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WE HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS ALL WRONG
By Kevin Lewis, September 1, 2022

For many of us, the path our governmental leaders have recently taken has been perplexing. Many of the policy decisions that perhaps sounded good (at least to some) have turned out to be not only clearly deleterious, but often catastrophic for our country. Without hyperbole, I mean catastrophic for our economy, our national defense capability, our national sovereignty, the safety and security of citizens, and our standing among other nations of the world.

We hear that inflation is "temporary," that "we are not in a recession," that the administration "feels our pain" at the gas pump and is making a historic effort to bring down prices (though we should really focus on the fact that we are in an exciting "Great Transition"). Even though our money doesn't go nearly as far as it used to, our economy is in the midst of a "booming recovery." We are told that a massive new spending bill will somehow reduce inflation — (the "Inflation Reduction Bill"). Even the government's own CBO stated that it will do almost nothing to reduce inflation. Most economists say it will make inflation much worse.

These statements don't seem to align with empirical evidence — our everyday experience! Sadly, it would not surprise me at all if it were suddenly announced that "due to the racial overtones and white supremacist associations of 'up,' in the interest of equity, it will henceforth be considered down."

One might reasonably ask, "Why are our government officials doing these things and saying these things that don't seem to help us or our country?" I believe that asking this question would indicate a basic misunderstanding of our current governmental environment, their views and their goals. You're thinking about this all wrong!

There are some simple, obvious explanations that we can see and hear from various political experts. One such would be the "do the opposite of whatever Trump did" explanation. That mentality certainly exists. We have seen this from various individuals on both sides of the aisle — the desire to distance themselves from whatever Donald Trump did, whether good or bad. Another explanation would be unwavering allegiance to the progressive/Green New Deal contingent of the Democrat party, who, I assume, Joe Biden believes helped get him elected. There is always the "old standby" Democrat position that more government and more spending are always a good thing. With regard to the administration's complete disregard for and puzzling silence regarding the unsecured southern border, there is the conventional wisdom that if individuals come to the U.S. illegally and are given benefits and, more than likely, the chance to stay, they will be beholden to the Democrat policies of which they are beneficiaries, and therefore be lifelong democratic voters, ostensibly keeping Democratic politicians in power forever.

These are all good possibilities, each with a degree of validity, but they don't seem like enough. They might explain some things, but not all of them. When decisions are made that are blatantly unconstitutional, when policies are adopted that do not benefit U.S. citizens, and may even demonstrably hurt them, one might rightly begin to believe that there is more at play here — that there may be an even more insidious agenda afoot. I believe that there is. I believe that the goal, simply put, is to make America less, in every respect.

If the U.S. is arguably the most powerful, wealthiest, and most independent nation, with safeguards to avoid tyranny and subversion built into its founding documents, it becomes a major (if not the major) obstacle to a globalist one-world government, wherein all nations have equity. Some might consider the idea of a one-world government a conspiracy theory espoused by the Alt-Right or some other equally vilified group. Listening to the narratives from the United Nations' deliberations or from many of their leaders, it seems clear that it is indeed a real goal. Many of our own leaders, including several U.S. presidents, both Democrat and Republican, have extolled the virtue of the New World Order. Whatever you choose to call it, I believe that many (most?) within our government consider the U.S. too wealthy, too powerful — too privileged. For them, that must change.

The movers and shakers running the government, along with their happily willing figurehead (currently Joe Biden), view all who oppose this "transition" with disgust. They view anything like an "America First" mentality and certainly the "Make America Great Again" mentality merely as primitive tribalism.

If seen from this perspective, Biden's perplexing decisions and policies align and make some sort of perverse sense. America is not just "transitioning" away from fossil fuel toward green and renewable energy. It is transitioning toward its place as just another nation-state of the world — no better, no worse. For that to occur, the U.S. must be "brought down" from its current position. Since citizens would not voluntarily jump on the bandwagon if this goal were stated clearly, it must be done surreptitiously.

Biden didn't shut down oil and gas production in America (then plead to buy it from other countries) because of the climate or because he was seeking "green energy" (obviously, because we are still using oil and gas, just paying much more for it, and becoming beholden to other countries). It was done because it was one simple but very powerful way to weaken America (under the pretext of helping the climate or moving toward green energy). Not only has Joe Biden failed to fulfill his oath of office (to defend the U.S. from all enemies, foreign and domestic), but he (and the obviously intricate network of controlling governmental operatives) has intentionally and specifically disparaged and discarded it.

Now it all begins to make sense, and it scares the hell out of me.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

THE DEATH WARRANT FOR AMERICAN INGENUITY
By Janet Levy, September 1, 2022

Last September, scores of patent-holders demonstrated in six cities across the U.S. wearing black t-shirts that said, "Homo sapiens inventoris: Endangered Species." These men and women of ingenuity were protesting America's decade of stolen dreams: the years since the passage of the America Invents Act (AIA) of 2011 and the establishment of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which together have made it easy for big corporations to steal their ideas and profit from them with impunity.

"We've had piracy for all the years I've been an inventor, but the AIA just put it on steroids, in the context that now you can get PTAB-ed and lose your rights without any due process at all," said Dan Brown at the Detroit rally. A professor with more than 40 patents, including inventions used in space shuttles, Brown invented the bionic wrench, a one-size-fits-all wrench that obviates the problem of stripped bolt corners. He says Sears stole his idea, down to the marketing pitch, and replaced his product on its shelves with a Chinese rip-off.

Participants at these rallies, organized by U.S. Inventor, a non-profit fighting for inventors' rights, had similar stories. So do others represented by U.S. Inventor. Among them are Molly Metz, a jump rope champion whose patented idea for a ball-and-eye pivot mechanism for speed ropes was stolen by a rogue competitor; Glenn Sanders, whose patent on Emmy award–winning wireless video recording equipment was invalidated by PTAB; and Gene Luoma, an octogenarian muscular dystrophy patient who lost his patent and millions in royalties on his Zip-It drain cleaner.

These are individuals who came up with brilliant ideas or solutions, worked on them, built prototypes, set up small businesses, and plowed ahead to sell their products. But the new patent system under AIA is throttling them. For them, it is destroying the culture of inventiveness, innovation, and creating original products and solutions that made America great and rocketed it into space.

To understand how that came about, a brief history of American patent law is in order.

As early as during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, our founding fathers recognized the need to promote innovation and finely balance it against the competitive spirit of the free market. So, under Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, they granted Congress the power to give authors and inventors exclusive rights for a limited time over their writing and discoveries. They viewed intellectual property as real property and wisely foresaw its protection and nurturing as the road to American prosperity and greatness through creativity.

The third law of Congress was the Patent Act of 1790. The Bill of Rights of 1791 further affirmed, through the Fifth Amendment, that property rights (which also meant intellectual property, such as patents) were not to be taken away without due process of law or without just compensation.

Then the Patent Act of 1836 gave the first inventor the right to a patent, not the first to file for one. It also established that the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) would issue patents, decide on infringements, and revoke or invalidate patents after holding hearings, and examining expert testimony and material and other evidence. Though this could entail lengthy and expensive legal proceedings, the system empowered inventors and small businesses with the means to protect their intellectual property.

Two ancillary but relevant facts. In 1946, the law was amended to change the first-to-invent principle from first to invent in the world to first to invent in America in response to a 1939 SCOTUS judgment (Electric Storage Battery v. Shimadzu) that could have allowed American patents to be invalidated by claims from abroad. In 1982, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals was created, with exclusive jurisdiction on appeals over decisions by patent appeal boards or district courts, after inconsistencies that raised forum shopping concerns. The same year, limits were set on the breadth of a patent so that it would not restrict related inventions.

American innovation thrived from the late 18th century onward, with wars and hard times galvanizing invention and myriad spin-offs that have benefited humankind in unforeseen ways. Incentivizing invention made America a superpower — took it into space and into the molecular-level research that is unfolding the secrets of life itself. Not for nothing have Yankee ingenuity and can-do spirit become American shibboleths.

But things began to fall apart beginning in 2007. A sustained and exaggerated campaign by the Coalition for Patent Fairness, an ad hoc organization of Big Tech corporations like Amazon, Google, Intel, and others, sought to alter eligibility doctrine and get rid of the system of injunctions and sanctions for patent violations. At the same time, Big Tech had been building up the myth of the Patent Troll, against whom "true innovators" — that is, Big Tech and Big Business, which have actually been stealing ideas and used financial muscle to browbeat the solo inventor with litigation — must be protected.

Unfortunately for America, their narrative has prevailed. In 2011, President Barack Obama presented the AIA, ostensibly to end frivolous lawsuits, and make the patent process easier, less expensive, faster, and fairer than handling patent suits in courts or before the USPTO. America also switched to the first-to-file principle, followed worldwide. The final nail in the coffin was the establishment of PTAB, an administrative body without a lifetime-appointed judge. PTAB hearings are conducted with little due process — there are instances in which it has refused to admit material evidence — and so far, 84% of its decisions invalidated inventors' patents. As retired federal judge Paul Michel says, "[t]hey [Big Tech] got their way with Congress in 2011 with a statute creating an administrative tribunal where it would be easier to kill patents when they could not do so in the courts."

Jeff Parker, a longtime inventor and CEO of ParkerVision, laments the squelching of the incentive to invent and the end of the cooperative spirit. In the 1970s, he developed some of the first digital thermostats for air-conditioners and patented several of their features. Impressed by the achievements of a small company with a limited R&D budget, Carrier approached him to embark on a joint venture. Such interactions, he says, were the foundation of the U.S. economy then. The symbiosis between spirited inventors and deep-pocket corporations improved products, solved problems, and benefited consumers.

Later, when a much larger competitor copied their product, down to the text in the instruction manual, all it took was a letter for the copycat to acknowledge wrongdoing and pull down the product for fear of litigation. But that's a vestige of the past, says Parker: today, his company would end up before a hostile board. Big corporations don't have to invent anything. They can wait for inventions, scoop them up, and then either get to the patent office first or get the inventor's patent invalidated. Patent litigation has already reduced the market cap of Parker's company from $500 million to $30 million, and the technology he developed can now be used for free.

It's indeed the death of the American Dream, built on innovation. Meanwhile, in 2019, China wrested the U.S.'s long-held position of the country which filed the most international patents. China continued to rank first in 2020 and 2021. And while America left the solo inventor defenseless, China has strengthened its patent laws and innovation policy so much that Erick Robinson, a patent attorney with Beijing East IP, says, "China may be the best place in the world to file a patent lawsuit."

Hopefully, H.R. 5874, or the Restoring America's Leadership in Innovation Act (RALIA), introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), will eliminate the PTAB and provisions of the AIA that encourage patent robbery by Big Business. That will bring relief to hundreds of ingenious inventors like Brown, Sanders, Parker, and the octogenarian Luoma, whose intellectual property must be protected like physical property. Just as our founding fathers envisioned it. Remember, two of them — Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson — were prolific inventors.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

SEVEN PRACTICAL WAYS TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
By M.B. Mathews, September 5, 2022

I am guilty, like many of my fellow conservatives, of complaining about everything that has gone wrong since COVID. That includes massive inflation, the loss of small businesses because of a messed up COVID response; supply chain problems; gas prices; the border sieve; the swallowing up of the mainstream media by Great Resetters and MASA Democrats (Make America S--- Again); the Afghanistan defeat and weaponry giveaway; the billions and trillions spent on Ukraine; the paying of people not to work; the Luciferian malignancy of CRT, DEI, and ESG infecting our institutions, schools, and businesses; and the litany of other complaints MAGA Americans get so justifiably indignant about.

But what can the average American do to actually take down this behemoth of leftism that is strangling liberty, free speech, and prosperity? It may take a while, but it is doable with small things to start with.

First, cut off the blood supply to all businesses and groups that hire any DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) personnel. Stop paying them, and stop using their services. You do have choices. These vengeful, hateful people have managed to convince producers of goods and services that they must right the wrongs of slavery in their business and private endeavors. This is wrong and wrong-headed. No U.S. person alive today owned slaves, nor did his parents. Would you hold your grandchild responsible for killing millions of Jews and Christians during the Holocaust? Nor should the living be responsible to pay for the sins of the dead. Say no to any business that thinks you should.

In some cases, this will cost you more money or may delay your deliveries a week or so. So what?

America is not systemically racist. The left uses racism as its cudgel, assuming we will back down and kiss their derrieres. The epithet "racist" long ago lost its effect, yet some white people still melt like snowflakes under its utterance. Refuse to accept racism no matter what color is doing it.

Second, write emails and letters and make phone calls demanding to know how your representative plans to vote on a given issue. If it's not how you want them to vote, tell them so. Strongly. Many people say this is a useless tactic, but I disagree. Do it often enough, and it will get through, but it takes persistence. You never know just when it will be your email or phone call that does what you want. Your reps may ignore a few dozen complaints, but yours may be the proverbial straw/camel situation.

Never think, "My one complaint won't matter." It does matter, because it may be your "one" that is one too many to ignore. In the same way, if your rep is sending you emails that say, "Contact me" or "What do you think?" on a given issue, do not hesitate to do it. Again, yours may be the decisive "one."

Third, attend school board meetings and political strategizing groups where possible. Give your input. Don't think, "I hate public speaking." It may be your public speaking that puts an agenda over the top to clean up CRT or drag queen perversity in your schools.

Fourth, vote and be certain your friends vote. There are too many destructive rumblings from Republicans who say they won't vote because "nothing ever gets done." If you don't vote, more nothing will get done. Not voting puts another Machiavellian Democrat in office. Just as your one email may be the one that matters, your one vote may be the one that tips an election in your favor. Not to vote is selfish; other conservatives may suffer from your refusal to vote. At this time in our history, with evil everywhere and few heroes stepping up, be the hero.

Fifth, don't be afraid to hurt someone's feelings or to get aggressive in the cause of making yourself heard. Democrats have for too long cornered the market on aggressiveness, never expecting Republicans to fight back. And we didn't because we're too nice. No more. The survival of liberty and free speech is on the line, and we can turn that paradigm of systemic meekness on its head.

If you are able, protest. If you can, show up and talk to attendees. Don't be afraid to use leftist tactics that are non-violent. Remember that they are mostly petty narcissists who can't take what they dish out. Take a lesson from Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Michael Knowles, and Charlie Kirk, all of whom go into hostile territory to spread the conservative word. These are our heroes, in part. Our microphones are not as big as theirs are, but our mouths can be. Be prepared to answer such accusations as, "Your presence here makes me feel unsafe." Ask how they would actually be "unsafe" by your words. They'd hear an opposing point of view, God forbid? Show up and show them up as the whinging, cringing, sniveling snowflakes they are.

If that's not your style, there is another way: employ the 1 Peter 3:15 biblical method of apologetics: "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."

Sixth, write letters to editors of local newspapers and websites. Express your opinion fairly, strongly, and with conviction. Never lapse into profanity or inanity; leave that to leftists, who reveal their shallowness by doing so. By contrast, you will always look measured, reasonable, and assured, thereby being more likely to be listened to. You don't have to be a sophisticated, refined writer to matter. It just requires honest passion and coherence.

Seventh, become informed so that when someone asks you your sources, you can cite something other than Breitbart, which will immediately elicit guffaws and incredulity from your leftist target. Recall how you react when a leftist cites NPR or the New York Times as his source. Breitbart is fine, but find an additional source that is somewhere in the middle or, ideally, on the left so as to defuse yet another leftist criticism and maybe get you listened to. Dan Bongino is particularly adept at this. All that said, getting any leftist to actually listen to a reasoned argument is almost futile, but you can make the attempt.

The main point is that you do have ways to increase the flood of conservative actions and arguments that may push someone with some power over the edge into your camp. Don't assume your one comment won't matter. It may just be the "one" to make someone in power say, "Enough. Maybe he's got a point." Be the final word and be the one to whom your liberal friends, if you have some, will come to get your side of the story.

Toxic liberalism wasn't built in a day. They had to start somewhere. So must we, and we will be victorious.

UPDATE FROM ANDREA: One of our readers sent in an eighth way you can fight back:

There is an eighth way to be added to this list: Any shareholder of individual stocks should make sure to note the time of a company's annual meeting and submit questions to the board via their online portals which is universally offered to shareholders and simple and convenient to use.

It's quite an effective way to get to the head of the snake.

Reprinted with permission from the American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com

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