Posts Tagged ‘HONOR’
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, APARTHEID, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HONOR, HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JAPAN, JENNA ELLIS, JOE BIGGS, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NELSON MANDELA, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROUD BOYS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH AFRICA, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, X
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on October 4, 2024 at 12:06 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Like self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs.
On January 6, 2021, Biggs was a member of the Proud Boys, a Right-wing terrorist group which violently attacked the nation’s Capitol Building.
Their goal: To prevent the counting of Electoral College votes—which, as they knew, would establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had legitimately won the 2020 Presidential election.
On August 31, 2023, Biggs received a prison sentence of 17 years.
Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced.
He pleaded for leniency to take care of his daughter and cancer-stricken mother: “I wanted to see what would happen. My curiosity got the best of me. I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
He proved how nice he was—and qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement—by tearing down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Joe Biggs
And like Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney from November 2020 to January 2021.
She repeatedly claimed that the “election was stolen and President Trump won by a landslide.”
On December 4, 2020, Ellis met state lawmakers in Georgia to persuade them to overturn the 2020 election results.
Indicted for her election-overturning efforts, on October 24 she tearfully pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements: “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound, moral and ethical character in all of my dealings.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”
On May 28, 2024, her Colorado law license was suspended for three years.
Jenna Ellis
And like ex-President Donald Trump.
He’s facing three criminal indictments for:
- Inflating his worth to avoid taxes;
- Inciting a mob of his followers to overturn the results of the 2020 election; and
- Hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.
On May 30, 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 felony counts for misclassifying hush money payments to porn “star” Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign..
Rather than facing up to his lifetime of criminality, Trump chose to portray himself as a heroic victim—by comparing himself to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa.
On October 23, addressing a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, Trump said he would go to prison like Mandela:
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it [running again for President] for a reason. We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.”
Donald Trump
For all his claims about willingly becoming a “political prisoner” like Nelson Mandela, Trump has spent literally tens of millions of his followers’ donations to stay out of it.
Ignoring all the evidence against him, he claims he’s being “persecuted” to keep him from winning re-election in 2024.
* * * * *
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to Joseph McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Joe Biggs, Jenna Ellis and Donald Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In feudal Japan, men who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these people.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In people who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, APARTHEID, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HONOR, HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JAPAN, JENNA ELLIS, JOE BIGGS, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NELSON MANDELA, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROUD BOYS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH AFRICA, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on October 25, 2023 at 12:11 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Like self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs.
On January 6, 2021, Biggs was a member of the Proud Boys, a Right-wing terrorist group which violently attacked the nation’s Capitol Building.
Their goal: To prevent the counting of Electoral College votes—which, as they knew, would establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had legitimately won the 2020 Presidential election.
On August 31, 2023, Biggs received a prison sentence of 17 years. He qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement because he tore down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced.
He pleaded for leniency to take care of his daughter and cancer-stricken mother: “I wanted to see what would happen. My curiosity got the best of me. I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
Joe Biggs
And like Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney from November 2020 to January 2021.
She repeatedly claimed that the “election was stolen and President Trump won by a landslide.”
On December 4, 2020, Ellis met state lawmakers in Georgia to persuade them to overturn the 2020 election results.
Indicted for her election-overturning efforts, on October 24 she tearfully pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements: “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound, moral and ethical character in all of my dealings.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”
Jenna Ellis
And like ex-President Donald Trump.
He’s facing four criminal indictments as well as civil trials for:
- Inflating his worth to avoid taxes;
- Misclassifying hush money payments to women during his 2016 campaign;
- Inciting a mob of his followers to overturn the results of the 2020 election; and
- Hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Altogether, he’s facing 91 felony charges.
Rather than facing up to his lifetime of criminality, Trump chose to portray himself as a heroic victim—by comparing himself to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa.
On October 23, addressing a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, Trump said he would go to prison like Mandela:
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it [running again for President] for a reason. We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.”
Donald Trump
Among the characteristics of a Fascist regime:
- Corporate power is protected and labor power is suppressed.
- Rampant sexism.
- Cult-like worship of an “infallible” leader who never admits mistakes.
- Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
- Disdain for intellectuals and the arts not aligned with the fascist cause.
- Loyalty to the leader is paramount and often more important than competence.
- Obsession with national security, crime and punishment.
- Fostering a sense of the nation under attack.
Trump’s four years in the White House can be accurately described as meeting all of these definitions of a Fascistic regime.
* * * * *
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to Joseph McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Joe Biggs, Jenna Ellis and Donald Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In feudal Japan, men who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these people.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In people who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HELSINKI SUMMIT, HONOR, HUFFINGTON POST, HURRICANE SANDY, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICK SANTORUM, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on August 18, 2023 at 12:08 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy—totally surprised at his sudden reversal of fortune—was finished.
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, former United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997 – 2007) and Republican Presidential candidate in 2012.
Santorum has fervently sought to ban legalized abortion—even in rape cases.
He also wants to ban birth control: “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman—Karen Garver—who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Today, as Mrs. Santorum, she has totally reversed her view on abortion and wants to see it banned.
Then there’s ex-President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On July 15, 2018, Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
He was referring to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, charged by the Justice Department with investigating the subversion of the 2016 Presidential election by Russian Intelligence agents.
The next day, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Mr. President,” said Jeff Mason, a reporter from Reuters, “do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular?”
Trump, refusing to condemn Russia, blasted the Mueller probe: “I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.
“People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign.”
Associated Press Reporter Jonathan Lemire said to Trump: “Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe?”
Trump responded by attacking Democrats and the FBI as partners in a conspiracy:
“You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
“I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying. With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Santorum and Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for either man.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BIRTH CONTROL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HELSINKI SUMMIT, HONOR, HURRICANE SANDY, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, KAREN SANTORUM, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICK SANTORUM, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOM ALLEN, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 27, 2020 at 12:09 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy—totally surprised at his sudden reversal of fortune—was finished.
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, former United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997 – 2007) and Republican Presidential candidate in 2012.
Rick Santorum
Santorum has fervently sought to ban legalized abortion—even in rape cases.
He also wants to ban birth control: “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman—Karen Garver—who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Today, as Mrs. Santorum, she has totally reversed her view on abortion and wants to see it banned.
Then there’s President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On July 15, 2018, Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
He was, of course, referring to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, charged by the Justice Department with investigating the subversion of the 2016 Presidential election by Russian Intelligence agents.
The next day, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Addressing a question to Trump, Jeff Mason, a reporter from Reuters, asked: “Mr. President, do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular?”
Trump, refusing to condemn Russia, blasted the Mueller probe: “I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.
“People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign.”
Associated Press Reporter Jonathan Lemire said to Trump: “Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe?”
Trump responded by attacking Democrats and the FBI as partners in a conspiracy:
“You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
“I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying. With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Santorum and Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for either man.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever lacking.They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BIRTH CONTROL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, HELSINKI SUMMIT, HONOR, HURRICANE SANDY, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICK SANTORUM, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on July 23, 2018 at 12:01 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy—totally surprised at his sudden reversal of fortune—was finished.
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, former United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997 – 2007) and Republican Presidential candidate in 2012.
Rick Santorum
Santorum has fervently sought to ban legalized abortion—even in rape cases.
He also wants to ban birth control: “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman—Karen Garver—who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Today, as Mrs. Santorum, she has totally reversed her view on abortion and wants to see it banned.
Then there’s President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On July 15, 2018, Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
He was, of course, referring to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, charged by the Justice Department with investigating the subversion of the 2016 Presidential election by Russian Intelligence agents.
The next day, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Mr. President,” said Jeff Mason, a reporter from Reuters, “do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular?”
Trump, refusing to condemn Russia, blasted the Mueller probe: “I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.
“People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign.”
Associated Press Reporter Jonathan Lemire said to Trump: “Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe?”
Trump responded by attacking Democrats and the FBI as partners in a conspiracy:
“You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
“I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying. With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Santorum and Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for either man.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Social commentary on January 29, 2016 at 12:53 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army–then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy–totally surprised at his sudden reversal of fortune–was finished.
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, Republican Presidential candidate in 2016.
Rick Santorum
As a United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997-2005) and a 2012 Presidential candidate, Santorum fervently sought to ban legalized abortion–even in rape cases. Also on his list of banned items: birth control.
Abortion and birth control, said Santorum, were an affront to “the way things ought to be.” As decided, of course, by Santorum.
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman–Karen Garver–who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Today, as Mrs. Santorum, she has totally reversed her view on abortion and wants to see it banned.
Then there’s 2016 Presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
As a Republican United States Senator from Texas, Cruz voted–three times–against providing federal aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
The October, 2012, hurricane killed about 150 people and caused an estimated $75 billion worth of damages across the Northeast.
But when a fertilizer plant exploded in West, McLennan County, Texas, on April 17, 2013, Cruz vowed that he would seek “all available resources” to assist its victims.
The blast killed 13 people, wounded about 200 others, and caused extensive damage to surrounding homes.
It didn’t matter to Cruz that:
- The facility hadn’t been expected by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since 1985, when the company was find $30; and
- The plant had been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS.).
Then there’s Donald Trump, the egocentric businessman and “reality star of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” who, likewise, has thrown his hat into the 2016 Presidential race.
Donald Trump
On April 17, 2011, toying with the idea of entering the 2012 Presidential race, Trump said this about Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and front-runner GOP candidate:
“He’d buy companies, he’d close companies. He’d get rid of jobs. I’ve built a great company. I’m a much bigger businessman and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean, my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney.
“Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it. He was a hedge fund. He was a funds guy. He walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn’t create. he worked there. He didn’t create it.”
Trump added that Bain Capital, the hedge fund where Romney made millions of dollars before running for governor, didn’t create any jobs. Whereas Trump claimed that he–Trump–had created “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
So at least some observers must have been puzzled when Trump announced, on February 2, 2012: “It’s my honor, real honor and privilege, to endorse Mitt Romney” for President.
“Mitt is tough. He’s smart. He’s sharp. He’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love. So, Governor Romney, go out and get ’em. You can do it,” said Trump.
Mitt Romney
And Romney, in turn, had his own swooning-girl moment: “I’m so honored to have his endorsement. There are some things that you just can’t imagine in your life. This is one of them.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” means nothing to Santorum, Cruz and Trump. But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor–seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
Seppuku
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these men.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing. It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, HERMAN CAIN, HONOR, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7: 17-20, MITT ROMNEY, NBC NEWS, NEWT GINGRICH, SAMURAI, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, TWITTER, USA TODAY
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 18, 2015 at 12:05 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army–then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Submittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy–totally surprised at his sudden reverse of fortune–was finished.
Today, however, other Americans could stand to remember the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, Republican Presidential candidate in 2016.
Rick Santorum
As a United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997 – 2005) and 2012 Presidential candidate, Santorum fervently sought to ban legalized abortion–even in rape cases– and even birth control. They were, he said, an affront to “the way things ought to be.”
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman–Karen Garver–who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Then there’s 2016 Presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
As a Republican United States Senator from Texas, Cruz voted–three times–against federal aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
The October, 2012, hurricane killed about 150 people and caused an estimated $75 billion in damage across the Northeast.
But when a fertilizer plant exploded in West, McLennan County Texas, on April 17, 2013, Cruz vowed that he would seek “all available resources” to assist its victims.
The blast killed 13 people, wounded about 200 others, and caused extensive damages to surrounding homes.
It didn’t matter to Cruz that:
- The facility hadn’t been inspected by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since 1985, when the company was fined $30; and
- The plant had been storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Then there’s Donald Trump, the egocentric businessman and “reality star” of NBC’s “The Apprentice.”
Donald Trump
On April 17, 2011, toying with the idea of entering the Presidential race himself, he said this about Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and GOP candidate:
“He’d buy companies. He’d close companies. He’d get rid of jobs. I’ve built a great company. I’m a much bigger businessman and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney.
“Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it. He was a hedge fund. He was a funds guy. He walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn’t create. He worked there. He didn’t create it.”
Trump added that Bain Capital, the hedge fund where Romney made millions of dollars before running for governor, didn’t create any jobs. Whereas Trump claimed that he–Trump–had created “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
So at least some observers must have been puzzled when Trump announced, on February 2, 2012: “It’s my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse Mitt Romney” for President.
“Mitt is tough, he’s smart, he’s sharp, he’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love. So, Governor Romney, go out and get ‘em. You can do it,” said Trump.
Mitt Romney
And Romney, in turn, had his own swooning-girl moment: “I’m so honored to have his endorsement. There are some things that you just can’t imagine in your life. This is one of them.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” means nothing to Santorum, Cruz, Romney and Trump. But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of seppeku told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor: With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these men.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger-pull to “do the right thing.” It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7: 17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, HERMAN CAIN, HONOR, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7: 17-20, MITT ROMNEY, NBC NEWS, NEWT GINGRICH, SAMURAI, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, TWITTER, USA TODAY
In History, Politics, Social commentary on January 15, 2015 at 12:56 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army–then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Submittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy–totally surprised at his sudden reverse of fortune–was finished.
Today, however, other Americans could stand to remember the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Herman Cain.
Herman Cain
On January 28, 2012, he threw whatever support he might still have among the radical right to GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich
Appearing with Gingrich at a Republican fundraiser, Cain said: “Speaker Gingrich is a patriot. Speaker Gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas.
“I don’t care about where he stands in the polls. And whether my endorsement helps him or not, that’s not the point. It’s to let my supporters know that he is the closest to what I represented when I was still a candidate.”
“The closest to what I represented when I was still a candidate“? That’s hardly a compliment.
Cain withdrew from the race in December, 2011–after four women charged him with sexual harassment during his tenure as CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
Gingrich, a notorious serial adulterer, twice began affairs and issued marriage proposals while he was still married to his first and second wives.
Then there’s Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On April 17, 2011, toying with the idea of entering the Presidential race himself, he said this about Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and GOP candidate:
“He’d buy companies. He’d close companies. He’d get rid of jobs. I’ve built a great company. I’m a much bigger businessman and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney.
“Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it. He was a hedge fund. He was a funds guy. He walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn’t create. He worked there. He didn’t create it.”
Trump added that Bain Capital, the hedge fund where Romney made millions of dollars before running for governor, didn’t create any jobs. Whereas Trump claimed that he–Trump–had created “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
So at least some observers must have been puzzled when Trump announced, on February 2, 2012: “It’s my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse Mitt Romney” for President.
“Mitt is tough, he’s smart, he’s sharp, he’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love. So, Governor Romney, go out and get ‘em. You can do it,” said Trump.
Mitt Romney
And Romney, in turn, had his own swooning-girl moment: “I’m so honored to have his endorsement. There are some things that you just can’t imagine in your life. This is one of them.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” means nothing to Cain, Gingrich, Trump and Romney–all of whom still harbor Presidential ambitions. But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of seppeku told them when they had crossed the line into eternal disgrace.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor: With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these men.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger-pull to “do the right thing.” It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7: 17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, HERMAN CAIN, HONOR, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7: 17-20, MITT ROMNEY, NBC NEWS, NEWT GINGRICH, SAMURAI, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TWITTER
In Bureaucracy, Politics, Social commentary on April 4, 2014 at 12:05 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army–then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Submittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph R. McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy–totally surprised at his sudden reverse of fortune–was finished.
Today, however, other Americans could stand to remember the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Herman Cain.
Herman Cain
On January 28, 2012, he threw whatever support he might still among the radical right to GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich
Appearing with Gingrich at a Republican fundraiser, Cain said: “Speaker Gingrich is a patriot. Speaker Gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas.
“I don’t care about where he stands in the polls. And whether my endorsement helps him or not, that’s not the point.
“It’s to let my supporters know that he is the closest to what I represented when I was still a candidate.”
“The closest to what I represented when I was still a candidate”? That’s hardly a compliment.
Cain withdrew from the race in December, 2011–after four women charged him with sexual harassment during his tenure as CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
Gingrich, a notorious serial adulterer, twice began affairs and issued marriage proposals while he was still married to his first and second wives.
Then there’s Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On April 17, 2011, toying with the idea of entering the Presidential race himself, he said this about Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and GOP candidate:
“He’d buy companies. He’d close companies. He’d get rid of jobs. I’ve built a great company. I’m a much bigger businessman and have a much, much bigger net worth.
“I mean my net worth is many, many, many times Mitt Romney.
“Mitt Romney is a basically small-business guy, if you really think about it. He was a hedge fund. He was a funds guy.
“He walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn’t create. He worked there. He didn’t create it.”
Trump added that Bain Capital, the hedge fund where Romney made millions of dollars before running for governor, didn’t create any jobs.
Whereas Trump claimed that he–Trump–had created “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
So at least some observers must have been puzzled when Trump announced, on February 2, 2012: “It’s my honor, real honor, and privilege to endorse Mitt Romney” for President.
“Mitt is tough, he’s smart, he’s sharp, he’s not going to allow bad things to continue to happen to this country that we all love. So, Governor Romney, go out and get ‘em. You can do it,” said Trump.
Mitt Romney
And Romney, in turn, had his own swooning-girl moment: “I’m so honored to have his endorsement….There are some things that you just can’t imagine in your life. This is one of them.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” means nothing to men like Cain, Gingrich, Trump and Romney. But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of seppeku told them when they had crossed the line into eternal disgrace.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor: With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these men.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger-pull to “do the right thing.” It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption. Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7: 17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
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LOOKING FOR DECENCY? YOU WON’T FIND IT HERE
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on October 4, 2024 at 12:06 am“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Like self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs.
On January 6, 2021, Biggs was a member of the Proud Boys, a Right-wing terrorist group which violently attacked the nation’s Capitol Building.
Their goal: To prevent the counting of Electoral College votes—which, as they knew, would establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had legitimately won the 2020 Presidential election.
On August 31, 2023, Biggs received a prison sentence of 17 years.
Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced.
He pleaded for leniency to take care of his daughter and cancer-stricken mother: “I wanted to see what would happen. My curiosity got the best of me. I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
He proved how nice he was—and qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement—by tearing down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Joe Biggs
And like Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney from November 2020 to January 2021.
She repeatedly claimed that the “election was stolen and President Trump won by a landslide.”
On December 4, 2020, Ellis met state lawmakers in Georgia to persuade them to overturn the 2020 election results.
Indicted for her election-overturning efforts, on October 24 she tearfully pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements: “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound, moral and ethical character in all of my dealings.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”
On May 28, 2024, her Colorado law license was suspended for three years.
Jenna Ellis
And like ex-President Donald Trump.
He’s facing three criminal indictments for:
On May 30, 2024, a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 felony counts for misclassifying hush money payments to porn “star” Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign..
Rather than facing up to his lifetime of criminality, Trump chose to portray himself as a heroic victim—by comparing himself to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa.
On October 23, addressing a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, Trump said he would go to prison like Mandela:
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it [running again for President] for a reason. We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.”
Donald Trump
For all his claims about willingly becoming a “political prisoner” like Nelson Mandela, Trump has spent literally tens of millions of his followers’ donations to stay out of it.
Ignoring all the evidence against him, he claims he’s being “persecuted” to keep him from winning re-election in 2024.
* * * * *
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to Joseph McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Joe Biggs, Jenna Ellis and Donald Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In feudal Japan, men who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these people.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In people who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
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