One option is not a choice

Age 17 when sharing with my Houston, Texas high school history teacher that my family would soon move to Beijing, he said, Erik, do you know that China is a communist country?

As detailed in the introduction of this book, I did not understand what that meant—removing God and putting government above God instead of under God as our country’s pledge of allegiance speaks about—but living in the capital of the Chinese Communist Party-run country was an important experience, one which in part prepared me for the work I do now.

Corn dries in the street in Shunyi District, outside Beijing, a few blocks from where my family lived in 2005/6

When one sees something for the first time, it doesn’t always register. Consider your first experience with someone who proves he has no conscience. (Note: Identifying psychopaths will be a critical lesson I plan to teach my son, along with the skill of properly researching and verifying what he reads, hears, sees.) But when one sees something for a second time, it does register, and if one has prepared in the meantime, a better response can be taken. I saw communism for the first time in China, and for the second time in America.

Communism, to me, is about total domination through the removal of choice, the total control that is sung about in a recent song: Lord knows they all just want to have total control. In yesterday’s audio clip about how the Minnesota Republican Party could cease to be a major party, a listener commented: “A simple look through history shows what kinds of evil happen when only one political party is the only option.” CCP-controlled China is just one example from history, a one-party system since 1949 which has led to the loss of tens of millions of lives. Mao spoke of communism with Chinese characteristics. It could be argued that America has in recent years (and is) experiencing Maoism with American characteristics. Could America have avoided this?

If the idea of America, where among other attributes the people chose representatives with each of their sovereign voices, was the antidote to global communism then inevitably it would come under attack. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not sure this conflict could be avoided. And even while I am optimistic about the future, it could be argued that even if less damage was possible in the near term, that seeing how bad it could get was still somehow necessary. Basically, not enough Americans had experienced communism and so if too quickly saved from it, they would not have learned their lesson well enough to put safeguards in place to prevent it in future. To further elaborate on this, consider…

At the MNGOP convention in May 2022, where my friend Edwin was removed from the line by Rochester police which the party had called (the party later spent upwards of $250,000 suing him and now wants to settle pre-trial—the party currently has about $400k in debt and less than $200k of assets) and where I was barred from participation in the secretary of state endorsement process because I was outspoken about election reform (the MNGOP leadership are all if not almost all never-Trumpers and it seems were happy to see a stolen election, and not just stolen from Trump, but stolen from the people who voted for him from all political backgrounds), a woman who grew up outside the United States went to the podium but they cut the mic before she could finish speaking. I went to her seat and told her what she was speaking about was very important. She said, tears in her eyes, These people don’t get it. What didn’t they get? I asked. They didn’t get communism. She wasn’t speaking only about the corrupt leadership, but about the delegates. She went on to describe how communists had taken everything from her family before she came to Minnesota and she saw that it was happening here, too.

Even though many in the room opposed the establishment GOP (who are basically onside with communists) and were trying to change course, most of the people in the room had not yet experienced communism. At least not openly. I believe communism infiltrated this country as early as the 60s, if not long before (resulting in part with the assassination of the 35th president, apparently signed off on by not only US intel agencies but those abroad). Decades later, given Obama’s communist education, it may have been his role to complete the communist takeover, effectively enslaving hundreds of millions of people in the process and ending the American idea and antidote to those very ideas.

And since most Americans had not yet experienced communism, from one perspective it was important to experience it, so that when we defeat it we can pass down stories to ensure it has no hope of taking root again for the next 1,000 years.


In the 93rd Legislature in HF1830, a bill which had many late additions (and included the election machine mandates), amendments went through for Minnesota Statute 200.02 so that parties have to comply with their own constitution and bylaws, else can lose major party status. At the moment it looks like the MNGOP Chair is trying to appear as though he’s doing something about it without doing precisely what’s needed to come back into compliance (in several areas), however a number of citizens were paying attention and are trying to do the right thing to prevent Minnesota effectively become a one-party state.

Whether you are a state central delegate, a state central alternate, or know someone who is (perhaps in your BPOU), it is worthwhile visiting and taking time to read rebuildthemngop.com and sending your intent to join the call for a meeting because by calling a state central meeting the process of coming into compliance can begin—for those who have complained as I have about the MNGOP and its direct attacks against patriotic republicans in its own party (including disenfranchizing many delegates), this is the chance to actually do something about it.


Meanwhile in other news it appears that Donald Trump is still the Commander in Chief, according to EO13848 which was yet again extended yesterday by “Biden”. EO13848 was signed in by President Trump on September 12, 2018 as a protection against foreign interference in American elections and it is an executive order that deserves study, discussed briefly in this previous post called “Too many laws?”.

While it appears more is happening than meets the eye, in terms of choices there are many before us.

There are choices about health, education, and elections to name a few.

I’ve written little about health besides this post 19 months ago. Instead do my best to model behaviors that others can ask about if interested (I still have many issues to work out). But in general I have strong common sense opinions. I have stories just like I hope many of you have in particular about how having a little courage goes a long way to give courage to others—several times I walked through airports without a face covering and refused to properly wear the muzzles on airplanes, to name only a few. You can guess my opinion on experimental vaccines being forced upon anyone, not to mention children, especially after Freedom of Information Act requests revealed dark secrets kept by the manufacturers.

One positive and proactive plan is to provide a list of churches, businesses, and restaurants that have pledged to remain open regardless of any mandates so that other churches, businesses, and restaurants know they do not stand alone. Please send any that you hear about by replying to this email (if received by email), or by making a comment. If the state is going to overreach and then unlawfully enforce penalties for non-compliance with their overreach, then there should be at least 300 Lisa Hanson’s this time around.

In education, with our first son on the way, my wife and I have evaluated daycares and found most in our area to be failing given that they fall in line with state recommended vaccine schedules and a rare few even consider a medical exemption, which essentially reduces options to in-home care or a nanny or to take childcare on completely ourselves, all reasonable options as there is a lot to teach my son. I have taken an interest in certain outdoor-focused schools (I don’t even like the word school) because I don’t believe there is much learning that actually happens in a stale classroom. But even if confined, a field trip every other week to the local county commissioner meeting (or to a local hand count study) would teach more about government and civics than everything I learned in state-sponsored textbooks on the matter.

In the election arena, you may have heard that electronic voting machines (tabulators) have been mandated in Minnesota statutes, as it happens in the same bill, HF1830, referenced above. (Please note! A corrupt or unlawful mandate need not be followed.)

With the recent revelations regarding cast vote records from the South Dakota team visiting ES&S’s Nebraska headquarters, it is now beyond clear that the people in Minnesota (and across the country) have been deceived by not only the MNSOS but also by numerous election staff and attorneys throughout the state.

Given this fact, why wouldn’t hand counts be done in every county for every election, starting today? Ask yourself, which judge is going to penalize a county staff for conducting a fully transparent and open election, where you and I can see and check the process and results for ourselves? At some point corrupt administrators and corrupt laws may be ignored, just as empty mandates will be ignored by the majority of people should they be put back into effect. (Even though the media may have said otherwise, most people in America mostly ignored them the first time, too.) When we see that the people are more powerful than the government, it will not be long before we can correct who represents us at all levels through perhaps the first open and fair elections in this country this century.

We’ve now seen what the onset of communism has meant as it has touched every one of us in every part of our lives. Do we simply accept the totalizing control? Or do we realize that in everything, there is a choice.

I think that by now, today, there are enough Americans who not only know they have a choice but understand the power of that choice, and that is why communism, one-party systems, and mandates will no longer work in America.

During and after wars, the gardens grew