THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT FAKE NEWS

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

In the Summer of 2003 I was living the kind of life that most people would call ‘The American Dream’. I was happily married to a beautiful woman, Father to a young son with another child on the way. I was a deacon in my family’s church, had a successful business that generated an above average income, had no debt, nice cars, went on annual vacations, and we owned a beautiful home surrounded by a white picket fence. I am still not sure how much of that was intentional or how we simply followed a script that had been authored by others with our family simply playing the parts.

Over the course of my life at that point, I had followed my dreams as well as had lived up to expectations and every choice that I made or was made for me worked out to the degree that I survived and was able to learn from those experiences. Some of it was fortuitous and some of it the result of sheer determination and as I entered my forties I began to examine not only the course of my life but the bigger picture of the world I lived in with a keener eye.

In early July a neighbor of mine who was active in politics called me on the phone to ask if I would be willing to serve a recently vacated position on the local town council. I discussed the matter with my wife who thought it was ill-advised due to time restraints, but I accepted out of a sense of noblesse oblige. The town we lived in had been settled by my family and our roots were three centuries deep, about as long as most Americans could trace their family tree. Until that point, I had voted in elections but that was as involved as I had ever become politically and I had no interest in anything more than helping out until the next election in November.

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A couple of weeks later I was sworn in and the following morning on my way to work I stopped to pick up a newspaper and discovered, to my abject horror, that I was the top story on the front page and the coverage was not flattering. During the next week or so I was broken on the wheel of public opinion as a racist, homophobic, neo-nazi, misogynist, vilified as a threat to my community, threatened daily, hounded as if I had committed some heinous and depraved act and all that awaited me for the balance of my days was scorn and derision.

My wife was threatened with rape, my children with being burned alive in our home. A group called Anti-Racist Action showed up in van and told a friend of mine who owned the local gas station that they were there to “kill the Nazi” and could he give them directions to my house. None of that was ever reported by the media.

Let me be clear when I say that I own every word that I have ever written, every act that I have done. Like most people I have regrets for inappropriate comments and indelicate situations, but overall I was then, as I am now, proud of my life and what I had made of it. Our family despite its long history was not one of wealth and acclaim. Whatever we accomplished we did because of our efforts. I had served my country honorably as a second generation member of the 82nd Airborne Division, distinguished myself in combat and returned home safely.

I had been employed every day since then, had never been arrested for any crime, harmed no man or woman, faithfully executed the responsibilities of my Church, dutifully participated in my role as husband and father, been a fair and decent employer and in every ways tried to live up to the expectations of both my family and my community. What I had done that brought on this sudden and virulent opprobrium was to author a series of essays in the wake of 9/11 that today would barely raise an eyebrow, but at that time were a scarlet letter that I was forced to wear.

If you have never been the subject of a media smear campaign you cannot imagine the emotional aspect of having your face and your name appear in a single context that portrays you in a one-dimensional light. There was never a single mention of anything that was positive, never a quote from a friend or neighbor in support, not one word did anything other than to smear me as the lowest form of life imaginable. I was never interviewed, never asked to respond in any way.

Every quote from me was mined from the hundreds of thousands of words I had written in order to find the most unflattering and inflammatory sound bite possible and then each one was analyzed and expounded upon by complete strangers and ideological opponents, people who had never met me were the only authorities on what I meant and the harshest critics were not those who had some legitimate beef with me personally, but representatives from advocacy groups in faraway states who made their living keeping tabs on people who disagreed with them. It was surreal.

I tried, of course, to defend myself, but there was no one outside of my immediate circle of friends and family who had the opportunity to listen to me. The New York Times covered the story but never bothered to ask me any questions. News crews from New York and Philadelphia showed up and parked on our street to get footage of our house but packed up their camera and fled when I approached.

One local reporter caught my very pregnant wife on the street and went at her as if she had been the subject of the story and at the end of a very long conversation my wife asked her why they weren’t quoting any of the good things people said about me, all the wonderful things I had done for my neighbors and friends of every race and persuasion over the course of my life. She replied, rather reluctantly, “That’s not the story my editor wants.”

Looking back now I am grateful for what took place for a number of reasons. I always wrote under my own name, so every word I had ever written was done so publicly, from my time as a stand-up comic on the road and as a writer for periodicals to my endless series of Letters to the Editor of our local newspaper. The Internet postings were a mix of humorous and pissy but they were authentic descriptions of what I was thinking at that particular time and in that place.

The angry pieces which numbered less than a dozen had been published on websites that were inflammatory in nature, the edges of the Internet that have since become what is currently described as ‘Alt-Right’ and they had begun to develop a following of sorts. In aggregate, they demonstrated a progression from vapid and flippant, like the advice style pieces I wrote for Playgirl Magazine in the 1990’s, to the bucolic recollections I had penned for outsider-publications such as Indian Artifact Magazine. The material that rose the ire of the media was a very small sample overall, perhaps a dozen, but they were the ones that emerged in the aftermath of what many call the red-pill experience.

It seems to me that my appointment to that office was less a fortuitous accident and more likely a deliberate decision made by people who had an ax to grind but could not take on a private citizen. There was a particular quote by a representative of the ADL that struck me at the time and has stayed with me ever since- “We’ve been keeping an eye on him for some time.” Who knew that there existed in this country an organization that kept and eye on private citizens because of the things they wrote, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

By becoming a public figure I made myself an open target and subject to the kind of scrutiny that the media was able to bring to bear. We also learned some other valuable insights- that people who had previously friends and welcome in our home were not what they appeared. A lifetime of personal interactions do not weigh in the balance when the media singles you out as an enemy of public opinion and when we went to church the following Sunday people I had known for years refused to pass the peace with us, turning their backs with pride on the people that had one week earlier been treated like family.

We remained loyal to each other throughout that time and I took my licks without complaint and resigned from the council for the good of my town, in the same way I accepted the position. I no longer join or belong to organizations, take no stand politically, encourage no other man to walk the path that I have unless their inner voice calls them. I’m not interested in being an employer or an employee and unless our land stops producing we will never have to fear being put in a position of not knowing where our next meal is coming from for fear of saying the wrong thing.

If I never have to tell this story again in my life it will be a blessing, but I earned it on my own and I accept that I will have to live with it until the day they pen my obituary. That’s how life works and in the bigger picture, it was a turning point that improved our lives immeasurably and for that I am thankful.

In the past few months, it has become apparent to far more people than at any time in the past that the media and journalists in general, are not simply reporters of facts. They exist not to inform the public of all sides of any given debate but rather to steer the narrative into the channels allowed by their superiors. Someone determines what appears in the pages of print and on the screens where most people obtain their information and that storyline treads a very narrow path.

People who are outsiders are given one treatment while those who inhabit the inner circles of power another. In the recent #pizzagate episode, we were given a glimpse into a twisted and bizarre subculture where people routinely joke about cannibalism, engage in ritualistic dismemberments and decapitations, exhibit artwork that is so twisted and profane it can’t be shared with others and yet they are uniformly presented as victims of conspiracy theorists trying to defame them for their innocent interests. No one asks powerful figures like John Podesta what the hell he means when he posts pictures like this-

Or features artwork in his office like this-

In light of the accusations against him leveled not by the media but by amateur sleuths on the Internet, you think at least one journalist would say, “Hey John, what’s up with all the creepy coded- talk and the cannibal art?”, instead, every mention of his name since the election has been as an authority, without the slightest curiosity about his odd behavior and strange proclivities. But as a reporter once told my wife, “That’s not the story my editor wants.”

You would think that if a town councilman can be called to account for making a snarky comment about a lesbian’s choice of haircut in an obviously satirical Internet posting then Meghan Kelly might have asked the man named as one of the 50 most powerful figures in Washington D.C. why he has animal cages on the tables of his pizzeria while his employees pose, blood covered in drag on the floor of a restaurant described as “family-friendly” in light of all the weird stories on the Internet when she had the chance. I guess it just never came up.

We moved on a long time ago from what happened in our hometown and I have learned to live with the repeated inquiries that come from people who’ve just discovered Google for the first time whenever they ask if I am really and truly White Supremacist Who Hates Women. Our life today is constructed in part to be resilient to that ever present scarlet letter, the capital ‘R’ that defines the heretic of the 21st century. We don’t worry about the people who would automatically shun us because we do not believe the exact same things they believe because there are far more people who don’t consider uniformity a prerequisite for fraternity.

I’ve learned the hard way that whatever you say, whatever you write, whatever you do in life does, in fact echo in eternity, as Maximus would say. And so I have made a commitment to my wife and my family as well as to myself to say only those things that would make them proud, to refrain from speaking or writing in anger, to allow others the benefit of the doubt when it comes to spurious charges, but to always be aware of the power of the press and the media apparatus that seeks to promote not the truth, but the narrative.

They exist to serve a master that is powerful indeed. It protects their adherents and attacks their opponents and it cares very little about the facts as they may relate to the story they sell. We may live in a global world, but each life is lived locally, one interaction at a time. The people who are able to see through the deceptions and misdirections of a thousand lies are often the ones that are able to find a single truth as valuable as anything else we may ever wish for in this life.

And that isn’t fake news, that’s a very real truth.

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78 Comments
anarchyst
anarchyst
January 4, 2017 10:07 am

The mainstream media has always been dishonest. From the “yellow journalism” of the late 1800s and early 1900s, journalism has shown its true (communistic) roots.
From the lies about the Spanish-American war to the New York Times walter duranty hiding the truth about and denying the artificially created and forced communist “famine” in the Ukraine, to the lies about the 1968 Viet Nam communist Tet offensive (a military victory for the South and American troops) reported by walter cronkite as a military defeat, cronkite and his ilk were successful in prolonging the Viet Nam war for years, giving “aid and comfort” to the enemy, who bragged about being supported by the U S media.
Look at NBCs doctoring of GMC truck gas tanks, rigging them to explode, and the deliberate mischaracterization of George Zimmerman’s conversation withe the 911 dispatcher, deleting a key phrase.
The media has become a “fifth column” of the government and is not to be trusted.
To our advantage, we now have the internet, which gives the ability for ordinary citizens to be real “journalists”, quite often getting and reporting the story TRUTHFULLY before the mainstream media.
In fact, there are calls by “mainstream media” to “license” journalists, in an attempt to keep these “citizen journalists” out…twenty years ago, any journalist suggesting such a scheme would have been thrown out, but nowadays…

Ace
Ace
  anarchyst
January 5, 2017 1:30 am

And the edited Rodney King video….

I was at Ft. Bragg around the time a rigger had sabotaged a chute, causing a death. This case was of enormous interest to all the airborne troops on post but there was not one word of it in the post newspaper someone told me. You had to read the Fayetteville papers to find anything about the case.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
January 4, 2017 10:09 am

All your troubles because of the Jews? I thought everybody knew about the Jews.

BB
BB
January 4, 2017 10:13 am

I guessing you have sympathy for Trump?

Doug
Doug
January 4, 2017 10:19 am

An amazing story. It’s pretty obvious that a large portion of the US population is mentally ill. If you count obesity and drug addictions as “mental illness,” I’d estimate that 60 to 70% of this country is mentally ill. The trick is not letting them afflict you — which isn’t easy.

I take great solace that Trump has the bully pulpit and speaks the truth with major force. Just today, Trump warned “Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases… Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web…”

It’s got to make you feel better to hear someone successfully taking on the horrible people that inhabit the “media”. I do.

anarchyst
anarchyst
  Doug
January 4, 2017 10:29 am

…this is why Trump is using Twitter and bypassing the “mainstream media”. THIS, in itself is a very smart move on his part, as his statements cannot be twisted or misconstrued…something that the “mainstream media” is very adept at doing…

WIP
WIP
  anarchyst
January 4, 2017 12:02 pm

How do we know twitter won’t “edit” his tweets before they’re twatted?

Gayle
Gayle
  anarchyst
January 4, 2017 1:51 pm

I so appreciate Mr. Trump. However…

How will he use the media to twist things to his advantage when the honeymoon is over and he really, really needs to get/do something that he wants? By now I am too cynical to trust any politician with the exception of Ron Paul. Twitter is not immune to falsehoods. It will be interesting to watch.

Suzanna
Suzanna
  Gayle
January 5, 2017 12:02 pm

Ron Paul is not a saint, while he did tell some truth.
We cling to any truth to keep us afloat while struggling
against a rising sea. A sea of propaganda is difficult to exit.

Francis Marion
Francis Marion
January 4, 2017 10:22 am

“16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

Matthew 7:16-20

Funny how our lives, the good and the not so good, when looked upon honestly often lead us to fertile ground…. you have spread your seeds in rich soil and they have born fruit HSF, the msm, not so much. Each day proves it, their fruit is so rotten in reaks.

Unanon
Unanon
  Francis Marion
January 4, 2017 12:45 pm

reeks

Francis Marion
Francis Marion
  Unanon
January 4, 2017 1:21 pm

Ya. That too. 🙂

geo3
geo3
  Francis Marion
January 4, 2017 7:49 pm

You have a gift with words, and I am happy to enjoy it.

Hoboken411
Hoboken411
January 4, 2017 10:26 am

Modern day witch-hunts. All because of words or opinions. Not actions or violations of common law.

All those “preachers” of the politically-correct – Imagine if you could read their minds or be a fly on the wall when THEY are in private? The hypocrisy would end right then and there.

But then again, shutting people down is probably one of their many goals.

(Insert one of many Carlin quotes here)

anarchyst
anarchyst
January 4, 2017 10:31 am

The Watergate affair was less about “journalism”, and more about the mainstream media’s (successful) attempt to bring down a political party. The REAL animus of the Watergate affair was the fact that “deep throat” (Mark Felt) ratted out the Republican party when he was not selected to be the next FBI director. You see, Mark Felt expected the appointment to be his…When Patrick Grey was selected, the wheels were set in motion to derail the presidency. It was pure vengeance…nothing more.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
  anarchyst
January 4, 2017 2:57 pm

And John Dean evolved into quite the sanctimonious little prick. His having told Congress of the White House tapes – and thereby achieving celebrity – is the highlight of his life. He goes around these days talking about it, which would be fine if he didn’t put out the false narrative that Nixon’s sins are worse than those of Obama. The opposite is true. Nixon only wrote up an enemies list and contemplated siccing the IRS on his enemies. Obama actually did it. Fast & Furious was an attempt to institute gun control by making sure some Mexicans died by use of guns bought in the US. Obama is far more corrupt than Nixon ever was – even without considering the deaths of Donald Young & Quarles Harris Jr. or the forged birth certificate & Selective Service registration.

razzle
razzle
January 4, 2017 10:31 am

Glad I’ve had the chance to walk this earth at the same time as you and cross paths even if only digitally.

/salute

Aquapura
Aquapura
January 4, 2017 10:47 am

The sad thing about the dishonesty of the media is they don’t fact check anything. Something posted to Twitter or Facefart is reported as fact first in this day and age. Perfect example was this spring when the singer Prince died. I was in Paris France at the time and was getting messages from friends back home asking if I saw the Eiffel tower purple. Umm, no, because it never happened…unless I went colorblind. The night it purportedly went purple my spouse and I were on a Seine cruise that passed by the monument several times. Closest thing to purple we saw was the wine we were being served. But People magazine among others reported it was lighted purple. Turns out someone photoshopped it.

Not this example of fake news was not going to hurt anyone personally but how much else out there is (pardon the pun) trumped up on lies and disinformation? I watch the news to get the weather, traffic report and maybe some sports scores. Any “action” or political news I tune out. The narrative we’re being told is likely pure bull and I don’t have time for that.

Dolphin
Dolphin
January 4, 2017 11:00 am

Hardscrabble Farmer: Thanks for relating you story here. I’ve had friends who received similar treatment at the hands of the news media. One quipped, “It’s pointless to try to refute the media They always have the last word.”

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
  Dolphin
January 4, 2017 2:59 pm

They used to. Now there’s TBP & the rest of the alt media.

overthecliff
overthecliff
January 4, 2017 11:02 am

HSF, choices have consequences. You made a choice to choose morals and ethics. That made you a danger to the established order. For want of a better name I’ll call it the Quinn Syndrome.

Maggie
Maggie
January 4, 2017 11:15 am

HSF, an astonishing story. I pray it is the last time you tell it, also, but thank you so much for sharing the entirety here for your biggest fans to read and understand. The occasional innuendo notwithstanding. The whole story is a good one to read.

Mine oozes out in drips and smears.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote
  Maggie
January 4, 2017 9:13 pm

I was gonna say, Maggie, It sure sounded like something you related.

kokoda the deplorable
kokoda the deplorable
January 4, 2017 11:27 am

Wonderful turn of events after coming face-to-face with ‘humanity’. The ignorance of people is astounding. For most of my time, I thought the ‘Hitler Youth’ tragedy was simply due to being youth (yuts for some), but your experience and other events in the last 20 years convinces me the adults are just as easy to be led as youth.

Great personal story, Thanks.

TrickleUpPolitics
TrickleUpPolitics
January 4, 2017 11:29 am

I had the same experience when I was elected District Attorney. I ran for DA because I wanted to make my community a better place to live. Instead the horrible gossip that was spread was personally wounding, and the fact that the three newspapers in my town took turns smearing me was devastating. As a professional woman I felt that my good reputation was an important possession, and they stole it from me. At the end of my term I left the state permanently but I still have flashbacks to that experience. I am an avid political junkie but I would never again run for public office.

Gayle
Gayle
  TrickleUpPolitics
January 4, 2017 1:55 pm

This is the great tragedy. How many potential great public servants do not come forth because they are not willing to be drawn and quartered by the media?

Tots
Tots
  Gayle
January 4, 2017 10:52 pm

I’m definitely one. I hold no illusions that I am fantastic or a natural born leader, but I am honest and want what’s best for my community.

With that said, I would never put my family through the nightmare of public life under the microscope. The people in office want to stay there by any means necessary.

Ace
Ace
  TrickleUpPolitics
January 5, 2017 1:44 am

Amazing story. I like to think that a local or state blog would be a counterweight to such press malfeasance today. Hard to say.

I’m never be a social media user so I don’t know how that works but they seem to hold out hope for disseminating alternative views, even if being all kinds of shallow.

DRUD
DRUD
January 4, 2017 11:31 am

It’s odd (or perhaps not at all)…I was just watching a new agey video about how all the universe is connected through vibrations (and the funny thing is I know just enough about physics to realize there is nothing to say this is NOT the case–our ignorance about the nature of existence beyond the Newtonian is infinite). Interconnectness seems to be the theme of the day. It is clear to all here, at least, that we live in bizarre times, an age of decadence and madness to be sure. I think that Fourth Turnings, in general, are a time of cultural malaise and ultimately the death of said culture. The question on my mind is there a spiritual malaise as well? Can there not be?
In that light, it would follow that this may indeed be a spiritual battle we all face–and I hesitate to say that, because I do not believe in the End Times, literal Revelations kind of spiritual battle. That kind ends when we are rescued by the glorious Second Coming (saved by literal Deus ex Machina). That kind also is about separation–it’s Us (the Righteous, as we always see ourselves) vs Them (the Wicked, as they always are). I don’t think that’s what is needed. If we are all connected, how can win by harming those Wicked They that are the cause of all our problems? No, I think it is about keeping the faith that the Truth will out, that the Good in us (hard work, character, sacrifice, selflessness, etc.) will ultimately re-emerge and that (to borrow a line from Dickens) “the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.”
I guess through all my meanderings, the point I’m trying to make is simple: we have become very negative and gloomy–perhaps with good reason, it is very difficult to stay positive in times such as these. But there are two aspects of negativity that arise: 1) It’s a terrible, miserable way to live (believe me, I know this well) and 2) It doesn’t work. You can sad enough to make anyone else happy…you can never be sick enough to make anyone else well…and you can never be fearful enough of the future to save it.

ottomatik
ottomatik
January 4, 2017 11:36 am

Thanks for sharing the story I caught parts of it with the dust up between you and Rins I believe.
I dont give a fuck about ADL or SPLC or any of the other Marxist thought controllers.
My call is your Salt, salt of the earth. You have my email if there is ever anything I can do or if your ever in CO, I would be honored.
Thanks for all of the stories, the commentary, the syrup, and the help with my aquaponics.

RiNS
RiNS
January 4, 2017 11:46 am

A great piece of writing. Making me think quite a bit about about my own brush with the media. Over the years I have been trying to figure out what is underlying motivation for reporters. Chasing stories seems to me at least, at odds to telling the truth. What has surprised me is the sloth of reporters. But one should not be surprised as their customers are and likely always have been lazy. I found out as well that what drives and motivates a scoop is a human interest story. Something that can be laid out on table for eating that doesn’t tax the moral imperatives of the reader.

Make it black and white.
Make it sympathetic.
But most importantly
Make it simple.

That way those who read can spend just a few minutes consuming. Confident that tomorrow morning at water cooler they can be experts on whatever topic is the flavour of the day.

It has been almost three years since my story broke. It took me a long time to figure out what really bothered me about that mine. To me it is now evident. Like you HSF I was made into a caricature of myself. I ended up being a victim. You on the other hand a villian. In a weird way I envy you. I must confess that I long some days to be cast as the Cowboy that wears the black hat. At least then folks wouldn’t feel sorry for me.

[imgcomment image[/img]

Neither of us are what has been written but it hardly matters. Just meat for the saw.

In the summer I got a call out of the blue. A young Lady, a daughter of one of the miners, felt compelled to call me. Worried that I felt guilty still for what had happened. She called to tell me that everything was okay. That she was good. She was hoping that call would end with a few tears shed. We could part feeling a bit better.

I couldn’t play along.

I told her that I knew more about reasons why her father was killed. I knew that people lied. Told her that I have never felt guilty. I have however always been angry that people can lie and deceive with what seems sanctioned impunity.

Just last month I got a call from editor of magazine my article appeared in. At first I thought he wanted to pick up story from where it left off. But not the case. All he wanted was some more leads. Phone numbers for people I knew. Being it is 25 years for Westray in 2017 he wants to do a “where are they now” to get everyone up to date. I got around to asking why my story was told the way it was. I gave him the gears about it missing the point. That it focused too much on me and not enough on truth. I asked him why he isn’t interested in finding out why people lied at Richards Inquiry. But he made it quite clear that it wouldn’t matter to him anymore.

Sometimes I feel the urge to write. Sometimes I don’t. Most days though I don’t see the point. In an age of apps and 140 characters the grounds for competition are bits not bytes. Thinking globally seems to me an antiquated lens to view this rock we live on.

I am filled with disgust looking at that picture. His hands up and laughing at us. Podesta should be tossing salad in Prison but even now he is likely flinging pizzas somewhere in the swamp whilst making absolutely no effort to hide it. That picture of him holding up his hands is just a giant Fuck-you to all decent hard working people just trying to get by.

I need and feel compelled to apologize to you HSF. So I am. This article seems to have arrived in my world at a perfect time. I have been pondering how so-called fake news has intersected my life. So thank you as well.

The first chapter of my book is titled Over the hills and far away. I haven’t really decided one way or the other if this ever gets published. Most days I don’t see the point.

Pretty hard to fight for justice when truth, served 30 seconds at a time, is in such short supply.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer
  RiNS
January 4, 2017 12:14 pm

Rob, thank you. You were only going on what you knew at the time and based on that I understand. Say no more.

One of the things I left out of the story was the warning I got from the Times of Trenton delivered via a reporter through my wife. “Tell him he’d better give up writing or the next time we come for him we won’t let up.”

Not something you’d expect to hear from a newspaper. Maybe they just meant what I was writing about, but it didn’t come across that way. It sounded like a threat and it was directed at one of the few things in life I felt was worth my time and effort. I quit for a very long time and for a while I thought that like painting, maybe it was never going to be a part of my life again. I remember the very first post I made about making maple syrup the second year we were up here, the description of the bats flying in the fading light and working with my father in the snow and how I was both excited by it- the writing part- and anxious at the same time. I didn’t want to ever put my wife through that again and I wondered if I was still being watched somehow and if it would all come back to haunt us again. It has, but we’re so inured to it now that it doesn’t pack the same punch. And in its own way it serves as a form of pre-screening for genuine people and surface people. I can live with myself and that’s enough for me.

It’s not for others to define who we are, our lives belong to us and we discover what we are made of and what we’d like to be and we either do those things and claim our rightful place or adjust to realities dictated by others. By writing these descriptions of one life lived on those terms I get a say in who I am and I hope that if it has any impact at all for anyone else it is to show them that they can do exactly that no matter what path they may be walking. It’s one of the reasons I read everything people post here, because regardless of what they say, no matter if I find myself in agreement or not, I never get the impression that it’s false.

So thanks for sharing your story, for being honest not only with others but more importantly with yourself. Orwell nailed it when he said that in times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote
  hardscrabble farmer
January 4, 2017 9:39 pm

Stick around long enough and you see a couple of TBPers shake hands in friendship. It’s hard to watch a couple of excellent commentators get in a tiff.

I like everybody here, even those I don’t like.

Suzanna
Suzanna
  EL Coyote
January 5, 2017 12:25 pm

EC,
That is quite nice, “be nice” (novel, ‘Two if by Sea’, Jacquelyn Mitchard)…
and to the wonderful RiNS and HSF, my respect and regards. Forgiveness
is the basis of all redemption, for self, and all others.
Thank you all 3 of you lovely men.
Best New Year,

Suzanna

Maggie
Maggie
  RiNS
January 4, 2017 12:54 pm

Thumbs up times 1000, buddy.

Your writing tightens and, resultantly, filters out the impurities of thought.

A really good editor grooms good writers.

RiNS
RiNS
  Maggie
January 4, 2017 3:03 pm

Thanks Maggie! I have been on hiatus from writing and working instead on a garage. Soon I will have everything set up. Then maybe I can get serious with work on my projects.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote
  Maggie
January 4, 2017 10:21 pm

As a result, Maggie!

Maggie
Maggie
  EL Coyote
January 5, 2017 2:09 am

EC, I sometimes invent words. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they fall.

I tried to invent a “diangle,” which would be the line drawn to opposite corners of a square to make two equal triangles. Some might think the word diagonal sufficient, but I like diangle. It chimes.

I read Dr. Seuss as a tot and my own young man could read Cat in the Hat and Horton Hears a Who in Pre-K. He and I still invent words from time to time.

Suzanna
Suzanna
  Maggie
January 5, 2017 12:28 pm

my friend invented ‘disclude” so no one would be discluded.
We love you Maggie.

Best New Year to You!!
Suzanna

Thaisleeze
Thaisleeze
January 4, 2017 12:10 pm

The RT channel on YouTube has passed the 2 million subs mark today, thank you ‘fake news’.

Robert Gore
Robert Gore
January 4, 2017 12:21 pm

Words of wisdom that are, like most words of wisdom, hard earned.

Maggie
Maggie
  Robert Gore
January 4, 2017 1:04 pm

“There is no way to understand Arendt’s term the “banality of evil” divorced from other key concepts of her thought: freedom of choice, judgment and personal and collective responsibility vis-à-vis the common world that we all share. ”

And “It’s a personal struggle of each person against social and historical fixations, patterns and legacies – what Arendt calls “the burden of mankind” that rests on man’s shoulders.”

In the end, this asshole decided to spray those kids’ faces. A good image of the Banality of Evil.
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read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.747080

Suzanna
Suzanna
  Maggie
January 5, 2017 12:32 pm

that guy is impotent…as a nurse I “see” more/head to toe assessment.
The spraying was vengeance against his loss, as much of violence by
authority figures is. Call it “kicking the dog.”

Hollow man
Hollow man
January 4, 2017 1:05 pm

We are already commies and we don’t even know it yet. Lol

wdg
wdg
January 4, 2017 2:13 pm

“There was a particular quote by a representative of the ADL that struck me at the time and has stayed with me ever since- “We’ve been keeping an eye on him for some time.” Who knew that there existed in this country an organization that kept and eye on private citizens because of the things they wrote, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.”

I have known for some time that the Jewish ADL (more accurately the Deformation League) has built a massive database on anyone they feel is a potential threat to their control of the US and all western nations. The thugs that showed up in a van to harass you and your family are the shock troops of the Deformation League who are deployed very rapidly anywhere in the US. There is nothing spontaneous about this form of domestic terrorism since it is all very carefully planned, orchestrated and well funded. The inescapable truth is that the US is not a democracy but an indoctrinated and brainwashed slave colony that is being suck dry by insatiable parasites.

Suzanna
Suzanna
  wdg
January 5, 2017 12:37 pm

wdg,
criticism of Israel and Jews can be a punishable offense.
No racism just a fact. A FACT…and they are on the lookout,
and spend their special funding. Welfare for unemployable
(otherwise) Jews. We argue that journalists are following
the script the editor wants. Who is employing the editors?

anarchyst
anarchyst
  Suzanna
January 5, 2017 12:53 pm

Look up Kiryas Joel community and other jewish communities in New York state.
You will find that there are many jewish-only communities that restrict home ownership, school attendance, and other business activities to “jews only”–right here in the USA…
Their activities, if done by whites would have every civil-rights and Justice department groups pouncing on them like rabid dogs–jews get a “pass”…WHY??

wdg
wdg
  Suzanna
January 5, 2017 5:17 pm

Suzanna…
Your comment just confirms that we are not a free people anymore, despite being the overwhelming majority? I used to wonder how the Bolsheviks, a Jewish-led radical but very small minority most of whom were not Russian, were able to take over a nation as large as Russia. This was not a popular revolution but a coup d’état. I don’t wonder about that anymore because I see the same thing happening in the US and most other western countries. To be silenced is to submit to slavery and I am not prepared to become a slave.

“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” ― Voltaire

anarchyst
anarchyst
  wdg
January 5, 2017 5:38 pm

Let’s not forget, that when the bolsheviks took over in Russia, it was only Christian and Russian Orthodox church buildings that were “repurposed” or destroyed. NOT ONE SYNAGOGUE was touched.
Sorta tells you something about WHO the “inventors” and promoters of bolshevism were (and still are)…

Gayle
Gayle
January 4, 2017 2:18 pm

HSF
That was painful to read, but thank you so much for sharing that long story with all of us. I am left wondering how the relationship between the “news” and the citizenry is going to change in the near future. The brainwashing is going to be much more difficult. There has already been a reformation of sorts – after all, Donald Trump got elected.

On another note, are you familiar with Wendell Berry’s work?

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer
  Gayle
January 5, 2017 8:48 am

Great writer, inspiring person as well. That’s a life worth emulating.

Bob
Bob
January 4, 2017 2:19 pm

Doug posted: “It’s pretty obvious that a large portion of the US population is mentally ill. If you count obesity and drug addictions as “mental illness,” I’d estimate that 60 to 70% of this country is mentally ill.”

Come on, Doug! Posting crap like this on TBP weakens the credibility of all of us, even if only by a small fraction…

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
  Bob
January 4, 2017 3:03 pm

You’re right. It’s much higher than 70%. Hell, women alone are over 50% of the population.

Suzanna
Suzanna
  Bob
January 5, 2017 12:57 pm

Doug,
I liked it and I agree with it as well. I was going to go back and get your name right
so I could quote and comment. It afflicts all of us to some extent, as we are steeped
in propaganda. There must be a ‘time out’ and away for a cleansing of our minds.
Every sane person I know has had to escape from the bright lights and the frantic city
in order to begin the process. Someone said, the more complex the person, the
simpler their pleasures. I think it holds.
The persons having little to no intellect, informed by TV/FADs, eating GMO, breathing
coal-ash waste, drinking lead and flouride, using handheld devices endlessly, parroting
fake news, roiling with obesity and pre-diabetes, and virtue signaling/caring may be lost
souls…delusional/neurotic/psychotic. It isn’t all their fault. None-the-less, it is mental
illness. All of us are at least somewhat afflicted/disadvantaged…we all breathe the air.

Bob
Bob
January 4, 2017 2:24 pm

I feel a sense of shame about what you went through, HSF, but I’m not sure what to do about it except to let you know.

Bob
Bob
January 4, 2017 2:25 pm

On a positive note, I like my new 2017 icon. Sad to say, there is a slight resemblance…LOL

OutLookingIn
OutLookingIn
January 4, 2017 3:06 pm

Thank you HSF

Once burnt, twice shy.
I too have ran afoul of faceless power in the past and suffered as a result of ( in my mind) doing the “right” thing. It turned out that far from being viewed by the faceless coward’s as the right thing, it was a direct threat to their power. Which in retrospect, I see now was a dangerous thing to do.
As a result, I too have withdrawn from swimming in dangerous waters and have stayed close to my own little pond, which I protect with zeal. I describe myself now as a recluse, not exactly a hermit, but someone who refuses to play by the rules imposed by a faceless group of cowards who hide in their anonymity.
I thank the internet and the power it gives back to the “real” people, to learn of others experiences such as yours. To take strength and solace from those experiences. To know that you are not alone. Who knows for how much longer, this mostly free avenue of expression will remain open? That same faceless power that seems to be prevalent most everywhere, must be taking further steps to overpower and control this freedom.

wdg
wdg
January 4, 2017 3:13 pm

“There was a particular quote by a representative of the ADL that struck me at the time and has stayed with me ever since- “We’ve been keeping an eye on him for some time.” Who knew that there existed in this country an organization that kept and eye on private citizens because of the things they wrote, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.” From the article above.

The above quote is very important because it shows that the ADL is watching anyone who speaks truth by exposing who actually controls the US and what the objectives are.

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
― Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom

Read more on a criminal syndicate and the most powerful hate group in the US…the Jewish ADL.
http://rense.com/general79/rcst.htm

The Anti-Defamation League is the longest running and most powerful hate group in the United States with 28 offices domestically and 3 offices abroad. They bring in nearly $60 million a year to combat free speech and the right of ethnic minorities to defend themselves from bigotry (including Black Muslims, Arabs, and Euro-Americans).

ADL’s Criminal and Spying Operations
…..
In 1993 the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices of the ADL were raided for evidence of criminal wrongdoing in many spheres. The raids turned up evidence of the ADL’s compliance in the theft of confidential police files stolen from California police departments. The ADL had been paying Roy Bullock a salary for decades to spy on people and steal police files. He stole files from SFPD through corrupt cop Tom Gerard. His illicit contact in San Diego was white racist sheriff Tim Carroll.

The ADL has been linked closely to organized crime, especially Las Vegas mafia boss Meyer Lansky. Theodore Silbert worked simultaneously for the ADL and the Sterling National Bank (a mafia operation controlled by the Lansky syndicate). As a matter of fact the granddaughter of the mafia boss, Lansky, herself is the ADL’s liason to law enforcement, Mira Lansky Boland. (What a convient arrangement! She used ADL money to treat Tim Carroll and Tom Gerard to an all-expense paid luxury vacation in Israel.)

Another Las Vegas gangster, Moe Dalitz was honored by the ADL in 1985. Another among the shady contributors to the ADL’s supremacist activities is the Milken Family Fund, of “junk bond” fame. The ADL uses its well-oiled propaganda machine to protect their “friends” in the mafia and pornography industry by shrieking “Anti-Semitism!!!!!” at the slightest movement of the law against these perverse interests.

ADL’s Ethnic Intimidation

The ADL has mastered the art of intimidation and blackmailing unlike any of the powerful mafias they are associated with. The ADL has influential contacts in media and politics that can ruin a person or business if they don’t follow ADL’s agenda.

Already mentioned are instances of bad cops falling under the allure of the ADL, ones such as Tom Gerard and Tim Carroll. Yet now good cops and even freshmen cops are being “conditioned” for the type of anti-free speech, anti-cultural diversity, police state that the ADL would like for our country. Throughout the nation the ADL is threatening police departments with all kinds of retribution if they don’t initiate state-funded lectures and seminars for law enforcement given by ADL spokesmen. The ADL rakes in large sums of money for these sessions, boosting their already overflowing coffers. Already ADL men have been seen at the scene of crimes ordering cops on how investigations are to be conducted.

Perhaps at no time in history has any other criminal organization, such as the ADL, been able to infiltrate and influence law enforcement to such an extent, and its tenacles are growing.
……

Stucky
Stucky
January 4, 2017 3:24 pm

Well, shit, I better never run for public office and let people know I wrote under the name “Stucky”.

“In the past few months, it has become apparent to far more people than at any time in the past that the media and journalists in general, are not simply reporters of facts.”

Indeed. You / we have had quite an awakening.

Here’s another thing I hope people now know. Our Judicial System is based on lies, power, and money. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TRUTH.

I know this because about 10 years ago I was a litigant in a civil case that lasted 5 days. Like you, the opposition’s primary intent was to paint me as the most evil cocksucker to have ever existed. Unfortunately for me, they succeeded. Hell, by the end of the trial I actually thought to my self that I was indeed the most evil cocksucker that ever existed. That’s how much power they have.

Anyway, HF, truly a WONDERFUL story (in terms of truth and life lessons.) Thank you for writing it.

BTW …. what the fuck is wrong with being a White Supremacist??

TampaRed
TampaRed
January 4, 2017 3:45 pm

Hang in there guys.
I read this earlier today so when I saw HSFs post I went back & found it.
The left is still using & distorting the Willie Horton ad to demonize Republicans & rally their troops.
This came off Lewrockwell.com
btw admin,congrats for having your article on lew rockwell a couple of days ago.

Willie Horton

TampaRed
TampaRed
January 4, 2017 4:16 pm

More fake news but much scarier.Obama has moved US troops to the Russian/Lithuanian border to “protect” Lithuania.
http://daisyluther.com/obama-moves-troops-russian-border/

Edwitness
Edwitness
January 4, 2017 4:23 pm

HSF,
That was a great story on how adversity can make us stronger. “If it doesn’t kill you”, right? Thanks for the inspiration and the confirmation- as if we needed it now right- of the true nature of the establishment media.
I especially found it instructive that there is good reason that a person should use some measure of decorum in what they say and write, besides the obvious one of civility.
Blessings:-}

musket
musket
January 4, 2017 4:42 pm

Terminate any periodical subscriptions and turn off the television. It is all b/s……

Suzanna
Suzanna
  musket
January 5, 2017 1:08 pm

musket,
indeed it is…go alternative to the extent possible.

Purplefrog
Purplefrog
January 4, 2017 6:07 pm

Te doy abrazos fuertes. 🙂

EL Coyote
EL Coyote
  Purplefrog
January 4, 2017 11:01 pm

Who gave Purple a thumbs down? Damn moran.

Miles Long
Miles Long
January 4, 2017 6:50 pm

Thanks for the article HSF. I enjoy all the stuff you write but this one was out of the ordinary. It further proves that when a door slams shut other doors open & attitude has much to do with whether one even notices opportunity.

Oh… & any enemy of the ADL or the $PLC cant be all bad.

geo3
geo3
January 4, 2017 7:45 pm

Back in 2008 my supervisory position was eliminated by the state (it does happen) and I was fortunate to land a bargaining unit position. After about 2 years I was approached to run for union chapter president against a long term incumbent. My platform was opening the books, a more proactive relationship with management (eliminate the pounded fist, we won’t work attitude) and the elimination of the travel/convention benefits just for the chosen.
Well, I won, but so did all of her cohorts who had the voting power. Suddenly I was a racist, a republican, and probably a David Duke supporter. After 3 months of pitched battles. but marginal wins, I resigned. At 57, with over 40 years of work experience, my insight/energy/passion was marginalized. Life too short and I moved on and accepted job at another state agency.

Feel for your past HSF, but your gift is the pen (or keyboard) and the lift of life you provide to others.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote
January 4, 2017 10:08 pm

HF, I have a couple of comments that are related but probably not likely to please some folks who are weary of religious topics.

There was a time when I stepped out of the church and as usual in the warm months, there are winos in the alley since the storefront church was a few feet away from the corner liquor store. I wanted to be friendly and went to hang out with the white guys, veterans who live off the VA money they get for being alcoholics. I stayed there for a few minutes until I couldn’t sit on my haunches anymore.

For the rest of the day I felt an uncomfortable itchiness and attributed it to the time spent among the drunks.

I liked your ghost story, it reminded me of the time when my son had turned 21 and he decided to go to a bar. I was asleep when he got home but sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke with a start. I had the distinct impression that something had jumped inside of me and just as quickly jumped out. I looked across the room in the darkness and there on the floor were 3 drunks, I looked at them and knew one had tried to return to his old house.

When I saw my son in the morning, I said, …you brought home some spirits. I told him what happened but, of course, he thought I have a vivid imagination.

I was listening to the Spanish radio show Nueva Vida out of Victorville on the way back from Vegas. The show is hard to tune in this far away in Palmdale so I listen to it whenever I am near Barstow. On this particular night the preacher was saying that (unlike the church teaching where they want you to consult the pastor and pray) a husband should make his decisions by talking to his wife, pray about it and I don’t recall the rest, it just struck me that he said that. Ordinarily, because we are Hispanics, the pastors discourage listening to the wife, they claim that was Adam’s mistake.

Oh yeah, they teach that.
For example, they tell the story of a king who sent his ambassadors to find a man who wasn’t a mandilone – henpecked.
Ask who is the boss of the house, if he says his wife, give him a chicken for his troubles.
If he says he is, give him a horse.
They handed out many chickens until one man insisted he was the boss at home. Finally!
They asked what color would you like your horse?
He said, let me ask my wife.

I can’t find the quote that said – A woman’s advice is worth nothing but it’s a fool who doesn’t take it.

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
January 4, 2017 10:20 pm

Well done HSF. I got ambushed by a newspaper once, completely out of the blue my first day at a new job with a private company, but one in the media biz. So much of politics is bullshit.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote
January 4, 2017 10:39 pm

The two dimensional media can’t produce a three dimensional picture.

moorewasthebestbond
moorewasthebestbond
January 5, 2017 3:40 am

Classic Washington Post Fake News:

Private Jessica Lynch

Dan
Dan
January 5, 2017 11:28 am

HSF, thank you for sharing that. The evil & pain that was dealt to you and your family has been transformed into a powerful story that can help people see the “news” syndicates for what they really are. Your lifestyle and writings are far more influential than you know.

nkit
nkit
January 5, 2017 2:18 pm

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TPC
TPC
January 5, 2017 5:06 pm

I had a second cousin who ran for a city council position in St. Louis. It quite literally destroyed his life. They framed him for a lot, not a real trial, just a trial in the media, but it was enough to destroy him and his family.

If it weren’t for the very real size of his extended family they would have lost everything. Its amazing what absolute power paired with absolute corruption can do to the good and the honest.

And its one of the primary reasons I have no faith in a bloodless 4T.

JohnQPublic
JohnQPublic
January 5, 2017 8:41 pm

Reading this article brought to mind something that happened locally in my neck of the woods, and I’ll have to compromise my anonymity slightly in order to tell it. Several years back we elected a mayor here in Sheboygan, WI by the name of Bob Ryan. At the time he was running against an insider named Terry Van Akkeren, a democrat, who had previously been the mayor for several terms, and at the time, was a state assemblyman in Madison, but was trying to run for mayor so he could have both jobs at the same time(!) His brother is also a local judge and the family as a whole has deep roots in local politics and government, going way back. Bob Ryan was an outsider who campaigned on reducing the size of local government. The local paper didn’t give him much of a shot to win, but when he won, it created much consternation to the local Establishment. (sound familiar?)

Anyways, seeming almost like clock-work, the smears and attempts to catch him in a scandal began almost immediately. First, there was a law-suit by a woman who made charges of sexual harrassment which in retrospect reeked of a set-up. The woman was an out-of-towner who came to Sheboygan to apply for a job at city hall. The case ended up going nowhere as the woman in question had a prior case in Ohio of doing the same thing. Then, taking advantage of his known weakness for alcohol, someone went into a local watering hole that he liked to frequent and recorded his demeanor on a cell phone and then broadcast it on social media which of course blew up into a major scandal. The most shocking part of it was that the story actually made it to far away Hollywood where Jay Leno made a joke about him on his late night show.
Needless to say, the scandal, highlighted by his mention on the Jay Leno Show led to his downfall. Certainly his own weaknesses played their part in his own demise. But what I will never forget from this whole fiasco is how vicious and deeply coordinated the opposition was against him. It really opened my eyes to the fact that there are some very powerful people in this country who will attempt to destroy you if you get in their way, even on the local level.

Ms. Ciscero
Ms. Ciscero
January 6, 2017 4:10 am

“And so I have made a commitment to my wife and my family as well as to myself to say only those things that would make them proud, to refrain from speaking or writing in anger.”

Righteous anger is a good thing.
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