WHY DO SO MANY AMERICANS BLINDLY ACCEPT GOVERNMENT AND PRESS STORYLINES

AN ESSAY ON THE DANGERS OF ACQUIESCENCE TO TYRANNY*

{INTRODUCTORY QUOTATIONS}“There is no real direction here, neither lines of power nor cooperation. Decisions are never really made – at best they manage to emerge, from a chaos of peeves, whims, hallucinations and all around assholery.” “It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted . . . secretly, it was being dictated instead by the needs of technology . . . by a conspiracy between human beings and techniques, by something that needed the energy-burst of war, crying, “Money be damned, the very life of [insert name of Nation] is at stake, . . . .”“Paranoids are not paranoid because they're paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, fucking idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations.”~From the Novel, “Gravity’s Rainbow,” published in 1973, by Thomas Pynchon

ARE HISTORICAL OUTCOMES MORE OFTEN A FEATURE OF GOVERNMENTAL KNEEJERK RESPONSES TO CATASTROPHE OR ARE THEY MORE THE PRODUCT OF CALCULATED DESIGN?

Do tragedies in our Country just happen out of the blue or do they happen because someone or something wants them to happen; needs them to happen so they can make a profit off it or to attain some obscure or extravagant goal for themselves but of little benefit to, and more a curse, for everyone else?Take war, or a viral plague, or the wrecking ball of crime in society, and all of the actions of a Government Bureaucrat, or of a Congressional Legislator, or the vacuous words emanating from the mouth of a demented President—burning away all our rights and liberties, and hopes and dreams, in the process, and telling us: “it’s all for a good cause, all for the best;” “we have the solutions to all your problems, and we have your best interests at heart;” “you can trust us; you can trust ME, rely on ME, I have your back.”Does this guy, Joe Biden, mean to placate us? Sure! Does he really expect Americans to believe him? Probably not, certainly not all of us; probably not even most of us. But, so long as he can count on a few of us—a few true believers—that’s all that really matters, doesn’t it?To be sure, some tragedies—in the insurance industry vernacular—are true acts of God. Earthquakes, tidal waves, floods, drought, famine, hurricanes, oh, and the occasional meltdown of a nuclear reactor, and meteor strike. All of these and probably a few more may come to mind. And, yes, some would say that those, too, are by design, if only through indifference.But no sane person could wish for these things to happen. But then, not everyone is sane.There are always a few irrational minds dotting the landscape: a Government Bureaucrat here, a Congressional Legislator there, and a few other sociopaths and psychopaths, here and there, sprinkled and dotted throughout the Land. They are to be found in Press rooms, radio stations, on broadcast and cable news sets, in the halls of academia, in the workplaces of social media and internet companies, in the boardrooms of Commercial and Investment Banks, in the monolithic Federal Reserve Buildings, in the Headquarters of High Finance—all with too much power, and too little moral compunction.But, for most of us, accidents DO happen. And their occurrence cannot be ascribed to, nor ought to be ascribed to, the intentional act of a sentient agent.For, in the happening of these natural catastrophes or technological catastrophes, they are of no discernible benefit to anyone—least of all to those immediately confronted by the full weight of them.But then, there are those tragedies that are manmade—deliberately manufactured or otherwise “allowed to happen,” perhaps with a little nudge, but otherwise with minimum expenditure of money or effort—because, horrible as they are, they do benefit someone or some cabal and that someone or something wants these events to happen, as the tragedy helps speed along their personal agenda.Recall the famous, or infamous, quotation of the acolyte of the silent, secretive “Powers That Be,” Rahm Emmanuel, a former advisor to Bill Clinton, a former Chief of Staff to Barack Obama, and former Mayor of Chicago: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” See the Youtube video. This wasn't a bit of idle chatter. He meant it. He was deadly serious when he said this. He worked for people in Government who used it, and he likely employed it himself, as Mayor of Chicago.But, what if a fortuitous event, subject to useful exploitation, doesn’t arise?In that case, the agent will set into motion the conditions through which a tragedy or calamity does occur; must occur.And the point of intentionally inflicting pain and horror on innocent people——The point is to evoke an outpouring of grief, followed by anger and resentment, and then rage in the target population. And the sentient agent of the tragedy or calamity proclaims he has a solution—a solution that will deal effectively with it, prevent the recurrence of it, and deal with those responsible for it.Consider the attack on the Nation on September 11, 2000, burnt into the psyche of Americans and referred to by the acronym, 9-11.Some Americans believe this event was engineered from the outside, by the rabid, Islamic Al-Qaeda organization.Others say it emanated from inside the Country by individuals who assisted Al-Qaeda.But whatever the cause, the fact remains that powerful individuals in Government and industry within the Country used the horrific assault on our Country in pursuit of their own selfish, immoral interests and goals, pushing the Nation toward authoritarianism of Government, economic and financial chaos, geopolitical uncertainty, and societal upheaval.How did all these bad things come about? They weren’t accidental.A “Think Tank” comprising a collection of “neoconservatives’ hatched a plan to hurdle the Country back into a perpetual state of war, the details set forth in a paper titled, “The Project for a New American Century.”A war in the Middle East, conceived before the fact of the attack on U.S. soil in A.D. 2000, was sold to the American public as a solution to a national security crisis posed by Radical Islamic Terrorists, after the fact, serving as a useful pretext for the conflagration in the Middle East. The result: turmoil; decades of war, $8 trillion expended, over 7,000 American soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen lives lost and hundreds of thousands more innocent lives lost, and a vacuum created.On the home front, Americans saw the enactment of the “Patriot Act”—the short deceptive title of a Congressional Act ostensibly to be utilized only against Islamic Terrorists. The Patriot Act is still very much with us.Those wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, perhaps. The mischief and devastation they caused are not. But the Patriot Act is still very much with us. In the space of twenty years, the Act has been rejiggered for use against Americans deemed by the Biden Administration to be “Domestic Terrorists.”Some Congressional Legislators demurred. In 2001, over five dozen House Representatives voted against its passage but only one U.S. Senator did so: Russ Feingold, the Democrat from Wisconsin. His concerns and those of House Representatives who voted against the Patriot Act were prescient.Looking back on his lone Senate vote, Russ Feingold stated, on the 20^th Anniversary of enactment, in The Nation:“This legislation, rightfully, has long been critiqued for sweeping in unprecedented government surveillance. The anniversary is an opportunity to also reckon with how the Patriot Act distorted our democracy’s checks and balances—and what needs to be done to realign them. . . . The Patriot Act, to me, represented unchecked executive power. Congress was giving authorities to law enforcement that they had long requested, even before 9/11, and was agreeing to do so with minimal oversight built into the system. . . .Suddenly, law enforcement had access to broad swaths of information via roving wiretapping authorities and expanded search warrants. The law also expanded the definition of terrorism, enabling law enforcement to use its new authorities in more instances, including in drug enforcement and to surveil political activists.Compounding the expansion of executive authority, Congress simultaneously agreed to restrict the judicial branch’s oversight of the executive’s use of these new authorities. The provision in the Patriot Act that expanded the government’s ability to access personal records did so in part by creating incredibly broad criteria for doing so. This left judges with little avenue for stopping law enforcement from accessing our library records, medical records, and other private information.” ~Feingold’s article published in the NationThe war on Iraq and the enactment of the Patriot Act did not benefit Americans. And, now decades too late, most Americans see that the proffered solutions to the attack on New York City were unnecessary, counterproductive, and, worst of all, massively injurious to the Nation, the American people, and to the U.S. Constitution.But so wrapped up in the horrific tragedy of the moment were most Americans, including most of Congress, that they allowed their lizard brain to dictate their reaction to a monumental tragedy.It should by now be evident to most Americans that the proffered solutions to tragedies and calamities that strike our Nation negatively also impact our basic rights and liberties, and THAT, undoubtedly, is by design.Thus, even if the tragedy and calamity were accidental, the proposed solution was not. The solution was intended not to benefit the public but to harm it. The tragedy or calamity and the solution to it were both harnessed to achieve the end goal: the subjugation of the American people.The propagandists went to work on the people. They contrived to induce in the populace the false belief that the shedding of and shredding of their natural law rights and liberties benefit them. This could not be easy and would take substantial time. For on some level, Americans would understand the enormity of the assault on their basic rights and liberties, and they would abhor it. The Government propagandists and psychologists and their agents understand this. Thus, the messaging must be subtle, and it must be persuasive.The public must believe in the message. Drastic as the solution is, the public must internalize it, come to understand the need for it—accept it wholeheartedly, unconditionally, heedless of the negative impact of it on their life, on their culture, on the concept of what it means to be an American, to have an American identity. The public must not have second thoughts about any of this. The public must forsake the application of their higher critical faculties, which would compel them to doubt the onslaught of messaging assaulting their brains, mandating the need for the proposed, and recommended solution, the absolute necessity, and propriety of it. But the messaging would not so much as hint at the detrimental impact the proposed solution would have on their life, well-being, and welfare, and that of the Nation.These draconian solutions ostensibly directed at dealing head-on with the Nation’s ills and tragedies and calamities do no such thing. Rather, they strike at the heart of our most sacred rights:

• The First Amendment Freedom of Speech
• The Second Amendment Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms
• The Fourth Amendment Right to be free from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

That is the aim of these purported solutions. And, on reflection, one sees that this was the intention all along. This was the Grand Design.“Solutions” to claims of this thing, “Domestic Terrorism,” take the form of censorship of ideas and beliefs that do not conform to Government- sponsored narratives. These are false stories. These are the Government's fairy tales that are projected onto the mind of the target population. It is a Psyops on an industrial scale, in blatant defiance of the Smith-Mundt Act. But did Congress ever formally, and effectively repeal the Act? Some scholars say Congress did just that. See, e.g., the article by Weston R. Sager. But no one doubts that Congress did tinker with the Act. No one can reasonably doubt that Congress, in its infinite wisdom, intended to weaken the Act, thus opening up the American people to Government propaganda, the creation of and manipulation of public opinion, and now it is all nice and legal. And the Government itself handles this but it also operates through private party proxies: the massive social media companies. And other major companies develop policies to cohere with the Government program to control public thought and speech. Recall the Government's creation of the DHS Disinformation Board, designed, so we are told to protect free speech. Really? See the article in Forbes. How does that work—protecting free speech by curbing free speech?The public wasn't amused. Neither were at least a few members of Congress. The Board was quickly and quietly disbanded, at least officially. But the Creation of the Board and its overt presentation to the public is disconcerting, quite apart from the reason for the ostensible reason for it. The Federal Government demonstrates its overt intention to control the psyche of the American public. And the audaciousness of the action demonstrates the Federal Government's contempt for the public. And the Government's action also demonstrates the troubling power and authority the Government now wields over the public; the usurpation of that power, and the growing consolidation of power, in defiance of the U.S. Constitution and its only true reason for existence: to serve the American people. One must wonder if this Disinformation Governance Board is still operating, albeit quietly, in the shadows, underground, as a black program, or an extensive secret Government Office, such as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) once was. How many other secret programs has the Government created, say, in the last ten or twenty years, alone? How many of these programs or agencies, offices, or bureaus are directing their energies toward, or were specifically created to target the American citizenry? Is this the stuff of paranoid ideation? But, if so, is this paranoid ideation itself deliberately fostered by the Government and by its proxies to keep the public off balance; in a constant state of confusion, fear, and mental exhaustion?Censoring of dissent, mass surveillance, electronic data collection, and the creation of dossiers on every American, violate the natural law rights codified in the First and Fourth Amendments of the Nation’s Bill of Rights.  But the public is told this is necessary to protect the public from “right-wing extremists,” “white supremacists,” and “Christian Nationalists,”—all of whom are potential “Domestic Terrorists.” The idea is ludicrous on its face. Yet many Americans believe this. And, through an insidious psychological conditioning campaign targeting “whites,” many Americans find it easy to accept the boogeyman amongst us—in part by way of viewing it as an aspect of themselves.The propagandists subconsciously induce self-hatred in any member of the Caucasian race for the audacity of having been born “white,” with the baggage of “white privilege” that such birth ostensibly delivers. It is bizarre, but the mind can be conditioned to accept absurdities, casting aside his intellect and faculty for self-reflection. The idea also presumes the notion that so-called colored people are all victims, but that it is somehow good and moral to be born “colored.” Thus, the purveyors of this nonsense offend all races, alluding to all white people as members of a noble, superior white race but one that must be chastized for that presumed nobility and superiority, and, at once, extolling the virtue of being a black or colored person for being born ignoble and inferior.  Piggybacking off this, the propagandist induces the public into the false belief that only these “right-wing white extremists” would want to possess a firearm. The subliminal message is that guns, as an invention of white people, are an emblem of suppression of black and colored people. Thus, the propagandist equates and encapsulates in the mind of the target audience, three “bad things”—one, right-wing extremist thought directed at blacks and the“goodness and benevolence of Government” that seeks to protect the oppressed black and colored races from their oppressor; two, firearms, and the ownership and possession of them by white men and sine qua non of the oppressor; and, three, the white race and all things white. All these ideas are taken as axiomatic true, and co-extensive. This in a nutshell is the myth created and generated by those forces both here and abroad, and the vehicle through which they intend to: dismantle a free Constitutional Republic, erase the U.S. Constitution, dissolve the United States as an independent, sovereign nation-state, and reduce a sovereign American people to subjugation, penury, and dependency on the largess of Government. Thus many Americans blindly accept more and more constraints on self-expression and blindly accede to conformity and uniformity in all thought and conduct; and willingly, even cheerfully allow Government to constrain their ownership, possession, and use of firearms even as all of these constraints clearly violate the sanctity and inviolability of individuality of the human will, soul, and spirit, and clearly violate the fundamental and unalienable right of the people to keep and bear arms in their own defense against the predatory animal, the predatory man, and the predatory Government. BUT IT IS THE PREDATORY GOVERNMENT THAT THIS “PREDATORY GOVERNMENT” intends to protect. An armed citizenry with the will and fortitude to resist the enslavement of mind and body is antithetical to tyranny. But, the public isn’t supposed to acknowledge this or even to perceive the extent to which the Government has taken over their dignity and their strength. Thus, they blithely forsake the right of dissent, the right to think for themselves. They lose the resolve to resist encroachment on the sanctity and inviolability of their Selfhood by the Government and they lose the resolve to resist those forces that dare take from them the only tenable physical means to resist the tyranny of Government close upon them: their firearms. Many Americans don't have an inkling of this program to usurp the sovereignty of the American people over the Government; the meticulousness and constancy of it; the insidiousness and scope of the assault on their very Soul by a tyrannical Government and its agents. And this elaborate program of mind control is effective. The will to resist Government control over the mind, the body, and the personal property rights of the individual is dead. One is left an empty husk, the property of the Government to do with it as it will. That is the goal. But many Americans DO RESIST. They are inured to or immune to the propagandists' trickery. It is imperative that a Tyrannical Government take control over the vast stockpiles of weaponry in the hands of the citizenry. The TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT concocts a SOLUTION for the real their very real PERSONAL PROBLEM, THE ARMED CITIZENRY, by FABRICATING A PROBLEM they then thrust on the public: GUN VIOLENCE.This TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT, through their propaganda arm, CONVEYS TO THE PUBLIC  that the CONFISCATION OF FIREARMS is the PERFECT SOLUTION to THE SCOURGE OF “GUN VIOLENCE.” IT IS ALL A LIE AND IT IS A LIE ON TWO GROUNDS:First, reflect on this idea of “GUN VIOLENCE.”  “GUN VIOLENCE” refers to a violent criminal act committed with a firearm. Seen in that light, a gun is merely an implement. And in fact, that is all a GUN IS. It’s an implement. It’s a tool that can be utilized for good or naught. Consider: The propagandists never talk of “KNIFE VIOLENCE,” “VEHICULAR VIOLENCE,” “HATCHET VIOLENCE,” or HAMMER VIOLENCE.” That is discordant. Sure those implements can be used in the commission of violence, and they have been so utilized. But, one would be puzzled by the assertion. For, these implements do have utility for non-violent purposes. One doesn't perceive criminal use of these implements by the psychopathic common criminal, or a raving lunatic as an argument for constraining lawful use of them by others. The aforesaid phrases are misnomers. Similarly, talk of “GUN VIOLENCE” is a misnomer. But, through the consistency and constancy of mass messaging, a person begins to see what the propagandists what a person to see, namely that guns have no redeeming attributes. So no civilian citizen should have access to them. The use of the phrase “GUN VIOLENCE” by the Press, social media, and other propagandists is discordant. But so attuned is the public to it, having heard it incessantly and vehemently, that the public doesn’t realize the singular oddity of the expression. If the desire is to curtail “GUN VIOLENCE,” the solution to that is to remove the perpetrators of CRIMINAL VIOLENCE, not remove, or attempt to remove, a firearm from the hands of tens of millions of Americans who are not the cause of CRIMINAL VIOLENCE. In fact, doing so denies the innocent person the means to protect him or herself against a serious threat.Yet, the propagandist asserts that this thing “GUN VIOLENCE,” would be drastically reduced by reducing the number of guns in the hands of everyone. Yet, firearms in the hands of tens of millions of average law-abiding, rational, responsible Americans isn’t the cause of violence in America. The problem of criminal violence rests with the criminal, not the implement utilized.The merging of “VIOLENT CRIME” or “CRIMINAL VIOLENCE” into “GUN VIOLENCE” serves to draw attention away from the agent of violence and onto the object of violence. That is the purpose of using it, as a propagandist phrase.Consider: This is analogous to the conflating of LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. No one is against LEGAL IMMIGRATION. Our Nation’s laws specifically provide for it and posit it as a good thing. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION is a different matter entirely. ILLEGAL ENTRY into our Country is a crime, and rightfully so. The integrity of our Nation’s borders and the security of our citizenry are sacrificed illegal entry is made into our Country. The Government pretends there is no such thing as “ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.” But such is the power of propaganda and psychological conditioning that the public fails to recognize the logical absurdity in this and the impossibility of it, and blithely holds in one’s mind a logical inconsistency. THERE IS LEGAL IMMIGRATION and there is ILLEGAL ENTRY. IMMIGRATION CAN'T BE BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGAL. To avoid a logical contradiction, one has to deny the idea of illegal entry into the Country. But that presents its own problems. Our statutes specifically discuss the crime of illegal entry into our Country. The laws are clear and comprehensive. They haven't been repealed. And if Congress were to repeal those laws, that would be tantamount to denying the existence of the United States as an independent, sovereign Nation with clearly delineated borders. But, the destruction of our Country as an independent, sovereign Nation-State is the agenda of the Biden Administration and, in its actions, it operates as if the Country is indeed nothing more than a geographical landmass, not a sovereign Nation-State.The Biden Administration has sought to strike the words, “ILLEGAL ALIEN” from statute, thereby embracing the idea that illegal entry into the Country isn’t a crime, and certainly not a serious one. But isn't it? The Democrats prefer to embrace the euphemism and legally dubious expression, “UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT.” But such is the power of propaganda and psychological conditioning that the public fails to recognize the absurdity in this holding in one’s mind a logical contradiction.The Press, on behalf of the Government, assists one in promoting this cognitive misdirection sleight of hand and linguistic incongruity by substituting the verbiage “UNDOCUMENTED PERSON” for “ILLEGAL ALIEN.”Second, the use of the phrase “GUN VIOLENCE” in lieu of “CRIMINAL VIOLENCE” or “VIOLENT CRIME” or “VIOLENT CRIMINAL ACTS” serves as a smokescreen. The intent here is to direct attention away from the exercise of the fundamental right of armed self-defense, which the Press and the Government don’t accept as either a NATURAL LAW RIGHT or a legitimate MORAL ACT anyway even though the right of armed self-defense is grounded on the self-evident truth of the survival of SELF. This is embedded in the codification of that natural law right in the Constitution.The insidiousness of the Government’s position is that violent crime—and evidence of the growth of violent crime in the United States—is not important, and, unsurprisingly, there is no real attempt to deal with it. Violent crime, especially in our major urban areas, under the control of Democrats and Soros-sanctioned “Prosecutors,” cavalierly ignore all species of violent crime. It stands to reason, then, that, if the right of self-defense, armed or not, isn’t recognized, then the Government's indulgence in criminal violence would result, and that, in fact, is what has happened and this is what the public sees, and what it suffers under the present Democrat Party-dominated Federal Government and Democrat Party-controlled States and Cities around the Country.Since the exercise of one’s natural law right to armed self-defense is the most obvious SOLUTION to crime in the streets and tyranny of Government, why isn’t this recognized? It isn't recognized because the  SOLUTION to VIOLENT CRIME AGAINST SELF BY PREDATORY MAN is also the SOLUTION TO TYRANNY OF GOVERNMENT.The present Federal Government. It will not abide an armed citizenry because THE ARMED CITIZENRY need not and ought not to have to suffer TYRANNY.  VIOLENT CRIME, however, is a PROBLEM, but it is not a PROBLEM for a tyrannical Government. So it tolerates the presence of VIOLENT CRIME. Consider the way “Criminal Justice” is handled in the Democrat Party-controlled Cities and States. The SOLUTION for VIOLENT CRIME is easy: deal harshly with it.A TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT CONCERNED OVER THE ARMED CRIMINAL WHO PREYS ON  INNOCENT AMERICANS. THE GOVERNMENT'S CONCERN IS DIRECTED TO THE ARMED CITIZEN WHO MIGHT DEFEND THEMSELVES NOT ONLY AGAINST THAT ARMED CRIMINAL BUT AGAINST THE TYRANT GOVERNMENT. THE FORMER MATTER IS IRRELEVANT TO THE TYRANT, BUT THE LATTER MATTER IS OF GRAVE CONCERN TO THE TYRANT.GOVERNMENT perceives the ARMED CITIZEN to be the problem. It does not perceive the common CRIMINAL and occasional lunatic as a problem for it. Indeed, THE VIOLENT CRIMINAL and THE RAVING LUNATIC are serving if unconsciously the goal of the TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT—the breakdown of law and order to effectuate the demise of a FREE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.Thus a TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT sees the PROBLEM TO BE THE ARMED CITIZEN, who presents a potential if not an imminent threat to the TYRANNY OF GOVERNMENT. THE ARMED CITIZEN IS THEN THE SOLE SOURCE AND CAUSE OF THIS THING “GUN VIOLENCE.”Thus, the TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT sees that the SOLUTION to the problem THAT IS the ARMED CITIZEN IS THE CONFISCATION OF HIS FIREARMS.But the Government cannot say this. And the Propagandists would never directly assert it even as it is difficult for the Propagandists to avoid alluding to it. But, one need only look to the City of New York, under Mayor Eric Adams, and to the State as a whole, under present Governor Kathy Hochul, to see that their aim is not to curtail criminal violence, but to make damn sure that the average, law-abiding, rational, responsible, American citizen residing and/or working in the City or in upper State New York finds it difficult to impossible to exercise his or her right to armed self-defense.THE REAL TRAGEDY OF CRIMINAL VIOLENCE, CONFLATED WITH “GUN VIOLENCE,” SERVES AS THE PRETEXT FOR THE TRUE GOAL SOUGHT: DISARMING THE AMERICAN CITIZENRY.That is what these Democrat Party-controlled Governments want, and, in the implementation of their policy—their solution to “GUN VIOLENCE”—CONFISCATION OF THE CITIZEN'S FIREARMS is what many Americans see what the Government is doing, and what its real intention is.But, many Americans go along with THIS CONTRIVED  SOLUTION to a CONTRIVED PROBLEM, “GUN VIOLENCE,” oblivious to the REAL PROBLEM,  perceived by these Government leaders. And that is THE EXISTENCE OF THE ARMED CITIZENRY and the SOLUTION to the ARMED CITIZENRY is the DENIAL OF THE CITIZENS' ACCESS TO FIREARMS.Many Americans understand this. They aren’t fooled by the HOCUS POCUS of the Government and their propagandists. They resist; some vehemently.And for these latter “MALCONTENTS” who refuse to acquiesce to authority, the orchestrators of the CHARADE have an answer for dealing with them too.Those Americans who voice a complaint about the proffered solutions are deemed outcasts. These Americans are ridiculed and reviled by the Government and the Press as “GUN NUTS ” and as proponents of wild “conspiracy theory.” The Federal Government and a compliant, obedient Press have settled on the use of a couple of expressions to describe these perceived malcontents who refuse to go along with the Government agenda. They call them “Far-Right Republicans,” “Ultra-Maga,” and “Mega-Maga Republicans.” One cannot but wonder at the fertile minds of propagandists. But, reference to particular Americans by insulting language is one thing. It is quite another when Government begins to“ WEAPONIZE” its Departments, Offices, Agencies, and Bureaus against Americans that it perceives as DEFIANT, and potential ADVERSARIES to the GOVERNMENT'S USURPATION OF POWER AND AUTHORITY THAT BELONGS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Government is aware of its unlawful, unconstitutional conduct, and it knows that many Americans KNOW the Government KNOWS it is operating illegally against the RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES of the PEOPLE it is supposed to serve and protect in accordance with the dictates of the U.S. CONSTITUTION.The use of the phrase ‘CONSPIRACY THEORY’ is meant to castigate and demonize Americans. But, this phrase too, just like that of ‘GUN VIOLENCE’ is but one more contrivance. And, the phrase, ‘CONSPIRACY THEORY,’ didn’t just pop, of its own accord, into existence. It has been around for quite some time.The expression was “invented by the CIA in order to prevent disbelief in official Government stories.” See the article by Paul Craig Roberts. But it is an odd phrase, to be utilized in the propagandists' lexicon. For the word, ‘conspiracy,’ is a legal term of art. Blacks Law Dictionary defines the crime of conspiracy as:“A combination or confederacy between two or more persons formed for the purpose of committing, by their joint efforts, some unlawful or criminal act, or some act which is innocent in itself, but becomes unlawful when done by the concerted action of the conspirators, or for the purpose of using criminal or unlawful means to the commission of an act not in itself unlawful.”There IS, then, the CRIME OF ‘CONSPIRACY.’ But there IS NO crime of ‘CONSPIRACY THEORY.’The latter phrase is utilized by propagandists to encourage Americans to along with the official Government narrative lest they be treated like fools. But who really are the fools here? Those who believe the Government's FAIRY TALES or those who challenge them, pointing to the holes in them?The propagandists know well that many Americans seek to avoid public stigma. Many Americans wish to take the easy way out and proclaim their faith in Government and in their agents, refusing to believe the Government would mean them harm, that Government doesn’t have an ulterior motive, and that, at worst, the Government and its agents only “make mistakes” sometimes. Many Americans play the game out of a sense of caution, acknowledging to themselves, if but tacitly that, "YES, WE AMERICANS DO NOW LIVE IN THE SURVEILLANCE, POLICE STATE," AND BETTER IT IS TO RECOGNIZE THAT FACT.Then there are the true believers, those who, like Lemmings jumping off a cliff, blindly accept the nonsense spouted. And, so, with either weak or firm conviction—and with a dollop of fear—with the incessant and noxious messaging daily pounded into them by the legacy Press, and Social Media, operating at the behest of their Government sponsors and benefactors, many Americans accede to the axiom that the Government can do no wrong, just as, in the past, the subjects of monarchs, acceded to the axiom that “the king can do no wrong” (“rex non potest peccare”), i.e., the king can never be capable of intentional wrongful conduct.With the November 8, 2022 Midterms now just hours away as this article goes to publication——“President Biden warned that a Republican-controlled Congress would seek to impeach him.‘I’m already being told that if they win back the House and Senate, they’re going to impeach me. I don’t know what in the hell they’re going to impeach me for. . . .’” ~ Joe Biden delivered a speech at Mira Costa College in San Diego on Thursday night, bemoaning a GOP-controlled Congress. Reported by the Wall Street Journal.  Thus speaks the Tyrant, oblivious to or uncaring of his Tyranny.___________________________________*This is a major reworking of the article posted yesterday, October 7, 2022___________________________________Copyright © 2022 Roger J. Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.

I AM A GUN AND THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO SAY

I am a Gun. I am not a person. I, myself, am incapable of harming anyone. Only a person is capable of harming another person. I cannot, myself, harm a person. And I cannot force a person to use me for an evil purpose. In the hands of a rational, competent, law-abiding person, I serve a greater good. In the hands of an irrational, incompetent, lawless individual, I serve a dark end. But, I, myself, must be held blameless because I am not a person.Many ill-informed individuals are quick to cast aspersions on me. They will say or suggest that I am evil incarnate. I am not. I do not have the power of choice. I do not have “free will.” Only a human being has the power of choice; only a human being has free will. I do not. Only a human being can choose to do good or ill, in accordance with that person’s “will.” I cannot. Still, there are those who believe, falsely, that I am evil, and strenuously make that claim. That truly puzzles me; for, only a person who misuses me can be deemed evil.Those who denigrate and demean me fail to realize the enormous positive benefit that I have brought and continue to bring to this Nation. The United States could not exist but for me. The founders of this free Republic used my great great grandfather, the flintlock, to forge a mighty Nation. During the Second World War, my cousins—including, among others, the M1 Garand Rifle, the Thompson submachine gun, and the Browning Automatic Rifle—in the competent hands of our Nation’s troops, helped to defeat two of our most powerful and intractable foes: Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. I have also assisted and continue to assist our police officers in helping protect our communities from lawless elements.AND, I AM, TO THE COUNTLESS AVERAGE, LAW-ABIDING, RATIONAL, RESPONSIBLE AMERICAN CITIZENS--AS THE FRAMERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION INTENDED--THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEANS AVAILABLE THROUGH WHICH THESE CITIZENS ARE ABLE TO PRESERVE AND DEFEND THEIR LIFE, SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING AND THE LIFE, SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING OF THEIR FAMILIES—FROM THOSE RUTHLESS, TERRIBLE, EVIL ELEMENTS IN SOCIETY WHO SEEK TO DO HARM.Going back far earlier in time, my ancestors, the matchlock and wheel lock firearms, gave to the common man the ability to grapple effectively with powerful nobility, who wore formidable suits of armor, wielding massive lances and swords, sitting atop powerful steeds.There is much to commend me. Unfortunately, history’s revisionists dismiss me out-of-hand, selectively  focusing only on those who have misused me. In recent months, young men who gained access to me, and who should never have gained access to me, have committed monstrous acts. Those monstrous acts have been wrongly ascribed principally to me, rather than to the individuals who have misused me. I am well aware of the horrific acts that deranged young people have done. Their monstrous acts should not have occurred and would not have occurred but for crucial missteps by irresponsible people who failed to properly secure me.In 2012, a severely mentally unstable young man, Adam Lanza, gained access to his mother’s firearms. Had I been able, I would have warned Nancy Lanza, Adam’s mother, to properly secure me so that her mentally disturbed son could not gain access to me. She failed to do so. Her irresponsible act in failing to properly secure me led directly to her death at her son’s hands. This sad, deranged young man, Adam Lanza, then carried me to a public school, Sandy Hook Elementary School, located in Newtown, Connecticut. In his hands, Adam Lanza used me to kill innocent children and teachers. But for Nancy Lanza’s irresponsible actions, this horrific incident would never have happened and could never have happened. Major media organizations wrongly blamed me for the tragedy.A similar horrific event occurred, in February of 2018. Another deranged young man, Nikolas Cruz, wrongfully gained access to me, and used me to murder or seriously injure many innocent students and teachers—this time at another public school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, located in Parkland, Florida. Once again media people, reporting on this event, at the urging of those individuals who profess a pathological hatred toward me, blame me for the senseless tragedy, claiming that it is I, rather than this young man, Nikolas Cruz, who is the principal cause of the tragedy.Legislators, members of the mass media, and members of groups who call for my eradication, fail to realize that it is not I that cause violence. To cause violence I must have the desire to do violence, and once having the desire to do violence, I must then act on that desire. But, I am incapable of desire, and I am incapable of action. People, alone, are capable of desire and people alone are capable of acting on their desires. People are causal agents of harm. I am not a causal agent, but merely an object, a tool. Yet, I am blamed for the evil actions of those who misuse me. On careful reflection, though, it is clear that it is the killer, Nikolas Cruz, 19 years old, and it is those agents of Government who knew or should have known of the danger Nikolas Cruz posed to the community, who are the principal causes for harm done to others.There were multiple warnings and warning signs of the danger Nikolas Cruz posed to the community, but Governmental authorities failed to heed those warnings and those signs. Had I been able to, I would have spoken up, alerting the School Board, alerting the FBI, and alerting the County Sheriff’s Office, of the imminent danger posed by Nikolas Cruz. The tragedy that occurred was easily preventable. Yet, local, County, State, and Federal authorities are not held to account. I, however, am held to account. I, the Gun, am deemed responsible for the myriad failings of people.Irresponsible, lawless acts, uncorrected, tend to repeat themselves—an endless loop of tragedy occurring ever again. So it is that yet another severely disturbed young man, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, went on a shooting rampage at a high school, in Santa Fe, Texas. That tragedy unfolded recently. How did this happen? Quite simply, the young man’s father failed to properly secure me. The father breached a duty of care owed to the community to prevent his son from gaining access to me. That failure led to horrific tragedy.The pattern is disturbingly familiar, replaying itself over and over again, and each time, the tragedy was preventable, and would have been prevented but for the failure of adults residing in the community, and but for the failure of Governmental authorities to act to thwart the tragedy. And, once again, the blame for the tragedy is laid at my feet. I, who cannot do any act, good or ill, but for an agent who wields me, is ever the scapegoat.Of course, the vast majority of gun owners are responsible. They treat me with respect. They handle me competently; and they properly secure me, preventing those who must not gain access to me, from doing so. Yet, there are individuals in Government, in industry, and even foreigners who bear a personal grudge against me and who hold me in contempt. And there are groups, comprising individuals whose sole purpose for existence is to eradicate me. These individuals think that by dispossessing millions of average, law-abiding, rational, responsible American citizens of me, the Gun, that violence will stop. It will not stop.A person need merely consider that, in many Western nations where Government has essentially banned me, violence continues unabated. Sociopathic and criminal elements in society still obtain possession of me and use me to seriously injure or kill innocent people. And, even if horrible, evil people do not have immediate access to me, that does not prevent them from causing horrific violence just the same. Those people who desire to harm others will always find a way and means to do so. And, they have done so, repeatedly, constantly, using knives, and bombs, and even cars and trucks to murder and maim innocent people.Still, the drumbeat continues for my banishment from so-called “civilized” society. Those individuals who detest me argue that violence can be stemmed simply by outlawing me. But, arbitrarily denying the average responsible citizen from owning and possessing me will do nothing to prevent lawless and deranged individuals from doing harm, whether by wielding me, or by wielding or utilizing another object. And, when all is said and done, I am just that—an object, a tool, nothing more. Those who seek to blame me, profane me, debase me, denigrate me, castigate me, would do well to recall a quotation from the classic 1953 Western film, “Shane,” where the protagonist offered this sage advice concerning me, as he addressed the wife of a rancher:“A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it.”Those who desire to ban me outright would do well to remember that banning me will do nothing to prevent the occurrence of and recurrence of evil acts. Evil cannot be legislated away, even as some people seem to believe that it can be legislated away or would like to believe that evil can be legislated away through the simplistic, implausible, unconscionable, and constitutionally impermissible, unlawful expedient of denying to the average, rational, responsible, law-abiding American citizen the fundamental right to own and possess me. At the end of the day, evil remains, and monstrous acts of violence will, unfortunately, continue to occur because evil exists in the heart of those people who seek to do evil, and there are, lamentably, all too many of those in the world. Evil does not and never did exist in me, “The Gun.”_________________________________________________Copyright © 2018 Roger J Katz (Towne Criour), Stephen L. D’Andrilli (Publius) All Rights Reserved.