Avoiding the Typical US American Attention Span: Critically Think about the Long View

If you have been on the “short-view” train (typical American has a very short attention span that also matches their span for the latest fad or fear the media has for them) for the past four years with impeachment, Covid-19, BLM/Antifa, ’20 Election, Election Fraud and “Capitol Insurrection” themes, you might be thinking, “what happened to America in the last four years“. If this is you, you might want to soak up some US history that you will not hear in the text books you would read in government schools (public, private primary or secondary education).

Real history is very important, but finding that can be challenging. Napoleon Bonaparte (1768-1821) was spot on when he said:

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

Those of you as old as I (three score and a few more) might think of the 1960s and 1970s as a time when the three network news hours had the unbiased truth. Sorry to burst your bubble, Project Mockingbird’s declassification has shed that myth to pieces. Since then several deep state actors have added credence that the “news” has been “narrative” for some time. Imagine how a younger me laughed at those in the Soviet Union that believed in their state news source Pravda, when in fact, the Russians were probably laughing at me!

While in the 20th century we think of the Federal Reserve’s creation in 1913 as the start of the undoing of America, we actually have to look a LOT further back to see a parallel theme to today’s media panic censorship to preserve a narrative. Consider the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act that I outlined in a previous post where I said:

It was in fact the US Government’s (called General government in those days, now labeled the Federal Government) over-reach that set-off a push back politically:

The conflict became obvious when President John Adams pushed through the 1798 Sedition Act, making it a crime to speak ill of the President or Congress. Since it was harshly enforced for some of the mildest criticisms, strict constructionists respond. Among them was future President James Madison who is known as the Father of the Constitution. He denied that the Supreme Court was the ultimate authority on States Rights. This can be seen from the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions he helped write with Thomas Jefferson condemning the Sedition Act as unconstitutional.

Jefferson’s presidential victory in 1800 guaranteed that the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act would be eliminated ..

Since 1798-1800 we also had a major censorship produced ONLY by the Executive Branch of the US Government from April to July 1861 (Lincoln refused to call Congress into session until 04JUL1861) when Habeus Corpus (right to a quick trial) was suspended and tens of thousands of people were imprisoned for as little as being accused by a 19th century “Karen” of saying something against the Lincoln Administration. Hundreds of presses were destroyed and associated newspapers closed down by the US government for words said.

By the 1930s after the Banking coup arranged by a 1910 meeting at Jekyll Island was firmly in place, the Progressive Left was swept into power with FDR’s 1930 election. While Republican presidents and majorities in congress have come and gone, they have done little but offer a Democratic-Lite agenda to the people of the US. Whether it was New Deal Lite offered by the Eisenhower Administration in the 1950s or Obamacare Lite under the Obama administration when the GOP had control of both houses, the Republicans are basically liars that never stand on principle. The Democrats may be evil, but the Republicans have proven themselves stupid.

Listen to some of Brion McClannahan’s Saturday podcast (30 min) for some eye-opening insight into past trends and what we may expect in the future:

So here are some quotes starting from back in the 1930s that help underscore how BOTH parties in government see “We the People”:

The world is divided in to three classes of people: a very small group that makes things happen, a somewhat larger group that watches things happen, and the great multitude which never knows what happened.
– Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, 1931 Nobel Peace Prize winner

Ninety years ago, the people were already seen as know nothings!

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
– Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, and Secretary of State under Gerald Ford

We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.
— William Casey, CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
– William Colby, former CIA director

Is there any doubt that 40 years AFTER the CIA director said this statement that anyone with an IQ should depend on public media (MSM) for knowing what is happening in the world around them domestically or internationally?

If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government’s ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.
– Bill Clinton

The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people.
– Bill Clinton

We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.
– Bill Clinton, U.S.A. Today, 11 March 1993

… and so many people LOVED Bill …

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.
– George W. Bush, 43rd US President

.. and GW Bush, such a nice Christian man. Geez.

Two centuries of lies have yet to convince the masses that their government really does not care for them, Archie Bunker was right:

Now y’all know .. now get on with the next season of your lives (family, friend, neighbors) and prepare for what is coming ..

Peace out

-SF1

12OCT2019: Blog Post Trilogy Finale – Sedition Criminalization Back in Vogue

10 years after the Constitution was drafted, this act was signed by “patriot” John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

Just from my history education from the government, I know there were times in our history that one had to just agree with the government and not speak or write critically of their actions. Words like treason and sedition became mainstream.

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. – John F. Kennedy

From the “Copperheads” during the Civil War (those who called out the tyrant Lincoln) to those critical of entering the “Great War” (WWI), who had to content with Woodrow Wilson’s  U.S. Sedition Act of 1918, the act that made it a crime to ”willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States.” Less than 25 years later aviation hero Charles Lindbergh would be criticized by FDR by not going along with his secret plan to get America involved in yet another world war. (WWII) From George Bush stating “you are either with us or against us” in his decision to invade Iraq to the same treatment when Barack Obama decided to attack Libya and back ISIS in Syria, it is the same song, different verse ad nauseum.

This is my 3rd post today, a trilogy of sorts, which:

  1. covered the unhealthy big-business/government alliance and its impact on regions of this nation.
  2. covered on a macro scale how there were two visions of the American Colonies “cause” for independence from the British Empire.
  3. covered on a micro scale, where what one individual says or writes is held against them as a crime against the government.

Pure Redcoat.

Pure Soviet Union circa 1950s/1960s.

It turns out, it is also Pure America in 1798!

Today, under Trump, this whole critical views of government has again gotten personnel. In the last few years, individuals have been banned from social media or experienced a demonetization of their work online because of their words. The attitude these days aligns with that of John Adams back in 1798 when he signed the Alien and Sedition Act as described by Robert Ringer nearly 10 years ago:

… which made it a crime for anyone to criticize the government ”through writing or any other shape, form, or fashion.”

Specifically, criticizing the president, Congress, the military, or the flag was made illegal. This by a group of men who themselves had escaped bondage only twenty-two years earlier!

It was an audacious move by the Federalist-controlled Congress to silence the Republicans, particularly regarding their support of the French Revolution. It was, of course, in direct violation of the Bill of Rights, which clearly states, in the First Amendment, that ”Congress shall make no law … abridging freedom of speech, or of the press.”

With the 21st century press looking more and more like the 20th century USSR mouthpiece “Pravda”, the only true “press” is the independent blogger, tweeter and friend of liberty that risks being the rebel in social settings both in the workplace/marketplace and in the neighborhood.

Daniel McAdams frames it nicely:

Are we agents of a foreign power for opposing the foreign policy of the US government? This is the way of thinking that dominated communist Europe for decades. The Party was always right, guided as it was by the inevitable and undeniable march of history. Any foreign policy position put forth by The Party was by definition the correct foreign policy. So anyone who disagreed was also by definition incorrect and a “wrecker.” When The Party is by definition correct, any deviationist must be punished and any deviation must be disappeared.

New interpretations by Trump’s Administration indicate that in its “Maximum Pressure” exercise with Iran have changed the rules to criminalize individuals who “associate” with Iranians. Originally intended to mean:

Responding to a query by a potential participant, an OFAC employee explained that ‘transaction’ and ‘dealing in transactions,’ as those terms are used by OFAC, are broadly construed to include not only monetary dealings or exchanges, but also ‘providing any sort of service’ and ‘non-monetary service,’ including giving a presentation at a conference.

So simple truth-telling about the US Empire’s sanctions that ban Iranian import of components to make medicine, there by indirectly causing unknown number of deaths in that nation, could subject one to fines and imprisonment.

We have all kinds of freedom in the USA today because of all the interventions around the world, especially in the Middle East, since 1990, NOT!

Pretty soon, your neighbors will be encouraged to “say something, if you hear something”, or maybe not, since your smartphone can report your words 24/7.

Sorry to end on a note like this, but there is a bright side, a silver lining if you will in the empire’s quest to silence us. A weakness.

Pride.

The myth of American Exceptionalism will help to unravel the powerful.

Pride will do 🙂

-SF!

Below: Script from the movie “The Patriot”:

MARTIN
	I've just been inside the mind of a
	genius.  Lord Cornwallis knows more
	about war than I could in a dozen
	lifetimes.

		BILLINGS
	Cheerful news to greet the morn.

		MARTIN
	His victories at Charleston and
	Camden were perfect, strategically,
	tactically, logistically.  But he
	has a weakness.

They all turn to Martin.

		MARTIN
	Lord Cornwallis is brilliant.  His
	weakness is that he knows it.

		GABRIEL
	Father?

		MARTIN
	Pride is his weakness.

The men consider that.

		DELANCEY
	Personally, I'd would prefer
	stupidity.

		MARTIN
	Pride will do.