A Man Without a Country

Gentle Reader,

It has come to our attention that a website has been created as a library of our content at www.oksmokesignals.com. We did not authorize this, nor do we know who set it up. That said, we don't oppose it. We'll refer to it as a tribute page. You should let people comment on it, we might even join in from time to time. Shall we get started?

In 1863, The Atlantic

published a story by E.E. Hale titled "The Man Without a Country." It was written to inspire patriotism during the civil war, but the term has taken on a different meaning since 1863. It has come to mean someone stuck between two divergent poles without a meaningful option to appease them both.

Why do you care? Because Nathan Dahm for the purposes of this email is the man without a country. Last Wednesday, Nathan sent out an email on the OKGOP email server critical of his Senate colleagues for failing to hold a vote on the tax cut. We don't oppose this step, but have no doubt that it pissed his colleagues off. Hours later, he sent out another email, this time telling the action figures to pound sand - appropriately, mind you - on their fake meeting. The irony of both of these emails sent on the same evening put into perspective the problem Nathan is facing: He's struggling to raise money (Reese Gorman reports $1700 cash on hand), and wants the legislators to participate in the party (including showing up at state committee meetings), but they view him as the turd in the ice cream. Conversely, the Wayne Hill clan want him gone and are trying to do whatever they can to move him out. We doubt that the Legislators will really save him, and Wayne doesn't want him there at all, so there will be an inflection point somewhere here. We don't know what it is or who it is that wins the day, but the levee is going to break at some point, and we need to see who is left standing.

Most legislators don't care that they lost their proxies at convention. It told them all they needed to know about this party and its direction. And the longtime grassroots that fought against the barbaric hordes for years are worn down. If anything is remarkable, it's that Nathan came into this party as a 2012 version of the action figures. He's continued to be. But he's not pure enough for the new age of purity police. When you start to think about it, maybe it's not just Nathan that is a man without a country, but perhaps all of us.

When the Cuban Revolution began,

the core of the effort was well-meaning individuals that disagreed with the continued existence of the Bautista Government.They wanted change. Maybe they weren't sure what that change needed to look like, but they wanted it. Over time, the revolutionary forces were usurped and reinforced by communist leaders that knew how to shape that change, and wanted to place a foothold in the western hemisphere. In 1959, the Buatista government fell. Che Guavara continued his bloody rampage, eliminating anyone that challenged the new regime and its communist goals. But the resulting "government" turned into something far worse than was there before. The Maiden has visited Cuba about 7 years ago. It's a frozen in time shithole. Go look under the hoods of those old classic vehicles all over Havana. They aren't using Chevy parts (or the original engines at this point, if they run at all. It's gross. 

So what, Warrior, are you going 

to call the action figures communists? No, actually. Although you can see how they act when they think they have control of something, and much of it does not exhibit principled conservatism or libertarianism. It reflects a demand for control. What we're saying is that like the Castro regime, the Action Figure regime will put the OKGOP further into the shit. The engine will reflect vintage 1959. And this was evident by the way that they ran their meeting Saturday. We went just for the pure entertainment of it, and were not let down. It's not like there was any football to watch, so why not!

But we now know that at least one member of the state committee has publicly said that they did not receive official notice of the meeting. And publicly called them what they are: an extreme faction. MIC DROP! Others that wish to remain nameless did not get notice either. That, under the rules, is enough to rule it invalid. There's plenty of others, but we don't even need to go further. Saturday's 119 (the number keeps changing, but 10 "alternates" moved their own admission to the floor. Because weird.) votes isn't even a third of the State Committee. It is actually 0.0000999% of ALL registered Republicans in the state!  Stay classy action figures.

More entertaining in all of this 

is the fact that Ferate came out of nowhere, like Steve Austin running into the arena with a steel chair, and distracted the action figures (probably like some lame character like Goldust or the Great Moolah), swiping their glory. His tweet took the focus off of Lankford and like a proper party leader, he took the arrows. Because he did that, their story didn't even last 24 hours. We kinda admire how he trolled the trolls. On one hand that's our job and we're pissed, but on the other there's some admiration for his skill. Well played!

Enjoy your week, 

CW/CM/SC

p.s. We know that we get under the skin of the Action Figures. Quit lying. "Oh, I don't read them." Yeah you do! We know you do. You send screenshots to each other of what we write. We see them.

p.p.s. Mic, we wanted to send you a tweet yesterday, but it was sad for us to find that we've been blocked. Doesn't seem very transparent of the lead "transparency" screamer. Sounds like some clear-minded folks responded to your absurdity since we couldn't. Yes, you and your ilk are extreme.