I understand the 'refuge' part, but my takeaway was that the Gulch would be a haven for the Producers while the Outside World collapsed and imploded, with the assumption that the 'public' would recognize the need and benefit of the Gulch's philosophies and eventually welcome them 'out' again.

Attitude is important, YES, but do you see ANY signals that 'the public' is ANYWHERE NEAR changing their mind about the increasing 'need' for government controls? F'revvin' Sakes, there's a Socialist running under the Democratic banner!

I don't think we're anywhere near being Anywhere Near that 'terminal phase' yet... Do you?

Gotcha.
That goes beyond evil into the realm of stupid.

Idealism without a realistic approach to achieve goals is what I am talking about.

Leave off the adjectives and there is nothing wrong. Greedy and power-mad when applied to anything pretty much makes it evil. There's nothing wrong with idealism if they are the right ideals.

But, if nothing else, he has given the GOP a cold shower.

I don't expect political dilettante Trump to be in the campaign much longer than the end of the year. Hopefully he'll re-evaluate his party affiliation and bail before Halloween, and do the GOP a massive favor.

I do not consider him a serious candidate, and I do not think anyone with an interest in reclaiming Constitutional governance and individual liberty should consider him a serious candidate either.

But that's an entirely different topic.
.

That was when Americans invented guerilla warfare.

Reclaiming the MORAL HIGH GROUND for your position, rather than let the ANTI-HUMAN greens claim it with their DELUSIONS AND DECEIT.

I thought that John Alison, former CEO of BBT, was now teaching economics to receptive university students.

Look at what is being achieved by the fossil fuels industry by the INSPIRING work of the Center for Industrial Progress.

As a non-American my grasp of your history may be 'sketchy'.

Was it the battle of Lexington when Americans fought the British with unconventional tactics?

The British forces were too strong to take on directly, but we're worn down over time.

Have scouts observe what the opposition, reality obfuscating lefties, have wrought and reverse engineering of their pathetic scheme.

Understand WHY galt built his Gulch - as a refuge from crazy; a place to regroup and strategize the next campaign.

Attitude is important, you need to find those silent suffering individuals and their family and remind them that the gathering storm clouds will disperse and the sun will shine once again.

Multiples of 12:

12, 24, 36, 48.

So mentioning 28 times in 12 minutes is ~25 seconds between mentions.

Send a memo on the issue along with a copy of the book to Donald Trump's campaign.

Donald seems willing to mention issues that the others are afraid of.

Me, too!

Yes, and OUR minority is fucked.

I was explaining that to my step-grandson yesterday at lunch... I pointed out that a very low percentage of voters held Congress in esteem, while well over 90% of Congress keeps getting re-elected.

He, at first, didn't believe me, but after a short google, discovered that the average approval rating, from multiple sources, was in the 10-15% range and the re-election rate was close to 95%.

So, I asked him... "what does that tell you?"
I suggested that the answer to the proverbial question of "what's wrong with Congress" really should be redirected as "What Wrong With The Electorate?"

Next challenge... exposing him to non-left-wing Economics.

:)

This is an inherently depressing subject given the state of contemporary America, but the root of all of the problems we face is something Peikoff identified in "Ominous Parallels" (likely elsewhere too, but that's the most comprehensive discussion of it that I remember.) Namely: the corruption of education.

His assessment is doubly discouraging, and I think it's true: "We're arguably beyond the point of no return," I think is how he put it. That was in 1982, well before the whole toxic infusion of "PC" thought-policing and what it's done to an already-degraded condition in American education, so it's gotten much worse since.

The reason we have Obama in office, the reason we have a Congressload of unprincipled buffoons (they too went to school at some point - well, presumably,) the reason we're on the threshold of American cities getting incinerated by Iranian nukes, the reason we've got a burgeoning electronic revolution whose obliteration of the right to personal privacy is vastly outpacing its legitimate, positive aspects - is because we have multiple generations of people, arguably approaching a majority, who are educated in unmitigated intellectual poison.

It's a comparatively non-sexy issue, but a top priority of the incoming Republican President should be an aggressive, radical separation of government from education. Which means that this person will have to be someone of extraordinary courage, someone utterly unfazed by momentary tsunamis of opposition. And of course, this person would have to be capable of recognizing that this is a key danger to begin with. 'Not so sure such a person exists, but maybe we can train one.

I lived in California for a number of years. It is unrivaled for sheer beauty. I loved living in San Diego, but I saw the handwriting on the wall. Looking to the future, because of taxes and other higher prices, I felt that I was losing my retirement. It took us 3 years to sell our condo, but we moved to Florida before it was sold. Why Florida? Three reasons: No state income tax, much lower cost of property ownership, and most importantly...grandchildren live here.

The problem is that public service was never meant to be a career. You put in some time, a couple of months a year for two or four or six years and then you went home and took care of your real business. The pay was nominal at best. In 200 years that has changed to where it is now an industry. Most of the congress is comprised of people who can think of nothing else but getting re-elected. They will say and do almost anything in order to foster that agenda. Doing their actual job is a side effect and bother.

To ensure the well-being of my family, and to make money. Honestly, if I didn't have kids my concern would only be about 15% it is now. And, you make many good points, Herb.

I must admit that I actually feel heartbreak over what I see happening out here in California, in terms of the destruction of freedom. But, it's starting to sprout in other states...like mushrooms on my lawn in the winter...

Gult didn't run and hide, he came back searching for others to join him.

I'm torn on term limits.

Term limits - ultimately - are one group of people telling another group of people "you can't be trusted to decide for yourself who you want representing you."

What we need is to elect people who don't plan to stick around (I'm thinking for instance of NY Congressman Chris Gibson, who always said "I'm going to be in Congress, at most, X terms" (I can't remember how many it was) and a few days after his Xth term started, he announced he would not seek re-election)

They knew government was intrinsically evil, and should be contained. But they also recognized that it tends to spiral out of control, and it certainly has. I suspect its too late to roll it back now, with so many people dependent on the dole. With the NSA powers now, its hard for the populace to even revolt in any substantial way without being labeled a terrorist (like Snowden?)

Good analysis. Bush used patriotism to get us into war with Iraq (which really was isolated and contained even with Saddam there). Obama used patriotism to unleash the wave of federal reserve money printing and ram obamacare through. Its sick. I dont even listen to the trash the politicians put out now. I want Trunp for 4 years to tell us when the emperor has no clothes

The original intent of the Founders was a Federal Government that was incidental to the people or perhaps a necessary evil. Elections were held in November after the harvest. Congress was to spend 6 weeks or so in D.C. and then go home. The Supremes had six weeks or so to settle the questions relating to the constitution and the executives had to stay year 'round. But as you can plainly see, it quickly grew away from this until today, the Founders probably wouldn't recognize what they had wrought.