The Gift of Resistance
Opening the Archives During our Valley Forge Period
“Feel what you want to give most as a gift...and do what you can to give it today. Every moment waited is a moment wasted, and each wasted moment degrades your clarity of purpose.” - David Deida
Exactly eight months ago I was sitting in this same spot trying to digest the “Liberation Day” Press Conference and settle the uneasy feeling that this was a self-imposed economic Pearl Harbor. I’d double checked the transcripts and the relevant law and even downloaded the United States historical trade tables, but the more I looked the more I was certain it was the end of both American Exceptionalism and Pax Americana if not corrected.
I began reaching out to my long-term friend, mentor, and boss Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, a House subcommittee chairman, with the belief that surely the man who taught me the Constitution in both practice and theory over a multi-year period would rise to the occasion, but 7 days later that question was answered with the party-line vote on the No Rogue Rulings Act which effectively ended judicial relief for violations of even the core freedoms such as speech, freedom, and religion.
Whether it comes from my Appalachian & Cherokee backgrounds or some deep psychological issue that I haven’t found yet, resisting injustice is a natural instinct. Beyond that, the players and subject matter of the rapidly unfolding 2025 horror fell squarely within my academic, professional and life experience expertise. I quickly felt that if my life had any purpose beyond the guardrail saga, it was to be, in the words of the late William F. Buckley, the definition of a conservative in a world that could rationally see conservative as the enemy of all that is good with the world.
“A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop’, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.’”
William F. Buckley (1925-2008)
I began the
and then as outlets communicate my thoughts to anyone who cared to read without the editing or permission structure of traditional media. I added subscription options for those that would like to support the expensive effort of keeping up with an authoritarian government, but intended almost everything to be available freely.However, I discovered yesterday that the articles were being automatically paywalled over time, so I’ve dropped almost all of them. If you’d care to support my efforts, the two publications are available at different price points.
Removing the paywalls gave me a chance to look back over what I’ve written and I’ve selected what I feel are the foundational articles for those who’d like to catch up on where we sit today and a glimpse of where I think this resistance is going through the eyes of a 29 year old gas station attendant named
.Resistance in Review
Rep. Griffith (R-VA) Must Honor His Oath
The CLEAR Rule of Law publication began when Cardinal News edited my opening salvo regarding tariffs and the NORRA vote directed at Representative Griffith.
MAGA’s Final Orwellian Frontier
By July, the President’s core supporters had fractured in a two step process, first over the Iran involvement, and then - finally for many - the President’s betrayal of his promise to release the Epstein Files. This is probably the article I’ve referenced the most.
Existential Epstein, Part 1
I was slow to latch onto Epstein despite it being clear it divided the base. I believe I was still hanging on to the notion that Americans should care about core constitutional violations enough to resist the President, but
inspired me to look deeper and it quickly became clear that the Epstein affair was more than just the President’s Achilles Heel, it’s the thread that could unwind the whole corrupt structure that has robbed us of our future and freedom for decades regardless of who’s in the White House.
MAGA is Dead; Long Live NatCons
While MAGA was entering death throes, my dive into the power structure of this White House revealed that MAGA and the President were merely the battering ram to knockdown the barricades and let something far more sinister in. By fall, this had developed even further.
In 2000, Americans elected George W. Bush President, but in reality received an administration defined by Dick Cheney and the NeoCon ideology and the Patriot Act, Iraq War and Afghanistan War in the aftermath of 9/11. This was around the time I checked out of politics and into my career, and I remember purposefully shelving my disillusionment and desire to dive deeper into what happened — I now wish I’d attacked that feeling dead on, because in 2025, history if rhyming even if not repeating.
In 2024, Americans elected Donald Trump, but in reality received an administration that I believe is and will be defined by the Israeli founded international National Conservatives (NatCons) represented in the United States by JD Vance as the political leader.
It would be inaccurate to blame this administration’s devastating effect on any one domestic or foreign cause, but if one were forced, choosing Israel and Likud Zionism as the culprit is a lens through which almost everything but tariffs and possibly Ukraine make sense. The following could be explained almost all though that paradigm:
Early Ivy League speech crackdowns and student deportations
The Iran Strike
Everything Epstein
Charlie Kirk’s treatment pre and post assassination
The post-Charlie MAGA open civil war over Tucker Carlson and the Kirk investigation.
The reshaping, consolidation, and censorship of our media
Our potential involvement in Venezueala
Again, Israel is just one part of the equation, but in terms of things that jump off the page in 2025, the New Jersey size nation and it’s unbending American allies seem to be all over it. Following Charlie’s death, the first 50 States 1 Israel conference was held and at least four legislators from every state attended in a trip fully paid for by the Israeli government. If the revolution ends up being against a foreign power, it will be Israel.
The Coming Darkness
It is hard to underestimate the degree to which American media and public discourse has been censored from corporations and institutions as well as self-censorship in the wake of public floggings of people who have dared to speak out on anything touching a nerve in nation of Israel.
TikTok was divested from Chinese ownership at AIPAC’s urging and not many heard the warnings being shouted from those paying attention because, well, our corporate media was already heavily censors. By September, Israel’s capture of TikTok was nearly complete and dozens of accounts have disappeared or gone silent. X is Netanyahu’s current target, and already the app has stopped translating Hebrew because Americans were publicizing diabolical genocidal statements from Israeli officials and individuals.
American Tragedy, Foreigner Propaganda
In terms of history rhyming, 2025 has its own rapid cadence of tragedy, blame, solution, demonization dissent. Charlie Kirk’s assassination was the biggest example, but there have been several including the tragic shooting of two guardsman from West Virginia the day before Thanksgiving.
So far, the American public has resisted the urge to turn on each other in violence. Watching that unfold in the Christian Conservative community in Fort Worth the week after Charlie’s death. Whether our Constitution holds through the midterms and seating of the winners may depend on the ability of the American public to continue holding tight to there better angels and not falling for the White House’s calls for violence.
If you’ve made it this far, please go check out
and consider subscribing to either or as a paid member - it would help a lot right now.Introducing Ethan Faulkner
I met Ethan Faulkner early one morning in a Substack chat where someone used Citizens United and the Patriot Act in the same sentence. That made me shake my head and wonder what he meant, so I asked and received this response:
They seem unrelated at first because one is “national security” and the other is “campaign finance.”
But when you zoom out, Citizens United works as a patch to make it a closed loop system.
The Patriot Act stripped oversight from intelligence and financial surveillance.
Citizens United stripped oversight from political money and influence.
One removed visibility from what the government is doing. The other removed visibility from who is buying it.
Put together, they created the perfect blind spot:
money can move in the dark, and power can be purchased in the dark.
That’s why affordability, prices, and inequality feel untouchable. It’s not a policy disagreement — it’s an architecture problem. - EF (Abridged and edited)
Here is an accompanying article on that point:
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