Category Archives: Freedom

Quote of the day—Charles Hugh Smith

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The lesson of China’s Cultural Revolution in my view is that once the lid blows off, everything that was linear (predictable) goes non-linear (unpredictable, fragmented, contingent, emergent, prone to extremes, uncontrollable). If America experiences a Cultural Revolution, the outcome won’t lend itself to tidiness or predictability.

To use an analogy from previous blog posts, if the pendulum is pushed to an extreme, when it’s released, it will reach an equivalent extreme (minus a bit of friction) at the opposite end. That could be an unexpected but entirely foreseeable Cultural Revolution.

Those who claim that can’t happen in America are safely outside the pressure cooker, protected by a delusional confidence that since I’m doing great, everyone is doing great. Since real political agency is no longer allowed, then the pressure will find release outside the political system. It’s just Wetware 1.0 running defaults few recognize.

Charles Hugh Smith
April 9, 2021
Is a Cultural Revolution Brewing in America?
[Interesting hypothesis.—Joe]

ATF director nominee Chipman at Ruby Ridge and Waco

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According to Daily Mail REVEALED: Biden’s nominee for ATF head is an anti-gun lobbyist who was at the Ruby Ridge standoff and Waco massacre – and lied about cult members shooting down helicopters.

The picture below is from the article. I’ve also seen this image several other places (here for example—H/T to John S. for the email):

DavidChipmanWaco

That is the smoldering ashes of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco Texas and 76 of its residents in the background. It takes a special type of person to pose in front of that.

That he also apparently played a part the murders of innocent people at Ruby Ridge should make it clear what type of agency President Biden wants the ATF to be.

Prepare appropriately.

Quote of the day—Ron DeSanti

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It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.

Ron DeSanti
Florida Governor
March 29, 2021
Gov. DeSantis to Take Executive Emergency Action Against Vaccine Passports
[If internal passports hadn’t been so widely misused in the 20th Century I could see why people, in general, might think they were a good idea. As it is I can’t imagine why anyone other than tyrants and those ignorant of history could think they are a good idea.

I glad at least one politician has a clue.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Kurt Vonnegut

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THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law.
They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking
than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the
United States Handicapper General.

Kurt Vonnegut
October 1961
Harrison Bergeron
[I had read this short story sometime long ago but I can’t really say when. A private post on Facebook caused me to go looking for it.

While the story has elements of truth in the trajectory predicted I don’t think this is in our future. I expect before things go much further something more like a USSR dystopia or a forceful reset to something resembling a meritocracy is far more likely. And I expect to see the outcome long before 2081.

But still, it puts into words the unarticulated fears many of us have.—Joe]

Update to Boots on the Ground

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Via email from Rofl: The Mathematics of Countering Tyranny by James Wesley Rawles.

I updated my blog post Boots on the ground with a link to the Rawles post.

My post was written in 2013. Rawles wrote his in 2018. In addition to having more up to date information it also has a lot more detail.

Quote of the day—Kevin Baker

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Progressive Leftism is a religion, with all the attendant characteristics: Dogma, the treatment of heathens, heretics, and apostates, indulgences, all of it. Government is God, legislators are the angels (remember, Satan and his demons were once angels), the “news” media are the clergy, and we proles are the laypeople, the heathens, the apostates and the heretics. And they will drag us, kicking and screaming if necessary, into their promised Utopia.

Or kill us, if they deem us too deplorable to save.

Kevin Baker
February 27, 2021
Immanentize the Eschaton!
[This is entirely consistent with the rise of other leftist states like the USSR, Cambodia, Venezuela, etc..

I hope we can take a less bloody path back to a government respecting the rights of the individual to worship, or not, whatever religion they so chose. But my assessment of the situation is rather grim.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rob Natelson

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Sen. Donovan’s effort to turn back the clock 327 years reminds us that so-called “progressives” are deeply regressive. Constitutional government that protects human freedom is a fairly modern phenomenon. The unlimited government most “progressives” seek is as old as the pharaohs. Scratch the typical “progressive” and you find a hidden totalitarian.

Rob Natelson
March 24, 2021
Leading Colorado Democrat Introduces Bill to Censor Internet Communication
[I don’t see that to do any scratching to discover that. They aren’t bothering to hide these days.—Joe]

Quote of the day—MTHead

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The real problem I see is. Were in the middle of the, Might is Right phase. But our side hasn’t figured that out yet.

Law is a crap pile the communist rooster climbed upon to crow. Law is for civilization. And those that understand it’s purpose in upholding civilization.

And communist don’t get it. Their never going to understand it. It matters not why.
Talking law to a communist is like explaining quantum physics to a cerebral monster. We should stop, lest we prove own insanity.

Whatever happens is going to be lawful. Why? Because the WINNER is going to write the story. Period.

MTHead
March 11, 2021
Comment to Bypassing all Federal gun laws
[There is more than a little truth in this.

I’m reminded of:

  • The unification of the Hawaiian Islands where the aggressors of one island massacred the rulers and troops of the other island. Today, the natives celebrate the day of the massacre.
  • The U.S. Civil war where many of the people of the southern states thought of it, and many still think of it, as the war of northern aggression. The people of the northern states think of it as the preservation of the Union and the freeing of the slaves.
  • Today WWII in Europe is almost always described as the liberation of nations from German domination. At the time many of the German people thought of it as the unification of Europe to bring peace and, to a much lessor extent, “The Final Solution to the Jewish problem”.
  • The USSR promised a classless society and equality for all. For nearly 70 years they insisted that the utopia was only a few years away. The clearly desirable goal was to everyone according to their need and from everyone according to their ability. The west sees the USSR as dictatorship which murdered 10s of millions of their own citizens and oppressor of the neighboring nations.

A generation from now what will the narrative in the U.S. be? The nation was cleansed of the racist, sexist, gun worshiping, bigoted Republicans? Or, the U.S. Constitution, liberty, and the rule of law was restored?—Joe]

Good point

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From a private post on Facebook:

Name ONE time in human history when the group fighting to ban books and censor speech were the good guys.

I’ll wait…

Update: I found the original post here.

Quote of the day—Chuck Schumer

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Let me tell you, I think it’s good when somebody is trying to influence government for their purposes, directly with ads and everything else, it’s good to have a deterrent effect.

Chuck Schumer
US Senator
July 23, 2014
[See also:

Spoken like a true tyrant.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Petr Svab

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Censorship in America is peculiar in its form as it’s largely not the doing of the government. It’s not even necessarily the result of government pressure, though that now seems to be underway as well. Rather, it’s based on actors both in and out of government across the American society aligning with an ideology that’s totalitarian at its root.

It’s unlikely that Americans can rely on somebody pushing against the ideology from the top. In fact, the ideology appears to now be endorsed by a majority of the government.

Yet it may be that government measures wouldn’t offer a solution as long as a significant share of the population still subscribes to the ideology or is willing to go along with it.

As Judge Learned Hand said in his 1944 speech “The Spirit of Liberty”:

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”

It appears Americans’ stand is now to rekindle that spark of liberty in the hearts of their peers.

Petr Svab
March 9, 2021
Communist Tactics to Force Self-Censorship Sweeping America
[I know it’s tough for a lot of people to do, but it’s important. Speak up for freedom of thought, religion, assemble, association, and speech. Let people know you are proud to keep and bear arms. Stand up for liberty.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

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The fatal fallacy of gun control laws in general is the assumption that such laws actually control guns. Criminals who disobey other laws are not likely to be stopped by gun-control laws. What such laws actually do is increase the number of disarmed and defenseless victims.

Thomas Sowell
Senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
December 23, 2016
Sowell: Gun-control laws do not make us safer
[Via a Tweet by #2A Wisdom@2AWisdom.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Glenn Reynolds

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Hypothesis: “Academic freedom” was constructed as a notion in order to protect communists and other leftists who worked in education from responses by non-leftists. Now that it’s no longer needed, because leftists are thoroughly in control of those institutions, it’s being discarded.

Glenn Reynolds
March 5, 2021
AND NOT BY ACCIDENT
[It certainly seems to fit the available evidence.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Max Morton

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We are facing a new post-justice, post-truth society. We won’t be able to debate our way out of it, vote our way out of it, or tweet our way out of it. No one is coming to save us. If traditional America wants to be free, it will have to stop living in the past, get up off the couch, and take action.

Max Morton
February 23, 2021
The Last Stop Before Thermopylae
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—James Ketler

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It may appear that the state holds power over the people, but in reality the converse is true; it is the people en bloc who—by choosing to obey or not obey—hold ultimate power over the state. The only way a state can enforce its laws at all is if the people overall acquiesce to it. If sufficiently widespread, political resistance would disrupt the status quo to such a degree as to render its function completely ineffectual. In the final analysis, it is the people who hold the power.

James Ketler
February 25, 2021
Why the Capitol Riot Terrified the Elite
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—James Rickards

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Once the cattle (that’s us) have been herded into the digital slaughterhouse, we will be told to “use it or lose it” when it comes to our own money. In other words, either we spend the money, or the government will take it away.

Of course, the spending can be channeled into politically correct causes by excluding unpopular vendors such as gun dealers or conservative social media platforms from the payment system. This represents total domination of human behavior through world money + digital currencies + confiscation.

This is not speculation anymore; it’s happening in front of our eyes. The Great Reset is coming fast. The future is here.

The only solution is to use a non-digital, non-bank store of wealth that cannot be traced or manipulated. Given the planned dollar devaluation, it’s one more reason to own physical gold and silver.

Get it while you still can.

James Rickards
February 22, 2021
The Great Reset Is Here
[While I can see his claim is more than plausible, I’m not certain it’s as dire and certain as Rickards says it is. But, he’s far more qualified than I am to make that judgement.

I’m currently listening to his book The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World which was published January 12th of this year. I suspect he will make his case for the QOTD conclusions in the latter portions of the book which I have not yet reached.—Joe]

Only the truth needs to be suppressed

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I find this very telling about the character and intentions of “House Democrats”.

House Democrats’ Attempt to Pressure TV Carriers Could Trigger Lawsuit: Dershowitz

Reps. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) sent a dozen letters to 12 different carriers this week urging them to deplatform or otherwise take action against Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News for allegedly spreading misleading information about the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and the COVID-19 pandemic.

They pointedly asked the carriers if they were planning on carrying the networks “both now and beyond any contract renewal date.”

The open debate of ideas tends toward the truth.

Stated little more strongly, falsehoods fail on their own. Only the truth needs to be suppressed.

Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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If you are afraid to lose something, then that something can be used to control you. Carano was not afraid to lose and so she could not be controlled, and I commend her for that. The example she has set for others is far more valuable than any work that she might have done by submitting to the Hollywood Cheka. If only the majority of people would do the same, our civilization could change for the better overnight.
All tyranny is an illusion predicated on fear within the minds of the enslaved. So, do not fear.

Brandon Smith
February 24, 2021
How Societies Are Imprisoned: The Whole World Will One Day Be Like Hollywood?
[See also this example.—Joe]

Quote of the day—J.D. Tuccille

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Anybody who wants to participate in a protest unmonitored, engage in clandestine meetings, or travel untracked has to, at a minimum, leave behind all cell phones and other modern electronic devices connected to their names and identities. A burner phone purchased with cash and free of social media accounts is probably fine, but that’s as far as it goes. The conveniences of the connected modern world come with a steep price: our anonymity.

J.D. Tuccille
February 26, 2021
So Long as You Carry a Cellphone, the Government Can Track You
[No! It is not fine!

In addition that phone or other networked device should never be turned on near your home or any other place you don’t want snoopy people to find out about. Just having your “burner phone” associated with the location of your place of work and your child’s school is going to make the Venn Diagram dramatically smaller.

And don’t forget there are a ton of license plate scanners out there. All the traffic cameras and many police cars automatically scan the license plates and put the data in a database that is kept for long, long time.

Of course, you could also deliberately create deceptive data on the phone if you were extremely careful. As in have a friend turn it on in another state while you were known to be at meeting at work. Of course your friend needs to keep his license plate from being scanned while in the vicinity of where the phone drops its breadcrumbs. Bicycles may be useful.

My first order advice is that the less information you provide the better. The burner phone only gets turned on if you really need it while at the event. Then as soon as the event is over you destroy and dispose of it.

Think of it this way… How much would you pay to get out of bad legal situation? It’s more than the cost of a burner phone, right? So pay that price up front to the phone retailers rather than on the back end to the lawyers.

Also you should leave your normal phone turned on at home or another place far away from the protest you are attending.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rick Moran

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Small-minded, even ignorant people see salvation in controlling the minds and lives of others. Is it a mass delusion that they believe they are actually “fighting racism,” that they’re doing this for white people’s own good? Or are these the same efforts at control that have been around since humans created civilizations?

Rick Moran
February 20, 2021
‘Critical Race Theory’ Costs a Brave Smith College Whistleblower Her Job
[There are alphas in most social animals so I expect the answer is that control of others has extremely deep genetic roots which go well beyond the first human civilizations.

And of course “racism” is just the current tool of choice in our country. In other times and places the tool was chosen to match a vulnerable target. Classic example from early in the 20th Century are Hitler with the Jewish (and other) people while Stalin had Trotsky, counter revolutionaries, capitalists, etc.

In the U.S., in addition to “racism”, some of the tools of control are “climate change”, “equality”, “social justice”, etc. And those tools are used against the political right. Don’t believe for a second it is actual racism they believe they are fighting. If that were the case you wouldn’t have people talking about multiracial Whiteness. Or claiming that asking students to show their work in class is “white supremacy”. These two examples are just the beginning of what is to come.

History is full of examples to provide hints as to how this may turn out. If the people who would be masters get their way, as they did in the USSR, the bar to pass the purity tests will continually raise. Even now things like the “master” branch in software version control, and “whitelists” and “blacklists” have come under attack. And non-trivial amounts of resources are being expended to satisfy the ever increasing demands of the power hungry.

Each victory for these people increases their thirst for more. They get a thrill from it. Even a “high”. They absolutely love it and in more candid moments admit this. Such people need to be stood up to because the end game is far worse then standing up to them now.

Here is one brave woman standing up:

If she can do it so can you.—Joe]