Gangster Government

History, repeating itself

Posted on January 29, 2020January 29, 2020 by Mike

How the current impeachment “trial” turns out is anybody’s guess but hardly the only unknown in theongoing coup against President Trump. As many believe, if nobody in the FBI or DOJ winds up doing prison time, the Deep State wins and future presidents will face similar coup attempts. Some clues on what might or might not happen to FBI bosses emerged Sunday in “Government on Trial,” a Fox News documentary on the FBI siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992.

That operation targeted the family of Randy Weaver, whom the establishment media relentlessly smeared as a “white separatist” and “white supremacist” with possible links to the Aryan Nations. As the FBI knew, Weaver was not a member of the group, and as Weaver testified to the Senate in 1995, “I don’t hate people because of being a different race. I don’t hate anybody. I believe there are good and bad in every race, and I have always taught that.”

On the other hand, Weaver could be accurately described as a biblical survivalist. He moved his family from Iowa to northern Idaho to prepare for bad times and the possible breakdown of society. Such survivalism had been on the rise since the latter days of the Carter administration, when the end did seem to be at hand.

Like many in rural Idaho, Weaver and his family were fully armed. On the other hand, they lived peacefully and perpetrated no attacks against neighbors. The ATF tried to entrap Weaver on a gun charge and an exchange of fire claimed the lives of a U.S. Marshall and Weaver’s 14-year-old son, Samuel. That brought in the FBI, which deployed 400 heavily armed agents, helicopters, armored personnel carriers, and trained snipers all against a single family.

The FBI’s rules of engagement allowed agents to shoot on sight. The agency believed that Randy’s wife Vicki was the “brains of the outfit” and FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot the unarmed woman in the head as she held her infant daughter. Snipers are trained to “acquire” their targets, so not likely the killing was accidental.

Weaver and his friend Kevin Harris were also wounded, and Harris was near death when the siege ended. In the ensuing trial, Randy Weaver was acquitted on everything but failing to appear in court, and his original tangle with the ATF was ruled as entrapment. The family received a settlement of more than $3 million but questions remained.

As the Fox documentary showed, it remains unknown to this day which FBI boss ordered the shoot-on-sight rules, and the mystery could be part of a cover-up. Michael Kahoe of the FBI’s violent crime division destroyed a key report on Ruby Ridge to prevent the U.S. attorney from turning it over to Weaver’s attorneys. Kahoe would up serving 18 months in prison, for actions in a case that rendered three people dead.

The campaign against candidate Trump, and the coup attempt against President Trump, has yet to claim any lives, but it has certainly ruined a few. As the Federalist reveals, James Comey and Andrew McCabe signed off on FISA warrants that were false, which is a federal crime. These were part of more than a dozen cases in which the FBI violated FISA laws.

FBI lawyer Kevin Klinesmith altered a key document on Carter Page and the phones of FBI players Strzok and Page were wiped clean of incriminating texts. U.S. attorney John Durham is running a criminal investigation, but so far no FBI or DOJ player has been officially charged, tried and sent to prison. A low-level fall guy the style of Kahoe would hardly match the magnitude of the crimes and essentially authorize future coup attempts by the deep state. That’s the lesson of Ruby Ridge.

Billingsley goes on to weave Waco, the Nation Of Islam, and the Black Panthers into a larger tapestry of corruption and extremely dubious, politically-motivated FBI/Senate/DoJ investigations. The FBI’s blatant stab at criminal interference in the 2016 election and the subsequent all-thumbs attempt to frame Trump shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody the least bit familiar with their coal-black history.

Lots more NOTHING

Posted on January 28, 2020January 28, 2020 by Mike

This is what trying to make a case when you don’t have one looks like.

Retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz gave what may be the most persuasive case against impeaching President Donald Trump while in the well of the U.S. Senate on Monday evening.

Speaking as a representative of Trump’s defense team, the lifelong liberal Democrat urged senators to not “let the feelings about one man, strong as they may be, cause irreparable damage” to the fate of other presidents. “Passion and fears of the moment must not blind us,” he pleaded.

Before Dershowitz took the lectern before the Senate, there was considerable debate about an obviously strategically-timed leak of information from former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s unpublished book.

Dershowitz had an answer to the New York Times’s leak in which Bolton believed the worst about President Trump’s delay of aid to Ukraine, saying it was “inconceivable” to the founders that a quid pro quo was an impeachable offense.

As I’ve been saying right along: EVEN IF TRUMP ACTUALLY DID EVERY SINGLE LAST THING THEY COMPLAIN ABOUT, THERE’S STILL NOTHING REMOTELY CRIMINAL ABOUT ANY OF IT. The one and only thing this man is actually guilty of is trying to do what he was elected to do. “Quid pro quo” conditions on foreign aid, is it? One of the reasons his supporters voted for him is because he said he hoped to eliminate whacking great gobs of foreign aid ENTIRELY.

So riddle me this: if investigating the obvious corruption of a manifestly corrupt politician like Senile Uncle Gropey and his odiferous offspring is to be off the table just because he’s running for office yet again, to whom does that new standard apply? Is it just Gropey & Son? All Democrat-Socialist grifters and goniffs? Can we expect the same hands-off consideration for Republican office-seekers too? Is this sweet little break for all politicians, or just state level and up? Is it for presidential aspirants only?

It’s a basket of bollocks, is what it is. To wit:

When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated for a seat on the US Supreme Court, not only did the GOP have a clear majority in the Senate and, thanks to Harry “no, really, it was an exercise band not a gay escort that knocked my eye loose” Reid there was no filibuster to contend with, but Kavanaugh seemed an smart, doctrinaire, and squeaky clean conservative. Everyone expected the left to attack his opinions, but there were no skeletons here.

Then came the accusations by fabulist Christine Blasey Ford about an incident that took place in high school (she couldn’t provide an exact time or location) when she was sexually assaulted by a young Kavanaugh. Close on the heels of that allegation, a woman named Deborah Ramirez claimed Kavanaugh, while a college student, had waggled his penis in her face. Then we were treated to a soon-to-be convicted felon named Michael Avenatti producing a woman named Julie Swetnick who claimed that Kavanaugh ran a gang rape ring. A woman later identified as Judy Munro-Leighton claimed Kavanaugh raped her in a car.

All of these allegations were false. They were all easily batted down. But they served a common purpose. What should have been a pro-forma hearing of two or three days, followed by a confirmation vote turned into a month-long ordeal that involved a “supplemental” FBI investigation. And the volume of similarly themed allegations left some people wondering if there was a pony underneath that pile of horse dung, was Brett Kavanaugh a serial sexual predator in the Bill Clinton mode?

If one looks at the Trump impeachment trial, one sees the outlines of a similar pattern.

Oh, one most certainly does. And there’s a reason for that: as with Kavanaugh, as with many others going all the way back to Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork, now taken to truly stupefying extremes with Trump, these are assuredly NOT matters of “principle,” of “conscience,” of concern for “our democracy” or the Constitution. These are no more than tactics, stratagems, subterfuges—sleazy partisan black-ops mounted by conniving, twisted, soulless DC shitweasels sick on their insatiable greed for power and all that comes with it.

Slow-motion suicide update! When you got nothin’, you got…nothin’ to lose.

So what happens in the never-ending impeachment story, once the current impeachment indictment leads to an inevitable Senate vote of exoneration?

Another Stormy somewhere? A follow-up to Operation Crossfire Hurricane? Tax returns redux? Whistleblower 2.0? Another New York Times anonymous op-ed resister? Bob Woodward’s sequel? More leaked phone calls? Another impeachment hearing, and another impeachment vote? Schiff’s new version of a presidential call? One more Ivy League psychiatrist distance-diagnosing Trump as nuts? An emoluments clause do-over? More FISA warrants? A newly discovered Trump phone call to Poland, Romania, or Mexico? Lt. Colonel Vindman’s twin?

I mention these post-impeachment psychodramas because they are symptomatic of a sick Democratic patient. Yet the endless effort to destroy Trump before the election in the progressive mind has a certain logic given the current Democratic dilemma.

The Democratic Party is currently struggling with the weakest field of candidates since 1972 or 1984, well apart from the irony that a party that hectors the nation on proportional representation and disparate impact is fine with an all-white debating stage.

The Democratic platform will likely include the “Green New Deal,” a wealth tax, Medicare for All, tuition debt cancellation, higher income taxes, veritable open borders, an end to deportation and perhaps ICE as well, reparations, and a leftwing version of Obama’s failed foreign policy.

In other words, the Democratic agenda is weaker even than the unlucky candidate who will be expected to run on it.

Gee, guys, didja ever consider maybe rethinking some of those century-plus-old collectivist shibboleths of yours and trying out some new ones that might actually, y’know, work for a change?

Case: CLOSED update! No matter how empty, how weak, how just plain bad you may think the Democrat-Socialist “case” is…it’s worse.

The House managers’ argument is simple. It alleges that President Trump withheld military assistance from Ukraine in order to force that country’s new president to investigate — among other things — why and how former Vice President Biden’s son became a director of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company. A subsidiary argument is that Trump also refused to provide, for the same reason, a White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. In withholding the assistance and the meeting, the House managers argue, Trump used the power of the U.S. government for his own political purposes — a corrupt act that they claim warrants his impeachment.

The president’s lawyers, however, in their short two-hour summary of what they will say this week in more detail, fatally undermined this case. They began with the famous July 25 transcript that recorded a conversation that day between the two leaders. In the transcript, as the lawyers pointed out, neither Trump nor Zelensky made any reference to the military equipment for Ukraine that Trump was allegedly using to pressure his counterpart. (Zelensky did mention that Ukraine was “almost ready” to buy more Javelin anti-tank weapons, but they were not part of the withheld assistance.)

Even more important, there is nothing in the transcript that suggests Zelensky was aware — at least on July 25 — that anything was being withheld from Ukraine. Obviously, Trump could not be pressuring Zelensky by holding back military assistance if the latter was not aware of it. This is a fatal flaw in the House managers’ argument.

The president’s lawyers then produced strong circumstantial evidence that officials in Ukraine were not aware, until Aug. 28, that anything was being withheld. Through the rest of July and almost all of August, U.S. officials who would regularly hear from their Ukrainian counterparts heard nothing about the military assistance. But on Aug. 28, Politico published an article saying that Trump was withholding aid. This immediately set off a storm of calls from officials in Ukraine to their U.S. counterparts, showing that Ukrainian officials had been unaware that anything was being delayed. Again, if those officials had been in the dark, Trump could not have been using withheld aid to force Ukraine into investigating the Bidens.

What’s left for Senate Democrats is an attempt to get 51 votes for additional witnesses. But it’s a fool’s errand. Now circulating in the media is a story about a book by John Bolton in which he allegedly says the president directed him to hold up delivery of the assistance until Biden was investigated. The president no doubt says many things to many people that he trusts. But all these statements of intention are irrelevant if he never told the Ukrainians that the assistance was being withheld. Without such knowledge, President Zelensky was not being pressured.

There’s simply no “there” there. Bottom line: the Shampeachment farce is not about a single damned thing the lying Democrat-Socialists claim it is, and they know it full well. In reality, it’s about two elections: the one they lost in 2016, and the one they fear they can’t win in 2020. Period, full stop, end of story.

Steyn unloads on Shampeachment

Posted on January 24, 2020January 24, 2020 by Mike

Why don’tcha just come out and tell us what you really think, Mark?

The left, being not terribly imaginative, always accuse you of what they’re doing themselves. So, in this case, President Trump is charged with interfering with the 2020 election by men who have been interfering with the 2016 and 2020 elections for over three-and-a-half years now. Which is why we have the preposterous spectacle of four Democrat presidential candidates preparing to vote to remove from office the guy they’re running against.

This is a joke. I gave up on it when, on the eve of the trial, the laughably named “Government Accountability Office” released its supposedly entirely separate conclusion that Trump had acted “illegally”. Aside from the fact that that “finding” is flat out wrong, I wonder whether the permanent bureaucracy ever thinks, “Gee, maybe we should be a little more subtle about putting our Deep State thumbs on the scale.”

But no. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? To whom is the “Accountability Office” accountable? Apparently nobody – just as with James Comey’s FBI and Rod Rosenstein’s DoJ and Lois Lerner’s IRS and all the rest. If bureaucrats want to get political, they should do what politicians do and run for office. But why bother if, simply by being a “career public servant”, you have a license to obstruct mere elected transients and their “policies”? The permanent state is one reason we have so many permanent problems.

Man, when Steyn is on, he is flat-out ON, ain’t he? Meanwhile, rising star Elise Stefanik has got herself a notion:

Representative Elise Stefanik is a member of President Trump’s defense team. In this interview the issue of the deficient articles is raised surrounding witnesses.

House witnesses who gave testimony when the articles were framed could be considered appropriate, if needed, when debating those articles in the Senate. However, witnesses not called by the House; and therefore not used in the assembly of the articles being debated in the Senate; are not valid for consideration.

It is not the responsibility of the Senate, nor is it constitutionally valid, for the Senate to attempt to rehabilitate improperly constructed articles simply because the House refused to assemble with due diligence. Any evidence, including witnesses, that falls outside the originating assembly of the two House articles should be considered null and void.

Limbaugh has a notion himself:

I really think the Republicans ought to bring Schiff in here and put him front and center and I think they ought to call him. I think they ought to make everything the Democrats are doing related to Adam Schiff. This guy needs to upheld front and center as the energy, the face behind this entire thing, because he’ll fold. Folks, he hasn’t said much that is the truth since this began.

I really think it’s critical to expose Adam Schiff in this, I think. If we’re gonna start calling witnesses (we’ll talk about that), get Schiff up there first. Everything revolves around Schiff. You are looking at human slime. I don’t like saying that. You’re just looking at a bad guy, folks. You’re looking at a really bad, poisoned guy. The guy is so partisan that he has just abandoned all pretense of decency — and he cannot tell the truth about any of this.

He’s just openly lying about things, and it’s the poison of this hatred that he’s got for Trump. Adam Schiff is typical of this radical left mentality that has taken over the Democrat Party. It is unreasonable, it is indecent, it has no boundaries of propriety. So I think the guy needs to be exposed. I think he needs to be brought front and center. He’s the guy with ties to the whistleblower, Ciaramella — who we now know has been working on this for two weeks after Trump was inaugurated.

Maybe forcing Schiff to testify under oath could explain the origins of this entire fiasco.

I’m all for it. Put the oleaginous, wormy little fuck under oath and grill his ass until those bug-eyes plop out of the sockets into his lap, and his toddler-size collar begins to constrict that pencil-neck so tightly he strangles. Sweat him old school, like a cheap dimestore hood in an LAPD hotseat circa 1947 or so. Make him squirm, wriggle, and writhe so painfully even I begin to feel pity for him. Senate Republicans could begin taking the air out of this overinflated, treacherous little blowhard by interrogating him on this:

Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) may have been an anonymous source for the Washington Post as it reported allegations that have led to the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

Schiff may have outed himself during his opening arguments in the Senate trial of the president on Wednesday, as he cited an opinion article written by the Post editorial board — an odd reference in a presentation of factual evidence.

Notably, the Sep. 5 editorial closely tracked the accusations that were contained in the so-called “whistleblower” complaint, whose claims were not yet known to the public at the time.

The Post editorial helped create an atmosphere of suspicion and anticipation that led to the complaint’s release and the impeachment itself. And on Wednesday, the Post editorial conveniently provided a “fact” — a “reliably told” story — that Schiff could cite in his case for Trump’s removal.

But Schiff did not explain why he would treat an opinion article as “fact.” Editorials are not typically reliable sources of original reporting.

The most logical explanation is that Schiff considered the article “factual” because he himself was the source.

Having been caught in an ever-widening death-spiral of lie after lie after lie this early in the festivities, Schiff-for-brains and his Klown Kar Koup co-conspirators haven’t thought this through very well, it would seem. The stiffest possible price must be exacted from them, pour encourager les autres, lest the filthy swine take another run at their perfidy someday.

Whither to?

Posted on January 23, 2020January 23, 2020 by Mike

We already know what kind of government we have. What we’re going to find out next is what kind of country we have. Schlichter poses the question: what now?

What now is that you continue with the momentum from the rally and before. This is an insurgency – a peaceful one, despite the “de-escalate” crap your Jazz Singing’ chief executive is shoveling – and you need to keep up the pressure. This is about guns, which are the backstop of freedom but the liars and losers of the media want to pretend you don’t think so. They want to pretend you are looking for a chance to commit violence. They want to pretend you want to hurt people. That’s how they plan to delegitimize you.

Don’t fall for it.

We talk a lot about the obligation of others to observe our Constitution in letter and spirit, but we have that obligation too. We must use the processes the Founders laid down to achieve our goals. The steps outlined above, like taking the issue to the people in the next election and using the courts to vindicate our rights, are the foundation of our Constitution. Our Constitution is a tough old guy, and it can take this punch from those Dem weenies and stand right back up.

Virginia, you made America proud on January 20th. You defied your dishonest and obnoxious governor, who was crossing his fingers hoping for trouble. You defied the media liars who called you horrible names. You defied the few fools and cretins who showed up at the rally looking for trouble. You came out in the cold, normal Americans, proud and patriotic, and demanded your liberties peacefully, powerfully and gloriously.

Now you have to finish the fight. Organize. Vote. And never give in.

You will win.

Correction: the fight will NEVER be truly finished. Not as long as even one, count ’em, (1) Democrat-Socialist holds office of even the least consequence, up (down?) to and including dog catcher or USPS branch 2nd assistant deputy manager. And should Americans wise up and refuse to grant power of even the most insignificant sort to one of these red-in-tooth-and-claw slime molds, we’ll still need to remain vigilant—continuously, and forever. Rights not most scrupulously, jealously guarded have a way of becoming rights lost…or taken.

In other words, rights don’t protect us; WE must protect THEM. The Founders knew this—and said so, repeatedly and explicitly. As I’ve said myself so many times regarding the supposed inability of the Constitution they bequeathed us to safeguard our most basic rights: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves. The Constitution didn’t fail us; we failed the Constitution.

Richmond provided a first step towards answering the question of what kind of country we have—no more than a small one, perhaps, but a step nonetheless. Yes, the chance of any such gatherings ever stopping further gun-grabber legislation is slim to nonexistent. But I’m coming around to the belief that they’re useful just the same, in other ways. The statement made by the VCDL’s protest this week assured their supporters that they are by no means alone out there. It made the same point crystal-clear to their—our—adversaries. As I always say: that ain’t nothing.

Even small victories are still victories, after all. And sometimes they can lead to bigger ones.

Down to the nut-cuttin’

Posted on January 19, 2020January 20, 2020 by Mike

Another post that could have been appended to the last one as updates, but there’s just too much out there not to break out a new one instead. First up, David’s cynicism and despair pretty precisely mirror my own.

I had hoped to never write a post like this. It appears that federal agencies are “scouring” the Internet to prevent attacks in Richmond, VA tomorrow. The real question is how did we get here?

I will not dance around the issue of whether or not we are in a Civil War. The only question to be answered is when it will go hot. There are many triggers in place besides Richmond. Most people do not know that if Abraham Lincoln had not won the 1860 election (with less than 40% of the popular vote), the North had planned to secede. The nation had devolved to a point where there could be no reconciliation: Henry Clay’s great compromise had failed. And yet history is about to repeat itself. No matter who wins the 2020 election, the country will lose as it did in 1860. In fact, too much of the country is already lost: look at the Democrat controlled cities and states to see the dystopian future that they have planned for the entire nation.

And that is the optimistic time line. So here we are on the precipice of a hot civil war courtesy of the Communist Democrat Party and the media financed by George Soros. I pray that evil is defeated, justice is meted out fairly and that the consequences of insurrection for power are not soon forgotten. The two-tiered justice system and all of its conspirators must be held accountable and given the maximum penalty they deserve for their crimes.

If we lose, we lose all.

Don’t look now, Dave, but when we’ve reached the stage where Americans dare not peaceably petition the government for redress of grievances—thereby forfeiting their former 1A rights along with the 2A ones—because of the risk of being murdered in a slaughter-pen dreamed up and constructed by one of our own state governments, for the purpose of weaponizing those false-flag deaths for later use against the surviving victims as propaganda, the only rational conclusion is that we already DID. Elsewhere, JC Dodge makes a few depressing points on the day before the former Republic dies the final death:

Cages are for animals, detainees, and convicted felons, not Citizens. Herding Citizens into a big cage while they exercise one inherent and enumerated Right, while advocating for another inherent AND ENUMERATED Right (that has been temporarily taken away), is the act of a tyrant. Anyone who says it is not, is an apologist for the tyrant, a “closet” tyrant themselves or an imbecile.

When it comes to the Richmond Rally on January 20th, don’t be a domesticated, herd animal. They generally end up on the “dinner table” in one form or another.

Be a “Thinking” MAN, not a “following” SLAVE. Make decisions based on common sense and you own good judgement/gut feeling. I’d advise to not go with the musings of some social media “Tacticool” wannabees or YouTube “Tabletop Experts” who want to finally get the opportunity to “Get it on!”, or think they will be in the “Command Structure” of the resistance, based on their YT presence. As I said in this post, both are lacking in any expertise, background and common sense.

He’s right. While I wish it were still remotely possible to influence the decisions made by our rulers on how we are to be ruled, or at least intimidate them into doing the right thing and governing according to the will of the people (often the only recourse when dealing with megalomaniacal professional politicians), the sad fact is that it isn’t. Honestly, if I were in Virginia there’s no way on earth I would be caught dead within 250 miles of Richmond tomorrow—at least. Because of, y’know, the likelihood of being caught dead there for reals, in accordance with Gov Coonman and his fellow fascists’ plans for exactly that.

Both via WRSA. Lots, lots more over there, and more coming here too.

Update! Sorry, but this is just pathetic.

Dismissing rhetoric from Democrats that armed Second Amendment supporters are threatening to stir up a Monday rally at the Virginia Capitol, activists ordered to disarm to get close to the protest site are asking armed friends and family to “watch over us.”

Under rules set in place by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam and endorsed by state courts, guns will be banned inside a large fenced-in area around the Capitol, even for those with carry permits.

“If you can commit to being one of our needed 10,000 unarmed members inside the fence, please help us by asking several of your family and friends to be your designated armed escort to the gates and to stand outside the fenced area to watch over us,” said an alert from the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

“Stand with us, legally armed if you so choose, just outside the fence and watch over your brothers and sisters inside the fence,” said the group. Tens of thousands of pro- and anti-gun protesters are expected for the Monday morning event.

So let’s recap, shall we? A chain-link kill house—one entrance, three exits covering only two sides of the square, all of them closely co-located rather than at opposite ends, which unpropitious layout is very damned suggestive of certain nefarious probabilities—those exits very likely surrounded by a horde of violent Leftist thugs waiting to attack the fleeing sheep, overseen by ranks of cops obeying stand-down orders…just like in C-ville. So explain one thing to me, guys: why the fucking FUCK would you EVER willingly agree to be herded into such a kill house in the first fucking place?

Think I’m being too paranoid when I say that Coonman & Co have big plans for those foolish enough to march right through the slaughterhouse gate, baah-ing and bleating the whole time for their friends to protect them from harm? Might wanna take a hint from Coonman’s own lies before leaping headlong to that conclusion:

Northam and other gun-control politicians have been suggesting that far right pro-gun groups plan to disrupt the event. The state has said it wants to prevent “another Charlottesville,” where white supremacists clashed with counterprotesters over Civil War monuments.

And there you have it. Coonman has laid the propaganda groundwork carefully; it was the state that created the false Charlottesville narrative that eventually carried the day in the first place. Now the Charlottesville lie has become a handy propaganda club for Leftists like Coonman to wield upside the vacant skulls of their gullible opponents in all sorts of contexts…and wield it they most certainly will. With the repeated mischaracterization of law-abiding gun owners as dangerous “white supremacists” alone, Coonman & Co have given their game away.

And now this blatanly dishonest tyrant wants to lead you people into a fenced, gated “Gun Free Zone” ostensibly to prevent you from committing Charlottesville-style “violence” against the politicians guilty of revoking your Constitutional rights, or their official AntiFa enforcers. Once corraled, you will be surrounded by a jeering, hate-maddened mob whose penchant for violent assault is already well-established. All this will be overseen by armed cops whose loyalties and orders are uncertain at best. In order to prevent pictures or video which could contradict the official narrative, the airspace around Richmond has been declared a no-fly zone, to include civilian drones.

Virginia’s government officials; bused-in AntiFa wrecking crews, further emboldened by official sanction; the Democrat-Socialist Party, both state and national; the libmedia apparatus entire—TV, radio, print, cable; ALL of this, with Virginia LEO’s coming in as at best unknown, is stacked up against you. So I say again: WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU PEOPLE AGREE TO COOPERATE WITH THIS CHARADE?

Oh, and lest anybody out there think the Virginia State Police might refuse to enforce Gov Coonman’s blatantly unlawful orders in obediance to their own oaths: might wanna think again.

VA State Police drive over 100 miles to intimidate law abiding citizens ahead of Lobby Day, a planned rally in support of the 2nd amendment in Virginia. pic.twitter.com/kokx3w9isB

— Michael Coudrey (@MichaelCoudrey) January 19, 2020

Sorry, but I have to say it again: the only chance of liberty-minded Virginians plucking any worthwhile result out of this stinking pile is to walk in with guns ablaze right from jump, taking out every goddamned politician they can get into range. Otherwise, you’re all just pulling your puds. Right or wrong, you can’t polish a turd. And a fat, squishy, reeking turd is exactly what you’ve been handed here.

That’s telling ’em update! More on the Virginia man mentioned in the above Tweet. His response to being set upon by the Va State Po-po is just filled with rich buttery goodness, as is the backstory to all this.

A YouTube video shows George Wagner, a disabled Navy veteran and son of a state police captain, being interrogated by Virginia state police officers for taking photos at the Virginia State Capitol.

Wagner is told that a “credible tip” reached the state police desk about Wagner possibly engaging in “pre-operational planing” at the Capitol.

“I’m sure you’re well aware of all the events occurring on Monday,” an officer who gave his name as Adam Culpa tells Wagner.

“Correct, I am a citizen of the United States and I understand that we have an unconstitutional Second Amendment a**hole governor, who is taking away our rights,” Wagner replies.

Wagner is told there is “video footage” of him at the Capitol walking around, “checking into structures,” and “knocking on pillars, most likely to check densities.”

The other officer tells Wagner that police at the state house saw him engaging in the aforementioned “pre-operational planning.”

“What they saw was an intelligent American who is situationally aware of the piss-poor job y’all will do with my security,” Wagner says. “You are disarming me, you are putting me behind a gate, and still, as a free man, I’m gonna come here and stand.”

“We’re trying to understand if you intend to do harm,” the unnamed officer on the left says.

“I don’t intend to do anything, and you might want to tell [State Police Superintendent] Colonel Settle, that the reason I knew what I was doing is [because] my father was Captain Bill Wagner, W.R. Wagner, Virginia State Police. So I’m very aware. I was raised aware.”

Good as all that is, Wagner wasn’t done yet, ordering one cop off his property, then blasting away when the other lamely resorts to the Mark-1 Mod-0 rationalization that he’s “just doing his job”: “The son of a bitches that loaded the Jews into the gas chambers were just doing their job, too.” May God watch over this brave man tomorrow, come what may.

Oh, and on the slight chance that anybody was somehow deceived by the sudden tossing of AntiFa scum into the boiling cauldron as fellow 2A supporters: Don’t be a dumbass, fool.

A Virginia Antifa chapter has released a hit list of several conservative figures and journalists who will make an appearance at the 2nd Amendment rally in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday.

The chapter, called Antifa Seven Hills, created a list of what they call “known fascists and sympathizers,” which includes conservatives affiliated with Infowars like Owen Shroyer, journalists Mike Adams and Jacob Engels, veteran Joe Biggs, and even Trump insider Roger Stone.

Additionally, American Policy Center president Tom DeWeese reported that Antifa is planning to disguise themselves as Trump supporters so they can commit violence to portray all conservatives at the even as violent extremists.

The text from DeWeese’s Fakebook post:

I’m in Richmond and have just received information from a very reliable source concerning Monday’s rally against the legislature’s gun grabs. Antifa have rented seven buses to bring in their thugs to cause trouble. The report says they will be wearing MAGA hats and wearing NRA garb. They will pretend to be pro gun people. Meanwhile others posing as democrats holding anti gun signs will stand on the side. The Antifa thugs, pretending to be pro gun , will attack the sign holders. Making it look like the pro gun people have started violence. This is the plan. If you are attending the rally be aware. Be very careful.

Any bets on whether Coonman himself suggested this to ’em? But there’s an even bigger problem with DeWeese’s advice, and it’s this: “Be aware”? Be “very careful”? How, and for what? Will any amount of “awareness” avail you when your skull is being caved in by a platoon of pipe-swinging AntiFa goons, all of whom will be allowed to walk away without so much as a disapproving scowl from the authorities? How “careful” can one be while locked into a fenced free-fire zone whose only way out is through a gauntlet of officially-licensed enforcers with weapons-free approval granted by the State? What will turning the other cheek be likely to earn anybody from the proven-violent AntiFa hoodlums?

CAN violence be avoided tomorrow? Worse, and more depressing: SHOULD it be? It’s crystal-clear that this struggle will never be resolved without bloodshed; has the time come to settle it, if only temporarily?

Whatever tomorrow brings, I salute Wagner’s defiant determination; his bravery, his patriotism, his honor are simply not open to question from the likes of me. But a losing hand has been fobbed off on him by a dirty-dealing state government just the same, and I don’t see any good way for him to play the thing out.

Road trip update! The Spectator’s George Parry says he’s going in.

So, what have we got here? Thanks to the Democrat-controlled legislature’s arrogant determination to jam gun control down the gagging throats of rebellious law-abiding Virginians, the Democrat governor is claiming that there is probable cause to believe that on Monday the peasants may well re-enact Bastille Day by storming the Capitol as well as engage in violence, rioting, and armed insurrection. Hopefully, in addition to the governor’s dire predictions, there will also be trembling, sweating Democrat legislators hiding under their desks wondering how in the hell they got themselves into this mess and praying to Gaia that these howling crazies don’t one day lay siege to their homes and district offices.

Frankly, this is an irresistible prospect. That is why your correspondent will be standing tall in Richmond’s Capitol Square Monday morning to record for posterity what promises to be one of this century’s Mother of All Political Wake Up Calls behind only Donald Trump’s election victory and Brexit.

Virginia’s state seal depicts a slain dictator over the motto “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” which translates to “Thus Always to Tyrants.” But an appropriate variation of this sanguinary motto for Monday’s rally could appropriately be “Semperque Insulsi Superborum” or, in English, “Thus Always to Arrogant Morons.”

So, stand by and watch this space. My post on Monday’s festivities should be fun.

George doesn’t specify whether he’ll be entering the infamous Coonman’s Cage or not, but best of luck to him regardless.

DOG BITES MAN!!!

Posted on January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 by Mike

Ho hum.

Media and the Left Trying to Turn Law Abiding Gun Owners into Frothing, Racist, White Supremacists

Ummm…and? Seriously, dude, you find this shocking?

Northam and other gun rights opponents think that having 100,000 people rallying for gun rights — with many of them armed — will lead to violence. Northam declared a “state of emergency” — as if the very presence of several thousand armed citizens is a threat.

Gov Coonman hopes it will lead to violence; he intends for it to lead to violence, if only he can rig things the right way. After which he will very loudly and passionately denounce all private ownership of firearms; demand that “something must be done to stop the bloodshed!”; hold a jam-packed Enemedia press conference where he will falsely declare that he is in no way anti-2A, that he is himself a “life-long hunter”; then call for yet more “reasonable, common-sense” gun-grabbing measures in response to the “emergency” he and his Commie co-conspirators manufactured.

In the end, this is the Republicans’ own fault. In November, 2018, more Democrats in Virginia showed up to vote than Republicans. This resulted in a sweep for the Democrats, taking control of both houses of the legislature and the governorship.

And now Virginians have a governor who declares a “state of emergency” when citizens show up at a peaceful rally legally armed and lawmakers look to harass, annoy, and violate the rights of its citizens.

They look to end those rights, to rescind them forever, actually.

And to add insult to injury, those same politicians seek to lump law-abiding, responsible gun owners in with white supremacists.

Again with the surprise and horror? Tell me, Rick, when have they NOT done exactly that—and more, and worse—over the past forty years or so? Don’t kid yourself that it’s only “law-abiding, responsible gun owners” they’re abusing via that and similar canards, either. It’s every last American who isn’t fully on board with living under their tyrannical sway—who does not embrace their collectivist fanaticism, their lunatic policies, their ever-metastasizing Superstate, their intolerance for dissent, and so many other things.

Grok: If they can successfully paint even as milquetoast, mild-mannered a squish as Mittens Romneycare as some kind of extremist, Right-wing monster—and they could, they did—why on earth would you think they’d draw the line at “law-abiding, responsible gun owners”?

Oh, and while we’re at it, allow me to reiterate: IT’S A TRAP.

A Virginia state senator has sounded a warning bell three days before a massive rally is set to coalesce in the commonwealth’s capital.

Conservative Sen. Amanda Chase of District 11 took to Facebook on Friday with a warning for every patriot who plans to attend the pro-Second Amendment rally Monday in Richmond.

Her warning came the same week that Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order temporarily banning firearms in the Capitol Square.

“Sadly, I am posting this, knowing that the Governor of Virginia has declared a State of Emergency in our state,” Chase wrote. “I want you to be aware of how we are being set up.”

More via Hoft:

If anyone steps out of line, all it takes is one person, it may even be a government plant….if that plant does anything to disrupt the rally, you could/will be arrested as a domestic terrorist.

The Governor, using the media has already set the stage for this to happen.

He has already laid the groundwork to make the entire movement look like insurrection.

It will be used to put the rest of the nation on notice of what will happen to you, if you resist.

More still from Sundance, who makes a point I’m not entirely comfortable with:

Just as the national media did with the “far-right” -vs- “Antifa” for the Charlottesville example, there is a much larger national narrative overlay being deployed.

Also as noted in 2017, getting President Trump involved in the controversy is a way to keep the story on a national scale and politicize the crisis. This is a presidential election year, and Democrats are attempting to converge a multitude of social issues for maximum electoral benefit.

President Trump is being drawn into the engineering.

Something is going to take place.

What that ‘something’ might be is yet unknown.

However, whatever it is, President Trump is unfortunately now attached to it.

Now, Sundance is probably right about an Alinsky-style strategy being worked here. Furthermore, he’s almost certainly correct in his “national narrative” suspicion, and that Trump has been “drawn into” it.

Consider, though: why, exactly, is Trump’s involvement in one of the most important, Constitutionally-relevant conflicts in our history to be considered a BAD thing? Should a President recuse himself to sit on the sidelines when a war against our most fundamental rights is being waged by nefarious, conniving Enemies, Domestic who seek nothing less than to upend the very foundations of this nation? Would it not rather be more laudable for a President to vigorously defend those foundations, those rights, and let the “election-year” political chips fall where they may?

Must we always and forever yield up the right to defend ourselves against Leftist depredation, while they’re perfectly free to make war on us, our liberty, and our beliefs without the slightest restraint? Must we always and forever be resigned to defeat and subjugation? Must we always and forever cling to the delusion that the only way to win is by refusing to fight back?

I dunno, I’m beginning to wonder if the most optimal result from this whole contretemps might be achieved only if the VCDL people just opened fire immediately upon their arrival at the Capitol, and didn’t stop blasting away until every last dimestore dictator in the vicinity had assumed ambient temperature for good.

Rights? What rights?

Posted on January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 by Mike

Yeah, yeah, keep on telling yourself how “free” you are, whydon’tcha.

A grim reminder about those Second Amendment Constitutional “rights”: they don’t exist. They haven’t in decades. Because any “right” that requires a permit or license to be exercised is by definition NOT a right at all—it’s a privilege.

(Image swiped from WRSA)

It’s a trap!

Posted on January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 by Mike

The problem here can be inferred from the headline: “Tyranny at the Door in Virginia.” Sorry, but tyranny came right in the door, raided the fridge, sat itself on the couch, and made itself right at home already.

It began when Ralph “Blackface” Northam became the governor of Virginia in 2017, then advanced another step when the Democratic Party took control of the Virginia General Assembly last year. In part, these events transpired because of the efforts by Michael Bloomberg and George Soros to put Virginia in their crosshairs by dumping millions of dollars into state and local elections.

And when the collaborationist GOPe failed to even bother running candidates in multiple races across Virginia, lest we forget.

Earlier this week, the state senate judiciary committee, voting along straight party lines, passed bills that would require background checks on all private transfers of firearms, let owners keep their banned firearms only if they register with the Virginia State Police, and ban suppressors and any magazines over 10 rounds. The committee also passed red-flag legislation.

The good news is that Virginians are not taking the Democrats’ efforts lying down. Across the state, the grassroots have come alive. To date, 124 counties, cities, and localities have declared themselves sanctuaries for the Second Amendment (consider there are 95 counties and 41 independent cities total in the entire state). These jurisdictions have made it clear they will refuse to enforce any anti-Second Amendment legislation coming from Richmond.

The response of Northam and Attorney General Mark “I’m also into blackface” Herring is to insist that any laws passed regarding gun control will be enforced. Really? By whom? The sheriffs? Not likely. County police? Probably not. State troopers and the national guard? Not likely, either.

Besides, do you really think many Virginians are just going to hand over their guns? The only thing they will be handing over is rounds fired in the direction of anyone seeking to confiscate their rifles and pistols.

Well, maybe. But then again, maybe not.

As far as I can tell, the VCDL is trying very hard to tread lightly and responsibly with their upcoming rally, going way out of their way to emphasize that they’re a mainstream group of law-abiding citizens intent only on peaceably assembling to petition their government for redress of grievances, as is their good right, on a day specifically provided in Virginia each year for that very purpose.

Unfortunately, the more I see of this, the greater the likelihood of a bloody disaster intentionally created by the very malefactors responsible for this confrontation in the first place seems. The sorry fact is that the time for peaceful protest is far, far behind us. The war to preserve the US Constitution, the rights enumerated therein, and for liberty itself was lost many decades ago. The America of our Founders is no more.

The Virginia Democrat-Socialists certainly seem to think so, anyway; they’re marching boldly on without the slightest apparent concern over the possibility of igniting a powderkeg underneath their own worthless asses. They seem quite confident that ultimately, Virginia 2A supporters will sit complacently back and let their rights be stripped from them just like they have so many times before, not just in Va but all across the nation. They’re placing all their chips on this bet.

Honestly, I’m not at all sure I’d be willing to bet against them.

As I’ve said so many times: the most important thing the Left learned from their ill-fated stab at Prohibition was the proper way to boil a frog. Ever since, they’ve been devouring American liberty not in huge gulps, but in bite-size morsels—slowly, patiently, one piece at a time. Whatever a massive public protest in Va may or may not have achieved in the distant past, it will accomplish nothing now. Virginia gun-grabbers see the end-game, the culmination of all their fondest dreams of unchecked rule, within their grasp at last. No mere public show of opposition is going to dissuade them now.

And that really is too bad. One likes to imagine that, as American citizens, our rulers might be responsive to the wishes of those they rule, mindful not to flex their muscle too assertively, too aggressively. But as they get elected and re-elected over and over again, perpetrating the most stunningly brazen acts of corruption and abuse of power imaginable with near-total impunity, they’ve lost all fear of the voters’ wrath. Hell, the very existence of a professional, career-politician class itself—in direct contravention of the most dire warnings of the Founders—is but one of a long list of unsavory developments that have emboldened them.

No sane, decent person wants to have to shoot a neighbor, a cop, a friend or relative to safeguard his own freedom. Ironically, though, it would seem that an altogether human abhorrence for violence is the very thing ensuring that someday, those decent folks will be forced to hoist the black flag and start slitting throats. Many Virginians will probably get busy burying guns in the backyard in response to the passage of these abominable laws. But as Bracken says: if you think it’s time to start burying your guns, it’s actually time to start digging them up. Aesop submits:

If this is a war, fight it like a war. Holding a parade on your enemy’s quarterdeck isn’t going to get you anything you want, but it’ll get you a lot of what you don’t want. Oh, and in about 97 ways, you’re not ready for a war yet. So maybe start working on that first.

And if it’s not quite a war yet, you’ve damned sure got better things to do than grabbing your crotch and waving your shortcomings in the enemy’s face. So maybe start working on doing operations-other-than-war a helluva lot better too.

Which leaves no time for childish tantrums. Stop playing in the street, pull your heads out of your asses, and start doing serious things in a serious way, like this was serious business, and not a grade school food fight.

The tree of liberty may indeed be due for another good watering; I dunno, it’s not for me to say. But we all better be very damned sure about that first.

Update! The shitshow just got shittier.

I guess we now know why Virginia Governor Ralph Northam outlawed all weapons at a pro-gun rally organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), the state’s best known pro-Second Amendment group. Antifa’s showing up.

Vice News and other media outlets breathlessly reported Friday that Antifa and the right-leaning Second Amendment supporters have much in common and so will stand shoulder-to-shoulder on Monday to battle against the state.

“I think it’s been pretty important for us to focus on the fact that gun control in America has a legacy of racist enforcement,” said Antifa Seven Hills spokesperson James (who asked that his name be withheld to avoid getting doxxed online). “Like taking guns away from black people, because black people were perceived as a threat to property and the sanctity of the state.

This is our fight as much as anyone else’s,” James, who identifies as an anarchist, added. “It’s our state, and we are left largely out of the debate. The presence of an armed left is not discussed, it’s not understood.”

Ohhhh yeah, THIS is gonna end well.

A way out?

Posted on January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 by Mike

Might lead through West By-God Virginia.

West Virginia lawmakers are pushing a resolution inviting Virginia’s Second Amendment Sanctuary counties to become constituents of West Virginia.

The resolution–HCR 8–highlights 1863, the year Republicans broke with slave-owning Virginia Democrats and formed West Virginia.

The divide then was that the people of Western Virginia did not believe “the government at Richmond” had their best interests at heart and that such a divide exists again again today (over 118 local governments in Virginia have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries for this reason).

West Virginia Delegates use the resolution to pledge that the gun rights now under assault by Virginia Democrats will be protected for those counties that choose to become part of the state of West Virginia.

Frivolous as this proposal may seem, or even actually be, I still like it. In any event, the Democrat-Socialist gun-grabbers in Richmond are deadly serious about tyranny and show no sign whatsoever of backing off, instead plowing relentlessly ahead in defiance of the US Constitution, Virginia’s own Constitution, and even the motto on the Commonwealth flag and seal.

Meanwhile, the VCDL’s planned protest next week is looking more and more like a trap, as Aesop has so vehemently warned. One of Ace’s commenters offers a modest proposal for defusing the tension there while still striking a blow at Gov Coonman:

12 The protestors should all come in black face
Posted by: It’s me donna at January 15, 2020 06:14 PM (6XlcD)

Heh. Okay, I like that one, too.

It’s on!

Posted on January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 by Mike

Somebody finally found a way to pressure Stretch Peelousy into staggering on over to the Senate to deliver her Shampeachment “articles” to McConnell and Co for further processing. It appears she’s also had some sober person name the Shampeachment “managers” for her as well. Funny thing about this bunch, though.

Six of the seven impeachment managers selected by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi supported the impeachment of President Donald Trump before the whistleblower complaint was filed.

Gee, the shockers just keep on coming fast and furious today, don’t they?

The seven impeachment managers’ roles are very much like the roles of prosecutors, as the members are responsible for presenting the impeachment inquiries to the Senate, to make the case as to why Trump should be impeached with the evidence they have gathered.

Pelosi had continued to withhold the articles of impeachment, saying she doesn’t think the Republican-led Senate will hold a trial that both sides can agree on.

Given the indecent, contra-Constitutional flea circus the House just conducted, I should certainly hope not. In any event, your own role in this charade is now officially over and done with, bitch. The Senate runs the show from here on out, and your “agreement” is neither necessary nor relevant. But let’s not make any assumptions about a Senate acquittal of Trump on these self-evidently spurious “charges” being a given, a “slam-dunk.” Rand Paul sounds the tocsin on that.

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Rand Paul Says GOP Will Shaft Trump, Allow Democrat Witnesses and Block His Requests — Warns Colleagues Not to Commit Political Suicide

In an interview with The Gateway Pundit about the impeachment effort on Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul warned his colleagues who plan to let the Democrats choose witnesses that they will lose their reelections.

Senator Paul, who has seemingly been leading the charge to defend the president during this process, also explained that he would vote for Rep. Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to have to testify, especially since Schiff has a staff member who is friends with the whistleblower — potentially making him a material witness.

Additionally, Sen. Paul stated that he wants the impeachment process to be over as soon as possible, but that if the Democrats are allowed to call witnesses, President Trump must be afforded the same right.

When asked if any other Republicans have been supportive of Sen. Paul’s assertion that he wants to call in the whistleblower and Hunter Biden to testify, he asserted that there are a lot of people who do, but that they have been quiet.

In an interview with The Gateway Pundit about the impeachment effort on Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul warned his colleagues who plan to let the Democrats choose witnesses that they will lose their reelections.

Senator Paul, who has seemingly been leading the charge to defend the president during this process, also explained that he would vote for Rep. Adam Schiff and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to have to testify, especially since Schiff has a staff member who is friends with the whistleblower — potentially making him a material witness.

Additionally, Sen. Paul stated that he wants the impeachment process to be over as soon as possible, but that if the Democrats are allowed to call witnesses, President Trump must be afforded the same right.

When asked if any other Republicans have been supportive of Sen. Paul’s assertion that he wants to call in the whistleblower and Hunter Biden to testify, he asserted that there are a lot of people who do, but that they have been quiet.

In our interview, Sen. Paul warned that his Republican colleagues may be in trouble when they go up for re-election if they defy the president and allow Democrats to run amok, like they did in the House.

“What I keep trying to convince my colleagues, particularly the ones that might vote to allow the witnesses that the Democrats want to call, is that if they do that and they don’t vote to allow the president to bring his witnesses in, I think the Republican base and Trump supporters are going to be very very unhappy with them. I think it will have electoral consequences — which is sort of my way of saying that maybe they should reconsider having any witnesses at all,” Sen. Paul said. “My hope is some will reconsider and we will just be done with one vote.”

I hate to say or even think it, but considering A) the wafer-thin GOP majority in the Senate; B) the presence therein of treacherous, conniving Trump-haters like the despicable Mittens Romneycare; and C) the presumed presence of at least a few longtime GOPe Senators whose loyalty to the Deep State and its preservation will likely outweigh any other consideration, I don’t think any of us can be at all certain of which way this will end up going.

Rand is right: if there are to be witnesses, then Trump should be allowed to get his innings in too, as a matter of both legal propriety and elementary fairness. If he isn’t, then the US government’s true nature will have been undeniably exposed for all to see, any question about what kind of country this really is definitively answered. Then Americans will have some seriously difficult and unwelcome choices thrown into their laps.

Getting what you voted for

Posted on January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 by Mike

My heart bleeds.

California has overreached in its effort to address the challenges in today’s tech platform gig-work economy.

The live music sector, the progenitor of the term “gig” work, is being swept up by this law. The irony would be comical if it were not such a serious problem.

There are some worthy arguments to be made for Assembly Bill 5 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Democrat.

Like hell. There really is only the one argument, explicitly made by some Cali congresswoman or other when, in a rare burst of accidental candor, she complained that the state wasn’t glomming enough in tax dough off of rideshare drivers. Despite the property tax they pay on their cars, the fees for their license plates, the tax on every set of tires or quart of oil they buy, the tax on every gallon of gasoline, and their own yearly income taxes, they weren’t paying “their fair share,” see.

Funnily enough, though that revealing statement was fairly prominent in the reportage I saw at the time, it now seems to have vanished down the ol’ memory hole for some reason. I can’t imagine why.

Anyways, the writer quoted above is a California musician who feels “there are some worthy arguments to be made” for letting goobermint’s grubby thumbs dig deeper into any and everything it wishes, as long as they just leave him alone. His evident shock over this bit says it all:

However, the law has created a tangle of red-tape and administrative expense for large portions of California’s cultural sector.

NOOOO! Why, I can’t believe it! I WON’T believe it! Fret not, though; I’m sure things can all be ironed out with even more legislation, right? Right?!?

Under AB 5, we will be required to inform all U.S.-based musicians that they must now become employees of San Jose Jazz, or incorporate themselves before they will be allowed to perform for us.

If band leaders choose to pursue incorporation, they will then need to take on the responsibility of payroll and HR administration for the rest of their band.

In many performing arts disciplines, such as jazz, musicians are constantly reconfiguring line ups, performing as sidemen in various bands, and as one-time special guests for specific performances.

We will now be obliged to devote tremendous time and resources to constantly hiring, managing and tracking of musicians through this cumbersome process.

AB 5 unnecessarily complicates other work arrangements found in community cultural programming such as small festivals, neighborhood street fairs, parades and summer music series in our local parks.

San Jose Jazz is best known for producing our large Summer Fest which brings tens of thousands of visitors and requires hundreds of temporary roles to execute.

The vast majority of previously contract work roles will now be required to be employees.

Tough noogies, pal. You voted for it, by electing nothing but Democrat-Socialists in your state for years and years. As the old saw has it, sooner or later they always get around to something you DO care about. And now they have. More SHOCKING yet:

Typical of such legislation, AB 5 comes with a hefty list of exempted categories that are a Who’s Who of the politically connected and well-funded: lawyers, doctors, accountants, brokers, builders, and others.

Actors, choreographers, dancers, directors, producers, and musicians are among numerous roles in the performing arts that exhibit a multitude of contract work arrangements. None of these are exempt from AB 5’s rules.

So? If there are indeed “worthy arguments to be made” for handing government the power to make workplace rules of all sorts, why should performing artists be exempt from them, pray tell? Why should ANYBODY be? And can you really be so impenetrably naive as to find it surprising that the wealthy, powerful, and connected exempted themselves from the wonderful benefits of the law? Y’know, just like US Congresscritters routinely exempt themselves from having to comply with any and every piece of burdensome bushwa they roll downhill onto the rest of us?

Personally, after reading this whiny, clueless twaddle it would be a-okay with me if every last theater, concert hall, arena, neighborhood dive bar, and neo-hippie coffee house featuring annoying solo-acoustic singer/songwriters on the Left Coast closed up shop for good tomorrow as a result of this law. Voting the most intrusive, power-hungry nanny-staters extant into office again and again ought to be painful—not just for Uber and Lyft drivers struggling to eke out their meager living, but for everybody, right down the damned line. The lesson will be learned only after the misery is spread around widely enough for all to suffer. Let elections have consequences at last, I say.

Tooth and claw, hammer and tongs

Posted on January 14, 2020January 14, 2020 by Mike

This. This right here.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Monday said if his fellow Republicans allow Democrats to have the witnesses they demand in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, he will demand Hunter Biden testify.

Paul tweeted:

“My colleagues can’t have it both ways. Calling for some, while blocking others. If we are going to give a platform to witnesses the Dems demand, I look forward to forcing votes to call Hunter Biden and many more!”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who also opposes witnesses in the trial, has warned against them for just such a tit-for-tat reasoning.

McConnell told Fox News Radio in December that a calling of witness by Democrats coud lead Republicans to want Hunter Biden and even the whistleblower who’s identity has never been officially revealed.

And that would be just AWFUL, wouldn’t it? Such a destructive “tit for tat” risks unearthing all sorts of worms the Deep State would much prefer to keep covered. Why, the American knave-class might even get above their station to the extreme of insisting on justice being visited on all sorts of high ‘n’ mighty, untouchable types! The whole phony “of the people, by the people, for the people” charade might collapse! IT’S UNTHINKABLE!!

Other Republicans, such as Maine’s Susan Collins and Utah’s Mitt Romney, have been more open to possibly allowing witnesses. Democrats needs only four Republicans to cross over and vote with them to get their wish. CBS News reported Monday they likely have found four Republicans to join them.

They’ll likely get more Republicrat/Uniparty turncoats than that, I’d bet, with plenty of those willing to vote for conviction, too. Well, let ’em sow that dangerous wind. Just so long as they don’t mind reaping the whirlwind, too.

What price?

Posted on January 12, 2020January 12, 2020 by Mike

Less talk, more action. Sir.

FBI Director Chris Wray announced that the FBI’s response to the agency’s FISA Abuse and the criminal spying on the Trump campaign will result in extra training.

He sent out out a training video.

And no one will be disciplined for the criminal acts.

This is unacceptable!

President Trump called out Wray and asked him if any of the “dirty cops” are going to pay the price for the fraud they committed.

TRUMP: “FBI Director apologizes for FISA Errors (of which there were far to many to be a coincidence!).” @FoxNews Chris, what about all of the lives that were ruined because of the so-called “errors?” Are these “dirty cops” going to pay a big price for the fraud they committed?

Ummm…sorry to bring it up and all, but YOU HIRED HIM. That means that you can also, y’know, FIRE HIS ASS. So why the bleedin’ hell haven’t you already? More, and worse:

But it’s not just Wray’s fecklessness in the aftermath of the Horowitz report that merits his ouster. The chief has tried to cover up and excuse the scandal since he took the reins of the agency in August 2017.

Wray strenuously objected to the release of the February 2018 memo prepared by then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, which detailed how Comey’s FBI used the bogus Steele dossier as evidence in its application to the court and then withheld disclosing Steele’s Democratic funders.

Wray appealed to then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, conflicted because he signed the final renewal on Page’s FISA application, to do whatever he could to stop Nunes from making his memo public. Rosenstein and Wray met with Trump’s chief of staff to warn that the memo’s release could “set a dangerous precedent.”

Wray refused to fire the disgraced Andrew McCabe—the acting FBI chief who served in between Comey and Wray—despite mounting evidence of McCabe’s misconduct. (Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe just hours before he could retire with full benefits.) Wray also has stonewalled requests for communications from McCabe.

During his Senate testimony in May, Wray rejected Attorney General William Barr’s assertion that the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. “That’s not the term I would use,” Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Lots of people have different colloquial phrases. I believe the FBI is engaged in investigative activity and part of investigative activity includes surveillance activity of different shapes and sizes.” Wray confirmed that a “number” of surveillance warrants were obtained on the Trump campaign.

So, spying.

Wray bristles at the term “deep state.” He has repeatedly rejected that label to describe his employees, telling ABC News shortly after the release of the Horowitz report that its an “affront” to the 37,000 men and women of the FBI to claim they are part of the “deep state.” Not exactly a reassuring response; Wray clearly does not recognize the severity of the problem before him.

Not quite there yet, Jules, you stopped well short of the mark. Wray doesn’t recognize any “severity” at all, because he doesn’t think there IS a problem. And that is why, as you say, he is NOT the man to “reform” the FBI, which cannot BE reformed anyway. Being just another power-drunk, conniving, treacherous Deep State weasel marching in a long parade of reprobate FBI heads, Wray likes it just the way it is.

“One long continuum of exactly the same behavior”

Posted on January 12, 2020January 12, 2020 by Mike

There is no reforming corruption this deep; the rot goes clear to the bone, part of their DNA from the very beginning.

In June 2018, in response to an IG investigation, while denying the FBI had any political bias, FBI Director Christopher Wray promised anti-bias training for all agents. In response to the “challenges” identified by the report, the FBI “appreciates the opportunity” to provide more “support” to our employees.

In December 2019, in response to another IG investigation, while denying FBI agents would intentionally act illegally, FBI Director Christopher Wray notified the FISA court a Senior FBI investigative lawyer named Kevin Clinesmith intentionally falsified evidence on a FISA application.

In response to the FBI notification, late December 2019 the FISA court demanded to know what corrective actions the FBI was going to take; and what other applications FBI Lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was involved in.

In response today FBI Director Christopher Wray promises more training.

Throughout 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and through today, across both administrations, the corrupt group within the FBI in DC were/are protecting themselves. The FBI redacted the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages. The FBI removed Page and Strzok texts and emails. The FBI hid texts and emails from Lisa Page to Andrew McCabe. The FBI kept documents from congress. The FBI has leaked false information to media to cover their tracks; and yes the Trump FBI have participated.

The corrupt FBI under James Comey, Andrew McCabe and James Baker is being protected and facilitated by the corrupt FBI under Christopher Wray, David Bowditch (San Bernadino infamy) and Dana Boente.

It’s one long continuum of exactly the same behavior.

Of course it is. The FBI is a mirror-image of the Mafia they claim to abhor: both shadowy brotherhoods regard the law as an inconvenience at worst; both go to great lengths to keep their dirty doings hidden from scrutiny; and both put looking out for their own near the top of their list of priorities—not as a matter of morality and decence, but of self-interest.

That’s how you do it

Posted on January 11, 2020January 11, 2020 by Mike

Aesop, after posting several items pointing out the potential pitfalls of the VCDL’s upcoming Richmond rally, has a better idea.

1000 brainless yahoos fapping in the park at the statehouse are a juicy target for the leftards, the media, and the minions of jackbooted thuggery. And the dimmest bulbs among your ranks are target-locked on being the meal in that particular shark feeding frenzy. Why is a mystery, unless arsenic in your wells, a pandemic of fetal alcohol syndrome, and a steady juvenile diet of lead paint chips. Just stop. The question of why you shouldn’t do that has been asked and answered here times beyond counting.

But 500 or 1000 folks at the county meeting or sheriff’s office is a voting bloc that won’t be ignored. Because how in hell did all y’all get those 2A sanctuary votes pushed through? Hmmm???

So how about leading with your strength, instead of your chin for a change?

Dear Sheriff Dawg,
We, the citizens of Bugtussle County, respectfully require that you come up with a plan to deputize auxiliary deputies, to prevent or oppose any unconstitutional enforcement actions in Bugtussle County, effective ASAP. – signed, 500 registered voters

If he does it, you’ve just grown fangs for liberty teeth. If not, you’ve identified that he was just paying lip service, and needs to go in the next election, if not sooner.

That sounds like it might be pretty danged effective to me. He goes on to lay out several more along those lines, then mentions the benefits, including:

The fact that you’ll also provide a ready manpower pool of demonstrated competence for helping your friends and neighbors with wee problems like hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, fire, and other emergencies, is merely a happy side benefit.

Long before this, Gov. Blackface Babykiller and his idiot minions in the legislature are going to be crapping their pants, and falling all over themselves to back water on their jackassical antigun plans.

And you’ll have the framework of a fearsome political machine to get out the vote and spank them out of town at the next election opportunity (hot tar and chicken feathers optional, but heartily recommended.)

But just to be safe, your auxiliary and the sheriff should release information to the effect that any attempt to decapitate your leadership, by sequestration, detention, or arrest of TPTB, will constitute a de facto automatic call-up of the entire force, until further notice, and no stand-down will happen until the sheriff and the people of the county agree to it mutually and publicly.

Mess with one of us, mess with all of us.

I like it. It ought to be tried; it just might be last thing standing between us and genuine catastrophe, one from which we may well never recover. Surely we owe it to ourselves to find out.

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