"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." ~~Thomas Jefferson

"Who will protect us from those who protect us?"

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. ~ Thomas Jefferson

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." ~~Goethe

08 November 2022

The Revolutionary Trigger...

From yesterday's edition of the AIER Newsletter.  I think this is a well-articulated article that most people should be able to read and understand.  

I won't deny being surprised when I saw and read this article.  It seems that no one is quite this forthcoming these days.

There was a time when I would have felt comfortable saying that almost any American with the ability to think logically and reasonably, regardless of ideology, might identify with this.  It is, after all, talking about our "way of life", our form of government, our America...  That use to include all ideologies.  

But the deal of the day now seems to require Party over principle.

Anyway...  

The Declaration of Independence is a fading memory. Where once it was revered as the secular foundation of a people, it’s now seen mainly as a curiosity that, at best, justifies an annual rite of fireworks and potato salad. For a few of us, the Declaration remains a beacon, though it flickers, as a candle on a stormy night. 

The most stirring passage offers us to claim our rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” but those rights seem sadly alienable today. Complementary passages remind us of what we must do in the face of tyranny. Yet, the Tree of Liberty stands before us, molting and desiccated.

Legal scholar Randy Barnett argues Americans should treat the Declaration as a charter document as weighty as the Constitution. He writes:

[T]he Declaration was considered to be a legal document by which the revolutionaries justified their actions and explained why they were not truly traitors. It represented, as it were, a literal indictment of the Crown and Parliament, in the very same way that criminals are now publicly indicted for their alleged crimes by grand juries representing ‘the People.’

But the Executive has other ideas.

“If you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government,” said our aged president recently, “you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.” 

In some ways, Biden’s not wrong. He’s just channeling Thrasymachus. But if Professor Barnett is right, we have a duty to confront a vital-but-uncomfortable question: at what point must Americans take it upon ourselves to revolt? 

In other words, what is the revolutionary trigger?

Plain Text

Before howls of Insurrectionist! issue from partisan ventriloquist dummies, I refer to a legal document that, at the very least, warrants seditious questions. Indeed, we’re duty-bound to question authority, whether or not the Declaration is a proto-charter. Under such conditions, another American Revolution might seem paradoxical. 

Revolution is in our DNA.

So let’s explore it, moving through the relevant passages, discussing matters as we go.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 

The consent of the governed. Only those inculcated by the state’s official civics-book authors could argue that democratic voting is consent, much less that submission to power is consent. 

In his book When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injusticephilosophy professor Jason Brennan argues there is no theory of state authority, nor special immunity, without gaping holes that must be filled with F-15s, nukes, and a supportive bandwagon of hooligans. He writes:

[If] governments do indeed have authority, it seems like there should be some morally relevant property or set of properties that explains why governments have authority. (…) If there is such a property, then it seems plausible that people should be able to identify it. 

Brennan adds that scholars have spent a lot of time and energy trying unsuccessfully to identify that property, and he comes with the receipts. 

But what about voters? Brennan adds:

[W]e have good grounds to think that people would believe in government authority even if governments have no such authority. Empirical work generally finds we have a psychological bias to ascribe authority to others, even in cases where there clearly isn’t any. Governments do everything in their power to reinforce that bias.

Not only might it be that an inborn submission instinct governs the masses, but it could also be that authorities feed them a steady diet of civic mythology around voting and elections.

Alas, voting is a Lotto ticket for partisans. That is, the odds your vote will amount to anything are low. If I vote, it’s not consent. If I don’t vote, it’s still not consent. And without consent, there are no just powers

–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

In the absence of just powers, we have the right to alter or abolish our government. 

Now, one might argue that, absent any real consent mechanism, our system allows representatives to alter (amend) the Constitution, which would alter the government at least. But such representation would be neither legitimate nor effective, if one thinks the Declaration is the law. 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 

One can no longer deny our system of government has become destructive of those proverbial ends. So doesn’t it need to be abolished? Maybe we have become accustomed to, inured to, this corrupted form.

Read the entire article here.

Just an FYI:  I am on day 185 of my 90 day wait for tax stamp approval to pick up a suppressor.  ATF now says the normal wait is 180 days.   


Peace.

29 October 2022

"Republicans want to destroy Democracy..."

It's the narrative du jour of the Democrat Party.

The more often a Democrat says "Republicans will destroy Democracy", the more likely that their target audience will believe them and will fail to recognize that it is the Democrats who hate Democracy.

Rank and File Leftists are so tied up in the rhetoric that they don't hear what's being said.  Bottom line?  Democrats want "one party rule".  They have no desire to work with Republicans on the "big issues".  That doesn't sound very "democratic" to me.

Here we are.


15 October 2022

13 October 2022

And so it goes...

 

Brian

OMG!! The January 6th Committee just unanimously voted to subpoena Trump! Never saw that coming!
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The CNN talking heads are spunking all over each other.
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lol. Interestingly, the committee lacks the ability to mete out punishment. They don't have the power to arrest or to imprison. They can't fire you from your job. It is one big exercise in character assassination. And "getting the truth out to the public"
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No more, no less. Character assassination. Period. Creation of a narrative. Nothing more. "Creating an historical record for future generations".
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Do you suppose Trump will avoid that subpoena until the committee folds at the end of the year?
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Brian

They said America deserves to hear Donald Trump speak under oath. I say the American people deserve to see everyone of their "withesses" cross examined. And t committee members. I'm pretty sure Donald Trump is going to tell them to fuck off. But it will probably take him 10 or 12 televised rallies to do it. That's just the Donald. 😎
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You are 100% correct... cross examination of witnesses and committee members. People believe that this circus is some sort of legal proceeding that will result in punishment of the selected offenders by the committee. It is none of that. But! Information gleaned by this committee is being used to persecute and prosecute others. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are throwing their nets out and using "evidence" from this circus as probable cause to go after mostly innocent protestors. The sole purpose of this charade is to strike fear into the hearts of any non-leftist who would advance against the government. And people are too fucking stupid to see this for what it is. This circus rivals anything the Nazis or the Soviets or any other Communist governments have done in the past. No one is asking why? No one is asking what the fuck is going on? Even the Right leaning media sources are silent. This is generating revenue for them, too...
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Why aren't Republican Senators or Representatives presenting a united front by having a news conference to tell the American people that this dog and pony show is a charade designed to create a narrative to force Americans to become silent and obey? Is that too drastic an accusation on my part?
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They are all silent. And in 3 weeks we'll re-elect them.
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We deserve whatever we get from this.
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I'm tired, Brian. People are stupid. You stand in front of them and paint a picture of the ocean and then exclaim that it is a picture of a beautiful forest, and they don't question it.
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People no longer want the truth. They want to be controlled by people like the leftists on the committee. It's just easier that way. Like you said, they're stupid. I see an all out in the open coup the next time Republicans win the Presidency. They'll just point to the hearings and say We told you they were trying to take away Democracy, but we're going to stop them.
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They have said that a thousand times... "we have to do this to prevent the end of democracy". And their soft brained followers know no different. If the committee said so, it is true. How did we get so stupid? And you are right... the next obvious physical attempt at overthrowing the government will be by the Left. They started trying in earnest with the election of obama. They didn't try to hide their attempts at overthrowing a sitting President when they went after Trump, even publicly on election night of 2016 when Pelosi responded to the question of "what if you can't control him?". Her response was "well, we may have to consider impeachment". If you were paying attention you realize that the consideration had already been made... it was a done deal. They tried to overthrow Trump before Day 1. They continue today. They have no consideration for the 50% of the American people who voted for him to be their President. They simply don't care. Partei uber alles.
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And so it goes...  Into the abyss.