Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, JANUARY 25

by A. Joseph Lynch

THE WEEKLY BRIEF
THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL BEGINS

The impeachment trial of President Trump has begun in the U.S. Senate. The proceedings opened in a debate over how the trial would be conducted, with Democrat demanding additional witnesses be subpoenaed. The Democrats appeared to forget that the Senate is the jury, not a wing of the prosecution. The very request was itself further evidence of impeachment's lack of evidence. Some suspected the demand was meant to test the waters of GOP senatorial support for the president. If just a small handful of GOP senators broke ranks impeachment could take a wrong turn for the president. In the end, McConnell's plan was approved without losing a GOP single vote. Trump's efforts to secure the Senate in 2018 is paying off.

This week we've heard from the prosecution. Adam Schiff has led the way, boring both senators and Americans alike with suppositions and conjecture but with no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of President Trump. Yet while Americans - and news networks like CBS - could pull the plug and watch something more meaningful, senators have been forced into long days and longer nights listening to Democrats' conspiracy theories. Take these doozies from Schiff:

"...the president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won."

Does anyone remember when it was said that Trump wouldn't accept the legitimacy of U.S. elections? It turns out that one side wouldn't accept the results and would spin conspiracy theories in an attempt to overturn the election. In fact, they've gone so far as to use their conspiracy theories to impeach a sitting president while claiming U.S. elections are no longer legitimate. How is this helping the nation?

But Schiff continues:

"...the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don't have to fight Russia here."

Neoconservatives like Senator Mitt Romney feel precisely the same way and here we at AoA can agree with Obama's response to such hogwash: "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

This impeachment is not about presidential misconduct. Trump has not been accused of any "high crimes and misdemeanors" nor any statutory crime whatsoever. Tucker Carlson reminds us that this impeachment is all about disagreement in foreign policy. The globalist Left and the neocon Right are aligned in this regard. The globalist Left wants to continue exporting abortion and sodomy while breaking down national borders. The neocon Right, in its continued wars of imperial hegemony, also rejects national borders and national sovereignty while eagerly warring with any nation that would defy American global dominance. Democrats hoped that there were enough neocons like Mitt Romney left in the Senate to topple Trump and his "America First" foreign policy.

Perhaps sensing GOP votes would not be forthcoming, Schiff dropped a final zinger that alienated even the most moderate of GOP senators:

“CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that key senators were warned, 'Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.' I don't know if that's true."

"I don't know if that's true" is how Schiff should end every sentence. One report offered this description of what happened next: After that remark, the generally respectful mood in the Senate immediately changed. Republicans across their side of the chamber groaned, gasped and said, “That's not true.” One of those key moderate Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, looked directly at Schiff, shook her head and said, “Not true." 

Whatever good will the Democrats hoped to gain from the moderates across the aisle has been cast aside. Congressional Democrats have been unmasked and Trump now stands to win, first in the Senate and later in November at the ballot box.

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

FROM THE DEPTHS OF OUR HEARTS: Cardinal Sarah is giving a strong defense of Benedict's collaboration on their forthcoming book From the Depths of our Hearts. Although the Vatican has demanded Benedict's name be removed as a co-author, Ignatius Press has announced it will publish the book on priestly celibacy as is. The big question AoA has regards the selection of topic. The liturgical acumen of Benedict and Sarah is unmatched. Why are they writing on celibacy?

BISHOPS INVESTIGATING BISHOPS: Episcopal controversy in New York. More from Church Militant.

WOMAN IN VATICAN'S STATE DEPARTMENT: Pope Francis has named the first woman to be a manager within the Vatican's Secretariat of State. We will not over react to the decision as some in the more conservative Catholic media might. Francis' act was neither a bow to feminism nor women's empowerment. It was rather based in seeing women as "peace-makers, mediators and healers" and finding a way within the Church to express the feminine genius. Contrary to the conservatives and the liberals, Francis is much more in tune with anthropology than ideology in his decision making.

CHRISTOPHER TOLKIEN DIES: The son of the famed Catholic fantasy novelist has died at age 95. Though not as religious as his father, Christopher played a pivotal role in promoting his father's Catholic fantasy world. Without him we might not have had the masterpiece movie trilogy based on The Lord of the Rings nor an upcoming $1 billion Amazon TV series.

JACK VAN IMPE DIES: The controversial apocalyptic televangelist was 88.

AARON RODGERS ON LOSING FAITH: In a recent interview, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers described his journey away from religion and how it was a trendy Christian pastor named Rob Bell who helped him leave Christianity.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

SOLEIMANI FALL OUT: In the aftermath of the Soleimani assassination by the Trump Administration, we're relieved to see the tensions easing. Things were perhaps most dangerous following an Iranian rocket attack that wounded US soldiers after the Trump warning that he would bomb 52 cultural and religious sites in Iran if Iran attacked again. Trump thankfully pulled back from his threat, a threat that we at AoA (and Boris Johnson) highly disagreed with. Fall out from the killing, however, remains. Iran's foreign minister was denied a visa to enter the US en route to the UN where he would have rightfully blasted the unnecessary assassination. Netanyahu, who undoubted pushed Trump for the strike, has declared the US solely responsible for the strike thus leaving the US holding the bag. Iran has backed out of the nuclear deal, no longer committing to limit uranium enrichment. It's only a matter of time before Iran goes nuclear. Only a war could stop it, but The National Interest warns of what war with Iran will bring. Ex-marine officer Gil Barndollar of Catholic University of America's Center for the Study of Statesmanship argues that killing Iran's conqueror of ISIS and most popular public not only alienates us from Iran's citizens but it does nothing to defeat a Wahhabi threat four times larger in numbers today than on 9/11. We continue to argue that Trump must make the same pivot on Iran as he is trying to make with Russia. Neither Iran nor Russia is an existential threat - both are great civilizational powers we must forge agreements with, not fight.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY EDITOR OUT: Mark Galli, the Christianity Today editor who has called for Trump's removal from office, is retiring. Although he says he decided to retire in October, the backlash against him and the evangelical magazine founded by Billy Graham in 1956 made retirement a foregone conclusion.

VOICES OF SWING VOTERS: Traditionally Democrat voters are looking for reasons not to vote for Trump, but the reasons are far and few between.

MORE FAKE NEWS: CNN analyst and former Clinton press secretary was caught fabricating a conversation he claimed he overheard between two Republican senators. No wonder trust in the media continues to plummet.

MORE WAPO HYPERBOLE: Godwin's law states that when one party in a debate makes a comparison to Hitler the debate has ended and whoever made the comparison loses. Neoconservative "Never Trumper" and WaPo columnist Max Boot - who had said ISIS leader al-Baghdadi was "courageous" in the suicide that included his wife and children - is at it again. This time he's coming dangerously close to breaking Godwin's law. In both a recent tweet and in a WaPo column, Boot declared: "Nixon was guilty of abusing his authority, but he didn’t subordinate foreign policy to personal interests. Other presidents – from Jackson’s Trail of Tears to FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans – trampled our values, but they had a public purpose."  In other words, Trump's America First foreign policy is worse than the Trail of Tears (which killed 4,000 Cherokee indians) and the American interment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans - and if we replace "internment" with "concentration" camp, Godwin's law might have been broken. To use another adage, comparing Trump's foreign policy to such evil, while tacitly saying the evils had public benefits, is "jumping the shark."

A quick note on Max Boot: Boot describes himself as "socially liberal: I am pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-abortion rights, pro-immigration. I am fiscally conservative... pro-environment... pro-free trade... [and] strong on defense: I think we need to beef up our military to cope with multiple enemies." By enemies we're sure he means Russia and China, not the Wahhabi terrorists who actually crash our planes and topple our skyscrapers. Boot represents what the Democrats are becoming: the party of the wealthy elites, the feminists, the homosexuals, the environmentalists, the globalists, and the destroyers of national borders and national identities. It is the new amalgamation of the very worst parts of the old Democrat and Republican parties. Democrats will never win back the rust belt on such a platform.

SANCTUARY CRACK DOWN: Is ICE finally cracking down on sanctuary cities? ICE is starting to bring city officials to court with one ICE official warning: "They can show up to court with a toothbrush because they might not be going home that night. Because they could be jailed for failure to comply with a lawful order from a judge. That’s the route we’re going.”

AMERICA'S BORDER WALL IS MEXICO: While Trump secures the southern border, his pressure on Mexico is working. Mexico was stormed this by another caravan of Guatemalans. This time Mexico halted their advance and is currently flying and busing them back to Guatemala.

III. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

MARCH FOR LIFE: President Trump has become the first US President to attend and make an address at the March for Life. Watch his speech here. A former abortionist shares her horrific story.

APOCALYPSE POSTPONED: Where biblical fundamentalists like to predict the date of the Second Coming, environmental fundamentalists like to predict the world's demise from global warming (and 1 in 10 couples refuse to have children due to climate change). Glacier National Park even posted signs stating that the glaciers would be melted away by 2020. It's 2020 and the glaciers are still intact. The signs have now been removed.

KATHY BATES ON "ME TOO": Kathy Bates has chimed in on the "Me Too" movement, stating an obvious truth: "In my day, if you went up to a guy’s hotel room, you knew exactly why you were going..."

HALLMARK CEO OUT: Heads are rolling at Hallmark following a controversial and outrageous lesbian-themed commercial ran during the Christmas season on the family-friendly cable channel. Hallmark's CEO has been sent packing.