Endgame

This blog has been, for me, a seventeen-year exploration of other people's ideas.  If you've been here long, you'll know that I use short quotes and long excerpts from other people's writings to make the points I write about.  Like most people, I am not an "original thinker."  I try to expose myself to as much as I can, and weigh it against my experience and reason to determine truth.  Then I put it down in pixels to help me get my head around it.

Over these past seventeen years (hell, over the last 25), I have slowly come to some conclusions that I'm not happy about.

Remember that last nearly 10,000-word überpost?  I told you that so I could tell you this.  Hopefully I won't be as long-winded this time.

Pushing an Agenda

Foreign Policy magazine comes out with a shrieking Gloom-'n-Doom piece, A Moment of National Shame and Peril—and Hope subtitled "We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of American democracy, but there is still a way to stop the descent."

What has so frightened author John Allen, "president of the Brookings Institution, a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general, and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan"?

Well, this:

The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on June 1, 2020. Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.

The president of the United States stood in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, railed against weak governors and mayors who were not doing enough, in his mind, to control the unrest and the rioters in their cities, and threatened to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens. It was a stunning moment. But, in particular, it was notable for three important reasons.

First, Donald Trump expressed only the barest of condolences at the murder of George Floyd, but he also said nothing about the fundamental and underlying reasons for the unrest: systemic racism and inequality, a historic absence of respect, and a denial of justice. All of these factors are centuries old and deeply engrained in an American society that systematically delivers white privilege at the expense of people of color.

Yes, he mentioned George Floyd, but he did not touch on long-standing societal problems at all. He sees the crisis as a black problem—not as something to be addressed by creating the basis and impetus for a move toward social justice, but as an opportunity to use force to portray himself as a “law and order” president. The reasons were irrelevant to the opportunity. Remember the supposed invasion of the southern border and his deployment of federal troops ahead of the 2018 midterm elections? The president’s failure to understand the reality of the problem was on full display when, on Saturday, he attempted to explain that his supporters, the so-called Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, “love African American people. They love black people. MAGA loves the black people.” Evidently his movement, MAGA, is a coherent thing, and it’s white, which leads to the next point about his speech.

Second, Trump was clear he views those engaged in the unrest and criminal acts in these riots as terrorists, an enemy. He said so, ostensibly as justification to deploy the U.S. military to apply federal force—his “personal” force—against the riots.

I'll admit, I was initially wary of the invocation of the Insurrection Act, until I discovered that, although passed in 1807 it has been used by several Presidents, mostly Democrats, since passage.  An incomplete list:

Rutherford B. Hayes (R), October, 1878 -- to suppress the Lincoln County War

Grover Cleveland (D), July, 1894 -- the Pullman Strike (look into that one.)

Woodrow Wilson (D), April, 1914 -- the Colorado Coalfield War

Herbert Hoover (R), July 1932 -- the Bonus Marchers in D.C. (definitely look into that one)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (D), July, 1943 (while the military was already quite busy with other things) -- the Detroit race riot.  Hmm, sound familiar?

Dwight D. Eisenhower (R), September, 1957 -- Protecting the Little Rock Nine

John F. Kennedy (D) - twice:  September 1962, and September 1963 -- the first for The Battle of Oxford, the second to enforce desegregation of Alabama public schools.

Lyndon B. Johnson (D) - FOUR TIMES: July, 1967 -- '67 Detroit Riot, April, 1968 -- Washington DC riots, April 1968 -- Baltimore riots, April 1968 -- Chicago riots.  1968 was a year of widespread riots.  Sound familiar?

George H.W. Bush (R) - twice:  September 1989, Saint Croix, Virgin Islands in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, May, 1982 -- the Rodney King riots in LA.

I had to go look these up, because no major media outlet bothered to inform me.  For them, history started yesterday.

As far as MAGA being a white thing?  Look here.  If the media won't tell you about how the Insurrection Act has been used in the past, what makes you think they'll admit that not all black people live on their plantation?

General Allen (Ret.) further states:

Finally, the governors have sufficient law enforcement capacity—and, if necessary, the combat power of the National Guard—to handle their respective crises. If not, they can ask for federal assistance. There is no precedent in modern U.S. history for a president to wield federal troops in a state or municipality over the objections of the respective governor.

Neither Eisenhower nor Kennedy got the permission of the governors involved.  Those governors were quite happy with the status quo.  "No precedent in modern U.S. history"?  Pull my other leg.  And the gist of the phone conversation Trump had with the various governors was "You have all the law enforcement capacity you need - use it, or I'll send in troops who will."  Seems it worked.

FUCK I'm tired of this shit.

Another Plastic Turkey Story

So the media has been ranting about Trump's march through Lafayette Park to St. John’s Episcopal Church, the victim of arson the previous night. 

ABC:  Police use munitions to forcibly push back peaceful protesters for Trump church visit

CBS affiliate WUSA9:  Tear gas, flash bangs used to clear protesters from LaFayette Square before surprise President Trump photo opp

AP News:  Tear gas, threats for protesters before Trump visits church

Time Magazine:  President Trump’s Big Moment in Front of a Church Shows He Has Missed the Point of the Protests

I could go on, but it's not necessary.  The story is bullshit, like so much coming from the media.  These days, nearly everything.

It's another Plastic Turkey! story, so good, so juicy it just HAS to be true!  ORANGE MAN BAD!!

Seen at Facebook:

This is the sudden exposure to the fact that the police HAVE no "Duty to Protect." Now someone needs to introduce people to the Killhouse Rules:

"Our first purpose was not to be noticed."

A long time ago I read Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for the first of many, many times.  I'm pretty sure I was twelve or thirteen at the time. 

For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, the Earth is governed by a United Nations of sorts, and has turned the moon into a penal colony much like England did with Australia.  Subtle difference, though, without certain drugs and strenuous exercise, spending too long on Luna will result in irreversible physiological changes that prohibit living on Earth again except as an invalid.  The moon, through hydroponic farming using water from lunar pockets of ice, has become the breadbasket of humanity.  A massive linear accelerator is used to send cargo packages of grain down the gravity well to feed Earth.

The population of Luna is only partially convicts as the story begins.  Most of the residents have either served their sentences or been born there as "free people."  Free being a relative term.  The Authority runs the colonies, and there are several. 

The crisis is that if projections are accurate, Luna is going to run out of water soon, and Earth doesn't care and doesn't want to know.  And they want "the convicts" to just do their jobs and feed Earth.

So a small group decides that the only way to save Luna is to have a revolution.  Here's the passage that struck me so many years ago:

Our first purpose was not to be noticed.  Long distance purpose was to make things worse as much as possible.  Yes, worse.  Never was a time, even at last, when all Loonies wanted to throw off Authority, wanted it bad enough to revolt.  All loonies despised Warden and cheated Authority.  Didn't mean they were ready to fight and die.

This popped up over on FB a day or two ago, a Tweet from Jeremy Boreing, one of the producers of Ben Shapiro's podcast and other Daily Wire things, I think:

1. Instill fear
2. Lock people in their houses
3. Drive tens of millions out of work
4. Remove the pressure valves:  sports, concerts, bars, theaters. lunch with friends
5. Close the churches
6. Dehumanize through masking the healthy
7. Wait
8. Strike match

I don't think this was orchestrated, any more than I think the WuFlu was a bioweapon, but the groundwork had already been laid and full advantage is being taken.

Marx defined revolution as violent overthrow of state and economic system when workers would come out of their false consciousness and would realize their exploitation done by the capitalist society. According to Marx, capitalism will eventually dig its own grave but the working class should not wait for it to happen on its own and rather catalyze the process to end their misery through revolution.

The next stage after revolution would be Socialism.  We have had more than one generation "educated" in our places of "higher learning" that Capitalism is Bad and Socialism is Good:

I'm not saying that this is that "revolution." I think it's another "wet firecracker," but there will be more of this, more often, until the entire system collapses, because a significant portion of the population, many working in government and media, want it to and are actively, quietly working towards it.  Things have to get worse before Joe Sixpack will be willing to fight and die.

Thing is, I don't think the Socialists are the ones expecting to die.

Quote of the Day - Glenn Reynolds Edition

Even if it’s pure incompetence, it’s Third World level incompetence. And that’s a best-case scenario. 

 -- Glenn Reynolds, commenting on the death of Jeffrey Epstein.

Oligarchy

I knew that D.C. was corrupt, but I was unaware just how bad it actually is.  Elect someone new to Congress or the Senate?  They can't represent the people who elected them because they have no power.  That is in the hands of the Power Elite, and through them the staffers and the lobbyists.  And if they don't toe the line, the RNC and DNC will do everything in their power to make sure that they don't get re-elected.  We don't have a Representative Republic, we have descended to an Oligarchy.  Watch all four parts of The Swamp.  If that doesn't piss you off, nothing will.  And note that the only members of Congress that agreed to be part of this documentary series are Republican House members - no Democrats, no Senators.

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



Torches, pitchforks, tar and feathers anyone?

"...what country can preserve its liberties..."

...if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? - Thomas Jefferson

Not exactly "the blood of patriots & tyrants," but I like the cut of this man's jib:

Greenwood man hangs trailer from tree in front yard to prove point

GREENWOOD, Ind. (Mar. 2, 2016)-- Greenwood councilors will hold a public hearing Wednesday evening to hear about a property rights issue after a resident decided to hang his utility trailer from a tree to make a point.

Claude Tate suspended his trailer from a tree in his front yard to express his frustration with a City ordinance.

Last year, he received a notice from the City telling him he was violating an ordinance by parking his trailer in his yard. That ordinance prohibits residents from parking trailers or RVs on top of grass.

"The City can tell you what you can and can't have in your yard," said Tate. "I find that outrageous and oppressive!"

Instead, Tate was told he'd have to put pavement down if he wanted to park in his backyard; a task that would cost hundreds of dollars out of pocket.

So he hung up his trailer just high enough above the grass to make a point.

"What you do in your backyard oughta be your own business."

"When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril."

This is the second post I've given this same title. The previous one also dealt with the state of New Jersey, and referenced an earlier case, State v. Pelleteri from which the quote originated. In that case, an instructor, gun collector and avid shooter was found to be in possession of a Marlin Model 60 tube-fed semi-automatic .22 rimfire rifle with a magazine capacity that exceeded the arbitrary limit of fifteen rounds as established by the New Jersey legislature. That made it an "assault weapon," and verboten to possess in that "dark and fascist state," as ex-New Jerseyite GeekWithA.45 has characterized it.

The New Jersey Superior Court proclaimed, as it upheld Mr. Pelleteri's conviction, "When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril."

Many residents of the dark and fascist state have learned that lesson since.

The most recent is 72 year-old Gordon Van Gilder, arrested for transporting a pistol without a concealed-carry permit. A 300 year-old flintlock pistol. An unloaded 300 year-old flintlock pistol that not even the BATFE considers a "firearm."

Someone on Facebook posted the graphic below. I think it needs to be tattooed on the foreheads of every member of the New Jersey legislature and every sitting judge in the New Jersey court system:


It's not about guns. It's about control.

UPDATE:  As of 2/25 the prosecutor in question used "prosecutorial discretion" to drop the case.  So they're not completely insane there, just close.

"In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

That's from George Orwell.

This is from Bill Whittle:

Open racism is simply not tolerated in white America today, but black racism is the toxic glue that holds the progressive coalition together. Tolerance of – in fact, as we see from the events in Ferguson, open encouragement of black rage at a narrative that not only does not exist but reverses the daily outrages that do exist, is what defines modern progressivism. It is the politics of envy, anger, entitlement, lawlessness, violence and bald-faced lies.

And of all the promises broken by this man, surely none is more heartbreaking than the one promise that got him elected in the first place: the promise of a post-racial future. He and his racist progressive cohorts can never surrender the weapon that has gotten them everything, not the least of which is personal political power and trillions of dollars of redistributed wealth. And this latest outrage in Ferguson is yet another example – as if another was needed among the economic wreckage, creeping totalitarianism, and foreign-policy disasters -- that he and his leftist cohorts would rather rule over ruins than disappear into the dustbin of a healthy and healed nation.

What HE Said

This year I didn't repost my usual (In)Dependence Day piece because of my parent's 60th anniversary.  However, Wirecutter wrote one that's much more in-depth and up to date.

What he said.

More Trey Gowdy

I mentioned this gentleman before, but here's some footage of the man in action:



I LIKE this guy!!

Police State? What Police State?

Read this.  If a tenth of what is in it is accurate...  Well, you know.

Privilege

I have stated on more than one occasion that the purpose of government throughout history (with apologies to Thomas Jefferson) has not been the protection of individual rights, but the protection and expansion of the privileges and power of the privileged and powerful.  In fact the definition of the word privilege is:

a special benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular person, a group or a class of people

The latin roots of the word mean "private law."

So you can imagine my (lack of) shock when I read about California Public Employees' Magical Immunity to Traffic Tickets (h/t: Instapundit):

"They've exempted themselves from the rules they're enforcing," said Chad Dornsife, director of the Best Highway Safety Practices Institute. "They know it, is what's really sick about this. This isn't some surprise that when the camera comes out they don’t have to worry about it."…

"It's a courtesy, law enforcement to law enforcement," San Francisco Police Sgt. Tom Lee said. "We let it go."

Want to avoid traffic tickets?  Get a special license plate only issued to .gov employees.  Don't like Obamacare? Beg your lawmaker for a waiver. If you're a lawmaker, give yourself an exemption.  "Exempt(ing) themselves from the rules they're enforcing" is SOP for the powerful and privileged.  I don't understand why anyone would be surprised.  Why should the law apply to them?  They have private law.

I Wonder if PayPal Will Pull the Plug on THIS Raffle

Remember back in 2009 when I donated a brand-spanking new Para USA GI Expert to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous for a raffle to help raise money for Soldiers' Angel's Project Valour IT?  The ticket sales were through the Soldiers' Angels website, and they used PayPal for online payment.  Until Paypal shut down all contributions to their site until they yanked the icky gun raffle.  Now the organization InterFace is holding a similar raffle: 

InterFACE is a volunteer group of plastic and other reconstructive surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, pediatricians, and psychosocial workers, as well as other devoted volunteers, who give their time and expertise to offer reconstructive surgery to children in Mexico.  We currently travel to 5 different sites for periods of 2 to 5 days, visiting some sites twice a year.  The number of surgeries performed ranges from 10 to 75 per trip.  Our primary focus is cleft lip an palate repair, but we also perform correction of hand and ear deformities, burn reconstruction, and other congenital and acquired deformities.

In each of our locations where we work, we are sponsored by the Secretary of Health for that state and work with the local plastic surgeon or pediatric surgeon.  Our team members vary each trip, as we have a devoted talent bank of over 200 volunteers who travel with us at various times.

The prize is a custom-built 1911, and the cost for a chance at it is a mere $20.

Why a raffle?

InterFACE recently lost one of their key sponsors, and their program is in danger of being cut drastically.  We offered to donate magazine space to a raffle of a custom 1911 to help out, and renowned custom pistolsmith Terry Tussy of Tussey Custom quickly jumped on board, volunteering to build a gun.  Springfield Armory graciously supplied a stainless steel 1911, several makers supplied parts, and Terry supplied many parts from his own inventory.

All proceeds of this amazing raffle opportunity will go to directly support the doctors and nurses who travel on their own time to perform the healing surgery on these children.  Tickets will only be sold for a limited time (through March 30, 2012) so act quickly to benefit this great cause -- and for the opportunity to win this stunning 1911!

Here's the kicker:

You can enter by going to www.interfacekids.org/raffle.  They'll accept PayPal, and most charge cards.  You may also send a check, and make sure to include a phone number and e-mail address if you have one.

(My emphasis.)  Well, we know that PayPal hates firearms more than they care for wounded soldiers.  I wonder if they hate them more than Mexican children?

The Tools and Mechanisms of Oppression

Ayn Rand wrote in her frighteningly prophetic 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged many warnings, among which was this:

There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. When there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking the law. Create a nation of lawbreakers and then you can cash in on the guilt. Now that's the system!

The Geek with a .45 wrote, back 2004 and unfortunately no longer available at his site, this warning:

We, who studied the shape and form of the machines of freedom and oppression, have looked around us, and are utterly dumbfounded by what we see.

We see first that the machinery of freedom and Liberty is badly broken. Parts that are supposed to govern and limit each other no longer do so with any reliability.

We examine the creaking and groaning structure, and note that critical timbers have been moved from one place to another, that some parts are entirely missing, and others are no longer recognizable under the wadded layers of spit and duct tape. Other, entirely new subsystems, foreign to the original design, have been added on, bolted at awkward angles.

--

We know the tools and mechanisms of oppression when we see them. We've studied them in depth, and their existence on our shores, in our times, offends us deeply. We can see the stirrings of malevolence, and we take stock of the damage they've caused over so much time.

Others pass by without a second look, with no alarm or hue and cry, as if they are blind, as if they don't understand what they see before their very eyes. We want to shake them, to grasp their heads and turn their faces, shouting, "LOOK! Do you see what this thing is? Do you see how it might be put to use? Do you know what can happen if this thing becomes fully assembled and activated?"

Assembly and activation proceeds apace.

Three recent books come to mind, Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey Silverglate, Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything by Gene Healy, and The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice by Paul Craig Roberts. There are others.

Just a few days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that

For decades, the task of counting the total number of federal criminal laws has bedeviled lawyers, academics and government officials.


"You will have died and resurrected three times," and still be trying to figure out the answer, said Ronald Gainer, a retired Justice Department official.

They've given up even trying to count them.

As I said in Malice vs. Stupidity

At some point it becomes immaterial whether the laws were due to incompetence or maliciousness. That point is when their implementation is indistinguishable from maliciousness. I submit that we've passed that point, and the only thing preventing even more massive public blowback is our general ignorance and our well-established general respect for the Rule of Law. As I've said, the .gov has done a good job of practicing such persecution on a retail level, rather than wholesale, but it's getting to the point where the abuse is going wholesale and the stories are getting out to the mass audience.

And I've said elsewhere I think a lot of people are getting fed up with ever-increasing government intrusion into our lives. Government interferes lightly on a wholesale basis, but it does its really offensive intrusions strictly retail. So long as the majority gets its bread and circuses, it will remain content.

Until it happens to you. Then you get pissed right quick, and wonder why nobody hears your side of the story.

I've reported here at TSM on just a tiny fraction of these prosecutions; George Norris and his orchid import business,  the persecution of Albert Kwan and the prosecution of Joseph Pelleteri are just some examples.  Other bloggers have as well.  Sebastian noted how an 11 year-old escaped the mailed fist of the law in Massachussetts with a mere suspension from school when he could have been prosecuted under felony law, for example. There are many, many, many more such examples. If you have your own, please feel free to leave them in the comments. Links would be appreciated.

But today's post is inspired by a YouTube video I watched over at Jaded Haven. I'd not heard of the case, but I was not surprised.  Go watch.

Still, you don't have to be surprised to have an RCOB event.

A recent Rassmussen poll indicates:

(J)ust 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-nine percent (69%) believe the government does not have that consent. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

Is there any wonder why?

You've Gotta Have Standards!

So our public education system has resulted in a population in which 1 in 7 adults are functionally illiterate, and "only 12 percent of high-school seniors, who are getting ready to vote for the first time, have a proficient knowledge of history."

What about math? I think this picture says the proverbial 1,000 words:




Well, it's good to know in these dark days of mass ignorance that our institutions of higher learning have their standards! Or, at least are considering having standards.

The local junior college, Pima Community College has a standard: students must be at least sixteen years old. But now they're considering imposing some new ones:

The question boils down to how smart you should have to be to attend Pima Community College.

Currently there is no requirement. You only need to be age 16.

But Pima's governing board is considering changing that to require new students to have a high school diploma or GED. Students also would have to pass a reading, writing and math assessment test with the skills of a sixth or seventh grader.

Pima Chancellor Roy Flores says, "We need to find different pathways for those students that are testing in at second, third, fourth and fifth grade levels."

Sweet. Bleeding. Jeebus.  No, it's not a question of how smart you are, it's a question of how educated you are. Ignorance is correctable, but as comedian Ron White has said, "You can't fix stupid. There's not a pill you can take; there's not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever."

Bear in mind, this is a college. Yes, you can go learn to weld at PCC (and if you don't test out at above sixth grade, be prepared to suffer a lot of burns for the rest of your life), but you can also go get a 2-year associate's degree. When I moved to Arizona I went to PCC for the first two years and got caught up on my freshman and sophomore courses before transferring to the University of Arizona (at in-state tuition rates, which I couldn't get at the U of A until I'd lived here a year.)

Read the last line in the above excerpt again: "We need to find different pathways for those students that are testing in at second, third, fourth and fifth grade levels." These are, at minimum, sixteen year-olds. The vast majority of them are over 18.

And as Say Uncle put it this morning, "their vote counts just as much as yours."

You want to know how we ended up with the government we have? This is how. In 1983 the report A Nation at Risk on the state of public education in America pulled no punches when it stated:

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.  As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.

Our government-provided schools have produced generation upon generation of government-approved product. It's a positive-feedback loop, and it has achieved full screeching saturation.

Tar, Feathers, Rail - Some Assembly Absolutely Justified

So a recent Rasmussen poll reports that 46% of "likely U.S. voters" believe that "most members of Congress" are corrupt.  That's up 7% from June, by the way.

And I thought that only 1 in 7 adults was functionally illiterate.

Well, it would seem that their belief is well founded (quelle surprise). Watch the video:




I'd like to see the data. And the list of names.

The Entitlement Mentality

I found this today courtesy of a Facebook friend.  You HAVE to watch it all the way to the end (seven minutes worth).  I wish I could say "Unbelievable," but I'd be lying.




Our tax dollars at work.

Hey!  I know!  Let's raise taxes on the wealthy!  They don't pay their fair share!

Would you hire this guy?

What Kind of Budget Cuts Do You Get Around Here?

Both kinds!  Insignificant and imaginary!

It's just like that scene from The Blues Brothers: