BREAKING: Evacuation at Capitol

BREAKING: Smoke rising behind Capitol building. Inauguration rehearsal appears to be evacuating. Emergency announcement playing at Capitol grounds. pic.twitter.com/86J9S8CsMY

— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) January 18, 2021

This is a developing story. Return to this post for updates. 

UPDATE 1

The smoke has now subsided. People who were on the grounds for inauguration rehearsal have left.

Jackson Proskow

@JProskowGlobal

·

NEW: At 10:20am, Hill staffers received the following text per @ArdenFarhi:

“All buildings within the Capitol Complex: External security threat, no entry or exit is permitted, stay away from exterior windows, doors. If outside, seem cover. USCP”

UPDATE 2

Panic appears to be the result of a homeless person's belongings on fire.

All of this homeless person’s belongings just went up in flames under the 695 bridge near H and 2nd SE. Extremely unfortunate... @WTOPtraffic @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/9YAVsOjUqL

— John Koussis (@kouskousVPI) January 18, 2021

UPDATE 3 

It was just statist drama:

Public safety and law enforcement responded to a small fire in the area of 1st and F streets SE, Washington, D.C. that has been extinguished. Out of an abundance of caution the U.S. Capitol complex was temporarily shutdown. There is no threat to the public. pic.twitter.com/kQfAI4NxNK

— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) January 18, 2021

 -RW

REPORT: Trump Will Issue Only 100 Pardons on His Final Day In Office

President Trump is preparing to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office Tuesday, CNN is reporting.

According to CNN, among those to be pardoned and commutated Tuesday are “white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others.”

And thus Trump completes one final stab at his supporters. There are many more than 100 that deserve a pardon or commutation.

Trump has done little to advance freedom or return freedom to those the state as focused on with criminal charges (other than those close to him).

Notes CNN, Julian Assange is not currently believed to among the people receiving pardons, but the list is still fluid and that could change.

Obama issued far more commutations than it appears Trump will.

Trump has no appreciation for liberty. He is not anti-state.

He is simply a statist with a different agenda.

-RW

Armored Humvee Stolen From Military Base Ahead Of Planned Armed Protests At State Capitols

 On Friday morning, someone stole an armored military Humvee from a National Guard facility in Los Angeles, California. 

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the Humvee is a combat vehicle with advanced armor. 

The bureau is offering a $10k reward for information leading to the recovery of the Humvee, the FBI tweeted Saturday. 

On Friday morning, someone stole an armored military Humvee from a National Guard facility in Los Angeles, California. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the Humvee is a combat vehicle with advanced armor. The bureau is offering a $10k reward for information leading to the recovery of the Humvee, the FBI tweeted Saturday. 

 (via Zero Hedge HT:Mark) 

-RW

The State of the Crisis

 I continue to see confusion about the state of the crisis.

At the post, Getting Real About Libertarian Strategy and Tactics, The Contractor writes:

[L]et's say we can fill their empty heads with a few liberty slogans, what gain is this without having done more to help people understand the root cause of their dilemna? They will still be prey to the next clever opportunist. If we really want to change the world for the better, we need to help ourselves and each other. We need more rocks, not more empty shells.

This completely misses the state of the current crisis. The totalitarians are at our doorstep. The long-term educational advance of liberty is extremely important, however, this is not the time to rest the entire movement on long-term education. This would have been the equivalent of Ukrainians deciding the best effort would have been to try and educate Stalin's Russian soldiers about the beauty of liberty rather than their stealing all the harvest which led to the Holodomor.

The Left is not interested in education they are interested in power and they will use every strategic and tactical weapon to expand their power and crush liberty. It is dangerous to hold the view that the immediate battle can be one with long-term education. Again, long-term education is important but short-term strategy and tactics must be also be used now or eventually, the long-term liberty institutions will be shut down.

That is, at this time, I will take those who support liberty only based on a shallow understanding. The Leftist advance is extremely powerful today. It must be stopped now, even if we use allies with a limited understanding of liberty. If they will battle with us, we need them.

Donxon writes:

If you want to change how people think the first step is to understand the world as it exists in their mind, convince them that you understand it and do so without using the opportunity to give them shit for it. Most libertarians lack the social skills to do all three.

This is another long-term perspective that fails to understand the current state of the crisis. It is a very narrow view of changing "how people think." If we have neighbors around us who will drop a dime because we aren't, say, wearing a mask then there is zero wrong taking "the opportunity to give them shit for it."

If they understand that there will be resistance to their reporting, some of them will stop.

In my confrontation with the mask Nazi, not only did I offer to show him what the San Francisco public health codes really said but I asked him if he was a "logical person or an emotional person," he rejected all of this. He was not interested in a discussion. The only lesson he learned was that if you harass some people, you are occasionally going to get shit back. I am perfectly happy teaching him this lesson especially after attempting to logically reach out to him more than once.

Scoot O writes:

There is much more to libertarian strategy than one-on-one encounters, but for those who have the gumption I would suggest engaging younger, influential people...

This completely fails to understand the current crop of younger people. They, in general, are the most closed-minded, risk-averse. 

Consider what the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt recently said about who has the most fear of COVID-19 and why:

Gen Z has been protected from hardship much more than previous generations... The survey data I've seen so far, shows that elderly people who are the most at risk of dying are least afraid of the virus, and young people who are at least risk are most afraid of it.

 So I don't know if that would have been true 50 years ago. So I don't know if it's an age effect or a cohort affect. But I suspect again, because when you protect people from risk, they lower their threshold for what's threatening. And so as you say, it's like now they're much more sensitised about contamination, and and other people are dangerous.

I have a friend who walks the East Bay shoreline in Oakland and he tells me the occasional person he sees who does not wear a mask is always an older person.

But it goes well beyond COVID fear. It is the entire safe space mentality. The young, in general, are just going to shut down anyone that advances a pro-freedom view.

The idea that we can just have college-style debates with most of these kids is a utopian dream.

Yes, the long-term promotion of education projects is important to educate the few independent young thinkers that will be the intellectual leaders of tomorrow but libertarians need to study up on strategy and tactics that aren't necessarily about deep education. This is the only way to derail the socialist totalitarian freight train that is headed right at us right now.

-RW

Getting Real About Libertarian Strategy and Tactics

It is clear libertarians need to take some time to study tactics and strategy.

In the post, Messing With a Mask Nazi on the Streets of San Francisco, The Contractor writes:

Nearly all but the truly enlightened exist in a constructed reality (disclaimer: I am not enlightened). It is the psyche's interpretation of reality, which is more comforting than actual reality. The stronger the psyche's control, the more well constructed will be this false reality. When challenged, the tendency is to reinforce the walls with more thoughts. The psyche shores up its constructed reality with more construction.

What this means is that very few masked individuals will respond psychologically in a way towards liberty by having their constructed reality challenged. This man is very likely to simply reinforce his walls of thought with more thoughts, such as how annoying it is that this isn't a real law so hopefully mayor supreme ruler will fix that so that you can be put in your rightful place (jail) next time.

I don't know the secret to shaking people out of their jackboot licking stupor. But it doesn't appear that there is any psychological benefit to confronting them. I know that sounds defeatist.

I think we are going to need a new approach. We need a movement that focuses on psychological wellness, to help people understand that worry and fear are their true enemies. To help them overcome their worries and fears, and in doing so, maybe that can help them overcome the constant barrage of negativity and panic mongering that enables the State to control them.

It's not going to be easy. But to those who want easy answers, I encourage them to go play for the government's team. They're full of easy answers. Real human progress is difficult and it should be. That which is worth having in life is always difficult. If it wasn't, everyone would have it.

 RW response:

First off, I never said anything about converting the guy, who approached me, to an anti-mask perspective. As I noted in my podcast, Dread Risk Fear And Its Role in the Current COVID-19 Fear, according to Gerd Gigerenzer it is near impossible to logically change someone when they are suffering from dread risk fear.

But that doesn't mean there aren't other reasons to interact with such a person. By pushing back at such a clown, he is going to learn that he isn't going to be able to pop off his nonsense without occasionally getting some resistance. This is a minor skirmish but it may cause him to stop and think twice about doing it again, especially if you embarrass him or laugh at him because of his lack of knowledge.

The more of this that is done by us the better.

Further, resistance allows us to take measure of our opponents. Although I have never been impressed by the intellectual depth of the Left, the shallowness of the understanding by the mass masked crowd is truly stunning. They are running around with fear and a few empty slogans in their heads. When the time is right, maybe it is possible we will be able to stick in their heads liberty slogans. 

But the time has to be right and the strategy and tactics must be sound.

This is the time libertarians need to get sound about strategy and tactics. Freedom is under heavy assault. How to counter this is extremely important.

Finally, tangling with such clowns can teach us how to deal with them in the future when the stakes might be much higher. For example, I have learned that in retail stores, if a clerk tells me to put my mask over my nose, I can very easily get Asians and Latinos to back away almost immediately by just saying "I have a medical exemption." White guys between the ages of 25 to 35 give me the most trouble. How I will use this observation in the future, I don't know but I have stored it away.

The more interactions in general I have, the more I learn what works and what doesn't to get my way against these midget-Maos.

Brian Erickson writes:

 “If reason conflicts with a strong emotion, don’t try to argue. Enlist a conflicting and stronger emotion.” RW is aware of this and disagrees. He continues to try to educate when possible. I'm not sure what "strong emotion" could shake the public from its unwarranted fear of covid-19 but this seems a risky tactic. Another option is suggested by Zachary Yost in an essay at mises.org titled Politics Won't Fix The American Decline. Its a tactic I use and have often recommended. Stay focused on yourself and those you love and care for. Take care of the health, psychological and physical of yourself and those closest to you. Yost even suggests getting involved in local organizations like town hall meetings, school boards, homeowner associations, local church, etc. But I have found even local organizations can be crowded with unreasonable people. Again, its not easy. But the long term trend toward centralization, hysteria, and tyranny will not change until there are more reasonable people. This can only be accomplished one person at a time.

 RW response:

Again, I never said anything about converting the guy to an anti-mask perspective. In fact, the title of the post was "Messing with a Mask Nazi." I was messing with him, not trying to convert him.

"Stay focused on yourself and those you love and care for" is almost always very sound advice especially during a period when there is little to fear in terms of serious attacks on liberty. But the assault on liberty is now intense. Just focusing on yourself may be the option that causes you to lose your freedom. We are not in a period when there are many options in terms of places to go to and start over.  This is not like the period when our grandparents and great, great grandparents had the opportunity to come to the then great and wide open United States. Our alternative country options are few if any.

The idea that liberty "can only be accomplished one person at a time" is a more pessimistic view than it sounds. There are over 330 million people in the US and probably a million that are ardent supporters of liberty and a small subset of those that can convert anyone. If doing it one at a time is required, we should be good in about 30 million years.

The fact is that small groups can move the masses when proper strategies and tactics are used. This is our only hope. And so I come back to claim that it is now that libertarians need to get sound about strategy and tactics.

Here are books that need to be read and absorbed, not for their political philosophies, but for their deep commentary on strategy and tactics:

None of the books are libertarian-leaning but they are very good on strategy and tactics.

From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation by Gene Sharp--This is the guidebook the CIA uses to launch revolutions in foreign countries. Sharp is the strategist who developed the idea of color revolutions.

Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul Alinsky-This book is the current bible of the radical left. Of course, the strategy and tactics outlined in this book can also be applied by freedom lovers.

Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman-Hoffman was a serious lefty strategist and tactician. Many are not aware but Hoffman studied under the Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse. Most know Angela Davis as a student of Marcuse but not that Hoffman also was. The book has very valuable strategy and tactical advice. However, the book was first published in 1971 so there are some outdated tactics, just ignore that (and the commie stuff) and absorb what is usable for a libertarian today. 

-RW

Your Science is Bought and Paid For

WhatsHerFace is out with a good one.

   

 -RW

Messing With a Mask Nazi on the Streets of San Francisco

Thursday afternoon I was in San Francisco's financial district. Because of the lockdowns, the streets are pretty empty.

As usual, I was walking the streets without a mask on. The compliance here is 99.9% Coming toward me on Montgomery Street was a big guy with his face covered in a mask. 

As he got closer, he stepped off the sidewalk and walked onto the street and stood with both his hands up and said, "Hey."

Of course, I knew what his problem was but I decided to have some fun.

I replied while trying to look as dumb and confused as Nancy Plelosi. "What?"

He pointed to his mask and said, "Put a mask on."

My reply, which is one I also used last weekend, was "Why?"

He replied, "Because it is the law."

My reply, "It is actually not law. It is a public health code and it is much more complex than 'everyone wear a mask.'"

His response, "It's the law."

Me: "It is not. It is just part of the health code with many exemptions. I have a copy of the health code with me. Would you like to see it?"

(I carry a copy of the relevant page of the health code with me with key parts highlighted.)

His response: "Yeah right, sure you do."

My response, as I pulled it out of my sports jacket, "Here it is. Take a look at it."

His response: "This is ridiculous."

Me: "Are you an emotional person or a logical person? I am very happy to discuss this with you logically."

He walked away.

Knowledge over nonsense. Pretty much the same thing happened to me on Saturday. 

When you ask these crazies facts, they don't have anything. It's all about an emotional brew stirring inside them. When you ask the right questions that expose their lack of knowledge, they never want to discuss the topic, they just throw nonsense at you and walk away. Most of those who are just at the madness of crowds level can't debate the facts because they don't know any facts.

These are very shallow thinkers and don't have much in terms of facts at their disposal. Expose their shallowness of knowledge with questions and they run as though you were pointing a super-weapon at them.

Whether in sales, management, teaching, writing or fighting for liberty spend a lot of time thinking about the combination of words that you can say that will enable you to achieve your goals.

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs." -Pearl Strachan Hurd

-RW

Top Socialist Magazine Warns About Joe Biden’s “Domestic Terrorism” Bill

In an essay, which appeared in the socialist magazine Jacobin, a stark warning was put out concerning Joe Biden's coming domestic terrorism bill.

The magazine is terrible on economics, really bad, but when it comes to government oppression the extreme lefty mag is very good.

From the article that was titled,We Should Be Very Worried About Joe Biden’s “Domestic Terrorism” Bill, Luke Savage writes:

Joe Biden used to brag that he practically wrote the Patriot Act, the Bush-era law that massively increased government surveillance powers. Now he’s hoping to pass a further “domestic terrorism” law once in office. The danger is real that the January 6 Capitol attack will be used as an excuse to severely curtail our civil liberties.

Nearly two decades since its initial passage in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Patriot Act has continued to linger in our collective memory. Though few Americans probably remember much about its provisions or specifics, the Bush-era legislation long ago entered into general usage as an synonym for heavy-handed domestic surveillance and institutional overreach — the words “Patriot Act” now being practically synonymous with secrecy, eavesdropping, and the rolling back of civil liberties under the intentionally broad guise of “national security.”

Given the law’s contents and implications in practice, this reputation is well deserved. Passing the Senate with only a single dissenting vote, the Patriot Act dramatically expanded the power of federal authorities to spy on ordinary Americans with minimal oversight: enabling the FBI to obtain detailed information about citizens’ banking history and personal communications without having to seek judicial approval and even allowing “sneak and peek” searches of homes and offices. “The Patriot Act,” in the rather blunt words of a brief prepared by the ACLU, “[turned] regular citizens into suspects.”...

Predictably, a great deal of law enforcement activity resulted from the ludicrously titled law (USA PATRIOT was a backronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”). According to data released by the Department of Justice, the FBI made hundreds of thousands of incursions into personal phone, computer, and financial records in the years immediately following its passage — the utility of these searches in identifying or preventing actual terrorist activities being debatable, to say the least.

Despite passing with widespread support, the Patriot Act was still considered extreme enough for lawmakers to attach sunset clauses to several of its major provisions, guaranteeing their expiry in lieu of congressional renewal (which, incidentally, eventually came under George W. Bush and again under Barack Obama).

One prominent Delaware lawmaker, however, felt it didn’t go far enough.

Ahead of the nearly unanimous October 25, 2001, Senate vote on the Patriot Act, Joe Biden was regularly claiming the law as his own, boasting in an interview with the New Republic: “I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing. And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill.” Biden wasn’t wrong. In fact, key parts of the Bush administration’s signature national security law were drawn from provisions contained in Biden’s own 1995 anti-terrorism bill. Originally called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act, Jacobin’s Branco Marcetic summarized it contents as follows:

The bill made “terrorism” a new federal crime, allowed those charged with terrorism to be automatically detained before trial, outlawed donations to government-designated terrorist groups, allowed electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists, and created a special court to deport noncitizens accused of terrorism (ironically, when Bush had proposed a similar measure years before, Biden had denounced it as “the very antithesis of our legal system”). It also let the government use evidence from secret sources in those trials.

Calling the Patriot Act “measured and prudent” during an approving speech on the Senate floor, Biden would nonetheless lament the removal of sections from his 1995 bill that would have given police even more sweeping powers of surveillance...

The Trump era, with its incessant valorizing of security and intelligence officials and general atmosphere of emergency, has worryingly seemed to lay the groundwork for something resembling a second Patriot Act to find support among liberals — especially if they’re encouraged to believe its sole targets will be figures associated with the likes of QAnon. Against this backdrop, the deep (and understandable) sense of shock in the wake of this month’s Capitol storming will probably act like gasoline poured on an open flame...

After the September 11 attacks, Congress hastily approved a sweeping and Orwellian piece of legislation that drew heavily on a bill written by Joe Biden. With Biden about to enter office amid a climate of social instability and deep public anxiety, there’s an all-too-real risk that history will repeat itself.

The magazine is, of course, concerned about how any Biden program would impact Black Lives Matter and other lefty groups but it clearly understands the danger to all groups not supporting the government line. 

We are living in very dangerous times and Jacobin understands the particular dangers of a Biden domestic terror bill more than most.

-RW

The Mystery of Charles Koch

Charles Koch

Lifted from the comments at the Charles Koch Throws 'Lawmakers Tied to Capitol Riots' Under the Bus post.

Dominick Armentano writes:

Excellent argument, RW. As most of us know, Charles sponsored all sorts of Austrian/Libertarian seminars, conferences and events in the early years. I remember writing (actually ghost-writing) a petroleum op/ed for him in 1977 where I criticized government regulation and called for more competition and liberty. When he got the draft he called me on the phone and proceeded to tell me that the piece wasn't hard-hitting enough (!) and that it should be more radical in tone and recommendations. O.K. Charles, you are paying so if that's what you want... We all respected Charles's courage, including Murray, because he put considerable money and his reputation where his mouth and beliefs were. It's no exaggeration to say that he kept the liberty movement alive (in the 1979s and 1980s) and allowed liberty ideas to grow and become reasonably respectable in the academy and even in some parts of the media. Never really understood why that movement enthusiasm vanished ( was he threatened or punished politically and in business for his spending?) or why the funds were not channeled into some mega-media enterprise that would have had substantial influence on opinion makers. One of life's many mysteries...

-RW

Dershowitz: Requiring Employees to Take Diversity Training is Mind Control

During a debate between Alan Dershowitz and Robert Barnes, on the Viva Frei show, Dershowitz stated that it is a form of mind control when private industry and government sector organizations require employees to take diversity training.

He went on:

As Justice]Jackson [1892-1954 ]said in an opinion if there's one star in our constitutional constellation it's that nobody can tell you what to believe what not to believe what if you don't believe in diversity or what if you believe as I believe that diversity is often phony to eliminate real intellectual diversity and ideological diversity and to create uniformity of views within racial diversity what if you have that opinion. It's my opinion and if I went to a diversity training course I'd flunk, so do I get fired from my job because I have a different opinion on diversity?...

The realtor realty association is now making it so they can suspend your license and fine you if you don't have certain critical race theory classes and courses and conduct.

It's amazing how much they've infected. It's the old popular front the 1920s 1930s sort of communist strategy of infiltrating all institutions that could influence people's perceptions of the world and it's just being applied on behalf of the woksters. 

-RW

Charles Koch Throws 'Lawmakers Tied to Capitol Riots' Under the Bus

Charles Koch

 Et tu, Charles?

The Politico headline reads, "Koch network pledges to shun lawmakers tied to Capitol riots."

In a statement to Politico, Emily Seidel, CEO of Americans for Prosperity, the main Koch super PAC, said, “Lawmakers’ actions leading up to and during last week’s insurrection will weigh heavy in our evaluation of future support. And we will continue to look for ways to support those policymakers who reject the politics of division and work together to move our country forward.”

While the statement is a bit more ambiguous than the headline, there is clearly no support by the Koch network for any views expressed outside of establishment parameters.

Whatever one thinks of Trump, it is a true sign of weakness to line up with the distortions currently being promoted by the Democrats and lefty media.

Charles, of all people, has to know how the Left operates and how they will use any opportunity to advance their cause. 

Hell, I have Murray Rothbard's unpublished paper delivered at a Charles Koch sponsored strategy event where Rothbard explained the entire damn thing. Indeed, in the paper, he even quotes Charles on shock tactics:

In his strategy paper, Charles Koch asks: "Under what conditions should radical ideas be introduced gradually and tactfully, and when should they be advanced starkly for shock value."

Charles Koch is 85 years old and worth over $50 billion. If he really isn't going to let it rip at this age when he has a near-infinite amount of FU money, I really wonder why he got into the liberty movement at all.

Charles, the country is in crisis, go out with a bang. Let it rip, for liberty.

Or has liberty never been the goal?

-RW

AIG Cancels Curt Schilling's Insurance Policy Because of His Political Views

 It is getting more bizarre and evil by the hour.

Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"?

And "live and let live"?

Conservative commentator and former baseball star Curt Schilling says that AIG canceled his insurance policy over his “social media profile.”

-RW

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) Locked Out of Her Twitter Account

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has been locked out of her Twitter account until inauguration day.

According to KRDO news, Twitter said that Boebert had violated the Twitter rules, but didn’t specify which rule. 

UPDATE:

Twitter randomly shut my account down with no explanation.

They do this to thousands of conservatives every single day.

When the press reported the ban, it was lifted.

What about the thousands of Americans who have been banned and are never heard from again?

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 13, 2021

-RW

The NHL Just Got Me Fired Because I Worked for the Trump Campaign

 Dawson Buchanan

@dawsonbuchanan_

1) A couple of hours ago, I tweeted out that this tweet referred to me. Shortly after, I deleted that tweet. After much introspection, and talking with friends and family, I feel obligated to reveal why I deleted it.

A very talented friend of mine, who interned w/ @GOPLeader, and at 20 was one of the highest ranked staffers in the Trump campaign, was just fired from his new job when client found out he worked for Trump. He now can’t afford rent. Still think cancel culture isn’t that serious?

6:06 PM · Jan 12, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

2) After identifying myself as the subject of the thread, 

@Fly_PJS

 reached out to me, threatening to take legal action and publicly defame me if I didn’t delete the tweet. Intimidated and nervous, I immediately deleted it.

3) But after thinking about it, and discussing my rights of free speech with advisors, I will not be bullied into silence. I’m now going to raise my voice louder.

4) In early January, PJS hired me to be a concierge for a contract they had with the @NHL  team, @Canes. Having worked with PJS as an operations associate for Trump Campaign HQ, I eagerly accepted the position-excited to join a company I had developed a personal relationship with.

5) After receiving a laptop, establishing a work email, and even purchasing additional work clothes, I prepared to travel to Raleigh, NC today for training. Yesterday evening, around 7 PM, PJS called and fired me without explanation.

6) I was devastated. I had gone from being employed to unemployed in a matter of seconds, and I hadn’t done anything wrong.

7) I called the owner of PJS and asked for any explanation, and he told me very bluntly: the @NHL found out I worked for the Trump campaign and threatened to cancel the contract with PJS unless they fired me.

8) Instead of standing up for me, instead of explaining to the NHL that I, as a person, am not solely defined by my previous work on the Trump campaign, they fired me for their own company’s financial gain.

9) I was upset and disappointed, but I didn’t initially blame them for this decision. I wish they had stood up for me...they didn’t. I didn’t have any animosity towards PJS, until they tried to bully me into silence.

10) So now I’m sharing the story, in its entirety. Even though the owner told me this afternoon that he would deny everything I say if this went any further. But this is the truth, and I feel more empowered and supported if I share it with all of you.

11) I can’t begin to thank all of the people who helped me through this, and have reached out to me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and by email to help. Thank you all so much! I look forward to continuing to voice the truth so this never happens to a conservative again.

-RW

Trump-Supporting Gun Owners Need to Stop Being Idiots

According to KVUE News in Austin, pro-Trump supporters showed up in the city at the Texas state capitol building.

They were armed:

BREAKING: There are armed Pro-Trump protestors at the Texas State Capitol right now. The state has not banned guns on capitol grounds. Stay with @KVUE for the very latest. #txlege

— Christina Ginn (@ChristinaKVUE) January 12, 2021

 The FBI is warning about plans by thousands of armed protesters to show up at state capitols across the country and again in Washington, D.C. on the day of the inaguration.

How idiotic can you get?

At this time, you don't show up at protests armed. It is only going to push more people into the "take the guns away" camp.

Do not these protesters understand anything? Have they not read The Art of War by Sun Tzu?

Lesson number one from Sun Tzu is: 

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

A gun is a very powerful weapon, why would you take it to a protest to simply wave around?

What does this do other than provide energy to the anti-gun crowd for them to focus even more on taking guns away?

Also in  The Art of War:

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

Dancing around with powerful weapons that you have no intention of using at the time of a protest is counter-productive idiocy. 

 -RW

Google Has Suspended Trump's YouTube Channel

 History will look at this period as a period of madness.

-RW

Lauren Boebert is Going to Be a Good One

Lauren Boebert

In November, Lauren Boebert was elected to Congress from Colorado's 3rd district.

I reported on her in September 2020 (see: A Report from Rifle, Colorado).

Now this:

Lauren Boebert is refusing to comply with the metal detector or allow a bag search. Now standing in the House doorway. Security is refusing to allow her to enter. Appears to be a standstill.

— Marc Rod (@marcrod97) January 13, 2021

-RW