By Rick McDowell
The inauguration speech was far-reaching, multifaceted, only slightly retrospective, and emphasized what an opportunity we have before us. After the obligatory humbling of the current state of the federal government, the rest was optimism and American to the core.
Everything made sense. Border security even with military involvement and potential controversial acts; energy independence and exportation of energy as a key driver of economic growth; a return to sanity in meritocracy and ending government-manufactured racial and gender division; the acknowledgement of our success as a country mainly through American entrepreneurship, not government action.
Somehow, instead of the overtly hollow sound of when Biden said, “Unity,” followed closely by “existential threat to democracy,” it seems that Trump, by dismissing DEI and fake racism nonsense, actually will bring America together, as seen to the (surprising to legacy media) swelling support from the supposedly “marginalized” segments of our country.
Early evidence is the shift in the alignment of the “oligarchs,” now anxious to participate in winning instead of apologizing. Yes, we should be vigilant about monopoly power, but it is hard to argue with the importance of what the “magnificent seven” have done for America and the world. Don't be haters, but make sure there is room for competition.
It must be said that beyond the charisma of Trump, he has assembled the most incredible team, perhaps in United States history, as we may see barring another major distraction like COVID, though I doubt Trump 2024 would allow the government to cripple us again. Obviously, Elon is a phenomenon, but we have to also admire Vivek’s American spirit and smarts. J.D. Vance is going to continue to impress people as we go forward, and Trump should entrust him with major responsibilities, unlike most previous VPs.
The other, so-called controversial picks like Pete Hegseth for DoD, Kash Patel for FBI, and Tulsi Gabbard for DNI, all are inspired choices that bleed red, white, and blue. They will take down government corruption and make us, along with Elon and Vivek in DOGE, proud once again of our government as a partner in American prosperity and freedom, instead of some kind of feudal overlords.
At the risk of appearing sycophantic, did you see a kind of light in Trump’s eyes? I couldn’t imagine writing that a day ago, but there was something there, and a kind of complete calm even when he was being edgy. I guess surviving that assassination attempt brings light.
Trump is not perfect, of course. No one is. He knows he is a narcissist, but he’s our narcissist, and that is the case because he wants America to be great again, if you had not noticed. He wants to take personal credit more than need be, we get it. But he is the one doing it, against the stream of the Deep State that worked so hard against him in the first term.
Can the media move on from the 2020 election questions and condemning Jan 6, 2021? They seem reluctant, but also treading water and looking for a life preserver.
For many of us, given how doggedly the first Trump term was disrupted through hoaxes and subpoenas and prosecutions of seemingly everyone in his inner circle for “process crimes,” and embroiling the nation for three years with the Russia Hoax, this upcoming term is the best we have felt since at least when we realized the first Obama term was not going to do what we hoped. The steady decline ended today.
This is a great day and promise of a great period, maybe even that “Golden Age,” for America, and with a bit of providence, great for the world. We need to climb back, but we are optimistic that we can. We need the rest of the world, including our allies, to understand America will not always be their cavalry rushing to the rescue of their local issues. We need the press to at least attempt to understand market economics in the macro world where taxation and tariffs are a big factor in prosperity. Fair trade: what is the problem with that?
The Democrats are uncertain right now how to proceed, and it would be great if that party reinvented itself to not just always be in opposition to Make America Great Again, but that seems their continuing modus operandi. We can predict that opposition will ultimately fail completely and could doom the existing socialist agenda, but maybe they reinvent themselves as a rational, replete with actual ideas, alternative party that helps keep the one in power from getting too carried away: the situation we just saved our country from in the 2024 election.
Once again, we have the wind behind us, we have substantial and practical plans, and we have a great vision for how we can advance humanity, through innovation and as was promised, sometime not so distant in the future, planting an American flag on Mars.
Rick McDowell is a writer of political philosophy, sociology, history, and essays on the mind at http//www.americanperspective.today
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
