Was listening to something called the IHeartRadio ICONS Event earlier, which featured an interview and live performance by the Doobie Brothers as promo for the recently-released album LIBERTÉ. The first tune, “Better Days,” was pretty much MEH, or so I felt. But after a little more Q&A, the boys lit into this one, and…
Not bad a-tall for a buncha old geezers, no? A bit more MOR than I usually like ’em, but still…not bad.
3Well, this is certainly…odd. At every one of the last several sites I just now tried to visit in search of blog-fodder—American Greatness, Zero Hedge, a few others—I’ve landed on this twipe instead:
Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.zerohedge.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALIDwww.zerohedge.com normally uses encryption to protect your information. When Brave tried to connect to www.zerohedge.com this time, the website sent back unusual and incorrect credentials. This may happen when an attacker is trying to pretend to be www.zerohedge.com, or a Wi-Fi sign-in screen has interrupted the connection. Your information is still secure because Brave stopped the connection before any data was exchanged.
You cannot visit www.zerohedge.com right now because the website uses HSTS. Network errors and attacks are usually temporary, so this page will probably work later.
Never even heard of HSTS, and while I admit I’m no kind of web guru, neither am I a complete neophyte. I’m gonna just assume another Leftard DoS attack against the Right blogosphere or some such and just carry on, I suppose. Any of y’all with more complete and/or up to date knowledge on what this might actually add up to is hereby encouraged to clue me via the comments section.
Update! After doing a little checking around, it appears the problem is with the Brave update I just installed, not the various sites themselves.
Things that make you go HMM update! Funny: switched over to Safari just for shits and grins and am seeing the same warning, only unlike Brave Safari DOES at least give me the option to continue risking life and limb by recklessly continuing on to the “unsafe” site. Another difference being Safari throws up the DANGER! DANGER! alert on EVERY site I’ve tried so far, not just some of ’em. So I went to the phone (Brave, on Android) and have so far had no trouble, no clangorous alarums, and no restrictions whatsoever. Not quite sure what to make of all that.
4This one being Phil over at Bustednuckles, currently suffering from all the myriad woes that accompany moving house on the Innarnuts.
I’m still having to fuck around with the moving of the blog to the new hosting company.
I’m not a techie and this is turning into a shit show.
Somehow or other it always does, Phil. All’s you can do is just square your shoulders, lower your head like a bull about to charge, and keep on keepin’ on.
Phil has been in my bookmarks for a good while now, don’t know why it is that I didn’t already have him in the blogroll long ago. Oversight now rectified; welcome aboard, bud.
(Editor Note: Our most awesome-est Host Mike got confused on the names… Phil runs Bustednuckles, and Kenny a.k.a Wirecutter handles Knuckledraggin… easy to confuse the two what with all the ‘too many-years-too-many-beers’ and blows to his nugget…so I done fixed it. Jes’ Sayin’ Big Country)
Update! Yep, t’is true, I shat the bed for some incomprehensible reason. I’d plead creeping Alzheimer’s like I’ve been doing for years now any time I screw up or get confused, but as I get older and slower and more enstupidated that begins to look less like a joke and more like somber reality. On the bright side, however, I am now fully qualified to serve as President, judging by current conditions.
On the even-brighter side, the whole disgraceful episode furnished me with a reminder that Knuckledraggin’ My Life Away, a/k/a Kenny’s online abode, needs to be in Ye Olde Blogrolle also, which installation has been duly accomplished. Red-faced apologies to Phil and Kenny both for my egregious fuckuppery, and thanks to BCE for having my back as usual.
3
2The dirty little secret about government is that its purpose is not really to make the lives of citizens better but, rather, to accumulate power at the expense of citizens. Not sure about that? Ask yourself, how many government agencies have put themselves out of a job because they succeeded? There’re a few that technology left behind, like the Steamboat Inspection Service; others that served their purpose, like the Defense Homes Corporation; while others were merged into other agencies like the General Land Office, subsumed into the Department of Interior. In our history, there have been fewer than 100 federal agencies that have actually been shuttered, and most of those existed in the early 20th century to deal with the Depression or the two world wars.
According to the Federal Register, the federal government has 457 different agencies. That’s 457 agencies covering virtually every aspect of American’s lives, most of which are staffed by unelected bureaucrats, all of whom spend your money and many of whom write regulations that carry the force of law which the government’s police power enforces. This includes everything from the State Department to the Geographic Names Board to the International Broadcasting Board to the ATF.
And that 457 is misleading. While it includes a dozen organizations tied to Defense, there are dozens more agencies that come under it that are not listed in the Federal Register such as the DoD Education Activity or the Office of Naval Research. Wikipedia lists a more realistic, but still lacking, 1,500.
The American government has become a leviathan. It’s everywhere, involved in virtually every aspect of American’s lives, and it’s perpetual, regardless of its record of dismal failure.
The government spends $30 trillion over half a century and reduces poverty by 1%. The government spends more on education than virtually every nation on the planet yet 85% of the students in its biggest (and most minority-filled) school districts fail basic reading and math, the building blocks for success in our dynamic society. And we’re supposed to believe government works for us?
American governments spend more money on education and social programs than anything else, more than the GDP of most countries. Yet even as they fail, year after year, decade after decade, the funds keep growing, regardless of their catastrophically abysmal track record.
And that tells you everything you need to know about the nature of governments. Their goal isn’t to solve problems. They’re not here to make life better for citizens. Their goal is not to protect the lives and liberties of citizens. No, government is the Borg. Its raison d’etre is simple: Grow revenue and increase power for itself and unions.
Proof? Despite the fact that the United States has 3,143 counties in 50 states spread out over 3,796,742 square miles, nine of the twenty richest counties are in a circle less than 100 miles across with Washington DC at its center. And what is the industry that drives that wealth? Finance? No. Entertainment? No. Steel or autos or high tech? No. One thing: Government power.
Accumulating power is the fundamental nature of government, and our Founding Fathers understood that which is why they gave us the Bill of Rights and particularly the 9th and 10th Amendments. For the first 150 years of our nation, those guardrails stood relatively firm, but today they are simply gone. Sadly, America has become so detached from our Constitution that 90% of what our government does is unconstitutional.
Oh, I wouldn’t say “detached from our Constitution,” exactly. With at least twenty to thirty percent of the country completely in the dark about what it says and what it means; another fifty percent implacably hostile to everything it represents; and fully one hundred percent of the gott-damned goobermint ignoring it—on the rare occasions when they aren’t actively striving to flush it down the toilet altogether—what chance does the poor, dear old thing have, realistically?
31A modest proposal from Brandon that I think we’ll all like.
We Will Not Comply: Red States Should Offer Sanctuary To Businesses, Military And Medical Personnel
The Biden Administration and its corporate partners are now implementing a blitzkrieg against the American citizenry. Biden’s vaccine executive orders are creating a culture of “paper’s please” fascism among larger businesses and Big Box retailers. He has recently announced that part of the mandates will include fines against businesses that refuse to enforce proof of vaccination on their employees. These fines will range from $70,000 to $700,000, which could destroy a medium sized company if they actually had to pay.Medical personnel, primarily in leftist blue states, are now being fired from their positions because they have refused to comply with the vax. This is leaving massive gaps in medical response in places like New York. The unelected governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, claims she has the right to give herself dictatorial powers through executive order, and that these powers include deploying National Guard troops to take over medical duties. If you are familiar with the sordid history of VA hospitals, then you know that you do not want around 90% of military doctors operating on you in any capacity.
Keep in mind that none of these mandates are actual “laws”. None of them have been voted on by a legislature or the American people. They are color of law violations of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and should be defied at every opportunity.
Furthermore, I have to ask that pesky but logical question once again – If the vaccines actually work as governments claim, then how are unvaccinated people any threat to vaccinated people? Why would they need “protection” from us? (The reality is that the covid vax does not work so there is no reason to take it) But let’s get back to Biden’s criminal trespasses; the list is growing by the day…
Let’s talk about Biden’s latest efforts to punish US troops that refuse the vaccines with dishonorable discharge. I’m not sure if Biden knows that a dishonorable discharge generally requires a trial by court martial in the military, or maybe this is what he actually wants for every single person that will not take the vax. In any case, the goal here is to terrify military members into submission and into accepting illegal orders. And yes, demanding that a soldier act as a lab rat for an experimental vaccine with no long term data to prove its safety is an illegal order.
It’s hard to say yet what the real stats are, but recent polling suggests that at least 30% of the US military plans to refuse the vaccinations, including many members of special operations units.
All of this over a virus with a tiny median death rate of 0.26%? Just to force people to take a vaccine that has been proven completely ineffective in countries like Israel where vaccination rates are high? When over 60% of people hospitalized with covid are fully vaccinated, then what is the point of the vaccines? It makes no sense unless the purpose was always tyranny and not public safety. So, where does this leave us?
There are larger scale solutions to this problem, there are peaceful short term solutions, and there are more violent long term solutions. I will be discussing the violent options in my next article, but for now I think the best path forward is for red states and maybe even red counties is to offer safe haven or “asylum” to people who are under attack from these mandates.
It is indeed a short one, of which you will want to read the all. There are all kinds of reasons why this audacious idea is a good one, not least among ’em how artery-popping, purple-faced livid its implementation would render Branch Covidians across the entire nation. Throw in a few others, including but not limited to:
…and we have ourselves a pluperfect no-brainer here. If there’s a downside here, I sure ain’t finding it.
7Even though I’m not their biggest fan by any stretch, I still love this.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one, but rock-and-roll royalty Mick Jagger walks into a dive bar in Charlotte, North Carolina, and no one seems to notice. According to the Rolling Stone frontman’s Twitter account, that’s just what happened last night at the iconic Thirsty Beaver Saloon. Jagger stands in front of the storied establishment, sipping a beer, and the other customers aren’t even looking in his direction. “Out and about last night in Charlotte, NC,” the post reads.
The Rolling Stones play the Bank of America stadium this evening, so presumably Jagger had some time to kill last night and grabbed a brew at the Plaza Midwood bar. The Thirsty Beaver is an unpretentious establishment well known for refusing to sell to developers building up the area. The tiny bar is now surrounded massive apartment complexes, looking much like the house from the Pixar film Up.
The Thirsty Beaver has been a fixture of the neighborhood since 2008 and remains a spot for live music, cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and folks having conversations with their friends and neighbors — and a the occasionally international rock star.
Here’s a pic Tweeted by Jagger his own self:
Out and about last night in Charlotte, NC pic.twitter.com/BWssvivAII
— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) September 30, 2021
Further deets, followed by an explanation for why I’m even posting on this in the first place.
He looked like any other ball-cap clad, jeans-wearing North Carolinian as he stood at a high-table and quaffed a brew at one of Charlotte’s most famous dive bars Wednesday night.
No adoring fans to shrug off, no security guards by his side as Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger enjoyed the night air on the patio of the Thirsty Beaver Saloon on Central Avenue.
Several other patrons seated at a nearby table and bench seemed to ignore the rock ‘n’ roll icon. They looked the other way as someone snapped a photo that Jagger later sent onto Instagram and Twitter.
“Out and about last night in Charlotte NC,” Jagger wrote.
Did Jagger rent out the bar, and were those “patrons” his crew?
“Absolutely not,” Brian Wilson, co-owner of The Thirsty Beaver, told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
Turns out, the four or five patrons pictured in Jagger’s photo had no idea it was him, Wilson said.
The bar had no advance notice that Jagger would drop by, and even the bartender had no clue it was him when she served him a beer, Wilson said.
Jagger appeared to be drinking a Miller Lite or a “Mick Ultra,” err, Michelob Ultra, but Wilson said he didn’t know yet what brand the rock star ordered.
Wilson had already gone home to put his young daughter to bed when Jagger showed up at about 10 p.m., he said.
Now, among the several things that make this so amusing to me is the fact that I know the Beaver and Brian quite well. Admittedly, the Beaver has never been a preferred hangout of mine, which isn’t so much that there’s anything in particular wrong with the joint, mind. It’s more because it gets so dang elbow-to-elbow packed on the weekends. I just never could deal with that. Doesn’t stop most of my friends from flocking there, especially on their Sunday afternoon biker gatherings.
Brian and his brother have a band that has done shows with my own plenty of times over the years, and Bri is a-okay with me, although there was some mild to moderate aggro from his brother towards me for a while there that I never really understood but which seems now to have abated, near as I can tell. Whatever the problem might have been, it was something I never even tried to figure out; if you’re hoping to find someone who’ll tell you I’m a grade-A prick and an asshole, you won’t have to look very hard or long before you do.
That never has bothered me, and never will; as the frontman of a fairly well-known band, I accepted that sort of hassle from the earliest days as just part of the game. My feeling was and remains that a person fragile enough to let such silliness get under his skin is a person who has absolutely no business ever setting foot on a stage in the first damned place. Show biz is NOT known for being kind to the delicate, the diffident, or the uncertain. An iron, unshakable confidence is a non-negotiable requirement of the job, any deficiency or even momentary flagging of which Show Biz will immediately seize upon and use to viciously beat you with, until you’re stone cold dead.
Anyhoo, the Wilson boys have another place on Monroe Rd across from Lupies: the Tipsy Burrow, which I like a lot better than the Beaver, having a lot more room to move around unmolested as it does. Really good food at the Burrow too, which the Beaver doesn’t offer at all. Onwards.
Wilson said he could only guess that someone suggested Thirsty Beaver because Jagger would be able to drink in peace there, given its typically eclectic mix of patrons who would likely leave such a musical legend alone.
“Everybody’s used to it being an eclectic place,” Wilson said.
But Mick Jagger??
Wilson said his bartender that night has come in for some good-natured ribbing.
“C’mon, Hayley, the greatest rock ‘n’ roll legend of all time?”
Heh. Hayley is a friend too, as it happens.
Years ago, Wilson said, Eric Clapton visited the now-defunct Double Door Inn music venue in Charlotte.
Yep, he did. Remember that Double Door business, gang. You will be seeing that material again.
“And we got Mick Jagger, so I think we did all right.”
Retired Observer sports columnist Tom Sorensen devilishly replied with a reference to another Stones hit.
“@MickJagger A man of wealth and taste,” Sorensen wrote.
Known Tom for many years as well. He was a colleague and friend of the band’s manager, Mike Evans, before Mike inexplicably decided to ruin his life by up and quitting his cushy, well-remunerated Charlotte Disturber sinecure to wantonly ravage his bank balance, his liver, and his personal reputation via going into the music biz.
I swear, it’s beginning to seem like Old Home week up in here, ain’t it?
On to the Double Door. Clapton did indeed famously show up and play a set there back in 1982, after headlining a concert at the old Coliseum on Independence, I believe. Now, by the late 80s the Double Door Inn had forged a stellar reputation for itself as one of the premier stops on what you might call the chitlin’ circuit for old-school trad blues bands. Autographed band photos covering every wall testify to a roster of legendary alumni that really has to be seen to be believed: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown; Junior Walker; Levon Helm; JJ Cale; The Fabulous Thunderbirds; and even Stevie Ray Vaughan, to name but a few.
And, beginning in late 1989, the DDI also became the home base for a fledgling local RAB outfit yclept the Belmont Playboys. Owned and operated by a soft-spoken but savvy Greek feller name of Nick Karres, the place was blessed with a warm, clear, full-throated sound both onstage and off, so good I’d put it in the top two or three best out of all the places I’ve played. There was even a documentary movie made about the Dirty Floor, including footage from the final show before it shut down. Yes, the BPs are in it.
And now we come to it at long last. See, Jagger is by no means the only instance of world-renowned rock and roll royalty gracing a local institution on the QT. During the Southeastern leg of their Black Ice tour, a certain little band from Australia you may have heard of settled themselves in for a couple weeks hereabouts, putting out from CLT for several shows ranging from Raleigh down to ATL. And on their days off, the boys got into the habit of dropping in at a certain legendary blues venue in the late afternoon/early evening for the daily Jeopardy Happy Hour ritual to restore the tissues and recharge the batteries via quaffing a cold one or three amongst the handful of grizzled regulars.
I didn’t learn about AC/DC’s daily pilgrimage to the DDI until well after the fact, which enraged me so thorougly I immediately called Nick to scream sundry epithets in his ear, all based around the “WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU TELL ME…” theme, until I was hoarse and out of breath. I can’t remember any specifics of Nick’s response, other than a gruff laugh and a “Idunno,” which I see to this day in my mind’s eye accompanied by his characteristic apathetic shrug.
I don’t care about missing Mick’s visit, honestly. But missing the chance to kick casually back with Angus, Malcolm, and Brian to share a friendly tipple and a few road-dog stories frosts my nuts blue to this very day. I’ve told Nick again and again that I’ll never forgive him for it, and by God I mean it, too.
4Bill survives a close encounter with the “American” “health” “care” establishment, if only by the skin of his teeth.
The mental stress of dealing with the health care system plus worry that I might be dying of cancer, coupled with the physical stress of the fast/weightlifting/vertigo issues has pretty much flattened me for today, but I’m feeling better now, and hope to be back to normal tomorrow. Although my neck is as sore as if I’d been stabbed in the throat three or four times. Probably because I was stabbed in the throat three or four times.
Good LORD. Glad you lived to tell the tale, buddy.
2Aesop contends that that’s how the Perfumed Princes are fucking up in their campaign to crush LTC Scheller for the heinous crime of speaking the ugly truth about them right out in front of God and everybody.
We read where some folks commenting are all doom-and-gloom worried about the future prospects of Lt. Col. Scheller, USMC.
Bitch, please.
As if.
The way you “protect” someone like this, with balls the size of church bells, is hand him a bayonet, and then get out of his way.
If they were smart, they’d simply drop all charges, separate him from service post-haste, and grant him a full pension, and hope he just goes off and plays golf. But they’re not that smart.
I hope he’s right about all that, I truly do, and in a just world he surely would be. Unfortunately, this is most definitely NOT such a world, nor anything even close. Which means that it’s no better than even-money odds that they’ll just quietly Epstein him, and hope nobody notices.
And that, my friends, will open a whole ‘nother can of worms, one they’re gonna enjoy even less than the one they have now. Read it all to find out how well THAT might work out for ’em.
Harbinger of doom update! Well, this tears it. The poor guy is well and truly cornholed now.
A growing number of conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill are rallying to the cause of a Marine lieutenant colonel jailed this week for his outspoken and repeated criticism of his superiors and what he said was their failure to take responsibility for mishandling the chaotic final days of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
Yep, he’s definitely hosed. Any time “conservative lawmakers” declare themselves to be in your corner the fight is officially over, and you lost.
4Reviewing a book that offers a different perspective on WW2.
The goals of the Western Allies in World War II were to defeat Hitler and prevent a hostile power from entrenching itself in Europe and Asia, threatening the freedom and survival of the West. From a narrow perspective, the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945 fulfilled this objective: it was a victory for the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies, and we celebrate V-E Day every May 8 and V-J Day on September 2. But for a large number of nations that fought against Berlin and Tokyo, at enormous sacrifice, 1945 is a dark year that ended one tyranny only to be replaced by another one, the Communist one, which was (and continues to be) no less vicious and in fact was much more lasting and pervasive. Stalin replaced Hitler. Or, to put it in the context of World War II, Stalin was the clear winner of that conflict. It was his war, and he got the most out of it.
This is the argument of a new book, Stalin’s War, by a prolific and excellent historian, Sean McMeekin of Bard College. The author is already well known, having written highly readable and incisive books exploring the role of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany in the origins of World War I. In his new work, he focuses on Stalin, his objectives, his tactics, his actions, and, above all, his ability to obtain from his Western counterparts everything (and more!) that he wanted. The book presents the story of Stalin’s success that brought an enormous human cost to his own people and to those who came under Communist domination, as well as an enduring geopolitical cost. Through this war, Stalin succeeded in anchoring Soviet power and influence over Eurasia, benefiting from the frailty of European powers. Germany was obviously reduced to rubble by 1945, but even the victorious powers, from France and the UK to the other smaller states across the continent, were mere shadows of their former selves. Stalin gained strategic real estate and the tools, looted from Europe or given to him by the United States, to turn Russia into an industrial superpower. The conditions for the Cold War were in place, and in the immediate aftermath of the war, the possibility that Stalin could become the master of Eurasia was not out of the question. And, for the U.S., victory in 1945 meant not a satisfying and prolonged age of peace, but the beginning of a new and massive investment in preserving its security and the stability threatened by the Soviet Union.
The story presented in such a way is not new, and its broad contours are accepted by most, except those who still see Communist ideology and the USSR as a benign progressive force or those who blame American post-war support of Western Europe for the Cold War. But McMeekin digs deeper and his goal is to change two pervasive myths. One presents Stalin as a paranoid dictator bumbling across the European chessboard, getting caught unprepared for Hitler’s aggressive intents, and then rising to the historic occasion and motivating his people to fight the “Great Patriotic War” to liberate Russia and the adjoining lands from the Nazis. In brief, a dictator to be sure, but a naive one with a great patriotic heart backed by a Russian nation willing to accept great sacrifices.
The other myth is of a strategically wise leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, skillfully making their moves across the world’s map, negotiating with a vast array of strategic partners (including Stalin) and organizing bold military actions that ultimately lead to the 1945 triumph. Neither myth, however, is entirely correct, as McMeekin brilliantly argues backed by abundant facts supplied through impeccable research.
After a look into Stalin’s acquisitive designs on Western Europe, all undone by Hitler’s doomed invasion of the USSR in 1941, we direct our attention still further Westward.
McMeekin then focuses on how the Western allies, Churchill but especially FDR, abetted Stalin’s ambitions. This part of the book is fascinating and depressing at the same time. In a nutshell, Stalin obtained from FDR more than he expected: territory, influence, and materiel. And he did not give anything in exchange for it because FDR and his advisors never asked him for it. For instance, FDR supported the Lend-Lease program, putting his friend Harry Hopkins in charge. Under this program of military aid, the United States supplied a massive amount of weapons, trucks, airplanes, tanks, foodstuff to the Soviet Union in the months of its greatest need, as German troops were driving deep into Russia while the vaunted Soviet armies were melting away. Without such aid, the USSR would have likely been unable to stop the German onslaught and certainly would have been incapable of mustering the resources necessary to push westward. Hence, in this moment there was a good strategic rationale for the American support of Stalin’s defensive efforts against Nazi Germany.
But the problem was that FDR—and Hopkins—went much further than simply buttressing a collapsing Soviet power. The most stunning mistake—a policy willfully pursued by FDR—was that Stalin was never asked for anything in exchange for this material aid. The United States had the upper hand because the Soviets were desperate for any help and would have paid a price for these goods. As McMeekin comments, FDR “could have asked any price: payment in cash, by loan, or in kind; political concessions inside Russia; or promises from Stalin of better behavior abroad, such as abandoning his spying operations in Washington or offering token support for the US-British war against Japan. Instead, the Americans simply gave and demanded nothing in return aside from a vague, nonbinding promise of loan repayment beginning five years after the war was over, at no interest.”
Such a naivete could have been the result of FDR’s belief in his personal capacity to persuade people. But, at best, FDR profoundly misunderstood Stalin, despite the evidence of Soviet actions and even of Stalin’s own words and behavior toward the US President. FDR thought that he could build goodwill with Stalin. As he put it, “I think that if I give him everything I can and ask for nothing in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.” This is the point where naivete became stupidity.
With certain classifications of Western liberal, the distinction between naivete and stupidity is so thin it’s not worth the bother of making. They’re conjoined twins, constantly shifting and bleeding over one into the other, staggering clumsily about like a dancer uncertain of his stage cues. Sooner or later, though, the Libtard can be relied upon to close this pointless ballet with both feet planted squarely on Stupid. In reality, though, is that he started there, and never ventured any meaningful distance from it. Read the rest for further details of Stalin’s willful humiliation of the hapless, grossly-overmatched clown Roosevelt, and what Uncle Joe’s deftly stolen victory ended up costing the entire world, in blood and treasure.
2In Australia,the roots of tyranny are strong and deep.
Cunningham was sick and tired of English rule in Ireland. And along with 50,000 of his fellow Irishmen, Cunningham picked up a weapon and started in uprising against Great Britain.
Their rebellion was a complete disaster; the rebels hoped that the British army was too weak to resist after their defeat in the American Revolution.
But within a few short months the British had regained tight control of Ireland.
Naturally their first order of business was to round up all the remaining rebels— and Cunningham was among them.
His punishment was being shipped off to a British penal colony in the south Pacific, in a place that was generally known at the time as “New Holland”.
Today we call it Australia.
Cunningham wasn’t one to accept his fate easily. Even while en route to Australia, he and other prisoners briefly managed to take over the ship…though British marines eventually regained control and gave Cunningham 100 lashes.
But Cunningham still wasn’t finished. A few years later in March of 1804, he led about 300 Australian prisoners in yet another rebellion against their British jailers.
That rebellion was so severe that the British governor was forced to declare martial law— the first, but certainly not the last time in Australia’s history this would happen.
It’s ironic that, each year, ‘Australia Day’ is celebrated on January 26, which commemorates the day that the British Navy first sailed into Sydney Cove, hoisted their flag, and declared the land their penal colony.
So Australia Day does not celebrate the birth of a nation so much as the ribbon-cutting of a giant prison.
All my life I’d thought of Oz as one of the freest nations on Earth, a true oasis of Liberty whose fiercely-independent population would under no circumstances tolerate any hint of despotism stealthily creeping up behind them. Clearly, I was in error. The infamous 1996 gun ban—rushed into law in a frenzied panic two weeks after a lunatic had murdered 35 people at Port Arthur—came as something of a shock to me, that shock amplified when Aussies foolishly embraced the government’s rescission of their natural rights (not legally codified, mind; Australia has never had a 2A) with open arms. Australians, it seemed were blindly eager to trade essential liberty for temporary security, a deal with the Devil they walked into with eyes wide shut.
SO. How’d that work out for ya, cobber?
Thousands of Australian construction workers, for example, protested because they refuse to be coerced into vaccination against their will.
They actually were peaceful protestors. For real. They literally sang the national anthem.
Yet police pepper sprayed them and fired rubber bullets into the crowd of thousands (which included children).
Perhaps even more diabolical is that the government restricted the media from showing footage of the event as it was happening, and restricted airspace to prevent media helicopters from filming.
What’s really crazy is that this authoritarianism goes beyond COVID hysteria.
Australia’s parliament has passed a new bill eradicating Australians’ right to digital privacy.
It’s called “Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2021.”
It gives the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) sweeping new powers to not just surveil Australian citizens online, but also take over and run their online accounts, lock the actual user out of the account, and add or delete data.
The police never have to notify a person that their account has been hacked by the government.
What they are calling “warrants” actually do not always require an actual court or judge to sign off.
An “emergency authorisation,” allows police to bypass the courts entirely. And why should anyone be concerned about that? It’s not like the Australian government has ever abused its emergency powers before…
The right to travel, the right to protest, the right to privacy, the right to due process, the right to leave your home and earn a living— these are basic human rights that are now gone in Australia.
Ahh, worked out exactly as it always does, then. Good to know, I reckon.
It should be obvious by now to every citizen of any Western nation that never-ending “emergency powers” can easily snowball into a full-blown dictatorship.
Hardly unexpected, seeing as how that was the plan all along. It’s the “easily” part that I find most dismaying.
There is no reason it couldn’t happen to other formerly free nations as well.
And that means, more than ever before, it’s time to think about a Plan B.
It is at that. Considering the fact that the aforementioned snowballing is already happening in THIS formerly free nation—is quite well along, actually, with not much more resistance here than Aussies showed when their guns were taken from them, embarrassingly enough—I hereby propose that “Plan B” consist entirely and exclusively of three simple, easy to remember words: Kill. Them. All.
Learn it. Live it. Love it.
7When liberty is the disease.
If it is accepted that GM – if any company – can make employment conditional upon submitting to a “vaccination” it will have set the precedent for requiring employees to submit to medical procedures, generally.
If the justification is accepted for mandatory submission to “vaccinations” then the justification has already been accepted for mandatory submission to health checkups, psychiatric evaluations, the mandatory answering of probing questions into one’s personal affairs – as any such thing can be asserted by control freaks to present a potential risk to the “health” of employees and thus, GM – any employer – is entitled to know and to impose whatever it decides to be necessary as regards such things.
As the condition of being allowed to work.

It will no longer be – ask your doctor. It will be – go see the doctor. And – do as the doctor says. Period.Take whatever meds he says you must take. Submit to any procedure he says is “necessary.” Answer all of his questions. These to inevitably include questions regarding whether you own any firearms – which the same Leftists pushing the Jab also have already defined as a matter of…“public health.”
Else find another job.
People are fools if they do not grasp this.
They were fools for not grasping – decades ago – that submitting to pee tests as a condition of employment would inevitably lead to this.
Many years ago, when I was running an air-freight pickup and delivery route for Airborne Express, a state-mandated drug test was implemented for all drivers, regardless of whether they had a CDL or not. I strenuously objected, and flatly told my boss Eric—somewhat of a conservatarian, he was, with whom I enjoyed many a political discussion over the years I worked for him—that I would NOT be taking one, that I would quit first. He knew me well enough by then to know I meant it, and would do it; thankfully, he also valued me highly enough as an employee to just quietly let the matter slide so I could continue working for him.
That unofficial, almost certainly unlawful arrangement between me and the bossman stood until I got my CDL so as to graduate to the big trucks, with nary a word spoken about it by anybody. I never gave any thought to the whole affair as an omen of darker days to come. Looking around me today, I suppose I should have. In a very personal sense, you could say a pattern had been established, a precedent set.
If GM and the other companies making the Jab a job requirement are not backed down. Because if not, expect the Jab to become universally required – by all employers. Even the self-employed won’t be safe – because these Freaks will proceed to make any financial transaction conditional on Proof of Jab. Banks won’t deal with you – which means you won’t be able to receive payments or make them, except via cash – which you can also expect the Freaks to try to outlaw, too.
Their intent is not to treat you. It is to cure you of any semblance of personal liberty – to make choices for yourself – that may still enjoy. For you to have one choice: Compliance – with everything.
Or have (and own) nothing.
Oh, there’s always another choice, a workaround waiting to be discovered. Might be difficult, might be dangerous. It might be purchasable only at a terrible price. It might even be life-altering, radically and permanently so. But I assure you, it’s always there.
Do not expect the government – this government, at any rate – to do the backing down. It will double down, using the risible argument that “private companies” have the right to impose such indecencies. It is risible, in part, because corporations like GM are “private” to the same degree that you are a “customer” of the DMV’s. Corporations are by definition government-created entities, favored by government with special status that limits their liability, including liability for damages caused by the corporation.
As for example the corporations using the government to force people to roll up their sleeves, who used the government to shield them from liability for the crippling injuries and deaths their products cause – while making billions in extorted profits in the process.
The Superstate will indeed double down, and keep right on doing so, until it too is “backed down,” to borrow Eric’s turn of phrase for GM up there. Unfortunately for us, backing down FederalGovCo will entail more effort, more difficulty, more uncertainty, and more risk—like, orders of magnitude more. Plus, the penalty for failure is pretty severe. On the other hand, though, submitting without even making an attempt is the worst of all.
Once upon a time, there was baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.
Wouldn’t it be great if those times make a comeback?
They can. All it will take is enough of us to say No.
GM isn’t the only car company. There are other car companies that haven’t become the adjuncts of the coercive state, which together seek to reduce us to a status worse than that of the cows in the field.
We are not their livestock.
Let’s make that clear to them.
Better make it clear to FederalGovCo first. If we can pull off a win there, we can always settle up with GM later on. And if we can’t, we’re gonna have much more pressing concerns than GM anyhow.
5We all knew it was coming. Which, far from quelling the anger out of fear of possible consequences, ought to stoke the fire from Hot, But Manageable right on up to Killing Rage.
Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, the Marine officer whose meteoric rise to internet fandom began with a video criticizing military leadership over Afghanistan, is currently in the brig, his father told Task & Purpose.
“All our son did is ask the questions that everybody was asking themselves, but they were too scared to speak out loud,” said Stu Scheller Sr. “He was asking for accountability. In fact, I think he even asked for an apology that we made mistakes, but they couldn’t do that, which is mind-blowing.”
He said that his son is expected to appear before a military hearing on Thursday.
“They had a gag order on him and asked him not to speak,” the senior Scheller said. “He did, and they incarcerated him. They don’t know what to do with him.”
After this story was first published, the Marine Corps issued a statement confirming that Scheller has been sent to the brig.“Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing,” said Capt.Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command. “The time, date, and location of the proceedings have not been determined. Lt. Col. Scheller will be afforded all due process.”
(After publication the Marine Corps confirmed that Scheller is accused of the following offenses under the UCMJ: Article 88: Contempt toward officials, Article 90: Willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer, Article 92: Failure to obey an order, and Article 133: Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.)
I am not a Marine, nor do I play one TV, but for me the charges break down like this:
Stipulated: in time of peace—more importantly, with a military whose flag-rank officer corps has NOT been corrupted stem to stern by the crippling toxins of political correctness, partisanship, and self-dealing—LTC Scheller’s defiance would amount to insubordination, and the harm done to respect for the chain of command would indeed warrant the harshest punishment.
Unfortunately, that is no longer the military and flag-rank officer corps we actually have. If it were, it’s doubtful in the extreme that Scheller would have felt the need to do what he did in the first damned place. To my way of thinking, the burden of criminality is properly on the shoulders of the reprobates **cough-cough Obama cough-cough** who purposefully perverted the higher-officer corps wholesale, and the ladder-climbing, ass-kicking scoundrels who acceeded to positions they were wholly unworthy of a result of said perversion.
It isn’t LTC Scheller who should be sitting in a cell awaiting trial and punishment. It’s his accusers. Scheller’s real crime was his courage, and his inability to just sit back and keep his mouth shut in the immediate presence of the brazen outrages, the raw treason, to which he was forced to bear witness. Yon says:
One who Surrenders to the Machine vs Warrior who Stands
LTC Scheller is essentially a prisoner of war at this point. Not by letter of the law, but in essence.Scheller is the first POW in the unfolding civil war. A Marine officer taken by Marines.
Notice the narrator misses the point of self-sacrifice. It’s all about career.
The longer Scheller fights, the more support he gathers. The harder the war-losers punish Marine Scheller, the stronger this leader becomes. This true Marine can flip the script and suddenly outrank this tormentors through elected office, and/or power of the pen.
It’s only over if he quits. If Scheller goes Honey Badger, they are in for torn flesh.
I support this True Marine, Lieutenant Colonel Scheller. This Officer put his country first.
Indeed. The shameful attempt at a political lynching of this good and honorable Marine cannot stand. Every Real American has a personal obligation to meet the standard he so bravely and selflessly set to make damned sure that it doesn’t. Torn flesh is but a down-payment on the debts his tormentors have incurred.
8And no freedom, either.
In the West, the morality of the state has been determined by how much or how little it respects the basic rights of its citizens. During the Cold War this was a critical measure used to justify foreign policy. The American government claimed it was within its rights to overthrow South American governments that got too chummy with the Soviets because they would endanger the rights of their people. On the other hand, they would back anti-communist dictators because they were better than communists.
There was a lot of lying and dissembling on this issue, but the principle was important to Western governments, so they made a big show of it. In America, for example, this meant protecting property rights from the excesses of the state. As a practical matter, it meant the state had to prove they had good reason for violating your rights before the court would permit them from doing it. They had to get a warrant, for example, before tapping your phone or riffling through your papers.
Government is always a blunt instrument and men are not angels so to avoid office holders and bureaucrats from abusing the rights of the people they first had to demonstrate there was a compelling government interest in declaring your backyard a wetland or banning a certain activity. Put another away, it was the duty of the government to make the affirmative argument. Citizens did not have to justify their rights to exercise them. They were assumed.
Property is a useful metric in this regard because it is simple and the economic basis of Western society. Even in feudalism property rights were respected, because ownership was what made the system possible. The right to speak out or organize are up for debate to some degree, but the right to own the fruits of your labor is the starting point for social organization in the West. It is what makes communism alien and why it has always been the domain of outsiders and subversives.
The general violation of property rights is now the norm. The tech oligarchs, for example, strongly oppose private property. If they don’t like what you are saying on your website, they will steal your domain name. They will collude to limit your ability to hold a job or have a bank account. What used to be a sacred right of all people is now up for debate with an unelected oligarchical class as the judge and jury. What is yours is theirs and what is theirs is theirs and they own everything.
Today, the people in charge have no respect for the law or the concept of law, so their agents just do as they please. In fact, they take pride in trampling the rights of the people, because it pleases their masters. The goons prosecuting the January 6th protestors, for example, take a sadistic pleasure in the torment they are inflicting on the people caught in their trap. Their intentional cruelty has become a positional good, something that elevates them in the eyes of the oligarchs.
The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable document that is mostly remembered for the opening lines. Even though those lines have been abused by the very tyrants that now rule over us, the document is a remarkable expression of Western thought and Anglo-Saxon morality. After the long bill of indictment against the king, a list familiar today, there is this line. “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
The beauty of that line is that it qualifies the moral depravity of the tyrant by juxtaposing it against the nature of a free people. A people who sit idly by as their rulers trample their ancient rights are getting the government they deserve. A free people, in contrast, must hold their prince to the highest moral standard. It is immoral for them to do otherwise, as it violates that which defines them as free people. Every tyrant issues his own death warrant to the free people he seeks to oppress.
True, dat. Or, as some fool or other recently put it: The bane of all tyrants, sooner or later, is tyranny itself. The thing is, it’s usually up to We The People to see to it that the tyrant’s self-issued death warrant is executed.
2Two Tweets too good to resist swiping.
Gov. @RonDeSantisFL takes a sledgehammer to tyrants ruling over Australia:
"I mean, is Australia freer than China— Communist China— right now?" pic.twitter.com/HKSvUrwPYq
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 28, 2021
Red China? Sheeeit, Gov, Australia is making North Korea look like a bastion of liberty by comparison. The OzNazis have raised the bar on tyranny so high it may NEVER be exceeded. At least, I HOPE it won’t; I’ll probably end up disappointed on that. Thankfully, this next one provides a hopeful counterpoint.
Italian police stands down and stands in solidarity with protesters pic.twitter.com/dgK9SMGgk8
— McLuhan (@Kukicat7) September 27, 2021
Looks like at least some in Italy haven’t forgotten the lesson of Mussolini just yet.
1The current experimental injection being forced upon the world is a recipe for disaster, as the mounting evidence shows. The jab already has killed many thousands and has maimed millions across the globe. Yet, the profiteers still push it, knowing its potential for population control, something Bill Gates actually revealed a few years ago. For elites, it’s also a source of great personal wealth.
Resistance to the forced jab continues to grow, as does the oppression to mandate the shot. In countries where private citizens have been disarmed, we are witnessing the spread of tyranny like a raging wildfire. In America also, the heat in the kettle is rising, but people are now feeling the pressure and choosing to resist. Many are about to lose their jobs, and they are accepting it. These wise and courageous ones recognize that giving just an inch to the enemy further empowers them and further erodes our freedom. We may not yet face the threat at gunpoint to take the “vaccine,” but securing food, accessing bank funds, traveling, and access to other daily needs is slowly becoming more challenging. The warped Communist Biden government is proceeding with caution, hoping to wear us down by every means possible, short of threats of violence. But you can be sure that violence will be employed if they can somehow disarm us.
This fact leads me to explore the minds of our nation’s founding fathers. The greatest insurance against mass tyranny is—and always will be—the armed private citizen. While America has failed to assemble and maintain a well-regulated Militia, the private armed American is a powerful stopgap to the onslaught of a derelict government turning to violence.
And now, we are finally beginning to recognize the dire need for Patriots and Conservatives to organize. Nothing short of a full-fledged assault against the Communist domestic dictators will do, be they mock leaders like Biden, or Marxist governors like Gavin Newsom. We are now seeing freedom lovers worldwide rise up against unethical police officers and military forces that serve the dark side and torment us. This fellowship of freedom fighters has now begun to take a stand and say, “No more!” We are fed up with the lies, deception, propaganda, indoctrination, and fear-mongering. We will no longer accept being told to cover our faces or accept the toxic jab, close our businesses, or isolate ourselves from one another. The brotherhood of mankind has been created in the image of God. Thus, God, Himself tells us—and that instills in every man and woman a deep-seated yearning for freedom to create, to prosper, and to live according to the laws of humanity.
You can be sure that the whole world has seen the torchlight of Lady Liberty, and they crave it more than do we Americans who take our liberty for granted. But as the tyranny escalates and as freedom wanes, the dormant patriots are awakening in our once free republic as well. Yes, a war has already been declared against the United States Constitution. Now we see clearly that our freedom is near to being tossed over a cliff. Under such tyranny years ago, the American Revolution was fought and won. If we so choose once again, nothing can stop the Second American Revolution that is now brewing already. But the war could be carried far and wide, and who knows… perhaps a World Revolutionary War is on the horizon. A freedom fight is always a just war, and the brotherhood of man seeking freedom is a mighty powerful army. Now is the time to act. And when the storm passes, we shall behold a most glorious rainbow!
We can but hope. Until then, we can either get militant or get kilt. Almost certainly both, actually, for a yet-to-be-dtermined number of us. The Enemy, for his part, is immovably committed to forcing the issue.
Joe Biden made an absolutely insane claim about getting back to normal after COVID-19. He’s now saying that we have to get 97-98% of Americans vaccinated before normalcy can return in this country.
Historically, herd immunity was reached once approximately 70% of a community was immune to a virus. That would include those vaccinated and those with natural immunity. The problem is that the authoritarian dictator that runs this country doesn’t believe in science.
Um, no. The problem is that he in fact IS an authoritarian dictator. Do understand that, as I’ve said before, “Biden” is obviously neither in charge nor remotely cognizant of any of this, that the very name “Biden” is merely shorthand for whoever it is that really calls the shots in Amerika v2.0: a genuine Legion Of Evil whose names we’ll never know, whose faces we’ll never see.
The second link above might be a tad heavy on the Xtian proselytizing for some of you, so if that ain’t your thang, feel free to skip it. I ain’t much bothered by it myself, although I would admittedly prefer it if his whole analysis didn’t revolve around it and he would just stick to the worldly aspects of the issue, so I can easily see how the author’s focus on Biblical prophecy might grate. Though I do consider myself a Christian, I’m also sure a lot of the stricter believers would condemn me as a Bad one.
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"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
—Claire Wolfe, 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution
Claire's Cabal—The Freedom Forums
"There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
—Daniel Webster
“When I was young I was depressed all the time. But suicide no longer seemed a possibility in my life. At my age there was very little left to kill.”
—Charles Bukowski
“A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him.”
—Ezra Pound
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
—Frank Zappa
“The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.”
—John Adams
"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
—Bertrand de Jouvenel
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."
—GK Chesterton
"I predict that the Bush administration will be seen by freedom-wishing Americans a generation or two hence as the hinge on the cell door locking up our freedom. When my children are my age, they will not be free in any recognizably traditional American meaning of the word. I’d tell them to emigrate, but there’s nowhere left to go. I am left with nauseating near-conviction that I am a member of the last generation in the history of the world that is minimally truly free."
—Donald Sensing
"The only way to live free is to live unobserved."
—Etienne de la Boiete
"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
"To put it simply, the Left is the stupid and the insane, led by the evil. You can’t persuade the stupid or the insane and you had damn well better fight the evil."
—Skeptic
"There is no better way to stamp your power on people than through the dead hand of bureaucracy. You cannot reason with paperwork."
—David Black, from Turn Left For Gibraltar
"If the laws of God and men, are therefore of no effect, when the magistracy is left at liberty to break them; and if the lusts of those who are too strong for the tribunals of justice, cannot be otherwise restrained than by sedition, tumults and war, those seditions, tumults and wars, are justified by the laws of God and man."
—John Adams
"The limits of tyranny are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
—Frederick Douglass
"Give me the media and I will make of any nation a herd of swine."
—Joseph Goebbels
“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”
—Ronald Reagan
"Ain't no misunderstanding this war. They want to rule us and aim to do it. We aim not to allow it. All there is to it."
—NC Reed, from Parno's Peril
"I just want a government that fits in the box it originally came in."
—Bill Whittle
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