Musings After Midnight -- With ear to the ground, more rumblings heard from the political landscape

Good evening, and welcome.

Much has happened since the last time we met here on this forum, which has become our virtual fireside chat about the events of the day, the preservation of liberty, and other such issues of vital importance.

So, sit back and relax. Have a soothing beverage. Have a cigar. Or maybe the pipe. I have some of the finest tobacco to be found anywhere, courtesy of a local dealer who offers only the very best to his customers.

Recently I have discovered the pleasures of the corncob pipe. They are very inexpensive, which is probably why the higher end tobacco shops do not carry them. But I will guarantee you that you will get a mellow, fine smoke from these pipes that have a very long history.

I have to watch myself with this, though, because as an intermittent asthmatic, I cannot smoke like I want. So, I have to limit myself to special occasions.

Now, let's get down to business.

As most of you already know I try to keep my ear to the ground to ascertain what is going on in the vast political landscape. And I must be quick to say that there is always something going on there. It is relentless. And some of the most important activity is that which we cannot see. The political underground is where the power is, where the forces of good make plans to keep the fires of liberty flickering...and where the evil forces reside in their attempt to snuff out those fires. These individuals rarely show their faces above the ground, except for the purpose of wearing masks. Masking is vital to the forces of collectivism and progressivism, for this is the only way they can succeed. Dangerous enemies of liberty would never make any headway if they told the truth to the public. Most Americans would find the ultimate ends of progressivism so repulsive, so untenable, so unconscionable, that they would relegate the proponents of such tyranny to the dustbin of worthless radicals who are not to be taken seriously, much less elected to public office.

Most progressives/collectivists are smart enough to know this. They know they cannot tell the truth. They know that telling the truth will mean the end of their movement. Their goals, their dreams, all they have worked for since the late 1800s would go up in smoke right before their very eyes.

Thus, the progressives must lie to get elected. They must lie to get their agenda and proposals accepted by the public. They must lie to get their proposed laws passed by Congress. And they must lie to the public once again about the nature of the fallout of that agenda.

Welcome to the world of the vast political underground. Nothing is as it seems in public. And I mean nothing. People are not who you think they are. Their real goals are usually the opposite of what they have led you to believe. This is the only way they can lure you into supporting them.

It just so happens that 2008 was the year of the perfect political storm. All of the various components of the collectivist agenda came together in one nightmarish superstorm, a demonic cyclone in which Marxists, Islamofascists, Nazis, totalitarians, liberals, and others who affirm the goals of collectivism/progressivism all coalesced together to take control of the White House and both houses of Congress, with supermajorities that insured the minority Party had no power whatsoever.

This demonic cyclone rammed through an unpopular law in the middle of the night with no support at all from the minority Party in either the House or the Senate. This has never happened in the history of the country. For the very first time in our history, a broad, sweeping law that would not only totally change and revamp the healthcare system but change the very nature of our Republic, was passed without any support from the Party not in power. In the past such sweeping legislation was passed with at least some bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. But not this time.

Not a single Republican voted in favor of Obamacare in either the House or the Senate.

Now, I want you to let that sink in for a bit. Conservatives such as myself have often bemoaned the fact that Republicans have been stymied and hamstrung by dangerous progressives (RINOS) who form what is known as the Republican leadership establishment. These Republicans often vote with Democrats on legislation that is denounced by conservatives. Yet when it came to Obamacare, even John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe, John Boehner, and Eric Cantor voted against it. All of them, every single one.

That alone should have told us something about the danger lurking in the Obamacare law. And the very fact that Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Biden, Schumer, Hoyer, and others would ram through this legislation and approve it without ANY Republican support whatsoever, should have been enough to show the country that this crowd is not interested in "looking out for the people" or "reaching across the aisle for bipartisan solutions." In a pig's eye they were. They don't care about you or me. They don't want bipartisanship except when THEY are the minority Party. The ONLY thing they want is power, control, money, and bigger and bigger government. They wish to be the ultimate authority in all matters.

And now that we know what Obamacare is all about, we can understand why they rammed it through, why no Republican voted in favor of it, why they lied incessantly about its provisions, and finally, why Nancy Pelosi said, "We have to pass the law before we can know what's in it."

Most did not read it, for sure. But I will guarantee you that just as sure as the sun rises the ones in leadership knew full well what was about to happen, which is why they lied and why they did not want to tell us what was in the law. Even if they did not read the entire law, they had been fully briefed by the authors of it, such as Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm "Dead Fish" Emanuel's brother), and David Cutter of Harvard, among others.

Yes, Pelsoi knew. Reid knew. Schumer knew. Hoyer knew. Even Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior Democratic senator from New York, admitted that she knew. Gillibrand has not been around that long. So what would lead us to believe that a junior senator knew but Pelosi, who has been around forever, did not? Such a notion is laughable. They ALL knew.

Oh, but if you like your current plan and your current doctor, you can keep them. You knew that didn't you.

One commentator counted the number of times Obama made that promise to the American people. He got as high as 48 and quit counting. But now, the Fuhrer has relented and "allowed" people to keep these plans for an extra year. An extra year? Why not, like, from now on? And nevermind that most of these plans have already been cancelled due directly to the provisions of the Obamacare law, which forbids companies from offering to the public any plan that is not approved by Obamacare.

So, the Obama one-year extension comes just a tad late for most people. They have already been dropped. Their plans have been discarded in accordance with what the providers thought was the law. And now they are being asked to go back and resurrect those plans because Obama is taking a political shellacking from the public? Of course he is paying them off to sooth ruffled feathers. They are being bribed to continue supporting the Obamacare law. But no need for worry, any losses they incur will be more than compensated through health insurance company bailouts and hidden taxes in the new law that are designed to go directly to the insurance companies.

This is what it has come to, folks. If a private corporation had engaged in bribery, you and I both know what would happen. But not if government does it. What kind of a perverted standard is that?

These people are criminals. And those who aid and abet them are criminals, and that includes companies and voters who continue to support them in spite of their known lies and corruption.

Yeah, that's right, I said it. If you support this bunch, you yourself must be a criminal. 

I can be most forgiving and accommodating toward those who were genuinely fooled by Obama and company. I realize that many people today are stretched to the limit. There are limits on their time, limits on their money, limits on their ability to keep up their mortgage payments, and the like. Many do not have the time or the energy to keep up with politics.

These people can learn a valuable lesson in all of this. Politics is important, and we had best pay close attention. We had best not accept what we are told at face value, but dig much, much deeper to get at the real truth. If you have learned these lessons sincerely, I can fully embrace you.

But if you can sit back and look at the lies of Obama, incessant lies, lies upon lies, lies he even told to you directly, making promises to you that he knew he could not keep, but he made them anyway just to get your support, and yet you still support this scam we call the Obama administration and their enablers in Congress, then I have no qualms whatsoever about telling you that you are aiding and abetting criminals. And you know what that means. People who support criminal activity become accessories to the crime. That means you, yourself, are a criminal.

My friend, you need to do some deep, serious soul searching. You need to understand the gravity of your position. You cannot claim any regard for morality or ethics or spirituality of ANY kind if your heart is so corrupt that you can fully embrace the deception and debauchery of the present administration and their allies in Congress.

Now, at the outset I told you I had heard more rumblings from the political landscape that should be of great interest to you. Not all of it is good, but not all of it is bad.

First, the bad news.

I have become aware in recent days that in spite of losing significant support from the American people (Obama's approval rating is down to only 37 percent), the Obama camp is most resilient and has incredibly deep support from leftwing financiers and those who are committed to the progressive vision for the country and the world. These people never give up. They have been around since the late 1800s under various and sundry names. Who would have thought that in 2008, after over 100 years since they first made waves in the world of politics, that they would show such considerable strength?

But when one looks at who, exactly, is in this movement, it soon becomes all too clear that we who oppose them have a most arduous task on our hands. They will not be easily defeated. Consider some of the main players: the leadership of the Council on Foreign Relations, George Soros and his various organizations, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street mega-banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the EPA, the FBI and the ATF, the NSA, the FISA Court, the IRS, John Podesta's Center for American Progress, and murky financiers from the European Union and from radical Islamic nations who wish to influence U.S. policy.

Remember that the Clintons and Obama have been the recipients of thousands of political donations from overseas, the names of which have been kept secret. But what we do know is that Communist China has pumped money into leftwing politics in this country. So have Islamic extremist nations. No wonder the American Leftwing finds itself in bed with Islamic radicals, the "Palestinians," the Muslim Brotherhood, and other like-minded groups. Following the money trail is always such an incredibly enlightening process.

Further, we have seen how far the Obama camp will go to achieve their goals. Lying to the public is only part of it. We now know that the administration manipulated the unemployment figures just two months prior to the 2012 elections. Many of us said at the time that something was amiss, that what we were observing in the corporations and small businesses at the time was not consistent with the unexplained, sudden drop in the jobless rate in September of that year.

Well, now we know that the administration had cooked the books. The real unemployment rate (that is, as "real" as the government can be) was at least three-tenths of a percent higher than what was being reported. This meant that an unemployment rate of 8.1 dropped, in one month's time, to 7.8 -- just in time for the presidential election. Obama could then claim, "My policies are working."

Of course, I had already outed the government on its false figures on unemployment, along with others who saw the same thing. The government has gradually changed the manner in which it calculates unemployment. At the height of the recession in 2009, the government claimed that the jobless rate was in the 8 to 9 percent range. But if we were to use the same method that was used during the Great Depression of the 1930s to calculate unemployment, the rate would be 20 percent...some economists placed it even higher than that. This matches the unemployment figures of the 1930s.

The Obama administration has never, ever counted as part of its calculation of unemployment the number of people who have quit looking for work in despair. Many have gone five years without a full time job, despite their best efforts. Many of these gave up after so much disappointment.

Well, guess what. When you drop out of the employment market, you are no longer counted as unemployed, in spite of the fact that you have no job.

How convenient for the administration and Congressional Democrats.

Thus, not only were the books manipulated by ceasing to count those who drop out of the job market in despair, but the administration cooked the books on its own skewed jobless figures. What they saw was a jobless rate of 8.1 percent. What they reported was 7.8 percent.

This is why I contend that nothing in this administration is as it seems to be. It is all smoke and mirrors. Manipulated figures. Outright lies and deception. And this has happened not once, not twice, but over and over and over again.

Fast and Furious. TARP I and II. The bailouts. The economic stimulus that wasn't. Benghazi. Egypt. The Fox News-Associated Press eavesdropping scandal perpetrated by the Feds. The NSA spying scandal. The IRS scandal that targeted the Tea Party, conservatives, Christian groups, etc. And now the Obamacare scam.

"If you like your current healthcare plan, you can keep it. If you like your present doctor, nobody is going to take that away from you, period."

Anyone who would do these things and deceive the American people this way, over and over, is not to be trusted. That should go without saying. But some Americans, apparently, are slow to learn. How can you trust someone who lies to you on a daily basis about the most important issues effecting your life?

And that is why I say we are entering a most dangerous period in this whole sordid saga. Obama and his minions have shown they will not hesitate to do anything to keep their power and to amass more power. They will lie, cheat, deceive, steal, bribe, and who knows what else, to maintain their current status as the kings and queens of the hill.

Now that millions of Americans are onto them, many for the first time since this crowd took office, the faceless, nameless figures of the vast army of underground operatives and thugs are probably becoming more desperate. In all likelihood they will become even more desperate as we edge closer to the 2014 midterm elections.

We have already seen at least some signs of their desperation. In Texas, cops set up a roadblock on a major roadway and took saliva samples from every single driver. Who ordered such an act of tyranny? Where were the court-issued warrants?

In addition, some trustworthy citizens are already sitting in federal prison on trumped up charges. You didn't hear that from me. But if your government would lie to you about your healthcare, what is to prevent them from arresting you simply because they don't like your views? If they decide you are expendable, then off you go to prison.

And remember, New York State has already implemented a provision of its new gun and ammo law that encourages citizens to turn in their family members, neighbors, and friends if they have seen them loading more than seven bullets into a gun in the privacy of their homes.

Any government entity that will do that will kill you if you get in their way.

We are not dealing with nice people here. They are not good, honest, trustworthy public servants. They are deadly tyrants.

And so, my friends, we are going to see increasing confrontations between the forces for liberty and the forces for government control of our lives. The rubber is about to meet the road. Are you ready?

And let me be very clear about one thing. If you wish to deprive me of my guns and ammunition, then you are not for liberty and you are not my friend. If you wish to dictate to me what I can and cannot eat, what I can and cannot drink, what I can and cannot smoke, and such, then you are not for liberty and you are not my friend. If you wish rob me of my right to have the doctor of my choosing, and the healthcare plan of my choosing, and even the right to decide I don't want any damn insurance at all, then you are not for liberty and you cannot be my friend.

It all boils down to liberty vs. tyranny. Freedom vs. slavery. If you support measures that restrict my liberties and freedoms, then you are automatically for tyranny and slavery to an all-encompassing, all-powerful central government. There is no middle ground here.

That's the bad news. Now for the good news.

Patriots all across this land are awake and paying attention. In some ways the Obamacare debacle was a blessing in disguise. It woke some people up who have not been awake in years, and not even Benghazi, the NSA spying scandal, or Fast and Furious could wake them. But Obamacare sure did.

It is very personal, and sobering, when you believed your president when he promised you that you could keep your current insurance plan and doctor if you like them, only to find that within the last seven weeks since Obamacare was rolled out you received a piece of mail telling you that since your current plan is no longer allowed by federal law, it has been discontinued and you are thus dropped from your insurance plan.

Yes, it is now very personal. As one lady put it, a 58 year old who received one of those letters, "He lied to me!!"

Well, he sure did. Now what are you going to do?

At least she is awake, and millions like her who thought they could trust Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and even Hillary, are awake as well. And they are damn mad.

Trust is a lot like toothpaste that leaves the tube. Once it is gone, it is awfully hard to get back.

This means that millions of people who were not watching closely before are now watching with a telescope. They are placing every word uttered by Obama and his minions to the test. Is this yet another falsehood? Another deception? Another ruse? Can I trust this smiling face? He seems so likable. But, but...he was smiling and entirely likable when he lied to me. So how can I trust these smiles? Maybe there is much more to a person than simply the likability factor. Ted Bundy was a charming individual too.

We as Americans have GOT to get over our obsession with how a person "comes across on TV." We CANNOT accurately make judgments about a person's character or trustworthiness based upon how they look on television. Those who know how to manipulate the masses through videos, TV, and such, are taught how to fool you. Even an actor is taught how to fool you. When you watch them in a movie, the name of the game is to get you to believe they ARE the person they portray on the screen. Nothing is wrong with that, for sure, but it makes my point. Those who know how to manipulate the masses through images are very good at fooling you, some for nothing more than entertainment purposes, but others for evil intent.

I'm glad that Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert De Niro, and others can so thoroughly entertain me by their ability to actually become a fictitious character on a movie screen. They are so very good at what they do. Good acting is one of life's pleasures. But I don't want my president to be a good actor. I don't want him to fool me. And when he does, he loses something vital to governance -- in a free society you cannot lead unless the people can trust that what you tell them is the truth.

And that is precisely what has been lost.

There are many ways that the liberty and patriot movement is making headway. Gone are the days when progressives in power can successfully enact gun bans. They tried, but they failed except in the most virulently blue states. Gone are the days when JBTs can perpetrate a Ruby Ridge, a Waco, etc, and not expect some sort of response from citizens who will not stand for oppressive violence by ANY government official.

Patriots are doing their part, most often in secret, away from public view. They are not violent in any manner whatsoever. But they ARE cunning and courageous. They know how to thwart the plans of tyrants under cover and without a single shot being fired. They are smuggling "illegal" firearms into states that have banned what most citizens would view as perfectly acceptable means of self-defense. But they are not going to allow government tyrants to deprive them of a guaranteed Constitutional right. So, the vast underground is very active, much as it was during Prohibition when again, government jackbooted thugs tried to prevent citizens from drinking alcohol.

How did that work out for ya, you progressive knucklehead?

And one more thing, my dear patriot friend, remember that as long as human beings long for the freedom to make their own decisions, chart their own course, live out their lives as they see fit, apart from the crazed nannies and social change agents of the surveillance state, then liberty will never be totally removed from the earth. It is much bigger than you or me. Liberty is part of our deepest longings, our hopes, and our dreams. People don't dream of becoming slaves. They dream to be free, to fly, to be their own person as a competent, reliable, and self-reliant human being. This means our cause is part of the human spirit. It is part of our nature as human beings to want to live free. And that is why, in the end, we cannot lose.