Begins At Home – Page 35

Hats off to Sundance

Posted on August 18, 2020August 18, 2020 by Mike

In our Donnybrook section, CF commenter Barry has called our attention more than once to Sundance’s somewhat-cryptic posts regarding the compilation of all his diligent labor to uncover evidence of the Obama/Comey/Brennan et al coup attempt against Trump into a sort of dossier that connected all the dots; his trip to DC to present said evidence to the DoJ, Congresscritters, and whoever else he could reach, in hopes of bestirring some, any, or all of them to take some sort of concrete action to see justice done; and most significantly, Sundance’s delivery of a firm deadline for said action, namely this Friday past, failing which he would go public with his voluminous dossier his own self.

So last week, after Sundance had made his appointed rounds in Mordor on the Potomac to present the case, it seems that somone in the AG’s office suddenly reached out to someone at Fox to request a call-in appearance for Barr on Hannity; the AG wished to make an announcement concerning “developments,” t’was said.

And he did. Not a momentous, earth-shattering thing, Barr cautioned everyone. But movement, a “development,” nonetheless, with more of them to come at an unspecified later date.

Then, on Friday, this happened:

WASHINGTON – A Former FBI attorney will plead guilty to making false statements in documents used to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump aide Carter Page, his lawyer told the Associated Press Friday.

The guilty plea from Kevin Clinesmith is the first legal action taken in an investigation led by John Durham, a U.S. attorney looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe and other intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign.

Clinesmith’s lawyer, Justin Shur, told the Associated Press that his client will plead guilty to a single false statements charge as part of a cooperation agreement with the government.

At 5 PM Friday, Sundance posted the above excerpt and link with this appended:

I am very well aware of events today.

Discretion is the better part of valor.

Tuesday.

WELL.

It appears to me that Sundance’s prodding has borne fruit, with more expected on Tuesday. A CTH commenter sums it up:

Anyone remember when some idiot someplace on the internet criticized SD as ‘some former clerk living in (redacted!)’? Well, that ‘former clerk’ spent nearly four years doing brilliant, extraordinarily deep research that produced iron clad, irrefutable, proof that every character we know not only participated in the coup, but SD proved and showed exactly what each character did.

First he showed all of us. And then, two weeks ago this guy, whom some loser on the internet once criticized as a ‘former clerk’, set out to present his irrefutable, iron clad proof of who the conspirators are and what each did, to people who might be able to use it to bring about justice. Think about that.

The guy (or gal, or people known as) Sundance decided to bring the evidence into the lions den. On his own dime and time. At his own personal risk.

He succeeded beyond all we could hope or dream for. He not only entered the lion’s den, he quelled all the guardians of the den and hand fed all the other lions his information. His proof was so iron clad, so persuasive, so irrefutable, that he got the attention and concern of the Attorney General of the United States so much so, that after years of obfuscation, double speak, and letting the conspirators get away with their crimes, the AG was forced to ask a TV news show to come on air, so he could make an ‘announcement’ to all of America.

Think how concerned, frightened perhaps, Bill Barr had to be to beg Hannity to come on air so he could make a “not so earth shattering” announcement.

And Sundance did all that without dropping Fat Man or Little Boy, which we know he’s keeping in reserve, just in case.

We stand and humbly thank and salute you, Sundance.

Indeed we do. I’ll go a bit further, actually: it’s my opinion that what Sundance has done here is nothing short of noble. He should be acknowledged far and wide as a truly great American, of a stripe we breed all too few of nowadays.

Think of it: he has provided us all with a sterling demonstration of a “petition for redress of grievances” the Founders recommended in the Constitution. He has shamed every self-proclaimed “professional journalist” in the entire country, the overwhelming majority of whom are no more than DNC PR flacks and stenographers. Over the course of four long years, he dug deep, unearthing scads of documents via FOIA requests that would otherwise have remained hidden, documents revealing the details of the Obama junta’s election-tampering and later coup attempt. He posted his findings as he obtained them at CTH, along with meticulously in-depth analysis explaining how all the countless pieces fit together, who the players were, and what it all added up to.

Then he set us another fine example, in a real-life Mr Smith Goes To Washington moment of a sort which American patriot James Stewart would have heartily approved: he went to Washington himself, to bring the treasonous malfeasance of too-powerful people and agencies into the light of day; to ensure that many gross wrongs committed against a duly-elected and blameless President were righted; to see that the voice of those millions of Trump voters very nearly disenfrachised by the rankest skullduggery and corruption would be heard, and heeded.
these efforts. I’d say that risk is now very serious indeed; I hope he’ll be very cagey and aware from here on out, keeping a constant, watchful eye on his own bodily security. Corrupt, omnipotent governments have quietly eliminated whistleblowers for far less than what he’s accomplished.

Many folks out there rightly say that Real Americans will never get a fair shake from Leftymedia, and so must buckle down and do the job themselves, building their own alternative outlets and institutions instead. Well, don’t look now, but Sundance just did exactly that. He duly petitioned the government for redress of grievances, demanded accountability from those who are supposed to be not our masters but our employees—an important distinction now almost entirely lost to the mists of distant history—and to all appearances, he got results.

The risk to himself personally was and will remain substantial; his courage, tenacity, and audacity are indisputable, and entirely admirable. I repeat: Sundance is a truly great American, and whichever way this ugly mess shakes out, my hat is most humbly off to him.

Tuesday update! News from Sundance.

After several -seemingly- purposeful delays, and some expressions of good faith which I am not sure are actually ‘good’ or ‘faithful’, we come to this moment approximately an hour from now. The media, who I have briefed on the material, have been released from any/all prior confidences. Additionally, I have released the name of the primary investigator (deep behind the Durham probe) to the same media. If those media voices do nothing, I will share who they are… until then, I grant them benefit of courage and patriotism.

It’s time to start asking some very hard questions…. but in order to do that, these voices first needed to know the material so those questions could be asked; hence, the exhaustive travel for in-depth briefings in multiple cities and states.

Nothing is supposition; everything is connected to deep and direct evidence of corruption that covers a variety of interests and numerous institutions. The most adverse to sunlight are members of Mueller’s purposefully installed special counsel unit. After the Obama administration left office, Andrew Weissmann and crew took over. They did things that only Machiavellian thinkers could imagine. It will all come out; the question is when?

After another attempt to delay, I took a purposeful stance. Everyone reversed course and we are back on track.

Expect no help from the Senate; they were participants. Today’s released obfuscation and nonsense from the SSCI is evidence in that regard. The entire upper chamber is compromised; they know it, I know it, and a large part of the American electorate know it.

I dislike immensely not being able to just be the guy with a blog who outlines research material, provides the direct source information, and explains to people what is going on. Recent weeks/months have been challenging because when your goal is to extend benefit-of-doubt, you do not want to impede any truthful efforts. However, I have exhausted my ‘benefit-of-doubt‘ stash; I need to return to my original position: ‘THE TRUTH HAS NO AGENDA’.

So begins the worst/best phase of the Big Ugly.

Keep checking six, my friend. Constantly. More here, and here too.

Ritual purification

Posted on August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 by Mike

Lepers, unmasked.

Purity rituals now extend to almost the entire populace and to every aspect of life. Go to get food at a grocery store and violate the mask or social distancing rule, and you will be called out by the reigning religious authorities — much as Jesus was when he and his disciples were rebuked for gathering and eating grain on the Sabbath.

If you dare to go outside the parameters permitted you, be it travel to another state or to the dentist, the ritual priests will test you to see if you are fit, taking your temperature, testing for antibodies, and then pronouncing you clean or unclean. Go to church and be masked, socially distanced and don’t dare sing.

Persist in your transgressions and you will be at least temporarily cut out of the community by having to live outside the camp until you are healed. You will be a leper.

The Coronavirus has provided the extreme left with a reason to create a huge class of outcasts while also affording the opportunity to fundamentally transform society. Those who previously had been designated as outcasts, including those considering themselves to be disempowered in any way, may now find themselves uniquely qualified to enter the holy circle of the pure.

Ominously, also now outside the camp are those who were once powerful authority figures, namely, the police and the military who were appointed to confront and contain the dark side of society.

But even more worrying, in states like Maryland, one’s neighbor is encouraged to snitch on neo-lepers who endanger public health, as happened in the USSR and East Germany. This is to say nothing of those designated as having leprous minds by Twitter, YouTube and Facebook’s determiners of mental health. Spies now determine who belongs outside social discourse because of criminal thoughts and “hate” speech — which is generally defined as any speaking or writing that opposes the left.

In fact, the leftist elite believe that America’s moral health was compromised irrevocably by the events of 1619, the introduction of slavery now seen as irredeemable original sin. So inherently leprous is America and the West in general that all diseased institutions and cities need to be set on fire, much as physicians once cauterized gangrene.

Rest assured the establishment of the new caste system will continue after the fires. The current virus has set the template for future government dictates. Other diseases will follow Covid-19. More citizens will be placed outside the camp and more kulaks of private enterprise will be destroyed. Society will continue to require purification until the last virus of bad thinking is exterminated.

The authoritarian Left’s work is never done. But they’ll have to do it without any help from me. Myself, I’ll just stick with good ol’ Bob Marley.

Freedom undefended is freedom lost.

The fate of The City

Posted on August 16, 2020August 16, 2020 by Mike

She’s DEAD, Jim. This time for real.

I love NYC. When I first moved to NYC, it was a dream come true. Every corner was like a theater production happening right in front of me. So much personality, so many stories.

Every subculture I loved was in NYC. I could play chess all day and night. I could go to comedy clubs. I could start any type of business. I could meet people. I had family, friends, opportunities. No matter what happened to me, NYC was a net I could fall back on and bounce back up.

Now it’s completely dead.

“But NYC always always bounces back.” No. Not this time.

“But NYC is the center of the financial universe. Opportunities will flourish here again.” Not this time.

People say, “NYC has been through worse,” or “NYC has always come back.”
No and no.

First, when has NYC been through worse?

Even in the 1970s, and through the ’80s, when NYC was going bankrupt, even when it was the crime capital of the U.S. or close to it, it was still the capital of the business world (meaning, it was the primary place young people would go to build wealth and find opportunity). It was culturally on top of its game — home to artists, theater, media, advertising, publishing. And it was probably the food capital of the U.S.

Altucher breaks things down into categories to explain in detail why he deems NYC well and truly doomed, but this next but for me is the important:

NYC has never been locked down for five months. Not in any pandemic, war, financial crisis, never. In the middle of the polio epidemic, when little kids (including my mother) were becoming paralyzed or dying (my mother ended up with a bad leg), NYC didn’t go through this.

This is not to say what should have been done or should not have been done. That part is over. Now we have to deal with what IS.

Perzackly. As I said early on, the “unprecedented” thing about the COVIDIOT panic was never the virus itself; it’s turned out to be fairly ordinary as these things go—just a bad flu, not the planet-depopulating scourge it’s been sold as. The only thing truly unprecedented was the hysterical reaction to it; the speedy exploitation of a cringing, fearful populace by a whole damnable horde of wanna-be tyrants both high and low; and the pathetically submissive obedience in response to that exploitation by subjects of a country once proud to misnomer itself as “land of the free, home of the brave.”

Altucher goes on from there to present an intriguing take on why this time might be different:

I lived three blocks from Ground Zero on 9/11. Downtown, where I lived, was destroyed, but it came roaring back within two years. Such sadness and hardship and then quickly that area became the most attractive area in New York.

And in 2008/2009, there was much suffering during the Great Recession, again much hardship, but things came roaring back.

But… this time is different. You’re never supposed to say that but this time it’s true. If you believe this time is no different, that NYC is resilient, I hope you’re right.

I don’t benefit from saying any of this. I love NYC. I was born there. I’ve lived there forever. I STILL live there. I love everything about NYC. I want 2019 back.

But this time is different.

One reason: Bandwidth.

In 2008, average bandwidth speeds were 3 megabits per second. That’s not enough for a Zoom meeting with reliable video quality. Now, it’s over 20 megabits per second. That’s more than enough for high-quality video.

There’s a before and after. BEFORE: No remote work. AFTER: Everyone can work remotely.

The difference: bandwidth got faster. And that’s basically it. People have left New York City and have moved completely into virtual worlds. The Time-Life Building doesn’t need to fill up again. Wall Street can now stretch across every street instead of just being one building in Manhattan.

We are officially AB: After Bandwidth. And for the entire history of NYC (the world) until now, we were BB: Before Bandwidth.

Remote learning, remote meetings, remote offices, remote performance, remote everything.

That’s what is different.

Very interesting indeed. This James Altucher fella seems to be a pretty smart and perceptive guy, and you should definitely read it all. Even for those of you who give not one damp fart about the fate of what was once indisputably the world’s greatest metropolis (and I myself don’t care nearly as much as I once would have, I admit), it seems obvious to me that most if not all of this grim prognostication could probably be applied to any other American city as well—most certainly the Democrat-Socialist misgoverned ones, at least. As enjoyable as the schadenfraude no doubt is for a great many of us out here in the hinterlands now, that is NOT gonna be a good thing long-term…for anybody.

(Via Insty)

Time, and past time

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 by Mike

A stirring, if bleakly realistic, call to arms.

America is at a crucial moment in history when one system has failed and all wait and wonder what the new system will be. Very likely, with all of the momentum in the direction of tyranny and force, it will be an ugly, miserable system. While they might hope for a resurgence of American freedom, the opposite has been steadily built on top of that very freedom, smothering it for decades, piling rules and regulations on top of one another until their weight is so great that freedom is no longer known, much less imagined or brought into the light.

It is not enough to win an election. It is not enough to reverse the ruthless penalties brought onto the heads of those laboring to survive not only the pandemic, but the economic disaster it wrought. It is not enough to beg for what little freedom is left. One must be rabidly anti-communist. One must thirst for freedom, demand it beyond all restraint, settle for nothing less than an eradication of the small ministerial laws that sneak communism into every corner of the republic, for that is the root of all we see today. That is the root of Antifa/BLM and Revcom. It is the normalizing of force, the institutionalizing of extortion. Even one law that places the state above the individual is one too many. That one law becomes a guidepost for imprisoning a barber for cutting hair. To imagine that possibility is an affront to American freedom. It still rings with the sound of a thousand chains in the patriot’s head.

What comes to America after the election, no matter which way it goes, is a fight for the survival of American freedom. It is not something that can be done through elections. Each law that allowed petty tyrants to destroy the livelihoods of fellow citizens must be ripped out by the roots. Communist actors that enter the neighborhood must be forced out. If anything has been made abundantly clear over the past few months it is that the police will not help. They have lost the understanding of their oaths. They are subject to the whims of heretical politicians and that makes them dangerous to freedom, because they have no reasoning, no understanding of right and wrong, just instructions, whatever those instructions might be. They rely on no laws, no legislation, but respond to the orders of tyrants and dutifully obey. Breaking that relationship should be high on the agenda as well. There is room for reorganizing the police as so many communists demand, but reorganizing them to fit a model of freedom is just as easy and more necessary.

There will be a lot to do in the coming months. It will be an uphill fight with every institution against one’s efforts. Not even those on the side of freedom know what that means, they repeat it like a parrot, but do not know. Show them. The world waits your every move.

We can only hope it’s not already too late. But TL is correct right down the line with this one, of which you should read the all.

THAT’s how you do it

Posted on August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 by Mike

Shut ’em the fuck DOWN. Whatever it takes.

Armed residents offer no-nonsense response to ‘peaceful’ invaders marching to Seattle police chief’s home
The home of Seattle police Chief Carmen Best was targeted by “peaceful” protesters who were deterred by armed neighbors protecting their property.

Residents in Best’s Snohomish County neighborhood confronted the leftists as they attempted to make their way to her home, making a clear case for the importance of the 2nd Amendment and the protections it offers.

A road into the neighborhood was blocked by residents who also apparently posted on social media about the group of about “200 persons, mostly white men and women in their twenties” who were “dressed in black with masks and black hoods and carried signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” according to the Lynnwood Times.

“Black Lives Matter protestors shouted profanity and insults at neighbors, took license plate information on vehicles, took pictures of homes, and asked little kids who lived in the neighborhood what schools they attended,” the outlet reported, adding that some of the protesters carried “large duffle bags” and attempted to get to Best’s home in the neighborhood.

One video showed the rude awakening some of the group received by locals who clearly were not going to put up with their antics.

“This is a private drive, get out of the road,” a man can be heard telling the approaching protesters.

“We are peaceful! You pointed a gun at my face!” one protester yelled back to the armed residents.

“That’s why you are peaceful,” the resident quipped.

Bold mine, and delectable. Ace says:

Antifa and BLM “protesters” have two modes: Savage, feral violence when they think they can get away with it and puerile whining when they think they can’t get away with violence.

As they were confronted here by people with guns, violence was off the table, and they resorted to whiiiiining.

I keep saying this: If police won’t do their jobs, citizens will do it instead.

But citizens are not trained law enforcement officers.

Expect high casualties.

Expect it? Hell, at this point I’m actually hoping for it. Because this nonsense won’t stop until at least a few of these Leftard terrorists are fucking massacred. At least one of the valiant Snohomish Minutemen knows the score:

“They were very organized. They had radios, talking to each other. They had numbers they used to decal all their cars for who knows what. So, they were identifying all their vehicles individually by number,” one neighbor told the outlet. “They came with a mission…They were out here intimidating us.”

“I feel incredibly unsafe,” another said. “We think it will happen again…Their objective was not completed; they never made it to her house, we stopped them…so we think they will be back.”

Count on it. Best be ready for them. ALL of us better be, like it or not.

NYC Kommissar DeBalledZero doing a bang-up job

Posted on July 31, 2020July 31, 2020 by Mike

Coming soon to a soon-to-be hellhole near you, as ever-more New Yorkers flee the cesspit they created to begin the process all over again in your hometown.

It’s the Great Black Tar Way.

A cluster of junkies has turned Broadway into a shooting gallery, injecting drugs unhampered in broad daylight and then shuffling around in a zonked-out stupor, seemingly oblivious to the Midtown bustle around them, The Post has learned.

If that wasn’t enough, the addicts are peppering the area with used syringes, turning individual planters on 40th Street and Broadway into mini needle parks.

“They’ve taken over the tables, blatantly using needles and shooting up heroin all day long,” said a local worker who asked that he only be identified as James. “There’s no police action, there’s no reach-out. There’s nobody preventing this, and you know we’ve had multiple calls to 311 but nobody really responds. It’s becoming a real problem.”

He called his own 311 calls “futile exercises.”

The Post spotted several of the spent needles dumped at the scene — and even caught one of the vagrants shooting up out in the open on Tuesday afternoon, with no one stepping in or saying a word.

The accompanying pictures are…well. Hate to say it and all, because I still have plenty of friends in NYC and its environs, people I love and care greatly about. But the sad, sorry truth is this: New Yorkers twice elected the asshole primarily responsible for The City’s current sad collapse into misery and chaos. They should now be forced to enjoy what they voted for.

I suppose the ship already sailed on that Big Beautiful Escape From New York-style Wall idea, eh…?

The laws will be enforced—one way or another

Posted on July 29, 2020July 29, 2020 by Mike

Vigilante justice is the last desperate resort of a civilization backed into a corner by rampant, implacable liberal degeneracy.

William Smith, 28, was discovered in the early hours of Tuesday morning, decapitated and slumped against the front door of the judge who had granted him bail in August.

Smith was arrested last month following allegations by his then girlfriend that he had raped her 8-year-old daughter.

After a police investigation in which Smith was found in possession of child pornography, he was arrested on two counts related to child pornography and one count of child molestation.

After being charged, Smith walked free from the court after the judge controversially ruled that he did not pose a threat to the local community, and he raised the $30,000 bail required to trigger his freedom.

The alleged victim’s family said they were “shocked” that Smith had been allowed to walk free from court.
 Smith was awaiting trial for his crimes and was awaiting a court date which was due to be scheduled for later this year, however it seems that somebody from the local community decided to take matters into their own hands. The judge, whose name has been withheld, was woken at around 3am by his “frenzied” barking dog. When he went outside to find out what his dog was barking about, he found the decapitated body of the man he had allowed to walk free slumped against his front door with the severed head left on the steps.

A local resident said of the horrific discovery that finding a headless body was an “unusual” occurrence: “This is a nice area.This is the kind of thing that usually happens in mob films, but not around here.”

Could be that’s the real problem here, then. Because I can guaran-gott-damned-tee you one thing at least: it wasn’t the first time this monster had committed such an atrocity against an innocent child…but it will certainly be the last.

If this turn-’em-loose-Bruce judge refuses to learn the obvious lesson from this episode and continues to blandly unleash quasi-human abominations on the general citizenry to wreak havoc as they will upon them—a citizenry who just proved themselves to be not quite so helpless as Hizzoner had assumed, saints be praised—then perhaps the next decapitated corpse found propped adjacent to somebody’s front door should be his own. Pour encourager les autres, don’tchaknow.

Update! Expect a lot more vigilantism, coming soon to a burning city near you.

Seattle police call it quits. What’s next? Vigilantism
Something will fill the vacuum left by police, and it seems doubtful the left will like the results.

University of Tennessee law Prof. Glenn Reynolds wrote in June about the absence of police:

We’ll see a lot of vigilante justice. And what are people gonna do about it? Call the cops? Remember, in the end the police aren’t there to protect the public from criminals, they’re there to protect criminals from the public. Communities dealt with crime long before police were invented, usually in rather harsh and low-due-process ways. The bargain was, let the police handle it instead. No police, no bargain.

Get ready, folks. Major parts of the country are about to descend to the level of the Wild Wild West.

Ordinary, decent, right-thinking folks have a lot of forebearance, and will put up with a heck of a lot. But their forebearance is not without limit. Methinks the Left hasn’t really thought this whole thing through.

(Via Gerard)

Fake news update! As SteveF points out to my tremendous disappointment, the first linked article is labeled as “satire” at the bottom of the page. Too bad.

Restaurant holocaust

Posted on July 28, 2020July 28, 2020 by Mike

Told ya so.

New economic data released Wednesday by business review website Yelp shows that approximately 60 percent of restaurants that had to shut down during the pandemic have permanently closed their doors.

Outlined in a July economic impact report, this figure is notably higher than the same data from March, where Yelp found 53 percent of all restaurant closures were indicated as permanent closures.

Countrywide data indicates that the most permanent closures have occurred in California, Texas, Florida and New York — states that have been or are currently especially affected by the virus.

Overall, as of July 10, 26,160 restaurants closed in the U.S., an increase of 2,179 since June 15.

Bad as that is, it’s only the beginning. Partial, tightly-controlled “reopenings” requiring no more than fifty percent capacity, early close times, no bar seating at all, and the like will no more than delay the now-inevitable tsunami of destruction. The sad, sorry fact is that the restaurant biz as we once knew it, along with many other worthwhile and irreplaceable things, is now gone for good—all wilfully and wantonly destroyed by bureaucrats on a power-rampage; a compliant press; Democrat-Socialist politicians intent on unseating Trump by any means necessary; and the foolish, unnecessary panic instigated at the behest of that nefarious combine.

Resist we much!

Posted on July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 by Mike

Signs and portents—encouraging ones.

One such example is the police department in the town of Marshall, Arkansas. Despite Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) officially signing an order forcing civilians across the state to wear masks, Police Chief Lang Holland has said that his officers will not force anyone to do so, nor will they wear masks themselves.

Chief Holland said that people “have the freedom to choose” whether or not they wear a mask, and that such a move “should not be dictated by the nanny state.”

A similar example, also located in Arkansas, is found in Lonoke County. There, Sheriff John Staley said that while he agrees with Governor Hutchinson’s mask decision, his department will not “be out writing tickets for masks,” primarily because they simply do not have the manpower needed to enforce such an arbitrary rule.

Similar acts of civil rebellion by police forces have occurred in Texas, Montana, and Alabama, among other states.

Good on ya, fellas, with three groans and a moist fart for Lonoke’s Staley for doing the right thing for the wrong reason. It’s only a bare handful of PD’s and states at this point, but it’s a start.

It’s come to this

Posted on July 25, 2020July 25, 2020 by Mike

Ace sums up the current contretemps before providing us with the Feel Good Video of the Week.

Police won’t protect us. It’s time to admit our only defense is self-defense, and the only help we can expect is self-help.

And to mutually vow to each other that we will never, ever convict someone for resorting to self-help, if we’re on someone’s jury.

Either the state will enforce the law and protect us, or we’ll protect ourselves, and protect those who protect themselves. Period.

The officials sworn to protect the civil peace have instead decided to protect the bandits and looters and arsonists. Instead of prosecuting them for their crimes, they nullify the law and let them out the next morning.

We can nullify the law too, guys.

You’re not the only ones who can set aside the law and free people for what might, in other times, be considered crimes of violence.

If you won’t prosecute looters, arsonists, and insurrectionists, we will not convict those who use violence to stop looters, arsonists, and insurrectionists, or use violence (as here) just to fucking get home without being illegally held-up by bandits blocking the road like old-time highwaymen and road-thieves.

The state has decided we will be ruled by the mob.

But we never agreed to that. The Constitution says that we will rule ourselves, through our elected officials. Not to the violent insurrectionists and anarchists the police and government have turned the streets over to.

Read it all, then watch the vid. You’ll feel a whole lot better.

The sad fact is, if Real Americans had taken to dealing out some righteous street justice to PantiFa and all the other ingredients of the noisome, toxic Leftist bouillabaise right from jump, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.

The Peltzmann effect

Posted on July 22, 2020July 22, 2020 by Mike

Unintended consequences.

In the 1960s, numerous countries (including the United States) began adopting laws that mandated the use of seat belts. The hope was that this would reduce mortality in motor accidents.

However, economist Gordon Tullock once quipped that “if the government wanted people to drive safely, they’d mandate a spike in the middle of each steering wheel.” Why would that be? Because of how we respond to risks. If we know that even the slightest accident might impale us on our driving wheel, we would all drive more safely. While it is a strange thought experiment, we can run it in reverse. If one driver knows that all the other drivers are wearing a seat belt while he also wears a seat belt, that driver faces a lower risk level. As a result, feeling safer, that driver acts more recklessly. He exceeds the speed limit, accelerates at a yellow light etc. This greater recklessness, in turn, increases the risks of an accident.

As a result, there is an ambiguous effect from the regulation. On the one hand, the law reduces risks but it also induces a behavioral response that increases the likelihood of an accident happening. Thus, we must wonder which effect dominates the other.

The same logic applies to face masks. Imagine a fictitious Canadian economist who, fearing the risk of bringing the virus to a loved one or catching the virus himself, avoids situations that would be too risky for his tastes. He avoids going to the coffee shop for a latte and limits himself only to doing groceries. With everyone being forced to wear a mask, he may decide to go pick up that latte. Technically, the activities of shopping for coffee and groceries are individually less risky with mandatory face masks. However, that fictitious economist now exposes himself to two activities that carry a risk rather than a single activity and so he faces a higher likelihood of catching the disease. Just as with seat belts, we must ask which effect dominates: the risk reduction of masks or the behavioral response?

In the end, the answer is an empirical one. Yet, the case of seat belt laws suggests that the precise answer might be elusive. The first paper of importance on the effect of seat belts was published in the 1970s by Sam Peltzman who found that the behavioral response by American drivers completely washed out the effects of the law. Since then, numerous papers on the topic have been published. Some confirm the findings of Peltzman while others infirm them. All these studies confirm that there is some offsetting behavior. They simply cannot agree on how strong it is.

However, let us take one important fact in consideration: the first laws mandating seat belt use were adopted in the 1960s. This is more than fifty years ago. Yet, there is still a discussion among experts who try to design the most convincing statistical tests. If there is uncertainty about the past, how can experts today be certain that compelling the use of face masks will not result in a greater level of risk taking? What if the offsetting behavior is stronger? Experts and policy-makers probably do not know this information (and I believe that they cannot reasonably be expected to know this). As the damages from faster propagation are exponential (given the nature of the virus), there is a real risk of backfire!

The question of whether or not seat belts, motorcycle helmets, masks, suits of medieval armor, etc save lives might be a fascinating one. It’s probably worth the ongoing research it inspires, I suppose. Ultimately, though, it’s the wrong question. What any and all Americans SHOULD be asking themselves, and constantly, is this: in a supposedly “free” country, with a government whose reach and scope is confined within very explicit limits set by the US Constitution, are ANY such mandates in accordance with those limits? Or do they so flagrantly breach them as to do far greater harm to the Constitution’s continued authority and relevance, thereby harming the nation entire?

Tragically, most of us long ago forgot about just how important that question really is, and no longer care anyway. If they think about them at all, they consider such notions quaint, antiquated, and hopelessly silly—the exclusive province of cranks and fools who are completely out of touch with reality, too thick to really comprehend what government’s true purpose is: to solve every problem, grant every wish, scratch every itch, safeguard every life, and abolish all risk, forever.

Apologies to one and all

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Mike

For the delay in posting the new Donnybrook edition this week, y’all. Had a major automotive disaster over the weekend: apparently, either the timing chain or the camshaft broke, bending a few valves and leaving me without compression and therefore stranded until I could get a tow-truck out to drag the shattered carcass on back to the house. Been coping with that mess all week so far, which has of necessity shifted all other considerations to the back burner for the nonce.

To make matters worse, after consulting with the fine folks at Hosting Matters it seems almost certain that all those suspicious user registrations I mentioned last week are most likely the precursor moves for another catastrophic Russian hack attempt, a la the one that laid us so very low this past winter. So for now anyway, registration is disabled. I’m considering either just forgoing registration permanently or implementing a Captcha-type deal for user logins. I hate to do that, really; I know it’s a damnable pain in the ass, particularly for those of you who comment most frequently around here. So I dunno; we’ll see about that, I suppose. Maybe the absence of any login process at all for a while will be enough to persuade those nefarious creeps to look elsewhere to get their sick jollies.

Liberal Utopia: if you build it, they will run

Posted on July 11, 2020July 11, 2020 by Mike

Looks like we’re gonna need another Big Beautiful Wall, stat.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and his former police commissioners such as Bernard Kerik, who headed up the NYPD force from 2000 to 2001 and directed the police response to 9/11, can only watch and weep as the city they had so successfully cleaned up rapidly descends into chaos and carnage. This Nightmare in New York is brought to you courtesy of Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Mayor Bill de Blasio; and a cast of thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters, anarchists, and street thugs. The once vibrant city is turning into a virtual no-go zone of looted shops, shuttered store windows, and skyrocketing murder rates. The number of shooting victims is up 51% this year so far, and that tragic trend is accelerating. In June of this year, there were 250 shootings, as opposed to 97 in June of 2019.

New York was already reeling from the highest coronavirus death toll in the (formerly) United States, due in large part to Gov. Cuomo approving the transfer of thousands of recovering COVID-19 patients to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic. Then the rioting began, and Mayor de Blasio’s response was to shame cops and propose cutting his city’s police department budget by more than one billion dollars. (That’s one thousand million for those of you who were educated in the city’s public schools.)

The Dimwitted Duo have caused a mass exodus, with 500,000 mostly middle-class New Yorkers fleeing the city thus far and many more likely to follow. Half a million New Yorkers heading for the proverbial hills. That’s more than the entire population of Minneapolis, where all the madness started. Of course, with the Minneapolis City Council repeatedly voting to disband its police force, the entire population of the “Mini apple” may head for the hills as well.

They should all be forced—at gunpoint if necessary—to stay and enjoy the fruits of their labor. They should DAMNED sure not be permitted to scatter out and infest the more civilized and liveable parts of the country, locust-like, to then start lobbying for, voting for, and otherwise insisting upon the exact same policies that they fouled their own nests with all over again.

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!!!

Posted on July 6, 2020July 6, 2020 by Mike

Whatever you do, DON’T PANIC. Unless they tell you to.

A new pandemic is raging. Even before the Covid 19 pandemic has subsided, the WHO has now warned that a virulent form of Hoof and Mouth disease has “jumped” species in record time from horse to humans and is threatening to devastate the planet. It is even more deadly than the original. An appropriate name for the pathogen is being considered, as we speak. A tricky task, this, as it is imperative to avoid giving offense and fostering lasting grievance on the part of those who would level the charge of speciesism. After all, equine phobia is a thing. We must avoid maligning horses and their hoofs at all cost. Needless to say, the same consideration must apply to their owners, as well as their countries of domicile and origin.

Let us discuss the symptoms: Because we are confronted with a new disease, the syndrome and its various manifestations are still regarded as capable of impressive plasticity—that is, they are changing and changeable. The disease can rampage through every organ, bone, nerve, blood vessel and system in your body. The result is manifold noxious, painful, and deadly symptoms that appear to be unrelated to each other. Furthermore, these symptoms are similar to every disease, ailment, malady discomfort and inconvenience that you, or anyone else in the world, has ever experienced. Thus, it is easily confused with other morbidities. But, make no mistake about it, the underlying cause can only be one thing when testing indicates that the pathogen is present.

Curiously enough, the pathogen has an affinity for the right foot of its human host. At this early stage of the pandemic, we can already state, with confidence, that the microbe can be detected by the application of a simple laboratory test to the right foot. A swab administered between the big toe and second toe with a sterile Q-Tip is capable of rendering a true positive, false positive, true negative or false negative result, based on the suppleness of the skin. In short, the test is just as efficacious as the current Covid 19 test. A small fragment of DNA of the patient’s skin is sufficient for one of the above four possible diagnoses.

However, acute observational skills are also imperative! Let us describe what we definitively know: In addition to the laboratory test, the disease can also be diagnosed visually, if the carrier’s big right toe angulates away from the foot, upward by one fourth of an inch, in either or both directions.

Because an emergency has been declared, a vaccine is being rushed to market and will be ready between six months and two years from now. It will be administered alongside the greatly anticipated vaccine for Covid 19. By necessity, we have dispensed with the usual safety controls required for other drugs. Fortunately, therapeutics, such as hydroxychloroquine, widely in use for over 70 years for other diseases, and proven safe for them, is frowned upon by pharmacists. They are withholding the drug from the patients whose doctors prescribe them for Covid 19. Obviously, the pharmacist’s judgment should and does pre-empt the advice of the patient’s doctor! The pharmacist studied drugs in school. That is why he or she is called a pharmacist. What does a doctor know?

Now that we know what we are dealing with, what do we do to prevent the spread? We cannot simply wait for the vaccine. Patience is not an option. There is no time for that. We must act now!

Fortunately, our experience with Covid 19 has paved the way for imposing the additional discipline required for battle against the soon to be renamed disease originating from the beloved horse. First of all, we have become accustomed to sheltering in place. We now have learned to distinguish between essential and non-essential businesses. We wear a mask and we maintain social distance. Furthermore, we are intensely motivated to continue to observe the above admonitions, rules, and guidelines, thanks to our recent and current riots.

The riots have taught us that the nonessential businesses are the ones that the rioters have looted, ransacked, and burned. We know that they are nonessential because we are still alive even though those businesses are gone. If they had been essential, I would not be writing this essay and you would not be reading it.

This would seem to be satire worthy of the Bee itself…OR IS IT?!? No matter what, we must all proceed with extreme caution to eliminate all risk until we’re absolutely certain one way or the other. Therefore, I am pleased to join the author in her urgent call for a new national and/or state and/or local and/or neighborhood decree requiring every American to…

No, I can’t do it; you gotta go read the whole thing to find out.

Just how the hell DID we get here, anyway?

Posted on July 5, 2020July 5, 2020 by Mike

If we’re ever to have any hope of repairing this badly broken nation, we all know where that Herculean labor must begin.

A recent man on the street interview by Campus Reform saw many college-aged kids asked about what they think of America, its history, and what the 4th of July means. Nearly all of them showed an astounding level of ignorance, and not even just ignorance, but disinformation.

Most didn’t know the 4th of July celebrates the day we declared independence, and all but one couldn’t even come close to guessing the year. Guesses as to which war helped us gain our independence ranged from the Civil War to World War 2.

What they didn’t know isn’t even as shocking as what they thought they knew.

Nearly all of them believed that America is a racist country founded on racism. This is completely false as Lincoln himself pointed out during a speech generations ago.

“America was built off slavery,” said one of the kids.

One of the kids said that America is built off a bad legacy and that the presidency of Donald Trump is proof that our country is a racist one.

There was, however, awareness by the students that something was missing once confronted with their own ignorance. One confessed to never having been taught any of this in school.

“I just know that teachers do not want to teach it,” said one of the kids.

Campus Reform later proved this in the same video as an interview was conducted with a couple of teachers, one of whom admitted to not teaching American history, focusing instead of social issues and painting America as a racist country. Sadly enough, the teacher didn’t even seem to know what year we won our independence.

Can it really be any wonder that things have deteriorated to such a fantastical degree? Somewhere, in one of the very hottest corners of the excruciating fires of Hell, Antonio Gramsci smiles over his brilliant victory.

This, too, must be part of the overall plan for recovery.

You can take all that as "crazy talk," or you can wake up and see where this all came from and what history tells you has to be done with it, before it consumes us and we are no more.

— Martin McPhillips (@corpseinarmor) July 3, 2020

They have called the question. That's the answer.

— Martin McPhillips (@corpseinarmor) July 3, 2020

(Via Larwyn and WRSA)

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