Editor’s Note: Happy (Fiscal) New Year! At midnight, some of us will time-travel to FY 2020. Bureaucrats, bag-men and contractors across The Swamp and celebrate the arrival of new truckloads of taxpayer cash arriving in the capital and will have a sip of bubbly before going back for each other’s throats. Could be an interesting (fiscal) year!

– Vic
30 September 2019

Humpty Dumpty, Dire Straits and Adam Schiff

I was listening to the radio the other day and a song by “Dire Straits” came on; as the song concluded it occurred to me it wasn’t quite as I remember it. Not being certain of the lyrics, I went home and looked it up: the song had in fact been altered – censored. As it turns out one verse has been deemed “offensive.” So, it’s been deleted from play.

The same is true of other, more significant, material. Most famous, I suppose is Mark Twain’s “Huck Finn,” which is now published in a censored, “no offensive language,” form.

That scares me.

Words matter. And understanding the context is essential; by changing – censoring – the language, readers will fail to fully grasp the situation Jim and Huck faced, and so they’ll fail to fully grasp the importance of Jim and Huck’s friendship. Change a word, or misuse one, and the real meaning is lost.

Does Congressman Schiff know that?

Congressman Schiff made a fascinating pitch the other day, speaking passionately in defense of strict constructionists and the Founding Fathers; the Congressman insisted that we must be a nation of laws, not men, and of due process.

So, will he insist the President is innocent until proven guilty, that the President will have the right to face his accuser, that he’ll be given the benefit of the doubt, that under US law it’s the prosecutor’s role to prove guilt, not the accused’s role to prove innocence?

While we’re it, I suppose that’s a signal the House of Representatives will insist that all Americans will maintain their right to arm and protect themselves, and that Congress won’t try to pass a law that would make millions of law abiding citizens into felons. Nor will Congress allow various agencies to collect information on private citizens without due process and all that that entails. And if you want to change how Presidents are elected, you need to amend the Constitution.

Or maybe not.

Humpty Dumpty – before his unceremonious fall – noted, in a somewhat orotund fashion, that language is a tool that, in the wrong hands, can be used to mislead. As he observed to Alice:

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

Mr. Dumpty has put his finger on it. Censorship isn’t about protecting the citizenry, it’s about power, it’s about who is to be master. And wrapping yourself in the flag and “due process” while setting up a kangaroo court is about being master, about power. Congressman Schiff knows this, Speaker Pelosi knows this. Does anyone believe that Congressman Schiff has not already decided that President Trump is guilty, and should be impeached, tried, and sent to prison?

There are only two ways the impeachment can work: either we act like a republic, we adhere to the law and to the Constitution, Congress conducts a legitimate investigation and lets the chips fall where they may; or they hold a kangaroo court, and no matter what they find, they vote to impeach the President.

We know the answer: the House will now engage in theater, they’ll accuse the President of a whole host of things, and then they’ll vote to impeach. Whatever evidence that turns up will be mostly irrelevant. Rather, we’ll see all sorts of witnesses – first, second and third hand – some will even tell Congress what they want to hear. The truth will be of little import; there’s no search for truth, there’s only a search for high drama.

Following the impeachment vote in the House the case will be sent to the Senate where there’ll be more drama, then a vote, and Mr. Trump, as with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, will be acquitted.

Meanwhile, the media, demonstrating a visceral hatred for Mr.Trump on a daily, even hourly basis, will paint itself so far into a corner that there’ll be no thought of anything other than to continue the constant drumbeat. That drumbeat will stress that Trump is not legitimate. In short, all of the President decisions and appointments are to be overturned at the first opportunity. We will have become a banana republic.

Where will this end? No one knows the future. But, I’ll make this prediction:

In 2020, if the Left wins, we’ll see a purge, and violence against conservatives; if Trump wins it will be declared “invalid” and “stolen” and we’ll see more violence against conservatives.

We’re in for bumpy ride; truth means nothing, what matters is who will be master.

Copyright 2019 Arrias
www.vicsocotra.com