Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-13C: Alternate Universes

Posted on 2014-04-03 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning! The weather that missed us for the first three days this week come home to roost today:  six inches of snow already, more to come.  Not uncommon, but you’d think with all we pay the NWS and all the weather folks, we’d get better estimates, right?

Ever feel out of touch?  Like the planet changed when you weren’t looking?  Like the laws of physics shifted?  Ah, this  universe may be an alternate.  Read on and see what I mean.

Somewhere in an alternate universe agents tasked with running checkpoints go out of their way to uphold the Constitution. For April Fool’s Day, Reason shows us what that would be like. This is NOT real. (Wish it were.  (But checkpoints aren’t constitutional, at least not at any federal or state level, unless I’m missing something somewhere.  Still, wouldn’t this be neat?) Thanks to Reason for this great video.  Share it with a lot of folks, please.

Speaking of alternate universes, ObummerCare (the Abominable Act) is so rotten that HHS Secretary Sebelius is speechless, and more than one person points out that she is in some alternate universe where ObummerCare is wildly successful.  Supposedly 9.5 million people now have insurance as a result, and supposedly (according to the Fuehrer) 7.1 million people have signed up on that phishing site called “HealthCare.Gov.” I DO NOT BELIEVE IT.  Of course, it is not only Sebelius that lives in Oz or where ever: there are many in Congress, as we see on almost every newscast or newspaper.

Women Now 33% More Likely Than Men to Earn College Degrees, or so it is claimed, in contrast to all these claims that women earn 30-40-50% less than men.  So, what is the problem?  First, college degrees continue to drop in value.  Second, women do not tend to stay constantly in the work force (outside the home) the way men have.  Third, the more the welfare state and government meddling in the economy increases, the more we get a warped economy and society.  Without going into a diatribe, western society (especially government) has so perverted the natural role of men and women is so many ways, that this is going to get worse.

Dick Durbin criticizes free enterprise, claiming it ‘created unfairness and injustice’ and of course ignoring the fact that British and then American free enterprise put an end to slavery and serfdom as valid economic models by providing an opportunity and an environment in which technology could develop and replace human and animal labor. Maybe in some alternate universe socialism did all these wonderful things, but not in the real world, whether it is 4,000 BC or AD 2000.

Sen. Jeff Sessions tell us that ‘DHS Is a department in crisis’ but then ALL of the FedGov is in crisis: a downward spiral of tyranny and destruction of itself, the Fifty States, and the world.

A Historian claims that college athletes ‘are literally serfs.’ That may be the truth, but folks, they are doing it voluntarily and can stop being serfs by simply walking away.  (I realize that they may have college debt that they have been stupid enough to accept, but they still do not have to be enslaved to some team.)

Thousands have petitioned Congress to ban Internet access taxes: by Monday 43,646 had signed the online petition to ban Internet access taxes on Change.org, sponsored by MyWireless.org.  That is, of course, a total waste of time for this nonpartisan nonprofit wireless advocacy organization (except, I suspect) to aid their fundraising. When did a SINGLE Fuehrer-petition do ANYthing?  When did a letter-writing campaign to Congress do ANYthing except to give them an opportunity to solicit votes and contributions?

Although they frequently accuse the GOP of being out of touch, and Libertarians as being hopeless or the worst of “conservative” or “reactionary” or “crazy, Democrats are the real “Rich Man’s Politicians” according to a review of Census data:  Dems are wealthy, “more educated” and obviously excel in almost everything.  Right.  At least in their alternate universe homes.  Which are DEFINITELY not in the states/districts that they claim to represent.

A White House report claims that chronic marijuana users have increased 84% in 10 years (from 2000 to 2010).  Given CNS News’ conservative point of view, the article is surprisingly neutral,  pointing out the serious problems with the data and its analysis, as well as all the reasons to not trust the White House (or any other government agency) about this (or anything else).  The raw data is suspect and almost certainly inaccurate: no one can honestly claim to estimate quantities OR costs of marijuana purchases: in 2010, it was still illegal to some degree EVERYWHERE in the US.  People do not tell the truth, there are no valid, provable ways to collect the data.  Given the rise in use of medical cannabis and the need for daily doses, this should not be a surprise OR a worry that 12.5 million Americans admit to being “chronic” users (4 or more times a month) in 2010, up from 7.5 million in 2000.  This is NOT moral decay, this is NOT total societal collapse. Just today, a Pew survey shows that 54% of “Americans” think cannabis should be legalized, 42% are opposed.  Lots of people think that treatment rather than prison is the solution to most drug use…

Mama’s Note: “Treatment” is very valuable IF the person believes they have a problem and IF they want any treatment. Otherwise, just another waste of time and effort, and nobody else’s business in the first place.

The Fuehrer wants 33% more for U.N., other international groups in FY 2015.  All of these are of course more important than providing ANYthing for taxpayers, whether it is tax or debt relief, or providing services.  They must steal ever more money which enters their circle of preferred buddies (internationally, especially).

Mama’s Note: Of course, there’s at least one little problem with that idea. The counterfeit every government calls “money” is rapidly losing any purchasing power, and people all over the world are starting to see the scam for what it is. I suspect it won’t be long before the dollar (and other fiat currencies) have zero value, and the meltdown will begin.

The Supreme Court today handed down their decision in McCutcheon v. FEC, and the 5-4 decision carried by the Court’s conservative justices has overturned the aggregate limits on campaign contributions to political candidates.  According to the idiots in and running for Congress, this decision is horrible, nasty, and downright evil.  Indeed, one idiot running for Congress in South Dakota said this was WORSE than the Dred Scott decision before the War Between the States.  Once more, what universe does this man (and his staff, and all these other nuts in Congress) LIVE in?  More on this tomorrow.

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A Baker’s Dozen: The Fuehrer’s Accomplishments

Posted on 2014-04-02 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

This idea came from a Leno-style countdown written by someone using “English as a second language” (and Queen’s English, to boot) with lots of grammar errors and few mis-concepts and misunderstandings.  But it is too good to pass up the opportunity.

Much as we dislike the man and hate his actions, can we be honest and say he HAS done something good?  The story is told of the rabbi who has made his political opinion on a local race very well known, who is approached by the candidate he has most often attacked.  That candidate (a Republican, as it happens) is willing to donate $100,000 to the synagogue rebuilding campaign, if the rabbi will just say something nice about him.  “You don’t have to tell them I’m a saint,” he tells the rabbi, “but that would be nice.”  The rabbi thinks it over and finally agrees.  The candidate donates the money and next Sabbat, the Rabbi stands up and blesses the congregation and then introduces the candidate sitting in the back.  “This is Mr. Smith, running for Mayor here in our fair city, and I want to let you know about him.  He is a corrupt, lying, thieving, backstabbing, abusive son of a sea serpent, but… compared to the members of his and the other parties representing our city and state in DC, he is an angel.”

So:

A Baker’s Dozen: The “Fuehrer’s” Greatest Achievements to Date

  1. He strengthened international friendship and cooperation between patriots who cling to their guns, religion and integrity.
  2. He increased international awareness of government spying, as a result of the gross violation of human rights and privacy laws committed by the Obama administration.
  3. He made people around the world realize how much we care for our faith and traditions, by constantly insulting our values and stealing our liberties. The threats to our lifestyle force us to become more determined and forceful.
  4. He helped the world become aware of the devaluation of the Nobel Peace Prize: what a joke!
  5. Thanks to the overdose of homosexual propaganda, he established a solid base on which to build “gay-bashing” by showing the nation what the goal of the homosexual propagandists (including him) is: not acceptance but endorsement and embracing the life style.  (By gushing over the openly gay people and couples, yet refusing comments on his own ambiguous past, he facilitated the spread of rumors about his own sexuality.  As a result, he makes Vladimir Putin look even more macho.
  6. His perpetual boasting and phantasms of omnipotence have created a very strong public awareness of the dangers of malignant narcissism. Obama helped to persuade not only mental health professionals but ordinary citizens that Narcissistic Personality Disorder should not disappear from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
  7. By bowing to foreign leaders, making confusing and exceedingly arrogant statements, and use of Arabic and Muslim references, he managed to convince millions around the world to have a more suspicious and hostile attitude to Islam.
  8. He single-handedly revived the concept of the “Manchurian Candidate” and “Manchurian President:” so we will think twice before electing officials who act like servants of a foreign supremacy.
  9. He proved that wussy bureaucrats make bad military leaders and are harmful to our security. The Commander in Chief should both earn and deserve this honorable title. By appointing lapdogs to senior leadership, purging other officers, neglecting veterans, and persecuting soldiers he made us aware how much we respect them and how much we owe them.  Even while he turned them even more into legions of tyranny to the world.
  10. He revived dangerous ideologies; reminding us why and how they proved harmful to humanity and made us want to eradicate them. He brought to light the grotesque features of political correctness, so we are less likely to fall into the trap of laxity and permissiveness.
  11. His disastrous leadership has made us realize that an incompetent and socially irresponsible president should be dismissed like any bad manager. He reminded us that we have the right to demand accountability from our leaders, and that it is essential to limit their power.  He twisted the prime duty of government to serve and protect into a license to abuse and harm.
  12. His actions meant his association with them brought his European allies record unpopularity and riots, and may have made Europeans realize what they have slid into.
  13. He has proved himself to be the best gun salesman in history.
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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-13B: Slippery and slimy

Posted on 2014-04-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good afternoon: for us, at least, on the southeastern side of the Pahasapa (Black Hills), this last storm was a bust: less than 2 inches, too much wind, and most all melted or blew away before sunset on Monday: far from the “9 inches of very wet snow” that we really could have used.

But the rest of the world ticked on.  Here’s some things that caught my eye.

When you are unable to keep control of your police force, and keep them from doing stupid things to innocent OR guilty people, it is time to take the next step, and some in the Kansas Legislature are doing just that: they want a law to allow people who complain about the police to be tried and punished for their “scofflaw” attitude.  After all, police are second only to military to protecting our rights and liberties and must not ever be questioned, even if they “sometimes” make a mistake. One more state becoming a police state.

An Australian University has upped the ante for the nasty fight we’ve been waging over global warming for most of a decade, by making the public, official claim that global warming (if not stopped) will lead to the extinction of humanity.  Honestly, who invents these things?  And who hires idiots like this to teach students and do research?  (The answer to both questions is of course government, because this is at least one way to encourage people to surrender MORE of their freedoms.)

In front of the Supreme Court, the Fuehrer’s lawyers are arguing that corporations may be forced to violate the moral, religious standards of their owners, their employees, and even their customers in order to have “equal protection under the law” and to prevent “establishment of religion.” This is nothing less than the perversion of law and of morality, using “religious freeedom” to deny freedom of religion.  (Well, some religions.) It is an attempt to turn the First Amendment into “freedom of worship” instead of freedom to exercise religion, and the Fuehrer’s minions are anxious to further steal our liberties.

A Michigan school has torn out the seating in their baseball stadium because a FedGov agency said it wasn’t equal to the girls’ softball seating. Even though the seats were paid for through donations from parents and even installed by the parents, the thugs in DC ruled they were evil.  Well, we know at least some of the evil in this incident, and it is found in DC.  But the decision of the school board and the parents to give in to tyranny is JUST as evil, and demands as much or more condemnation.

The US Civil Rights Commission, a “nonpartisan” government agency is urging Congress to make the birthdays of Caesar Chavez and Fred Korematsu national holidays, apparently forcing millions of employers to pay for days off to honor the farm labor activist and a man who argued against the roundup and internment of Japanese-Americans in WW2 – and of course, making taxpayers pay for yet another day off from work for millions of federal, state, and local workers.  I think it is time to get rid of both MLK and Presidents’ Day, and think seriously about moving Labor Day and Memorial Day to Sundays permanently. Yeah, proves I’m bigoted and racist and anti-government.  So?

Mama’s Note: Well, I don’t know about that… Seems to me that ANYTHING that would keep the government employees from showing up and “doing” anything would be a big bonus. If we have to be robbed to pay them, I’d a whole lot rather they get paid for nothing as for what they actually do. But then, of course, I’d even more like to see the end to all the theft even more.

I’d have to look into it, but I don’t think there is actually any federal requirement for people in the private sector (what’s left of it) to be given any of these “holidays.” Many are included in various union (or gov.) contracts, and many are traditional, of course, but I don’t think they are required by law as a whole. I might be wrong. I certainly didn’t get many paid “holidays” in all the years I worked for various companies.

The government’s much-vaunted and ridiculous Health Care website stumbles on deadline day and once more, the Fuehrer and his supporters (especially those in Congress) ignore this while praising the Fuehrer and his insanely stupid law and regulations and coding.  The lies grow by the day, the stupidity is more and more obvious, and yet… nothing really changes.

Mama’s Note: The thing I think most people are not emphasizing – or even talking about – is the fact that this abomination “law” is totally evil, and the mechanics or failings of the website are totally immaterial. It would not be a good thing even if it seemed to function perfectly.

Reid, that piece of garbage that the idiots in Nevada keep in DC, forgot that he called Americans liars on ObummerCare, and has made statements that are only “normal” if compared to the even more wild statements of people like Boxer, Pelosi, and Jackson-Lee (of Texas), has spurred a response. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) went on the Mike Gallagher Show and mocked Reid’s remarks, saying “I didn’t think Mormons used drugs.” “I think the longer you stay in Congress, the more detached you come from reality,” Rep. Gowdy said.  Well, it has been obvious for most of his life that Reid is as good a Latter-day Saint as Pelosi is a Catholic, or the Fuehrer is a… whatever he is. Gowdy puts his finger on some of the truth, but the reality is that 99% of these people who go to DC were detached from reality, morals, and sanity before they ever got there.

As more an more people reject gun control laws, the DP may find it a serious problem in the 2014 elections.  That, coupled with ObummerCare, could poison the election for them.  Sadly, the GOP is really not better on these than the DP: just say nicer words.  And while a lot of folks see major losses for the DP this year, they’ve said that before, and the GOP has thrown away victory, and when they HAVE victory, are just as bad as the Dems: another form of Tranzi.  BOTH the old parties need to have all power removed, if we want our children and grandchildren to live free.

 

Ron Paul explains why aid to Ukraine (last week Congress gave the thugs there a billion dollars, as well as passing more meaningless, ineffective sanctions against Russia) is a bad deal for everyone, and points out it won’t be the last time by any means.  It is as if the FedGov – the Fuehrer – WANTS a war there, and WANTS to make Russia an enemy.

 

A columnist for Freedom Outpost headlined his article, “It’s Time to Hang the Elected Traitors in Washington with Their Own Legislation.”  I think he was too wordy, and should have used four fewer words, though his actual article comes closer to the ideal, suggesting that DC, like Rome, should have its main approaches lined with crosses.  This is, you have to admit, getting pretty radical for “mainstream” today. His main beef is the US vs. Castleman case remanded by the Supreme Court, 9-0, which says that ANY state domestic assault misdemeanor, even for pushing someone or giving them the finger, is an excuse for stealing that person’s right to self-defense, to keep and bare arms.  The columnist says that negates the Bill of Rights: but I’ve got news for him, the Bill of Rights was negated a long time ago.  The 1968 Gun Control Act in essence made the Second Amendment a privilege, no matter what Heller and other recent cases have done, and no matter how many states allow “shall-issue” concealed carry or open carry.  Every OTHER aspect of the Bill of Rights is either ignored, overturned, or tap-danced around.  And the ONLY way the Constitution is upheld is in the matter of procedure: elections every two and four years, term limits for presidents, and so forth:  the rest was and is nullified: there is nothing but a hollow shell.

 

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Libertarian commentary on the News, #14-13A: Good news, bad news: violence around the globe

Posted on 2014-04-01 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, welcome to a new week and the end of March, as Mama Liberty and I both get another blast of winter!  Yeah!

Government stupidity and hypocrisy are (as always) in the news.  What would we do without ’em?

First off, it seems 63% of Federal workers earning $100K+ are men.  There are lots of reasons for this, including time off for families and the “good ole boy” network, but THESE are the people trying to force private business and individuals to address “sexual income inequality.”  The word is hypocrite, but we can also talk about abuse of the public trust, and the fact that we have too many government workers.

At the same time, it is hard to feel THAT sorry for ANY FedGov worker.  According to the American Enterprise Institute, the typical full-career government employee has a retirement income higher than 72 percent of full-time employees working in that state, nationwide.  Of course, in DC, the “local government workers” are federal workers, and you can bet that they all do better than the poor slob working for the private sector (except, of course, for the Beltway Bandits and the lobbying firms and other “private sector” parasites.

The Fuehrer’s and Democratic Congressmembers’ propaganda attack in support of the Abominable Act (ObummerCare) continues, with these two items of note: Reid says: Obamacare has ‘dropped way down in significance’, I guess in comparison with them getting reelected and controlling the Senate, as well as whether or not we are going to go to war in Ukraine and Syria, and how much the Fuehrer’s hangers-on enjoyed their luxury trip to China (and the ones to Africa and Hawaii, which cost $15.8 million in stolen money).  Of course, that idiot Schumer claims that middle-class concerns ‘trump the Republican attacks on the Affordable Care Act’ (ObummerCare/Abominable Act), which unfortunately is NOT an appeal for an actual revolt against the ever-heavier hand of government BY the middle class, but just an attempt to make them stooges of the DP.

Ukraine Crisis: Fuehrer’s Poll Numbers Drop, Putin’s Climb which is pretty much what has been happening for the past several months.  It isn’t just the Fuehrer’s limp-wristed and wrong-headed response to Russia’s response to the Fuehrer’s meddling in the Ukraine, it is his total attitude towards the truth and the people and States he supposedly serves. Of course, this isn’t going to change, as we see that the Fuehrer ducks opportunity to support NATO membership for Ukraine, Georgia. I’d like to think that this means some of his manipulators have decided NOT to push for World War III, but I can’t count on that: chalk it up to their proven ability to mess up anything and everything, even when it is something that they want very much.

Speaking of a certain lack of “macho” at 1600 Pennsy, the Fuehrer gives Pope vegetable seeds, Francis gives Feuhrer writings on morality. Too bad his comprehension level in reading is so low. (I state this because he claims both to have read the Bible and the Constitution many times, and yet clearly applies nothing from either one of them to his life and actions.)  Brownie points to Francis for trying, at least.

As the cigarette tax rate in New York has risen 190 percent since 2006, the smuggling rate has increased 59 percent, according to the Tax Foundation.  This is surprising how?  Just that the rate has not increased as much as you would expect. Now, here is an interesting thought:  supposedly the smoking rate has been dropping in these places as the tax has gone up.  But are those people who are buying and smoking smuggled cigarettes really replying honestly to these health surveys about their smoking?  Smuggling started here in America about the time that the first colonists made it across the Bering land bridge (yeah, RED colonists not Europeans), and has just gotten better. Internal smuggling? Well, supposedly the Constitution did away with that, but then states came up with excise taxes and lots of other stupid things (try taking an apple you bought in Las Vegas into California some time – remember the Mediterranean fruit fly?).  I am surprised that some states don’t try to make you pay the extra tax on that tank of fuel you bought in South Dakota with a ten-cent state fuel tax, when you immediately drive across the line into Nebraska (with a fifteen-cent state fuel tax).  Twenty gallons, that’s a buck!  Might keep some bureaucrat in Lincoln from getting laid off!

Good news, and way to go: US oil production is more than 10% of the world total, according to numerous sources.  Despite the best efforts of the Fuehrer and too many state governments.

Bad news, and we can expect more:  an Ebola outbreak is spreading through Africa and is just hours away from the rest of the world.  The story is third or fourth page on most news sites/papers and not fully reported, for whatever reason.

Mama’s Note: Yes, the low level of hype about this is a bit of a surprise, but there is no more danger for Americans in this supposed Ebola infection than there was in any of the previous variations of the “flu” that the media was so hysterical about earlier.

Oh, no, not again!  North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire along the disputed western border waters on Monday, while North Korea promised new and different nuclear tests.  While this is behavior as usual, given anger over foreign aid, the Malaysian airliner disaster, and the tensions between Japan and China over some islands, it could heat things up in the region.

Meanwhile, the US and Ukraine ARE trying to heat things up in the southeast European area, with claims that 100,000 Russian troops are massing on Ukraine’s borders.  This smells like propaganda, but we’ll see.

In the last few days, the Albuquerque Police have killed two people under very suspicious circumstances, on video which has been made public.  So it is no surprise that this weekend, protesters swarmed the streets, protesting. The WaPo says the mayor claims the protests turned to “mayhem,” and that ‘hacktivists’ reportedly sparked the protests, participating on the other side of the mayhem and teargas.”  According to local reports, the rioting was in the yuppified traditional downtown, around Central and University: an area I was in just two weeks ago, and there are reports that a THIRD person has been killed by Albuquerque Police.  New Mexico, especially Albuquerque (largest city in the state: Santa Fe is the capital), is known for its hispanic institutions and traditions, which include police forces and often sheriff’s offices that resemble those of Francisco Franco or Juan Peron or Augustine Iturbide (first emperor of Mexico) more than traditional American institutions.  This is far from over.

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Libertarian commentary on the news, #14-12E: Having fun? (yet?)

Posted on 2014-03-31 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning, readers, and I need to have a little fun.  Not that I don’t take these stories seriously, but sometimes we get in moods, and a little laughter lightens up on the trigger-finger.  Sorry for publishing this late: got tied up on a big project that burned the candles at both ends for two days, coupled with a police invasion where I was working.

Former Secretary of State Condi Rice attacked the Obama administration for its weakness and failure to lead.  Of course, the GOP in Congress defended them, as soon as they got back from their last vacation – or was that “working on the home front.”

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has begun making his move for the White House – he is the first candidate to assemble a ground game in all fifty states! Which he is going to need big time if he keeps supporting establishment GOP and denying he is his father’s son.

The Pope met with the Fuehrer today (there has to be a joke in there) and one of the topics they discussed was the increasing amount of persecution that Christians were facing in America today.  Too bad Benedict retired, or they could have both spoken in the native tongues and understood each other.  For the FedGov to stop persecuting Catholics, all they have to do is agree to pray kneeling and facing Mecca five times a day.  Given the angles, they can pretend that they are facing Rome.

Mama’s Note: Can’t say I’m exactly disappointed with this new pope… heck, we knew he was a socialist like all the rest of them, but I still have to wonder how anyone who professes to love God and people could stay in the same room with Obummer and not vomit. Repeatedly.

Ebony magazine launches into racist attack on African-American conservatives.  Or conservative people who CLAIM to be “African-American,” at least.  Libertarians who claim to be African-American (or even black) are apparently hospitalized until they can be placed in a good, kind zoo.

More than 1 in 4 car crashes involve cell phone use.  Which must mean that overall, traffic safety is getting better and better, since 20 years ago, cell phones were virtually non-existent, and traffic accidents have been dropping pretty steadily in the past 30 years.  I know with all the banged-up cars on the road these days, it doesn’t seem like it.  But that is because most of us can’t afford to get the dents and bangs fixed, and we are keeping our old cars a LOT longer: fearful the “voluntary” junker retirement program might become “mandatory” like everything else has under der Fuehrer.  “If you WANT to keep your old car, of COURSE you can keep your old car.”

Mama’s Note: For an excellent overview of all things automotive, from a truly libertarian perspective, bookmark Eric Peters Autos blog, and visit daily. Great articles, and spirited discussion in the comments sections.

The Fuehrer today claimed that the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iceland was worse than anything that happened in Poland or the Low Countries when the Dritte Reich invaded those areas to help their people have self-determination and free them from repressive governments.  Opps, that’s not right.  The Fuehrer today claimed that the Russian occupation of the Crimea after the Crimean people voted for independence and annexation to Russia was worse than the American invasion, occupation, and trashing of the former nation of Iraq. Is it true that the Secret Service and the USMC are having to modify the passenger compartments of the limo and USMC-One to accommodate longer nose measurements?

Mama’s Note: There IS no real difference. Aggression is aggression, and there is no better or “worse” kind. Putin is obviously an evil, aggressive bastard, but no different than any other in the essentials. They both remind me of nasty bullies waiting for their next victim in the grammar school hallway. Some are taller, stronger, or more confident… but they remain equally evil.

Meanwhile, IN Mesopotamia (formerly Iraq), the Maliki-appointed election commission resigned en masse and at the same time, the bloody death toll of muslims killing each other and everyone else continues. You don’t suppose that the election commission assumed (seeing how many election officials have been offed in recent years) that continuing to serve might be mildly dangerous?  Maybe they figured that since elections mean nothing to the Fuehrer and the Fedgov these days (Crimea, Michigan, California, etc.), why bother?

Moving on to other topics:

The government withheld information on the basis of national security 8,496 times last year — that is a record, and it is a 57 percent increase over 2012.  Hmmm, the old saying “if you aren’t paranoid, you aren’t paying attention” applies to these FedGov johnnies as well.  They are starting to really, REALLY be afraid of what we can find out about them.  We need more Snowdens, and MORE Wikileaks.

Mama’s Note: I guess…Nothing Snowdon revealed surprised me in the least. In fact, espionage in one form or another was always a given. It’s been going on since the first water glass was pressed to the wall so some people could listen to conversations of others, whatever their motives.

We already know that those who pretend to have any “authority” to control our lives and property are murderers, thieves, liars and frauds. What more do we need to know? And if people give up the superstition of “rulers,” and that someone else needs to “protect their rights,” they would quickly eliminate this criminal class. Unfortunately, being a slave is just easier and more appealing to far too many people.

Black powder bullets, an expended .270 shell, a misfired 12-ga shotgun shell, an empty holster, resulting in “guilty of possession of unauthorized ammunition” a $50 fine, several days in jail, registration as a “weapons offender” and probably loss of his business license as a financial manager, in the District of Criminals.  I’ve been following this story for some time: beyond the fact that the idiot was willing to live in DC, it was obvious that somehow the police and courts were going to railroad him.  And now they have.  His best hope is to find a way to start his own business in a western state that will view this conviction as a badge of honor and override the morality clause of their licensing laws.

Mama’s Note: Sure, but he needs to pick a profession or start a business that does not require a “license” at all. Why feed that beast?

Last Resistance, a quasi-libertarian news and views site, reports on a woman who claims to be “pro-choice” because she is a “christian” and reads it in the Bible.  This is one really sick, messed-up woman.  Sadly, too many who claim to be followers of the Christ think like her, or don’t know enough about their own religion to understand their evil.

Just how weird is this? Jerusalem Post says that the entire Israeli Foreign Ministry is going on strike and closing all embassies and consulates on Sunday. The hysterical conspiracy fringe says this (together with the Malaysian airliner and a half-dozen other things) is leading to an Israeli attack on Iran and Syria AND the US (false flag attack, it seems) and is either intended to destroy the “American empire” or launch the Second Coming or rebuild the Temple or all of the above.

Mama’s Note: Oooh, oooh, can I vote for the end of the American Empire? The sooner the better, however it comes about.

In New Mexico, the stupidity of attorneys and judges and a major company (COSTCO) caused a million jars of peanut butter to be dumped into a landfill and wasted, literally. The stupidity and bureaucratic mind set of too many companies resembles that of government workers today.  We may be wealthy, but that is so stupid, and a lot of people could have been helped.  Instead, a combination of government and business stupidity and irrational fears and bad publicity wasted millions of dollars of food.

Mama’s Note: Good grief, that is just so sick…

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-12D: This and That: Truth in Media

Posted on 2014-03-28 by TPOL Nathan

Good morning!  It is a short, late commentary, as I sit watching the sun come up over a fresh layer of snow in the foothills of the Black Hills.  Time to ponder some sad facts.

As always, when reading a story on-line, hearing it on the radio, or watching it on television, we MUST remember that not all of the story is told.  Sometimes, this is because the media doesn’t KNOW the whole story.  Sometimes it is because the media is intentionally leaving out key parts of the story, to support their own agenda or that of politicians, bureaucrats, or others.  Sometimes it is simply because the story and its context are so messy it is impossible to explain it all. This isn’t just a problem with mainstream media reports, but with the true “free press” of the alternative media and networks.

Mama’s Note: Yes indeed, but SOMETIMES… and it seems more and more, the story is a tissue of lies and misinformation built around a crumb of “news” intentionally and with malice. The use of inflammatory words and agenda driven phrases can tell the WRONG story, even when the few facts disclosed are shown to be true. Don’t believe all you read, in the newspaper or on line. If the news item or article seems to be geared completely to affect your emotions or spur you to an action you actually think unwise or even dangerous, take some extra time to verify it do anything.

The recent brohaha over a girl in trouble for shaving her head in support of her classmate going through chemotherapy (and therefore bald) is just such an example.  In this case, it appears that at least SOME mainstream media outlets intentionally left out part of the information about the charter school, for their own purposes.  Various alternative media picked up the story and ran with it, assuming the original media report was correct, and because that media spin supported their own agenda.  Ari Armstrong explains the situation, and reminds us it is very important to check and find the truth, or as much as can be found. It is definitely worth reading.

Sotomayor, Kagan (during arguments) are telling Hobby Lobby that the christian-owned firm should drop their insurance, pay the Penalty and let their employees use the health care exchange.  In other words, rape is inevitable so just lay back and endure it: even when you know the rapist has AIDS and ten other diseases.  And shove your moral principles: bow down and worship the state.  Just what we would expect from these two, who say that paying the penalty is not prohibitive, as if money were the only concern and measurement of morality.  Just what we should expect from the evil cabal that surrounds the Fuehrer.  And it seems as though people are listening and watching:

Mama’s Note: Indeed, and it is easy for them to say the “penalty” is not prohibitive… after all, it isn’t coming out of their pockets. Theft from someone else is obviously just fine with them.

The Vatican’s Chief Justice states that the Fuehrer’s policies ‘Progressively More Hostile Toward Christian Civilization’.  My oh my, when did the Vatican start paying attention, to discover this after only six years?  Of course, on the Protestant side of the aisle, it seems that Franklin Graham has come to the conclusion that some Administration officials are ‘Anti-Christ’.  Yes, shocking accusation to make, isn’t it?  He goes even further:  on gay marriage [sic]. Graham says ‘God Will Judge This Nation.’ And we thought his father, Billy, was hypocritical and unobservant.  Of course, it is primarily individuals that are judged by God, America “isn’t going to Hell,” but individuals are.  Including those minions of the Fuehrer that Graham has finally decided are evil.  May the eyes of more people be opened as well.

Chinese State Media Ignores Michelle Obama’s Call for Freedom of Expression and Worship: they apparently decided that she is not exactly what they want the modern Chinese worker to bow down in front of and express admiration for.  Now, give them Paris or Oprah or Lucy Liu…

Mama’s Note: Not to mention the fact that Michelle would not speak to any journalists and refused to answer questions on the whole trip. She was isolated from the press while she lectured the Chinese on freedom? What an incredible hypocrite.

Four Years Later, Stupak Does Not Regret Voting for Obamacare, because he has everyone else that he can blame for it.

Pop Quiz: Can You Name One U.S. Senator? Do we HAVE to?  We try to forget them.  When we read about them, we just get angry.  Why should we care?  Every new one proves quickly that they are as worthless as the old ones.

Mama’s Note: I know both of mine, and the “representative” as well. I send them emails occasionally too. Waste of time, I know, but they at least know one old lady is paying attention.

VP Biden Calls on Congress to Pass ‘Gay Rights’ Bill but I disagree.  I think it is too late in the year to still have them up: a full three months after Christmas?  Please.

Dabbling in some word games (like what the definition of is is), a White House shill/minion said Thursday that the Fuehrer wants to make it clear that allowing people to enroll in Obamacare after the enrollment deadline is not the same as extending the deadline.  Ah, if Lewis Carroll were around today, what fun he would have.  Even Frank Baum couldn’t make this stuff up.  And these people THINK that they are in charge, and we act like they are!

For years, the FedGov has pushed automakers to submit to ever-tightening CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. Now, the government is beginning to reap the fruits of discouraging fuel consumption: road money is drying up, slowly but surely and the economy’s not helping.  All the beltway bandits and statehouse corporate welfare folks are crying.  Too bad!

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-12C: Short Wednesday Comments

Posted on 2014-03-26 by TPOL Nathan

Good morning!  When your family has all put in forty hours of work and it is only Tuesday night, you can figure it is going to be a long week.  That is the case with us:  a second landfill fire in three weeks that had to be fought for almost eleven hours on a Sunday afternoon and evening (and the fire WAS DEFEATED despite having to move at least 700 tons of burning and smoldering trash!), projects where one day’s testing turns into two+, and miles and miles of, well, miles and miles!  Still there is time to read quickly and scream wordlessly at the things of government and the world, so read on!

Jason Ditz at antiwar.com reports on congressional GOP members urging that the US send small arms to Ukraine to let them “defend themselves.”  While it is usually the DP in Congress that tell us that small arms exist only to let mass murderers ply their avocation, this strikes me as singularly stupid even for Congress.  The total irrationality about Putin and Russia at this time amazes me.

Meanwhile, a Ventura California man is finding that it does not pay to secretly record and expose abuse by the much-loved California State Child Protective Services, for they can do almost anything the agency wants with the help of cops, code enforcers, and the rest of the bureaucracy taking care of itself and in a code of omerta that makes the Capos look sane.

A north St. Louis man claims he was unfairly handcuffed and detained by St. Louis Metropolitan Police and has the video to prove that he was threatened to be imprisoned unless he falsely framed someone for a crime.  Police seem to be more and more like the criminal gangs that they are supposed to be fighting.  Even if it is “bad guys” that they are threatening and bullying, this is wrong: even bad guys have human rights.

The city of Venice has voted to break away from the rest of Italy. Eighty nine per cent of Venetians (of those voting that is) backed the move to create their own sovereign state, the ‘Repubblica Veneta,’ in a referendum on independence, to include not just the actual city but much of what once was an independent nation.  Of course, authorities claim the result is not legally-binding, since it was not done by “the authorities.”  I assume that the Fuehrer in DC will quickly condemn it as well, and issue letters of support for the embattled government in Rome.  This comes in addition to the Padanian independence movement to create a northern republic or at the least a federal system instead of the unitary “republic” which replaced the Kingdom of Italy at the end of WW2.

“Gunmen in Yemen killed 20 soldiers on Monday at a checkpoint in Hadramawt province, the official Saba news agency said of the latest in a wave of attacks blamed on al Qaeda. ‘Twenty soldiers were killed in the armed attack on an army checkpoint,’ which is very likely nothing but proof of the low quality of Yemeni troops: no way an attack even by Al Qaeda gunmen on a checkpoint (if properly designed and staffed) should lead to 20 dead.  Incompetence is the most likely reason.

White House plan would end NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone data, IF you believe what the Fuehrer and his minions are claiming to be preparing.  More smoke and mirrors.

In another example of his senility or insanity (or just hubris), Harry Reid accuses GOP of helping Russia annex Crimea as Ukraine aid deal clears the procedural hurdles that kept it from being passed several weeks ago. If I understand it right, his insane argument is that Russia would not have annexed the crimea if the US had given Ukraine several billion dollars.

Report: GOP representative Markwayne Mullin earned $600,000 plus in outside income, which against House rules.  The problem with Congress is NOT a Democratic problem, not a Republican problem, but a problem with a corrupt, venal, stupid, and greedy Congress regardless of what they call themselves politically.  Another story, that a congressional committee says there will be no special ethics investigation of Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth ranking Republican in the House even though she used taxpayer funds for campaign for a leadership post.  They “air-spanked” her hands, apparently.

Senator Barbara Boxer: Obamacare ‘is a huge success’ for the purposes which it was REALLY created, as far as I’m concerned, and NOT for the purposes it supposed was developed for.  No surprise, really.

Jimmy Carter again blames Catholics, other Christians for abuse of women and girls, and again proving how bad someone with a decent upbringing, decent education, and supposedly with a good work ethic and military background, can be, given enough time and temptation.

Republicans say what they claim they are running against, but not what they are running for, according to CNS News.  And no wonder, since their goals differ from the Democrats only in that THEY are the ones in charge of our lives rather than the guys in blue.  For more than 150 years, the GOP has brought Marxist socialism to the now Fifty States, disguised in order to be accepted, and taking advantage of the Democrats’ more blatant call for “change” to bring about the same results in an underhanded way.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-12B: Dead people, dead babies

Posted on 2014-03-25 by TPOL Nathan

Good morning!  A number of fascinating items on the news for the beginning of the week.

It now appears that most of the conspiracy theories regarding the Malaysian airliner which disappeared more than two weeks can be forgotten.  It seems that a theory proposed by a friend of my wife’s uncle  (within two or three days of the disappearance) is substantially what happened: a fire killed the electronics and filled the cabin and cockpit with smoke, causing the pilot to turn to run for the nearest airport that he knew could handle the huge aircraft, before passing out.  The plane then apparently flew on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel.  It is likely that everyone was dead long before the plane dived into the water: there are much worse ways to die.  Of course, there are many more questions to be answered now.  And the incompetence of the dozen or so governments involved has to be addressed: what can be done in the future when there are survivors?

The White House says that sending U.S. troops and aircraft to Uganda does not “change the US advisory role” in tracking down and killing this so-called “christian” warlord/terrorist.  But, of course, the Fuehrer must protect all parts of the Imperium Americana, especially from religious tyranny (other than Wahhabi Islam and humanism and Tranzi-directed efforts). All we need is ANOTHER deployment into ANOTHER place in the world where the FedGov has no business meddling.

DOJ to Supreme Court: killing human embryo in womb is not abortion.  Well, actually, it is a bit more complicated than that: they claim that killing a human embryo by preventing the embryo from implanting in his or her mother’s uterus is not an “abortion” and, thus, drugs that kill embryos this way are not “abortion-inducing” drugs. This is the argument in the case of Hobby Lobby against DHHS, as if there was something in the Bible that Hobby Lobby is citing “Thou shalt not abort thy child.”  But dead is dead, and quibbling over terminology should not matter – except that with the Nazgul quibbling DOES matter: while people die and tyranny grows.

Mama’s Note: The problem isn’t actually any definition. The problem is tyranny, and aggression, being forced to pay against their will. Freedom means the power to choose, even if the choice is wrong on some level. The consequences they might face for the wrong being done is a whole different matter.

Arne Duncan, the ED secretary minion of the Fuehrer claims it is  ‘worth considering’ giving student athletes free graduate school education, apparently so we can see more people with master’s and PhD’s braining themselves on the nation’s pro football and hockey teams, and thus ensure that the circuses continue to sooth the masses.  And incidentally making a master’s or doctor’s degree as totally worthless as BA, BS, and HS.

Thanks to Brian for this one – if thanks is appropriate for such a hideous story.  Hospitals in the UK have incinerated the bodies of more than 15,500 babies, some used for “waste-to-energy” plants.  15,500 down, only about 5,984,000 to go to surpass the Dritte Reich in mass murder WITH incineration, instead of just mass murder.  I wonder how many of these stillborn and aborted children were Jews, and how many were Irish.  Surely burning them to produce power and heat is better than serving them up on English tables, no?  And if this is going on in the UK, how many is this happening to, in the US?  The modern Fuehrer and his good buddies on Downing Street, in Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere have far out-shone Uncle Adolf.

Connecticut Gun Grab In Full Effect. Media Gag Ordered, or so says “BeforeIt’sNews.com”.  they claim that communications are being tampered with. Scott, who sent this to me, suggests: “I don’t necessarily trust source, but bears watching.” I agree with Scott on the source and the advice.  BIN had gotten thing wrong before.  But Connecticut officials have already done some stupid things, so this would not be outside the realm of high-probability events.  If so, it may be too late for many people to escape.  And sooner or later, someone is going to go ballistic and pull a trigger.

Mama’s Note: Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars has this to say about it: There is more going on it CT than the state government is admitting and the state-run media is reporting, but my sources say this is crap. No names, no locations, no ability for anyone independent to confirm or deny. Don’t believe it. There is too much on the line in CT to jump at shadows because of disinformation.

Of course, there is MORE on the hoploclastic (gun-haters) front:  we find a textbook teaching that the Second Amendment requires “registration” and is good only for certain guns. Now, this is truthful for some states (problably especially for Illinois where this happened), but only because they are VIOLATING the Constitution, and more important, rights given by God to man – ALL men.  Yet we let the schools and the writers and the officials get away with this sort of nonsense.  And more and more people seem to believe these lies, even those who own and use guns.

Another hoploclastic move (or presented as such) from my own neck of the woods, Durango, Colorado, where the local gun club had tried to go 100% NRA, and was threatened with eviction from the range they “lease” from the city for a dollar a year, south of the old town on the west side of the Animas River, near Home Depot and Wal-Mart.  Various reasons were given, but not the major one: a local shooting range with 100% NRA membership is covered for liability purposes by NRA insurance.  Now, Durango is a VERY liberal town, and filled with hoplophobes and hoploclasts, but has a lot of gun folks also: everyone is riled up.  At the same time, I personally think the NRA is a bad deal, all the way around.  There are other gun ranges and clubs in the region which ARE 100% NRA for just that reason: insurance.  And is one reason I will not use those ranges: I just plain won’t join the NRA.  Compared to JPFO or GOA, they are NOT fighting the hoploclasts nearly as much, and far too willing to compromise.  I do suffer as a result, but I am making my stand.  So I can’t feel too bad about Durango, for once.

Mama’s Note: I’ll have to research this myself. My gun club most definitely has NRA “insurance,” but no NRA membership is required to join. It might be a matter of how much coverage is available, but I don’t think there is any blanket requirement for NRA membership just for a club to get that insurance. I have to agree that the NRA is far from perfect as a gun rights fighter, but they do have the best nationwide novice training program available. If some other outfit wants to match that, I’m all for it. Until then, as an NRA certified instructor, I’m pretty much stuck with them. I do not donate to their political side, and never will.

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Libertarian Commentary on the News, #14-12A: Theft is a many-splendored thing.

Posted on 2014-03-24 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Good morning!  If you haven’t already, visit and read my rant “In my inbox...” written on a cold, snowy Saturday afternoon here in the Paha Sapa.

Even as I am going through news stories right now, looking out the window/door of my office at the huge flakes of snow drifting from a Black Hills sky, I am thinking about all the comforts we take for granted: warmth (heat!) and power and light and easily prepared food (even if we grew and harvested and canned it ourselves).  Do you realized that canned food has only been around for about 200 years!?

One of the articles I commented on last week was dealing with the collapse of Western Civilization, and how it was inevitable due to squandering of natural resources and an inequality of income that separated the Elite from the Commoners more and more.  The study (done by NASA) was done using money stolen from American taxpayers, now and in the future.  And it was biased towards government solutions: a solution many other commentators branded “communist.”  That may well be, but the basic premise of the study is wrong:  no, not that civilization will not fall, but that it is a scarcity of resources and a massive disparity in income that will make it fall.

No civilization, no great power, in earth’s history has survived forever. Neither shall this one.  But liberty and technology can and does survive, and I for one am not going to give up because some government study says that unless we surrender all our liberties and give up our technology that we shall fall.

Well, on to the news read and commented on this weekend!

A 2nd/3rd Grader in a California public school has claimed that he was sexually assaulted by a male classmate over a period of at least two semesters, and teachers have been suspended for allowing this to happen.  It is no longer just teachers and high school athletes who are predators in our “modern” pre-penal system of government-ruined, theft-funded schools: our so-called “Education System.”  It is no longer just time (PAST time) for parents to rescue their children from these dens of abuse and corruption: it is time for teachers (any that are left) who are sick of this sort of thing to leave: to boycott and strike, and take other actions to dismantle these evil systems and places.  It is clear that reform is no longer possible.

As this situation illustrates: the father of a student in California has gotten a restraining order against a nine-year-old bully who has physically attacked his son multiple times in school.  I don’t know what the father thinks a piece of paper will do, if the school is so incredibly stupid and has done nothing effective, yet.  Perhaps the son is getting bullied because he wears the wrong clothing or has the wrong book bag or is not fully politically-correct, so the teachers and other staff overlook the attacks?  Or are they also afraid of the bully?

Despite more and more claims from government, “economists,” media and even so-called professional business organizations that the economy is doing better, data from the first two months of 2014 shows that at least the HOUSING sector is sliding into further trouble, and that much of the “improved” economy is either bubble territory or very small segments in very limited parts of the country.  If home sales are again crashing, despite the write-off of billions of dollars of paper wealth, the new head of the Fed (who appears to be channeling the last head) is likely to do the same stupid things as for the past five years, and really hammer on the economy.  As we see inflation again picking up, job numbers flatlining, and more stupid proposals from both the White House and the Capitol, we are more inclined to hunker down than ever before.  And speaking of hunkering down:

Mama’s Note: A trip to the supermarket, the drug store, the hardware store, or any other store in town with a typical shopping list tells the tale rather well. If you can find one, get a cash register tape from a year ago and match the items. Watch the SIZE of the product too, of course. The toilet paper is inches narrower, baby wipes are smaller, most “quart” size containers now hold only 30 ounces, and on and on… right along with higher prices overall. Did your paycheck get larger this year? I didn’t think so… but I’ll bet your tax and insurance bills did.

As we mourn the third anniversary of the signing of the Abominable Act (ObummerCare), we see that many patients are seeing a drastic – even heart-stopping increase in copay costs for drugs. Like the horror stories about massive increases in premiums, deductibles, and out of pocket costs for doctor’s visits and procedures, this is ignored or pooh-poohed by the DP and the minions of the Fuehrer, but seems to be pretty well documented.  Again, it appears obvious that this was known to be likely, but hidden by those who want a single-payer, fully-socialized system.  Smells more like HillaryCare all the time, but it also appears that this will not be repealed anytime soon.

Mama’s Note: The thing that even the best MSM reports seem to ignore or gloss over is the fact that the “payer” simply won’t matter when there are no medical professionals available. That is increasingly the disaster waiting in the wings. It won’t matter a bit who pays or how much they pay if nobody is willing to take the job. It’s long past time to take charge of our own health and wellness, and make the changes necessary to take care of ourselves. Doctors can be extremely valuable in many ways, but they never could be a substitute for personal responsibility. Atlas is shrugging… even as we speak.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that “in a year of intense public interest over the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs, the government cited national security to withhold information a record 8,496 times – a 57 percent increase over a year earlier and more than double Obama’s first year, when it cited that reason 3,658 times.”  Apparently, the Fuehrer has gutted the Freedom of Information Act without a single Act of Congress or even a Fuehrer-Befehl (Executive Order).  Which means that we know less and less of what is really going on. But it is not just the lack of information (“transparency:”  the false impression that citizens and media knows what is going on behind closed doors, in order to lull them into inactivity.  (From the Tyrant’s Dictionary) that is alarming.

Mama’s Note: The key to all this is to accept the basic fact that no person or group of persons… no matter who they are or claim to be — has any legitimate authority to control the lives and property of other people. Without the assumption of authority, nothing they did or said would matter in the least.

The Associated Press also reported last week, “The presidents of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors have urged their members to stop using White House handout photos and video, saying they amount to propaganda.”  Not that what the AP and its related media outlets prints/publishes/speaks is NOT propaganda, but you get the point.  We have declined so quickly that is hard to keep up: a much more rapid decline than anything Germany went through between 1918 and 1933.  More is yet to come, as we all know.

But more important: this too shall pass.  Governments can and do fall, and people and freedom live on.

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In my inbox: scam, bogus, or…

Posted on 2014-03-23 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

I got an e-mail this week that I found most interesting.  I know that most of us get the “Nigerian” scam e-mails now and then, if I spam catcher doesn’t.  (I once got a real WRITTEN, HARD-COPY Nigerian scam letter in the mail (USPS) with a genuine Brit stamp, cancellation, and physical address, but that is a different story.)  So when things look funny: poor grammar, poor spelling, awkward sounding phrasing, and things promised that are too good to be true, it is probably one of those: whether from Nigeria or Ghana or Liberia.

This was, well, different.  The subject is: “ANNOUNCING: Free On-site Trainings by Request for Your School and District.”  Now, the use of the plural for something that most American and British/Canadian English speakers would leave as singular (“Training” not “Trainings”) set off some alarms.  The sender set off some more: “Akshay Jakatdar (REMS TA Center) ajakatdar@remstacenter.org via seiservices.com.”  Interesting, no?  Yes, lots of e-mail addresses use surrogate mailers these days: do it myself.  However, Akshay Jakatdar is an uncommon name: several websites claim that there is only ONE person in North America; I found another in India, and both Akshay and Jakatdar are East Indian names, according to a quick search.  And the surrogate server is SEISERVICES.com.  BUT, the “actual” e-mail address is a dot-org.  This is strange because the letterhead/header on the email says this is a GOVERNMENT agency: “Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

I did a check on Mr. Jakatdar (or someone claiming to be him), find him on Facebook and Linked-In and he does appear to be East Indian. He is a 29-year-old male, lives in DC and works for a company called Synergy Enterprises.  If that is an “Inc.” would that be the SEI in SEISERVICES.ORG? Linked-in has a second (more professional) picture of him and it is indeed “Inc.”

He is a Program Associate/Technical Assistance Lead, one of those meaningless titles so fond of both government bureaucracies and beltway bandits.  It also tells me that he served on the Japan Exchange and Teach (JET) Program, where he taught English as a Second Language in Japan. He graduated from the College of William and Mary, where his Bachelor’s thesis focused on the achievement gap between white and minority students in American public schools. He received his Master’s degree with Honors and Distinction from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, where he served as Vice President and Treasurer of an organization dedicated to addressing the needs of LGBT students, faculty, and staff.

Hmm.  More than I want to know.  I reread the e-mail, and notice the government logo at the bottom, and check on the many hot links: some actually go to ED.GOV – not “erectile dysfunction” but “Education Department” since DOE.GOV is not the Department of Education but the Department of Energy (another totally worthless government department, but again, a topic for some other time).  It doesn’t have any other obvious grammar or spelling errors, but it also does not have the “feel” of a government website, or of an educated English speaker.  And this guy supposedly graduated from W&M AND taught English for the State Department?

Thunderbird SGM I have heard about, and not favorably:  maybe not a diploma mill, but maybe not too far from one.  Like Colorado Technical University (CTU), it once may have had a good reputation, but the level of its instruction apparently is not very high (at least for those of us when graduated from high school and college before 1980).  So this is NOT a strong point for this guy.

So I go to SEISERVICES.COM and sure enough, that is “Synergy Enterprises, Inc.” a “woman-owned small business.”  And definitely a beltway bandit firm.  Our Mr. Jakatdar is NOT one of the twenty “key employees” featured on the site, but he appears very much to be a minority: 15 of the 20 are women.  They have 110 employees, the firm is 11 years old, and they are VERY politically-connected.  They work for 12 FedGov departments and have 11 “private” clients, almost all of which seem to be other beltway bandits: government contractors.  “Small?”  Yeah, legally.  Woman-owned?  Probably.  But they don’t own their own souls.

So, I have to conclude that this is probably a “legitimate” e-mail and not a scam (well, not any more a scam than ANY government and especially FedGov program is).  Not a Nigerian type, at least.  But it IS not something I want to have anything to do with, and this guy is NOT going to be added to any (however bogus) “friends” list on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Match-Up, or anything else (or would not, if I did those kinds of things).

Why did I get this?  Probably because I am involved with emergency management on a local level, as part of my military volunteer activities and community support.  My e-mail is available in various places for contact with first responders, emergency planners, and community organizations as well as churches and schools.  Ugh.  I set myself up.  In a good cause, admittedly.  I still don’t want anything to do with SEIServices or REMS TA Center or USED or all their garbage.  I don’t need to help them drag the Fifty States or me down any faster into their swamp and quicksand of tyranny and nanny-state government.

But it has come to the point that the US Department of Education, with its pretty little tree logo in the blue circle and its “Great-White-Father-Knows-Best” attitude, has contracted with a firm that has people who themselves are the failed products of the education system that the FedGov has created.  A failed education system that values political correctness and political connections more than liberty or truth or fair dealings. And as a result, create something that is difficult to tell as being “legitimate” (I use the term tongue-in-cheek) or bogus.

This e-mail wasn’t a scam, but it was and is still SPAM, and the only reason it isn’t officially a scam is because the scam is over: the Fifty States bought into the real scam hook, line, and sinker over the past forty years, and all we got for it is stupid e-mails like this, trying to suck us in just once more.

It is precisely this sort of incompetence that threatens not just our liberty but our lives and our families and homes and communities: the FedGov is the best historical example of the Peter Principle as applied to organizations that we can find: even better than the Soviets.  It is why Consumer Reports warns people to leave “healthcare.gov” alone, at risk of their money and identities and sanity.

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