On September 20, 2000, Special Counsel Robert Ray wrapped up the Whitewater investigation into the Clintons by concluding that there was insufficient evidence to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the Clintons had knowingly violated the law. The media, of course, touted it as an exoneration of the Clintons.

Everybody knew that Bill Clinton had committed perjury, had sexually harassed and assaulted women while he was governor of Arkansas and president of the United States, and that there was a raft of serious financial wrongdoing and raw pay-for-play schemes surrounding the Clintons. But after an impeachment ordeal that was thoroughly politicized – and the media unanimously touting that the Clinton’s refusing to give over evidence and “losing” evidence that courts ordered them to surrender “proved” that the evidence was not there, it had become a lost cause. The evidence was extensive and documented, although with some holes from what the Clintons simply destroyed.

Yet everyone expected some version of what Ray concluded, because all parties were exhausted from the battle. The truth was that the evidence was there in abundance, but Ray had good reason to doubt that a jury in D.C. would be any more interested in that evidence than the media was. Thus, this case winked out not because there was a lack of evidence of guilt, but because Clinton and the media had more power than a prosecutor could overcome to get anyone to honestly hear and see that evidence. Since the conclusion was what was expected, the decision did not make huge headlines.

Talking with one of my Priests shortly after the decision, I noted that this was the first major case where the prosecutor all but admitted that he had the goods, but that the leftist power structure in government and the media was too strong for him – so he just would not pursue it further. I wrote to my Priest that I both suspected and feared that this would be the first big rock to tumble from the edifice of justice – and would ultimately lead to the replacement of the rule of law with the rule of raw power – that if unimpeded, there would need be no crime for conservatives and Christians to be prosecuted and persecuted and no crime would be so serious that Democrats could not thumb their nose at the law. That solitary rock falling from the justice system has, 20 years later, become a sinkhole. Nobody expects a fair shake from the justice system…from the courts or any other federal agency anymore. If we were candid, when someone was hauled into court, they wouldn’t bother reading the charges. They would simply ask whether the accused was a Christian or a conservative. If so, he was guilty – sentence first, trial later. If he was a Democrat, he was not guilty – and the court would angrily demand to know why anyone had charged him in the first place.

The evidence of massive vote-fraud is overwhelming and growing by the day – and has been systemic and growing since the introduction of vote-tabulating software. (Yeah, I feel pretty good right now that I have long been an advocate of simple paper ballots, same-day voting, purging voter lists at least every four years, and voter ID.)  One of Trump’s top election lawyers, Lin Wood, told Mark Levin last week that he believes Trump won about 70 percent of the popular vote and over 400 electoral votes. That matches up well with my own old-school analysis that tells me Trump won by 12 million votes.

I am now 100 percent certain that Trump and his lawyers will prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Democrats engaged in the most massive vote fraud this side of Venezuela and North Korea. The idiot media has been busy censoring any mention of this evidence while simultaneously demanding where the evidence is. It reminds me of one of Judge William Orrick’s favorite ploys in David Daleiden’s abortion cases: he forbids Daleiden from introducing certain evidence and, later, on ruling, criticizes Daleiden for not introducing the very evidence he forbade. That attitude is the hinge of all doubt in this matter.

While the Trump team has the goods, I no longer have confidence in the fortitude or honor of our legislatures and judges. They could view the massive mounds of evidence and pretend it isn’t there. There is a strong likelihood they will. Our elite classes are filled with knaves and fools. Fox News has gone completely in the tank for the ruling class. Even Tucker Carlson has been busy harassing Trumpers and demanding they kiss his ring rather than searching for honest answers (though I have enjoyed Carlson’s candid boldness in the last year, I have never forgotten that he was a moderate, limp-wristed type when he was with CNN. My fear that he just kisses the ring of whoever signs his paycheck seems to be being confirmed. He is not actually a passionate populist: he does play one on TV pretty well, though.)

Last week I spoke with a couple of the president’s lawyers – one in some detail. I was startled then at how jubilantly confident they were that they had the goods. The events of this last week have shown me that that confidence was entirely justified. Now the question is whether they have a better chance than a snowball in hell of getting a fair shake from the mavens in the elite class. If they can actually get it to the Supreme Court, I think they do. Though they have a slam-dunk case, that is what actual conservatives and Christians have to have to have a ghost of a chance at a fair shake.

Thus, we have a great battle before us. If evidence and honor take the day and Trump is inaugurated for his second term, the pagan left will be like a cemetery full of murderous vampires hissing and snarling as they seek to burn down the country. If Joe Biden is installed as the first fully fraudulent, illegitimate man to usurp the office of president, the true resistance has begun.

The rule of law is dead. May we call on God and cooperate with Him in resurrecting it. The hour of the ordinary man is upon us. May we serve God well and truly on the road to Mordor.

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Like so many of my fellow Catholics, I am shaken by the level of ineptitude and betrayal among our hierarchy. And yet, I see stirrings of real sobriety and seriousness of purpose sprouting among our American Bishops. At the Fall General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Bishops elected new heads for their various projects. The slate of new “department heads” is a very hopeful one for those who value orthodoxy and the Magisterium. Even more hopeful is that these “department heads” were elected by their fellow Bishops. That tells me that a lot of Bishops are thinking that the policy of reflexively genuflecting to secular authorities is not working out well for any of us.

Further, in reflection, I suspect I was a bit too harsh in my assessment of USCCB President Archbishop Jose Gomez in his decision to issue a congratulatory statement to Joe Biden. Yes, it was absurd to congratulate Biden on a “victory” he has not won. I know that Abp. Gomez was under intense pressure to issue the statement from some activist fellow Bishops. That, of course, is no excuse. Yet his formal statement was more carefully parsed than I originally recognized. He did not say Biden would be the second Catholic president in U.S. history, but that Biden would be the second man to “profess” the Catholic faith. In normal times, that would be a notably clever piece of work. In these times, honest boldness with careful diplomacy is the watchword. Our Bishops would be well advised to study closely the history of St. John Paul, when he was the Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow. His diplomacy in confronting the communist rulers there was masterful – and is terribly needed in America now. The first thing to note is that Archbishop Wojtyla (John Paul’s birth name) was clearly NOT the Bishop of the ruling class. He was the Bishop of the Catholic faithful in Krakow, beloved because of his fidelity to them and to the faith he was charged with proclaiming. With the people firmly behind him, though ruling authorities would prefer to kill him, they had to deal carefully with him.

Not a decisive turn just yet, but I sense some genuinely hopeful stirrings in the hierarchy.

For those of us in the pews, a great challenge is to try to differentiate between those who are actual enemies of the faith in the hierarchy and those who just make a lot of blunders. The blunderers are not my enemies; they include some of our most important future allies. Be careful not to drive them into the camp of actual enemies.

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The annual Texas Right to Life (TRTL) Celebration of Life Dinner was held last Saturday. It drew 650 people despite the Covid business stalking the land. Pam Tebow, mother of Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, was the keynote speaker. Some had urged her to abort the baby that would grow up to become the college football great. Her decision to choose life then led her to become a passionate advocate for life who speaks throughout the country.

I love the people at TRTL. Though an outsider, I work with them sporadically and have gotten to know most of the team. Every week, they begin several meetings with a reading of Scripture, after which everyone discusses what it means to them and how it has affected them. They are a prayerful team – and the youngest group of seasoned veterans I know.

A couple of years ago, I was down doing some work with TRTL and went to a barbecue honoring the young people who serve as volunteer pro-life coordinators on college campuses across the state. At one point, a lovely, demure young oriental girl who was wearing a cowboy hat and cute boots had her turn to speak. “Hey y’all,” she began with a big grin and thick Texas accent before launching into an enthusiastic speech defending life. It was the moment I knew (with Dorothy and Toto) that I was definitely not in Kansas anymore. I saw her at the dinner this year, in her third year of coordinating her college – and she was delighted that her speech when she first came on board made such an impression on me.

It delights me that I spend so much time with people who are fully committed to life – and have saved so many lives, both in the aggregate and in particular. They are passionate, joyful warriors who fully live what they preach. And I get to be with them for the North Texas dinner in Dallas tonight. I love this state and these wonderful people.