A few more thoughts about the American army and restoring liberty

Posted on 2023-06-23 by TPOL Nathan

The United States Army on its 248th birthday is a far cry from the force which ultimately (admittedly with French Ancien Regime army and navy help and that of the fledgling American Navy and Marine Corps) made things so miserable on this side of the Atlantic that London gave up. (South of the St. Lawrence, at least.) As is the 2023 version of the US Army as compared to that force in WW1, WW2, and most other wars.

Recently, a former Sergeant Major of the US Army was quoted in a newsletter:

“Soldiers are [supposed to be] the guardians of freedom, liberty, and the sacred values and
trust of the American people and our nation.” – SMA Glen E. Morrell

In 2023, the original statement perhaps has never been less true. Even with the bloodsucking leadership of the low-life types in DC, the Army in the past tried to live up to SMA Morrell’s words. But today?

Consider this commentary a follow-up on the recent writing about the Woke Army.

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Saving Our School Children from Politicians

Posted on 2023-06-22 by TPOL Nathan

Editor’s note: This is based on a great story by Rob Morse, published at his Slow Facts webzine, about Tennessee. But it is important for us in every State.

Across the Fifty States, politicians have left our students defenseless, and we have to save them. Any mass shooting and mass murder triggers screams of outrage, and such should be a wakeup call that the State legislature and Governor have failed us again. We need angry parents to change the status quo and save our kids. As grim as this sounds, there is plenty of good news. We also know how to reduce and to prevent mass murder in our schools. Common sense parents have been ignored for too long.

Some politicians say we should disarm honest citizens to protect our children. Other politicians say they will put armed deputies or police in the schools to save our kids. Both have been lying to us for years. Gun-control fails and the legislatures never fund enough school resource officers to protect our kids. (Assuming that despite all the proof otherwise that school resource officers prevent mass shooting of school children.) We understand the problem: (1) mass-murders are rare and (2) even a small school needs several defenders.

Is there a solution? Absolutely: simple, but not politically easy.

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Do Americans have it right about the Supreme Court?

Posted on 2023-06-21 by TPOL Nathan

A recent story includes this:

According to the Wall Street Journal, a remarkable 91% of Americans believe an independent judiciary is a crucial safeguard of our civil liberties. The just-released Mason-Dixon poll also shows that 72% of Americans believe that the politicization of the Supreme Court threatens judicial independence and 59% oppose attacks on the integrity of some of the justices.  

Looking at this is, to a lover of liberty, a heartwarming bit of news. At first.

But then we realize (again) that Americans think of the judiciary as “independent:” a third branch of government at both the State and the federal level.

Just as Americans think that the Supremes are not political. And that judges have integrity.

At best, all these ideas are, shall we say, debatable.

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Special: on this “Juneteenth” what about others with historical abuses heaped on them?

Posted on 2023-06-20 by TPOL Nathan

Yesterday was “Juneteenth” – a new federal holiday with free time off for federal (and most state and local government employees as well as Woke businesses). Originally remembering the day that victorious, conquering Union troops landed in Texas in 1865 to (among other things) enforce the official end of slavery (although it lingered on for one day short of six months longer in “loyal” states like Kentucky and Maryland and Uncle Joe’s Delaware).

No one today was liberated on either 19 JUN 1865 or 18 DEC 1865, of course. They are all long departed. Probably no one alive today was a child or grandchild of a freed slave. And no one alive today in the Fifty States legally has ever owned a slave. I don’t even know if there is anyone alive today who even met a freed slave: though I would not be surprised: our links to history are far closer than we usually realize.

But we all are punished today for the deeds of some American ancestors – even those whose real ancestors migrated to this country long after slavery ended legally. Punished to the tune of billions of dollars paying the salaries of bureaucrats not working because it is now a legal holiday.

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The woke Army?

Posted on 2023-06-19 by TPOL Nathan

We may actually speak of several “Woke” armies, of course. There are the masses who are cannon-fodder for the Woke politicians, academics, celebrities, and media who seek to deep-six American society, culture, and tradition. And for that matter, the world’s society and economy. Apparently all with the goal of a new world order in which a fraction of 1% of human population either has disposed of, or enslaved (covertly, of course), the remaining 99+% of humanity.

Or we speak of the United States Army, as a Woke institution, in which “diversity, inclusivity, and equity” (DIE – intentionally changed from DEI by us here at TPOL to reflect its true nature) is the primary mission of the political and military leadership. (If we can even call them “military” anymore.)

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A Baker’s Dozen ™: Reasons you know you work for the government.

Posted on 2023-06-17 by TPOL Nathan

A Baker’s Dozen ™: Reasons you know you work for the government. (Courtesy of several folks associated with The Price of Liberty who suffered through years of having to work in government or work with government.)

When:

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The need for nukes

Posted on 2023-06-16 by TPOL Nathan

Got power?

The Blaze featured an article over the weekend reporting that US solar power production (of electricity) plunged by 50% over the long period smoke has been drifting from the massive Prairie Province wildfires plaguing both Canada and the States.

Here in the Black Hills, Wyoming, and Colorado, we’ve been very aware of the smoke being blown south and east from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and nearby areas for more than a month. Here in the Black Hills and Four Corners, we take periodic episodes of smoke for granted (due to frequent grass and forest fires in the dry lands of the Amercan West, both the Rockies and the Great Plains), California similarly has almost annual experience with dealing with smoke. But the Canadian fires have created conditions that have Easterners freaking out. Earlier in the week it was the Northwest – those powers that be in Manhattan and Boston and DC. Now (a news report as I write this) it is the Great Lakes States. They are “suffering” and there are warnings to “stay indoors” because of the “worst air quality” in the nation.

To Westerners, I admit it is hard to feel as much sympathy as we probably should.

But it does raise some serious questions. Forest fires and grassland fires and the smoke they produce are NOT caused by “manmade global climate change” or “manmade global warming.” We have seen massive forest and grass fires (especially in North America) for thousands of years. Many are the result of human activities, but not because of more CO2 or methane or CFCs in the atmosphere.

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Fraud alert – nongovernmental?

Posted on 2023-06-15 by TPOL Nathan

This story appeared a few days ago:

Don’t send checks through the mail, the post office is warning …

Don’t put checks in the mail, the US Postal Service is warning. Scammers are stealing more of them than ever — draining bank accounts and causing big headaches for banks and account holders. Banks issued roughly 680,000 reports of check fraud last year, up from 350,000 reports in 2021. And the US Postal Inspection Service reported roughly 300,000 complaints of mail theft in 2021, more than double the prior year’s total.

Like many businesses and families – especially those who have concerns about excessive use of electronic payments (due to security issues) – many of us here at TPOL frequently receive and send paper checks by mail. Checks have been a standard way (indeed, for almost a century the standard way) of sending payments to anywhere outside your hometown.

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And yes, these people vote… and are supposedly teaching our kids

Posted on 2023-06-13 by TPOL Nathan

A true story.

A school teacher called a financial institution. She is paying on her credit card and had established a direct payment from her checking account, based on her being paid “at the end of the month.” And her payment wasn’t made: in essence, the electronic check “bounced.” So she was angry with the institution. It didn’t wait for her paycheck to clear (be posted). After several minutes, she demanded escalation, and an account manager took her call. She explained to the teacher that while she was being paid at the end of the month, did she know exactly which day the school deposited her pay? She looked it up and saw that it was indeed the last working day of the month. The manager explained that banks have until the next business day to post a deposit, and the demand bounced because the institution had followed her instructions to do the withdrawal on the last day, working day or not, of the month.

“But your blanketty-blank bank didn’t wait until the end of the month!” the teacher told the manager. “In February, you tried to take the money on the 28th! Not the end of the month, the 30th or 31st!”

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Gavin Newsom – Defender of the 2nd Amendment?

Posted on 2023-06-12 by TPOL Nathan

Gavin Newsom, His Highness the High Kommisar of California, has proposed a new “28th” Constitutional Amendment, to be prepared by a Constitutional Convention. According to this video, the Amendment would feature 4 keys: (1) prohibiting purchase of any gun by anyone under age 21, (2) requiring a “reasonable” waiting period before a person can take possession of a gun they have bought, (3) mandate “universal” background checks, and (4) prevent “civilians” from owning “assault weapons.” (Never mind defining these things: His Highness and his minions in the constitutional convention will do that for you.)

Now, before we all blow our tops, consider what Newsom has done by calling for a Constitutional Amendment that would modify the 2nd Amendment. (Or frankly, mostly negate it.)

The governor has tacitly admitted that the State of California (and other States) with these provisions in their laws and regulations are in violation of the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution, as courts have determined that the States are subject to the provisions of the Bill of Rights. This is something new, and weakens the arguments of many Californians, and hoplophobes and hoploclasts throughout the States.

Let us look at this more closely.

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