Happy Inauguration Day!

By Charlie Johnston

Niceville, Florida – I saw several wits on X and Facebook note that, for the first time in their lives, they were wishing they could skip the weekend and just get right to today.

One has to hope that Joe Biden didn’t start World War III, bring in another 10 million illegal aliens, or pardon another 10,000 rapists, killers and murderers over the weekend.

As for those pardons, I think a lot of them are not going to hold up. They will – and should be – challenged in court. The president has absolute and plenary power to pardon people for federal offenses…but it is for specific offenses. He has no enumerated power to issue preemptive pardons over specific timeframes – that is to pardon any and all crimes someone did or may have committed during the subject timeframe.

Before Biden gave a preemptive pardon to his son, Hunter, the only time I am aware of a preemptive pardon being issued was when President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for all crimes he may have committed during his presidency. There was a lot of controversy over that, but even those who were shouting were privately relieved. Watergate had dominated the country for almost two years. Everyone wanted to move on rather than spend another couple of years dominated by it. While Democrats of the day were partisan (as were Republicans) they were not the barking mad harridans they have since become. Led by Tip O’Neill, almost all were unsettled by the idea of a former president on trial for political crimes. It just had too much of the smell of a vicious, banana republic to it. So, many complained (for partisan advantage) but no one formally objected. For all the hollering, no one really wanted to upset that particular applecart.

A preemptive pardon, though, does not just address a specific offense or offenses. It is a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card for any federal crimes committed during a specific period. Smart lawyers may argue that since the presidential power of the pardon is absolute and plenary, he can issue preemptive pardons. Smarter lawyers will argue, with more fealty to the Constitution and logic, that a pardon, while granted to a person, is for a specific crime. A preemptive pardon is a form of privileged exemption from accountability for all crimes for a specific person. If a preemptive pardon is Constitutional, why not a pardon for any crimes that may be committed by a person in the future? A pardon is granted to a person, but is focused on the crime he committed. A preemptive pardon grants a person exemption for all crimes he may have committed for a specific time period. Thus far it has not been granted for future crimes, but what is to stop a future president from trying to exempt someone with that sort of privilege if this is not challenged?

In short, a preemptive pardon is not a pardon at all, but a grant of blanket immunity from all accountability. In Nixon’s case, though it was probably not Constitutional, it finally cauterized a gaping, seeping wound that everyone wanted to be done with. In Hunter Biden’s case and that of all the politicians and leftist officials Biden has issued preemptive pardons to, there has been no such collective benefit to the whole society. These have been efforts to exempt partisan officials from accountability for crimes they have committed against the whole people. Ultimately, I do not expect them to stand.

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Having been raised in a southern fundamentalist tradition, I was no stranger to anti-Catholic bigotry. Ironic that it was after I became Catholic that I discovered the most virulent Catholic bigotry – and that it should be perpetrated by men wearing Catholic clerical collars.

Pope Francis appointed Cdl. Robert McElroy of San Diego to take over for retiring Washington, D.C. Cdl. Wilton Gregory. It is hard to see this as anything but a giant “Screw you!” message to Donald Trump from the Pope. It is guaranteed to persuade the many Catholics in the new administration to maintain their bona fide residence in the Dioceses from which they live rather than transfer it over to where they must serve. Ironically, this makes Chicago Cdl. Blase Cupich the voice of reason in the Anti-Catholic wing of the hierarchy in America. McElroy is fanatically supportive of LBGT issues, is suspect on transgender issues, and has been soft (to say the least) on child exploitation. He was a protégé of disgraced Cdl. McCarrick, after all. When the D.C. Archdiocese put up a post on X welcoming the new Cardinal Archbishop, it got slammed by people disgusted by the news that this anti-Catholic Bishop would lead their Archdiocese.

I have stayed out of Washington D.C. since January 6, 2021, considering it to be illegally occupied territory. Come Monday, I will rescind its personal “no-go” status, but if I am at Mass there, I will not give a dime when the collection plate comes round.

A few have noted my soft spot for Cdl. Gregory, and my belief that he will have an opportunity to become a hero of the faith. He never did while leading the D.C. Diocese…BUT, he is 77 and will remain a voting member of the College of Cardinals until he is 80. That makes it very likely he will participate in a conclave…so I am counting on him to keep us from getting a clone of Pope Francis.

I wish the offense of this Pope ended there. You all know that the Pope removed Bishop Joseph Strickland from the Diocese of Tyler, Texas. The removal was not canonically valid, for Francis gave no formal reason for the removal – as a Pope is required to do in such cases. It was obviously just because Strickland was too orthodox and a critic of Pope Francis sloppy offenses against Catholic Doctrine.

Well, here he goes again. The Pope began the new year by removing a French Bishop, Dominique Rey, of the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon for no stated reason. Rey’s offenses? He had presided over an explosion of Priestly vocations, including (but most assuredly not limited to) traditionalist Seminarians. Can’t have Bishops who are so Catholic they actually believe in Christ and that His word is binding, can we?

Of course, last year the Pope excommunicated his most vituperative critic, Archbishop Carlo Vigano. I am often ambivalent about Vigano, who recently called out American Bishops who are profiting mightily from facilitating illegal immigration. Sometimes Vigano speaks with brilliant clarity and insight; at others his reason gets warped and distorted by his anger and grief over what has become of the hierarchy of the Church he loves. But that he loves the faith is not in doubt. Faithful, orthodox Catholics have to be asking, “How long, O Lord, must we suffer the efforts of these men from within trying to mutilate and scar the Holy Face of Jesus?” God is not mocked. A Pope or Bishop can lawfully excommunicate a person from the Church Militant. But such excommunications can be reversed, as it was with SAINT Joan of Arc. But woe to a prelate who excommunicates out of personal pique or to enforce political ideology. He who does such does something that will be reversed and, meantime, will result in his excommunication from the Church Triumphant if he does not repent of his abuse – and there is no appeal of decisions God makes. One can’t help but be furious with these abuses and offenses – but there is also a sense of pity, for if the perpetrators do not repent they are in grave danger of the judgment. In reparation for them, let us appeal to the Holy Face of Jesus.

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Acting boldly is not the same thing as acting brashly. A lot of Trump critics do not understand that. To act brashly is just to spout whatever comes to mind, no matter how confrontational, without serious thought about the matter. Making that a habit is a good way to torpedo a political career. (Yes, I know Democrats have gotten away with it for a long time with the stout help of the establishment media. We have reached the twilight of that era, though. Once you see the game, it is impossible to unsee it. The Democrat senators in confirmation hearings last week did NOT spark opposition to Trump nominees: they just came off as hysterical and unhinged. All the Dems and the gutter press accomplished was to delay the hour of reckoning that is now upon them. Their wheels keep spinning but the gears no longer mesh.)

Acting boldly involves thinking very carefully about what you want to accomplish, then sounding it in original, vivid, and striking words, often using indirection to get there. It sounds almost the same as brashness, but it has a clear (if not often obvious) focus to it. It also carries the virtue that it can cause people to think about old things in new ways…to see them with fresh eyes and hear them with fresh ears, instead of staying stuck in the same, old cognitive ruts.

Donald Trump’s gambit on Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal put the aggressive bad actors throughout the world on notice that they might want to spend a little more time protecting what they have instead of scheming to undermine America. If he blasts Hamas and Iran hard in the next few weeks, China will be MUCH less likely to make a serious move on Taiwan.

Trump’s push to get his priorities in “one, big, beautiful bill” is tactically sound, as well. With his mandate, the first bill he pushes that comes out will pass. That will give cover to RINO’s and other GOP eunuchs to say they voted for his bill – and then load up a second bill with pork and anti-American baloney. If he can get it all in one bill, they won’t able to do that. If it ends up being two bills, you better hope your priority is covered in the first bill, because the second is going to be a mess and a dogfight.

In his first term, Trump was too often brash and undisciplined. Who wouldn’t be with the way the gutter press and hysterical, lying Dems were constantly targeting him? But even with the flaws and the constant siege, he still got a ton of good done for America. I have been deeply impressed this last year at how disciplined and focused he is. He has continued to be bold, but has not often gotten significantly sidetracked by left-wing ambush bait. What the left has accomplished is to train a real tiger, filling him with a terrible resolve and fortitude. By the time this term is done, I expect leftist woke priorities to be a footnote in American history.

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I had a woman, Samantha Hall, contact me on X asking if I would highlight the importance of school board elections in the coming year. Having been a school board member and president long ago. I know very well how important school boards are to local control. I also know that the teachers’ unions have captured a lot of school boards for their own benefit, rather than for the kids and the local community.

Since these are not usually high profile races, unions have used public indifference to capture many, maybe even most, boards. A teacher cannot usually serve on the board of the school in which they are employed, but they network with each other to take control of each other’s boards to thwart local control. One of the greatest things that happened with the Covid lockdowns was that parents finally saw what was really going on in their teachers’ union captive schools. It made folks angry and sparked a movement in many places to take back the schools and genuinely re-establish local control.

Turns out Hall is a school board member for the Southern York County School District in Pennsylvania, which includes Susquehannock High School – and a CORAC member. An earlier board had eliminated the American Indian logo that served as mascot for the school’s sports teams. This sort of cancellation riles me up. I am 1/8 American Indian and it angers me that so many white liberals think they honor American Indians by cancelling any examples of bravery and courage from American Indian culture that are used in sports. I was always proud of those logos. Shoot, when I was a kid and we played cowboys and Indians, because of my ethnic background, I was usually assigned as leader of the Indians. (This changed after the Indians kept winning too many battles…then my friends pointed out I was mostly white and so dubbed me a Cowboy, after all.)

Last year, the new board, of which Hall is a part, restored the proper logo, God bless them. Just goes to show it is good to have CORAC members on your local boards if you are going to reignite common sense in America.

Now I imagine some of you will tell me I should say “native American” instead of “American Indian.” A caller to my old radio show some 30 years ago said the same thing to me when we were talking about ethnic backgrounds. I’ll give you the same answer I gave him: “I am native American because I was born here – and American Indian as part of my ethnic heritage. And I’ll thank you not to tell me what to call myself, paleface.”

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

Find me on Twitter at @JohnstonPilgrim

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