Thoughts in the Silence

January 6th did indeed turn out to be a rendezvous with history, but not in the way I had hoped. Whether incited by leftists or just very poor judgment on the part of Trump supporters in town, the storming of the Capitol provided the Left in the U.S. with its own Reichstag fire moment — an excuse to do what they wanted most: kneecap all their political enemies. Thus began The Silencing, first with President Trump, then with anyone thought to be a supporter. The government is required by the Constitution to respect freedom of speech. But the government doesn’t have to ban it, when it can turn to its fellow travelers who have a stranglehold on public forums to do it for them. In addition, rare is the business or school these days willing to retain an employee who runs afoul of the outrage mob.

There is a name for such cooperation between privately owned corporations and the desires of a single political party: fascism. Whereas communist ideology supposes only State-owned economic activity, fascism is perfectly fine with private enterprises… so long as they support and empower the ideology and ruling government. As Mussolini said, “All within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

As I write this, the National Guard is building up its troop strength in Washington, D.C. to around 20,000 armed soldiers by Inauguration Day. It may startle many Americans to learn this is four times as many troops as now remain in Afghanistan and Iraq… combined! On top of this, the Inaugural Committee is spending several million dollars on private security contractors.

Does it not seem odd that so much protection is required for an alleged president-elect who is said to have won more votes than any U.S. presidential candidate in history?

I really don’t know what to expect the next several days. If recent history is any guide, anything is possible, and most likely unforeseen. So I’ll end with this: keep your pantry full, your gas tanks topped off, and your powder dry. Hug the ones you love, and remember in Whom our hope is found.

Saturday Patriot Sounds

The next couple weeks will be a milestone in our nation’s history, one way or the other. As part of that, thousands of Americans plan to descend January 6th into the pit known as Mordor D.C. at the request of the President, to show their support for the current administration and investigations into alleged electoral fraud in November. This week’s Saturday Sounds are dedicated to all of them, and to all of us praying that God spares us a fraudulent Biden (or should I say Harris) administration, and returns of the rule of law to this country.

Time to alter or abolish

Can anyone make an argument these days that our government does more good than harm? That it actually represents the aspirations of our people, rather than that of a transnational elite that is more interested in personal gain than the public good?

Exhibit A: Congressional leaders finally got around to green-lighting another coronavirus relief package, as part of a $2.3 trillion, 5,500-page pile of last-minute legislation that represents the largest bill ever passed by Congress. The orgy of spending passed hours before the government’s current spending authority was set to lapse. Rank and file members of Congress had only hours to review the final backroom deal before being required to vote on it. I’ve shouted for some time now that this inability of Congress to pass an annual budget before the start of the new fiscal year is simply intolerable, and should always result in them losing their seats. As with everything else, in 2020, this has been further compounded by the coronavirus. I’m not a fan of direct payments to citizens, and I believe this has set a horrible precedent. That said, the $1200 per person earlier this year, plus the $600 just approved, is nothing short of insulting, considering what ELSE was included in all the spending:

• $500 million of foreign aid for Israel (with a population of 8.9 million, that’s $56.17/Israeli)
• $453 million to the Ukraine (haven’t we been entangled enough with them already?)
• $700 million to Sudan (why?)
• $135 million for Burma (ditto…)
• $130 million for Nepal (ditto…)
• $25 million to Pakistan, including money for “gender programs” (I’m sure THAT will make them love us…)
• Approval of two new Smithsonian museums (wonder when it’ll be “safe” to visit them?)
• $14 billion for municipal mass-transit systems, airports and AMTRAK (aren’t we supposed to be at home?)

This is but a small sample, but it makes the point:

America the vanishing

When will we declare independence of the madness now engulfing us?

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”

American insurgency

“The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.” – Mao Zedong

Under cover of protesters reacting understandably to what appears to be yet another instance of police brutality, the enemies of our nation have launched what amounts to a full-blown insurgency.  Pallets of bricks conveniently show up in time to be thrown through store windows.  Networks of celebrities are providing bail money for those who are arrested.  Politicians are pledging support to Antifa, even as the Federal government finally labels it a terrorist organization (spoiler: it always has been).  And the airwaves are thick with misinformation and misdirection, minimizing the extent to which actual violence and destruction have become daily routine over the past week.

And if that wasn’t enough, at least one potential agent provocateur has now been arrested while posing as a National Guardsman.  Keep that in mind the first time you hear of an incident between a Guardsman and a ‘protester.’  Things are not always as they seem, especially in press reports.

This is perhaps the most dangerous moment for the U.S. since 1861.  President Abraham Lincoln rightly pointed out:

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?  Never!–All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. (emphasis added)

And so it was our adversaries, beginning in the Cold War, began the “long march” through American institutions, seizing control of the means to shape the culture in such a way as to alienate a significant portion of the population from loyalty to the United States.  Their efforts were greatly aided by the deep scars of slavery and racism in our country.  One of the major reasons any sort of lasting racial reconciliation eludes us is that the issue is too useful a wedge for gaining influence — and yes, this is a trick used by partisans of many persuasions.  Remember the adage “divide and conquer.”

Now we’ve arrived at a point in our cultural programming where trying to rightly discern between protest and pillaging is dismissed as ‘racist.’  Now Mao’s ‘fish’ in the above quote can swim easily in the ‘sea.’  If only pillaging were the only goal, however.

Mao Zedong literally wrote the book on insurgency, after successfully fighting the Japanese in World War II and toppling the post-war Nationalist government of China.  He identified three phases to a revolutionary insurgency:

(1)  Organize: Build cells and support
(2)  Guerilla Warfare: Undermine the Government
(3)  Conventional (open) Warfare to topple the Government

Our internal enemies are well organized and enjoy considerable support from “the commanding heights” of society: educators, politicians, entertainers, wealthy ‘movers and shakers’ and so forth.  The violence we now witness is the movement into phase two.  Our Federal, State and local leaders are confronted with a choice: show restraint, in which case they look weak, or crack down, in which case the propaganda machine will work overtime to paint them in the worst possible light.  Either way, the insurgents seek to reduce support for our government.  President Trump has openly criticized State and local leaders for not doing more to control the violence.  Contrary to published reports, he is not calling for the arrest or abuse of peaceful protesters.  (Don’t rely on reports: listen to the man’s own words.  And notice ABC’s headline for the linked video.  Do they match?)  The corporate media blur the distinction between protester and criminal so that the president’s calls for law and order appear to be an effort to curb legitimate expressions of dissent.  Heads, they win.  Tails, he loses.

Do not lose sight of the fact that during all of this chaos, the public is not paying attention to the recent declassification and release of very damning documents that show how contrived and politically motivated the entire “Russia Russia Russia” hoax was, and how Michael Flynn was wrongly targeted as part of that process.  Powerful people have great reason to do anything to keep focus from turning to these developments.  Many have remarked about 2020’s penchant for disaster. Think of the main media themes in the U.S. this year: in January, it was impeachment.  Hardly had that fizzled than we were told COVID would kill us all, so better shut society down.  Once it was clear society was tired of being shut down and was de facto on the way to opening up, suddenly a case of police brutality sets the nation on fire.  (By the way, want to see ‘diversity?’  Look at the four officers involved and fired — it wasn’t a gang of white cops, but photos of officers Thao, Kueng and Lane don’t appear in the Minneapolis Star’s report on Monday. Why is that?.)

None of these events are occurring in isolation.  This is not a normal election year.

I believe the experience gained in our overseas fights must be put to use here at home, and quickly.  The networks of support for organizing violent, criminal activity, must be rolled up, and those involved forced to pay a high price for their incitements.  There are very good reasons not to like Donald Trump, who is a deeply flawed man.  But many of his opponents (on both sides of the aisle) are no longer the “loyal opposition” — they are literally fifth columnists who are a domestic threat to the Constitution of the United States, willing to overturn an election through rumor and innuendo from within the apparatus of shadowy government agencies.  Never forget that our leaders and our armed forces take an oath requiring them to defend that document against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic.  At the very least, there are a large number of people guilty of sedition in this country.  And while treason is a word too lightly tossed around these days, an argument could be made it’s applicable in some cases as well.

Even if the government moves effectively to end the current crisis, it’s not finished.  The reason insurgency is so hard to defeat is that unless the ideas and motives behind it are completely discredited, even losing in stage three can leave a small cadre of the committed to begin all over again.  This is the type of war we have been fighting in Afghanistan and the Middle East since 9/11, and the reason Al Qaeda and Islamic State still persist, however diminished.  Killing combatants is easy.  Killing an idea is damned well impossible.  (I use “damned” deliberately, as the resiliency of Marxist and Jihadist aspirations, despite the long historical record of horrors in their names, shows the hellish perniciousness of their deceit.)

This is why the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.  We have been lulled into complacency, our attention directed anywhere other than where it needs to be.  Whether the insurgency grows to phase three or is knocked back to the starting line for another generation depends on Americans learning what’s really going on.  Lots of dots need to be connected to see the picture.  The question is whether we have the attention span and discernment to do so anymore.  Otto von Bismark, the statesman most responsible for the creation of a unified Germany in the 19th Century, is said to have remarked “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”

I certainly hope that still holds true.

Be armed and vigilant

This is not ‘protesting:’

If you confront these groups, you need to be prepared with more than just a tire wrench, or whatever it was the husband was holding.

For all the people who’ve asked in recent years “why does anyone need an AR-15 with 30-round magazines:” here’s your answer.  No matter how unjust the treatment of George Floyd was, there is no justification for randomly attacking a business and its owners with deadly weapons (and yes, a 2×4 is potentially a deadly weapon).

This is not a game.  If you find yourself in this situation, you are on your own.  The past three nights have shown the authorities are incapable or unwilling to provide a defense.  Don’t be a soft target.  Be a rooftop Korean.

Most of all, don’t let yourself be harmed for fear of what people might call you for defending yourself.  The inherent right of self-defense is the foundation of all other rights we have.  What we’ve been seeing is organized violence.  Anyone foolish enough to volunteer to be a foot soldier for it has no room to complain when they get hurt or killed.  Play stupid games, win stupid prizes (warning: language).

May God break this fever before our society tears itself apart.

It’s not just the military

A former Naval officer makes an observation in The Atlantic magazine:

I spent nine years on active duty in the U.S. Navy. I served as an aircraft commander, led combat reconnaissance crews, and taught naval history. But the first thing I did upon joining the military, the act that solemnized my obligation, was swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution. How strange, then, that despite all of my training, the millions of taxpayer dollars devoted to teaching me how to fly, lead, and teach, not once did I receive meaningful instruction on the document to which I had pledged my life.

It’s a fair statement.  I’ve always been interested in the history of our nation and its institutions, so when I served on active duty I had a fairly solid knowledge of our Constitution.  It surprised me how many others did not — and moreover, how many didn’t care.  A member of one of the teams I once led was an enlisted legal resident from the Philippines (did you know citizenship is not required for military service?  You do now…).  She was studying for her citizenship exam, and we were all cheering for her to complete that lengthy process.  Out of curiosity, I asked to see the study materials she’d been given.  It was fairly detailed, and I realized if she mastered it she’d likely have a better grasp of how our nation is supposed to function than most high school graduates do today.  (This is why LEGAL immigration processes and paths to citizenship, rather than amnesties, are important).  For fun, I tossed a few basic questions from the book out to the rest of the team, and was disappointed in how little they could answer.  Like the author of the linked article, I reminded them they’d sworn an oath to protect the Constitution, so they might want to know what’s in it.

The military is in many ways a reflection of the society from which it’s drawn, and this is but one example.  There is a glaring lack of basic understanding of our institutions, particularly among those who are handed the privilege of voting at the tender age of 18.  I taught High School for a year after leaving the military.  The seniors I had for Government were roundly disinterested in the subject (to be fair, they weren’t thrilled with many others, either).  I explained they wouldn’t play any of their sports without knowing the rules.  So why were they content to begin adult life without knowing them?  Frankly, it was a depressing experience.

Almost 2,500 years ago, one of the most successful republics in history inscribed 12 tablets with basic social laws, and placed them in a public forum for all citizens to see.  This action did not create a utopia, of course, and by today’s standards some of the laws are quite questionable.  But it did foster an idea later expressed as “lex rex”  (“the law rules”), as opposed to governance being merely the whimsy of those in power.  Though that republic later fell into tyranny and then disarray, later documents such as the Magna Carta continued this line of thought: that there were limits even to a king’s power.

What limits today do Americans recognize on Uncle Sam and his little cousins, the States?  Can Sam simply take your money without due process?  What about your home?  Is the 2nd Amendment subject to curtailment by the States?  Did the writers of the Constitution intend for the government to be a dispenser of welfare?  Are we supposed to have equal justice under the law, or is your risk of prosecution for similar offenses dependent on whether you are a former deputy FBI director or someone working for a president who acts as an ‘outsider?’

Short of the Bible, there is no more important document in our society’s fabric than our Constitution.  Yet the average American today is alarmingly ignorant of both.  Is it any wonder our nation is so troubled?

The “can you hear me NOW” election

In 2020, we the American people need to confirm — clearly — that we weren’t kidding in 2016, and it wasn’t just a fluke election.  We are tired of the trajectory our country has been on for more than half a century.  This isn’t just about voter turnout and business as usual.  It’s about electing allies for the president, and punishing at the ballot box those who’ve done their literal worst to obstruct and delay the course corrections we asked for four years ago.

Given this example and many others, I suppose the theme song for 2020 could be Linkin Park’s “Nobody’s Listening:”

An estimated 22,000 turned out for the rally [in Richmond, Va.], 16,000 of which were armed, and there wasn’t a single act of violence… Rather than admit they were mistaken, Northam cited the peacefulness of [Monday’s] protests as proof that his unspecified de-escalation measures worked. He also said he would continue to “listen to the voices or Virginians” in a widely ridiculed tweet.

Northam didn’t listen – he won’t be listening – and his fellow Democrats proved that today. As WTVR reported: [On Tuesday] the Democratic-led Senate gave preliminary approval to approved the so-called “red flag” law. SB 240 would create a process for attorneys and law enforcement to file emergency orders prohibiting a person from purchasing, possessing or transferring a firearm if they pose “a substantial risk of injury to himself or others.”

“Red Flag” laws are an unconstitutional deprivation of due process.  They are dangerous and already being abused.  A day after watching 22,000 people emphasize their opposition to such legislation, the Democrats pressed recklessly ahead anyway.  Why is that party called “Democratic” again?  Doesn’t seem to fit anymore.  Let’s just hope two electoral drubbings in a row can help them find their hearing again.

Because I’d hate for us to eventually be forced to say “can you hear me NOW?” in 5.56 because there’s no other way left to defend our freedoms.  (“Red Flag” disclaimer: that is NOT a call for violence.  It is, however, the observation of a historian who knows what happens when a government repeatedly ignores the values and aspirations of the people they are governing.)

Slandering America

An estimated 22,000 people, many of them armed, descended on Richmond Monday to demonstrate their support of the Second Amendment in the face of efforts by Virginia Democrats to curtail constitutional rights.  Only one arrest was made (most likely Antifa-related), and the peaceful, if loud, crowds were even seen picking up their trash, reminescent of the Tea Party rallies of a few years ago.

Many on the left and in the media (but I repeat myself) are visibly disappointed that their hype of a violent “white nationalist” threat was dashed against the reality of a gathering of responsible Americans from all walks of life.  They certainly had tried to fan the flames.

Here’s one of those “white nationalists” speaking for himself today (click here for video):

The powers that be will do anything, say anything, to undermine America and all it stands for. Ignore the mainstream media. Dig for the ground truth.

Burning down the House

Donald Trump is now the third president of the U.S. to be formally impeached by the House of Representatives.  Today the House, under Speaker Pelosi, is saying they will “delay” sending that Constitutional indictment over to the Senate until they are assured of a “fair trial.”  In other words the House has, by implication, already convicted the Senate of being governed totally by partisanship — a case of projection if there ever was one.

Under the Democrats, the House has been out of control for all of 2019.  Their crusade to fling poo at the president until something kind-of-sort-of might seem to stick is a perfect example of why our Founders created a republic, not a democracy.  Remember that generation later watched the French Revolution unfold.  They saw first hand the deadly dangers of passionate, unrestrained mob rule — which is exactly what this whole impeachment charade has been, complete with armed Antifa thugs in the streets at times.  Not content to merely be in the opposition until the next election, the House Democrats have taken it upon themselves to delegitimize both the Executive Branch and the other chamber of Congress.

Given these circumstances, it’s important to set a benchmark and declare this abuse of one of the Constitution’s most somber provisions as invalid.

Enter the Supreme Court.

The country must decide whether, henceforth, impeachment will be a routine clash between a House of Representatives and White House of different parties over policy differences or acute personal abrasions, as this is, or whether the authors of the Constitution meant, and the national interest requires, that it be reserved for accusations of high crimes on the same plane of misconduct as treason or bribe-taking…

Rejection by the majority in the Senate is not an adequate debunking of this abuse by the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives of their offices. The country is at a turning point: routinize presidential impeachment or keep it as a last resort in extreme cases of wrongdoing. When the executive and the bare majority of one half of the legislative branch are so severely and antagonistically divided, the traditional tie-breaker is the judicial branch, and it should be consulted.

(emphasis added)

I agree.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should immediately request a Supreme Court ruling on the Constitutional validity of the House’s actions.  Such an examination would have to compare the way the Democrats rammed this through with the precedents of previous impeachment proceedings.  I believe such a public comparison would lay bare the manner in which the Democrats abused their majority to deny Trump and the Republicans any effective opportunity to defend the administration by presenting an opposing view of the issues in question.  As the House Republican Whip Steve Scalise noted during the pre-impeachment vote discussion, the GOP is still waiting for transcripts of interviews in which they were not allowed, or the ability to call their own witnesses.

The American people have a highly developed sense of fairness, and perhaps an unhealthy obsession with achieving it.  That usually gives an advantage to liberals when they propose heavy-handed government intervention in the name of “compassion.”  In this case, however, I believe many Americans have been turned off by what has clearly been an unfair process that demanded Trump prove himself innocent rather than place the burden of proof on the accusers.  That’s just one of many reasons thousands of people waited in freezing weather for hours to hear the president speak, even as the House marched toward impeachment.

There’s just one problem with taking this pseudo-impeachment to the Supreme Court for validation.  In the event they rule the charade for what it is and dismiss it, the Democrats will immediately claim the result is due to Trump having selected 2 of the justices, creating a slim ‘conservative’ (and I use that term loosely) majority.  They will press this hard, and in so doing, seek to damage the legitimacy the remaining third branch of the Federal Government — one whose rulings they used to consider holy writ, when it served their cause.  It really has come to this: if the liberals can’t run the machinery, they’ll sabotage it.  Having burned down the House, they’ll burn the rest of the structure, too.

But only if we let them.  The most significant result of Trump’s election in 2016 may be that the other side has dropped all masks and pretense.  Their agenda and attitudes are clear for all to see.  Come November 2020, the Democratic Party must be destroyed, not just defeated.  They need to suffer electoral loss so great that no political organization will again dare do what they’ve tried.  And we need to be ready for the inevitable temper tantrum that will result in such a case.  As they’re doing in Virginia and other States, keep your powder dry.