In October 22, 2020, I wrote an article entitled One Priest All. In it I wrote this:
I am anti-abortion, always have been, always will, as a matter of natural and divine Law. I will vote Biden, not because of his views on abortion, since I oppose that, but to ‘reign in the greater harm that otherwise will result from Trump having four more years. The depth of his gravity must not be allowed to go on. Sufficient proportionate reason exists that would justify a vote for a pro-abort candidate. Trump is unhinged, and preventing him from having any continued access to the nuclear codes is the preeminent pro-life issue of our time. In my view, greater than abortion. This is not hyperbole. Trump seems to have an endless thirst for chaos.
In that article One Priest All, I quote Joseph Ratzinger to affirm my point that a vote for Biden was not necessarily sinful if it is done soley to prevent a greater evil from blossoming.
Thirteen days after I wrote this article the American people cast their vote. Joe Biden was elected the 46th President of the United States. Fox News was the first to call it for Biden four days after the election on November 7. From there, all hell broke loose. Trump would claim victory prematurely and begin a series of lawsuits aimed at overturning the will of the people. Lawsuits considered assaults by many. Those lawsuits were rejected by the Courts, even by judges appointed by Trump himself. The Supreme Court refused to hear any case brought by Trump. William Barr, the Attorney General, would publicly state that they would uncover no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the election. This did not stop Trump from calling the Republican Gov. of Georgia, Brian Kemp, in an attempt to recalculate the outcome of the Georgia election. You can hear the call yourself online.
Per a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril, detailing the final months of the Trump presidency, General Mark Milley, a four star Army General, had a conversation with General Li of China to assure him that Trump would not be attacking them. That call was on October 30, five days before the election. Per the book, the Chinese thought that Trump in desperation would create a crisis, present himself as the savior, and use the gambit to win reelection. The General was tasked with convincing them that Trump would do no such thing.
And then came January 6. Two days later, General Mark Milley called the Chinese General again to assure him that the United States was steady and not on the verge of attacking China. If they were concerned even before the election, after January 6, they really began to panic.
Per Woodward’s book, the General believed that January 6 was a planned, coordinated, synchronized attack on the very heart of American democracy, designed to overthrow the government to prevent the constitutional certification of a legitimate election won by Joe Biden. Milley considered it treason and a dress rehearsal for something much larger and worse since Trump was adamant that the election was stolen from him.
While Woodward of Watergate fame is a credible author, let’s hear from the General himself. The following are his words spoken to a congressional bipartisan committee in Washington DC on September 28, 2021. You can decide for yourself what you might think of his words.
Mr. Chairman, I’ve served this nation for 42 years. I’ve spent years in combat, and I’ve buried a lot of my troops who died while defending this country. My loyalty to this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give. My loyalty is absolute, and I will not turn my back on the fallen. With respect to the Chinese calls, I routinely communicated with my counterpart General Li with the knowledge and coordination of civilian oversight. I am specifically directed to communicate with the Chinese by Department of Defense guidance, the policy dialogue system. These military-to-military communications at the highest level are critical to the security of the United States in order to de-conflict military actions, manage crisis, and prevent war between great powers that are armed with the world’s most deadliest weapons. The calls on 30 October and 8 January were coordinated before and after with Secretary Esper and Acting Secretary Miller’s staffs and the interagency. The specific purpose of the October and January calls were generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States. I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility, and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary, to convey that intent to the Chinese. My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message, again, was consistent. Stay calm, steady, and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you. At Secretary of Defense Esper’s direction, I made a call to General Li on 30 October. Eight people sat in that call with me, and I read out the call within 30 minutes of the call ending. On 31 December, the Chinese requested another call with me. The deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia Pacific policy helped coordinate my call, which was then scheduled for 8 January, and he made a preliminary call on 6 January. Later that same day on 8 January, Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire about the president’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president. I explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, and he doesn’t launch them alone, and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States. After the Speaker Pelosi call, I convened a short meeting in my office with key members of my staff to refresh all of us on the procedures which we practiced daily at the action officer level. Additionally, I immediately informed Acting Secretary of Defense Miller of Speaker Pelosi’s phone call. At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself in the chain of command. But I am expected, I am required, to give my advice and ensure that the president is fully informed on military matters. I am submitting for the record a more detailed and unclassified memorandor that I believe you all now have, although late, and I welcome a thorough walkthrough on every single one of these events. And I’d be happy in a classified session to talk in detail about the intelligence that drove these calls. I’m also happy to make available any email, phone logs, memoranda, witnesses, or anything else you need to understand these events. My oath is to support the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic, and I will never turn my back on that oath. I firmly believe in civilian control of the military as a bedrock principle, essential to the health of this republic, and I’m committed to ensuring that the military stays clear of domestic politics. I look forward to your questions, and thank you, Chairman, for the extra time.
WOW! What can I say? I’m feeling dizzy. I will be right back.
As I paused to reflect and calm my nerves, I remembered the film Thirteen Days, directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Kevin Costner, about the crisis that gripped the United States and the Soviet Union in October of 1962. President John F. Kennedy was under intense pressure from the top military brass to strike Cuba immediately after it was discovered that the Soviets were in the process of placing nuclear weapons in Cuba. For thirteen days the fate of the world was uncertain as the two superpowers came close to a military conflict which could have escalated to a nuclear war. A back deal is finally reached between Robert Kennedy and Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, thus averting a showdown and the crisis ending.
Something really really bad could have happened then, but it didn’t. Something really really bad could have happened here, but it didn’t. Trump in my view was not the type of madman that would have launched a nuclear attack. I do not believe he rises to that level of evil. Even if he did order a strike, it would have required an entire team to actually carry it out, and I believe it would not have been done since it would have been seen as illegal and thus unlawful. The military is within their right to disobey an unlawful order, especially one of this magnitude.
That is not the point. What is relevant is that a foreign nation with nuclear missiles was in a state of uncertainty and panic and this in itself could have triggered some very ugly and evil events Out of desperation they could have preemptively conducted the first strike on the United States from a mistaken position of self defense, as in Pearl Harbor.
Like the Russians before him and the trigger happy Generals in Kennedy’s day, President Trump and his closest advisors put this country and the world on the brink of something I do not want to even imagine.
Let the record show, some of the Church’s powers represented by the Napa Institute, its supporters, many among the Catholic bench, EWTN, among many rank and file priests down to your local Knight of Columbus Councils, along with many “faithful” lay folk, sat and applauded enthusiastically for Trump. And why? Abortion, the preeminent issue in the minds and hearts of many bishops and priests. Not only is it preeminent for them from a moral perspective, but also seemingly the only item on their agenda. Seeing in Trump a politico who would give them the jurists they wanted, Trump effectively silenced them from being critical of him in other areas. He bought their silence with conservative judges. They had nothing to add to their agendas that even came close.
But what did the bishops and priests know and when did they know it? Did they know that by supporting Trump and the impact it had on American culture and the Church they were “aiding and abetting” a dangerous man, capable of provoking our enemies into a preemptive military strike on us.
What does the Church’s teaching say about a “pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God.” When a man replaces facts and truth with his apparent truth, with his alternative facts, that he won, when he did not, that others cheated, when they did not, what do we have here? Is this not opposed to truth, to God, who declared, I Am the Truth. Trump unleashed his apparent truth on this country and it turns out there isn’t any truth in it at all.
To quote my own from the article The Gospel of the Fuhrer
Were not the many Catholic bishops and priests aware that aligning oneself with TFG was not a good idea even if he did appoint anti-abortion judges? Didn’t they know that that he was capable of such evil, the attempted overthrow of our Constitutional Government, which led to the death of some innocent people? Did they not know that TFG had and still has an endless thirst for chaos. Didn’t they know that it could have led to more evil than they could have imagined had Trump held unto power. Many bishops and priests certainly wanted this man to be elected again. So many pushed hard for him, telling faithful Catholics that they were not “true” Catholics if they did not support him. They didn’t actually say it, but they certainly made sure you understood it. How did they miss that while so many of us in the pew did not? Something to explore further, and something not soon forgotten.
Whether it was Angel named 83 or others, I do believe we were being watched, part of God’s active will, and those watching were assigned with an important task to make sure that the worlds most powerful weapons would remain in sleep mode in that period of 83 days, from October 30, 2020, to January 20, 2021.
They suceeded.
May God have mercy on us all, and may God bless the President of the United States.