The Lost Week

Posted on 2021-10-23

I got a nasty bug on Monday that pretty much blew up my week. By Wednesday, I was on the mend but my voice had gone. (I’m always a little amused at certain colds because they allow me to sing bass for a while). On Thursday, it literally hurt to try to talk. I did what I always do when faced with a rough cold – sleep a lot and up my elderberry supplements dramatically. Today I can talk – though I can still sing bass if I want – and so this nasty little cold just stole a week from me. I will get back on track next week.

I don’t like to write much when I am sick. Though I am often bold, I am very careful about what I write and how I write it. I always fear that when I am under the weather, writing carries the risk of the boldness venturing into brashness. Ha! I get enough grief for my careful boldness as it is; I don’t need to add to it grief for brash, ill-considered statements. I thought I would repeat today two articles I wrote five days and then six days after the Jan. 6 demonstrations earlier this year. I think they have held up quite nicely – and it recollects us to what kicked off this horrible year.

First there is “Quiet Man Rising” from Jan 11.

Bill, Me, and Doug at the Ellipse last Wednesday

By Charlie Johnston

“I was shocked and disgusted Thursday to see so many so-called “conservative” commentators and officials denounce the Capitol protests and demand that those who rushed the Capitol be caught and jailed – and with a zeal and vigor they did not use in condemning the Antifa-BLM riots that have rocked cities and resulted in actual murder and mayhem throughout the last year. Those supposedly on our team are busy calling all of us who attended Wednesday’s protest a mob.

I was on the Ellipse near the Washington Monument for most of the morning, wearing my fleur-de-lis necktie in honor of St. Joan of Arc on this Feast of the Epiphany. I never made it to the Capitol, though some in our group did. I was just hurting too much and needed to wend my way back. I rarely participate in processions or marches because, though I can walk a long way, it is by fits and starts. My gift is in my determination, not my prowess. I have to stop a lot to rest between little bits of progress.

What I saw was a very diverse and massive Mayberry on steroids. Everyone was chatting, laughing together and cheering. It was an upbeat, enthusiastic crowd. There were a lot of black folks there – and a huge contingent of Chinese Americans. Best of all, in this crowd, the men looked like men and the women looked like women. The only unsettling thing was that, here and there, someone was dressed all in black with that creepy skeleton Covid mask. Three times someone in front of me yelled, “Let’s storm the capitol!” The crowd ignored him. It was striking to me that this agitator used precisely the same language all the media would later use to describe the rushing of the Capitol.

Let’s be clear: most of those who charged the Capitol were Trump supporters. I have no doubt that Antifa types were agitators in the whole business – but it was Trump supporters that they were inciting. The business about it being all or mostly Antifa who did the charging is patent nonsense, even though they almost certainly incited it. It is a panicked defense of Trump supporters. But why? After a year of being told that the rioting, looting, arson, violence and murder throughout the country by Antifa and BLM is “mostly peaceful protests” and that it is just a case of free speech, why would we get so panicked by what was, in fact, a largely peaceful protest in which a few people got notably raucous? I don’t condemn the protestors; I don’t even criticize them.

Some conservative commentators have suggested that we can’t use the same tactics Antifa uses. How did we use the same tactics? Antifa and BLM go on an unfocused rage, attacking and destroying everything in their path indiscriminately. The worst of the protestors at the Capitol were focused only on the source of their righteous anger – and did not destroy anything. The only casualty that day was an unarmed Trump supporter. A police officer who got in a scuffle with protestors later died. The left goes on wildly violent riots when they don’t get their way. Christians and conservatives don’t do that. They only get forceful when they get neither a fair shake nor an honest accounting. They got neither here – and knew that their pusilanimous representatives weren’t about to risk their own necks getting it for them.

You know what would have prevented the rushing of the Capitol? If a single court would have opened an honest investigation of the mountains of evidence of massive fraud. The left is fond of saying the courts “rejected” the claims – implying that the courts examined the evidence and found it without merit. But that is not what happened. The courts refused to even look at the evidence, rejecting everything on procedural grounds so they didn’t have to incur the ire of the violent left. Judges across the land put their hands over their eyes and their thumbs in their ears. As it was, 200-300 people of a crowd estimated, at the low end, at half a million people got raucous. We all know that if it had been a crowd of a half million Antifa and BLM activists, Washington would be burning right now, while the media would be assuring us it was mostly peaceful and Kamala Harris was busy raising money to bail out the activists.

 

Almost everyone gathered at the Capitol Mall Wednesday knew we would probably not get justice. After a year in which Donald Trump was impeached on a shamelessly partisan pretext, in which ordinary people were forced to lose their businesses and life savings and forego visits with their families on patently unconstitutional orders from a myriad of tinpot tyrants (while watching the tyrants who issued the orders shamelessly flout them while never missing a paycheck), watched prosecutors routinely drop charges against actual violent rioters while filing charges against people who had the temerity to defend themselves and their property, in which people watched a patently obvious and shameless steal of a presidential election – with supposedly responsible officials insisting on confirming the steal with no investigation, normal Americans know getting justice from the gangster government now ruling our nation was not likely. While we knew that our Republican “firewall” was as sturdy as a tower made of playing cards, we did NOT expect the cowardly Republicans to pile on to the smears and slanders piled on us by the left. Protestors were just expected to suck up the Republicans’ refusal to vigorously demand justice. Frankly, I think the actions of even the most raucous protestors was both proportionate to the offenses we have endured and, in fact, rather restrained. But gormless conservative commentators and officials have declared that last Wednesday was a disgrace and a day that will live in infamy. It is the latest of many big lies from the left. Yeah – like the Boston Tea Party was a disgrace and a day that lives in infamy. The left is frantically calling everyone who was there a “traitor” and an “insurrectionist.” Well, to the ruling British, those who mounted the Boston Tea Party were traitors and insurrectionists, too. Free Americans have held them as patriots for over two centuries.

The rushing of the Capitol was the pagan left’s Reichstag Fire. But it was not the only maneuver they took from the fascist playbook. It was followed up Friday with Kristallnacht – the night of the long knives in which social media got deadly serious about purging all dissent. All of this comes in the form of a blitzkrieg, in which the left strikes like lightning in multiple areas to shut down dissent before it can get any traction.

Though it seems otherwise, the leadership of the pagan left is in raw panic. Yes, they stole the election and have issued a never-ending flow of unconstitutional orders revoking the liberty of ordinary Americans. But the success of all this is dependent on pacifying the population. They had gotten the submission of Republican officials and of most religious leaders, but those irksome “bitter clingers” and “deplorables” were not going along. They had to make a lightning strike, a blitzkrieg, to discredit normal Americans and make them objects of scorn. That is why all sorts of scary rumors about the Capitol shutting down and lack of security were being spread before the protest – in hopes of depressing the numbers who would attend. The monumental crowd of ordinary Americans who showed up anyway scared the bejabbers out of the powers that be, so they had to act with alacrity to make them out to be villains and terrorists instead of the ordinary Americans they are. It got some traction with the timid – and with those who, for the first time, realized this is real, not some political maneuvering or board game. It won’t last.

This has given us some real fodder for self-examination, though. Far too many of us have been willing to cheer Donald Trump on as long as he was willing to do all the fighting for us. Now that it seems almost certain that we will have to do our own fighting, many of the most martial voices in our coalition are uncharacteristically subdued. Some are even sounding the retreat. This is no surprise to me. In politics, it was often the case that those organizations which had been most promiscuous in demanding that others show courage and put their careers on the line ran like scalded dogs when they found themselves in the crosshairs. In a couple of cases, I quietly helped such organizations weather the storm in exchange for their agreement never to attack me or my candidates in such a way again. There is a type of man who is always very martial and uncompromising so long as it is someone else who takes all the risks. This is why I value the counsel of those who have come under fire far more than the mouthy armchair heroes – and respect the decisions of those who do take the risks even when I do not agree with them. You have a larger and more charitable perspective when you have actual skin in the game. If you know the stakes and are still willing to make your stand, you are invaluable to me. Last week many people, for the first time, got some idea of what the stakes actually are.

I expect Trump to be a critical ally in the battle for faith, family and freedom going forward. Sadly, though he was clearly elected to two terms, he will almost certainly not finish his full term, as the coup is ascendant for a time. Though I did not make it clear at the time, when I gave Trump such likely odds of success in his challenge, what I mainly meant was the odds of him proving the steal. He did the latter – while I had made clear that getting to his second term would require courageous legislators and honest judges. Those were harder to find than open bars in Salt Lake City.

Consider the Book of Job. Here was a fully righteous man who God allowed to be put to the test. Did you really think that God was going to let you get through this without you having the most intimate of skin in the game yourself? I believe the Star of Bethlehem this year was the sign of the beginning of the final time of choosing. God is proving us all. Those who think they have all the power and have doubled down do so now to their own destruction. Those who see the likelihood of being arrested and seriously persecuted but keep faith anyway are worthy to be named among God’s 300. Those in the middle, the timid, the sunshine soldiers, those paralyzed by fear at the things they may lose, may be reclaimed or may go on to perdition. I have said all along it is up to us, the ordinary men and women, to renew the faith and face of the world. If I never hear the words Gitmo, insurrection act, or military tribunal again I will be grateful. No one except God is going to rescue you – and only after you have proven yourself to yourself. This process will probably take a few weeks, or even months. But wise brawlers know to avoid rousing the quiet man – for though his patience is long, when it is spent, he almost always prevails. The pagan left is busily rousing a lot of quiet men and women these days.

I delayed posting last week because it was obviously fluid and fast-moving…and I wanted to give good, considered counsel rather than add to the cacophony of chaos being ginned up. I will post many times this week, as I have a lot to say now.

In my freshman year of college I was fortunate to be admitted to a semester-long seminar on the American Revolution, presided over by Professor Clarence VerSteeg, a noted expert on the subject. It was limited to 15 students and met once a week for four hours. I was startled and gratified when my final paper was the only one to receive an A+. Its premise was that the American Revolution was not a revolution at all, but a counter-revolution. A revolution is the forceful or surreptitious overthrow of the traditional order. A counter-revolution is the aggressive defense of that order. From the time the first English colonists landed on American shores, they were almost entirely self-governing. After about a century, when England realized the vast mercantile potential of these colonies, it began cracking down – enacting huge taxes, major restrictions on who the American colonists could trade with, efforts to disarm the colonists – and even force them to house the very British soldiers sent to oppress them. For a good 15 years before the break, the Americans worked desperately to get redress of their grievances from England, for they considered themselves loyal British citizens. They were rebuffed and insulted at almost every turn. Finally, on July 4, 1776, the Americans declared their independence. It was not an effort to overthrow the existing order – but a determination to preserve and improve the traditional order in America. It was a counter-revolution.

Last Wednesday was the first skirmish of the counter-revolution against the fraudulent occupying force which has seized power in America. It won’t be the last.”

*********

And then there was, The Discipline of a Quiet Man, published a day later on Jan. 12

By Charlie Johnston

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

-Matthew 10:34-36

“In the last 24 hours I have been the target of the ire of a small raft of emails accusing me of sedition and such because I will not accept the results of an apparently fraudulent election without a serious and thorough investigation. I can accept a loss – it’s happened more than I like – but not the destruction of the safeguards preserving the integrity of our electoral system. Democrats are very eager to pacify the nation and get all to accept the results of the last presidential election. They can choose among two paths to accomplish this: either open a serious and thorough investigation or just move to repress any who question it. They have chosen the latter. It is not working. If any on that side want to try something that could work, here is a concise and extensive summary of evidence of the fraud (that they say does not exist). I don’t think they will ever submit to that, though, for they know as well as we do that this was a fraud.

More unsettling, one of the most courageous and honorable men I have ever known heatedly informed me last night that I was making myself a tool of the devil; that all we have to do is re-organize and work harder and that the system is not broken. I didn’t worry too much about the devil stuff. For decades, knowing my religious nature, many have accused me of the same hoping it will paralyze me. But this is a very good man, a man with whom I have fought side by side in several battles. He thinks I am unhinged; I think he is living in a world gone by. Both of us may be wrong, but both cannot be right.

This brings me to a crucial point in how to deal with friends and family who have a diametrically opposed opinion on the purging of conservatives and Christians from the public square, of seeking the arrest and imprisonment not only of those who charged the Capitol, but of all prominent questioners of the legitimacy of this election. I say, argue with them no longer. Just calmly state where you stand and then do not further engage. I have said I believe the time of choosing has commenced. Whether we have looked at it or not, all the information we need has been revealed to facilitate an informed choice. It is events, themselves, that will now confirm or repudiate our judgment.

If I am wrong, after this initial orgy of shutting people down, getting them fired, and demanding the destruction of those who dissent from leftist dogma will die down in the coming weeks and months and settle into a more normal track, with room for a diversity of opinions and activists. If that happens, I will gladly counsel people to step back. If I am right, the repression will continue and intensify – and people will slowly begin to see that for themselves. A lot of people who are triumphal about Biden believe they will now be part of a grand ruling class. If they were more knowledgeable about the history of authoritarian movements, they would know that the minor supporting activists are often in more peril than the opposing activists. They think they have become the ruling class when all they have done is helped facilitate an arbitrary class of rulers who will be coming for them, too, soon enough. If I engage in passionate, embittered debate with them now, it makes it that much harder for them to come to me when they see for themselves. Step away from heated dialogue with those you care about now. Little good can come from it and much harm can arise.

Do not suppose that all – or even most – who want to treat this as business as usual are guided by malice or ambition. In all of the great upheavals in history, almost all the people involved did not see the terrible peril until it was already too late. In revolutionary France, the King deluded himself that he just had a communication problem and could resolve the controversies by normal means. Only French Finance Minister Jacques Necker knew that this was something very different and far more dangerous than previous controversies. In the run-up to the Holocaust, a multitude of Jews who could have gotten out did not because they thought this was just another pogrom like many they had seen before across Europe. To the shame of the western world, many who would have gotten out could not because the western world strictly suppressed Jewish emigration from Germany. In the first Russian revolution in February of 1917. The Duma (or legislature) assumed command in a sort of social democrat posture – and thought they had things well in hand. Then Lenin came in October and the cat was now among the pigeons of the legislature. And so it goes. I could go on a long time with this, but the point is that when the critical moment has arrived, few understand it until after it has passed. Our job is to conduct ourselves with dignity, composure, and steadiness to make it easy for them to come to us when they see – or easy for us to go back to them if we are wrong.

Many people hold fast to the belief that the institutions that were always there for them still are. There is little we can do on this score until either their or our illusions are dispelled. So tread lightly but steadfastly.

The power of the pagan left is the power of the street gang – the promiscuous willingness to use force and violence to get their way, without remorse. But never lose sight of the fact that, for all their self-regard, they are monumentally incompetent. Usually within the first six months of a leftist authoritarian takeover, they have so mismanaged everything and are surrounded by such disaster that even many of their early supporters have a, “this is not what we planned for” moment. By the summertime you should want to be in position to welcome some former leftist activists into the fold as they realize this was not about the good of the people, but only about augmenting the power of a few.

Lenin’s communist dialectic redefined truth, itself. It posited that anything that supported communism was truth, whether it was factual or not, while anything that opposed communism was a lie, whether it was factual or not. The modern pagan left has adopted a variant of that dialectic: actual violence in support of leftism is just “free speech” while any speech criticizing leftism is “violence.” I consider it a coin toss whether I will be arrested and jailed this year. No, I am not going to commit any crimes in the normal sense of the word. I would be pretty safe if that was my plan, for the left does not often punish actual crimes against property or persons. The only crime they punish ferociously is dissent – and I will not shut up. But I want to give people who disagree with me plenty of room without imputing to them motives they may not have. There will be time enough for recriminations – and reconciliation – later.

I am also not overly worried about security. Oh, I want everyone to exercise prudence according to their station in life. I use Signal for some things, but mainly I just openly and cheerily go about my business. The fact is that the American government can hack just about anything, including the secure heavily encrypted systems of other countries. Our strength is in the vast number of people who are not buying the official line anymore. Their job is not to find a needle in a haystack, but a specific needle in a needle stack. The time for the catacombs may come, but that time is not now. I think the best plan is to hide in plain sight. If you become a target of hostile officials, they can hack whatever secure systems you adopt. If you adopt enough secure systems, I think that can prompt your becoming a target – for though they might not initially see what you are up to, they can see that you are taking great pains not to leave a footprint.

We also have another, vital level of security. You all know that all of the left considers Christians superstitious ninnies. Surprise! – the majority of the institutional right does, too – only they consider us their superstitious ninnies. They don’t take us seriously. Since we believe that God will carve out the path forward for us, they think there is no real power or threat there. If there is no God, they are right and we will be overwhelmed. But God IS – and has power they know nothing of. I am terrified that if I take some extraordinary means of human protection, I will forfeit the divine protection I rely on. Do not think that I think this means I will never be assaulted or hurt. What I DO think is that if I exercise ordinary prudence (which God commands us to) and rely on Him for the rest, whatever happens to me will serve to advance His plan for the renewal of the faith and face of the world – and I am willing.,

The last year has given you some vital material with which to make sound judgments. I have watched the feeds of many people I know – and it often shows the measure of a person. There are some who were busy the last year explaining why the widespread rioting, looting, arson and mayhem of the left was just a mostly peaceful exercise of free speech. When those same people now insist that the raucous demonstration where a few people got out of hand at the Capitol was sedition and treason and unprecedented violence, I know that, at best, they are intellectually dishonest and not to be trusted. They do not object to forceful means of protest at all, only any expression of Christian or conservative morality, no matter how peacefully or forcefully it is expressed. You do not have to confront them with it, but it is best to file it away for future reference.

Be vigorous in vetting any information you want to believe. I was dismayed to see so many people send me stuff from the well-known alien and UFO hunter, Simon Parkes, as if he were a credible cultural analyst. People legitimately do not know who or what to believe these days. If you put out unvetted poppycock, all you do is add to the rising tide of confusion and, when discovered, add yourself to many people’s list of unreliable sources. I keep saying you must be deliberate and restrained. I know that is hard to do when chaos surrounds us, but if you don’t, if you give in to your passion rather than mastering it, how can the many who will wake up this year come to you later? Do not squander your credibility.

I know many are counting on Donald Trump to pull a last-minute rabbit out of his hat to make this all go away. It could happen – and if it does I will be delighted, for it would make my work a lot easier. Before any major event, I mentally run through at least a dozen different possible scenarios and plan my response to each – focusing on both what I consider most likely and what I consider the worst-case scenario. I worry that if Trump is not inaugurated to the second term he won (which I consider the most likely event) some will quit the field saying that we lost. I know what I will do if Trump prevails and what I will do if the coup is fully enacted. Do you know what you will do? Are you prepared for the unexpected?

While I will not stand idly by while liberty is strangled, I am far more interested in secession than insurrection. Over the long haul, I don’t think it will last, but I also think it is the least bloody path forward – and would give us real-time feedback on which philosophy works and which is doomed to degenerate into chaos. I will probably go into exile into Texas for a time if secession rises…and will hopefully await the rise of sanity anew, as people throughout the country and the world rededicate themselves to faith, family and freedom.”

*********

Yeah, I know this is brutally long – but it is useful to look back and see where we were at when this really kicked off seriously. The actions people take foretell the ends they will meet. How much longer can the malicious incompetence of the radical left, which has seized power and is exercising it arbitrarily in ways that would give a Soviet commissar pause, continue before it all falls apart? What are you doing to ensure you have a network of friends who will help support each other through the worst of this great storm that has come upon the country and the world? The hour of the destructors is almost up – but it is going to take a long time and serious resolve to rebuild from the wreckage they leave. 

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