Editor’s Note: From the Back Forty is Liberty Nation’s longest-running and most popular weekly column. Capturing the truth each week from heartlanders in flyover states, LN gives voice to the hard-working Americans otherwise ignored by the coastal elites.
Heartlanders debated and discussed a few hot topics this week, including the re-emergence of doxing, number 45 identifying as number 47, and the woes associated with accepting fraudulent cash in a very public way. As close to the season of love and giving approaches, some folks in Middle America are still grinching about the state of our treasured political system. But who can resist talking about the antics of Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump? Yes, no one, that’s who.
Trump Postures Presidential
It was a battle of back-handed compliments between former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump. Trump endorsed Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker of the House and, in a lot of words, warned the rest of the elected Republican House members to back off. McCarthy isn’t a shoo-in, with his more establishment GOP style, and the barnstorming MAGA-style members are making noises to go with another candidate. Trump attempted to explain why that was a bad – very, very bad – idea:
“It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner, and he was a strange person, but we ended up with Paul Ryan who was ten times worse. Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker. I think he goes down as the worst Speaker in history.”
Some of Trump’s ire might’ve been due to former Speaker Ryan coining a new term: Never-Again-Trumper. Ryan recently stated that Trump performed well and made the country stronger but was now simply a weighty ball and chain the GOP had to find a way to shed. In his words, “I am a Never-Again-Trumper. Why? Because I want to win, and we lose with Trump. It was clear to us in ’18, in ’20, and now in 2022.”
Paul Ryan (Photo by Mateusz Wlodarczyk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
But some saw Trump’s endorsement as a strategic move for his future. At least Bill Davis in Tennessee thought so, “President Trump is playing the game for his own election.” But another patriot has called a moratorium on political products that aren’t good for you. Michael Wolf in Trenton, MI, warned: “Trump is not right on this one. No more McLeadership: McConnell, McCarthy, or McDaniel.”
And the former president took another hit on the elect-me meter as Thomas Clark in the Land of Enchantment opined: “Trump is unelectable because he cannot get the support of the majority of independents, and they are the swing votes that elect our presidents.”
You Can’t Handle the Truth
All kinds of exciting fodder hit the news, such as the arrest of FTX’s former CEO, Samuel Bankman-Fried. A quick incident report provided by Liberty Nation’s economic swami Andrew Moran:
“The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX exposed everything that is currently wrong with the $1 trillion crypto ecosystem. What went from a tech sector that concentrated on decentralization, innovation, and transparency rapidly metastasized into a get-rich-quick scheme, driven by grifters, be it joke coins or fraudulent platforms. From companies to investors, everyone is being sucked into a financial black hole.”
Okay, it’s a Ponzi scheme on steroids. But this one also involves politicians accepting campaign donations who are unsure what to do with the ill-gotten booty. Most want to earmark and take the “wait and see if we are trouble” road. Bankman-Fried and FTX executives ponied up $70 million to political campaigns in the last 18 months. Most were progressive-oriented, like Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), to name a few.
Flyover Folks advise them to give it back or go to jail. In Little Rock, AR, Merrill Stratford called them thieves: “Stolen Money taken from FTX Investors.” And in the Buckeye state, James Satterfield wondered why it was even a consideration to donate the money to charity as some Democrats thought prudent: “That’s not their money to donate. Give it back to the people that invested.”
Double Dox Dare You
Well, you don’t mess with the big dog on the porch. And now, several left-leaning spin practitioners are learning that lesson. Elon Musk suspended several big-box media pundits for violating Twitter’s doxing policy, which states, in a nutshell, don’t you dare. Being superior to the common Twitter user, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, NYT Ryan Mac, former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, former Vox reporter Aaron Rupar, and one other from a major daily in the Swamp. And they complained. Musk defended suspending the accounts. “Doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as everyone else.”
How they had the nerve when a sitting president was nuked off the platform is beyond most heartlanders’ understanding. And Ted Hagemo stated the reality of down-and-dirty Democratic tactics: “There is no reason for anyone to have their precise location made public.”
