Transferred Intent and the Death of Liberty

 

You fire a weapon at someone, hoping to kill them or at least hurt them severely. You miss and hit a kid a few yards behind your intended target. The child dies. Are you guilty of murdering the child?

The answer is most likely yes. You had no ill will towards the child. You had no criminal intent, mens rea, if you must, but that kid is sure enough dead, and you did it.

It’s called transferred intent. The intent follows the bullet. You intended to kill or harm one person but hit another.

Intent follows the bullet.

That’s cool beans, but I don’t plan on shooting anyone for the rest of the year. Why is this important?

Because so many are on the verge of killing liberty when all they want to do is hurt President Trump. Some would like to unalive him. The absurdity of some of our wokeism amazes me. They won’t physically attack him (some have), but they will do everything else short of that. Such as?

Voting for the insane, incompetent, and outright anti-American candidates wishing to discard our liberty and seize power over all of us. Many candidates even say this aloud.

What’s this got to do with transferred intent?

Trump is not on the ballot this year, but many will manifest their hate for him by voting for those who would destroy America just because Trump endorsed their opponent.

If you are a citizen of this country, you are entitled to vote for whomever you please. Logic is not required. Study is not mandated. Thinking is optional, but consequences are unavoidable.

Consequences are unavoidable.

You wanted to hurt Trump, but you missed and killed liberty instead. That’s transferred intent. You didn’t want to, but your hate for one person missed him and hurt us all.

Nobody that I know walks around shouting, “Death to America,” or “Kill Lady Liberty,” but that’s the effect of transferred intent.

I’m not asking you to like President Trump. Anyone who has lived with purpose has made enemies. Trump has plenty.

I am asking you not to let your TDS kill liberty in this great nation. I am pleading with you not to side with our nation’s enemies because you have Stage IV TDS.

I’m asking you to grow a set, vote as an adult, not for homecoming queen or most lovable student, and see that what is at stake is greater than your hatred of one man.

Trump is not on the ballot. The preservation of liberty is. Vote for liberty. Vote for America.

Adolescent America

 A pastor visited a church congregation where his friend played the piano. The piano was dead center in the front of the sanctuary. Yes, it was in front of the cross, the altar, and the baptismal, and the pianist didn’t like it. The church leadership refused his request to move the piano somewhere less central so it wouldn't supplant the visual cues many believers find helpful in worship.

It was a couple of years before the pastor was able to attend this church service again. Most pastors have their own Sunday morning commitments and attending a service in another congregation is a rare treat. This time the piano was off to the side. After the service, the pastor asked his friend how he got the piano off to the side.

His answer: “One inch a Sunday.”

One inch a Sunday.

Let’s turn to the midterm elections. This is an election cycle short on issues but significant—very significant—on the future of liberty. Some states have a real chance of electing socialists to a variety of offices.

America seems to be struggling through adolescence. A sizeable number of Americans, mostly younger Democrats, think socialism is the solution, even though they can’t articulate the problem.

Socialism sounds cool. Each according to his ability and each according to his needs sounds pseudo-biblical. Ronald Reagan said it best. The only place where socialism might work is in heaven where they don’t need it or hell where they already have it.

But it sounds so cool. Everybody gets what they need. No problem, right?

Right, except that the quest for power is much stronger than an unsuccessful philosophy. Power abhors a vacuum, and that is the only place that socialism might succeed.

But capitalism seems unfair. The rich seem to get richer, and the poor get poorer. The latter part seems contrived, since the poorest American is far richer than over half the world’s population. Being richer than 70 or 80 percent of the world's people wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

But socialism is about bettering people’s lives. Our Constitution does not do that. No matter how many times people repeat it, it’s just not true. I suggest rereading our most fundamental document. It’s right up front: Promote the general welfare. This republic has one of its founding principles as promoting better lives for its people.

It’s not perfect. Things move slowly. Some things just don’t seem fair, but in the end, we still make progress without surrendering our liberty. Ditching slow progress for the illusion of progress at the expense of liberty is immature.

It seems that America is struggling through adolescence. When a child goes through adolescence, they reach a point where it seems like their parents became geniuses overnight. The eighteen- or twenty-year-old kid asks their parent, "How did you get so smart?"

Illusions and delusions, fantasies without facts or substance, give way to reality and common sense. Life is no longer a video game. The values those old, unreasonable people known as parents espouse suddenly make sense.

When the nation is delusional, it risks losing liberty not only for this generation but for many that follow. It will not be reclaimed without paying a significant price in American blood.

But what could it hurt to see what happens in a few states? If it doesn’t work out there, they could always vote the other way next time.  Really?

Consider the piano that moved an inch a Sunday. It’s the How to Boil a Frog story. It’s an old one. I probably heard it for the first time fifty years ago.

Put a frog in boiling water, and it jumps out. No way that creature is staying in that water. Get another frog (you won't catch that first frog again) and put it in a pot of room-temperature water, then slowly turn up the heat about one degree every couple of minutes. In a couple of hours, you will have boiled frog.

It was just a degree here and there. It just felt a little warm. It’s still warm; it even seems a little warmer than before. Must be climate change, perhaps El Niño. Nothing to see here.

No more roleplaying the rationalization process of the frog in the pot of water. Small changes that go unnoticed or are otherwise dismissed become big, sometimes irreversible changes.

That is the case with adolescent America, except most voters should have left their juvenile phase long ago. The something-for-nothing lure has worked for so long, and is branching out with new venues.

But I hate Trump. How can I vote for anyone he endorsed? This might sting a little. Suck it up, buttercup!

You’re an adult now. You don’t get to vote for homecoming queen anymore. This isn’t the student council election where the main, perhaps only, issue is popularity. This is your nation's future. It is the future of your children and their children. That should be enough to move beyond hate to the real consequences of how you vote.

Today, you have actual liberty—more than most of the world. In twenty years, those in power will promise you a little liberty in return for not rioting. It won’t be delivered, and riots will be met with domestic violence from the unapproachable government on a scale not seen since Pol Pot.

Two decades from now, adolescent America will awaken and wonder how those dreaded, conservative, even MAGA people knew this would happen. How could they be right and I miss it?

They lived lives that loved liberty and did what was needed to preserve it for their children’s children. They lived with eyes wide open, studied history, and many put their lives on the line for a place like no other in history. They saw that power indeed corrupts, and the model ordained and established in our Constitution was the best the world has ever known at keeping government authority in the hands of the people.  

Individual liberty is not just doing what you want. It’s doing what is right and necessary without being subjugated to a person or council who decides what is right and worth doing without your input.

America is far from perfect, but before the baby goes out with the bathwater, we might want to note the incredible progress this nation has made, while remaining a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, at least for a little while longer.

C’mon kids. Grow up a little, at least for November. You can resume your TDS rants in December and still have your liberty intact for Christmas and New Year's.

I know adulting isn’t always fun, but try it this November. The republic, your liberty, and the lives of your grandchildren’s children are at stake.

Be Careful What You Ask For...

 I remember sitting in a class in the—you guessed it—the Classroom Building at the Oklahoma State University in the late 1970s. Each school had its own buildings and classrooms, but the Classroom Building served as an overflow facility.  It was also across from the student union. Between them was an area suitable for public demonstrations, and the demonstrations at the time were by Iranian Students. Oklahoma State had many of them.

The chants were, “Down, down, down, down with the Shah.” The chants repeated without variation for hours. After a few days, the natives showed up. By natives, I mean mostly those with a little redneck in them. They encircled the protesters with twice their number, crossed their arms, and said nothing.

There was no violence. The Iranian students just decided that attending one class this month might be in their best interests. Protests became fewer for the rest of the year, but the protesters got what they asked for, and the liberty they knew briefly while in the United States would not await them at home.

Be careful what you ask for; you might just get it. The nation of Iran is pushing fifty years of subjugating its people in a self-serving theocracy.

For the past several years, the socialist movement in this country has grown much more than I thought was possible among liberty-loving Americans. At first, I thought it consisted of a small minority of undereducated, overly pampered crazies. Plenty of them are, but others with mainstream jobs, families, and two dogs are buying into the money-for-nothing offers. Few seem interested in doing an actual cost-benefit analysis, case study, or just talking to people who once lived in a socialist country.

No magic pill cures society's ills. Human governments are all flawed, but those rooted in liberty and individual rights have the best chance of improving lives, families, and nations because people want to improve their own lives and those of their posterity. Neither governmental authority nor its permission is required. 

Socialism takes authority from the people it claims to serve and dispenses privileges and resources as it sees fit. For a short time, it must appease the masses who surrendered their freedom, but sooner than most realize, the things once promised are no longer part of the conversation. To disagree runs contrary to the common good. There can be no public discussion as the government is always right.

And just who is the government? Those poised to seize power at any opportunity. The whole Marxist philosophy, which sounds good in some ethereal scenario, is eviscerated by the drive for power. It’s human nature, and without rights residing in the individual, nothing within the nation itself can resist it.

If you vote for socialism by whatever name it’s labeled this year, you are spending the inheritance of liberty of your children’s children. If they ever know liberty, they will pay in their own blood first.

I plan to leave my grandkids a nation that values liberty.

For those so convinced socialism is the way forward, be careful what you ask for; you might just get it. I pray you don't capriciously dismiss the blood that was shed for what you now enjoy

Be careful what you ask for--you might just get it.

How can the government of Iran still hold out?

 

How can the government of Iran still hold out? What keeps them going?  More on that shortly.

It’s time to get Donald Trump out of the way in this Iran business. Let’s eliminate the problem.

But I thought you approved of his attacks on Iran. I do, but we have to deal with the Trump issue to be effective.

OK, but how?

The Congress of the United States must declare war on Iran. Yes, I said declare war. It’s been over three-quarters of a century since this nation has done that. It’s time that Congress steps up and uses this power, which resides with other enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution.

How can the government of Iran still hold out? What keeps them going? 

The Fifth Column operating in this country giving them hope is what keeps them going. I’m not talking sleeper cells. I am talking about the Democratic Party and TDS.

Just about all of the old timers in the party have taken a hard line against Iran repeatedly, at least verbally, until Donald Trump took action. That’s when the TDS kicks in, and we see that Iran’s greatest ally and its hope reside in this nation.

How do you resolve the fact that you hate Trump and want to stop Iran’s continued funding and sponsoring of worldwide terrorism?

Declare war on Iran. That makes it an American deal, not partisan politics. Once Congress declares war on this enemy of America and freedom around the world, the Trump haters can keep on hating him and criticizing him for not kicking Iran’s butt with everything we have.

They can still hate him without aiding the enemy. Up to this point, both the Iranian leadership and the Democratic Party have been in lockstep with this precept, often, and perhaps erroneously, attributed to Sun Tzu, but surely on the mark.

“An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.”

That’s the course both of our nations are on, and that course only brings comfort to our Iranian enemy. It’s time to stop hating America. Keep your hate for Trump if you must, but stop hating your country and fellow countrymen because you have no viable plan that benefits America.

People are fed up with Democrats throwing our country under the bus in hopes of holding on to power, and if possible, supplanting our constitutional republic with whatever form of government keeps them in power.

Declaring war sends the message to the IRGC that you no longer have friends in America, at least none who will destroy their own country because they hate one man.

Declare war and pursue peace in the region not only by strength but by unity. Trump has produced unity in the region, but the Trump-Haters insist on division on the home front.

It’s not partisan. It’s patriotic.

We should not declare war lightly, but half a century of Death to America is enough. Enough!

What can I say to my fellow countrymen and lawmakers who are governed by this hate-Trump epidemic?

GROW A SET!

It’s finally time to serve those who elected you and stand with America and against our enemies.

GROW A SET!

Declare War on Iran!

Term Limits: A Pyrrhic Victory

 

With the clamor for term limits for nearly every elected official, know this. If we win this battle, it will be a Pyrrhic Victory.

Why?

We have always had term limits. It is called the right to vote. Then why do we have career politicians?

We as the electorate have become lazy. That’s not quite true. We have become very lazy, sloth like in our civic duties.

We have always been able to vote out those who serve themselves more than they serve the people and our national interests. We just didn’t do it.

Representative government—our republic—takes work for everyone of voting age. It takes education. It takes discipline.

That’s right, the preservation of liberty requires discipline as a standing quality of the electorate.

So, why are term limits not a true victory? They are a placebo for diligence and discipline. We think that our work is done by enacting term limits when in fact it only changes the playing field.

Those seeking to gain and retain power will find a way. Those desiring to return to comfort and complacency thinking the work is done will be easily duped.

The electorate must have the same gusto for the preservation of liberty and accountability of elected officials as those seeking office do for power.

Our discipline must meet or exceed the desire of the power seekers. Our return on investment is accountable and continued representation. It’s tough to maintain motivation for that on an ongoing basis.

Feathering your own nest under the guise of public service comes equipped with its on motivation, usually greed.

Should we not seek term limits?

Let’s do this as we would take a steroid shot to overtake our immune system momentarily until our natural immunities can catch up, but they must catch up.

Term limits are an interim measure. Diligence and discipline are the solution. This government of the people and by the people will only be for the people if the people are diligent.

This self-government business is tough business. It takes work not just every couple of years but on an ongoing basis.

It’s no wonder that such governments struggle to continue, but they can continue and even thrive if we put in the work.

Let’s make term limits happen and then take hold of our electoral duties as if our nation depended on it. It does.

 

Biden’s Bumbling Brilliance

 

I think that Joe Biden was the worst Commander-in-Chief that this nation has ever known. We endured his incompetence for 4 years. American lives were lost. American honor was tarnished. It was a bad time to be in uniform in this nation.

I served during the Carter administration. Ammunition and critical repair parts were not available. Selective interchange quickly became complete cannibalization. Desert One was a failure before one aircraft took off.

I thought that was bad. Biden was far worse.

Obama brought us ISIS, dishonor in Benghazi, and weakened us further but nothing could compare to Biden’s incompetence.  I could not imagine serving on active duty or the reserves while Joe Biden was the Commander-in- Chief.

But his incompetence was brilliant. It was Machiavellian brilliance for sure, and I am certain that he didn’t have a clue what was happening.

Biden’s weakness invited Putin into Ukraine. The desire to bring back the Former Soviet Union was always in Putin’s heart and mind but the opportunity under the previous Trump administration never presented itself.

Ukraine’s government is undoubtably corrupt, but the Ukrainian people are a hardy people. They fight for their own land and national identity.  I don’t doubt their courage.

The Russian people just want to scratch out a living in a nation where what we would call the American Dream is pure fantasy. They just want to survive.

But when the two countries engaged in war, Sun Zsu, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz all sat up in their graves and took note.

The once powerful Russia that Putin longed to restore to superpower greatness once again had unwittingly entered a protracted war. 

The Ukrainians did not roll over. They fought hard. The United States and Europe supplied weapons and ammunition but did not put their own lives at risk.

Both paid a price. It became what Vietnam was to us and what Afghanistan was to the Soviet Union in the days of the Mujahidin who wreaked such havoc on the more advanced Soviets.

Most of the early fighting took place in the Ukraine but eventually it spilled onto Russian soil.

Yes, the Russians gained some territory but at an incredible cost. In the most Machiavellian sense, the war weakened our enemy on many fronts.

The continuation of the war weakens the Russian nation and national will every day. Putin has been embarrassed. Russia has been weakened.

Unlike the peace with honor approach that the United States took in Vietnam, Putin still thinks he can win the war. It’s possible, but at what cost and what would be the cost of an ensuing occupation?

Biden’s weakness opened the door for Putin, and Putin is paying the price. Should we celebrate the ongoing conflict?

Yes, if we abandon our humanity. The cost of weakening our enemy—who has been very quiet until the Biden administration—is paid in the lives of the soldiers of Ukraine and Russia.

Yes, it is a victory for us but comes with an increased risk of nuclear war, for Putin is not looking for an exit strategy from a poorly conceived endeavor. Putin would rather launch nukes than admit that his invasion was a failure.

Remember the Russians invented the Scorched Earth Approach and Putin would use it again even at the cost of so many Russian lives, and nuclear fallout beyond the borders of the combating nations.

Russia is weakened.

Sure, the war is unjust and Putin should not profit from it, but United States was complicit in this conflict. Bumbling Joe Biden could not have signed a better invitation to invade the Ukraine with his autopen.

Trump would like to bring the war to a close. Terms will not be fair whatever they may be. Victory for the Ukraine and the United States was in deterrence. Biden’s buffoonery to save his son from prosecution showed Putin that the United States could be manipulated.

The terms, however unfair to Ukraine, are better than nuclear war. We are not surrendering liberty. Trump is seeking to end a war between two corrupt entities that could have devastating effects beyond the borders of either nation.

It’s one of those adages about life giving you lemons and making lemonade, except you can’t make chicken salad…IYKYK.

But as long as the conflict remains contained and conventional, it serves to weaken Russia. In a very base political sense, it has its own brilliance, unbeknownst to the architects.

So, the one feather in Bumbling Joe Biden’s cap is that his incompetence has cost the Russian nation dearly in money, lives, respect, military readiness, and world standing.

That said, I never want to go down this road of incompetence again.

 

Terms you need to know: TDS and TIS

 

I say with firsthand experience that Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is real.  So many Americans have let hate supplant love of country. I get it that the man has faults. Apparently, he is human as are we all.

The Christians among us know that we all fall short of the glory of God; yet TDS still has taken root in our ranks. But he was a womanizer. True, but so was JFK, and while he was in office no less!

The country glamorized Kennedy’s indiscretions and demonized Trump’s. I’m not trying to paint Trump as the perfect human being. He is not, but his dedication to America remains unchallenged. He is rivaled only by JFK and Reagan and has surpassed them both in efficacy.

I will go farther out on that limb. President Trump has surpassed all presidents that served in my lifetime in efficacy.

But Trump had many business deals go south.  You have got a point there. He had his ups and downs in business but rebounded very well. But, but, but he sometimes lost other people’s money. Yes, Virginia, there is risk in business. Investors know that.

Unlike previous Presidents, Trump is the only one who has not personally profited from political office. That includes every president in this century and most for the last half of the previous century.

Can this be stated any more clearly?  President Trump is the only president in my lifetime not to personally profit from political office.  All others have used public office for private gain. We turn a blind eye to that and demonize the only president who did not.

I’m not here to tout Trump’s virtues or accomplishments. I do appeal for so many Americans to stop hating your country because you hate a single individual so much. But all commentary to this point is to warn of a looming danger.

TDS has marred the virtue of the American public but is not the greatest risk to our once great nation. President Trump has had such incredible success in spite of TDS that we are at risk of what I call Trump Idolization Syndrome. Let’s go ahead and slap some initials on that—TIS.

When a man fixes more problems in 100 days than any of his predecessors in the past few decades, people come to idolize him. That’s fine for a short time but it must not prevail.

He is doing exactly what he was elected to do. He is enforcing the law. He is rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse—and that’s ticking off many who were profiting from those scams. He is taking on this nation’s enemies without qualification. He is not susceptible to bribes. He is leading the charge against the disease of the past 4 years known as wokeism.

And, oh by the way, God is once again welcome in the White House. Veterans are no longer classified as mentally deranged and things kept secret for no reason other than to protect those who profited from secret dealings are being declassified.

Yet so many hate him.  Keep it up and see what happens. The pendulum could swing too far, and we as a nation are susceptible to the tyranny of the mob.  We saw the previous administration support lawlessness in our cities, at our borders, and in our foreign relations.

As those things are being righted, we must make sure that we don’t go too far.  Those screaming now are doing so not for the good of the nation but to cover their own misdeeds.

But one day, if the TDS continues, we might end up going too far in response. What is good now—and I cannot comprehend how exposing the fraud and abuse that has been a way of life for too long is a bad thing—could easily continue into something with a life of its own.

I have asked President Trump to be aware of this and lessen the focus on himself and increase the fervor for America. Yes, I realize that my request is not near the top of his inbox.

I’m not talking radical nationalism, but the America that was once a nation of laws not activist judges. I’m talking the nation that was once compassionate where compassion was needed and we were equipped to meet the need like no other nation, not sending money to anyone and everyone even those sworn to destroy us.

If we get to TIS the root cause will be TDS. The mindless, emotion driven persecution of one man could have significant unintended consequences.

What do we do, then?

Grow a set.

Man up.

American up.

Realize that Donald J. Trump is the lawfully elected President of these United States and deal with it. Get over it. If you don’t like him, find someone better for the next election.

Christians, pray for him. Pray for America. We have a better chance of putting integrity back into public office now than we have in decades.

Open your eyes. America is getting better. Don’t go looking for someone different. Look for someone better. That’s the victory of the America I knew. Get better. Make each generation better than the ones before. That’s not only a worthwhile goal; it’s a noble one.

It’s the JFK mantra. Ask yourself, what can I do for my country? We lost that along the way. It’s making a comeback. TDS must go and TIS must never take hold.

Americans must learn to love their country more than they hate one man.

Christians, we are to be known by our love not our hatred. No exceptions.

Who among us does not want a better America? Quit hating the man and start loving your country once again.