Posts Tagged → patriots
2024 in Review
Year 2024 was huge. So many changes for good have been achieved this past year. And despite big obstacles remaining for regular American citizens to overcome the Media-Military-Uniparty-Industrial Complex, I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Back in 2008, the Tea Party started, right here in Central Pennsylvania, in response to then US senator Arlen Specter’s clear lack of principle. A town hall Specter was hosting erupted into widespread shouting and wide open frustration after just one person – Katy Abrams – stood up and denounced Specter’s loyalty to politics and self over the elementary interests of his PA constituents. It was the beginning of a grassroots voter rebellion against both the Republican Party establishment, and against the GOPe Uniparty.
That fight has taken on different names and wider meaning since 2008, including Tea Party Patriots, and then just Patriots, and Constitutional Patriots. By 2016 it was the Make America Great Again movement. Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign motto grew into the bipartisan/ nonpartisan “MAGA” take-your-government-back movement. MAGA includes a large portion of black and Hispanic voters, as well as frustrated whites of all income brackets, almost all rural voters, and growing numbers of disillusioned urbanites who bear a big burden living directly under failed Democrat Party policies.
This “populist” bottom-up political evolution-revolution has always been by and of We, The People, despite the Media-Military-Uniparty-Industrial Complex’s efforts to falsely brand it as “racist” or “homophobic” or whatever the silly name is du jour. Plenty of groups and organizations popped up to use, re-direct, or take advantage of our intense populist energy, like Americans For Prosperity. AFP was an early ally, then it merged with industry, and industry then went for open borders, and We, The People saw them as sellouts.
I ran for US Congress in 2009-2010, then state senate in 2012, and again in 2015 before dropping out from a bad hunting injury. Being part of this movement has been fascinating, frustrating, exhilirating, energizing, as well as draining tens of thousands of dollars from my own pockets. I always put my money where my mouth was, and believe now it was all well spent.
As a candidate, my political principles were those of America’s founding: Small, responsive, accountable government, and big citizen.
Because government exists solely for the benefit of We, The People, we are now heading into a direct head-on clash between the citizens who own the government – basically the Frankenstein federal bureaucracy, and the posh individual taxpayer-funded Marxist denizens of that Frankenstein bureaucratic behemoth.
Trump is our We, The People champion. Because Trump has suffered a martyr’s mistreatment as he seeks to return power, rights, and decision making to We, The People, he has taken on almost a god-like stature among so many people. The blatantly stolen 2020 election cemented what many Americans already knew in their gut, that we are in a deadly serious combat over raw power.
Despite intense censorship by government and corporations entangled together, new media outlets formed and grew wildly in response to the overtly corrupt establishment media. Americans are hungry for truth or at least an honest opinion. Now the alternative/ new media ecosystem is unbelievably rich, varied, diverse, and useful, while the useless old mainstream media is dying from its own self-inflicted wounds.
Looking back on 2024, it was a year of miracles, a year of difficult trials and tribulations, of intense fear and frustration, of growth and clarity. The difficultues made us Americans stronger. Despite facing immense odds in 2024, the good guys prevailed; hopefully, they are successful in 2025. Recall that some 65 million Americans voted for communism in 2024, so we clearly have real work to do. It remains to be seen if President Trump is as wise and willing to fight as we think he is. God knows, We, The People cannot afford to lose our combat with the Uniparty or its Frankenstein bureaucracy.
Only one of us can emerge victorious, and I hope it is the American citizenry and our Constitution.
[thanks to Ron Boltz for helping me remember a couple facts here]
[ps horrendous human being former failed US president James Carter became deceased in 2024, a net positive for America]
Independence Day, because Citizens with Guns
Today is Independence Day, the day that America declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, and formed a new kind of government. Most governments in human history have been dictatorial, tyrannical, unilateral, top-down etc., and America is one of the few exceptions, maybe the only exception, to that rule. Today Britain is barely an afterthought, but we still view the federal government in Washington, DC, with the same skeptical eye we had for British Redcoats in 1776.
Since our founding, America has been and still is a nation of free citizens, with maximum individual liberties and with minimal government interference in our personal lives. The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution as amended both make this power distribution arrangement clear. However, this unusual balance of power was achieved only through the application of military-grade force by the citizenry upon the oppressive government and its troops and civilian supporters that sought to crush the free citizens. That bloody fight for independence set the tone we live by today.
Mistrust of government is hard-wired into the American citizen.
Today, despite a wide array of evil forces (teacher’s unions, federal bureaucrats, a national media that is an activist arm of one political party, ‘woke’ corporations, and careerist politicians) attempting to once again crush the citizenry and deprive us of our freedoms and liberty, we are confident of our future.
Why? Because there is no way that a relative handful of rogue, despotic, lawless federal agents and their power-mad political bosses can survive while surrounded by hostile citizens.
Regardless of who you are, once a person has a house and a family, they have just as much to lose as anyone else. Just as these lawless federal agents are warping and breaking American law to illegally punish Americans who they consider their political opponents, these same agents themselves can also be held in detention without bail, without family visits, without access to legal representation, without medication. And just as rogue federal agents have showed up armed and physically aggressive on the doorsteps of harmless grannies and Roger Stone and hundreds of other innocent Americans, so too can hordes of had-enough-angry local citizens show up on the doorsteps and living room floors of these lawless federal agents. Two can play this game.
America was founded on an armed citizenry standing up to tyranny and abuse of power, and while the younger generations might be so badly educated and indoctrinated about this core aspect of American culture that they cannot do anything without first sucking their thumbs in some safe space, there are tens of millions of older Americans who recall our free days, and what sacrifices were needed to get those freedoms and keep them.
America’s Independence Day is not about relaxing on the river on your boat and drinking beer, oblivious to everything real happening around you. This day is mostly about reflecting on how We, The People are going to hold on to what is ours.
America and its government belongs to Us, not to any political party, not to people who figure out how to cheat and game the political system so they have endless ‘official’ power to do whatever they want, not to taxpayer-funded bureaucrats who have been unaccountable for fifty years despite their repeat failures in almost every field of administration. That is not what America ever was or is now about, despite the lawless outrages and assaults on America of the impostor Biden Administration, and too many patriots alive right now are willing to make every sacrifice needed to keep America free. Their passionate spirit will challenge and confront every rogue government and every rogue agent of that illegitimate government to preserve the freedoms we had up until January 21st this year.
Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans! Enjoy your day of freedom now and be ready pass the ammunition (a line roughly borrowed from the battle of Bunker Hill).
on Qanon
Probably inevitable that Qanon and I would meet. Not in person, generally speaking here. Don’t get excited.
This ‘Qanon’ “thing” is a thing that has taken the patriot/constitutionalist/ conservative movement by storm, and as I am definitely in that movement mix, I would naturally mix it up with Qanon at some point.
A friend who is a forester implored me to look into Qanon last week, and so I did. Foresters tend to be steady hands, droll, unexcitable, not terribly political. But this guy suddenly became political, and as he is a steady hand, I listened to what he had to say:
- Qanon is a person or small group of people working for US military intelligence
- Qanon is/are the Good Guys, duking it out behind the scenes with China, Russia, and our own anti-America CIA
- Qanon wants Patriots to leave the actual fighting for America to them, which is supposedly the military, and to leave our AR15s at home when we take to the streets
This last item is what caught my attention the most. I mean, what kind of pro-America group would encourage America’s last hope, its native patriot militia, to stay at home or at least leave our Second Amendment at home? Does not sound like a pro-America group to me.
Can you imagine if some Qanon group had encouraged patriots to leave their muskets and long rifles at home in 1775, and to just “peacefully protest” against the tyrannical British? There would be no America, as the ridiculous ‘peaceful protests’ would have been crushed mercilessly, and tyranny firmly entrenched thereafter.
My sense of Qanon is that it naturally attracts hopeful believers, who want to feel like the US military has not been overthrown from within (it has), and that the US military will not sit idly by while the illegal Biden fraud is installed as an actual sitting president (they will), and that everything behind the scenes is just fine n’ dandy (it’s not). It is understandable that good people do not want to go to war within their own country, and that they want the actual paid warriors to do it for us all. It is understandable for normal Americans to believe that not ALL of our institutions have been overthrown, but if all indications are accurate, even the American military is deeply corrupted, and run by people who do not love a constitutional America.
But ask yourself, what kind of an operation tricks its followers into lowering their guard and waiting until it is too late to fight back?
Yes, it is true that the anti-America mainstream media hates Qanon, tries to denigrate anyone associated with Qanon, has no interest in Qanon. But that just tells us that Qanon as a positive rallying point for patriots bothers the Chinese media (America’s mainstream media), for the simple reason that patriots are involved.
I was asked for my opinion, and I think Qanon is probably a Chinese operation to undermine America from within. Because it is so well done, and so complex, this is the only explanation that makes sense from all of the confusion that has come from it. Maybe this view is confusing to people, but that would be well in keeping with the whole Qanon thing.
Who knows? Who cares? Keep your AR15 handy, a well-kitted day pack, your boots and warm clothes. Whatever Qanon says, you know what YOU say, and that is all that matters.
Freedom takes a lot of hard work, and we’ve got ours cut out for us…
Here is the text I presented to the Tea Party Patriots two nights ago, and I have received much positive feedback on it. Take the fight to the enemy, folks.
Josh First………….www.joshfirst.com
At Tea Party Patriots, April 8, 2013
Amendment II: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Citizen disarmament is the civil rights issue of our time. Disarmament is enslavement, and America already fought one civil war over slavery.
o 2nd Amendment is NOT about hunting or sport shooting, it IS about citizen defense against tyrannical government that usurps citizen powers & rights. Thus, if the gov’t has it, we might need it ourselves.
o State militias, comprised of citizens, were supposed to outweigh then-new federal army
o 1776 militia muster rolls required privately owned military-grade long arm and some ammunition; modern equivalent of military musket is the AR-15. Hunting, self-defense, sport guns are ancillary uses.
o “Well regulated” in 1780s means totally different action than 2013. Then: Have a militia muster roll of able bodied men with working guns and know how to quickly assemble them to fight. Now: Regulate means government intervention and control.
o Federal acts regulating the Militias were passed in the 1700s and 1800s; US Supreme Court holdings danced around the issue, addressing citizens assuming quasi-military roles in public.
o State militias fell into disuse after the Civil War; different states now address them differently. My reading of PA law allows private citizens to create their own militias, so long as they do not claim to represent the government
o Gun prohibitionists long argued that the 2nd Amendment was a “collective” right. After the Heller and McDonald decisions, they now say they agree it’s a private right, but they want to INFRINGE it out of existence: CT, NY, MD, DE, CO, CA…. magazines, ammunition, guns, taxes, insurance, slippery slope
o Fight back:
a) “Gun Prohibitionists” are extreme, not mainstream, agenda-driven, put us all at risk
b) gun control is not about crime control; does not solve problems; infringes on lawful right
c) Gun control is the new Jim Crow…utopians fear threats to their big gov’t utopia control
d) Join NRA, GOA, local shooting club
e) Write op-eds, volunteer for pro-Constitution candidates, blog & social media
f) Buy guns, teach someone to shoot or hunt, give guns as gifts, buy a hunting license
g) Constitutional principles do not change over time to suit societal whims. The quill pen and the printing press became laptops and the Internet, horses became cars, and muskets became AR-15s
h) Regulating/limiting Constitutional rights is usually read expansively, not narrowly
i) Use historical references to frame gun control efforts: Frontier America had no gun control,
and Founders’ intent: “On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed,” (Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p. 322). “The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals…. It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.” (Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789). “The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States….Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America” – (Gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789.) “No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” (Thomas Jefferson, Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J.Boyd, Ed., 1950]). “The right of the people to keep and bear…arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country…” (James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434 [June 8, 1789]). “A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves…and include all men capable of bearing arms.” (Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169). “What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty…. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.” (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment [ I Annals of Congress at 750 {August 17, 1789}]). “…to disarm the people – that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
USS Liberty…what happened and why we should know
In the heat of the Six Day War just fifty-nine years ago, an American Navy spy ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea was strafed, bombed, badly damaged, and I think 34 US Sailors died as a result, with many others getting hurt and having lasting combat-related injuries.
Despite the documented history of friendly-fire incidents going all the way back to Greek and Roman naval battles, with not one being in common parlance or memory today, the attack on the USS Liberty has persisted and persisted and persisted up until right now, when it serves as a battle cry against the only reason anyone knows anything about it: Jews.
Israel’s ships and planes attacked the USS Liberty, by mistake, and thus has a special grudge and entire anti-Jew movement built up and carried on around the incident. That Israel is America’s only real and loyal ally makes the accusation carry even more weight.
No Jews, no news, goes the modern adage. Because the USS Liberty involved a handful of Israeli naval sailors and pilots, all Jews everywhere are despised, and the state of Israel became a criminal enterprise, this USS Liberty movement says. For the mistaken acts of some warriors in the heat of battle, all of their kinsmen everywhere must be hated, judged, cast out, and exterminated forever, says this political movement based on the USS Liberty attack. No forgiveness ever!
If you doubt me, go online anywhere the USS Liberty is discussed, like a YouTube or Rumble video, or a written article, and see for yourself. The comments sections are filled up with endless acid vitriol for all Jews, everywhere, and ditto for the existence of the state of Israel. As if this one brief incident speaks for the full character of every single one of the ten million Jews around the entire world, and for an entire nation.
Which is bizarre, because no other group of humans anywhere is judged entirely in its entirety for the acts of a few in the midst of an existential battle for survival.
Despite having a long, bad reputation as thuggish ruffians, the Irish today are beloved leprechauns. There is no hateful world-wide anti-Irishman anti-Ireland movement based on some anti-British massacre by Irish nationalists that occurred two hundred years ago. My own quip is that if you don’t have at least a tiny amount of Irish in you, you are not a real American. No one hates all of the Irish, certainly not Ireland as a nation.
Ditto for Germany, whose crimes against humans in World War One and World War Two were truly monstrous. No one hates all Germans everywhere, and no one calls for the dissolution of Germany as a country, based on its national actions in the early and mid-20th century.
Ditto for Russia and Russians, whose terrible crimes against Poland and Polish citizens for the past two hundred years, or its own extermination of Chechens just twenty years ago, could easily disqualify them from belonging to world civilization.
And so on, including South Africa, which today in 2026 is far more racist and Apartheid than the South Africa of 1986.
And so this reveals why the USS Liberty incident has persisted well beyond the regular shelf life of any other friendly fire example, including the inexplicable recent 1-2-3 tail-end shoot-down of three American fighter jets by a Kuwaiti fighter pilot two months ago. Three expensive American fighter jets that were protecting Kuwait from Iranian bombs and missiles, shot down from behind by a pilot whose deadly actions defy any scrutiny, except for a jihadi mindset against white infidels. But… crickets from the USS Liberty crowd.
Here is what is known about the USS Liberty attack: It was a friendly fire mistake, on a warship that appeared to have no flag and which did not respond to radio challenges or identify itself, during the intense Six Day War in 1967.
Yesterday, Roger Stone disseminated an essay about the USS Liberty. You can find it on his SubStack page. Stone takes a slightly different tack from the usual “hate-the-Jews” mob, in which he blames President Johnson (“LBJ”), Sec. of State Robert MacNamara, and others leading American government in 1967, for the USS Liberty incident, its alleged coverup, and the alleged failure to hold Israel fully completely and totally accountable. Which, of course, as all these conspiracy allegations go, in the end leads Stone to implicate all Jews and the entire nation of Israel….which is the same end result as the other “hate-the-Jews” mob.
It has been distressing to see Roger Stone grasp at internet clicks, and reveal a hateful side of him I had never detected before he wrote that Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Thomas Massie, and other open Jew haters, are just good America-first patriots, and anyone caught up in their hateful net deserves to be in it. Roger Stone remains a compelling victim of the Biden witch hunt, and his subsequent character reveals have been truly sad to witness (if you hate all Jews, not just the far left ones who damage America, but all Jews everywhere all the time, including the conservative ones, you have an emotional or mental problem; it is a sickness).
The most sober and thorough discussion of the USS Liberty attack is done by conservative commenter, Jeremy Boreing. His approach is slow, analytical, thorough, methodical, not flamboyant, not flip, not bombastic, not caustic. If you are interested in this sad moment in American military history, and in the failure of our American military to always fully care for our battlefield wounded, watch Jeremy’s video here.
Fifty nine years later, let us honestly remember and fully appreciate the service and sacrifice of our American Navy Sailors on board the USS Liberty. It is important to know the truth, because in truth bad accidents happen, mistakes happen on the field of battle, and it is best that we understand this reality and not defy it by dreaming up mysterious or nefarious explanations that prevent us from problem solving in the future.
USS Liberty after attack
The 1967 Six Day War was one of the great military successes of modern history. It was complicated, big, and messy
The symbol of an Israeli bathing in the Suez Canal was huge
Battlefield chaos in the Sinai Peninsula, and the USS Liberty was anchored just off this coast
The 1967 Six Day War was an all-out battle for Israel’s survival. Any and all threats were attacked. Including mistakenly percieved threats like the USS Liberty