June 24, 2022 by Dave Olsson - 2 Comments

Daily Broadside | Something, Somewhere, Sometime, Will Have to Give

Daily Verse | Psalm 73:2-3
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Friday’s Reading: Psalms 78-83
Saturday’s Reading: Psalms 84-89

It’s Friday and the end of another week in the Brandon Archipelago from where there is no escape. There aren’t any more undiscovered continents to which we can flee the developing tyranny here. The only options are to submit or to join the battle when it comes.

The American cultural and political landscape has been bulldozed and fundamentally reshaped over the last half century. A one-party oligarchy tied to the radical ideology of identity politics controls our major institutions as populist resistance rises. Digital technology continues to reshape human behavior and institutions, causing an escalating war over its control.

The views of roughly half the population of America are increasingly suppressed and delegitimized by most major institutions and media outlets. This difference in opinion is not a mere matter of policy preferences. Americans are divided about what men and women, the family, citizenship, and nation-states are and ought to be, as well as when human life begins.

Few want to admit the reality of the situation, but Americans are now divided over the building blocks and the purpose of human civilization. Many do not consider what underlies all the factionalism amidst the noise, but this does not change the sordid reality. There is no possibility of reconciling this fundamental opposition unless one side or the other wins.

I’m not advocating an insurrection, although I believe that the elites are pressing to provoke one every day. I wouldn’t be surprised if one eventually broke out. A real insurrection, I mean, not a group of unarmed patriotic Americans walking through the halls of Congress as if on a tour.

We’ve already withstood more tyranny and the erosion of our rights than those suffered by the colonists who took up arms at Lexington and Concord and threw tea into Boston harbor. There are so many, we could write a new declaration of independence and a list of grievances similar to what Thomas Jefferson penned some 246 years ago.

Victor Davis Hanson is an accomplished historian and author, and one of my favorite columnists. He’s sounding the alarm, too.

“I hesitate to say this, we’re not in a society ruled by law,” Hanson, a senior fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” referring to attacks on pro-life groups which he argued have largely gone unpunished. “We’re in a revolutionary period like 18th century France or 1920s Russia where the law is fluid and it’s whatever the power to be says it is.”

Our life together is being intentionally battered by cultural Marxists, who are destroying the foundations of an ordered society. We’re up against a triumvirate of institutions working together to create chaos and deprive us of our freedoms: politics, journalism and business.

While the politicians have to maintain the appearance of respecting the Bill of Rights, they are working hand-in-glove with “the press” to suppress news that contradicts the Leftist narrative. How much have you heard about the assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh? How about the Hunter Biden story that every outlet dismissed as Russian propaganda?

Big business is on board with the Marxist agenda. Most have embraced LGBTQWERTY+ and gladly implemented Covid policies. Workers who object or refuse to cooperate with their (unconstitutional) demands find themselves at risk of losing their jobs.

In the past, the American Right set out to conserve American institutions and an American way of life through partisan political action and advocacy. The “culture war” was always real, but for the most part it was fought within explicitly political spaces via explicitly political means. Businesses and the economy were considered “neutral” spaces, subject to discipline from shareholders and market demand.

Today, however, few elite professions or corporations allow their members to safely dissent from woke dogma; everyone knows they risk their job and career if they do so publicly. The woke agenda has been grafted into most major corporations. And since culture is made in large part by corporations, mainstream media and culture have largely turned into tools to support one side of the divide.

There’s only so much that rational people will endure. Something, somewhere, sometime, will have to give.

Today is my last post for a couple of weeks as I take some time away to a favorite spot on the east coast. My childhood friend, Bruce Gust, will be filling in for me while I’m gone like he did last year. He’s a solid Christian, a former Marine, a conservative, a husband and father, blogs at Muscular Christianity, and knows what a woman is.

You’re in good hands.

Have a great ~~weekend~~ couple of weeks.

January 13, 2022 by Dave Olsson

Daily Broadside | It’s Not Liberty if You Fear Your Rulers

Daily Verse | Genesis 29:18
Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Thursday’s Reading: Genesis 30-31

Happy Thursday, Broadsiders. Thanks for sharing your time with me.

There’s something very wrong with our government. As I wrote yesterday, the conflict we’re seeing in our country is ultimately between those who support the Judeo-Christian values upon which our government was founded (whether or not they are truly Christ followers) and those who deny God and want to supplant him with themselves as ruler. It’s the age-old dilemma of Man v. God and I can tell you right now that, in that engagement, it will not end well for man.

That’s at the core of the dilemma we face, but when I say something’s wrong with our government, I mean that it’s been inverted. Our Constitution starts with the words, “We the People” for a very good reason: we determined to govern ourselves. It was we, the people, who set up our system of government by writing and ratifying a law—the U.S. Constitution—to which all other governance in the U.S. must submit. It is the highest law of the land.

The people passed that law establishing a stronger central government over these United States. It’s the only law passed by we the people. Because it was written by us, that means that, technically and legally, all other forms of governance and governors under that Constitution are subject to our oversight. We did not pass that law to establish such government and then say to it, “Feel free to do what you want, we’re your subjects.”

But that’s not how it feels in today’s society, does it? Do you get the sense that the federal government is concerned at all about whether they’re following the will of the people as expressed in the Constitution? Do you get the sense that all of our state legislatures and governors are following the will of the people as expressed in the Constitution? Do you think that the judicial system we established has carefully ensured that they have faithfully applied the Constitution to their decisions free from their political biases?

If we’re honest, we have to admit that in today’s United States the inverse is true: we the people have become subject to the political agendas of those elected to high office. Our “representatives” aren’t concerned about whether they’re governance is Constitutional. One only has to look at all the federal “alphabet” agencies and the rules and regulations they create to know that Congress outsourced the legislative responsibilities the Constitution gave only to them.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. — Article I, Section I: Congress

Congresscritter A: Hey, I’ve got an idea! What if we make a law that gives someone else the job of making laws?

Congresscritter B: Wait, why would you do that if the Constitution only gives us that role?

Congresscritter A: If we delegate our law-making role to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats then the people can’t blame us for bad laws. If they can’t blame us for bad laws, we get re-elected!

Congresscritter B: Oh, I see. Then we can sit on committees to “oversee” the bureaucrats and call them in to testify when things go wrong and pretend that we’re representing the people! What a country!

No, to the extent that they are concerned at all about the Constitution, it’s about being elected “by the people” then taking that as a vote of confidence to shove their political agenda through the system and finding ways to either evade the Constitution or weaponize it—such as twice impeaching a president to tarnish his standing and legacy.

The government that we the people authorized to “insure domestic tranquility” has intentionally dissolved our southern border and allowed hundreds of thousands of foreigners to flood our nation unchecked, essentially becoming wards of the state because they’re dependent on government handouts funded by the money they take from us.

The government that we the people formed is now calling parents “domestic terrorists” for objecting to the sexual perversion and Marxist indoctrination being foisted upon their children by government-run (public) schools.

The government that we the people created serially undermined, hampered, harassed and lied about an elected president’s relationship with Russia and spent millions of our hard-earned dollars “investigating” what they knew was a bogus case—and those responsible have not been punished according to law.

The government that we the people established to “promote the general welfare” has instead taken to promoting the welfare of only certain groups identified by the color of their skin, their sexual preferences, their political bias and any other category by which they can divide us.

The government that we the people oversee now passes trillion-dollar “budgets” that are thousands of pages long without giving legislators time to read and understand what is in them, robbing us of our wealth in the present and our children in the future to pay for it all.

You get the idea.

I’m not saying that there aren’t, can’t or won’t be differences of opinion or that our leaders can achieve complete neutrality or that they will get every decision right. But it’s clear that the government we forged has become an elitist cabal of grifters detached from the law they are supposed to preserve, protect and defend, who have in mind only their own interests—money, power, notoriety—or those of “special interest groups,” which means they are more concerned with pleasing their base than the whole of we the people.

Often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson, it was John Basil Barnhill who said, “Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.”

What is very wrong with our government is that it does not respect or fear the people, who are its rightful masters.

September 30, 2021 by Dave Olsson

Daily Broadside | Australia Goes Full Tyrannical. Can the U.S. Be Far Behind?

Daily Verse | Haggai 1:5
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.”

It’s Thursday and the last day of September 2021. What does it mean when you dream of waterskiing across a desert of wood?

Does it or does it not feel like the wheels have come off not only here in the U.S., but increasingly, around the world? It’s like the whole world has gone mad all at once, while we deplorables (aka. normal citizens) look around in disbelief while searching for remote hideouts we can run to when the jackbooted thugs are given permission to ignore our laws and our rights.

Speaking of jackbooted thugs, have you seen what’s going on in Australia, the former British penal colony? The continent is now one big police state. Here’s a video of three police officers questioning a homeowner about his knowledge of any protests he’s been to or any he knows are being planned.

For “safety” you know.

How is this real? pic.twitter.com/5G9ElM1uPU
— Echo Chamber (@echo_chamberz) September 23, 2021

Let’s get to the good stuff. Here are some officers arresting two elderly people, while one of the officers snatches one of the women’s phones while she’s videoing their conversation about being placed under arrest.

The Australian police terrorizing an elderly couple sitting on a bench without a mask. The police steal her phone so she can’t film to protect her civil rights. pic.twitter.com/q225p1yO0R
— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) September 25, 2021

UNREAL: Australians are being shot in the back as they are running away 👇🏼pic.twitter.com/n70WjeRg2I
— Art TakingBack 🇺🇸 (@ArtValley818_) September 22, 2021

Here’s a number of videos from Melbourne.

Australia as the world knew it, is dead…..
New dystopian medical terrorism is here…..
Special forces are out on the street in numbers…… Asking for vaccine certificates from people at random…..
Violent crack downs on streets..

This is medical martial law… pic.twitter.com/A0e4KAcbuU
— Zaid Hamid (@ZaidZamanHamid) September 24, 2021

Remember, this is all about a “virus” that has a better than 99.9% survival rate.

Or is it?

Daily Broadside | “We Shall Nobly Save, or Meanly Lose, the Last Best Hope of Earth”

Daily Verse | Hosea 13:6
When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;
then they forgot me.

On the weekly merry-go-round we arrive once more at Friday. Please dismount and exit on the far side of the ride.

In yesterday’s commentary I suggested that there were some other things I think we can do to resist the collapse of the United States as we know it. Certainly prayer and the other six activities recommended by Doug Wilson are central to preparing and, perhaps, surviving the fall of “the last, best hope of earth.”

When our Founders decided to separate from Great Britain, they wrote in the Declaration of Independence a list of the grievances they had against the British crown, i.e. King George III. Here is how the declaration introduces the list.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

“A long train of abuses and usurpations” refers to the regular violation of the colonists’ rights, including taxation without representation, cutting off the colonists’ ability to trade, keeping a standing army in the colonies and not allowing fair trials. The declaration goes on to repeat the claim that “the history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

I would dare say that we are now back at that stage in our current historical moment, the only difference being that the seat of “federal” government in 1776 was on the other side of the ocean. Today, it sits in Washington, D.C. and sounds an awful lot like what is described as “having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

Jefferson and the drafting committee wrote up a list of 27 “Facts” they would submit “to a candid world” as proof of their complaints. Listen to some of these and tell me this isn’t déjà vu all over again.

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Laws like keeping our borders secure and allowing oil processing and coal mining to proceed uninterrupted, to name just a couple.

“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.” Using pressure tactics or bribery or direct threats to gain compliance is as old as King George III. Anybody remember who said, “Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected congress”?

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” Internal Revenue Service, anyone? The FBI? Department of Justice? Department of Education? Do they not “harrass our people”?

“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” Can you say Mark Milley-Vanillie?

“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:” Do you consent to all of the taxes the government imposes on you? In addition to income taxes, there are hidden fees, surcharges, sales taxes and service charges that add up to $657.5 billion in hidden taxes that Americans pay each year. How about the House trying to pass $3.5 TRILLION in new spending? Guess how that will be funded.

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Domestic insurrections like antifa and Burn, Loot, Murder, Inc. and the invasion of inhabitants across our borders from all manner of places that do not understand or care about freedom who will destroy “all ages, sexes and conditions.”

In order to justify not just resisting, but actively fighting back, we need to make our case before “a candid world” and nation. Not that our domestic enemies would care or even be able to comprehend the purpose of such a document. They’d see it as disobedience and fly into a rage, just like King George III. But we need to have something that gives us a framework for seeing the situation clearly and provides a common justification for any action we take.

Someone has to do it, and perhaps we can start with the short list above, tying it back to our Founding and taking Jefferson’s words to heart, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Have a good weekend.