DIVERSITY IS NOT NECESSARILY AN EVIL, BUT, OF COURSE, BY VERY DEFINITION IT DIVIDES UNION

Does Diversity Really Unite Us? Citizenship and Immigration

Edward J. Erler
Co-Author, The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration

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Edward J. Erler is professor emeritus of political science at California State University, San Bernardino. He earned his B.A. from San Jose State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. He has published numerous articles on constitutional topics in journals such as Interpretation, the Notre Dame Journal of Law, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He was a member of the California Advisory Commission on Civil Rights from 1988-2006 and served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission in 1996. He is the author of The American Polity and co-author of The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration.

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The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 11, 2018, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Colorado Springs.

President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossers has provoked a hysterical reaction from Democrats, establishment Republicans, the progressive-liberal media, Hollywood radicals, and the deep state. What particularly motivated the ire of these Trump-haters was the fact that the zero-tolerance policy would require the separation of parents and children at the border. The hysteria was, of course, completely insincere and fabricated, given that the policy of separating children and parents was nothing new—it had been a policy of the Obama and Bush administrations as well.

Furthermore, where is the compassion for the thousands of American children who are separated from their parents every year as a result of arrests and convictions for non-violent crimes? Many of those arrested are single mothers whose infants become wards of the government until their mothers complete their sentences. No hysteria or effusive compassion is elicited by these separations, confirming that the object of the hysteria surrounding illegal border crossers is to force open borders on the nation under the guise of compassion for children.

President Trump’s preferred solution for ending the influx of illegal immigrants and providing border security is a wall; it is also the preferred solution of the American people. Zero tolerance is an interim policy that—if enforced—will help deter illegal crossers. The hysteria provoked by zero tolerance could have been predicted, but its magnitude and sheer insanity are almost breathtaking. Some prominent constitutional scholars have gone so far as to argue that the government has no constitutional authority to control the border. And this, which seems almost beyond hysteria, from the elite intellectual class that should be most immune to hysteria!

In the meantime, a Federal District Court judge in Southern California has discovered a substantive due process right guaranteeing the right to “family integrity” lurking in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and has ordered all children reunited with their illegal immigrant parents. Obviously the judge expects the parents to be released from incarceration to join their children, but the Trump administration seems determined to keep parents and children together in detention centers until legal proceedings determine their fate.

More than a century ago, the Supreme Court announced what was considered the settled sense of the matter when it remarked: “It is an accepted maxim of international law . . . and essential to self-preservation, to forbid the entrance of foreigners within [a sovereign nation’s] dominions, or to admit them only in such cases and upon such conditions as it may see fit to prescribe.” This view was reaffirmed in the recent Supreme Court decision, handed down on June 26, that upheld Trump’s travel ban on foreign nationals from eight countries, six of which have majority Muslim populations.

Part of the complaint against the ban was that it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because Trump had displayed “animus” against Muslims in speeches before and after the 2016 election. The plaintiffs argued that the national security reasons for the ban were merely pretexts for Trump’s thinly disguised contempt for the Muslim religion. Although the Court agreed that individual injury could be alleged under the Establishment Clause, the travel ban on its face was neutral with respect to religion, and it was therefore possible to decide the issue on statutory rather than constitutional grounds.

The dissenting opinion in this case would have invalidated the ban on constitutional grounds, based on the idea that the President’s campaign statements and those of his advisers proved that animus against Islam was the real and pervasive motivation for the travel ban. Had this dissenting opinion prevailed, it would have created an anomaly in constitutional jurisprudence. Conceding that the plain language of the travel ban was neutral and therefore constitutional, what rendered the travel ban unconstitutional was Trump’s purported display of animus in his public speeches. If signed by any president other than Trump, there would therefore be no constitutional objections. In other words, in the minds of the dissenters, psychoanalysis of Trump’s motives held greater constitutional significance than the intent of the law expressed in its plain language.

In any case, the majority opinion held that “by its plain language” the Immigration and Naturalization Act “grants the President broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States. The President lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings . . . that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest.” Few limits have ever been placed on the President’s broad authority to act under the Immigration and Naturalization Act, especially when national security and foreign relations are involved.

***

In the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump appealed to the importance of citizens and borders. In other words, Trump took his stand on behalf of the nation-state and citizenship against the idea of a homogeneous world-state populated by “universal persons.” In appealing directly to the people, Trump succeeded in defeating both political parties, the media, political professionals, pollsters, academics, and the bureaucratic class. All these groups formed part of the bi-partisan cartel that had represented the entrenched interests of the Washington establishment for many years. Although defeated in the election, the cartel has not given up. It is fighting a desperate battle to maintain its power.

Historically, constitutional government has been found only in the nation-state, where the people share a common good and are dedicated to the same principles and purposes. The homogeneous world-state—the European Union on a global scale—will not be a constitutional democracy; it will be the administration of “universal personhood” without the inconvenience of having to rely on the consent of the governed. It will be government by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, much like the burgeoning administrative state that is today expanding its reach and magnifying its power in the United States. “Universal persons” will not be citizens; they will be clients or subjects. Rights will be superfluous because the collective welfare of the community—determined by the bureaucrats—will have superseded the rights of individuals.

Progressive liberalism no longer views self-preservation as a rational goal of the nation-state. Rather, it insists that self-preservation and national security must be subordinate to openness and diversity. America’s immigration policies, we are told, should demonstrate our commitment to diversity because an important part of the American character is openness, and our commitment to diversity is an affirmation of “who we are as Americans.” If this carries a risk to our security, it is a small price to pay. Indeed, the willing assumption of risk adds authenticity to our commitment.

In support of all this, we are asked to believe something incredible: that the American character is defined only by its unlimited acceptance of diversity. A defined American character—devotion to republican principles, republican virtue, the habits and manners of free citizens, self-reliance—would in that case be impermissibly exclusive, and thus impermissibly American. The homogeneous world-state recognizes only openness, devotion to diversity, and acceptance as virtues. It must therefore condemn exclusivity as its greatest vice. It is the nation-state that insists on exclusive citizenship and immigration policies that impose various kinds of restrictions.

Our progressive politicians and opinion leaders proclaim their commitment to diversity almost daily, chanting the same refrain: “Diversity is our strength.” This is the gospel according to political correctness. But how does diversity strengthen us? Is it a force for unity and cohesiveness? Or is it a source of division and contention? Does it promote the common good and the friendship that rests at the heart of citizenship? Or does it promote racial and ethnic division and something resembling the tribalism that prevents most of the world from making constitutional government a success? When is the last time we heard anyone in Washington talk about the common good? We are used to hearing talk about the various stakeholders and group interests, but not much about what the nation has in common.

This should not be surprising. Greater diversity means inevitably that we have less in common, and the more we encourage diversity the less we honor the common good. Any honest and clear-sighted observer should be able to see that diversity is a solvent that dissolves the unity and cohesiveness of a nation—and we should not be deceived into believing that its proponents do not understand the full impact of their advocacy!

Diversity, of course, marches under the banner of tolerance, but is a bastion of intolerance. It enforces its ideological liberalism with an iron fist that is driven by political correctness, the most ingenious (and insidious) device for suppressing freedom of speech and political dissent ever invented.

Political correctness could have been stopped dead in its tracks over three decades ago, but Republicans refused to kill it when they had the opportunity. In the presidential election campaign of 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to end affirmative action with the stroke of a pen by rescinding the executive order, issued by Lyndon Johnson, that created it. This promise was warmly received by the electorate in that election. But President Reagan failed to deliver his promised repeal. Too many Republicans had become convinced that they could use affirmative action to their advantage—that the largesse associated with racial class entitlements would attract minorities to the Republican Party. By signing on to this regime of political correctness, Republicans were never able to mount an effective opposition to its seemingly irresistible advance.

Today, any Republican charged or implicated with racism—however tendentious, outrageous, implausible, exaggerated, or false the charge or implication may be—will quickly surrender, often preemptively. This applies equally to other violations of political correctness: homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and a host of other so-called irrational prejudices. After all, there is no rational defense against an “irrational fear,” which presumably is what the “phobias” are. Republicans have rendered themselves defenseless against political correctness, and the establishment wing of the party doesn’t seem overly concerned, as they frequently join the chorus of Democrats in denouncing Trump’s violations of political correctness. Only President Trump seems undeterred by the tyrannous threat that rests at the core of political correctness.

***

In addition to the Affirmative Action Executive Order in 1965, there were other actions taken during the Great Society that were meant to transform America. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was sound legislation, authorized by the Fourteenth Amendment and designed to abolish racial discrimination in employment. But the administrative agencies, with the full cooperation of the courts, quickly transformed its laudable goals into mandates that required racial discrimination to achieve racial proportionality in hiring and promotion.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 similarly sought to ban racial discrimination in voting. It too was transmogrified into an act that required racial discrimination in order to achieve proportional results in elections. Proportional results were touted by a palpable fiction as the only reliable evidence of free and fair elections.

The Immigration Act of 1965 was a kind of affirmative action plan to provide remedies for those races or ethnic groups that had been discriminated against in the past. Caucasian immigrants from European nations had been given preference in past years; now it was time to diversify the immigrant population by changing the focus to Third World nations, primarily nations in Latin America and Asia. The goal, as some scholars have slowly come to realize, was to diversify the demographic composition of the American population from majority white to a majority of people of color. There was also some anticipation that those coming from these Third World countries were more likely to need the ministrations of the welfare state and therefore more likely to be captured by the Democratic Party, the party promoting the welfare state.

White middle-class Americans in the 1960s and 70s were often referred to as selfish because their principal interests were improving their own lives, educating their own children, and contributing to their own communities. They showed no inclination to support diversity and the kind of authentic commitment to the new openness that was being advocated by progressive-liberalism. They stood as a constant roadblock to the administrative state, stubbornly resisting higher taxes, increased immigration, and expansion of the welfare state. Once they were no longer a majority, they would be powerless to resist. Demographers say that sometime around 2040 is the day of reckoning when whites will no longer be a majority and will sometime thereafter have to endure the fate they have inflicted on others for so many years. This radical demographic change will be due almost entirely to the immigration reform that was put into motion by the Immigration Act of 1965.

Of course, it is entirely a fiction that the American political system has produced monolithic white majorities that rule at the expense of so-called “discrete and insular minorities.” Whites as a class have never constituted a majority faction in the nation, and the Constitution was explicitly written to prevent such majorities from forming. The fact that, among a host of other considerations, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by a supposed “monolithic white majority” to promote the equal protection rights of minorities belies the idea that it was a majority faction ruling in its own racial class interest.

***

President George W. Bush, no less than President Obama, was an advocate of a “borderless world.” A supporter of amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, he frequently stated that “family values don’t stop at the border” and embraced the idea that “universal values” transcend a nation’s sovereignty. He called himself a “compassionate conservative,” and said on several occasions that we should be more compassionate to our less fortunate neighbors to the south.

President Reagan used this same kind of rhetoric when he signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which provided amnesty for three million illegal aliens. This was touted by Reagan as a way of “humanely” dealing with the issue of illegal immigration. In his signing statement, he said the Act “is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America.” The Act was supposed to be a one-time-only amnesty in exchange for stronger border control, but only the most naive in Washington believed that the promise of border control would be honored. In fact, illegal immigration continued unabated. The Act also fueled expectations—even demands—for additional amnesties, and delays in implementing new amnesties have been proffered as evidence by immigration activists (including Jeb Bush) that the American people lack compassion.

Any clear-thinking observer, however, can see that compassion is not a sound basis either for foreign policy or immigration policy. Compassion is more likely to lead to contempt than gratitude in both policy areas. The failure of the 1986 amnesty should be a clear reminder of the useful Machiavellian adage that in the world of realpolitik it is better to be feared than loved. Fear is more likely to engender respect, whereas love or compassion is more likely to be regarded as a contemptible sign of weakness. In 1984 Reagan received 37 percent of the Hispanic vote, but after the 1986 amnesty George H.W. Bush received a significantly lower 30 percent. Granted, Bush was no Reagan, but such ingratitude seemed to puzzle Republicans.

Republicans and Democrats alike are reluctant to consider serious measures to control illegal immigration. Republicans want to continue the steady supply of cheap and exploitable labor, and Democrats want future voters. Republicans are thinking only in the short term—they are not thinking politically. Democrats always think politically. President Trump wants to stop chain migration and the diversity lottery. Those who win in the diversity lottery also begin chain migration, as do all legal immigrants. Since 2005, more than nine million foreign nationals have arrived in the U.S. by chain migration, and when they become voting citizens, in all likelihood, two-thirds of them will vote Democrat. Trump knows how to think politically!

***

Birthright citizenship contributes to a borderless world. Any woman who comes to the United States as a legal or illegal alien and gives birth confers the boon of American citizenship on her child. In these instances, America has no control over who becomes a citizen. Constitutional law experts say it is a settled issue that the Constitution adopted the English common law of birthright citizenship. William Blackstone is cited as the authority for this proposition, having written the authoritative Commentaries on the Laws of England—a work that was well known to our nation’s Founders. What the proponents of birthright citizenship seem to ignore is that Blackstone always refers to “birthright subjects” and “birthright subjectship,” never mentioning citizens or citizenship in his four volume work. Under the common law, anyone born under the protection of the king owed “perpetual allegiance” to the king in return. Blackstone freely admitted that birthright subjectship was an inheritance from the feudal system, which defined the relations of master and servant. Under the English common law there were no citizens—only subjects.

The Declaration of Independence, however, proclaims that the American people “are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown.” Thus, it is clear that the American people rejected the common law as a basis for citizenship. What is substituted in place of “perpetual allegiance” to a king is “the consent of the governed,” with the clear implication that no individual can be ruled without his consent. Consent—not the accident of birth—is the basis for American citizenship.

James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration and the Constitution and later a member of the Supreme Court, perfectly expressed the matter when he wrote: “In America there are citizens, but no subjects.” Is it plausible—is it even remotely credible—that the Founders, after fighting a revolutionary war to reject the feudal relic of “perpetual allegiance,” would have adopted that same feudal relic as the ground of citizenship for the new American regime?

The American people can, of course, consent to allow others to join the compact that created the American nation, but they have the sovereign right to specify the terms and conditions for granting entry and the qualifications for citizenship. Presumably the qualifications for entry and naturalization will be whether those who wish to enter demonstrate a capacity to adopt the habits, manners, independence, and self-reliance of republican citizens and devotion to the principles that unite the American people. Furthermore, it would be unreasonable not to expect that potential immigrants should possess useful skills that will ensure that they will not become victims of the welfare state.

Immigration policies should serve the interests of the American people and of the nation—they should not be viewed as acts of charity to the world. Putting America first is a rational goal. It is the essence of sovereignty. And the sovereign nation-state is the only home of citizenship—as it is the only home of constitutional government.

GIVING UP, GAINING, AND BEING REBORN (as a REAL HUMAN BEING) AGAIN

 

Over the past few years and up until recently (within the past few weeks) I have given up a number of things. As a result I have gained immensely in numerous other ways and, to be honest, I feel as if I have been reborn as a kid (teenager to my early twenties). Psychologically that is. And in my worldview and in my mental and behavioral outlook upon Life (and Death) and upon many other things as well – such as Work and Achievement and Enterprise and Industry.

Physically I am approaching 55 years old but the vast majority of the time I feel (in my body and how I can use it) like I’m about 30 years old.

Here are some of the things I have given up and what I have gained as a result:

Video games (gave them up years and years ago), haven’t missed them at all, they were a huge time-suck. Gain: Productive use of my time and an absolute revulsion for escapist entertainment. Feeling of being a kid again. To replace that kind of passive, escapist entertainment I took up real recreations again, including, but not limited to playing wargames and RPGs and board games with real people.

Cell Phone: as my family and friends will tell you I only use it for emergency and business communications. Or to take pics if I am vadding. I am untrackable otherwise and never turn it on. My wife and kids and even friends spent years trying to convince me to get one. But I’ve never liked the God-damned thing. (It is one of those pieces of modern technology that I can honestly hear God saying, “ah, that’s a real piece of infiltrating demonic shit son, and will only lessen your ability to truly Live, not enhance it. Burn the damned thing.” I can easily hear Christ saying that too, as an off-hand remark.) It has always revolted me. The idea of being traceable is also disgusting and unmanly to me. Nevertheless I keep it to please my wife and kids and for security reasons. Gain: Not using it or activating it means I always enjoy the Real World far more. I observe closely and easily all that goes on around mem as is my natural inclination. I haven’t had an auto-accident in over thirty years. Though I have avoided many. Time means nothing to me. I go where I wanna go and do what I wanna do. I talk constantly to strangers when travelling, often engage in and initiate conversations, or am engaged in or others initiate conversations with me. Nobody will bother talking to ya, nor do you bother meeting new people if you have a fucking phone stuck to your face all of the time or you’re so damned rude you think it more important than the actual people you’re in the company of. I don’t care for those shitheads and most others don’t either. Who would?

Eating: I gave up eating (doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy my food, just don’t need much of it) any more than I really need to in order to sustain myself and to grow myself or repair damage during training. Gain: less weight, leaner, more muscle, better health, more energy, easy to fast.

Sugar: aside from chocolate (usually semi-sweet form) I take in none. Gain: Better energy, rarely tired (I can go to bed at midnight or one, arise at five or six AM and be good all day. Better health, hormone, and metabolic regulation. Rarely sick, injuries don’t bother me nearly as much as they used too. Rare pain unless I over-exert myself clearing land or training or boxing. Quicker recovery.

Soda: Gain: same as above for sugar. No advantages of any kind for sodas or processed sugar.

Bread: Gain: same as above. Occasionally I’ll eat flatbread or unleavened bread or antique breads.

Coffee: I drink this still, but very rarely now. Gain: better energy and metabolic self-regulation.

Junk Food: gave that shit up a long time ago. Gain: rarely sick, not fat, good diet and nutrition, take no meds of any kind (you’d be surprised how this shocks modern doctors and nurses and surgeons), good energy, train easily, little to no exhaustion, no desire to eat it. Taking in eating as a whole (diet, sugar, soda, bread, less consumption) my body is far better off, my mind is clear and alert, my concentration is superb, I dream and recall my dreams better, and my attitude is positive, optimistic, and happy.

Politics: gave this up about a six months or so ago. Aside from the necessary evils of my political duties (to thwart this world becoming a modern liberal, socialistic, Islamic, communistic, impoverished, tyrannical hellhole) I could give a shit less about politics and take no notice of it. Gain: nothing but positive, especially on my outlook and optimism. Also I got out of that modern, effeminate, unmanly, pussified habit of just talking about problems and politics ad infinitum (instead of acting on them) as if “consciousness raising” or “internet awareness” were some kind or form of valid problem solving. What a self-deluding, unmanly pussy pursuit. It is the political and social equivalent of modern Christians who say, “I’ll pray,” but never left their hands or can’t be bothered to actually do anything.  So I’m glad to be shed of that shit.

TV: gave up watching TV. Sent back DirectTV receiver and don’t watch local channels (haven’t done that for decades) and eliminated Netflix, etc. Gain: Don’t miss it. At all. Time I would have spent on that shit now goes to far more important things (like traveling, spending time with family, clearing land, my Work and Career, new start-ups, making submissions, networking, exploring, vadding, hanging out with friends, etc.) I also now spend a lot of time with my kids, cuddling and showing affection to my wife, more sex with her, etc. My self-education program flourishes. I stargaze more. My language acquisition programs have improved and advanced. Very much like being a kid again when I never watched TV. I was always far too busy doing things, learning things, having fun, and enjoying myself instead.

News: I gave up watching all TV news some time back. Gain: Happy, optimistic, not bothered by modern bullshit, not obsessed by disaster, doom, or politics (next to criminal and terrorist activity and entertainment and crack-whoring the lowest of all forms of human enterprise). Far less distraction.

Introversion: gave up any idea at all that I am a natural introvert. Yes, when it comes to Work I prefer to work alone, and always have, and likely to some degree always will. But with the kids now in college and having a free hand to maneuver my extroverted side has reasserted itself vigorously. So I have gone back to being what is my natural and true inclination, an Ambivert.  When working I am still basically an introvert, but when out in public or otherwise I am very much an extrovert, as my wife and kids can tell you. Gain: Immense.

Worrying About Money, or giving a shit about it: gave this up maybe two or three years ago. Something like that. Gain: better marriage, better family, increases in income, more time on Work and Career, easier money and time management, more saving and investments, more entrepreneurialism. Instead of giving a shit about money I now just say to myself: “what are my real momentary and monetary priorities, and knowing those I’ll get the money and constantly (over time) increase my income and Wealth.” If it is not really a priority then I don’t care one way or another. I am neither enslaved by lack of money, nor impressed by having it. And I feel more and more, even absolutely confident, that I will become incredibly wealthy over time. But I don’t give a shit for money other than what I can use it to do. (Build things, advance my career, take care of others, start businesses, invest, do charity and philanthropy, engage in science – do important things in the world.) Aside from what it allows me to do I am completely Stoic and entirely unconcerned about money. And I Sleep like a baby.

Professional Sports: I gave up watching professional sports decades ago, (almost three decades now) and college sports not long after that (reminds me far too much of pro sports).  To me they are merely vastly overpaid, spoiled, self-absorbed entertainers, and also they tend to be primarily urbanized Europeans in their mindsets (probably the result of nearly all pro-sport teams being located in big and degenerate cities, big city people never really understand just how naturally corrupting their urbanized environments and mindsets make them, but the corruption is deep even if rarely realized). I do not admire or respect most professional athletes and as far as their thin and anemic contributions to society I rank those right up there with other professional entertainers. Which means I don’t rank them very high at all. Not as a profession anyway, individuals vary, of course. I do not consider most to be manly in their natures at all. When a damned professional football game or team takes ten minutes to run a single play because of time outs and clock delays and men have to reset in huddle for an interminable time period lest they break a real sweat (or anything else) then to me that is the very height of pussydom and unmanliness, not sport. And there is nothing “professional” about that. That is the very opposite of professional when it comes to sport – which should be a test not only of skill, strength and of power, but of endurance, speed, toughness, reflexes, drive, determination, and exhaustion, and the effort to overcome weakness.  It isn’t any of those things anymore, it is an effeminate attempt to appear impressive yet preserve and coddle and overcompensate “assets” for purposes of entertainment. Also I won’t even bother to mention the effeminate nature of the politics that now also infect all professional and collegiate sports top to bottom. But I will say this, the modern politics of professional sports is the result of the decades long slide into effeminacy, over-concern with money and profit, and the obsession with appearance, not performance – or in other words, the effeminacy and unprofessionalism is not the result of the politics. That’s just a late stage symptom (and hopefully a terminal one). First came the decline in the full range of athleticism, then came the resulting political corruption, not the other way around. So instead I indulge myself in personal and amateur athletics – climbing, hiking in pack, weight-lifting, running (a little, not so much after I broke my wrist), boxing, exploring, outdoor activities, clearing land, using my axes and hatchets, etc. I will however watch little league baseball, or kids play soccer, rugby, football, baseball, etc. Because they are enjoying it just as sport, and as fun, and because they aren’t clogged and cluttered with endless rules and endorsements. Gain: great advantages to my own health, no time, money, or effort wasted on these meaningless distractions, and far better uses of my recreational activities.

Social Media and most of the Internet: aside from business purposes or aside from the fact of someone mentioning me on social media (don’t wanna be rude) or something truly important happening I don’t comment on it, respond to it, give a shit about it or use it. Social media might take two minutes out of my day, usually just to scan and make sure distant family and friends are okay. Many days, sometimes weeks go by, and I don’t bother to look at it. Also I am now far more naturally skeptical or anything and everything I see on the internet nowadays and many things tend to amuse rather than bother me. Gain: how do I list them, or how many can I possibly name? All that pointless, wasted time is now free for me to do as I wish, want, desire, or need. To spend on far more important things. And most everything in life is far, far more important. (Looking back upon it objectively now one of the worst sins of the baby-boomers was laying the groundwork for whole generations growing up on this bullshit and thinking it normal. Pathetic. Even bathetic. I hope one day when you kids grow past this pointless shit, and give it up too, you will forgive us… we really did a number on you. Not to mention ourselves.)

Other Things I have Gained as a Complimentary Result of my Revolt against all this Modern Bullshit: I spend more time with God, more time improving myself, I have more time to practice Christian Theurgy, more time for charity and philanthropic work, I spend more time praying and in meditation, more time at philosophy, and languages, more time writing (poetry, novels, articles, short stories, songs), more time learning music and playing guitar and piano, have more time for physical training, more time for inventing, I have gone back to the practice of Raja Yoga, more time playing wargames and gaming with people (RPGs etc.), more time with family, more time travelling, more time making new friends (in person, not on internet), more time outdoors and in nature, more time to pursue my more obscure interests and experiments, and I could probably go on and on in this vein.

In short, I haven’t lost a thing. Instead by giving up all of that otherwise unimportant, petty, modern shit and by fully enjoying the naturally resulting Gains thereof I am living like my ancestors, ancient ancestors, and a like Real Human Being again.

About bloody time…

FALLOUT IN THE NIGHT SKY

Went down to Greenwood with the family to watch Mission Impossible: Fallout, which was quite excellent, thanks in no small part to Henry Cavill (whom I suspect I would actually like as  a person) who stole the show.

The rest of the evening I will spend with my spotting scope and telescope watching Mars and the moon and star-gazing.

Excellent time to be an amateur astronomer.

Have a great night folks.

SO YOU CAN SKYWATCH FOR IT

NEEDS TO BE MOCKED…

that entire modern liberal generation seems dumb as dirt… plus they are pathetically obsessed with politics and it is obvious that is all they know of the world…

HONOR AND MANHOOD

Brett | July 3, 2018

Last updated: July 8, 2018

Podcast

Podcast #419: American Honor — Creating the Nation’s Ideals During the Revolution

https://art19.com/shows/e5688437-885d-4fe7-964f-d16ba7b541c5/episodes/61a04af9-9a19-4f7a-8c9c-b02cb90a2b2e/embed

What started the American Revolution? 

The typical answers are “taxation without representation” and the economic and political consequences that came with that. 

My guest today argues that while economic and political principles all played roles in the American Revolution, there’s one big thing underlying all the causes of the Revolutionary War that often gets overlooked: honor.

His name is Craig Bruce Smith, he’s a historian and the author of the new book American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals During the Revolutionary Era. Today on the show we talk about what honor looked like in America during the colonial period, how that concept changed, and how this shift precipitated the War of Independence. We then explore how personal affronts to honor experienced by several of the Founding Fathers at the hands of the British transferred into a feeling of being slighted as a people, galvanizing a collective sense of honor in the colonies and inspiring the fight for independence. We then discuss the role honor played in Benedict Arnold’s treason and how his treachery spurred colonial Americans to go on to win the war. We end our conversation discussing why the sons of the Revolutionary Era returned to a more traditional ethos of honor in the form of dueling.

This show will give you fresh insights on the founding of America.

Show Highlights

• What was the concept of honor before the Revolutionary Era?
• What change in that concept did we start seeing before the war?
• Benjamin Franklin’s idea of ascending honor
• How Washington’s concept of honor became more democratized over time
• The relationship between honor and virtue/ethics in this time period
• How the colonists looked to Ancient Rome as an example
• Higher education and the founders
• How did personal slights lead to the Revolution?
• The birth of a collective, national honor
• The “buy local” and “made in America” movement of the 1770s
• Why honor doesn’t depend on victory
• Benedict Arnold, honor, and his role in early America
• The history of dueling in early America, and when it came to an end
• The myths and realities of Andrew Jackson’s dueling resume

J GEILS

J. Geils, ‘Centerfold’ musician, found dead in Groton home

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Updated: 6:12 AM EDT Apr 12, 2017

GROTON, Mass. —John Warren Geils Jr., the artist known professionally as J. Geils and part of the rock group The J. Geils Band, was found dead in his Groton, Massachusetts, home.

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The 71-year-old was found unresponsive by police around 4 p.m. Tuesday after they responded to his home for a well-being check. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Foul play is not suspected at this time.

Images: J. Geils remembered

“A preliminary investigation indicates that Geils died of natural causes,” police said in a statement.

The J. Geils Band was founded in 1967 in Worcester, Massachusetts, while Geils, whose full name was John Warren Geils Jr., was studying mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Geils served as the band’s guitarist and vocalist. Bandmates included Danny Klein, Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz, Stephen Jo Bladd, Peter Wolf and Seth Justman.

The band, whose music blended blues rock, R&B, soul and pop, released 11 studio albums and built a large following due to their energetic live shows as well as their unusual use of the harmonica as a lead instrument. The band broke up in 1985, but reunited off and on over the years.

The group had several Top 40 singles in the early 1970s, including a cover song “Lookin’ for a Love” by the family group The Valentinos and “Give It to Me.”

Their biggest hits included “Must of Got Lost,” which reached No. 12 on Billboard’s Top 100 in 1975 and “Love Stinks,” a humorous rant against unrequited love, the title song of their 1980 album. Their song “Centerfold,” from the album “Freeze Frame” was released in 1981 and eventually charted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in February 1982. It stayed there for six weeks and was featured on MTV.

The band was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the fourth time last fall but once again was not selected as part of the 2017 class.

“This is our fourth nomination, and going through that process, with its inherent disappointment, you’re not sure you want to take that ride again,” lead vocalist Peter Wolf told Billboard at the time. “It’s great to be recognized, but it’s a drag to be disappointed. I hope that we make it in. That would be great.”

When news of Geils’ death broke, fans turned to social media to offer condolences and to reminisce about the band’s songs and concerts.

Geils has called Groton his home for 35 years.

Wolf wrote a short message on Facebook about his former bandmate, “Thinking of all the times we kicked it high and rocked down the house! R.I.P Jay Geils.”

WCVB’s Chronicle profiled Peter Wolf several months ago. Watch below:

AS LOW AND AS BLACK AS HELL

The real problem with this world is not that the United States of America is too bright a beacon of too high a morality, for often we are far darker than we ever should be. (Take abortion as but one hideous and pagan example.)

No, the real problem is not that America is too bright a moral beacon to endure the sight of, or too high a citadel to scale, the real problem is that almost invariably, and no matter the circumstance, the rest of the world is as low and as black as hell.

DEMOCRACIES AND THE REAL REPUBLIC

In a democracy (especially a socialistic one) the general idea is that every man ought to be free enough to be able to do precisely as he will any time he chooses, be that for good or for ill.

In a Republic (especially a Christian one) the general principle ought to be that every man should be trained from birth to will himself to do only what is Good, Just, and Wise.

If you don’t understand the difference between these two radically different concepts and modes of governance (the one commanded by mere herds of mortal men, the other of the True Self) then it is probably because you have never been seriously or long trained in what is Good, Just, and Wise, or because you have made such an idolatrous fetish of liberty at all costs that what is Good, Just, and Wise has no real prime meaning or influence upon you.

from Political Cause

BECAUSE A REAL DICK NEEDS PROOF

(A Genteel Homage to our Chief Dick)

Our Comey said homey there’s nothing to see
We just said what you said by not listening to thee
Cause the fact of the matter is the case is still up
But we can’t tell you why, or why not to trust

That we never did do what you think that we did
Though we couldn’t have done so less heaven forbid
We did as we didn’t or didn’t to do
Whatever you think that we’re saying of you

Thus we haven’t and never would do any less
Lessen whatever you didn’t we release to the press
So say what you will but we’ll say to you all
It couldn’t have happened, not ever at all…

Unless…

It did but it didn’t when we listened to it
But cannot confirm, we submit to admit
By acquittal a little we never convict
Yet we’ve proven we’ve moven
To affirm the real trick –

I’m a Comey see homey, and truly a Dick…

A FAR GREATER INTEREST

I have a far, far greater interest in becoming a Hero, a Genius, and a Saint than I will ever have in being a hippie and protester, an academic or intellectual, or a modern Christian.

For the Hero is memorable and necessary, the Genius is original and useful, and the Saint is, ultimately, the one and only kind of Indispensable Man (or woman).

By contrast the hippie is, far more often than not, an utterly naïve fool, the protestor usually self-absorbed, the academic regularly specious, the intellectual mostly inutile, and the contemporary Christian of the West is, of course, an entirely modern invention.

And a rather bathetic invention at that…

from Human Effort

I WANT YOU…

Superb! I love Postmodern Jukebox…

WHO’D A THUNK?

Well, I’ll be darned. Who’d a thunk it, huh?

Why the CIA uses board games to train its agents

by Selena Larson   @selenalarsonMarch 13, 2017: 12:02 PM ET

Dungeons and Dragons, Pokémon card games and role-playing games are more than entertainment — they’re inspiration for the CIA.

David Clopper, senior collection analyst with 16 years’ experience at the CIA, also serves as a game maker for the agency. From card games to board games, Clopper creates games to train CIA staffers including intelligence agents and political analysts for real-world situations.

“Gaming is part of the human condition. Why not take advantage of that and incorporate into the way we learn?” Clopper said Sunday at a games-themed panel discussion at the South by Southwest Interactive technology festival. Clopper and other CIA officers discussed how the agency uses games to teach strategy, intelligence gathering and collaboration.

Related: SXSW coverage: Why Facebook tracks internet outages around the world

Clopper, who began making training programs based on popular tabletop games in 2008, described some of his creations for the CIA.

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In “Collection,” Clopper’s first CIA game, teams of analysts work together to solve international crises against a ticking clock. His second title, “Collection Deck,” is a Pokémon-like card game in which where each card represents either an intelligence collection strategy or a hurdle like red tape or bureaucracy.

For instance, a player could lay out a card to collect intelligence via satellite photos, but an opponent could block them by playing a “ground station failure” card. It’s meant to mimic situations analysts might run into in their actual work.

Related: Congressman: We need a National Guard for cybersecurity

Also speaking on the panel was Volko Ruhnke, who is an intelligence educator at the CIA and a freelance game designer. Ruhnke said he is particularly interested in one type of game: a simulation tabletop game to train analysts and help with analytic tasks. It could help forecast complex situations by forcing players to handle multiple scenarios simultaneously.

Ruhnke himself created a commercial board game to simulate the Afghanistan conflict and walk players through military, political, and economic issues in the region. It gives players “a much more dynamic understanding of the issues of modern Afghanistan,” Ruhnke said, adding that a similar game could be of use internally at the CIA as well.

Old school games are the main inspiration for popular training programs — for now. But analysts expect to be using virtual reality gaming in training programs soon. Multiple branches of the military have used VR training for years, immersing service members in real life experiences through visual and audio simulations.

“The sooner we can get involved in using VR in games, the better,” Rachel Grunspan, Chief Strategy Officer at a digital innovation organization inside the CIA, said during the panel discussion.. “You want to get their heads inside the intelligence question you’re trying to answer, and VR does an amazing job doing that.”

DAY WITHOUT A FACE

Had a friend who said, “this is the face of evil.”

It also looks suspiciously like a polymerized death-mask. Or android skin grown from a synthetic iguana. I suspect if you cut into his face that rather than bleeding blood he’d slowly seep an embalming solution, turpentine, servo-fluid, or maybe a black Hydra ichor.

 

THE TRUTH MUST BE GREATER THAN FICTION

DAVE DOES GIRLIE

LOL!

WATCH: Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl reacts in horror listening to his first ever song

He recorded ‘Gods Look Down’ in 1990

© LAUNDRY ROOM STUDIO

• 
• 

Scott Colothan

• Published: 15 hours ago
• Last updated: 15 hours ago

Footage has emerged of Foo Fighters lynchpin Dave Grohl listening to the first song he ever recorded on his own 27 years ago.

Dave wrote the song ‘Gods Look Down’ as a fresh-faced 20-year-old way back in 1989 for his hardcore punk act Scream. It eventually appeared on their 1993 swansong record ‘Fumble’, released when Dave was in a certain band called Nirvana.

In a newly unveiled outtake from Foo Fighters’ 2014 HBO series Sonic Highways, Dave and Foo Fighters producer Barrett Jones cast their ears on a version of ‘Gods Look Down’ Dave recorded on his own featuring solely his vocals and instrumentation.

With the pair sitting at the mixing desk, the footage shows the instruments slowly kicking in before Dave isolates his more high-pitched vocals and recoils in horror.

“I sound like a girl,” he says to a laughing Jones. “I don’t think my balls had dropped yet.”

Watch the footage here:

With a string of European and US festival dates already locked in, Foo Fighters are reportedly laying down their ninth studio album this year.

Forced to cancel their 2015 slot at Glastonbury when Dave Grohl fractured his leg, it’s widely predicted they will be joining Radiohead at Worthy Farm this coming June.

BRACE YOURSELVES, LABOR IS COMING

Look, I am enjoying this day. A lot. I was well impressed by what Trump said. He earned his moment.

But don’t forget that this is ultimately your celebration. Or failure. Trump is but one man. There is no such thing as a political “Savior.” He can get government off our backs (hopefully), he can lead, and maybe he can even inspire.

But he cannot “save us.” Not from ourselves anyway.

And likely not from foreign powers or domestic saboteurs who wish us harm or to see us fail.

Much work needs to be done. Many things need to be repaired and restored. New things need to be built. Old things destroyed and replaced.

That will almost all fall to us.

We had 8 years of a supposed political savior and you see how that juvenile idea utterly failed (as it certainly had to). Obama was a failed idea because he represented someone to fix us and someone to fix the nation and the world for us. There is no such beast. That is entirely a self-invented and delusional fiction.

So brace yourselves people, your job is just beginning.

Labor is coming…

If you want Trump then Trump triumphed, he did, and good for him. But Trump is but one man, and if you want Real Triumph, then that falls to us… and to you and me.

Just remember that in all the days to come.

No one is coming to save you from yourselves.

But if you go to work and do what you are supposed to then you will never need a political savior. And eventually, if you are Truly Wise and Self-Disciplined, you’ll realize you don’t need much governing anymore either…

I’D CONFIRM TILLERSON

I’D CONFIRM TILLERSON

I’ve been watching the confirmation hearings on Tillerson today. To listen to him speak, and I have been listening to him carefully, and from my own experiences with Russia and the Russians, the man knows exactly what he is talking about regarding the Russians and Putin. And there is a very good chance that he gets China and the Chinese as well. He may even be canny about the Iranians.

He is certainly an outright genius compared to effeminate, impotent, naive, and wholly ineffectual Kerry.

Additionally the man is extremely intelligent and a superb observer of others. I can easily see how he became CEO of Exxon-Mobil. In my opinion Trump made an excellent choice here and absent any real evidence to the contrary I’d confirm him immediately.

THE AGE OF TRUMP: THE HOPEFUL END OF AMERICAN COWARDICE

One thing that I think every American could take a lesson in from Trump is in regards to true leadership.

The Obama age of “leading from behind” whatever the hell that actually means, and it means precisely nothing, is soon to be over. To great advantage for anyone who will follow Trump’s very different example.

I don’t always agree with Trump but in these respects, as regards leadership, industry, initiative, productivity, and action (especially immediate action) the man is supremely astute.

And the man is utterly without timidity.

It has been a long, long, long time since I have felt like there has been a man in government who possesses these particular traits of leadership and industry and fearlessness. Maybe not since Reagan.

And I am no fan of government. Like, no fan at all. But I’m beginning to really like Trump. Especially in these matters.

I am also immensely gratified to see Trump manhandling the Republicans and well as the democrats and liberals.

Never be afraid to bust the balls of your friends and allies in a good cause or to get them to do the right thing. If they are smart they will come to understand and appreciate your example, if not they are not men and women you truly desire as friends. Friends don’t let friends do wrong merely because they are “friends.”

Sycophantically and effeminately acquiescing to your allies and even your leaders as the democrats did with Obama and Obama did with the liberals shows an immense and cowardly weakness of heart, mind, soul, and manhood.

So I for one am glad to see a man who seems to fear no one.

Now let’s see how he will react to (and more importantly act against) foreign tyrants, dictators, evil men, and terrorists.

Not only did Obama lower the bar of behavior for the US government I am afraid he had a general lowering of the levels of courage (in many individuals) throughout the nation as a whole. I am afraid that Obama insidiously infected the levels of courage of far too many Americans and far too many brave men.

Men who should have been against many evils in this nation and in this world suddenly found themselves in a seemingly “reasonable” and “common” and “popular” sea of cowardice and far too often manipulated by arguments of cowardice originating from the top tiers of our government and out society in general. (Not that I’m saying anyone should look to either government or their society as their examples of manhood or of right and wrong, because I am not, I am saying the exact opposite – but those were the very stream beds of this degenerate corruption.)

So I for one will be glad to see that effeminate shit buried.

And no I do not expect Trump to be perfect, and I do not anticipate I will always agree with him. But from his personality and what I know of him I do expect that, at the very least, he will be a man without fear, timidity, or self-absorption.

And after eight years of Obama that is a welcome enough start to me…

A WORD OF ADVICE FOR YOU YOUNG PEOPLE – LEARN TO PLAY WOLF

I know that every time there is a new terrorist attack such as happened at Ohio State yesterday some security expert comes on TV or writes an article about how you should flee the scene or hunker down in place and await the police. And that’s pretty good advice if you are far enough away to make it away.

However, let’s assume you are near the scene and can’t easily make it away or you are at the scene and can make it away but you have a bunch of friends under attack or somebody is about to kill your girlfriend or somebody you happen to know and like. Or hell is about to murder just any old innocent victim.

In cases like that may I make a suggestion. Say you are a young guy (or any man at all) and reasonably well built and in shape, then here is my advice to you – learn how to kill that murdering son of a bitch. Like in – train to kill some terrorist or murdering son of a bitch. It ain’t that hard to kill or at least incapacitate most men if you just learn how. Especially if all they are doing is wielding a knife or a bat. Gun is another story but then again you can learn to carry a gun too. And shoot it correctly. It’s not that hard. Your ancestors did that kind of thing all of the time. They grew up that way.

But you young American boys and “men,” (especially you city-types) well, to be bluntly honest, far too many of you have played squirrel and rabbit for far too long. Learn to play Wolf son. Or at least Sheepdog.

If worse comes to worst at least make enough of a nuisance out of yourself that some murdering son of a bitch has to spend so much time on you that most everyone else can get away.

Yeah, yeah, I know a buncha you right now are saying to yourselves, “but I could be killed!” Yeah, ya could. But I got news for ya buttercup, you’re gonna die anyway. That might not be very comforting to your well groomed and soft modern asses but it happens to be absolutely and unavoidably True. So get over it and grow the hell up about it.

Your job as a man or even a not quite yet man or even a wanna be man is to protect the lives of others and the innocent. It ain’t to professionally protest, burn things down like a little punk, riot like a little pussy, and then scatter like squirrels when something really dangerous rolls into town. Cowgirl.

Your job, if you can do it at all, is to be prepared to do something important. By that I don’t mean talk about the latest comic book film, and the superhero you pointlessly and fictionally dream of being, I mean be ready to protect others and to kill some murdering son of a bitch and/or terrorist before he can kill anyone else or even, hopefully, you.

So there’s my advice young fellas, take it or leave it. But if you want to be a man then for God’s sake, and your own sakes, and for everyone else’s, take it.

You gotta be smart about it of course, I ain’t advocating suicide runs. Not at all. As the old saying goes you’re not training to get yourself killed, you’re training to kill that murdering son of a bitch.

But don’t pussy out either boys. You’re Americans. You’re bears and wolves and mountain lions (or you should be anyway), not rabbits and squirrels and field mice.

I don’t give a shit what your mother (who has your best interest at heart, but well, she’s a lady and might not get it) or your lefty professor or soft- sandaled neighbor says (who is just using you as a human shield to cover his own cowardice) you be ready to do precisely what you gotta do.  You be ready to run. Not away from, but at.

If some malignant fool comes gunning for you and you have the chance then you get out there and kill that son of a bitch. Kill him dead. Double google him.

In the meantime go and get yourself a good combat knife, a collapsible baton, a nice handgun, whatever floats your boat and start training yourself to kill instead of be killed. Believe me your odds of survival are much, much higher when you’re looking at the guy with the knife than when you’ve got your back to him.

Hopefully you’ll never ever need your weapons or training. And if so then good on you. Way a decent world should work. But one day ya just might need your weapons and training, either for yourself or for someone else, and if so then good for you. Because you don’t have a decent world. Not by a  long shot sport, I don’t care what your effeminate, pansified society insists is true.

Point is – be prepared.

Because sometimes you can run away, but sometimes what you actually need to do is run straight at the son of a bitch and shoot or stab him through the heart.

And if you do you’ll be glad you trained for it.

And good luck and Godspeed to ya kid.

I really, really mean that.

But for God’s sake stop being such a soft target and start painting a few on those who would murder you and your family and friends.

 

THE AVOWED DEMOCRAT

The avowed democrat (he who wishes to be ruled by nothing more than the “will of the masses”) is so lowly a creature that he is matched in his abject cowardice and absolute illogic by no other being alive than he who willingly lives under the rule of the sole tyrant. But in either case, whether he clamors to be ruled by the unchecked tyranny of the masses, or to be ruled by the unrestrained tyranny of the individual, he is certainly a pathetic coward, demonstrably an outright idiot, and most truly a puny fool.

from Political Cause

THE LAUGHING MAN

TRUMP-SPEECH

It’s gotten to the point now that I can employ the terms “urbanite” and “modern intellectual” completely synonymously.

I can also now use the terms “wanna-be-urbanite” and “pseudo-intellectual” entirely interchangeably.

And finally, finally – other people instantly understand what I mean. Even without an explanation.

Of course I’ve been saying that for decades now, but at last others are figuring it out too. I’m kinda digging this “Trump-Speech.”

It makes me laugh…

YOU URBANITE IDIOTS

BOOGA! BOOGA! LOL, YOU URBANITE IDIOTS

He’s not my president either. For totally different reasons. I neither fear nor need a president. Or a government.

But you little pussies desperately need one and desperately desire to be “led by someone.” (Anyone really, who will comfort you with milk-soft fuzzies and sparkly fairy dust.) And when you urbanites and modern liberals don’t get your own particular way in “leaders” (or anything else for that matter) what do you do? Instead of growing up and becoming an adult who can look after yourselves?

Why you little pussies riot and rape and burn your own neighborhoods down and burn other people’s neighborhoods down and you loot and you steal and you shoot each other and rape police cruisers and defecate on each other for a few days and then you burn out like a bad cigarette until the next time someone shouts “booga, booga!” at you.

Even the hippies weren’t as brainless and gutless as you fools.

Terrified of not having a president, terrified of having a president, desperately needing to be both led, and thereafter coddled, and comforted. You sad, pathetic, useless little people. You’re just plain terrified.

Urbanites. Modern liberals. Aside from the fact that you cause actual damage to everyone and everything around you, and that you are easier to spook than a squirrelly herd of wethers, you would amuse me.

Why don’t, just for once and giggles, you try Occupying a Set of Balls.

As it is you’re just a huge drag of clustered dummies and cowardly douchebags…

NOT MY PRESIDENT

#youarechildishcowardlyfools

THE ACTUAL TRUTH OF THE MATTER

THE FURRY FURY

Look, I know that there are a lot of people out there who are saying, “let’s all just calm down and relax and learn to live together. We’re too deeply divided.”

Sounds perfectly reasonable, doesn’t it? Christian and adult and big-hearted even.

But you’re making a set of assumptions based on the fact that the other person must also necessarily be reasonable, adult, and morally conscious.

Entertain, if only for a theoretical moment, that the other person might not be, and might not even want to be.

Because it has been my personal and reliably demonstrable and empirical experience in life that when you have two people in a relationship and one unrepentantly kicks, screams, stabs, runs riot, burns things, attacks the other, yells a lot, shoots at you, lies, manipulates, and throws an endless temper tantrum whenever they don’t get their way that what is really called for is not more hand-holding and saying of, “there, there, baby, everything will be okay… I’m trying really hard to understand you…”

No, what actually happens in real life is that eventually you either separate yourself from, crush, or jail the sociopath.

Because sociopaths are like that. They are like that as individuals, and they are most especially like that in a herd, a flock, or a mob.

That is the actual Truth of the matter.

FURRY FURY OF THE LEFT

HE IS NOT MY PRESIDENT, IT IS NOT MY GOVERNMENT, AND THERE IS NO HOPE IN POLITICS…

HE IS NOT MY PRESIDENT, IT IS NOT MY GOVERNMENT, AND THERE IS NO HOPE IN POLITICS

Now that all the shock has settled, for most anyway, (and I gotta admit for myself that I’m as shocked as anyone that the electoral college had the balls to reject Clinton) I fully express my belief and my intention that Trump is not to be my president. And the US government is not to be my government.

Now, do I hate, dislike, or fear Trump? No. As a matter of fact, watching his speeches lately I realize that the guy seems to have changed immensely. He has become humble in public, speaks of service, does not say “I” a lot (as he sued to do incessantly, but rather “we” and “us”), and so forth. I suspect that the people around him (like Pence, Giuliani, Cain, Carson, etc.) are getting to him. And if he truly underwent a Christian conversion then that seems to be working on him too.

Well, good. And good for him.

Nevertheless he is not my president and he is not my leader (I don’t need either) nor is it my “government” (I sure as hell don’t need the US government). I’ve set a much, much higher bar than that for myself, those I voluntarily choose to serve (God and Christ and man), and for anything that might serve to function for me as a “government” (like the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven).

Yes, the US theory of government is the best ever yet devised by man (though it has huge and disastrous holes in it, such as virtually assuring and allowing political corruption without real consequence), and in many ways it is a secular parallel to the Christian Revolution, but the way it actually works, most of the time, is abominable and disgusting. A democratic cesspool. It passively allows as much evil as it commits, and in that sense I still intend to help overthrow it. And replace it with far better.

I am under no illusions whatsoever that a single election (or a thousand of them – I know far too much of history to swallow that crap) or a single ruler (lol!) will set either the government or the nation to rights. Not immediately and not in the long run. There is no real hope in politics. The only real hope for politics is that it be itself governed and ruled by Virtue. Both in the Divine and the human senses.
This election is but a temporary accomplishment at best, if it even becomes that.

Now if Trump does as he promised then I will support him. If he does well and promotes my beliefs and earnestly does what he thinks best (even if I disagree with him on occasion) then I will support and respect him as president. But I do not need a president, no matter how things occur, and no matter how he comports himself.  I’ve grown the hell up in the past twelve to fifteen years or so. He is my equal (not my superior, not my inferior), he is the people’s servant (not their master), and he has been granted temporary political power. And that’s it. Period. End of story. Concerning everything else he must prove himself to me with action.

As for the supreme court (big deal – supreme court), and the congress (ditto), and the entire rest of the government, it is all the same to me. I’ve been here before and I’ve seen this all before. More than once. Fool me once, you gutless fools, that’s on you. Fool me again and I’m the cowardly fool. So congress you damn well better do your jobs this time (especially you little Republican pussies), instead of punking out as you normally and reliably do, and supreme court, screw your evils when you do evil. Your supposedly erudite evils don’t impress me and I’m not subject to them. I laugh at the thought you think I am.

I am not the thrall of the president, the serf of congress, or the slave of the supreme court. Screw and mock you all if you even dare to think differently. I’ll die first, before bending to any of your misguided degeneracies, and laugh as I do.

I’ve grown up politically. I know exactly how far this crap extends and the good it does (two to twelve years at most), and more importantly the good it will never do and the evil it so relentlessly accommodates. Not just here but the world over.

So, you’re not my president Trump, you’re only my equal, and that’s it. Far as it goes. President is just a title, not a grant from God. As far as being my leader, you’ve got to prove you’re worth it. And that you’re qualified to be worth following. Obama was never my president; he was, in the end, just another self-absorbed, egotistical, soft-bodied, failed, democratic tyrant. And the government is not the government of me, it is merely the government of my nation. And if it continues to be nothing more than what it has been in the recent past I’ll work to see even that eliminated and replaced with far better.

That being said my suggestion to you Mr. Trump is get down on your knees and pray for Wisdom. Then act accordingly. You will never be my president, because I’ve grown far beyond that silly shit and that petty juvenile notion, but if you are a good man and a good president and really try and I see earnestness and honesty in you then I will respect that and I will like and even support you.

But just the fact that you were elected president means no more to me than the fact that Obama was elected. Yes, I much prefer you over the self-indulgent criminal Clinton and Obama so far, but you haven’t even set foot in office yet. Everything from here on out depends upon your actual behavior and what you represent and how you truly operate. And that is precisely how it should be for everyone. Everyone alive.

By the way, speaking of that, I suggest the same for all of us.

Fall to your knees people, bow your heads to God and say to him, “Lead me to govern myself in a Christ-like and Godly manner, lead me to do good in this world, lead me to eschew evil, not to accommodate wrong, not to be passive in vice (my own or others), but splendid in Virtue and upright in fearlessness, and lead those elected to office to do the same.”

Do that and I suspect we can actually do the kinds of things in this nation and even throughout the world that we should be doing.

But do not expect Trump to do this for you. If you do then you are exactly like those fools who expected Obama to be a political savior to them. (Lol! such an idiotic and childish thing never existed and never will).

Speaking of which, grow up, will you?

Being black, or white, or a woman, or a man, or Chinese, or Hispanic, or from a particular party, or class, or race, or tribe, or rich, or poor is no qualification for anything. That’s the thinking and logic of a totally juvenile and immature person.

Virtue and capability alone qualifies you for anything.

Lack of them makes you a total failure. In this life and in any other.

Being in service of that which is Greater than yourself (and yes, contrary to your own self-inflated self-wise notions you little modern fool, many things are far greater than you) makes you successful and able.

I hope, though I am in no way confident, that perhaps this election, especially following the Obama debacle means that in the future this nation elects virtuous and capable people and only virtuous and capable people.

Then it won’t matter at all what that person’s sex, race, class, tribe, or background is. Because that bullshit doesn’t matter anyway. Never has.

All of that being the case then, and true, I still wish Trump well.

I hope and pray he turns to God and to Wisdom and to his own best Virtues and his own capabilities. I wish him Godspeed and Good Fortune in the many wars to come, and believe me, there will be many wars to come. Many kinds of wars. Neither history nor the world will not unfold as you have pre-maturely mapped it. It just doesn’t work that way for anyone. Expect the unexpected because it will surely occur.

I hope, therefore, I can support you. I hope you do well, no matter what comes. Hell, I hope and pray you’re the best president this nation has had since Ronald Reagan or Theodore Roosevelt (and you remind me a lot of a late-blooming Theodore Roosevelt).

You’re just not gonna be “my president.”

I don’t have those anymore.

But you can be something far, far better. And far more important.

A good man, a good president (maybe even a great one), a man I can respect (even if I don’t always agree with you), and a man who could possibly be my friend.

But, remember, in the big scheme of things that’s not important either.

Your first duty is to God and to what is actually Right, thereafter your duty is to the American People, as many as you can do right by.
As for me I’ll be just fine with or without you. Because there is no real hope in politics, or in politicians, never has been and never will be. I know it and I hope you do too. You’re certainly old enough to.

Nevertheless, do well… at far more important things than being a mere president, or politician.

And the damned politics will take care of themselves…

_________________________

P.S.: do these things, if you can, and not only will you be a great president, you will be a man important to history:

Promote Christian values and human rights throughout the world

Destroy Islamic terrorism as much as you can

Abolish the IRS and all production taxes

Limit the size of the US government and cripple it’s overall influence in the lives of Americans, and

Rebuild the US military. Sooner or later we’re all gonna need it. Maybe the whole world will, even.

Godspeed and Good Luck Mr. Trump. But for God’s sake don’t rely on good luck. Luck is not a plan, and neither was hope and change…

ACT TO BE A FREE MAN AGAIN

Today, Americans, do your civic and public duty to Vote.

But far more importantly conduct yourself as an honorable and upright Free Man or Free Woman who needs no president, no congress, and no court upon your own best natures

For the Good and Free Man needs no real government to govern and tax him, no master to enslave and rule him, and certainly never a single corrupt criminal to deceive, domineer (domina), manipulate, and debase him.

Vote to be Free of All That, but no matter what happens make sure you become once again free of all that – even if that means you must Overthrow all of that.

Be not a coward, but a Free Man! Be an Actual American…

HIGHER HUMAN ENTERPRISES

Politics in this nation should have never been about politics.

It should have always only been about higher human enterprises.  Truth, Justice, Honor, Honesty, Liberty, Human Rights, Equality, etc.

But because politics became, and remains, a pursuit of base and grasping power it can only produce the very lowest of animalistic ambitions; greed, avarice, corruption, crimes, and eventually, tyranny.

Until you tame the vice-laden and real aims of politics government will forever remain degenerate and diseased and destructive to the entire nation. And as long as government remains a degenerate, diseased, and destructive enterprise it must be overthrown and replaced with far better.

from Political Cause

THE MODERN AMERICAN

The trouble with the average modern American is that he is so rarely American at all. Most of the time he’s just modern…

CHAOTIC NEUTRAL VERSUS NEUTRAL EVIL

Personally speaking (as to his nature and personality) Trump is Chaotic Neutral.

But realistically speaking (as to her Actual Nature) Clinton is Neutral Evil…

THE PEACEFUL TRANSITION OF POWER IN ORDER TO BECOME… what exactly?

“The concept of a peaceful transition of power between one criminal, thug, or tyrant to another criminal, thug, or tyrant as the result of an election is not some admirable or wonderfully inherent trait of American Republicanism, it is but another aspect of a totally corrupt and degenerate formulation of American democracy.

Indeed the very idea that anyone should expect a peaceful, genteel, and meek transition of power from one criminal, thug, or tyrant to another criminal, thug, or tyrant is so anti-American, so asinine, so obsequious, and so submissively servile a concept that I have another term for it entirely – unmanly.

The idea of peacefully and meekly submitting to criminals, thugs, and tyrants is not admirable or wonderful at all. For to admit such a thing is to admit to yourself, and eventually to the entire world, that not only are you passively satisfied with being ruled by criminals, thugs, and tyrants, it is to positively admit that you deserve to be ruled by such individuals. Indeed, to judge by the words and actions of a great many modern Americans I suspect that you truly believe that about yourselves. That you deserve to be ruled by such individuals.

Hell, many of you just abjectly believe you deserve to be ruled. Period.

So much for modern Americans…”

 

from Political Cause

YOU DON’T HAVE A GOVERNMENT

America, you don’t have a government. You have a set of theoretical governing principles which your leaders completely ignore, you entirely lack the courage to truly respect or enforce, and which no one takes seriously to any degree at all.

Thus if you had any sense at all you would have understood by now what this actually implies: that you don’t really need a government. Most certainly not the one you have.

But you don’t have any sense at all. 

You have unquestioned indoctrination, and an habitual and innate sense of abject submission.

Thus you are as you are…

 

TRY AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM INSTEAD

DAZZLE PLUS (Dazzle +)

 

Much more effective

IT’S FRIDAY – BE AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT

Well, I think almost everyone in my neck of the woods got the same email alert:

“IT’S FRIDAY – GO OUT AND DRIVE LIKE AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT AND GET INTO AS MANY CAR CRASHES AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN!”

 

SOMETHING REALLY HELPFUL FOR THIS ELECTION SEASON

If you believe that you will advance or repair this nation, much less the world, merely by voting in the upcoming election (or in any election) then you are both an outright and ignorant fool and an intentional and unashamed coward.

Now, don’t misunderstand me – I am in no way discouraging you from voting. That is not my point.

But in a Republic (or even in something as degenerate and pointless as a mere democracy) voting is but a duty, it is never a Solution.

The reason your Republic, hell the reason this world, stands upon a precipice of self-destruction is not because of the people that you do or do not vote for (though every honest man has to know instinctively that you have created this shit-bed for yourselves based upon your relentlessly juvenile desire to “be led“), but this set of situations continues to exist primarily because of your own cowardice and lack of balls.

If long ago you had simply had the courage and the manhood to actually revolt against many of the things you have simply bent the knee to as half-men thralls and soiled fealty-serfs then you wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t have the “rulers” that plague you and your feckless and impotent generations.

By all means vote, for that is your duty as a Citizen and a Free Man in a Republic.

But do not confuse your duty with an Accomplishment or your obligations with an actual Solution.

Your desperate, degenerate, and unmanly inner cowardice and lack of revolt against widespread and persistent wrong had bred this pathetic state (I mean that both as your internal psychological state and as your political state) upon you, and it is one you richly and undeniably deserve.

And one that you will continue to deserve until you stand up again as Free Men and Free Women.

This nation and this world will not be “fixed” by Trump or Clinton or Johnson, or by any of your “elected officials.” It never has been and it never will be.

It will be fixed by you, if it can be fixed at all. Or put another way to the degree it can be fixed at all, by human effort – it will not be fixed by your “leaders.” For that requires no effort and no risk on your part.

Indeed the very idea that you so desperately “need” your leaders to fix things for you is the very reason you are so gutless, ineffectual, and degenerate in the first place.

Indeed if you only had the man-balls to revolt against the very idea that you need to be led and that someone in authority must act in your absent stead then you wouldn’t need to revolt against that idea, but since you lack the man-balls to revolt against that idea the one thing you most desperately need (personal courage) is beyond your effective reach.

See, it always works that way with cowardice (for that is the very nature of cowardice)… 

With courage, though, it just works.

I know you don’t get that, but you sure as hell need to. And pretty damned quick too.

So as this election approaches instead of merely electing something different, or, God forbid, yet another carious version of the same, how about you trying to be something different, and eschewing the same.

That would be really, really helpful. For once.

You know, you being the solution that you spend so much time whining and bitching and wishing that someone else would be… for you.

Like a real man or woman.

Like an Actual American.

CHARACTER AND DUTY

Manvotional: The Character of a Soldier

John F. Williams III

Editor’s note: The following excerpt was included in FM 21-13, an Army field manual published in 1952. While it outlines the character of a good soldier, the qualities mentioned represent the kind of character all men should strive for.

FM 21-13
THE SOLDIER’S GUIDE

Section VII. THE CHARACTER OF A SOLDIER
The Things You Are

When we say that a man has “good character,” we mean that he has many strong qualities and virtues that, added together, make him a man whom we like, respect, and trust. One definition of character, therefore, is this: The sum of the qualities that make a person what he is.

It’s not easy to tell you exactly what qualities and virtues you must have to be a good soldier, but perhaps you can understand better what is meant by a “soldier’s character” if you consider some of the qualities that all of our good soldiers have had. These qualities include honesty, courage, self-control, decency, and conviction of purpose. This is by no means a complete list, but those are the qualities that most good soldiers possess. Let’s talk about them.

You must be honest because there is absolutely no room in our military world for dishonesty, half-truth, or any other shade in-between. When the outcome of a battle could rest on the truth of your report, your word must be your bond. In private life, one can avoid or make allowance for those who have trouble telling the truth. But in the Army, soldiers depend on each other too much to accept anything but complete honesty. All good soldiers understand the need for truthfulness and shun those who lie.

As a soldier, you may be called on to be courageous in many ways. In battle, you may have to keep moving forward in the face of heavy enemy fire. Lives of other men may depend on this kind of courage. Battle plans are based on it. Then, in addition to courage in battle, you need courage to admit your own failures. You may need still another kind of courage to ask your fellow soldiers to keep going when they have nearly reached the limit of their endurance.

In any talk of courage, however, it is important that you know the difference between real courage and foolhardiness. Taking unnecessary risks is stupid and often endangers the lives of others. Being courageous doesn’t mean that you won’t be afraid at the same time. Fear in battle is natural, and some of our best soldiers have been those who have been afraid, but who went ahead into battle, even with a shaking hand and pounding heart.

Soldiers who have displayed this kind of courage were able to do so because of another quality, self-control. As a soldier, you will be living and working closely with other soldiers. You will be leading a highly disciplined life. Good self-control makes this discipline easier. It will also help you avoid temptations that may plague you — temptations to dodge your duty, to indulge in immorality, or to use your power unfairly. Sometimes you may be the law itself, and only your sense of right and self-control will stand between you and your abuse of power as a soldier.

Self-control is “inner discipline.” You were not born with it, but all good soldiers have acquired it through the years by checking their tempers and desires, and by “counting 10” before they acted.

Another quality that all good soldiers have is decency. This means personal habits that make it easier for others to live and work with you. Your honesty, courage, and self-control will strongly affect your companions, but in addition, it is important that you give them the same consideration that you’d like them to give you. This means respecting their property and views, keeping yourself clean in body and speech, and accepting others for what they are – not for the color of their skins, or where they came from.

All these qualities are important parts of a good soldier’s character, but the quality that all of our great soldiers have had – the quality that gave meaning to all of their other virtues – is conviction of purpose. This means that these soldiers fought well and were able to endure the hardships of war because they were convinced that what they were doing was right.

Admittedly, this quality isn’t easy to have. Many combat veterans will tell you that they were never quite sure why they were fighting. Some say that they fought to save themselves. Others say that they fought for the men around them, or because they hated the enemy. There is never any single reason why men fight.

Our truly great soldiers, however, have fought for our country because they believed that our freedoms and way of life were worth the sacrifice. You probably know the story of Sergeant York. When he first entered the Army in World War I, he was troubled because his training and his conscience told him “Thou shalt not kill.” After a long struggle with his conscience, however, he realized that fighting the enemy was just, because that enemy would have enslaved the world if they could. When he realized this, he became one of our greatest heroes, because he was convinced that it was right for men to remain free.

These are some of the main qualities that make up the character of a good soldier. Nobody can give you these qualities. You have to get them yourself by hard work. But at least you know what the qualities are and if you don’t have all of them, you have a goal that is worth reaching.

MANLY MARRIAGE

Podcast #239: Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts

If you’re a man on the precipice of marriage or have marriage as a life goal, one worry you likely have is “Will my marriage last?”

While divorce rates have been decreasing since they reached their peak in the late 1970s and early ’80s, there’s still a perception out there that marriage is just a crapshoot — a game of Russian roulette — and that the odds favor you ending up in a family court, or at best in a sad and loveless relationship. 

My guest today argues that doesn’t have to be your fate as long as you take a proactive approach to marriage. With some thought and intentionality, you can help ensure that you have a happy, loving, fulfilling relationship that lasts until death do you part. His name is Les Parrott and he’s a clinical psychologist specializing in marriage and family. He, along with his wife Leslie, who’s also a marriage therapist, have written a book to help couples prepare themselves for matrimonial commitment. It’s called Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts: Seven Questions to Ask Before — And After — You Marry. 

Today on the show, Les and I discuss how a man can know if he’s personally ready for marriage, the myths people have about marriage that set them up for disappointment, and the conversations you should be having with your future spouse to help ensure you have a happy life together. While the conversation is geared towards soon-to-be-marrieds and newlyweds, even if you’ve been married for a couple decades, you’re going to find some useful advice and insights in this show.

Show Highlights

• How to know if you’re ready for marriage
• Why self-awareness is paramount for a successful relationship
• The five attitudes towards marriage Millennials have
• The effectiveness of pre-marital counseling in helping stave off divorce
• What happy marriages look like
• The expectations people have coming into marriage that can set them up for failure
• The unspoken rules and unconscious roles in a marriage
• The three factors that contribute to lasting love
• How love changes as a relationship progresses and how to nurture it through the years
• Why marriages are their strongest after 25+ years
• How to cultivate passion in a long-term relationship
• The saboteurs of marriage
• The different needs of men and women in a relationship
• Why conflict is good for a relationship and how to have a “good fight”
• What couples who have been married for awhile, but are experiencing marital problems, can do to solve them

Resources/Studies/People Mentioned in Podcast

• SYMBISassessment.com
• Neil Clark Warren
• How Do You Know She’s the One
• My podcast with Randy Paterson on How to be Miserable
• Half of Marriages No Longer End in Divorce
• My podcast with Duana Welch about love and marriage
• Robert Sternberg
• My podcast with Nancy Sherman about The Way of the Stoic Warrior
• The Good Fight: How Conflict Can Bring You Closer

Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts is filled with research-backed insights and actionable steps that about-to-be married or newlywed couples can use to make sure their marriage starts off on the right foot. Even if you’ve been married for a few years, you’re going to find the book useful. Also, consider taking the Parrotts’ SYMBIS Assessment with your spouse for further insights about your marriage. 

Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!)

PRAYERS ARE SWEET AND ALL BUT ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO… GETTING OFF YOUR KNEES AND YOUR ASS

Prayers are sweet and all but prayers as a lead in and/or follow up to actual repentance (if you are doing wrong), or to rendering real aid (if your intention is to do any real good) are far, far superior to just praying.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for praying. I do it every day.

But if you are involved in actual wrong then get off your damned knees immediately and try actually repenting (the very best kind of prayer when you’re doing wrong), and if you see others in trouble then get off your damned ass and act as well. Because that is the very most effective kind of prayer when it comes to doing good.

A passive and ineffectual Christian is of no damned use to anyone.

Including God.

I sicken to my bowels of the passive,  prayer alone and prayer obsessed modern Christian of the West. So when you’re finished with your prayers then stand the hell up like a real man or woman and do something. Something good. Something solid. Something helpful. Something measurable. By God.

Instead of just begging endlessly that God fix you or fix the world for you.

You’re aswim in your no-effort, bullshit, self-created theologies and ideologies and have forgotten your duties, commandments and actual obligations. The ones to yourself, to God, and to your neighbor and fellow-man.

You wanna do some actual good then pray for the energy and the balls and the brains to get off your damned knees and ass and do something. That’s what you should be praying for.

Pray that you stop being so damned cowardly and passive.

WORKING WITHOUT A NET

OPEN CARRY

I’m of two different positions on the open carry situation at the GOP convention. I’ve been on both sides of this and I’ve worked both side of this.

On the one hand this could be a superb experiment and provide some measure of proof regarding how well and how responsibly law abiding citizens conduct themselves with firearms, even in large numbers and in public venues.

Of course I’m already aware of that fact but many are not and many others would never admit it regardless of the actual facts.

On the other hand I’m not really worried about law abiding or well trained/well practiced citizens. I know actual human and criminal behavior and criminals and those who wish to do murder will not abide by the law nor care how they handle their firearms, legally obtained or not. They won’t be out to prove they are responsible,  or to practice self or societal defense, they’ll be out to do murder. Which is an entirely different objective with a wholly different set of methodologies.

And the cops simply won’t have enough personnel to check everyone who is packing at such an event or in town, and at the moment even they are open targets of criminals and terrorists.

Then again if the police or anyone else is attacked and armed citizens respond they could very well neutralize (or even just the threat of armed citizens could neutralize) any wanna be/would be murderer or potential mass murderer.

But, just to be honest, mass murderers and terrorists aren’t really afraid, per se, of death, they are only really afraid of being killed before they do a sufficient amount of murder to satisfy their own agenda. So that’s a kind of tricky tightrope – can you dissuade terrorists and mass murderers with the threat of failure since you can’t dissuade them properly with the threat of being killed in their attempts to do mass murder?

And on the other side of that even if citizens do kill the threat then police will find that very hard to sort out well, especially in the heat of the moment and in the chaos of the crowd. They will have to proceed cautiously enough to properly observe and understand the actual situation, should one develop, and that slowing of reaction times may put them and others in jeopardy.

Yes, this will be either a wonderful experiment regarding citizen proactivity and self-protection, or a security and policing nightmare, or, most likely and to some degree, both.

I guess I (like everyone else) will just have to  see how this all develops over time.

I wish and and hope and pray for the best.

I suspect and expect the worst…

THE NATURAL PARANOIA OF THE POLICE

THE NATURAL PARANOIA OF THE POLICE – YOU’RE NOT GETTING THE TAILLIGHT OR THE WAY THE STOP WENT DOWN

 

I don’t suspect that either “side” (of the political argument anyway) is getting the taillight or the stop. So let me explain something that probably most of you aren’t understanding then. At least not a lot of you.

Yes, it’s possible the woman made up the story of the taillight, but equally possible, if not far more so, that is simply the reason the officer gave for the stop. That, if the kid was a suspect, you give a fake reason for stopping them in order to throw the guy off his guard and not arouse suspicion.

Rarely would you stop a guy, especially if you spot that there is a woman and a kid in the car, and say to them, “Excuse me sir, but you fit the profile and so does this vehicle involved in a recently committed crime. Mind if I talk to you for a minute so we can see if you are the actual perp?”

Game is over at that point. You can likely expect trouble. I mean who the hell does that? Yes, the black humorist in me would like to see it tried sometime but not around anyone else.

And yeah, the cop lied to you in a semi-believable way or a way he can fake later, “Yeah, well, from what I saw the light wasn’t functioning.” Big deal, he’s trying to defuse or cover or prevent a far more dangerous or even potentially deadly situation. Which I’ll get to in a minute.

What I would have said and done, had I been the officer, was this,

“Excuse me, sir or madam (whoever is driving, I’d have to rewatch the video but notice he approached the boy in either case) and I don’t know if you are aware of this or not but your license tag is missing. It’s possible it either fell off or was stolen. No, don’t get out of your car. I just want to know, do you know your license tag number or can you recite it for me?”

I’ve used that ploy myself to great effect and it confuses people and distracts them. Setting their mind to a task that occupies them. But then again I’m fifty something years old and this cop was apparently a rather young guy with 3 or 4 years on the force and his partner about the same. You can’t blame a man for being inexperienced. That alone is not a crime. Though sometimes it can be a disaster.

But in either case the cop likely used the broken taillight as a ploy for the stop. Then everything else went down.

I have no problem with the stop. Or the ploy, if that’s what the cop did and I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that’s what he did. That’s not my complaint with this entire incident.

My complaint is with everything that follows.

Some of you are gonna think I’m anti-cop and some of you are gonna think I’m racist and so the hell what?

I’m not interested in either, I’m not either, and I don’t give a fuck what you think. None of that is germane. I am interested in solutions.

Let me tell you how I would have likely handled this and how most old timers would have handled this and without a shot being fired (unless the kid pulled a gun and started shooting, which you cannot control).

I would have told them both, “Your license tag is missing.” To occupy them. Then I would have filmed them all good with my body cam (an advantage of modern technology). If the guy informed me he had a gun and a permit I would have said, “Good, just wait on that please. No hurry.”

Seeing there was a kid (in case I hadn’t before) and a woman I’d have likely said, “You have a child in the car, you don’t want anything to happen to that child or to be stopped again. Do you?”

“No.”

“No, of course not. No one wants to endanger a child.”

“Do you two live together?”

Yes, or no.

“What are your addresses? Do you live nearby?” Get them without arousing suspicion and knowing they might or might not be true. But remember you still have the licenses and you still have the tags. Even if they don’t know that.

“Okay, go straight home and get this car and your child (even if it ain’t his kid you want him thinking that way about the kid) off the road. Someone else could pull you over.” (Remember you could be aware that there is a call out for the vehicle or the suspect, but they don’t necessarily know that.) “I’m gonna give you a warning ticket about the tag and if another officer pulls you over between here and home then show it to them. That will clear you, but go straight home, okay? Will you promise me that until we can recover your tag?”

Then I would have all I need for alter advantageous action and I’d send them on their way. I might even shadow them home but more than likely I’d just call it in and let everyone know what I did and for someone else to pick them up along the way or near their home(s). Once I could be sure the boy was safely separated from the child and woman then I could isolate and interrogate him and either verify or disprove he was the actual suspect.

Will they check their license tag on getting home? Maybe. If the boy does and he knows he’s a suspect then he might take off. Likely alone. Which is what you want. (Not necessarily policy wise, but practically and realistically.) If he has been properly shadowed or picked up he won’t get far and you won’t have to wait for long to pick him up at an advantage to you, and at a disadvantage to him. If he’s not the real suspect then you’ll just confuse him and the girl. No harm done. And again you can wait, observe, and possibly eliminate him as a suspect.

Either way your real effort is to get them separated. If he’s a suspect and isolated then the danger to everyone else is eliminated, if he is not a suspect then you either make up a story “It really looked like your tag was gone,” or you level with the guy. And apologize. And let him know why, “you fit a suspect description and so did your vehicle, but we’ve either been able to clear you or we caught the real suspect. I wanted you to know that because this could have gotten dangerous for you. And for us. I’m very glad it didn’t and hope this never happens again to you.” Then shake his hand.

Most of the time that satisfies most people. Even endears you to a few. Sometimes someone will file a complaint. But, and I don’t wanna sound syndical here but you know exactly what I mean, that beats the hell out of the paperwork and complaints you’ll receive for a shooting or for getting shot.

Point is, you don’t have to solve every possible criminal problem or engage every criminal suspect at first encounter unless of course you or someone else has found them in the commission of a crime. Or the suspect suddenly draws his own weapon and starts firing. Things you can’t control anyway.

Danger is not your real job as a police officer, it’s a perk (black humor again), and shooting and getting shot is not your real job as a cop, avoiding or deescalating danger and avoiding shooting and getting shot, and thereby resolving crime as peacefully as possible – that’s your real job. (Is that always possible, no, sadly, you understand real people too, but that is your aim and most of the time it can be done if you are craftier than the criminal or the public, and you should be craftier than both. Oh few people will say that out loud, because of modern political pussification, but it’s true. You want to be far smarter than either the criminals or the public to both defeat and destroy crime and to guard society, sometimes even from itself, without endangering the innocent.)

Now a lot of people will say by way of objection, “Well, our resources are already stretched too thin and we can’t afford to wait and to isolate.”

Of course you can. Don’t be absurd. Waiting and isolating is a hell of a lot cheaper and safer for everyone, including you (in the vast majority of cases) than facing lawsuits and riots and potshots at your fellow officers and mass murders attacks (I am not saying any of these things are actually justified, I am saying you likely will face them, and you know that if you are really honest with yourselves) and possibly getting civilians involved in a shooting. Shooting is the very last thing you want to do if you can possibly help it, but nowadays if an old woman with a knife is running around screaming, you just shoot her.

For God’s sake, think on that and think on how your grandfathers would have handled that.

You don’t, returning to the subject matter at hand, escalate a potentially dangerous situation around a woman and child. Even assuming you have a right to fire (and being a suspect does not make a man guilty and having a firearm – unless you are a convicted felon – is legal for everyone else or should be under our Constitution) bullets can hit bones or metal or other material and spin away and hit the woman or kid, or in a rush you can just plain miss.

And suspicion does not give you a right to fire.

And after you do fire and have severely injured a guy you immediately disarm him, clear the child and woman, and render assistance. You do not stand there with your weapon continually aimed at the guy as he bleeds out and dies.

There are lots of ways this could have been handled. Most all would have ended safely for everyone.

Now was this stop racism? Very, very unlikely that most any situation like this is racism. That’s ridiculous. It’s paranoia, is what it actually is. If it was racism or “systemic racism” then cops would be shooting sixty year old back guys and black women and little black kids, or whatever. They aren’t. They tend to shoot young black males because that is who is usually proven dangerous. After all young black males kill far more young black males than most cops ever will. (And you gotta be honest about that too.) But cops are paranoid of young black males precisely because, primarily in big city/heavily urban areas, they kill each other so often. Add that, to a cop’s already natural sense of paranoia and danger, not only abides for all, it multiplies and thrives.

And that’s fine and I get that, paranoia has on more than one occasion saved my ass. But paranoia and inexperience and the idea that you must be in a rush to resolve every dangerous or potentially dangerous situation has a bad side as well.

If you ask me, by studying this situation carefully, you can see how modern police training is going badly awry. Your training is all fucked up. Especially big city training. Well, most big city training anyway.

You gotta start being honest about that. Primarily, urban police officers, I mean.

You gotta start acting beyond your training and incorporating your own experience to your actions and reactions and listening to what your older officers and old timers do/did in tough situations, and listen to their stories.

You gotta stop being in such a rush and yeah, I know, if your superiors second guess you and think you have fucked up by letting a suspect walk (for the moment) they will give you hell and maybe even screw with your career. I know all of that shit. Your job sucks.

And yeah, I know you’re not racist, you’re paranoid. You’re stuck in a system, and an environment (just like most young decent blacks kids are) where the usual suspect and the usual perp of violent crime (and the usual victim) is a young black boy. That’s just Reality. So if you’re a cop, especially in certain areas, and you’re not paranoid, then you’re a fool.

But don’t let paranoia rule you (easier said than done, I know), don’t be in a rush, rely upon your training but don’t be hamstrung by it, add to it your experience and the experience of those around you, and remember a lot of problems, even those that seem immediately dangerous aren’t really if they are handled right. And given some time, thought, and pre-calculation.

(It sure as hell wouldn’t hurt for you to write down all of the tricks you’ve employed over time that worked out well, and all of the things you’ve done that haven’t worked and review those with yourself and your fellow officers from time to time. Screw policy when necessary, write down and think about and review what actually works. Lessons Learned. Keep your own records and notes on your own best techniques and the best techniques of those who do best.)

And remember that if you see a woman and a kid, assuming your suspect hasn’t already pulled a gun then he’s just a suspect and a lot of things can wait until the situation is to your advantage, and to the woman and kid’s advantage, not the suspect’s advantage.

And you owe people who are not criminals (especially when they are in or around potentially dangerous situations) respect even when they give you a hard time, and many will for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Most people are driven by their emotions at least some of the time. Everyone is from time to time. You know that better than most. You see it constantly.

And so for God’s sake be careful out there. I mean that in all of these potential senses, careful for yourself, careful of others, and careful for others. All are equally important but not all have to be serviced immediately and sometimes it is just plain better to wait, to observe, to qualify, and to understand before acting.

And for you civilians out there, especially you middle class blacks (and whites and others) who have lived basically sheltered lives but for whom the police may still be paranoid of you, they are paranoid by nature and as a result of the job (keeps them alive), not racist.

(At least not racist in the way you think at all. They are practical racists, if that is the real term or expresses the real idea. I know no one wants to hear that, even cops because they are not racists or bear ill-will against a race-group but they have “attached danger to the idea of young black males” primarily young black urban males because they have seen so many dangerous young black urban males. To that one group they are, rightfully or wrongly, extra-paranoid. You can call that racism if you like, I don’t, it should have its own term, and maybe I should devise one, but it’s not race-hatred, it’s an extra-heightened sense of danger and paranoia around a particular group of young black males born of experience, particularly those who live in certain areas.)

Nevertheless, and all of that being true, a police officer cannot rely upon suspicion and paranoia as a tool of interaction in working with the public. A police officer owes you respect especially if you are not engaged in crime or have no record. But cops have a heightened sense of suspicion and danger. Often to them suspect = convict or dangerous individual because they have seen it so much.

I wish there was a way I could magically wave a wand and resolve these situations for everyone involved or make everyone understand the other better.

But I can’t.

But I can say this, we can all do lot better. Cops, civilians, society, black, white, you name it. And we should all do lot better.

And criminals, for God’s sake, stop doing the shit you do.

There’s no future in it for you or anyone else. Without you being idiots and fools most of this shit would never happen. That’s the real answer to the vast majority of this mess.

Criminals, find and pursue a better way. You’re the real and by far the most prominent and dangerous problem.

Do I actually expect that? For criminals to suddenly grow a conscience and to change?

What the hell am I? Some kind of naïve modern man?

Not likely. But still, it’s what ought to be done.

 

Woman films shocking aftermath of police officer shooting her partner.

KATY HALL

Warning: this post contains graphic footage. 

A shocking video shared live on Facebook by an African American woman whose partner was just shot four times by police has rocked the United States.

Having been pulled over for a broken tail light on Wednesday, Philandro Castile informed the police officer that he had a weapon in the car and a licence to carry before reaching for his wallet.

It was then that the officer opened fire, shooting Castile four times.

Castile’s partner, Diamond Reynolds and her four year old daughter watched on helplessly.

Philandro Castile in his last moments. Source: Diamond Reynolds / Youtube.

Within moments of Castile being shot, Reynolds began filming, live-streaming what was happening to Facebook, speaking to the camera and police officer intermittently.

“He let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm,” Reynolds said to the camera.

Reynold’s four year old daughter offers comfort to her mother. Post continues… 

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Diamond Reynolds films Philando Castile.

Video via Diamond Reynolds

Castile can be seen slumped between the front seats, his white t-shirt soaked with blood, his breathing slowing between cries of pain.

“I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand off it,” the St. Anthony police officer can be heard saying to Reynolds.

Following the arrival of more officers, Reynolds’ confronting footage continues, with her being forced to drop to the ground at one point.

The shooting of Castile comes following the death of Alton Sterling, another African American man shot dead by police in Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Diamond Reynolds speaking to press following the shooting. Source: Youtube. 

“Please don’t tell me this, Lord. Please, Jesus, don’t tell me that he’s gone,” she said. “Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir,” Reynolds says frantically. “He was just getting his license and registration, sir.”

Later, as Reynolds and her daughter are being loaded into a police vehicle, she again cries, “Please Jesus, no. Please no. Please no, don’t let him be gone.”

From out of shot, Reynolds daughter  can be heard saying, “it’s okay, I’m right here with you.”

Castile was pronounced dead at at Hennepin County Medical Center. He had no criminal record and was said to be well respected by co-workers and friends.

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