Gulf1 - C - From the Gunny's Desk

Legitimate Government

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

When this issue is boiled down to its basic premises, there are only two forms of government ever available:  either taking the stance that people exist before government exists, and therefore have the right of prior existence to form a government as small or as large as they like, based on self evident truth, the natural laws which come out of the interactions of self evident truths, and a fundamental intent, fully implemented, of ensuring to the highest level possible, all have equal rights and equal access to the government, as all are equally born onto this planet.

The other side is taking the stance man establishes groups in his earliest acts, becoming part of family, and that decisions regarding governing is the choice of a group or groups.  In this stance, the individual can easily be denied rights of separate existence by the sheer right of numbers, unless the notion is put first, that there are certain individual rights which exist regardless of “the group”.

When such societies form, people choose from various options made available by historic precedent, long practice, personal peculiarities, and a host of other influences, how they will decide right and wrong, what will be done about it, and who will do the “doing”.  Such societies impose their choices as rules or laws in general, on the entire area which they can impose their will over successfully, or at the least, their most defendable reach as a group.  Those who cannot abide as such must leave, and are at best, an outlaw, at least for that group and area, and the future is entirely up to fortune and the qualities of the individual.

The first form is takes the fact that all are equal born, and upon this establishes individuals as equals, with no superiority available in natural law or self evident facts, and thus a society which must function entirely by the consent of the people who have chosen to be a part of the society.  In this form, there is no imposition, not in any aspect, and the least law is necessary, and thus a set such as the ten commandments is a workable full set of laws, and those who prefer otherwise, are free to leave and roam free and alone or with others, as long as they remain outside the society they abandoned by their own consent.

The second form has for its foundation only the natural fact that absent deliberate organization, man will organize according to personal perception of power, and those who will wield the perception of power, will make the rules as they see fit, with the retention of power historically being the first law provided, and the one law which is inviolable.

These two perspectives parallel exactly the choice man has always had:  he can either choose to recognize natural law and self evident truths, and seek to use these to further his own security and that of those personally connected, and thus form a society on the basis of free choice, and the recognition of equal status of man, or he can reject natural laws as the result of people desiring power twisting their observations to suit their desire, and thus reject equality as the foundation of society and social interaction, and instead choose power as the foundation, and in doing so, choosing the tool of rebellion as the center piece of law, the core principle of government, and the justification of totalitarian rule.

All forms society end up with an accumulation of law, as people move forward and society deals with new iterations of old ideas, and as any other Nation which has long survived, we have accumulated some problems which assume a proportion where we must deal with them, correctly, or they will be the end of the current form of society, and the future will reflect the foundation those who start up the next, have as real convictions, ideas and principles which they understand are beyond compromise.

We have reached the point where our form in no way reflects the form which is established for our government, our society, and with these things, our entire Nation.  If we care to enter the next era as a free and independent Nation, we have to choose to be that nation which was established, despite our fears and the hard work which must be accomplished to return our government under the law.

If we don’t now, then when?  If not because of our current conditions, then for what?  Does anyone really believe we will just continue on, only make it better?

The single most important lesson my mother ever taught me in life was this:  “John, not to decide is to decide”.

Copyright January 26, 2012 by Gulf1

The Winnowing Process

 by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

As we enter what is essentially the republican candidate debate cycle, it is notable that some of the most common cries are “negative ads” and “I’m mis-represented”, and press commentary supporting these claims, as if they had any merit or value.

The situation is simple; we have an incumbent president who is radically left, and is not running against anyone yet, because the party wants to re-elect the incumbent, as typical, so the only real contests right now are those to select the opposition candidate, and for them to carry any water, they should be aggressive, fact filled, historical, and they should deal with issues of merit with regard to the job which is being vied for.

The very idea such debates should be without negative statements suggests we should assume all who vie are angels, and each of them are not capable of doing anything wrong, bad, or incompetent, so any disparaging must be gratuitous.

If you’ve watched these characters in action, it becomes immediately obvious these complaints are ridiculous.  Every single candidate who gets on the stage for debate has a political history, and each has done very specific things, and made specific statements about those things, leading up to doing them, through the process of getting them done, and statements about the meaning of their successful completion.  It would be utterly ridiculous for any of that to be left out; if it was worthy of being public at the time it was benefiting the politician, how can any complain their history is being brought up?

I am set on a single candidate, and while there are aspects of his perspective which make him less than perfect, even in my own eyes, I have chosen for my own self, but I will not demand his history be covered up, I know the only right thing to do is to explain what he is called out on, and why I don’t believe it is sufficient to consider my candidate less capable than the others.

For the candidate who put in place government health care as the Governor of his state, it is absolutely reasonable to suggest he has similar ideas of government, as the man who put in place “obama care” as a national version of that specific government health care plan, from which aspects were absolutely drawn, as was a matter of pride when it was first announced.

For the candidate who has problems with his past, having been less than true to principle in his private life, this too is rightful fodder for us to consider; does anyone believe a person can be a complete and total loser with no moral compass in private life, and remain a viable candidate for public service?  We should gauge what we expect from our public servants, by how they act in the privacy of their own lives.

For the candidate who has a foreign policy which runs completely counter to every other conventional public policy, it should be a matter of serious debate, both among the candidates, in their official debates, but also as a matter for “We, The People” to seriously consider, and to parse in our own way, with our own experience and knowledge.

Up to the last presidential election, we have fallen into what would appear as a “go along to get along” attitude for campaigning purposes, and this has come about at a time when we can’t afford to make a mistake in our election, yet this attitude, the idea one’s principles and past actions should not count, or even be brought up in debate, simply removes all purposes for debate.

There has never been a time in our Nation’s history when an election was of greater importance than the next one, and what must be accomplished by The People, led by our next president is either an enormous task, to fix our nation, or we can re-elect obama, and choose, as a Nation, to continue down this path.

Many would have you believe this is no “watershed moment” and just another election, however we have never had two so contrary political ideals represented in such clear contrast in any of our lives, and this suggests we are making a major commitment, one which will choose our Nation’s future path.  I strongly suggest every bit of dirt, stupidity, error, of all who vie for the office, be brought out in the open.  Surely we don’t want to vote in the dark, do we?

Those really concerned about our future need to put their efforts into ensuring we have an honest conclusion to the republican debates, and the only one qualified to accomplish the mission, be accepted, and then focus on ensuring “We, The People” control the final election process, not allowing such antics as were common in the last presidential election happen without arrests and charges for all who are determined to buy the election.  If this last is not all of our priority, we have already ceased to be worthy of an honest president.

 

Copyright January 2012 by Gulf1.

My Reason for Writing

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

As a machinist, a retired Marine, with the main focus of my life being the maintenance and repair of machinery and farm equipment in the local area, I suppose it is time I state why I write, and how my subjects are selected.

From my time over the last forty years, I’ve watched as our once federal government lost every claim to that title as it grew to the point of exceeding its specific mandates and is currently somewhere between four and five times its legitimate size and scope of operation.

I’ve been told many times, the Constitution hasn’t grown with the Nation, however I’ve never considered this a legitimate argument, as the Constitution in the main, is a contract, specifying the principles and precepts which are the foundation of our National system, and the foundations of all our laws, with clear and readily seen principle and nature, and with a specific and deliberate means of modifying such a code on an ongoing basis, the amendment process, so if the foundation of both The Nation its self, or of its Laws and the actual Concept of a Nation Under the Rule of Law should change, ample means and opportunity is available.  If we have not changed our foundation, it is because we have chosen to keep it as it is.

We currently live under a government which has, in recent years, abjectly rejected the notion it is “under the law”, and has a fixed set of principles which it is and should be held to, and the purveyors of government have ignored the principles constantly, as they have written law for what they, personally, see as beneficial, and the question must be, “beneficial to whom?”  Standing on the side, and watching, it becomes obvious the driving force is “beneficial to those elected to office”.  Many of those we elect have genuine good intent, however I spent years of my life being hammered by my mother over the fact “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions!” as I was an active and sometimes unruly boy.

I know the majority of Americans are not really familiar at all with the actual Constitution, and comments supposed relevant to it are commonly accepted, even when they have no connection what so ever.  Our children are not taught the Constitution as the Contract which our forefathers made “Between the Peoples of The Several States” for the purpose of establishing a new form of government, as it was taught to me, and generations preceding, and it would appear such Constitutional references which are taught, are frequently taught out of context in a manner which puts them totally at odds, in the quote, with their original and actual meaning, principally by taking them out of context, and applying them to aspects they were not intended to deal with.

Having voluntarily given up most of my “natural rights” by enlisting in the Marines, I had hoped to live with those rights being truly uncontested, once I’d left the Corps, and was living as a free and independent shop owner doing what I do best in a free market.  I quickly discovered just how far government has gone to insert its self into every crevice of our lives, and being highly offended, after two decades of voluntary servitude, decided to write about it, and see if there were enough other self motivated and independent thinkers also tired of this, and willing to change things.

I am trying to reach out to the people who still believe we are a good people, that we have a great system if we use it, and we can indeed, do as well or better as any people on earth, at anything we choose, and return to being a well balanced, actively productive Nation, which stands once again on absolute, un-varnished truth as its foundation center-stone, and with a Sovereign People, truly governing themselves by their consent to be represented and our ideas and intents, put into law we all can agree with, rather than the more conventional way of helping to choose people who we believe would rule us with the lightest rod.

 

Copyright January 2012 by Gulf1

Do We Choose?

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

I keep track of the antics of the politics only because I have seen an ongoing, steady un-confronted progressive movement, which seems to have started in the late 1870s, and in the last forty years, since I was about fourteen, appears to have as a primary driving force, the full weight of the press.

When I was fourteen, back in 1972, I watched a well accepted President Nixon win re-election relatively straight forward, with a minority of journalism supporting his campaign, and an obviously enervated majority of journalism strongly supporting his opponent.

At the time, I was angry at both those openly supporting the President I thought had done a fair job at that point, and those which put the whole of their efforts into defeating him in the circles of journalism, as I understood journalism to rest upon a firm foundation of unbiased reporting, news, truth, facts, with the full intent of providing information for a free and sovereign people to use to decide for ourselves, what we wanted to see different, as we voted, and what we saw which we approved of, and wanted to see continued.

In all the ensuing years, the press has continually moved leftward, to the point where in both the last presidential election, the mainstream press was completely behind Mr. obama, and derided, lied about, and deliberately ignored all those who were not the favorite, except to do damage and destruction.

During the three years of the obama administration, the press has been entirely in the tank for obama, showing no sign of remorse, but precisely the opposite, cheering themselves on for the accomplishment they themselves had been a large part of, and taking that as purpose to be his machine to move his agenda forward, absolutely unapologetically, with no remorse, and no sign of respect for the integrity of journalism at all.

During the last election, which encompassed only the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate, that same press used all its powers to attempt to upset a very well organized effort to elect honest, law respecting representatives, and remove the professionals who seem to feel they own their seats.  Even having almost the whole of journalism on one page, they still failed utterly to counter the effect of an enormous movement of the general public, which substantially changed the House, and made significant changes in the Senate as well.

Today is the day after the Iowa Caucus, and again, journalists have chosen who they will carry water for, and are doing their very best to determine first, who will be the contenders, and then, who will win, between the top two who win their respective nomination.

I would love to believe that we can fix our Nation, meaning ending our National Debt, electing a congress which will do its actual Constitutional duties and break no laws, and we can elect someone we by a plurality, choose to be president, however I can’t seem to see any way such could come about while we are being deliberately manipulated by the press, and the press is deliberately and actively putting their best effort into controlling who gets nominated, and ultimately, who is elected in the various offices.

With the last forty years to guide me, I have long determined we are not going to turn our Nation around, and incrementally, with great care, undo each thing we find our elected officials looking at, with intent to decide if it has merit sufficient to keep it, or should be done away with.  It has never been confronted in such a way that I’ve seen, and the actual actions of those we have elected have consistently, with a couple singular exceptions, been driving hard in exactly the opposite direction, as if the whole of The People were demanding the government get more active and insert its self ever deeper in our lives.

In the past, I have decided a number of times to support Ron Paul, because he has been one of “the singular exceptions”, and he has been such consistently since 1971 when he was first elected.

In the elections he’s run for President, he has been the singular candidate who has proposed his entire campaign on the premise of returning our Nation to “The Republic” that was established, with his primary focus on putting the illegal central government, back under the rule of law.

Today, as I listened to the radio, I heard all about what happened last night, I heard how Mitt Romney won, I heard how Rick Santorum came in a close second, I heard how Michelle Bachman came in last, and has decided to drop out, and I heard about Rick Perry, finishing second to last, and waffling for a bit, but then saying he would return to Texas and consider the situation and let us know what he decides.

The only mention of Ron Paul’s coming in third came when a caller brought up his name, and with it, received a guffaw, squelched quickly, and then the suggestion that he’s not a real candidate.

For months now, the small part of the media which does report conservatively has named every republican candidate and their chances throughout each day, and at every event any held which got attention, yet in all of it, the only mention ever made of Ron Paul is to note surprise at his polling numbers, which are always far higher than pundits expect, not ever slightly higher, and to remind everyone he’s not really running, he’s just there to provide backdrop to compare the rest against, or to provide comic relief, or to provide at least the presence of the Constitution in whatever venue is being discussed.

With this said, and I would hope most out there have seen and experienced the same thing, I really have to ask, do we, The American People, want to choose who we vote for, or are we just willing to let the press decide for us, and proffer the “proper candidates” for us to select between?  I really want to know, how can we ever fix anything about our government if we will not stand up and choose for ourselves, and quit letting our elections be led by the press to those who they have chosen?

Is committing to the Constitution simply ridiculous today?  Is the idea of real money coined of gold and silver so far out, no one wants to have it?  Is there anyone out there who thinks our government is working fine?

If we aren’t going to turn around and change our ways now, when will we do it?  If we don’t jump up and take a real stab at fixing our enormous problems before the world demands it, how will we ever?  If we continue to do the same thing we’ve done all our lives, and watched our parents do, as far back as we can remember; have we just resigned as “sovereign citizens” and chosen to be “subjects” of the American government? 

Unfortunately, that is the only answer I’ve found which fits all the facts.  I’d really like to hear from someone who can put forth rational explications that show I’ve got the wrong perspective, and things are far better than I’ve painted them to be.

 

Copyright January 2012 by Gulf1