Sunday, August 1, 2010
Facing The Arithmetic
...We lost fifty per cent more men than did the enemy, and yet there is sense in the awful arithmetic propounded by Mr. Lincoln. He says that if the same battle were to be fought over again, every day, through a week of days, with the same relative results, the army under Lee would be wiped out to its last man, the Army of the Potomac would still be a mighty host, the war would be over, the Confederacy gone, and peace would be won at a smaller cost of life than it will be if the week of lost battles must be dragged out through yet another year of camps and marches, and of deaths in hospitals rather than upon the field. No general yet found can face the arithmetic, but the end of the war will be at hand when he shall be discovered (emphasis added)...
-- Mark E. Neely, Jr., The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), at p. 74
One crucial shortcoming in many discussions about the Gathering Storm is any insight into the relative balance of forces between the Bad People and Team Freedom. Mike has done yeoman's work in articulating a baseline number for Team Freedom in his doctrine of the Three Percenters, but I was happy to have a reader hurl the following note on the OpFor's arithmetic over the transom last week:
CA,
Being an engineer, everything I do and think of comes down to a numbers game. I started wondering about the odds we face in the event of an emergency and this is what I have come up with. Let me know what you think. Did I miss anything or do I have any wrong assumptions?
We’ve all seen the numbers of guns and ammo sold over the last couple of years. This should be enough to convince everyone that we are in good shape if Team Tyrant decides to get too froggy with Team Freedom. But just in case it isn’t, let me demonstrate some more numbers. I live in a fairly heavily populated area in the northeast with over 1 million people in my AO.
Assuming no desertions, no special security details, and few casualties, my town can put 60 officers on the beat at one time if pressed. Normally, it has 30 on patrol. This is in an area of 60 square miles. The county can possibly put out 200 if pressed, in an area of over 600 square miles. The state patrol has less than 2,000 officers total. Assume that it can put out 900 at one time. The area of [opsec] is about [opsec] square miles. All of the military’s ground forces, Army and Marine, active and reserve, are about 1.6 million. Assume that 800,000 are available for actual security duty in a land of over 3.5 million square miles. Federal law enforcement has about 100,000 members nationwide. If you add up all of these numbers, it works out to be about 1.6 enforcers per square mile.
Note that the numbers I have given are extremely optimistic. The real numbers that will be available are actually a lot lower. As you can see, there will be a lot of territory that is unsecured by the O’s minions (a/k/a Satan’s lackeys). In practice, the only areas that will be/can be secured will be the larger cities and major transportation routes, with significant weaknesses even on those routes. This will leave the countryside and the smaller towns in which to live and operate with relative freedom.
Don’t sweat the drones, planes, etc.. If they cover enough area, they won’t have resolution to see everything that is going on down below. If they focus in, they can’t see the vast majority of territory. It’s sort of like killing ants. For everyone they kill, far more go on with freedom’s mission. Our results in Afghanistan and Iraq prove this.
Perhaps most importantly, the territory that will be controlled by Team Freedom will have much of the food and water supply if the current cold war goes hot.
Now, here’s the downside. If we have a total meltdown, i.e. TEOTWAWKI, anyone with an ounce of sense can see that the security forces will be just about useless. Put together a tribe a la John Robb and do it now, because no help will be coming from outside.
Prepare like there is no tomorrow -- because if you don’t, there won’t be a tomorrow for you.
Two quick thoughts, and further discussion is invited in comments:
1) To me, these numbers mean that large-scale foreign intervention to support anti-constitutional forces is inevitable. There's no other way for the G to overcome the traditional defender's advantage, especially if Team Freedom studies, learns, and applies its Lind/4GW lessons.
2) The following related discussion will be helpful in explaining this issue to folks who are still crawling:
Imagine the total number of lawbreakers (i.e., people who commit either crimes against property or persons) in your local jurisdiction. This number will be the denominator in a ratio we are constructing. The numerator will be the total number of law enforcement officers on duty in that jurisdiction. The numerator divided by the denominator will give you a "normal times" ratio of potential enforcement capacity. One could get more funky and add variables such as subgeographies, time/shift differentials, etc., but the simple version will suffice for now (and my fourth-grade math skills).
Now imagine that same ratio after a series of large-scale disruptive events. Think about what will happen in your area to the number of potential lawbreakers. Contemplate the incremental LE resources needed to maintain a steady enforcement capacity, given that increased lawbreaker population, as well as the likelihood that those incremental resources will in fact be available. Now consider also the depletion of LE resources caused by the disruptive event(s), both from casualties and/or the very human need for cops to take care of their own families first.
Got a tribe yet?
http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2010/08/facing-arithmetic.html
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Monday, August 02, 2010
THE DAILY BAYONET: WHAT TO DO?
What to Do?
Obama’s Coalition Implodes: Jews, Women, Even Hispanics, Are Running for Cover
My friend Virgil and I spend a fair amount of time cracking our otherwise delicate skulls over the idea of ‘What to do? How to rebuild America?’ As best I can tell, this is something like an answer.
Let’s start with J. Robert Smith’s assessment, Whoa! Republicans Haven’t Won Yet. If you’re looking to the Grand Old Party for anything exciting, you’re going to have a long wait. At a time in American history when our need for positive direction and leadership is acute, it is clear that the Republicans are not up to task. It might even be worse than that. Over at my blog, Washington Rebel, Republican Mother left the following:
Check out the nndb mapper if you want to prove to yourself that the banksters own our country including the Congress, the corporations, and more frighteningly, the military. Democrats have complained that the large corporations are corrupt and Republicans have complained the government is corrupt. Both are right, they’re working together.
In that single paragraph, the Republican Mother summarizes what the John Birch Society — and others — spent two generations saying, but without effect because . . . . because they got lost in the forests of paranoia, conspiracy, and blame. Yes, blame. Think of it this way: do you like the way liberals talk about you? Of course not. And so your first instinct is to either retreat, or fight back, or to grow indifferent and resigned. Nothing is accomplished; no converts are earned. Leviathan goes on bloating itself; nothing changes. The voters never effectively put it on a diet. Please don’t misunderstand me about Birchers or Republicans or anyone else. The point I wish to make is a little more complicated than that.
When I was a kid, the adults looked like this:
Those are my folks in the bottom right hand corner.
Some things to pay attention to.: The town these people were in was approximately 6,000 people. How many people do you count in that picture? They were all there to eat dinner and dance with friends. Their shoes were polished, their ties straight. See that? (It looks like my father is wearing white socks. My bet is that they were argyles. He used to sing in front of the mirror and tell himself what a handsome bastard he was as he shaved, timing the strokes with the words of his song.)
Some other factors: these people grew up (or lived) during the Depression. Most of them had sung songs around the piano, or at church, when they were kids. Of course they played outside, as television hadn’t been invented. They read story books and they dreamed up fantasies. If a dog got sick, you had to worm it; if you were hungry, you killed the chicken out back; the women canned; the men took pride in self-sufficiency. My own Dad, for example, was an electrician. He frequently traded wiring jobs for just about anything but money. My Dad had a hard time taking money for anything because money was a source of anxiety and crushed pride in the Depression. No, the way these Depression kids worked was, “I’ll wire your house, you bring your post hole digger over.” “I’ll cut you 20 boards, you bring your mower and rake.” Men got lost for days in new projects. It gave them pride. Men today, after a two-hour commute, come home to a woman more manly than they. I am reminded of something I read the other day over at The Brussels Journal:
An even greater problem is that the destroyers and looters have been in sole purview of culture and education for so long that hardly any under-50 Whites remain who have retained their own mind and its link to their uniquely magnificent Western heritage. That link has been replaced either by a permanent hairshirt for the real and imagined transgressions of the West against the (broadly speaking) East and South, or by a moronic multiculti rainbow pastiche expressed, among others, in the pumping loins of white rappers and pop divas that are but inferior copies of stuff black people do better. Shotgun Marriage in Europe
Some more facts about the people in the picture. Probably every “young” man in that picture served in some branch of the Armed Forces during World War II. (There may have been a 4F or two.) A man or two in there may have gotten dragged back into service during Korea (a prospect my father worried about). My own mother lost her first husband during the War. You can be assured that other hearts in that picture suffered some grievous family loss, or loss in battle. See those smiles on their faces? They were done with War! The world’s dictators could go to hell. These guys would eat, dance and sing.
COMMENT:
Our grandparents dropped the ball right there at that last sentence. They forgot the domestic enemies moving into positions of power, biding their time, gradually moving to rob us of our Freedom and prosperity. Even the GIs of Athens TN in 1946, they only acted because the Cantrell machine running that town was so obnoxiously corrupt and tyrannical-like ours is. Todays tyrants act under the flag and maintain a respectable image as they shoot grannies and steal property. The rest is an interesting read:
http://dailybayonet.com/?p=4839
Obama’s Coalition Implodes: Jews, Women, Even Hispanics, Are Running for Cover
My friend Virgil and I spend a fair amount of time cracking our otherwise delicate skulls over the idea of ‘What to do? How to rebuild America?’ As best I can tell, this is something like an answer.
Let’s start with J. Robert Smith’s assessment, Whoa! Republicans Haven’t Won Yet. If you’re looking to the Grand Old Party for anything exciting, you’re going to have a long wait. At a time in American history when our need for positive direction and leadership is acute, it is clear that the Republicans are not up to task. It might even be worse than that. Over at my blog, Washington Rebel, Republican Mother left the following:
Check out the nndb mapper if you want to prove to yourself that the banksters own our country including the Congress, the corporations, and more frighteningly, the military. Democrats have complained that the large corporations are corrupt and Republicans have complained the government is corrupt. Both are right, they’re working together.
In that single paragraph, the Republican Mother summarizes what the John Birch Society — and others — spent two generations saying, but without effect because . . . . because they got lost in the forests of paranoia, conspiracy, and blame. Yes, blame. Think of it this way: do you like the way liberals talk about you? Of course not. And so your first instinct is to either retreat, or fight back, or to grow indifferent and resigned. Nothing is accomplished; no converts are earned. Leviathan goes on bloating itself; nothing changes. The voters never effectively put it on a diet. Please don’t misunderstand me about Birchers or Republicans or anyone else. The point I wish to make is a little more complicated than that.
When I was a kid, the adults looked like this:
Those are my folks in the bottom right hand corner.
Some things to pay attention to.: The town these people were in was approximately 6,000 people. How many people do you count in that picture? They were all there to eat dinner and dance with friends. Their shoes were polished, their ties straight. See that? (It looks like my father is wearing white socks. My bet is that they were argyles. He used to sing in front of the mirror and tell himself what a handsome bastard he was as he shaved, timing the strokes with the words of his song.)
Some other factors: these people grew up (or lived) during the Depression. Most of them had sung songs around the piano, or at church, when they were kids. Of course they played outside, as television hadn’t been invented. They read story books and they dreamed up fantasies. If a dog got sick, you had to worm it; if you were hungry, you killed the chicken out back; the women canned; the men took pride in self-sufficiency. My own Dad, for example, was an electrician. He frequently traded wiring jobs for just about anything but money. My Dad had a hard time taking money for anything because money was a source of anxiety and crushed pride in the Depression. No, the way these Depression kids worked was, “I’ll wire your house, you bring your post hole digger over.” “I’ll cut you 20 boards, you bring your mower and rake.” Men got lost for days in new projects. It gave them pride. Men today, after a two-hour commute, come home to a woman more manly than they. I am reminded of something I read the other day over at The Brussels Journal:
An even greater problem is that the destroyers and looters have been in sole purview of culture and education for so long that hardly any under-50 Whites remain who have retained their own mind and its link to their uniquely magnificent Western heritage. That link has been replaced either by a permanent hairshirt for the real and imagined transgressions of the West against the (broadly speaking) East and South, or by a moronic multiculti rainbow pastiche expressed, among others, in the pumping loins of white rappers and pop divas that are but inferior copies of stuff black people do better. Shotgun Marriage in Europe
Some more facts about the people in the picture. Probably every “young” man in that picture served in some branch of the Armed Forces during World War II. (There may have been a 4F or two.) A man or two in there may have gotten dragged back into service during Korea (a prospect my father worried about). My own mother lost her first husband during the War. You can be assured that other hearts in that picture suffered some grievous family loss, or loss in battle. See those smiles on their faces? They were done with War! The world’s dictators could go to hell. These guys would eat, dance and sing.
COMMENT:
Our grandparents dropped the ball right there at that last sentence. They forgot the domestic enemies moving into positions of power, biding their time, gradually moving to rob us of our Freedom and prosperity. Even the GIs of Athens TN in 1946, they only acted because the Cantrell machine running that town was so obnoxiously corrupt and tyrannical-like ours is. Todays tyrants act under the flag and maintain a respectable image as they shoot grannies and steal property. The rest is an interesting read:
http://dailybayonet.com/?p=4839
NYT STORY: FIRING LINE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/magazine/01Appleseed-t.html?_r=2
Firing Line
One June morning last year, Jack Dailey drove from his home in North Carolina’s Piedmont country, through verdant, hilly farmland to a rifle range near the town of Ramseur. Eleven men and a woman had mustered there for a weeklong boot camp run by the Appleseed Project, a group Dailey started that is dedicated to teaching every American how to fire a bullet through a man-size target out to 500 yards. So far Appleseed has taught 25,000 people to shoot; 7,000 more will learn by the end of this year. Its instructors teach this skill not for the purpose of hunting or sport. They see marksmanship as fundamental to Americans’ ability to defend their liberty, whether against foreigners or the agents of a (hypothetical) tyrannical government. Appleseed frames this activity as being somewhere between a historical re-enactment and a viable last resort. I came to find out how serious they were.
Multimedia
Slide Show
The Appleseed Project: A Call to Arms Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (189) »
Dailey, Appleseed’s founder and rhetorician in chief, is a tall man with silver hair. He wore black sneakers, a red polo shirt tucked into jeans and a red baseball cap. Sixty-six years old, he could have been a grandfather spending a leisurely morning on a public golf course if not for his unyielding expression and his voice, which is well equipped for the stirring up of men.
In the previous day’s lecture, Dailey discussed taxes — the situation of the American taxpayer, he said, compared unfavorably with the lives of slaves in ancient Egypt. Today he got down to the matter at hand: defense against overweening government. “Look at the choice those guys made,” he said, referring to the colonial-era militia. “I’ll post you 65 yards from the road. In a few hours there’s gonna be hundreds of redcoats marching down that road. Your liberty depends on you stopping ’em.”
Two lead musket balls were passed around the clubhouse, through the hands of a camouflaged Navy midshipman, two sheriff’s deputies, a farm-owning factory worker, a college professor, a pilot, a retiree and a high-school sophomore. Those who shot an “expert” score on Dailey’s qualification test would become “riflemen,” as designated by olive-green patches. For now, most of these novice shooters were referred to as “cooks.”
“When you fire that first shot, those redcoats are gonna be mad,” Dailey said. “They’re gonna come at you with those 16-inch bayonets. There’ll be three or four of ’em before you load your second shot.” He paused. Thoughts of bayonets seemed to linger in the silent room. “Not much percentage in that choice. We know now that they won. But for them? No guarantees.”
The Appleseed Project began with commentaries Dailey writes, under the byline of “Fred,” that run beside advertisements for his surplus-rifle-stock business in the magazine Shotgun News. In 2005, he organized his first Appleseed shoots in Wyoming and Texas. The combination of military-style rifle training, star-spangled rhetoric and low cost ($70 for two days; free for women, minors and military personnel) proved catching. Word of the program spread through gun culture and survivalist Web sites. The tax filings of the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, the nonprofit group that oversees Appleseed, show that the group now has $334,000 in cash. The Appleseed Web site lists as many as 100 shoots a month on the outskirts of towns like Eureka, Kan., Pine Bluffs, Wyo., and Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.
At the North Carolina shoot, the cooks came from Georgia, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, bearing .22-caliber Rugers and Marlins outfitted with custom sights — what Appleseed calls Liberty Training Rifles. Though they were diverse in age and class, their uniformly white skin, down-home talk and traditional values suggested a common attachment to an America that had lost its long-held claim to the cultural center. While Dailey has said Appleseed should be apolitical, the talk at this Appleseed boot camp and at several others I attended across the country over the course of a year contained pieces of a conversation that has unfolded behind the motley carnivals of the Tea Party movement: a serious deliberation on the right about the nature of the American founding and the limits of incivility. Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee for Senate in Nevada who is campaigning against Harry Reid, has spoken of the possibility of “Second Amendment remedies” for Congressional action. “The nation is arming,” she told The Reno Gazette-Journal in May. “What are they arming for if it isn’t that they are so distrustful of their government? They’re afraid they’ll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways. That’s why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don’t win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?” Rick Barber, a Republican candidate for Congress in Alabama, has broadcast an ad in which an actor dressed as George Washington declares, “Gather your armies.”
REST AT THE ABOVE LINK:
DISCUSSION HERE: http://www.awrm.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=44;t=000199
Firing Line
One June morning last year, Jack Dailey drove from his home in North Carolina’s Piedmont country, through verdant, hilly farmland to a rifle range near the town of Ramseur. Eleven men and a woman had mustered there for a weeklong boot camp run by the Appleseed Project, a group Dailey started that is dedicated to teaching every American how to fire a bullet through a man-size target out to 500 yards. So far Appleseed has taught 25,000 people to shoot; 7,000 more will learn by the end of this year. Its instructors teach this skill not for the purpose of hunting or sport. They see marksmanship as fundamental to Americans’ ability to defend their liberty, whether against foreigners or the agents of a (hypothetical) tyrannical government. Appleseed frames this activity as being somewhere between a historical re-enactment and a viable last resort. I came to find out how serious they were.
Multimedia
Slide Show
The Appleseed Project: A Call to Arms Readers' Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (189) »
Dailey, Appleseed’s founder and rhetorician in chief, is a tall man with silver hair. He wore black sneakers, a red polo shirt tucked into jeans and a red baseball cap. Sixty-six years old, he could have been a grandfather spending a leisurely morning on a public golf course if not for his unyielding expression and his voice, which is well equipped for the stirring up of men.
In the previous day’s lecture, Dailey discussed taxes — the situation of the American taxpayer, he said, compared unfavorably with the lives of slaves in ancient Egypt. Today he got down to the matter at hand: defense against overweening government. “Look at the choice those guys made,” he said, referring to the colonial-era militia. “I’ll post you 65 yards from the road. In a few hours there’s gonna be hundreds of redcoats marching down that road. Your liberty depends on you stopping ’em.”
Two lead musket balls were passed around the clubhouse, through the hands of a camouflaged Navy midshipman, two sheriff’s deputies, a farm-owning factory worker, a college professor, a pilot, a retiree and a high-school sophomore. Those who shot an “expert” score on Dailey’s qualification test would become “riflemen,” as designated by olive-green patches. For now, most of these novice shooters were referred to as “cooks.”
“When you fire that first shot, those redcoats are gonna be mad,” Dailey said. “They’re gonna come at you with those 16-inch bayonets. There’ll be three or four of ’em before you load your second shot.” He paused. Thoughts of bayonets seemed to linger in the silent room. “Not much percentage in that choice. We know now that they won. But for them? No guarantees.”
The Appleseed Project began with commentaries Dailey writes, under the byline of “Fred,” that run beside advertisements for his surplus-rifle-stock business in the magazine Shotgun News. In 2005, he organized his first Appleseed shoots in Wyoming and Texas. The combination of military-style rifle training, star-spangled rhetoric and low cost ($70 for two days; free for women, minors and military personnel) proved catching. Word of the program spread through gun culture and survivalist Web sites. The tax filings of the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, the nonprofit group that oversees Appleseed, show that the group now has $334,000 in cash. The Appleseed Web site lists as many as 100 shoots a month on the outskirts of towns like Eureka, Kan., Pine Bluffs, Wyo., and Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.
At the North Carolina shoot, the cooks came from Georgia, Florida, Illinois and Ohio, bearing .22-caliber Rugers and Marlins outfitted with custom sights — what Appleseed calls Liberty Training Rifles. Though they were diverse in age and class, their uniformly white skin, down-home talk and traditional values suggested a common attachment to an America that had lost its long-held claim to the cultural center. While Dailey has said Appleseed should be apolitical, the talk at this Appleseed boot camp and at several others I attended across the country over the course of a year contained pieces of a conversation that has unfolded behind the motley carnivals of the Tea Party movement: a serious deliberation on the right about the nature of the American founding and the limits of incivility. Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee for Senate in Nevada who is campaigning against Harry Reid, has spoken of the possibility of “Second Amendment remedies” for Congressional action. “The nation is arming,” she told The Reno Gazette-Journal in May. “What are they arming for if it isn’t that they are so distrustful of their government? They’re afraid they’ll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways. That’s why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don’t win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?” Rick Barber, a Republican candidate for Congress in Alabama, has broadcast an ad in which an actor dressed as George Washington declares, “Gather your armies.”
REST AT THE ABOVE LINK:
DISCUSSION HERE: http://www.awrm.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=44;t=000199
REAL SOURCE OF GULF OIL SPILLAGE AWAY FROM THE POTEMKIN DRILL SITE
Go figure they're putting up a illusion-a false capping effort while the biggest sources of oil leaks keeps spewing up oil and God knows what else-the plumes kept underwater by constant Corexit... chemical and biological warfare against us all.
ARTICLE:
http://worldvisionportal.org/wvpforum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=931
Source of Gulf Oil Plumes: 7 Miles from Deepwater Horizon
by Gnosty » 28 Jul 2010, 20:39
After reading the following, I'm sure everyone will also reach the same logical conclusion as I have based on the evidence, facts and truth I'm presenting here. All illustrations are taken directly from the referenced reports cited below.
THE BILOXI DOME
At Latitude 28/40/00 N and Longitude 88/26/00 W [decimal Latitude 28.6666 Longitude -88.4333] in the Gulf of Mexico is an ancient volcanic crater. It's geographically classified as an undersea hill and the common name given to it is the Biloxi Dome. It's located approximately 7 miles or about 12 kilometers southwest from the BP Deepwater Horizon well [Latitude 28/44/17 N Longitude 88/21/57 W].
In this satellite picture, the Biloxi Dome is at the center of the picture and looks like a shoe or an oblong shaped rim of a volcano:
rest at provided link
ARTICLE:
http://worldvisionportal.org/wvpforum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=931
Source of Gulf Oil Plumes: 7 Miles from Deepwater Horizon
by Gnosty » 28 Jul 2010, 20:39
After reading the following, I'm sure everyone will also reach the same logical conclusion as I have based on the evidence, facts and truth I'm presenting here. All illustrations are taken directly from the referenced reports cited below.
THE BILOXI DOME
At Latitude 28/40/00 N and Longitude 88/26/00 W [decimal Latitude 28.6666 Longitude -88.4333] in the Gulf of Mexico is an ancient volcanic crater. It's geographically classified as an undersea hill and the common name given to it is the Biloxi Dome. It's located approximately 7 miles or about 12 kilometers southwest from the BP Deepwater Horizon well [Latitude 28/44/17 N Longitude 88/21/57 W].
In this satellite picture, the Biloxi Dome is at the center of the picture and looks like a shoe or an oblong shaped rim of a volcano:
rest at provided link
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
via Sipsey Street: Surviving a police raid on your food supply club
http://www.grist.org/article/food-five-tips-for-surviving-a-raid-on-your-farm-or-food-club/
But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids."
As part of a five-hour-plus search of her barn and home, the agents -- from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Ventura County Sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture -- took the replacement computer, along with milk she feeds her chickens and pigs.
While no one will say officially what the purpose of this latest raid was, aside from being part of an investigation in progress, what is very clear is that government raids of producers, distributors, and even consumers of nutritionally dense foods appear to be happening ever more frequently. Sometimes they are meant to counter raw dairy production, other times to challenge private food organizations over whether they should be licensed as food retailers.
The same day Sharon Palmer's farm was raided, there was a raid on Rawesome Foods, a Venice, Calif., private food club run by nutritionist and raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz. For a membership fee of $25, consumers can purchase unpasteurized dairy products, eggs that are not only organic but unwashed, and a wide assortment of fermented vegetables and other products.
The main difference in the two raids seems to be that Palmer's raiding party was actually much smaller, about half the size of the Venice contingent: Vonderplanitz was also visited by the FBI and the FDA.
In the Rawesome raid, agents made off with several thousand dollars worth of raw honey and raw dairy products. They also shut Rawesome for failure to have a public health permit, though the size and scope of the raid suggests the government officials might have more in mind. Regardless, within hours the outlet reopened in defiance of the shutdown order.
Earlier in June, agents of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, escorted by police and also bearing search warrants, raided and shut down Traditional Foods Warehouse, a popular food club in Minneapolis specializing in locally-produced foods. They also raided two farms suspected of illegally selling raw milk. And in a national first among such raids, agents searched a private home and made off with computers; the family's offense appears to have been that it allowed one of the raw dairy farmers to park in its driveway to distribute raw milk to area residents who had ordered it.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has declined comment on such raids, saying they are part of an ongoing investigation into raw milk distribution in the state in lieu of eight illnesses in May linked to raw milk.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection has launched three raids over the last three months on the dairy farm and farm store of Vernon Hershberger, near Madison. The day after DATCP agents placed seals on his fridges storing raw dairy products in July, Hershberger cut the seals, and announced he was going to challenge the agency's contention he needs a dairy and retail license to sell his products. Obtaining such licenses would be problematic, though, since Wisconsin prohibits sale of raw milk, except "incidental" sales, and defining "incidental" has been a bone of contention for many years. In any event, Hershberger contends he sells only to consumers who contract privately for his food.
What's behind all these raids? They seem to stem from increasing concern at both the state and federal level about the spread of private food groups that have sprung up around the country in recent years -- food clubs and buying groups to provide specialized local products that are generally unavailable in groceries, like grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, fermented foods, and, in some cases, raw dairy products. Because they are private and limited to consumers who sign up for membership, these groups generally avoid obtaining retail and public health licenses required of retailers that sell to the general public. (For more on what's behind the raids, see this new post.)
In late 2008 and early 2009, the representatives of state agriculture agencies in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois met via phone conferences with representatives of the FDA to map a plan for targeting raw-milk buying clubs in the Midwest. The meetings came to light after Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin buying club who was subpoenaed by Wisconsin authorities for the names of his customers and suppliers, obtained email accounts of the sessions via a Freedom of Information request to Wisconsin's Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection department. (Kane has since been prosecuted by Wisconsin authorities for contempt of court for failing to give up the names; his case is under appeal after he was found guilty last December.)
Now, the Midwest program seems to have gone national, and the recent spate of raids suggests a quickening pace and broadened scope. While most raids before the Midwest government meetings had been related to raw-milk distribution, some, like a December 2008 armed raid of Manna Storehouse, an Ohio food club near Cleveland, have been about licensing issues. In that raid, armed law enforcement officers held a mother and eight young children being home-schooled at gunpoint for several hours while they searched the home and food storage areas. A legal challenge to the raid by the family is still tied up in court.
The current uptick has Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund concerned, not only about the spreading of the raids, but about the seemingly easy willingness of judges to hand out search warrants. While the U.S. Constitution's fourth amendment suggests judges should exercise tight controls over search warrants ("no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause..."), Kennedy observes, "I haven't seen an agency turned down yet" over the last four years in requests for search warrants connected with raw milk and other food production and distribution.
Given that the targets of search warrants don't get a say in court as to whether they should be issued, legal experts and those who have been raided say the most that food producers can do is take steps to prepare themselves to weather the raids as best they can.
Here are five suggestions they offer:
Raids are increasing on farms and private food-supply clubs—here are 5 tips for surviving one
When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving the problem over labeling of her goat cheese that prompted the other two raids. (In addition to producing goat's milk, she raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and makes the meat available via a CSA.)
But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids."
As part of a five-hour-plus search of her barn and home, the agents -- from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Ventura County Sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture -- took the replacement computer, along with milk she feeds her chickens and pigs.
While no one will say officially what the purpose of this latest raid was, aside from being part of an investigation in progress, what is very clear is that government raids of producers, distributors, and even consumers of nutritionally dense foods appear to be happening ever more frequently. Sometimes they are meant to counter raw dairy production, other times to challenge private food organizations over whether they should be licensed as food retailers.
The same day Sharon Palmer's farm was raided, there was a raid on Rawesome Foods, a Venice, Calif., private food club run by nutritionist and raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz. For a membership fee of $25, consumers can purchase unpasteurized dairy products, eggs that are not only organic but unwashed, and a wide assortment of fermented vegetables and other products.
The main difference in the two raids seems to be that Palmer's raiding party was actually much smaller, about half the size of the Venice contingent: Vonderplanitz was also visited by the FBI and the FDA.
In the Rawesome raid, agents made off with several thousand dollars worth of raw honey and raw dairy products. They also shut Rawesome for failure to have a public health permit, though the size and scope of the raid suggests the government officials might have more in mind. Regardless, within hours the outlet reopened in defiance of the shutdown order.
Earlier in June, agents of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, escorted by police and also bearing search warrants, raided and shut down Traditional Foods Warehouse, a popular food club in Minneapolis specializing in locally-produced foods. They also raided two farms suspected of illegally selling raw milk. And in a national first among such raids, agents searched a private home and made off with computers; the family's offense appears to have been that it allowed one of the raw dairy farmers to park in its driveway to distribute raw milk to area residents who had ordered it.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has declined comment on such raids, saying they are part of an ongoing investigation into raw milk distribution in the state in lieu of eight illnesses in May linked to raw milk.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection has launched three raids over the last three months on the dairy farm and farm store of Vernon Hershberger, near Madison. The day after DATCP agents placed seals on his fridges storing raw dairy products in July, Hershberger cut the seals, and announced he was going to challenge the agency's contention he needs a dairy and retail license to sell his products. Obtaining such licenses would be problematic, though, since Wisconsin prohibits sale of raw milk, except "incidental" sales, and defining "incidental" has been a bone of contention for many years. In any event, Hershberger contends he sells only to consumers who contract privately for his food.
What's behind all these raids? They seem to stem from increasing concern at both the state and federal level about the spread of private food groups that have sprung up around the country in recent years -- food clubs and buying groups to provide specialized local products that are generally unavailable in groceries, like grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, fermented foods, and, in some cases, raw dairy products. Because they are private and limited to consumers who sign up for membership, these groups generally avoid obtaining retail and public health licenses required of retailers that sell to the general public. (For more on what's behind the raids, see this new post.)
In late 2008 and early 2009, the representatives of state agriculture agencies in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois met via phone conferences with representatives of the FDA to map a plan for targeting raw-milk buying clubs in the Midwest. The meetings came to light after Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin buying club who was subpoenaed by Wisconsin authorities for the names of his customers and suppliers, obtained email accounts of the sessions via a Freedom of Information request to Wisconsin's Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection department. (Kane has since been prosecuted by Wisconsin authorities for contempt of court for failing to give up the names; his case is under appeal after he was found guilty last December.)
Now, the Midwest program seems to have gone national, and the recent spate of raids suggests a quickening pace and broadened scope. While most raids before the Midwest government meetings had been related to raw-milk distribution, some, like a December 2008 armed raid of Manna Storehouse, an Ohio food club near Cleveland, have been about licensing issues. In that raid, armed law enforcement officers held a mother and eight young children being home-schooled at gunpoint for several hours while they searched the home and food storage areas. A legal challenge to the raid by the family is still tied up in court.
The current uptick has Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund concerned, not only about the spreading of the raids, but about the seemingly easy willingness of judges to hand out search warrants. While the U.S. Constitution's fourth amendment suggests judges should exercise tight controls over search warrants ("no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause..."), Kennedy observes, "I haven't seen an agency turned down yet" over the last four years in requests for search warrants connected with raw milk and other food production and distribution.
Given that the targets of search warrants don't get a say in court as to whether they should be issued, legal experts and those who have been raided say the most that food producers can do is take steps to prepare themselves to weather the raids as best they can.
Here are five suggestions they offer:
- Be wary of strangers who want to join your private buying group or herdshare: Before they seek out a search warrant, regulators invariably nose around and infiltrate private buying groups or raw milk herdshares to gain information on "probable cause." They'll often make up sad stories as to why they should be allowed to join. Gary Cox of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund recalls how an undercover agent from the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets infiltrated Meadowsweet Dairy LLC, a private organization of 120 Ithaca consumers who bought shares to gain access to raw dairy products, in 2007: "He was insistent. 'I live so far away, and I only come here so very infrequently, so can't I at least have some (milk) today, PLEEEEEEEASE, because otherwise I won't be able to get any for a long time.' Barb Smith felt sorry for him and relented. We know what the consequence was of her kindness." The consequence was an open-ended search warrant that agents used several times in late 2007 and early 2008 to confiscate product, leading up to a legal challenge to the LLC that is currently under appeal following rulings in New York state courts against Meadowsweet.
- Have a video camera at the ready: Since search warrants are usually specific as to what can be searched and/or seized, a video recording of events inhibits abuses by regulators and other law enforcement personnel. Regulators and law enforcement officials definitely don't appreciate being videotaped, and sometimes will simply disconnect videos or order targeted individuals to put the videos away. According to Aajonus Vonderpanitz, in the June raid of his Rawesome Foods outlet, "They unplugged our surveillance camera to hide their actions. They threateningly refused video capture of their raid when members commenced filming."
- Have a plan of action: Much like planning how your family might escape a fire, decide in advance who will handle the video camera, who will collect business cards or take down the names of all agents, and who will interact with the regulators. The regulators and police count on the element of surprise to sow confusion, and keep the targets from responding intelligently.
- Read the search warrant fine print: Sometimes there are limitations on the search warrants that targets can exploit. Vernon Hershberger, the Wisconsin dairy farmer, was able to slow the regulators down because he knew the search warrant in his case likely wouldn't allow forcible entry, so when agents returned a second time, after he cut the seals on his fridges, he locked his farm store doors and they were forced to leave. They eventually returned with an amended warrant that specifically allowed them to take his computer.
- Keep computer backups: In nearly all such raids, the authorities confiscate computers so they can document transactions and customer interactions. If you don't have a backup of what's on your disk, you can literally be put out of business. Moreover, it's advisable to monitor what information you keep on the computer in the farmhouse or in your food club. There's something to be said for backing up every few days onto another computer kept off-site.
JULY4PATRIOT STILL BEING TARGETED BY OKLAHOMA ON BOGUS CHARGE
Patriots Protect Patriots - Wrongfully Arrested
Patriots Protect Patriots
A message to all members of Patriots Protect Patriots - Wrongfully Arrested
ALERT TO ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ, JULY4PATRIOT, research help needed asap!!!
Mrs. Dyer has requested anyone to locate winning case law, on one charge of child abuse in Oklahoma. read below.
I hope all of you are well. We need to get down to serious business on this one state charge for Dyer.
Thank you so much for all you have done in the Dyer case, all your research, prayers, funds, and support in every way possible. All of you have
succeeded in having the federal case come back with "not
guilty verdict."
This email is to address the state charge on Charles Dyer, JULY4PATRIOT. The one child abuse charge.
In short, Charles had served divorce papers on her and they were dismissed last year for improper form, as I believe he had filed them himself. This
false child sex abuse case is the retaliation of his wife, indeed a common one.
Mrs. Dyer, who can be reached via this site, at her profile page, asked me if we can get a group, or anyone to locate wining case law in Oklahoma state courts for the state charge, involving the accusation of sexual child abuse.
In most counties there is a law library to go to, so winning cases may be looked up and "cited." However it seems in Stephens county, and most of Oklahoma, these cases are kept online. We have not been able to access them or we cannot figure out how to access any winning case. There are cases out there which are winning case law that we have been able to locate to date, for case information to cite. Obviously the more cases we have to cite the better.
I believe any one of you or a group of you may be able to find case law, online in Stephens County, Oklahoma or in the state of Oklahoma, to help Charles out! We are hitting brick walls here and need your help.
We hope someone will know a way to access these cases, no matter where they come from, the OK court, various sites for fathers whom have won these false allegations, forums, message boards. You will find a huge amounts of such sites out there, of fathers wining false allegations of abuse.
We need the number of the case, the name of the case, State of Oklahoma vs ____________. Copy and paste any winning case, info, number, and URL, and email directly to one or both of us.
I want too thank all of you for every bit of support you have given to me, for my case and issues. I will
send another group email, this week regarding my good news on the cases
against the town, county and officers involved. All of you have been
wonderful, thank you.
Warm regards,
Nancy Genovese
Visit Patriots Protect Patriots - Wrongfully Arrested at: http://patriotsportectpatriotswa.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Patriots Protect Patriots
A message to all members of Patriots Protect Patriots - Wrongfully Arrested
ALERT TO ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ, JULY4PATRIOT, research help needed asap!!!
Mrs. Dyer has requested anyone to locate winning case law, on one charge of child abuse in Oklahoma. read below.
I hope all of you are well. We need to get down to serious business on this one state charge for Dyer.
Thank you so much for all you have done in the Dyer case, all your research, prayers, funds, and support in every way possible. All of you have
succeeded in having the federal case come back with "not
guilty verdict."
This email is to address the state charge on Charles Dyer, JULY4PATRIOT. The one child abuse charge.
In short, Charles had served divorce papers on her and they were dismissed last year for improper form, as I believe he had filed them himself. This
false child sex abuse case is the retaliation of his wife, indeed a common one.
Mrs. Dyer, who can be reached via this site, at her profile page, asked me if we can get a group, or anyone to locate wining case law in Oklahoma state courts for the state charge, involving the accusation of sexual child abuse.
In most counties there is a law library to go to, so winning cases may be looked up and "cited." However it seems in Stephens county, and most of Oklahoma, these cases are kept online. We have not been able to access them or we cannot figure out how to access any winning case. There are cases out there which are winning case law that we have been able to locate to date, for case information to cite. Obviously the more cases we have to cite the better.
I believe any one of you or a group of you may be able to find case law, online in Stephens County, Oklahoma or in the state of Oklahoma, to help Charles out! We are hitting brick walls here and need your help.
We hope someone will know a way to access these cases, no matter where they come from, the OK court, various sites for fathers whom have won these false allegations, forums, message boards. You will find a huge amounts of such sites out there, of fathers wining false allegations of abuse.
We need the number of the case, the name of the case, State of Oklahoma vs ____________. Copy and paste any winning case, info, number, and URL, and email directly to one or both of us.
I want too thank all of you for every bit of support you have given to me, for my case and issues. I will
send another group email, this week regarding my good news on the cases
against the town, county and officers involved. All of you have been
wonderful, thank you.
Warm regards,
Nancy Genovese
Visit Patriots Protect Patriots - Wrongfully Arrested at: http://patriotsportectpatriotswa.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Friday, July 09, 2010
HELP GULF EVACUEES MESSAGE BOARD
http://pub47.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3957401277&frmid=0
No signup. Just go in and network and help each other out.
No signup. Just go in and network and help each other out.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
TREACHERY IN THE GULF
Treachery In The Gulf
By Robbi Skye Campbell
6-29-10
What has happened in the Gulf of Mexico was not by accident. It was most likely a design to support an agenda. What that agenda is we do not know exactly but I will try to connect the dots. We may soon know the true extent of its nature by the "solutions" our government imposes on the people in the Gulf area.
There are some major problems:
The Obama administration allowed BP to drill at an unstable site (highly over pressured) in 5,000 feet of water;
BP CEO Tony Hayward dumped his BP stock 2 months before the spill;
The well was kicking since they drilled into the production zone, so the drilling fluid or mud was underbalanced (mud weight not quite heavy enough for the upward pressure of the gas);
Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of BP stock and went short on Transocean stock the day before the spill;
The drilling crew knew that the annular blowout preventer was damaged and BP company man Kazula did not order it repaired;
BP company man Kazula was a greenhorn on the Deepwater Horizon (he was inexperienced);
The well was cased, cemented and had two cement abandonment plugs in place, so how could the well be kicking (trying to blow out)?;
BP company man Kazula sent away the Schlumberger team (supposed to do the cement bond log to check Halliburton's cement job on the casing);
Despite this the BP company man made the decision to change the mud over to seawater (seawater is 40% lighter than the drilling mud). This is not logical;
Shouting match between the rig superintendent and the company man. Superintendent felt that the order to change over to seawater was irrational and suicidal;
During the changeover of the mud to seawater is when the blowout naturally occurred;
President Obama stood by but did not take action for at least three weeks after the spill;
BP and the White House allowed the spill to continue;
The White House allowed BP to spray the highly toxic chemical, Corexit 9500, which is considered to be four to ten times more toxic than the oil itself. EPA told BP not to use Corexit 9500 and BP ignored the federal agency. Corexit is being sprayed at nighttime on coastal residences by the CIA-front, Evergreen Air (which reportedly also sprays chemtrails);
Negligible cleanup measures on the shores and at sea;
Barack Obama sent SWAT teams to production platforms and drilling rigs;
Obama sent the Army and National Guard into the Gulf States for what reason?
Suppression of investigative reporting of the spill;
BP arrested people taking pictures of the area;
BP is allowed to reap the benefit of gathering oil rather than stopping the spill;
Interests and livelihood of the residents suppressed and not considered in decisions;
President Obama is using the spill to get the "Cap and Trade" bill passed;
Twenty-two countries have offered their experience in spill control and cleanup but neither our government nor BP has accepted their offers;
BP and Obama have declined to use non-toxic microbes as a clean-up measure;
BP company man Kazula invoked the Fifth Amendment under congressional questioning of his orders.
Where are the environmental groups?
REST AT THE LINK: http://rense.com/general91/treach.htm
YEAH, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE ENVIROMENTALISTS?
By Robbi Skye Campbell
6-29-10
What has happened in the Gulf of Mexico was not by accident. It was most likely a design to support an agenda. What that agenda is we do not know exactly but I will try to connect the dots. We may soon know the true extent of its nature by the "solutions" our government imposes on the people in the Gulf area.
There are some major problems:
The Obama administration allowed BP to drill at an unstable site (highly over pressured) in 5,000 feet of water;
BP CEO Tony Hayward dumped his BP stock 2 months before the spill;
The well was kicking since they drilled into the production zone, so the drilling fluid or mud was underbalanced (mud weight not quite heavy enough for the upward pressure of the gas);
Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of BP stock and went short on Transocean stock the day before the spill;
The drilling crew knew that the annular blowout preventer was damaged and BP company man Kazula did not order it repaired;
BP company man Kazula was a greenhorn on the Deepwater Horizon (he was inexperienced);
The well was cased, cemented and had two cement abandonment plugs in place, so how could the well be kicking (trying to blow out)?;
BP company man Kazula sent away the Schlumberger team (supposed to do the cement bond log to check Halliburton's cement job on the casing);
Despite this the BP company man made the decision to change the mud over to seawater (seawater is 40% lighter than the drilling mud). This is not logical;
Shouting match between the rig superintendent and the company man. Superintendent felt that the order to change over to seawater was irrational and suicidal;
During the changeover of the mud to seawater is when the blowout naturally occurred;
President Obama stood by but did not take action for at least three weeks after the spill;
BP and the White House allowed the spill to continue;
The White House allowed BP to spray the highly toxic chemical, Corexit 9500, which is considered to be four to ten times more toxic than the oil itself. EPA told BP not to use Corexit 9500 and BP ignored the federal agency. Corexit is being sprayed at nighttime on coastal residences by the CIA-front, Evergreen Air (which reportedly also sprays chemtrails);
Negligible cleanup measures on the shores and at sea;
Barack Obama sent SWAT teams to production platforms and drilling rigs;
Obama sent the Army and National Guard into the Gulf States for what reason?
Suppression of investigative reporting of the spill;
BP arrested people taking pictures of the area;
BP is allowed to reap the benefit of gathering oil rather than stopping the spill;
Interests and livelihood of the residents suppressed and not considered in decisions;
President Obama is using the spill to get the "Cap and Trade" bill passed;
Twenty-two countries have offered their experience in spill control and cleanup but neither our government nor BP has accepted their offers;
BP and Obama have declined to use non-toxic microbes as a clean-up measure;
BP company man Kazula invoked the Fifth Amendment under congressional questioning of his orders.
Where are the environmental groups?
REST AT THE LINK: http://rense.com/general91/treach.htm
YEAH, WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE ENVIROMENTALISTS?
ARTICLE: WHERE DID THE TEA PARTY ANGER COME FROM?
Where Did the Tea-Party Anger Come From?
June 29, 2010 - by Victor Davis Hanson
Why is the Angry Public so Angry?
I think we all know why the Tea Party movement arose — and why even the polls do not quite reflect the growing generic anger at incumbents in general, and our elites in particular.
Anger at Everything?
There is a growing sense that government is what I would call a new sort of Versailles — a vast cadre of royal state and federal workers that apparently assumes immunity from the laws of economics that affect everyone else.
In the olden days, we the public sort of expected that the L.A. Unified School District paid the best and got the worst results. We knew that you didn’t show up at the DMV if you could help it. A trip to the emergency room was to descend into Dante’s Inferno. We accepted all that in other words, and went on with our business.
But at some point — perhaps triggered by the radical increase in the public sector under Obama, the militancy of the SEIU, or the staggering debts — the public snapped and has had it with whining union officials and their political enablers who always threaten to cut off police and fire protection if we object that there are too many unproductive, unnecessary, but too highly paid employees at the Social Service office. In short, sometime in the last ten years public employees were directly identified with most of what is now unsustainable in the U.S. The old idea that a public servant gave up a competitive salary for job security was redefined as hitting the jackpot.
The Tea Party is not over
There is another Tea Party theme that those who play by the rules are being had, from both the top and bottom. The Wall Street bailouts and financial help to the big banks smelled of cronyism, made worse by the notion that liberal “reformers” like Obama got more from Big Money than did the usual insider Republican aristocrats. (The continual left-wing trend of wealthy elites is an untold story, but it suggests a sort of noble disdain: “We make so much that we are immune from the hurt of higher taxes, but like expanded entitlements as a sort of penance for our privilege.”)
Emblematic of the anger at both top and bottom was the 2008 meltdown: those who had not played by the rules still got their mortgages, then defaulted, and left the taxpayer with their bills; those who made the loans and profited without risk took the bailout money, and left us with the cleanup. Those in between with underwater mortgages and higher taxes pay the tab.
We are not 19th-century poor
Somehow we forget that we are in the 21st century with our multitude of cell-phones, laptops, no-down-payment new car leases, big-screen TVs, cheap food, and accessible rent that have permeated all society and given the proverbial underclass appurtenances that only the very rich of the 1960s could have dreamed of. Yet the Dickensian rhetoric has only intensified. There is rarely any acknowledgment of the public’s investment in anti-poverty programs or of its efforts to promote social equality. Instead, an overtaxed electorate is constantly reminded of its unfairness and its moral shortcomings. (I just left a multimillion dollar ICU unit in Fresno, where I was visiting a relative. Over a third of the visitors there did not seem to speak English, and so I was impressed by the public generosity that extends such sophisticated care to those who that day seemed largely to have arrived here recently from Mexico. The notion that a visitor to Mexico could walk into such a unit in Mexico City and get instant, free — and quality — care is, well, inconceivable. Yet politicians talk of our heartlessness, not our generosity.)
Existential Blues
There is a sense of futility: new higher taxes won’t lower the deficit and won’t improve infrastructure or public service. Much of it will go to redistributive plans that, the middle believes, will only, fairly or not, acerbate social problems. In California there is a sense (born out by statistics) that we lack a civil and humane public culture brought on by two often neglected facts: a small cadre of overpaid public employees ensures that we don’t have the money for continuance of basic public services; and, second, we feel our tax money is going to redistributive entitlements rather than focused on improving a collapsing infrastructure of dams, canals, freeways, airports, and trains. The idea that a California could ever again build its share of the transcontinental railroad, recreate its Sierra network of dams, copy the Central Valley Water Project, or match the 1960s standards of the UC and CSU university systems is laughable. (But we surely could write a position paper on why the above are either ecologically unsound or in fact counterproductive.) In short, our intent now is not achievement, but equality by any means necessary.
Law — what law?
There is an anger that the law is now malleable. Creditors are bumped at Chrysler, violating contractual agreements. We hear of rumors that cap and trade and amnesty can be accomplished by administrative fiat rather than by law. Of course, BP is demonic in its Gulf performance, but where does Obama obtain the legal right to demand $20 billion in confiscated capital (why then not $50,100, or 200 billion?).
Federal immigration law — as Labor Secretary Hilda Solis recently demonstrated — is not to be enforced, since it is now a race/class/gender issue, or rather a question of demography as seen in purely political terms. Most accept that “government” goes after the misdemeanors of the law-biding citizen to justify its existence, while ignoring the felonies of the lawbreaker, whose enforcement requires expense, and occasional danger. (Why else would the federal government declare some border spots as “no-go” areas in the style of Sadr City?). Are we in Jacobin times, when revolutionary fervor determines which laws are enforced and which not, as if their validity is a political matter alone?
Success in not an accident, but then neither is failure
For some reason, our elite classes either cannot or will not explain openly and without artifice why it is that innately wealthy countries like Mexico or those in the Arab world or in Africa cannot adequately feed, educate, house, and employ their own citizens. Instead, we are to assume that some sort of ubiquitous oppression exists that that makes us wealthy,and others thousands of miles away poor, and requires apologies rather than exegesis. (Don’t dare suggest that the age-old causes of wealth and poverty still apply everywhere: either one ensures the rule of law, private property, an open economy, a free press, independent judiciary, constitutional protections, and religious tolerance, and allows science to evolve free from government and religious interference, or one does not and stays impoverished).
The Wages of Never Waste a Crisis
All of which brings us back to Obama. Why has he crashed in just 18 months, or, better yet, why still at 47 percent approval? Perhaps many don’t want to be accused of racism in openly stating their disappointment. Others feel that to admit his failures is a sort of self-incrimination of having voted for him; others still believe in a honeymoon and want to give their relatively fresh president a fair shot. All that said, I think his polls will soon reach historic lows, largely because he did not address middle class unease, but instead manipulated it to press for a transformational neo-socialist agenda, when most wanted less not more government.
The point is not that Obama is ipso facto as president responsible for the recession, the 10% unemployment, the ongoing wars, the congressional corruption, or the BP spill, but rather that he sold himself on the notion that he was not merely a different politician (originally, distinct from Hillary and Bush, and then McCain), but an entirely new sort of public figure altogether, beholden to no one, eager for bipartisan 21st century-change, ready to address long-festering problems in untraditional ways.
You were had
After 18 months, the people feel they have been had — in the way that a blow-dried mansion living, philandering John Edwards is hardly an advocate for the “other America,” or a green-scheming, instant multi-millionaire Al Gore is hardly a disinterested advocate for welcoming reasonable debate about a sustainable planet. Prophets fall harder, especially when “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” prove to be a reflective of the Chicago way, the snooty ineptness of the Harvard lounge, and the shrill leftism of SEIU.
Rangel, Dodd, Geithner, the Blago mess, the lobbyists, the earmarks, and the political bribes to pass health care together have convinced half the electorate in just a few months that Obama is not merely not a reformer, but perhaps the most ethically compromised president since Bill Clinton or Richard Nixon.
Stimulus is Still Borrowing
His massive borrowing and poorly focused “stimulus” simply squandered federal cash and made things worse. As we go over the cliff, we are told by some that the stimulus was too small or we need to be bolder still and print ever more money — sort of like the madman who screams he needed wings as he jumps into the abyss. By constantly demonizing business, and libeling everyone from surgeons to investors, the administration scared the private sector. If that were not enough, serial loose talk of new taxes, health-care surcharges, income tax increases, caps coming off income exposed to FICA hikes, rumors of federal VAT or excise taxes, all coupled with the states raising income and sales taxes, has persuaded employers either to hold off buying equipment and hiring, or to look for part-time workers only. Psychology, of course, matters.
War on the war on terror?
The war on terror is seen not as a war at all, but a showcase of good intentions, and so constantly renamed, punctuated by apology, and characterized by complete hypocrisy and contradiction, whether flip-flopping on Guantanamo or the KSM trial, the politically correct new euphemisms, the appointments like Janet Napolitano or John Brennan, or the Orwellian adoption of the very Bush protocols (Predators, renditions, tribunals, wiretapping, intercepts, etc.) that Obama not long ago demagogued as unconstitutional. I fear the threat has grown, not passed.
Reset Nauseas
Abroad, there is a general rule: any nation that was well intended toward the United States between 2001-09 (e.g., Britain, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Israel, Poland, etc) is now suspect; those that clearly were anti-American in that era (eg., Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, etc.) now earn American outreach and deference. Is it better to have been a friend or enemy of the U.S? The Russian spy ring, the Chavez socialist tour, the Syrian sale of missiles to Hezbollah, the Iranian full speed ahead on nuclear attainment, the increase in foiled terrorist plots at home, the China snub, and the Turkish furor all suggest that both neutrals and our enemies are not swayed by magnanimity as much as emboldened by tentativeness.
The recession, anger with Bush, deficits, the furor at Wall Street, unease with the long wars abroad — all that put the American people into a restive, herd-like mood by 2008 to the point that they were liable to charge at any given target. Barack Obama, however, focused that anger by using their hoof-stomping to sneak in a neo-socialist agenda that he knew in normal times had no public support. But he thought the current crisis of public confidence and the fawning media together might help him get it through.
Horns lowered
Instead, the herd turned, roared, and now with horns lowered is charging at Obama — and of all people!
LINK AND COMMENTS HERE: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/where-did-the-teaparty-anger-come-from/?singlepage=true
June 29, 2010 - by Victor Davis Hanson
Why is the Angry Public so Angry?
I think we all know why the Tea Party movement arose — and why even the polls do not quite reflect the growing generic anger at incumbents in general, and our elites in particular.
Anger at Everything?
There is a growing sense that government is what I would call a new sort of Versailles — a vast cadre of royal state and federal workers that apparently assumes immunity from the laws of economics that affect everyone else.
In the olden days, we the public sort of expected that the L.A. Unified School District paid the best and got the worst results. We knew that you didn’t show up at the DMV if you could help it. A trip to the emergency room was to descend into Dante’s Inferno. We accepted all that in other words, and went on with our business.
But at some point — perhaps triggered by the radical increase in the public sector under Obama, the militancy of the SEIU, or the staggering debts — the public snapped and has had it with whining union officials and their political enablers who always threaten to cut off police and fire protection if we object that there are too many unproductive, unnecessary, but too highly paid employees at the Social Service office. In short, sometime in the last ten years public employees were directly identified with most of what is now unsustainable in the U.S. The old idea that a public servant gave up a competitive salary for job security was redefined as hitting the jackpot.
The Tea Party is not over
There is another Tea Party theme that those who play by the rules are being had, from both the top and bottom. The Wall Street bailouts and financial help to the big banks smelled of cronyism, made worse by the notion that liberal “reformers” like Obama got more from Big Money than did the usual insider Republican aristocrats. (The continual left-wing trend of wealthy elites is an untold story, but it suggests a sort of noble disdain: “We make so much that we are immune from the hurt of higher taxes, but like expanded entitlements as a sort of penance for our privilege.”)
Emblematic of the anger at both top and bottom was the 2008 meltdown: those who had not played by the rules still got their mortgages, then defaulted, and left the taxpayer with their bills; those who made the loans and profited without risk took the bailout money, and left us with the cleanup. Those in between with underwater mortgages and higher taxes pay the tab.
We are not 19th-century poor
Somehow we forget that we are in the 21st century with our multitude of cell-phones, laptops, no-down-payment new car leases, big-screen TVs, cheap food, and accessible rent that have permeated all society and given the proverbial underclass appurtenances that only the very rich of the 1960s could have dreamed of. Yet the Dickensian rhetoric has only intensified. There is rarely any acknowledgment of the public’s investment in anti-poverty programs or of its efforts to promote social equality. Instead, an overtaxed electorate is constantly reminded of its unfairness and its moral shortcomings. (I just left a multimillion dollar ICU unit in Fresno, where I was visiting a relative. Over a third of the visitors there did not seem to speak English, and so I was impressed by the public generosity that extends such sophisticated care to those who that day seemed largely to have arrived here recently from Mexico. The notion that a visitor to Mexico could walk into such a unit in Mexico City and get instant, free — and quality — care is, well, inconceivable. Yet politicians talk of our heartlessness, not our generosity.)
Existential Blues
There is a sense of futility: new higher taxes won’t lower the deficit and won’t improve infrastructure or public service. Much of it will go to redistributive plans that, the middle believes, will only, fairly or not, acerbate social problems. In California there is a sense (born out by statistics) that we lack a civil and humane public culture brought on by two often neglected facts: a small cadre of overpaid public employees ensures that we don’t have the money for continuance of basic public services; and, second, we feel our tax money is going to redistributive entitlements rather than focused on improving a collapsing infrastructure of dams, canals, freeways, airports, and trains. The idea that a California could ever again build its share of the transcontinental railroad, recreate its Sierra network of dams, copy the Central Valley Water Project, or match the 1960s standards of the UC and CSU university systems is laughable. (But we surely could write a position paper on why the above are either ecologically unsound or in fact counterproductive.) In short, our intent now is not achievement, but equality by any means necessary.
Law — what law?
There is an anger that the law is now malleable. Creditors are bumped at Chrysler, violating contractual agreements. We hear of rumors that cap and trade and amnesty can be accomplished by administrative fiat rather than by law. Of course, BP is demonic in its Gulf performance, but where does Obama obtain the legal right to demand $20 billion in confiscated capital (why then not $50,100, or 200 billion?).
Federal immigration law — as Labor Secretary Hilda Solis recently demonstrated — is not to be enforced, since it is now a race/class/gender issue, or rather a question of demography as seen in purely political terms. Most accept that “government” goes after the misdemeanors of the law-biding citizen to justify its existence, while ignoring the felonies of the lawbreaker, whose enforcement requires expense, and occasional danger. (Why else would the federal government declare some border spots as “no-go” areas in the style of Sadr City?). Are we in Jacobin times, when revolutionary fervor determines which laws are enforced and which not, as if their validity is a political matter alone?
Success in not an accident, but then neither is failure
For some reason, our elite classes either cannot or will not explain openly and without artifice why it is that innately wealthy countries like Mexico or those in the Arab world or in Africa cannot adequately feed, educate, house, and employ their own citizens. Instead, we are to assume that some sort of ubiquitous oppression exists that that makes us wealthy,and others thousands of miles away poor, and requires apologies rather than exegesis. (Don’t dare suggest that the age-old causes of wealth and poverty still apply everywhere: either one ensures the rule of law, private property, an open economy, a free press, independent judiciary, constitutional protections, and religious tolerance, and allows science to evolve free from government and religious interference, or one does not and stays impoverished).
The Wages of Never Waste a Crisis
All of which brings us back to Obama. Why has he crashed in just 18 months, or, better yet, why still at 47 percent approval? Perhaps many don’t want to be accused of racism in openly stating their disappointment. Others feel that to admit his failures is a sort of self-incrimination of having voted for him; others still believe in a honeymoon and want to give their relatively fresh president a fair shot. All that said, I think his polls will soon reach historic lows, largely because he did not address middle class unease, but instead manipulated it to press for a transformational neo-socialist agenda, when most wanted less not more government.
The point is not that Obama is ipso facto as president responsible for the recession, the 10% unemployment, the ongoing wars, the congressional corruption, or the BP spill, but rather that he sold himself on the notion that he was not merely a different politician (originally, distinct from Hillary and Bush, and then McCain), but an entirely new sort of public figure altogether, beholden to no one, eager for bipartisan 21st century-change, ready to address long-festering problems in untraditional ways.
You were had
After 18 months, the people feel they have been had — in the way that a blow-dried mansion living, philandering John Edwards is hardly an advocate for the “other America,” or a green-scheming, instant multi-millionaire Al Gore is hardly a disinterested advocate for welcoming reasonable debate about a sustainable planet. Prophets fall harder, especially when “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” prove to be a reflective of the Chicago way, the snooty ineptness of the Harvard lounge, and the shrill leftism of SEIU.
Rangel, Dodd, Geithner, the Blago mess, the lobbyists, the earmarks, and the political bribes to pass health care together have convinced half the electorate in just a few months that Obama is not merely not a reformer, but perhaps the most ethically compromised president since Bill Clinton or Richard Nixon.
Stimulus is Still Borrowing
His massive borrowing and poorly focused “stimulus” simply squandered federal cash and made things worse. As we go over the cliff, we are told by some that the stimulus was too small or we need to be bolder still and print ever more money — sort of like the madman who screams he needed wings as he jumps into the abyss. By constantly demonizing business, and libeling everyone from surgeons to investors, the administration scared the private sector. If that were not enough, serial loose talk of new taxes, health-care surcharges, income tax increases, caps coming off income exposed to FICA hikes, rumors of federal VAT or excise taxes, all coupled with the states raising income and sales taxes, has persuaded employers either to hold off buying equipment and hiring, or to look for part-time workers only. Psychology, of course, matters.
War on the war on terror?
The war on terror is seen not as a war at all, but a showcase of good intentions, and so constantly renamed, punctuated by apology, and characterized by complete hypocrisy and contradiction, whether flip-flopping on Guantanamo or the KSM trial, the politically correct new euphemisms, the appointments like Janet Napolitano or John Brennan, or the Orwellian adoption of the very Bush protocols (Predators, renditions, tribunals, wiretapping, intercepts, etc.) that Obama not long ago demagogued as unconstitutional. I fear the threat has grown, not passed.
Reset Nauseas
Abroad, there is a general rule: any nation that was well intended toward the United States between 2001-09 (e.g., Britain, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Israel, Poland, etc) is now suspect; those that clearly were anti-American in that era (eg., Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, etc.) now earn American outreach and deference. Is it better to have been a friend or enemy of the U.S? The Russian spy ring, the Chavez socialist tour, the Syrian sale of missiles to Hezbollah, the Iranian full speed ahead on nuclear attainment, the increase in foiled terrorist plots at home, the China snub, and the Turkish furor all suggest that both neutrals and our enemies are not swayed by magnanimity as much as emboldened by tentativeness.
The recession, anger with Bush, deficits, the furor at Wall Street, unease with the long wars abroad — all that put the American people into a restive, herd-like mood by 2008 to the point that they were liable to charge at any given target. Barack Obama, however, focused that anger by using their hoof-stomping to sneak in a neo-socialist agenda that he knew in normal times had no public support. But he thought the current crisis of public confidence and the fawning media together might help him get it through.
Horns lowered
Instead, the herd turned, roared, and now with horns lowered is charging at Obama — and of all people!
LINK AND COMMENTS HERE: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/where-did-the-teaparty-anger-come-from/?singlepage=true
MCDONALD VS CHICAGO GUN CONTROL RULING: MORE LEGAL FRAUD
MCDONALD VS CHICAGO GUN CONTROL RULING: MORE LEGAL FRAUD
J. Croft
http://freedomguide.wordpress.com
http://freedomguide.blogspot.com
The McDonald vs Chicago ruling is fraudulent.
In 214 pages this court ruling bends over backwards in hitching to the 14th Amendment instead of ruling that the 2nd in and of itself guarantees the right it upholds. This in and of itself is a major red flag as there is controversy among Constitutional scholars about various aspects of that amendment that, rather than uphold equal rights for all, instead imposes a hidden form of slavery. This deliberately concealed aspect of the 14th Amendment is something that has never been discussed among the American People save for those few scholars and their readership who have as a matter of course investigated other aspects of governmental malfeasance and fraud.
The Heller decision itself imposes via the courts restrictions on the 2nd Amendment not previously recognized at a national level. State and local
level most certainly but Heller opens the precedent (courts making their own laws) enshrining restrictions-making a unconditional right subject to both context (in self defense-remember Supreme Court rulings have the same force of law as anything passed by Congress or Executive Orders signed by the President)… both context of limiting the now privilege to self-defense as well as permit and therefore in the eyes of the courts
and government in general nullifying the Right to Bear Arms.
The language in this ruling serves to reinforce the legal precedent in Heller of restrictions on the context of the Second Amendment. Again: anytime a judge refers to our Rights as “privilege” that is a nullification of that Right. Look at this precious quote:
“…a privilege of American citizenship recognized by clause 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment…”.
If a 14th Amendment US citizen is different LEGALLY in status from a natural born American then the inclusion of the privilege language in this court ruling nullifies in the eyes of the court and the United States Government(officially)the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Nothing of the above would be admitted by a sitting judge of course.
Judges are attorneys-all members of the American BAR Association, the officially recognized monopoly of, by, and for lawyers. The ABA itself is a subsidiary of the British Aristocratic Registry-the BAR in the
name of the American legal monopoly.
The above doesn’t reflect a complete analysis of the McDonald vs Chicago ruling, but that isn’t necessary given the character and track record of those who crafted this ruling. The point is, McDonald vs Chicago is the Supreme Court giving license to the States and local municipalities to impose gun control in a framework sanctioned by them. Restrictions on the context of firearms usage and the decimation of what was once a right into a privilege-license and therefore legal revocation-is the real goal of this ruling. It is up to Americans to recognize the fraud of nine corrupt lawyers given absolute power and to ignore them in exercising their Rights.
The mentality of obedience to this fraudulent government ground into even the most ardent American is the single biggest obstacle. There is a fundamental confusion, out of ignorance, to the nature of the US government and its private corporate partners. Truthfully, there are TWO Americas: the one we are taught as being the true state of the nation is a mirage, a Potemkin village, the greatest fraud perpetrated in history. The other America is what can only be rightfully referred to as the beast; the entity based out of New York City and the District of Columbia that has systematically grown in both power and scope as Americans naively assumed they were free.
Nobody in today’s America can assume they’re free today.
Then again it has always been foolish in this world to assume you have any Freedom. Freedom is a most precious thing, something you must guard against the slightest hint of threat. The Fabian socialists in America have used the strategy of gradualism over the period of a century to not only steal our Freedom but to condition us through the media and government schools to the lies that we still had that Freedom.
Is there an endgame? Of course-our abject slavery which is about complete save for the coup de gras that will come from the Gulf of Mexico as the ever building oil spill will contaminate the world. Already this summer the heating of the Gulf of Mexico will aerosolize the Corexit dispersants, crude oil, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic compounds. Even without any hurricanes or other tropical systems that polluted air and moisture will find itself penetrating inland. As it does and people die martial law will be quietly declared.
With a legal framework that has been completed at the national level, the disarmament of the American People as they react negatively to the after effects of the Gulf Oil Volcano can proceed without any more legal obstacles. It is easy to dismiss the connection of the ever-worsening Gulf catastrophe to the McDonald ruling but as Rahm Emmanuel stated, one should not let a good crisis go to waste.
J. Croft
http://freedomguide.wordpress.com
http://freedomguide.blogspot.com
The McDonald vs Chicago ruling is fraudulent.
In 214 pages this court ruling bends over backwards in hitching to the 14th Amendment instead of ruling that the 2nd in and of itself guarantees the right it upholds. This in and of itself is a major red flag as there is controversy among Constitutional scholars about various aspects of that amendment that, rather than uphold equal rights for all, instead imposes a hidden form of slavery. This deliberately concealed aspect of the 14th Amendment is something that has never been discussed among the American People save for those few scholars and their readership who have as a matter of course investigated other aspects of governmental malfeasance and fraud.
The Heller decision itself imposes via the courts restrictions on the 2nd Amendment not previously recognized at a national level. State and local
level most certainly but Heller opens the precedent (courts making their own laws) enshrining restrictions-making a unconditional right subject to both context (in self defense-remember Supreme Court rulings have the same force of law as anything passed by Congress or Executive Orders signed by the President)… both context of limiting the now privilege to self-defense as well as permit and therefore in the eyes of the courts
and government in general nullifying the Right to Bear Arms.
The language in this ruling serves to reinforce the legal precedent in Heller of restrictions on the context of the Second Amendment. Again: anytime a judge refers to our Rights as “privilege” that is a nullification of that Right. Look at this precious quote:
“…a privilege of American citizenship recognized by clause 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment…”.
If a 14th Amendment US citizen is different LEGALLY in status from a natural born American then the inclusion of the privilege language in this court ruling nullifies in the eyes of the court and the United States Government(officially)the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Nothing of the above would be admitted by a sitting judge of course.
Judges are attorneys-all members of the American BAR Association, the officially recognized monopoly of, by, and for lawyers. The ABA itself is a subsidiary of the British Aristocratic Registry-the BAR in the
name of the American legal monopoly.
The above doesn’t reflect a complete analysis of the McDonald vs Chicago ruling, but that isn’t necessary given the character and track record of those who crafted this ruling. The point is, McDonald vs Chicago is the Supreme Court giving license to the States and local municipalities to impose gun control in a framework sanctioned by them. Restrictions on the context of firearms usage and the decimation of what was once a right into a privilege-license and therefore legal revocation-is the real goal of this ruling. It is up to Americans to recognize the fraud of nine corrupt lawyers given absolute power and to ignore them in exercising their Rights.
The mentality of obedience to this fraudulent government ground into even the most ardent American is the single biggest obstacle. There is a fundamental confusion, out of ignorance, to the nature of the US government and its private corporate partners. Truthfully, there are TWO Americas: the one we are taught as being the true state of the nation is a mirage, a Potemkin village, the greatest fraud perpetrated in history. The other America is what can only be rightfully referred to as the beast; the entity based out of New York City and the District of Columbia that has systematically grown in both power and scope as Americans naively assumed they were free.
Nobody in today’s America can assume they’re free today.
Then again it has always been foolish in this world to assume you have any Freedom. Freedom is a most precious thing, something you must guard against the slightest hint of threat. The Fabian socialists in America have used the strategy of gradualism over the period of a century to not only steal our Freedom but to condition us through the media and government schools to the lies that we still had that Freedom.
Is there an endgame? Of course-our abject slavery which is about complete save for the coup de gras that will come from the Gulf of Mexico as the ever building oil spill will contaminate the world. Already this summer the heating of the Gulf of Mexico will aerosolize the Corexit dispersants, crude oil, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic compounds. Even without any hurricanes or other tropical systems that polluted air and moisture will find itself penetrating inland. As it does and people die martial law will be quietly declared.
With a legal framework that has been completed at the national level, the disarmament of the American People as they react negatively to the after effects of the Gulf Oil Volcano can proceed without any more legal obstacles. It is easy to dismiss the connection of the ever-worsening Gulf catastrophe to the McDonald ruling but as Rahm Emmanuel stated, one should not let a good crisis go to waste.
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