Eric Etzel

Husband, Father and retired USN Sailor, lover of America. Conservative somehow.

[Eric Etzel @EtzelEric]

I invite you to read a poem about my Flag.

'I have a close relationship with our nation's flag. Probably closer than allot of folks. As a child I pledged allegiance to it every morning at school. As a cub scout and boy scout we pledged allegiance to it before our meetings. As a Sailor I raised and saluted it as the National Anthem played and saluted and folded her up tight after colors on many a night. Or I observed others during morning or evening colors to make sure it was done right.

Underway shift colors and never take her down, watching as she flew until moored safe and sound. I wore her on my sleeve with my emotions and my heart, in an Army uniform, in a place where my brother's taught me "You OWN the ground you're on". And we didn't have a flag flying on that base there, wasn't allowed, right or wrong that's how it was and seemed unfair. So I hung one that had flown from my ship, on the wall of my small room. I counted the stars on it as I worked out each day, thought of home and family and the good men and women, kids really, I was there with from every single state.

And good men died, I knew them just a little, and they were shown honor by her embrace, her protection and her love and when I think of that I imagine some tears from above.

I have been there watching when she was folded one last time, tight and perfect with precision and full of meaning, sublime. I fight back tears, this mission must be done. Blank my mind, focus hard, salute the flag, catch just a glimpse of the eyes of his son. And inspect it, fix it, make sure it is just right, then solemnly receive her and wait until the salute leaves my sight. Raise her to my heart, cradle it there, turn and step to his wife seated in her chair, concentrate on the mission and the words not his lost life. Only here will I take a knee, present the flag. Fight back tears, say the words without fear and from my heart soft but clear...

"On behalf of the President of the United States, the United States Navy and a grateful Nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of your loved one's honorable and faithful service."

Come to attention and fight back tears, blank my mind, hand salute, gun salute, taps, and it is done...

But each time I see that flag I think of that and more, the price men have paid and the ravages of war. And I love that flag and the country it represents. It's not a pawn or a game to me or symbol for which I must repent.

So if someone wants to disrespect her by not standing when she flies, for their cause and reasons that seem right in their own eyes.

It's OK with me they just don't know her, their eyes are too blind to see...

I know, I truly know, the price we have paid for them to be free.

[Eric Etzel @EtzelEric]

@amuse @DHern2022 It's weird.

[@amuse @amuse]

CORRUPTION? Three days after Mitch McConnell was found unconscious and hospitalized his wife, a private citizen, traveled to Beijing to meet with CCP leadership, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. Why is she meeting with the CCP? Why do it with her husband still hospitalized? What is really going on?

[Steve Ferguson @lsferguson]

Nowhere is the Constitution will you find the Senate's filibuster, the Byrd Rule, the Senate Parliamentarian and the Blue Slip. All are being expertly used to sabotage the Trump Administration.@SenateGOP @LeaderJohnThune @realDonaldTrump @JDVance

[Eric Etzel @EtzelEric]

@Real_RobN What an odd couple.

Weird.

[Eric Etzel @EtzelEric]

@__0HOUR1_ Yup.

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

Call the bluff on a leftist who's claiming that Republican Congressional staffers are involved in an obviously astroturfed white supremacist group and financed by NGOs, and all the idiots come out of the woodwork.

Here's a history lesson.

This nation was founded on Protestantism. That isn't in dispute. Almost every state had a religious test for officeholding, and they largely required the officeholder to be Protestant. Schools required the reading of KJV, which was seen as an anti-Catholic slight. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote at length on how the United States was founded on Protestant ideology.

What changed? Catholics participated in civic life the way the Founding Fathers intended. They built their own schools and other parallel institutions, and voted in different office requirements. In short, Catholics proved themselves capable of being American, and they got full admission as a result.

The same pattern repeated with every group. Jews, Irish Catholics, Eastern Europeans... all initially excluded, all earned their place the same way: civic participation, institution-building, proving they could sustain self-governance. That's the American model. It's civilizational. Can you build institutions? Can you govern yourself? Can you participate in the republic?

No one steeped in the actual Protestant founding tradition would arrive at "white identity" as the organizing principle because the founding was organized around covenantal self-governance and distrust of centralized government.

[Eric Etzel @EtzelEric]

@HarmeetKDhillon Beautiful.

[Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47]

.@POTUS: Yet as we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack. A generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of Communism, there is now a resurgence of the Communist menace in our land—including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life.

These are not mere political disagreements, like differences over taxes or regulations. Communism is a mortal threat to American Liberty. It is the Greatest Threat to our Country including World War One, World War Two, Pearl Harbor, or 9/11.

Because Communism is the enemy of Free People everywhere. It is the enemy of the Constitution. Above all, it is the Enemy of July 4th, 1776.

Even while the Radicals and Extremists attack our incredible history at every turn, they are SILENT on the miserable history of Communism itself. Their system has led to more death and destruction than any system ever tried—it killed 100 million people in the last century.

Communism is the exact opposite of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—it is death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil.

The Godless Communist morality states that anything is justified to bring about the inhuman visions they propose. They have no respect for law, justice, principle, tradition, or your God-given rights.

It is an ideology of mass theft, mass control, mass lies, and mass murder. Such doctrines can be given no quarter in a Democracy, because the first thing they do when they get into power is turn around, and destroy it—just as Communists have done in other countries all over the world.

Very simply, Communism represents the worst ideas and abuses in history by the worst people—the American Founding represents the best ideas and traditions in history by the best people.

You can be loyal to Karl Marx, or you can be loyal to America. You can be a Communist, or you can be a Patriot. You cannot be both.

As for those who would peddle Marxist lies about our heritage—who tell our children that we live on stolen land, or that our heroes were oppressors—they are doing something much worse than slandering our past. They are attacking our future. They are trying to tear down the American Character, to destroy the people who declared Independence, crossed the Delaware, settled the West, and conquered the skies. But we will never let that happen.

Our American Ancestors did not shed their blood at Concord and Trenton, Gettysburg and Shiloh, Midway and Normandy, just so that a band of thieves and radicals could come in and loot and pillage the nation our heroes died to win, build, and save.

So on the eve of this 250th anniversary of American Liberty, we resolve and swear for all to hear that the Citizens of the United States of America will vanquish Communism from our shores, and send it into exile once and for all. America will never be a Communist country!

[Promethean Action @PrometheanActn]

🇺🇸 250 years ago we declared independence from the British Empire. 125 years ago, they stole it back—and erased the evidence.

This July 4th, Trump is reclaiming what McKinley died for: the American System.

[Clandestine @WarClandestine]

Trump and his administration’s focus on Patriotism and American pride, is not just for show.

Trump and the US MIL are counteracting the decades of psychological demoralization and subversion inflicted by the Left/MSM. The Deep State used their control of media to intentionally degrade and destroy American pride, along with our culture, our beliefs, our religion, our institutions, our history, our food supply, our schools, everything.

Why did they do this? Because the Deep State were attempting to conquer this nation from within, and they legitimately fear the American spirit and the 2nd Amendment. The Deep State accurately view the American People as the most formidable People on Earth to conquer, not just because of our weapons, but because of our pride in our nation, and our willingness to fight and die for it. The American People are standing in the way of their plan to implement a one-world government.

The enemies of humanity know that the American People will not willingly let globalism and tyranny take hold, so the Deep State attempted to psychologically destroy the American spirit, so we would be easier to fully conquer when the time came, which was going to be during Hillary’s term, but Trump won and ruined their 16 year plan.

This is why the Dems and their voters are openly anti-American. They have been brainwashed and conditioned for years to hate America, because the Deep State intend to replace our nation with something else.

So this Independence Day, and all days moving forward, I’m asking my fellow Americans to make a conscious effort to show and restore our nation’s pride, because it is quite literally a matter of National Security. Evil forces are attempting to conquer us from within, and they are targeting our Patriotism, because they view it as a threat.

Do not let them succeed. Never let them convince you this land is not worth fighting for.

[ThePersistence @ScottPresler]

All I want is the SAVE America Act. Then, I’ll let up, stop the peaceful pressure campaign, & focus solely on November. What our elected officials must understand is the American people demand some sort of election integrity going into the midterm elections. Whether it’s requiring photo ID or proof of citizenship to vote or banning ballot harvesting, voters want assurance that our Republican majorities are implementing the very legislative policies they were elected to enact.

[DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican]

Thomas Jefferson had a prescription against tyranny: the study of history.

My 4th of July thoughts:

[Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 @TulsiGabbard]

250 years ago our founders enshrined the fundamental truth that “all men are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among those, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as the bedrock of our nation. It's up to us to uphold our God-given freedoms, and to stand firm against those who seek to undermine them. Have a safe and happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸

[God & Country @GodandCountryy]

The Hoover Dam for 250 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 BREAKING: Speaker Johnson has just informed Sen. Mike Lee the SAVE America Act *WILL* be forced into the base text of the NDAA, which puts massive pressure on the Senate to pass it once the House sends it over

GREAT NEWS! Thank you MAGA Mike!

MIKE LEE: "He assured me that MIRV process will guarantee the two bills are merged and received in the Senate as one bill, with the SAVE America Act in the base text."

"@SpeakerJohnson is as committed as ever to ensuring it becomes law, including keeping it on the NDAA (a “must pass” bill) as it comes over from the House to the Senate, and fighting for it thereafter."

All hands on deck for secure elections 🇺🇸

@BasedMikeLee

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

📸JULY 4TH WEEKEND AMERICA 250 PHOTOGRAPHY TIMELINE CLEANSE📸

America the Beautiful!

As many of you know, in addition to prattling on endlessly about politics and the military, I am a passionate landscape and street photographer as well.

I have been so anxious to post my amazing photos from my recent, awesome Norway vacation that I realized--thanks to @monetization_x (who, BTW, is someone you should be following if you want to make money on X)--that I really ought to instead be posting pictures of the beauty of the USA.

Soooo... that's what I'm going to do all weekend. Please keep on the lookout, I will do this every few hours.

Let's start with our nation's Capitol, shall we? That beautiful building deserves beautiful light.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-300mm zoom @ 65mm, f/3.5. ISO 400, 1 second, mounted on a tripod whose brand I can't remember.

[Eric Etzel @EtzelEric]

@CollinRugg

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

The @NASA Armstrong team is just getting warmed up

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

📸JULY 4TH WEEKEND AMERICA 250 PHOTOGRAPHY TIMELINE CLEANSE📸

America the Beautiful!

Since we're stuck on DC, long ago the MLB Washington Nationals used to play in RFK Stadium. Here is the view from over the top of the very top row of the stadium.

Nikon D50, Nikkor DX 55-200mm lens @ 200mm, f/5,6, ISO 1600, 1.3 seconds, no tripod except balancing the camera on the concrete of the top row, looking out.

[Robbie Mouton @mcgmouton57]

General Washington really was chosen to lead our nation by a higher power. Even the Native Americans knew it.

This painting of Gen Washington at Valley Forge, praying for guidance when the fight for America's independence seemed lost. The painting was from the brutal winter of 1777-1778. The "fragile army" of colonists needed to fight to make the independence from Britain declared on July 4th, 1776, stick. The problem was they were freezing to death, without winter clothing, many without shoes.

In July 1755, a 23-year-old Washington escaped a harrowing death at the Battle of Monongahela, when he was shot by an expert marksman and survived. In a letter to his younger brother John the future first president wrote, "By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability and expectations; for I had 4 bullets through my coat, and 2 horses shot out from under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side." He then realized God had saved him for a reason.

Years later, before Washington became president, an Indian chief who was at the battle asked to be brought to Washington. He said, "Sir, I just needed to meet you because I am an expert marksman and I shot you 17 times and my men shot you, and pretty soon I told them to stop wasting their bullets, because this is a man who is protected by the great spirit above. I just wanted to see you before I died, knowing you will become the father of a great nation." This used to be in all the history books.

Put American history back in our classroom so that our children will know what our forefathers did to leave a godfilled legacy for us!🇺🇸

https://t.co/pkvGdNHFbQ