Obama right on this

 

Former President Barack Obama held forth in his typically inspiring way a while back at the Democrat National Convention. He recalled to our hearts the truth that we are a nation founded on political ideals, not on ethnicity. This IS our heritage, and this IS what makes us the exceptional nation.

When he went further however, and asserted that this heritage is why we all must come together, right now, and give power to the central (possibly global) government to solve our problems, he went too far. This is all overtly implied by his support of the Harris/Walz agenda and it is all way off the rails of historic American political thought. Rather than allowing some self anointed set of experts to concoct “solutions” which they then impose on the public, the American alternative is for us to return to the form of government, what I term Local Community Moral Self Government, with which we previously governed ourselves. Not only would this plan enable us to preserve our political ideals, but it is probably the only way we will be able to accommodate and digest the unprecedented cultural diversity we are facing (as President Obama also mentioned) and yet do it while maintaining those precious political ideals,

The Constitution frames and empowers a system of government which gives some very few, narrowly defined powers to the federal government, and then reserves all other powers to the states, or people generally. Much of the time that resulted in most powers of government being executed at the county and or local levels. The concept is that since any government exercises some powers, the closest, and hence most accountable level of government is the safest place to invest most of those powers.

By re-establishing these powers, the powers of Local Community Moral Self government, we would return to ourselves, in our communities, the powers to regulate corporations. We would also be returning to local communities the powers and responsibilities to deal with all the infrastructure, social, and medical issues that communities might face. This alone will restore much civic mindedness.

The most pertinent, to this discussion, reason for restoring LCMSG to modern America is that this kind of community self determination, with the limits set in the Constitution, is by far the most likely way for us to absorb, digest, and assimilate all the demographic changes we face. Our system was always designed to handle this kind of thing, we just never included everyone before. It worked great for the White people who were included the first time. And it will work for us all again, if we work the system the way it was designed to be worked.

When we get it up and running, all the animosities from the old world might still smolder, but instead of violent attacks, which the federal government is rightly empowered to prevent, the competitions between every ethnicity, religion, and culture will mostly boil down to a contest to see which cultural style produces the happiest, most prosperous, and contented people. That is a competition we should all want to join in, and when we do, and as a result learn much from each other, we will find we have developed a system that can actually solve some of our perennial issues. Which the Democrat party only (perennially) promises to deal with.

The Democrats remind me (and this is a generous analogy) of a big old Buick stuck in the snow on the side of a wintry road. The driver is pressing down on the accelerator while the tires squeal up a stinking smoke, spinning an ever deeper hole in the ice. The driver shouts out that they urgently have to get over to the other side of the valley, miles away, so no time to argue about how to do it, they continue to spin their wheels and get nowhere. .

The Democrats remind me of that Buick because even though their big government programs have never succeeded in solving the problems of poverty, family breakdown, homelessness, addiction, crime and violence, they continue to double down, proposing ever more of the same failed ideas. Are prices too high, impose price, and wage, and rent controls. Build more public housing crime centers. Continue to dumb down public education while increasing federal control of education.

Just like the driver of the stuck Buick, the only way they can imagine to make up for their past misuse of power is to misuse even more power. Obviously, the sound way to get the car unstuck is to first of all stop spinning the wheels. Maybe even turn it off, get out, and look the situation over. Then calmly back up out of the rut, and turn in a slightly different direction to go forward. Easy peasy.

In the political realm, the analogy would be to stop incessantly concocting new federal powers and programs to make up for previous failed federal policies. Instead, let us imagine how we can devolve the powers of government that were usurped by the federal government, and invest them (one sensible step at a time) back in the states, if not in the county and local governments.

Recovering Local Community Moral Self Government (LCMSG) will almost certainly move us toward unity, since every individual will be able to live their freest best life in the community they choose, be ensured a fair voice in that community, and also have the right to travel to other communities. That social environment is guaranteed to get the old “Melting Pot” of mutual cultural assimilation going again.

As we get our system of LCMSG going again, we will find that we have given ourselves the real power. Then we can see how we can actually achieve some of those goals, like health care for all, or a decent economic life for anyone willing to work for it. All of that and more can easily be achieved if we restore our republic, thereby restoring real power to local communities. If we can get back to that original system, and work the system the way it was designed, adding modern modifications as we decide to, we will find that we have put our government back on a short leash which we, the people, control.

Then, once the power to charter corporations is again in local community hands, we can put business, the corporate world, back on that same short leash of community accountability. Then we will find that many more of our healthy economic dreams can be realized.

Finally, with big business once again domesticated and serving the public, we can go a lot further in getting science and the entire industrial revolution on a shorter leash, ensuring that the advance of technology empowers the people generally, and is not miss-used to establish tyranny.

So then, having started with a word from Barack Obama, we come full circle to the coming election.

In this election, Americans are faced a with choice. Do we want to become just another district in a global governing coalition which is not elected, and which can exercise minute, unaccountable powers over individuals. Because that is where it honestly seems the Democrats (whoever is actually in the driver's seat over there?!) are taking us. While this over-seeing progressive force is usually benign, verging on benevolent, sometimes it can become hostile and draconian. If the system the Democrats are selling us in 2024, with its' un-elected candidate; open censorship; possible show trial atrocities in J6 hearings; coordinated, politically motivated lawfare against the prime challenger; selective enforcement of the laws; and the usual cover-ups of traditional family corruption were to accidentally become tyrannical, people would have no recourse short of armed rebellion.

The Republicans, in feeble response, are selling us a half assed rendition of old America, a hollow flag so to speak, because they are terrified of saying or doing anything which might offend the corporate sponsors. So nothing about corporate personhood, or a whole lot of other issues, is allowed for discussion. Which means that the version of America they are presenting is one which is still under corporate control. Corporatism, which I understand even Mussolini admitted is just another word for Fascism.

No THANK YOU VERY MUCH.!!?!

The republican message should be, but it isn't, that we should stop for a moment, consider how we are governing ourselves today, realize we are not using our system of government the way it was designed to be used, and realize that is what has gone so wrong. The obvious solution is the organic battle cry of all true republicans, “Restore the Republic.” Anyone who will not take up that battle cry is not, properly speaking, a republican, even though they might belong to a so called Republican party.

The reason this revival can work is that all the divergent groups that have been and are coming to America do so largely for one reason. They want to live in a nation dedicated to establishing liberty and justice for all. Sure, there are a few who come here for the wrong reasons, but the vast majority come here for the freedom.

Furthermore, and what is more, it is time for us to wake up and stop fighting the last war. In this case I am referring to the cultural wars, and warning that we must frame our ideals to appeal to the demographic of this nation at it is becoming, and not as it once was. If we want to revive our republic (I do, which makes me a republican) we are forced to do it with a much more diverse populace than we had the first time around.

The wonderful hope of this American moment is that such a re-founding of our political foundation is possible in this country precisely because, as Barack Obama says, our nation was not founded on any particular ethnic or racial basis. All can gather equally around that torch of liberty.

Another reason for sober hope is the fact that almost all of the newcomers, whether legal or illegal, really did come here looking to find freedom, often having little idea about the Constitution that liberty is built on. As folks learn for the first time, re-learn for the first time and seriously think about what Liberty entails, it is not unreasonable to expect that leaders will quickly arise in all the various American communities, old and new, who will recognize and be eager to seize the historic opportunity we all have, together, to get our system of government functioning properly again. This would greatly benefit all Americans and every community.

We can, if we are brave enough to see our way to it, be the new founders of a second American revolution. This still open window of opportunity is likely to close if Kamala Harris is elected, and especially so if the Democrats were to gain control of both the House and the Senate.

In that worst case scenario, the Democrat agenda of packing the court and eliminating the filibuster is back on the table. Combine that with the Progressive embrace of censorship, deep state politicizing of federal agencies, open borders and open voting, using government funded lawfare against political opponents, selective enforcement of laws against political violence, embracing international agreements which cede national sovereignty to an un-elected world government body, and many more depredations, and their complete control of the courts will give them control of all three branches of government. By using the powers just mentioned, whether legally or not, a potential tyrant could cling to power for decades if not centuries.

Not saying Kamala Harris is planning anything of the sort. I am saying a vote for Harris/Walz is a step toward a world where that scenario becomes more possible.

Deep 6- J-state

 

In all the fuss and confusion of the last decade of American political life, some important issues seem to be slipping through cracks in our awareness. Two of those issues, which time has ripened into clarity, are the existence (and threat) of the Deep State, and just exactly how much of an insurrection January 6 actually was.

The existence of the Deep State is easily demonstrated, to any open minded investigator, by taking a closer look at the Hunter Biden laptop fiasco.

It is generally understood that the computer shop owner, upon opening the hard drive, realized what a hot potato he had, and after making some judicious copies of the hard drive, handed it off to the FBI. This was around December, 2019.

The FBI did nothing with it, even though the hard drive contained evidence of multiple federal crimes. Not absolute proof, but evidence well worth investigating.

Then later, as the election of 2020 neared, it is reported that FBI agents intimidated social media companies like Facebook into reducing the exposure and distribution that the Hunter Biden laptop story got on social media.

While I can understand (but still condemn) how the Biden administration might put a thumb on the scales of DOJ justice to protect the first son once Biden was in office, in both of those aforementioned instances Donald Trump was still president. The issue that brings up, the question we should all want answered, is: Who were those agents, who was giving them their orders, why were they following them, and under what authority were these actions taken?

Other questions come up from even earlier in the fiasco; who decided to do nothing for a year with Hunter Biden's incriminating laptop? Was it just incompetent stupidity, or run of the mill bribery, or was this the result of intelligent planning by some hidden cabal, illegally operating with government resources to control the thinking of the American people by preventing us from learning the truth? I believe that when we identify the agents and scrutinize their reasoning, we will start to see a dim outline of the Deep State.

The mere existence of such a thing, a Deep State, in our ostensibly democratic republic, is a clear threat to that republic no matter how small it is. The mere existence of such an entity must motivate us to find out how big it really is. Is it nothing more than some rogue agents playing games, or is it big enough to have already engaged in domestic political mischief? How far has this bureaucratic coup gone? For that matter, how long has it been going on?

Let's stop pretending that the Deep State doesn't exist, admit that at least some few bad actors are giving and following unauthorized orders and then let's resolve to work together to find out how big it really is so as to eliminate that cancer for good.

The other issue that could use some clarification is the charge of “insurrection” that has been hurled indiscriminately at seemingly anyone who even walked by the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. According to Webster's unabridged dictionary (1983), “insurrection” is a rising up of individuals to prevent the execution of the law, by force of arms.

One presumes that such an accusation could be applied to some few individuals on January 6, but very few. Most were there (foolishly trespassing) to voice their objections to what they saw as a fraudulent election. Preventing the execution of any law was not on the minds of most of the people there that day.

What's more, by noon of the next day, January 7, 2021, it was clear that there was no ongoing effort to prevent the enforcement of any laws, or to somehow overthrow the American government. Yet many American citizens are still being held, without constitutional due process, because of that word “insurrection” being used to invoke the Patriot Act, with its' deprivation of constitutional rights.

The truly crazy making aspect to all this is that there had been many instances of far more clearly insurrectionist activity all over the nation much of the preceding year. At almost every one of the nightly riots in the summer of 2020, individuals were rising up to prevent the enforcement of the law, routinely using some kind of arms.. Every time some Antifa black block group moved in to prevent the police from arresting some rioter, they were committing insurrection. Every time a group of protesters moved past a police barricade to occupy some space or building, they were breaking the law and preventing it from being enforced.

In fact, the most clear instance of insurrection in that whole time period, far worse than J6, was the self named CHAZ enclave in Seattle. This, if you will remember, was the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, where the legal authority of the city, state, and national governments was denied, and police were not allowed to enter to enforce laws. It was openly, defiantly and proudly an insurrection, and was intended to get ever bigger, only things didn't work out that way.

The difference between CHAZ and J6 is obviously political.

Those on the left, and the Deep State is likely a part of that, are happy to call for and aid in the downfall of the American republic whenever it suits their purpose, and they are also more than willing to portray themselves as lovers of our democracy, the last true patriots, who have been forever scarred by the horrible carnage of J6.

So wave the flag on Monday, and burn it on Tuesday. It makes no difference. It is the progressive way. Whatever advances the cause of international socialism. By any means necessary.

Woke Az Nazis

 

I must beg forgiveness for what follows, because I know this is the most over used analogy in the world, but it suddenly dawned on me that the whole woke agenda is very much like what the Nazis intended to do.  Let me explain.

Most folks don't remember, but the Nazis were way worse than just vicious racists.  They had a whole plan worked out, and every human being on earth was to be put in their place based on that plan, that agenda, that hierarchy of values.

Most of this can be seen by a close examination of the Nazi name.  It is an acronym in the German language which stands for National Socialist Party.  Nationality Socialist Party would probably be a more accurate translation, because the Nazi program called for everyone, every human being, to be divided up along ethnic and nationality lines.  The Nazis were in favor of socialism, even international socialism, but they insisted that different racial and ethnic groups were properly suited to carryout specialized roles within that socialist system.  They advanced a socialism based on nationality and race.

Thus they asserted that the Aryans should be the executives and directors.  Slightly inferior stock, such as the French, were to hold managerial positions.  Even more inferior nationalities were to be manual workers and mechanics, with the darker skinned peoples relegated to chopping wood and hauling water.  The Jews, who Nazis considered abominations, were to be eliminated.

In the same way, the modern Woke intersectional pyramid has an anointed elite with a plan (always secret and always being changed) to draw lines around people, and assign them their place in society based on those intersectional lines.  Most of this amounts to nothing more than someone's opinion about who is the most pitiful and marginalized. 

Even more disturbingly, among some of the more extreme elements of the Woke intelligentsia, with their demands for the elimination of “Whiteness”, is clearly heard murmurings of genocide.

So that's it.  That's all I want to say here.  I just had this flash of insight that there is a strong resemblance between our modern Woke ideology and some of the deeper, more loathsome Nazi thinking.  I thought it would be a good thing to point out.

Presidential Debates

How 2 Cure Racism

 

We can heal ourselves of racism quite easily.  We have merely to agree on and start using an honest definition of the social disease known as “racism.”  Trying to solve racism by using a racist definition of racism, which we have been doing for decades, is like using an oil soaked rag to try to clean up an oil stain on the floor of a garage. It is an approach doomed to failure.

If we are to agree to a new definition of the word, and thereby start solving the problem of racism (which we must do) we first must realize that racism is a mental problem, a glitch in our thinking.  With that understanding, racism should be defined as thinking that the genetic, ethnic heritage of any participants in any action, whether as victim, perpetrator or bystander, should be taken into consideration when determining the moral worth of their actions. Granted, this new definition of racism is a little wordy and hard to understand at first, but we will get back to explore it in a few paragraphs.

First we should take a closer look at the old definition we have been using for so long, and how badly it has served us.

Today, 6-13-24, a piece from Bari Weiss in the Free Press, with an interview of Sheryl Sandberg, had a most powerful point that crystallizes the perils of using the old definition of racism. 

 

Bari Weiss- “I think polarization is a big issue.  There is a worldview that's taken hold on a large part of the left that insists that people's identity determines whether or not we judge their actions as moral.  And if a group has been decided- in this case, Palestinians- that they are victims, then everything is permissible.  And when it is decided that a group is the victimizer, nothing is permitted. And once you have that lens on the question of Gaza/Israel or Israel/Palestine, everything flows from that , and therefore Israel  can be basically guilty of everything, and the Palestinians can be guilty of nothing.”

 

Identitarian politics, which Ms. Weiss here crystallizes for all to see, and which culturally dominates Western culture today, is merely our old, wrongheaded (at best long obsolete) definition of racism, writ large and grown existentially cancerous.  Constantly dividing and categorizing people in this manner is extremely unlikely to heal racism.  Especially so since mis-definition of racism is being powerfully used as a cudgel to oppress and divide the people.  Consequently, this abuse will probably continue for a long time, or at least until the greed of the greedy rulers who are using it is totally satiated.  In other words, not real soon, if we leave things as they are.

The first time I heard the old definition of racism I heard it from Dr. Cornell West, but I am not sure it is his originally.  Regardless, I am glad that since that first encounter with Dr. West's thinking I have come to greatly appreciate some of his perspective because I  instantly and adamantly disagreed with his definition, the old definition, which is something along the lines of,

“Racism is racial or ethnic intolerance wielded over some victim people by those who have power.  Only those with power over others, legal, social, economic, and cultural power, can be racists.  All people can be prejudiced toward those of another group, but if they are not a member of the group in power they can not be racist.  Racism is the combining of prejudice with power.”

I first read this definition in the early 1990's, and was shocked to learn it carried legal weight. Still am shocked.  From the very first encounter, I foresaw all the political mischief potential in this warped definition.

While it can be conceded that this concept might have been a constructive tool back in 1955, when there was an accepted legal imbalance based on racist thinking, even then it missed the essence of the problem of racism.  More importantly, it should have been abandoned as obsolete with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when we as a nation undeniably moved away from a racially imbalanced legal matrix.

Among many other abominations generated by this definition and its descendant derivatives over the years ( In addition to the recent rationalization of rape as a war tactic spotlighted by Ms. Sandberg in the interview mentioned above) is the absurd notion that Blacks, or African Americans, or Negro Americans, can not possibly be racist.  This because the grandees of intersectional identity politics have deigned that Black people have been and still are so deprived of power that they can never be racist.

This falsehood of Black American immunity to the sin of racism ran abroad in the culture the last forty years or so while slowly combining with the world wide revulsion about the racist matrix White America imposed on Black America for more than a hundred years after the abolition of legal slavery.  When those two factors were combined, we, as a people came to the dubious conclusions that racism is the sin of all sins, the one failing that can be righteously judged and condemned.  Additionally, we as a nation came to a further conclusion, a truly dangerous and ugly one, which asserts that only White people can be racist.

That is our modern American foundation, if we will be honest about it..  Racism is the sin of all sins, and only White people can be racist. The entire intersectional pyramid of privilege, how it is to be extended, and to whom, is built on this foundation.

This obvious falsehood has long stood in the way of truly productive reconciliation in race relations in America.  It puts us all in different categories and prevents us from all answering to the same moral code.  Such continued social imbalance perpetuates the dysfunctional social dynamics of the slavery and Jim Crow eras.  When the acts of members of one group can be punished as hate crimes, while mirror image acts from members of another group are considered legitimate and legally ignored, intimate social relations between the two peoples become rare and strained.  Few people will willingly submit to patently unfair treatment.

Thus our long held mis-definition of racism has morphed into the excesses of woke-ism and from there into an awkward and illegitimate attempt at a counterfeit judgment day.  These people, mortal people who breath and poop and die just like you and me, have taken it upon themselves to adjudicate who is owed what from who from forever ago.  It is beyond dispute that the wisdom requisite for such an exalted task is far above the pay grades of any of the “expert” class, even though they have collectively anointed themselves to it. The wannabe conductors of some kind of secular judgment day.  We ought not be foolish enough to buy this line of baloney and let them try.

Instead, let us consider adopting the new definition of racism, the one which says it is racist to weigh anyone's moral actions based on their ethnic or racial heritage.  The truth of this definition is demonstrated by applying it to historic actions which we all agree were racist.  First of all, the holding of African peoples as slaves was justified because of their race.  The deprivations of rights, even to those of African heritage who gained freedom, was justified as not immoral because of the ethnic heritage of the victims.

On the other side of the ledger, many of the crimes of the slave owners  (rape, murder and theft among them) and those of the later landlords/ terrorists, was adjudicated as acceptable because of the ethnic heritage of the perpetrators.  “After all, they were White men, so it was okay what they did to the darkies.” was the honest to God thinking.

All of this thinking fits precisely within our new definition of “racism.”  In every instance, the moral content of an act was determined by considering the ethnic heritage of at least one of the people involved in the action, whether as victim or victimizer.

Now think about how this definition could be used in today's world.  If everyone who has issues accepting ethnic differences (basically all of us) would just be honest and sincerely try to stop thinking in ethnically biased ways (and that can include different faith groups), we would quickly be much better off.  We would find ourselves in much more of a positive minded meritocracy, in which each of us has every reason to perform as well and virtuously as possible.  No longer would social connections matter so much, so instead of nurturing up our wealth producing networks, we could be free to focus more on merit, nurturing up our souls, talents, and families.  And hence, our organic community.

When one stops to think about it, this definition of racism is a very granular one, focusing on small, common instances of racist thinking.  Many small moments, in traffic, at church, shopping, in a park, and many other situations; It asks the question, how do we think of the people we meet for the first time?  What is it that causes us to think less or more of someone, what about their demeanor or presence do we feel comfortable or uncomfortable with. Is it their eyes, the set of their lips. Is it their skin color? If the ethnic heritage of the stranger figures high on that decision tree, we ought, as an individual, look at oneself.  Because we all could be better off if we had a much more meritocratic society.  Merit is what we should recognize and reward, not any kind of accident of birth.  It is how to return to a virtuous, merit based society, one small, granular thought at a time.

This granular definition is also how we can see that the old definition of racism was a racist oily rag, incapable of cleaning an oil stain.  Since racism is thinking that race determines moral worth, any thinking that posits that we should establish an entire intersectional hierarchy (based on an inscrutable ordering of all ethnic and identity groups) is, in every instance, severely racist.  Small wonder we haven't made much progress toward inter racial harmony during our decades of using that constantly worsening but always false definition.

What's more, no one should object that use of this granular definition of racism is in any way intended to dodge White American responsibility for the horrors of state sanctioned racism.  On the contrary, this analysis will better enable us to accurately diagnose the spiritual disease of racism.  However, the first step in this process is for us all to admit that we are all susceptible to this disease, much like the common cold. 

This is a very important point because while racism is a disease, it is primarily a spiritual disease, which means it is highly contagious.  Because of that, many people on the receiving end of racist malice are prone to hatred and judgmental thinking, rendering them vulnerable to being attacked by those self same spirits.  And then the abuse and stupidity tends to multiply with mindless group revenge, back and forth for God only knows how long. 

So we all must first admit some fault, and then we can start looking at the problem of racism through that granular lens.  I don't know for sure what all we will see when we honestly do that work, but if my lived experience is any indication, I think we will find that White America, still today, practices a great deal more racist thinking and habits than almost any other group on Earth, with, in my opinion, the Chinese coming up a close second.  Certainly, in my experience,  African America has much less of that problem, even though there are some virulent racists in the African American community.  It is axiomatic that to be effective, this remedy to racism must be applied whenever a case appears, no matter which community it is in.  Employing the same dispassionate rigor with which we defeat any other disease.

Virulent is the exact word to describe the strain of racism that has infected America since before we were born as a nation.  America has endured the worst, the most virulent, case of racism the world has ever seen.  Our case was already severe when it was rendered the worst ever by the lies used in the South to reconcile the Declaration of Independence with chattel slavery.  They felt philosophically driven to the point of denying the very humanity of an entire group of humans.  Humans they could talk with, interact with and love.

It is as though we purposely called down a demonic principality on our head so as to empower ourselves to retain the peculiar institution.   Hopefully, a demonic principality which has been summoned is a demonic principality which can now be exorcised.

While some of the early Southern founders bear much blame for this great mistake, I recognize as an always Northerner that we went along with most of that Southern racism, and were happy enough to do so too.  So America has had a terrible case of racism, and it still does. White America most especially.

Now while we're saying this, look at all those other nations and peoples around the world, watching us, laughing and pointing, thinking they are all that.

Pathetic !!  Because this racism stuff really is a problem for the whole planet.  The only reason those other folks all over the planet think they are better than us on this issue is because they have not had to deal with all the cultural mixing that we have.  It is our destiny and our burden to E Pluribus Unum, that is to take many and make one.  The rest of the world should be hoping we work it our here, because then maybe they can too.  While it is true that America has (or at least had) probably the most virulent strain of racism in history, that should be no comfort to the others, because the planet as a whole has a very acute strain of the same disease, and the patient's condition is worsening.

The best thing we could do, as a country and as a planet, is to adopt this much more workable definition of racism, and then start honestly working it, to no longer weigh anyone's moral worth based on ethnicity or identity, both in America and in the wider world

Take Off the Masks

 

Since I was a child, many moons ago, you always knew who the bad guys in the old movies were because they were the ones who put on a mask to hide their identities.  In fact, I seem to remember a couple of those old westerns where you didn't know exactly who the bad guys were until one bunch pulled bandanna masks up over their mouths and noses to make it difficult to identify them later.  Masks were always a prelude to criminals committing crimes.

That changed in 2020 with the pandemic, and the soon following George Floyd riots.  Suddenly, we were instructed to wear masks whenever in public, even though some of us questioned their effectiveness from the very beginning.  Then, once the moral outrage at the unnecessary death of George Floyd became considered the one issue more important than fighting Covid, large gatherings of masked political protesters became more than okay.  Accepting them became mandatory.

The summer of 2020 witnessed seemingly innumerable masked protests, often accompanied by some violence, destruction, and theft.  Sadly, the organizers of these protests could not figure out how to schedule them during the middle of the day, but instead almost always chose the late afternoon or evening, which timing often bled into the (itself a kind of mask) dark of night.

Since that happy summer of love, with its multiple deaths and billions of dollars (with a B) in damages, any group who feels like it, especially those of the left, treat masks and dark hoodies as the standard uniform to wear to political demonstrations.  They seem to be asserting that the only way to be free is as part of an anonymous threatening mob.

No, no, a thousand times no.  Masks really are the historical face of crime, and we would be wise to once again make wearing masks at public gatherings against the law.  All it would take would be to legislate wearing a mask at a political gathering be a primary offense, so as to empower the police to detain anyone wearing a mask.  Additionally, mandate that such an offense carries a punishment above any other punishment which the perpetrator might receive for other infractions.  It would only take one or two mass arrests for this method to vastly reduce the numbers of those going masked to public gatherings.

Some might object “freedom,” but think about it.  Making everyone go bald faced won't stop radical speech, nor should it.  But continuing to allow masked bands of toughs in our cities and on our college campuses, which will and is happening, invites the kind of brown shirt political violence that brought the Nazis and Fascists to power in Germany and Italy.  We would be most unwise to continue allowing our underclass criminal culture to be politicized in this manner, especially since we could more clearly hear those same voices if we insist on civilized standards.

That is what I am talking about too; civilized standards, the standards upon which civilized society rests.  Free and open debate, and the ability to petition the government are two of those standards, but both of them work well only if all the participants are known and afforded equal stature.  Anonymity, especially if it is afforded or assumed by only certain groups, is not equal, and can easily lead to intimidation via implied violence, or  the modern equivalent, doxxing, 

The point is that there is no good reason to wear a mask to a public gathering, and maybe there never was.  If a person is concerned about contracting a germ by being in public, then they ought to stay home and write letters.  Likewise, if a person fears that they might have a disease, and they don't want anyone else to get it, they should keep the mask off and stay home.  Writing letters and being active online can be very effective. Our physical presence is no longer required for us to have a political impact.  So let's make it illegal (again, as we did with the Klan in the 60's) to wear a mask at a political protest.

And while we're at it, let's stop holding those rallies into the night, every night.  Especially, when there was a riot the night before.  Certainly, the state, usually in the form of the local city government, has a legitimate power to issue permits for rallies, and conversely to not allow rallies which don't have permits.  So they could, and should, not issue permits for night time rallies when a riot seems likely. 

The power to regulate the place and time of rallies becomes necessary because there are only a few public spaces large enough to accommodate large public gatherings.  Since not every group can have a rally in that limited space everyday, they have to take turns.  Keeping that process orderly is why the people give  the state the power to control the permitting of rallies. Of course, the people must be vigilant in preventing any government from abusing that power.

What's more, there really are only some few spaces where it is appropriate (civilized) to convene large public gatherings.  Public parks located close to government buildings are usually the best venues, and in a lot of cities smaller parks, in other parts of the city, with advance permitting and notice, can be civilized places to organize politically.

In front of the headquarters of some evil corporation, blocking the sidewalk, or worse, is another matter, and deserves a slight aside.  Things can get really stupid with adversarial unlawful gatherings being seen as legitimate forms of protest.  Honestly, shutting down a freeway during rush hour is an incredibly obnoxious and hurtful thing to do, even if  it does get big press and your group does have enough numbers to make it work. 

When any non lawful public gathering occurs, any offended party, such as the supposedly evil corporation, or the city, or some citizens who wish to use their local park in a normal manner, or some really angry commuters, can complain, and if it is found to be an unlawful gathering, the police can be tasked to peacefully disperse said gathering.

Now, here is the way it is supposed to go in a civilized society, since we seem to have forgotten. When the cops show up, with hopefully not too much show of force, they inform the crowd, via loud speaker, that this has been declared an unlawful gathering, and therefore will the people please peacefully disperse. 

If I just happened by the rally out of curiosity, when I hear that announcement, I start immediately leaving.  If I came down to the rally to support the cause, but did not know they didn't have a permit, I start immediately leaving.  If I came down to the rally knowing it was not permitted, and I don't plan on getting arrested, I immediately start leaving.

If I went to the rally expecting to be arrested because that was how I chose to be heard, then when the others have left,and the police officer comes up to me and once again tells me to leave, and I refuse or just ignore the officer, then they are mandated to arrest me.

Here comes the most important point about once again civilizing ourselves.  Me, and you, and all of us have a civic duty to submit to arrest.  We have, to the detriment of our civilization, forgotten this standard.  The basis for this is that in our society the laws are decided by us, we the people, and so there is a proper time and way to challenge a law. That time and place is never out in public when a duly authorized officer of the law has informed you that you are under arrest.  Every resistance to arrest is, at its heart, a form of insurrection; a challenge to the very legitimacy of the law.  No resistance to arrest should be tolerated.

This must apply to all forms of resisting arrest.  All forms of resistance, even passive forms like letting your body go limp, should carry mandatory jail time, even if it's just a couple of hours.  Actively resisting arrest, such as running away into the crowd or refusing to get into the squad car or refusing to be handcuffed, should be at least a couple of weeks.  Any assault on a police officer should be a minimum of  two years.  It has to be something people think twice about doing if we are to maintain any kind of rule of law. Maintaining that rule of law is necessary for any civilized society.

So there it is.  If we are to survive as a civilization we must regain the civic habits necessary to any free society.  Instead of falling for the anti-American Marxist lie that we have to keep living in the past, fixing all the old problems before we can move forward, we should boldly look directly to the future.  Instead of trying to fix some former version of America, we must work on cobbling together a new American nation, recognizing that the one past mistake we must remedy is to be honestly sincere about the “all” part of liberty and justice for all. 

Then we can forge together a new nation, conceived anew in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Then we can make a melding stew of all the groups, new and old: with, this time, real input from India, China, all of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Pacific, and all the world.  Simply put, those are the demographics of the America of the future. Even those who came here through the side window instead of the front door should eagerly join in this effort, because we all came here for the same reason, which is that this nation stumbled on a form of liberty which offers a better life for all.  We have a chance to make this American project work again, and truly for all this time. 

One of the first things we must do to become that once and future America is to once again insist on that noble American tradition of peacefully working out our political differences.  Taking off masks at political gatherings will be a necessary and constructive step in that direction.

 

2nd Amendment Truth

 

U.S. Representatives Nadler and Massie went at it this last week (5/6-10/2024) about the Second Amendment, with Rep. Nadler neglecting to include all the words of the amendment when he presented his analysis of its' meaning. Generally, this debate comes down to a disagreement about whether the founders were trying to make sure the militias had sufficient numbers of muskets, or if the 2^nd somehow applies to individuals. Most of the time, even the conservatives miss the real point because the 2^nd Amendment has, like much of our Constitution, been twisted almost completely out of shape and meaning. It is time we go back to the beginning and get to the truth of the matter.

At the time the 2^nd Amendment was written, late in 1789, militias were an official part of our governing structure. Local militias were under the authority of the local sheriff, and could be called on to suppress crime and insurrection, and to repel invasion. Their most important function, however, was to be the ultimate check on tyrannical government. While some local sheriff and his militia could not mount much of a defense against federal tyranny on their own, it was reasoned that if the government in Washington DC did become despotic, the various counties, their sheriffs, and their militias, when united in action, could muster sufficient force to deter a tyrant. This structure, resembling a Swiss style army of the people, also ensured, because power was delegated to a multitude of counties, that some rogue sheriff or two would not get extremely out of hand.

Nonetheless, since this arrangement allowed for locally controlled military force, the question comes up of how is such military force to be regulated so that it does not become a tool of local tyranny, with the local authorities running roughshod as bullies over the local populace?

 This problem is not easily solved, since simply allowing central government authorities to regulate the militias defeats the most important purpose of the militias. It is highly doubtful that a local military force which is regulated out of DC, like our modern National Guard, will ever get orders to oppose a tyranny arising out of DC.

So the question is; How do you regulate the militias (which is necessary if we are going to continue to have a free nation) if we can't allow the central government to do the regulating? The answer was to ensure that all individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. This guarantees that the local militia, and the sheriff that leads it, do not have a monopoly on firearms, which will keep them from getting too pushy toward local residents.

Historic evidence that this plan worked comes to us from the early days after the Civil War, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan got away with their campaign of terror mostly in states where the Black former slaves were unconstitutionally prohibited from owning guns. Then unregulated local military force could and did run roughshod over the community.

Bill Russell, he of basketball fame, related a story from his family history. The Klan came calling one night at the home of his Grandfather. When he met them at the door with a rifle, and the obvious ability to use it, the Klan left and never came calling again. Proving that the best way to regulate militias is to ensure that every citizen can be armed. This also means that the 2nd Amendment was always intended to apply to the state and local governments, as much as to the federal government, because that local level is where regulation of local militias is most probably going to be needed. 

What's more, the abiding truth remains that the best way to prevent national tyranny, to secure freedom, is to have local militias.

Now, in light of this foundational thinking, let's look again at the actual words of the 2^nd amendment. Keep in mind that this interpretation uses all the words written there, it doesn't add any other words, and it does not have to change the meaning of the word “regulated” to pretend it means “supplied,” as some misinterpretations do.

“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.”