“The Government Is Not Your Friend, No Matter What Politicians Tell You”

Any questions?

The dirty little secret about government is that its purpose is not really to make the lives of citizens better but, rather, to accumulate power at the expense of citizens. Not sure about that? Ask yourself, how many government agencies have put themselves out of a job because they succeeded? There’re a few that technology left behind, like the Steamboat Inspection Service; others that served their purpose, like the Defense Homes Corporation; while others were merged into other agencies like the General Land Office, subsumed into the Department of Interior. In our history, there have been fewer than 100 federal agencies that have actually been shuttered, and most of those existed in the early 20th century to deal with the Depression or the two world wars.

According to the Federal Register, the federal government has 457 different agencies. That’s 457 agencies covering virtually every aspect of American’s lives, most of which are staffed by unelected bureaucrats, all of whom spend your money and many of whom write regulations that carry the force of law which the government’s police power enforces. This includes everything from the State Department to the Geographic Names Board to the International Broadcasting Board to the ATF.

And that 457 is misleading. While it includes a dozen organizations tied to Defense, there are dozens more agencies that come under it that are not listed in the Federal Register such as the DoD Education Activity or the Office of Naval Research. Wikipedia lists a more realistic, but still lacking, 1,500.

The American government has become a leviathan. It’s everywhere, involved in virtually every aspect of American’s lives, and it’s perpetual, regardless of its record of dismal failure.

The government spends $30 trillion over half a century and reduces poverty by 1%. The government spends more on education than virtually every nation on the planet yet 85% of the students in its biggest (and most minority-filled) school districts fail basic reading and math, the building blocks for success in our dynamic society. And we’re supposed to believe government works for us?

American governments spend more money on education and social programs than anything else, more than the GDP of most countries. Yet even as they fail, year after year, decade after decade, the funds keep growing, regardless of their catastrophically abysmal track record.

And that tells you everything you need to know about the nature of governments. Their goal isn’t to solve problems. They’re not here to make life better for citizens. Their goal is not to protect the lives and liberties of citizens. No, government is the Borg. Its raison d’etre is simple: Grow revenue and increase power for itself and unions.

Proof? Despite the fact that the United States has 3,143 counties in 50 states spread out over 3,796,742 square miles, nine of the twenty richest counties are in a circle less than 100 miles across with Washington DC at its center. And what is the industry that drives that wealth? Finance? No. Entertainment? No. Steel or autos or high tech? No. One thing: Government power.

Accumulating power is the fundamental nature of government, and our Founding Fathers understood that which is why they gave us the Bill of Rights and particularly the 9th and 10th Amendments. For the first 150 years of our nation, those guardrails stood relatively firm, but today they are simply gone. Sadly, America has become so detached from our Constitution that 90% of what our government does is unconstitutional.

Oh, I wouldn’t say “detached from our Constitution,” exactly. With at least twenty to thirty percent of the country completely in the dark about what it says and what it means; another fifty percent implacably hostile to everything it represents; and fully one hundred percent of the gott-damned goobermint ignoring it—on the rare occasions when they aren’t actively striving to flush it down the toilet altogether—what chance does the poor, dear old thing have, realistically?

3
1

Making their weakness our strength

A modest proposal from Brandon that I think we’ll all like.

We Will Not Comply: Red States Should Offer Sanctuary To Businesses, Military And Medical Personnel
The Biden Administration and its corporate partners are now implementing a blitzkrieg against the American citizenry. Biden’s vaccine executive orders are creating a culture of “paper’s please” fascism among larger businesses and Big Box retailers. He has recently announced that part of the mandates will include fines against businesses that refuse to enforce proof of vaccination on their employees. These fines will range from $70,000 to $700,000, which could destroy a medium sized company if they actually had to pay.

Medical personnel, primarily in leftist blue states, are now being fired from their positions because they have refused to comply with the vax. This is leaving massive gaps in medical response in places like New York. The unelected governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, claims she has the right to give herself dictatorial powers through executive order, and that these powers include deploying National Guard troops to take over medical duties. If you are familiar with the sordid history of VA hospitals, then you know that you do not want around 90% of military doctors operating on you in any capacity.

Keep in mind that none of these mandates are actual “laws”. None of them have been voted on by a legislature or the American people. They are color of law violations of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and should be defied at every opportunity.

Furthermore, I have to ask that pesky but logical question once again – If the vaccines actually work as governments claim, then how are unvaccinated people any threat to vaccinated people?  Why would they need “protection” from us? (The reality is that the covid vax does not work so there is no reason to take it)  But let’s get back to Biden’s criminal trespasses; the list is growing by the day…

Let’s talk about Biden’s latest efforts to punish US troops that refuse the vaccines with dishonorable discharge. I’m not sure if Biden knows that a dishonorable discharge generally requires a trial by court martial in the military, or maybe this is what he actually wants for every single person that will not take the vax. In any case, the goal here is to terrify military members into submission and into accepting illegal orders. And yes, demanding that a soldier act as a lab rat for an experimental vaccine with no long term data to prove its safety is an illegal order.

It’s hard to say yet what the real stats are, but recent polling suggests that at least 30% of the US military plans to refuse the vaccinations, including many members of special operations units.

All of this over a virus with a tiny median death rate of 0.26%? Just to force people to take a vaccine that has been proven completely ineffective in countries like Israel where vaccination rates are high? When over 60% of people hospitalized with covid are fully vaccinated, then what is the point of the vaccines? It makes no sense unless the purpose was always tyranny and not public safety. So, where does this leave us?

There are larger scale solutions to this problem, there are peaceful short term solutions, and there are more violent long term solutions. I will be discussing the violent options in my next article, but for now I think the best path forward is for red states and maybe even red counties is to offer safe haven or “asylum” to people who are under attack from these mandates.

It is indeed a short one, of which you will want to read the all. There are all kinds of reasons why this audacious idea is a good one, not least among ’em how artery-popping, purple-faced livid its implementation would render Branch Covidians across the entire nation. Throw in a few others, including but not limited to:

  • It draws a bold, indelible line of demarcation between Free America and the Shitlib Shitrapies, one that leaves no room whatsoever for error or misinterpretation
  • It offers a practical means of escape for those in dire need of one
  • It amounts to a direct, healthy cocking of the snook by the Free States at some most deserving recipients
  • It allows for no further dithering or obfuscation concerning who the opposing sides really are, and what they really believe in
  • It encourages a long-needed clarification of how far the Free States might be willing to go in re-asserting their Constitutionally-delineated independence and authority vis a vis the illegitimate federal Überstate, after decades of incremental encroachment
  • It will simultaneously provide a significant boost to Free State military strength as well as bring in always-needed medical personnel and small businesses, all of whom have just received an object lesson on the paramount importance of liberty and self-determination
  • Siphon off trained, experienced, capable professionals in non-trivial numbers, leaving already-faltering Blue states suddenly and significantly weakened in ways even 1st World nations might struggle to cope with
  • Dammit, it’s just the right thing to do

…and we have ourselves a pluperfect no-brainer here. If there’s a downside here, I sure ain’t finding it.

7

Local color

Even though I’m not their biggest fan by any stretch, I still love this.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one, but rock-and-roll royalty Mick Jagger walks into a dive bar in Charlotte, North Carolina, and no one seems to notice. According to the Rolling Stone frontman’s Twitter account, that’s just what happened last night at the iconic Thirsty Beaver Saloon. Jagger stands in front of the storied establishment, sipping a beer, and the other customers aren’t even looking in his direction. “Out and about last night in Charlotte, NC,” the post reads.

The Rolling Stones play the Bank of America stadium this evening, so presumably Jagger had some time to kill last night and grabbed a brew at the Plaza Midwood bar. The Thirsty Beaver is an unpretentious establishment well known for refusing to sell to developers building up the area. The tiny bar is now surrounded massive apartment complexes, looking much like the house from the Pixar film Up.

The Thirsty Beaver has been a fixture of the neighborhood since 2008 and remains a spot for live music, cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and folks having conversations with their friends and neighbors — and a the occasionally international rock star.

Here’s a pic Tweeted by Jagger his own self:


Further deets, followed by an explanation for why I’m even posting on this in the first place.

He looked like any other ball-cap clad, jeans-wearing North Carolinian as he stood at a high-table and quaffed a brew at one of Charlotte’s most famous dive bars Wednesday night.

No adoring fans to shrug off, no security guards by his side as Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger enjoyed the night air on the patio of the Thirsty Beaver Saloon on Central Avenue.

Several other patrons seated at a nearby table and bench seemed to ignore the rock ‘n’ roll icon. They looked the other way as someone snapped a photo that Jagger later sent onto Instagram and Twitter.

“Out and about last night in Charlotte NC,” Jagger wrote.

Did Jagger rent out the bar, and were those “patrons” his crew?

“Absolutely not,” Brian Wilson, co-owner of The Thirsty Beaver, told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.

Turns out, the four or five patrons pictured in Jagger’s photo had no idea it was him, Wilson said.

The bar had no advance notice that Jagger would drop by, and even the bartender had no clue it was him when she served him a beer, Wilson said.

Jagger appeared to be drinking a Miller Lite or a “Mick Ultra,” err, Michelob Ultra, but Wilson said he didn’t know yet what brand the rock star ordered.

Wilson had already gone home to put his young daughter to bed when Jagger showed up at about 10 p.m., he said.

Now, among the several things that make this so amusing to me is the fact that I know the Beaver and Brian quite well. Admittedly, the Beaver has never been a preferred hangout of mine, which isn’t so much that there’s anything in particular wrong with the joint, mind. It’s more because it gets so dang elbow-to-elbow packed on the weekends. I just never could deal with that. Doesn’t stop most of my friends from flocking there, especially on their Sunday afternoon biker gatherings.

Brian and his brother have a band that has done shows with my own plenty of times over the years, and Bri is a-okay with me, although there was some mild to moderate aggro from his brother towards me for a while there that I never really understood but which seems now to have abated, near as I can tell. Whatever the problem might have been, it was something I never even tried to figure out; if you’re hoping to find someone who’ll tell you I’m a grade-A prick and an asshole, you won’t have to look very hard or long before you do.

That never has bothered me, and never will; as the frontman of a fairly well-known band, I accepted that sort of hassle from the earliest days as just part of the game. My feeling was and remains that a person fragile enough to let such silliness get under his skin is a person who has absolutely no business ever setting foot on a stage in the first damned place. Show biz is NOT known for being kind to the delicate, the diffident, or the uncertain. An iron, unshakable confidence is a non-negotiable requirement of the job, any deficiency or even momentary flagging of which Show Biz will immediately seize upon and use to viciously beat you with, until you’re stone cold dead.

Anyhoo, the Wilson boys have another place on Monroe Rd across from Lupies: the Tipsy Burrow, which I like a lot better than the Beaver, having a lot more room to move around unmolested as it does. Really good food at the Burrow too, which the Beaver doesn’t offer at all. Onwards.

Wilson said he could only guess that someone suggested Thirsty Beaver because Jagger would be able to drink in peace there, given its typically eclectic mix of patrons who would likely leave such a musical legend alone.

“Everybody’s used to it being an eclectic place,” Wilson said.

But Mick Jagger??

Wilson said his bartender that night has come in for some good-natured ribbing.

“C’mon, Hayley, the greatest rock ‘n’ roll legend of all time?”

Heh. Hayley is a friend too, as it happens.

Years ago, Wilson said, Eric Clapton visited the now-defunct Double Door Inn music venue in Charlotte.

Yep, he did. Remember that Double Door business, gang. You will be seeing that material again.

“And we got Mick Jagger, so I think we did all right.”

Retired Observer sports columnist Tom Sorensen devilishly replied with a reference to another Stones hit.

“@MickJagger A man of wealth and taste,” Sorensen wrote.

Known Tom for many years as well. He was a colleague and friend of the band’s manager, Mike Evans, before Mike inexplicably decided to ruin his life by up and quitting his cushy, well-remunerated Charlotte Disturber sinecure to wantonly ravage his bank balance, his liver, and his personal reputation via going into the music biz.

I swear, it’s beginning to seem like Old Home week up in here, ain’t it?

On to the Double Door. Clapton did indeed famously show up and play a set there back in 1982, after headlining a concert at the old Coliseum on Independence, I believe. Now, by the late 80s the Double Door Inn had forged a stellar reputation for itself as one of the premier stops on what you might call the chitlin’ circuit for old-school trad blues bands. Autographed band photos covering every wall testify to a roster of legendary alumni that really has to be seen to be believed: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown; Junior Walker; Levon Helm; JJ Cale; The Fabulous Thunderbirds; and even Stevie Ray Vaughan, to name but a few.

And, beginning in late 1989, the DDI also became the home base for a fledgling local RAB outfit yclept the Belmont Playboys. Owned and operated by a soft-spoken but savvy Greek feller name of Nick Karres, the place was blessed with a warm, clear, full-throated sound both onstage and off, so good I’d put it in the top two or three best out of all the places I’ve played. There was even a documentary movie made about the Dirty Floor, including footage from the final show before it shut down. Yes, the BPs are in it.

And now we come to it at long last. See, Jagger is by no means the only instance of world-renowned rock and roll royalty gracing a local institution on the QT. During the Southeastern leg of their Black Ice tour, a certain little band from Australia you may have heard of settled themselves in for a couple weeks hereabouts, putting out from CLT for several shows ranging from Raleigh down to ATL. And on their days off, the boys got into the habit of dropping in at a certain legendary blues venue in the late afternoon/early evening for the daily Jeopardy Happy Hour ritual to restore the tissues and recharge the batteries via quaffing a cold one or three amongst the handful of grizzled regulars.

I didn’t learn about AC/DC’s daily pilgrimage to the DDI until well after the fact, which enraged me so thorougly I immediately called Nick to scream sundry epithets in his ear, all based around the “WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU TELL ME…” theme, until I was hoarse and out of breath. I can’t remember any specifics of Nick’s response, other than a gruff laugh and a “Idunno,” which I see to this day in my mind’s eye accompanied by his characteristic apathetic shrug.

I don’t care about missing Mick’s visit, honestly. But missing the chance to kick casually back with Angus, Malcolm, and Brian to share a friendly tipple and a few road-dog stories frosts my nuts blue to this very day. I’ve told Nick again and again that I’ll never forgive him for it, and by God I mean it, too.

4

A near thing

Bill survives a close encounter with the “American” “health” “care” establishment, if only by the skin of his teeth.

The mental stress of dealing with the health care system plus worry that I might be dying of cancer, coupled with the physical stress of the fast/weightlifting/vertigo issues has pretty much flattened me for today, but I’m feeling better now, and hope to be back to normal tomorrow. Although my neck is as sore as if I’d been stabbed in the throat three or four times. Probably because I was stabbed in the throat three or four times.

Good LORD. Glad you lived to tell the tale, buddy.

2

By the numbers

Aesop contends that that’s how the Perfumed Princes are fucking up in their campaign to crush LTC Scheller for the heinous crime of speaking the ugly truth about them right out in front of God and everybody.

We read where some folks commenting are all doom-and-gloom worried about the future prospects of Lt. Col. Scheller, USMC.

Bitch, please.

As if.

The way you “protect” someone like this, with balls the size of church bells, is hand him a bayonet, and then get out of his way.

If they were smart, they’d simply drop all charges, separate him from service post-haste, and grant him a full pension, and hope he just goes off and plays golf. But they’re not that smart.

I hope he’s right about all that, I truly do, and in a just world he surely would be. Unfortunately, this is most definitely NOT such a world, nor anything even close. Which means that it’s no better than even-money odds that they’ll just quietly Epstein him, and hope nobody notices.

And that, my friends, will open a whole ‘nother can of worms, one they’re gonna enjoy even less than the one they have now. Read it all to find out how well THAT might work out for ’em.

Harbinger of doom update! Well, this tears it. The poor guy is well and truly cornholed now.

A growing number of conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill are rallying to the cause of a Marine lieutenant colonel jailed this week for his outspoken and repeated criticism of his superiors and what he said was their failure to take responsibility for mishandling the chaotic final days of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Yep, he’s definitely hosed. Any time “conservative lawmakers” declare themselves to be in your corner the fight is officially over, and you lost.

4

Stalin’s war, Stalin’s win

Reviewing a book that offers a different perspective on WW2.

The goals of the Western Allies in World War II were to defeat Hitler and prevent a hostile power from entrenching itself in Europe and Asia, threatening the freedom and survival of the West. From a narrow perspective, the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945 fulfilled this objective: it was a victory for the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies, and we celebrate V-E Day every May 8 and V-J Day on September 2. But for a large number of nations that fought against Berlin and Tokyo, at enormous sacrifice, 1945 is a dark year that ended one tyranny only to be replaced by another one, the Communist one, which was (and continues to be) no less vicious and in fact was much more lasting and pervasive. Stalin replaced Hitler. Or, to put it in the context of World War II, Stalin was the clear winner of that conflict. It was his war, and he got the most out of it.

This is the argument of a new book, Stalin’s War, by a prolific and excellent historian, Sean McMeekin of Bard College. The author is already well known, having written highly readable and incisive books exploring the role of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany in the origins of World War I. In his new work, he focuses on Stalin, his objectives, his tactics, his actions, and, above all, his ability to obtain from his Western counterparts everything (and more!) that he wanted. The book presents the story of Stalin’s success that brought an enormous human cost to his own people and to those who came under Communist domination, as well as an enduring geopolitical cost. Through this war, Stalin succeeded in anchoring Soviet power and influence over Eurasia, benefiting from the frailty of European powers. Germany was obviously reduced to rubble by 1945, but even the victorious powers, from France and the UK to the other smaller states across the continent, were mere shadows of their former selves. Stalin gained strategic real estate and the tools, looted from Europe or given to him by the United States, to turn Russia into an industrial superpower. The conditions for the Cold War were in place, and in the immediate aftermath of the war, the possibility that Stalin could become the master of Eurasia was not out of the question. And, for the U.S., victory in 1945 meant not a satisfying and prolonged age of peace, but the beginning of a new and massive investment in preserving its security and the stability threatened by the Soviet Union.

The story presented in such a way is not new, and its broad contours are accepted by most, except those who still see Communist ideology and the USSR as a benign progressive force or those who blame American post-war support of Western Europe for the Cold War. But McMeekin digs deeper and his goal is to change two pervasive myths. One presents Stalin as a paranoid dictator bumbling across the European chessboard, getting caught unprepared for Hitler’s aggressive intents, and then rising to the historic occasion and motivating his people to fight the “Great Patriotic War” to liberate Russia and the adjoining lands from the Nazis. In brief, a dictator to be sure, but a naive one with a great patriotic heart backed by a Russian nation willing to accept great sacrifices.

The other myth is of a strategically wise leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, skillfully making their moves across the world’s map, negotiating with a vast array of strategic partners (including Stalin) and organizing bold military actions that ultimately lead to the 1945 triumph. Neither myth, however, is entirely correct, as McMeekin brilliantly argues backed by abundant facts supplied through impeccable research.

After a look into Stalin’s acquisitive designs on Western Europe, all undone by Hitler’s doomed invasion of the USSR in 1941, we direct our attention still further Westward.

McMeekin then focuses on how the Western allies, Churchill but especially FDR, abetted Stalin’s ambitions. This part of the book is fascinating and depressing at the same time. In a nutshell, Stalin obtained from FDR more than he expected: territory, influence, and materiel. And he did not give anything in exchange for it because FDR and his advisors never asked him for it. For instance, FDR supported the Lend-Lease program, putting his friend Harry Hopkins in charge. Under this program of military aid, the United States supplied a massive amount of weapons, trucks, airplanes, tanks, foodstuff to the Soviet Union in the months of its greatest need, as German troops were driving deep into Russia while the vaunted Soviet armies were melting away. Without such aid, the USSR would have likely been unable to stop the German onslaught and certainly would have been incapable of mustering the resources necessary to push westward. Hence, in this moment there was a good strategic rationale for the American support of Stalin’s defensive efforts against Nazi Germany.

But the problem was that FDR—and Hopkins—went much further than simply buttressing a collapsing Soviet power. The most stunning mistake—a policy willfully pursued by FDR—was that Stalin was never asked for anything in exchange for this material aid. The United States had the upper hand because the Soviets were desperate for any help and would have paid a price for these goods. As McMeekin comments, FDR “could have asked any price: payment in cash, by loan, or in kind; political concessions inside Russia; or promises from Stalin of better behavior abroad, such as abandoning his spying operations in Washington or offering token support for the US-British war against Japan. Instead, the Americans simply gave and demanded nothing in return aside from a vague, nonbinding promise of loan repayment beginning five years after the war was over, at no interest.”

Such a naivete could have been the result of FDR’s belief in his personal capacity to persuade people. But, at best, FDR profoundly misunderstood Stalin, despite the evidence of Soviet actions and even of Stalin’s own words and behavior toward the US President. FDR thought that he could build goodwill with Stalin. As he put it, “I think that if I give him everything I can and ask for nothing in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.” This is the point where naivete became stupidity.

With certain classifications of Western liberal, the distinction between naivete and stupidity is so thin it’s not worth the bother of making. They’re conjoined twins, constantly shifting and bleeding over one into the other, staggering clumsily about like a dancer uncertain of his stage cues. Sooner or later, though, the Libtard can be relied upon to close this pointless ballet with both feet planted squarely on Stupid. In reality, though, is that he started there, and never ventured any meaningful distance from it. Read the rest for further details of Stalin’s willful humiliation of the hapless, grossly-overmatched clown Roosevelt, and what Uncle Joe’s deftly stolen victory ended up costing the entire world, in blood and treasure.

2

Political prisoner

We all knew it was coming. Which, far from quelling the anger out of fear of possible consequences, ought to stoke the fire from Hot, But Manageable right on up to Killing Rage.

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, the Marine officer whose meteoric rise to internet fandom began with a video criticizing military leadership over Afghanistan, is currently in the brig, his father told Task & Purpose.

“All our son did is ask the questions that everybody was asking themselves, but they were too scared to speak out loud,” said Stu Scheller Sr. “He was asking for accountability. In fact, I think he even asked for an apology that we made mistakes, but they couldn’t do that, which is mind-blowing.”

He said that his son is expected to appear before a military hearing on Thursday.

“They had a gag order on him and asked him not to speak,” the senior Scheller said. “He did, and they incarcerated him. They don’t know what to do with him.”
After this story was first published, the Marine Corps issued a statement confirming that Scheller has been sent to the brig.

“Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing,” said Capt.Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command. “The time, date, and location of the proceedings have not been determined. Lt. Col. Scheller will be afforded all due process.”

(After publication the Marine Corps confirmed that Scheller is accused of the following offenses under the UCMJ: Article 88: Contempt toward officials, Article 90: Willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer, Article 92: Failure to obey an order, and Article 133: Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.)

I am not a Marine, nor do I play one TV, but for me the charges break down like this:

  • On the second and third: Scheller is inarguably guilty as charged
  • On the fourth: The charge is not only spurious, but is in direct opposition to observable reality; Scheller is in truth the living, breathing embodiment of how an officer for whom integrity and courage are still more than just empty words ought to conduct himself
  • On the first: Guilty as charged, said guilt mitigated entirely by the simple fact that contempt, for almost any officer above the rank of Lt Colonel, is the only opinion of the miserable rumpswabs any honest, self-respecting man could possibly hold

Stipulated: in time of peace—more importantly, with a military whose flag-rank officer corps has NOT been corrupted stem to stern by the crippling toxins of political correctness, partisanship, and self-dealing—LTC Scheller’s defiance would amount to insubordination, and the harm done to respect for the chain of command would indeed warrant the harshest punishment.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the military and flag-rank officer corps we actually have. If it were, it’s doubtful in the extreme that Scheller would have felt the need to do what he did in the first damned place. To my way of thinking, the burden of criminality is properly on the shoulders of the reprobates **cough-cough Obama cough-cough** who purposefully perverted the higher-officer corps wholesale, and the ladder-climbing, ass-kicking scoundrels who acceeded to positions they were wholly unworthy of a result of said perversion.

It isn’t LTC Scheller who should be sitting in a cell awaiting trial and punishment. It’s his accusers. Scheller’s real crime was his courage, and his inability to just sit back and keep his mouth shut in the immediate presence of the brazen outrages, the raw treason, to which he was forced to bear witness. Yon says:

One who Surrenders to the Machine vs Warrior who Stands
LTC Scheller is essentially a prisoner of war at this point. Not by letter of the law, but in essence.

Scheller is the first POW in the unfolding civil war. A Marine officer taken by Marines.

Notice the narrator misses the point of self-sacrifice. It’s all about career.

The longer Scheller fights, the more support he gathers. The harder the war-losers punish Marine Scheller, the stronger this leader becomes. This true Marine can flip the script and suddenly outrank this tormentors through elected office, and/or power of the pen.

It’s only over if he quits. If Scheller goes Honey Badger, they are in for torn flesh.

I support this True Marine, Lieutenant Colonel Scheller. This Officer put his country first.

Indeed. The shameful attempt at a political lynching of this good and honorable Marine cannot stand. Every Real American has a personal obligation to meet the standard he so bravely and selflessly set to make damned sure that it doesn’t. Torn flesh is but a down-payment on the debts his tormentors have incurred.

8

No property, no rights

And no freedom, either.

In the West, the morality of the state has been determined by how much or how little it respects the basic rights of its citizens. During the Cold War this was a critical measure used to justify foreign policy. The American government claimed it was within its rights to overthrow South American governments that got too chummy with the Soviets because they would endanger the rights of their people. On the other hand, they would back anti-communist dictators because they were better than communists.

There was a lot of lying and dissembling on this issue, but the principle was important to Western governments, so they made a big show of it. In America, for example, this meant protecting property rights from the excesses of the state. As a practical matter, it meant the state had to prove they had good reason for violating your rights before the court would permit them from doing it. They had to get a warrant, for example, before tapping your phone or riffling through your papers.

Government is always a blunt instrument and men are not angels so to avoid office holders and bureaucrats from abusing the rights of the people they first had to demonstrate there was a compelling government interest in declaring your backyard a wetland or banning a certain activity. Put another away, it was the duty of the government to make the affirmative argument. Citizens did not have to justify their rights to exercise them. They were assumed.

Property is a useful metric in this regard because it is simple and the economic basis of Western society. Even in feudalism property rights were respected, because ownership was what made the system possible. The right to speak out or organize are up for debate to some degree, but the right to own the fruits of your labor is the starting point for social organization in the West. It is what makes communism alien and why it has always been the domain of outsiders and subversives.

The general violation of property rights is now the norm. The tech oligarchs, for example, strongly oppose private property. If they don’t like what you are saying on your website, they will steal your domain name. They will collude to limit your ability to hold a job or have a bank account. What used to be a sacred right of all people is now up for debate with an unelected oligarchical class as the judge and jury. What is yours is theirs and what is theirs is theirs and they own everything.

Today, the people in charge have no respect for the law or the concept of law, so their agents just do as they please. In fact, they take pride in trampling the rights of the people, because it pleases their masters. The goons prosecuting the January 6th protestors, for example, take a sadistic pleasure in the torment they are inflicting on the people caught in their trap. Their intentional cruelty has become a positional good, something that elevates them in the eyes of the oligarchs.

The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable document that is mostly remembered for the opening lines. Even though those lines have been abused by the very tyrants that now rule over us, the document is a remarkable expression of Western thought and Anglo-Saxon morality. After the long bill of indictment against the king, a list familiar today, there is this line. “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

The beauty of that line is that it qualifies the moral depravity of the tyrant by juxtaposing it against the nature of a free people. A people who sit idly by as their rulers trample their ancient rights are getting the government they deserve. A free people, in contrast,  must hold their prince to the highest moral standard. It is immoral for them to do otherwise, as it violates that which defines them as free people. Every tyrant issues his own death warrant to the free people he seeks to oppress.

True, dat. Or, as some fool or other recently put it: The bane of all tyrants, sooner or later, is tyranny itself. The thing is, it’s usually up to We The People to see to it that the tyrant’s self-issued death warrant is executed.

2

Despite everything, the heart of freedom is still beating

Two Tweets too good to resist swiping.


Red China? Sheeeit, Gov, Australia is making North Korea look like a bastion of liberty by comparison. The OzNazis have raised the bar on tyranny so high it may NEVER be exceeded. At least, I HOPE it won’t; I’ll probably end up disappointed on that. Thankfully, this next one provides a hopeful counterpoint.


Looks like at least some in Italy haven’t forgotten the lesson of Mussolini just yet.

1

It’s turtles lies, all the way down

Denninger blows the whole sordid mess all to hell and gone.

What was not proved was that Trump won. But what was proved was that there is no honest assertion that can be made that either of the two Presidential candidates in serious contention won. The margin of victory is within the margin of dispute and it has been proved that electronic records critical to validate what occurred throughout the election process were deliberately destroyed by persons(s) who had physical access to the systems in question, with at least one such person being allegedly identified by security camera footage.

There may well be more here — but what’s been discovered thus far and proved (and for which the evidence is now in the public domain) shows that:

  1. The election in Maricopa County for federal offices, including President, was not conducted in accordance with Federal Law.
  2. The results, based solely on the count of duplicated ballot envelopes (people who voted more than once), which exceeds the margin of victory for the Presidential Office, are not able to be confirmed since once duplicate ballots are removed from the envelopes it is impossible to identify them. Maricopa county claimed no such duplicates exist. We now know more than 17,000 in fact do exist and the envelopes still exist. What we cannot prove one way or another is whether the ballots inside those envelopes were counted and, if only one was counted, which one was counted. We thus have no way to know who won.
  3. The persons running the election have made materially false statements on an intentional basis about the equipment never being connected to the Internet.
  4. The persons running the election both deliberately destroyed data related to the election in direct violation of Federal Law and, as a separate and distinct offense, attempted to cover up that destruction and identification of the person who did so. This act, standing alone, demonstrates intent to tamper with the election results.
  5. The vast majority of said deliberately destroyed data was not recoverable and likely is not recoverable.

By forensic evidence, not presented and unrebutted, the outcome of the election in Arizona was falsely certified.

What’s the remedy for this?

That’s a separate debate — but that this one county alone did in fact corrupt their election, did so intentionally, and did so in such a fashion that at this time it not possible to know what the result actually was is not subject to reasonable dispute.

It never really was, in any realistic or honest sense. As I said the other day, though, it STILL doesn’t matter. What DESPERATELY needs to be owned up to at this point is that there is no longer ANY possibility of “reasonable dispute,” because our adversary is not amenable to reason, and is supremely uninterested in “dispute” by means of honest, respectful debate. Don’t get me wrong here; “dispute” there will be, for sure and certain, but it ain’t gonna be what anybody would ever call polite. What it’s gonna be is bloody, brutal, and unrestrained. Hey, that’s obviously the way they want it, so that’s the way it has to be. Just this once, I am all in favor of giving them what they want—in fucking spades, all they want and then some, until they choke on it.

Happily, a stolen election isn’t the only sordid mess Karl tosses a fragger into the middle of.

Once Upon A Time…*
in a not-so-tiny nation called Spain, a nursing home had a nasty virus get into it.

It was March of 2020. The nasty virus was called Covid-19. And this nursing home, like so many others all over the world, was full of elderly, morbid people. The mean age of residents was 85 and 48% were over 80 years old. It was a killing field, like so many others…..

Within three months 100% of the residents had caught the virus. Not presumed to have — proved to have.

How do we know this? Because almost every one of them seroconverted. All but three out of 84 of them, to be precise.

Think about that last sentence for a second.

Almost every one of them seroconverted.

How’s that possible? Many of them died, right? You can’t seroconvert if you’re dead.

No. Not only did nearly none die none went to the hospital either because they rapidly figured out how to stop the virus from killing people–and did exactly that.

You would have thought this would have been all over the news.

Nah, not at all. Their primary interest is in making sure news like this is covered up, not in reporting it frankly and objectively so Duh Peepul can know the truth. That’s what makes them “journalists,” see.

Read all of these two posts, natch, and kudos to Karl for his usual fine work on ’em.

1
1

Generals, then and now

Right from the opening paragraph, this article is proof that some things never change.

On September 1, 1939, Brigadier George C. Marshall took the oath of office as the 15th U.S. Army chief of staff, a post he held until November 1945. When the ceremony ended, General Marshall confided to his aide de camp, “There is enough dead wood in the Army’s officer corps to light several forest fires.”

Marshall was more right than he knew. If the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps fought shoulder to shoulder with the French Army in 1940, American arms would have suffered the same fate as the French and British Armies—total defeat at the hands of the German Wehrmacht. This fact was made painfully obvious 14 months after the Second World War broke out.

In February 1943, 11,000 German troops smashed through the 30,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army’s II Corps at Kasserine Pass. The U.S. commander, Major Gen. Lloyd Fredendall, a swaggering blowhard, was relieved and sent home. It was not the last time that a cigar-chewing imitation of a real general would fail in action against the German onslaught, but the experience strengthened Marshall’s intolerance of general officer failure in action.

Today, the task of finding senior military leaders with character, competence and intelligence is immeasurably harder than it was in Marshall’s day. Under the Bush and Obama administrations, the American media’s adulation for four stars transformed general officers such as Petraeus, McChrystal, Mattis, Allen, and Austin into instant celebrities.

Four stars now automatically become part of a mutual general officer admiration society, that cheers even mediocre performance in general officers chosen for high command, because, like “made men” in the Mafia, senior leaders agree not to turn on their peers. Eliminating failed general officers, even when failure is found out the hard way in action, is deemed dangerous to a promotion system based on nepotism that presents itself as infallible.

Political leaders are of no help.

Quite the opposite, I’d say, of course and as always.

The point is that General Mark Milley is not an isolated example. He’s the product of an environment that has existed for nearly 30 years, if not longer. Behind Mark Milley stand another two dozen four stars ready to take his job that are indistinguishable from him in their attitudes and career patterns.

Is the situation hopeless? History answers with an emphatic “No.”

After the defeat of the U.S. Army’s II Corps, General Sir Harold Alexander, Eisenhower’s British deputy, commented on Fredendall to his American allies, “I’m sure you must have better men than that.” Eisenhower agreed. Major Gen. Patton, a man who but for the outbreak of WWII would have retired as an obscure cavalry colonel, replaced Fredendall.

As the author says, the correct answer to the question “is the situation hopeless” is “an emphatic ‘No,'” and always will be. As such, the question is immaterial. The question that matters is: Are we up to the challenge of doing everything required of us to prevail over the exigencies that make the situation APPEAR hopeless? That question is strictly pass/fail, and will NOT be graded on a curve.

Update! This might look to be unrelated at first glance, but I assure you it ain’t.

Mike responds to a post of mine from yesterday, and finishes with:

Yes, the whole system is rotten to the core, to the point that it can never be fixed or restored via traditional, peaceful means. AS ZMan put it, a system that is immune to voting is not going to be fixed by more voting.

I agree with this, of course. And while my assessment may sound bleak, I still believe it to be accurate. People, especially patriotic Americans, have been willing to swallow damned near anything to avoid admitting to themselves just how bleak the situation actually is. Why? Because if they do admit it, they then are face to face with the next question: What the hell do we do about it?

And that is a very painful question, because there are no good, painless answers. Oh, sure, you can gargle a big glass of normality bias and pretend that voting gooderer and harderer will fix things. Or that some deep counter-Qspiracy is going to defeat the Ruling Class and its Deep State. But that, of course, is simply denying the reality you have to admit and confront in order to deal with it on a personal basis going forward. That’s the thing, see? It’s going to hit you personally, whether you want it to or not. It won’t go away just because you ignore it, or tell yourself it’s not really what it looks like.

Read on to find out just how very related it is. In fact, the thing that sometimes makes me sit up a little straighter and rub my eyes in awe and wonder is how deeply interconnected all the issues confronting us are—yet another of those things that, once seen, cannot be UNseen.

4

A bleg

So…anybody out there know anything about Wish.com? I somehow stumbled upon ’em in reference to this big sale on Benchmade knives they seem to be having. After a cursory lookover of the website I downloaded their app and started poking around a little, seeing as how 1) I’ve always been a knife guy; II) Benchmade in particular has for years now been my edged weapon of choice, and C) I’m always searching for a bargain.

But these prices make “bargain” look positively exorbitant. I mean, a North Fork folder, stabilized-wood grips, not my preferred style but whatevs, usually seen at between two-three hundo, on offer at Wish for…hmm, lemme see now…

HMMMM

TWENTY-THREE FUCKING BUCKS?!?

Or how about, say, something in a fixed-blade? Sturdy, reliable, handy for all kinds of jobs; one can never have too many of those around, and the only one I currently own is a gorgeous Arkansas Toothpick-style blade, custom made for me on the cheap by a local knifemaker (BEWARE: SEVERE DIGRESSION AHEAD) who worked as a night security guard at the old NCNB building downtown, one of my dailies when I was working for Airborne Express. I got to know the guy, name of Bob, quite well over several years; night shift, for him and me both, was decidedly lacking in the frenetic pace of activity seen during the daytime hours. So most nights, we had plenty of leisure to just relax and chew the fat for a while. Which, once he figured out I was the same kind of dyed in the wool blade enthusiast he was himself, we did.

Eventually, he offered to run me up a rig of my own design from the ground up—with hand-tooled ginyoowine leather boot-sheef to match, no less—for the low, low, fire-sale price of only 90 smackeroos (any fellow cut ‘n’ slash folks out there will know very well just what a steal that was). Needless to say, I jumped all over the deal with all feet and hands. If I recall correctly, I ran a pitcher of that purty thing here on CF not all that long ago…let me just rummage around in the Media folder and see if I can…ohhh yeah, here t’is:

You can’t tell too good from the pic, but the haft is some kind of exotic, rare South American wood, can’t remember what it’s called, which is naturally blue in color. The blue has darkened and deepened a lot over the years, but still retains a much lighter hue along the grain that makes for a lovely, stripey contrast I’ve never seen the like of. Blade is double-edged–ie, a small sword, in keeping with the Arkansas Toothpick definitional standard–and full tang. Heft and balance are perfect, as you would expect, and the blade is honed to such a fine edge I once sliced the tip of a finger off while cleaning and polishing it when I had let my attention momentarily wander—an embarrassing knife-noob fuckup I have NOT repeated since, and won’t again. I didn’t even know I’d done it till I saw all that blood beginning to smear along the blade’s entire length, upon which remarakable discovery a great gobbet of fingertip slipped slowly off the cutting edge and plopped sickeningly to the floor at my feet. Never have tried this knife as a thrower, which I’m inexperienced, untrained, and indifferent with/to anyhoo and so try to stay away from.

So where were we? Oh right, checking Wish listings for prices on Benchmade fixed-blades. Here we have a Nimravus dagger-style, tactical nylon sheath, aluminum alloy grips, asking price TWENTY WHOLE DOLLARS?!? SRSLY???

COME ON, MAN!!!!

Okay, I hate to go all gimlet-eyed cynical and suspicious-like here, I really do. My natural inclination is to be more the trusting, optimistic, and respectful type. I’ve always been a guy who prefers to assume the best of people, until they give me a good reason not to. All the same, though, I also have no desire to be a sucker or a mark, and I do NOT react at all well to being played for one.

I’ve never heard about any fly-by-nighter outfits daring to produce el-cheapo Benchmade knockoffs out there, which damned sure doesn’t mean there ain’t none. Given Benchmade’s long-established rep for quality in materials, design, and workmanship—all the moreso given its renown for NOT being excessively gentle with its pricing—it would take one ballsy sumbitch to even attempt it. But these days, who knows.

In the case of the fixed-blade linked above, the merchant is something yclept “China Knife,” which I think might possibly provide something of a minor clue as to what might really be going on here. I can tell you for certain that I have never, EVER come across ANY legit Benchmade product of ANY kind, not even a wee small whetstone, being sold that cheaply. So it seems to me these impostures can no-how no-way be on the up and up, which to me means same-same for Wish itself. Thoughts, anyone?

22

Organization Men

Brandon Smith offers some ideas on how one might go about this thing.

There is a simple fact that must be understood when it comes to the fight for liberty: Such a fight cannot be won by lone individuals. Freedom requires organized resistance and it does not matter how many millions of people stand against an authoritarian regime, if they are completely isolated from each other they WILL lose. It’s a guarantee.

Actually, I’m kinda conflicted on that. Admittedly, humans seem to be genetically predisposed to create organizations and hierarchical leadership structures to run them. In this context, though, organizing at anything above squad- or cell-level numbers will also create infiltration and surveillance/intel-gathering opportunities, among other highly undesirable failure points.

Many of us are already clamoring about the need to organizate, and expressing great frustration that no inspiring Great Man has yet appeared to lead Patriots into battle, then on to ultimate victory. I don’t hold with any of that myself. When the time is right and the need for him is apparent, Team LIberty will find the leader it needs readily enough. Until then, such a person will only make himself a target, a resource whose usefulness the Enemy will identify and exploit posthaste. Unsurprisingly Brandon is smart and experienced enough to know it.

It is important to understand the difference between a Lexington Bridge moment and a Fort Sumter moment – During Lexington Bridge, the revolutionaries took action to stop a British detachment from arresting colonial leaders and confiscating rifles and powder stores. The British were in the midst of an undeniable attempt to disarm and snuff out the resistance. At Fort Sumter, the Confederate attack was in response to an attempted resupply of the fort itself; which made sense strategically but looked like an act of pure aggression to the wider public. The concept of states rights (more prominent in the minds of the confederates than the issue of slavery) fell by the wayside.

Eventually tyranny has to put boots on the ground. A totalitarian system can function for a time on color of law and implied threats, but it will crumble unless it is able to establish a physical presence of force. Once those jackboots touch soil in a visible way and the agents of the state try to expand oppressive measures, rebels then have a free hand to disrupt them or bring them down. But this only works if there are objectives and enough decentralization to prevent misdirection of the movement.

Some organization is essential. It cannot be avoided. All the “Gray Men” and secret squirrel preppers out there that think they are going to simply weather the storm in isolation and pop out of their bug-out locations to rebuild are suffering from serious delusions. I can’t help but think of that moment in ‘Lord Of The Rings’ when the Ents refuse to organize to fight against the invading orcs. Pippen suggests to Merry that the problem is too big for them and that they should go back to the Shire to wait out the war. Merry laments:

“The fires of Isengard will spread. And the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone. There won’t be a Shire, Pippin.”

If this fight is not pursued now, there will be no world worth coming back to, even if one was able to successfully hide from it. There will be a “new world order” as the globalists like to call it. There will be nothing left of freedom.

So, organization must be accomplished, and it should be built at the local level. This is far more important than any dreams of a national organization, at least for now. There is no one we can trust to lead such a nationwide revolt, and that includes political leaders like Donald Trump.

And on that last, I feel no conflict or uncertainty whatever—Brandon is one hundred percent correct, right down the line. The dilemna we face at present is a thorny one indeed, of which the “who do ya trust, who do ya trust” issue is one of the largest and sharpest. Yes, you’ll want to read all of it. Delve into the comments too; as is his wont, Brandon pops up there throughout, and the insights he provides there are every bit as not-to-be-missed as the article itself.

Since Brandon was clever enough to bring up Lord Of The Rings as a metaphor, and since I already recommended his comments section, one of the posters therein suggests this next as a sort of companion piece, one whose aptness regarding the current contretemps will have any Tolkien fan nodding his head in quiet satisfaction.* The opening sets the stage:

“Do you not yet understand? My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you.”
The Lord of the Rings, Loc. 996
 
“‘Good, good!’ cried Farmer Cotton. ‘So it’s begun at last! I’ve been itching for trouble all this year, but folks wouldn’t help.”
The Lord of the Rings, Loc. 1008

Introduction
There are many things to be learned in Middle Earth, and this would include things that we all once knew, but have since forgotten. And the things we have forgotten fall into two categories. We have forgotten some of the things we have already completely lost, and we have also forgotten the foundation of some of the remaining things we (for some reason) still have. We have forgotten what is long gone, and we have forgotten what might still preserve our remaining good.

In The Lord of the Rings, the hobbits of the Shire, protected as they were by the Rangers, took all their peace and security for granted. All that peace and security was somehow their birthright. It was just how things were, of necessity. It would just continue, right? All by itself, isn’t that correct? Well, no.

In other words, they forgot the basis of their security and safety long before they actually lost their security and safety. And this meant that once they were in trouble, and knew they were in trouble, they were leaderless and didn’t know the way out. When despotic and irrational rule takes over any people, the corruption is centralized and organized, while the unhappiness with the corruption is decentralized and not organized at all. The corrupt ones are organized and have a plan, and those who suffer under their ministrations haven’t even thought about a plan.

But once the hobbits had that necessary leadership—which came in the form of Merry and Pippin, and Frodo and Sam—they found they had hidden reserves. These hobbits of the Shire found they had hidden reserves because they were rallied by those four adventurous hobbits who had found out earlier about their hidden reserves.

I recently finished reading The Lord of the Rings (yet again), and the penultimate chapter is The Scouring of the Shire—which to my mind is the most satisfying episode in the whole trilogy, and as you well know, that is saying something.

But this time through, it was different. It struck me, reading through that chapter, that there were numerous things that Americans of our generation really need to learn from this. And so I have assembled some of those lessons in a reasonable order, and have made some observations about what the hobbits learned. I was astonished at how much their situation was parallel to ours.

He’s perfectly right to be, I couldn’t agree more: the parallels are in fact nothing short of astonishing. Once you’ve seen them, it’s hard to imagine how you ever missed them in the first place. Then again, a certain timeless relevance is characteristic of all truly great literature—one of the traits that defines great literature, actually. The above excerpt ought to be enough to whet your appetite for more, I believe. It’s a long ‘un, but well worth your time and attention, whether you’re a devotee of Tolkien’s books (I definitely am, since the age of about, oh, thirteen or thereabouts) or not.

*NOTE: That would be the books, I mean, not the movies. Peter Jackson’s magisterial film adaption left the Scouring of the Shire chapters that close ROTK out of the third movie altogether, an omission that baffled some and angered others. Personally, I wasn’t bothered by it, since he had already made such a bang-up job of cramming in everything else. If Jackson had included it, he would have needed FOUR movies to do it, not three. Just thought I’d mention it, since that last article uses the Scouring as its springboard and central focus.

7

Never trust a liar

Y’all may have noticed that I’ve had very little to say regarding the various recounts, audits, and what-have-you that have been grinding endlessly on in two or three states. There’s more than one reason for that, but mostly they all come down to one thing: even if they produced iron-clad, incontrovertible proof that the 2020 “election” was stolen—which, we all already know full well that it was—well, what then? Is there a man alive so hopelessly naive as to imagine that, in acknowledgment of these proofs, Biden would bow his head in shame and contrition; mumble an incoherent, rambling apology for the “error”; then pack his grip and stumble on back to Delaware?

Of course not; the very idea of it is ridiculous. No, the “election” was indeed fraudulent; Biden is “****president****”, for whatever that’s still worth and whatever it still means to anybody; and it’ll stay that way a few more months, maybe a year, until he finally croaks and Cumala the Willie Wanker is sworn in. That’s all there is to it. If we truly do want this issue properly addressed, we’re going to have to do it ourselves. There ain’t but just the one way to do that, and we all already know what it is.

That said, though, there’s also this:

Biden Breaking Bad | Kunstler
Up this afternoon (Friday) for instance: the results of the Maricopa, AZ, election audit. The New York Times has declared a preliminary draft of the audit “a cap-gun ending to an inquiry whose backers hinted would turn up a cannonade of fraud.” Their conclusion: “Joe Biden” won the 2020 election fair-and-square. That would be momentous if it were true, but is it? Or is it just the juke of a player that typically runs zig-zags through the facts? The Times certainly has an interest in, shall we say, getting ahead of the story in its never-ending quest to control the narrative — as opposed to delivering actual news fit to print. I’m standing by to sort out the jokers from the face-cards.

Basically I see this NYT piece as battlefield prep, and the revealing of the Official Line as to regarding the Maricopa Audit.

In my experience, the audit could show that half of all of Biden’s votes in Maricopa Country were fraudulent in some way or other, but the NYT and its harem of emasculated “journalism” outlets would repeat in unison, “Proof positive that “Joe Biden” won fair and square.”

Unfortunately, I’ve been worried for quite a while that the Maricopa audit results would not be nearly as clear cut or explosive as we’ve been promised.

We’ve seen a nearly unbroken string of “selling the sizzle,” but when the plate arrives it turns out to be “where’s the beef?”

We’ll know more this afternoon, but my early hunch is that the “sizzle” will turn out to be more of a fizzle.

Bill waxes even more depressed after that already-bleak assessment:

UPDATE:

Arizona audit draft report confirms Biden beat Trump in 2020
A monthslong hand recount of Maricopa County’s 2020 vote confirmed that President Joe Biden won and the election was not “stolen” from former President Donald Trump, according to early versions of a report prepared for the Arizona Senate.
 
The three-volume report by the Cyber Ninjas, the Senate’s lead contractor, includes results that show Trump lost by a wider margin than the county’s official election results. The data in the report also confirms that U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly won in the county.

If this turns out to be accurate, the entire “Trump lost in 2020 because the election was fraudulently stolen” narrative will collapse and blow away within 24 hours.

At least among everybody but the truest of true believers.

Don’t buy into it. The NYT is indeed propagandizing, prepping the battlespace and shoring up the morale of their drooltard Leftist audience. But it’s all smoke…no, let’s just be completely frank here: it’s nothing more than a steaming, stinking pile of their usual horseshit lies.

Ignore the MSM: Here’s What the 2020 Maricopa County Election Audit Actually Says
“The partisan review of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election found a vote count nearly identical to what the county had previously reported,” CNN reported. Like other liberal outlets, CNN focused on the results of the hand-recount part of the audit. As we know, hand recounts may account for slight discrepancies in counting but do not address irregularities or potentially illegally cast ballots.

So, let’s look into what the audit actually says.

By all means, let’s—not so much because this report or any other is going to change a goddamned thing, but just because having a look-see for ourselves is precisely what the NYT, CNNBCCBPBS, and the rest of the Usual Suspects™ would infinitely prefer us NOT do.

Follows, a bullet-point list from the draft report’s summary, and then this.

The audit team faults Maricopa County officials for not cooperating with the audit, which would have resolved many of these obstacles. “By the County withholding subpoena items, their unwillingness to answer questions as is normal between auditor and auditee, and in some cases actively interfering with audit research, the County prevented a complete audit,” the summary explains. “This did not stop the primary goal of offering recommendations for legislative reform to the Arizona Senate, but it did leave many questions open as to the way and manner that the 2020 General Election was conducted. As a result, while many areas of concern were specifically identified, our full audit results validating the 2020 General Election are necessarily inconclusive.”

While the media is claiming that the audit report confirms Biden’s victory, it does not. “There are sufficient discrepancies among the different systems that, in conjunction with some of our findings, suggest that the delta between the Presidential candidates is very close to the potential margin‐of‐error for the election,” the audit summary explains.

Why do these matter? Because, according to the state-certified results, Joe Biden barely won the state by a 10,457-vote margin. The tiny margin of victory in the state-certified results means that these discrepancies are very troubling. There were 42,727 impacted ballots ranked as “high” or “critical” severity—that’s four times the certified margin of victory. If you include “medium” severity discrepancies, there were 53,214 impacted ballots—more than five times the certified margin of victory. Overall, there were 57,734 impacted ballots.

These findings don’t prove fraud, but certainly demonstrate the potential for fraud. And these impacted ballots have not been vetted.

So, has Joe Biden’s victory been proven? Not in the least. The truth is, we’ll never know the truth about how many ballots were impacted. Of course, the mainstream media knows this, which is why, deep down in CNN’s report about the audit, it laments that the draft report “shows that Cyber Ninjas and their subcontractors are still seeking ways to cast doubt on the election,” pointing to the thousands of ballots flagged.

The bottom line: The number of ballots impacted by discrepancies far exceeds Biden’s margin of victory in the state. Both sides of this debate will claim the report validates their position, but in truth, without proper vetting of the impacted ballots, we’ll never know if the election results were legitimate.

The boldfaced bit is the main takeaway from the whole circle-jerk: WE WILL INDEED NEVER KNOW—KNOW FOR ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY CERTAIN, BEYOND ANY DOUBT—WHETHER THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN. Which is NOT the same thing, mind, as saying that we don’t already know well enough.

Election fraud is generally acknowledged to be an extremely difficult thing to prove conclusively; with an electorate as large as ours, as well as a specific power-mad party long accustomed to swindling its way to “victory” without consequence, it becomes almost a practical impossibility. There are myriad ways of stealing paper-ballot elections, which provide the most reliable results. Throw electronic voting machines into the mix and you almost guarantee widespread fraud. Mail-in ballots, with (ahem) flexible deadlines for submission? Stop it, you’re killing me over here.

Further eroding the already-thin hope of establishing the 2020 theft to the courtroom “beyond REASONABLE doubt” standard are some simple facts, among them: the voting machines have long since been reset and/or otherwise tampered with; questionable ballots have been disposed of and/or destroyed; security cam documentation of at-best suspicious activity in swing-state counting rooms has been erased, and more yet, including but not limited to:

…Arizona Senate Audit: Dominion Machines Contained Non-Maricopa County Data — From South Carolina and Washington State

…ARIZONA AUDIT: 9,589 EXCESS Mail-in Ballot Envelopes Counted by Maricopa County, BLANKS Verified and Approved

…Huge Crowds, Armed Militia Surround Arizona Capitol Amid Election Audit Results

…‘Decertify!’: Trump Supporters Explode After Seeing What’s Actually in Arizona Election Audit Results

…Arizona Auditors Say 335% More ‘Bad Signatures’ Found Than Maricopa County Initially Reported

…Doug Logan from Cyber Ninjas Speaks After Dr. Shiva – Uncovers Additional 57,000 Issues (Not Counting Shiva’s 17,000 Issues)

…Photoshopped Ballots? Arizona Auditors Say ‘Verified and Approved’ Stamp Mysteriously Present Behind Signature Blocks

…Dr. Shiva at AZ Senate Hearing: Over 17,000 Total Duplicate Ballots — Votes By Those Who Voted More Than Once in Arizona — 1.5 Times Biden’s Winning Margin

All this dubious activity, remember, from an audit in just one county, in one just one state.

In short, what we have here is typically referred to in criminal-justice circles as “a preponderance of evidence” strongly suggesting systemic jiggery-pokery, a preponderance which in turn strongly suggests its occurance in several states, if not all of ’em. It all makes the MFM’s transparent and predictable stab at nudging public opinion towards bland acceptance of the “Biden won!” lie is risible.

And none of it matters, not in the least. Here’s what does: THEY’RE LIARS. We KNOW they’re liars. That’s as solid a fact as facts come, no more worth discussing further than the proposition that, say, water is wet. That sticking your hand into the heart of a roaring fire is a VERY bad idea. That no matter how furiously you flap your arms, you are not going to fly yourself to a gentle landing after jumping off a cliff. The NYT, CNN, MSDNC, Uniparty politicians, Deep State bureauticks, ALL of them—LIARS. They have confirmed it again and again and again, not just in the context of fraudulent “elections,” but on EVERY issue.

So why in the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed world would any of us believe them NOW? Or, really, EVER AGAIN? About anything at all?

I urge you, one and all: don’t. Just don’t do it. Ignore them instead; pay not a moment’s heed to a word out of their lying mouths. Above all, do NOT allow them the slightest influence over your opinions, your beliefs, or your actions.

Yes, the 2020 “election” was stolen. Yes, American “elections” in general are in no way free, fair, or honest; they haven’t been in years, if they ever were. Yes, participating in them is pure futility, utterly pointless. Yes, the whole system is rotten to the core, to the point that it can never be fixed or restored via traditional, peaceful means. AS ZMan put it, a system that is immune to voting is not going to be fixed by more voting.

The classic, cynical old slogan that holds “If voting could change anything, it would be illegal” has never been more factual or relevant than it is today. It also applies to audits. Biden will be stumbling, bumbling, and mumbling around the White House—just as the overarching charade will continue to grind on—for exactly as long as we put up with it…and not a minute longer.

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“Peaceful protest has failed”

It had to be tried—it was right and JUST that it be tried, which is a Good Thing and not a Bad Thing—just as all the other preliminary steps did. Even though some of us fully expected each step to fail in its turn, they were by no means a waste of time and effort. As I’ve insisted all along: this is a process, not an event. Although in the early stages bloodshed and combat may arguably have been avoidable, in my view they are now inevitable; once the process has progressed beyond a certain point, it can no longer be stopped—by anyone on either side of it.

So now, we move on to the next step.

Peaceful protests have just about run their course. On Monday a few hundred construction workers turned on their Union bosses for selling them out to big Pharma. Today the mob may turn on police, media or the Government.

So far the lying press have made a big meal whenever a policeman has been bruised when accidentally knocked over by people trying to avoid being pepper sprayed, trampled on by a horse or avoiding being shot with rubber bullets. On Saturday a few police were bruised all at the same time as the crowd broke through their lines. Yet it was only the police themselves who took the time to deliberately hurt people when they were already on the ground. None of the mob actively attacked the police.

The anger and violence on display against the CFMEU shows us that the peaceful protestors are about to be replaced by the angry mob.

I can guarantee you that no one who has been to any of the freedom rallies over the last year, would have been at the CFMEU headquarters throwing bottles and smashing windows. These are the people who played by the rules, didn’t care what was going on politically, as long as they could get by. These were physical men, happy to do physical work and not concern themselves with the world as long as they were free to provide for their families without interference.

But betray this kind of man, don’t expect him to write to the newspaper, bitch on social media or call a lawyer. When his blood is up, nothing will cool it down again until his rage has run its course.

These are the men who will be coming to protests from now on. If these men see a couple of pigs throw an old lady to the ground and then follow up and pepper spray her, don’t expect them to just pull out their phones and call them names. Expect blood.

While I fully share the author’s horror and dread of what is surely to come, I must also say this: Shouldn’t there be blood? What can be the moral argument for turning the other cheek yet again, when the authorities are guilty of committing the atrocities—NOT an overstatement, NOT hyperbole—he cites above, the ones I railed about myself a few nights ago? Is there really no point at which meeting violence with violence is to be deemed appropriate?

The days of people like me giving nice uplifting speeches to nice peaceful people is over. Nice people never change anything. I have failed. We have failed. History must repeat as history inevitably always does.

I do not want violence, I do not encourage it, I will not incite it. I will not initiate it. I simply know from history, that I cannot stop it. It is almost upon us. Be prepared.

I should mention the other incidents Stephen mentions above, I think.

Melbourne Australia Police and Riot Squads Fire Upon Peaceful Protestors While Media Frame COVID Anti-Lockdown Protests as Domestic Extremists
On day three of the Melbourne labor union protests against the brutal COVID lock-downs and forced mRNA genetic experiments, the Victorian government decided to open fire upon the peaceful protestors. The police triggered a ‘no-fly zone’ in the Melbourne metropolitan area to stop media from using their helicopters to record the protests and violent police activity.

While the official motive given by police for the media ban was to block protestors from knowing where the thousands of police were amassing; the background issue of the government wanting to keep the Australian people from seeing police open fire upon their own citizens is transparently obvious. Americans would be wise to pay attention to all facets of how the Australian government is moving violently against their own citizens.

As we have seen in the U.S, there is an alarming alignment between the operatives of the Australian government and the media stenographers who willingly push a “violent extremist” narrative in order to downplay the brutal police tactics being deployed against ordinary working class Victorians. As you watch the first video below, it is well worth remembering these are the same Melbourne police units who took a knee during last years Black Lives Matter protests in Melbourne.

Thousands of heavily outfitted and well-armed jackboots -with armor plated MRAP vehicles in support- confronted the protest groups throughout the Melbourne metro area. The police deployments forced the groups to assemble at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance where a stand-off took place between the protestors and thousands of police units surrounding them. Once they had the protestors surrounded, the police began tightening the perimeter, until they eventually opened fire with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The riot units were essentially shooting trapped fish in a barrel, while secondary units moved in from the perimeter to arrest those targeted. It is ironic this video was filmed at Victoria’s national memorial honoring the service and sacrifice of Australians in war and peacekeeping.

As you can see from the video on the scene, the protesting group was non violent. The police jackboot tactics however, were extremely confrontational…and all of this is under the premise of “protecting public health and safety.” Think about it…

The situation in Australia has surpassed the merely abominable, and has become well and truly unendurable. But Americans are in no position to indulge in any smugness or condescension over the Aussie plight. Being well along the path to tyranny and total subjugation ourselves, the distinction between us is one not of kind but of degree, and a woefully small degree at that. Sad to say, Oz’s troubles aren’t a warning to us, not anymore. They’re a preview.

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