Signs of our times

By Steve Woodward

After witnessing numerous cases of “mob rule” endorsed by the Democrat Party, the smear campaign against Justice Brett Kavanaugh foremost among them, it is not surprising that Republicans’ campaign signs are being removed every day (or under cover of darkness) across our communities.

This is not a new tactic by the left, but it is rampant in 2018. Last weekend, a fellow citizen was observed offloading a stack of GOP campaign signs, presumably removed from numerous locations. Offloading is perhaps too polite. The signs were dumped at the Moore County Landfill off of Highway 5. A keen observer captured a photo of the perpetrator’s license plate. The photo was sent to local law enforcement.

Republicans do not waste time wallowing in victimhood. Sign removal is a misdemeanor but more than anything it is a pathetic, ineffective strategy. It merely reinforces why getting Republicans and independents out to vote (beginning Oct. 17 with the start of Early Voting) through Nov. 6 is our primary mission. Energizing Republicans is what the new hard left Democrat party seems to do best, starting with anthem kneeling, and continuing with violent anti-police marches, historic statue vandalism (UNC-Chapel Hill), the Kavanaugh assault and, most recently, the exposing of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s false claim of Native American heritage.

In a week when Stormy Daniels was downgraded to a rain shower by a judge who ruled she must pay President Trump’s legal fees, when the Russian collusion hoax is being proven further by the silence of key players, and when the number of job openings nationally surpassed 7 million, and with data out that there are eight times more new manufacturing jobs than during the long Obama era slog, those who bet the ranch on a “blue wave” are planning ranch estate sales.

Locally, Republican campaign signs might be dwindling but motivated Republican voters are surging. In the last official week for regular voter registration ahead of the start of early voting Oct. 17, Republicans have registered a total of about 4,300 new voters statewide (versus about 2,300 Democrats).

In Moore County, Republican voter registration has already exceeded 2016 by nearly 400, with a record 27,691 registered as of Oct. 16. In the latest reporting period, the Moore GOP picked up another 115 registrants compared to 46 Democrat registrants and 89 unaffiliated registrants.

The question for unaffiliated voters across North Carolina, of which currently there are 5,800, is not complicated and it won’t be swayed by yard signs. The question is: Do they want mobs or jobs in 2018 and beyond?

 

 

 

New Bern strong

WASHINGTON — He stood expressionless, probably exhausted, after a long bus trip to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. But there he stood, nonetheless, the embodiment of an American patriot. More than 2,000 journeyed to FreedomWorks’ Rally for the Republic on Sept. 26 on the Capitol’s west lawn, on a warm, humid morning.

Many yielded creature comforts to be here, but this lone man and his fellow New Bernians, felt strongly enough about the need to defend American values that they left behind the devastation Hurricane Florence has wrought upon their town and lives to put it on hold, to reengage with their fellow Republicans hundreds of miles away, if only for one day.

Man from New Bern

Republicans across the nation face hardships. But we do not go before those we elect to represent us to request handouts, subsidies and more “rights”. We go before our elected officials and remind them, even in sweltering heat, that we do not defer to them for our best interests. Instead, we demand of them that they uphold the oath to which they have sworn and do what we elected them to do.

The focus of Rally for the Republic was to lift up Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan as Republicans’ choice for the next Speaker of the House. Jordan told the audience that there are no victories to be had from the sidelines, and that the Bible dictates our marching orders in 2nd Timothy 4:7.

“Fight the good fight. Finish the course. Keep the faith.”

They will do it in New Bern. Let us resolve to fight, finish and keep the faith in the vital upcoming elections. What other choice do we have?

 

Independence 365

There is absolutely nothing most Americans do not love about the early summer activities surrounding “the Fourth of July”, or, more popularly,  “the Fourth”. It is for many families a turn-key day, or series of days. Parade. Cookout. Golf. Boating. Hiking. Hanging out at the beach house.

May it ever be thus. Purists insist on always referring to it as Independence Day because, well, that’s the actual name of the holiday. It is a day to observe, reflect and celebrate the independence from British rule that led to the formation of a new nation that would change the course of human history. Those on the front line fighting for this independence sacrificed everything, most significantly their lives. They were not trained soldiers. They were lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, clergy and otherwise “regular” folk.

Americans through the generations have coveted and celebrated our “independence”. But the passage of time has seen Independence Day transformed from a solemn observance to a period of ritual frivolity. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. But there are another 364 days when life goes on and plays out, and those who are engaged in 21st Century America sense that our independence is under siege as never before. Our independence is not a “given”, not a slogan, and certainly not acceptable to many, both within our borders and beyond our borders.

In 1963, Congress was exposed to a document entitled, “Communist Goals for Taking Over America”. We can only imagine that our elected leaders reviewed the document, took it seriously, but could not comprehend how the so-called goals ever could be achieved on U.S. soil. Newsmax.com 15 years ago drew attention to the list of goals. Even then, many would have scoffed at the notion that our society would tolerate them.

“On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida read a list of 45 Communist goals into the Congressional Record. The list was derived from researcher Cleon Skousen’s book “The Naked Communist.” These principles are well worth revisiting today in order to gain insights into the thinking and strategies of much of our so-called liberal elite.”

These are the Communist goals within America that were read into the Congressional Record 55 years ago. Many we now accept as part of American life, and others are gaining traction:

  • Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
  • Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind.
  • Do away with all loyalty oaths.
  • Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
  • Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
  • Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
  • Gain control of all student newspapers.
  • Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
  • Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
  • Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
  • Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
  • Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
  • Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
  • Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
  • Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
  • Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
  • Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
  • Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
  • Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
  • Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
  • Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
  • Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
  • Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
  • Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
  • Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
  • Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
  • Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.

One day each year we celebrate our independence. There are 364 other days when we must fiercely defend it, lest it slip away. It is under attack as never before. Let’s get to work on “the Fifth”.

Leakers threaten freedom

By Walter B. Bull Jr.

Leaking confidential governmental information by an unidentified person to a sympathetic member of the news media is an increasingly useful technique to help influence public opinion.

This pathway, however, is a dangerous gamble.

And while short-term results are appealing, both leakers and the enabling free press could set the stage for an overreaction, with the result of a loss of freedom for all.

Sooner or later, an eager beaver driven by personal motives will overreach.

The information could originate within a governmental agency, embellished by a member of the press who allows his preference to impact the translation and enhanced by other reporters who “want” the information to be correct.

The variables are endless, and the impacts are unpredictable.

A journalist who has carefully cultivated his “sources” balances many options in going about his job. Sometimes public interest is low on the totem pole during the process, topped by political goals that have earned the loyalty of the writer.

Often, the work environment has general sympathy with the reporter, his editor and the management of each publication.

robert mueller.v3Without a sympathetic press, the “leak” would not make it into the public domain. (As in the case of the recent leak of a list of questions Special Counsel Robert Mueller desires to ask President Trump). 

The simple fact that news stories based on leaks represent an illegal series of events means that potential overreaction includes internal regulation, criminal prosecution and a serious loss of public confidence in all public media.

Gossip is a human trait, and the public has a willing ear for the stories.

That said, freedom of the press must survive as the founders intended — a public safeguard against corruption, power aggregation, self-dealing and political ambition.

Over time, the leak culture will self-correct in the bright sunlight.

The war on Trump rages on

By Norman Zanetti

Recently, sitting on my front porch, I  watched a breeze blow the Stars and Stripes to a beautiful horizontal. A short time later, a thought occurred to me — a scary “what if.”

What if an incredibly malleable electorate were to succumb to a systematic gutting of confidence in Republican initiatives and their leaders, especially an elected president?

The media continues to camouflage the benefits of tax relief, sensible border control with proper vetting, sanctions on terroristic regimes, job gains, reduction in the number of Americans on food stamps, the lowest unemployment rates for minorities, and renewed confidence in our economy by every consumer index that reports it.

The scariest contingency to contemplate is that Americans are taking all these muddling allegations of nefarious behavior without questioning where they come from and why. Those leaning to the ideological left are betting on American complacency.

The truth forthcoming will destroy mountains of lies. Skeptics are surfacing and reaching out to listeners.

They are working overtime to expose the chicanery and mudslinging against an elected administration, an administration dealing with North Korea, Russian provocations and trade imbalances — all while delivering on programs that got candidate Trump elected.

Prosecutorial overreach by implication has worn thin, and Americans sense it. It is being questioned and reversed by skeptics.

The mandarins in Congress and heads of news organizations will soon have to accommodate these new revelations being unearthed or lose total creditably.

If that comes too late, I can see our proud flag bellowing in the wind with teardrops and drooping in fatigue.

Remain a sophisticated skeptic in your own right. Americans voted in the millions for Trump. Not a single vote was cast for media heads who despise him, or prosecutors hell-bent on destroying him.

Norman Zanetti is a contributor to ResolveNC.blog.