America seems to be waging war. The geopolitical climate seems to be convoluted and a good deal troublesome. The commentary about the war seems to be fractious and conclusive, meaning every opinion about the outcome is unyielding. The good news seems to be that there are only two sides — for or against.  And the rhetoric is as inflammatory as war itself. You have no interest in arguing the case here, however prejudiced you may be, because you simply don’t know what to believe. The collapse of mainstream journalism doesn’t help, You are left to look to Internet sources, but that avenue is as clogged and unpredictable as I-85 at rush hour, and infamously more ominous. Dozens of podcasts bait you unashamedly to seduce you with hyperbolic headlines. They all do it, of course. “They” of course are the pundits — experts galore who have made careers out of telling you what you should believe. Unfortunately, what all media have been successful doing  is sway you to disbelieve. The President you counted on most likely has been compromised, according to his most loyal supporters. Naturally, his administration allies say he has been consistent, negotiating in every way possible with bad actors, before effecting a military policy. Others say he is marching to Israel’s drum, risking WW III. Both positions have merit. Nobody’s arguing against the charge that Iran’s Mullahs have been fomenting hate against America for decades, killing thousands of people in the process. Some will say that the seeds of hate were sowed when nearly a million Palestinians were expelled from their homes to make room for European Jews in a new Israeli State, an arbitrary decision essentially mandated by Great Britain and the U.S. But what is the back story? What are the details and the motives? Tucker says Zionism is a political state motivated to annex more and more land,  to become something called “Greater Israel.” Ambassador Mike Huckabee couldn’t disagree more. One of Trump’s biggest supporters, Tucker has openly criticized him and the war. Whom do you believe? Neither. You don’t implicitly trust any of the narratives. Quite a few outspoken Jewish statesmen, academicians and philosophers have condemned Zionism and PM Netanyahu for systematic policies designed to make Palestinian settlements uninhabitable. Top drawer historian Victor Davis Hanson apparently has no skin in either camp. You have the impression that he believes all parties have first blood on their hands. Can you trust Hanson because he has a stellar history of objective thought? You should, but don’t. Then, as you doubtless know, a mob of podcast pundits are happy to educate you to understand that the war is about OIL. Period. The oil card plays like this. Trump wants to interrupt the flow of discounted oil from Iran to several countries, most of all to China. He’s embarked on eliminating China influence within the Western hemisphere, especially the Panama Canal. That strategy was behind the Venezuela initiative. Trump doesn’t deny it. Do you trust that theory? Yes. But not in its entirety. Unfortunately, the most salient value you’ve lost in the past decade is trust itself, reminding you of the age-old adage “Buyer Beware.” That axiom always applied  to purchases — homes, cars, investments, insurance, etc. Now you also must beware of buying what you learn, or hear, or even see, especially now, with AI on the scene. So what’s real, Matilda? Can you trust your own thoughts? Yes, but leave room to maneuver, to admit false steps or lazy bias. Yes, realize that Trump is moving on a big stage to effect a win-win for America and for any other country who values the same outcome. Yes, look for people of principle. There are a few who inhabit the Internet. Begin with Konstantin Vadimovich Kisin of Russian, Ukrainian, Greek and Jewish ancestry. He describes himself as 1/4 Jewish and a “not-very-practicing Orthodox Christian.” His podcast is titled Triggernometry. Yes, there are others. Victor D. Hanson, Jordan Peterson, Matt Walsh, Joe Rogan, and some intellectuals appearing in Dry Bar Comedy. After all, behind all humor is an element of truth. The idea is to search for that truth whenever and wherever it has a chance to breed. But do ignore the Tube. It’s a special interest wasteland, paid for by corporate dollars and dark money.

www.conventionofstates.com

Housebound. Well, not totally. But a bunch of snow, ice and subfreezing temp does tend to motivate a hunker-down mindset. Occasionally, you do get out to mingle with the mobs at Costco and quickly conclude that hunkering is immensely preferable. And hunkering is also superior to escaping. Hopping an airbus to some tropical paradise guarantees you nothing, except mingling with transportation hordes. Definitely no escape. You probably think there’s no justification for this negative outlook and you’re right. Because  your grumbling is not precipitated by God’s sensational wintry weather. In fact, you admit to hunkering in sensational, sunlit weather. The truth is that escape is a universal, sometimes subconscious, impulse. At any given moment, millions of people want desperately to bail out of a job or a marriage or an addiction or a responsibility. As a recurring loner, you’re no different. You want to escape, but can’t. Not from yourself.. No matter who you are, what you do or where you’re planted, you’re forced to look in the mirror, and face a depressing reality — that the country you love is at war. That your enemies are not invading armies, domestic terrorists, illegal aliens or foreign governments. That your enemies are Americans. Millions of them whom you obviously don’t know. Some of them close by you may know, without truly knowing. These millions go to the polls and vote for socialism or communism, two forms of government that cannot coexist with either the Declaration of Independence or The U.S. Constitution. Their voting is premeditated. It’s no mistake. It’s no misunderstanding. No voter can ignore the history of socialism or communism. And no voter can argue with the truth — that in 1776, America’s founding was a direct rejection of kings, queens, aristocracies, oligarchs and other dictatorships, to become the world’s sole constitutional republic. ** To this day, Canada, England and other European nations still cling to a Royal family structure. And those Royal family empires that were overthrown by violent revolution were replaced by equally repressive dictatorships (socialism, communism) that exist to this very day. How do you escape the incomprehensible realization — that the greatest nation in world history is under attack by the freest people on earth? By Her own people? You have only one explanation. Predictably, you will allege that our gate keepers — Congress and the Supreme Court have set the standard for betrayal, and thus are enemies of the people. Both have equally betrayed the people by butchering The Constitution. Many government leaders — known and unknown — have committed treason. Indictments are pending. Yep, Matilda, are you holding your breath? Point to one case — Joe Biden nullified U.S. immigration law. SCOTUS let it pass. Point to a second case. The weaponizing of the FBI, CIA and Judiciary to impeach D. Trump. SCOTUS let it pass. Finally, the unforgivable malfeasance of Congress for its treacherous, incendiary spending, putting America at existential risk. SCOTUS let it pass. And now you have Minnesota’s elected officials obstructing justice by inciting citizens to riot. If you want, you can question whether or not the Insurrection Act should be applied to the Minneapolis Mayor and Governor. Don’t bother. It won’t happen. And, frankly,  it’s all too much. You promise yourself you will tune out, mute the tube, mute radio, ignore sidebar podcasts and delete political emails and texts. And since you’re guilty of incessant political nagging, give Fodder’s audience a political respite. But first, you can’t leave the page without posing final questions — why do normal Americans who believe in the basic virtues of individual freedom and responsibility avoid speaking up and taking the stage to defend their country? Why do patriotic Americans leave the public square to paid anarchists? Why do the people who love their country leave the streets to No Kings protestors? Shout out to the Tea Party patriots. They stood up. Yet, to be fair, good people have reasons to hunker down. Privacy. Jobs. Peers. Uncertainty. Fear. Jan 6. All valid. But not so the Left. Without a smidgen of doubt, the Left has no fear, no hesitation. The Left, the predator, is nothing, if not resolute. Come to think of it, escape may have merit.

** Before 1776, only one constitutional republic existed in human history — the Republic of San Marino, a small enclave in Italy, circa AD 301.  Ed.

www.conventionofstates.com

Foreword
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of The Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. Thomas Jefferson

Minnesota Sedition
Grok and other AI platforms are great tools. But don’t believe everything you read. After all, AI is not the originator of facts. AI’s capability relies on swiftly checking dozens of online sources to summarize its replies — and if you want to chat, Grok will offer opinions no better than your own. So you don’t bother asking Grok the sticky question — how many adults in America truly favor a Marxist form of government? You could easily ask the same question and replace “adults” with Democrats, Republicans, Women, Men, Blacks, Gen Z’s, College Professors, etc. You can even drill down to other individual identities. Even so, you must take into consideration that millions of people would never admit to communist ideology, while routinely voting that way. These are the people who prefer to benefit from America’s freedom for themselves while denying freedom to despicable “conservatives” and religious types who still believe in cornball concepts like family, decency, morality and accountability. On second thought, the Marxist question for Grok should be aimed at Minneapolis. Excluding left-leaning Manhattan, D.C., Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, etc., the rest of America wonders what percentage of the Minneapolis/St.Paul population favors open borders, illegal immigration and Marxism autocracy. Your first guess is that 70 percent of Minnesota supports breaking Federal law and committing whatever acts of violence are necessary to run ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement)officials out of town. That percentage seems high until you discover that the twin cities are home to 60 percent of the entire state population. But, then, Matilda, guess what? In 2024, over 1,519,000 voters chose the Trump/Vance ticket compared to approximately 1,657,000 for Harris/Walz. The differential is 138,000, but those numbers don’t suggest that Minnesota is in love with Somali fraud gangs and Venezuela criminals. What it does suggest is that major cities tend to harbor corruption. As usual, in keeping with its deceit, legacy media puts ICE and Trump on public trial. Simultaneously, Minnesota government officials rattle their civil disobedience sabers and flaunt their lawsuits. They have reason to be confident since all seven members of the Minnesota Supreme Court are left wing female jurists, all appointed by democrat Governors. Word has it that before their meetings, the judges often gather to watch episodes of ABC’s The View for encouragement and guidance. Against the media backdrop of a city under siege, you would never know that dozens of Minnesota’s top drawer businesses and many law enforcement agencies are cooperating with ICE to uphold the law. Meanwhile, Trump will do what he must do. Constitutionally, as chief executive, he not only has the duty to enforce laws, but also the authority to decide how to do so.** What he sees is nothing less than an insurrection, sanctioned by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, his city council and Governor Tim Walz. Backing up a bit, you persistently have denounced Federal meddling in domestic affairs, arguing that Washington has vastly overreached its enumerated powers — that America’s massive debt and tyrannical abuses are the direct result of desecrating The Constitution of the United States. However, in this case, Trump stands on solid ground. And his Justice Department should now begin serving warrants on every Minneapolis official complicit in breaking Federal law. What many people will overlook in this political soap opera is the “what if” question. What if Governor Tim Walz had been on the winning ticket in 2024? Imagine that. Imagine him in action right now as Vice President. And BTW, never forget. People who voted for him will be on the 2026 midterm ballot.

Epilogue
While you’re on the subject of Federal jurisdiction, you should revisit how the Supreme Court, with the aiding and abetting of Congress, screwed over the U.S. Constitution.

The 1787 Constitution . . . created a stronger federal system with supremacy over the States in specific areas. However, the States did not cease to be sovereign; they retained substantial residual sovereignty. The key principle is Limited Federal Authority. The federal government could only exercise powers expressly delegated to it by the Constitution, detailed in Article 1, Section 8). Check it out. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/us_constitution_0.pdf

The original Constitution did not grant the federal government general regulatory authority over citizens within the states (e.g., no power over health, education, welfare, criminal law, property, police or most other everyday matters), Those areas were left entirely to the States.

**  https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/president-legal-authority-2014-08-20.pdf

www.conventionofstates.com