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I was listening to the radio the other day and a song by \u201cDire Straits\u201d came on; as the song concluded it occurred to me it wasn\u2019t 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 \u201coffensive.\u201d So, it\u2019s been deleted from play.<\/p>\n
The same is true of other, more significant, material. Most famous, I suppose is Mark Twain\u2019s \u201cHuck Finn,\u201d which is now published in a censored, \u201cno offensive language,\u201d form.<\/p>\n
That scares me.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll fail to fully grasp the importance of Jim and Huck\u2019s friendship. Change a word, or misuse one, and the real meaning is lost.<\/p>\n
Does Congressman Schiff know that?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So, will he insist the President is innocent until proven guilty, that the President will have the right to face his accuser, that he\u2019ll be given the benefit of the doubt, that under US law it\u2019s the prosecutor\u2019s role to prove guilt, not the accused\u2019s role to prove innocence?<\/p>\n
While we\u2019re it, I suppose that\u2019s a signal the House of Representatives will insist that all Americans will maintain their right to arm and protect themselves, and that Congress won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Or maybe not.<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I use a word,\u2019 Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, \u2018it means just what I choose it to mean \u2014 neither more nor less.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2019The question is,\u2019 said Alice, \u2018whether you can make words mean so many different things.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2019The question is,\u2019 said Humpty Dumpty, \u2018which is to be master \u2014 that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Dumpty has put his finger on it. Censorship isn\u2019t about protecting the citizenry, it\u2019s about power, it\u2019s about who is to be master. And wrapping yourself in the flag and \u201cdue process\u201d 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?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
We know the answer: the House will now engage in theater, they\u2019ll accuse the President of a whole host of things, and then they\u2019ll vote to impeach. Whatever evidence that turns up will be mostly irrelevant. Rather, we\u2019ll 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\u2019s no search for truth, there\u2019s only a search for high drama.<\/p>\n
Following the impeachment vote in the House the case will be sent to the Senate where there\u2019ll be more drama, then a vote, and Mr. Trump, as with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, will be acquitted.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
Where will this end? No one knows the future. But, I\u2019ll make this prediction:<\/p>\n
In 2020, if the Left wins, we\u2019ll see a purge, and violence against conservatives; if Trump wins it will be declared \u201cinvalid\u201d and \u201cstolen\u201d and we\u2019ll see more violence against conservatives.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re in for bumpy ride; truth means nothing, what matters is who will be master.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2019 Arrias
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18933,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18931\/revisions\/18933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}