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Seventy-five years ago today — D-Day, June 6, 1944 — the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy, 73,000 of whom were American.  That successful invasion was a key turning point in quelling Adolph Hitler’s quest for world domination.

It would do us all some good to put ourselves in the place of the person who took the first picture shown above [sequence is left to right]. Knowing that in the next few seconds the door would swing down and we’d see the next scene, we’d be acutely aware that our very-near-term future could be the path depicted by the third and fourth scenes.

As I mentioned in my recent post on Memorial Day, in all of many international travels my wife and I have had the privilege of enjoying over the past twenty-plus years, seeing the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial [above pic taken by me] and nearby Omaha Beach [the worst of the landing areas where scenes like the photo sequence above unfolded that day] was one of the most memorable and moving experiences for me. The cemetery covers 172.5 acres and contains 9,388 graves.

I highly recommend watching this video clip [a little less than six minutes] of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan [warning — very unpleasant imagery:] Clip From Saving Private Ryan. I was never in the military, but I expect that part of that film depicts about as accurately as possible the carnage suffered on our behalf by thousands of our fellow Americans — and thousands of citizens of the other Allied nations — on D-Day. We should never forget what they did for us.

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Charles M. Jones

Some people, even some of my Christian friends, who follow this Blog and/or follow me on FaceBook or Twitter may not appreciate this particular post — because they don’t “like” our President, or because they think Franklin Graham has become too “political.” Every day for well over a year, my prayers have included a lot of the exact phraseology Rev. Graham used in his prayer offered on 6/2/19 along with those of over 350 pastors and other Christian leaders who had called for that emphasis on that day [3 minute 50 second video: Prayer For Our President.]

I don’t “like” our President — i.e., his persona. Neither did I “like” his predecessor, and although many — maybe most — of his actions were inconsistent with my Worldview and Value System [see https://usaparadigm.com,] I prayed frequently for him, too. I must admit that my prayers for President Obama, although regular, were not as frequent as my prayers for President Trump have been — not because of our philosophical and ideological incongruities, but because the literal hate of President Trump by Democrats and the extremely bitter and even more polarized atmosphere that hate has created has shown me how much more prayer is needed at this time for whoever holds that office.

For anybody, particularly if you are not a Christian, reading this who may be offended already but has stuck with me to here, I ask that you read on, keeping in mind this quote from the Home Page of my www.USAparagpdigm.com web site:

“I will say up front that I am an Evangelical “Born Again” Christian, and it would be impossible for me to express my thoughts from the perspective of any other value system and worldview.  I have, however, attempted to avoid wording that would be overly tedious to those not sharing my views, and I honestly hope that nothing here prevents them from objectively reading the content on this site’s pages, and the content of my blog posts, and deciding for themselves whether any of that content has value for them.”

The polarization in our government that has worsened by orders of magnitude since Mr. Trump’s election has made me realize how much we need three things: 1) leaders in government who are willing to break with “accepted norms” and quit “going with the flow,” focusing on what is needed in our country and getting things done rather than only on getting re-elected; 2) Christian leaders who are willing to speak out, without formally endorsing any particular leader or candidate or party, on issues that undermine our faith; and 3) many people who will pray regularly along the lines of the above-mentioned prayer by Franklin Graham regardless of who is President.

I am thankful that in President Trump we have the first, and in Christian leaders like Franklin Graham and the 350+ pastors and other leaders who joined together in support of his call to prayer for our President on June 2, we have the second. My prayer is that the 400,000+ views of Rev. Graham praying for our President will grow to tens of millions who will see the bigger picture for our country and begin praying regularly for him in that way [thereby becoming the third.]

President John Adams wisely observed that “we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” [President John Adams.] Almost all politicians say they are religious and that they pray. In today’s climate, what we each need is wisdom to compare what they say to a) what they do and b) their Worldview / Value System [the latter is easily discernible by simply looking at the policies they support.]

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

This Memorial Day, let us all be thankful that a generation of Americans paid a huge price to preserve the freedom we all enjoy.

“In America, you don’t fight because you hate what’s in front of you, you fight because you love what’s behind you.” Major Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America.

In all of many international travels my wife and I have had the privilege of enjoying over the past twenty-plus years, this scene in Normandy, along with a view of nearby Omaha Beach, was one of the most memorable and moving for me. I shudder to think what those who lie beneath these grave markers in Normandy would think of many people in this country today who exercise the freedom they died for in such disrespectful and ungrateful ways.

My prayer is that somehow, we will come to our senses and realize what a dangerous and unsustainable path — fiscally, but more importantly, morally — we have been following in the past decade or two, and return to the values that made us the greatest nation on Earth.

Best wishes for a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day.

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Charles M. Jones

A friend of mine found a time capsule while hiking through a park on a recent trip to Washington DC and the surrounding area. He told me about a letter in it that was dated March 4, 1799 and addressed “To Whom It May Concern.” Because it was from our first two Presidents, I felt that I should share it with you right away. …

[Click This Link To Read The Letter]

I hope millions of Americans think of themselves as people “Whom it may concern.”

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Charles M. Jones

How Democrats and the mainstream media are handling the Mueller Report reminds me of jokes we used to tell in my college days about another university that will herein remain unnamed … like “How many <bleep>s does it take to change a light bulb?” [answer: five — one to hold the bulb and four to turn the stepladder.] The one more applicable to Democrats and the media today, though, is “That <bleep> lost $100 on the Super Bowl, and then lost another $100 on the video replay.”

For over two years, they have bombarded us with “Trump colluded with the Russians,” demanded a recusal from Jeff Sessions because he had a brief conversation at a cocktail reception with a Russian official, demanded a Special Counsel, touted Bob Mueller as an excellent choice, and relentlessly predicted Trump was going down when Mueller’s report came out. When Barr’s summary said “no collusion,” he rapidly became the spawn of Satan [by confirming what Trump has been saying for two years,] Mueller’s integrity and reputation suddenly took a turn for the worse, and demands for the full unredacted report [which has no historical precedent] became the new mantra.

Back to the Super Bowl analogy. …

Enough already!  You lost $100 on the Investigate Everything game. Don’t keep beating that drum and lose another $100 on the video replay. Quit investigating and start legislating [governing.]

To repeat something I said in a recent post, “Personally, although I feel that Americans who have ruined the lives of other Americans for no other reason than to drive their political agendas need to be held accountable for their actions, I can’t just jump on the side of many of my fellow Republicans who seem to be pressing that issue too harshly. We have got to find a way to get off our completely polarized “horses” and get onto a train that’s headed down a more civilized and stable path.”

President Trump had the right to end what he has [rightfully, as it has turned out] called the Witch Hunt if he had wanted to. He could have fired everyone, including Mueller, if he had wanted to. He had the right to use Executive Privilege to redact more of the Mueller Report [as President Clinton did with the Star Report.] He didn’t do any of that.

Focus On The Half Full View, Not The Half Empty View

During the two and a half years in which Democrats and the mainstream media have pushed this take-Trump-down agenda, President Trump’s many accomplishments have taken a back seat in media coverage — which means that the real motive of the take-Trump-down agenda has been successful. I’ve said in previous posts that I don’t “like” our President personally [i.e., his public persona and how he conducts himself.]  But whether I “like” him or not doesn’t matter. Retrospectively, in the future, the success or failure of his presidency won’t be based on how many people “liked” him. It will be based on a net composite assessment of his effectiveness [or lack thereof] on domestic and foreign policy matters from a long-term perspective. So what are the accomplishments that have taken a back seat? For starters, here are just a few. …

The Economy. Almost 4 million jobs created since the election [400,000 manufacturing jobs, which are growing at the fastest rate in more than three decades.] More Americans are now employed than ever recorded before in our history. Economic growth in some quarters has hit 4.2 percent. New unemployment claims recently hit a 49-year low. Median household income has hit the highest level ever recorded. African-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-American unemployment has recently achieved the lowest rate ever recorded. Women’s unemployment recently reached the lowest rate in 65 years. Youth unemployment has recently hit the lowest rate in nearly half a century. Lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for Americans without a high school diploma. Veterans’ unemployment recently reached its lowest rate in nearly 20 years. Almost 3.9 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps since the election. U.S. manufacturers optimistic about the future has been as high as 95% — the highest ever. Signed the biggest package of tax cuts and reforms in history. After tax cuts, over $300 billion poured back in to the U.S. in the first quarter alone. Small businesses now have the lowest top marginal tax rate in more than 80 years. Record number of regulations eliminated. Foreign Policy and International Relationships. Increased our coal exports by 60 percent; U.S. oil production recently reached all-time high. We are a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957. NATO allies are spending $69 billion more on defense since 2016. Withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal. Moved U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Issued Executive Order to keep open Guantanamo Bay. Concluded a historic Mexico-Canada-America Trade Deal to replace NAFTA. Imposed tariffs on China in response to China’s forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and their chronically abusive trade practices. Our National Character. Confirmed more circuit court judges than any other new administration. Confirmed Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Innovative Thinking. Process has begun to make the Space Force the 6th branch of the Armed Forces.

Move On Already!

A very popular radio talk show host constantly uses the term “low information voters” to describe Americans who know very little about what is going on in our country and are easily taken in by the claims of candidates with “charisma” or whose “promises” appeal to them, personally.  I honestly hope those Americans can also be counted among those of us who are fed up and want our leaders to grow up and lead, and govern.

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

After months of dramatic congressional testimony, bombshell news reports and partisan jousting, the ever-evolving saga about alleged Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election and investigation into possible collusion by members of Donald Trump’s campaign continues to pick up momentum as new revelations seem to surface on a daily basis.

As much is I hate to say it, the 2020 campaign was well underway at least 23 months before the election will be held, and the percentage of media time focused on it is already accelerating exponentially. I hate even more to say that “breather” periods in news and entertainment media are a thing of the past — i.e., those brief but refreshing periods when a person could just receive “news” content without every facet of it being expressed in political terms [I usually put “news” in quote marks because all “news” is a mixture of real news and fake news, and the consumer of it must decide which is which.] Even the small amount of network and cable entertainment that does not in its content have indirect if not blatant political undertones is disproportionately sponsored by political ads.

As I’ve heard the statements and remarks of candidates [both announced and not yet announced] in the rapidly-increasing cadre during speeches and interviews, I have developed a valuable screening tool for my my readers. The tool is a lexicon of words and phrases that will undoubtedly be used by many if not all candidates between now and Election Day. I’ll start with a brief description of how this valuable tool can be used to save you a lot of time and frustration, and then present the lexicon itself.

How To Use The Lexicon

This tool can save those who use it a lot of time and frustration if used properly. Simply memorize it or keep it handy in places where you access media. Whenever a candidate is speaking or writing, just watch for uses of words or phrases in the lexicon. If within the first minute or two the candidate uses as many as three of these words or phrases, there is no need to continue reading / listening / watching. The entire speech is a standard, carefully-worded political speech designed to gain support through the “charisma” the candidate and his/her donors believe can propel him/her into the office being sought. This same logic applies to a candidate’s responses to questions in an interview.

The Lexicon

Now, for the lexicon itself. Notes: 1) words and phrases in bold italics are “red flag” items [standard campaign terminology for standard politicians;] and 2) words and phrases enclosed in brackets [<>] are to be filled in by the reader.

Well, there you have it. I may write some posts over the next — regrettably — twenty months with updates to this lexicon as the unfolding campaign reveals more items that should be included. Any such updates, as with this initial release, will be at no extra charge 😊, offered as a service to my country ✌️.

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones

If you agree very strongly with either the “Conservative” or the “Liberal” interpretation of the current post-Moeller-report environment in our country, I urge you to read this entire post for one simple reason — neither of these polarized views is 100% correct, and until we realize that, the environment of the past two and a half years is the “new normal” in America, and it will remain so until the Current Paradigm has officially died and the New Paradigm is in full gear [for those who have not routinely followed my Blog, see A Major Paradigm Shift Well Underway.]

Our leaders in both parties have wasted countless hours and dozens [at least — maybe scores] of millions of our dollars over at least the past four and a half [not just two and a half] years trying to find a “smoking gun” that clearly shows that the other party [the one that isn’t theirs] is guilty of … whatever.

It was encouraging to me over the past few days to hear even some of the most outspoken critics of our President say, through media channels that are clearly hostile toward him, that the fact that Mr. Moeller’s investigation found no reason to bring charges against Mr. Trump is a good thing for our country. Personally, although I feel that Americans who have ruined the lives of other Americans for no other reason than to drive their political agendas need to be held accountable for their actions, I can’t just jump on the side of many of my fellow Republicans who seem to be pressing that issue too harshly. We have got to find a way to get off our completely polarized “horses” and get onto a train that’s headed down a more civilized and stable path.

I’m not a pollster, but I honestly think the only people in this country who are pushing all this back-and-forth “Who dunnit?” bickering are politicians who apparently think it’s needed to get them re-elected, and the media pundits and their panels of “experts” who rely on eye-catching “breaking news” headlines for ratings. The rest of us are sick of it. I pray that our elected leaders in both parties will realize that it’s time to rise above all this and get on with doing what they were elected to do — govern effectively — and that they will ultimately show that they had the wisdom to strike the right balance between holding people accountable for actions that have unnecessarily harmed a lot of people while avoiding actions that are simply vindictive.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln declared, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” [see Lincoln — 1858 for the full text of that speech, which I could argue is at least as important for us today as it was for our nation at that time.] Over 1,800 years earlier, Jesus Christ said “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and a house divided against itself falls” [Luke 11:17.] Anyone who thinks this country is not a “house divided against itself” must be in a bubble of some kind, shielded from anything going on around them.

In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it” [taken from words almost a half century earlier by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”] Under the auspices of Mr. Churchill’s wise advice, I’ll close with some quotes from our history that we should not forget. …

• • “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” President John Adams
  • “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled [people] will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” President George Washington
  • “A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority [who vote] will vote for the candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse, with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship.” Lord Thomas B. Macaulay, English Historian, Essayist and Statesman, 1800-1859 [in a  letter to an American friend on May 23, 1857.]
  • “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” George Bernard Shaw.
  • “In the end, the ultimate threat to the American republic will be America.  The problem is not with wolves at the door but termites in the floor.” Os Guinness
  • “The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.  If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. … If the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.” President James Garfield

And then there’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results [often unverifiably attributed to Albert Einstein; in reality the best attribution for this very wise statement should be Unknown.] We simply cannot continue doing the same thing. It isn’t working, has been working less and less effectively for at least a decade, and will ultimately fail.

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Thanks for reading this post, and if you regularly follow my Blog, for that, too. Please consider sharing this or other posts with your friends, colleagues and associates.

Charles M. Jones