What are we doing???

Posted on by March 10, 2014

I am really beginning to wonder why we’re in this handbasket and where we’re going…

It’s like there is just a total blanking on what’s happening in this country and around the world.  The almost total reliance on social media, nobody is even bothering to check out events, just listening to sound bites and blindly believing them…

Kids don’t know geography, can’t name the states, can’t add subtract or spell.  And they sure as hell can’t punctuate… All they know how to do is txt LOL…

Schools only teach ‘approved’ history, I don’t think they even offer Civics courses anymore, and nobody can punish an unruly child.  Parents refuse to take responsibility, kids don’t even understand that they SHOULD be responsible for their actions, and if you DO hold someone responsible, you’re gonna get sued…

The reality is this country is in serious trouble, and nobody seems to care. It’s all partisan politics and infighting in DC, while the USA burns…  And the unions want more $$ and more unionization for less work and push off any attempts to have any workplace competency…

The military is being cut off at the knees, senior leadership that doesn’t toe the party line are relieved, retired or forced out.  Manufacturing has gone overseas for damn near all the major capabilities that made this country great no longer can even be done here; religions are under fire, especially Christians and Jewish.

Political correctness is all the rage, to the detriment of the good of the country, and everything is either racist, or homophobic, or (insert minority here)…

If you’re a small business owner, you no longer have the right to refuse service without risking lawsuits…

It seems everybody has their own special ‘month’ except America… sigh…

Our universities are training people from everywhere in the world in hard sciences, but American students by and large are going for soft degrees, and wonder why they can’t find jobs.

And I’m not even going to get into the whole health care mess…

You can’t find ammo, because any time standard calibers come on the shelves, they’re gone in a heartbeat, or they want an arm and a leg for it. (like $60/500 rounds of .22).

People in CT, NY, MD, NJ and some other blue states are damn near in revolt over crushing gun regulation, and people and businesses who can are voting with their feet…

Our country is becoming a land of the haves and the you owe me’s…  And they you owe me’s have the government at their back…

I’m sensing an undercurrent of grumbling and people seem to be getting fed up with all the BS, and I think this country is turning into a powder keg that is getting closer and closer to blowing…

I’m also seeing friends that can, pulling the plug and heading for the hills, either literally or figuratively.  Downsizing, or whatever you want to call it, but they’re abandoning the high paying jobs in the metro areas, and going low profile in an attempt to preserve their sanity.  Folks are converting 401Ks and savings into ‘convertible’ items, whatever that may be (Gold, Silver, ammo, you name it).

I’m getting closer to doing that same thing, because I don’t want to have to fight my way out of town when all this goes to s**t, and I wonder if I’ll be able to…

And I’m scared for my kids and grandsons… This is NOT the America I wanted them to have; nor is it the America I spent 22 years defending around the world.  And when I see that generation, I’m not impressed with most of them; nor the ones coming behind them.

What happens when the civility ends?  What happens when one of us ‘old farts’ has had enough?  Will we be shot down in our homes in a SWAT raid?  Or die on the street in a running battle with (insert group here)…

And most of all, HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN???   I think ‘most’ of us know better and we just haven’t stood up to the gradual erosion of our rights, choosing to go along rather than push back and get involved in politics.  Spit…

It now may be at the point that it’s too late, and the only option is fight or flight…

I truly hope not, but my level of confidence is probably at an all time low.  Sorry for such a downer post, but NOTHING I’m seeing/hearing is good news on any front.

Comments?  Recommendations?  Buhler?

Comments

What are we doing??? — 36 Comments

  1. The situation in Connecticut is instructive. The elected liberal “progressive” elites want the police to violate the Constitution and the police have responded with a polite “I don’t think so”.

    There is a slow and steady migration of people who are like minded from so-called “blue states” to “red states” and even those in traditional Democratic Party strongholds are looking very hard at where they want to stand on issues. The Tea Party was an overt response. The clandestine response, while not obvious, is likely to be far more attention getting.

    • Well and beyond the Second Amendment, the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 9) forbids ex post facto laws. Therefore, if you had a firearm legally, in the US, any legislature (including the US Congress) that suddenly makes them illegal, can not apply to owners that lawfully possessed firearms. I don’t know how the US Supreme Court will come down on this, but the legal challenge is worth watching.

      The State of Connecticut is enjoined by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment from making or enforcing any law “which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” But the State’s gun confiscation law clearly does so.

      While I understand that progressives such as our President feel that they can set the law aside when it suits them, Connecticut’s legislature is on very thin ice legally.

      • Sadly, our Supreme Court has been packed with “activists”; and, it appears that our Chief Justice is being blackmailed.

        So much for our SCOTUS “protections”.

        leVieux

  3. It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

  4. No recommendations, but if the day comes where we are Federalized for a gun grab, I’m taking off my US ARMY tape and turning my flag upsidedown

  5. My flag HAS been upside down since SCOTUS approved Obamacare.

    You say young punks don’t know geography (57 states) or can’t spell (RSPECT)?
    He’s not that young.

  6. I cannot fault a single thing you said, for accuracy.

    How did we get here? Like a salami at the deli….. a thin slice at a time.

    What cannot go on, won’t. I think we shall see the results of that in what’s left of our lifetimes. Studying the history on that would be prudent.

  7. I worry for my child and grandchild as well. And if I’d been paying attention to how stupid people were getting I’d have prepped for a pull back years ago. Now because of family ties I feel trapped.

  8. FDR/LBJ were outstanding politicians, they made promises they knew the would never have to keep but others would have to pay for. They fundamentally change what people thought was the role of government in this country.

    Business are now run by accountants and MBA’s not inventors and entrepreneurs. Share price and dividends became more important quality and innovation.

    Soft science has no wrong answer only opinion, real science teaches the difference between law, theory and hypothesis.

    People rant about taxes but they will fight of guns.

    You’d like So KY.

  10. What’s frustrating is that so many people are still trying to build (even in Ct), I work with/for two small businesses that have been started up in the last few years, both very local. I know of several others. These range from journalism, to retail, to agriculture. But the thing is, they spend almost all of their time trying to deal with red tape: local, state, and federal. Capital goes not into the business but into hiring people to figure out the taxes.
    It quickly becomes exhausting.

    As for revolt…IMHO, the answer is no. People still have too much to lose. Leaving aside the anomaly that was the American Revolution (and the more one looks at it the clearer it is that is was an anomaly in human behavior); internal, sustained uprisings don’t happen until people are out of options for actual survival. We are much more likely to end up like France or Greece, where periodic riots are normal. Or like Argentina, lurching from one destabilized gov’t to another in hopes of a messiah.
    This does not make me happy.

  13. Good post and comments. My $.02 worth:

    How’d we get here? Incrementalism, as indicated by Art’s ‘salami’ metaphor.

    The future? Continued widening divides – not just economic, but cultural. Blue areas will get bluer, red will get redder. Special interest groups will (are!) making this an ‘us vs. them’ country – in short, the Balkanized States of America.

    What can we do about it? Depends… There is a growing sense of unrest, but we are fragmented. One obvious example is the lack of an alliance between the Tea Party and the Libertarian Party. They have more things in common than differences, but to date have not joined together for the common good. There are other splinter groups out there as well. Like the old saying goes, if we don’t hang together we’ll hang separately. But how to get that to happen? I don’t know…

  14. And while our imperial leader, Her Obama, was on the golf course, he shouted over his shoulder to have three hundred US Troops and a gaggle of F16’s sent to Poland to stand up to Putin’s thousands of military personal. If there was some place to go, I would. But, still, I am an American and will do or die here.

  15. I agree with everything you posted. Fight or flight? Reagan said “we got no place else to go”. Or was that somebody else? Seriously. We need to keep this country. There are enough people here in this generation to stand with us and help to rebuild its greatness. What other country could be a vehicle for that? Antarctica is about the only place safe from progressive commies. Not to mention islamists. Both groups hate our Judeo-Christian values and want us crushed.

  17. For opus6, Reagan said, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

    I agree.

  19. You’ve been reading my mind again? Same thoughts as yours for the last few years. News has been getting more and more depressing, especially when I get away from the usual sources of pravda.
    My wife doesn’t understand why I want to move out of Maryland, especially the peninsula that we live on. Two directions out of the area, one a narrow two-lane bridge going to Dahlgren, the other going through the DC/Baltimore metroplex. Ugh.
    Even more so, I’m afraid to join any group that contests the status-quo, and get marked/tagged on my next SF86 or eQIP. You know what I mean, and more than a few others that read this blog do too.
    “How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse”? Not a fiction story, more of a how-to manual. Read it!

  20. WN- Yep, right on ALL counts… And have you noticed the ‘uptick’ in security??? sigh

    • You mean the uptick in the Kabuki security theater?
      Yeah, I’ve got my antennae up and listening…

  21. I think this Reagan quote fits here also.
    Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
    Ronald Reagan
    40th president of US (1911 – 2004)
    Our daughters know more about history than I would dares say most college students.
    Their father is a history nut. So they are learning from me.They are 8 and 10

  22. The basic problem stems from the left getting hold of education back in the 60s. Goebbels would be proud and honored to see his techniques used so effectively, if not a bit slowly, to reduce the Constitution to a meaningless piece of paper.

    Yet, I have the hope that truth will eventually prevail and that the truths of the Declaration and the Bill of Rights will win out. Perhaps winning won’t be bloodless, but truth always seems to win in the end.

  23. It seems to me that society is coming un-spooled. What amazes me is how so many people don’t (or won’t) see it. I can see no way for us to vote our way out of it.
    When something happens, the .gov will do what it always does…. over-react; which will only make things exponentially worse and things will really get out of hand……it will look like one of those dystopian movies. And people wonder why my son and I keep going to gun school…….

  24. Rick- Heard that!!! I taught mine too!

    Euripides- Agree, and it IS about control of education… And I don’t know if it will be bloodless this time.

    Rick R- Understood… sigh

  25. Eric made the point that the United States is it. There is no other place to go. I think he’s right about that.

    So long as the economy remains functional, freedom will continue to erode. When the government goes house to house collecting contraband there will be isolated pockets of resistance, but that’s all there will be. The vast majority will allow their homes to be searched as a matter of course and return to their TV sitcom. Why not? From their prospective, they have lost nothing. Even if resistance is organized, it won’t amount to much. The vast majority are all conformists, you see, and there is no advantage to joining an armed resistance.

    Now should the economy fail, things may be a little different. The supermarket is closed, and when people get hungry enough they get desperate. Taxes won’t be collected, so the government machine may suffer from lack of fuel – and if you don’t pay, feed and house the soldiers, they’ll quit. And they have the weapons, you see. That’s when we might see an effective rebellion, because those forces that are already organized in large numbers will tend to join with organizations and individuals who are fewer in number and less organized.

    For my part, I hope that I’m long gone and completely forgotten if any of this comes to pass. I might not be, but I hope I am.

  26. We got here incrementally and we’ll either turn it around the same way or it’ll come to guns. I just don’t see a political savior on the horizon who can implement the quick fix. I think we’re essentially doing what we can; being active, speaking out, shaking our rattles in warning and prepping. Other than that it’s entirely in God’s hands. I find comfort in that thought but I’m praying we have time for the long march. Saddle up my friend. It’s getting more ‘interesting’ by the day.

  28. Hey Old NFO;

    That was one hell of a rant and you have touched on many things that I have bitched about and you didn’t drop any*F* bombs like I would have so that is equally impressive. The only thing that will fix this will be long and painful, it will be a generational thing, kinda like the 40 years in the desert kind of thing to get a new generation of people that are imbued with freedom rather than servitude to a central state. And as far as a tipping point, I remember reading that Saul Alinsky stated that “we would have to kill 10% of the Americans to force the others in line.” Interesting times we live in….

  30. I can remember reading somewhere,

    “It’ not what O’Bummer can do in his remaining 2 years. It will be the 30 odd years it takes to straighten it out again.”