There is always a catch.
You may have heard about Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent announcement that states would no longer be able to cite federal asset forfeiture laws to snatch people’s cash and property without so much as charging them with a crime – let alone actually going to the trouble of convicting them of having committed a crime.
Most people are unaware such brazen gangster tactics have been in use for years – and could be used against them. And when they are used, you’ll have little recourse. It is literally up to you to prove you did not commit a crime – at your expense and on your nickel.
Example: You have found a used car online that you are interested in buying. You make arrangements to go see the car, which is a couple hours’ drive away. Since you are pretty serious about wanting to buy the car if it checks out, you first go to the bank and withdraw $15,000 with which to purchase the car. You do so because you know that cash is a strong persuader and because the seller will not hand over the keys – or the title – unless he has cash in hand first.
This is common practice – and perfectly reasonable (as well as perfectly lawful, for the moment).
Well, along the way you get pulled over for some minor traffic offense. The cop notices you have a large envelope, demands to inspect its contents and you (foolishly) give him permission to do so. The cop can then simply take – and keep your money. Because merely having a “large amount” of cash – that is the term used – is considered “suspicious.” It is sufficient in and of itself to characterize you as a “drug dealer” or other such outlaw and for the cop (and county/state he’s acting as muscle for) to simply seize the cash. And not temporarily, either. It is now your obligation to prove the money is (well, was) rightfully – that is, lawfully – yours. This can be very expensive and very time consuming and many people – under extreme duress – actually sign off on the seizure in return for the cop/local prosecutor “letting them go.”
With empty pockets.
Example two: You are forced to stop at one of those vile (and probable cause-free) “sobriety” or “safety” checkpoints now routinized in the land of the formerly free. The cop claims he “smelled marijuana.” It is enough – all by itself – for him to simply take your vehicle, auction it off and put the proceeds toward more equipment (and more cops) to fight the “war” on some drugs (alcohol being a socially accepted – and thus, legal – drug).
You are shaken down for $30,000 (the value of your car) over a $300 bag of pot – actual or imagined (or just planted). It happens – and it’s entirely “lawful.” Just as it is “lawful” to stop/search people without probable cause – and to cavity search them once the pretext of an arrest for any offense (including infractions such as jaywalking or littering) is satisfied.
It sounds crazy, I know. And is. But it’s absolutely for real. A form of rendition – such a lovely term – only applied to property rather than persons. Both have become accepted routine in a country where it has become acceptable to do such things to various categories of pariah persons on mere suspicion that they might be such pariah persons and thus, beyond the protection of the law. Like the physical rendition of “terrorists” (who can be anyone the state says, merely having claimed that they are) to places such as Gitmo and other pleasure palaces of the state, the victims of these outrages are relatively few in number, easily marginalized and their cases usually do not get much coverage. But the skeevy point lost on the lowing masses – who mostly turn away from such unpleasantness – is that the same could be visited upon them at any moment.
Principles matter.
Well, they used to.
As did the rules of law, such as having to have evidence of a crime before subjecting people to searches and seizures – and needing to actually convict them of a crime in front of a jury and a judge before imposing sentence. Thanks to the “wars” on (some) drugs and “terrorism” (tomorrow that could mean you) those ancient niceties have been dispensed with – mostly to the accompaniment of clapping (the democratic form of seig heiling).
Well, the good news is your stuff (and cash) are no longer subject to being seized under federal asset forfeiture laws.
The bad news is that states and counties are not going to stop doing it just because the feds have said they’re out of the racket. (And the feds are still going to do it, too. Unless the IRS is included in Eric Holder’s proclamation. It routinely just takes people’s stuff before anything’s been proven or in some cases even formally charged. Look into, for instance, something the IRS calls “structuring.”)
How goes the saying? New boss… same as the old boss?
The feds have ruled it’s lawful for us peons to record cops serving and protecting; it does not prevent them from arresting/caging people for so doing. My home state continues to enforce the ban on radar detectors – despite the federal courts (the “supreme” federal court) having ruled such bans unconstitutional.
Power, ultimately, does indeed flow from the barrel of a gun. And whether that gun is held by a federal thug or a local yokel one hardly matters to the victim on the other end of that gun.
So, herewith some practical advice: Do not carry “large sums” of cash on your person. Anything more than $100, basically – or whatever sum you’re comfortable with losing, in the event you get shaken down by Officer Less Than Friendly. Never consent to any search if your person, property or vehicle. No matter how innocent you know yourself to be; no matter how apparently friendly and reasonable the cop seems to be. His job is to wheedle you into giving him pretext – legal standing – to do his thing, which is to convict you of something and relieve you of your liberty and your money. Do not consent. It may be the only way you’ll ever get your stuff – and your liberty – back.
Technicalities weigh heavier on the scales of injustice than justice.
If you value independent media, please support independent media. We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer to avoid PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: EPautos stickers are free to those who sign up for a $5 or more monthly recurring donation to support EPautos, or for a one-time donation of $10 or more. (Please be sure to tell us you want a sticker – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
She’s in love with herself. She likes the dark. On her milk white neck. The Devil’s mark. It’s all Hallows Eve. The moon is full. Will she trick or treat. I bet she will.
She’s got a date at midnight. With Nosferatu. Oh baby, Lilly Munster. Ain’t got nothing on you. Well when I called her evil. She just laughed. And cast that spell on me. Boo Bitch Craft.
Yeah you want to go out ’cause it’s raining and blowing. You can’t go out cause your roots are showing. Dye em black. Black number one. Little wolf skin boots. And clove cigarettes. An erotic funeral. For witch she’s dressed.
Her perfume smells like. Burning leaves. Everyday is Halloween. Loving you was like loving the dead.
Your love has made me dance like mad
Falling in love with you. Was like taking a sip of poison. Come my healer, forsaken, I am sad. Your love has made me dance like mad.
The sun has set, its flush only is left. I’ll give my life for a glimpse of you.
My fault I came not when when you bade. Your love has made me dance like mad. Dissuade me not from the path of love. Who can hold the boats on the move? Stupid, I joined the boatman’s squad. Your love has made me dance like mad.
A peacock calls in the grove of passion. It’s Qibla, It’s Kaaba where lives my love. You asked not once after you stabbed. Your love has made me dance like mad. Bulleh Shah Sits at Inayat’s door. Who has dressed me in green and red. And caught me the instant I flew from the pad. Your love has made me dance like mad.
by Sufi Poet: Bulleh Shah
American Freedom. Undeniably contagious. Fatally so. You will all be assimilated.
Pink 18 Wheeler. Coca Cola live @ Mtv Italy. Take your medicine and listen. 206 seconds. Swallow it without fear. Yes its puerile yadda yadda ad infinitum so what. The cultural Borg can’t assimilate the likes of you, what do you have left to lose. If you have a rock version for the grokking, post it and let’s use that.
18 Wheeler. MTV Italy. Pink.
You can push me out the window. I’ll just get back up . You can run over me with your 18 wheeler trukk. And I won’t give a fukk. You can hang me like a slave .
I’ll go underground. You can run over me with your 18 wheeler but,
You can’t keep me down.
= =
If you like your god, you can keep your god. I’m not asking you to buy the monarch maven goods these MK Ultra muse-clinicians are subtly selling you.
But I do ask you to engage in a bit of bix-nudism. See these propaganda ditties are helpful to help you see thru the emperor’s newest clothes. Reject not only the seen of this pop culture scene. But reject as well the unseen scene of everything you’ve been led to see as ethical in your underlying culture.
Take off your cultural blinders. DeFOO from your founders, who themselves were MK Ultra Warlocks of their day. Even when they run you over with their overloaded 18 wheelers of bills of goods you been sold as vital to your life and necessary for you to live.
You don’t need them. You don’t need any man or men who use force against you against your will. Grok the thi.is not the state.
You aren’t better than the jungle bunnies in the section 8 neighborhoods. You’re worse. You’re in section 1. The section filled with animated humanoids who don’t even know what it means to be a human animal and being grounded in this world.
Without the feed pellets from the gloved hands of your Human Hamster keepers and cagers of State. Without your fairy stories, what are you. What is so admirable about saying you earn your living. When what you earn is only mass produced biscuits from a Pink Floyd Megafactory Machine.
Hey you. Don’t help them for another minute bury the light. Don’t give in, without a fight.
http://www.brownwhitelaw.com/attorneys/kwhite.html So I imagine I am a bigot when it comes to Kenneth White, the popehat blogger.
Are some federal prosecutors better than others. Does his record make him a criminal of the state. Does he deserve a Nuremberg type trial for what he has done?
If the state is evil, doesn’t that necessarily mean that the individuals who make up the state are also evil. Without individuals willing to lend an air of legitimacy to the thuggery, wouldn’t the state be far less of a problem?
Or to rapidly and completely abandon the myth of authority and to eviscerate wholesale, any one who dares say, some things the state does are good. I’m glad that they’re forced upon me against my will. That makes no sense to me.
Which is the higher priority. Painstakingly parsing each and every bit of evidence to decide who is mostly to blame, and who bears little of the burden of blame. The short answer seems clear, there is no one good in the government. You have every right to defend yourself against their aggressions, I believe.
Maybe some people in the MS-13s gang do nothing but clean the clubhouse and make dinner for the other gangmembers. Are we to accept them as our brothers, even though their livings are made through such activities as threats of violence, kidnapping, strongarm robbery, and killings for hire.
If you as an individual have been aggressed against by the MS-13s, isn’t every level of retaliatory violence available to you, including gathering a tactical team and gunning down as many of them as you can when you get the opportunity?
I do concur with the premise of Bix Nood. But for me, that entails anything after 1935. Music. Art. Film. It’s all the same Wagnerian repetitive doggerel to my ears. Ugggh. The maths are all wrong. The aesthetics are all sclerotic and calcified.
The same schmalzy frozen in amber bugs bunny-ization of cultural memes and stock socialist nationalist music. No new feelings or artistic ideas since then. All agree worldwide what happy music sounds like. And sad. And scary. And proud. Well, unless you count the various degradations and monkeyshinings as new, that is. After WWII its just been getting more and more martial and emotionless.
Throw all the culture and shared jackbooted martial-izations in the woods since 1935, is what I recommend. Excise it all like the cancerous lesion it’s become.
Finally, we have a fresh technological slate, where we can take up where we left off in 1913. And where we gave up in 1935 and started culturally rotting and hollowing out like the great hollow oak of Atlas shrugged. We can start creating anew, making new never before existent culture. And stop playing tug of war with the old tattered and shredded carcass of dreams long dead and gone.
1913 Jazz Standard. Jim Burris:
First you put your two knees close up tight, Then you sway ’em to the left, then you sway ’em to the right, Step around the floor kind of nice and light,
Then you twis’ around and twis’ around with all your might,
Stretch your lovin’ arms straight out in space, Then do the Eagle Rock with style and grace, Swing your foot way ’round then bring it back,
Now that’s what I call “Ballin’ the Jack.
Dagmar Taggart. – Atlas Fountainheaded. Ballin the Jack. Best Version.
Ballin the Jack on a Uke
Brenda Lee. Ballin the Jack.
Judy Garland & Gene Kelly. Ballin the Jack.
What if “the Hokey-Pokey” really is what it’s all about?
Participation dances were the rage back when I lived in Deep South Charlotte. Well, deeper than Roanoke anyway, and a lot darker. Same as DC, shy of 40% vanila, so I guess anyone who pulled a stretch in Mordor must not be too scurred of the dark.
I’ll refrain from posting chocolate mixes since I’m the lone bix-nood-ist in residence. Some find the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice, but many don’t.
Anyway, here’s the ACDC version of the Hokey Pokey. They make any song rock.
Yes, they want our money. But what about when the money is now longer worth wanting? Here’s a SHTF scenario currency –
http://readynutrition.com/resources/cash-after-the-collapse-how-to-make-moonshine_19032015/
Hydro Vac Truck Driver/Operator (Watford City, North Dakota [20 mi SE of Williston])
Compensation: $27-$29 Per Hr. + Full Benefits
Badger Daylighting is expanding and seeking professional Hydrovac Operators to join the largest Hydrovac business in North America.
The Badger Hydrovac system is a non-destructive method of excavating as an alternative to mechanical equipment or hand-digging. The Badger Hydrovac uses pressurized water and a vacuum system to quickly, safely, precisely and cleanly excavate around utilities and pipelines.
MUST HAVE A MINIMUM CLASS “B” CDL LICENSE WITH TANKER ENDORSEMENT and CLEAN DRIVING RECORD.
Description:
• Ninety percent or more of the job’s work time is spent operating the on-board hydro-vacuum system outside the truck performing non-destructive excavation around sensitive underground piping and cables.
• Other hydro-vac work consists of tank entry, cleaning and vacuuming, mobilization of equipment, attending training sessions, paperwork, truck maintenance, safety meetings, etc.
• Heavy lifting at times is required.
• Confined Space Entry is required to accomplish tasks for some clients
• Working at heights are sometimes required
• The job requires typical construction type hours with some weeks being less than 40 hours and other weeks very busy requiring 50 plus hours.
• Badger is a 24/7 operation.
• Minimum of 1 year driving experience with CDL required
• Applicant shall agree to initial Drug/Alcohol testing and random testing thereafter
• OSHA10 safety card certification is required. (If applicant does not hold an OSHA10 certification, Badger will pay for computer based training with applicant completing on-line course within 5 days of hiring on their own time. Certification is the property of the applicant.)
• Must be able to pass 5 year criminal background and safety performance verification.
• Clean MVR (2 or less traffic violations in current 3 year period).
• Travel out of town and out of state to work will be required at times.
• Must be on-call and available to work at all times. (Due to client schedule, our operators may not work every day but must be on-call for irregular hours).
• Underground utility experience a plus.
To become familiar with the Hydro-Vacuum Truck Operator position and the company go to http://www.badgerinc.com.
Training Provided
cute baby goats compilation
Hola Brian. Lo siento I forgot to address your interest in agroindustria earlier.
Houston farm & garden – as an example of what exists in reality
http://houston.craigslist.org/search/gra
Your location and ad section choice may vary.
I see towards the top: a pair of diamond doves for $50 dólares; some boer goat babies for $100 dólares; and a rabbit giant flemish for $60 dólares. Is there money in them, why not ask their owners? I Skipped over cattle and horses as being poor candidates for a new hobbiest/capitalist small business owner.
I’m more than willing to fill a pocket with cash and make some phone calls and do some visits with sellers. Learn as you go. Forego trying to address their concerns and Ignoring all questions as pleasantly as I can. All the while finding out as much as possible and filling in all the blanks in my understanding.
Personally, I don’t open up to strangers and give them the upper hand to satisfy their curiosity about who I am and what I’m doing. Never mind that, I try to imply wordlessly. They have something to sell, you might be a buyer, on that basis you’re worth their time as far as I’m concerned.
Be personable but firm, if possible get them to talk about what they’ve done. And what they hope to do. Regale you with their daring deeds. Tell you what is related to what they do. Who else they know and what other kinds of people are related to their niche. It’s all a big puzzle. Figure out what the outside pieces are and acquire those in a way you enjoy. Later on, work out the inside bits if its worth doing.
Maybe this means hours and hours of face to face effort with dozens of people. Including lots of failures and frustrations on their part as to what you’re up to. Who cares about any of that, it’s your goal that’s important to you, don’t let them derail you or make you doubt yourself and your right to do whatever it is you think is right.
One of things I enjoyed the most, when I was young, was answering classified ads and talking to people with something to sell. It was always a learning adventure, even though +90% I never even bought anything. 8% of the time I bought some minor related trinket and told them I had a good mind to return again at a later day. +99% of the time, I never did go back tho.
I always wanted to be in music and recording. Looked at hundreds of instruments and recording gear. But what I eventually learned from a guy was how to soundproof residential and later office building construction. Turns out once upon a time, there was a huge cash business in creating practice spaces for all kinds of potential money wasting fools like myself, who needed somewhere to get loud, while also needing to not get in trouble for being really loud.
placement
http://www.123teachme.com/online_spanish_test
colors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZDjs-8Ro-M
numbers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKLv-iqP5RA
Don’t expect much. Don’t disclose too much. But that being said, whenever you come across a good resource, consider everything that guy says, and don’t be afraid to abandon your previous puzzle in midstream and start something else entirely due to inside baseball. Often, you’ll find the beginning of one journey is the start of something completely different and a destination you never even considered before.
Thanks Tor Libertarian for your informative reply. I’m actually working in the oilfields by operating and driving vacuum trucks in semi-arid west Texas somewhat close to San Angelo. I live in a man camp, and it would not be a good idea for me to start raising meat sheep here because in a year or 2 I will be returning to Missouri or leaving this country.
I’d rather stay here in this country, but I will not want to live in a country with drones flying above me watching my every move, or where the government forces us to only use its version of digital money. I just might have to get informed about using bitcoin, but even that is traceable. We both use TOR. I happen to use Tails, but of course I am not using it right now. I’m using Ubuntu Linux.
I would not say that there is big money in raising hair sheep aka meat sheep, but there are benefits for doing so. Cows only have one calf at a time,and it will take two years before the calf reaches market weight. Sheep and goats can have 3 sets of youngsters in two years, and they can be sold at less than a year old. Sheep and goats tend to have 1-3 youngsters at a time, but can only raise 2 usually. By timing a bunch of them to birth about the same time; you can take the 3rd kid or ewe and place it with a mother that only had one if you smear the adopting mothers placenta on the adoptee. She will probably know that she only had one of them, but she will probably feed both of them because of the same smell. After they both have consumed her milk, they will continue to smell like they both belong to her. Also, even though Americans eat very little mutton; more pounds of sheep and goats are consumed across the world than beef. Most sheep and goat meat gets exported which means that the market price is on a global level rather than just the U.S. one.
I intend to also get goats if the land that I lease is brushy, and later cattle for diversifications sake. Predominately: cattle eat grass, sheep eat weeds, goats eat brush. You can raise more pounds of meat per acre by properly combining the 3.
Goats are real escape artists though. It is joked that if you can throw water through the fence; a goat can escape. Your fence must therefore be able to hold water.
Wow, a vac truck driver in WEST tx. that speaks English. He possibly may not be a hazard to every other big rig either(odds aren’t good for that). My wife knows every time I encounter a vac truck driver by the offensive language she hears as I’m being offended by bad driving. Move up Brian, drive something else. Keep in mind that 10 seconds you COULD wait before pulling in front of a heavily loaded truck doing the PSL might add to Your own clean driving record as well as another’s. Pulling out in front of another rig hauling ass to make him slow to nearly nothing while your rig slowly accelerates to that almost always no more than 65 mph top speed for a couple minutes before you slam on the brakes(well before indicating which way you might turn)is the reason those other drivers give you that look and sometimes that horn to go with it.
When a truck driver dies he knows immediately if he’s gone to heaven or hell by the presence of vac trucks, esp. in west Tx where English is the second language for most.
I beg to differ 8. Our company hires good drivers, and I damn sure do not need any driving advice from you! You have made some very bad ASSumptions about me. The real a-holes around here are sand truck drivers. They pass us then a few miles later slow down to 45 mph for quite a few miles. I suspect that the bad driving vac truck drivers you have encountered drive trucks with sleepers on them. They are out all of the time. We have regular shifts and sleep in real beds. Our trucks are governed, but so are most OTR trucks that have company drivers.
Brian, no doubt there are some good vac truck drivers. I’ll let you know the first time I’m 1/8 mile from one and he DOESN’T pull right out in front of me to only get to 60 mph and then turn off virtually coming to a stop on the road not 5 miles from where he got on. I sometimes make short runs and don’t feel the need to beat that truck I know is going to run faster than me to begin with.
I’m speed limited to 72 right now and that sucks but not nearly as bad as having to follow a line of vac trucks at 60mph ten miles S of Garden City to 2401 so they can turn for that first water station or have to stop at the Deadwood facility when I’m balling the jack with a heavy load cause that vac truck driver can’t wait ten seconds for me to get by and only go 4 miles down the road to turn off.
I never said they were all bad, only about 90% or so. Those sand trucks, esp. the ones with tarps flapping and rolling sand back at you do suck. I’d like to toss a grenade to them going by.
A buddy of mine who recently made the change to E Texas said vac truck drivers there knew how to drive, mainly because of the non-muchacho factor according to him. But I live this stuff every day. If a vac truck could run 75 I’d be much less disparaging to those who can’t wait for faster trucks to go by. Ok, a bit less disparaging. I can wait to let trucks I’m fairly sure go on by without making everybody grab brake and slow to nothing for me. I just wonder why vac truck operators can’t do the same.
And then there was the driver who turned N at GC and proceeded to run over a DOT warning truck knocking it off the road into the pasture in the bright of day and a clear highway.
I wasn’t so proud of that frac sand truck driver who ran over me at the end of the line for road construction either. He had plenty power, just too distracted to watch where he was going. It only totaled my trailer and sent me to the ER. He never acknowledged my presence or pulled his pods from his ears.
But I’m not telling anyone how to drive, just making a general observation about the driving habits of certain types of drivers. You may be a GREAT driver and I hope you are. We don’t have enough of them. I’ll stand by my assessment of vac truck drivers though as a WHOLE. I personally couldn’t tolerate the whole world running up behind me and having to stay there though. Some companies are paying $30/hr. to haul oil with benefits, full medical and profit sharing with 401K’s. If you have a clean record you might want to make the change. It’s probably easier than my not logging and running 700 miles a day some days. I’m considering it myself.
“no doubt there are some good vac truck drivers.”
The point may be moot before long.
Crude prices have dropped, and may continue to do so.
http://teapartyeconomist.com/2015/03/24/tempest-in-a-teapot-russia-will-sell-its-excess-oil/
And see this in the Startle-Gram
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/barnett-shale/article15518804.html
Your replies to my inititial comment are irrational and bigoted generalizations. They reveal to me that you are a short-tempered driver prone to emotional fits of rage. You should not be driving truck because you are a danger to everyone else. If you have a great driving record; fantastic; but you need to mellow out before you lose that record and kill somebody! Do you retaliate on drivers that pull out in front of you when you are an eighth of a mile away by tail-gating them extremely closely? Do you pass them and return to the lane a bit too soon?
Why are you prone to blame vac truck drivers for driving trucks that the company has governed at 65 mph to lower insurance rates? 4 wheeler drivers oftentimes also wrongly blame the drivers of governed trucks for driving slower than the speed limit, but the blame belongs to the insurance agencies and to the government who mandated coverage.
To answer your question as to why I am not hauling oil: That was what I wanted to do. Years earlier I always kept a Hazmat endorsement, but the pay was no better. I started working for a company that didn’t haul any hazmat, so I let it drop. Last year I chose to return to trucking due to the lack of local jobs near my home in Missouri. I didn’t want to do OTR any more, so I chose to go to the oil fields. My idea was to get tanker experience so that I will have the option of driving a local propane or fuel delivery truck when I returned home. I learned that getting a hazmat endorsement now requires that the TSA to recieve my finger prints and conduct a criminal history check. I got that done, but had to wait 6 weeks for the approval letter.
I then went to the oilfields of first Oklahoma and then Texas. I have since then learned that most if not all oil hauling trucking companies want drivers with at least one year of tanker hauling experience. I have a bit over one million miles of OTR experience pulling mostly vans, but some flat bed and a little refer experience. On top of that: I have several years of on and off-road 10 wheeler dump truck operating experience. On top of that: Many Texas companies want drivers to have Texas CDLs as if that meant anything special, which reduced the number of job opportunities dramatically. Maintainting my out-of-state residency has very good per-diem advantages at tax filing time.
I will again look into hauling oil once I get a year of tanker experience.
Brian, there you go. I wish you luck. I’m not sure myself what’s up with wanting Tx. license except they are still taking all 10 fingerprints and I’d wait to do that since it’s under consideration right this minute to stop the DPS from doing it. $140/ test for Hazmat (each year) is enough to put anyone off but pay is great. Also, some construction companies, one in particular I like with the initials GP is a good company and one I’m considering myself. You’re younger and tougher than myself as I’d never do Ok. but that’s a personal preference on many levels. I do wish you the best though and hope you can get away from vac trucks. And you know what they say about them, they suck. Once you’ve been a long haul trucker and a long time trucker you tend to just get disgusted by vac trucks.
I drag just about every type of trailer you can imagine right now from belly dumps to drop deck dove tails and VGN’s. I no longer want to stay on the road doing the coast to coast thing. It’s tiring, boring and rarely do you get home along with pay not that good.
But in west Tx. I won’t come off my assessment of vac truck drivers(I realize they’re not all the same, just companies doing the same slow thing getting in everyone’s way….and I don’t care what the reason). Like those JB Hunt trucks that never run over 60 and often well under, it’s hell to get caught behind them and they even slow the vac trucks down so you know what I’m speaking of. I wish you the best. And like you, I don’t really like the background checks and other hoops to jump through for hazmat loads, esp. oil tankers but once done, it’s good work.
To be honest, it’s all getting so shitty I’ve about had it for any type of trucking. Tx DOT agents simply need to be euthanised, esp the newbies who think they actually know something. In a decent environment, they’d all have to run a big rig for a few years just to qualify. Then they might not talk out their asses.
I fear we’re all going to be competing for lesser jobs soon but don’t take that as gospel, just my fear. I’m an old flat bed hand and would prefer to haul equipment and be home most of the time. I see the writing on the wall and meant no personal offense to you.
Just so you’ll know, retaliation is a no win situation, one liable to have terrible ramifications for everyone. I retaliate in my mind but not physically. I just wish more vac truck drivers had “ears”. As Forrest’s mother says, stupid is as stupid does. I try not to fall into that category. Stupid moves that cause you great distress can’t help but raise your ire. I often move over and allow trucks I know that are faster get by me and it costs me not a second to do so. I just can’t figure out why every other driver can’t figure that out. I probably just need a few hundred more ft. lbs. of torque and it would be easier to take. I don’t even want to get started on most of the rest of the vehicles in the patch. Those dicks in pickups are the most dangerous people out there along with small rig up trucks for roustabout work. For the most part, I’ll take a vac truck over them any day.
Maybe you and I can stop at Grilling Rig 224 one day soon and have some fracing tacos….on me. Good luck and keep the shiny side up.
Bigotry is a state of mind where a person obstinately, irrationally, unfairly or intolerantly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. Some examples include personal beliefs, race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other group characteristics.
I for one am a staunch unmitigated bigot against anyone who earns their living from the state. Especially from any part of the state that involves violence and oppression of the individual for any reason. Even a reason the state claims makes such behavior justified.
This isn’t the classic way the word bigot is used.
But I have seen it used on this blog in a variety of ways to mean any kind of prior judgment of a person based on their affiliations, characteristics, race, creed, and so on.
I think it makes some sense to be a bigot(to pre-judge as it were) until you get to know a person. But when you have more information, it seems inappropriate to only judge someone by what group they belong to, when you have additional knowledge about them beyond what group it is that they belong to.
sometime,somewhere, a citizen will use his God given right of self defense …against the illegal tactics of ‘law enforcement’…and fight to keep his proprerty…which may cause some to depart this once proud and prosperous nation sooner then they thought possible ….imho
Hi Dan,
Yes. But if it’s only a few isolated individuals, it will accomplish nothing. Indeed, may inadvertently result in more and worse of the things we revile. The only hope is to get a critical mass of people to see the intrinsic wrongness of things like asset forfeiture (and other aggressive acts against people who’ve done nothing).
Then, things will change.
As long as 99.9% of the sheep care more about which color jersey wins the Sunday ballgame more then what the insider trading elected do…. then there is little chance we have a chance.
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville
somali: jaalle
english: yellow – adjective. noun – colleague.
Ku soo dhowow iska caabin ah, Jaalle.
Somalia #7| Peace is “Jaalle” – Coldplay to Yellow
We are #Happy from Hargeisa – Somaliland
Ten Richest Men In Africa
Sidee aado hadalkii? Tababaraha cusub ee … mid ah sida tababaraha jir?
exactly right on the currency – USD is just slightly less smelly … this is what that twit Cameron in UK meant when he said “… Russia had better stop what they are doing …” he meant nothing to do with Ukraine which is so obviously a setup by the western idiocracies as to be laughable … he meant the BRICS nations moving to a new currency for settlement and abandoning the USD. Russia is leading the way on that – this was why the western a$$hats created the whole ukraine mess on Russia’s doorstep …
Another practical advice: drive an old car. I wasn’t even stopped for at least 15 years. I guess the potential payoff looks too small when the piggie spots a 1999 Subaru or a 1994 Jeep.
I have found just the opposite to be the case. Old cars, especially if they aren’t well taken care of are a target for police to screw with you. That was my experience in a 76 Oldsmobile Toranado back 10-12 years ago. I couldn’t drive it anywhere without raising pig brow. It was totally different in my 03 Dodge Ram That I owned during the same time.
I agree, Ancap.
An older car is ok. Within 15 years of current. Anything older begins to stick out – especially if it’s pre-1990s.
except that Ive found an older Mercedes sedan, 70’s and 80’s, to be about as innocuous as they come. Volvos of the same vintage are in about the same category. Never get messed with unless I am driving considerably faster than traffic flow.
ancap, remove muffler from a Dodge diesel and it will wake the dead. I have yet to see one pulled over. Use less pedal on a gasoline pickup with aftermarket mufflers that actually sounds good and wait for the red and blues.
My boss has the same model, diesel with no muffler. I can hear him coming for miles and have actually been awakened by it way off in the pasture idling around. One day when a hand was driving it across a 20 acre location, with it’s ultra-sensitive pedal (no wire), everytime he barely gave it fuel it roared. The boss was in a shit mood, stopped him and chewed him out for driving hazardously across a construction site, never mind the truth was he never got above 10 mph.
I was once stopped by a DPS mainly because my loud Malibu was red and obviously harboring many more HP than the Fury lll driven by porker. I asked him why I could regularly drive my big rig through the same area WOT and loud as hell and he never gave me a second look. Get ready for the prevarication special that ends up making no sense but sounds official because it comes from the mouth of the “state”. I wasn’t impressed. My new GF thought I was maybe a bit addled but soon enough grew accustomed to the pigtards as well as my reply. That car could have emitted 12 decibels at highway speed but been pulled over by every other pig on the road. Arrest me red. And it shone like a diamond in a goat’s ass…….every bit of it. Some would simply pull me over to see under the hood back in the good old days. They weren’t so much dangerous then at least. That’s quite an idle there. What engine does it have? I like shaved vehicles. It’s easy to see who’s one ton 4WD pickup that is, not because of what it might have draped on it but because of what it doesn’t have…..monikers. No matter what I’m driving at the time, I get the looks from those who notice sleepers which fairly rules out the coptard crew. Subtle is invisible for them.
You want a car that matches the environment. In the USA you are free to be just like everyone else. Now people will say you’re free to be different but you have to put up with the harassment as part of the cost. I don’t call that freedom.
Better yet a car that says ‘I’ll burn $300 on a lawyer in heartbeat’ helps too best my observations and experiences can tell.
That hasn’t been my experience Anonymouse. Some years ago I was driving my ugly white ’78 Chevy C-10 pick-up truck through a college town in northern IL on my way to a friends house. Mindful of how loud my built 355 (bored 350 10 over) engine with headers and dual 2″ I.D. exhaust pipes with 12 inch glasspack mufflers, I purposely kept a very light foot on the gas pedal. That wasn’t good enough! I encountered an oncoming cop who promptly made a u-turn and pulled me over. Immediately several other cops showed up before the porker even got my license and insurance card from me.
I was ordered to exit the vehicle after emptying my pockets onto the seat, and I was surrounded by cops throwing questions at me about where I was going and why I appeared nervous. They asked about why I had about $500 in my wallet. I told themthat it was my pay and that I only get paid every other week. They told me that the muffler size on my truck was illegal in that state. I told them that the muffler size was legal in my state of Mo. They asked for permission to search my truck and I said no. They then asked to search the parts of the cab that were in reach of the driver “for officer safety concerns”. I foolishly permitted that. I had nothing illegal and they found nothing, but they could have planted something there if they had wanted. I was still a smoker back then, and I asked if I could get a cigarette from my truck after the search was completed. They consented. I reached into my cab to retrieve my pack of cigarettes from the pile of stuff that was in my pockets, put an unlit cig in my mouth, then reached for the lighter in that pile. They ordered me to freeze and drew their guns. I told them that I was only hetting my lighter. They told me to go ahead, and I nervously did. Suddenly, they got a call on the radio about another incident, and the piggy that pulled me over told me that I lucked out because they all had to go elsewhere. They then left.
Yes, my truck was quite loud; but not nearly as loud as Harleys usually are. Why are Harley riders given a free pass? Not that I want them to be harrassed: I want to be given a pass as well. I think that they were hoping for an excuse to shoot or jail me! I do not buy into their paranoia of my being a dangerous man simply for having loud mufflers; especially after they had searched my reach area of the drivers seat including a thorough search under and behind my seat and the contents of my ash tray. I had nothing on my record other than some old traffic violations.
In my view; cops actually prefer to go after people with old cars because the drivers of those cars usually can’t afford to hire an attorney to defend them in court. Additionally, a sizeable portion of drivers of old cars lack intelligence.
When I get the ‘why are you nervous’ I usually ignore it and they let it go. One of these days I am going to answer ‘because I’ve been stopped on the highway against my wishes by an armed man who can legally ruin or end my life and get away with it’.
I can relate to those kinds of experiences in my Toronado. I had cops flip u turns on a consistent basis to follow me, just waiting….looking for me to do something wrong. I heard it all, from: “it looked like you had more people than seat belts”. “You weaved back there, have you been drinking”? “The registration sticker on your car wasn’t readable”.(Like they can’t run a check on the plate without that.) And other pathetically lame excuses. I was always asked if I had drugs or alcohol in the car. They always wanted to see in the trunk.
My college buddy drove it to work for a while when his pickup was broken down. At the time, the license plate was velcro’d to the rear window because the holder on the car, where you flipped it down to put gas in it broke. He got pulled over at 7 am by a stupid pig because the “license plate wasn’t safely fastened”. “It could fly off and hit another car–or even worse, a pedestrian and kill them”.
Any excuse goes to serve a tyrant. That’s all pigs are. Armed tyrants, thieves with a badge, terrorizing peaceful people exercising their right to travel. I’ve never felt bad when one of those sons a bitches die, “just doing their job”. That sentiment is beginning to come to a head and it’s their own inconsiderate thuggery that has brought it about.
As the founders of this nation (the real founders from across the Bering Strait, not the fancy pants Lord Faunterloys carpetbaggers of a few hundred years ago) liked to say: ‘White Meat Speak With Forked Tongue.’
First they came for the first nations. I wasn’t one and said nothing.
Then they came for the pioneers and settlers. Again I stayed silent.
Then they came and robbed and slaughtered the plantation owners under bogus pretense. Still, not a peep from me.
Then the Germans, The Axis powers. The Soviets. The Commie East Asians. The dictators and the terrorists. Billions and billions they came for, but I stayed quiet.
Now the pigs and hounds are after Joe Sixpacks like myself. Who is going to speak up for my tribe. Who is even left to cry a tear?
I had once asked a cop who stopped me for my noisy rice bike, why Harley’s get a pass, his answer “During the Harley/AMF bankruptcy reorganization, they were exempted from federal noise standards as a form of protectionism since the Japanese manufacturers could never legally match the sound of a Harley.” He then let me off with a warning. I have also confirmed that response with a judge who taught a criminal justice class I was enrolled in at the time.
I doubt that’s an actual law. I can’t find a reference for it. Most likely its one of those things the cops and judges may believe or just tell people. I’ve found cops and judges are often too lazy to read actual written law just like everyone else. As a result they go by word of mouth and perception.
Today I learned here, there are anti-noise activists!
The people promoting the “EPA label match-up program”, state or local EPA label laws and other noise related laws, ordinances and rules eagerly speak of many things as if they were facts. Many of these “facts” are hyperbole, misinformation, scientifically improbable, utterly impossible, unsubstantiated, and in many cases simply made up. This site attempts to distinguish between anti-noise activists’ flights of fancy, and reality.
We do not believe in fighting propaganda with propaganda. Here we answer allegations with well-researched facts.
Think of this page as the Snopes.com of motorcyclists’ rights and noise law arguments. Relevant sources and resources are listed at the bottom of this page.
– – –
What Is Noise Pollution?
Noise pollution is unwanted human-created sound that has the effect of being annoying, distracting, painful, or physically harmful.
It is a public health issue that is adversely affecting the lives of millions of people throughout the world. People continuously exposed to noise experience hearing loss, elevated stress levels, mood swings, hypertension, depression, lost sleep and productivity. In children, it results in slowed learning.
In the United States, motorcycles are built to federally mandated noise control standards. The reason why some motorcycles are loud is because riders modify the exhaust system or install an aftermarket exhaust system that is not street legal.
A roaring exhaust system can be heard and felt over a wide distance, rattle windows and travel through walls. Millions of people are adversely affected by motorcycle noise.
Riders who choose to ride with illegal exhaust systems ruin the image of the lifestyle and sport of motorcycling for others. Responsible riders and motorcycle clubs should advocate the use of legal exhaust systems.
Loud motorcycle exhaust systems produces low frequency sound that is non-directional and coming from the rear of the motorcycle where the exhaust is located. Since most two-vehicle accidents come from the front of the vehicle, the use of a loud exhaust system does nothing to alert other motorists of an oncoming motorcycle.
– must… puke now… as Eric says… it’s all of a piece… a piece where every little detail of one’s life is controlled, and there is only one legal and very expensive way of doing anything, in each jurisdiction anywhere on Earth…
My fixer-upper ’92 Yamaha 1100 Virago had the baffles drilled out by the previous owner, so it is pretty loud and resembles a Harley. I guess I will soon find out if it is coproach bait.
Eric:
What is the dirty little secret is the DEA / FINCEN spying on not only cash withdrawals, but also voice-to-text transcripts of your phone usage.
Mention bringing $15,000 cash on your cell phone. Then take a cross-country trip to buy that used car.
There’s a good chance the DEA is now tracking your cell, and tipping off state police where you are. The rest, they say, is history – including that hard-earned $15K you once owned.
I would love to see a independent media sting based on this. Perp #1 calls Perp #2 on a prepaid cell phone and mentions bringing $200K in cash at a certain time and location. He describes his vehicle.
The trip is planned to traverse a highway robbery-friendly state, like Wyoming. Perp #1’s car is clean except for a suitcase of Monopoly money and hidden cameras.
Let the fun begin!
Hi Hugh,
I hope, someday, to have the resources to fund such an operation!
For the moment, I’m just trying to survive…
The most expensive part would be getting the Monopoly money! I’ll check Ebay…
Where’s James O’Keefe when you need him?
Maybe the Koch brothers will front the monopoly money. I’m kidding of course.
Risky. An angered porcine may plant some false evidence.
then preempt the piggies and plant a few obscure video cameras in and on the car, so as to record any activity within or near the car. Have them all remote transmit to a multi-channel hard disc recorder. Now, after they’ve had their fun, unravel the multi-channel video document you’ve gotten and PROVE they were planting evidence, lying, whatever else they did. It will get you off their trumed up charges AND provide the basis for a nice KO lawsuit for violation of YOUR rights, perjury (they WILL swear under oath that they “found” that baggie under the seat), etc….. yo’d need to have a skilled and experienced lawyer as part of the team going in. But it would be great fun. Sue the individual pigs as civilians when its all done, and pry open the general corruption can at downtown at the piggery.
Asset Forfeiture Laws = Bills of Attainder.
A bill of attainder is a declaration by government that you are an outlaw and your property forfeit to the government. It is a great tool to control the inconvenient. There is no indictment, no trial, no conviction. There merely is a declaration and confiscation.
The United States Constitution in Article 3, Sections 9 and 10 specifically prohibit Bills of Attainder to the Federal and State governments. Calling it asset forfeiture rather than a bill of attainder does not change its nature.
A duck is a duck is a duck.
“A duck is a duck is a duck.” Yes, and what does duck rhyme with? No, I wasn’t thinking of luck.
Buck?
The CONstitution was a toothless farce and many of the so-called founding fathers/ corrupt lawyers were power-hungry, thieving, conniving, and murderous criminals. I hate the phrase “founding fathers” because they did not build anything other than a new mafia!
I’ve come around to this view myself, Brian.
Reading up on Hamilton, especially, is an eye-opener.
Thank you Eric – for the article and for letting me post.
When i was a kid (in the 1980s) and was growing up in a dirt poor country in Africa under a totalitarian (thanks to Reagan support) dictator an incident happened that i vividly remember to this day.
It was early one bright morning, my mother and I were walking to the bus stop on our way to the tailor-shop to get fitted for new school uniforms. As we came around a corner, we (as well as others) saw a man on the ground having a seizure. As is the custom (almost an obligation) to help a fellow human in distress (there are no paramedics on stand by, folks in an emergency will either drive or get a taxi to the trauma center) a small circle formed around the man.
A fellow took a clean handkerchief out his pocket and was trying to use it to prevent the poor guy from chewing on his tongue – this is when someone lifted the man’s pants from his ankle ostensibly to see if there were any medical instructions in his socks – back then, people who suffered from seizures were advised to put a note in their pockets or socks so if they suffered an episode whoever found them will know what to do.
Anyway, as soon as everyone noticed the socks – an unmistakable military green government issue (otherwise the guy was in civilian clothing), they all stood up and walked away. The man who initially put the handkerchief in the guys mouth snatched it and threw it away.
American law enforcement personnel aren’t yet as hated as they deserve to be but, the day isn’t far when a bleeding copper on the side walk screaming “help” is ignored. Americans in general, imho are neither free nor are they brave although they have a lot of other good traits.
no offense intended!
Hi Jaalle,
A sad – but very relevant story.
I believe America is at the point you describe. I wish it weren’t so. But they made it so.
One of the many ideas behind all of this is to stop us from using cash. They cannot (currently) monitor cash transactions. If you stop carrying cash, they win.
The problem is, they are highway robbers but no one treats them like highway robbers. Think about it… what would you do if a car jacker pulled the same stunt? Why should it be any different if the thug wears a badge and a uniform?
If you were to do with a cop the same as you would do to a free-lance carjacker, you would end up dead or in prison. Most likely the former.
…It is that fear that enables the tyrant.
When I was an undergrad and part of the unpopular radical, anti-war crowd (Vietnam era), the cops busted us at one of our off-campus parties. We actually weren’t potheads. Pot was still mostly for the arty crowd. But we got busted for possession. In the hubbub, I asked, kind of offhandedly, “Where’d the pot come from?” The cop nearby jiggled a bag of oregano or whatever it was and, with a smile, said, “Yer lookin’ at it.”
The cops, who were working-class townsfolk, many of them veterans, didn’t much care for us privileged, egghead draft dodgers from the burbs, but busting us wasn’t their idea. That came from the college administration whose factotums then told us if we’d quit making nuisances of ourselves, they’d see that the charges were dropped. The deal was sealed and that was the end of it.
Some time afterwards, I said to one of the cops in town, “You guys don’t really need evidence to bust us. I mean you can bring it with you.” His advice to me was to get my education and keep my nose clean.
So you don’t consent to a search. The confiscating officer says you did. How you gonna prove you didn’t?
> So you don’t consent to a search. The confiscating officer says you did. How you gonna prove you didn’t?
That’s what dash cams or cell phones are good for. BTW: If you are recording with a cell phone, have the recording stream to the internet. That way, should Officer Less-than-friendly snatch your phone, you still have proof.
Its time to shoot to kill hiway robbers in uniform.
If you drive to the left coast from the east coast you better have cash to buy gas if the power goes down and $100 will not buy gas for the trip.
wwr, maybe the time is night: http://c4ss.org/content/36474 As the old song goes Paranoi strike deep……
When “asset forfeiture” was first proposed and enacted, I vigorously protested against it with both my friends and others. I was roundly criticized by almost all of those I had broached the subject with.
My predictions about this unconstitutional “practice” have all come true. My friends and associates now see what I was talking about…
It doesn’t matter how many times we are correct, we’re still considered crazy. Conditioning and belief systems override simple logic.
Logic? We are the deciders! We don’t need no steenkin’ logic.
I fully agree with you BrentP. I just think that we should start calling it what it really is: Brainwashed,or propagandised, because I think that most people know what those words mean. If they object; then it should be explained to them that by definition victims are not aware of being affected by those actions.
I remember as a child in a gunvernment school wondering (as I assumed other kids were likely wondering) how the German people could have been so propagandized by Hilter. I am sad to say that today I understand how easily it is to manipulate the general public.
This outrage reminds me of G. Gordon Liddy’s book “When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country.” We used to be free, or something near it. It’s hard to believe how much America’s changed in just a few decades.
Hell, when I was a kid, this was a free country… or something near it. The past 30 years have witnessed a shocking transformation. Was America a Libertopia in, say, 1975? No – but you could:
* Deposit/withdraw as much cash as you liked from your bank and the government had no authority to even monitor these transactions.
* Individualized suspicion/probable cause was required before cops could legally interfere with you.
* Were not forced to buy health insurance.
* Kids were free to ride their bikes without helmets, explore the neighborhood.
* You could board an airplane at the last minute, without ID – and pay cash for your ticket.
Sure, there was the income tax and “drug” laws and the draft. But on a day to day basis, the average person was more or less free to go about his business. The country did not feel like a police state. It was a much better, a much happier, time.
For you. For me. For a minority that values not being told what to do and managed. Most everyone else likes it this way, was conditioned to see it just the way things are, or knows nothing else.
Taught in the GICs that that is the way it is supposed to be.
“Principles matter…Well, they used to… As did the rules of law…”
!
But I never ever see this viewpoint (rule of law really gone) seriously expressed in newspapers, TV/radio news, by political leaders, academia, nor in popular culture.
How is it possible in 21st Century America that so few Americans recognize this “obvious” lawless situation ?
Government schools are the core problem, but there must be other big factors in play (??)
IMO, this lawlessness was always the case Carey, but less so. This country hasn’t ever been a free one! You might well be aware of the facts that I am about to post. If so: please consider this post as my intention to imform those people who do not already know these things.
Puritans and other colonists forced church attendance with the threat of execution at times. The bible states that God granted man free will to accept His rules, yet man has been trying to over-rule His decision every since that time and have added many other rules.
The ammendible Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were illegally discarded and replaced by the now reverred so-called founding fathers during the now named CONstitutional CONvention behind closed doors.
The public was NOT allowed to review or approve of either of these documents, but even if they had been permitted to do so: I would have objected to every aspect of either of those documents that violated natural law.
The fact that the first 3 presidents violated constitutional law without any real consequence proves that the CONstitution was a sick joke! Impeachment powers is merely a firing of someone ; a slap on the hand. We mundanes were subject to the death penalty for anything that looked like an inserection or treason even though it had been stated in the Declaration of Independence that men have the right to overthrow their oppressive government.
Later: Dishonest Abe Lincoln duped a great many of the northeners into a war against people from the south who wanted as soveriegn states to divorce the federal union. Like an evil controlling spouse who insists that the partner remain submissive or die; Elected president Abe objected and duped northers into a war that murdered and starved hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children! Dishonest Abe jailed and deported northern citizens who publicized his illegal and unconstitutional actions.
The people in this country remain willfully gullible by and large. Even my family did not take me up on the offer that I presented, which was ironclad proof of my position using mainstream data sources! I no longer have a family of origin so far as I am concerned! My parents had been abusive anyway during my childhood, and my sister admitted to my figurative charge of painting a box on the floor around her and vowing to remain within it forever.
I had taken the red pill well over a decade ago long before I watched the first Matrix movie, and then and now I view knowledge as power, just like I suspect that most posters here do.
Hey Brian,
so you’ve already deFOOed
why not consider other partial or total deXOOs as well?
where X stands for Country of origin, Culture of origin Comrades of origin, Ethics of origin, Friends of origin, History of origin, Law of origin, Legal system of origin, Philosophy of origin, Neighbors of origin, Race of origin, Religion of origin, and Values of origin ethics of origin
deCOO, deEOO deHOO deLOO dePOO deNOO deROO deVOO and so forth.
In what way, if any, are the Founders of anything – our Founders? Why accept that the things that are prevalent today as our things?
Why do others accept them as such. Isn’t it likely that most or all of the Myths of each and every Founder are mostly or completely false. As well as the stories of how things came to be. We discuss the things that today are the seen. But what about all the other possible things that are now unseen.
I don’t know that I agree with everything that you believe in. But I don’t know that I don’t either.
I like that you’ve come to an independent decision and life philosophy of your own choosing. That is crucial.
I’m not trying to get anyone to agree with me. What I seek, is to convince others not to force anything I disagree with on me against my will.
I don’t claim to know what the best course of action is even. But if you’re not happy with the way things are.
Why remain loyal and compliant with the things that have been around you since your origin.
I’m calling everything into question. Nothing is a given any more, but rather must prove its worth to me anew.
I have been considering for some time to move to South America or perhaps Mexico. I presently lack the money to do so, but I am building up my funds. I would need to be able to earn a living down there. I am presently researching the possibility of leasing land and raising meat sheep on it.
you can move tomorrow. from what you said earlier, you’ve got plenty of hispanics about. Why not just immerse yourself in their world.
Befriend them. Study them. Humble yourself and work your way into their culture graces and human acceptance.
It’s way easier going that way. Than it is for them coming up here.
Mordor on the Potomac will bandy about funny money galore to so called immigrants. But these guys still have to adapt and operate in a hostile and alien culture.
All you have to do is start watching Telemundo, Azteca, Univision, Unimas, and so forth. Try watching breaking bad that comes on later in the night. It’s filmed in Colombia, but its pretty good.
Living in American mainstream culture is like learning to drive a minivan.
Living in Hispanic culture, is more like self-teaching yourself how to ride and repair a motorcycle, when you can’t really afford it.
A struggle of course, but well worth it.
I’m fairly happy living in Nevada as a domestic expat of conscience, it’s worked for me, at least.
I had earlier downloaded a whole podcast series on learning to speak spanish burned onto a CD. Unfortunately, I left that at my home in Missouri. I can still go up there and get it, but it is a full days drive each way.
Up until recently, I had placed expatriation in the back of my mind due to a new updated plan that I had come up with that would allow me to become self-employed.
I had this plan about 2 years ago, but it ultimately did not work in my home area because even the scrubbiest of farm land was already being leased or baled thanks to the record high beef prices. The plan was to lease fixer-upper pasture land long term, raise meat sheep on it along with leasing the land back out to ranchers seeking grazing land for their dry beef cows (which have lower protein requirements) because sheep and cows eat different plants. This idea was inspired by a couple of books that I had read that were written by another Missourian named Greg Judy: http://www.greenpasturesfarm.net/store.php?cat=59&title=Books
I have learned that the plan did not work for me because the land in my area is only suitable for grazing and raising hay, not crops. My new plan is to save up enough money to buy a bunch of meat sheep, find availible land north of my home where farmers have other options other than raising cattle and hay. Find run down fields to lease long term in a region close to a large market, then move my travel trailer on-site so that I can manage my animals without having to drive excessive distances every day.
But recently I have been reading articles about the high potential of the crash of the dollar, which the politicians will blame on paper money and the underground economy, and will force digital currency on everyone. The authors predict that the fearful masses will happily accept this idea, and it is plausible enough for me to place expatriating back on the front burner.
I think that I will spend some time at Amazon reading customer reviews of various language learning programs and take your advice.
Brian, I don’t recommend Pimsler. And as for moving to Mexico or further south, it always comes down to being a Gringo. I have friends and kin in Mexico and the kin will never blend in completely. Even the structures aren’t made for me.
I don’t mind buying the rounds all night nor the food for the most part and since my mexican friends are generous and don’t expect me to pony up for everything, that’s good as far as it goes. My problem is with the general population where you are always a gringo. Prices are different since it’s obvious I’m a Scotch-Irish kinda guy and could blend in with some radical surgery that would take a foot off my height, add a few swarthies to my complexion and generally have me be something I ain’t, laid back and obviously, non-obvious. Oh, you can marry a local and live in some expat place but you’re still marked. I never know if a Mexican here is from here(for the most part)or has always been here but it ain’t the same for you and me S of the border. I was just telling some friends some of my most enjoyable days are hauling rock off pipeline ROW’s and seems like all the muchachos think I speak Spanish and I wish I did. We eat together and work together but something happens out of the ordinary and I find myself alone, not because they couldn’t tell me about it but because they choose not to. Ok, maybe they see me as the Jefe to some extent but they know better so that won’t fly. We eat together and I bring food like everyone else but I never quite quit getting the corner of the eye.
Hispanics get along fine here, even preferential treatment at times but S of the border and it’s ancient Stoner’s and HK’s at every regional check and going through my stuff. When I purchase the same thing as my mexican friends it’s a different price unless they’re there.
Maybe you’ll have a different experience from me and I hope you do. If you are 5′ 10″ and a couple hundred pounds, you won’t ever find a place to blend in. eric has friends in Mexico and I can guarantee he sticks out like a diamond in a goat’s ass.
The problem as I see it is not so much being different as the uniqueness of YOU. Even if you find a German or Irish or Mennonite place to live there, you’ll still be stigmatized to some degree in my experience. Now in the US, Mennonites, Germans and Mexicans all speak and live together and everything is fine. S of the border though and everybody seems to know what and where you are.
Maybe I was too old but I gave up on it. I don’t stick out like a sore thumb in Tx so I guess I’ll just try to camo into it. There is a good side to that though. Now, the Hispanics that have grown up here are just as big as everyone else. Of course they don’t dare go to Mexico or S.A. since they are very much resented there as they will all tell you. My Hispanic friends won’t dare go to Mexico. Food for thought.
Yes, and we WANTED to ride our bikes… like there wasn’t anything that could compete with the wind blowing past your ears and the anticipation of what you might find on your travels, exploring and discovering the world first-hand rather than watching it (as an observer) on some screen. There was no living vicariously. It was living, period. Gets me sad that kids have no idea how exhilarating freedom can be. I MISS IT.
My 2 and 5 year old ride their bikes…….and they don’t wear a helmet. They won’t unless they want me to make fun of them. So far,they don’t.
This year my daughter will be able ride the 3 wheeler by herself too. Yep, a 3 wheeler. They are going to grow up like I did. With dangerous freedom.
eric, Hell, even back then I had a locking bank bag for carrying cash(or anything I didn’t want seen, not necessarily illegal). For some reason the coptards don’t like messing with those locked bags. After all, it is “official” bank business.
I suppose we all know now it’s a felony to even have an unused secret compartment on a vehicle. Sure, that little 2″X2″X4″ box has a missile in it…..but the thing is, they don’t know what’s in it and they have the “right” to know everything they can think of.
Ross, your comment makes me think of the book I’m reading: “The Devil’s Advocate”, by Taylor Caldwell. It was published in 1952 and is set in a future America that has become a Communist dictatorship. A few choice passages from the book:
“There was always a War. There was always an Enemy, somewhere in the world, which must be crushed. That was the fixed pattern of the times.”
“Who’s next on the list of ‘enemies’? Brazil, Argentina, Chile? How long do you think it will take until we have armed them so that we can fight them? Yes, we always have a “war effort’! Tyrants are perpetuated by war….The American people have never complained about war, for the very simple reason that they, like all other peoples, enjoy it, even if it has deprived them of what they used to call their ‘liberties.’ Give a nation war and she’ll be only too happy to surrender the sentimentality of freedom.”
“America had given up her freedom, which had made her strong and powerful and great, even before the second World War. She had watched that freedom erode, from the early thirties on, and she had done nothing. It had begun so casually, so easily, and with so many grandiloquent words. It had begun with a loathsome use of the word ‘security.’ And in the name of that fantasy, that dream-filled myth, American pride, responsibility, grandeur and strength, had been systematically murdered.”
There is a lot more, but I’m too lazy to select the provisions and type them. Caldwell was, imo, a great writer. Sadly, much of her work is out of print and available only through second-hand booksellers. Her novels were primarily character studies, but her political leanings poked through the stories from time to time. Not sure if she would have described herself as libertarian, but she was damn close to it.
I’d like to point out, which I never see mentioned in any of these articles about asset forfeiture, that some states require you pay THEIR legal costs if you lose your case attempting to prove your cash or property were legitimate. I know for a fact that this is the case in Arizona. Not sure about other states. Anyway, thanks for spreading the word about this. I have come up with a new name for the euphemism “police man”. Just call them robber kidnappers. Because while some police murder and some police steal, all police rob and kidnap. Cheers!
Right you are, Evan!
PS: I refer to cops as “heroes” – their own favored term. Only it’s said with irony rather than worshipfully.
Some of us have morphed that into ‘pheroes’ – phony heroes.
Hi Eric,
I like the word coproach myself. I got that word from Bill Buppert at zerogov:
http://zerogov.com/?p=3566
as a thought experiment, I like imaging a true absolute zero government world.
what would happen if some anarcho-aliens happen on by and zapped the world with their authority disintegration ray.
what if, at noon tomorrow united nations world official time, each and every authority figure is transported to a Lost island holding area, from which there is no return.
And all decrees and paraphenalia completely vanished. No law books. Statutes. Courts. Law libraries. Every single thing is completely gone.
This ray is infinitely pervasive. Anyone else who tries to replace the formerly island beamed authority figure, also finds himself immediately on that very same island. If you write some public laws on a piece of paper, the paper vanishes before your eyes.
With no ability to use words and concepts to protect property and enforce decrees. Men would be left with nothing but brute force of their own device. Anything you felt was yours, would only be so in fact, if you were
a) able to protect their stuff, make their own justice with their own hands.
b) have to deal and trade with people one to one and face to face. no intermediary middle men allowed.
I can’t help but think the world would quickly become far richer and far more productive. And infinitely happier and enjoyable.
For every one thing authority has been helping out with. A dozen things they were hindering would no longer be hindered.
No, no… You call them People In Government Service (or P.I.G.S. for short)
Some of us prefer not to insult our porcine friends that way.
I’m just glad they don’t have those damned checkpoints in Idaho. The state–so far–wont allow them. That in no way means you won’t be harassed by the pigs. They just have to make up a reason first.
That was tried in Tx for a very brief time. The perps were the West Texas Drug Task Force and they used the best of the cars they had stolen, lots of TA’s Camaro’s and high end pickups. That was the first time I’d ever seen the name done in matching colors to the car so you didn’t realize what they were until you were up close and personal. This bunch worked hell out of I-20 around Abilene, esp, Tye. Surely everybody’s heard about the Tye speed trap….got lots of bad rap including during stock car races since they had used quit literally dozens of cars to stop every single bike in the bike ride for children with cancer. The Kyle Petty sponsored ride of people of means.
The outfit finally ran out of funds to everyone’s cheers.
Holder also at the same time gave the ATF the ability to not need a court order (I guess they still had to) to seize property. So yeah, this was not reform of any kind. He still took more then he “gave” back.
The big problem is what is going to happen when our inflated currency becomes so worthless that $100 bills are necessary for even basic transactions. When a trip to Costco can run over $200 easily, a $20 is change.
At some point the mint is going to have to start printing $500 and $1000 bills again. Oh, there’s going to be a lot of resistance from the law and order types who figure if you’re not buying something from an approved dealer, using the banking system, you’re up to no good anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLhFWzHoU3A
Well, the crack-up that we’re having now means USD is the prettiest whore in the crack-den. Euro parity is nearly here.
When it flips the other way, it’ll likely be so fast that $1000 bills would be used to keep the house warm by christmas.
Yes, I was reading a post somewhere the other day (maybe David Stockman) talking about why the U$D had not lost its ‘reserve currency’ status. Called it “the cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry” because all the other major currencies are as bad or worse.