Category → Government Of the People…
January 2026 vs “January 6th”
One of the toughest lessons we learned in 2020 was that delaying tough action against open rebellion, lawlessness, insurrection, election fraud, results in power illegally transferring to the people doing those things.
We damned near lost America in 2020, and I do not believe the insurrectionists now rebelling against the enforcement of federal law will stop once they have regained power. The force they are trying to impose on America must meet the force we elected to stop them.
Think about how the overwhelmingly peaceful protest of January 6th 2021 was used as a political weapon, to target you, Mister President, and your strongest supporters. Maybe a few hundred people behaved badly, many of whom were federal agents or official provocateurs paid by our own government.
And compare J6 with the entire January of 2026, where entire cities and entire states are in open rebellion against the federal government. Hundreds of thousands of people there are breaking the law daily in Minnesota, as compared to a few hundred people for a few hours on January 6th 2021. Much political hay was made over J6, but very little has been made over the January of 2026. Big mistake.
“Sanctuary” states and cities, where thousands or millions of illegal aliens illegally vote (for just one political party), are themselves alone cause enough for the President to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807. It has been used many times by many presidents in the past. It is high time, past time, almost too late to use force to quell the open rebellion going on in Minnesota. Just for the illegal use of illegal aliens to get illegal votes and an artificially higher Census count.
And that rebellion in Minnesota is being done to obscure and protect the artificially dominant political party there from being subjected to necessary legal scrutiny, for all of the outrageous taxpayer fraud being committed of, by, and for that one political party. Done by its artificially imported foreigners, mostly unassimilated Somalis, whose disdain for America and hard working taxpaying Americans is not hidden or disguised. It is enabled by the political structure of Minnesota.
One of Donald Trump’s main weaknesses is that he is a reasonable guy, who thinks negotiating a win-win outcome in every situation is not just in everyone’s best interests, but is sufficient incentive for bad actors to stop. It is the capitalist version of the leftist mantra “If we are nice to them, they will see that we are good, and they will not harm us.”
Sorry, President Trump, you are mistaken here, as you were mistaken in 2020. You thought back then that appealing to the Left’s better ideals and sense of fairness would cause them to relent from their open theft of the election. And you were wrong. And you are wrong again now, having useless AG Pam Bondi send strongly worded letters, instead of sending in the troops to restore order and arresting open criminals (governor) Tim Walz and (Minneapolis mayor) Jacob Frey.
You (and I) are up against people for whom nothing matters more than amassing unassailable power, tyrannical power, absolute power, total power. It is all they want and it is all they understand. And anything short of getting that results in them rioting, burning, looting, murdering etc.
You cannot reason with these people. You cannot beg these people. You cannot ask these people.
They got caught running a gigantic RICO fraud scheme with Somali-run childcare etc, all of which sent billions of dollars to Tim Walz’s political party and to Somalia itself, and they are going to throw tantrums and hurt people and break things to make you back down. They cannot afford to lose.
Don’t back down. America cannot afford to lose this contest.
Invoke the Insurrection Act and behave like American hero Abraham Lincoln was forced to act, when the Democrat Party of 1860 also engaged in a wild, violent, nationwide insurrection. End this now, or you will be remembered as the president who blinked, and who lost America.
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Is it January 2026 or December 1859?
I know the date today is January 13, 2026. But it sure feels like late 1859, after anti-slavery Republicans won America’s national elections and the pro slavery Democrat Party went into violent insurrection mode.
Right now, it appears that pretty much every single Democrat Party run jurisdiction is a haven for illegal invaders, Democrat Party-organized government fraud, and election fraud. It sure appears that every single one of these jurisdictions is against ICE removing illegal aliens, including the illegal alien rapists, murderers, child dealers, etc, so that the illegal aliens can be turned into illegal voters and also be illegally counted in the US Census.
Counting illegal aliens in the US Census (illegally) gives greater proportional representation to areas that harbor illegal aliens, and thus more political power than these areas would otherwise qualify for. This in turn takes away political power from American citizen taxpayers who play by the rules and who follow the law.
Chasing out federal investigators tracking down state government-enabled fraud in federal welfare programs also helps the state Democrat Party avoid accountability. This looks like illegal rebellion to me, but what do I know. I do know that this is not how “democracy” works.
Minnesota may be in the headlines for its well organized Somali-run fraud that is hooked up to the Democrat Party like a Dollar bill firehose, but now there are indications that every single place run by the Democrat Party is like this. Essentially the Democrat Party is a big RICO enterprise, using taxpayer-funded government welfare programs to enable its political efforts. Obviously this is totally illegal and completely at odds with the way America is arranged.
Until now, America has been a trust-based society, with legal accountability for criminal activity. Now, it seems that anyone on the political Left can say or do anything they want, without receiving corrective action. Or worse, they can try to run over a federal officer with their SUV, get shot in defense, and become an overnight martyr.
That the Republican Party is indifferent to this unfolding disaster does not help Americans recapture control of their own nation, politically or culturally. A lot of elected Republicans try to pose as “moderate” which enables them to escape from making any difficult decisions, one way or another. These “Republicans” hold elected office for the insider deals, the prestige, the power, not to zealously represent the interests of their citizens.
That the American Attorney General, Pam Bondi, does not aggressively pursue investigations and federal charges against everyone involved also does not help us Americans recapture our nation from the clutches of criminals and freeloaders. Her inactivity energizes and encourages the rebellion we are witnessing.
Why AG Pam Bondi is inactive is anyone’s guess. Some people muse that she was a RINO plant from the get-go, while others speculate that she immediately folded under the intense pressure of the job, and decided that she would rather go on TV talk shows and get paid tons of money to speak “as a Republican” than to actually do her job and make waves and make enemies.
All I see is an AG who does nothing in her important job. Or next to nothing. On January 6th the statute of limitations passed for holding federal police officers accountable for their civil rights violations against peaceful J6 protestors. We are quickly approaching the end of the statute of limitations for holding various prison officials, FBI agents, DHS agents, and US Marshals accountable for their torture and abuse of J6 prisoners. The list of prospective criminals is long, and the list of AG Bondi’s actions is very brief.
So it appears that the insurrectionist Democrat Party of 1859 is fully back in business. But that political party learned a few tricks in the intervening years after they lost the Civil War to the abolitionist Republicans. The Democrats learned to buy their most reliable dependants through welfare programs and defrauding said welfare programs, rather than trying to coercively enslave these people from the get-go. Yes, the Democrat Party has spoken loudly about disarming and collectivizing and oppressing and enslaving the rest of us Americans who do not embrace their form of Marxism. But in order to do that, the Democrat Party needs as much political power as it can get first and foremost. Hence the illegal voters…
And so we are watching street battles in Minnesota, California, New York, and other Democrat-run cities, where Democrat Party insurgents are pitted against federal agents who are enforcing basic federal law. A ton of naturalized citizens moved to America with zero interest or intention to assimilate into America, and some of them are involved in the most strenuous insurrectionist verbage. These people moved to America not to join it, but to destroy it from within. Why they are not being arrested, denaturalized, and deported is beyond my comprehension. But then see the paragraph above about paralyzed Republicans who are unable to lift a finger against lawlessness…
Right now it sure looks like America in late 1859, as the pro-slavery Democrat Party decided to take on the anti-slavery North, sparking a destructive civil war. I really really hope we avoid that this time around. A firm hand and non-stop one-way flights to distant destinations will stop this crap before it gets fully out of hand. But then see the paragraph above about paralyzed Republicans who are unable to lift a finger against lawlessness…
Good luck, America. I love you! It is still January, and I am really looking forward to a great and successful 2026, not a revisit of 1859 and 1860 and 1861…
5th anniversary of J6th
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the January 6th, 2021 mostly peaceful protest at the US Capitol, and the resulting FedSurrection, whereby hundreds of known undercover federal agents and their civilian allies committed egregious violence, vandalism, mayhem etc and then tried to blame it on supporters of President Trump.
Lots of J6 hyperventilating going on today in the mainstream media, but it is curious how their articles do not even address what has been learned to date about the violence by federal employees, the initiation of violence and destruction by uniformed police that day. It is almost as if a false narrative about J6 and President Trump must be kept on CPR and life support, or something…
I was there on J6. My friends and I stood out in front of our Capitol and sang patriotic songs, like God Bless America and the National Anthem. We just stood there, shocked by the police violence on peaceful Americans. We did nothing illegal, nothing destructive, committed no violence. And yet I was gassed three times and shot dozens of times by rubber bullets and aerial explosives, despite being distantly on the correct side of the barricades. There was no reason for me to experience that illegal deprivation of my civil rights, and yet… there must have been a plan involving the Capitol Police, DC Police, FBI, DHS etc agents and their political allies like Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
It happened that way for a reason. An evil, destructive reason, meant to illegally besmirch President Trump and his supporters. Despite doing nothing wrong, 18 months later I nonetheless had FBI agents come to my house to “talk” about what I saw on J6. They then interviewed me in a lawyer’s office, which cost me thousands of dollars and turned out to be a BS effort to get me to badmouth President Trump. A witch hunt, a lawless use of coercive political power, against a law abiding citizen who dared peacefully protest against blatant voter fraud.
Meanwhile, no one has located the 10,000,000 missing votes from the 2020 election that then failed to materialize in 2024’s election. That is, an invented and fake ten million votes that never existed. The mainstream Democrat Party run media has not talked about this anomaly, which falsely got Joe Biden declared the winner and which was the reason a million of us had to go protest in DC in the first place.
A week ago, Fulton County, Georgia, admitted that in November 2020 they had approved some 315,000 illegal ballots as votes. In just that one county, this incredible amount of voter fraud was enough to not only make Joe Biden the false winner of Georgia, but also make two far left candidates for US Senate become US senators, and who today still illegally occupy those two seats. The now known voter fraud in just Fulton County alone has resulted in far more Democrat Party political power than it has legitimately earned.
J6 showed us that we Americans have a nose for bullshit, and we are not afraid to call it as we see it. I would go peacefully protest again, if I have to. America is worth fighting for, and if we citizens do not fight for what is ours, it will be ripped out of our hands by very very bad people bent on absolute control of everything and everybody.
Happy J6 Day, America and my fellow patriots.
Far-Left YouTube/ Google uses far left Wikipedia to promote a long disproven claim and narrative about J6
January 6th, US Capitol, our eyes watering from being illegally gassed by uniformed police
Confused…Real Damned Confused
If you are a person who lives your life by simple logic, by a set of basic logical values and related actions that result in your life achieving its maximal happiness or success, then you are joining me in being real. damned. confused. right now.
America has been in nonstop turmoil since 2015, because one group of people who live here, dare we call them Americans, are so desperate for all-controlling power, that they will do anything, say anything, contradict themselves a hundred times, just to sow chaos and conflict, if only to prevent someone else from exercising their power and decision making.
Over the past year we have seen our president stop the outrageous illegal invasion of America by tens of millions of economic vagrants, by sealing our borders. Our president has justifiably and most legally confronted the nonstop flow of illegal killer drugs, like fentanyl, into our nation, by giving the killers a dose of their own medicine. Our president’s new administration has uncovered many, many billions of dollars of brazen government fraud, which is stealing from taxpayers like me and you.
And in response, a group of people, so-called Americans, have every single time taken the side of the illegal border crossers, taken the side of the the drug dealers, taken the side of the dealers in child prostitution, taken the side of the economic migrants committing massive taxpayer fraud within months of arriving here in America.
Back in the Fall, I read a letter-to-the-editor by a candidate for office, which was representative of this bizarre approach to being an American. The letter whines about the supposed lack of “due process” for violent criminals illegally here in America, as they are captured and deported. Grave concern was also expressed by the author for the alleged “due process rights” of the dangerous drug runner terrorists being sunk at sea in their “fishing boats” that are laughably not fishing boats.
Nowhere in this letter does the author, then a candidate for elected office in America, express one molecule of concern for the due process rights (i.e. the implementation of the existing laws to protect Americans from illegal invaders and sadistic drug runners) of her fellow American citizens. American citizens have laws we passed to keep illegal invaders and drug runners from illegally entering America and committing illegal crimes here. That due process should be foremost in the mind of every American, you would expect. But it isn’t, strangely.
And now, now that our president has captured a lawless, election-stealing international drug dealer posing as a head of state who has been on an international WANTED list for years and who has the deaths of hundreds of thousands of young Americans on his hands, now that same confusing group of people, including that former candidate mentioned above, living right here in America, are angry about that. Never mind that many of these same “outraged” people have many times called for the ouster and capture of this same Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
Call me confused, because I am. I am really confused about an entire political party that is devoted to identifying with and helping illegal alien fraudsters and child dealers and drug dealers and foreign nations who are America’s sworn enemies. It makes no sense to live here in America, benefit from all of the incredible blessings that we enjoy here in America, and also simultaneously try to destroy America, hurt America, damage America. Especially when one occupies an elected position in government, at any level.
“Domestic enemies” is the term used by America’s founding documents to describe people like this, because clearly they are enemies of America. And a political party that engages in this most confoundingly illogical approach to participating in American politics as official business is a political party that looks a super lot like the same political party (of the same name) that lead an insurrection and secession in 1860 that resulted in our Civil War.
Basic logic dictates that we humans learn from history, and avoid the mistakes and bad things that happened in the human past. No one who is sane and logical should want to live in chaos and confrontation and violence. And yet, America has this, a whole group of people and a whole political party devoted to exactly this kind of chaotic mess.
It was bad enough when they tried to defend the taxpayer fraud committed through USAID programs, uncovered by DOGE. It was bad enough when they tried to defend violent illegal aliens, and treat them as victims when in fact they were repeat rapists, murderers, robbers, burglars. It was bad enough when they provided illegal aliens, who can neither read nor speak English, with commercial driver’s licenses, with the kind of resulting death and mayhem a logical person will expect to see. It was bad enough and super confusing when they objected to illegal drug runner boats, piloted by some of the most cruel, heavily armed, and violent people on our planet, being blown up on their way to America.
And now, all but a very small handful of elected Democrats are strenuously objecting to the capture and trial of Venezuela dictator Nicolas Maduro and the return of huge oil company assets that his predecessor dictator, Hugo Chavez, illegally seized from Americans.
This all seems terribly confusing to me. Especially because many of the most vociferous have previously supported the capture and trial of Maduro, and the return of American assets to their rightful owners. It is as if just raising hell and creating chaos is their way of running America. Which any sane and logical American rejects, because the entire purpose of living in America is to enjoy the stability and benefits of our shared nation.
Once upon a time, I was a registered Democrat Party member. I did not leave them, they left me. Today, I cannot understand how any American can still affiliate or identify with this lawless group of destructive people. Please feel free to explain yourself; I am all ears, and just real. damned. confused.
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Hanuka’s meaning for America
Tonight is the last night of Hanuka, and it is important to say that this holiday is still important for America, even if 99% of Americans don’t observe it, don’t know what the Menorah stands for. Those who do not want to be consigned to the dustbin of history can learn lessons from history, apply those lessons, and win. Hanuka presents modern freedom-loving Americans with a history lesson in never giving up, sticking to your principles, and always pursuing freedom, no matter what it takes to persevere.
Often called the “festival of the lights” in an effort to make it sound all cheery n’ stuff, Hanuka is in fact a commemmoration of a long, hard-fought, quite bloody civil war military campaign in Israel 2,400 years ago. That conflict restored Jewish control over Jerusalem and with it, the traditional (Biblical) service in the Great Temple there.
Christians take note of two things: Without the Jews winning the war, there would have been no Jesus/ Yeshua 400 years later, and note also that Christmas, which is America’s national holiday, is marked on the 25th of December. Hanuka begins on the 25th day of Kislev, the Hebrew calendar’s winter month. Jesus was a Jew, the Apostles were all Jews, most of the early Christians were Jews, and when it came time to create a new holiday for Christians, Christmas was set on the same date as Hanuka. There are no coincidences here.
Another important thing to take note of here: While the war ending in the “miraculous” discovery of a bottle of kosher olive oil hidden away in the Great Temple is often described as Jew vs Greek, it was also very much Traditional/ Orthodox Jew vs Liberal Jew, allied with the Greeks. In other words, a bloody tension has always existed between the liberal Jews and the Orthodox Jews, and it is only suspended when both groups are being chased down the same street together by mindless mobs who hate all Jews.
During the civil war that Hanuka marks, the blood of all combatants flowed abundantly, as this was no simple “spiritual battle” as the holiday is often described. Hanuka was not won by those who engaged solely in “spiritual” type behavior, like praying really really hard. Mean “X” tweets were not met with spicy retorts, and the loser then shut up and hid in shame.
Nope, a lot of blood flowed, as a result of years of close quarters combat with edged weapons. The Greeks and the liberal Jews lost more blood, and more lives, than the traditional/ orthodox “Maccabee” Jews, who ended up taking back what had been taken from them, by force: Jerusalem (another related history lesson: Judaism is Zionism, which is the 3,500-year-old religious movement to keep Jews living in Zion/ Israel/ Judea. The Maccabees were Zionists).
Key word here being “force.” The fighting was not mere words contained within the walls of the Oxford Union Debate Club, or other academic classrooms. It was borne out in hand-to-hand physical contest, which the most determined will usually win.
Hanuka’s lesson for freedom-loving Americans today, right now, is (and somehow I just know that you have heard this phrase somewhere before in recent times)… Fight! Fight! Fight!
Be determined, strong, and of brave spirit, because President Trump is not going to be in office forever.
Menorah = Freedom everywhere, including in America
Much, much to be thankful for in America
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and there is so much to be thankful for here in America. Let’s start with the “small” things, which we take for granted:
-Surfeit of food, of all tastes, colors, varieties, amounts. At bear hunting camp this week (pictures below), people brought a wide variety and overwhelming amount of snack food, in addition to the high quality main course ingredients. Super rich, high-calorie, high fat, mostly sugar and corn syrup as the first or second ingredient, this “snack” stuff could feed an African village for a week. But it is practically poison here in America. We take it for granted, and often reach for it out of boredom, never out of need. It is killing our health, with way too many Americans obese and diabetic. The good stuff, like amazingly abundant and cheap fresh fruit and vegetables, does not blast our palates with artificial flavor, and is shunted aside.
-Paved roads, which are not common in much of the world. Americans like our paved highways and by-ways, everywhere. They are enjoyable to drive on, and are so smooth that we can eke every possible bit of gas mileage efficiency out of our personal vehicles as we shave minutes off of long distance trips. Importantly, our highways are made from quarried rock and oil pumped out of the ground.
-Personal vehicles are not a get-to-work or manage-the-farm necessity for half of America, but are rather the higher-end personal statement of appearance and perception, of how we want others to see us. Meanwhile, half the world still uses horses, donkeys, and cattle to transport food and goods. The next time our personal car gets a scratch, let’s remember that a vehicle is but a tool, and tools get used and scratched. Let’s not take these super expensive tools for granted.
-Shelter, like a home, has rapidly changed in concept in just a few decades. Our grandparents aspired to own a home of about 900 square feet in size. And while we mocked 1980s tyrant Imelda Marcos for her huge closets and psycho big shoe collections, a lot of car garages are now about 900 square feet, while the homes they are attached to are 3,500 square feet. Meanwhile, our own families have shrunk in size since the 1950s, compared to our grandparents’, but our homes are generally exploding in opulent size and personal service.
While I do not question or judge market forces like supply and demand, we must be thankful for what we have available to us, dammit. The tin shanty favelas surrounding Mexico City were filled with domesticated animals and pobrecitos human beings, all under one small leaky roof made of rusty corrugated metal; the things I saw then still haunt me even now.
I am not trying to be a scold or a downer, but man oh gees, do we as a nation need to be super duper thankful to each other and to the One Above for all the blessings this incredible America enjoys. If we take these myriad blessings for granted, then we will take anything and everything for granted, including each other. And when people take each other for granted, their relationships fail. American citizens need to have a close relationship with each other and with our self-representative government. It all goes together, hand in glove.
Tomorrow, we must all give deep thanks for what we have, and show appreciation for it all. Not the least of which is living in the wealthiest, freest nation ever created by humans.
Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow American citizens!
A 1970s Grohmann “skinner” knife gifted to me by a friend whose dad hunted with me. It was dull as dishwater until Irv worked his magic on it. It now shaves hair and has a heavy dose of home-made cutting board butter on the rosewood handle. It goes deer hunting this weekend.
The bear we caught up in our Monday drive, seen here back in July. Estimated at well over 7′ and 600-700 pounds, he escaped with but a scratch from an excited hunter who did not take his time and aim carefully. Photo by Bob G., thank you.
The Ruger Marlin 1895 45-70 in the mountaintop laurel jungle minutes before our drive made contact with the big bear.
When shot wild and excitedly, twelve gauge copper slugs will kill only trees, and not the bear-of-five-lifetimes
Light blood trail went for 1500 feet, and then disappeared. We determined his left front leg had been nicked, not hard. Lucky bear, sad hunter
Sad hunter makes the universal “I can’t believe I did that” gesture of frustration back at camp. Yeah, you will never see another 700 pound bear on a drive in PA, old friend
Who is MAGA? What is MAGA?
Quite a bit of debate going on about the Make America Great Again movement started by candidate Donald Trump in 2015. Now that the movement to get Donald Trump elected succeeded a third time, and his policy goals are being implemented, the next question becomes “Whither MAGA?”
The question of why any American opposes the mere concept of Make America Great Again is beyond me. Why an entire political party has defined itself as opposing everything that a president does, including pledging to demolish the privately funded ballroom addition he is overseeing on the White House, is a question more for psychiatrists than political scientists. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, it is measureable, it is quantifiable, and it is probably operationally definable, if some enterprising PhD student wants to contribute something useful to an otherwise useless, politicized, and anti-ideas moribund academia.
Americans suffering from TDS have a real problem, and I hope they get it treated professionally. On the flip side, conservative patriots like moi viscerally despised impostor Barack Hussein Obama, but not to the point of irrationally opposing even the occasional good things he did. You know, throwing out the baby with the bath water. Not that I can recall good things that Obama did, but probably there were some, like adding new acreage to a national park somewhere.
More to the moment are the questions of who is MAGA and who runs MAGA and what will become of this political movement when Preisdent Trump terms out of office. Who in the world of politics will pick up Trump’s mantle, his movement, and reassemble the successful team for future campaigns?
Right now a bunch of professional pundits have claimed the MAGA gatekeeper role for themselves. Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Roger Stone, maybe Alex Jones, and a few other public opinion figures who make their living from speaking into a microphone and to a camera continue to make strident statements about MAGA, as if they own it, define it, speak for it. Other political pundits, like Dinesh D’Souza, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, et al, certainly speak to and about MAGA principles, but they make no open claims to actually own or represent MAGA.
I reject all of these people, and anyone, frankly, from claiming this role. Even President Trump no longer really “owns” this movement that he created ten years ago.
This whole question, raging though it may be, reminds me of the whole predecessor Tea Party movement that began in 2008-2009 in Central Pennsylvania. No sooner had someone, and I won’t bother to research who it was who dubbed this grass roots voters backlash against the woeful Republican Party establishment and its hand-holding big brother Democrat Party, but immediately, anyone involved in conservative politics, conservative political activism, issue activism, or donating to conservative or GOP political campaigns, was awash in Tea Party related emails, appeals, mailers, brochures.
Quite a few so-named “Tea Party” 501(c)(4) groups were formed in 2008-2012. Even more related LLCs were formed. All were run by aggressive business people who sensed an opportunity to make money from politics yet again, and who appealed to voters and activists as being leaders who best captured and represented Tea Party ideals and principles. Many of these people claimed to be moral leaders, leaders of morality and ideological purity. Most of these people and their groups and organizations were shams, frauds, fakes, and did not stand the test of time. They are found few and far between today as part of the MAGA movement or cause, having been exposed as simple opportunists.
On the opposite end of this spectrum sits people like yours truly, my past political campaigns, and this blog, who have never made a net gain penny from politics, but who instead continue to hemorrhage personal money in the cause of political dialogue, policy debate, individual freedom, small government, accountable government, constitutional principles, our nation’s founding principles, etc.
I can also think of a few tireless, devoted political advocates here in Pennsylvania, who I will not name in full, who continue to donate their personal time and money to the cause of First Principles, without hope or expectation of remuneration. Dean, Ron, Jim, Jeff and others have all stood the test of time since our collective political arousal in 2008-2009. Yes, others have risen up to contribute their voice to the cause of freedom, and honest elections, but they also seek to make a living doing it. That is a business endeavor, not a selfless devotion.
Despite plenty of political activism in the 1980s, as a conservative Central PA Democrat, my own first personal try at elected office was in 2009-2010, when I ran as a Tea Party conservative Republican candidate for US Congress here in Central PA. I ran for state senate in 2012 and 2015, eventually removing myself from a great race for state senate in late 2015, due to a severely injured knee obtained while bear hunting. Back-to-back surgeries on what had been my “good” knee in January 2016 eliminated my ability to do what I enjoyed and did best, going door to door and meeting voters. It marked the end of my interest in elected office. But not the end of my interest in politics.
In 2015 I became full-blown MAGA, despite plenty of mockery from establishment Republicans serving on county GOP committees. Their 2016 “Dump Trump” slogan failed, as their shallow RINO candidates failed.
2016 marked the end of the Tea Party, as it morphed from a broad, ground-up, grass-roots-led freedom movement into the MAGA movement led by one Donald Trump. Trump used that movement of First Principle America lovers to get elected to office. Now that he succeeded, I do not think anyone can justifiably claim to lead it, or own it, or speak for it. Not even Trump.
I now look at people like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson the same way that I looked (sideways) at the people who came out of the shadows in 2008-2010 to claim un-earned leadership roles and money-making opportunities in the Tea Party. That populist movement may have finally found its footing under a new name, MAGA, and it may have elevated some people who spoke or occasionally speak our language, but it is wholly owned by you and me, citizen voters.
The strength of the Tea Party and its MAGA incarnation is that we Americans spoke to each other in town halls and municipal meeting rooms and at rallies. This was the most authentic voice and debate possible.
Each of us has an equal voice in this. People who make money and a living from this movement are automatically suspect in my eyes. They can’t possibly be in this for the right reason.
And like the big family we American citizens are, you and I can argue and bicker and sometimes disagree with one another about policy and candidates. But not one of us is a gate keeper for our collective movement, and no one we might want as a spokesman, would have the ridiculous arrogance to claim such a role.
The Warrior Ethos
The warrior ethos, also known as “purity of one’s weaponry,” has defined humanity since humans began. Stronger humans dominate weaker humans, and weaker animals, whether people like it or not. This has been the established rule among humans until very recent times.
Western civilization’s unbelievable material success has bred complacency among us, and an assumption that America is too big to fail. A sense that we can experiment widely with hating ourselves, hating the civilization that feeds and clothes us, hating others who are smarter, stronger, more hard working, more successful. A resulting freak show array of faux self-martyrdom aka virtue signaling now delineates the political Left from Americans simply trying to do a job, feed their family etc.
Today’s virtue signaling public is especially repugnant, because its practitioners pretend that they are giving up things they need. Despite dramatic statements, tattoos, bumper stickers, aligning themselves with drug dealers and child traffickers and violent felonious illegal border crossers, they do not actually give up anything but their credibility. Their virtue signaling is empty, and costs nothing. It is done to make them feel good about themselves, at whatever cost to everyone else.
One of the things targeted by leftist virtue signalers is the warrior ethos. An enormous fabricated cultural Marxism house of cards social construct was created to try to eliminate/ cancel/ punish those Americans with the warrior ethos, aka “toxic masculinity”, so that the weaker, whinier, dumber, less productive and less useful people could do the dominating for once.
Yes, weak, whiny, annoying humans also want to dominate, bully, control, get their way over others. But until recent years, they could not do so. DEI, affirmative action, and political correctness were the government coercion-enforced means of unnaturally, artificially, unwholesomely overturning a million years of warrior ethos. Deliberately promoting fat, weak, stupid people over lean, fit, intelligent people was the very emblem of virtue signaling success.
And yet, despite the decades-long government bureaucrat utopian assault on men and boys and human nature, the warrior ethos slumbered in the bosom of millions of Americans. It roared back to life in defiance a year ago, electing an American president devoted to the tried and true old ways of being a wholesome human on this planet.
Yes, our military is seeing an enormous resurgence of popularity, and with it are higher recruitment numbers. National pride is back in style, instead of the anti American public flagellation commonly promoted in the establishment media and rejected by most Americans. But….
….last week the same Americans who elected a warrior ethos president in 2024 went back to sleep, and they did not ride the wave or take the fight to the enemy. Despite losing cultural standard bearer Charlie Kirk just a couple months ago, these American voters apparently forgot, also under the evil spell that America is too big to fail. They did not bother to vote.
These words are written on the backs of American military veterans, whose 250 years of sacrifice make possible every opportunity and happy moment Americans enjoy. Instead of being dominated by Russia, or Iran, Americans still self-rule, and, strangely, self-flagellate. I am unsure if America is able to educate and vote its way out of the cultural impasse we are in right now.
Obviously, I want peace and peaceful resolution to the stark political and cultural differences that divide us. But I also increasingly wonder if the old men, even the ancient men of American militaries past will one day have to fight our own spoiled brat children in American streets for control of this nation. These aging and old men are really the last vestige, the last memory we have of the old Warrior Ethos that won America its freedom from Britain 250 years ago, and held onto it until our own domestic enemies became strong enough to tear it all down from the inside.
These old Veterans may yet save America, just on her own shores next time. Happy Veterans Day, I suppose.
The old warriors can still save the day
The Hangover Part 27: The Trump Effect
Welp, that didn’t go well yesterday, did it…
Like a lot of other conservatives, I am sitting here with a political hangover, trying to make sense of the ass whoopin’ we got at the nationwide polls yesterday. Looks like I woke up with a freaky Democrat-shaped tattoo across my face, and a set of tire tracks across my back.
Couple of things jump foremost into my mind:
One lesson is that Leftists / Democrats care about winning, period, end of story. Winning at any cost, with any candidate is their Job #1. Anyone with a “D” after their name gets Democrat Party support and votes. Heck, the entire Democrat Party is openly devoted to protecting and supporting illegal alien invaders, violent criminals, and drug cartels, at enormous cost to American citizens. And yet…they do it.
One successful Democrat candidate in Virginia had openly fantasized about killing Republicans and their children. He is now the Attorney General-elect there. His voters did not care one whit or one bit about his violent fantasies. They wanted him in power. In fact, many Leftists probably share his violent fantasies.
Lesson #2 is Rule #2, Republican activists and voters and politicians care waaaay too much about public perception. Even manufactured perception. The Democrat Party media (AKA establishment media ABCCBSNPRBBCNBCNYT etc) knows this and aggressively preys upon it. When a Republican anywhere sneezes out of place, the establishment media is all over it, critical of it, magnifying it. Had a Republican candidate for dog catcher, much less AG, anywhere in America similarly written his fantasies about murdering Democrats and their children, his career, not just political career but his life supporting career, would be over. Finished, kaput, done, canceled, terminated. The (far-left) media sees to it every time, even as it protects Democrats from legitimate scrutiny and criticism.
Why Republicans / conservatives / normies continue to play by this rule is a mystery to me. And in fact, I do think that many in the conservative base are tiring of the political “professionals” foolishly playing by this rule, and that is why we have such a strong swing among some towards truly extreme and evil views. It is probably why treasonous bullshit artist Tucker Carlson and angry closet homosexual Nick Fuentes enjoy any support at all. Plenty of voters on the Right are just sick and tired of playing by the Left’s rules, and losing, and so they are beginning to make up some rules of their own. Not all of these rules are wholesome or pure American goodness.
Lastly, lesson number three, for better and for worse, the Trump Effect was in full force yesterday. The Trump Effect is a double-edged sword. On the one hand when Trump’s name is on the ballot, voters come out in droves to support him. On the other hand, when his name is not on the ballot, those same people stay at home and sit out the election. They think “Why should I vote? Trump is in office and he is kickin ass and getting things under control.”
Which is a fatal mistake, because while he is in office kickin ass and getting law and order re-established, Trump is also up to his eyes in lawless alligators afraid of being turned into hides on the wall. Trump threatens the political Left unlike any prior Chief Executive, all of whom, including Ronald Reagan, were content to play by the political establishment rules, written and enforced by the political Left. And so Trump invigorates the political Left through fear, and pushes them to the polls, while his own voters think everything is just hunky dory and stay home.
Add to this a lethargic and largely moribund Republican Party establishment, or an aggressively insular and inward-looking state GOP like we have here in Pennsylvania, and we can see that it does not take much effort for the political Left to win elections.
I will tell you that we did have some wins yesterday. One was in Lycoming County, where the No Butts on the Bench campaign did eject the county’s sitting president judge, Nancy Butts. Judge Butts had once run and won on a campaign of law and order, but had then become the usual backsliding leftist activist Americans have come to expect of establishment Republicans once she got on the judicial bench. She is now uninvited, disinvited, ejected and soon to be no longer a judge.
Another win reported to me by a friend in Schuylkill County is Christian Lengel, who becomes a Magistrate District Judge. A good candidate surrounded by fierce volunteers, Mr. Lengel now becomes Judge Lengel, to the advantage of western Skook citizens.
And that is a wrap. I am out of words and not quite yet out of feelings. It is time now to crawl back under my bed with a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Me, this morning, and possibly you, too
Election Day confession
Confession: I am a political junkie, addict, hound, nerd. Have been so since age fifteen. Don’t know why, but I really enjoy being involved in political everything. Today I yet again donated much of my time to being a poll greeter. You know, one of those annoying, pushy people promoting candidates and certain policy positions to voters walking up to the polling place.
My shtick is to make people smile, hopefully laugh. Especially the ever-crabby Liberals. Self-deprecating humor works. At least with older Americans.
Most of my time today, at a poll in West Hanover Township, was spent handing out “palm cards” promoting Jim Zugay and Fran Chardo, candidates for county judge. Fran is Dauphin County’s current District Attorney, and Jim is our current Recorder of Deeds. Both have been practicing attorneys for decades, and are highly qualified. Unlike their opponents, one of whom has been a lawyer in private practice for less than ten years.
I enjoyed talking policy etc with several interesting Democrats, who were up to it. Civil discourse is awesome. One said I had persuaded her to vote for Jim Zugay, who she said she had heard good things about. The one Democrat poll greeter, Sarah, was very nice and easy to chat with. She stayed until about 6:15 tonight, right after I left.
Yours truly on site, reporting live
Two military veterans discuss their combat experiences, and how those shaped their political views. Fascinating to listen in
A bad moon rising on Election Day? We shall find out momentarily
People are cool. I collect people. This windshield message accompanied a (I think) Democrat voter today
I confess to not understanding how Liberals think. But I enjoyed talking with some today, as we all engaged in the most important thing Americans can do: Vote.