Archive for the 'Politics' Category

Building a Mini-State With Avocados and Guns.

There is something intoxicatingly utopian about the story of Tancítaro.

This small town has succeeded at self-rule in a part of Mexico — the state of Michoacán, drug war ground zero — where so many similar experiments have failed. It is free of the drug cartels as well as the Mexican police and politicians who are widely seen as part of the problem. It has homegrown institutions. It is safe.

“It’s a nice town. You can walk around at day or night. It’s very nice,” Guillermo Valdés, a former head of Mexico’s national intelligence agency, told us this August. “They take care of themselves.”

Mr. Valdés told us about Tancítaro at the end of a long interview at a Mexico City cafe, where we had met him to discuss towns that were seceding in subtler ways. It was the sort of comment sometimes made after the formal questions have ended and the notebooks have closed, the casual aside that changes the whole story.

He’d recently visited Tancítaro for a book he was writing on the drug war and found its experiment in self-rule intriguing. It’s a global center in avocado production, exporting about $1 million worth every day. The orchard owners use that money to fund militias that guard and police the town.

But the more we heard about Tancítaro, the more that something seemed off. Something Mr. Valdés said stuck with us: “They expelled all the criminals.”

O.K., but how did they separate criminals from innocents? Who did the selection? There’s a version of this that sounds like frontier justice, rough but fair, and there’s a version that resembles towns controlled by drug cartels.

“It’s very hard to believe that Tancítaro is just this island of peace and perfect transparency in Michoacán,” said Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, who studies Central American security issues at Noria Research and has visited the town.

Falko Ernst, his colleague at the think tank, added, “You have an armed group acting on behalf of the real political authority, the grower’s council” — a body of wealthy orchard owners — “doing the cleansing in their name and in their interests.”

The more we learned about Tancítaro, the less utopian it sounded and the more dystopian.

But the truth, or at least what we came to understand of it, wasn’t exactly one or the other. And it wasn’t somewhere in the middle, either. It was, or seemed to be, both utopia and dystopia simultaneously.

Tancítaro is indeed pretty safe. The first evening that Dalia Martínez, a Michoacán-based journalist who worked with us on this article, visited town, there was a big street festival with families out. The streets were, as Mr. Valdés had said, safe, even at night. They were clean.

The avocado orchards were safe as well, guarded by another set of uniformed militias. There was a palpable change at the town’s perimeter, marking the edge of what militiamen called “tierra caliente” — hot ground, meaning cartel territory. The avocado trade appears to be booming.

But after a few days of scratching beneath the surface, it became clear that Tancítaro had become very good at providing security, but had developed almost none of the other basic functions of a state.

1$ million dollars per day of produce.  Frontier justice.  Oooo … we wouldn’t want frontier justice, now would we?  We need to have government functions, government programs, and according to the rest of the article, “ways for the citizens to get involved.”

So apparently the authors would like to see the cartels come back and horde the money for themselves and force others into slavery, while beheading the authorities.  This is the kind of moral equivalence only possible from graduates of American Marxist and feminist sociology programs.

And notice the most important thing.  Government functions and programs justifies a monopoly on violence in the minds of these authors.  As long as the powers give “free” stuff and enable “community involvement,” they have a right to the use of armed force, and no one else does, not even in self defense.  If you presume to defend yourself, according to these authors, you’d better be prepared to give stuff to people and enable community programs.

Via WRSA, Fox News.

A four-page memo circulating in Congress that reveals alleged United States government surveillance abuses is being described by lawmakers as “shocking,” “troubling” and “alarming,” with one congressman likening the details to KGB activity in Russia.

Speaking with Fox News, the lawmakers said they could not yet discuss the contents of the memo they reviewed on Thursday after it was released to members by the House Intelligence Committee. But they say the memo should be immediately made public.

“It is so alarming the American people have to see this,” Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said.

“It’s troubling. It is shocking,” North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said. “Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.”

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said he believed people could lose their jobs after the memo is released.

“I believe the consequence of its release will be major changes in people currently working at the FBI and the Department of Justice,” he said, referencing DOJ officials Rod Rosenstein and Bruce Ohr.

“You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is,” Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry said.

We don’t need to see a document of any sort to tell us that Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, Mueller, the FISA judges, and many other judges like Theodore Chuang, are deep state apparatchiks.  You’ve seen that on the pages of The Captain’s Journal for more than a year.  You’ve seen it elsewhere for at least that long.

They all deserve to be hung by the neck until dead, but unleashing the Department of Justice on them is apparently not something Jeff Sessions is willing to do.  Sessions is more concerned about people smoking pot.  The Senate and Congress could shut down the deep state in a single day by shutting the government down and withdrawing all funding for these rogue agencies.

But what do we have instead?

On Thursday, the Senate voted 65-34 to reauthorize a FISA provision that allows U.S. spy agencies to conduct surveillance on foreign targets abroad for six years. The bill, which already has been passed by the House, now heads to the White House,where President Donald Trump has said he will sign it into law.

We get continuation of the very deep state scaffolding that gave us what they are now telling us is “shocking.”  And yet everyone knows, because of Snowden, that the real purpose of all of this is to spy on Americans.

We get continuation of the deep state, while we invite immigrants into the country in order to supply the democrats with voters and the republicans with workers, these immigrants undermining the very security and national cohesion they claim they want.

This is all theater.  It doesn’t matter if anyone is fired.  The deep state will continue unabated.

Gateway Pundit:

Dwayne Dixon, a University of North Carolina anthropology professor and leader of the armed Antifa group Redneck Revolt, has admitted to chasing James Alex Fields Jr. with a rifle just before he drove into a group of protesters — killing Heather Heyer.

This new revelation adds some insight into what was happening in the moments leading up to the fatal incident.

In a Facebook post by Dixon on January 7, obtained by the Gateway Pundit, he wrote:

“I take perverse pleasure in having carried this Spike’s lower in the defense of Justice Park on August 12th. I used this rifle to chase off James Fields from our block of 4th St before he attacked the marchers to the south. Spike’s needs a good lesson in ethics and antifascism.”

Apparently, they are involved to some degree or other.  I know I’ve panned Redneck Revolt before, and true enough they appear to be generally incompetent, lazy, philosophically incoherent, goofy and miserable.

But the moral of the story here is that if you intend to go armed at rallies for the purpose of protecting others, you’d better be prepared to use those arms and suffer the consequences for it, whatever they may be.  This isn’t a game folks.

Frankly, I am of the opinion that no rally is going to convince anyone to rethink their flawed views of history, question their world view, or ameliorate bad decisions in politics.  A rally cannot undo the effects of a century of false teaching embedded into the consciousness of multiple generations.

The sons and daughters of hippies are statists and collectivists.  It’s always been this way.  If you believe nothing, your children will believe anything.

You’d better.

The Hawaiian state government’s emergency preparedness guidelines are equally deficient. Note the total lack of any discussion on having the means of defense, that is, on having adequate firearms, ammunition and training to deal with catastrophic disasters that will leave people on their own for untold lengths of time.

No, of course a gun won’t defend against North Korea launching a nuke, but there would be plenty of survivors of such an attack. They would have an almost unimaginably horrible aftermath to deal with …

The ridiculous episode is a function of human performance system failures, which is something I could help with (double verification, self-check, independent verification, training in the proper tools such as STAR [stop, think, act and review, QV&V which stands for quality verification and validation, etc.).

But regardless of the screw-up the fact of the matter is that dystopia is possibly closer than you think.  You’d better have the means of self defense.  I know there are a number of gun owners in Hawaii, and you can be sure they’d be carrying whether permitted or not.

Things just like this.

“In a stunning setback for gun rights supporters, Sen. Anitere Flores, one of the most powerful lawmakers in Tallahassee, declared on the very first day of Florida’s two-month legislative session that she likely would not support any of Steube’s 10 other gun bills

The ouster of Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami means nothing to her.  Of course not.  If you’ll cheat on your spouse, you’ll do anything.  Character is the necessary prerequisite for good governance.  This is why we get tyranny from FedGov.  Washington, D.C. is a haven for witches, warlocks, demons, gargoyles, criminals and pit vipers.

David Codrea points out an article by Alex Yablon that appears on the face of it to be quite fair and impartial, but David points out to me that he is a Bloomberg apparatchik and relishes pointing out dissension in the gun ranks.  Whatever.  There is a lot of dissension and if you haven’t seen it you haven’t been looking.  With friends like we have, who needs enemies?  Hey, here’s a quick note to Alex.  If he really wants to be impartial and fair, I invite him down to my neck of the woods to go shooting at a local range.  Will he take me up on the offer?

At any rate, David has made his remarks on the proposed rulemaking on bump stocks.  I’ll get to it before the deadline, but I’m still expecting some help from readers.  To date there hasn’t been much input.

There is more.

“When I was 18, I was arrested and charged with felony retail theft for theft of $479 worth of clothing at a Chicago mall,” a young man whose name  I’m withholding told me in a recent email. “State law of Illinois says any value of retail goods above $300 is a felony.

That was a bad decision, no way around it. He regrets the hell out of it, and has since striven to learn from his poor choice and to lead a productive and law-abiding life. But now he’s a “prohibited person,” forbidden by law to touch a gun. And unless he can figure out a legal way around that, it’s a life sentence.

Well, he has a God-given right to defend his life like anyone else.  I’ve made known my views on the alleged “debt” criminals have to society.  It’s a myth statists and collectivists like to tell.  There is no debt to society.  If a person steals, he should become the slave of the offended until the debt has been paid threefold.  The debt is to the offended.  If he rapes, kidnaps, or murders anyone, his life should be taken by the community.  This concept would clear out the prisons, yes?  And if someone refuses to become the slave of the offended until his debt is paid, put him into the pit with the murderers and rapists and fill it up with stones, with the first one being tossed in by the offended.  How about some Biblical justice for a change?

Fox News:

A federal judge dismissed all charges against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and another man on Monday after accusing prosecutors of willfully withholding evidence from Bundy’s lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro cited “flagrant prosecutorial misconduct” in her decision to dismiss all charges against the Nevada rancher and three others.

“The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated,” Navarro said.

[ … ]

On Dec. 20, Navarro declared a mistrial in the high-profile Bundy case. It was only the latest, stunning development in the saga of the Nevada rancher, who led a tense, armed standoff with federal officials trying to take over his land. The clash served as a public repudiation of the federal government.

The Brady rule, named after the landmark 1963 Supreme Court case known as Brady vs. Maryland, holds that failure to disclose such evidence violates a defendant’s right to due process.

“In this case the failures to comply with Brady were exquisite, extraordinary,” said Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano. “The judge exercised tremendous patience.”

[ … ]

Navarro said Monday it was clear the FBI was involved in the prosecution and it was not a coincidence that most of the evidence that was held back – which would have worked in Bundy’s favor – came from the FBI, AZCentral reported.

With prejudice.  That means it’s over … for now.  The BLM won’t go quietly into the darkness like they need to.  Controllers gotta’ control.  It’s what they do.  Besides, there’s too much land to be taken and given away in the patronage in which Senators and Congresscritters all engage.  This one was just about Senator Harry Reid and his son.  There’s more where this came from.

I see that you’ve read my commentary, along with that of my commenters.  So tell us.  Do you really care if we live in a police state now?  Do you care enough to stop it?

There’s that thing of the fourth amendment, the second amendment, the Castle doctrine which is embedded in English and American law, and on and on I could go.

So do you?

Via WRSA, Matt Bracken has given us another prescient fiction piece (or non-fiction, if you want to be honest) entitled Wolfophobia On Dog Island.

Supposedly that’s why they were put in charge of dividing up the dog food, keeping the water bowls filled, and things like that. And despite their silly fur, Standard Poodles can grow pretty big, so they are not pushovers. And of course the show dogs loved it that the Poodles were in charge, and gave them dog food even though they didn’t work. If you can believe it, the show dogs had almost everybody convinced that they should get fed just for looking so good and raising everybody’s morale. And the poodles agreed with this nonsense and kept the show dogs fed for doing nothing but looking good.

[ … ]

But now Apollo was trying to convince us to let one poor wolf who had been forced to flee his home island stay and live among us on Dog Island. Apollo said that all canines are equal, and we must not show prejudice toward our cousin the wolf. He did not choose to be a wolf, he was born that way, and conditions on Wolf Island have become unbearable.

Read it all, including the war at the end.  I’m not certain that the next story of Dog Island will turn out this way.  But I want it to.  One thing I am sure about though is that there will be another incarnation of the story of Dog Island.  Very soon.

As I alluded to in the remarks, this isn’t really fiction even though it’s dressed up that way.  Thanks to Matt for his wonderful writing.

The Independent:

It is 9am on a Sunday, and a group of radical leftists are gathered at a shooting range in rural Long Island having target practice.

From a distance, it looks like a scene from any small, conservative town in America: A group of guys palling around in a snow-covered parking lot, taking turns firing down the range while swigging cups of hot coffee to ward off the cold.

Up close, however, it looks quite different. The guns are not American-made, but Russian; forged in the Soviet era. One has a hammer and sickle etched into the bolt. The men are genial but reserved, keeping their distance from the other groups around them. And one of them is complaining bitterly about his coffee. It came in a Styrofoam cup.

“What’s wrong with Styrofoam?” his friend wants to know.

“It takes, like, 50,000 years to decompose!” he replies.

The environmentalist’s name is Mike, a Long Island native and self-described Marxist-Leninist. He was born in conservative Suffolk County to a clerical worker and industrial maintenance technician. He says he grew up “dirt poor,” and was radicalised by a lifetime spent thinking: “There’s got to be an answer for why this is so shitty.”

So thus far we’ve learned that Mike from Long Island is an idiot and a gullible goober.  He’s a self described Marxist-Leninist, he’s apparently anti-capitalist because he believes that we harm the environment, and he conveniently ignores the fact that in order to electrify the Soviet Union, the communists utterly destroyed the environment, creating rivers of unpotable water that are harmful to health even after treatment.  So let’s continue with this and perhaps we’ll learn something about Mike and his buddies that will cause us to think that he can ponder things beyond a fifth grade level.

And yes, they carry guns.

So, one of two things has happened here.  Either Mike is a liar, because clearly he isn’t really carrying on Long Island since there are no gun permits issued to people like him, and the reporter with the British newspaper is too stupid to research this and press the point, or he really does carry and he just confessed to a felony.  So once again, Mike and his buddies are liars or idiots.  Things aren’t getting any better.

Indeed, Redneck Revolt may look like many other social-justice groups – its website contains frequent mentions of “trigger warnings” and “solidarity” – but it is far from it. The members of Redneck Revolt don’t want you to sit in a circle, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya. They want you to know you have an enemy – it’s just not who you think it is.

In an open letter that the group frequently uses for recruitment, it urges working-class white people to “look around” and wonder: “Who lives in the houses or trailers in the same neighbourhoods as us? Who works next to us in the factories, or cooks alongside us at the restaurants?”

“It sure as hell isn’t rich white people,” the letter continues. “It’s Brown people, Black people, and other working-class white people. They are the ones that are in similar situations to us, living paycheck to paycheck, stretching to feed their families like we do. So why then would we view them as so different from us that we literally view them as our enemies?”

Okay, so perhaps from a purely Machiavellian perspective, they aren’t so stupid.  They are manifestly inconsistent in their world view (white people are bad if they have money and racism divides us, but white people with money are the devil, at least until we have their money at which point we won’t be the devil), but they apparently want to go after idiots.  So they may not be the smartest folks on earth, but they know how to use people, at least a couple dozen idiots so far.

“I think it’s very cool that we can bring groups together that normally wouldn’t have anything else in common,” he told me. “And seeing a whole bunch of leftists with guns is cool.”

Not everyone thinks the guns are cool, of course. Redneck Revolt has gotten pushback from liberal groups who think the weapons sully their image. But the members maintain that the firearms are necessary to protect themselves, and the communities of colour they want to help serve.

And in two paragraphs the author explains why this is a self limiting endeavor.  The sons and daughters of hippies are hopeless statists and collectivists.  They won’t do anything en masse that would weaken the power of the state.  This may be a fun weekend project for these confused boys, but they will forever be just a few dozen strong.

The Redneck Revolt pitch is surprisingly simple: Both poor white people and poor people of colour are actually fighting against the same enemy – the rich.

And in one paragraph the author has explained to us why this is a self limiting endeavor.  There is no moral foundation, any more than there is currently a moral foundation in America.  I’ve said all along that the constitution isn’t the problem, and that no piece of paper can bring liberty.  It’s weakness hasn’t led to our decline, and its strength hasn’t aided our trajectory.  A country cannot stand long whose God is itself.  Marxism will eventually perish wherever it exists because it is lecherous and kills its host.  Just look at Venezuela today.

Indeed, if Redneck Revolt is the revolution, then the revolution is decidedly chill. Members of the Suffolk County branch shake off their Sunday mornings at the range with a weekly book club, where they sip home-brewed coffee and discuss radical texts like Caliban and the Witch. The evening is consumed by a planning meeting, where they decide which charitable projects to take on next.

What began with a bang is now at a whimper.  They can keep their “revolution” in Long Island.  I want no part of it.

Alex, an applied mathematics student at Stony Brook, played scribe, taking down the group’s suggestions from his perch on the couch. Under the “strategies” section of the mission statement, they agreed to focus on holding town halls, reading groups, and skill shares. They set a goal of working with the disabled population, the homeless population, and opioid crisis victims.

Uh huh.  Where is Alex getting that money for the applied mathematics degree?  I’m assuming that Alex will be happy to give all of his future earnings to the needy, right?

So I left out the best part for me earlier in the article.  Mike gives us the  wisdom of his gunsmithing and shooting expertise.

Mike says Russian-made firearms are the most ‘accurate and reliable’

Uh huh.  So there you have it.  It’s a wearisome and choppy article.  I want to take these folks seriously, but if they tried to sell this Long Island Marxism in my neck of the woods it would be laughable, and maybe even dangerous.  Go into small-town South Carolina and try to unionize the workers and tell me how that works out.  And make sure you do it with Long Island accents.  Take video, post, send link.

I encourage you to read it for yourself and let me know your thoughts.