Tag: Down the Rabbit Hole

The Socialists Are Here: Canada elects Justin Trudeau

Remember what I said a few years ago about the organization Socialist International and how their progressive intentions were spreading across the globe. Issues like open borders, marijuana legalization, and gun banning are their highlight reels of priority? Their goal is to get everyone essentially stoned so that they will assimilate into one giant non gender, none nationality species to gather under the rainbow of global governance. And in their crosshairs are on the United States and its cherished sovereignty, because as long as that exists, the goals of Socialist International are strained with competition which of course they can’t have. Well, guess what, Justin Trudeau’s election in Canada is the latest casualty toward left-leaning dystopian chaos that seeks to plague the minds of the masses toward oblivion.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/10/20/canadian-liberals-poised-to-win-majority-unseating-conservative-government/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/world/americas/elections-canada.html?_r=0

Again, I hate being right all the time. I predicted this. The entire world is plunging toward socialism, France is already there, England is trying to dig out from under it, Germany is certainly committed to progressivism, Italy is drowning, Greece is toast, Spain is deeply in the hole and those are the good countries. The Middle East is corrupted by a mix of political communism and radical religion both collectivist based. India is impoverished, China is communist. Russia is pretending to be free-market when it’s really a totalitarian regime. All of Africa is destitute with socialism, especially South Africa. Australia is deeply corrupted now with socialism and only has the economic power of a large state in America. South America is mostly socialist leaning and Mexico is of course rooted in social justice philosophies that have destroyed their economy with an origin in Marxism. So around the world the United States is all there is regarding free market potential and the world is gunning for it. We shouldn’t cooperate, unfortunately, half our society is inclined to.

For that matter all of Canada only has as half as much GDP as California in the United States which is falling toward socialism presently. Progressives have essentially taken over California with socialist leaning concepts which will dramatically alter California’s economy over the next couple decades. But Canada is already there. It didn’t take much for the measly 34 million residents of Canada to vote in favor of socialism, because they are a beaten people looking for the free stuff that government can confiscate and redistribute to their population. That is the primary reason that the advocates of wealth redistribution promote open borders, because it changes free counties to socialist ones which spread the disease at the ballot box. America is under attack in its schools, its government and from all countries surrounding it. It is being attacked because it maintains a capitalist system.

The media loves that Canada has turned toward the political left, because that is their desire for America. They look to the south and see Mexico and now to the north, Canada is even more socialist leaning than they were five years ago, and the media sees progressive politics—which is what progressives are all about—progressing beyond capitalism toward socialism and global government centralized within the United Nations. They want an end to national sovereignty, personal sovereignty—which is why they support abortion, casual sex and homosexuality and most of all they seek the destruction of the concept of private property. In the United States they attack private property through guilt—by declaring the Native American Indian had land stolen from them which we are the perpetrators of. This led to casino legislation to empower the Indian, but in reality it was intended to make more gambling addicts, drunks and whores so that our society would be easier to conquer. Progressives also attack property rights with taxes attaching everything to property so to make it too expensive for single land holders to possess too much. It’s all very philosophically coordinated.

It isn’t a conspiracy to say such things. It’s a fact, the socialism is all around us and it is very un-American. Canada just made a huge mistake, and they will feel the pain of that mistake in time. But what the socialists of the world really need is to put out the light of capitalism residing in America so that the people living in those other countries won’t look toward the United States as an example that they’ll have to live up to. Justin Trudeau is just one pawn in a global chess game that is intent on cornering the king of capitalism—America into a checkmate and the intentions are now well at hand. The very fact that on our northern border are socialists and on our southern border die-hard Marxist rejects from the turn of the last century, open border advocates aren’t just looking for more Democratic voters, they want to change the nature of our country into an assimilation of progressivism.

They don’t want the strong white male cowboys of American culture; they want the people who are easy to run over and to control into social justice concerns. Those priorities are being taught in our schools to our kids right now to change them into a voting population, who will vote for people like Justin Trudeau in America—a low testosterone beta type of man who could easily put on a dress and feel right at home. Progressives want more Bruce Jenner, lost souls who don’t know what they are, so that progressives can remold them into a global assimilation of progressive ideas—which is another reason why even public schools are bending over backwards to make he/shes feel socially acceptable. It isn’t because they care about the feelings of the individual, it’s because they want to change individuals into a mess of soupy human assimilation. They use sexuality, marijuana, and all forms of decadence to spread the concepts of collectivism because it is only there that the sins of individual loss of sanctity can be recovered once surrendered. They are trying to break you down dear reader one sin at a time and their goal is to turn your neighborhood into Canada, France, and Greece—with the political elite in charge of your life—so you don’t have to think about it and have more time for video games and to surf the Internet on your smart phone.

Only when they suppress the United States behind a wall of collectivism—a league of nations—will capitalism eventually fall—which was always the goal of early 20th Century communists. They have softened up their rhetoric since then with their mind on the long prize, which Justin Trudeau represents. Everywhere you look now socialism is clear to see and the economies of those places reflect that stale approach to productivity with pathetic GDP numbers for the land masses they represent. The only way they can hide the scam is by eradicating capitalism from the earth. That is why the United States has a target placed upon it from those old Socialist International buffoons and their misplaced philosophic investment into the broken man of Karl Marx. A poor soul that was used by the forces of Europe to send communism into Russia to destroy the family that controlled that giant land mass from competition with their neighbors for economic survival. Now that science experiment has spiraled out of control and sucked the world into a black hole of economic development for which Justin Trudeau is but the symptom. And it’s not only coming to American—in many ways—its already here.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Was Bush at Fault for 9/11: Is Trump right to ask the question?

Another thing that I like about Trump is that he isn’t afraid to call out a tough issue—even if it’s controversial—such as the county’s reaction to post 9/11. There has been a lot proven that there are discrepancies in the whole event, the destruction of the World Trade Center, the allocated blame, and aftermath of the destruction—the deficit spending it created, the expansion of government with the Department of Homeland Security and many other fallacies that could have been averted if people had just done their jobs pre 9/11. When Trump said the event probably wouldn’t have happened on his watch, he’s talking about a level of management competency that only people used to positions of power understand. George W. Bush had barely won a hard election against Al Gore, was over his head with a lot of the management aspects of the job as President, and clearly wanted to right wrongs issued against his family from the first Iraq War. Judgments were clouded and decision gates not attended by the best minds—clearly. Conspiracy theories abound regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center—and subsequent buildings in the area—and those conspiracies are created by minds adding up the facts and noticing holes. So there is merit to Trump’s criticism.

But more telling is the response from brother Jeb Bush who is actually pleading big warm blanket progressive government in defense of George W. Bush. Trump is talking about competency of government; Jeb is talking about sentimentality instead of hindsight 20/20 analysis. If many of the follies of modern American patriotism could be traced back to a single event, 9/11 is it.   Hatred of George W. Bush brought us essentially the socialist Barack Obama and the tremendous debt we currently hold. It gave rise to the Tea Party movement 8 years later as a direct reaction to the mismanagement and rapid expansion of government since 9/11. It launched the second Iraq War and eventually put ISIS into power by 2014. It lowered the respect of the American brand around the world—so from Trump’s position, the criticism of 9/11 is perfectly valid. But the Bush family expects no questions to be asked about such an event because George W. Bush made America safe.

How did 9/11 make America safe, and is safety worth what we lost with the creation of the TSA, DOH, and the general overreaction of just about every government agency that was caught sleeping on that bright sunny day in September prior to open terrorist insurrection against the United States on American soil? It wasn’t the first time of course, and that point was made during a defense of the Bush family by some political pundits angry at Trump. It was mentioned that Trump’s criticism of George W. Bush is as ridiculous as assuming that FDR knew that Pearl Harbor would be bombed by the Japanese and that 9/11 would assume that Bush the younger as president allowed the World Trade Center to be bombed so that a war with Iraq could be provoked—and thus get revenge on a long time family rival. Well, that idea is not so crazy; in fact, there is likely some truth to that conspiracy about Pearl Harbor.

We know that FDR supported the clandestine activity of the AVG Flying Tigers over China against Japan leading up to World War II. He supplied outdated planes to General Claire Lee Chennault to lead the effort of defending China to keep Japan from gaining access to the natural resources of that country so to slowly choke off the military of the Rising Sun from a long sustained fight in the Pacific. All of this was unofficial of course. There are also reports that Japan in retaliation against FDR was planning to bomb Pearl Harbor and that the President knew about it. So outdated battleships were lined up in the harbor while the valuable carriers were out to sea—in safety. The conspiracy suggests that FDR knew that if the Japanese attacked it would unite the nation behind the war effort, which was inevitable anyway. So the valuable assets were removed and disposable collateral assets were put conveniently in place for the Sunday bombing run which to everyone else was a surprise.

Guess what happened next, the nation united behind the war effort, defeated the Japanese and FDR was able to usher in many of the socialist policies he had been working on, including an update to the League of Nations first proposed by President Woodrow Wilson called the United Nations. All that happened because of World War II and the obvious patriotism behind the war effort as a natural reaction of anger toward a recognized enemy uniting the country under a flag of malice. Many Constitutional liberties were trampled on as a result including the gathering up of American/Japanese citizens into prison camps for the “safety” of all Americans.

Did FDR know about the bombing of Pearl Harbor before hand? I think history indicates that he did and I also think he did what he did thinking it was good for the greatest number of people. He thought that a sacrifice was needed to unite the country and that a terrible thing he wished hadn’t happened did on December 7th 1941. But he was awfully well prepared for the speech he gave which launched America into the war.

During 9/11 a lot of very stupid people let a lot of things slide through the cracks to allow a bunch of terrorists to attack the symbol of American economic power around the world. Americans united behind the effort and Iraq was crushed into dust—government expanded, and spending against the United States GDP sent our economy into an eventual collapse culminating in a 2008 recession and the reckless antics of the years since. Do I think that George W. Bush screwed up, that he ignored reports of clandestine activity emerging from Florida—from pilots training to fly, but not to land? Yes, I don’t think he was as stupid as he looked in that event. I think that there was a political desire to unite the country behind a tragedy while evidence that needed to be destroyed was in the devastation that followed. I believe Presidents of the United States can justify a fight for the greater good by accepting collateral damage as a reality of their job—and their desensitization and lack of professional training in these kinds of philosophic matters make them easy to steer by manipulative CIA directors and power-hungry domestic insurgents all with their focus on a global prize. After all, George W. Bush was an owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He didn’t have to make these kinds of life and death decisions when they decided to trade a pitcher. So he was probably incompetent at that stage of his presidency to think properly on the matter. That is Trump’s complaint.

Logic and emotion are not equal in the defense of an issue. Bush defends his family name with emotion when logic shows that his brother made serious mistakes obvious in hindsight. And this is what has fueled the conspiracy theories. Did Bush and his team plan the 9/11 bombing—probably not, but did they secretly hope in the back of their minds that something would happen to unify the country behind their desired tactical goals? And when those goals were implemented, and proven failures, how do you cover the burden for the bad decision? Bush in that case tossed money at the situation to cover the embarrassment—which threw us into a massive deficit and gave Republicans Barack Obama for eight years as punishment for their incompetence. Trump has a spectacular point and it should be covered. Bush doesn’t get off the hook just because George W. Bush kept us safe for a few years. How did he keep us safe if he expanded the size of government and threw us further into debt just because he couldn’t deal with some towel headed terrorists? The answer is he didn’t, he just used money to hide the real issue, that the government failed under his watch and that is why there was a tragedy, because people didn’t do their jobs either deliberately, or by accident—but regardless, his administration was too loose and ill prepared.

Trump is right again, and nobody else will dare say it—but him. No wonder he is the Republican front-runner after everything else that has occurred.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Metaphysics of Quality in Guns: Unexpected wonder in Cowboy Fast Draw Association products

With me it’s always about quality—as in the Metaphysics of Quality defined by the philosopher Robert Pirsig. As I get excited about something, like I often do when I take the time to write about things it is because whatever it is shows obvious signs of the Metaphysics of Quality. To me, that MOQ is very important. More important than most everything else, so when I see it, I get very excited and I gush about how wonderful it is. That is why I love architectural achievements like the Liberty Center shopping complex near my home—because it has obvious elements of MOQ within its construction, vision and implementation. I enjoy fine restaurants for the same reason even if I might stand against the social placement of those economic devices—if I see that there is a positive MOQ involved I get excited about whatever it is. I see MOQ as being more important than legal concerns or personal rights because not all people are of a “high quality.” That can be a dangerous road to travel down, but my criteria for judgment is contained with the Metaphysics of Quality as defined by the fine book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a very important concept to behold.

So I was rather stunned to open up the box from my new group, the Cowboy Fast Draw Association containing my membership information and my targeting equipment. I’ll have to admit, I know a lot of these cowboy types and over the years, most of them barely scrape by. As good of people as they are, they often don’t have much money and do live from paycheck to paycheck. Their idea of quality is usually something very tacky from a flea market. When I placed a very expensive order with the Cowboy Fast Draw Association, I’ll have to admit that I didn’t have very high expectations. I anticipated that what they’d send me I’d have to spend hours at Radio Shack trying to piece together additional parts. I had ordered a Cowboy Fast Draw shooting lane, which consists of a metal target, a light, sensor, a switch to start the timer and a clock that breaks down the time to thousands of a second. A lot of the equipment is fairly advanced stuff—so my expectations where that there would be issues with assembly.

The way the system works is that you buy a fast draw gun, for me it was a Vaquero, a speed draw custom holster, wax bullets for ammunition, special .45 Colt ammunition cases specially designed to hold a shotgun primer. Then you set all that up to the Fast Draw Target System.   A light comes on the target, you draw and shoot the metal plate and the time it takes to hit the target is recorded. There are a couple of different modes, there is competition mode and practice mode. Under practice the timer will randomly run through different start times so that the shooter can’t anticipate the light. That helps the shooter develop properly their reaction time to the start light. It is pretty sophisticated for a shooting range, but once built, makes shooting relatively cheap—about six cents per shot. The wax bullets are about $44 for a thousand and the primers can be obtained for a similar cost. Once it’s all set up, it’s easy to use and efficient.

Putting together the target assembly was simple; the wires were color coded, the sensors screwed to the target plate and the start light attached with a magnet behind the target that shines through a Plexiglas hole in the face. Within about 15 minutes I had the whole thing together—which surprised me greatly. I had budgeted about 3 hours for the effort, and it took a lot less time. Even more remarkable was that everything worked. That shouldn’t have shocked me, but it did. Even on all the little timers were label indicators for Cowboy Fast Draw very professionally done. If I didn’t know better I would have thought I bought the whole setup from Cabela’s for several thousand dollars. It was good enough to sell as a mass market item—not what I would have expected for an organization with not yet 5000 members.

That’s when it hit me that these people running the Cowboy Fast Draw Association were people functioning naturally from the MOQ philosophy by their very nature. I doubt it’s something they are consciously aware of, but they had taken the time to do all the little things very right—including the packaging of the equipment within the box they shipped it to me in. Everything was very carefully wrapped and complete—someone who really cared about the contents put the whole thing together. But even slicker was that somebody had figured out how to make all these things work together to make one of the best secrets of modern shooting possible. And they didn’t skimp on anything; all the components were good quality items built to stand the rigor of shooting at them with firearms.

That’s where I really started increasing my respect for the Cowboy Fast Draw Association. Part of what killed the Wild West Arts Club which I had been a part of for quite some time was that they over expensed themselves. They charged way too much money for items to cover areas of their operational costs that they had gone into the red on. The result is all that’s left of them is what consists of my little Annie Oakley group that meet each year in Greenville, Ohio during the last weekend of July. One of the reasons for me picking bullwhips to work with as opposed to firearms was because nobody had figured out how to make such a thing work in a neighborhood setting—a place that didn’t require 100 acres of land to go shooting—so there was no way to practice or get good. With this targeting system that the Cowboy Fast Draw Association had come up with, a typical gun range could be set up in a garage. The shotgun primers are not much louder than a cap gun and the bullets fly out about the same rate as a juiced up pellet gun. It really isn’t much harder than the projectiles used in paintball—which is perfect for practicing the western arts of fast draw and gun spinning. These guys had figured out a lot of very neat concepts and they weren’t trying to make a killing off it—they just want to expand the sport, so everything was very reasonably priced. It was priced for expansion—not grotesque profit. There is no way the Cowboy Fast Draw Association has large margins on their sales. Yet they still put all the effort into the job as if they were making millions of dollars. That was impressive.

It doesn’t happen very often. But when it does, I write about it. Cowboy Fast Draw is one of those associations that have their roots in the Metaphysics of Quality. Not only was the sport of Fast Draw something that is good for all American shooters, the association itself was filled with quality people who took the extra steps to exceed expectations. I find that same attention to detail with Brownells, they are always very conscious about what and how they ship items. For that matter gun companies in general are so pleasant to work with. They really put an emphasis on quality and customer service. Even down to an association like Cowboy Fast Draw, the emphasis on American ingenuity and quality is assumed as an afterthought. If I liked firearms a lot before I assembled my target lane from CFDA I really respected them after—because even a very specific field of endeavor such as fast draw brings out the best of what is left in America.

When people wonder what I expect from others it is best embodied by CFDA. I expected a group of people barely hanging on to throw some things in a box and toss it my way for the exchange of some easy money. What I received as a lot of love and care for firearms and tradition that was obvious by the way the box was taped up. The products were reasonably priced and still the people cared about what they were doing. America used to be filled with those types of people. Now it’s a rarity—so much so that I’m very happy when I meet people or organizations that possess a level of Metaphysics of Quality that are respectable. Especially when it is unexpected—if I pay $70 dollars for a steak dinner, I expect quality—if I’m buying wax bullets and fast draw targets, I expect the kind of service that you might find at a casino or flee market. And in the case of CFDA, I was extremely surprised to find a very quality organization equal to a fine steak dinner.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Boycotting Disney: To do so, or not to do so–that is the question

It is worth listening to. Alex Jones during a recent show had several melt-downs as the subjects of the day overwhelmed his commentary. I think Alex overreacts a lot of times, and I don’t think the “global elite” are as smart and sinister as he thinks they are. I do agree with him that they “think” they are the smartest people in any room and that they do have global plans to eradicate borders, cheapen values, control people through their drinking water, and generally take over the world with a one world government dissolving national sovereignty completely. I do believe “they” are guilty of many false flag operations and malicious activity ranging from the recent trend of tattoos among young people to the collapse of the United States economy. But much of what they are doing they get by with not because they are the smartest people on planet earth, but because most people are too lazy to challenge them. That’s really what it all comes down to, and the reason they get the illusion that they are the “illuminated” ones who should rule us all is because not enough people tell them what a bunch of idiots they are. Sorry, that’s not going to happen—but it won’t stop them from trying. So to understand the scope of the situation, I suggest dear reader that you watch and listen to this Alex Jones show which goes on for a while. It is well worth the investment of time.

Like Alex, I do believe the primary media corporations—Disney included—are all wrapped up in this psychological game of remolding the human mind toward progressive sentiments. George Soros has been a major player in shaping that vision and it concerns me greatly that Marvel comics has moved in such a progressive direction—going so far to make Alex Jones one of the villains in their storylines—where a black Captain America fights against the Tea Party types in favor of global politics. That is not the Captain America I grew up with, and under Disney’s watch they are allowing for this mass progressivism to filter in and attempt to reshape the thinking of the consuming public. That is one of the reasons I am concerned about Star Wars. I am hopeful that it will be what I want it to be, but there is a real fear that they might attempt to blur the lines between good and evil putting a progressive twist on a storyline that was molded out of American westerns.

Unlike Alex, I won’t be boycotting Disney. I love Disney World and I do like Disney films—some of them—not all of them. I do get angry, and I would spend more money at Disney if they stayed away from cramming gay rights down my throat with rainbow-colored castles and employees who are too gay to assimilate properly into society. When a ride announcer is talking, I don’t want to be made aware that the guy might be a butt-plugger because of the tone of his speech. Disney is a family oriented company—at least that’s the way Uncle Walt planned it—and if Disney as a corporation strays too far off the path of American tradition—they’ll lose a lot of money. In the end, money talks and ideology walks, and the board at Disney will pick the money over progressive George Soros inspired social assimilation strategies.

That doesn’t mean however that Alex is wrong. Rather than boycott and not enjoy the family aspects of Disney I vote with my wallet, and believe me they do know what works and what doesn’t. I’m not going to buy comics of superheroes who fight for United Nations goals over United States sovereignty. Young people may be seduced by the stories, but the end game will cost Disney and their shareholders will notice the drop in interest among their readership. The Disney Channel and much of the content at the Florida parks are some of the best family entertainment in the world currently. I even like ESPN because it has a bit of family fun to it—it’s fairly clean and optimistic, the way you’d expect Disney to be. But I notice it a lot where individual employees, or even producers and directors attempt to slide progressive ideas to young people under the door, which people like Bob Iger likely don’t notice. Iger and even George Lucas lean too far to the political left these days, but I don’t think they are overtly trying to reprogram the youth into becoming fluoride seduced homosexuals who want to stick their junk into every knothole in the fence. I think they want from their perspective to do the right thing and they have a lot of liberals radicalized by creative institutions to think too far to the political left working for them and that radicalism shows up in their products. I can promise this, if the mainstream American public feels uncomfortable with the product Disney produces, they won’t buy it.

For example, take Demi Moore for example that played the lead female in the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996. That same summer Demi who had been a top box office superstar prior to that year also stared in Striptease, which was essentially an early version of Magic Mike. Demi got naked and was supposedly a stripper in that film to take care of her kid because she was a single mom. It was a heavily progressive movie that was a joke and people rejected it. It sold a few tickets because people wanted to see Demi Moore naked, but once they did, they were done with her, and her career tanked—immediately. It didn’t help that she was in the Disney film. Notice you don’t hear the Alan Menken songs from that cartoon at the Disney stores these days. The film only made $325 million at the box office—which was good, but the repeat business wasn’t there because there were a lot of moms who had been turned off by Demi Moore who didn’t take their little kids to see The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Disney hasn’t really recovered from that tragedy in their animated film division until Frozen broke the spell a few years ago.

As Alex Jones says, the entire industry is being controlled by these progressive idiots, and I can say that he is largely right. Hollywood would make a lot more money if they would step of the ideological bandwagon and make movies that Americans want. But a lot of producers and directors are hoping that a lack of competition will force America to adapt their values to the products they are producing. What they are discovering however is the opposite, that people are just tuning them out in favor of some other entertainment option. If Disney puts a couple of gay people on the screen kissing in an animated feature, they may never recover their reputation and they know that. Society won’t change the way that the progressive radicals hope it will, and Disney won’t have the patience to play the waiting game of a century long reprogramming of the human mind. They are expected to maintain profit growth each business quarter. Right now Bob Iger has positioned the Disney Company around Star Wars which shows strong signs of maintaining that anticipated growth through at least 2021. But, if Star Wars becomes more progressive, that whole formula is in serious jeopardy, and the company is at risk.

For Disney to crash and burn, the way Alex is preaching—because of their participation in progressive political theater, a boycott isn’t necessary. All it will take are declined revenue streams from books, t-shirts, park attendance and Wal-Mart toys. A drop of 5% would destroy Disney, because of the extraordinary cost of their business model. So even if Disney execs were at the Bilderberg meetings—which I believe some are, or if they attend the Bohemian Grove meetings and burn effigies of sacrifice to pagan gods of a time long past—they aren’t that smart. If Disney abuses their mythological product making devices for the sake of Bohemian collectivists, they’ll come up short because the American public will reject that product in favor of something else.

To me the “global elite” aren’t that smart. They make a lot of mistakes and the only way they hide those mistakes from the public is by keeping the media they largely control from reporting it. But people do reject their products—often, and they do feel the pain. Even if Disney executives wanted to make a romantic comedy animated feature about two gay guys getting married and living happily ever after—they couldn’t because the American public would reject it. Just as Marvel owned by Disney is making a huge mistake by trying to make their superheroes more progressively oriented. Young men grow up to become conservatives once they start raising a family and they’ll abandon the Marvel product in the future if Disney goes in that direction.   People are people, and their desires are innate—meaning they come from raw instinct and evolution. Of those innate desires are sexual unions between a man and a woman because that activity advances the human race with new generations—that strong lead male characters are preferred, and that Disney princesses should not take off their cloths—or the public will reject them. In the end the marketplace of capitalism takes care of everything. But it’s important to know who is trying what and for what reason. And on that topic, Alex Jones is 100% correct. Intentions are quite obvious. Competency is another matter.

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Cowboy Fast Draw Member 4265: My alias is Cliffhanger

About a decade ago when my oldest daughter’s boyfriend from Europe was trying to win me over for support, he put more than the average effort in to impress me. He joined me with my bullwhip friends in competitions and became pretty good. He and I worked for many hours in my backyard developing further the bullwhip fast draw modeled after the Ohio Fast Draw Association that also competed at our events for years. He even started dressing like me in some ways, with his own spin to the outfit. This of course made my daughter very happy and convinced her to make a long-term commitment to the fella. Whereas bad fathers are the type of people who make the common sluts and bar trash that are so prevalent these days, good fathers raise girls who think about bigger things so endorsements of potential mates are important to such daughters. For her the icing on the cake was that my future son-in-law bought himself an outback hat similar to mine and started wearing it everywhere very proudly.image image image

One night, he and I were philosophizing about life and the nature of it in my backyard and he asked me about why I wore a hat so much. I told him that it was to distinguish myself from the common flock of people. In America the Cowboy Way was a code of conduct that exhibited a value system which exceeded modern boundaries and that my hat was an obvious show of support for that value system. Wearing the hat was my way of dressing for the part and my role in preserving that way of life. I went on to say that my values exceeded even those of the Cowboy Way—I was more stringent on many of them and went further on others. My favorite cowboy movies were not the John Wayne classics, or even the Lone Ranger, but they were Zorro and the famed Clint Eastwood westerns like Pale Rider and The Outlaw Josie Wales. High Planes Drifter to me is one of the most sophisticated westerns ever filmed—it was essentially Ayn Rand set in the west—it was an overman which came to a town to straighten out the justice which was long overdue. Whether the protagonist was a ghost from the past or a highly skilled more than man type—it was my favorite western and when I wore my hat, it was a tribute to those types of philosophic ideals.

I’ve been content to keep things pretty much independent of the outside world. I don’t need a lot of social support, so my way of doing things has worked just fine for me. My adherence to the Cowboy Way has been a silent code that I have not rammed down the throats of everyone I have met too much—other than wearing my hat in public most of the time. It did the job with my son-in-law and let him know what kind of family he was marrying into and I was happy with that. However, the days where that was enough are gone—the world has moved further away from that Cowboy Way in recent years and I don’t find that acceptable. Politically the Trump run for president has been a godsend, because he is covering a lot of the topics I have for the last five years, but on a bigger stage with the press eating out of his hand. So I don’t feel a need to continue beating on that drum, since somebody else has it covered—at least for now. Additionally I have a respectable number of grandchildren all of a sudden, and like that impressionable potential mate that my future son-in-law was—kids need much more of a role model figure much earlier which is my job—and I take it very seriously. My son-in-law was around 15 to 16 at the time of our talk in the backyard; he’s now climbing toward thirty fast. Time does move quickly and if you want to make an impression, you better do it quick. Kids are ruined if you don’t get to them by the age of 11 or 12. In my son-in-law’s case he was lucky to have been raised in England with a traditional way which protected him from the corruption of progressive cities like London, New York, and San Francisco. But he wanted more and he was on my doorstep looking for it, and it was my job to make sure the young lad was at least pointed in the right direction not just for his sake, but my daughter’s. After all, you raise these kids, give them all this hope, and they need to have people in their lives who share those values. The task is a rather large one. But by the time I knew him, most of his foundation thoughts were already in place. What I was saying might have small influences over how he conducted his life, but major ones probably wouldn’t be possible that late in his climb toward manhood. I promised myself that when I started having grandchildren that I would step up this Cowboy Way philosophy for their sake so that they’d have the right tools equipped intellectually to deal with a modern world spiraling over the precipice. I am one hundred percent sure that the Cowboy Way is the answer to much of what sickens America right now, and that is one major thing that Donald Trump cannot have much impact on as a presidential candidate. So I have taken major steps in advocating the Cowboy Way in a fashion that I had long been thinking about—taking up Cowboy Fast Draw as a sport.

As a grown man I probably shouldn’t have been so excited to join up with the Cowboy Fast Draw Association. My package of materials arrived the day that my new granddaughter arrived home from the hospital after being born. It was a huge forty pound package that contained a lot of lights, timers and targeting equipment. Included was my new membership card and some pins that will come in handy down the road. My membership number is 4265 and of course my alias is Cliffhanger. In Cowboy Fast Draw all members must have an alias so of course mine would be Cliffhanger which is the philosophic foundation of this whole endeavor. In my fictional pulp series The Curse of Fort Seven Mile I wanted advance the direction of the character—but before I could do that of course I had to live the reality first—as my fiction has to reflect reality—otherwise I’m not interested in doing it. My membership card clearly has CLIFFHANGER written on it with a disclaimer on the back for police officers saying, “THE BEARER OF THIS CARD IS A PROFESSIONAL FAST DRAW COMPETITOR AND CARRIES SINGLE ACTION REVOLVERS FOR PURPOSES OF DEMONSTRATION AND COMPETITION.” In short, when roaming around wherever and need to maintain my practice with single action revolvers to maintain and increase my skills toward the Cowboy Way, cops shouldn’t be concerned or alarmed, because I’m a member of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association. Of course if that isn’t enough and I end up in some kind of self-defense altercation, I’ll call my buddies at Second Call Defense and let them handle the police—which is the other reason I have suddenly become so openly pro gun and an advocate of Second Call Defense. I have to protect my investment.

The Cowboy Fast Draw Association reminds me of how our Wild West Arts Club used to be over a decade ago. In a lot of ways, its much better. It was quite a privilege to open up my membership material and see several issues of the Gunslinger’s Gazette included. The group is working on expanding their membership base to over 5000 of which I was number 4265. I’d like to see it at over 20,000 and climbing, because I think it contains within it the essence that every American should be striving to behold as a nation built on philosophy and freedom—the Cowboy Way. The Gunslinger’s Gazette is essentially a publication dedicated to the Cowboy Way so it was wonderful to see a physical copy of the paper instead of the online edition I had been reading.

But to top it off the culmination of all this has not been easy. I have been a bullwhip guy for many decades, so accepting a new skill has not been painless for me. However, I have done pretty much what I can with bullwhips. I like what some of my friends have done to break records with them, but as a symbol of the Cowboy Way, bullwhips need help because they are not part of the American consciousness the way that single action firearms have been. So I needed to add that skill to my wheelhouse and I promised myself at a certain time “professionally” that I would buy my new Vaquero by Ruger and start this journey. Well that time came for me a few weeks ago. It had taken me a long time to get there, but I eventually did, and the very first thing I did was purchase the Vaquero which now sits by my side everywhere I go. I have to work with it all the time to build the muscles up in my hands, and that was the final gate to this new section of my life.

Needless to say, I’m proud to be affiliated with the Cowboy Fast Draw Association under the name of Cliffhanger. I’m also proud to be a part of Second Call Defense which helps make this new sport possible with the legal support that will help protect the validity of that membership card by CFDA. Having a firearm is an essential part of the Cowboy Way just like wearing the hat. One of the reasons my son-in-law was attracted to American life was that they didn’t allow firearms in England. He met my daughter and wanted to win me over essentially so that he could own firearms. It was my job to help him find what he was looking for. But that need doesn’t end with him, there are millions of people in just the same situation—they just don’t know how to go about it. That’s where introducing them to the Cowboy Way will help—it explains why the Second Amendment is so important and if the police get too power hungry at the sight of Cowboy Fast Draw Association members armed with single action Ruger Vaqueros on the plain states of Iowa, or Montana at a local burger joint on the way to a competition, Second Call Defense will be there to help preserve that Cowboy Way when the questions are asked. It is within these types of people who America needs to get to know itself once again—those who read the Gunslinger’s Gazette.

My grandchildren are going to get what they need; I’ll make sure of it. And of that necessity is a strong understanding of the Cowboy Way. I don’t preach to people who don’t want to listen, and I raise children that way, under a laissez-faire approach that allows individuals to invest of themselves into what I’m selling. If they walk away, they walk away, and I won’t track them down to the ends of the earth to help them. Rather I live by example, which is one of the most important parts of the Cowboy Way. And with my new membership into the Cowboy Fast Draw Association, and my friends at Second Call Defense, the gunsmithing equipment at Brownells the powder purchases from Cabela’s and many other support organizations, we’re going to protect that Second Amendment from the trying times that are before us. And it all starts with the beauty and simplicity of the Ruger Vaquero. This is going to be fun!

Rich “Cliffhanger” Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

$18 Trillion Dollars in New Spending: Bernie Sanders and the comedy of a proposed socialist government

I don’t think I have ever laughed as hard as I did when I learned about Bernie Sanders proposed budget if he wins President of the United States in 2016. I know Sanders is a socialist, and I know his usual sales pitch for progressive policies. He is essentially a carbon copy of the typical school levy supporter—so I’ve heard his kind many times. I have been aware that he has been doing well among socialists, communists and progressive Democrats, but I didn’t know the details until Fox News did a little exposé about Sanders and covered how much his programs would cost the United States—and they did it with a straight face. The number……………………drum roll please……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………and remember, this was supposed to be serious……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..$18 trillion dollars!

I don’t know what planet this guy is from nor if he even has a brain. If all the wealth of every billionaire were 100% confiscated it wouldn’t even begin to pay for all of Bernie Sanders proposed projects. Keep in mind that we are nearly $19 trillion dollars in debt now—Bernie proposes to double that amount as President of the United States. The GDP of the entire nation is only around $17-19 Trillion per year so there is no way that the bill for Bernie’s dreams could ever hope to be paid for by any amount of money anywhere. There isn’t enough money in the world to cover his budget—yet nobody even covered it. Like I said, Fox News went over the material “fair and balanced.”

I laughed so hard I lost my voice from straining my vocal cords. It may be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I know there are stories of my mother-in-law promising my sister-in-law that she could have the moon in her bedroom if she’d be good when she was a little girl, which I have always thought was a ridiculous promise to make—because kids don’t know better, and they expect you to deliver. This budget from Bernie Sanders is more ridiculous than that and a good part of the nation like a small child thinks it’s actually possible. That is funny!

If that is what the Democrats have to pack stadiums with enthusiasm, they are in a world of serious trouble. I know the political left thinks Donald Trump is just as ridiculous. However, the difference is Trump has an actual track record of creating wealth. Bernie has nothing. He’s just an old hippie from Vermont—a socialist who has slid through the cracks for years and as an old man has the supporters of the malcontents and anti-capitalists losers who want free stuff and an entitlement society. I don’t blame Bernie for being a senile old man drowning in communist ideology—but the people who support him might as well be cast on the television show, The Walking Dead. No brain zombies destined to rot their way through life on the backs of the hard-working.

I know I’ve always stated that liberals are unrealistic, too collectivist in their philosophic demeanor, and are detriments to themselves—but Bernie Sanders indicates that I have understated their vast stupidity. The real answer to this upcoming election is one of two paths, you either go with Trump and hope that he can do as he has with his private wealth and explode our national GDP to 7-20% growth, or you tell Americans that they have to pull up the boot straps and cut, cut, and cut some more. America will have to cut Social Security, welfare benefits, Medicare—everything because the money is going to run out soon and the ambition to make more money will evaporate. Under liberal leadership the “rich” will stop trying leaving fewer opportunities to build wealth that can be taxed to pay for everything. It’s not hard to understand. America is at that point, right now. Politicians either have that hard talk with the American people or some politician—like Trump—will have to put their name and reputation on creating a new day of capitalism that can carry the burdens with excessive economic growth unheard of in the history of mankind. I am rooting for Trump so that America doesn’t have to go through the pain of all those hard cuts. But in the back of my mind, I think it’s unavoidable anyway. Even if Trump were only 50% successful in all that he’s promising, America is still in trouble. The Bernie Sanders method is just unfathomable. It’s not even on the radar scope of possibility.

It has probably been noticed by long time readers here that I have a sudden vigorous interest in firearms. It’s not because I didn’t like them before, but because I see an expanding role in their value. Most of my articles have been about education reform and economic issues up to this point hoping that sense would evolve into action and bad times might be averted. Well, I no longer have that hope. The moral depravity of our society, the terrible work ethic of the younger generations, the debt, the effects of that bad education system add up to a lot of bad things on the horizon. Guns will be a larger part of my life because I see a greater need for the foundations of the original Bill of Rights. If I lived during the days of the Constitutional Convention I would have been an anti-Federalist and would avoid large government involvement in everything. So the Bill of Rights have more power to me than the original Constitution because it is too “pro government” for my taste. The present situation is a perfect example of what happens when there is too much Federal control given to incompetent people. Bernie Sanders would expand that incompetence by thousands of times their present imposition—which nothing could survive. That’s why the situation is so funny.

An anti-Federalist position is much cheaper than a Federalist one—which is a more effective way to communicate the matter since so many Republicans and Democrats are interchangeable in today’s world. They just want big government spending on different things. For the anti-Federalist, we don’t need government to solve child custody issues, we would handle it ourselves. We wouldn’t need lawyer to protect us from immanent domain land grabs. We’d settle it directly with the advocate and either get rich on the deal or erase them from the earth using the protection afforded to us with the 2nd Amendment and perhaps even the 4th and 5th. Everything would be cheaper if only the Bill of Rights were followed—we’re not even talking about the original Constitution here which the Supreme Court has essentially wrecked with watered down case-law. Bernie Sanders is suggesting a lot more of this kind of mess—not less of it which then creates a lot of unintended consequences that are very negative.

With the expansion of government comes directly the expansion of incompetence because when people are well paid for doing mediocre work, the incentive to give more of the same becomes the driving force. So not only are programs like Bernie Sanders suggests too expensive, but they drive down the quality of what is made in the country’s GDP proportionally as an unintended consequence. A hundred years ago, I might have understood that Bernie might have had an audience for his ridiculous proposals—because the ideas were new then, and hadn’t been tried very much. But now they have—we have over a hundred years of progressive failure that just about everything we see in a decrepit state can be blamed on. And now that idiot wants more of that same failure—but in even greater quantities. Now that is hilarious!

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Gun Rights “Shall Not Be Infringed”: Philosophy trumps legality–get to know Senate Bill 199 and Senate Bill 180

I get really tired of all this talk about gun control. On Saturday Night Live shown on October 10, 2015 the obvious attack against guns was incredibly obvious. They did several skits attacking guns showing how the progressive New York culture sees the rest of America. Well, just for clarity not to the gun owners who read this site each day, but those progressive types who are way too politically left-winged, the Second Amendment is not up for debate. It is not up for negotiation. And there is no interpretation of the words “shall not be infringed,” that opens the door for more rules, confiscation, or government involvement. As lawyers do try to discuss the meaning of words which can take on different meanings as times change the Bill of Rights is an extension of American philosophy for which legal terms evolved. The intent of the Constitution therefore does not fall under the proper interpretation of legal minds, but philosophy. And the essence of that philosophy is that governments cannot be trusted—which is grossly evident in our modern news cycles. Here is how the terminology has been misinterpreted by legal minds giving the illusion that the Second Amendment can be modified to suit some progressive diatribe—such as those shown on left leaning news outlets and entertainment venues.

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Such language has created considerable debate regarding the Amendment’s intended scope. On the one hand, some believe that the Amendment’s phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” creates an individual constitutional right for citizens of the United States. Under this “individual right theory,” the United States Constitution restricts legislative bodies from prohibiting firearm possession, or at the very least, the Amendment renders prohibitory and restrictive regulation presumptively unconstitutional. On the other hand, some scholars point to the prefatory language “a well-regulated Militia” to argue that the Framers intended only to restrict Congress from legislating away a state’s right to self-defense. Scholars have come to call this theory “the collective rights theory.” A collective rights theory of the Second Amendment asserts that citizens do not have an individual right to possess guns and that local, state, and federal legislative bodies therefore possess the authority to regulate firearms without implicating a constitutional right.

In 1939 the U.S. Supreme Court considered the matter in United States v. Miller. 307 U.S. 174. The Court adopted a collective rights approach in this case, determining that Congress could regulate a sawed-off shotgun that had moved in interstate commerce under the National Firearms Act of 1934 because the evidence did not suggest that the shotgun “has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated milita . . . .” The Court then explained that the Framers included the Second Amendment to ensure the effectiveness of the military.

This precedent stood for nearly 70 years when in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court revisited the issue in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290). The plaintiff in Heller challenged the constitutionality of the Washington D.C. handgun ban, a statute that had stood for 32 years. Many considered the statute the most stringent in the nation. In a 5-4 decision, the Court, meticulously detailing the history and tradition of the Second Amendment at the time of the Constitutional Convention, proclaimed that the Second Amendment established an individual right for U.S. citizens to possess firearms and struck down the D.C. handgun ban as violative of that right. The majority carved out Miller as an exception to the general rule that Americans may possess firearms, claiming that law-abiding citizens cannot use sawed-off shotguns for any law-abiding purpose. Similarly, the Court in its dicta found regulations of similar weaponry that cannot be used for law-abiding purposes as laws that would not implicate the Second Amendment. Further, the Court suggested that the United States Constitution would not disallow regulations prohibiting criminals and the mentally ill from firearm possession.

Thus, the Supreme Court has revitalized the Second Amendment. The Court continued to strengthen the Second Amendment through the 2010 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago (08-1521). The plaintiff in McDonald challenged the constitutionally of the Chicago handgun ban, which prohibited handgun possession by almost all private citizens. In a 5-4 decisions, the Court, citing the intentions of the framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment, held that the Second Amendment applies to the states through the incorporation doctrine. However, the Court did not have a majority on which clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the fundamental right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense. While Justice Alito and his supporters looked to the Due Process Clause, Justice Thomas in his concurrence stated that the Privileges and Immunities Clause should justify incorporation.

However, several questions still remain unanswered, such as whether regulations less stringent than the D.C. statute implicate the Second Amendment, whether lower courts will apply their dicta regarding permissible restrictions, and what level of scrutiny the courts should apply when analyzing a statute that infringes on the Second Amendment.

Recent case-law since Heller suggests that courts are willing to, for example, uphold

  • regulations which ban weapons on government property. US v Dorosan, 350 Fed. Appx. 874 (5th Cir. 2009) (upholding defendant’s conviction for bringing a handgun onto post office property);
  • regulations which ban the illegal possession of a handgun as a juvenile, convicted felon.  US v Rene, 583 F.3d 8 (1st Cir. 2009) (holding that the Juvenile Delinquency Act ban of juvenile possession of handguns did not violate the Second Amendment);
  •  regulations which require a permit to carry concealed weapon. Kachalsky v County of Westchester, 701 F.3d 81 (2nd Cir. 2012) (holding that a New York law preventing individuals from obtaining a license to possess a concealed firearm in public for general purposes unless the individual showed proper cause did not violate the Second Amendment.)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment

That’s just a bit of history on how the Second Amendment has been knocked back and forth over the years. Yet the trend in spite of New Yorkers like those found on Saturday Night Live around the rest of the country is for gun laws to become less stringent not more so. For instance in my home state of Ohio there are two pro-gun bills being introduced for discussion which are very important.   The Ohio Senate Civil Justice Committee had a hearing Wednesday, October 7, at 2:30 p.m. in the Finance Hearing Room to discuss two pro-gun bills.

Senate Bill 180, sponsored by Senator Joe Uecker (R-14), would allow an employee to store a firearm in their locked vehicle without fear of employer retribution.  Throughout the country, many employers have adopted “No Firearms” policies that extend beyond the physical workplace to include employee parking lots – areas often accessible to the general public and not secure.  In order to comply with these policies, many employees must choose between protecting themselves during their commutes and being subject to termination by their employer.

The fundamental right to self-defense should not stop simply because you park your car in a publicly accessible parking lot owned by your employer.  When companies invite employees to park on their property, they should not be allowed to dictate employees’ constitutional rights inside one’s own vehicle.

Senate Bill 199, also sponsored by Senator Uecker (R-14) and Senator Randy Gardner (R-2), would allow an active duty member of the military to carry a concealed firearm without obtaining a concealed carry license if the active duty member is carrying a valid military identification and a certificate indicating a small arms qualification.

If your company has such a misguided policy that impedes your inherent right to self-defense, please contact NRA-ILA’s State and Local Division at state&local@nrahq.org and share this information.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20151006/ohio-nra-backed-bills-up-in-committee-this-week

And that’s where I stand, there needs to be a lot more guns out there, not less, and we need to be able to carry them in more places more often. The trend is clear and the necessity for more guns is obvious. Guns are not just instruments of death the way left leaning politics frames them—they are part of the philosophic American experience. They transcend legal interpretation as philosophy trumps legality because it is in thought that all law emerges. So to undo some of the laws misinterpreted by sissy-driven legal minds over the years, the Ohio Senate Civil Justice Committee is working to walk back the intrusions that gun owners have been conceding—illegally due to improper legal negotiations from the anti-gun lobby over previous decades. The activism displayed on Saturday Night Live and other anti-gun venues made a false assumption—that gun rights “shall not be infringed,” were up to debate. They aren’t under any circumstance. End of story. It’s not complicated. Guns=philosophy which trumps legality.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

What Carlos Todd and Donald Trump Had in Common: Eminent domain and the opening of Liberty Center

The Donald Trump speech from Norcross, Georgia at the North Atlanta Trade Center on Saturday October 10, 2015 was particularly telling of American politics. It was a great speech and it should be watched—seen below. Just a day later after the Sunday morning talk shows Trump continued to beat on the same kind of drum. Trump’s accusations were confirmed when Obama appeared on 60 Minutes later that same day after the football games and was grilled by Steve Kroft over the destabilization of the Middle East, also shown below. In that 60 Minutes segment was discussion over the upheavals in the Republican Party after a week of nobody wanting to be Speaker of the House—because of the Freedom Caucus. There is a lot going on, and it’s very clear that only someone like Donald Trump is equipped to handle the very volatile situation. Obama clearly is not privy to the current trends—he’s in extreme denial—as is most of the Beltway.

On issues regarding the Second Amendment, trade, immigration and economic growth, Trump is a far right conservative—so much so that Republicans should be drooling within the party at his intentions. He has the ability to market the Party in a new way they haven’t enjoyed since Ronald Reagan and they’d do well to embrace him. On the other hand, he is rather liberal regarding taxes, healthcare, and eminent domain. I could argue all day long with Trump on those issues—but they are his thoughts and he couldn’t do any worse than what we’ve had so far. I am willing to take what’s right with Trump metaphorically, and literally and offset the negatives because he is the kind of person who can get things done—and things need to get done. The Party bosses may not like Trump, but they’d be stupid to pass up on the chance of a lifetime. Trump would build a wall on the southern border, he’d expand the military, and he’d restructure the tax system all while stimulating the economy which are all things he’s capable as president to have a direct influence on, and at 70 years old, Trump has enough gas in the tank for one last spectacular decade of his life and America should give him a shot to go out with a bang. Obama has already embarrassed America—stepped all over the Constitution, and caused irreparable damage on Capital Hill. Only extreme success can fix the situation now.

As the Liberty Center shopping complex begins to open in my hometown it is ironic that one of the biggest Republican Party bosses in Butler County’s history was laid to rest. Essentially the Liberty Center shopping complex was made possible because of eminent domain. I was always against the Butler County Regional Highway construction which ran right through all the areas I used to play as a kid. Carlos Todd was a developer who built the Republican Party base in Butler County to essentially use crony capitalism to complete his building projects. Our political system is so dysfunctional that the only way to get projects done on a massive scale is to purchase politicians with money and loyalty—and Carlos Todd was one of the masters. He died at 77 eventually to his battle with cancer leaving quite a power vacuum in his wake.

I was in firm opposition to Todd and his Butler County associates Michael Fox and Bob Shelly as the Butler County Regional Highway used largely eminent domain to destroy my childhood home, a cemetery that had Revolutionary War soldiers in it, and several Indian Mounds that populated the area destroying a lot of potential archaeology. I thought of Todd as evil incarnate on the face of the earth because the Republican Party led by him was buying up property to develop for their projects stepping all over the rights of private citizens in the process. It was incredibly wrong and I was made even more furious when they took my father to a baseball game where the developers had a nice private box and convinced him to sell to Todd all in the name of progress. Their basic sales pitch was, sell and profit, or fight and be destroyed. They had the power of government to destroy, so he should take the money. I had been willing to fight them to the ends of the earth with any means necessary, but it was my father’s property—and his right to do with it whatever he wanted. So the developers got their way.

Well, Michael Fox eventually went to jail, Bob Shelley got into sexual harassment troubles and was pushed out of his trustee seat, and Todd drifted off into the shadows as his grandson took over the family business. There has been a lot of change and upheaval since then as the Regional Highway was built and slowly development began to appear around it. Bridgewater Falls is just such a development, which I have slowly come to enjoy over the years. Liberty Center is the latest, and most spectacular, but was it worth all the pain it caused people to run all over their property rights to build it?

When I started No Lakota Levy all the characters from those eminent domain fights joined together with me to fight the Lakota levy because the local public school was blocking out some of those developers from further work and the district had reached a saturation point. Developers had built all the buildings they could hope to ever construct leaving the taxes enormously high on all future development tipping the balance away from everything that had been built by them. I had always been against the explosive growth because of the sustainability of it, so now I was on the same side as people like Carlos Todd and the developers he largely controlled. It was strange to get to know all of them from a perspective on the other side of the fence. Most of the emails I sent or received had Carlos Todd copied on them so he was well aware of what we were doing and it threw me back to when I was in opposition with him and I was able to map out how he controlled things from a distance. My hatred subsided toward him because I saw what he was doing—he used government—which had stuck itself in every crevice it could over a long period of time—to hedge the bets for his projects in his favor. I couldn’t argue his method or reasoning. The developers were productive people making things that didn’t exist previously—and that was a good thing. Some of them I liked quite a lot, some I didn’t. I worked with them and just did my thing eventually doing as I always do—just sort of taking over. When the heat got too hot for them they checked out and we parted ways. Every time we’d meet toward the end they’d try to poke me into running for office, so I deliberately sabotaged the relationship with them to get out of that circle not because I disliked them, but because I needed to maintain my own course.

I’m sure Todd would have liked to see the Liberty Center open, but he didn’t quite make it. I am proud that its there, and of all the hard work many people endeavored to construct it. I think it’s a miracle of economic activity and the best minds of architecture. But was it worth it? Was it worth the building of the Butler County Regional Highway? The destroyed lives, the destroyed history and the integrity of Butler County politics? The answer is yes—even though it cost me personally. True, the world would have been better if everything had been left alone, but there’s a lot to be said about creating something from nothing and I appreciate that more than stagnation for the benefit of sentimentality.

The reason I told that story is that establishment Republicans, many of which were put in place because of people like Carlos Todd have mostly committed vast amounts of evil using eminent domain to destroy the lives of many. Donald Trump is not alone in that effort and he shares a lot in common with Carlos Todd, a developer who used politics to get what he needed to accomplish done. Getting to know Todd and his troops well from the other side of the fence I was able to see what was really in their heart. Sure, some people were bad, and they went to jail, lost their seats or ended up wiped from the face of the earth one way or another. But the good ones endured because through competition there really is no other way to sustain your essence, but through authenticity, and Carlos Todd was authentic—just as Donald Trump is. No question when you do things that relate to other people, they will have an opinion one way or the other. The judgment of a person’s character is determined by how they act under pressure. What people do under pressure validates their worth—and Todd showed that he had a lot. I might not always like what he planned to do, but his effort had purity to it. But within that purity there were many people who were trampled on and were smacked around quite a lot.

The real answer is to get politics out of development and remove many of the regulations that cause all this evil. Until that happens people like Carlos Todd and Donald Trump will work the system to their advantage. That is why I feel that Trump—after a lifetime of making deals and running over people can actually straighten out the mess of politics and its terrible relationship to business. Ideological people who have not built things themselves but were relegated to just giving their opinions about things do not have the benefit of my life where I’ve been very active on both sides and know clearly where the line is drawn. I can only treasure that opportunity because it gave me the philosophic foundations to understand all these complexities without losing sight of the real objective—economic growth, the sanctity of private property, and the evil of a system that the most clever among us learn to use to get things done—in spite of the desire of that system to destroy all thought and action. Donald Trump is an insider, and I would love to see what someone like him—who likely hates the system as much as I do, would commit himself to if given a chance to right the ship in ways that Carlos Todd never came close to achieving. But for Republicans to turn on Trump as a radical maniac who would wreck the party—they are in denial at what put them in office in the first place. They’d be wise to get behind Trump for the strength he provides and for giving them an opportunity to have their office seats. Because without people like Carlos Todd, Donald Trump and eminent domain—most of them would still be small time hacks looking for an opportunity that would never come otherwise.

The only way to change the system is from the inside by someone who knows it better than anybody. That’s why I’m voting for Trump. His use of eminent domain and the guilt I’m sure he feels about it I think would make a person determined to correct that situation for the benefit of economic wonder which everyone would eventually enjoy. Trump is in a position to morally build a philosophy of growth by utilizing the lessons learned from crony capitalism into a more laissez-faire system perhaps for the first time since the first few decades of America’s creation. And that would be wonderful.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

My New Ruger Vaquero: A best friend that brings out the best in humanity

There is nothing about my new Ruger Vaquero .45 that speaks of violence to me. Looking at it all I think about is cowboy trick shooting and stunts that can be performed with it. It is to me equivalent to a nicely made basketball intended to be thrown into a net by a good athlete, or a wonderful pair of golf clubs meant to drive a ball across a vast green into a hole 400 yards away in increments.   Shooting with the Vaquero shown in the picture is essentially a sport where science and skill combine into hitting a target under timed circumstances. There is nothing violent about the act whatsoever. Guns might have been invented out of war like necessity and the sport of shooting to practice for that eventuality—but the sport of shooting is just another human endeavor intended to test skill against adversity with the drama of competition to drive image

What struck me on this particular gun—as they all do these days is the nice messaging that often comes with them. Ruger in this case was grateful for my purchase and the supplied literature made it clear. It showed to me a serious interest by the Ruger Company to build a solid base of customer support for a product unquestionably made in America by good, hard working people. The gun feels like a well-crafted work of art, its machining is immaculate, the tolerances on its critical junctures well inspected, and it feels incredibly competent. This is not a company that should be targeted by liberal hate groups. Ruger is not a company making death—it makes life, and tradition. There is nothing about my Ruger Vaquero that speaks of violence if a person really understands what shooting is all about in the world of sport. It’s a fine tool to me for exhibiting traditional American art forms, and it’s a miracle of modern science—more sophisticated than driving a golf ball into a hole, or throwing a football 50 yards down field into the arms of a waiting receiver. To me the Vaquero by Ruger is the ultimate individual sport where great power is incorporated into the mechanisms of great engineering and it deserves to be respected as such.

But it’s not lost to me how grateful the Ruger Company is with each purchase made of their firearms. It is because of their attitude toward their customers that I get a special feeling whenever I see the emblem blazed across a t-shirt of hat, or on a banner at a competition. I know they care about their customers in spite of a world led by liberals that wants to eradicate them from the face of the planet because those political minds want to make the company into a representation of hate and violence. Football is a violent sport, golf clubs are sometimes used as weapons of hate when they are slammed over the head of a victim, but political advocates don’t seek to ban golf courses or the sport of golf. The gun has a special hatred aimed at it because liberals have no idea or desire to understand that guns like the Vaquero are designed for much more than hunting or self defense—they are built for the sport of the Cowboy Fast Draw.

In such groups as those in the preservation of the Wild West arts are some of the best people I have ever met. The world would be a whole lot better off if more people interacted with these great Americans. And on the hips of most of them are often Vaqueros by Ruger. They wear them openly in public often and nobody ever gets shot, and there are seldom ever hard words spoken to others. There is almost always respect for their fellow shooters. Within that alliance of sportsman they revere each other with camaraderie that is exceptionally healthy and overwhelmingly positive.

When I picked up my Vaquero at Right 2 Arms it was the owner’s parents who were working the store and were armed behind the counter. There was no reason to feel apprehension at that visible support of what looked like a Glock holstered on the father. We proceeded to have a very nice conversation about Gatlinburg, Tennessee while the background check came through for me. They were good people and I looked over my Vaquero as they spoke about their upcoming vacation plans. It was good, healthy conversation among highly armed people who invoked no danger whatsoever. Instead, the presence of guns elevated our interaction to something of respectful banter united under support for the 2nd Amendment.

Just two days prior I had a wonderful lunch with some VIP’s within the shooting world. We talked about gun ranges, plans for helping the youth through learning marksmanship, and the bad rap that guns were getting in the wake of the Oregon shooting.   I enjoyed the company more than I would if the conversation were a usual business lunch where all the things that people really like are talked around because of political correctness. With these guys, we could all just be ourselves which was refreshing. It was much better to talk about things that really interested us instead of sports scores and the season trajectory of our favorite football teams. There always is a solid foundation of realness that comes from those types of lunches as opposed to others that feel like a clip on tie at a wedding. It confirmed much of what I have been feeling lately about firearms and their role behind the American experience. We need to be more proud of that heritage, not less so.

I mentioned to the guys at the power lunch that we needed to market firearms differently as a public perception—that as shooters we needed to stop riding the ropes of the obvious political fights we are without question in. We need to get into the center of the ring and control the fight from that position instead of just taking the shots to the face and hoping to outlast our opponents—the gun grabbers, the liberal radicals teaching in our public schools, and the political class that wants to turn America back into an aristocracy similar to Europe—instead of one founded on independence from gun possession.

The reason my Vaquero as opposed to other guns I have bought is so special is that its purpose is exclusively for use as a cowboy shooter for the sport of Western Arts. It is the type of single action that won the West in America and that means a lot to me symbolically, and the sports that have risen up in the wake of that historical memory is not much different from the battlefield strategies of football. The games might have been invented by inclinations of war, but they evolve into camaraderie and tradition that brings out the best that a society has to offer. The gun in America exhibits the best of this example.

The summation of my contacts the week that I picked up my Vaquero at Right 2 Arms is guns make people better—not worse as progressive politics suggests. The political left had misdiagnosed the root cause of human evil and sold it back to society in a package of deceit. When that deceit is removed and Americans are allowed to wear their firearms on their hips, and discuss them as extensions of themselves, a higher quality in people emerges built out of respect. The knowledge that domination of the another person is not possible—so a respectful exchange emerges between human beings when both have guns. The trouble emerges when that relationship is lopsided, where a maniac is armed and a peaceful person is not—that’s where abuse happens. But Ruger is not about feeding that fear—they are about making America a better place and that sentiment begins with the simple thank you note that they package with their guns. I felt honored to open up my new Vaquero. It’s an honor to have such a fine gun from such a quality company. As is typical of most gun manufacturers, they are examples of what’s best about American manufacturing and that is certainly the case with Ruger. They are one of the very best, and every time I look at my Ruger Vaquero, I will think of what’s best about America and the culture that should otherwise thrive in a society open to gun use for the skills that emerge from them in sports.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

End of The Drudge Report: A calm before the next American Civil War

Well, the full court press by progressives is on and they have shown their cards. In the wake of another round of gun violence it is obvious what the strategy is. Matt Drudge gave a rare interview with Alex Jones predicting the end of his famous internet news site The Drudge Report because of something a Supreme Court Justice said to him. The next Civil War is well at hand—because of progressive intrusions, and while there is still civility the mechanisms for which they control is attempting to shape the battle ground. They want to control the media in all aspects so they can cut the lines of communication between free people. They want to disarm the public so that there is little resistance to their incursion. And they are selling all this effort with a perceived professionalism that is rather dangerous. Watch Matt’s interview here which sounds remarkably similar to the interview I gave to my friend Matt Clark recently. Click here to review that. Watch the Drudge interview here:

I agree with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), when he famously claimed that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” There are a lot of bad guys out there, at all levels of the world. Some are thugs in the streets looking to steal from those who work; others just want to terrorize to satisfy their own infantile egos. Low level terrorists work through radical groups, or are individuals crazed with hate. More sophisticated terrorists hide their maliciousness behind orthodox behavior and reside within the world’s governments. And it is they who speak through the work of publications like The Nation which said the following in reaction to Wayne LaPierre’s gunslinger comments about private armament.

The Nation spoke to several people who do—combat veterans and former law enforcement officers—and who believe that the NRA’s heroic gunslinger mythology is a dangerous fantasy that bears little resemblance to reality. Stephen Benson knows what it’s like when bullets start flying. The former Navy SEAL saw extensive combat during his three tours in Vietnam. Later, while recovering from the wounds that earned him his third Purple Heart, he also trained elite troops at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California. “In chaotic situations, the first thing you know is that the shit has hit the fan and you don’t know where the fan is,” says Benson. “And unless it’s constantly drilled into you, it’s very hard to maintain discipline in those situations. You’re immediately hit with a massive thump of adrenaline. Your mouth begins to taste like copper. You can hear the blood moving in your system. You can even experience a kind of time-warp. And the problem with that kind of state is that conscious thought shuts down because you’ve been taken over by your nervous system, and your nervous system is saying, ‘holy shit, things just got really bad.’”

http://www.thenation.com/article/combat-vets-destroy-the-nras-heroic-gunslinger-fantasy/

As a connected issue to all the above progressives are looking toward Australia as a solution to the gun control avocation they support most. In Australia essentially the government bought back guns from the public, kind of like the cash for clunkers program seen in the United States a few years ago. The big difference is that if people refused to participate, they were threatened with jail. The Australian 1996 National Agreement on Firearms was not a benign set of commonsense gun-control rules: It was a gun-confiscation program rushed through the Australian parliament just twelve days after a 28-year-old man killed 35 people with a semi-automatic rifle in the Tasmanian city of Port Arthur. The Council of Foreign relations summarizes the Aussie measure nicely: The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, stiffened licensing and ownership rules, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation. Among other things, the law also required licensees to demonstrate a “genuine need” for a particular type of gun and take a firearm safety course. The council’s laudatory section on Australian gun-control policy concludes that “many [read: gun-control activists] suggest the policy response in the wake of Port Arthur could serve as a model for the United States.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425021/australia-gun-control-obama-america

So there you can see dear reader how the collective consciousness of mass progressives—globally induced is establishing its attack run on American liberty. First, they intend to shut down free speech by strong individual advocates, like Drudge. Next they wish to continue to establish trust in a central authority, like public school teachers, and police run by international trade unions philosophically committed to socialism. Then they plan to disarm society under the guise of safety. Their only opposition is in building up public momentum against their individual enemies with public sentiment. Now that you know that much, go back and listen to the Drudge interview once again and listen carefully. The guy has been at the top of his game for two decades and knows most of the major media personalities in the United States on all sides of the political spectrum. He’s not a conspiracy wack job. He’s a very real and conscientious person.

As to the assertion that NRA gunslingers are no match for the well-seasoned combat veteran let me put that one to rest. Without question there are many brave people who serve in the armed forces—but to me that is part of the problem of mass collectivism. They are effectively employees of the government and if the government goes bad, they become the enemy against liberty—so there must be checks against their power with individual—and equal ability. But let’s be clear about something, and I know I’m not the only one out there—but under strenuous situations I trust myself far more than any police or military officer to remain cool under fire. If I were not a married man, I would be a contractor such as what works around the world outside of the military services, so professional soldiers don’t impress me. And most cops are such a panicky lot that they make fools of themselves all too often during traffic stops and late night run-ins with drunks at bars. CLICK FOR AN EXAMPLE IN MY TOWN. I certainly don’t want police officers and military personnel to have supreme command over my life and property. No disrespect to them, but they need checks and balances from a civilian presence who is better armed in most cases to keep them honest.

I’ve been shot at, been under severe threat, had guns pointed at me and been under every kind of danger imaginable and I don’t rattle. An explosion could go off right next to me and I’d be under complete control. I can control my adrenaline, and I actually thrive when the “shit hits the fan.” I enjoy those moments and I purposely look for reasons to be in such circumstances. There are many Americans like me just as there were people like that in Australia—people like Rod Ansell who was the inspiration for the movie character Crocodile Dundee.   Ansell was shot dead in a gun battle with police in 1999 two years into the gun ban when authorities came to the outback master’s remote home—blocked off the road and fought it out with the old hold-out. There are a lot of people like Ansell in the world, and everyone is much safer with them armed and free.

Make no mistake about it. The intentions from villains hiding behind certified law are lurking for excuses to unleash their ideology upon everything they see standing in their path. If they could, and will likely attempt by virtual of law, is to make an outlaw out of Matt Drudge, just as they did Rod Ansell. When Ansell was killed by multiple gunshot wounds the authorities excused the effort through the rationalization of insanity—that Rod and his 26-year-old girlfriend were hyperactive drug addicts obsessed with an attempt by the Freemasons to take over the world. Since this new breed of criminal has taken off the masks they used to rob banks with, becoming lawyers and law makers instead, they create now the means for looting by legal means—so they can make outlaws of Ansell, Drudge, and anyone else with the signature of a pen instead of the point of the gun—because when all the guns are collected, they’ll still have them—then it will be too late. So you better know what kind of game you are playing and who is moving the pieces and not white-wash the reality with any illusions. We have a Civil War on our hands—the shots just haven’t been fired yet. But they will be—and when that happens, make sure you are a card-carrying member of Second Call Defense so you can stay out of jail while the legal system still works. There will come a time when it won’t, but until then protect yourself. Because nobody else will.   At that point those public sector security types will point their guns in your direction, just as they did at Rod Ansell in Australia. That is what Obama and his progressive friends are trying to create in the United States. The real fight is one of the mass collectivism against the individual—everywhere in the world. And in a world where collectivists make all the rules—it is the truly insane mandated by the weakest links of their order for which they define the rationality of people like Rod Ansell—which is why Matt Drudge is one of the biggest targets on the internet. First it will be people like him—then it will be everyone else.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.