NC Renegades

In his first inaugural address, Lincoln stated clearly that (1) he had no legal authority to interfere with slavery where it existed, (2) that he had no inclination or intention to do so even if he had the legal authority, (3) that he would enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, returning runaway slaves escaping to the North to their masters in the South, and (4) that he fully supported the Thirteenth Amendment then being debated in Congress which would protect slavery in perpetuity and was irrevocable. He later famously stated, “Do not paint me with the Abolitionist brush.”

Although there was some opposition to slavery in the country, the government was willing to concede everything the South wanted regarding slavery to keep it in the Union. Given all these facts, the idea that the South seceded to protect slavery is as absurd as the idea that Lincoln fought the war to end slavery. Lincoln himself said in a famous letter after the war began that his sole purpose was to save the Union, and not to either save or end slavery; that if he could save the Union without freeing a single slave, he would. Nothing could be clearer.

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h/t Cousin John

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I was sent the article above which is just confirmation to anyone willing to go past the propaganda concerning Lincoln. It struck me that the politicians would not have been successful if the people were not enabling them. Honest Abe won the Republican primary by printing counterfeit delegate passes used to disenfranchise the real delegates supporting Seward as outlined on a recent CNN special. This election has opened the eyes of the people: their vote is irrelevant as the same political maneuvers are being exposed. Superdelegates, delegates for sale, voter fraud and backroom deals are superseding the “votes” of the people. The reality: political parties choose their nominees under the guise of primary elections, not the people.

What is the difference between printing counterfeit delegate passes or using the “system” to disenfranchise delegates elected in primary elections? What is the difference between buying delegates for a political primary nomination by offering power? What is the difference as people “justify” their candidate’s actions in order to justify the end? 

If we keep voting in a corrupt system, we will continue to get the government we deserve instead of the country we deserve. Liberty becomes just an intangible concept once tyranny takes hold. I pray for the day when people wake up and feel their chains. When that day of understanding comes, the loss of Liberty will be understood. And hopefully it will be worth fighting for with the assistance of Divine Providence.

David DeGerolamo

We return to the MSS by a slightly different route to avoid possible ambush on our previous route, eventually making our way to the designated entrance entrance/exit point. Using multiple entrance/exits at an MSS or patrol base increases the risk of it’s compromise by anyone coming across the additional sign. Also, anyone not approaching the base toward the designated point should be regarded with extra scrutiny.

As we approach the entrance, Andy assumes we are close enough to be under the observation of the man on security, so he signals a halt and then goes to ground. I turn to watch our back trail as he reaches up with his support hand, lifts his boonie of his head and holds it with the sewn-in VS-17 panel inside showing toward the entrance. After waiting for a few seconds, he sees the reply through the thicket, the magenta side of another small VS-17 panel flashed our direction. This is the proper IFF sign-countersign per our current SOI. If the wrong color is displayed on either end, it is assumed that end is compromised and under duress.

Moving through the concealed entrance we find Al on security. Andy and I take up positions on his right and quietly watch our back trail for a few minutes.

After determining we aren’t being trailed, I stand and move next to Al. “Rally on the rucks” I whisper to him, having noticed that our rucks have been retrieved and are lying ready next to the others at the center of the MSS. Jim is lying prone near them, watching in the opposite direction.

Al nods, falls in behind Andy and we gather next to Jim, who looks our way and gives a nod.

I look toward Al and ask, “Messages go out O.K.?

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Full disclosure: I could not finish watching the trash above. I have two words for you: Molon Labe.

David DeGerolamo

The ongoing radioactive leak problems at the Hanford Site, a nuclear storage tank in Washington State, are nothing new.

We first wrote about the ongoing radioative leakage at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, created as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb, in 2013.

As a reminder, during the Cold War, the project was expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the 60,000 weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Alas, the site has been leaking ever since, as many of the early safety procedures and waste disposal practices were inadequate and Hanford’s operations released significant amounts of radioactive materials into the air and the neighboring Columbia River.

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FREEMANSPERSPECTIVE

Most people, sad to say, are too rushed, frightened, and confused to think about what they really want out of life. They are hustled through school, forced into long-term decisions before they’re ready to face them, then held to those decisions by fear and shame. They choose from a limited set of options, and they know that change will be punished.

Eventually they get old and find time to think, but by then they can’t bear to question too deeply; that would jeopardize their self-worth, and they haven’t time to rebuild it.

For an intelligent, creative, and expansive species like ours, this rush to nowhere is among the greatest of evils. And yet it continues, mostly unquestioned. At no point in the usual Western life do we stop, take some serious time for ourselves, and think about the overall:

• What’s life about anyway? What’s the point of what we do?
• What’s the purpose of a career? Why should I care about it above everything else?
• Why should I glorify the existing system? Why should I agree to support it?
• Who paid for everything I learned in school?
• Should I have a family? If so, why? If not, why not?
• What do I think is fun? Does it really coincide with the beer ads on TV?
• What’s the purpose of being like everyone else? Why am I so afraid to be different?

We don’t address such questions. Rather, we’re pushed past them. Even in a church or synagogue – places where larger questions are supposed to be addressed – the person in the pulpit wants us to become and/or remain a member of the congregation; their job depends upon it. There are true ministers and rabbis, but for most it’s all too easy to push their audience into what’s convenient.

As a result, we see little motivation in the modern West, save for the basest of motivators: things that match a line from the Bible that says, “Whose god is their belly.”

Mind you, I’m not against wealth, good food, or sex. I think those are fine things. They are not, however, the whole of life. We are much bigger than that. We ought not be limited to belly-level aspirations. But when we’re rushed, that’s all we’re able to see.

Status and Fear

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Yesterday, SF / fantasy writer Sarah Hoyt posted an essay on tribal phenomena in our time. While it was generally on the mark, it contained a statement of the “everyone knows” variety that I found disturbing:

     I sympathize that those identified as white get hind teat, but pursuing “white identity” only works if you assume the government teat, with its complementary tyrannical tendencies will ALWAYS be there.

That dismisses the most important of the reflexive reactions to the assertion of tribal identity by one group within a larger society. That an intelligent and observant woman whose experiences span two continents could say it was particularly troubling. It’s especially so given contemporary phenomena such as “Black Lives Matter” and the “knockout game:” developments that have nothing to do with governmental overreach and everything to do with the formation of a tribe determined to assert its superiority to the laws and customs that bind the rest of us.

Tribal orientation causes those who identify with a tribe to defend its members against those not of the tribe, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the matter. In the U.S., it’s become a major factor in jurors’ decisions to acquit or convict a defendant. You can ask O.J. Simpson how important that was to him. Consider the significance of this tribal irruption, in defense of an act of aggression that was video-recorded and published on YouTube to the amazement and disgust of many thousands. But that’s not the end of the story.

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The gun industry has boomed over the past eight years resulting in a massive increase in gun-related jobs throughout the country.

The number of full-time jobs in the firearms industry increased from about 166,000 in 2008 to nearly 288,000, according to a new report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, or NSSF. That represents a 73 percent increase.

In 2015 alone, the gun industry went from 263,223 jobs to 287,986, an increase of nearly 25,000 jobs.

The NSSF estimates that the gun industry currently has a total economic impact of nearly $50 billion. That’s up 158 percent from $19.1 billion in 2008. Wages in the industry rose 126 percent over the same time period. The average industry worker now receives $50,180 between wages and benefits.

The gun industry has also generated record amounts of tax revenue for both the federal government and state governments in the past eight years. In 2015, the federal government collected $3.7 billion in tax revenue, an increase of 144 percent since 2008. State governments saw nearly double the tax revenue over the same period. Excise taxes are also up 92 percent.

The NSSF said the industry’s growth was driven by new shooters and gun rights victories in the courts.

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As the battle rages in North Carolina around the new state law requiring people to use public restrooms that fit their biological sex, Chuck Wright, sheriff of Spartanburg County, S.C., reacted to his state’s proposed law that mirrors the one now in place in N.C.

“I’m going to honest with you,” Wright said in a video posted by Dimsdale Debate, part of the Premium News Network , and reported on by local television station WYFF4 on Tuesday.

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China conducted another flight test of its newest and longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile last week amid growing tensions with the United States over the South China Sea.

Pentagon officials told the Free Beacon the flight test of the new road-mobile DF-41 missile took place Tuesday with two multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, that were monitored in flight by U.S. military satellites and other regional sensors.

Officials did not say where the test took place. Past DF-41 launches were carried out from the Wuzhai Missile and Space Test Center in central China.

The latest flight test followed an earlier, rail-based canister ejection test of a DF-41 on Dec. 5.

U.S. Strategic Command commander Adm. Cecil Haney said Jan. 22 that China’s multiple warhead missiles are part of a significant investment in both nuclear and conventional forces.

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