Tyranny seems to be as much about getting rich as it is about getting power. There is the example of Michael Chertoff, ex-Oberstgruppenfuhrer of the Heimatsicherheitsdeinst – who made millions via the TSA porno scanners which are now part of the Submission Training every American who wishes to fly must endure. The maker of the porno scanners – Rapiscan – was a client of The Chertoff Group. At least $118 million of your dollars have gone to Rapiscan (and to Chertoff, personally) to facilitate your degradation at the airport of your choice.
But, he’s a big fish.
Smaller fish are just as hungry for your money – and your liberty.
For instance, there is Allan Marx. He is an Ordnungspolizei Obersturmfuhrer (police lieutenant, pictured at left ) in Sebastian County, Arkansas who is pushing hard for OralTox test swabs (see here) to be used upon motorists at Fourth Amendment-free “sobriety” checkpoints. It just happens that Marx is also a distributor for the product – and thus, stands to profit handsomely at the expense of his fellow citizens’ liberty.
Marx says:
“If there’s ever a new way, a new tool that we can use to help not only law enforcement but help the public and the safety of the people out there, it needs to be used.”
Always with the “tools” – and, of course, the “safety.”
No mention of the dollars involved.
Each case of OralTox swabs retails for about $300. Each case contains 25 individual tests. How many people are forced to run a single Fourth Amendment-free gantlet in a single county on a single night in Sebastian County, Arkansas?
How about the state of Arkansas?
Writ large – if this business goes nationwide – Marx, et al, stand to become very rich indeed. Oklahoma, North Dakota, Missouri, Michigan, Colorado, Utah and – of course – New York have already signed up. Who needs the free market and its bothersome demand for non-coercive free exchange when you can use the power of the state to force people to subsidize your product or service? Just get a law passed – and back up the Brinks truck. Policing for Profit. “Security” that pays.
It’s the wave of the future.
But the money’s a side issue, of course. Despicable as it is to profit off the police state, the police state is itself far more despicable. How did we allow things to come this? To accept being felt up, now swabbed – and probably soon, DNA-typed – by costumed cretins as a routine thing? To stand (or sit in our cars) meekly awaiting our turn?
Consider where this may lead. Where it will probably lead.
The principle of random testing at gunpoint of people’s body fluids – vis-a-vis Obamacare. The government is now interested in your “health.” That is, your health is no longer your business.
It is their business.
Is it lunatic to hypothesize that, perhaps, the same government that insists it must inspect at gunpoint your saliva (or draw your blood) to determine whether you may have partaken not merely of alcohol but any illegal substance (the test strips can detect traces of marijuana, amphetamines, opiates and probably many other things besides) will want to know via the same means whether you’re a smoker? Have too much cholesterol in your blood? All such factors affect one’s health, potentially – and when health care is a collective enterprise, others – via the government – have a kind of stock-share assertion of ownership in your health.
The question before us is, simply: Will we endure it? More precisely put: Is there anything we will not endure when authority barks “security!” – or “safety!” in our faces?
I sense that many are growing weary – and becoming angry. I am among them. Perhaps you are, too.
I believe the time has arrived for action as much as the time for mere talk is, unfortunately, passing. Our pleas for reasonableness have fallen on deaf ears. No, worse. On ears that hear – but hold us in utter contempt. Who regard us as cattle. To be ordered and herded, always with the prod – never by appeals to reason.
I fear we face a stark choice. It will be either Submit and Obey. Or it will be resistance.
By which I mean a refusal to play along anymore. By saying No! – and meaning it.
The first step along that path is the ethical-philosophical awakening that is taking place all over the country. It began in pockets, here and there. It is coalescing into an awareness that the system is rigged, that neither the front men and apparatchiks of Team Red nor Team Blue have anything other than their own lust for power and riches at our expense on their minds.
It has got to stop.
But it will be up to us to stop them.
Throw it in the Woods?
PS: We have thrown Google – and Google ads – in the woods. They blacklisted us – so we dumped them. So, we need your support to make a go of it and keep EPautos rolling. Please consider supporting this web site in whatever way you’re able. The link to our “donate” area is here. Thanks in advance!
Eric,
I have certain views as an airline pilot, as I watch the dismantling of the rights of Americans. I don’t want to post publicly. Is there a way to send you a private email?
Thanks.
Hi John. Eric can be reached at [email protected].
Eric,
One of the things that has bothered me for a long time are police officers who also serve in a legislative body. Here in Utah, we have a number of currently-serving thugs, er, “officers” who are also elected state representatives or senators.
I can’t see a bigger conflict-of-interest than this – who are these guys going to be looking out for? Not the average taxpayer, but their brothers in blue (or brown, or black, or green, or whatever they are wearing these days).
Hi Mike,
Amen – absolutely.
Of course, the underlying problem – and its solution – is both simple and complex.
People ought to be left in peace, free to go about their business – unless they (as specific individuals) have caused (or clearly appear about to cause) a demonstrable harm to the person or property of others.
Judge any law – and enforcement – thereof – according to this principle. It neatly cleaves the right from the wrong.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of people do not think so “simplistically” – as they would style it.
Our task is to educate them.
Eric,
I could not agree with you more.
Nearly all laws (if not all laws) are put in place to restrain people from behavior that some other group of people find offensive, improper, etc. But these behaviors, whatever they may be – drinking, gambling, so-called “speeding”, growing one’s lawn “too long”, etc. have absolutely nothing to do with actual harm to other human beings, which is the only basis for legitimate law.
I would hope that the numbers of people who see through the B.S. of current “law making” and “law enforcement” are growing, but with the number of people I run into who are still die-hard statists, I am concerned that the only way to right the ship would be for the whole system to simply come crashing down.
Keep up the good work.
Wow, there is a lot of good stuff going on in this thread, and on this site!
Sic Itur Ad Astra! So now we go to the stars!
True Grit 1969 vs. 2010
http://vimeo.com/19373173
Charles Portis’ True Grit
http://www.extralargeprint.org/True%20Grit-18.pdf
People do not give it credence that a 14 year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just 14 years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.
Here is what happened. We had clear title to 480 acres of good bottom land on the south bank of the Arkansas River not far from Dardanelle in Yell County, Arkansas. Tom Chaney was a tenant but working for hire and not on shares. He turned up one day hungry and riding a gray horse that had a filthy blanket on his back and a rope halter instead of a bridle…
Great novel. I read it as a teenager and was working as a theater projectionist when the film was released. Running projectors gave me a chance to see the film several times and I learned the dialog by heart.
BTW, Tor, have you read the novels by Daniel Woodrell that were made into movies? There was “Woe to Live On” which was made into the film “Ride With the Devil” and “Winter’s Bone” made into a film with the same title.
Yeah, Winter’s Bone serves as an all too real depiction of the emerging post-agrarian, post-industrial Heartland Heimat. The bubble burb-arian boys are just now learning what we sadly knew would become true long ago.
http://www.raindance.org/site/scripts/wintersbone.pdf
Woodrell’s novels and short stories about life in the Ozarks are paeans, of a sort, to the quintessential Serious White People found there. They’re around, anywhere in the US you care to look. Hail the SWP. 😉
Hi Eric, I loved your article. My radio show did a rant on this topic and mentioned that Lew Rockwell linked to you. If you’d like to listen:
Thanks, Nomad – much appreciated!
Ah, so I’m not the only one to use the literal German translation – Heimatsicherheitsdienst – for Dubbya’s “Homeland Security Administration.”
Remarkable how the Red Faction used perfect National Socialist terminology to schmooze the public when slamming together that constellation of authoritarian masturbation fantasies in the USA PATRIOT Act.
Pretty much the same way the “Liberal” fascists used Obamacare to make health care in these United States utterly and absolutely unaffordable as it destroys the division-of-labor economy upon which our civilization depends.
It’s not that we ought to be supporting one side or the other of this so-called “mainstream” government, but that we should be regarding both wings of the Boot-On-Your-Neck Party in precisely the same way we consider other rapists, thieves, and murderers.
Dear Tucci,
Ah, so I’m not the only one to use the literal German translation – Heimatsicherheitsdienst – for Dubbya’s “Homeland Security Administration.”
It’s only appropriate, considering the subjects are “Amerikanische schaffenmenschen.”
” I fear we face a stark choice. It will be either Submit and Obey. Or it will be resistance. By which I mean a refusal to play along anymore. By saying No! – and meaning it.”
Hell Eric, I reached THAT point a LONG time ago. The last time I flew commercial aviation was November 2001. It was THEN that I said “I will NEVER fly again as long as I have to be accept being treated like a criminal to do so”…….and I have REFUSED to fly on a commercial flight since. To hell with the airlines, the airports, the TSA, DHS, Uncle Scam and all the puissant tin-horn dick-ta-tor wannabes.
I no longer live in the US. I saw the police state coming and got out 9 years ago. Seeing a train wreck coming at you and standing there waiting to get run over wasn’t in my plans.
Those that are all puffed up about their guns and imaginary rights need a dose of reality. Your rights are already gone. With the drone joystick jockeys safely out of harms way they have the fire power no one can resist and live to tell about it. Get real.
There may be conflict at some point. The only way to survive it is not to stand up, but to sit down. Refuse to work. Stop supplying whatever service you supply now. Hunker down and see how long they can hold up when essential services grind to a halt. When the freeloaders start rioting for free this and that. Let them waste their men and materials on things that ultimately weaken them.
No sane person wants an armed confrontation. Back away. Far away. Don’t fight their fight. Fight yours by simply doing nothing. Deny them your labor and skill. Their approach requires immense resources that only you can help provide. Don’t help them. Help yourself but weakening them.
Excellent advice, Bill.
We scaled back a lot – and moved as far out into “the woods” as we feasibly could.
It has helped us weather the economic storm – including the recent assault by Goo-guhl. And it may help us weather much worse to come.
PS: If you can/have time, I’d love to hear more details about how you did the expat thing. Especially where – and how you’re living now….
Eric:
You have my email address if you want to communicate privately.
Bill Expat wrote, “:Those that are all puffed up about their guns and imaginary rights need a dose of reality.”
Shheet man, rights aren’t imaginary. What’s imaginary is a person thinking their gooberment protects their rights.
Rights are a natural condition. Much the same way a cat can claw at an attacker. It’s natural.
I like a lot of the other stuff you wrote, please consider writing here in the open. E-mail is so 1990’s anyway. And I’d love to hear your ex-pat take on things. I’m envious.
Your rights are what you can enforce. No more and no less.
Therefore you have only those that are granted to you by your superiors, since you can’t enforce any of them on your own.
It’s like “owning” a home. You’ll find out quick who owns it if you are delinquent on your taxes. Don’t be naive.
Bill Expat, Your rights are Not what you can enforce! You may be denied them by a bully thug, but they are still yours. Just because you have a bully sitting on your stomach does not mean your rights are not yours, they are only denied to be exercised, by a bastard sum-bitch.
The Only rights I have are those granted to me by my God (my creator, if you will) since I can’t ALWAYS enforce them on my own.
I am granted them.
I’m totally hip to your idea of not owning your home (as it should not be) how-freaking-ever; my rights are a whole different thing altogether. … or maybe not, and it’s a subset of my rights, a.k.a property rights.?
It’s the bastard sitting on my stomach that’s the problem. As it is for us all. Only some ignore it.
I see lots of folks here are into theory and absolutes instead of reality and practical living. I lived in that place in my mind and tried to ignore reality until I no longer could.
A very good friend of mine – Richard “Dick” Simkanin – drove around DFW with no plates on his cars, had no current drivers license, refused to pay Federal Income taxes, put full page ads in USA Today proclaiming his “rights” and asking for the Fed Gov to show him the law, not the regulations, but the law that says he had to pay Federal Income Taxes.
He was a multi millionaire. He owned a plastics manufacturing plant and flew around in his own plane. I tried repeatedly to get him to shut up and simply move his business to Mexico. He refused, saying it’s his country, not the Fed Gov’s.
He had a stack of correspondence with the IRS to fill filing cabinets. This went on for years. He wasn’t evading taxes. He said he wasn’t liable for any and boldly asked for the LAW that said otherwise.
He died in federal prison. His trial for Tax Evasion was a farce. He was forbidden by the judge to say anything. He could mount no defense as a judge who makes his living from the tax system denied him every right. That was my signal to leave.
When a truly descent man, standing on principal, can get railroaded like he did, I knew there was no way to win in that rigged game.
Through Dick, I met several people that successfully did what he attempted. They were also hauled into court, but they were allowed to present evidence to a jury that listened, and their juries found that they were right.
Would I take such a risk? Absolutely not, and I’m here today. Dick isn’t. Pick reality or theory. It’s your choice, but choose wisely.
re: Bill Expat @ August 22, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Interesting story.
Why did Dick not take measures to damage the judge? Or force the issue in closing statements, and let the judge fume? Mistrial at least. Possible nullification. Good chance to flee in either case, while TPTB get on to try and ignore the double-jeopardy clause.
I think perhaps that’s part of the reality vs. theory part. It’s why I personally can’t accept the NAP: There are people who are aggressing using color of authority or vagaries of law to hide what they are doing – but you KNOW they’re behind it, that same color of law or authority is worn like a Red Star on a communist – or a badge on police.
I had bully issues, and family issues, and ultimately, decided: I wouldn’t START things – but I’d make damn sure I finished them. And when it was time for action, nothing else mattered: Nuclear bomb is just as appropriate as punching someone in the nose, there’s no concept of restraint – because of “they” had restraint, it wouldn’t have deteriorated to violence. THEY had to continue aggressing past the point of reason.
Examples might help clarify: It’s not worth getting into a fight over a parking space, or vulgarity in public, or a man getting in your face, even. BUT: if the person follows you when you leave, lays hands upon you – you’re justified in turning around and gutting him like a pig. He laid hands on you – he’s looking to turn you around, and he’s demonstrated he doesn’t just mean to talk about the weather. You’re justified in gutting him, breaking his kneecaps, shooting him, shoving a grenade down his pants, breaking his neck, and curbstomping him, and/or anything else you wish. You’ve been attacked. There IS NO OVERKILL. Because he may well have friends watching, and they maty well be armed – and the mroe violent he is, the more likely he has a gang of supporters, so you want to start out making an example. And if you’re in the area frequently – you might want to go looking for future aggressors, JUST to be sure they got the message and avoid being in the same zip code. ‘Cause it’s real easy to end up shot in a back alley, and they WILL likely be looking for you, unless you deal with that problem.
How many violent altercations have I been in, including playground stuff? Two. One was just BAD – my fault, really, but if you’re “shetered” (Read: ISOLATED) from the real world, you can end up bringing all sorts of problems on yourself. The other? Took 3 years of constant torment before I finally almost killed the guy. It had gotten to the point of “ENOUGH.” He didn’t realize; he almost got killed as a result. But he never bothered me again, since he knew all that had to happen was I get my hands on him. IT was OVER from there on out. (I picked him up one armed, at arm’s length, and slammed him on a table, then proceeded to choke him to death.) If his “group” even passed by me, he made sure there were ther people between us, JUST in case…
Same with the U.S., if we could just have the male’s balls drop.
We don’t need an organized militia.
Or any battles.
We just need to make things DIFFICULT a few thousand times a day – and their demand for compliance will do the rest. And eventually, you’ll get a trigger event in Nowhere, USA – and another in Anytown, USA – and another, and another, and another – and those events will galvanize a few “loonies” to action, instead of talk. And they’ll prove smarter, nastier, more burtal, and more effective than TPTB could even DREAM. their intent will be, to paraphrase: Not Vengeance: Vengeance is an emotional response. […] Punishment.” It will be planned, similar to Joe Stack, but will include a set of actions, and will include escape and evasion. Maybe all the way to Mexico, possibly farther, possibly using alternate identities established in advance… In other words, not just a MOB, but a handful of actors who have said, “ENOUGH.” and then grab people by the throat – only they won’t let go. Joe sixpack in Cincinatti will find out how to take out a powerplant. Mom Smith on Elm Street will send the mayor’s office poisoned goodies. Jim the town drunk will drive into the DUI checkpoint – and the car will be a bomb that he detonates.
None of the actors know each other. Two planned to survive; one planned to DIE, to achieve in death what he could not achieve in life.
And TPTB will crack down further.
And more people will decide there’s more to accomplish – and some will decide to use violence. And with each Shampoo / rinse / Repeat cycle – TPTB will crack down harder, on more and more innocent people – and create more and more converts, even those who SUPPORT the STATE will decide it’s gone too far.
“Those that are all puffed up about their guns and imaginary rights need a dose of reality. ”
I call that bold talk from a runaway.
Sister Sledge – He’s just a runaway (1981)
You’re right and proud of it. My momma didn’t raise any dummies.
Pick one:
A) A smart run away.
B) Retreat to fight another day.
C) Know when to hold them, know when to fold them.
D) Only a fool thinks he can fight an infinitely superior force.
“A) A smart run away.”
Ha! I call that bold talk from a one-eyed fat man.
Watch that pride, son. It’s one of the 7 deadlies, y’know.
I’m 6′ tall, weigh 155, have Engineering degrees and perfect vision (Lasik).
Quit while you’re behind.
re: Bill Expat:
Skinny little runt, aren’t ya? 😉
(Comp Sci degree here, started off as engineering. MBA. (woo hoo, I know. And your height makes for easy suplexes and Ō goshi, wheel turns, etc. Could be fun.)
5’9″, 220 (plus 20 🙁 – 220 when fit)
But I think I hate you MOST for the “perfect vision” BAD HOBBITSES!!!
😉
As for the “one eyed fat man”? It’s from True Grit. If you ARE going to get your Irish up – might as well make it for a good reason. 😉
Ned Pepper: What’s your intention? Do you think one on four is a dogfall?
Rooster Cogburn: I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Fort Smith at Judge Parker’s convenience. Which’ll it be?
Ned Pepper: I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
Rooster Cogburn: Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!
yeah, but whose rendition do you like better? coen bros did a good job with the remake.
but bill expat is right. “god made man, but then sam colt made them equal.” later, he & ilk went into gun-verment contracting & smoothed out that wrinkle in the spacetimeequality continuum……
Ozymandius,
I’m personally partial to the original, but the remake IS a good film.
A rare occurrence indeed.
OZ,
Although the coen version is grittier and more realistic, I still prefer the original.
I like the Duke and John Fiedler (Lawyer Dagget and voice of piglet). 🙂
Both versions are good.
jean, mith….i like both as well. was an adolescent for the first one & it was the adolescent version, so the timing was good. coen’s ‘grew it up’ some.
Humorless little twit, ain’t you? Look, Bill, anybody can claim anything on an internet forum. You come on claiming that you ran away like a little cunt and that the rest of us are assholes for staying and arming up.
Maybe you did run away, maybe you’re still living in your Mama’s basement. I don’t really give a tin shit which is true. You’re just words on a screen to me.
Next time you drop in on a discussion and tell how you’re an expatriated whatever, just ease up on the downtalk to the regulars on the forum you’re using. That stupid crack about those who are still here being puffed up about guns and rights made you sound like a little faggot.
Jean, Mith, Oz, I liked the Hal Wallis version for its screenplay, which was solidly true to the dialog in the novel. Strother Martin’s treatment of the Col. Stonehill character is still my favorite performance in the movie. His comment to Mattie about Cogburn was priceless:
“I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he’s a relative of yours”.
The Wallis version is my pick of the two, though the Coens are fine film makers.
ed….you’re choosing (if that much control is actually involved) to personalize bill expat’s message packaging. i’ve called that the “packaging argument” in past, but think i’ll start using “packaging fallacy”, instead. if you can get past the wrapping, the content is there. i’ve been saying the same thing re guns, in different ways.
one of taleb’s aphorisms is “you never win an argument until they attack your person”. or maybe “you can’t have true grits with ad hominey”. ☻
*but, adding hominey is the easiest thing to do on the innernut. i’ve done it myself.
ed….anything with strother martin is worthwhile. what a mean little martinet he was in cool hand luke……
Oz, I was actually kidding with the little pissant until he showed that he’s too full of himself for that.
You liked what he had to say, I read it as bullshit by some self-impressed asshole trying to impress people he doesn’t know and will probably never meet.
Anyway, I’ve been using the internet since ’95. I learned years ago that I may as well just entertain myself. Adhomnigrits is fun. It’s what I feed the trolls when I feed them.
Sorry if I bugged you.
Oz, to me, Strother Martin has turned in some of the best work done on film in the 20th century. I admire his work, though he’s never been treated as anything other than a character actor, but he’s a master character actor. Most of his contemporaries were journeymen at best.
“character actor” means ” hey director, i can characterize…whatever you require”. an actor, in other words. how many characterizations did the duke have? just the one. (but, we liked it.).
bill expat did say he’s an engineer. that’s a category that tends to have a certain character, too. “all the worlds a stage…”
A character actor is one, just as you described, who works for a living. A star can be a one character guy like John Wayne was, though a few character actors have become stars.
At least we can agree about actors. 😉
ozymandias,
Not one of Wayne’s better films, but seeing the Duke as Genghis Khan is unbelievable.
Phony Trailer, but well done
The Conqueror (1956)
At times I could not stop laughing. 🙂
mith, don’t think i ever saw that one. the clip is painful to watch! but i do remember reading something like the linked piece, hypothesizing that some significant portion of the cast/crew eventually succumbed to cancers…location was supposedly radioactive.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/short-history-of-nuclear-folly-_n_3272799.html
How about we all get behind this;
http://tinyurl.com/k4gxrgl
That’s a good idea. I’m in, if I don’t forget by the 13th.
Google is big. Google has money.
The end run here is to block anyone that offends their way of thinking and you obviously have gone astray of their way of thinking. So they arbitrarily block anyone that doesn’t think like them?
Sounds a lot like Standard Oil and the Rockefeller family. They did something called the Sherman Anti-trust Act against Standard Oil busting it up into a number of smaller oil companies all of which was a farce. In one move they made the Rockefeller family ten times richer in order to take away their financial power. Doesn’t really make much sense to me, but that is why I am probably a poor person instead of a rich person.
Goggle is dangerous! It is very much a Standard Oil of this century.
The reason this country is where it is today is simply that it caters to all the rich of the world. The major group of prostitutes(not necessarily the classic definition) are lawyers. Lawyers make up the majority of the Congress and have the finest labor union in the world called the American Bar Association.
Yes, they have made a farce out of the American Constitution. Why? Money.
All law in this country is put together by this group. All law favors the lawyers.
Personally I think everyone should simply decide to no longer use Google in any way manner or form. That would probably generate some kind of illusion of reform.
Lawyers are notorious for one thing. They do not want to work for their money.
They do want us to pay for their services, then have the actual work done by people of lesser eduation than themselves.
That is an article all by itself. Concerning your site, they would want you to sue Google for lost business. Then tie it up in the courts for a number of years so their group can make loads of money off both parties.
And that in a few paragraphs is what is wrong with America right now. It is all about who controls the most money, not about justice in any form whatsoever.
The ruling group are like prostitutes simply because they screw people over for money.
We are all prostitutes by this definition. We all prostitute ourselves because we are required to do things we would not ordinarily do to make money and survive.
The most successful group of people I have ever known varied in what they did for a living. All of them figured out what I have said above and changed it. Most took a cut in salary to do what they wanted rather than do what economics required of them to make a living. Most became very successful because they enjoyed doing what they did for a living.
The lawyers make the rules by which the rest of us play the game. If you want to blame someone for how things are, then by all means blame the group that makes the rules by which everyone else has to play.
The police also are dictated by the rules set down by the lawyers.
Most would happily change the way we have those rules set down to make themselves less vulnerable.
The police do not have enough money in the world to get me to be a policeman.
I think that oath breakers as a charge comes to mind. Oath breakers are greeted in Hell with open arms. Welcome my brothers, they tell them as they enter in.
Followed by lawyers, they are given the red carpet treatment. Why? because lawyers sold their souls to the devil a long time ago.
“Those who behave unjustly naturally gain power and become rulers and strong people in society. When stupid, weak people behave in accordance with justice, they are disadvantaged, and the strong are at an advantage. ”
Found this in a summary for “The Republic” by Plato over here.
Dave Webb, your comment reminded me of a thought I’ve had numerous times while on EPA. Why not just replace Google? With some type of freedom-Google.
There’s probably some kind of patient reason why.
That’s too bad.
‘Looking’ as an idea.
Use Startpage.com
“To be ordered and herded, always with the prod – never by appeals to reason.”
Eric, just what would you consider an appropriate and effective “appeal to reason” that would convince you to consent to being TSA raped, swabbed, detained, etc.?
Bet you can’t think of anything… nor can I. 🙂
“By which I mean a refusal to play along anymore. By saying No! – and meaning it.”
I never miss a chance to let them know we’re tired of being treated like cattle. Every cop I see on the road gets flipped off as colorfully as possible – sometimes when they are raping a fellow peon in my lane I lean out the window and yell “F— you, pigs!” Same goes for anyone else working for the system. There are people you have to interact with (DMV, etc.) but I let them know they’re scum not worthy of my time and the only reason I’m there is because of the gun aimed at my head. Maybe most just think I’m crazy or whatever, but I bet some are beginning to understand a lot of people really don’t like them.
Me, too!
I wrote last fall about the time I was caught in a roadblock because of Mittens Romney. All traffic was forced to stop – and wait for more than 20 minutes – until the aspiring Dear Leader’s monstrous motorcade of Praetorians passed by. I was on my bike – and had things to do – and was pissed at being forced to stop and swelter for the sake of that oily corporate shyster. When I spied the bus coming, I stood up on the bike’s pegs and gave the Up Yours! salute to Mittens as he passed. I have no idea whether he saw it (blacked out windows, of course).
But, it made me feel good regardless.
Now really, Eric. Shame. What kind of example did you set? There may have been chill-ren around. Rather you should have dismounted your bike, assumed the position and shown our prospective new overlord that you were ready, willing and happy to receive what you know to be coming our way. That would have a shining example to all chill-ren and fellow serf/slaves in the area. ; )
I recall Mittens making me late(er) for work. Getting my son in the car to take him to GrandmaCare, I knew he was heading to the high school up the street to make a speech or something, so I was trying (tell a 3 year old to hurry while he’s looking for a particular toy car and whatnot…that’ll work) to get someone moving faster, had him in his carseat, was walking around to my side then…
Dang.
Motorcade.
I swear I saw more vehicles in that clown show with lights on top than I’ve seen the rest of my life. I had to set in my driveway for what seemed like an hour or more. Pondered taking cellphone pictures…but figured I’d get ventillated by some of the goon squad “guarding” him.
I imagine Dear Reader’s parade is even longer and more comical as a waste of my tax dollars…at least part of Mittens Motorcade, he was paying for out of voluntary donors and his own pocket…only redeeming quality of the whole mess. His bus was rented….Dear Reader’s we all paid for.
Those motorcade charades are a crucial piece of their psy-op against us. The trappings; the jets; the red carpets, armed goons, festoonery and foolishness…
…are all designed to make the rubes awe them.
LAUGH at them. Give’em the finger. Don’t even dignify them with anger; that empowers them. Anger implies they’re hurting you; don’t let it show.
Steal their power with laughter and derision. Remember, these are incompetents, they’re thieves and gangsters–but gangsters without even the courage to physically confront their victims. They’re conmen without the chutzpah to pull the con personally. They’ve never earned a decent living themselves; always stolen it from you by fraud.
They’re jokes. Laugh at them; it really pisses them off.
If you need some examples, imagine:
Anthony Weiner. Now imagine him facing a halfway-decent street fighter, or staring down the barrel of a 45. This man is a NOTHING, a shell of a human.
And he’s just one who’s been “uncloaked”…and he’s a minor player. Can you even imagine how totally debauched more “powerful” parasites are? Pedophilia, necrophilia, cross-species; they’re insatiable because they’re psychopaths.
They fear unmasking more than death.
Anarguest wrote, “Every cop I see on the road gets flipped off as colorfully as possible”
I knew a guy did that too.
I asked an LRC writer keen on the subject, what he thought of that.
He said, “He’s just asking for it.”
…Sure enough, that’s what happened.
Beware. …And be wary.
Jack be nimble, and all that too.
Myself, I just give them the evil eye, and think, using my best Jedi imitation, “There’s nothing here for you, just keep going.” … “Ya bastard”
F.Y.I.
That tactic does not work when they blindside you and come abreast of you suddenly.
“He said, ‘He’s just asking for it.’
…Sure enough, that’s what happened.”
It is asking for trouble, no doubt, and I try to be as cautious as possible about it. Make sure they are going the other way or have someone pulled over – pulling up next to an oinker at a light for example and getting mouthy with him is just plain dumb, don’t do it. Don’t be speeding excessively either. Beyond that it is free speech and they can just deal with it. I think things are heading south fast in the here in the US and I’m not going to play along with the awe and reverence of them whilst they pillage us (or worse). It’s my way of protesting – resistance – for now, at least.
Eric, I recall reading that one (long time reader, first time commenter). Brought a big smile to my face seeing somebody sticking it to the Mitt. Things like that might help wake people up too, who knows…
“How did we allow things to come this?”
I think we had no input. The ballot box and the jury box have been denied to us since Lincoln’s war. The example set by the first republican revolution, 1861-65, is that it will be unbelievably horrific to resort to the sole remaining recourse, the cartridge box.
Though school students aren’t taught the truth about Lincoln’s war, the truth is that the US government, led by radical republicans, waged total war on the American people. That hasn’t been forgotten, though it’s not a conscious memory. We know, even if only subliminally, that our government is ready and willing to wage war on us again, at the slightest provocation.
We “allowed” this by having no peaceful way to oppose it. The only alternative would put our children at risk, so we have been forbearing while the state has grown almost to the point of consuming all we can produce. Jefferson said that people will bear things just so long as they’re bearable. He was right about that.
So far we are still dealing with lone actors.
Disparate, disorganized, not even unified in purpose.
Imagine the results of a few hundred Dorners or Tsarnevs.
Open season on piggy / billionaire / dictator. A million separate actors acting alone, but with unified purpose…
That must be terror to TPTB.
“So far we are still dealing with lone actors. Disparate, disorganized, not even unified in purpose.”
Jean, quoting from a great scifi book, “Wasp”, by Eric Frank Russell:
“The third report detailed an automobile accident: three killed, one seriously injured, the car a complete wreck. The sole survivor had died nine hours later…. let’s consider this auto smashup. The survivor was able to tell us the cause before he died. He said the driver lost control at high speed while swiping at a wasp which had flown in through a window and was buzzing around his face…The weight of a wasp is under half an ounce…that wasp killed four big men and converted a large, powerful car into a heap of scrap…We want you to become a wasp.”
You can buy the book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Wasp-Eric-Frank-Russell/dp/0575070951
And is the obvious, transparent reason they’re so eager to disarm us.
That uneasy, queasy feeling people have is the dawning recognition of tyranny–and is why their attempts to take the firearms have failed, and WILL fail.
Because at some deep level, people recognize what it means to be disarmed.
“people recognize what it means to be disarmed.”
Yes, we do. Those of us who are used to being armed recognize it more quickly, while many who aren’t familiar with carrying the responsibility still feel violated at the thought of being made defenseless.
Probably the only people who aren’t bothered by the idea of being defenseless are those who worship the collective. That sort may not even be reachable. They’re the kind referred to as “briquets” by a character in a novel about the resistance groups in Nazi occupied countries. The term was explained as “the briquets are people who easily moved, easily stored and easily disposed of in fire”.
Don’t forget manipulation and control by the fluffy currency we are forced to use to eat.
Thanks for that, you’re right, nothing can happen unless the money’s right, and as long as we’re forced to use “their” currency we’re slaves.
Here’s a simple way we (us citizens of the USA) can make the money right, pay off the national debt and rid ourselves of the hated income tax all in one swell foop:
Define the word “dollar” to mean X grams of oxygen that have been exhaled by a plant.
Consequences:
1) Proper choice of the value of X gives the central government in DC enough money to both fund current operations, including welfare benefits, and to pay off the debt in say, 10 years, all without the need for income tax payments from the citizens. This money will come from all those millions of trees on land owned by the central government. How to measure how much oxygen was exhaled? Same way they buy a new weapons system. Same way you remodel your kitchen – ask for bids. Upon the new definition becoming official the treasurer of the USA will issue RFPs (Requests For Proposal) to companies with remote sensing and biology experts.
2) Due to consequence 1), the hated income tax can be permanently abolished. Everyone is instantly better off by keeping more of their own money and the central government is put on a permanent leash. None of the welfare recipients can complain because their checks will keep coming.
3) Due to consequence 1) new money is flowing into the system in a more distributed way, by way of all private landowners with trees and other plants on their land. This reduces the negative impact of the price inflation that will accompany the new money entering the system. Eventually this negative impact of the monetary inflation tends toward zero because the amount of new money is approximately constant every year meaning the percentage increase gets smaller every year.
4) When it crystal clear to us all the great benefits of this new money and how we were able to take this step on our own say so the next step will become obvious: free the money, as in free speech not free beer, by abolishing all legal tender laws. The money is now free to evolve to serve the needs of it’s users, in the same way all other products evolve. In the same way competition between producers of airplanes caused the Wright Brother’s airplane to change into modern jumbo jets, competition between producers of money will cause it to evolve to serve the needs of it’s users better and better. Airplanes evolve to get you from here to their cheaper and more comfortably and safer. Money evolves to help you purchase better shelter and food and medicine. In other words, without legal tender laws preventing it, money will evolve to help you purchase more and better health as time goes on. In other words, by the simple expedient of defining the word dollar we can murder both taxes and death itself.
How to accomplish this definition? I can think of three ways we the people can cause it to happen:
1) We the people instruct the POTUS signs executive order.
2) We the people instruct the Congress of the USA to pass a bill or add an amendment to the constitution.
3) We the people simply say to each other that it’s so. For example the Google Earth engineers and some lawyers could add a hack to Google Earth so that you could securely sign on and sign your name by clicking on your residence. Thereby signing something like “I, state your name, solemnly swear that I hereby define the word “dollar” to mean X grams of oxygen that have been exhaled by a living plant.” “My signature is valid when 90% of all the rest of my fellow USA income tax payers have also signed.”
Paying off the national debt is a mathematical impossibility, it has gone too far.
These power broker banksters are sneaky psychopathic bastards who don’t care how many dead bodies they leave in their wake. They know every government wonk wants an endless credit card to spend, and they are happy to give them one at 6% and compound interest cost passed to the taxpayer.
Once Uncle Sam sold out to secret owners of the private corporation known as the Federal Reserve (1913), and then later taken off any standard of money creation (first FDR then finished by Nixon – remember gold and silver backed currency?) we were doomed to the “make them trillionaires” financial ponzi we are witnessing today. They own it all, we loose it all. The sly lie we are given of the US dollar value is just a paper magic show.
Nonsense; get rid of DC by legal means – ask the 50 state governors to
convene a Constitutional Convention for the sole purpose of redrawing the landscape into 4 loosely allied nations; Northeast, Southeast, Mid-
west & Far West. Let them be united by just 3 things: a common,
gold-backed currency, a common language, (English will suffice) and
a mutual defense treaty, whereby if one is attacked, the other 3 join
in the defense. We haven’t been one nation since Vietnam, and will
never be one again. We don’t need to be. In fact, it’s too dangerous.
The big nations are obsolete, and are becoming dysfunctional. As
4 distinct nations we can reject Empire building, embrace neutrality,
and even sequester the American Left. We can give them the NE, to
run any way they choose (they can do away with guns, the Boy Scouts,
abortion restrictions — wow, what a program!) and then the rest
of us can get back to our normal lives. With a smaller military and
without a Pentagon constantly looking for wars to get into, we should
thrive famously. The A-rabs?? They’ll crumble without a Bad Guy to
blame for all their troubles. Once the Syrian example runs its course,
and people see what Chile and Colombia are doing with free enter-
prise, the radical, religious nut-case regimes will implode, and order
will emerge from chaos.
(Oh, yes. Dividing ourselves as above will also expunge our absurd
multi-trillion dollar debts, causing our new currency to regain supreme
again. The Chinese will take 15 cents on the dollar because 15 %
of something is better than 100 percent of nothing, which is what they
have now.)
It’s really quite simple, folks. CFB
Well-said, Chas.
I’d only amend that this country has been unnatural – held together by force only – since at least 1865, though the tensions existed (obviously) well before the open eruption of violence. In any event, the point is very well taken that forcing people to “group together” under various collectives called nation states is at odds with human nature – and more precisely, human rights – because there are only individuals, none of whom has a superior claim on any other.
That is the lesson which must be relearned.
“It’s really quite simple, folks. ”
Oh yeah. You solved it. You’re a got-dang genius.
From the end of reconstruction to the 1920s, America was invaded by hordes of “huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” Most of them were trying to get away from depression in Europe and to work in factories, not to taste freedom. Their influence on politics shouldn’t be understated.
And before you start calling me names, I should point out my great great grandparents were on those boats too.
Actually, although Europe had a lot of background poverty in that period that drove that sort of emigration then, there weren’t any serious across the board slumps, only brief and local ones (of course, “brief and local” in the U.S.A. could be quite serious, by the 1870s and 1880s). There had been, peaking in the 1840s, which helped mislead Marx into analysing things the way he did, and they came back afterwards – but that didn’t happen in the period you are bringing out.
For what it’s worth, tradition among my Irish relatives was that people who emigrated to the U.S.A. were looked down on as economic refugees, as it were, while those like my grandfather who emigrated to France right after the First World War were often politicals as they were in a position to keep contributing in that area (indeed, his brother has a mention in the history books).
It could be argued that there is a certain debasement to being an American factory worker subject to Taylorism. We are all quite comfortable being jostled and ordered about, moving up and down a society of invisible conveyor belts, doing what “the human product” is supposed to do at each step of the societal production process.
We only get upset when we aren’t fairly paid for this surrender of ourselves to being The Machine.
The defining characteristic of an American, what matters more than your heredity or beliefs, is where you fit into the great machine of America.
You are what you do. You are what your ideas are.
Brits, Germans, and Australians aren’t like that. You have industrialization sure, but it is not what defines you. An American’s industriousness is all he has. There is no composer, painter, or sculpture, or mythology of yore whose renown we can bask in second hand.
Demanding we quietly take our place at some great auditorium filled with authorities, even if we are acknowledged as being in charge, is anathema to us. We design, build, and then mass produce auditoriums. Then find ways to make them cheaper, and lighter weight, and longer lasting.
Most of us, rather than being any kind of artisan, are organ-grinder’s monkeys of a sort, turning handles and using machines made by superior men. We are able to take pride with less status and pomp in what we produce, than are Europeans.
We are of a lower class, ones who execute complex tasks in a repetitive fashion, with no conceptualization of the overall process. A mere machine most of the time, subservient to the floor bosses and even the machinery itself.
Yet somehow through the miracle of spontaneous order, we rise to a superior class in terms of wealth and comfort, even though we are more than willing to toil covered in oil, dirt, and grime, with no title, or public approval whatsoever, until, and unless, we deliver the got damn goods.
Chaplin – Factory Work – Modern Times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGs2Y5WJ14
I see your point, EG. Before the war, the influx of ’48ers, the larger migration of Scandinavians, and the immigration of Irish due to the famine in Ireland all had influence on the politics of the time leading up to the war.
Before the enactment of the 14th amendment, states had the authority to allow immigration and to grant citizenship. The 14th amendment shifted that authority to the federal government. Once that was done, the puppet masters who controlled Congress and the executive branch were able to start importing new constituencies for progressive policies that would have been more effectively resisted by the native born population.
Seems to me that immigration has long been used as a tool to bring about expansion of government power.
Hi Ed,
So long as there is a welfare state – any form of wealth transfer at gunpoint – open borders is a thing to be avoided. The latter is hard to reconcile for those of us who are Libertarian/anarchist (even minarchist). But it’s tactically necessary to oppose bringing in more people who will increase the voting pool of leeches. To be very clear: I am sympathetic toward, say, the indigent Mexican who avails himself of servicios. He probably isn’t conscious of where is his manna comes from. It just falls into his lap, so to speak.
But the scumbag politicians who import them here for deliberate political reasons… well, that’s another kettle of fish.
wonder if the i’ll-take-“my”-s.s. checks-as-an-act-of-insurgency people support suction porting the borders to “speed it up” (the “bleeding” of the behemoth).
my perspective: “borders” are imposed. i’m not going to turn around & project/subsidize & reinforce that imposition. cell blocks (amerika, as well as the others) generate a lot of brooks hatlens, the institutionalized, fewer andy dufresnes.
“get busy livin’, or…”
The police state is doomed to fail. The more it tries to seize control, the more people will resist it. My advice is to live your life such that every action causes friction to the System in some way. You can preserve your own life while draining the resources of the occupying force, until the machinery that drives tyranny grinds to a shuddering halt.
(My takeaway from the book Total Resistance)
Absolutely, Maverick!
Speak out, everywhere. The grocery store, the gas station, school, work, church, home, neighbor, friend. Everywhere. While we can still speak (relatively) safely.
Meanwhile do what the globalists HATE–enjoy life. Show love for your family, your friends, your neighbors. Sow life; grow fruit trees and share the fruit (and tree cuttings) with your neighbors.
Learn to shoot well; it’s the same flow-state concentration as golf, and a helluva lot more useful as a skill. Enjoy it; revel in it. Take pride that you can deal death three hundred yards or more–but would only use that power to defend yourself.
Be a gentleman or lady. Educate yourself; re-read all that dry history with new eyes, now that you understand the scam. I’m totally fascinated with history now, because I see it through a completely different lens….history is the battle between two sub-species of human, those with empathy, honor, love, and conscience–and the 2-4% without, the sociopaths and psychopaths.
And now for the big one: awaken spiritually. I don’t mean go join the local Stasi arm of 10,000 Baptist followers, whose federally-coopted preacher’s on the FEMA “Infraguard” payroll. I mean realize that the evil overtaking us is so pervasive, so cunning, so patient, so sublimely horrible that it transcends human effort. If there is an evil beyond human–there is a good beyond human as well.
Tap into that good.
I’m convinced now that we’re not just bags of chemistry driven by genes. Whether we’re quantum computers entangled with the universe, or souls inhabiting a physical body temporarily–we’re connected–to each other, and to a greater reality.
We need a serious return to constitutional principles and the rule of law, not men. This whole aribitrary enforcement, roadside “justice” and super-snooping crap must stop. I just learned today that if you run from a cop here in Missour-ah and he wrecks and kills himself, they’ll come after you for felony murder. We can rest assured that the inverse would not be true. If you as the gazelle, to the cop’s cheetah, lived through the crash you’d get a beat down and tazing. The cop would suffer no significant punitive actions for doing it. We seriously need a return to equal protection under the law. No more preferential treatment for what have become nothing more than state sanctioned thugs. No more nosey busy-bodies in state costume lording it over the rest of us.
This will take actions.
Actions speak louder than words.
Setting them on fire will speak volumes, and reveal their intent to use brutal force to the populace at large.
Ya’ll got some serious problems over there in Missour-ah! Just saw this on infowars:
Mo. Police Tackle and Arrest Peaceful “Impeach Obama” Protestors
In between seeing that video from Dom and the whole rodeo clown story, I have no desire to ever set foot inside that state. It’s painfully apparent that the disease of liberalism has taken hold there. They should change their state motto from the show-me state to clover state.
6 police (cop says “peace” officer but then strangle holds the dude – who did have hands clasped until then) cars, one a sports car, and at least 6 cops for two guys supposedly creating distractions for drivers that could cause accidents? i don’t know why that’s not the onus of the drivers…
“failure to obey” – soon they will make that a felony with death penalty, and no due process as it’s an “imminent threat”
In New (world order) York City you can be arrested for “annoying an officer” – doesn’t specify what kind of annoyance. can i citizens arrest an officer for annoying me?
Drove by some of these protestors on a bridge in West Virginia yesterday. There were a good number of them too!
Time to resurrect the old shunning technique, followed by outlawry. If you know a costumed thug or live next to one, do not speak to them, serve them at your biz, let your kids play with their kids etc.
Amen, Thor –
I’ve done that myself. Guy down the road is a state cop; he is into old bikes and we used to occasionally talk bikes. I haven’t talked with him in more than a year now. If he ever stops by to ask why, I will tell him why.
ERIC,I don’t have to even tell you where that piece of shit down the road from you got those old motorcycles,some one smoking pot or something,and probably a lot more,AND DON’T worry you’ll see who he really is soon,YOU GOT TO BE A DYED IN THE WOOL NAZI to become a state cop,IN ANY STATE…………………
Hi Arizona,
Sadly, you’re right. I have no doubt – none – that although he’s been friendly toward me as a neighbor, were he called upon to enforce “the law” – any law – he would do so with gusto.
“We need a serious return to constitutional principles and the rule of law, not men.”
This is where I disagree. The rule of law is arbitrary and subject to the whim of the moment.
I say that there should be the rule of man (or woman) but that the jurisdiction should be limited to one. Yourself.
the rule of *legality* is arbitrary – because its fictional. law is discovered, not created or invented. or “given”, a la moses types.
piggy yell-beseeches, “i got the conch-stitution!” and then piggy gets conked dead.
besides, the first three letters (among other things) telegraph the bluff: con-stitution.
Mike McDermott: Listen, here’s the thing. If you can’t spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.
The disease of the state, pretending to be it’s cure…
The Myth of “The Rule of Law” (From von Mises)
https://tinyurl.com/m48p2bw
But a basic understanding of how human beings work and a rational analysis of how the state functions as an institution, including so-called republics, renders this theory of government as a rather blatant absurdity. How can a law be self-enforcing? By definition, a governmental law is drafted by men and must be enforced by men. No political system can escape the rule of men, for all political systems are created and run by men.
Eric you have it all wrong. If they add full body scans, PSA test and cancer screening the public will moo loudly and demand it.
I think you’re right, Gary … about two thirds of the population. But one third can make a difference.
May not even take that many. The American Revolution didn’t.
That’s my hope, Gary.
Minorities make history – for good or ill.
I’m determined to do all in my power to see that liberty does not become an un-word, something people no longer understand – much less respect.
Too late.
Most people seem to think “freedom” means you get to decide which designer’s jeans grace your @$$, and which megacorp you buy your coffee / news / transport / food / fuel from.
Parochial minds: If I can’t see it, it’s not happening.
Weimar Germany was the same…
ERIC my boy,we are NOT going to have to wait much longer,THE ELITES have realized,america is NOT going to give them our guns,we are NOT going to give them our children,and we are NOT going to be kissing their ass much longer either,THE SHEEP ARE WAKING UP,and you don’t have to be a rocket sciencetist to know its easyer to take down a GIANT while hes asleep,then to try when he’s wide awake and pissed off,they are gearing up for the ATTACK on america RIGHT NOW,expect to be at WAR in america any day…….it WILL BE A RED DAWN……….and everyone had better be ready…….OR DIE……………………….
“But one third can make a difference.”
I see that line of thought a lot in reference to The Revolutionary War. I.e. that whole 3% deal.
However; I’ve read some comments by Robert Higgs, either here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/author/robert-higgs/
or at, The Beacon, where he said there’s historical evidence to suggest it wasn’t just 3% of The Colonies who were against the British Empire, rather, it was almost the whole of the population.
Not sure if it makes a difference to you guys, or to those who have this thought, just thought I’d throw that out there.
I think Prof. Higgs said he was going to write a book in greater detail about that fact.
If it matters.
I guess the point of my comment is, it might not be a good idea to hold tight to the idea of the 3% as a historical guide, reference point, or what have you.
IIRC, (Not Higgs) – it was 3% who were in the field.
There were tories, something like 30%, I think it was, and a third who were effectively neutral, and the remainder third were sympathetic to a greater or lesser extent.
But only 3% were actually taking up arms.
Given the LEGAL guns we know of – it’s getting to be a bad time to be an enemy of freedom.
Imagine the situation in the cities where there “are no guns.”
“a third who were effectively neutral, and the remainder third were sympathetic […] But only 3% were actually taking up arms.”
From what I gather, Higgs was saying that’s untrue.
The populace didn’t ‘take to the battlefield’ but they were quite involved.
That’s just my recollection. I wished I’d saved the link! I was surprised to read it. I think it’s true, like many ideas proven to be otherwise.
Anyway…
Faster and faster, more and more people are coming around:
California Wants Small-Business Owners To Pay Back $120 Million In Tax Breaks
August 19, 2013 6:44 PM
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/08/19/california-wants-small-business-owners-to-pay-back-120-million-in-tax-breaks/
I don’t see any happy faces there.
Soon, one third will be two thirds, plus.
Jean asked, “Imagine the situation in the cities where there “are no guns.””
I can’t.
It’s an alien concept to me.
re: DownshiftFast5to1:
“Jean asked, “Imagine the situation in the cities where there “are no guns.””
I can’t.
It’s an alien concept to me.”
Not sure I follow, maybe I was unclear.
I meant cities where guns, being illegal, don’t exist. 😉
If TPTB want to pretend… I’d imagine they won’t send their enforcers into such peaceful enclaves.
If you mean, you can’t imagine it because you live in one of those vibrant, peaceful communities – you know the truth? Well, I’m sorry.
If you mean there are guns in those cities, Then I think we understand each other…
“I filled that kitty cay so full of lead / we’ll have to use him for a pencil instead / …”
Weird Al as a prophet… Whodathunkit?
Piggy Piggy one head shot… :-] (Fits a song the name of which escapes me)
Think it through. The rebels got going as soon as they reached a sufficient critical mass, or when they reached as strong a position as it looked like they were ever going to get, whichever came first (the latter is possible if the rising generation and immigrants looked as though they were going to be more Loyalist, for which there is some evidence – compare and contrast Ben Franklin and his son, and recall that colonies usually lag developments in larger populations, which in Britain had indeed just tipped back to Tory after some sixty years of Whiggery). Either way, it would have been foolish for the rebels to wait for overwhelming numerical superiority in case some outside developments tripped them up, particularly when they had the presence on the ground to enforce compliance by the reluctant through terror tactics (which they did, largely but not only in New England, e.g. Francis Marion extorting supplies from locals involuntarily but pretending to pay in continental paper, which had the added benefit of giving the locals a stake in being repaid, a fact that destroys Hamilton’s argument that initial holders had no greater moral claim than the speculators who bought them out since those were all voluntary transactions – and read up on “Cowboys”, “Skinners” and “Sons of Liberty [sic]”). The passive support numbers may be inflated by this imposed and manufactured sort of consent.
So, no, any figures for stronger support are implausible and can easily be accounted for by the use of fraud and force of this sort.
That 3% was more than likely the quantity of armed men who actually fought against the British verses say, the whole of the colonials who did not like what the British were imposing upon the colonist.
Big Difference
I hope that means “the whole of those [emphasis added] colonials who did not like what the British were imposing…”, not “the whole of the colonials, [emphasis added] who did not like what the British were imposing…”. We have ample evidence that a sizeable minority were pro-British, just from the numbers who the rebels expropriated, massacred and/or drove into exile, and never mind the numbers of would-be pro-British who that implies were intimidated or otherwise repressed into passive acquiescence by all that. Even the most favourable realistic reading cannot get rebel support much above 50%.
Just market the swabs as terrorist-trackers and Americans will happily line up for miles to be tested.