Infrastructure, Rainbow Regimes, And Trump: Ephrom’s Junk Drawer

Those who have been reading my twitter know I currently have some Writer’s block. Well, according to Mr. Enter, the best way to overcome Writer’s block. As such, I decided I’d take some time to write on some random issues that have been on my mind, but that I can’t turn into a full article. If you’re similar with Caitlin Johnstone’s “Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix” series, it’s basically the same as that. Some of these might become full articles later on, but I highly doubt it.

Infrastructure

For the past six months, President Biden has been trying to negotiate an infrastructure package through Congress. Then, on 6/24/2021, the a building in Miami, Florida collapses and leaves at least nine people dead. Like with the oil pipeline hacking, the argument for Joe Biden’s policy is currently staring us in the face — and we’re not doing anything about it.

Americans know their infrastructure is greatly behind that of the rest of the world, hence why Donald Trump campaigned both in 2016 and 2018 on an infrastructure package that simply never materialized. Our infrastructure is commonly rated as some of the worst in the first-world, and we need to change that. (Fun fact: West Virginia is state that elected Joe Manchin, who has been one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to passing Biden’s infrastructure plan. West Virginia also has the worst infrastructure in the United States.)

I understand that Biden directly pointing out that his infrastructure package would have stopped the deaths of at least nine people will cause him to be accused of “politicizing a tragedy.” However, most governments run on the model of problem-reaction-solution. Our awful infrastructure is a problem, we are currently reacting to it, and it’s the job of Biden and Congress to solve it.

Earlier this week, Biden along with a handful of Republicans announced that they had come to a bi-partisan agreement on the infrastructure package. Despite the fact that Biden allowed Republicans to play a massive role in deciding what’s in the package, Republicans quickly went on various talk shows to trash the agreement, saying that Biden had included things that were not related to infrastructure.

Except now Biden also has the ire of some progressives in Congress, AOC for example, for weakening the package so greatly in the vague hope of getting Republican support. This is the same mistake Obama made with his stimulus package, the Affordable Care Act, and basically everything else. When you try to please everyone — in Biden’s case, both progressives and conservatives — you end up pleasing nobody, hence why it’s unlikely Biden’s infrastructure plan is going to pass through Congress.

While I can applaud President Biden for trying to make everyone work together — and I definitely prefer Biden’s humbleness and willingness to listen to others over Donald Trump’s nonsense idea that he knows the most about everything — Biden needs to put his foot down sometime in the near future if he wants to get anything done. So far, Biden has been a good President so far, but he can’t allow Republicans to control his administration — if the American public wanted that, they would have voted for Trump, McConnell, and McCarthy instead of Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi.

“Rainbow Regime”

On 6/24/2021, R. R. Reno published an article in First Things called “Our Rainbow Regime.” If you thought that headline was melodramatic enough, wait until you read his article:

The rainbow flag represents the regime that our globalized elites intend to sustain. As a regime, it treats dissent as illegitimate. Those who object to the rainbow flag and what it represents are not fellow citizens concerned that society cannot function without clear social markers of the differences between men and women. They are “haters” and “bigots.”

Personally, I was unaware that you could not be both a “hater” or “bigot” and a “fellow citizen.” Reno is unable to cite a single example of someone losing their United States citizenship over being a bigot — although he does talk about a recent controversy regarding Hungary having disputes with the European Union — because no such story exists. Citizens of our “rainbow regime” are allowed to criticize LGBT people, LGBT rights, and any other LGBT topic that exists. Hence why R. R. Reno is not currently sitting in prison and hence why First Things has not been shut down by the government.

Other highlights include:

Men kissing men break down barriers — a wonderful image of our elites aspiring to remove obstacles to trade and commerce. Drag queens blur boundaries — a marvelous evocation of the globalist dream of a world without borders.

I’ll admit, I never saw the link between The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hedgwig And The Angry Inch, and Pink Flamingo and support for open immigration and free trade.

Or how about this?

Homosexuals, especially gay men, are also associated with scrupulous self-care and glamorous consumption. They pioneered the now upper-middle-class norm of extended adolescence, the carefree single life that extends for decades. Gay life also realizes the dreams of many feminists — professional success and self-realization without the burdens of fertility.

So if homosexuals have no interest in family nor child bearing, why did they fight for the rights to marry and adopt? Why did Obergefell v. Hodges even occur if homosexuals had no interest in family life. (Hell, speaking personally, I know way more homosexuals who are “interested in family life” than I do heterosexuals in the same age group.)

I used to hear all the time that calling these people “homophobic” was inaccurate because they aren’t actually “scared” of gay people. But people like Reno clearly are actually scared of homosexuals — or, at least, he’s scared about what them being normalized would do to society. Seriously read those quotes from Reno — or even go read the full article over at First Things — and try and tell me that Reno isn’t actively scared of gay people.

More Attacks On Biden For Not Being A Theocrat

On 6/24/2021, The New York Post ran an article by Matthew Walther with the headline “Bishops to Biden: There is no such thing as ‘private’ Catholicism.” In the article, Walther lays out that there’s only true way to be Catholic: By being a theocrat:

Simply put, the Catholic Church doesn’t permit its members in public office to hold fast to one set of beliefs in private, only to turn around and govern according to a different set of beliefs.

If that is the case, then the Catholic Church has no place in a secular nation, such as the one Joe Biden governs.

Of course, the op-ed editor for The New York Post is the fundamentalist Catholic Sohrab Ahmari, so such articles like this are anything but unexpected. However, very little could prepare anyone for this comparison:

Next month, on July 9, the church celebrates the feast of Saint Thomas More, who was martyred after refusing to accept Henry VIII’s claim that the crown was the final arbiter of religious authority in England. Saint Thomas knew that this wasn’t true and that public acquiescence, however politically expedient, would be a grave sin. Biden and his Catholic allies would do well to look to his example.

The fact that Walther doesn’t seem to know the difference between governing a secular nation and starting your own religion so you can get a divorce is — interesting to say the least. The only way this comparison could even be close to logical would be if it were Biden who was violating Catholic teaching, instead of simply not forcing others to act in accordance to his beliefs.

It should also be noted that these people are in a small minority of American Catholics. Ever since Vatican 2, the Catholic Church has made it clear that, while they believe you should accept Catholicism as the truth, the spiritual journey of each person is not to take place under corrosion of the state. (Mind you, Vatican 2 is incredibly controversial among Catholics, especially more conservative ones, but the Vatican overall considers Vatican 2 to be legitimate doctrine.) In that regard, Biden is a much better follower of Catholic doctrine than any of the social conservatives Sohrab Ahmari buddies with.

I also note the above because some have accused me of “anti-Catholic bigotry” over some of my statements in recent articles related to the desire for theocracy by some Catholics. I want to make it clear that I have no issue with Catholics, I have an issue with theocrats. It just so happens that the people in the United States who are most dedicated to implementing a theocracy are a handful of high-profile American Catholics. (I’ll admit, it’s rather odd I’m being accused of “anti-Catholic bigotry” while also supporting the second Catholic President in United States history.)

Merrick Garland Sues Georgia

On 6/24/2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department was suing the state of Georgia over its controversial election bill. Of course, the only reason why the bill was introduced was because of the nonsense claim that Biden stole the 2020 Presidential Election from Donald Trump — with Georgia being one of the most controversial state along with Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Of course Garland, who has been a judge since 1997 and who was President Obama’s choice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, knows the law backwards and forwards. So if Garland says the law is a violation of the Voting Rights Act, he is almost certainly right.

For that matter, if Congress really refuses to pass the For The People Act — which would lead to free and fair elections all across this country — then at the very least the Biden Administration through the Justice Department is trying to repeal obvious suppression until we get a Congress that actually cares about Democracy. Biden can’t make Congress fix the issue, but he can certainly use the Justice Department to stop things from getting worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden and Garland are using this lawsuit as a jumping off point to do the same all across the country — especially considering Republicans have tried to pass bills like the one in Georgia in a majority of states, with them not even needing too in a number of others.

With that said, all repealing the law will do is bring Georgia back to the system that elected the people who could pass it in the first place. Garland can make things better than they otherwise would be, but at the end of the day Congress needs to pass the For The People Act if they actually want to see some amount of election reform.

Donald Trump Holds A Rally In Wilmington, Ohio — Possibly Signaling His Planned Return To Politics

On 6/26/2021, former President Donald Trump held a rally in Wilmington, Ohio, the first since his departure from the Presidency on 1/20/2021. Whenever I see Donald Trump, regardless of if it’s in the form of a rally, a media interview, or that stupid blog he ran for a month (I believe it ended because his thirty day free trial ran out), I think of what Hunter S. Thompson said in reaction to a Washington Post article documenting Nixon’s life after resignation:

Jesus! How much more of this cheap-jack bullshit can we be expected to take from that stupid little gunsel? Who gives a fuck if he’s lonely and depressed down there in San Clemente? If there were any such thing as true justice in this world, his rancid carcass would be somewhere down around Easter Island right now, in the belly of a hammerhead shark.

God, could you imagine what Hunter S. Thompson would have said about Donald Trump? It’s such a shame we no longer have him.

The Republican Party seems to be doing everything possible to avoid moving on from Donald Trump. Just last week, Kevin McCarthy was talking about making him Speaker of the House if Republicans win it back in 2022. Others have suggested Donald Trump run for President again in 2024, which could result in him being the second President to serve two non-consecutive terms, the first one being Grover Cleveland.

Either way, it’s clear that Donald Trump is going to be a major part of the Republican Party’s inner-politics going forward. Even while Trump was President, Matt Gaetz, Ron DeSantis, Paul Gosar, and Josh Hawley were all competing for the role of “the next Donald Trump.” Steve King would also likely be running for that role had he not lost his primary in 2020.

The 2024 Republican Primaries are likely just going to be Republicans trying to out-Trump each other. Of the three Republicans who have expressed interest in running for President in 2024 — Matt Gaetz, Caitlyn Jenner, and Donald Trump — two have spent their entire political careers trying to be Donald Trump, and one is Donald Trump. Josh Hawley, who clearly wanted nothing more than to be President of the United States, even declined to run in 2024 because he knew the field would be too packed.

It’s funny, Republicans lose an election and they convince themselves that the elections are all rigged and that the people actually love them. Then they keep losing elections, and they keep losing, and they never seem to get the message.