Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. - Matthew 7:15


My view has always been that a state’s political system reflects the characteristics of its leaders. - Xenophon


Me seemes the world has runne quite out of squaare
​From the first point of his appointed sourse,
And being once amisse, grows daily wourse and wourse.
- Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queen


Nothing can more hurt a state than that cunning men pass for wise. - Francis Bacon


It is better to be ruled by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian.  - Martin Luther


Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire


Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute. - Charles Cotesworth Pinckney


Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? - Thomas Jefferson


Alas! It is delusion all;
The future cheats us from afar,
Nor can we be what we recall,
Nor dare we think on what we are.
- Byron


Political words are the most indefinite, on account of the constant struggle of power to enlarge itself by tortured construction of terms.  - John Taylor of Caroline


The Confederates have gone out of this war with the proud, secret, deathless, dangerous consciousness that they are THE BETTER MEN.  - Edward Pollard, The Lost Cause, 1866


Our sole object was the establishment of our independence and the attainment of an honourable peace. - R.E. Lee, 1866


. . . the government is in its essence the executive committee of great wealth.  - Frank Owsley, Southern Agrarian, 1936


Shine on, O perishing republic.  - Robinson Jeffers


To see what is in front of one’s nose, needs a constant struggle.  - Orwell


The spiritual life of a nation is more important than its territory, and more important, even, than its level of economic prosperity.  - Solzhenitsyn


American culture is an infinite regression to moronic vulgarity.  - Thomas Fleming


I find absolutely no ground for optimism, and I have every reason for hope. - Wilfred Sheed


Police protection is an oxymoron.  - Bernard Theursam


Have we no shame? No.  - Fred Reed


The foremost duty of a citizen, especially in dangerous times, is to think. - Charley Reece


It cannot be repeated too often that the purpose of Politically Correct censorship is to punish people who tell the truth. Rulers don’t care about falsehoods. - Clyde Wilson


History teaches us that the capacity for things to get worse is limitless. - Chalmers Johnson


You can’t go home again.  - Thomas Wolfe

Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan running for President promised to cut federal spending and reduce federal interference in society. I personally heard Reagan at the South Carolina capitol promise to send people to scrutinise and eliminate federal waste and to appoint conservatives to office.


Nixon and Reagan lied. All they did was to pretend to support the issues that George Wallace had brought to national attention.

Understanding the short-sighted nature of the Republican party in Congress and the Supreme Court, I never expected anything else and suffered little disappointment.

With Trump it was different. Here was a man not a politician who seemed to speak out to the forgotten and powerless people. He was not afraid to stand on matters that the Democrats were too fanatical and the Republicans too cowardly to even mention. His character issues seemed unimportant given his eloquent courage.

His first term was underwhelming but we knew that confronting the federal beast and the Republican leadership was a hard battle.

He apparently did something on the immigration issue, but not nearly enough, and he seems to have backed away from that. Cut spending? Remember the “Big Beautiful Bill”? Reduce federal interference? Prosecuting “antisemitic” freedom of speech at universities?

What we all most hoped for was relief from a series of illegal, counterproductive, damaging wars.

Then we had the silliness about Greenland. We already had Greenland in our defense establishment. Why antagonise a peaceful and friendly European country? And then sheer colonialist force being applied to Venezuela. Was there not some quieter way to handle that?

The unprovoked and criminal attack on Iran destroyed Trump for good. It was not only bad it was stupid---a total miscalculation of the defense capacity of the large and historic Persian Empire, based on the false claims made by another government. He has deceitfully announced negotiations when he had nothing to discuss except complete surrender. He has contradicted himself continuously in his statements. He has very possibly left an unsolvable situation in which Israel will resort to nuclear war we have not seen since 1945. Will he be willing and able to prevent that?

The attack has damaged the world economy with possibly catastrophic results. Trump has so damaged American prestige that new power alignments are likely to emerge. He has guaranteed that he will go down in history as an awful President furthering the decline of his country.

Worst of all, he may have guaranteed that the increasingly authoritarian Democratic party will resume control. Without Trump the Republican leaders will run for cover and spout pablum as they always do.


No, I was wrong.  Even worse, Trump has  discarded  giving any help to the  chance for a real America to come home and work for spiritual renewal.