The Civil Rights Battle of Our Time

The issues around the CCP virus and the government's response are civil rights issues. 

Masking, physical distancing, business closures, medical testing, limits on gatherings — requiring obedience to a long list of questionable requirements and discriminating against those who have the temerity to object to any of it represents a clear violation of our natural civil rights. Yet we fail to properly identify it as such, and that makes it very hard to make any headway toward a just resolution.

During the racial civil rights battles just a few years before I was born, leaders of the movement recognized that there were two paths to justice: the political path (trying to influence legislators to do the right thing) and the resistance path (peaceful refusal to obey unjust laws — what's known as civil disobedience). As the former path becomes more and more impassible and implausible, one must naturally gravitate to the latter path, out of a logical desperation.

The Utah legislature's 2021 session showed us that the former path — a political solution — is not likely. The next session is in February 2022. We can't wait that long, and it will be the same ineffective legislators, anyway. We can hope to replace them in November 2022 and then get a better legislative session in 2023...but that is far too long to wait. We can hope to trigger the mechanisms for a special session in 2021, but once again, we'll have the same lawmakers in power — not a promising situation.

That leaves the latter path: civil disobedience. This path is fraught with varying degrees of risk. On one end of the spectrum, the risk is virtually nil. At the other end, you could face serious consequences, including incarceration, fines, loss of your job, and further restrictions on your freedom to participate in society. At the most extreme end, you could wind up dead.

Ignoring some rules bears very little potential downside. For example, I have hosted gatherings in my home, or attended such gatherings, that violated the Draconian rule against having more than ten people get together. This is not a rule that is being enforced in my county, and even if it were, there is very little chance of getting in trouble for breaking that rule. 

Likewise, I go about my daily business, visiting stores and restaurants, without wearing a face diaper. I show off my smile, behave like a normal human being, and am kindly treated like a normal human being. Of course, I am always under some degree of stress, constantly mentally armed with responses, should I be confronted. Thankfully, despite that anxiety, those confrontations don't happen, and the worst case scenario is I'd have to leave that place. Pretty much a no-risk endeavor, other than the personal cost of always feeling like I'm going to get into an argument, which is not a healthy or free way to live.

But then there are civilly disobedient actions that are higher risk. If my son were to choose to violate his school's ridiculous mask rules, he would get sent home. He'd miss school, and that would harm him. If I tried to get away with showing my face in a hospital or a plane, I would be denied important services. 

Moreover, if I decided to no longer use my hard-earned resources to fund this illegal puppet government that usurped their power and are no longer operating with the consent of the governed — that is, if I chose to stop paying my taxes — I'd be audited, fined, possibly incarcerated, and certainly have my wages garnished. Hitting them in the pocket book is a great way to learn how vicious their response can be. 

As the CCP virus restrictions get more severe ("health passports" and other social credit schemes), and as we're faced with a choice to comply or resist, that dichotomy could eventually lead to a situation where people are engaged in hot conflict. Violence. It's scary to think about.

But as we consider the means available to us for fighting the civil rights battle of our time, we need to ask ourselves where we draw our lines, which low-risk courses of action can result in some wins, and which high-risk actions will result in that boot stamping on our face repeatedly. And then ask ourselves if liberty is worth it.

I believe it is. We just need to be prudent as we weigh our options, because too much resistance can result in a lot of pain and no actual ground gained, and not enough resistance can lead to a place of tyranny from which it will be impossible to recover. Doing nothing means slipping down that slope to dystopia. Doing too much will get you squashed like a bug. A measured response is required.

So...what's your next move? Shall we overcome? If so, how?

To Obey, or Not to Obey — That is the Question

Americans' respect for the law has always been viewed as a virtue. Rightly so; without it, we'd have chaos.

We also support a time-honored tradition of civil disobedience when the laws are unjust...for example, Rosa Parks defying the racist rules and laws of segregation.

Many of our lawmakers are now either corrupt, misguided, or apathetic. Many of their rules, regulations, and laws are harming Americans.

It's time we stopped living in fear. It's time we stopped obeying. It's time for widespread civil disobedience.

No...not riots, not looting, not vandalizing, not hurting people, not mayhem, not fires, not breaking windows, not damaging property, not stealing, not harming our brothers and sisters.

Just simple refusal to submit. The passive resistance of living your life the way you did a year ago. Willfully returning to normal. Dialing back the clock to January 2020. The consequences of doing so could never be as bad as continuing down the current path.

You have a choice to make.

Resist now, while you still can.

Will They Come For You?

(Not an x-ray of Nicolas)

One time when my grandfather Michael and his brother were teenagers, they were at their father's school. Their dad, Nicolas Pavlovich Pokrovsky, was headmaster there. This was in Tula, during or shortly after the civil war known as The Russian Revolution.

Seeking to destroy any of the intelligentisia who did not support the new communist regime, assassins were on the hunt for dissenters like my great-grandfather. The boys overheard the assassins say that they "had killed the old man." They thought their dad was dead.

It turns out, they had killed the wrong man.

Some time later, my grandfather's family fled Russia to China. Even years later, the Russian communists were still sending out assassins, seeking to kill the intelligentsia — even those no longer residing within their borders. One day, Nicolas was walking down the street in Harbin (or perhaps Shanghai), when he was shot in the head by these assassins. Assuming their work to be done, the killers fled.

However, Nicolas was still alive!

He had a bullet lodged in his skull just behind his ear. The doctors said it would be too dangerous to remove it, so he spent the remainder of his days with a communist's bullet in his head. Nicolas died in Shanghai in 1946, shortly before his children and their children (my mom) fled the dangerous conflict of the Chinese Civil War. They escaped to the Philippines, stateless refugees living in a tent village with 3,000 other Russians. But that's a story for another time.

The moral of this true story? Totalitarians simply do not tolerate the existence of dissent. Any opposing thought must be wiped from existence. There is no fleeing; they will hunt you down and put a bullet in your head. The only remedy is to never let them take control to begin with.

Are we too late?

The Fixed-Pie of Power

Here's where the collectivists have it wrong:

It's pretty commonly understood that they believe, or at least act as if they believe, in a fixed-pie of wealth. In fact, the total available wealth is not capped when an economy is allowed to flourish freely; indeed, wealth begets wealth and the rising tide lifts most boats. The history of the free(ish) market attests to this, as today's poorest Americans live demonstrably better than the royalty or yore.

Where collectivists make their most dire mistake, however, is by not believing in a fixed-pie of power. They mistakenly believe that when you concentrate power in the hands of a few elite central-planners, that everyone else will be empowered (no doubt by the grand results of the powerful elites' expert vision, magnanimous decisions, and beneficent power-wielding).

This is, of course, utterly wrong. There is only so much power to go around, and when power shifts to elected politicians, unelected bureaucrats, and unfathomably-wealthy corporate magnates, the power of the individual is unavoidably diminished. Like a parasite sucking your lifeblood, they can only thrive as you become weaker.

It makes sense: every act of the more-powerful naturally reduces the liberty of the less-powerful. The only exception would be if those in power served by only acting in ways that protected natural rights for all — but that, of course, is a fantasy.

So, while the collectivists keep pushing for equal distribution of wealth — a conclusion which is at least internally-consistent with their false belief in a fixed-pie of wealth, lovers of liberty should always be pushing for a more equal distribution of power among every citizen.

The best way to achieve that, of course, is to strip the federal government of all extra-constitutional powers, and re-empower smaller jurisdictions (states). In the same vein, states must also be defanged in favor of stronger county leadership, and likewise, counties should defer to municipalities. The towns, in turn, answer to families and individuals. The smaller you get, the more power should be distributed at the expense of the larger entities, until there is as broad a leveling of the power structure as is reasonable.

(Imagine the natural, just effect that would have on wealth equity.)

The thing that really gets me, though, is how the collectivists flip the narrative by promising "power to the people," but only delivering power to themselves. They promise equality while hiding the fine print that their brand of equality comes at the cost of nobody excelling, and nobody being empowered but themselves.

Supplanting Religion with the Doctrine of State

The end goal for Democrats/leftists is socialism, and the end goal of socialism is communism. The basic tenets of communism are antithetical to the basic tenets of many religions (such as Judeo-Christian religions, and others). That's why one of the first things commies do when they take power is eradicate faith.

Communism is a religion of zealots with a convert-or-die philosophy. Its central-planner clergy know what's best for you, and will compel you accordingly. Its primary ethos is force; it's objective is not the exaltation of the individual through voluntary subjugation of the individual's evil will, but the exaltation of the state through involuntary subjugation of the individual's good will.

It counterfeits the love of charity and supplants it with the degradation of theft. It erases the spiritual and places the material as supreme. It diminishes the favored conditions of freedom of the soul because all that matters is the continuation of the power of the all-knowing, all-powerful oppressors.

Dissenters are punished and figuratively burned at the stake of personal destruction. Vast organizations embark on crusading conquests to stamp out heresy anywhere it can be found. Examples are made of particularly wayward individuals. Facts are irrelevant to the true believer.

It's the ultimate secular religion, and it's terrifying, because they have no moral code that prevents them from harming others, as long as they believe the harm is somehow in the others' best interest or the best interest of the collective (as they see it).

It is a great irony that some who support this vile inversion of true religion drive around with Biden bumper stickers on their Prius alongside stickers that read "coexist," made up of religious symbols. Communism has no intention of coexisting with anything that is not communism. Your non-communist existence must be extinguished...the sooner the better.

Correctly Identifying the Power Structure

We need to stop thinking in terms of government and private companies. That distinction is long gone. What we have now is a hybrid oligarchy comprised of two main parts: gov(pub) and gov(priv).

The "public" aspect of government (gov(pub)) is ostensibly the product of a "consent of the governed" paradigm (though in practice is nothing of the sort) that feigns accountability to the people while pretending to be constrained by our founding principles and the law of the land. They create the laws, reserve the right to use force, control the money supply, and retain power even if unpopular.

The "private" aspect of government (gov(priv)) consists of several multi-billion dollar corporations and their billionaire leaders, which ostensibly are constrained by laws and regulations, but thanks to their financial relationship and ideological kinship with gov(pub), those rules really only serve to wipe out the commonfolk competition. Meanwhile, gov(priv) can act with impunity in areas where gov(pub) is clearly prohibited (such as censorship). They control essential societal resources and maintain their position even if unpopular.

Gov(pub) and gov(priv) are two sides of a single, powerlusting coin. Gov(priv) can't make laws with which to control their foes, so they have gov(pub) do that for them. Gov(pub) can't deplatform and cancel dissent to control their foes, so they have gov(priv) do that for them.

This alliance, consisting of fewer than maybe 10,000-15,000 individuals, strives for complete control over the lives of 330 million...if not the entire world. And while ownership of the narrative and the means of information transmission is critical to their success, there's nothing more important to them than disarming all their opposition...because in the end, there will be too many people who refuse to comply and will require force.

Know who's coming for you, understand why...and be ready.

Governor: Stop Abusing Utah's Children

Utah's HB294 may be hailed by some (mostly the self-congratulatory lawmakers themselves) as a success, but the bill was a boondoggle that failed to do what liberty demanded: immediately lift any and all COVID-related restrictions statewide, and issue an apology to all Utah citizens. More than 99.999% of Utahns have not died from the CCP flu. Yet still we live under this ongoing tyranny amid manufactured fear.

One the most conspicuous and disastrous failures of this bill is that even after the illegal mask mandates are lifted on April 10, health departments will still be allowed to require kids to wear masks in school.

That's right. No relief for our precious young ones.

Never mind the psychological and emotional damage. Never mind the physical health problems. Never mind the psychosocial harm. And never mind that kids were never even at risk from COVID. Nope...just keep on hurting the kids, for no good reason.

It's a tragedy, and there will be a reckoning.

If You Do As He Says, Creepy Joe Might Let You Have a BBQ

While I couldn't stomach to watch Resident Xi Biden deliver his address, I angrily read it. Lie after lie after lie. Sickening misdirection. Wicked false blame-casting. Fearmongering. Threats. Blindingly obvious fake facts. Pure evil. Repeated claims of the importance of truth, while lyin

g to our faces! Seriously...does anyone buy this crap? Are there people applauding this charlatan? Such a steaming pile.

"We will issue further guidance on what you can and cannot do."

No. I do not require your permission to exercise my natural rights. Go soak your head.

"[If you do what I say and get a jab] there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be [allowed] to get together in your backyard or your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be [allowed] to get together."

Uh...we'll do as we please with or without your say-so, Joe. Go fly a kite, creep.

Here's another real zinger:

"We need to...put trust and faith in our government to fulfill its most important function, which is protecting the American people, no function more important."

This is the heart of the whole sickening deception, isn't it? Don't put your faith in God; put your faith in government. It's "most important function" is to protect you; not to protect your rights. Live in fear, and we'll take care of you. All it will cost is your freedom, your sanity, your family, your well-being, your livelihood, your life, your soul.

And what will it take to regain our freedom? Well, he tells us, doesn't he:

"The only way to get our lives back, to get our economy back on track is to beat the virus."

So, the granting of our freedom is CONDITIONAL upon the government "beating" a disease? With false data, and constantly moving goalposts? So, in other words: "WE WILL NEVER, EVER GIVE YOU YOUR FREEDOM BACK."

We. Must. Take it.

This is what terrible leadership looks like

Last June, our tyrant lieutenant governor (who was at that time campaigning to be the next governor), condescendingly swore at his constituents.

"WEAR A DAMN MASK!" he bellowed on Twitter. Amazingly, the sheep of Utah still voted for this fool (unless of course they didn't...it's unclear just who has been benefitting from the undeniable election fraud, though it's not unrealistic to guess that maybe the same guy who brought in the Dominion contract to Utah may have enjoyed an upside). Either way...now he's governor.

No, Governor, I will not wear a "damn mask." I haven't for many months, and for many reasons. Not the least of which is that masks don't work. Listen to the results of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December 2020. Additional evidence against cloth facemasks — easy to find, I might add — is overwhelming.

Do your homework.

It's incumbent upon you, as a so-called leader entrusted with a lot of power, to wield that power intelligently and thoughtfully, considering all relevant data, and then always erring on the side of liberty. That's your job. Not browbeating the people you're supposed to be serving.

Instead, you keep denying the science, and stoking the fears, and exercising inappropriate power. Even now, you maintain this charade, telling people that once your illegal mandates are lifted next month, they should still keep wearing masks, and not "be a jerk" about it.

"If you don’t care about other people," you said March 11, "then don’t go to places where other people are."

What a tyrannical bit of rhetoric.

If you don't care about natural rights and reasonable freedom, Governor Cox, then resign your office, jerk.

Cox is the sheep on the right of this image.

Remember: