Time to Turn Our Backs on Washington, D.C. Or Is it?

Go Local!

It seems we’re hearing this a lot more often these days. “Going local” includes supporting locally-owned businesses, local growers, local farmers, etc. For many, going local means growing as much of their own food as possible. Daisy Luther over at The Organic Prepper has been doing and writing about this for years. Search on “best prepper websites” and see just how many people are out there sharing their ideas and success stories. Home gardening and demand for seeds grew during the lockdown, and it seems it’s here to stay.

Since hubs and I moved to NW Florida, he has been in the backyard experimenting with all manner of growing, including using hydroponics. A farmer’s son and grandson, my husband knows how to grow food. Thanks to him, we’ve had garden fresh food for years. Here in Florida, the soil and climate present their own challenges, so hubs decided to add hydroponics to his food growing repertoire. Here’s a shot of his first-ever attempt — what he calls his “science project” — at using a hydroponic tower to grow vegetables.

STL’s husband’s “science project.” This hydroponic tower is growing kale (up top), cabbage, collard greens, tomatoes, and lettuce. (I think that’s everything.)

That’s a science project all right! One we can eat.

The growth in home schooling also reflects this return to local action. While the Covid® operation likely drove a large part of the spike in growth, it’s looking like this trend is also here to stay. Homeschooling has entered the “mainstream.”

Going local is an international trend, too. One example of many is Derrick Broze of The Freedom Cell Network. One of Derrick’s driving forces in developing his Freedom Cell Network came from his belief that we all need to get out from under the technocratic surveillance state. The site helps people from around the world “go local” and stay local:

“Freedom Cell…is an international decentralized movement encouraging people to build local mutual aid groups with the goal of building parallel systems. As of December 2022, more than 34,000 people from dozens of countries have joined The Freedom Cell website, with thousands more using Freedom Cells on Telegram and in the real world.”

Canadian anarchist Jeff Berwick, Australian Max Igan, and many others have talked about our need to “divorce” ourselves from our crime syndicates (a.k.a. governments) for years — well before this greatest of all government crimes against humanity.

Clearly, “going local” is a thing.

Going Local Politically

The same appears to be happening within the political realm, too. While we still have many who seem to get all gooey over who the next President should be, more voices are at last talking about turning our attention to what happens politically right in our own backyards.

Katherine Watt over at Bailiwick News Substack urges this approach. Via her website, 5smallstones, she provides, among other things, form letters that people can use to contact their local officials. Included in the content there, Katherine provides a host of templates such as Affidavits of Non-Compliance, religious exemption letters, instructions on how to file state and federal complaints, both civil and criminal, and more.

Specific to health freedom, we have advocacy organizations that help educate people on developments within their states. While the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) covers federal legislation, it also covers activities at the state level and issues an annual report on state legislation. Members get updates on their states’ activities, including “bills worth watching” — both good and bad. It provides resources, including advocacy training. (This link may only work for members…) Dawn Richardson of NVIC teaches how to approach your state legislators most effectively.

Children’s Health Defense is another national and international organization that is building out state chapters. Florida is one (I’m a member) of several. Stand for Health Freedom is another — national with state chapters.

While the above examples describe ways to “go local” via activism, Jeff Deist, President of the Mises Institute in Auburn, AL, takes a slightly different approach: Ignore. It’s unclear to me exactly how Deist means “ignore.” Does he mean ignore and through the passive resistance of the parallel structures he advocates, resist? Hard to know for sure.

He recently wrote on this topic. I recommend reading the whole piece, but I’ll share a couple of snippets here. Via nine bullets, Deist describes how the rules of engagement have changed over time in America, arguing that now everything is politicized:

“Today we live in a crass and hyperpoliticized reality where every facet of life—race, sex, sexuality, family, marriage, money, career—is seen as a political statement. This aids and abets the progressive project, which leverages the Leninist/Stalinist “Who, Whom?” distinction as carrot and stick.”1

Deist outlines in those nine bullets what this “hyperpoliticized” reality — and prudence — demand of those paying attention, those who value freedom, those for whom facts matter. As we’ve all witnessed and suffered through, one of Deist’s bullets outlines the pain and destruction that U.S. companies and corporations have wreaked upon the people of this country:

“Assume business is politicized.

Medicine, education, law, banking, accounting, insurance, pharmaceuticals, arms manufacturing, and much of the tech world have been enormously affected. Firms operating in these industries often resemble what Michael Rectenwald terms “governmentalities,” in which ostensibly private market actors willingly take on the role and imperatives of the state. Add DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) to the mix, and virtually all US public companies now at the very least toe the government line when it comes to all manner of political positions. This means heroic smaller and privately held companies must be the true “private sector” drivers of the economy, a bright spot where real win-win social cooperation can take place.” (Bold/italics added.)

“…ostensibly private actors willingly take on the role and imperatives of the state.”

These “governmentalities” act, as we have seen especially during this never-ending Covid® crime, as the administrative state’s enforcement arm. Hard to describe just how repulsive I find this…

Deist finishes up with this recommendation:

All people of goodwill have an obligation to fight the escalation of politics and reduce the likelihood of outright political violence (as we’re seeing this week in Atlanta). Yet as stated many times before, we won’t vote our way out of this and we should not expect help from Washington DC. The incentives for politicians are all wrong. Division sells. In fact, division makes the very politicians promoting it appear more necessary than ever to a fearful and gullible electorate. So we should turn our backs on DC, work to ignore mainstream media and captured institutions, and build out parallel structures wherever possible. We have new rules of engagement, but they conjure up an old one from economist Herb Stein: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Better to realize this ahead of time.” (Bold/italics added.)

When I first read that part about turning our backs, I thought, “Yep! That’s right…” This lined up with my take on how I see D.C. — as the world’s largest and deadliest organized crime syndicate. Of course we need to turn our back on it. In other words, go local. Form mutual aid groups and networks of like-minded, freedom-oriented people in the U.S. and around the world.

Then I got to thinking about it. Does turning our backs mean that we ignore D.C.? If so, can we actually ignore it and what might that cost us — especially when doing so has already cost us so much?

Then I remembered Million Dollar Baby, the Oscar-winning film starring Hilary Swank as boxer Maggie and Clint Eastwood as boxing coach Frankie. Morgan Freeman as Scrap narrates.

Image courtesy of RogerEbert.com

For me, Million Dollar Baby is one of those movies you watch only once. The tragedy of it is too gut-wrenching for more than one viewing, but as a cautionary tale? It might help us think more strategically about just how we should approach “turning on our backs” on D.C.

Never Turn Your Back on Your Enemy

I’ve forgotten exactly when Frankie gives Maggie his golden rule or what his exact words were, but in essence, he tells her, “Never turn your back on your enemy.” Keep your eyes on your opponent at all times. When the bell rings, back yourself back into your corner and then take the stool. Maggie follows this rule…until she doesn’t.

Maggie’s made it to Las Vegas to fight the WBA Welterweight Champion of the World, Billie, the “blue Bear.” Bear is a ferociously strong, successful, but dirty fighter — and everybody knows it.

Round 1. Early in the round, Bear gets Maggie in a headlock. The ref breaks it up, but as a dirty fighter, Bear can’t help herself. She ends up giving Maggie — who is more than holding her own — an elbow strike. The ref threatens a point. Back they go. Maggie gets her punches in, artfully dodges others. They got locked in close at the ropes. Bear can’t punch out of this, so she shoves Maggie to the mat. The ref takes the point.

As the ref is telling the scorers to take the point, Maggie’s just getting up. Bear approaches from behind and hits Maggie again, cutting her eye, sending her back to the mat. Frankie rages.

A moment later, the ref’s in Bear’s corner. He leans in, finger pointing, and says, “You pull that crap one more time, and you’re disqualified.” Bear nods. Ref leaves. With a slight turn of her head, Bear looks at her coach. Gives him a wink…and a smile.

Round 2. Seconds in, Maggie lands two hard punches and sends Bear to the mat. Ref sends Maggie to the neutral corner and starts his count over Bear. Frankie, seething over the illegal cheap shot in Round 1, hisses toward Bear, “Stay down, bitch.” Frankie wants this fight over. Bear gets back on her feet. The Round proceeds unremarkably to the bell.

Back in her corner, Frankie cleans up Maggie’s eye again. He tells her she has to end this fight. What do I do about the Bear, Maggie asks. I’m doing everything, but she’s made of steel. Frankie tells Maggie to change tactics. He tells her to head for Bear’s “skinny ass” and keep hammering at that sciatic nerve. What about the ref, Maggie asks. Just keep yourself between him and Bear, Frankie says.

Round 3. Maggie runs at Bear. Blocking the ref, she pummels Bear in the back, going after that sciatic nerve — just as Frankie told her to. The attack stuns Bear. She can hardly fight back. Then Maggie begins to land punch after punch. Bear’s eyes are glassy, her head flops, arms flail. For the first time, Bear actually looks scared.

Bell rings. Ref ends Round 3. Frankie’s smiling. Maggie is, too. She knows Bear’s in trouble and that she’s got a real chance at winning. Still smiling, Maggie turns away to head back to her corner. (I remember thinking, “Oh, no! Maggie! Don’t turn your back!”)

Camera reverts to Bear, hanging off the ropes. We see her looking at Maggie, her face full of fury. She is the champ, after all. Who is this “nobody” who’s actually got her on the ropes? Fury and the absence of any sense of fair play compel Bear toward the one real threat she’s ever faced. The rest of the scene plays out in slow motion as Bear pushes herself off the ropes.

Bear lunges toward Maggie, coming at her from behind. Sensing this, Maggie turns just in time to take a level, short-range left hook right in the face. The powerful cheap shot turns Maggie around, sends her reeling. Maggie truly doesn’t know what hit her. She’s stunned, off balance, and headed for the mat.

From outside the ring, Frankie sees what’s happened. He sees where Maggie’s headed — right at her stool, set on its side in her corner. Horrified, he reaches under the ropes to get it out of the way, but he can’t reach it. Maggie’s already a rag doll, unable to block her own fall. Down she goes. Her neck hits the curved edge of the stool and snaps. Everybody — in the movie and out — gasps.

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Turn Our Backs? Or Run Toward?

After having bummed you out with the cinematic reminder of the costs of turning one’s back on an enemy before the fight is well and truly over, you may be saying, “Geez, thanks for the buzz kill, STL. Your point? I thought you were talking about ‘going local’?”

I am. I support the idea of returning to a more local-centric mode of conducting the business of our daily lives. To a certain extent, I also get what Jeff Deist means when he says “it’s time to turn our backs on D.C.,” but I suggest that now might actually be precisely the wrong time to “turn our backs” — on D.C. or state government.¹ -- especially if Deist means that as in ignore the governments. Especially without a plan beyond building out parallel structures and growing fresh veggies…Especially when too many decades of ignoring its malfeasance helped get us here.

Homeschooling, home gardening, buying local, using cash, and more — all good, but all tactical…Is there a strategy to go with? A goal — like the full restoration of our God-given rights with the return of the crime syndicates to their rightful cages — I mean, corners?

If so, it means a fight — not a dirty one like the one Bear would fight — but a fight to the finish nonetheless because that’s where we’re at…Because while Maggie thought she was done with Bear, Bear wuddn’t done with her…And neither is D.C. with us. Never mind their wink and smile that all will be over — officially — on May 11.

So, if we want our liberty back and ensure our children have peace, is now actually the time to run at D.C.? To run at our local government officials? Our State legislators and governors? Mayors? Attorneys general? I say, “Yes!” Let’s pummel their skinny asses — figuratively, of course — with the mountains of evidence of malfeasance, injury, death, economic destruction, destruction of basic human rights, rights that in the U.S., at least, its Constitution protects. This regardless of the unconstitutional legislation crafted by who the hell knows who and then voted on by members of the crime syndicate to take them away!

Thanks to so many extraordinary, relentless people like Del Bigtree, Aaron Siri, Leslie Manookian (Thanks to her, no more masks on airplanes…), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Naomi Wolf (whose organized review and publication of the Pfizer documents will go down in history), doctors like those at FLCCC, Substackers like Katherine Watt, Sasha Latypova, Steve Kirsch, and countless others, I say “they’re” on the ropes. It’s now or never to go after them. Besides, with the fruit of all the labor of Del Bigtree, et.al. at our disposal, how do we justify letting it die on the vine — or leaving the fight all to them?

I Had Other Plans. I’ll Bet You Did, too. Oh, well.

I get that having to take this on — this Goliath of a problem — is a drag, but as my mother would say to me as a kid when reality and duty trumped my preferences, “Oh, well…” The reality is an all-or-nothing fight has come to our doors. Duty in the here and now and for our posterity demands that we turn toward the fight…and fight it.

So, let’s take this on. There are lots of ways of doing so, too. From “simple” resistance like Michael Oxford about whom I wrote yesterday or picking up the phone to share your support when a group like the Arkansas Sheriffs’ Association tells the feds — the ATF! — to pound sand ❤️❤️❤️ — to getting active politically, locally (school boards, sheriffs?) and at the state level. The costs of not doing so are too great. Besides, the goal is noble and the best people will be our compatriots.

Thomas Paine - English American writer and pamphleteer whose "Common Sense" and other writings influenced the American Revolution and helped pave the way for the Declaration of Independence.

1. Let’s remember, after all, that it was at the State level that the assault against basic human rights began. Governors (even the one here in FL) and the Legislatures blew it — big time. Because? Respiratory infection.