Archive for the 'Politics' Category

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.

Newsweek:

The Justice Department has reportedly started questioning FBI agents about evidence they discovered in a previous investigation into the controversial Uranium One deal, as the country’s top law enforcement agency deals with allegations of bias from Republicans and President Donald Trump.

The internal questioning comes after an assistant attorney general told the head of the House Judiciary Committee, in a letter sent last month, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had “directed” federal prosecutors to determine if another special counsel was needed to investigate Uranium One, NBC News reported Thursday.

A little late to the game, yes?  Hey, I’ll bet you thought that the whole Uranium One deal prevented the Clintons from shipping Uranium out of the country, right?  Sucker.

Calling beltway critter Jonah Goldberg.  Jonah?  Are you there?

Dave Hardy links this letter from a very brave BLM agent who outlines a number of terrible, illegal, and ridiculously clownish things that have happened at the BLM.  This is a sad read, and I did read all of it.  It’s a head shaker and eye roller, but if you want to be informed on the latest goings on at BLM, you need to spend the time in this letter.

The letter is from Larry C. Wooten, Special Agent, to Andrew D. Goldsmith, Associate Deputy Attorney General, National Criminal Discovery Coordinator.  There is no date on it, and the contact information has been blacked out.  But the contents speaks for itself.  He begins by outlining his own involvement in the various cases with which we are familiar regarding Bundy, and then his involvement in the investigative process when he brought various illegalities and conflicts of interest to the attention of his superiors.  He states his unease at the situation.

As the Case Agent.and Lead Investigator for the DOI/BLM (for approximately 2 years and 4·0 months), I found myself in an unusual situation. I was specifically asked to lead a comprehensive, professional, thorough unbiased and independent investigation into the largest and most expansive and important investigation ever within the Department of Interior. Instead of having a normal investigative team and chain of command, a BLM Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge (ASAC) decided to act as a subordinate co-case agent, but also as my supervisor.

Right off the bat, the BLM has put the agent into a position where there is conflict of interest.  Many times with professional work, direct review authority is removed from supervisory or management control to ensure the fidelity of results.  This investigation was ensured to be tainted from the outset.  Or, it was ensured that agent Wooten would end up with nothing because of command influence.

Later, he states that “In February of 2017, it became clear to me that keeping quite became an unofficial condition of my future employment with the BLM, future awards, promotions, and a good future job reference.”  Wooten then proceeds to outline what he sees as the most ridiculous behavior he had ever seen, thinking back to middle school.  Name calling, insults, ignoring lost evidence, hiding evidence from the defense, illegal monitoring of jail calls from defendants and their wives without prosecutor or FBI consent, failure to disclose substantive and exculpatory case and witness bias, violation of the BLM code of conduct, workplace harassment, discrimination, lewd comments, and claims of roughing up various defendants like Dave Bundy.  He states this.

Many times, these open llD.professional and disrespectful comments and name calling (often by law enforcement superyisors who are potential witnesses and investigative team supervisors) reminded me of middle school. At any given time, you could hear subjects of this investigation openly referred to as “ret*rds,” “r*d-necks,” “Overweight woman with the big jowls,” “d*uche bags, “‘tractor-face,” “idiots,” “in-br*d,” etc.

He calls it a carnival of childish behavior.  Of the SWAT raid, he says this.

See openly available video/audio footage titled “The Bundy Trial 2017 Leaked Fed Body Cam Evidence,” or a video posted on You Tube titled “Leaked Body·Cams from the Bundy Ranch!” published-by Gavin Seim). Some of these statements included the following: “Jack-up Hage” (Wayne Hage Jr.), “Are you fucXXXX people stupid or what,” ”Fat dude, right behind the tree has a long gun,” ”MothetFuXXXX, you come find me and you’re·gonna have hell to pay,” ”FatAsX slid down,” “Pretty much shoot first, ask questions-later,” “No gun there. He’s just holding his back standing like a sissy,” “She must not be married,” “Shoot his fucXXXX dog first, “We gotta have fucXXXX fire discipline,” and “I’m recording by the way guys, so … ” Additional Note: In this.timeframe, a key witness deactivated his body camera.)

The person of Dan Love plays huge in all of this.  I had previously never heard of him, but a Google search on his name turns up copious material to show what kind of person he is.  He is behind some of this, but doubtless much of the BLM management and other agents are the same as Love.

We do learn one other useful thing about the standoff at the ranch.  We had wondered who was there and where they came from.  This apparently answers the question.

Note: The investigation indicated that there was at least one school trained Federal Sniper equipped with a scoped/magnified optic bolt action precision rifle, another Federal Officer equipped with a scoped/magnified optic large frame (308 caliber) AR style rifle, and many officers that utilized magnified optics with long range graduated reticles (out to 1,000 meters-approximately 500 meters on issued rifles depending on environmental conditions) on standard law enforcement issued AR (223 caliber/5.56mm) and that often officers were in “over watch” positions. Additionally, the investigation also indicated the possibility that the FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had law enforcement snipers/designated marksmen on hand/or possible deployment.

There is no way on earth any of this should ever go to court, or else the prosecution risks total catastrophe with this information going public (you reading this information here isn’t public – this site doesn’t get enough traffic).  Agent Wooten continues with his thoughts on the illegalities committed by the Bundy family, and that may or may not be.  I won’t weigh in on any of that, except to say that I’m still convinced that the whole thing was an attempt to rid that land of the Bundys for the purpose of Harry Reid’s son and a deal he made with the Chinese to develop it.

In any case, this is what the founders feared, and if you listen closely, you can hear their complaints against King George in the Declaration of Independence.  Agents of the state lord it over the peasants, steal largesse, and step on whatever liberty happens to be the infringement du jour.  It would be easy to lampoon Wooten’s description of the BLM if it weren’t so sad.  They are apparently filled with entitled, overpaid, pampered brats who have been given way, way too much power.

When we discussed what I called the unbiblical idea that exculpatory evidence is excluded from the court because it’s “hearsay” evidence, it occurred to me that we could add more discussion to this.  From R. J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, pages 566 -567.

The Biblical law of testimony does not permit torture or coerced confessions.  Voluntary confession is possible, but two or more witnesses are required for conviction.  More strictly, confession is never cited in the law; its place in court was apparently only in connection with corroborating evidence.  Thus Achan’s confession required confirming evidence before he was sentence and executed (Joshua 7:19-26).  The voluntary aspect of Achan’s confession must be noted.  Biblical law preserves the integrity of the individual against forced confession; the right of citizens to be protected from the power of the state to compel their self-incrimination does not appear outside the Biblical legal tradition.

[ … ]

The objection to self-incrimination means that a Christian must oppose the use of lie detectors as a matter do principle.  The lie detector reverses a basic principle of justice …

Another point of interest with respect to lie detector tests has been cited by a Christian police officer.  An innocent man may submit to the test in the hopes of clearing himself, but, once under the test, his total privacy is subject to invasion.  He can be asked about religious beliefs, political opinions, does he own any guns, and almost anything the examiners choose to ask him.  The result is a forced confession.

Like lie detectors, wire-tapping is a form of illegal invasion of privacy; it involves a form of coerced confession, a destruction of the integrity of communication, which makes it clearly immoral and wrong.

But America has long since defenestrated a Biblical notion of righteousness and justice, in its place having substituted the notion of the state as god, and thus you see today that Robert Mueller’s team has absconded with emails to which they have absolutely no right.  In a more righteous society, Mueller and his team would be held accountable for this immoral action.

David Codrea:

“Cook Commissioner Richard Boykin … flew to New York on Thursday to discuss what he described as a ‘quiet genocide’ in Chicago’s black community with the U.N.’s assistant secretary-general for peacebuilding support, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco,” The Chicago Tribune reports.

His bright idea?

Foreign UN blue helmets patrolling American streets.

Specifically, he said this.  “Boykin said Chicago must “utilize every avenue” available to protect its people from gun violence, possibly including U.N. peacekeepers.”

Right.  So let me suggest this, smart guy.  How about returning the family unit to Chicago, including rejection of welfare and all other subsidies and handouts which have destroyed the inner city black population, and encouraging your young black men to find jobs and attend church services rather than walking the streets for their gangs?

Oh, you’re not willing to go that far.  I see.  The genocide you’re talking about doesn’t exist.  Genocide is when one people perpetrate death on another.  This is more correctly categorized as suicide.  That requires a whole different way of thinking, one with which you are unfamiliar.

By the way, I could only manage a belly laugh when I thought about the blue hats in Chicago.

William Jacobson details his problems with the refusal to peacefully transfer power to the Trump administration.  It’s an interesting read, but the thing that most caught my attention is the comments.

tiger66 | December 12, 2017 at 3:59 pm

People know almost without having to be taught, that the second amendment isn’t about hunting.  That’s why tyranny will ultimately fail.  The more the deep state tyrants try to squeeze the people, the more guns and ammunition they buy.

Now to be sure, they have to be willing to use them, but that time will come.  It’s a peaceful, longsuffering people.  But they can be pushed hard enough to crack.  I don’t know whether the revolution will be televised or not, but I’m certain that parts of America won’t have power, so many people won’t see it even if some do.

Meanwhile, Matt Bracken has updated his visual on the deep state coup.  It’s nice to see the major actors all on the visual, including McCabe, Comey, etc., but we should also remember that there are some deeper and even more hidden actors within the CIA, FBI and Department of State that make the wheels turn.

And then there are some even deeper actors than that, e.g., Steve Feinberg and DynCorps and perhaps the head of the snake itself, the Council on Foreign Relations.

Statement from GOA:

Springfield, VA – Executive Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA) Erich Pratt made the following statement after the House Judiciary Committee’s actions on concealed carry reciprocity and background check legislation:
“Over 1.5 million law-abiding Americans who make up Gun Owners of America commend the House Judiciary Committee for reporting H.R. 38, the concealed carry reciprocity bill.

“GOA applauds the committee passage of H.R. 38 and encourages the House leadership to take up the bill right away. This legislation will allow decent Americans to carry in any state in the country with confidence that they would not become entrapped by the fascist gun laws of anti-gun states.

“GOA also sends special kudos to Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who shot down an attempt by Democrats to delete the Constitutional Carry protections in the bill.  Gun Owners of America opposed the amendment that sought to only limit concealed carry reciprocity to permit holders and was happy to see that provision go down to an inglorious defeat.

“Finally, Gun Owners of America condemns the committee’s approval of the ‘Traffic Ticket Gun Ban’ (H.R. 4477).  This deceptive legislation would add hundreds of thousands of additional names into the NICS system, thus blocking thousands of lawful gun owners from purchasing guns for offenses as slight as unpaid traffic tickets. Not only that, it would lay the groundwork for an anti-gun administration to troll every government health and welfare program for the purpose of imposing gun bans on recipients with PTSD, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s — the latter would jeopardize the inheritance of many valuable gun collections.  The Obama administration already tried to do this with Social Security disability.  In the future, there may not be a pro-gun Congress to disapprove similar moves or a pro-gun president to sign it.”

But then there is this from reddit/firearms.

From The Military Arms’ Channel page:

I have spoken to GOA again today and here is an email as of about 15 minutes ago.

“Tim,

To clarify several things.

First, recent gun politics has been a very fluid situation, with a lot of different statements from different people on the Hill.

On the combination of reciprocity and fix NICS – currently, we do expect the House Rules Committee to combine the bills Tuesday.

On the YouTube video you sent. I believe this YouTuber mistook the markup transcript (this document) for what was actually passed by the Judiciary Committee. That document, which is over 300 pages in length, is the a transcript of the hearing, not what was passed by the Judiciary Committee. The two amendments that were added, (here and here) are not certainly 300 pages in length, nor are they killer amendments. The standalone reciprocity bill is still a clean bill.

Again, this is a very fluid situation, why don’t we talk tomorrow for a game plan?

Thanks for your activism!”

In the end, what came out of the committee is a pretty clean HR 38. They added two amendments which aren’t “poison pills” in the view of the GOA.

Now for the bad news.

GOA does now expect the House Rules Committee to combine the bills on Tuesday. It’s not done yet, but at this time it does look like Massie’s concerns are valid as the GOA are now saying they expect the HRC to try and merge them into one bill.

If this does happen, sadly, we will have to defeat the legislation. It will be another Hughes Amendment at that point. Since Bill Clinton was on the only U.S. President to have “line item veto” power for a short time before it was ruled unconstitutional in 1998, Trump won’t be able to fix a broken bill… just like Reagan couldn’t. And just like with Reagan, the NRA will likely tell Trump to sign the bill into law if it makes it to his desk as they’re strong advocates for the NICS system (they wrote the original law for Clinton).

If we pass a combined bill, we will have to accept the fact that NICS will get a whole lot worse and you can expect a whole bunch more delays and denials coming out of the NICS system.

If you ever talked to your doctor about being depressed, you’re not able to own a firearm. If you have been diagnosed with ADHD, you’re no longer eligible to buy a firearm. Have you sought help with your finances before? You’re no longer eligible to own a firearm. Are you over 65? You may no longer be eligible to own a firearm. Hell, if you have an unpaid traffic ticket, you’re no longer eligible to buy a firearm under HR 4477.

Sooo…

Blow up the phones on Monday. I’ll see if I can get a stream going with the GOA to talk about it Monday. We’ll have to do what we can to try and stop the House Rules Committee from merging them. The reality is, there’s little we can do given how fast and fluid this process has been. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Then there are the reddit commenters who call BS on the GOA take on things.

As for my own take, I have none at the moment.  I will offer up two remarks on this and in fact any other bill that comes to my attention.  First, I absolutely do not support any bill I haven’t read in its entirety.  I have not read this one.  Second, I do not support any bill, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason whatsoever, that includes more gun laws.  I do not believe in compromise.

If readers have spent more time studying this than I have, please feel free to weigh in via comments.

Canton Rep:

“There’s a sort of implied pacifism by clergy and rabbis, but the Scriptures don’t support that,” he said. “The concept of the shepherd is that he’s someone who leads his flock, feeds his flock and protects his flock.”

Oyler cites Luke 22:36, when, at the end of his life, Jesus warned his disciples they would be in danger and appears to instruct them to purchase a sword for protection. It’s a contrast to Luke 9, Oyler said, when Jesus sent them out unarmed.

“We are targets,” Oyler said. “As the shepherd of the congregation, I believe I have a responsibility to have a tactical (plan) to protect my congregation … what we do ministry-wise is a little unique. We don’t ingratiate ourselves to everyone.”

Let’s not carry this too far.  While I concur that protecting your neighbors and loved ones is required, it is required of us all, not just pastors.

If you want properly to care for your “flock,” teach good doctrine.  That includes the notion that every man takes a vow when he starts a family to protect his family and give his life if necessary.  It isn’t the pastor’s job any more than your manager at work.  That’s why I’ve never been impressed at LEOs being “sworn,” as if this is something big, unique or special.  All men are sworn.

To be sure, your congregation should have a security and tactical plan, and you should create it and practice it with the other congregants.  But when it comes to a man standing over your family in the pew getting ready to take the life of your wife or children, don’t you dare look to someone else to do the protecting.

PJM:

Here is the full report.

First of all, I realize that nurses do not swear the Hippocratic oath like doctors.  Second, I do not believe in the concept of thought crimes.  I don’t want such an idea ever applied to me, and I won’t apply it to her.

Still, there is the notion of legal obligations and criminality that may have come from negligence or even intent, and so she should be investigated.  She has the right to think what she wants, but she doesn’t have a right to act on it if that means violating laws against persons.

Now that the individual has been addressed, think for a moment about how she got here.  The society enabled her, perhaps even persuaded her and encouraged her to think this way, to blame all evil in her universe on the white patriarchy.  Evil, problems, social ills, etc., are all a function not of individual choices she and her community makes, or of the moral conditions of the soul.  They are always and forever a function of someone or something else.

This is the condition wrought by modern education and the entitlement state.  It isn’t just that it steals from you and your family.  That would be bad enough, for we know from the Scriptures that the “Good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22), and how do you do that when much of your wealth goes to the state?  It’s worse.  In cases like these, she may have inflicted pain or maimed or even killed someone because of her attitude.

Ponder this for a moment.  If they tried any harder could they find a better way than things like this to foment a class war, race war, or culture war?  One is tempted to conclude this is their intention, yes?  Would you want loved ones to be treated by this girl or someone like her?  How would you ever know if the nurse treating you is someone like her?