“Today is not that day.” by Charlie Martin

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

“Today is not that day.” by Charlie Martin

“Our long national nightmare is over.” —— Newly-sworn President Gerald R Ford, August 4, 1974

Honestly, I try not to get passionate about politics. Becoming passionate about politics leads to dissatisfaction, which is suffering. The cause of suffering is a thirst to make things be the way you want them to be, which when unsatisfied leads to — you guessed it — dissatisfaction and thus to suffering. The end to suffering is to recognize the things you cannot change, just like in the Serenity prayer, and since politicians firmly insist on not doing the perfectly reasonable and essentially correct things as I would do them, for my own peace of mind I try not to get too excited about political things.

That’s by the way, was your Buddhist sermonette for today, I just laid out the first three of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. Keep your eyes open for my upcoming collection of my PJ Media Buddhism columns, Undocumented Buddha.

But hey golly, the last 10 years or so have been awfully tempting to get passionate.
Yesterday (as I write) was Inauguration Day for Daonald Trump, the 45th and now 47th President of the united States. Or, as Glenn Reynolds has named it on his Substack, DJT Day.
I was less than enthusiastic about Trump at first, and I can prove it: I wrote Not Fond Of Trump After 100 days I tweeted just before the election that my worst fears were being realized — Either Trump or Hillary was going to win.
I admit I was a little relieved, and looking back I should have voted for Trump (I didn’t vote for president at all that year) on the basis that he couldn’t be worse than Clinton. And there was some comfort in the observation that the amount of crazy on both sides was to my advantage, because I get paid to write about crazy.
By the time of the “Not Fond Of Trump” post, I’d started to come around. He nominated Neil Gorsuch. He eliminated a raft of regulations. He seemed to be adopting FDR’s ideas of trade policy, but even then it was becoming clear that he viewed those things as a starting position in a negotiation. As I wrote then, he was a David Mamet character with the motto Always Be Closing. And while I was less than totally enthusiastic about Trump at first, I wrote Stop Making Me Defend Trump on Inauguration Day 2017, while Kevin Williamson was making arch allusions to Eric and Don Jr as “Uday and Qusay,” essentially saying that Trump was Saddam Hussein.
The truth was, Trump was a very good president, comparable to Ronald Reagan — who was also reviled and insulted.
Well, guess what. “Always Be Closing” worked pretty well. The problem was that Trump Derangement was incredibly powerful, so powerful that it led to Trump Trance, a strange condition in which TDS sufferers literally heard Trump say things that he didn’t say, and insisted on it even when presented with video proof. (Of course, now that Elon Musk has been elevated to the Worst Person In The World, or at least second-worst, it’s happening to Musk too.)
So, between Trump-deranged press and the general opinion of the Democrat Party that Trump was an illegitimate president for a half-dozen reasons, but I think primarily because he’d beaten Hillary Clinton in an election when it was Clearly Her Turn, we got the 2020 and 2021 with an impeachment, leveraging Covid, and some shall we say questionable decisions by election officials, and Trump lost the election.
They weren’t satisfied with that — he had to be utterly destroyed. So we got a second impeachment, followed by some very questionable court cases.
But he just would not die. He began to look like Rasputin — shoot him, stab him, beat him, he still wouldn’t go down. At the same time, Biden or Biden’s puppet masters were doing amazing things. Leaving Afghanistan in, if not the worst possibly way, certainly among the top five. Opening the borders by revoking everything Trump had done and then expanding on it. Implementing authoritarian control over the supposed-free press.
Trump derangement or not, over time it became clear to people that they were being lied to. Musk then bought X and freed it from the “Nice website you got here” control from the government — and people started to see exactly how they were being lied to.
Every legal reversal for Trump became a positive — the more indictments, judgements, and legal setbacks he faced, the better his approval became, while as the economy tanked and the essentially authoritarian regime proved that they really truly thought everyone should just do what they were told and shut up, the better Trump, and Trump’s first term looked.
Until now, Trump has won the election, survived attempts on his life, and in his first 48 hours done more to reverse Biden’s damage than any president in the past has done in the first months of their administrations.
Honestly, I think the only real comparison was Aragorn’s speech at the Black Gate.

My friends, you bow to no one.
But this day does not belong to one man but to all. Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace.
But there may come a day, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.

What Trump has proven is that for the American people, there may come a day when courage fails, and American ideals die
But it is not this day.

66 thoughts on ““Today is not that day.” by Charlie Martin”

  3. I got a text from a friend this morning. Apparently Trump has magical powers and by his word alone the assassination records “released” yesterday are all over the internet.

    Nearly as bad as TDS is TWS. This is not the time to get complacent, or to attribute magical powers of handwavium to Trump. I think he will do a lot of good, and he will certainly do the best he can, but if the American public expects magical powers, they’ll get disillusioned quicky and go haring off after someone else.

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  4. As the great Ronaldus Magnus put it: “Fide, sed verifica.”

    With Trump, I’m always cautiously optimistic. But he really hit the ground running, this time, and for that, I applaud him, and add, “De l’audace, encore de l’audace, et toujours de l’audace!”

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    1. Indeed- he hit the ground running, and I kind of hope that all the malignant creatures hiding in the cracks and crevices of the DC swamp are stunned into inaction by it.

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      1. Most usually, are, and that is not their leadership, most, MOST, Democrats are just like us and want what is best, then 10/20% of Democrats are totally f*cking insane. Including every Scumator and Congrescritter. May they all burn in a hell of their own making.

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      2. “Don’t trust, unless verified.”? The verification of anything said by a leftist is almost certainly in error.

        “Don’t trust.” is sufficient.

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  6. This too is temporary, so enjoy the victory.

    Still lots of work to do, but we can labor with more joy in our hearts, singing songs, and slinging memes.

    :)

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  8. I still eat crow every time I talk to my Dad, a WWII veteran in a very nice VA nursing home in Denver. It’s now become a running joke. I declared that Trump was a terrible candidate back in 2015 and I would never vote for him or support him. My Dad told me to give him a chance. Just a chance.

    So now I tell him: “You were right, I was wrong,” every time I call. And we laugh.

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    1. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump the first time because I was convinced that he was throwing the election so that Hillary would win. I loved it when he eeked out a win, and I loved his, idk, smug? look when he won, as if he knew it was possible, but still a little surprising nonetheless.

      As for my own reaction, it was “ok, he won, let’s give him a chance!” I forced myself to call him “President Trump” every time I commented about him, to remind myself to do just that.

      By mid-term, I was determined to vote for him just to spite the Media and their lies. I didn’t agree with all he had done, but I could see where he was coming from, yet everyone was trying to destroy him.

      After the Republican Convention, I was excited to vote for him, due to his demonstrated love for this country.

      After the fraud and four years of Pretendent Biden, seeing President Trump win has been a huge relief! And seeing him go full-in with guns blazing is a sight to behold. I sincerely doubt we would have seen this level of gung-ho, had the fraudsters just let Trump have his second term.

      Heck, I’m still convinced he could have been our worst nightmare in his first term — he offered compromises to the Democrats that made me cringe, and had the Democrats accepted, he would have been a RINO President — but, instead, they chose to fight him all the way, no matter what. Through their hatred of Trump, they destroyed themselves.!

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      1. “had the Democrats accepted, he would have been a RINO President — but, instead, they chose to fight him all the way, no matter what. Through their hatred of Trump, they destroyed themselves.!“

        So much this!

        What President Trump does now, is 100% their own fault. Some of his EO’s, like the birthright citizenship of babies born to foreign nationals, in US territories. Day one signed. Day ? (< week), stayed. Headed to the supreme court.

        Now, do I think it should go back 100% to the way it was? Both parents must be citizens? No. If one parent, of a legally married couple, is a citizen then the child is a birthright citizen, even if born on foreign territory. Which can be a problem now, unless born where one military or political serving parent is stationed. The other situation I find irritatingly wrong is all the cases of parents who citizens that adopt foreign babies, or children, then later those children are denied citizenship. That is just wrong. If born to, or legally adopted by US citizen parents, the children s/b US citizens. (*See disclaimer below.)

        The original supreme court decision involved a child to parent non-citizens, who were legally in the US, who had no path to citizenship, given the laws on the books. Conclusion was if parents had had a path to citizenship, they’d been citizens, therefore their children, born in the US legally, were entitled to citizenship (how I read it, *not being a legal scholar, or lawyer, so worth exactly nothing). But parents in the US illegally? No rights to citizenship. Their children should have no rights to citizenship.

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    2. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump the first time because I was convinced that he was throwing the election so that Hillary would win. I loved it when he eeked out a win, and I loved his, idk, smug? look when he won, as if he knew it was possible, but still a little surprising nonetheless.

      As for my own reaction, it was “ok, he won, let’s give him a chance!” I forced myself to call him “President Trump” every time I commented about him, to remind myself to do just that.

      By mid-term, I was determined to vote for him just to spite the Media and their lies. I didn’t agree with all he had done, but I could see where he was coming from, yet everyone was trying to destroy him.

      After the Republican Convention, I was excited to vote for him, due to his demonstrated love for this country.

      After the fraud and four years of Pretendent Biden, seeing President Trump win has been a huge relief! And seeing him go full-in with guns blazing is a sight to behold. I sincerely doubt we would have seen this level of gung-ho, had the fraudsters just let Trump have his second term.

      Heck, I’m still convinced he could have been our worst nightmare in his first term — he offered compromises to the Democrats that made me cringe, and had the Democrats accepted, he would have been a RINO President — but, instead, they chose to fight him all the way, no matter what. Through their hatred of Trump, they destroyed themselves.!

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  10. “They weren’t satisfied with that”

    Overreach – it’s what the lefties are very guilty of in their efforts to control others. They certainly succeeded in the USSR, CCP, Cuba, etc. And they would love that here too.

    Had they arrested 30-40 rioters at J6, they’d have been fine. Instead they went overboard and made martyrs of them all.

    Had they just pushed for Trans being treated with dignity, they’d have been fine. Instead they wanted to read to young children, not dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire, but as Satan’s Strippers, to enter women’s safe spaces, dressing rooms, showers, etc, and to push for child conversions.

    Had they just pushed for regular but limited legal immigration from some of the worst conditions around the world, they’d have made many allies. Instead, they wanted the floodgates opened, and as with asking about how much is someone’s Fair Share to pay in taxes, you get the same answer as to how many immigrants should we take in each year – no answer, meaning all of them. Let’s just bring all of South America, Africa, and India in here. And you pay for everything.

    Feel free to add to my list.

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        1. They need to drop dead and receive their karmic reward. No I don’t want to hurt anyone, hence Karmic Reward. But if I see a democrat politician drowning I will turn my back and call 911 for them, and laugh and laugh and laugh.

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          2. Back in high school in the mid-60s I was introduced to the Kinks by one of the teachers, whose last name was Koenk. Pronounced “Kink”.

            Haven’t thought of that in nearly 50 years.

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    1. I’ve voted for at least one Democrat. I voted for Lorreta Sanchez for Senate, because her opponent was a Bay Area Democrat named Kamala Harris. The Bay Area Dem machine dominates the state’s politics, so I figured I would vote for the idiot from Orange County to try and break up that power a bit.

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  12. Well, I guess choosing not to vote at all because you’re uninformed on the candidates isn’t the worst thing you can do. And having inside information on the utter unfitness of Hillary Clinton to be the leader in anything tends to skew my opinion on other’s judgements not detrimental to her.

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  14. I was skeptical of Trump in the Republican primaries of 2016, preferring Ted Cruz and worrying that Trump was another RINO, conservative on the outside with a soft chewy leftist center, but my wife who had watched him for years reassured me. Of course I would never vote for the Evil Treasonous Witch™, so I voted for Trump and crossed my fingers. Boy, did he deliver with vigor (as another President liked to say). Yes, I was disappointed by the way he was sabotaged by the cabal of the permanent government.

    I was heartbroken when he lost in 2020 under very dubious shenanigans that our legal system would never allow to be adjudicated. Life under the Facade in Chief of the US (FICUS) was indeed very, very horrible. What comes to my mind after Trump’s victorious re-emergence for me however is the Book of Job, especially chapter 38 and its reminder that God’s purposes are not ours. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

    Trump’s 4 years in the wilderness have laid the foundation for a true reformation of our laws. He is no longer the lone gunman who wanders into town to clean it up. Now he has a solid group of savvy citizens, wise as serpents in the evil ways of those who think themselves to the manor of the ruling class born. May we all make the most of it, or as the bleeding man said, “Fight, fight, fight!”

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      1. Smidge earlier, me. I cannot vote for the shrill one. Not ever. Nor even avoid voting for whatever opponent she has that isn’t her. She proved herself beyond the pale for betraying and abandoning our own. And should she appear as an candidate for nigh anything other than imprisonment, I shall not vote for her or abstain to vote at all.

        Some things need to be opposed categorically. This applied.

        I remain satisfied with the result. The second vote, that being 2020, well, at least it turned out well down the line. Without four years out of office, without the second great unmasking, without the growing outcry from the normies of all people, I don’t think we’d have got the last few days in Trump’s alternate history four years in office 2020-2024.

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  15. I voted against Clinton, the first time. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how pleased I was that Trump had won the next day, even though I expected nothing more than he would not be Clinton and make the leftists go spare in amusing ways. He fulfilled both — despite the larger number of leftists going spare in unamusing ways — and I voted for him the next two elections.

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    1. As I have said here before, 2016 for me was a “crawl over broken glass nude to vote for a syphilitic camel instead of The Dowager Empress of Chappaqua” election, but I was pleasantly surprised by DJT, except for his overly-trusting nature with the permanent bureaucracy and R party elite.

      It appears so far that that particular lesson learned has been properly absorbed.

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    2. Same.

      2016 voted against “it is her turn” Clinton.

      2020 voted for Trump. Only disappointment with his first term was his nativity regarding the deep state and RINOs.

      2024 voted for Trump and crossed my fingers.

      President Trumps political nativity is a thing of the past. He is going about it a lot more polite that I would (why I should not be in politics) but currently it is “Here it is. Get on board or get out of the way.”

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        3. Well. Yes.

          Never claimed I could spell. Rather the problem is correctly pronounce words written/thought, which results in interesting misspellings. If the miss spell feature does not catch it … interesting results occur.

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  16. Curious: How could they have possibly done the Afghan withdrawal worse?

    I’m just an amateur tyro military history student, but I am thinking they pretty much maxed out. What did they miss on the “Oh, no, you could not possibly be…oh you are.” list?

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    1. Oh? How about:

      Disarm the troops because our friends will protect them. Get the majority of them taken hostage. Ransom them in dribbles and increasingly more humiliating terms. The men come back gelded, and the women are returned pregnant.

      Yes, believe it or not, Afghanistan could have been much, much worse.

      Biden was in a hurry, so he didn’t have time to (HONK!) it up any more than he did.

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      1. Yeah, they could have done a surrender-in-place, but that would only be a “withdrawal” of flag rank and staff, as they are always too important and stuff.

        About the only thing they missed that I can think of offhand is if they pulled a Xenophon and made all US troops drive out overland through the passes into Pakistan to their port.

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  17. I assumed in 2016 that at best he’d do nothing, and at worst would spend 4 years trying to get the Dems and the press to like him. I expect that might actually have happened if they hadn’t been so implacably, hysterically hostile to him from the start. I really think the Dems chose the form of their destroyer.

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    1. “Choose the form, and persish!”

      “A doddering old man. Wait… an idiot woman!”

      “The form is chosen!”

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  18. Every Presidential election in my lifetime has been an easy choice. Just the last three:

    2016: Rich bombastic real estate mogul from New York City? Rich murderous thief from Washington, DC?

    2020: Rich bombastic real estate mogul from New York City that actually worked to fulfill his campaign promises? Brain dead corrupt Leftist puppet?

    2024: Rich bombastic real estate mogul from Palm Beach that survived massive lawfare and two attempts on his life? Whoring never had a brain Leftist puppet?

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  21. In the past, I’ve normally voted Libertarian for President

    In 2008, I made a special point of voting Libertarian so that I could say that I voted against both Obama AND McCain.

    In 2016, the Libertarian Party looked skin-suited, so I held my nose and voted for Trump.

    After 2016 there was a huge amount of TDS – but cries of “I voted for Trump and now I regret it!” were noticeable by their absence.

    It seems to me that the Great Fraud, and all the other anti-Trump efforts, came from those drinking their own ink about the Bad Orange Literal Hitler, plus a vague understanding of history where Hindenburg tried to avoid appointing Adolf Hitler as chancellor, but had to in the end because Hitler really did have the support in the German parliament. The Left’s feeling was that Hindenburg should have screwed democracy and done whatever it took to keep Hitler out – and that they should likewise do whatever it took to kick out and keep out the Bad Orange Hitler.

    It was their version of the “Lesson of Munich.”

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  22. Trump’s actions so far have delighted me.

    I do find it very disturbing that so many leftist people are spewing so much hatred about everything connected with the last three days. It can’t be “a policy I don’t like”; it has to be the worst thing that ever happened in the world. It can’t be “I don’t like Melania even though she’s gorgeous”; it has to be something sinister. The exact same people who are totally okay with Hamas as their pop idols, and who say all their crimes are just “resistance”, are accusing everyone else of being responsible for crimes of which they are innocent.

    The swampiest areas of Reddit have decided that it is now a horrible crime to link to anything on X. I’m sure that the mass bannings are already in progress, given that so many of these leftists are so determined to preserve their purity.

    OTOH, New Advent linked to a very interesting article about what “deportatio” is, in Catholic theology. It was supposed to be things like “throwing citizens out of your country for being Jews” or “nationalizing citizens’ land and forcing them to leave or starve.” The point was that banishment is an offense against people who didn’t commit crimes and who had always lived in a certain place by right; whereas punishing foreign criminals by banishing them isn’t “deportatio” in the Latin sense.

    So of course any religious stick is also good enough to beat Trump, and no article can stop that. But all the same, it was a good article to counter people saying stupid things about Catholic teaching. I can’t find it now, but I’ll look for it.

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  23. Unless you are looking for candidates to hang or throw out of helicopters the Democrat is never the correct choice.

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  24. Interesting bit over on twitchy, thus from X, re DJT after the Hegseth confirmation vote tonight: While leaving California after verbally running rings around Gavin and Mayor Bass, DJT was asked about McConnell’s “no” vote, and instead of engaging on Mitch as he would have done first term, he just calmly rolled right past, avoiding giving Mitch any attention a at all, saying “Winning is what matters right?”

    Definitely more disciplined and on what’s important.

    <Vader voice>Impressive.</Vader voice>

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  25. In the words of Syrio Forel, the First Sword to the Sea Lord of Braavos, “What do we say to the God of Death? Not today.”

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  26. Just saw a headline:

    Trump Says He Could Send U.S. Special Operators After Mexican Drug Cartels. It Could Make Things A Lot Worse

    Worse? How, exactly? And for who? I can see it being worse for the cartels.

    Especially if he sends CM. :-D

    Liked by 1 person

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