Jimmy Swaggart was a spy
Diary of June 28-July 5 2025.
Some things that caught my attention the week of June 28-July 5.
The New York Times could do better.
I have free online access to the New York Times via my local library. Last Sunday, a story caught my eye: a University of Florida Law School student won an award for a paper stating that the Constitution doesn't apply to non-whites. This wasn't a cleverly argued "devil's advocate" position, which may be a valuable exercise for law schools. No, this was the devil himself - an avowed white supremacist - writing it. And, it included policy prescriptions.. As one professor at the university said, it was a "manifesto."
The story addressed the fairly predictable reactions to a racist winning an award, but I had two questions left unanswered:
What was the assignment? That is, what kind of paper were the students supposed to submit? Scholarly legal treatises? Manifestos?
If manifestos, how does that fit into the purpose of a law school?
Perhaps the student, however abhorrent his views may be, did deserve to win the award. But what was he awarded for? I felt like how I would feel if I read a story with the headline "She won a gold medal, but many claim she didn't deserve it" that never mentions what the competition was.
I haven't trusted the NYT's news as it reads like Establishment propaganda, especially on U.S. foreign policy. However, I did have higher expectations for its feature reporting.
Michael Phelps turned 40 on June 30
I would say, "Wow, he's already 40," but 2008 and 2012 feel like a long time ago. Also, 40 isn't as old as it used to be, not even as old as when people started saying "40 is the new 30."
At the end of 2024, I listed the 25 greatest athletes of the century at the MVP Chase. Check whether Phelps is on it, and comment there if you have people you would like added or removed from the list.
The Big Beautiful National Debt
I have not followed the passage of Trump's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill." I'll just say that if overall spending is to be increased and deficits are to be reduced, then I wouldn't make cuts in medical and economic assistance for those who, for one reason or another, are dependent on them.
It would be one thing if there were cuts across the board to reduce or eliminate the deficit, and if these were accompanied by reforms to liberate healthcare and all other industries from bureaucratic regulations. That is, if the opening of markets and price competition accompany budget cuts. But that's not happening.
Harry Browne used to say that the government breaks your legs and then gives you crutches. I'm not a fan of the government now sawing off part of your crutch while it increases your share of the national debt.
Is Diddy a criminal?
Another thing I haven't followed is the Diddy trial. Based on what he's convicted of, I don't see why they should even be considered crimes:
It's legal for consenting adults to have sex. Nobody is injured.
It's legal for one adult to give money to another. Nobody is injured.
Therefore, prostitution should be legal. Nobody is injured.
Independence Day
I rewatched the movie 1776 on the Fourth of July. If you've seen it but it's been decades, I recommend a rewatch. Some deleted or shortened scenes were restored, including the number "Cool Considerate Men," which the Nixon White House insisted be removed.
While "based on a true story," I don't take any particular scene as history. Nevertheless, it expresses many ideals that I have felt since my youth.
July 4th was also the 49th anniversary of the bicentennial. The first half of those years went pretty well in the grand historical scheme of things. At least, there was a "normalcy" to it that is long gone. At the midway point, almost to the day, the 107th Congress convened on January 3, 2001. This Congress gave us the Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, the never-ending AUMF ("War on Terror"), and authorization for the Iraq War. At the same time, President George W. Bush's men legitimized torture, which was glorified on network television (24).
There were no slippery slopes. There were no "dangerous precedents." The 107th Congress, along with President George W. Bush, drove the country off a moral cliff. All the subsequent stuff - ICE, Assange, Snowden, the Too Big to Fail bailouts, the Covid nonsense- are just further expressions of Statism run amok. I haven't felt uniquely fortunate to live and be a citizen of the United States since 2003, when I saw how much was lost and wondered if I had ever truly lived in the same country I thought I did.
Donald Trump's second-term policies have been especially dark, but they're just more children of the "new nation" birthed by that 107th Congress.
Jimmy Swaggart 1935-2025. PHOTO: Jntracy75
Jimmy Swaggart was a spy
When I learned that Jimmy Swaggart passed on July 1, I decided to look at his Wikipedia bio. I found something interesting about him, which I posted:
Today, I learned that Swaggart's ministries sent money to the "anti-communists" (proxies for Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa) in Mozambique during the 1970s-80s civil war.
I surmise, without any evidence or further research, that Swaggart was approached by the CIA in the early 1970s with a deal: "We'll make you big nationally, and then when the time comes, we'll launder money through you."
The next day, I added "Or, Swaggard was making it big on his own, and the CIA honey-trapped him." That is, the CIA set him up with a prostitute to blackmail him. (By CIA, I might not mean the CIA specifically, but the federal government's spying apparatus as a whole.)
I posted this because it seems odd that Swaggart would be involved in this war. Maybe he had personal reasons. However, I have an unproven and perhaps unprovable "conspiracy theory" that there are more CIA assets among us than we can guess.
The reason I say so is that I have doubts that genuine religious movements can take root without outside help, and if they do, they don't sustain themselves without it. Personality clashes are inevitable when small churches or organizations grow; a walkout always follows a surge. Stable finances turn movements into institutions. People with money are often those who are well-connected. Connected to what?. A variety of legitimate and shady activities, running in the same circles as CIA agents.
It's the same with grassroots political movements. The "help" is from donors or infiltrators whose purpose is to manage and control the movement. CIA-connected media facilitated movements that altered the course of politics. Other movements and parties remain neglected because the CIA would rather they be left obscure.
One critique of government intervention in the economy is that it picks winners and losers. The CIA similarly selects "winners" by supporting those who will play ball. Unless proven otherwise, I'll assume Jimmy Swaggart was one such winner at one point in his life. Whatever he subsequently lost was his own doing.
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James Leroy Wilson writes The MVP Chase (subscribe) and JL Cells (subscribe). Thank you for your subscriptions and support! You can contact James for writing, editing, research, and other work at jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.