Brilliant! – Page 80

RIP Christopher Plummer

Posted on February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 by Mike

An obit in the mufti of another stellar SteynMusic post.

This week’s song comes by way of multiple requests. Christopher Plummer died on Friday, after three-quarters of a century as an acclaimed actor. That’s to say, his first great turn was as a seventeen-year-old Mr Darcy in the 1946 Montreal High School production of Pride and Prejudice, a performance which was sufficiently striking to catch the eye of the Montreal Gazette‘s drama critic, Herbert Whittaker. Master Plummer was born into a distinguished lineage – the great-grandson of Canada’s third prime minister Sir John Abbott and a cousin of Nigel Bruce (Watson to Basil Rathbone’s Holmes) – and was thinking of becoming a concert pianist until he saw Olivier in Henry V. On screen, he had perhaps the most spectacular final decade of any veteran actor, becoming the oldest Oscar winner at the age of eighty-two for Beginners, and indeed, as Steve Sailer points out, earning almost half of all the Best Supporting Actor nominations ever given to octogenarians. A year ago, alas, his very last film, Knives Out, completely wasted his talents.

And yet, and yet… As he had known for over half-a-century, the very first line of every single TV and radio obit would be that he was the guy who played Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. In the only contact I had with him, back in the Nineties, he was mature enough to appreciate that it was the film that made him a global star but also sufficiently irked to bemoan that he was most famous for an anomaly rather than for what he did, brilliantly, for seven decades. Sure enough, on Friday’s news bulletins, the anchors announced his passing and there’d be a little clip of him, with his guitar, warbling “Edelweiss”.

The only problem is that that isn’t Christopher Plummer singing, but Bill Lee, a versatile playback singer whose voice was dubbed in for “Edelweiss” and “Something Good”. You can hear Mr Lee’s other vocal work in South Pacific, The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins and many more.

This lovely song’s backstory is quite a good one in its own right. For one thing, “Edelweiss” was the very last lyric the legendary Oscar Hammerstein ever penned, written as he was dying from cancer.

Not for the first time, Hammerstein had done too good a job. Just as his “Ol’ Man River” for Show Boat is assumed by many to be an authentic Negro spiritual, so “Edelweiss” is assumed to be an authentic Austrian folk song. Not so. In both cases, a great craftsman manufactured them to solve a structural problem with the storytelling. But he did it so well that they have become for real what they were only intended to simulate. Some years ago “Edelweiss” was played at the White House, at a state dinner for Austria’s President Kirschschlager, and everyone but the Austrians stood up for the national anthem. Actually, no. The current Austrian anthem is “Land der Berge, Land am Strome”, and the only official anthem by Rodgers & Hammerstein is their title number for their very first show, which serves as the state song of Oklahoma. In a curious example of how the lines between reality and showbusiness blur, among the guests at that White House banquet was the elderly Maria von Trapp – not Julie Andrews, not Mary Martin, but the real Baroness von Trapp.

Hammerstein never lived to see his last lyric’s greatest success. He knew he was in pain and he figured out why (the truth about his condition had been kept from him by his partner and family; as his son William explained, “Because of the kind of person he was, and the super-positive attitude he had towards life, we decided not to tell him. Because it wouldn’t have done him any good”—M). Not long after The Sound Of Music opened, he went to see his doctor and demanded to be told the truth about his condition. That day, he had a lunch appointment with Richard Rodgers, and told his composing partner what the other man already knew. His doctor had offered him three alternatives: another operation, which would be painful and could never cure the cancer; a trip to Washington for a new experimental treatment which would also be painful and temporary; or he could do nothing except enjoy the time he had left with his family at their home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Rodgers asked him which option he would choose. “I’m just going down to Doylestown,” said Hammerstein, “and stay on the farm until I die.”

At the end of lunch, two sober middle-aged men rose, shook hands and parted.

Rodgers recalled that, during their conversation, they’d been interrupted by a gentleman from a few tables away. He was visiting New York from the Midwest and asked if they’d mind autographing his menu. They obliged, and he then said: “I hope you won’t mind my saying this, but one thing bothers me. You’re both extremely successful men, at the top of your profession, and I’m sure you don’t have a worry in the world. I was just wondering what could possibly make you both look so sad.”

When Hammerstein died, Theodore Bikel was on stage every night on Broadway still singing “Edelweiss”, and he noticed something about the song. “This dying man writing the very last lyric of his career,” he said, “the very last word he wrote was ‘forever’.” But a great song is forever and, almost six decades on, the last bud of the most spectacular partnership in theatre history has bloomed and grown.

As incredible as it may seem, there’s still a ton of good stuff to the story even yet, of which you will want to read the etc.

A peek behind the curtain

Posted on February 5, 2021February 5, 2021 by Mike

It’s all old news now, of course—a dead issue, completely moot. The only aspect of the stolen 2020 election that’s of even slight interest to me at this point is that there are still scattered pockets of True Believers remaining here and there, pitifully clinging to the fantasy that somehow, some way, the miracle of The Trump Plan will undo the fraudulent election, unseat the Usurper, and restore the White House to its rightful occupant. ANY DAY NOW.

So all the stories about recounts, expert testimony confirming election fraud, more court cases and lawsuits, etc etc are no longer on my radar these days. Even so, though, I did check out the final installment (Part 1 here, Part 2 here) of Patrick Byrne’s first-hand recounting of the infamous White House meetings in mid-December with Trump, Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn, and others, and was kinda surprised to find myself completely spellbound. The series is a copiously detailed, no-punches-pulled account describing, according to its title anyway: How DJT Lost The White House.

Naturally, being one person’s view of a quite intricate sequence of events whose cast of characters is a long ‘un, it may well be open to honest dispute. Could be Byrne is too biased for his telling of the tale to be trusted overmuch. I can’t say, and I doubt there’s anybody out there who can. Questions of reliability or veracity aside, though, it makes for absolutely compelling reading. Each of the three parts is also quite long, which turns out to be no bad thing and shouldn’t deter anybody. If nothing else, the intimate glimpses into personalities, deportment, and the general Oval Office atmosphere as these historic, nation-shattering events took place make it worth a look. Exhibit A:

We launched for Camp 3. And sure enough, when we got there, as Mike Flynn stood talking to his former colleague, Sidney and I had a 20 foot line of site down into the empty Oval Office…… After a few minutes, through a private door on the far side, Donald Trump walked into the Oval Office. He was dressed in a sharply creased blue suit and tie, still, at 7:30 PM. He came through and glanced out the doorway to where Sidney Powell and I were already walking towards him, greeting him like he should be expecting us. President Trump’s eyebrows knitted in puzzlement but his face showed he recognized us, and after a moment he beckoned us in. Within seconds General Flynn, Sydney Powell, and I were all sitting in the Oval Office with President Donald J. Trump, with the door shut behind us.

So that happened. Really.

The President sat across the Resolute desk and made small chat with Mike, asked him how he’d been. It had been almost four years since they had seen each other (when Flynn had left the White House, weeks into Trump’s first term). He asked after Sidney as well. I gave and received no more than a nod, letting Mike and Sidney take the lead. As I have noted publicly, the first thing I noticed about him was how measured, gracious, and even soft-spoken Trump seemed to be, so unlike the character that has beamed at us for years through the media.

Eventually he glanced at me again, raised an eyebrow, and gave a small chuckle. Apparently he knew about me, as I thought my be the case. He said something quietly, civil and kind. I said, “Thank you Mr. President…” He cocked his head quizzically and said something softly about knowing that I had not voted for him, and had said a number of critical things of him. I let him know the truth, that I had said some harsh things before the 2016 election, but while he was President my estimation of him had grown, and that in any case none of it was relevant, that I was there because I was confident the election had been hacked. I told him, “We think there is a much shorter route through all of this than your team is pursuing,” I closed saying, “But Sir, entrepreneur to entrepreneur, I feel I must mention something. As you may know, I have been swimming around the outside of your administration for a couple months now, and I must tell you, I do not think you are being well-served by many people in the White House. I can bring in young staffers who will tell you that some of your senior leadership don’t want you to win. They want you to concede.”

The President raised his eyebrows at my frankness. Then, like a man who knew the answer, he asked quietly, “Why?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, “but I hear people are getting signals that if they’re good boys and get you out the door, there will be jobs waiting for them. But if they don’t, they won’t be getting offers from the right law firms, they won’t be getting invitations from the right country clubs, they won’t be getting invited to the socialite parties on Manhattan…” Trump grimaced, and we moved on.

Sidney and Mike began walking the President through things from our perspective. In brief: there was a quick way to resolve this national crisis because he had power to act in ways he was not understanding. Under an Executive Order that he had signed in 2018, and another Executive Order that President Obama had signed in 2015, he could “find” that there was adequate evidence of foreign interference with the election, and while doing so would give him authority to do a number of big things, all he had to do was one small thing: direct a federal force (we suggested US Marshall Service + National Guard) to go to the six counties in question (the Problematic 6), and re-count (on livestream TV) the paper ballots that were held as fail-safe back-up. It would only take a few days. Even more conclusive would be if they imaged the hard-drives and those images could be examined forensically (which would make the project last no more than a week, as we had already cracked the Antrim County machines and knew precisely what to do going forward). In either case, if there was no mischief found, then President Trump would concede the election. But if (as we suspected) evidence of hundreds of thousands of improper votes was found in each of the six counties in question, then he would have a wide variety of options. He might have those six states re-counted. Or he might have 50 states recounted on livestream TV by federal forces, and America would finally have its answer to, “How much election fraud does our nation suffer?” Or he might skip that and have the National Guard re-run the elections in those six states. We pointed out that, it being December 18, if he signed the paperwork we had brought with us, we could have the first stage (recounting the Problematic 6 counties) finished before Christmas. And even if the result was hinky enough it demanded a rerun of the election in those states, it could be done before January 20, so that the January 20 Constitutional deadline would not be disrupted. The more time that he let slide by, the more compressed things would become. If he waited to see what the January 6 outcome was, however, and then decided to follow a plan such as ours, it would engender accusations of “sore-loserism”, so he had to act quickly. The alternative was an election that 47% of Americans doubted, which would not go down peacefully.

“You know Pat,” he said to me (the only people who call me “Pat” are either friends from childhood, or men from a background like my own family’s), “you know…” He caught my eye and gave a little snort of humor. “You know, I could leave here and my life would be really …. fine. I could be with my family, my friends, I could be playing golf …” We looked at each other and shared a moment as may occur only with CEO’s and other “leaders”: people think our lives are glamorous, but in many ways they are unpleasant.

Fascinating stuff, no? The drama continues from there, with no letup in the tension or anticipation despite the fact that the reader already knows how the story ends. It’s a real page-turner, this one; once I started, there was no stopping until the end. I haven’t read the first two parts yet, but I’m looking forward to them. Trust me, folks, this is one seriously good read that you really don’t want to miss.

Gathering steam

Posted on February 4, 2021February 4, 2021 by Mike

Can’t stop the signal, shitlibs.

Former President Donald Trump has actually gained — not lost — political clout since leaving office, a political observer asserted Friday.

Politico reporter Tara Palmeri’s observation runs contrary to the assumptions of many in the Washington D.C. establishment and the mainstream media.

“People don’t want to hear anything against Trump,” Palmeri said during an appearance on MSNBC. “Actually, the more he stays out of the media, the more that he becomes this martyr, this looming figure over the GOP.”

In the most stupefying act of political hara-kiri in memory, the treacherous, backstabbing GOP willfully rendered itself irrelevant for all time. Trump people couldn’t possibly care less about them. They achieved their ignoble doom the old fashioned way: they earned it. Now let them enjoy it, to the last bitter dregs.

In fact, there is now a “crusade” being waged on behalf of the former president in places like Wyoming, where Trump is “way more popular” that the state’s high-ranking congressional Republican, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, Palmeri said.

She drew the conclusion after speaking with locals in the Cowboy State about Cheney’s vote to impeach Trump while covering an anti-Cheney rally led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

“I actually went out of my way to try to find someone who would defend her and I really could not,” Palmeri told MSNBC. “She didn’t have that much name recognition, considering she’s a Cheney…I mean, I said her name at a hardware store, and someone shouted a threat.”

Good. You idiots, most certainly to include tapeworms such as Cheney, have not the vaguest clue what you’ve stirred up out there. Clue to the clueless: it’s going to get much, much worse.

She then described an apparent disconnect between what’s perceived as truth in D.C. and what’s perceived as truth in Cheyenne. Palmeri mentioned locals not wearing masks, expressing distrust of the coronavirus vaccine, claiming both that the number of reported deaths from the pandemic were “inflated,” believing the 2020 presidential election wasn’t legitimate, and that the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill was “staged” by Antifa.

Every bit of which is literally, verifiably correct. There’s a disconnect, all right, but for reasons other than what our self-proclaimed “elites” want to think, or can afford to admit to themselves.

“I hate that they’re so distrustful,” Palmeri said.

Maybe your and your fellows should have thought a little harder before you committed the innumerable acts that created and nurtured that distrust, then. Hate it all you like, but the distrust is more than justified, and corrective action is way overdue. Meanwhile the Trump train, in whatever form and by whatever name, keeps a-rolling.

Johnny Burnette, the great Paul Burlison, and the incomparable Bettie Page for added heat—I ask you, what’s not to like?

A practical solution?

Posted on February 4, 2021February 4, 2021 by Mike

Could be, could be.

Embracing Mao’s sentiment that “[p]olitical power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” the left trades in violence, violence done to political opponents and to our culture, history, heroes, Constitution and just liberties. Now having seized power in government’s executive and legislative branches via the violence of electoral theft, the left aims to use that power to become autocratic. As to how we should respond, remember:

Only power negates power.

The left has been able to steal a national election (and some down-ballot seats, no doubt) via massive vote fraud in, largely, a handful of big Democrat-run cities. Yet despite all the electoral theft, President Trump still won half the states, some by wide margins. It is these states where power should be exercised.

The power I reference is what Thomas Jefferson called the “rightful remedy” for all federal usurpation of states’ domain: nullification. This is the process whereby authorities simply ignore federal dictates, whether handed down by Congress, a bureaucracy or the courts.

There’s nothing unprecedented about nullification. Leftists engage in it continually. For example, their localities often ignore federal drug or immigration laws, and more than a score of states nullified the REAL ID Act of 2005.

Only, leftists don’t call it “nullification” — they just do it. In contrast, conservatives busy themselves conserving the status quo even though it’s leftist-born and generally abide by even unconstitutional federal laws, mandates and court rulings because “this is the way things are done.”

This said, we have seen some pushback, with county sheriffs in recent times refusing to enforce irrational China virus restrictions and some opposition to anti-Second Amendment proposals. But this effort must become widespread and organized — “Nullification!” must become a rallying cry.

In reality, nullification (which I’ve been advocating for years) should have been pursued long ago; the federal government has, after all, been trampling states’ powers for at least the better part of a century, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But that being water under the bridge, we now require a ton of cure.

The cure of nullification is the obvious next step for anyone serious about combating the burgeoning leftist tyranny. We’ve no other recourse. “As Jefferson warned, if the federal government is allowed to hold a monopoly on determining the extent of its own powers, we have no right to be surprised when it keeps discovering new ones,” wrote author Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Under this scenario, the federal government “will continue to grow – regardless of elections, the separation of powers, and other much-touted limits on government power,” he continued.

That is reality. So is this: Reasoned argumentation only works with those who’ll yield to reason (the left won’t). Constitutional constraints only matter to those who respect laws and national contracts (the left doesn’t). Appealing to courts only bears fruit when judges have a sense of justice and duty and the guts to act rightly even when pariah status results (most don’t). Making this more tragically comical still is that when we seek redress for federal tyranny, we expect relief from the federal government’s own judicial branch!

Leftists are the “other.” They also have wholly trampled the Constitution, the “contract” Americans have with one another. And when a party consistently violates a contract to benefit itself at the expense of other contractees, and courts provide no remedy because they’re complicit in the con, the contract is voided.

That it is; in truth, the contract was rendered null and void long years ago. Henceforth, Real Americans must use that perfectly valid premise as their starting point, and proceed according to its guidance. Certainly, the odds of nullification being sufficient to win the day aren’t great. But what the hell, you gotta start someplace. It’s worth a shot, I think.

Remember when

Posted on February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 by Mike

Then: statesmen. Now: career politicians.

I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is “needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ “interests”, I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.

Barry Goldwater, of course, whose 1964 defeat-by-smearjob qualifies as possibly the most damaging missed opportunity this poor country ever inflicted on itself. He was a fount of pithy, memorable quotations, some of them expressing viewpoints that might not always be quite what one would expect. For instance:

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.

And:

You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.

It’s not at all difficult to find more in that unexpected vein, which still doesn’t detract from the good stuff:

A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. Fellow Republicans, it is the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people.

I feel certain that Conservatism is through unless Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with [the unemployed, the sick without medical care, human welfare, etc.] and believing that the federal government is the proper agent for their solution.

The material and spiritual sides of man are intertwined; that it is impossible for the State to assume responsibility for one without intruding on the essential nature of the other; that if we take from a man the personal responsibility for caring for his material needs, we take from him also the will and the opportunity to be free.

Such, then, is history’s lesson, which Messrs. Acheson and Larson evidently did not read: release the holders of state power from any restraints other than those they wish to impose upon themselves, and you are swinging down the well-traveled road to absolutism. The framers of the Constitution had learned the lesson. They were not only students of history, but victims of it: they knew from vivid, personal experience that freedom depends on effective restraints against the accumulation of power in a single authority.

Most important of all: in our anxiety to “improve” the world and insure “progress” we have permitted our schools to become laboratories for social and economic change according to the predilections of the professional educators. We have forgotten that the proper function of the school is to transmit the cultural heritage of one generation to the next generation, and to so train the minds of the new generation as to make them capable of absorbing ancient learning and applying it to the problem of its own day.

As the public grows more and more cynical, the politician feels less and less compelled to take his promises seriously.

The Conservative also recognizes that the political power on which order is based is a self-aggrandizing force; that its appetite grows with eating. He knows that the utmost vigilance and care are required to keep political power within its proper bounds.

One of the last of the real-deal conservative statesmen, Goldwater never did make it to the White House. And now, no true conservative ever will again. GP hints at one of the reasons why.

Remember the good old days when we could have serious discussions about the constitutional limits of government, and if the myriad government programs we have put in place actually met the constitutional requirement? And how much we would be able to reduce the size and scope of government, and how the first priority of the government was to protect the freedoms and liberty of American citizens?

Yeah, me neither. That is to say, I would dearly like to get back to the point where we could talk about things like this, but we are far beyond this. In fact, we are not even within shouting distance of it. Our disagreements with progressives are not over the size and scope of government, but down lower, way lower, down at some basic, fundamental level where questions about the very nature of men and things must be resolved.

Well, that and them wanting us dead. That has to be resolved, too.

Oh, it will be…one way or another. As it happens, another visionary leader had a few words to say himself on the topic.

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

The frightening is that nowadays one can only wonder just how many of us are left who would agree with that last proposition.

Ol’ Remus: now more than ever

Posted on February 3, 2021February 3, 2021 by Mike

I sure do miss that guy.

Making predictions is like dressing in a clown costume and handing meringue pies to passers by. We all do it even though the future is not merely unknown but unknowable. Ask the dinosaurs of 66 million and 33 years ago—Alvarez’s date was published in 1980—how the beach party scheduled for the next day at Chicxulub worked out. Oh that’s right, you can’t, they were all flash-barbequed. So much for simple continuity, much less long term extrapolation. That said, we can predict with sufficient confidence that a truck falling off a cliff will hit bottom, and pretty much when and where. If it doesn’t, we have bigger problems than a predictive miss.

Predictions, if they’re to be understood at all, are to be understood backwards. They comment on the present without directly, you know, commenting on the present. The commenting part is not optional. It is in fact inescapable. Most science fiction is also commentary, the time displacement or alternate reality being bedazzlement to reorient the reader. It’s calculated to evade his prepositioned defenses long enough for The Message to get through intact. Movies are less subtle, we willingly check our disbelief at the door, and it remains suspended unless something blatant disquiets it.

Plain ol’ predictions are more simple minded, more the “trouble with a T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for POOL” school of commentary, an exercise in connecting dots most of which don’t actually exist. Finally, predictions are like subatomic particles, each one has its anti-particle, both spring from the same source, both are equally valid—and equally not valid. Pollyannas and noble thinkers hew to the one, the pragmatists and battle scarred the other. With all this in mind, or not, we begin.

Constitutional fundamentalism will dominate the 21st century like the New Deal and the New Left dominated the 20th. The one party two-party system is already understood to be profoundly incestuous and irredeemably corrupt. Worse, DC’s actions say it believes the populace to be its enemy. The populace finds less reason to doubt them every day, so DC’s blatant disregard for natural rights and Constitutional guarantees is being challenged as never before, and mere accommodation at the margins is laughably insufficient for the growing ranks of the newly converted.

The movement grossly underestimates itself. To their credit, DC knows better. The ruling class understands this administration may be the last of the wooly mammoths. They’re not looking to defeat constitutionalism, they’re looking to survive it and dominate it. Look for the patricians to decorate the lampposts with their own cadets in a dramatic lunge for absolution and acceptance.

The next Great Depression is happening now. As in the ‘thirties, everything is getting better with the single exception of everything. The stock market as a price discovery mechanism is defunct, Detroit and three dozen or so smaller municipal bankruptcies have shown Munis are no longer credible, and the Federal Reserve has gone about as far into the marshlands as it can and found—more marshland. Now the final notice is in the mail.

Look for rising interest rates to tank the economy, and suddenly so. It’s the same leverage used for the bogus rampup, except working in reverse with a gravity assist. Look for a 25 to 35 per cent drop in real GDP from here, an unexampled calamity. Also expect dollar emergencies to come closer together until they drag it into outright repudiation. DC’s clout and credibility rest squarely on the dollar. Where it goes, they go. All else is blather. Even telephone tappers don’t work for nothing.

It’s said every agency wants to be a police force, and every police force wants to be an army. This is a spectacularly bad idea. In the beginning the municipal police were manned with casual labor in the lower reaches, little more than bailiffs with street duty. Professional law enforcement meant the sheriff—originally: the shire reeve—one of two ancient offices inherited from England, the other being the coroner. There were no police when the Constitution was ratified. Over time they’ve come close to the internal standing army art the founders feared and warned against, and with creeping federal captivity, an army of national occupation.

The schisms within the police over this, and between the populace and the police, are deepening proportionally. In DC’s mind the necessity for an open transformation is getting urgent. Look for a Night of the Long Knives during some crisis or another in the coming years, to purge rogue elements and promote efficiency, natch. Then look for trouble when the people understand the thin blue line has melded with the thick blue line and “protect and defend” means protecting and defending DC—from the people.

There’s every reason to believe the 21st century will be as eventful as the 20th. It’s foolish to expect good outcomes, much less depend on them. Even this little distance in time shows the last century was about Great Leaders building make believe worlds and forcing everybody to live in them until they either died from the consequences or the regime did. It’s no coincidence modern states use prodigious resources to count heads and keep tabs, or that survivalists think a lot about escape and evasion.

In the west the first years of the 21st century have been about disengagement. Much of “collapse” doomers point to is disengagement without sanctioned reengagement elsewhere. The slo-mo dissolution of the EU and back-to-the-land survival communities are examples from the macro and micro ends of the scale. But a trend does not a future make. The future is made the same way a glacier is made, one snowflake at a time. From there on, where it goes is up to the glacier.

Aside from being a true visionary, Remus also had a beautiful way with the language, didn’t he? Since I couldn’t find any way to excerpt it without blunting the overall impact, I just lifted the thing wholesale from WRSA, for which I extend my humblest apologies. In a way, I’m happy that Ol’ Remus didn’t live to witness the current flea circus. On the other hand, though, we could surely use a man of his extraordinary gifts along about now, even moreso in the dark, dark days to come.

Outsider trading

Posted on February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 by Mike

Clown car, clown country, clown world.

If America is a clown country, the ruling class on Wall Street, along with their ruling class friends in Washington, are driving the clown car.

Enter Reddit.

You might have noticed that the suits are very upset this week. That’s because anonymous Redditors, while presumably brushing the Cheeto dust off their laptop keyboards, decided to do a little bit of stock speculation.

They had no fancy tools, no quantitative analysis, no Bloomberg terminals, and they’re certainly not members of the elite class who are entitled to engage in such sophisticated business.

What they did have was unbridled rage and disdain for the drivers of the clown car, and when they found a way to exploit them, they hijacked the clown car for themselves and took it for an epic joyride.

But if there’s anything the ruling class hates, it’s losing money—especially to a bunch of unwashed punks who were laughing in their faces while they sent Melvin Capital hurtling towards bankruptcy. In an instant, the rightful owners of the clown car demanded it back.

You see, only fancy hedge fund managers—members of the Wall Street ruling class—are allowed to decide the value of a stock. Those hedge fund managers decided the value of GameStop, a brick and mortar retailer, was very little. Hence the massive short position. They were allowed to short the stock as they pleased, which of course, in turn, continued to drive down the value of the stock, helping their positions. They knew what they were doing. Their friends at other hedge funds knew it, too, and took full advantage, pummeling GameStop into the ground.

But when Reddit decided the value of GameStop, a cutting-edge video game distribution company, was worth $350 per share (or at least worth enough to watch hedge fund managers cry, which is a hilarious source of entertainment) they were banned from purchasing the stock on almost every platform.

In our clown country, only the ruling class is allowed to win. If the ruling class is not winning, it will simply change the rules of the game.

Matt Taibbi takes the piss:

The only thing “dangerous” about a gang of Reddit investors blowing up hedge funds is that some of us reading about it might die of laughter. That bit about investigating this as a “pump and dump scheme” to push prices away from their “fundamental value” is particularly hilarious. What does the Washington Post think the entire stock market is, in the bailout age?

America’s banks just had maybe their best year ever, raking in $125 billion in underwriting fees at a time when the rest of the country is dealing with record unemployment, thanks entirely to massive Federal Reserve intervention that turned a crash into a boom. Who thinks the “fundamental value” of most stocks would be this high, absent the Fed’s Atlas-like support in the last year?

In other words, it was all well and good for investment banks and executives of phoney-baloney companies to gorge themselves on funhouse profits on a funhouse economy, but when amateurs decided to funnel just a bit of this clown show into their own pockets, finance pros wailed like the grave of Adam Smith had been danced upon.

GameStop has prompted more pearl-clutching than any news story in recent memory. Expert after grave-faced expert has marched on TV to tell Reddit traders that markets are complicated, this isn’t a game, and they wouldn’t be doing this, if they really understood how things work.

“I’m not sure everybody fully understands what’s happening here,” was the melancholy comment on CNBC of Wall Street’s famed fluffer-in-chief, Andrew Ross Sorkin. The author of Too Big to Fail added in pedagogic tones that while this “stick it to the man moment” might feel good, betting up the value of GameStop above Delta Airlines just isn’t right, because “there are no fundamentals here.”

Fundamentals? How much does Sorkin think his exalted Delta Airlines would be worth now, if the Fed hadn’t stopped its death plunge last March? How much would any of the airlines be worth in the Covid age, with their fleets of mothballed jets? What a joke!

Furthermore, everybody “understands” what happened with GameStop. Unlike some other Wall Street stories, this one isn’t complicated. The entire tale, in a nutshell, goes like this. One group of gamblers announced, “Fuck you!” Another group announced back: “No, fuck YOU!”

That’s it. Or, as one market analyst put it to me this morning, “A bunch of guys made a bet, got killed, then doubled and tripled down and got killed even more.”

He digs into the real nitty-gritty of the thing, and it’s worth a read if you’re interested. But for me, “No, fuck YOU!” is all I need to know, and t’will suffice. Anything that reduces The Power to bitching and boo-hoo’ing this way, hey, I’m good with it.

TEXIT!

Posted on January 27, 2021January 27, 2021 by Mike

The Bu-God Republic makes its move.

H.B. No. 1359
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to proposing a referendum to the people of the State of Texas on the question of whether this state should leave the United States of America and establish an independent republic.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1.  (a) At the general election to be held November 2, 2021, the voters shall be permitted to vote in a referendum on the question of whether this state should leave the United States of America and establish an independent republic.

(b)  Notice of the election shall be given by inclusion of the proposition in the proclamation by the governor ordering an election on any proposed constitutional amendment to the state constitution and in the notice of that election given by each county judge, or, if no constitutional amendment is proposed, the governor shall order and each county judge shall give notice for an election proposing the referendum required by this section.

(c)  The proposition shall be printed on the ballot above any proposed constitutional amendment under the heading: “Referendum Proposition.”

(d)  The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the proposition: “Should the legislature of the State of Texas submit a plan for leaving the United States of America and establishing an independent republic?”

SECTION 2.  (a) The secretary of state shall immediately transmit a copy of the governor’s certification of the result of the referendum required under Section 1 of this Act to:

(1)  the president of the United States;

(2)  the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate of the Congress of the United States; and
(3)  the members of the Texas delegation to the Congress of the United States.

(b)  The Texas Independence Committee is a joint interim committee established to study and make recommendations regarding the most effective and expeditious method by which Texas may be returned to its status as an independent republic.

(c)  The committee shall consider:

(1)  recommendations for amending the Constitution of Texas to accommodate the needs of an independent nation, including:

(A)  the creation of new elected and appointed offices;

(B)  the modification of the powers, functions, and titles of existing offices;

(C)  the renaming of the State of Texas to the Republic of Texas;

(D)  the removal of unnecessary or undesirable provisions that exist solely as a consequence of Texas’ status as a state within the United States of America; and

(E)  the identification of fundamental rights enumerated by the Constitution of the United States of America that may not be adequately preserved in the Constitution of Texas;

(2)  recommendations for amending Texas statutes to accommodate the needs of an independent nation, including:

(A)  the creation of new agencies;

(B)  the modification of the powers, functions, and names of existing agencies; and

(C)  the identification of necessary and desirable functions of government that are provided for under the statutory law of the United States of America but not adequately described in Texas statute;

(3)  recommendations regarding transitional issues which must be negotiated with the government of the United States of America, including:

(A)  any necessary or desirable changes in federal law;

(B)  the determination of citizenship of residents of Texas;

(C)  the disposition of the property and assets of the United States of America currently in Texas;

(D)  a temporary currency union;

(E)  a free trade agreement;

(F)  a common travel agreement;

(G)  the status of Texans currently serving in the armed forces of the United States of America;

(H)  any necessary disposition of the Texas portion of the national debt of the United States of America;

(I)  a collective defense arrangement;

(J)  a postal agreement;

(K)  the payment of pensions to Texans who have vested in the pension programs of the United States of America and its subnational governments;

(L)  a social security totalization agreement; and

(M)  any other transitional issues that the committee may identify; and

(4)  recommendations regarding any international convention or multilateral agreement to which an independent Texas may become a party in order to benefit the people of Texas or ensure minimal disruption during a transition period.

(c)  In addition to considering the issues described under Subsection (b) of this section, the committee shall include within its report required under Subsection (h) of this section a strategy for achieving Texas independence not later than 60 months after the date the results of the referendum election required under Section 1 of this Act are certified by the governor.

This is indeed a momentous occasion, a cause for joy and celebration, and I heartily wish the brave citizens of the Republic all success in this most worthy effort. At the same time, I hope no Texan is cherishing any illusions regarding the odds that the vile, illegitimate dictatorship of the Former United States might suffer them to redeem their fundamental right to independence, self-government, and liberty without a violent campaign to re-subjugate them.

Tyrants, after all, are NOT known for their forebearance, keen regard for justice and propriety, or generosity of spirit; all the higher sentiments and qualities are alien to them. For such loathsome creatures, “depart in peace” is NEVER an option, the memorable John Adams quote from whence it’s drawn merely a bit of incomprehensible jabberwock, no more. Be assured that the handful among them who are even aware of its existence at all were baffled by it, and disliked it intensely.

But what of it? The tyrant’s nature is eternal, and no secret to any student of history. They are what they are, and will do what they will do. Their soullessness and low, footling character portends their ultimate doom: failure, ruin, and infamy awaits them all, be it sooner or later. So three cheers for Texas, and for Texans! Your righteous example lights the path for every true American. Forever may your proud Republic endure.

Via my esteemed fellow Renegades.

Deplatforming: back atcha!

Posted on January 27, 2021January 27, 2021 by Mike

Alinski’s Rule 4 must be rigidly enforced.

If Monster Tech can aggressively de-platform businesses and individuals for expressing forbidden opinions, then maybe it’s time for skilled tradesmen to respond in kind against the woke left.

Leftists despise working class “deplorables” and seek to punish them for all their disapproved habits – you know – God, guns, motorized vehicles, and voting MAGA. Well, the tradesmen I know are swamped with business right now, so it might be a good time for them to establish their own “terms of service” enabling them to deny services to advocates of cancel culture. We’ve learned from Monster Tech that all you have to do is declare someone’s speech to be “hateful” or state that their speech might “incite violence” to banish someone from receiving service. If a deplorable can be targeted as hate-filled for simply supporting Trump, then a tradesman’s Terms of Service can in turn declare that any visible support for Democrats constitutes hate speech.

Broken down on the side of the road with a Bernie or Biden bumper sticker? Sorry – you’re going to have to find a wrecker that employs all 57 genders and declares all their pronouns. But Earl’s 24-Hour Wrecker won’t be towing your car today. Terms of service, you know.

Broken down furnace during a deep freeze? Too bad you advocated for a fracking ban on Facebook. That’s a violation of Smith HVAC’s terms of service. It looks like you’ll need to find yourself an HVAC company that can fix you up with 100% renewable energy if you want your heat back on.

It’s a shame about that plumbing leak, but your hate-filled “Hate Has No Home Here” sign is a violation of Jones Plumbing’s terms of service. If you’ll just open your backdoor, the leaking water will find its way out.

Low on gas in the middle of the desert? That’s a shame, but Last Chance Gas can’t put fuel in your car if it’s going to be spreading the message of hate encompassed by your COEXIST sticker.

What goes around has a nasty way of coming around. So game ON, you rat bastards.

The Last Sane Democrat speaks truth

Posted on January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 by Mike

Yes, yes, I know she’s a libtard. Yes, I disagree with her policy positions on just about everything. But dammit, I still can’t help but like the woman. When viewed beside the reeking muck-pit the rest of her colleagues happily splash about in, she glitters like a crazy diamond.

Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii warned that people such as California Rep. Adam Schiff, former CIA Director John Brennan and Big Tech executives who are “trying to undermine” Americans’ constitutional rights are much more dangerous than the people who stormed the Capitol three weeks ago.

“The mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6 to try to stop Congress from carrying out its constitutional responsibilities were behaving like domestic enemies of our country,” she said in a tweet Tuesday.

“But let’s be clear, the John Brennans, Adam Schiffs and the oligarchs in big tech who are trying to undermine our constitutionally-protected rights and turn our country into a police state with KGB-style surveillance are also domestic enemies — and much more powerful, and therefore dangerous, than the mob that stormed the Capitol.”

Gabbard called on President Joe Biden and lawmakers to reject any measures that would infringe on Americans’ constitutional rights.

Umm, good luck with all that, babe. I know you mean well and all; your heart is definitely in the right place, to be sure. But the sad, sorry truth is that the ship in question has definitely sailed. In fact, it’s waaaay over the horizon and clean out of sight at this late date.

Blackbird buzz

Posted on January 22, 2021January 22, 2021 by Mike

A great story from start to finish, but do stick with it. As with so many other things in life, the best parts come in at the end.

Quoth WeirdDave: “If you’re going to buzz the tower, why not do it in a Blackbird, that’s what I say.” I couldn’t agree more.

Control over power

Posted on January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 by Mike

Muscle car power, that is.

The first (method for getting rid of muscle cars—M) was to strangle them via emissions controls they couldn’t comply with – and didn’t, at first. Those first generation muscle cars of the ‘60s and early-mid-‘70s all had engines designed back in the ‘50s – i.e,. designed without emissions control in mind at all. The only way to make them “compliant” with the emissions regs passed decades after the fact was to cripple them by grafting clumsy emissions controls onto them.

These made them run poorly – and gradually killed off the muscle, too.

It only took four years – from the passage in 1970 of the Clean Air Act – to eliminate literally every muscle car except the last one, which happened to be a Pontiac, too. It was the 1974 Trans-Am equipped with the 290 horsepower SD-455 V8. Just a few hundred made it through the noose and by the following year – 1975 – the Trans-Am’s strongest engine was a 185 horsepower 400 V8 geezing through a catalytic converter and single exhaust made to look like two.

But just like the Terminator rebooting himself after receiving a shotgun blast to the guts, the muscle car only seemed dead. Gradually, performance began to return. Clean performance, too – via engines designed to be “compliant” and powerful.

By the ’90s, performance had returned to what it had been in the late ’60s and soon exceeded it.

So that had to be stopped, too.

This time, the method applied was unanswerable. Federal fuel economy fatwas descended. It no longer mattered that muscle wasn’t dirty. It now had to be fuel-sippy and that is like making a ribeye without the fat.

The fuel economy fatwas also served to attack mass-market large cars, which went the way of the muscle car.

By shifting the meaning of fuel efficiency to mean “emissions” once again – though this time, not pollution. The new meaning is “greenhouse gasses,” which don’t smog the air or foul the lungs but are asserted to change the climate.

Whether it does or does not is a matter for another column.

What it unquestionably will do is achieve the goal which has been their goal since at least the 1960s. That goal, of course, is to get rid of not just the muscle car, not only the large car and not merely the SUV but every car.

By making it impossible to make them compliant. So as to get people into other forms of transportation, under their control.

Regardless of what they may say, control is ultimately what it’s really all about—each and every time, without exception, whatever the issue or context. The Progtard lust for absolute, untrammeled power is in full effect 24/7/365, a sort of Universal Constant that goads them in a mindlessly eternal quest for MORE.

They never sleep; they never relent; and they never, ever, ever stop. It’s a resounding testament to the adaptability of the internal combustion engine, as well as to the creative genius of American auto engineers, that workarounds have somehow been found to blunt the bitter Leftist assault on the venerable American muscle car and the rebellious freedom they so perfectly represent. So far, anyway. It’s no mystery why Proggy hates them so fanatically, and wants them gone for good.

MORNING IN AMERICA!!!

Posted on January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 by Mike

With the long-overdue ascension of a competent, sure-handed patriot as our President, the USA has its feet firmly back on the path to greatness.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered remarks at the Lincoln Memorial to honor American COVID-19 victims Tuesday, the same day the national death toll surpassed 400,000.

“To heal, we must remember,” Biden said, with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool behind him. “It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal.”

It was Biden’s first stop in Washington after arriving earlier in the day ahead of his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Organizers placed lights around the perimeter of the pool, a first-time measure, according to the transition team, to memorialize the victims.

“Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights in the darkness along the sacred pool of reflection and remember all whom we lost,” Biden said.

President Biden, inarguably already the greatest President this country has ever been fortunate enough to have in office, healed the wounds of a grieving nation with this incredible memorial. Which was in no way calculated or emotionally manipulative, not even slightly.

As it happens, I was picking up an order at an African restaurant on North Tryon Street and caught the Fox News coverage of the momentous event, live, during my interminable wait. As accurately and fairly reported by the Fox journalists—bona fide giants of their noble profession that they are, all of them—it was an incredibly moving tribute indeed. Certainly every American heart was profoundly touched by our beloved new President’s eloquent and heartfelt remarks. The souls of hundreds of millions of Americans wantonly murdered by the previous Oval Office despot’s botch-job of a response to this devastating plague would no doubt have soared in response, “freed at last” by President Biden’s (PBUH) stirring words.

If there was any such thing as a “soul.” Which there isn’t. What silly, superstitious nonsense. C’MON, MAN!!!

We can all look forward to many, many more beautiful moments like this, as our new President takes swift and decisive action to sweep away the damage intentionally done by his warped, genocidal, illegitimate predecessor, whose filthy name must never befoul American mouths again. Ever.

President Biden, thankfully, has arrived not a moment too soon. A new, better tone has been established, unity and civility restored. A proven leader of men—an original thinker whose deft touch has indelibly marked American life over his too-brief five decades of public service—now stands at the helm, to steer America to more glorious heights. Every patriotic American should be grateful for this greatheart’s selfless acceptance of the burden of leadership. We shan’t see his like again.

Undressing the set

Posted on January 17, 2021January 17, 2021 by Mike

This one is more or less just a recap of things we all already know. But I’m posting on it anyway, because A) I really like the blunt, bare-knuckles way the author puts it; and B) it kicks off with a Frank Zappa quote so damned lively I had to “Notable” the thing over in the sidebar.

Every moment since January 6 has been used by the Big Tech/Big Gov/Big Corp oligarchy to promote the fake news “insurrection” against a government that absconds with your money at gunpoint, uses the U.S. Constitution like toilet paper, is spending future generations into unpayable debt servitude, has as much vision as Ray Charles and the morality of a $2 whore. I apologize to all $2 whores, who at least provide a service. The compliant media mouthpieces were given the script to propagandize the terms “insurrection”, “sedition”, “coup”, and “armed rebellion” for the last two weeks, beating it to death like a clubbed seal.

The Big Lie method is being used by the Goebbels/Bernays acolytes at CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox, as they perpetuate the falsehood of an armed rebellion, when absolutely no one used firearms as they were ushered into the Capital by police. They have unleashed the rabid dogs in a blatant search and destroy mission to decapitate Trump and force his supporters into submission by threat of job loss, pariah social status, and inability to freely associate with other like-minded individuals on social platforms.

As this second impeachment farce plays out, and the nation is engrossed and entertained by bloviating cretins disguised as elected representatives, spewing white supremacy gibberish, confirming Mencken’s belief those we elect prove voters are as moronic as the imbeciles they elect, the real economy remains in a government mandated depression, foodbanks are overwhelmed, small businesses continue to be purposely destroyed by despot governors, while Big Corp and Big Tech prosper, thrive and vacuum up more wealth.

Nancy Pelosi and her team of diverse mouth breather swamp scum have now impeached Trump for a phone call about the truthful accusation that Joe Biden used undue influence to have a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden’s blatant peddling of Biden influence for millions, and now for the incitement of an insurrection by giving a speech in which he told a crowd to peacefully protest an election racked by online computer vote switching schemes and counterfeit mail-in ballot fraud.

In both cases there was zero chance of Trump being convicted and in the current instance these feckless troglodytes spent a couple hours of vacuous race posturing before voting to impeach and would have to conduct a Senate trial after Trump has moved back to Florida. This is nothing but pure putrid politics in an attempt to make Republican politicians grovel and cower, while attempting to shame Trump voters into seclusion.

The cowardly RINOs showed their true colors by voting with Pelosi’s posse, led by neo-con establishment warmonger Liz Cheney. Within a week the FBI supposedly determined the “storming” (aka being let in by the police) of the Capital was coordinated and planned weeks before using Facebook groups and other social media means. That poses the question, how could Trump’s speech incite an insurrection that was already planned and being executed while he was still speaking? Is Facebook being shutdown for the good of the country?

See what I mean? I said “bare-knuckles” before, but I’d like to retract that statement: this is more like BRASS knuckles, a stiff shot of ’em right in the puss. Plenty more good stuff where that came from too, and you’re gonna want to read it.

Signs, portents, and tripwires

Posted on January 17, 2021January 17, 2021 by Mike

The point at which enough becomes enough.

WHAT would be the tripwire resulting in open rebellion? Examining the Bill of Rights, and considering EXISTING laws only, and not failed attempts, you will find that every clause has been violated to one degree or another. Documenting those violations would fill volumes; and it is important to remember that only government can violate the exercise of unalienable individual rights and claim immunity from retribution. We omit martial law or public suspension of the Constitution as a tripwire. The overnight installation of dictatorship obviously would qualify as “the tripwire,” but is not likely to occur. What has occurred, what is occurring, is the implementation of every aspect of such dictatorship without an overt declaration. The Constitution is being killed by attrition. The Communist Manifesto is being installed by accretion. Any suggestion that martial law is the tripwire leads us to the question: what aspect of martial law justifies the first shot?

There’s no real reason we should take for granted that the “first shot” will be fired according to a rational, careful thought process or philosophical analysis beforehand. It’s just as likely—maybe more likely, if history is any guide—that the fateful trigger-pull occurs as a result of accident, miscalculation, individual mental disorder, plain old dumb luck, or some random combination of those and/or others. It may even take place without anyone recognizing it for what it really was until much later.

Seen in the rear-view mirror, from a distance made safe and comfortable by the passage of time, history can look one hell of a lot different than it does when it’s exploding in your face and wreaking bloody havoc in real time. History is a matter for relaxed contemplation and study—interesting, but not threatening. Before its moderating evolution, though, History exists as Current Events, which can involve life and death decisions; tragic upheaval; and unpredictable, shattering consequences.

The author cites Rand’s “four essential characteristics” defining tyranny, using them to propel the discussion further along:

She identified them quite correctly, but together they are just another composite from which we must choose precipitating causes. These characteristics are: one-party rule, executions without trial for political offenses, expropriation or nationalization of private property, and “above all,” censorship.

With regard to the first characteristic of tyranny, what is the real difference between the Fabian socialist Republican Party and the overtly socialist Democrat party? Nothing but time. Regarding the second we have the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and the ATF’s enforcement branch. In action they simply avoid the embarrassment of a trial. Regarding the third we have asset forfeiture “laws,” the IRS, the EPA, the FCC, the FDA, the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and a myriad of other executive branch agencies, departments and commissions whose sole function is to regulate business and the economy. Regulating business for the “public good” (fascism) is no different in principle than outright nationalization (Communism.)

However, the fourth characteristic of tyranny, censorship, is the obvious primary tripwire. When ideology and the reporting of facts and how-to instructions are forbidden, there is nothing remaining but to fight. Freedom of speech and persuasion— the freedom to attempt to rationally convince willing listeners— is so fundamental an individual right that without it no other rights, not even the existence of rights, can be enforced, claimed, debated or even queried. Does this censorship include the regulation of the “public” airwaves by the FCC, as in the censorship which prohibits tobacco companies from advertising— in their own defense— on the same medium which is commanded by government decree to carry “public service” propaganda against them? Does it include federal compulsion of broadcasters to air politically correct liberal twaddle for “The Children?” Does it include the Orwellian “Communications Decency Act”? Does it include any irrationalist “sexual harassment” or tribalist “hate speech” laws which prohibit certain spoken words among co-workers? The answer: unequivocally yes.

Although the above do not pertain to ideological or political speech, yet they are censorship and tactically they are designed to intimidate people into the acceptance of de facto censorship. We say that any abrogation of free speech, and any form of censorship, which cannot be rectified by the soap box, the ballot box, or the jury box, must be rectified by the cartridge box— or lost forever.

Americans have been stumbling over tripwires justifying overt resistance for well over 130 years. On one hand, we submit that gun confiscation is a secondary tripwire only. It is second to censorship because if speech is illegal we cannot even discuss the repeal of gun control, or of any other population controls. If only guns are illegal we may still convince people to repeal those laws. On the other hand, gun confiscation may be a sufficient tripwire because the primary one, censorship, can be fully implemented only after the citizenry is completely disarmed.

The Constitution contains many provisions allowing the violation of our natural rights as free men by immoral and unethical men in government. The true heroes of the ratification debates were the Antifederalists, who secured Federalist guarantees that the Bill of Rights would amend the Constitution. To their undying credit, the Federalists lived up to their promise. Nevertheless, only after constitutional limitations on government have been restored in their original form can we consider amending the Constitution to redress its very few remaining defects (for example; the absence of a separation of state and economy clause.) Laws that make nugatory the means of resisting tyranny and despotism determine the tripwire. The creeping legislative erosion of the 2nd Amendment is not the only tripwire that justifies resistance. We submit that any gun control is a secondary tripwire. Not only because it can be effortlessly evaded, but also because it strengthens our cause. It is second only to censorship. If speech is illegal we can discuss neither repeal of gun control, or the repeal of any other unconstitutional “law.”

Censorship is not a tripwire, it is THE tripwire. Thus by default, censorship morally justifies rebellion.

Under censorship, no other rights, including the right to be free from censorship, can be advocated, discussed or queried. It is incorrect to say that after censorship comes utter subjugation. Censorship is utter subjugation. There is no greater usurpation of liberty while remaining alive. After censorship come the death camps, and they are not a prerequisite to complete subjugation, they are merely a symptom of it. Censorship qua censorship is sufficient in itself to justify open rebellion against any government that legislates, enforces or upholds it. However, that is not the half of it. Censorship is alone in being the only violation of individual rights that does not require actual enforcement, or challenges in court, before rebellion is justified. When the government forbids you to speak or write, or use your own or a supporter’s property to address willing listeners or readers, that government has openly and forcibly decreed that the art of peaceful persuasion is dead and will not be tolerated. Upon that very instant, all peaceable avenues of redress have been closed and the only possible method of regaining individual liberty is force. Whenever we give up that force we are not only ruined, we deserve to be ruined.

A most intriguing take, contradicting the widespread belief that a national gun-confiscation attempt will be the spark that finally ignites the powder-keg. He unwinds the skein from there, producing a meticulously-crafted, honest analysis of which you will definitely want to read the all.

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