Random Thoughts - Neglected Truths For 2021

 

By

        M. Richard Maxson

      Thomas Sowell wrote the column Random Thoughts. Some years ago with his retirement we combined his title with our version. Here are some more random observations and truths for your collective consciousness.

 

• When I was growing up, we were taught the stories of people whose inventions and scientific discoveries had expanded the lives of millions of other people. Today, students are being taught to admire those who complain, denounce and demand.  

 

• If the media seriously wanted to report the news — instead of spinning it — they could stop calling rioters "protesters" and stop calling terrorists "militants." 

 

• We're a nation where heroes have died so our flag could fly over a free nation, but then we give the title “heroes” to wealthy athletes who kneel in disrespect.

 

• A new Rasmussen poll finds 54% of likely voters think Biden is a "puppet of the left."

 

• America was no accident. A very gifted and inspired group of Founders came together to forge a country in the image of God -- of, by, and for the people. It has lasted for 245 years but now, it’s in grave danger. 

 

• A coup occurred on election night planned by corporate interests who now control the nation via it's information monopoly.

•  Was Joe McCarthy wrong? 

• Being constantly offended does not mean you are right. It means that you are too narcissistic to tolerate opinions different than your own.

 

• We are a nation that doesn't believe in gender but fights for women's rights. 

 

• We're a nation that pledges we're "one” yet we're a nation of aggressive division.

 

• Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today? 

 

• Conspiracy theorist is a term coined by the CIA to describe those who doubted the Warren Commission report of the assassination of President Kennedy.

 

• Politics has turned the lofty ideal of equality into the ugly reality of resentments of other people's achievements — and a feeling that the world owes you something, while you owe nobody anything, not even common decency.

 

• I am so old that I can remember when liberals were liberal, and when common decency was actually common. 

 

• If you believe that the U.S. government just went through a regime change coordinated by something called “the deep state”, then you run the risk of being labeled a delusional threat to “the general welfare” deserving of the sort of treatment dolled out to any typical terrorist. 

 

• The only difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth is usually a couple of months.

 

Founding Father - Benjamin Franklin

 by

        M. Richard Maxson.

      Benjamin Franklin was truly a Renaissance man. He was was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher. He was among the leading intellectuals of his time, both here and abroad. He is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the first United States Postmaster General. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for many inventions including the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among others. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania.

      A brilliant inventor, publisher, politician, and ambassador, the founding father wore many different hats in his lifetime. There are many factoids about the man on the $100 bill. We all know that on June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity but there are some more obscure facts that perhaps have been overlooked.

      He never patented any of his inventions. Despite being a prolific inventor, he never patented an invention. Franklin could have received monetary credit for all of the remarkable ideas of his lifetime, and yet he never sought a patent for any of his inventions. According to PBS, it was against his belief system. Franklin quipped, "As we benefit from the inventions of others, we should be glad to share our own... freely and gladly." A few of his amazing inventions include the lightning rod, bifocals, swim fins, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.

      He created the first volunteer fire department in the U.S. Franklin did a lot to help others, including creating the first volunteer fire department in the United States. He believed that fire prevention methods needed improvement and even published many articles about the subject for the Pennsylvania Gazette. As a result, in 1736, the Union Fire Company was created and was even playfully dubbed as Benjamin Franklin’s Bucket Brigade.

      He was the only Founding Father to sign all four documents the U.S. used to gain independence. It's no secret that Benjamin Franklin is one of the country's founding fathers, but he was the only one to sign all four documents used to gain independence from Britain: the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778, the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and the US Constitution in 1787.To top that off, Franklin was also the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence, having added his "John Hancock" at the age of 70.

      Benjamin Franklin is a member of The Hall of Fame For Swimmers. Franklin's love of swimming started when he was a child growing up in Boston. A set of hand paddles was one of his first inventions, which he used to travel on the Charles River. A friend even noticed his swimming skills in the 1720s and proposed that Franklin open a swimming school. He did not, but he remained an outspoken advocate for children learning to swim. He later received an honorary induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

      Sadly, his son was a supporter of the British along with the two children he had with his wife, Deborah Read. Franklin also fathered an illegitimate son named William around 1730. The two were once close friends and partners—William helped Franklin with his famous kite experiment—but they later had a major falling out over the American Revolution. William was a Tory who strongly supported Great Britain. William Franklin ultimately ended up in a colonial prison for being against the war for independence and later moved to England. The two never spoke again.

      Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. American historian Henry Steele Commager, "In Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." This made Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become. As our country’s values melt away it is good to reflect on our history before they change the narrative.

 

The Governments Concentration Camp

 by

       Zeno Potas

       Over 400 Americans are being held against their will for

the legal incident (See: The Declaration of Independence) that happened on January 6^th of this year. All being held, without bail, on misdemeanor charges!!! The government has egg on it’s face because after all the investigating they found, as you read in The American Constitutionalist, – THERE WAS NO INSURRECTION. These citizens are being held without the normal access to information imperative to their cases.

      We now know that ANTIFA was there and involved. We know that BLM was there and involved. We know that the so-called white supremacist groups were teaming with government informants and employees. We also know that the supporters of President Trump did not arrive from his speech until AFTER the Capitol was “breached.” You would not be wrong to say this was a planned action by the those in the shadow government. We know this to be true because Capitol protesters are treated as hardened criminals and dangerous terrorists, arrested in pre-dawn raids and hauled off to the special prison (concentration camp where all involved are concentrated) in the nation’s capital to await trials that will be delayed for at least a year while political activists tied to the Left have their cases dropped. Double standards abound in everything related to January 6.

      One example is Robert Morss, arrested last month for his involvement in the Capitol protest. The (IN)Justice Department continues to seek pre-trial detention for people who protested Biden’s election on January 6. They want to keep Morss, an Army ranger and high school history teacher with no criminal record, behind bars until his trial can begin next year!! During a detention hearing this week a federal prosecutor told Judge G. Michael Harvey that they needed permission from the government before she could turn over to him a slice of video related to Morss’ case. Even Judge Harvey was floored by this un-constitutional response. U.S. Attorney Melissa Jackson told the judge he could have access to the body-worn camera recordings and public source videos but that the USCP footage is under a protective order, which was done in these January 6 cases.

THIS WAS ANOTHER LIE - SINCE RETRACTED. IT WAS NOT ASSEMBLED - NIB.

      The hearing is the latest example of how hard the USCP and Justice Department are fighting to keep more than 14,000 hours of surveillance video under wraps. Their reasoning is national security but the truth is that the videos DO NOT match up with the charges. They have released only cherry-picked clips produced by the government are released to the media to support the narrative that January 6 was an armed, violent insurrection perpetrated by domestic terrorists who supported Donald Trump. The selective clips only tell one side of the story—and that’s the story the Biden Justice Department wants the public to see. The (IN)Justice Department, in other words, has full control over a massive trove of recordings that shows exactly what happened on January 6. The government picks and chooses which videos will be made public based on how it helps shape their narrative.

      The government has made Capitol CCTV video public when it bolsters or conveniences their case. The government has already utilized CCTV video in their prosecution of Julian Khater and George Tanios, two January 6 Capitol incident defendants, and has made the CCTV footage available to the public.” Khater and Tanios are accused of conspiring to assault Officer Brian Sicknick with pepper spray. Simple assault – NOT insurrection.

      So, what is Joe Biden’s (IN)Justice Department trying to hide? Is the government afraid the videos would act as solid evidence that January 6 was a not incited by Donald Trump? This is at least a partially, if not mostly, orchestrated disinformation campaign that omits key scenes such as police officers attacking peaceful protesters or officials allowing protesters into the building? If indeed the four-hour disturbance is the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” as Mr. Biden and Democratic Party talking heads often claim, or that it is akin to the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing, then don’t the American people deserve to see every minute of video that documents how the “insurrection” went down? It would finally show exactly what happened to Ashli Babbitt, a tragic killing that the USCP, Democrats, and news media continue to cover up.

     Enough with the Capitol cover up: If Americans really deserve the truth, as Democrats routinely insist, it cannot be a selective, politically favorable version of the truth. Release the tapes. Officially release the name of Ashli Babbitt’s shooter. And release Joe Biden’s political prisoners. That won't happen because the rule of law no longer exists for one side of the political spectrum in the states that were once united.

 

You’ve Encountered Propaganda Today

by

       M. Richard Maxson

        You’ve encountered propaganda today, and had no idea. Propaganda is all around us. Unfortunately, not many in the general population are aware. The elite, those who constitute the true power in this world, understand the mental processes of the masses and how to use propaganda for their own agendas. If you look at your favorite TV shows or music, you’ll see that some kind of agenda is being pushed. It doesn’t have to be a physical product it can be a narrative, a news story, a lifestyle, a way to look at the world, whether it is true or not.

      As humans, we identify with certain celebrities, actors, politicians so when they take stances or make statements then that leads you to take a similar perspective and repeat these ideas. These people may be and usually are misinformed, themselves victims of propaganda, or they are using it to deliberately to attempt forcing change. What makes propaganda so dangerous is that it preys on emotion, not logic, and when properly executed you, the target, think those thoughts as yours.

      People believe the falsehoods because propaganda has elements of truth in it. If it was an outright lie, you would automatically dismiss it. With that element of truth, it bypasses your logic brain and enters into the emotional brain and once there propaganda shapes your views on factual events taking place in the world. Propaganda convinces you the thoughts you have are your own. Propaganda persuades you towards one direct path.

      Taken to it’s extreme, as is happening in the States that were united, is Gish Gallop. This is a technique, named after the creationist Duane Gish who employed it, whereby someone argues a cause by hurling as many different half-truths and no-truths at someone in a very short space of time. It is like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it will stick or that hoping that some stray bullet will hit and be the one necessary to convince their opposition that the lie is truth.

      A Gish Gallop tries to create the illusion of authority and an incredible weight of evidence by sheer quantity alone, without any quality to back it up. The amount of repetitive assertions and non-explanations offered can be overwhelming to deal with at that moment.

      This is propaganda, how it affects you, and what makes it so dangerous. Everything in our society has some form of propaganda because propaganda is very rewarding, especially to political parties, politicians, companies, whole countries. So what can you do as not to be made a fool of? As we have stated before – critical analytical reasoning.

      Critical Thinking requires that everything is false – prove it otherwise. Think with a clear purpose in mind. Seek to clarify the exact question you're trying to answer. Be aware of your own bias and ego and try to eliminate them as much as possible. Be dedicated to finding absolute truth and in general, QUESTION EVERYTHING, yourself included. Then draw the proper conclusions based on multiple reliable sources from outside the issue.

      As the “men in the shadows,” their Democrat Socialist cronies and their media allies continue to "update" the public on "truth” Americans need to look in the mirror and honestly assess their role in this plunge into madness. The formula is to create mass hysteria through their corporate mainstream media mouthpieces spreading fear and misinformation, while suppressing facts and truth has worked on many of the citizens of this country.

      They are highly educated and have learned the lessons of history. They know which buttons of fear and greed to push to prod the herd in the direction they desire. They have become particularly adept at using fear to achieve their treacherous aims. Just turn on “the news”(sic) and see.

America and Truth are Under Assault

 by

       M. Richard Maxson

      America and the truth are under assault. Right now the citizenry is completely separated in their beliefs with regard to what’s happening, especially in politics. Stories today are instantly jumped on and deemed false by ‘fact-checkers’ even when there is legitimate evidence behind the claims. Censorship is designed to keep the truth from you. This includes suppression and censorship because it does not support that approved narrative and giving so-called "fact-checkers" the power to exercise editorial control over our newsrooms and writers. Meanwhile, the left-wing media is refusing to report on the biggest scandals of the day in order to protect their liberal pals, all the while labeling conservative publications that do report these facts as "conspiracy theorists" or "threats to democracy."

      The truth is that much of the news that fills the 24-hour cycle simply isn’t newsworthy … and a lot of it really isn’t even news at all. It is mostly a serialized soap opera. It is personality-driven drivel. And it is rarely original reporting based on actual news gathered from around the United States or, even less so, from the far corners of the world.
Instead, the news gathering business has become little more than a news blathering business – with a teeming mass of in-studio experts, commentators, surrogates and columnists poised to chime-in on the latest installment of the ongoing drama. 

      Big Tech, including social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, are coming up with new ways every day to cripple conservative and patriotic media who dare to publish news and opinions they don’t want the American people to hear, simply because it does not conform to the woke Left's narrative. The other issue for many people is information overload. They are creating falsified information and spreading it through news outlets in order to manufacture a heightened state of fear and security to increase their control over the population. Sometimes, the fear mongering that takes place in the media can be overwhelming, especially because a lot of it is unnecessary to listen to because it’s fake/propaganda. 

      Should people not have the right to examine information, opinions and evidence and decide for themselves what is and what isn’t? The amount of information censorship happening today is truly unprecedented. Is it really too much to require that the media to at least accurately reporting facts, even if their constitutionally protected opinions are clearly biased? Journalism is still rightly required in this country to operate with integrity. If the media are allowed to publish with reckless disregard for the truth in reporting facts, as they have been doing, at that point we have lost all credibility and the original purpose for the freedom of press.