A Few Observations – 06/06/20

The socialist agenda of the left has moved the corona virus pandemic to the back seat. Front and center is the ongoing rioting triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020 by an out of control Minneapolis police officer.

As many have correctly stated, the rioting now has nothing to do with legitimate protesting. This was truly “a cause in search of a crisis.” In this case the cause is the Left’s ultimate pursuit of turning America completely socialist or communist.

Long existing cell groups of Antifa and their sympathisers have hijacked legitimate protests for their own purposes, which is to cause as much chaos as possible. This is right out of Cloward-Piven from 1966: “Overwhelm the system until it breaks down.”

The participants who have been seduced to join the riots are predominantly of the younger generations. They are products of an educational system run by Leftists. Most have been raised by parents who were reluctant to use much discipline out of fear that Child Protective Services would come knocking. Many (most) were raised in homes where traditional christian values were replaced by “situation ethics” and other self-serving behaviors (the “me” generation). Two-parent households became a minority, especially in the black community.

These “children” have become old enough now to hold positions of power and authority. They are quickly acheiving what I describe as a kind of “critical mass” at which point there will be no hope for returning the country to anything the Founding Fathers created.

… but I digress. Back to the rioters. Protesters are predominantly peaceful and law abiding. They tend to observe curfews and go home when the sun goes down. The rioters, on the other hand, are like cockroaches and rats. The night is their friend, but when someone switches on “the light,” they scatter like the animals they emulate.

These “kids” are acting like brats who get what they want by throwing a tantrum. The only thing they seem to understand is pain. When will the authorities finally realize this and begin dishing out some tough love? Once it starts, those still in the shadows may begin to see the price they are about to pay and begin running back home to live in mama’s basement.

The Back Seat

Recently, the President took what is called a Presidential Action, which has the effect of legalizing 4-5 million illegal immigrants. This is just one more example of the President’s habit of not enforcing existing law. Other blatant examples of non-enforcement include the Defense of Marriage Act and the Civil Rights Act.

When the President acts outside the authority granted by the U.S. Constitution it is up to Congress to challenge that authority. It is their duty. It is part of their oath.

The people overwhelmingly oppose what he is doing (62%), yet the Congress hesitates to act in any substantial way. Oh, they run around crying foul with their righteous indignation, but nothing really happens. And maybe it’s unrealistic to expect the lame duck Congress to do anything. It remains to be seen whether the new Congress and a new Republican Senate will be able to move the ball on January 3, 2015.

The problem to me is pretty simple. The GOP does not have a comprehensive organized strategy to create and execute a narrative. Hundreds of bills have been debated and passed in the House and sit collecting dust somewhere in Harry Reid’s desk. That looks to me like the Senate is obstructing. And that’s within the Senate’s power. The problem is that the Republicans cannot or will not make that a focus issue.

The Republicans could do the same with de-funding or not funding Obama’s Presidential Actions. Let Obama veto the funding bill. Then make HIM the obstructionist. Again they are unable or unwilling to make it a focus issue.

Might it hurt a Senator’s or Representative’s chance for re-election? Maybe and maybe not. But it doesn’t really matter. The majority are paralyzed by irrational fear.

Courage is defined as pushing ahead in the face of fear to do the right thing. The Conservatives made strong gains in the 2014 elections, but until the courageous achieve critical mass, doing the right thing will take a back seat.

Hurricane Ike precipitated a mass evacuation from the Texas Gulf Coast in 2008. As a resident of the area I witnessed what happens when infrastructure fails.

People just don’t realize how small problems can quickly mushroom into SHTF conditions. Freeways daily clogged during rush hour became parking lots where it took 4 hours to move a half mile. Many decided to turn around and go home to hunker down. Hundreds ran out of gas. The state hastily converted opposite lanes into contraflow lanes and dispatched fuel tankers, only to realize that the fuel tankers had to navigate the same congestion — ever witness an ambulance or fire truck trying to make their way through a sea of cars? People were urinating and defecating on the side of the road in public view. Rest stops were clogged. Restaurants ran out of food. Bottled water became scarce. Gas stations ran out of gas. Medical emergencies were common. Many who managed to get through found they had to drive to New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma to find a room.

The bottom line is to obviously have a “bug-in” plan in case the “bug-out” plan becomes unworkable. I’m sure at least SOME “non-survivalists” who became stranded victims now keep G-O-D (get out of dodge) bags in all of their cars. “Hmmm, maybe those survivalists aren’t all crazy after all.”

It happens all the time. People become complacent and lazy. Being vigilant can consume a lot of energy (and money). A thief will take advantage of complacency. Militarily speaking, ambushes and surprise attacks are usually very successful for a reason. A storm will take advantage of lack of preparation. A terrorist will find a weakness and take advantage of it. A hacker will search and probe until he finds a way to screw things. The devil continually tempts and taunts in a search for spiritual weakness.

So the question quickly becomes “WHEN will it happen again?”

Are you prepared?

Time to Re-Group

The Tea Party movement is alive and well, although some would have you believe it is on its last breath. Recently elected “Conservatives” are talking in shakey voices and sounding Progressive. The IRS has executed a good one-two punch. The MSM sycophants and brown nosers continue to get tingles up their legs with everything Obama does. The NSA is becoming the “telescreen” of 1984, listening to and watching our every move. In many ways the Tea Party movement is being backed into a corner – maybe on purpose.

I thought 2010 was the start of something BIG. And is was – but just a start. Too many in the Conservative camp thought re-making the Republican Party was going to be easy, right? Just throw out the bad guys and replace them with good guys. I always knew SOME of the newly elected good guys would wilt in the heat of battle, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. It turns out (slap me silly) that some of them were never really Conservatives.

What’s going on right now is a clear display of the Limbaugh Theorem. It clearly describes the Progressive behavior of “defend it in public–defeat it in private.”

I am still not quite ready for a third party. I still believe we can bring about change from the inside. Anybody who thought this was going to be easy was dreaming. We are simply learning to adjust our strategy in the heat of battle. We can learn a great deal from our “failures.”

The next round of Republican primaries should be very interesting. Some of those who jumped in front of the parade in 2010 or 2012 may find themselves sweeping the street in 2014. That’s where my energy and my money will be going.

Survivalism and Prepping

I am a Conservative and a Tea Party activist. My Conservative value system intersects nicely with survivalism. I am independent by nature. My wife and I run our own business. Business people tend to plan for contingencies just like survivalists.

The political and economic climate has been deteriorating for quite a while, and I believe it will get much worse before it gets better. Big Brother grows by the day. The incentive to “get off the grid” is definitely there. (But “getting off the grid” means different things to different people and warrants discussion on its own.)

I believe the key is making the decision to do SOMETHING. Many people contemplating taking a survival stance become completely overwhelmed when they start thinking about things like food and water storage, energy production, self defense, etc. They don’t know where to start. I was in the same boat at one time. So I started to read up on the subject.

There is no shortage of “experts” giving advice and advocating their own plans. A quick Google search on “survivalism” produced over 1.5 million hits. Amazon lists hundreds of books on the subject. But be careful. Read the reviews first. Stick with the best rated material.

Most experts will categorize the possible scenarios into different levels of severity and duration. Start preparing for the most likely scenario first. In our case it was preparing for a direct hit by hurricane.

Develop a priorty list. We started with simply buying a few extra things at the grocery store on each trip. Water should be high on your list. You can survive a lot longer without food than water. As you develop your own plan you will discover weak points. Not to worry; it’s part of the process.

One thing I would strongly urge is to keep your preparations on a very low profile. The fewer who know, the better. Knowlege of your preparations by others could put your family at a significant security risk when a crisis occurs.

And remember, “The longest journey starts with the first step.”

Battle Fatigue

battle fatigue: a posttraumatic stress disorder occurring among soldiers engaged in active combat, characterized by excessive autonomic arousal, psychic numbing, and persistent reliving of traumatic experiences.

I have stopped using the traditional party names. The Republicans and Democrats of yesteryear are gone. They have become branches of the same Progressive Party.

As others have said, the Conservatives are being backed into a corner in trying to re-take the Republican Party. The odds of a “takeover” seem to be slipping away.

Forming a new third party will take time and a lot of money. But is that really necessary?

Essentially, the 2010 election cycle was the “birth” of the Conservative Party. It was easy for the Tea Party/Conservative candidates to utilize the infrastructure of the Republican Party and take advantage of the fact that the low information voters tend to stay home in the off years.

I believe this is the strategy we must continue to implement. Whether this can happen again in 2014 remains to be seen as I think the Conservative movement is currently suffering from the equivalent of “battle fatigue.”

The Rubio Issue for Conservatives

I am not normally a “one-issue” voter, but the immigration issue is “make or break” for this country. If the current immigration bill in the Senate (or anything even close to it) passes we will have given the Progressives millions of new voters. It could be argued that this will be the final nail in the coffin of the country that the Founding Fathers created.

Wait, you say. It will never pass the House. And you are right. The Senate version will not pass, but some have put together a scenario where it still could happen despite the best efforts of the Conservatives. (I’ll save that for another blog post.)

Conservatives have been burdened by not only the Progressive agenda from the left but a Republican Party ruled by Progressive elites.

The election of Obama in 2008 was the Howard Beale moment for Conservatives and resulted in the Tea Party movement. Until we find a way to resurrect that momentum Conservatives will be on the losing end.

The Conservatives have been busy trying to re-make the Republican Party from the inside and rightfully so, but there might come a time when that strategy has to be abandoned. Whether that happens or not we have to have a well established “farm team” producing Conservative candidates.

2010 produced a bumper crop of winning Conservatives. Some of them turned out to be not so Conservative. Big surprise!

I had high hopes for Rubio as I listened to his speeches as Speaker of the Florida House. So did millions of others.

But somewhere along the line Rubio decided that he was God’s gift to immigrants, buying into the lie that the Republican Party cannot move forward without the Hispanic vote.

In so doing, he has prostituted himself with the likes of Chuck Schumer and the rest of “the gang” (so much so that many now call him McRubio).

Will Rubio ever realize he has been had? Maybe. But even if he does, it’s probably too late to beg forgiveness and expect any result (although Mark Sanford seems to have pulled off a miracle).

We have to stop punishing ourselves for electing Rubio. He is not the first rising star to crash and burn, and he won’t be the last.

Marco Rubio WILL be replaced. The time to vet candidates is NOW!

The Reluctant Leader

When the Tea Party movement was birthed incumbent Republicans (and I’ll say most are rinos) were all over each other jumping in front of the parade, especially in the elections of 2010. Since then most of them (the incumbents) have withered under fire and retreated to their rino habitats.

The reason is obvious. Tea Party freshmen have had to carry little, if any, baggage to get where they are. Most have been true to their Conservative core values, but some are beginning to weaken (understandably). Conservatives in the media are burned at the stake daily. Even Sarah Palin has had to take a breather.

The Progressives have been working their magic for decades – using the redistricting process, exploiting the media, and thwarting procedural rules to manipulate the system.

If our cause is true, we will continue to elect more and more Conservatives. Eventually, we could reach critical mass and get some things done.

But I think the rank and file of the movement has been thinned. Many who had lots of energy have instead been busy hunkering down for the coming collapse. I am one of those. My hope meter is currently bouncing on zero.

The beauty of the Tea Party movement has been its cellular structure with no clear leader. Some would also argue that is it’s greatest weakness. What we need is a new Conservative hero – a new Washington or Reagan.

Maybe Rand Paul is our guy.

The Irony of Prepping – Or is it?

It is widely accepted in the Conservative community that Obama and the Progressives believe in the redistribution of wealth. The mantra is “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” (a basic premise of Communism).

Their utopian system is based on collectivism – “It takes a village.” Agenda 21, if implemented fully, would forcefully move people from the rural areas back into the urban areas. The food production of the rural areas would be owned and controlled by the government for the benefit of the people as they see fit.

The ruling elites (from both parties) are slowly forcing us in the direction of collectivism, where we are forced to work together for the benefit of “the village,” all under the control of the ruling elites (or a dictator).

Now let’s look at prepping in the context of a total collapse of the economy. There are as many collapse scenarios as there are those with hypotheses regarding how that will unfold. But the end result is a reset to our way of living. Our house of cards would come tumbling down.

Prepping is based on the practice of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. We prepare for life without all the modern conveniences. We broaden our library of skills. We stockpile food, water, guns, and ammunition. We build backup systems for energy production. For really long-term scenarios we plan on producing our own food.

But most “experts” in the field believe that surviving a collapse will ultimately force survivors to work together collectively. We will have to come together into small protected communities to pool our resources and survival skills, much like scenes from “The Postman,” “Jericho,” “The Walking Dead,” and others.

The obvious difference between these two theories is freedom of choice.

I know which is preferrable for me and my family.

If You Stop Churning the Cream You Will Never Get the Butter

The Republican Party has been infiltrated by Progressives, right? With a few exceptions that includes everyone in the party prior to the 2008 elections. How many examples can we all give of a moderate Republican jumping in front of the Tea Party parade and claiming to be the Conservative’s best friend?

I remember when Boehner was elected Speaker in 2010. There was some outrage from the tea party, but his election as Speaker was not a real surprise. We just didn’t [and still don’t] have the numbers to do otherwise.

The pendulum has swung back towards the Progressives, and many on our side are hanging their heads and are ready to quit. But the same thing happened in 2008. It took a while to get rolling, but the tea party sprung to life and became a formidable political force.

History has shown that nearly all off year elections have moved away from the party in power. 2014 could be a repeat of 2010. The farm team IS operational. We just have to keep feeding it with good candidates, knowing that most will not make the grade.

The search for credible leadership is a slow deliberate process. But if you stop churning the cream, you will never get the butter.