“the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election”

Source- READ: House Intel Releases Whistleblower Complaint On Trump-Ukraine Call

“I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals.”

“In the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple US. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to ‘lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced–as is customary–by the White
House Situation Room. This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call.”

“White House officials told me that they were ‘directed’ by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored for coordination, finalization, and distribution to Cabinet-level officials.”

“According to White House officials I spoke with, this was ‘not the first time’ under this Administration that a Presidential transcript was placed into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive–rather than national security sensitive–information.”

“During interagency meetings on 23 July and 26 July, OMB officials again stated explicitly that the instruction to suspend this assistance had come directly from the President, but they still were unaware of a policy rationale.”

Read the whole document

Presidential Biographies: Chester Arthur #21

My quest to read (at least) one biography per President continues with Chester Arthur, the twenty-first President of the United States. The biography I chose with my selectio n process (reading reviews online and utilizing and this website- My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies) is The Unexpected President by Scott S. Greenberger.

Here, I’ll offer my thoughts on that biography, and proceed to present my official ranking for the DEFINITIVE RANKING OF PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!!! The full list of the rankings with all the Presidents as well as comments on their careers, updated as I read through this list, may be found here.

The Unexpected President: Chester A. Arthur by Scott S. Greenberger

Chester Arthur is one of those Presidents I knew very, very little about going in. To be honest, I’m not sure I would have recognized his face, let alone been able to name any achievements (or, as we will see, his infamy). I thought Greenberger’s biography was fascinating. In part, it was fascinating because it seemed partially an apologetic for Arthur while also denoting in detail the corruption and abuse of power he used throughout his life.

I have to admit something of a chip on my shoulder when I talk about Arthur’s scandals throughout his career. Grant is often spoken of as the most corrupt of Presidents, and Greenberger certainly rakes him over the coals as he gives context to the political career of Chester Arthur. It is true Grant’s administration was filled with corruption and scandal, largely due to his trusting and being quite loyal to those who followed him. Grant’s achievements, in my opinion, vastly outshine the scandals. Arthur, however, was mired in unscrupulous activity throughout his life, and only as President did he do anything about any of it.

Born in a highly religious and conservative family, Arthur seemed to depart somewhat swiftly from his upbringing when he first had the chance to gain reins of power. He went into practicing law. When the Civil War broke out, he became quartermaster general for New York, and quickly capitalized on his position to help a shifty friend sell more poor quality hats and other supplies to the Union army, taking a side cut along the way. He became opposed to the war over time and favored making peace with the South, but that didn’t stop him from using his position as quartermaster to line his own pockets by selecting sellers who’d give him a take on the side.

Arthur became involved in Roscoe Conkling’s political machine, supporting a system which effectively utilized bribes by other names for appointees to keep their jobs and for political offices to be entirely based upon political beliefs and/or how much money one could contribute to “campaigns” (eg. the pocketbooks) of higher officials. Time and again, Arthur profited on political appointments as well as siphoning funds into his own and friends’ pockets through government contracts and even more questionable means like supporting the seizure of property in order to extort additional fees from companies shipping product through New York and other areas. He was corrupt through-and-through, and made wealthy through the public dollar.

Ascending to the Vice Presidency was something of a coup for Arthur, but the political machine he’d joined with Conkling helped assure that he could do so. Garfield was shot, and as his dying moments drew on from hours to days to weeks to more than a month, Arthur seemed to undergo a change in political policy, envisioning himself as President. When Garfield died, Arthur took up the Presidency in a nation doubting of his ability and morals, but Arthur quickly ingratiated himself both with his humble attitude by mourning Garfield for at least six months officially as well as vowing to take up Garfield’s policies as his own. Apparently deciding that the President should represent the will of the people, which would mean Garfield’s policies would have been that same will, he worked to support policies that went against his own greatest supporters, alienating much of the political machines as he did so and even opposing the systems that helped him rise in power.

I admit the reasoning behind this seemed somewhat unclear reading Greenberger’s biography; it all seemed very abrupt. Greenberger, for his part, argues a large part of it was from the influence of Julia Sand, who had decided to take it upon herself to try to be the “dwarf” in the President’s court, someone unafraid to tell the truth. Lending credence to the influence of Sand’s letters on Arthur was a surprise visit the President made to her home, which concluded in somewhat startling fashion when he left her unknowing of whether he felt she’d been too harsh on him or not. Nevertheless, this interesting relationship–of which very little details can truly be known–may have helped influence Arthur away from his own interests.

Arthur also helped pave the way for the modernization of the American Navy, including starting the construction of the first steel warships in the United States. Though at this point the USA was lagging behind world powers in the navy, this move helped pave the way for the rise of the US Navy as a major power. Arthur vetoed the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act, and Congress promptly overrode his veto, creating a law that regulated immigration purely based on country of origin, a highly racist law with motivations founded upon worries about labor markets. The similarity between this Act and various ideas about immigration today cannot be denied. Arthur also tried different methods of securing rights of both African Americans and Native Americans during his Presidency, though each failed. He tried to find a new type of coalition with a “Readjuster” Party that Arthur thought might help give African Americans their voting rights back (a strategy that even Frederick Douglass ultimately endorsed). This policy failed when the Readjuster Party failed to gain a following. Arthur wanted to push for education of Native Americans, which shows his own imperialist views (which were not dissimilar from many of his time) in which the idea that the Native American peoples needed to be adjusted to white society. He ultimately sided with “settlers” who encroached on protected Native American lands after being assured the land was not protected, even though the treaty was found that gave the land to the Native Americans after his Presidency.

After his Presidency, Arthur died in less than a year. His legacy remains one that is difficult to pin down. Undoubtedly corrupt and willing to backstab anyone and play any political game to rise to power, once he’d finally gained the highest power in the nation, he seemed to moderate himself and work for at least a few good causes. How does one truly evaluate such a legacy? He died so soon after his Presidency, it is hard to evaluate what changes he made to himself during the tenure in office and how they came about. An enigmatic President, but not, necessarily, a bad one.

Chester Arthur’s Original Ranking in THE DEFINITIVE RANKING OF PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES (Full and Updated List Here)

Chester Arthur (21st President – Original Ranking #11)- Overall, Arthur as President was very, very different from Arthur as political machine proponent, and, again, it’s difficult to evaluate him because of that. He pushed for reform of the appointment system as well as disenfranchising political machines in Washington while doing what he thought was right regarding people of non-white backgrounds. Though many of his efforts failed, this was in part due to the opposition from the very political machines he’d used to rise to power. How does one evaluate such a man, who seemed a despot hungry for money and power one moment, and a reasonable, even-handed person once in power? The test of time has shown us little of his impact directly, though our Naval power is one tangible evidence. Arthur was a corrupt man who, strangely, turned towards a more moral rule once he gained the Presidency.

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

“The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky” First and Second Chapter Review

I know I’m really late to the party, but I don’t have as much time for video games as I used to. I try to be very discerning in the games I spend time on now, scouting around reviews and looking into information before I commit to playing through. “The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky” had been on my list for a while. An old-school JRPG that is supposed to have a phenomenal story paired with good gameplay? Sign me up. I devoured the first chapter. I completed every single side quest, getting every treasure chest, etc. I logged about 51 total hours on the first game. The second game, I did every achievement, logging 86 hours along the way and once again enjoying every single second of it.

Trails in the Sky begins with a slow burn. It is unpretentious. It starts as what seems to be a simple coming-of-age story, as you take control of Estelle and Joshua Bright on their quest to become better “Bracers,” individuals who go around doing odd jobs, taking out monsters, and the like all to contribute to the well-being of all. Over the course of the main story, it becomes clear there is more going on than meets the eye. Friendships are formed, conspiracies develop, enemies are made, and the plot gets deeper as you continue. It is continually punctuated by joyful interludes and humor, but the plot is both serious and endearing. It gets inside your head and grows, becoming bigger and more emotionally-involving as time goes on. It’s a phenomenal take on many of the standard JRPG tropes for plot, while also pushing it in a few new directions, particularly by having such deep investment in the characters.

The world in the game is superbly detailed and developed. Locales are filled with characters who change the simple statements they say at different points in the game. The world brims with detail, though no one would claim the graphics are top-of-the line. The music is otherworldly in its quality. I don’t listen to video game soundtracks much if at all. These games stand alongside Seiken Densetsu 3 (now “Trials of Mana”) as the only soundtracks I’ve listened to outside of a track here and there.

The world, again, is developed throughout both games, with more and more locations opening up and history filled in as players explore the game. There is some backtracking, but the music is so delightful, battles are skippable by avoiding enemies (though I pretty much never did), and the animations so smooth that it never felt like a chore to backtrack through locations. The only gripe here is that some of the quests are fetch quests and require more backtracking than seems strictly necessary.

Battles are turn based and fought on a grid with boosts to critical power and the like added randomly on turns. Players can utilize systems to ensure their characters align with the most important boosts. Strategy is pretty deep and some bosses require much planning beforehand in order to effectively counter their strengths (I needed some trial and error or a guide to get some of the achievements, but I’m not going to claim to be awesome at video games). Alongside this is the “orbment” system which allows players to effectively customize their characters abilities from moment to moment by slotting in different orbs to make new synergies and unlock new moves throughout the game. Struggling with having enemies beat you to the punch? Slot in some speed orbs. Need some magical punch? There are orbs to help you there, too. It’s a great system that keeps players involved in the gameplay as it develops throughout the series.

Trails in the Sky is difficult for me to adequately describe. It has the sense of wonder, delight, and fun that I missed for a while in video games. I thought that I’d maybe lost it myself. But instead, here comes a series that has such joy built into it alongside so many plot twists, villains, and stunning revelations that I just feel my heart warm thinking about the games. I recommend them very, very highly. Play them.

The Good

+Fantastically detailed, intricate world
+Superb music
+Great overaching plot
+Side quests often seem like they have an impact in the world
+Absurdly phenomenal characters

The Bad

-Somewhat dated graphics
-Some fetch quests
-Slow start

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

Reading through the [Alleged] Best 100 Science Fiction Books– Check out more posts in this series as I continue.

SDG.

Reading the Classics: “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen

I have decided to mix in some classics with my constant reading of sci-fi/fantasy, philosophy, theology, and biographies. In order to pick which classics to read, I have largely crowdsourced recommendations of which classic literature they have enjoyed, combining this with lists of major classic works. So yeah, pretty subjective, but we can deal. As I read through the classics, there will be SPOILERS, because I want to actually talk about them. Maybe it will encourage you to read them, or, if you have read them already, you can join in a deeper discussion of these great works. Feel free to recommend your favorites, as well.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Yes, I know the last classic I read and reviewed was Pride and Prejudice (click for review), but I’m double dipping on Austen for two reasons: 1) Jane Austen is one of the most talented authors ever, so deal with it; 2) my wife and I went and saw a production of the novel that was just so excellent and fun I knew I had to read it.

I actually ended up nabbing the audiobook of this one and listened to it while working on our new patio. I have to say, this one could actually challenge Pride and Prejudice as my favorite Austen novel. It is so good. More than any of her other novels that I’ve read, Abbey has the satirical voice of Austen coming through loud and clear. Whether it’s that fantastic aside about having characters in novels reading, well, novels (because, after all, why shouldn’t a novelist endorse her own trade?) or the overwhelming feelings and emotions that overtake characters all throughout, this is an absolutely hilarious delight of a novel of manners.

Northanger Abbey is the story of Catherine Morland, a gothic novel obsessed young woman who is of prime marriageable age and her interactions with society around herself. She makes and loses friends, talks to others about her love of specific novels–the more horrible and ghastly, the better!–and finds all the excitement she could have hoped for as the novel goes on. It’s a dramatic melodrama that Austen has layered over the whole work, somehow meshing it neatly into her own formula of social commentary and with so much humor I was laughing out loud as I was lifting cartloads of bricks listening to it. I know of few books that have been this much of a delight.

Austen’s satire is never bitter or even biting. It’s just funny. Yes, it is strange to be obsessed with gothic novels. Yes, the more horrible the better is an odd attitude. And yes, society people of the time would virtually never actually run into such events occurring. But for all of that, and for Austen’s mocking it, she made a masterpiece of her own that I am just as obsessed over as her characters were for gothic novels.

Throw all that in alongside classic Jane Austen twists and turns surrounding society love interests, and it’s a formula for total success. I cannot recommend Northanger Abbey highly enough to you, dear readers! Go read it, or come talk about it, or both!

Links

Reading the Classics– Check out the other classics I’ve been reading and reviewing and let me know what you think of them! (Scroll down for more!)

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.

 

 

“The Guns Above” by Robyn Bennis – A Steampunk Delight

It’s no secret: I love steampunk. The thing is, I’ve struggled to find novels that capture the feel I really, really want out of the subgenre. The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld is one prime example of an excellent series. Then, I saw The Guns Above by Robyn Bennis. It had a blurb from my favorite author, David Weber on it. Surely, he would not lead me wrong! Would he?

No, he wouldn’t.

Robyn Bennis’s The Guns Above is the beginning of what I hope becomes a lengthy fantasy series. Bennis doesn’t do much experimental here. No, she instead delivers to readers an extremely sound, tight, action-packed steampunk novel. Do you want harrowing air battles? Do you want some political intrigue? Character development? Check all the boxes, it’s all here.

The story centers around Josette Dupre,who is the first woman airship captain in her nation. Some doubt her abilities. Upping the drama is the addition of Lord Bernat, a love-to-hate aristocrat with a gambling and womanizing problem. These might sound like familiar tropes, but Bennis develops them so well and adds just enough twists and turns in the overall plot and world to make it a novel that I churned through not once, not twice, but three times already. I’m thinking about adding the audiobook to my collection because it’s that good. It’s a lengthy read, but one that is so quick to pass by that I sat and read it in a day the first time.

Character development is clearly one of Bennis’s strengths. I know that term gets thrown around a lot. Too many times it means a character is interesting throughout the book. Here, the mains truly develop. They change in meaningful ways that make sense within the plot. They’re not static, but living and breathing.

The blurb from David Weber is spot-on as there are many parallels here, from the military trappings to the character development. It’s a debut novel that not only shows a ton of promise but also absolutely delivers the goods. And it has airships. AIRSHIPS, people. This is the kind of novel that fans of older JRPGs like Final Fantasy IV-IX and their like have longed for. Go get it. Read it. Love it. Share about it. And then come here and talk to me about it. Oh, and good news: the second book is already out!

Tell me what you think of The Guns Above in the comments!

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies/scifi/sports and more!

SDG.