuri’s teacher called his mother to the school for a conference.  The teacher was angry because the child refused to accept the state-mandated lessons in atheism and materialism.  Yuri’s teacher demanded to know what kind of cult Mrs. Sipko belonged to and why they taught children such nonsense.  The boy watched his mother, whose husband was in prison for his faith, to see how she would react to this dressing-down by an authority figure.

“She got out her Bible and began to read,” he remembers, smiling.  “It makes me so happy to think about it.  The teacher called me to her and said, ‘This is our boy.  He’s learning our lessons.’  But under the protection of my mother, I found the courage to say, ‘No, I believe in God.’  It was a fiasco for the teacher” (pp. 146-147).

As I read this passage, I recalled Hillary Clinton’s book, It Takes a Village. The overarching theme was a blatant profession of similar Marxist ideology.

The danger today is that ideology cuts across political and religious boundaries.  The left wants us to believe that politics and religion are mutually exclusive domains.  Yet, both domains are all about values that guide and shape our thoughts and actions.  The difference is the epistemology (worldview) that shapes and justifies the values.  This is why America’s divide is between good and evil.

The left does not subscribe to the ideals in our Declaration of Independence.  They do not believe God made all of us equal, with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  This is where the atheistic power elite enter and command our lives to make all people equal, such as brutal lockdowns, the fear-inducing mandates to wear masks, the redistribution of wealth, or the disenfranchisement of white men because Marxists advance their absurd critical race theory, among many other examples.  To further demonstrate its power over life itself, the state justifies the murder of innocent children when consensual sexual activity results in an unintended and unwanted pregnancy.  Is this no less barbarian than the millions of lives taken by Nazis based on identity politics and Communist nations based on ideological dissidence?

To make matters worse, even the current Catholic Pope appears to align ideologically with the left with its climate pseudoscience, socialist promises, and assault on the sanctity of traditional families.  For the sake of the Catholic Church and for the preservation of political conservatism (classical liberalism), one living Archbishop, who now is in hiding, courageously speaks out for truth.

Archbishop Viganò understands who Donald Trump is and that for which he stands.  He has written to President Trump before around the time Trump was criticized by the left for his walk across Lafayette Square to hold a Bible in front of a church vandalized by protestors (Black Lives Matter and Antifa).

This week, Archbishop Viganò issued another open letter to President Trump.  He clearly sees what is happening to America and the rest of the world.  It truly is a contest between good and evil. 

Hunter Biden Partner Confirms Story

by

Gadfly

America's educated class considers The NY Post a tabloid. This allows them to dismiss, and even ridicule, reports.  Full disclosure: I have a PhD and held the rank of full professor but now consider myself a recovering academic. The rehab experience has opened my eyes. I now see more clearly the mis- and disinformation advanced by America's own news sources.  As a 30-year military veteran and patriot, it troubles me greatly. Therefore, the Biden scandal, on the eve of a Presidential election is even more troubling. One of Hunter Biden's associates, another veteran, has indicated to The NY Post that one of the emails they earlier reported, which included his name, was legitimate; and he wants to sound the alarm about the seriousness of this matter.

Isn’t it telling that the mainstream media and social media are censoring this story?

You can read the story here:  https://nypost.com/.../hunter-biz-partner-confirms-e.../ 

Here are excerpts from Hunter Biden’s business partner’s statement to The New York Post:

What I am outlining is fact. I know it is fact because I lived it. I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family. I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to “the Big Guy” in the much publicized May 13, 2017 email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden. The other “JB” referenced in that email is Jim Biden, Joe’s brother.

Hunter Biden called his dad ‘the Big Guy’ or ‘my Chairman,’ and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing. I’ve seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I’ve seen firsthand that that’s not true, because it wasn’t just Hunter’s business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line.

The [Senator Ron] Johnson Report connected some dots in a way that shocked me — it made me realize the Bidens had gone behind my back and gotten paid millions of dollars by the Chinese, even though they told me they hadn’t and wouldn’t do that to their partners.

For all you patriots, and lovers of America's Constitutional Republic, this story needs to go viral! 

October Surprise: Truth versus Ideology

 

by

Rod Bishop and Ron Scott

           On October 14, 2020, The New York Post broke a story (here and here) involving Hunter Biden.  

            The leftist mainstream media worked hard all week to discredit the story (see here, here, and here, for example). We watched with dismay that none of the major networks even mentioned the story at all on their prime-time news programs the day the story broke in The New York Post. Crickets.  Absolutely no mention of the story.

           Here is an important article that speaks from first-hand associations and authenticates the story (note: in the interest of full disclosure, the computer repair shop owner is Ron’s nephew).  More importantly, the revelation demonstrates how the FBI sat on the story since December 2019 when it could have provided exculpatory evidence during the impeachment proceedings.

           For an organization that should be apolitical, the FBI has demonstrated that it has an ideological allegiance.  This was clearly demonstrated in July of 2016 when the Director of the FBI provided tremendous details of crimes committed by Hillary Clinton but exonerated her because there was no evidence of “intent” to break the law.  How deep is ideological corruption?

           Developments at our Service Academies, which should represent one of the purist crucibles for an apolitical culture, provide additional evidence to the extent political ideology has infiltrated these institutions.  The U.S. Naval Academy is in the process of discharging a senior for violating its policies against racism.  This midshipman (MIDN), who has roomed with a fellow black cadet for three years, issued a Tweets while COVID-19 evacuated to his home in L.A.  His parents are police officers, who at the time were working overtime to provide some safety for the citizens exposed to Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots.  The MIDN tweeted that he was concerned about his parents’ safety, yet some of his tweets were not without some controversy.  The issue is how the leadership conceptualized “racism” and to the extent that it violates policy.  This “interpretation” in and of itself is controversial because it appears to stem from an ideological perspective as opposed to a legal one.  Here is an excellent article, “US Naval Academy’s Cancel Culture Targeted the Son of Two LA Police Dept Officers for Expulsion,” that partially describes the circumstances. 

Two excerpts speak loudly regarding the ideological disposition of the USNA Deputy Commandant:

 The “adjudication” before the Deputy Commandant was straight out of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”  Ignoring our legal arguments, he made clear to MIDN Standage that there was only ONE acceptable position with respect to the subject matters of the tweets – the Command’s position (informed by the BLM and Anti-Racism movements), and that MIDN Standage’s statements to the contrary were racist and prejudicial to good order and discipline. The Deputy Commandant’s comments and his rant about the supremacy of the football team left no doubt that the Deputy was pandering to the Brigade’s social justice warriors. It is also important to note that one of the clear undercurrents of the adjudication was the Deputy’s contempt for the President. For example, he asked Standage, “You really think the President sets the standard of conduct for officers?” The specifics of his comments are in the complaint filed. MIDN Standage was found guilty of both charges, received the max on demerits and restriction, and his case was forwarded to the Commandant recommending separation from the Naval Academy.

“You were not found guilty for what you said, but how you said it.”

           Other relevant articles related to these issues can be read here, and here.          

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point provides mandatory courses on critical race theory.  Recent graduates, one a former Corps Captain (#1 cadet within the cadet organization) who is black and a Rhodes Scholar, authored a 40-page document complaining about systemic racism at West Point.  On its face, one cannot help but wonder, that if systemic racism did exist, how did the cadet rise to be the number one cadet in charge of the entire cadet corps?  Why is “systemic racism” only being discovered now if it has been existing? Military ranking is based on peer evaluation.  The Superintendent, a black lieutenant general, initiated an investigation (no published results as of the date of this article).B

           Traceable ideological indoctrination began to seep into the culture of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) following the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson Missouri.  According to The Atlantic Monthly, the Superintendent, at the time, presumably with every good intention (but perhaps without full knowledge of the ideology of the institution), arranged for the Knapsack Institute from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs to conduct seminars with the cadets.  Here is an excerpt from their website:

The name, “The Knapsack Institute” hails from Peggy McIntosh’s renowned article, "White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies,” in which she states: 

"I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was 'meant' to remain oblivious.  White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks."  (Peggy McIntosh, 1988 "White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies."  Excerpted from Working Paper 189, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, Wellesley, MA.)

The outgoing USAFA Superintendent achieved national notoriety when he lectured Academy cadets about racism and acceptable values following an incident at the Academy Preparatory School on the same campus.  Ron wrote about it here.  The incident turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by the same black prep school student who made the complaint.  One of the USAFA’s Superintendent’s themes during his tenure at this time was the existence of “systemic racism,” as indicated in this letter to the “Academy Family.”  A review of minutes from the USAFA Board of Visitors provides absolutely no evidence of systemic racism.  Further, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documentation on racism complaints back on August 4, 2020.  Despite the statutory requirement for a response within 10 work-days (or 20 for exceptional circumstances), the only response received so far was to let us know we went from number 64 to 48 in the queue.

More egregiously, the Air Force Academy football coaches posted a video on their Facebook page supporting “Black Lives Matter” seven times during a three-minute video.  We learned about the video from a Colorado Springs Gazette article, “Air Force football takes firm social stance with video in support of Black Lives Matter,”  on July 7, 2020.  Two days later, Ron posted a rebuttal here.  The issue is that whether wittingly or not, the coaches supported a Marxist organization that created the expression “Black Lives Matter.”  A group of Academy graduates have invested a considerable amount of time to convince the coaches that the video presents false information and apparent support for a Marxist organization.  To this day, the coaches, supported by USAFA Superintendents (outgoing and incoming), have refused to take the video down.

           On September 14, a group of Academy graduates filed an Inspector General (IG) Complaint at the Secretary of the Air Force level expressing concern about the Air Force Academy coaches’ video.  There are four concerns:  (a) the video violates Air Force Instruction 51-508; (b) the video violates DoD Directive 1344.10; (c) the video violates the President’s Executive Order; and (d) the video is extremely divisive.  A subsequent addendum, September 28, 2020, provided additional arguments/evidence for the complaint.  The complaint referenced OMB Memo dated September 4, 2020 and the President’s Executive Order, dated September 22, 2020.  We are still waiting for an answer, which strongly indicates the issue is political—perhaps waiting for the outcome of the Presidential election to determine how to respond to the IG complaint?

           The “slow-rolling” status of the above actions speaks volumes as to the political and ideological transformation of the Department of Defense.  If the military is to preserve the essence of its apolitical nature, we would suggest that some actions are in order, at least for the U.S. Air Force:

·       Direct the football video be taken down from social media;

·       Initiate a review of the Academy academic curriculum to eliminate Marxist indoctrination (i.e., critical race theory); and

·       Through the Center for Character and Leadership Development, develop a case study to (a) analyze the emergence of indoctrination, (b) integrate the importance of recognizing such indoctrination and (c) apply measures to stem it.

The Secretary of Defense should advance similar considerations for other Service Academies in accordance with the OMB Memo and Executive Order from the Commander in Chief addressing Critical Race Theory Training (referenced above in the IG Complaint). 

The phenomena described above are not unprecedented.  History has documented similar developments.  Hannah Arendt in her seminal work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, analyzed and explained similar examples.  The Dreyfus Affair (which justified political divisions and a systemic anti-Semitic ideology) represents the manifestation of ideology similar to claims of “systemic racism” in today’s American narrative.

More existentially, current movements are contrary to the essence of the inalienable rights asserted in our Declaration of Independence and codified in our Constitution as a system of self-governance.  Current movements are multicultural, secular, and antithetical to the unifying constructs of a Constitutional Republic.  Human nature has not and will not change.  Thus, history can and does repeat itself.  Cicero observed similar dynamics when he wrote: 

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.

Evidence on the Hunter Biden hard drive provides a glimpse into this type of behavior.  The left diminishes it, even dismisses it in favor of their favorite Russia conspiracy meme. 

America faces a similar existential moment as she did in 1860 when America was confronted with acquiescing to an ideology of slavery versus the ideals of her Declaration of Independence.  America risks enslavement by ideology as opposed to being liberated by truth.  The dangerous ideological culture at our Service Academies is just one example.

Rod Bishop is a retired Air Force lieutenant general, member of the Class of 1974, U.S. Air Force Academy.  Ron Scott is a retired Air Force colonel, member of the Class of 1973, U.S. Air Force Academy.