BLM + Antifa = KKK

by

Gadfly

Good Americans are worried and confused. 

They worry about the hateful tensions that politically divide America. 

They are confused as to why this is happening. 

One of the reasons is because there are bad Americans.

Yes, it is that simple—the existential and eternal contest between good and evil is on full display in America.

Groups of Americans symbolized in the title’s equation are bad people.  All have been or are spawned, encouraged, and sustained by a political ideology that claims to advocate for those on the margin, disenfranchised, under-represented, victims of cultural identity oppression, flouters of border sovereignty, and so forth.

The Ku Klux Klan emerged during the Post-Reconstruction Era as a terrorist effect upon those—black and white--who sought the full integration of the emancipated black into the fabric of American society.  A political ideology in the form of the Democrat Party advocated for slavery, fought Reconstruction efforts, established Jim Crow laws, and other means for denying liberty to black Americans.

Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964--clearly a legal and symbolic form of reparations for the sin of slavery--the modern Democrat exploits the perception of racism in other forms.  They cry “voter suppression” without any evidence to support it.  They cry “systemic racism” without any evidence to support it.  These machinations took place as the KKK lost currency with the more concerted effort to more fully integrate minorities in American society. 

The President Lyndon Johnson and Democrat-led Great Society agenda was designed to “buy” the minority vote through massive social welfare—a new form of chattel slavery.  America’s metropolitan inner-cities have been run by the Democrat Party for decades, where black-on-black homicides are endemic. How else does one explain the 80% intact families before the Great Society agenda and today’s 20%? 

Enter Black Lives Matter (BLM; part of the 170-organization network called the Movement for Black Lives).  No doubt some of the inspiration and justification came from the New Left’s Port Huron Manifesto and the creation of Students for a Democrat Society (members of which today occupy senior government positions, serve as university professors, and shape mainstream media). 

BLM was founded by three black, Marxist-trained women, who coined the term.  They naturally aligned with a group called Antifa (Anti-fascist), even though our current Democrat President dismissed them as “just an idea.” 

Combined, these two groups instigated riots across America to influence the 2020 presidential election (explicitly claimed on the BLM website).  Their efforts caused billions in damage and several deaths.  Their efforts were clearly and closely aligned with the Democrat Party. 

Reminiscent of Marxist communists, BLM routinely displays a raised black closed fist to signify solidarity among those aligned with a movement. 

Like the KKK’s symbolic clothing, Antifa wears black clothes and masks.

I have not come across any literature where a Post-Reconstruction Era Democrat spoke critically of the KKK.  Further, I am not aware of a single Democrat that has spoken out against BLM or Antifa. 

Good Americans have justification to be worried and confused. 

It is a citizen duty to recognize this threat to our Nation and to have the courage to do something about it. 

The risk of doing nothing?  Political chattel slavery, with a single political party (like communism or fascism) as the master.     

AD February 13, 2022

 

by

Gadfly

Strange title?

AD in this title refers to anno Domini, in the year of our Lord—the estimated birth of Jesus Christ as the anchor for our present Gregorian calendar.  This chronological reference point has fallen out of “grace” with the dominant and progressive secular humanists who now prefer BCE, which stands for Before the Common Era--even though it remains linked to the original Gregorian Calendar based on the birth of Christ.

          By changing the meaning (or lack of meaning) of the chronological element of our historical process, advocates can diminish the spiritual implication of natural law in deference to their own sense of morality in pursuit of utopia.  This is very Marxist in its approach.

Joseph Schumpeter captured the “Marxist effect” well in this passage from his book (published in 1950), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy:

In one important sense, Marxism is a religion.  To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which implies a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.  We may specify still further:  Marxist socialism also belongs to that subgroup which promises paradise on this side of the grave.  The religious quality of Marxism also explains a characteristic attitude of the orthodox Marxist toward opponents.  To him, as to any believer in a Faith, the opponent is not merely in error but in sin.  Dissent is disapproved of not only intellectually but morally.  There cannot be any excuse for it once the Message has been revealed (p. 5).

Why Does This Matter Now?

America is under assault—primarily from within by a domestic enemy.  The idea of America as envisioned in our founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and Bill of Rights—is under attack via radicalism, which seeks through multiple vectors to advance an alternate vision of America.  This alternate vision fragments, divides, and diminishes the fundamental spirit of what it means to be American.

          Today, I watched a powerful interview on the role Big Tech is playing in this alternate vision.  You can watch the entire interview here.  It is based on a Heritage Foundation report that you can access here.

          The research in the above report, its concerns about totalitarianism, and its implications for the future of America reinforces the mission of a new nonprofit organization called Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (www.starrs.us).

          Those who have been kind and gracious enough to follow Gadfly Corner over the years might be interested in checking out STARRS.  If you agree with the concerns and effort to stem the alternate vision of America, then please spread the word.        

Authoritarianism

by

Gadfly

          In my lifetime, the only American President I have heard or read to be an authoritarian is Donald Trump.  For example, see here, here, and here.  Even worse is the example here:  The “evidence” offered to support the authoritarian premise is tautological (i.e., a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form) in its construction . . . but it sure reads like the truth.

          Most of Trump’s Executive Orders were designed to reduce the insidious authoritarian policies from previous regimes.  When progressive federal judges imposed injunctions, Trump honored them until they were overruled by higher courts in accordance with our Constitution.

          Yes, Trump did fire members of his staff when their agenda was not compatible with his.  Trump was the one elected by “we the people,” and his allegiance was to them via Constitutional authority.

          What is missing from the left’s domination of the public narrative is that while Trump did not accept the explanations for the 2020 election (e.g., we’re still waiting to hear the results of the Arizona audit) he voluntarily left the White House.  There was no coup. 

Yet, talk about insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, completely ignores or denies the actual insurrection that took place across America during the summer of 2020.  Here is an excerpt from Mike Gonzalez’s recently published book, BLM:  The Making of a New Marxist Revolution:

Today, the First and Fourth Amendments prohibit much of the domestic surveillance work that would have been necessary to know how much of the 2020 protests were organized by a tight-knit group of Marxists.  We don't have the liberal democracy village by letting others destroy the liberal democracy village.  But have we left ourselves without adequate protection?  The changes that the leaders of the BLM organizations want would erode or extinguish our liberties.  This presents a conundrum.  Any conservative who may be tempted to think that those constitutional protections leave us vulnerable must balance that very real concern with the equally valid consideration of what an unleashed FBI could do to conservative movements freely carrying out constitutionally protected activity [Note: consider, for example, the FBI manufactured “right-wing conspiracy” to kidnap a sitting governor].

As a result, there is no place in the federal government--not in the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, or the DNI--where one can find out how much the 2020 protests, and all the deep societal changes that have followed in their wake, were the work of a network of groups whose leaders are committed to implementing a communist blueprint in the United States.  PolitiFact's Tom Kertscher is completely right in saying that many Americans who reject communism support Black Lives Matter.  When my well-meaning neighbors put up lawn signs that both praise BLM and declare "silence is violence," they don't get the contradiction.  They don't know what they don't know (pp. xx-xxi).

          With all the hype about a leftist authoritarian characterization of Donald Trump (and Trump voters by association), Joe Biden is being celebrated for his actual authoritarianism.  His calls for unity belie the demand for surrender and cooptation.  As F.A. Hayek observed in his chapter, “Planning and Democracy,” in The Road to Serfdom,

The common features of all collectivist systems may be described, in a phrase ever dear to socialists of all schools, as the deliberate organization of the labors of society for a definite social goal. That our present society lacks such “conscious” direction toward a single aim, that its activities are guided by the whims and fancies of irresponsible individuals, has always been one of the main complaints of its socialist critics.

In many ways, this puts the basic issue very clearly.  And it directs us at once to the point where the conflict arises between individual freedom and collectivism.  The various kinds of collectivism, communism, fascism, etc., differ among themselves in the nature of the goal toward which they want to direct the efforts of society.  But they all differ from liberalism and individualism in wanting to organize the whole of society and all its resources for this unitary end and in refusing to recognize autonomous spheres in which the ends of the individuals are supreme.  In short, they are totalitarian in the true sense of this new word which we have adopted to describe the unexpected but nevertheless inseparable manifestations of what in theory we call collectivism (p. 100; bold, italics are mine).

           We are being told the greatest threat to America is domestic white supremacy.  Yet, despite the evidence of thousands killed via Islamist ideology and hundreds of riots in 2020 stemming from leftist BLM and Antifa ideology, we are led to believe the January 6 Capitol riot represented an existential threat of white supremacy led by Donald Trump (like Orwell's manufactured Emmanuel Goldstein in 1984).  

Hundreds of Capitol rioters have been incarcerated for months without bail for mostly misdemeanor charges.  Some are in solitary confinement.  One Capitol rioter was returned to jail after being released on bail with a mandate from the judge to refrain from use of the Internet (a form of censorship).  Eerily, this form of government power was emphasized by Orwell in 1984 when O’Brien lectured Winston Smith: “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”     

The FBI has already reported there was no conspiracy to incite an insurrection on January 6, but Congress presses forward with its "insurrection" meme via a special committee to investigate the Capitol riot, issuing hundreds of subpoenas.  

Americans (to include a former president) with unacceptable political views are being "deplatformed," some even denied banking service. 

Then, there is the complicated set of lockdowns, quarantines, and mandated vaccinations and masks.  Check out this Tucker Carlson segment from his September 14 program.  In addition to explaining the little known (media suppression) loss of medical personnel from hospitals because they choose not to be vaccinated, Carlson explains how this Administration further divides Americans in terms of those who comply with authoritarian dictates and those who do not.

Last week, in an unprecedented action, 11 members of the Academies' Congressionally mandated Boards of Visitors were illegally/unconstitutionally terminated because their "values" were not aligned with the current Administration.

This week we learn from Bob Woodward that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley conspired against President Trump (see my earlier articles about Milley here and here).  If true, Milley’s actions are far more egregious than the private letter General Douglas MacArthur sent to Massachusetts Congressman Joe Martin in 1951 expressing his disagreement with President Truman’s policies for prosecuting the war in Korea.  When the Congressman made the letter public, Truman fired MacArthur.  Expressing concerns about policy with an American Congressman is significantly different from undermining an elected president in communications with a foreign counterpart.

What does all this mean? 

Leftists (even some right of center politicians) keep calling America a democracy, even though our Framers deliberately formed a republic as an offset to the dangers of democracy (see for example Federalist Paper 10).  Alexis de Tocqueville predicted what happens in a democracy (bold italics added for emphasis):

After having thus successfully taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned them at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community.  It covers the surface of society with a net-work of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd.  The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided:  men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting:  such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.  I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described, might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom; and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people.  Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free:  as they cannot destroy either one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once.  They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people (Democracy in America, 1840, p. 398).

Anyone familiar with communist/fascist regimes should recognize the signs of a similar regime emerging in America.  Hannah Arendt taught us about these dynamics in her books, The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition; F.A. Hayek shared his observations and analysis in The Road to Serfdom; and C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man.

If we fail or refuse to recognize authoritarianism so we can stop it, we will repeat 20^th Century totalitarianism, unified in collective misery in a wretched ash heap of history.

  

Mass Psychosis

 

by

Gadfly

According to the National Institute for Mental Health:

The word psychosis is used to describe conditions that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality. When someone becomes ill in this way it is called a psychotic episode. During a period of psychosis, a person’s thoughts and perceptions are disturbed and the individual may have difficulty understanding what is real and what is not.  Symptoms of psychosis include delusions (false beliefs) and hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear). Other symptoms include incoherent or nonsense speech, and behavior that is inappropriate for the situation. A person in a psychotic episode may also experience depression, anxiety, sleep problems, social withdrawal, lack of motivation, and difficulty functioning overall.

Context

The above description of psychosis regards an individual and his or her association with reality.  Can it be induced by external influences?  The novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, presents such a case. 

Reports of mind manipulation are not fiction.  Cult leader Jim Jones had such an influence.  Over 900 lost their lives through murder or suicide due to mind control.

Controversially, following the Korean Conflict, American prisoners of war (POWs) were given an opportunity to voluntarily repatriate to America, assuming successful brainwashing had changed their allegiance to North Korea or China.  This was negotiated via a program called Operation Big Switch.  Some defected. One source documents 21 defectors.  Another source lists them by name.   Here is another source.  Building upon recently declassified documents, Monica Kim provides a compelling (if not disturbing) account in her book, The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War:  The Untold History. 

Aside from reports about mind manipulation of American POWs during the Korean Conflict, here is a short interview with Yeonmi Park, a former North Korean who defected through China and Mongolia to America.  She captures her experience and insights in her book, In Order to Live:  A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom.  Ms. Park authenticates experiencing mind control, not only in North Korea but also as a student at Columbia University.  Former American Communist, Bella Dodd, reports a similar experience at Columbia in her memoir, School of Darkness. 

In an attempt to diminish the notion of mind control (brainwashing), here is another article that unwittingly validates mind control because such activities did in fact influence the way people thought about it.

Mind Control and Mass Psychosis

          Based on the above definition, the American public is experiencing mass psychosis.  Why?  A recent Daily Wire op-ed by Brad Schaeffer, “Climate Change, Public Health, Racism: The Church of Leftism’s Diabolical Trinity,” compellingly argues how the left is exercising mind control over the American public.  Others have also been warning us for quite some time:  Aldous Huxley in his book, A Brave New World; George Orwell in his books, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm; F. A. Hayek in his book, The Road to Serfdom; C. S. Lewis in his book, The Abolition of Man; Hannah Arendt in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism; and more recently, by Rod Dreher in his book, Live Not by Lies:  A Manual for Christian Dissidents; and Mike Gonzalez in his books, The Plot to Change America:  How Identity Politics Is Changing the Land of the Free and BLM:  The Making of a New Marxist Revolution.
          How can mass psychosis happen?  As a trained psychologist, I strongly support the explanation provided in this well-packaged video (warning it is fast moving, so be prepared to pause periodically to absorb and process the evidence).

Solution

          For those Americans capable of thinking for oneself, the evil forces at play must be identified, called out, and diminished by advancing truth.  This is truth that emanates from the trials and wisdom of tradition.  It is discovered, not created. 

The principles and values that underwrite our God-given inalienable rights have been articulated in our Declaration of Independence.  This was not a random, capricious undertaking.  It was a deliberate process to capture and understand the wisdom of achievement, disaster, and folly in human affairs.

          Organizations exist and are forming to resist and counter the forces inducing individual (increased suicides is an unfortunate effect) and mass psychosis in America.  A newly formed organization, founded by veterans, is Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (www.STARRS.us).  It has been called “controversial.”  Those making such claims appear to favor racism and radicalism in the Services; or, worse, they have surrendered to the powers inducing mass psychosis.

For now, most organizations are growing in terms of supporters, yet work in isolation from other like-minded organizations.  When more of these organizations form partnerships in achieving mutually agreeable goals, they will develop the necessary synergy to counter the mass psychosis and restore a healthy Republic.

As I was about to publish this article, I stumbled across a short video (published three days ago) by Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, “The Threat of Totalitarianism.”  His message captures far more eloquently the solution to the problem of mass psychosis.  You will want to watch it more than once.        

Slippery Nipple

 

by

Gadfly

A Slippery Nipple is a cocktail.  Here is one description:  The Slippery Nipple is a layered cocktail shooter most commonly composed of Baileys Irish Cream and Sambuca. When prepared properly, the ingredients remain in two distinct visible layers due to the relative densities of the ingredients.   Afterall, even diversity among forms of alcohol can appear “multicultural.” 

Here is one source for how to make a Slippery Nipple along with some variation:  Slippery Nipple Cocktail Recipe - Cocktails With Class.  A Slippery Nipple is very tasty; but I still prefer a Manhattan—a sipping drink for those who are philosophically inclined.   

Why does how to make a slippery nipple matter?  Most good bar tenders know how to make one.  Expertise matters, even in such simple areas as making a Slippery Nipple.

I suspect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (AOC), a bar tender after graduating from Boston University (majoring in international relations and economics), knows how to make a Slippery Nipple.  Now, she is a second term U.S. Representative, representing New York’s 14^th Congressional District.

Somehow AOC has acquired expertise in “green” energy and a wide range of social issues.  She somehow has discovered the benefits of socialism.  This may have manifested before or because of campaigning for Bernie Sanders.  So, she benefits from followers who believe there is a free lunch, and they vote for her.  Most of her followers likely have no idea what happened to Venezuela—a thriving capitalist nation killed by socialism.  This is not unusual or unprecedented.  Rod Dreher captures this naivete among citizens who previously lived in totalitarian regimes in his book, Live Not by Lies:  A Manual for Christian Dissidents. 

AOC has had no children—from bringing them into this world and raising them.  Yet, she rails about Texas’s recent legislation on abortion.  Less than 1% of abortions stem from rape or incest (see my article about The Logic of Abortion).  About 99% of pregnancies stem from consensual sex.  Pregnancy manifests based on natural law and human choice; it is not an indiscriminate airborne disease. 

Expertise matters.  AOC:  Stick to slippery nipples.

The Ruler’s Lieutenants

by

Gadfly

         On July 29, 2021, Paul Jay interviewed Mikey Weinstein on his program, a Canadian-based podcast, The Analysis.News.  Here is the headline: “Full Interview – Powerful Christian Nationalists in Military See Trump as Vehicle for Authoritarian Religious State – Mikey Weinstein.”  The entire interview with adjoining transcript is available here.

         Here is how Weinstein was introduced: 

Now joining us is Mikey Weinstein. He’s the founder and president of the seven-time Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the MRFF. Mikey was named one of the 100 most influential people in U.S. Defense by Defense News, which is a major publication read by just about everybody in the “defense industry.” Mikey represents nearly 75,000 active and retired reserve service members.  He himself is an honor graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and formerly worked in and for the West Wing as a legal counsel in the Reagan White House. 

         The introduction alone begs questions.

First, how does Jay know the MRFF was nominated seven times for the Nobel Peace Prize?  Mikey told him?  Who nominated the MRFF for the Nobel Prize?  Perhaps a Freedom of Information Act request might answer this question.

Second, named one of the most influential people in U.S. Defense by Defense News, was this a compliment?  Here are some of the individuals selected Person of the Year by Time Magazine:  Adolph Hitler, 1938; Joseph Stalin, 1939 and 1942; Nikita Khrushchev, 1957; Ayatollah Khomeini, 1979; Deng Xiaoping, 1985; Vladimir Putin, 2007; and Greta Thunberg, 2019.  Mikey is in good company.

Third, Mikey represents 75,000 active and retired reserve service members.  Really?  Of course, like the Nobel Peace Prize nominations, we must take his word for it.  Moreover, he’ll claim lawyer-client confidentiality.  Which brings us to the last achievement.

Finally, Mikey was an honor graduate of the United States Air Force Academy.  It is ironic that he achieved success in an honor code-based institution he denigrates for its alleged religious proselytizing while making dubious claims about the Nobel Peace Prize and the number of clients he represents, let alone all those he denigrates in the interview.

         If you are following my suspicion about Mikey’s intentions let alone his honesty, please watch the interview.  It begs many more questions. 

         Mikey represents the worst of what threatens America today—an anti-Judeo Christian ideology grounded in atheistic Marxism.  Sadly, the last war America won was the Second World War.  The following public domain picture from Normandy, France, which is representative of all American cemeteries in Europe and the Pacific stemming from WWII sacrifices, speaks volumes about the moral grounding of those who gave their lives to protect American style liberty and to liberate others under the oppression of ideological totalitarianism.

Who or what is Mikey’s moral inspiration?  Satan’s lieutenants (obedient to the “ruler of the world,” see John 12:  31-36) are working hard to suppress our understanding of natural law and its inspiration for the Declaration of Independence, codified in a self-governing Constitution and Bill of Rights.

If we do not recognize the danger and do what we can to stem this movement (do you recall what happened to the Tsar Nicholas II family at the hands of the Bolshevik movement?  See my article here.), we will slide into the same totalitarian fate of other nations during the Twentieth Century.  For an excellent analysis and implied prophecy, read Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.  Conditions are ripe for a repeat of history.

Newsflash:  Trump was the antithesis of this movement.  This should explain why he was so thoroughly demonized by the left and their blatant socialist impulses.   

Where Are the Four Stars?

 

by

Gadfly

Note:  This article was offered to The Military Times as a rebuttal to the referenced article below.  The Editor declined to print it because it did not meet their standards—that it should appeal to active duty troops, veterans, and their families. 

On July 15, The Military Times published “Top generals planned to resign en masse if Trump refused to leave office: reports” (see here).  This would have been a quasi-nonviolent coup.  The source for this article is a book, I Alone Can Fix It, written by two Washington Post reporters, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.

Of course, as we know, former President Trump did not refuse to leave office.  But we now live in a world where the quasi-nonviolent narrative need only sound good -- no need for facts.  Nefariously, it also disguises an actual quasi-coup, this one that did include violence (not a single Democrat denounced the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa riots during 2020 and 2021).

What is going on in America?

Collusion with a foreign spy to manufacture a predicate (i.e., the massively false dossier) to “spy on Trump and his associates” (before and after taking office) under the authority of four FISA warrants generated no outrage among those who refused to accept the legitimate election of Donald Trump in 2016.  When the Democrat-run Mueller investigation fell short of revealing crimes, weaponizing the impeachment process became the next best option.  The first fell short of a conviction.  The second required more collusion with members of the CIA and the NSC to build another predicate for a second impeachment.  Again, no conviction.

Sadly, exonerating evidence was available to the FBI when it subpoenaed Hunter Biden’s laptop and hard drive on December 9, 2019.  But the FBI covered it up.

Then came along the George Floyd incident.  While certainly abhorrent, this drug-abusing miscreant was not an altar boy, but this did not matter to a leftist cabal that lionized/martyred him to generate the nationwide mob behavior with BLM and Antifa’s colluding planners and more miscreants.  But I digress. 

Back to the Hunter Biden hard drive.  After months of trying, I was finally successful, with the help of a retired Air Force three-star general, just before the election, in getting a couple of influential players to get The New York Post to break the story.  The story was supported by contents on the hard drive. It was immediately censored by Twitter and other news sources.  Social media giants admitted the FBI alerted them to “troves of misinformation” during their Congressional testimony in late October. 

Censorship is still happening, even from the Biden White House, according to registered Democrat Jonathan Turley (see “Fear Free Speech: Biden Denounces Big Tech as ‘Killing People’ By Not Censoring Speech,” available here): “The White House recently admitted that it was flagging ‘misinformation’ for censorship by companies like Facebook. Moreover, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has called for people to be banned from all social media if any one company bans them.

While the above is reprehensible to those who believe in America (as justified in our Declaration of Independence and codified in our Constitution and Bill of Rights), where are the four stars?  Does the oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” expire upon retirement? 

Certainly, retired four-star flag officers who have hitched their horses in support of H.R. 1, “For the People Act” (via Count Every Hero, a subset of the progressive grassroots organization called Represent US), and its inevitable transformation to a single political party government, are using the prestige of their rank to sway the debate.  Amazingly, their efforts converge with those of another faction in this effort, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), already doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the Democrat Party.  CPUSA’s leader John Bachtell takes credit for the 2018 election results (see his report here).  They were just warming up for the 2020 election.

To the contrary, a group of over 120 flag officers (only one four-star, Admiral Jerome Johnson), known as Flag Officers 4 America also has spoken out.  Here is their message:

Under a Democrat Congress and the current Administration, our country has taken a hard left turn toward socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government which must be countered now by electing congressional and presidential candidates who will always act to defend our Constitutional Republic.  The survival of our nation and its cherished freedoms, liberty and historic values are at stake.

Hard Left Turn

This left turn includes an open southern border in violation of the Constitution’s Article IV provision (see Patrick Buchanan’s analysis here): "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion."  Adding to this complicity is the nefarious report of C-17s and commercial carriers transporting, under the cover of darkness and secrecy, illegals into various regions of our nation (see here and here).

More egregiously, the left turn includes ideological indoctrination—neo-Marxism in the form of Critical Race Theory.  It is taking place across our institutions, to include, for example, the Naval Academy (see here) and the Air Force Academy (see here). 

Yet, to speak out against it results in reprisal as in the case of Air Force Space Command’s Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, who was relieved of command for cause because he sounded an alarm with his self-published book, Irresistible Revolution:  Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.  Of course, he published his analysis AFTER first reporting his concerns through his chain of command and the Inspector General.  This act took courage.  Moreover, it represents what is meant by “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  

There can be only three reasons for America’s four stars not to be speaking out:  fear, cooptation, or apathy.  None are acceptable.  Their children, grandchildren, other family members, and friends should know the role they are playing in the demise of America whether stemming from fear, being coopted, or being apathetic. 

Fortunately, some veterans (to include multiple three-stars) are fighting back.  Three such groups are Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (STARRS, Inc. – Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services), The Calvert Group (Don’t Give Up The Ship – The Calvert Group [calvertgroup69.org]), and Take Charge (Home - TakeCharge MN - Take charge of your life, family, and community).

In the movie, Judgment at Nuremberg, Marlene Dietrich, the widow of a four-star general, bemoaned to Spencer Tracey, the chief tribunal judge, that the people did not know about the Third Reich atrocities.  She was bitter because her husband was executed without the honor she believed he deserved given his rank.  Tracey’s body language spoke volumes—he knew the general, like other German citizens, hid in the shadows, afraid to push back on ideological tyranny.

Where are America’s four stars?  History appears positioned to repeat itself.