Happy New Year

 Wishing everyone a happy new year for 2022.

The supply chain woes continue, unabated

There are supply chain issues, no doubt.  They have have not been fixed. They are not the biggest factor in creating inflation, that would be money printing.  But supply chain issues do shift the supply curve and fewer goods, mean higher prices.  That's fundamental economics.  But so too is money printing leading to inflation.  

The point here is that the Let's Go Brandon administration has left the supply chain issue in a terrible state,  and the apparently progressive federal reserve has kept the minting of more currency going (they keep threatening to taper the monetary stimulus but have yet to do so, and are also erroneously keeping interest rates low allowing inflation to surge).  Meanwhile the administration is trying to push for trillions more in spending that supposedly is 'free'. They are wrong on all counts and as long as this continues, inflation will only get worse.

NOTE: I know these explanations are all too brief, but the underlying truths are still valid. A fiscal policy of spend, spend spend, and a very loose monetary policy are a deadly combination. They will turn America into Turkey or Venezuela if they are not stopped. The thin wall against it right now is Democrat Joe Manchin. We cannot rely on his steadfastness and resoluteness to go on indefinitely.

Sunday verse

 

Christmas Carols

 God bless.

Christmas Carols

 Today, some Christmas carols to hopefully help bring you peace and joy on this wonderful day.

Merry Christmas

 

Austria provides an example of vaccine overlords

In Austria, no vaccination means a fine and apparently, being hunted down. That's not sane, but it is happening thanks to the COVID overlords:

Are you done with COVID yet?

 People cannot be locked inside forever. No one cares anymore.

More Democrat lies exposed

 Their latest lies on the January 6th "insurrection" exposed:

Also, Liz Cheney has to go.  She's so far out of touch.

Sunday verse

 

Dictator Watch: China's looming unemployment problem

 China has a problem that it cannot currently solve; unemployment.

Motivation to not be afraid

This video serves as a corollary to my final Rules for Patriots installment, Rule #12 Don't be afraid.  I did not include this video because there are a couple of things mentioned in the video with which I do not agree.  But generally speaking the sentiment expressed below is spot on.  The goal of the video is to motivate people to not be afraid to do something tangible to stop the progressive overreach. 

Rules For Patriots - Rule #12: Don't be afraid

This is a continuation of my Rules for Patriots series, designed as a patriot's guide to success in fighting the creeping progressivism infecting America. It's a conservative response to Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. This series is a lengthy read, but it is very important to understand.  This one happens to be a video, so it's more digestible. Being able to use this approach, as a team, will simplify, streamline and expedite achieving our patriotic objectives.

Links to previous rules: Rule #11 (Participate But, Don't Participate), Rule #10 (Be prepared), Rule #9 (Screw purity tests), Rule #8 (Size matters), Rule #7 (Be unpredictable), Rule #6 (Set Objectives, Build Momentum, Succeed, Move On), Rule #5 (Improve your arsenal), Rule #4 (Play Offense), Rule #3 (Don't Do It Alone), Rule #2 (Get Involved, Stay Involved) and Rule #1 (Know your facts).

Rule 12.  Don't be afraid

In many respects, Rule #12 is the most important rule because without it, common sense, patriotism and liberty are all doomed. Rule #12: Do not be afraid.  That might sound like a no-brainer for many, but there are layers of not being afraid.  It is one thing to not be afraid of the progressive nightmare that is happening because you have faith in the American people, or any people, to do something about it. It is another thing entirely to not be afraid to get involved (Rule #2) and do something about it yourself while you still can. That point is as much a sermon to myself as it is to anyone else.  Being unafraid to to talk among like-minded people is one thing, but being unafraid to organize with them and do something that makes a difference will, inevitably, invite criticism and negativity from some quarters of society.  This is where being unafraid matters; be don't be afraid to make the effort to make a change in society. Do not be afraid of resistance, do not be afraid of failure.  The only sure way to fail, is to do nothing.  Do something while you still have the freedom and ability to do so.  The alternative is to accept things as they are, or as they are progressing.  If anything, that is what you should fear.  In that light, your own inaction is the greatest danger.

That is not to say do not have faith in God or in the common sense of your fellow man.  Faith is a good thing when it is backed up by action and effort.  Without action, there is only failure.  Be afraid to not take action, do not be afraid to take harsh criticism and face a backlash.  Those things will come when you stand up.  But so too will like minded voices if you seek them.  Do not be afraid to counter the criticism, wherever you might be able to be heard.  What they call you doesn't matter, when they try to intimidate you it doesn't matter. Call for support, sure, but do not back down, even in the face of what appears to be overwhelming odds.  The odds are not as stacked against you as you think.  One of the tricks the left uses is to appear to have overwhelming numbers even when they do not.  Remember the climate change argument of "the science is settled"?  It wasn't it isn't and so too with common sense patriotic causes.  Sure a large portion of the American people are against those things, but a larger portion, for now, are still in favor of them.

If you do not act civically, if you are afraid, just talking amongst yourselves is not going to accomplish anything except make you feel better.  That's what liberals do, virtue signal to feel better.  YOU are better than that.  Know your facts (Rule #1) and then speak them, out loud, to other people who may not know them.  Yes, it's more gratifying to share with someone who believes them than someone who will ridicule you for them.  BUT, the most satisfying outcome is to awaken someone to the truth who had not previously realized it.  There is a payoff to taking that chance.

Be resolute. Do not waiver or second guess yourself.  Of course you must always revisit your facts or information, and re-assess your opinion.  That's something the progressive left refuses to do.  They are doctrinaire in their beliefs.  But common sense demands you absorb and asses/evaluate new information to see if it changes things.  This is how you avoid pretzel logic. But do not falter when you are sure. Do not allow the tactical arena be the place where you feel the need to second guess your understanding. There is a time for reflection but your principles, based on long standing common sense first principles, are most likely sound.

Andrew Breitbart, a crusader for conservative, patriotic common sense said "run towards the fire".  No truer words have been spoken regarding the political landscape of the twenty first century. The fire is there. Talking about it or running away will not stop the spread.

Lastly, I created these rules to provide guidance on how to confront the political left.  But they are not immutable. So don't be afraid to abandon a rule or tactic if it has stopped producing results. If something isn't working change it. 

Just don't be afraid. You'll feel better for it, and you'll do better for it.

This just creeps me out

The U.N. just keeps getting not only worse, but more and more creepy. If they aren't nefarious, why would they do something like this? Stupidity? Trolling Christians? 

Sunday verse

 

Sunday verse

 

Brandon = Mr. Yesterday's Mistakes

It's like the Jimmy Carter era all over again, and many of us saw it coming. I'm not sure if City Journal is new to the party on the inevitability of the current inflationary spiral, but many of the things they mention in the recent article are correct.  This is a repeat of the Jimmy Carter mistakes of the 1970's. Since Brandon has no playbook of his own, why not use the some of the worst ideas EVER?

...most economists agree that fighting inflation in this case should take a back seat to lessening the shock’s effects on employment. The textbook prescription is stimulating demand via expansionary fiscal and monetary policy—but not too much, and not for too long, or the price effects go from uncomfortable to painful.

To see what can go wrong, we need only recall the 1970s, when two major shocks to the energy sector—the oil embargo of 1973–74 and the 1978–79 oil crisis associated with the Iranian Revolution—plus some lesser disruptions and bumbling policy responses, produced not just a Great Inflation but slow growth and high unemployment. Inflation averaged 7.4 percent and unemployment 6.4 percent for the period 1970–79; by 1980, the sum of those indicators—the “misery index”—hit 19.7 percent. That unhealthy combination required economists to devise a new word, “stagflation,” and to go back to the drawing board and figure out how it all happened.

The best thinking about stagflation highlights three key factors: policymakers were guided by some bad theories; their strategies based on some good theories were badly executed; and circumstances were unique and, therefore, conducive to error.

I was young, but lived through the era of stagflation, the malaise days.  They were bad.  And when Reagan became president and they had to change the monetary policy to deal with it, the cure was almost as bad as the disease. It worked but it was far more painful because they had tried to forestall any pain by doing more of what was causing the problem.  Printing money and deficit spending are not solutions.  It's a lengthy explanation as to why, but I studied economics for years and basically it's truth.

Brandon is falling for the same solution proposals as did Carter.  Spend and print, but now on steroids. Mr. Yesterday's Mistakes.

I disagree with the last paragraph above from City Journal.  Yes policymakers were guided by bad theories.  But their strategies were not based on good theories that were badly executed, they were based on very flawed theories.  Spending your way out of a recession not only isn't advisable if the government doesn't have a massive cash surplus to cover the cost (which is not the case), it's doomed to failure if you have to print money to execute it.

I also disagree with the whole "unique circumstances" notion.  While the specifics of each crisis may be different, the economic portion of the situation does not change. Job losses, inflation, interest rates are drive by fundamental economic laws like the elasticity of supply and demand. These while hard to measure, are immutable.  It doesn't matter if the impetus is a tsunami, a pandemic, an oil crisis or a zombie plague, how the government and the Federal Reserve tackle the problem is what makes a difference as far as jobs, inflation and interest rates.  If you respond stupidly, or by putting politics ahead of the national interest, disaster will follow.  That is what we are seeing now, and it is going to get worse before it improves.

Wrong on inflation, wrong on other things

The same people who told you the vaccines are safe, told you that inflation was transitory. They clearly have gotten the latter wrong, so why are they so sure they are right about vaccines?

Inflation accelerated at its fastest pace since 1982 in November, the Labor Department said Friday, putting pressure on the economic recovery and raising the stakes for the Federal Reserve.

The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, rose 0.8% for the month, good for a 6.8% pace on a year over year basis and the fastest rate since June 1982.

Excluding food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 0.5% for the month and 4.9% from a year ago, which itself was the sharpest pickup since mid-1991.

It matters less that they are wrong about these things than it matters that they are lying about them and they won't even admit it when they are caught in the lies.

Inflation is a bad thing, and it's going to get worse.  Vaccines that normally take years to get approval got approved when it suited the beaurocracy to do so  - right after the 2020 election. It made president Trump look like he was lying about a solution that he was being told was 'ready to go' but they never delivered it.  Brandon could swoop in and take all the credit.  Except it's not working, it needs constant boosters, it has significant and often deadly side effects that they don't want you to even hear about.  Why? Politics.

Hell they are still lying about leaving Afghanistan. It's galling that they would go to these lengths to convince you that they've got all of these situations all under control. In fact it's only slightly less galling than the fact that so many people still believe this crap.

So here's the Good News Let's Go Brandon report:

-Inflation is under control and you are not struggling to manage your household budget.  It will not get any worse, in fact things are great

-COVID is long gone, but you still need more shots.

-Brandon's cognitive abilities are getting sharper every day.

-Gas prices have come down so much it's practically free but we still need to fight climate change and use cars that run on wishes.

How people? How do you eat this cr@& and still think it tastes good?

How do you know Twitter is evil?

Here's how:

Never forget

 On this day in history, Pearl Harbor.

Is Don Lemon the next Chris Cuomo?

Don Lemon may need to be let go from CNN because he's been kinda doing the same thing as Chris Cuomo did with his brother, but in Lemon's case it was with Jussie Smollett.  Tim Pool has the story:  

Will Lemon be fired from CNN for this?  Tim Pool seems to think this is minor.  And in Don Lemon's orbit it is far from his most egregious activity.  But Pool may not fully appreciate the leaky boat CNN finds itself within.  CNN may not have any choice at this point.

A note on Rules for Patriots

This year I have been sharing a list of Rules for Patriots (along with some related examples that are worth noting) which I believe are important for overcoming progressivism, and tyranny whether it be social or institutional.  I have devised a total of 12 rules and 11 have been published here on this blog so far.  The remaining one will be published before year end, since next year is the start of a crucial period in the world, particularly in America.

A failure in 2022 could mean the end of western civilization beyond that.  It could mean the passing of the disastrous tipping point beyond which liberty, capitalism, virtue and Christianity all cannot be recovered.  Unlike reaching a positive tipping point (as illustrated in the picture here), this tipping point would lead us further and further away from a positive, healthy reality and faster and faster towards, absurdity, inequality, tyranny, economic failure and evil. Let's not let that happen.

Stay tuned for Rule #12. It's probably the most important one of the set.

Conservative levity

I saw this posted on Facebook today and it made me laugh. Well, kinda. Check this guy out.  He has some very funny stuff.

Like this one for example:

Sunday verse

 

Is that a trendline?

Latino support for Trump still seems to be on the rise.  If these numbers continue to trend this way, he could be above 42% by 2024.

Censorship as a response to Trump

With the removal of Jack Dorsey as CEO of Twitter, you can see latest evidence that the establishment are still acting in a way that is clearly a response to the rise of Donald Trump in 2016.  They got a result they did not like, and have ever since been trying to use censorship, be it to Trump himself or anyone who has an opinion counter to the standard narrative, to remove any resistance to the established line of thinking.  

At some point the establishment deemed itself as more important than the country, more important than the principles of American democracy and more important than the greater good.  And at some point, they were able to enshrine those beliefs into the culture and into the power of government, media, education and entertainment to enforce that hierarchy.  That's why you see them leveraging woke-ism, race, women's issues, COVID and anything else that they can in order to herd the majority of society into unilateral herd thinking, guided always, by them of course.

Russell Brand touches on how Trump managed to bypass the establishment:

The thing is, a lot of establishment efforts are looking backwards and that works to their disadvantage.  Censorship as a response to Trump's rise (and beyond) is solving yesterday's problem for them.  If you think about it, the establishment isn't forward looking. Oh, I'm sure they have goals, and objectives and milestones etc., but they are based on a growth formula of the existing paradigm. America has been the land of opportunity but only until it became a nation of institutional primacy.  Now, with technology becoming so complex, new innovations much rarely will come from a someone not working for a major conglomerate. But ideas can come from anywhere.  And that is what the establishment fears.  They want the existing paradigm to grow because it suits their objectives. Disruptions are not allowed, they will upset their apple cart. They must control your ideas so that they do not cause disruptions.  Censorship is the tool.

Much like communism in the Soviet Union of the 1980s, capitalism is on the road to an oligarchy, a ruling elite, out of touch with the reality on the ground, and likely not even caring that such is the case.  Meanwhile, people can see that there are problems, and that is okay for the establishment, as long as they can guide you to the 'proper' conclusion of what a solution should look like.

The initial full blown disruptor to that in America was Donald Trump, in the U.K. it was Brexit.   But for the establishment, all he did was expose a flaw in their firewall of control.  They are reacting to it still.  While that is dangerous for society, it is still backwards looking and as long as they look backwards, you still have the opportunity to look forwards and outsmart them in some way.  Maybe Parler, Getr and alternative sources of communication will help, but they are not the answers.  They are merely tools to share the potential answers.  The answers must come from you, they must be shared at a grassroots level, and then acted upon in unison.  For example standing up to school boards and demanding accountability at the lowest levels possible is a disruptor to the status quo of the unelected ruling elite.  Take that sort of approach forward in numbers too great to deny and the ruling elite cannot control you.  Think a step ahead of the establishment, meaning do something different, unexpected that has not been accounted for in their plans.

Donald Trump was  a master of this, tricking the media into coverage of his campaign although they detested him and served the establishment.  He further leveraged Twitter to amplify his message in a way that the establishment could not initially control or even filter and distort.  If he runs again in 2024, he will likely move on to another methodology that cannot be curtailed.  It's the only way he will succeed.

That approach is a model for absolutely everyone.

Let's Go (to court) Brandon!

 Ha! Brandon is ABC - Always Behind on Covid.

Dictator Watch - For China apologists

 If you are okay with how China operates, you need to change your opinion.  Here's why:

Sunday verse

 

New York Times think they are above the law

Project Veritas is in the process of suing the New York Times. The judge in the case ordered the NYT to stop sharing private Project Veritas communications. The NYT has decided that a legal judicial order does not apply to them. Do they feel they are above the law.

Some humor for this Black Friday

 Hopefully this is a slow news weekend.  Here's some levity for your long weekend from Adam Carolla:

Happy Thanksgiving.

 To all of my American friends and readers, Happy Thanksgiving.

Hey GOP, just do it anyway

Many conservatives and many Republican party members want there to be term limits for Congress and the Senate. This would stop us from being continually faced with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the likes of Mitch McConnell. The problem is the political willpower to get it done as a legislative change or even better, a Constitutional Amendment.

Fair enough.

So here's an idea; just make it a GOP party rule.  No one can join the party as any type of representative unless they are willing to agree and adhere to the party rule.  You break the rule you lose party membership and lose any committee standings you might have.  Simple.

It doesn't solve the problem of us having to look at Nancy Pelosi's face on the news most every day.  Not initially anyway.  But it does accomplish a few other things.  Firstly it keeps new blood in the GOP on a regular basis, which strips from Republicans the opportunity to become self serving insider opportunists.  That in turn makes the GOP look more fresh than the Democrat dinosaurs they are facing off with, that might pressure Democrats into adapting a similar idea.

Of course the danger is that they  might try to leverage it to argue we should do the same with court appointments.  Maybe as part of a deal on a Constitutional amendment. But that is a hurdle for another day.  So too might be using it to clean out the executive branch leadership positions like the IRS, FEC, HHS, the Pentagon, etc. of political hacks on the left.

There is no significant downside to making it a GOP only rule for now.  That is unless you are an establishment Republican who is benefitting from the status quo.  But here's the rub on that - it will confirm who needs to be rooted out of the party.

Strategic Oil Reserve usage: Not unprecedented but not good

When was the last time the strategic oil reserve has been used to offset oil prices?  Today. Thanks Brandon; brilliant management of the U.S. economy.  What a turnip. This is Brandon's feeble attempt to placate everyone given his really horrible, terrible management of all things presidential:

...on Nov. 23 ordered 50 million barrels of oil released from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to help cool surging energy costs and ease pain at the pump.

“American consumers are feeling the impact of elevated gas prices at the pump and in their home heating bills, and American businesses are, too, because oil supply has not kept up with demand as the global economy emerges from the pandemic,” the White House said in a Nov. 23 statement.

Crude oil prices have surged to seven-year highs, with global demand seeing a sharp rebound from the pandemic lows. Republicans have blamed Biden’s policies—such as nixing the Keystone XL pipeline project and freezing new oil and gas drilling leases on federal land—for contributing to rising prices.

Insisting that Biden “is using every tool available to him to work to lower prices and address the lack of supply” of oil, the White House said the U.S. Department of Energy will make available 32 million barrels of crude under an exchange mechanism from all four SPR storage sites. On top of this, another 18 million barrels will be made available by accelerating the sale of crude from the SPR under a previous congressional authorization.

Has this ever been done before? The strategic oil reserve has existed since 1975.  So you'd expect it would happen from time to time.  It has, but only four times. 

Emergency releases of the reserve have occurred three times. In 1991, at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm, the United States, assuring the adequacy of global oil supplies with its allies, announced the emergency sale on the day the war broke out in the Persian Gulf.

The second release occurred in September 2005, after Hurricane Katrina crushed the oil production, distribution, and refining industries in the Gulf regions of Louisiana and Mississippi. Hurricane Katrina’s destruction was so great that refiners requested emergency release, actually receiving approval within 24 hours of the hurricane’s landfall, and before the determination was made by President George W. Bush.

In June 2011, the United States and its partners in the International Energy Agency announced the release of 60 million barrels in response to crude oil supply disruptions in Libya and other countries. The U.S. obligation was half—30 million barrels—and 30.6 million barrels were delivered by August 2011.

So during a war (Bush 41), during the fallout from Hurricane Katrina (Bush 43), and then Obama because prices basically.  Then president Trump also did it but temporarily all the while ramping up U.S. oil production so that it would not be necessary and prices would not be so volatile.  It worked. 

Brandon has worked hard to reverse Trump's success in this regard.  So much so, that this becomes the fifth time it has happened and without the external shocks that cause every other time. COVID is no excuse, this is a result of his policy changes to reverse the nation's energy independence.

Moron or deliberately destroying America? You decide.

Just ugh.

The Strange Incident in Waukesha via Paul Joseph Watson.

The media are the real enemy of the people,

Sunday verse

 

Rules for Patriots - an important corollary

I've posted most of my Rules for Patriots this year, with two more to go before year end.  But in doing so I've neglected to point out a corollary of some of those rules that almost merits its own rule.  Since I don't particularly want to end up with an unlucky 13 rules, and it's just a strange number of rules to have that doesn't roll of the tongue like 10 or 12, I'll add it here as a corollary instead:

Don't get stuck in an echo chamber.

Separate but Equal

It's been a necessary step to set up GETTR, Parler, Rumble and the like to have platforms for free speech because we are being singled out for expulsion or censorship by the likes of Facebook, Google and Twitter. I get it, totally necessary (albeit a bit late).  It's a place where we can share our thoughts and ideas freely without that threat hanging over our head.

Here's the problem, we may end up stuck in our own echo chamber, preaching to the choir as it were.  The Democrats have already shown us that living inside your own thought bubble is ultimately ruinous and the fallout for the mainstream media and most Democrats is showing in poll ratings. But the problem for us does not end there.

If I were a progressive leftist I would be thrilled that conservatives have set up their own platforms for a number of reasons.  It's as if we've circled the wagons.  They now have a direct target for their vitriol. There is no need to go search for targets, we have given them the place to direct all of their vile hatred, and all of their attacks.  We've painted a target on our own village so to speak.  It doesn't end there. 

We are at a competitive disadvantage with these platforms. The left has the media, they have the entertainment industry, they have the schools, they have most of the news outlets, they even have the overlords at major league sports industries. They still have a bigger, louder and more prevalent loudspeaker than we do. While we are working to change that, it will remain a major competitive advantage for quite some time.  If it becomes a war of attrition of ideas, we will still lose because our voices will still be drowned out by the bigger loudspeaker from the left.  We preach and ruminate to each other but the facts we have on our side, the evidence, the truth does not escape the walls of our echo chambers.

My best imitation of Jesse Jackson

Separate but equal does not mean we as conservatives and Constitutional originalists, are truly equal. Brown vs. Board of Education proved legally, almost 70 years ago, that separate does not mean equal.  We have been segregated. Isolated. That means we can be intimidated and eventually eradicated.

Beyond the echo chamber

The point is that while we are seeing these new platforms as victories we must be cognizant of the fact that they must not be end states for our freedom of speech or our overall mission. What we see as victory is merely a stepping stone for progressives unless we use it as merely a stepping stone for ourselves. We are still outnumbered in many, many places.  In order to win in the longer term, we need to undo the socialist damage done to our institutions in both the public and private sectors and in the minds.  In order to accomplish that, it is imperative that we 'red pill' liberals to the reality of what is being done to us and equally to them.  There is an urgency in that as the tipping point where it becomes too late is still inching towards us.  We must have our voices: our Parlers and Rumbles.  But our voices must carry beyond those walls to the greater audience.

Rittenhouse acquittal

I don't think I've commented on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial at all so far, but I should add my opinion that I believed all along that he was being railroaded by the media.  Thankfully the judge in the case was just and stood up to a disgraceful prosecution.  And more thankfully, he was found innocent; the evidence clearly was on his side.  The media and the outrage mob won't care.  Nevertheless, justice prevailed, and that is good for Kyle Rittenhouse but also good for America.   Justice means fair treatment under the law, not lynch-mobbing someone because you don't like their skin color or politics.

This reaction from Steven Crowder about sums it up:

MSNBC: Truckers are racist

 Just...

No time to post today so here's a comedic take on 'woke'

 Wokeness on display for your amusement:

If only...

A red tsunami in 2022?  Hopefully, but I think it's seriously wishful thinking.  There are entrenched Democrat districts, there's cheating via vote harvesting and other nefarious methods.  Nonetheless, it's still something to work towards and the signs are indeed pointing towards a good outcome for Republicans.

Brandonflation is real

 Let's Go Brandon, your inflation is brutal and you don't even understand why.  But we do.

China's rash of explosions

 Is China's CCP in the middle of a purge, or is it something else?

Sunday verse

 

Lessons from Australia and other China news

 An unofficial Dictator Watch entry:

Thank you Veterans

 

Stunning non-admission admission by AG Garland

AG Garland couldn't say "no federal agents were present" because it would have amounted to perjury.  If it were the case he would have said so and moved on because there would have been no policy issue at all.

They're hunting Project Veritas

The FBI raided James O'Keefe's house because he's exposing the truth.  This is the extent the progressives have co-opted and empowered the deep state to do their bidding.

Rules for Patriots - Rule #11: Participate but don't participate

 This is a continuation of my Rules for Patriots series, designed as a patriot's guide to success in fighting the creeping progressivism infecting America. It's a conservative response to Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. This series is a lengthy read, but it is very important to understand.  This one happens to be a video, so it's more digestible. Being able to use this approach, as a team, will simplify, streamline and expedite achieving our patriotic objectives.

Links to previous rules: Rule #10, Rule #9, Rule #8, Rule #7, Rule #6, Rule #5, Rule #4, Rule #3, Rule #2 and Rule #1.

When you take a look at parents taking school boards to task for teaching things like Critical Race Theory, the obvious conclusion is that in order to affect change, you have to participate.  The recent Virginia gubernatorial election reinforces that notion too.  The same parents who were disgusted with what was being taught to their children, and were being told to butt out of the discussion, showed up to vote and made a statement that changed Virginia, at least for the time being.  Participation matters.  But it does not matter everywhere.  In fact, in some places it's better not to participate.  For example the swamp that is Twitter is a cesspool and when you get in there it it acts like quicksand; it wastes time and effort and only drags you further down without improving the political environment one iota.

When society itself has become ill, it might not be fixable, at least not within the structure of that society itself.  It's hard to recognize when that might be the case, but we have seen many signs of it:

The solution is not always to try to change the system from within, but to create a parallel structure and operate within that framework as much as possible.  In the case of the United States, that parallel structure is one that believes in the principles set out by the Founding Fathers.  The way to fix the existing society is to show an alternative that works better.  We all know that the principles in the Constitution would be a better way to govern society; with legislation that goes beyond what the founders understood but yet confined by the principles they proposed; individual liberty being paramount among those. But also important are individual responsibility and a healthy morality.

Parallel Structures

 

If former Czech president and former Soviet era dissident Vaclav Havel was right (and he was), the only way to stop living the lie of a corrupt system is to live the truth.  He did not say believe the truth, he said live it.  That becomes increasingly difficult in an oppressive regime and mono-culture, mono-belief society.  But, there are ways to do it.  Even in small ways, it can make a difference if enough people eventually begin to participate:

Parallel structures become parallel societies in time.  There are many ways to create parallel structures.  Home schooling or private schooling are both alternatives to public education, which has clearly become a problem.  Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are alternatives to regular government currency, not to mention woke big banks.  Gettr and Parler are alternatives to Twitter and Facebook.  These already exist.  Entertainment?  Check out some family friendly options.  Sports? Create your own if you don't like what you see in the NFL or NBA. The GOP representatives for you are establishment RINOs?  Work around them and work to replace them using means outside the party.  It can be done (just ask Edward Durr).

As these parallel societies grow they can converge and experience synergy by doing so.  The snowball effect of combining these parallel structures and societies means that over time, successful parallels will multiply, and faith in the failing and dishonest system, upheld by lies, will dissipate.  The new structures and societies can continue to grow and flourish attracting more and more adherents.  This is how the Soviet bloc collapsed.  We in the west have created an unnecessary decay by allowing socialists and communists to pervert our systems and beliefs to the point that they no longer mean what they meant and do not stand up to real scrutiny because they have been so corrupted.

Do not accept that this version of reality is the only one and it cannot be changed. Change it on  micro level and let that grow.  Help it grow to a macro level.  You can do this by engaging those who are curious and by knowing your facts and your audience (something I have discussed in other rules). Do not wait for someone else to do these things, there are micro things you can do on your own, or with family and/or friends.  The principles that made America a great nation are not lost, only fading badly.  But the time is now to act.  Yes work within the system by voting and supporting valuable candidates, but work outside of it too, because that is from where the momentum will come.

The New Jersey disconnect

MetLife Stadium is in New Jersey, the state Democrats are trying to say the won in the 2021 gubernatorial election.  Meanwhile at a recent soccer match, the entire MetLife stadium did this (warning, language):

The whole stadium was chanting, or at least nearly so. There's a disconnect between counted votes and the reality on the ground.  Make no mistake, "found ballots" will always be enough to put Democrats over the top in some states, but there is an emergent disconnect between winners and reality.

Sunday verse

 

Implosion in Congress

 Pelosi fail:

Bloodbath for Democrats

 Now it's time to shine. Virginia proved to be a sweep for Republicans:

Glenn Youngkin saves the day. The gubernatorial candidate bested Democrat Terry McAuliffe in yesterday’s elections in the Old Dominion. The GOP dominated the state, clinching all three statewide officed. Youngkin clinched the governor’s win. Jason Miyares is our new attorney general. And Winsome Sears is our lieutenant governor. She’s the first black woman to occupy the office. The House of Delegates also flipped 51-49.

Meanwhile In New Jersey, as of this posting Republican upstart, longshot candidate for governor, Jack Ciattarelli holds a very slim lead over Democrat incumbent Phil Murphy.  This was a state that guy (Brandon) carried in 2020 by double digits. Of course every vote is not counted and surely some will be counted twice, so there's that.

Make no mistake though (although the Democrats most likely will), this is a foreshadowing of the 2022 midterm elections, provided Democrats do not change course.  The Democrats tried to make the Virginia election about president Trump. They failed. It appears they are going to make the defeat about president Trump (aka RACISM!!!) as well. If they fail to learn the lesson and swallow their own Kool Aid, 2022 could end up worse than the shellacking they took in 2010. History repeating no doubt.  Democrats could learn from this. Prior to that 2010 bloodbath, in 2009 Republican Bob McDonnell upset Democrat favorite Craig Deeds.  And in New Jersey, Chris Christie upset heavy favorite Jon Corzine.

I don't believe Democrats are capable of doing anything as far as strategy anymore other than doubling down.  There's a limit of course as to how much the GOP can win, but 2022 may in fact hit that limit at this rate. 

Unexpected

 Is Ron DeSantis going to run for president???  At 10 a.m. we'll know:

China's aluminum titan is in trouble

 Generally accepted accounting principles are apparently anathema to China.

Common sense reaction to stupidity

This is where we are at in 2021.  It's either complete idiocy or common sense.  There's no longer any in between.  What is heartening to see is the reaction to the professor's stupidity.

Virginia, the fix is in

An article in left-leaning Politico today is trying to nationalize the result of the upcoming Virginia gubernatorial election, and by proxy, all elections.  Perhaps they think it's a winning strategy for the left to make every election about federal politics.  The far left has been in lockstep with voting Democrat for a long time.  Nationalizing the race might actually be a boon to the right instead.  Unless the fix is in and they know that far left governor Terry McAuliffe is going to win, allowing them to make national claims about the election result.

We don’t need to wait until the results are in, however, to draw one clear conclusion from this contest. It will or should deal another decisive blow to one of the most enduring, least useful observations about American elections: “All politics is local.”

Oh really? Why would this election prove that?  Based on what evidence? The article glosses over specifics to jump straight to this numeric observation: 

Presidential elections have almost always been driven by broader factors than local matters: war, inflation, recession, domestic upheaval, corruption. Over the last decade or two, the drift — more like a surge — toward political polarization has seen the steady disappearance of split ticket voting, where a personally admirable candidate of one party could win the votes from those who identify with another party. In 2020, only one Senate candidate, Maine Republican Susan Collins, won in a state carried by the other party’s presidential nominee. A decade ago, 23 senators came from states that had voted for the other party’s presidential candidate. Today, the number is six.

That doesn't speak to nationalization of elections, it speaks to geographic polarization, or coincidence, or possibly an alignment of local politics with federal politics.  It does not mean people will vote for governor or mayor based on who is president or who controls congress. At least not on a 1:1 ratio.

Of course there have been other reasons to want this race nationalized.  McAuliffe has been as disastrous as  a candidate as he has been as a governor.  They've been bringing in the big guns like Obama and Biden to try to nationalize this race, and they've tried to often as possible mention president Trump.  It's a distraction from McAuliffe's bungled approach to schools and parents wanting to have a say in what their children are being taught.

Should McAuliffe lose, you can bet just as quickly they will at least publicly start saying it was his issue, not about a national referendum on Biden.  Even if they believe that it actually was.  Nationalizing it is just a talking point as of today.  But it is also possible the fix is in and they are saying it's a national referendum because they are going to make sure they get the result they want.

Stoicism - not what you think

 Stoicism is a practical way of life, and probably not what you think:

Sunday verse

 

Wait, apparently Twitter is...right-leaning???

According to a report, Twitter is unfairly amplifying voices from the right. Most people on the right see Twitter as a progressive cesspool. But nope, not true (*sarcasm*):

Last week, Twitter released a 27-page, in-depth analysis that relied significantly on AllSides Media Bias Ratings™ to explore whether Twitter’s recommendation algorithms amplify political content.

The report found media outlets AllSides rates as being on the right are amplified slightly more — 4% more — than outlets AllSides rates as on the left.

Among other things, the analysis sought to examine whether Twitter’s algorithm amplifies certain types of political groups more than others, and whether some news outlets are amplified more than others. Twitter also looked at whether news media algorithmic amplification favors one side of the political spectrum more than the other.

 All Sides concludes that it is pleased to see "Twitter exploring potential bias in its algorithm using AllSides Media Bias Ratings™, and hope to see more research of this type in the future."  But frankly, this smacks of Twitter using a system to justify it's treatment of conservatives.

It doesn't take into account shadow-banning of conservatives, outright banning of well known conservatives  and the potential methodology involved.  That all aside, Twitter is openly an echo chamber of the left and a lot of us on the right have had to abandon it for Parler or Gettr.  We see it for ourselves.  I work with statistics as part of my job.  I understand that anecdotal evidence is not the way to interpret the world.  But I also understand that statistics can be manipulated.  Computer models that rely on statistics are only as good as the inputs and rules they have been instructed to use.  Statistics in short, can be manipulated, and in fact it is not easy to remove bias from statistics.  They are valuable, but only when used properly, not designed to serve a narrative.

L.O.L.

It's ridiculous and it works in our favor, but remember when Trump was president we had issues getting people on the same page too - Obamacare still exists, the border is not secure, we had to wait for Brandon to get out troops of Afghanistan.

But it is still funny (and good) when it happens to the other side.  Nancy Pelosi: not wanted in her own caucus meetings...

This is false. The Speaker dropped by the CPC to listen but had to leave for an event honoring former Rep. Nita Lowey at the Library of Congress. She was in the room for approx 12 minutes. https://t.co/jDatNUqPtq

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) October 28, 2021

Notice the spin from her chief of staff? It's also funny to see leftists fighting leftists. L.O.L.

Tales from the front line of cancel culture (comedians)

Comedians  are on the front line of cancel culture. The good news is they are not afraid.  At least not these guys:

No safe spaces (from transgender students)

The world has lost any sense of reason.  But thankfully not the whole world, only the woke world.  It's heartening to hear that parents are pushing back.  Let's hope the AG does not also try to classify them as terrorists for doing so.

Let's Go Brandon dominates on iTunes

 As it should.  But this iTunes domination is great to see:

I should also point out that I have refused to mention the leader of the current administration by name this year.  The meme has provided me an alternative to referring to him as "that guy" or "C'mon man!".  So thanks for that memeologists.

This guy could have been on the Supreme Court

 Thank God, he didn't get there.  Kudos to Tom Cotton for not relenting in his questioning.

How many ways is this wrong? Please comment.

I have an unfortunate relationship with Google and YouTube, as in one that exists.  Millions of people do.  So when their brain trust come up with stuff like this, you can't do much to prevent it, even though you are using their applications.

Why is this wrong?  I have plenty of my own thoughts, but please add your thoughts in the comments. It would be great to play with their algorithm on a video like this.  That's about the best form of protest I can come up with.

Dictator Watch: China's hidden propaganda market

This is real, as exposed by a foreigner who used to live in China. It's horrible what the Chinese Communist Party is willing to do in order to deceive their own people into a sense of moral superiority and superiority in general.

How to use the left's media against itself

Political jiu-jitsu: Tim Pool talks about this leftist Reddit site mocking COVID vaccine resistors who got fired. But there happen to be a lot of frontline workers among those fired for refusing the vaccine. The trick to get the left to use it's media against themselves? Allow them the opportunity to mock you for doing good things.  They'll blow it up among themselves, and some of them might come to a realization that they are being complete...jerks, by denigrating people who have good intentions.  I mean not a lot of them, but anyone with any human decency would think twice about this sort of behavior.  They are potential future allies.

But even more importantly, would you have had any idea of the level of resistance to vaccine mandates if you had not seen this Reddit? 

How Central Banks plan to co-opt digital currency

Central Banks are not just standing by waiting for Bitcoin to take over their roles.  Would you expect anything different from them?

Sunday verse

 

Examples to follow: Fired ESPN reporter hired by Daily Wire

Kudos to Daily Wire for hiring talented people who are putting personal ethics and beliefs ahead of dictatorial vaccination mandates.  Kudos to Allison Williams for sticking to her guns.  ESPN and Disney are either caving to government mandates or are explicitly complicit in the mandate agenda.  Whichever the case is, we know that individual liberty must trump political agenda.

While my Rules for Patriots does not explicitly call for keeping an eye out for fellow defenders of liberty (Patriots), it's a logic extension of Rule #3 (Don't Do It Alone).  Beyond that it's just a good moral position to take.

Tim Pool's multiple home runs in one video

 Tim Pool, nailing it multiple times:

COVID as opportunity. Pay attention conservatives.

Jeff Deist discusses why COVID is an opportunity for the Right. In my 10th Rule for Patriots (Be Prepared), I mentioned the Democratic mantra 'never let a crisis go to waste'.  COVID is not a crisis, but it is messed up situation.  That's the closest to a crisis it actually gets.  Jeff Deist is right, this is an opportunity, not just a threat. He argues it's an opportunity for new ideas to be presented.  He's right, but I think it's bigger than that.

[2023 UPDATE:  The above video was removed, here's a related video instead]

What I see as the real opportunity is to further push things like working from home. That facilitates decentralization. Decentralization of any kind, including work environments, enables decentralization of living locations which in turn enables a more rural populace, which is conducive to common sense, and conservatism. To me that's the real opportunity. The other Democratic mantra, demographics is destiny is not wrong, but they have overplayed the racial aspect of that. There are so many attributes that are part of demographics and you can overwhelm the 'systemic racism' messaging with demographics. Rural vs. urban is a lever that serves conservatism. Let people flee California. Encourage work from home, encourage the opportunity for small town values to flourish.

Wait, this isn't real, right?

 This is way too specific, not to mention creepy.

Joe Manchin's In/Out 2-step

Joe Manchin, U.S. senator from West Virginia, reportedly is leaving the Democratic party.  Except apparently he's not.  If he did, it could shift the balance of power in the senate.  But at this point the speculation seems a little bit premature, as does the denial.

There's still hope

China is not going to win global domination.  Here's a rationale as to why from Bill Whittle.  Keep in mind this is not a license to ignore China's ambitions or developments.  It's a message of hope for those who have lost it.

China's nefarious (and real) bio-warfare ambitions

 This is truly frightening, and evil:

Why anyone would do business with country, even for large amounts of profit, is unfathomable.

Sunday verse

 

Rules for Patriots - Rule #10 Be Prepared

This is a continuation of my Rules for Patriots series, designed as a patriot's guide to success in fighting the creeping progressivism infecting America. It's a conservative response to Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. This series is a lengthy read, but it is very important to understand.  This one happens to be a video, so it's more digestible. Being able to use this approach, as a team, will simplify, streamline and expedite achieving our patriotic objectives.

Links to previous rules: Rule #9, Rule #8, Rule #7, Rule #6, Rule #5, Rule #4Rule #3, Rule #2 and Rule #1.

Be Prepared

If there is one thing that ensures failure more than all other things, it is being unprepared. Sun Tzu's Art of War stresses many things, but above all, preparedness.  Being prepared means being prepared at many different levels. You must be prepared strategically, tactically, rhetorically, and ready for unexpected events.  The Democratic mantra of "never let a crisis go to waste" is a valuable mantra.  Contrast it with the Republican mantra of "oh no, what do we do now?" and you know who is going to have a significant advantage when the time comes.  Where the Democratic advantage has a weakness is that they do not necessarily anticipate the crises to come, they are merely reacting quickly.  That can be beaten with preparedness.

Strategic Preparedness

Strategically, there are certain goals that need to be identified.  Tactics, crisis management and even debates will all flow from strategic preparedness.  What you say, how you act and react all must flow from what it is you wish to achieve.  As an example, Democrats and the mainstream media seem to always parrot each other, using the same talking points.  Dismissively, we often regard this as Groupthink. And usually it lacks any independent thought from the speaker repeating it, but it comes from a place of discipline; staying on message. While the message most often does not stand up under the scrutiny of critical thinking, the reality is that most people do not use critical thinking in response to everything they hear or read.  Thus the message can slip through that filter and the repetition, very often the lie, becomes the 'fact' that people believe. It becomes the conduit to confirmation bias.

The components to a quality strategic plan have the following:

• A clear, definable and achievable objective AND a realistic, reasonable timeline to accompany it
• The right tools available or attainable to use in pursuit of the objective
• The right people in place (or attainable) to use those tools
• A robust inventory of not just those internal inputs but also external ones (e.g. what are Democrats doing, what else can impact us) 
• Synergy (or at a minimum, no conflicts) with other strategic objectives

Once these are established you can develop a roadmap - a "how do we get there from here?" plan.  It's often easier to reverse engineer that - start at where you want to be and work backwards to where you are now.  The plan must include milestones and metrics to measure progress and success ( a factual feedback loop).  It is important to have a mechanism for a communication plan that explains internally what is happening and what is next.    The plan must also have a plan for external communication - what we want the public to know (the talking points) as well as when to communicate to the public and how to do so effectively, in an uncooperative/unfriendly communication climate.

Once the strategy is place the tactical pieces can begin.  Regular evaluation of the real world situation relative to the plan must occur frequently.  However, do not allow over-analysis to prevent progress. 

Tactical Preparedness

Breaking down a strategic plan into component milestones and execution teams is key.  The idea is to develop ways to prioritize resources to where they can deliver the best advancement towards strategic objectives.  It requires more granular thinking than the strategic preparedness because it's focus is on sub-goals or sub-components of the strategy.  It requires more flexibility than strategic planning because of the typically shorter timelines, the situational specificity and the fluidity of conditions on the ground.  Tactical preparedness requires an understanding of what the other side is thinking and planning.

It's been rumored that in 1972 when chess master Bobby Fischer defeated reigning champion Boris Spassky in the Match of the Century, he had pre-played games as both sides prior to playing his actual opponent. In fact, he had gone so far as to avoid his usual tactics to throw off his opponent's game plan in many of the games.  The unexpected change in tactics helped him defeat Spassky. His tactics were something the Soviet chess brain trust had not prepared to face.  But being unexpected was not enough, Fischer had a game plan to follow these unexpected tactical deviations.  He was more fluid in his planning than his opponent and he won.  If the enemy is prepared for your tactics, they have a much better chance to defeat you.

This is less true when they have overwhelming superiority (in numbers or tools), but even then, you must take every advantage you can find.  If you can't defeat them, you can at least exact a heavy toll in time and resources and perhaps strengthen a tactical or strategic advantage elsewhere.  

Specific tactics will vary from situation to situation and from strategic goal to strategic goal.  However good tactics will share certain commonalities; they must drive towards strategic objectives or defend strategic positions, should be efficient in use of time and resources,  they require accountability from people for their specific tasks, they must work in conjunction with other tasks, they should not be anticipated by political rivals or if they are, they should be flexible/adaptable to the response or situation at hand.  Defensive tactics should dovetail towards a counteroffensive tactic - they should only be strictly defensive where defense is crucial or no offensive opportunities exist.   

Crisis Management

How do you prepare for a crisis? To start with, consider what defines a crisis.  It is an unexpected threat with a short period of time in which to react.  In order to prepare for a crisis, you have to expect the unexpected, or more accurately, know that the unexpected can happen.  Then you need to have a plan to deal with the potential situation. You cannot possibly be prepared for every crisis because so many of them are crises because they could not be anticipated.  But you can mitigate the number of crisis events by categorizing them as best you can, and having broad outlines of how to deal with them. That will prepare you with a roadmap but leave you flexibility when something happens that was outside of the ability to plan.  The roadmap is what matters.  It is possible that crises can be categorized:

1. Economic (e.g. market crash, insolvency with respect to national debt)
2. Malevolent human activity or misdeeds/malfeasance (e.g. war, government deception, decreasing liberty)
3. Technological (e.g. Facebook shutting out conservatives, a national electrical grid failure)
4. Environmental (e.g. an oil spill, 
5. Moral decay (e.g. abortion, increasing violence, an opioid epidemic)  

Notice human suffering is not a crisis.  It is the result of a crisis.  That human suffering exists is a result of ignored or improperly managed crises throughout history, to this day.  Effective crisis management can help to alleviate, mitigate or eradicate a crisis.

In order to effectively manage a crisis you must first anticipate the types of crises you might face so that you can prepare for it. Then create a roadmap of how to deal with it that prescribes steps to counter the crisis but leaves flexibility to deal with unanticipated components.

1. Identify the crisis - know that a crisis exists or is developing.  If you know the situation exists before it is fully formed, you give yourself more window to react. In a crisis situation, time matters.
2. Identify the premeditated plan to address the particular crisis as well as any gaps that may not have been considered.  Remember that the plan should be driving towards the desired outcome.
3. Agree on the plan as a team. Agree on roles and responsibilities.  Think of it as a division of labor and a division of deliverables.  Clearly define those deliverables so that there are no component compatibility issues as pieces are delivered. 
4. Ensure frequent communication to both the internal team, and external message communication to the general public.  The perception of the team by the public is critical.  The perception and understanding and alignment within the team is critical to continued motivation of the team.
5. Identify waypoints on the plan towards success of the plan.  In project planning these are called milestones but in a broader context it can also include subsets of outcomes as a result of inaction or of external events.

If you prepare in advance, fewer things require crisis management because they have been anticipated.  You can react more calmly and effectively when you are dealing with contingencies than with crises.

Rhetorical Preparedness

Rhetorical preparedness requires both offensive and defensive preparedness.  Even though you may not be involved in an actual debate you need to prepare as though that was what was going to happen.  There are many aspects to preparedness, including knowing your subject matter.  This will allow you to point out errors or omissions in your opponent's facts and/or logic.  You must be able to do this in the most simple and understandable way.  Unlike your opponent you may not be intellectually dishonest in your arguments because unlike your opponents, you will be rigorously fact checked and your motivation impugned.  You must possess the intellectual honesty that your opponent will not be held to account because the media is on their side.

You are at a disadvantage, make no mistake.  Your opponent will be allowed to get away with many, many things that you cannot; impugning your motivation, name-calling, side-stepping answering direct questions, stating why you are wrong without explaining where in your argument you are wrong, stereotyping you or your argument, creating a straw man for themselves to defeat instead of your argument, inflating or boasting about their own expertise relative to yours, sloganeering, claiming 'we have to do something' before properly identifying the root problem, invalid analogies, playing on fears or hopes, claiming right to a privacy (especially after making a claim about themselves), scapegoating, redefining words, using invalid credentials of themselves or a so-called expert, using quotes out of context, claiming group membership with the target audience (for sympathy or for a purported position of expertise),  cherry picking, invalid accusations, rejecting facts as opinions, theatrics (rolling eyes) as argument, innuendo and insinuation, peer approval of a subjective opinion, hearsay, finding minor errors in your argument and presenting them as major ones, the fallacy of sunk costs, shouting you down, using anecdotal evidence and the list goes on.

 

While you cannot resort to these rhetorical tactics, you can be prepared to identify them in order to call them out for what they are. "Ridicule sir, is not an argument." 

Conversely there are good rhetorical strategies to understand.  These are all about not only creating acceptance, but creating buy-in.

• Know your message and know how to tie it to your audience in a way they understand.  This requires a simple message and really knowing the motivations and aspirations of your audience. Your points need to be relatable with your audience.  It also requires that you be able to tie the message and the audience motivations together effectively in a way that is not easily countered, if at all.  Craft your message, test it and practice delivering it repeatedly.  When you have it working, deliver it repeatedly, tie other arguments to it and it to other arguments so that you afforded more opportunities to deliver your message.
• Keep each of your talking points short and simple.  Ideally 30 seconds or less.
• Make a debating game plan, and stick to it while trying to knock your opponent off their game plan.
• Ensure all communication is done with positivity in terms of message, tone and body language.  Each must be aligned together towards making things better.
• Contrast your ideas with the holes in your opponent's ideas.  We typically know what Democrats are going to say so it is simpler for us to find glaring holes in their claims.  These must be emphasized. 
• Beyond debates, we must understand how to get the message out while having to work around a media (both mainstream media and social media) that is unwilling to share our side of the debate except in a way where they can characterize it to suit their message (which includes the notion that we are either dumb, or evil, or both).

The diagram above is very instructional.  Any argument has 3 components, logic, empathy and credibility.  Any argument that moves too close towards one point of the triangle is by definition, moving away from the other two corners. Democrats rely too much on empathy, but they often do so successfully.  Ben Shapiro conversely often argues that "facts don't care about your feelings".  He's arguing logic, and it's typically infallible.  The problem is that he's often lost half his audience (not us, but those who need to be persuaded to rethink their positions) by lacking empathy.  Where he gathers credibility with patriots by doing so, he also loses it with those who are driven by emotional arguments.

Don't get me wrong, the man is brilliant and he's right.  But to persuade people you require that balance with empathy.  Ben Shapiro is merely an example of how conservatives argue their points; we need to include more empathy in our arguments. By doing so we gain some credibility. We desperately need to know that part of our audience.  In fact, when dealing with the mainstream media, we can dull the edge of their hostility towards us by pointing out that we agree that poverty is a problem no American should have to face, where we disagree is merely on the solution to the problem.  That gains both pathos  and ethos for our arguments.  It allows us to flow into logic where we are most typically far better prepared than our opponents.