Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Coercion and violence generate a reaction, a countervailing pressure. They are historical constants, so like Yellowstone’s volcano, the pressure has been building for centuries, although not 6,000 of them. Like Yellowstone’s geysers, pressure-reducing steam has occasionally been released; coercion has abated and freedom briefly flowered. We know those periods as the times when progress mostly happened: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution. However, the twentieth century marked a resurgence of pressure.

Their intellectual degradation complete, the coercive class meets any manifestation of countervailing pressure with still more coercion. The most pathetic case is the US government. Left at a zenith of power at the end of World War II, it has squandered its moral, military, and financial capital trying to squelch the forces that will inevitably topple its empire. After each disaster, it has sought new disasters. President Trump’s tripling down on Bush’s and Obama’s Afghanistan bets is yet another instance of the belief that force which fails can be “fixed” with more force.

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Irrefutable proof: John F. Kennedy praised Thomas Jefferson, white slave owner and perhaps the paramour of some of his female slaves. Kennedy may not have known about the paramour part, but he certainly knew Jefferson was a slave owner. Kennedy Airport, Kennedy Center, thousands of schools and streets: erase the name of this obvious racist who praised a slave owner. No historical sin is too small that it should not be rectified after the fact by erasing all memorials to—in a better world all memories of—the sinner. To be replaced, of course, by those many historical figures who were perfect.

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https://twitter.com/InTheYear1611_/status/900033478611406849

I have just received the news that I have been removed from the SPLC’s antigovernment group list. I know: how can an individual be a group? But I have given up any notion that liberals act with intelligence. I will have to be more diligent in the future but I must admit that they have made a mistake in underestimating my work in the past twelve months.

David DeGerolamo

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ANTIGOVERNMENT MOVEMENT

The antigovernment movement has experienced a resurgence, growing quickly since 2008, when President Obama was elected to office. Factors fueling the antigovernment movement in recent years include changing demographics driven by immigration, the struggling economy and the election of the first African-American president.

Generally, antigovernment groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines. Antigovernment groups do not necessarily advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, though some have. Many warn of impending government violence or the need to prepare for a coming revolution. Many antigovernment groups are not racist.

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Obama got down into the high thirties with all the press on his side, so Trump’s rating is truly remarkable considering all who are against him.  As someone said ‘he’s best when his back is against the wall’.  It also shows that the people basically agree with Trump blaming both sides. Must be driving his opposition crazy.

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Leave fools’ paradise to the fools.

If you are offered a choice between having your tuition and expenses paid at a top of the line business school, or buying with your own money Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (the book and the movies, Parts One and Two) choose the latter. You’ll find them far more useful than the MBA.

Americans are frequently condemned for obliviousness to the lies and depredations of the people who rule them. Much of the condemnation is merited, but the obliviousness is also a vestige of a better time. The best gauge of a society is truth: its prevalence and how it’s treated.

You go to a store and buy a product. Your transaction rests on implicit assumptions that everyone in the supply chain is telling the truth and acting honorably. The product was manufactured to the manufacturer’s advertised standard. It was delivered by a transportation company in good order, and marketed by the store in good faith. Every step of the way you could have been ripped off and not known it. The product could be a counterfeit. The delivery truck could have been hijacked and the product resold to the vendor at a cut-rate price. The product might be defective, but the manufacturer and vendor continue to sell it. A paranoid could drive himself crazy imagining all the possibilities, most of which cannot be dismissed out of hand.

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