National Rat Watch Day

 By Anna Von Reitz

With the Marine Corps celebrating its birthday on November 10, and Veteran's Day on November 11, it just seems like we ought to make it a Trifecta and declare November 12 as National Rat Watch Day. 

My Grandmother and Mother got started rat-watching just after the Nixon-Kennedy debate, but even prior to that, they had noticed a pattern. 

The nastiest legislation coming out of Washington, DC, including the Federal Reserve Act, always seemed to center around the holidays from Halloween to Christmas, when people were distracted by the harvest and Church and community events.    

So that's the time slot when these two American women decided to watch Congress; and year after year, decade after decade, it became a family tradition. 

While everyone else was being Holly Jolly and baking cookies, my Mom and Grandma baked their Christmas Cookies with one ear cocked, listening to the news coming out of DC. 

This might seem to indicate that my forebears were politically inclined, but that is not the case.  

My Grandmother likened politicians to different colors of pigs at a trough (prove her wrong) and my Mother, though keenly interested in the local township and county doings, considered Congress "a growing annoyance" worthy of attention simply because of the trouble they caused. 

Rat Watch has now become a phenomenon and though we continue our vigil each year through the holidays, Rat Watching has become popular throughout the year.  We have Rat Watch embroidered patches and cloisonné pins, and I hope to see a Rat Watch vest and baseball caps this year.  

Though there is a wry bit of humor involved and lots of artistic talent around the country, rat-watching is serious business. It's the civilian side of our Public Duty to watch the government and keep it in line. 

We can best do this --- not by going to the polls once every four years --- but by keeping the heat on the politicians all the time. 

It's hard to imagine that our country could have drifted so far off course, if more people had been rat-watching and keeping score on voting records. 

This just-past election cycle saw the end of a political dynasty in Alaska.  U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski will be looking for a new job, possibly replacing Jackie Purcell as the Channel 2 Weather Person. 

Lisa, whose Mother was a Gore, as in Al Gore and the Chicago Daley Clan, would have done perfectly well as a Democrat. That's what she always was.  The problem is that she disguised this and ran as a Republican instead, and even worse, the Republicans let her. 

Our little Rat Watch group in Alaska tracked Lisa's Voting Record --- not what she said, but what she did --- for almost twenty years, and year after year, we pointed out the glaring discrepancy between what Lisa said during campaign season and how she actually voted in DC. 

This is a concern with all politicians these days, and it's largely our fault, because we don't have enough people on Rat Watch, sounding the alarm and holding them accountable.   

The Democrats began running as Republicans about thirty years ago, and now, the Republicans have begun running as Democrats, and neither political party maintains a solid platform, so the Voters are stuck buying pigs in pokes. 

Lisa's favorite excuse was that she was "independent".  Some people would consider that a synonym for "deceptive" coming from someone who didn't run for office as an Independent. Call me fussy.

She also liked to talk a lot about "working across the aisle" and "building bipartisan support" but the plain fact is that: (1) she was part of a famous Democratic family, the Gores and Daleys, and (2) she voted with the Democrats consistently for three terms--- as a Republican. 

When I first started pointing this out to Republican friends, you would have thought I killed the family cat.  How dare I?  Me, a woman who doesn't vote in their foreign corporation elections, and who isn't a willing shareholder, either? 

Well, I dare, because I watch the rats and because they work for me, albeit, in a different sense than they work for the voters.   

I know their voting records. I investigate their backgrounds. They can't tell me one thing and then do another. Nobody gets a free pass that allows them to misrepresent their actual agenda and lie to the Public. 

Not when I'm on Rat Watch. 

So the news that Lisa Murkowski will no longer be "representing" Alaska comes as a relief for many in this State.  

The Voters didn't buy the reasoning that her seniority in Congress was too important to lose. Who knows?  Maybe they will seize upon the joy of electing someone new every six years, instead of empowering more of what nobody wants, and thinking that's desirable? 

Maybe, too, the "Special Electors" have also begun to realize the importance of a U.S. Senate seat, and the need to have honest people in that position. 

Someone who will lie about who they are, what their politics are, and how they will vote on issues impacting you and your State, is not honest by definition.  Whatever else they are, they are liars, and that's a good part of how we've gotten into this Mess -- by electing people who are liars, and then not checking up on them and holding them accountable. 

Bear in mind that we are talking about a British Territorial Corporation operating as a "Congress" of State-of-State franchise owners, getting together in Washington, DC, and arguing about their share of the take. 

This is not the actual Congress of the People.  

Nonetheless, as Subcontractors, all these yahoos do work for us, and the things they do, do impact our lives.   

That's why we Rat Watch and report on what they do.  That's why we analyze their legislation, too.  We may not vote them into and out of office, but we can hold them accountable as a group and as individuals. 

Another Holiday Season is upon us.  Their mid-term elections are just behind us.  Washington, DC, stands deserted.  A ten-foot fence was erected around the Federal Reserve Building over the weekend.  

Seasoned Rat Watchers know why these things are happening, so join the crew and learn the ropes.  And celebrate November 12 in memory of all the Rat Watchers who have gone before you, and all those who will take up their civilian Public Duty in days to come.  

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