Christopher Floyd Smith18 May 1946 - 4 May 2023

Note: this is the eulogy I delivered this afternoon for Chris Smith, my ex. There were children in the audience, so it was best to redact some *spicy* comments. I also restored several sentences that I accidently omitted. Chris passed on the 4th, but his birthday would have been today, the 18th of May, that’s why the next of kin delayed it. I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about Vietnam over the past few days, that’s why the history parts are in there.

Before I start, I want to make three observations:
1. Embalmers and funeral directors sometimes do too good a job.
2. Some people die too young, some die too old, but no one ever dies at the right time.
3. When people as old as Chris pass, sometimes no one attends the services. They’re all alone. Maybe they were abandoned in an old age home, or maybe there were no surviving family members. But look how many people came yesterday and today! That is a testament to the quality of family and friends he chose.

People tell each other stories in order to become friends, and I want to tell you a few stories about Chris’ life and how we became friends.

Chris, like many soldiers, rarely talked of his combat experience, and we were all surprised when we found that he earned all sorts of awards and medals, including a Silver Star and several Bronze Stars during his time in Vietnam. We have documents showing that he indeed earned those awards, but the stories behind them are currently missing.

Chris mentioned that he was present in Vietnam in 1968 during all three phases of the Tet Offensive, which were coordinated attacks by the Viet Cong and North Vietnam People’s Army against South Vietnamese civilians and the forces of the US, South Vietnam, and their allies. Tens of thousands of people were killed or wounded and 83% of the civilian population was left homeless. We don’t yet know the particulars of his role in the Offensive.

Something Chris did not mention was that in July 1969 he participated in capturing and holding Hill 4-11, in order to build a Fire Support Base there. The hill was located in a Viet Cong stronghold, guarded by enemy booby traps and snipers. We’re still researching that bit of history as well.

After the Tet Offensive and Hill 4-11, Chris returned to the US where he “lived in a commune on the side of a hill” for a time. That was to recharge himself before returning to the military.

It is appealing to describe Chris as “humble” for not telling us about all those medals. Yet he was anything but a humble man! Rather, this was his way of “firewalling” the experiences that earned him those medals from the sane world, thereby preserving his sanity.

While he didn’t share many stories of combat, he did explain what it was like to be a gay soldier of that era.

One time he was on leave in Saigon, and he went with one of his (straight) friends down to where the French Embassy was located. There was a gay bar there, and a line of soldiers were waiting to get in.

His friend started counting them: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I didn’t know they let people like that into the Army.”

Chris said “13!” then got into that line.

He did say that he was out to some of his fellow soldiers in Vietnam (and so maybe all of them knew?) but he was mostly reserved. They still trusted each other - so much for unit cohesion being lost because of the gays!

Photos from the 2/61st Air Defense Artillery yearbook, 1974

Later, someone found love letters in his foot locker. His “superiors” gave him a choice: either leave the Army or transfer to the Army Reserves. He chose the latter, and I believe they gave him this choice because his career was so spectacular.

Even after this he still loved the Army, and indeed he loved it for the rest of his life, sometimes begrudgingly but most times passionately, and he said his only regret over the whole affair was that he would never make it to the rank of master sergeant.

Chris’ mixture of optimism and pragmatism on gays in the military is shown by those stories. He wasn’t out to change the military into a politically correct organization, he just wanted to do his job. He understood that gays are in the minority and that the world does not and must not revolve around us. He knew that the military’s purpose is to defend our country, not to act as an agent of societal change, and gays’ presence must be evaluated with that purpose as the standard.

Chris continued in the Army Reserves, helping to establish addiction support services for his fellow soldiers.

He returned full-time and deployed to Kuwait during the Iraq War. The sand in Kuwait is like powder, and it got into his lungs. He collapsed from this and was evacuated to a hospital in Germany, then sent to Walter Reed Hospital, and finally to Fort Knox.

Thus after 30 years in the Army or Army Reserves, he retired.

---

I met Chris early in the 1990s when I was working at a fast food restaurant across from OSU. He came in one evening and ordered two hard tacos and a medium fountain drink. We kept running into each other - at a convenience store close to where we lived, then at a 24 hour donut shop.

That meeting in the donut shop was the start of a lifelong friendship, but also the start of a strange romance!

For our first date he wanted to see a foreign film at Studio 35. He thought I would like it, but afterwards we realized we both hated it, and that we had similar “pedestrian” tastes in movies.

For our second date we went to the Indian Burial Mounds in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Our third date was in my apartment. I played “Kind of Blue,” an album by Miles Davis, for him. The last song on that album has an eerie quality to it, but I couldn’t identify what made it so enchanting. Well, we danced to that song, and the meaning came to me as a thunderclap: the song is slow, but emotionally it feels as though time has stopped, that the moment would go on forever.

For our fourth date Chris played the first album that Flatt and Scruggs did together, “Foggy Mountain Jamboree.” I still listen to that album, and also to far more bluegrass than if he hadn’t introduced me to it. Anyone who knew him knew that this was Chris’ music!

Our relationship really took off when he brought me into his circle of friends!

Chris was 17 years older than me, and when he introduced me to his friends one of them said: “Chris, you robbed the cradle”. My retort was: “yea, and I robbed the grave.”

Chris’ sense of humor was like mine: dark and spicy.

Chris was a member of NA and AA, but he was clean and sober for at least 10 or 15 years by the time we met. While he was indeed clean and sober, he was not confident at all that he would remain so. Everybody was certain that he would stay that way except him - that confidence would only come later in his life.

We spent our first Thanksgiving dinner together with some of his friends, most of whom were also in AA and NA. I’ve never met anybody like that before! One of them told me the strangest story - she said she used to grow her pinkie fingernail really long to act as a cocaine scoop, and she followed this by demonstrating the motion. There were many other stories that evening all with the same theme.

After dinner, we were walking out to the car, and I had a flash! “Hey Chris, how many AA or NA members does it take to change a lightbulb?”

He was getting pissed at me, but he took the bait: “I don’t know, how many?”

“Five: one to put in the new bulb and four to reminisce about how good the old bulb was.”

I was in the dog house for two weeks for that!

But we kept on, through countless nights playing board games, and through some Mensa conventions, and through a few arguments, but only a few.

Fencing with Chrismas Wrapping Paper Rolls

Years later, our romance cooled, and it made sense for me to move to Maryland for my job.

I knew that Chris would be there at my apartment in Frederick, MD, so when I packed the boxes, I labeled them like “Books and Sex Toys” or “Silverware and Double Headed Dildoes.” The movers got a kick out of that, but Chris was not amused!

Chris got the last laugh, though! He helped me pack when I moved from Frederick over to Pennsylvania, and when I arrived, half the boxes were marked as “Stuff” or “More Stuff!”

This type of banter was certainly part of our chemistry, but it wasn’t the only part. Here’s something more typical:

Chris and I always used to drive at least an hour to some small random town just to have pizza for dinner. The particular town or restaurant didn’t matter. What did matter is that we did this together and that we enjoyed it. It was such a simple thing, and neither of us realized at the time how important those weekly outings were. For this reason I cannot tell you the name of the town or pizza restaurant we first ate at. I thought these short road trips would go on forever, and for that reason I do not remember the name of the last restaurant we ate at. All I know is that there was a first town and restaurant and a last town and restaurant, and that there will be no more such road trips.

Chris wanted to get back together with me in Pennsylvania, and we tried it, but he missed his family and friends in Columbus terribly.

Sending Our Best from the Hospital, September 2017

Thus our strange romance ended, but the friendship endured. My last joke to him was only a few days before he passed, and was like a bookend to the “rob the grave” joke, but it was too dark and too spicy to repeat here!

The lung problems that started in Kuwait only escalated as time went on. Sam and Janos promised to take care of Chris until his last minute, and they did so, admirably.

---

I’ve been trying to summarize the feelings I have for Chris, taking all these stories into account. Here’s the best I can do.

You know how people say they want somebody to “complete them?” Chris and I didn’t do that for each other. Instead, he extended me. When I was with him, I felt incredibly free, incredibly passionate, incredibly powerful, and I understood just how intense life can be and ought to be. With Chris I knew that there is a whole world of things to choose from, and if something is missing, then I can make it myself.

Besides this spirit, the most important thing Chris did for me was to invite me into his family. Sam, Janos, Bela, cousin Mary, Catrina, and John mean the world to me, as do his friends Shelly and Lisa.

It may be tempting to disengage or distance yourself at times like this, but that would be unworthy of Chris, because it would be denial masquerading as stoicism. Isolation from the memories and feelings we have for him separates yourself from the best part of yourself - your creativity, your ability to be genuine, your potential to be the best you can be. He would insist that we always strive, that we directly challenge the obstacles in life and overcome them, for if we disengage then we wither away.

As mentioned earlier, people tell each other stories in order to become friends. But what happens when one of those friends is gone? I don’t know, but maybe those stories help us reach catharsis.

I hope these stories are indeed cathartic, but also that they help us to remember Chris, for if he exists now only in our memories, then we must never forget him.

Chris, I love you dearly. Until Valhalla.

Treason, Up Close and Personal

According to a forthcoming book, "Peril" by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made two secret phone calls to the Chinese military stating that he would give the People's Liberation Army, and hence the Chinese Communist Party, advance warning of any US attack against them.

These calls were made during the end of Trump's time in office, when Milley believed that "the president had suffered a mental decline after the election" and that Trump would use nuclear weapons against them.

During the first call, on October 30, 2020 - before Trump's supposed decline, Milley is quoted as telling his Chinese counterpart:

"I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay... We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."

Parts of this book were released by the Washington Post, which states:

"[Milley] called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied."

It gets worse:

"Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order — but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an “oath.”"

The second call was made on January 8th - two days after the protest on the Capitol - when China doubted US stability. Milley calmed them down, stating

"We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes."

None of this was communicated to Trump, but Milley did discuss this with Nancy Pelosi.

Woodward and Costa used only unnamed sources, according to the WaPo, but Milley has just released a statement affirming that he did indeed make those calls.

When asked about Milley's actions, Biden said, "I have great confidence in Gen. Milley." The cycle of incompetence thus continues with this ringing endorsement.

 

Excusing the Inexcusable

Defenders of Milley's actions would say that Trump was "squirrelly", and that this somehow necessitated communication between Milley and the CCP. But what evidence is used to justify claims of squirrellyness? That Trump required NATO members to pay their dues? That he called mass illegal immigration for what it is - an invasion? That he put terrorists on notice that there would be swift retribution for their attacks? That he pissed off the left-wing media?

Well, Trump did indeed piss off the left-wing media. Milley saw this, stuck his finger in the air to determine which way the wind was blowing, and acted accordingly. He started by apologizing for inspecting the damage done by Antifa and BLM rioters while standing next to Trump. Then came his House Armed Services Committee testimony in which he was offended that people would call the military "woke" while simultaneously stating that he wants to understand critical race theory and the roots of "white rage":

"I want to understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? I want to find that out."

Now, we find that he has been working with at least one enemy. His actions were based on political expediency and nothing more.

Imagine that the United States did indeed choose to attack China - how would the Chinese use the information that Milley would provide? Further, did Milley actually believe that his tango with the Chinese would end with Trump being out of office? His naiveté is staggering.

 

The Context

Milley was not acting in a vacuum.

Even before the disastrous exit from Afghanistan, you had a West Point cadet advocating for communism, former high ranking officials making disparaging remarks about their Commander-in-Chief like Mister James Mattis and his inexcusable "bone spurs" comment, and the National Guard being used to protect the Capitol against "insurrectionists and violent extremists" - while not providing them with any ammunition.

And of course there's the woke Army recruiting video.

Then during and immediately after the loss of the Kabul airport you have Defense Department spokesman John Kirby admitting that he doesn't know how many Americans are still in Afghanistan, and General Kenneth McKenzie Jr. stating that he was sharing information with and relying on the Taliban to provide security.

At the highest level there is Joe Biden. He admitted that lists of Americans and American sympathizers were given to the Taliban so that they can expedite their exit (presumably from Afghanistan, not from this mortal coil). Biden stated that he accepts responsibility for the exit, then immediately lays blame for the Taliban takeover on the Afghan National Army and on the left's perpetual whipping-boy, Donald Trump.

Between the exit from Afghanistan and the woke military, the latter is the most damaging to us, for it indicates the criteria used to measure the worthiness of any military action. Potential actions will not be judged upon whether they further America's safety and security, or on the possibility of success. No. Instead, actions will be judged on whether they act against the cis-normative hegemony and deliver a blow against the patriarchy, all while being culturally sensitive and minimizing our carbon footprint. To quote Trump, "everything woke turns to shit." You, gentle reader, can complete the syllogism.

 

Signs of Hope

All is not lost, however, for there are dissenting voices. One of them belongs to USMC Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller who, following the Kabul airport terrorist attack that killed 13 service members including 11 Marines, released a video in which he absolutely excoriated the higher-ups for their shortage of accountability over the events in Afghanistan:

"I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say ‘hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone. Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say 'we completely messed this up.'

That one man with his one video has proven that there are some men with a spine left in the US military. Hence the importance of dissent - it allows us to separate the institution from some very rotten apples.

And Scheller's not alone: others have come out against the leadership vacuum.

And they're not alone, either: those of us with friends who are either active duty or retired military cannot help but see the courage and patriotism in their eyes.

 

The Fallout

Both Milley and Scheller should be concerned for their future (as should we all), but notice the difference between them: Milley, in his "desire to understand white rage" comments, expressed his opinion without concern for personal repercussions. This could mean that either politicians would accept those comments as obsequious bromides, or more likely that the expression of those sentiments was the goal itself, consequences be damned. That's called virtue signaling, the sine qua non of wokeness.

Scheller explicitly acknowledges the personal consequences that would befall him after his video goes public. There is nothing wrong with doing so. It does not prove that he has a martyr complex; rather it shows a man who is fully aware that opinions and actions have consequences, the opposite of wokeness.

Shortly after the release of that video, Scheller announced that "I have been relieved for cause based on a lack of trust and confidence." Whose trust? Whose confidence? No one of any merit.

Popular opinion holds that only tragedy awaits those with principle. This is incorrect - those with principle are resilient, and that resiliency comes from having a spine. Those with principle understand that an individual must stand up one more time than he is knocked down. Men with principle can move the world; those without merely stand with their fingers in the air, waiting for the winds to change.

Scheller is a man of principle, hence he will land on his feet.

For Milley, the wind is shifting against him. Christopher Miller, the Secretary of Defense during the time Milley made at least one of his calls with the Chinese military, stated that he did not and would never authorize such calls. Supposedly, several Pentagon officers present in Milley’s secret meeting are willing to testify against him under oath. He even lost the support of never-Trumper Alexander Vindman.

So, what of Milley? Biden, in his quest to accept responsibility, is looking for a new whipping boy, and Milley just moved to the front of the line.

Muh Private Company

Over the past two weeks we have witnessed big tech flexing their muscles against President Trump and against a social media site.

After a month of labelling Trump's election-fraud-related tweets as falsehoods and making those tweets either more difficult or impossible to share, Twitter has completely banned him from their platform. Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms then piled on top. Further, Shopify has taken down two of his online stores, and Stripe will no longer process payments.

Twitter did this over the incorrect claim that Trump incited violence at the Capitol last week. Meanwhile, Twitter says that China’s tweets stating that Uyghur forced labor camps don't exist are acceptable, despite the fact that such camps do indeed exist. Twitter is OK with censorship on US soil but is opposed to Uganda’s internet shutdown, since Uganda is violating basic human rights by doing so.

Twitter didn't stop with Trump – General Michael Flynn was blocked, as was Sidney Powell, and supporters of QAnon, along with many, many conservatives, myself included.

In a Project Veritas video recorded by a Twitter whistleblower, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated:

"We are focused on one account [@realDonaldTrump] right now but this is going to be much bigger than just one account and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration."

In brief, they're just getting started.

Big tech effectively muzzled the most powerful man on Earth, and that fact should terrify everybody regardless of political persuasion. If they can do it to Trump without consequences, then they can do it to anybody else.

The reaction by some people supposedly on the Right has been along the lines of "Twitter is a private company, they can do what they want. Just let the free market work. You can always build your own platform." This, by the way, is the same rationale given by people who support private businesses enforcing the social-distancing and mask edicts that certain state governors enacted in response to the China Flu.

Some on the Right did exactly that - they built their own platforms, one of which is called Parler.

Within the past few days:

• Apple and Google removed the Parler app from their respective app stores
• Twilio and Okta, which are authentication services, ended their relationship with Parler
• The database that Parler contracted, ScyllaDB, also terminated their services
• The cloud hosting platform on which Parler was built, Amazon Web Services, suspended their hosting service
• Finally, their lawyers stopped representing them.

So much for building your own platform.

If this isn't enough to dissuade the limousine libertarians from their position, let's apply their line of bullshit rhetoric to the Jim Crow laws. These were state and local laws that enforced segregation and were passed by Democrats to roll back the advancements made by blacks following the Civil War.

• Under Jim Crow, blacks and whites had to travel in separate rail cars, cars that while being separate were certainly not equal. According to the limousine libertarians, blacks should build their own railway system and quit their complaining.
• Blacks had to sit in the back of busses in Alabama until Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Instead of protesting, she should have started her own busing company.
• After Jim Crow laws were overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, some companies continued enforcing segregation. For example, black people couldn't eat at the same Woolworth lunch counters as whites. Maybe blacks should build their own lunch counters and let the free market work.

"This is horrible!" the limousine libertarians would say between sips of their caramel lattes while wondering if they need glasses for their myopia.

Yes, it is indeed horrible, but if they are consistent, they must condone this.

"But they're private businesses, they can do what they want!" the limousine libertarians bleat.

No, they can't do what they want. Being a business owner doesn't absolve him of the obligation to do what is right.

Further, in what sense are they "private" businesses? They lost that status when they became proxy law or edict enforcers - like with the enforcement of Jim Crow laws, or with tax laws, or with the companies that currently enforce China Flu restrictions. They lost it when corporations harvested and sold customer data without consent. Big tech companies certainly lost their status as private businesses when they interfered with and invalidated our elections.

The problem with limousine libertarians (they may be chauffeured in limousines, but they're usually the chauffeurs) is that they are silent in the face of oligarchy. Their "build you own" mantra is just a stale bromide used to cover their cowardliness while allowing them to feign enlightenment.

Bootlickers, Ahoy

Republicans knew this would happen, that big tech would flex their muscles. Trump vetoed the NDAA in part because it retained the Section 230 blanket protections for big tech. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was himself briefly banned from Twitter in 2019, voted to override Trump's veto. Given the Republicans' refusal to investigate election fraud, this turncoat behavior is to be expected from them.

Politicians weren't the only quislings...

The extent to which a few patriot commentators are willing to accept all this is nauseating. A few days ago the host of one online video show stated that this is not a free speech issue since you, gentle social media user, agreed to their terms of service agreements.

You'd think such commentators never heard about individual rights: such rights, be they God-given or follow from our nature as rational animals, are not gifts from the state. Individual rights, including the freedom of speech, are inalienable, which means they cannot be transferred or signed away. So much for terms of service agreements.

This same commentator was excoriating Trump supporters for doing nothing but flying their American flags, having fun at Trump rallies, engaging in online arguments with Leftists - in other words, for enjoying the relative freedom that we had under Trump.

What should we do instead? One would hope that this commentator would implore us to be wolves instead of sheep. He didn't, he was too busy either wallowing in guilt or insisting that we wallow in guilt. No one told him that masochism has no place outside the bedroom.

The Politics of the Future

Conservative Twitter users are cutting their losses and heading to greener pastures. This loss of users won't just impact Twitter's customer count, but also the quality of the platform: Twitter thrives on conflict, and without conservatives Twitter will just be an echo chamber where liberals boast about their intersectionist brownie points.

Meanwhile, Trump seems to be experiencing an increase in popularity - we are seeing the Streisand Effect in action!

No reporter has investigated how the actual process by which the deplatforming of Trump and the attack on Parler were orchestrated - which is not surprising. Did we witness a series of independent actions, or were they coordinated? Are the CEOs acting on their own wokeness, or are they responding to a woke mob in order to appease them?

In Twitter's case, Jack Dorsey took the initiative, at least based on the Project Veritas video. Similar videos from inside Google show the same thing. This may or may not hold for other tech giants and doesn't address whether there is collusion among them.

Again, in this conservative cleansing, are the companies taking the initiative, or are they reacting?

In one sense, it doesn't matter - the companies are the ones doing the deplatforming and the election-rigging, and they richly deserve retribution for their actions.

It does matter in another sense, because we must know who is in the driver's seat, the CEOs or the social justice warriors. If the CEOs are in charge, then they will influence the woke mob to do their bidding. If the SWJs are in charge, then the CEOs will be constantly blown about, constantly adjusting their company's terms of service to address the latest outrage du jour.

CEOs can make the claim that they actually built their companies, even though they have wet noodles for spines. The SJWs' only hold on the world are other people's tolerance for their shrillness and arrogance. These pink-haired, skinny-jean wearing, dildo waving hipsters only claim to importance is that they are woke. They are actually less intelligent after getting their gender studies degrees than before they entered college. They truly expect the federal government to pay off their useless degrees that rendered them not only unemployed but unemployable, and they see nothing wrong with shitting in their own mess kit.

In essence, tech CEOs and woke hipsters are equally unqualified to mettle in the affairs of others, and their sense of entitlement over the affairs of others must be resisted at all costs.

If the CEOs are acting on their own initiative, then they are on the treadmill of politics, not technology and not business. Perhaps they will realize that this wasn't the reason they got into the IT business in the first place, but that's doubtful.

If they are reacting to the petulant demands of the woke mob, then the CEOs are blind cowards who evade the fact that mobs are never satisfied by appeasement or capitulation. In reference to countries that were neutral at the start of World War 2, Winston Churchill said:

"Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear greatly that the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar ever more loudly, ever more widely."

This applies to corporations as well.

The answer to who is in the driver's seat ultimately answers another question: is America now an oligarchy or a mobocracy, the pure democracy that the Left wants? It is too early to tell, but something we know now is that businesses will be the enforcers of either alternative, and that their terms of service are more important than our Bill of Rights.

(From Stonetoss Comics)

Funny Mask Story

This happened back before Christmas...

I was on a phone call with Chris L., one of the founders of the militia in which I serve. Had him on headphones while I was picking up groceries. Probably not the sort of thing I should be doing with him, but... eh.

I was almost done shopping when a grocery clerk approaches me and asks: "do you have a mask?" I tell him I didn't. He scurries off (I assume to talk to his manager); when he returns he asks if I want one. I said "no". He scurries off again.

Then his manager comes up to me and says: "sir, you need to wear a mask in here." And I replied that we don't have to do anything but die, and even that is subject to medical advances.

He then says: "if you don't wear a mask then you'll have to leave." I replied: "OK, call the police." He scurries off.

So I finish shopping and go to the self-checkout scanner when he approaches me again.

"Sir, it is the law that you wear a mask."

"Laws must be approved by the legislature, and they have passed nothing. The only thing you're going on is the governor's decrees."

"But Governor Wolf [Pennsylvania's governor] says you have to wear a mask!"

I replied: "Fuck Governor Wolf."

If I thought of it at the time, I would have asked him if he's the governor's boyfriend.

I paid for my groceries and left the store. The police never came.

Then I remembered that Chris L was listening in on this and he was laughing his ass off!

 

Letter from an FBI Fanboi

Dear FBI,

Any agency once ran by a cross-dresser who used his position to give facials to the bigwigs in DC can't be all that bad! I'm a big fan of your organization for that reason! In fact I've often fantasized about giving facials to those very same politicians, judges, and bureaucrats - or even better, white-washing their tonsils! Cross-dressing like J Edna Hoover would be a real turn-off for me, however.

According to the news, you are looking for photos from the Capitol Building occupation on Wednesday, and I want to help! Here's what's on my camera roll...

We found this guy asleep with a crack pipe in his mouth. His first name is Hunter, and that's all I know about him.

Then there's this video - it shows a man of some importance bragging about how he withheld aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor investigating his son's business was fired. I think he's the father of the guy in the first picture. Mr. Sleepy Head Crack Pipe and his dad used an entire country to launder money just like a petty criminal uses a laundromat! Surely you must be interested in him!

Here are some photos from earlier this week in DC. You can tell the rioters in the first photo are MAGA supporters because they're carrying a US flag.

Oh wait, never mind, they were from the George Floyd riots back in June when riots mostly peaceful protests were acceptable.

I'm not sure if this man was in DC this week, but I do know he crossed from DC into Philadelphia where he and his friends attacked two Marines. This evil man was charged with "ethnic intimidation." He's white and he ethnically intimidates people, so he must be a Trump supporter!

Here's a victim of MAGA violence. He's an investigative reporter who was attacked while in Portland. He's gay, a journalist, and the child of immigrants, which makes him triply damned in the eyes of those evil Trumpsters!

Last fall the House Oversight Committee held hearings about all the white nationalist violence. Those acts of violence were committed by those horrible, dastardly MAGA people! Here's two photos of those people when they were in DC!

Never mind, those photos were also from the George Floyd riots, but they clearly show white people behaving badly.

Here's a video of the people the House was really investigating. It shows them looting stores, and they didn't even wait for Black Friday!

Back to the father of the guy with the crack pipe. Here's a video of him admitting to orchestrating voter fraud! He must be a Trump supporter to be that evil! He just gave a facial to each and every American citizen - J Edna would be proud! Instead of investigating him, maybe you should hire him!

I've done some investigation on my own! Our governor here in Pennsylvania implemented mail-in voting without the consent of the state legislature. He closed all the small businesses over China Flu except for a business owned by his family. He also sent China Flu carriers to live in old-age homes. Did you know he has a Porn Hub account? Here's a screen shot! I first thought it was a photo of Governor Wolf along with J Edna Hoover, but it really shows Wolf along with his Secretary of Health, whose pronouns are he/she.

Here's the last photo. It shows one of those vicious pitbulls that Trump supporters like, and I'm getting PTSD just by looking at him! I don't wear pearls like J Edna wore, but if I did I would clutch them Hooverishly! Please, put the "bravery" into FBI and catch this accursed canine!

I hope all this helps you apprehend those deplorable MAGA people! I'm sure they'd be treated the same as those mostly peaceful protesters in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and DC.

If this does help, please consider offering me a job! I'm keen on giving facials to people in high places, but I'd be a totally incompetent agent. I hope that doesn't disqualify me, I think I'd fit right in!

Thanks,
Your Biggest Fanboi and BFF!!!

 

PS:

This isn't Capitol-related but I just had an idea...

During the riots last year, palettes of bricks were deposited close to the riot locations. Cities have lots of security cams - do you think you can use them to figure out who did this?

It's kind of complicated, but here's what I mean:

Online investigators started with a video showing people removing signs and shields from a U-Haul truck for use in an upcoming BLM riot in Louisville. The investigators used guile to get the name the person who rented the truck. They then employed something called "Google" to research that person and learned that she works as a "bail disruptor" for an organization called the Bail Project.

By using their employee list, investigators then found that at least one person there is a former Soros Justice Fellow, which is a fellowship funded the Open Society Foundations.

Lots of celebrities and tech moguls donate to the Bail Project. Even Twitter's Jack Dorsey donated to them!

These online investigators did something called "clicking on links" to work this all out. Sneaky!

By the way, did you know that in 2019 the Bail Project bailed-out a guy who was being held for domestic violence, and then he went home and beat his wife to death? Something completely different happened later that year when they bailed out a man who threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend - he didn't kill her upon release but he did set her apartment on fire.

Those two tragic events are completely different, really! But there is that old adage: fool me once, shame on you; fool me 25 times, shame on me.

Anyway, the online sleuths who figured this out took maybe three hours to do all this - imagine how quickly the FBI could do it! This is the type of out-of-the-box thinking I would bring to your agency!

Bastille 2021

The morning started out just like any other Trump rally: beach balls being tossed around, complete strangers talking, venders selling their wares, and people dancing. Not a formal dance, or even a rave, but rather the type of movements one does when listening to the Village People, Elton John, and Michael Jackson, while the temperature is in the mid 30s and the wind is blowing.

It was a good time, yesterday morning and early afternoon, with the crowd filling the space from the White House Ellipse to past the Washington Monument. The crowd was eagerly anticipating the speakers, especially Donald Trump, Jr, Rudolph Giuliani, and finally the Orange One himself.

Trump laid out in detail, state by state, the voter irregularities - both statistical evidence as well as the direct evidence of fraud. These irregularities are more than large enough to contest the results in the swing states, and therefore warrant investigation. But asking journalists or law makers to do their job is like asking the FBI to do theirs. These irregularities have been completely ignored by mainstream media and the suppression of this information is more proof that the product of those news outlets is only "news" in the Tokyo Rose sense of the word. Trump did a very good job presenting this information, though he did cut his remarks short because it was just so cold.

He stated several times that the rally wasn't about him, it was about election integrity - that if these irregularities were not addressed and the perpetrators punished, then we will never trust the outcome of an American election again. He's right, and the politicians who accept the Electoral College results are betraying the American voter and not just Trump.

Trump further stated that some of his advisors asked him to concede and try again in four years. He rejected this advice because the present fraud must be addressed. He's right about that, too. Each delay is just time for those who perpetrated or benefitted from this fraud to cover their tracks and consolidate power.

At no point did either Trump or Giuliani encourage violence. Anything to the contrary is a bald lie supported only by intentional fabrication as pablum for those who would rather trust the media instead of their own lying eyes.

At the conclusion of Trump's remarks, we proceeded to the Capitol Building. The crowd was so large that both Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues were filled.

No one was expecting trouble. Trump rallies, despite the propaganda, are extremely peaceful affairs. People of all races and all religions attend Trump rallies, particularly at yesterday's rally - in contrast to BLM rallies, which are attended mostly by guilty white liberals. Even people who hate crowds are comfortable there. Our rallies are permeated by a sense of good will and mutual respect, and attendees routinely bring along their young children and dogs. There were representatives of several militias present, and none of us were prepared for subsequent events.

There were some who carried and later wore gas masks, however...

By the time I reached the Capitol Building, people were already at the uppermost level, where the dome meets the roof. In preparation for (somebody's) inauguration, bleachers were being erected on both the left and right of the building, and people were scaling those. The steps in front were filled with people.

We didn't know it at the time but a 6 PM curfew was declared. The curfew was never once announced over loudspeakers by the police, nor was the death of at least one of the people who penetrated the building. Phone service was interrupted and Internet connection was spotty, and we had only rumor and hearsay, not actual information. We certainly didn't learn of Pence's decision to ignore the voter fraud, which was probably a good thing given the mood of the crowd.

The police action occurred as follows:

At least four sharp shooters and spotters were positioned in at least two locations on top of the Capitol. They were acting as overwatch.

The police made their appearance at the highest part of the building and began lobbing either tear gas or CS gas at us, purely as a "softening up" move. They then cleared out the highest part that the occupiers gained, using gas to disperse the majority of the people and arresting the remainders.

They then lobbed CS at the bleachers on the left in order to clear them. They arrested at least one person. They repeated this with the bleachers on the right. This was done in an extremely methodical fashion.

Finally, they got to the lowest level, the part with the Capitol steps. They repeated the same process there to clear us out.

In typical Trump-supporter humor/irony, we began chanting "hands up don't shoot" and "I can't breathe."

I absorbed what I assume was CS on three occasions. The first was when I was trying to help a man who absorbed quite a bit more of the gas. I told him not to rub his eyes. He insisted on using water to wash the chemicals out of his eyes, even though that prolongs the burning. I got caught when the wind shifted direction.

The second time (the worst of the three) was when I was helping a man who was blinded from the gas. What alerted me to his plight was that while everybody was either walking or running to get away from the gas, he was still, just standing still, facing away from the Capitol. He wasn't completely frozen, but he was mostly standing in place. When he did move it was towards a step over which he would fall. I walked him away from that step and had him sit on one of the low walls found throughout the Capitol. He later told me that he was a USMC veteran, and I have never seen a more disappointed man.

The third time happened just because I wasn't upwind from the gas.

While CS may not go well with whiskey, it should be a good mix with vodka. It is certainly good for the sinuses.

The crowd was indignant over the police officers' actions, mostly over our removal from the Capitol steps. After all, it was us who supported them while Antifa and BLM burned and looted cities. It was us who supported them when Antifa and BLM attacked them and firebombed their cruisers. It was us who opposed all attempts at defunding or disbanding them.

We demanded that they uphold their oaths and reminded them that refusal to do so makes them traitors. This fell on death ears, ears which were hidden under black helmets with face shields attached.

As I was leaving, one person with a megaphone was imploring us not to hate the police for all this. He said that we can't hate them for just doing their job, and that we would be as bad as Antifa and BLM if we did criticize them.

I confronted this man, and said two things to him:

First, the "just doing my job" excuse may sometimes be appropriate for pre-adolescent burger flippers or gas station attendants, but is never fitting for a law enforcement officer, whose salary is publicly funded, and who must be held to far higher standards. Decisions of conscience are never above anyone's pay grade.

Second: both sides in any conflict take actions designed to do harm to the other. What makes one side good and one side bad is determined mostly by what they're fighting for. Antifa and BLM are fighting for the servitude of socialism, for permanent revolution, and for the termination of the American culture. They pine for a Looking Glass world where black is white, where men can get pregnant, and the ones who can't and are of a certain skin color are by nature evil. They're not afraid of doing dirty work, but they are also not above getting others to do their dirty work.

We're fighting for freedom and the American way of life, and we do the work ourselves.

Antifa chants "death to America" while they loot and burn innocent businesses. Yesterday at the Capitol we were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, singing "the Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America."

For anyone who believes that all political movements are equivalent, consider this: there were plenty of opportunities for us to set the Capitol Building on fire - the bleachers were partially covered with cloth and canvas, they had wooden decks, and there were numerous small wooden construction projects underway. Each of those could have easily been set ablaze. But we did not set them on fire. Why didn't we? Because we are intelligent enough to separate the founding ideals of our country from the politicians and bureaucrats who claim they are managing it but are really plundering it.

I exited when the police officers were about five feet from me. The reason I left was this: when facing an opponent with a tactical advantage, there is nothing wrong with breaking contact... so long as this is followed by consideration of lessons learned, and the willingness and intention to use those lessons in subsequent engagements.

 

The Context

Yesterday's events didn't occur in a vacuum.

We have been called racists, Nazis, sexists, homophobes, transphobes, Islamophobes, and deplorables for the last 12 years. All of these claims are made with zero evidence against the vast majority of patriots. Being called a Nazi or a racist used to be grounds for a fist fight. Now it has become not only acceptable but common. It became that way thanks to the anonymity of the Internet, through the intellectual sugaring-over implied by the term "microaggression", and, honestly, due to the politeness of those on the Right. It is espoused repeatedly by Barack Hussein Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and numerous athletes, all of whom are the epitome of poor and oppressed people.

Add to this the China Flu lockdowns, arbitrary business closures, and pointless mask regulations dictated by certain governors with zero legislative approval.

Add to this the way that tech companies have been allowed to censor conservatives, deplatform them, and fire their conservative employees, all without consequence and all with the protections granted by Section 230.

Add to this the way that the "justice" system turns a blind eye to the actions of Antifa and BLM, not only last summer but going all the way back to January 2017 when rioters destroyed DC buildings as well as a limousine driven by a Pakistani immigrant.

Add to this the Republicans' move to deny giving Americans $2000 in China Flu relief and instead giving us $600 while funding numerous pork projects - all while sending money to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Curacao, and Trinidad and Tobago, exactly none of which are American states.

The cherry on top of this shit sundae is the fraudulent election, and the way all the people who could and should do something are refusing to act. They refuse to act purely for political opportunity, not realizing that the outcome of all future elections will be determined not by the American people but rather by Dominion Voting Systems and similar companies.

These events impact all Americans, not just those on the Right. Those on the Left or in the middle mostly have yet to experience this, but their time is coming.

This modern-day Bill of Particulars is the context of yesterday's occupation of the Capitol Building, and it will determine our foreseeable future.

 

The Consequences

One outcome from this is that patriots must reevaluate our relationship with the police. Almost all of us generally favor the police, have some type of "Blue Lives Matter" sticker, or a "Support our Police" yard sign, or even a US flag with one of the stripes painted blue. We continued to support them even when they allowed Milo Yiannopoulos to be chased by rioters from the campus of UC Berkeley, the home of the Free Speech Movement. This support continued through the riots they allowed to happen in Portland, Seattle, and other major cities. The police have been given the moral equivalent of a blank check, and they cashed it.

Another consequence is that the Republican Party has been given a well-deserved black eye. Between the stimulus bill debacle, their willingness to throw President Trump under the bus, and their unwillingness to investigate this fraudulent election, they have failed everybody in this country.

Speaking of Cuckservatives, Vice President Mike Pence, the largest cuck of them all, could have stopped all this. There is more than sufficient evidence indicating that the 2020 election was massively fraudulent, and what Pence needed to do was state that fact and initiate a thorough audit of the votes, a review of the voting equipment, and a review of the governors that implemented mail-in voting without the required legislative approval.

Instead, that coward caved. He was working under the mistaken assumption that he has a future in politics. He doesn't, but he surely arranged to have a golden parachute.

One must ask whether agents provocateurs were involved and patriots must now be on guard for this possibility. If patriots were acting alone, would we have occupied the steps of the Capitol? Yes, and proudly so. Would we have scaled the bleachers? Maybe so, maybe not. Would we have broken into the rotunda? Absolutely not.

A good friend of mine compared yesterday's events to the Storming of the Bastille. If agents provocateurs were involved, then the proper parallel would be the false flag operation at Gleiwitz. Either way, the establishment response will parallel the German's reaction to the Reichstag fire or the American response to 9-11.

Ultimately, yesterday's events supplied direct proof that the Right is willing to fight for what we believe. We have been in a war in this country with Leftist ideologies for a long time, yet only one side was fighting. Very much of what the Right does is merely posturing and bravado, unfortunately.

This allowed journalists and media personalities to slander, and businesses to commit the fraud that is deplatforming. It allowed district attorneys, judges, and politicians to commit fraud and treason. This is all because they are all cowards who are afraid of implied or actual intimidation from the woke mob. They knew that the Right would only verbally defend them, and that the Justice Department wears rose-colored blindfolds.

Yesterday's events (regardless of involvement by any agents provocateurs) prove that we can indeed fight. We put all of the establishment on alert - they can no longer act with impunity. We eliminated the safe space afforded by the middle ground, and that their time is up.

 

(Photo from The Architect of the Capitol)

The Last Fourth

We remember important first events - the first time you met the person who will become your significant other, the first words and first steps of your growing child. We also remember important last events - the last time you visited your alma mater, the last time you spoke with a dying parent.

Some events, though, are taken for granted - we didn't correctly identify the importance of an event until after it happened - so we remember neither the first nor the last time they occurred.

For example, my ex significant other and I always used to drive at least an hour to some random small town just to have pizza for dinner. The particular town or restaurant didn't matter - all small towns have good local Italian restaurants. What mattered is that we did this together, and that we enjoyed it. It was such a simple thing, and neither of us at the time realized how important those weekly outings were. For that reason, I cannot tell you the name of the town or restaurant we first ate at. I thought these road trips would go on forever, and now that he and I are separated, I can't remember the last place we went to. All I know is that there was a first town and restaurant and a last town and restaurant, and that there will be no more such road trips.

The same goes with holidays, Independence Day in particular. I have a childhood memory of my first fireworks show: the symmetry of the explosions, the three-dimensionality of the trails of sparks, how the bursts looked like flowers, only loud! At the time I didn't know why there were fireworks on that day, the Fourth of July, but I knew that that day must be important.

Years and years later, I also recall the last fireworks show I attended, which was in 2010. In the time between the first fireworks show and that last one, I became extremely averse to their sounds as well as to crowds. This may sound stupid, but there it is.

In an attempt to cure myself of this, I attended the 2010 Fourth of July celebration at a beach town in Maryland. I arrived very early, found a place on the beach as close as possible to the fireworks launcher, laid back on my towel, stretched my arms out, and watched. By the end, I was tired from the conscious effort needed not to move, and my hands were sore from grabbing the sand and towel for dear life! As I returned to my car, several strangers on the boardwalk asked if I was OK. I wasn't, but it didn't matter, for I made it through the whole thing.

This brings us to the Fourth of July 2020. Most large fireworks displays were cancelled because of the China Flu. Even if they weren't canceled, the meaning of Independence Day has changed for some Americans. Instead of being a time to celebrate our freedom, for them it has become an occasion to disparage our country.

There are three groups of people doing this.

First, there are the gay rights activists. They claim that homophobia exists, but to justify this they must add letters to what used to be only LGB. By doing so, they drop the idea that what makes a gay person gay is who he or she is attracted to, and replace it with an "assigned gender preference." They elevate fetishes to the status of sexual orientation. They also make a lack of self-awareness into an orientation, calling such people "transgender," "non-binary," "questioning," "pansexual," or "gender fluid". Further, some of them are attempting to normalize pedophilia, saying that the adult participants in this are "minor-attracted people" and trying to add a second "P" to the ever-growing initialism of non-cis-heterosexual "orientations".

Instead of "LGBTTQQIAAP," activists should save time and letters just by using "ABS" - anybody but straight.

With each letter added to "LGB" and each color added to the rainbow flag, someone claims a victory. But victories are meaningless when the opposition is negligible and the cost of losing is nonexistent.

If they want a true victory, these so-called activists should attempt to end the lawful execution of gays in Muslim countries. But they won't even try, since they are convinced that all cultures must be respected.

Then there is the Black Lives Matter movement, which is composed either of guilty white liberals or people looking for any opportunity to loot and burn. Black lives matter to them as long as it is a black man who was killed by a white cop, or if the black in question votes for the Democrats.

Of course there was slavery, but we fought a war to end it. The people who claim racism still exists are the same ones rewriting the history of the Civil War and destroying monuments describing that war. BLM continues to fight a war that ended in 1865 while completely ignoring the fact that slavery is still common in Africa and that there is an active slave trade in the Arab world.

Finally, there are the socialists calling themselves Antifa. They despise capitalism while living off their parents' trust funds and organizing their permanent revolution by using capitalist-made computers, all while enjoying overpriced coffee at Starbucks.

These modern-day Trotskyites operate in a logical and historical vacuum, ignoring the mass genocides that occurred in the countries governed by the very leaders that Antifa idolizes, all while favorably comparing themselves to American D-Day troops.

The commonality to these groups is that their members don't know how good they have it, and they have to invent nonexistent enemies to aggrandize their otherwise unremarkable lives. They are fueled by a vacuous education system, encouraged by their over-indulgent parents, enabled by left-wing politicians and judges, and operate unopposed by spineless cuckservastives.

The people doing this denigration are either ignorant of our history or were taught a straw-man version of history. We're the country that built the Transcontinental Railroad in only six years. We conquered the Axis Powers in under six years. We landed men on the Moon nine years after Kennedy set the direction. We've cured diseases, invented technologies, raised the standard of living for everybody. We're the ones who coined the term "self-made man," and many of us live that American dream.

These same people who deprecate this country have the whole world in their pockets, literally, either in iPhone or Android format. Yet the best they can do is defecate in their own kitchens.

Given all this, one must wonder if the July Fourth that ended a few hours ago is indeed the last Independence Day we'll see that hasn't been eviscerated of content and celebrated only out of habit.

While all the local fireworks shows were cancelled, some individuals at nearby apartment complexes decided to have their own shows. This is America at its best - private individuals taking up the slack left by our spineless representatives. I went to one of these apartment complex shows; while the crowds weren't very big, the noises were still nerve wracking. For if this is to be the last real Fourth of July, I want to experience it, and I want it to hurt.