Column #261Ted in his Tin Foil Hat

Herding cattle is an art. It’s not like what you see in the movies with all the yelling, lariat slapping, fancy riding, and bawling cattle. Probably the greatest stockman of them all is Bud Williams who died in 2012. He did a lot of his work on foot and got cattle to move where he wanted them with little visible effort. His approach depends on understanding how cattle respond to stimuli and how a stockman must position himself in order to take advantage of the cattle’s natural instincts. When practiced properly it works like magic as the cattle “respond” to commands they don’t hear.1 2

Edward Snowden is a former Central Intelligence Agency employee and subcontractor who turned whistleblower. He famously copied and leaked highly classified information from the US National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013. In interviews with the Guardian newspaper he reported that the NSA was collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans.3

Well . . . that was small potatoes compared to today. The government and its subcontractors didn’t stop when they were exposed, instead some say they got “better.” Today, not only do they collect telephone records, but conversations, tracking information, and personal data such as your political leanings, hot buttons, finances, and likes and dislikes all of which makes them far more effective at influencing the masses in not only foreign countries but in our country as well.4

Social media platforms, internet blogs, main stream media (MSM), schools, and more are mediums which many governments (communist and democratic) use to influence the thought processes of their citizens. It’s similar to good stockmanship in that it’s quiet and subtle. The gendarmes don’t have to roundup the people and use guns and concentration camps to convince them to comply. People are simply told and shown the same propaganda over and over again, from a wide variety of “independent” sources, until it appears in the minds of many to be true. This is how history is rewritten.

As for foreign actors, our alphabetized agencies know far more about them than we can even imagine. With constant surveillance, foreigners can’t operate for long without being blocked or monitored. On the other hand, our government and it’s hired private contractors have free reign within our borders. This is why cyber-security/social media warfare geeks say there is a “Shadow Government” out there. It operates just like in the “good old days” when J. Edgar Hoover dug up dirt on many politicians in order to “influence” them when needed. Today’s surveillance makes his efforts look amateurish in comparison, especially in how the information is used.5

Corrupt, power-seeking characters can foment a rebellion and/or sway elections by reaching the hot buttons of millions of people. A favorite way to get and keep their attention is by instilling fear. This is something the MSM seems to do every night. When afraid, people do not see clearly and think rationally. When scared, critical thinking is almost impossible because analyzing facts requires a clear mind. Politicians frequently resort to using fear when seeking votes. But we must look beyond the fear-based rhetoric and focus on their records and their visions.6

Maybe it’s just me, but I see many strange and particularly un-American events taking place daily. It’s rather bewildering and frustrating to me how the MSM characterizes many of the events as normal activities or proper responses to grievances.

On the international front, for decades I thought our politicians were really dumb. One instance stands out. It was in 1972 when Nixon toasted Zhou Enlai to initiate trade with China so that “Americans could export more goods.” Anyone with a brain knew our nation was about to lose out big time in that agreement. Recent tactical changes to reverse trade imbalances, wind down the unending wars, and get rich foreign nations to pay for their own defense are called reckless by the MSM and some politicians and bureaucrats. I don’t understand that.7

Church attendance is restricted while many other businesses can open. I can’t understand that in light of the historical importance Christianity played in the thinking of our Founding Fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. Religions play a positive influential role in the lives of billions of people. Since that is true, why would anyone want to continue the restrictions on religions and keep pastors silent? Thank goodness some pastors are defying the “rules.” For example, on August 9, 2020, Dr. Gary Durham gave his congregation a “Fear of Man” social studies lesson. His sermon was seen by a live congregation and is still online. Don’t miss it.8 9

Not always, but for the most part peaceful protests are usually tolerated in the United States. Unfortunately, this summer many of them have been eclipsed by looting, burning, beatings, and killings. Yet the MSM characterized many of the demonstrations that turned violent as being peaceful and the “protestors” as victims of police brutality. That kind of attention has resulted in riots becoming nightly rituals in some American cities. I guess blatant lawlessness in our streets is considered to be on the same plane today as “cruising the gut” was in the 1960s and 70s. What helps fuel more riots is the arrested rioters are set free almost immediately. Oddly enough, many of the “peaceful” protesters want to defund the police which is an open invite for more crime and less peace. It almost seems to me like there’s an invisible hand motivating the anti-police sentiment and the dissolution of law and order.

In previous columns I’ve already mentioned my concern for tearing down statues and erasing our nation’s past. Then there’s the idea that certain lives under selected circumstances matter less than others. I know that we aren’t guaranteed equal outcomes, but aren’t we guaranteed equal standing and opportunity under the law? Students of Asian descent find their access to major universities blocked because too many of them excel in their studies. Are they less American than people like me in my tin hat?

Instead of emotional outpourings from random people in the street, why doesn’t the MSM parade scholars and independent thinkers in front of us on a daily basis? Here are just a few of my favorite Americans that the MSM should celebrate: Robert L. Woodson Sr.,  Allen West, Tim Scott, J.C. Watts, Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Star Parker, David Harris, Candace Owens, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Kathy Barnette, Larry Elder, and so many more.10 11

The recent kerfuffle over the USPS seems weird. Last Sunday protesters surrounded Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s home in Greensboro, North Carolina. They had “gathered in person” to claim that “voting in person” is too dangerous during a pandemic. Does that make sense?

For decades the USPS has consistently lost money. It begs for reform and a new pricing structure. At its best it has never been infallible. That’s why there is registered mail, insurance, and mail tracking methods. I use FedEx and UPS to ship boxes on a daily basis and those money-making shippers only get it right 96.7% of the time and I pay way more than 55 cents per shipment. What if the USPS was 96.7% successful in delivering the mail on time? That would be considered a disaster by the losers in an election.

To me the COVID-19 pandemic has been and still is being blown all out of proportion by some evil people. The virus itself is not a hoax. It’s real. But the bureaucratic response, fearmongering, and politicizing is a hoax. I say that because the MSM, many career politicians, career bureaucrats, and even educators fail to recognize that the number of new American COVID cases has been declining and those requiring hospitalization have been dropping 1% per day (26% in the past 23 days).

It makes me wonder, who are these people that want to still scare everyone silly and why? The shutdown was one of the most destructive hoaxes ever perpetrated on a civilized society. An atomic bomb couldn’t be more devastating. The idea of shutting down the largest economy on earth and keeping it in a partial shutdown is an incomprehensibly destructive force on finances and mental health—far worse than the disease itself. Are we to live in constant tyranny?12

I continue to wonder why the powerful anti-red-meat drumbeat get louder when the scientific evidence against it grows more substantial on an almost daily basis? Who controls that narrative and why? (Bill Gates?) And why don’t the career bureaucrats in the United States Department of Health and Human Services emphasize known diets that actual improve immunity and decrease incidences of chronic disease? Instead, they recommend the same foods people have been eating for decades which is why Americans spend 18% of GDP on healthcare.13

Obviously I could go on and on with this discussion about the MSM and certain groups undermining very commonsensical norms that have stood the test of time. The calls for socialism, lockdowns, mandatory mask wearing when outside, subsidies instead of efficiencies, confiscations of private property, defunding police when crime rates are soaring, creating terror in the face of adversity instead of confidence, calling rioters peaceful, and more are all foreign to me.14

When will our educators really start teaching the basics so that we can return to old-fashioned values? Yes, the past was not perfect by any means. But the foundation for our country is as close to perfection as it could be. Instead of ripping up the foundation, let’s remodel what’s on the foundation to improve what we have.

From the Declaration of Independence:

“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”15

From the Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”16

And in the Bill of Rights, which some politicians, bureaucrats, educators, elitists, and their followers seem to be ignoring, the Founding Fathers wrote down what the government could not do. It was not about what citizens could or could not do.17

If we don’t return to the time-tested fundamentals and fix the flaws rather than rip up the foundation, we will lose it all. Who are the powerful elites who believe they know more about how we the people should live than we do? They seem hell-bent on controlling all of us. Are their last names Bush, Clinton, Obama, Kasich, Kerry, Romney, Powell, and other similar professional politicians? Or maybe it’s the billionaires behind the social media giants? Or is it a cabal of career bureaucrats or a combination of all the aforementioned types and others who want power? I think my tin foil hat is starting to smoke!

For certain the stage is set. How will Americans respond?

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don’t miss these links for additional reading:

1. Bud Williams Stockmanship and Livestock Marketing

2. Defining “Stockmanship”

3. Free Ed Snowden

4. Viral Shadowgate Documentary Deleted by Facebook and YouTube After Film Maker’s Arrest by Paul Joseph Watson from Summit News

5. The Massive Case Of Collective Amnesia: The FBI Has Been Political From The Start by Ron Elving from NPR

6. Fear Is a Viral Monster by Donald J. Boudreaux from American Institute of Economic Research

7. Richard Nixon and Zhou Enlai, "Toasts at a Banquet Honoring the Premier," February 25, 1972 from China/USA

8. August 9, 2020, Social Studies “Fear of Man” Sermon by Dr. Gary Durham
It starts at the 25 minute mark. After an introduction for perspective of his weekly series it gets to the meat of the topic.

9. Online Prayers, Social Distancing in the Pews: Christian Leaders Debate How to Do Church amid Pandemic by Wenei Philimon from USA TODAY

10. Black Conservatism from Wikipedia

11. Conservative Black Women Facebook Pag

12. Good News: Fauci’s Out and Common Sense Might Be Returning by Ron Paul

13. Food Analysis: EFA, Protein to Fat, Net Carbs, Sugar, and Nutrient Load by Ted Slanker

14. White House Siege

15. Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

16. The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription

17. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription