April 29, 2025
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An American Legend

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Category: Politics

Watch And Learn – Introduction

Page Preface

This is the second section of Book One of the Watch and Learn Project, an introduction to the project and the movement proper. The project itself is the media – written, audio, and visual – intended to inform, empower, drive, and coalesce the Watch and Learn movement. Future developments may expand the scope of the project, the movement, or both.

The main index page for the project is here.

The video embedded on this page is the entire “Introduction” section. You can find the individual subsections (transcribed below and included in this video) and their associated videos at these links:

Welcome To The New Revolution

Hi, I’m John Henry and the world is a madhouse.  Conveniently, I’m a madman, so I know my way around the place.  

I’ve been out here trying to make things better for a long time – decades – in various ways.  I’ve been rejected and overlooked largely because the truth isn’t always comfortable or easy or immediately gratifying to the ego or the wallet, I don’t mince words, and I don’t hesitate to be just as critical of people claiming to be on “my team” as I am anyone else. 

Not a recipe for popularity, but integrity and truth are far more important than popularity, especially in this moment.  And, in spite of not being everybody’s cup of tea, I’ve done a fair amount of good in the world.

I’m here to resolve the current crisis related to the ongoing attempt to overthrow the democratic system of the US in favor of fascist totalitarianism. 

You heard me correctly.

The Package

I have at hand a complete, comprehensive, and – relatively speaking – easy to understand plan to end the current and ongoing overthrow of the United States, and to prevent it from happening again. 

It requires some context and foundational education before the plan itself is presented.  You will understand the reasons for this clearly and soon, but for now I’m going to ask you to trust me and come with me, and together we’re going to not just make this better but provide radically improved protection against the same mess happening in the future. 

Our mission is worth the time to not just do properly, but to understand what makes this the “right way,” and to understand why it absolutely must be done if we intend to survive.  It is not hyperbole to say that the future of the human race depends on our success. 

I know patience is difficult, tensions are rising, and every day tens of thousands more Americans find themselves in emergent disaster.  Every minute counts.  That’s why I’m doing my very best to get things right “the first time.”

The final proposal – the big, red, shiny button – follows the law, and it follows established processes, it doesn’t violate democratic principles or ethics, and it restores and enhances the mechanical function of our government, a system that – absent intentional corruption – remains the core model for successful democracy worldwide.

It can also be done quickly – weeks.  How quickly depends on us.

The one huge caveat is that in order to work, this solution absolutely must have the full-throated and large scale voice of the people – you – behind it.  

The Mission

Make no mistake about it: we are here to make history, to prevent catastrophic collapse of global social systems, and to direct future history in a much more just, equitable, and sustainable manner, including the refinement and expansion of safeguards against the next attempt to install a fascist or other despotic, dictatorial, or tyrannical government in the United States.  In doing so, we can once again become the world’s true and legitimate leaders and pioneers of genuine human liberty – perhaps more so than we ever really have been, when you start looking closely at the record.

We need every person on board who can get on board, including those of us who don’t vote and those who are ready to renounce, in good faith, their allegiance to the people, organizations, and ideologies of tyranny, despotism, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism.

Additional Notes

It’s critical to note here: none of this is “about me.”  I’m going to spend some time at the top telling people who I am and what we’re doing here, but beyond that none of this has anything to do with any brand or promotion or like-n-share or clickbait.  I’m putting this out into the world because it needs to be there and I can put it there. 

I’m taking the time to do all this prefatory stuff because I know how history works and I want to do what I can to avoid having this work mangled, misinterpreted, or distorted in the future.  I’ve done my best to anticipate and answer any reasonable and substantive question within this work.

I am an activist and writer, among other things.  I am significantly supported in my life and work by my readers and those who consume and appreciate my content.  That fact is not relevant to any of the information I’ll present here, save that we all owe all my supporters a priceless debt of gratitude for believing in me and supporting my work lo these many years, so we could arrive at this point when we were truly needed.  They’ve been part of this, and inspired it, for many years before it became this document.

If you’re watching this on video this introduction is the second part of a much longer series.  If you’ve been following my work and know who I am, the ”Who I Am” video coming next is probably skippable; you know all this stuff. 

If you’re reading it, you’ll have the whole thing and can jump around as you please. 

In either case, I want to welcome you, and to apologize now in advance for what may seem to be a self-aggrandizing and rather curt introduction to who I am and what this is all about.  We’ll get through that bit of tastelessness as quickly as possible and move on to the meat of the matter.  I’ve got to walk a line with all this introductory stuff between covering as many bases as possible and keeping it brief.  Thanks for bearing with me.

Watch And Learn – Ending The Beginning

Page Preface

Summarizing the introductory sections of the Watch and Learn project.

Where We Are

Our world is in chaos and decaying quickly.  Damage has already been done that will take generations to correct.  We no longer have the luxury of sandbagging evolution because it’s inconvenient and uncomfortable. 

I have in my head, heart, and hand, the best possible legal and ethical solutions to that present chaos and decay, and I am here to give it to you now collected under this series, “Watch and Learn,” with the actual core of the thing referred to as the “eureka project.” 

There’s more coming behind that, but that’s just my usual ongoing work for social justice and human progress, not part of this specific movement.  

Where We’re Going

Right now we have to focus on the task at hand, which is restoring and hardening our democracy to avoid repeating the resonant cascade of errors, misjudgments, and malfeasance that has its roots in the distant past and now threatens to vibrate our nation and human democracy to dust.

By the time you see this, much of the project will already be complete.  I’m going to present you first with some observations and guidance about effective activism and direct action. 

I’m going to present you with a tactical and strategic overview of what we’re going to accomplish with this movement. 

I’m going to give you step by step instructions to make it happen.

We’re going to use those tactics and strategies to demand those solutions be implemented with all due haste.

It’s time to stop playing games.

It’s time to watch and learn.

Watch And Learn – About Me (The Closet)

Page Preface

A few words about the proverbial skeletons in my closet from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

I am not media ready. 

I haven’t always been as good a person as I would like to have been.  I have faced that, made my amends, and strive daily to be the best me I can. 

My hairline’s receding and my looks are fading and I’m nobody’s idea of a politician.

I have complex PTSD, major depressive disorder, adhd, I’m autistic.  I’ve been addicted.  I’ve been abusive, and abused.  There is major crime in my family, some of a nature that forbids public description. 

There are plenty of people in the world who will be happy to tell you bad things about me.  A few of them may even be true, and fairly spoken.

None of these things are secrets and none of them are relevant to the validity of what I’m going to present to you in this series of videos and in this direct action movement.

Watch And Learn – About Me (Politics & Affiliations)

Page Preface

A quick overview of my political inclinations and affiliations, from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

Related to my activism, I’m not on anyone’s payroll and never have been.  I’ve never registered with a political party, nor been employed by any party or candidate, nor done volunteer work for any such entity directly, although I have advocated for, or against, various candidates over the years on my own initiative and without contact or coordination with anyone involved.  I’m not being bankrolled by any billionaires or shadowy organizations.  I’m not a Super PAC or a “union” or a “party” or a “front.” The only agenda I have in this work is the survival and evolution of the species.  Peace, love, progress, justice, equity, sustainability, dignity, for all. 

I work for no one and I answer to no one – if I did I’d look better and be working with better equipment and resources. I do the people’s work for the people as best I can using the gifts and privileges I have, while also trying, like all of us, to live my little life.

Watch And Learn – About Me (Family)

Page Preface

A bit of my family history from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.” (Note: I’ve avoided discussing specific living relatives in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention to them. -jh)

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

My dad was born in The Hague, NL, in 1943. Both of his parents and their families were active on the anti-fascist Dutch underground, helping thousands of people escape Europe during the war.  He came to the US at age 4 ½ and later served as a US Marine from 1961-1966 – serial number ending in 7452, for you folks who want to dig, but much of his record was lost in the 1973 NPRC fire in St. Louis, so the full picture may no longer be available. 

He often recounted, as his earliest memory, the Schutzstaffel breaking into his home when he was perhaps two years old, looking for his father to arrest him and send him to the camps as a political prisoner.  I was only aged two myself when his dad died, and I have no documentation, but the family story has it that he was in fact captured very late in the war – after Hitler’s suicide – and was on a railroad cattle-car for the camps when he and several other men were able to overpower the few guards and escape with perhaps 70 others during a stop.

My mother is Choctaw, Cherokee, Caddoh, Black, and a smidgen of Irish and German probably mixed in there somewhere.  Her father’s family, particularly her patrilineage, are the subject of a biography titled “A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas. (affiliate-encoded link; non-affiliate link here)” by Billy D. Higgins, who is a professor at the University of Arkansas. As far as I know. the book remains in print but may not yet be available electronically.

I was raised with a deep set of values related to authority, power, honor, fairness, responsibility, integrity, and resistance to tyranny.  My mom’s people were dirt poor folks from southeastern Missouri who moved to rural Michigan for agricultural work.  My dad’s were strangers in a strange land. 

Watch And Learn – About Me (Deeper Dive)

Page Preface

A closer look at the person who put this together (i.e. your present author), from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.“

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

I’ve always favored the underdog. I have always been one, my childhood a daily trial of near-constant targeting by bullies and brutes who hated me because I used big words and read books faster than they could and was always the first one to raise their hand with the right answer in class. 

You’d be surprised how little changes in 50 years.  I’m still usually the first one in class to raise my hand with the right answer, and the bullies of the world still hate me for it intensely.

Frankly the feeling is mutual, but they deserve their chances to be better too.  I got mine.  As long as they’re acting in good faith, forgiveness is always possible.

I’m a musician.  I started playing drums at age 8 and have enjoyed varying minor degrees of success and notoriety doing that over the years in various places.

I first became deeply interested in propaganda and social control through mass communication when the US Libertarian Party started trying to recruit me to run for office, in part because of my visibility as a musician.  That was when I was maybe 19 or 20 – not old enough to drink legally, for sure. 

After having a life including trying my best to be a dad after I became one at eighteen, I attended Western Michigan University starting at age 40 in 2010, majoring in communication and minoring in political science.  I completed all my major and minor coursework, but financial incapacity forced me to drop out roughly two full-time semesters short of my BA.  I’d like to finish some day.

Watch And Learn – About Me (Condensed)

Page Preface

This is condensed version of the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

Yes, my real name is John Henry.  My last name is DeJong. I was born and raised in southwest Michigan, and I currently live in Portland, Oregon.

Related to my activism, I’m not on anyone’s payroll and never have been.  I’ve never registered with a political party, nor been employed by any party or candidate, nor done volunteer work for any such entity directly, although I have advocated for, or against, various candidates over the years on my own initiative and without contact or coordination with anyone involved. 

I’m not being bankrolled by any billionaires or shadowy organizations. 

I’m not a Super PAC or a “union” or a “party” or a “front.” The only agenda I have in this work is the survival and evolution of the species.  Peace, love, progress, justice, equity, sustainability, dignity, for all. 

I work for no one and I answer to no one – if I did I’d look better and be working with better equipment and resources. I do the people’s work for the people as best I can using the gifts and privileges I have, while also trying, like all of us, to live my little life.

We no longer have time for personality nonsense and ego contests.   Listen, and you’ll know. 

I was raised with a deep set of values related to authority, power, honor, fairness, responsibility, integrity, and resistance to tyranny.  My mom’s people were dirt poor folks from southeastern Missouri who moved to rural Michigan for agricultural work.  My dad’s were strangers in a strange land. 

If you need a political label, I am a progressive.  I want us to evolve to our best selves.  Other labels that may apply only serve to broadly describe the best way to get there.

I am usually the person asking, “wait, who says so? who is running the show here and what are their interests?”  That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this section of the project: if I was watching someone do what I’m doing, “who the hell is this guy” would definitely be the first question on my mind.  

I am not media ready. 

I haven’t always been as good a person as I would like to have been.  I have faced that, made my amends, and strive daily to be the best me I can. 

My hairline’s receding and my looks are fading and I’m nobody’s idea of a politician.

I have complex PTSD, major depressive disorder, adhd, I’m autistic.  I’ve been addicted.  I’ve been abusive, and abused.  There is major crime in my family, some of a nature that forbids public description. 

There are plenty of people in the world who will be happy to tell you bad things about me.  A few of them may even be true, and fairly spoken.

None of these things are secrets and none of them are relevant to the validity of what I’m going to present to you in this series of videos and in this direct action movement.

Watch And Learn – About Me (Childhood)

Page Preface

Information about my childhood from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

As a child I was discovered to be what was then called “extraordinarily gifted.” 

As a matter of personal inclination, I agree with Stephen Hawking: people who brag about their IQ are idiots. But, those without much to brag about anyway always insist on first demanding the pedigree and then denouncing you for providing it.

So let’s end that silliness right here, get it over with, and move on. 

I am one of “those people,” the “gifted and talented,” the “geniuses.”  99.98th percentile and all that jazz. I’ve discussed the supporting details many times in public.  Anyone with the wit to listen will readily perceive for themselves that I’m no lightweight, amateur or poser.  Anyone who doesn’t is welcome to get left behind if they don’t want to come along.  Not the choice I’d make, but it’s not my choice to make. 

We no longer have time for personality nonsense and ego contests.   Listen, and you’ll know. 

Aside from that, I’ve been politically active since childhood, often with a focus on environmental, anti-authoritarian, and human and civil rights issues. 

Watch And Learn – About Me (Basic Bio)

Page Preface

Some basic biographical info from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

Yes, my real name is John Henry.  My last name is DeJong, but I’ve been known as John Henry professionally and socially since the early 1990s.  I come by the name honestly; my father was John and my mother’s father was Henry. 

I was born and raised in southwest Michigan and have spent substantial periods of my life in the Raleigh-Durham and Salt Lake City areas, shorter periods in Milwaukee, WI; South Carthage, TN; Pasadena, TX; and the Winters-Woodland CA area.  I currently live in Portland, Oregon.

Watch And Learn – About Me (Activism)

Page Preface

A few words about my history as an activist from the “About Me” section of “Watch and Learn.”

You can find the various sections and clips, with their respective embedded videos, here:

If you need a political label, I am a progressive.  I want us to evolve to our best selves.  Other labels that may apply only serve to broadly describe the best way to get there.

Much of my work over the years in these areas has related to integrity of actors in the progressive and left-wing information spaces.  I believe fundamentally that secrecy and tyranny are closely related – so closely that, as a general principle, you can’t have one without the other. 

I have often openly and aggressively criticized “leaderless movements,” ad-hoc “protests” that look suspiciously more like self-promotion than political action, and online fake-tivism whereby people whose only interest in ideology is how they can make money from it pretend to be activists and, using their ill-gotten gains, control the narrative on all sides. 

I am usually the person asking, “wait, who says so? who is running the show here and what are their interests?”  That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this section of the project: if I was watching someone do what I’m doing, “who the hell is this guy” would definitely be the first question on my mind.  

Much of my “career,” if you choose to think of it as that, has been spent encouraging people to ask precisely those questions. As a lifelong matter of personality, I “wear my heart on my sleeve.” 

So, questions answered.