The evil of the secret ballot

Posted on 2024-11-05 by TPOL Nathan

Welcome to these States in 2024. As election day is now underway from Maine to Hawaii, we are seeing the consequences of thousands of actions across the entire length of American history.

At this point, despite bold claims from people across the political diamond, we have no idea of how honest this election – all the races and all the issues – will be. We don’t even know how long it will take to get the ballots tabulated and the votes announced. And we have not the foggiest idea of whether (once it is known) the Electors will actually vote. Or whether Congress (whomever is finally elected) will sustain or reject the vote.

With weeks of early voting as the prelude, we already have dozens of confirmed reports of attempts to wreck some or all of the election. Whether it is on a single local election for dogcatcher, or voting for a senator in a State, or voting for the Electors to choose the next Massa. We know that multiple States have already activated their National Guards – the State’s military forces for fear of what will happen during the day and as the polls close.

Consider, if you will, how much of this mess is the result of the secret ballot. Yes, you are asking what an old-style cowboy has to do with this. Other than represent American traditions and customs (good and bad)? Then please read on.

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Looking to Tuesday 5 NOV 2024

Posted on 2024-11-02 by TPOL Nathan

A quick few ideas and reminders:

If only we could just walk away!

Oh for “NONE OF THE ABOVE!”

To say nothing of the talkng heads, editorials, letters to the editor, and the protesters!

If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it. Mark Twain (Apocyrphal)

Mark Twain also wrote: If Christians should vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease. They would elect every clean candidate in the United States, and defeat every soiled one. Their prodigious power would be quickly realized and recognized, and afterward there would be no unclean candidates upon any ticket, and graft would cease.

Not ALL celebrities spout nonsense.

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Is DC facing a new “Sagebrush Rebellion” in 2024-2025?

Posted on 2024-11-01 by TPOL Nathan

The Cowboy State Daily, a Wyoming alternative media outlet that produces much of its own content, reports an effort by Wyoming officials to support a Utah lawsuit that could result in 200 million acres of FedGov land in the West being turned over to the States in which they are found.

Lovers of liberty question whether there should be any governmental ownership of any land (or the subsurface or aerial rights): anarchists argue that land should be owned by people – perhaps not even corporations. Minarchists might argue that some land (needed for courthouses and military use, and perhaps jails and prisons and roads) could be government-owned. But the truth is, in every State the FedGov owns all kinds of land. State and local and tribal governments also own a lot.

Utah is pushing back after nearly a hundred and thirty years of tolerating this situation. They are among other things arguing that the State of Utah is not truly the equal of States that have to put up with only 1-2 percent Federal land ownership. And the State is taking a little-used Constitutional method of going straight to the Supreme Court. They understand it is very much an uphill effort.

This effort is, frankly, freaking out a lot of people, including both Democrats and Republicans. The effort includes both the State’s governor and only US Representatives, and 26 members (and probably a majority) of the Legislature. All GOP types for now – in part because only 7 of 93 legislators in Wyoming are Democrats.

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“A wall of separation” or something else?

Posted on 2024-10-31 by TPOL Nathan

Warning: this commentary may not be seen as fully agreeing with Libertarian dogma. At least not minarchist dogma.

We constantly are told, by virtually all sides of the political diamond (see below) that the US Constitution prohibits a wide variety of things. This is usually summarized as a complete “separation of church and state.”

We beg to disagree. Given that we here at TPOL are no fans or advocates of mandatory human government, we believe that anything which ameliorates the evils of that government is a good thing. Therefore:

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Whatever happened to the Pretorians?

Posted on 2024-10-29 by TPOL Nathan

Or the Janissaries? Or the Ancient Regime of France? Or the Kempaitai? Or Napoleon’s Old Guard? Or the Manchu (Ming) Banners? Or the SA and the SS? Or the Stasi?

They have vanished from the earth – found only in history. And in the bitter legacy which they left behind, of course.

Those who suffered under these regimes – secret or not-so-secret police, jack-booted thugs, or whatever they have been called were vast multitudes. Many died, many were crippled (physically and mentally), and many were impoverished and imprisoned. But ultimately, a fundamental universal rule kicked in: “This too shall pass.” The tyrants were vanquished.

Why?

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God and liberty

Posted on 2024-10-27 by TPOL Nathan

Today, many who confess Christ as Lord and claim to follow Him are advocates of mandatory human government: the state.

Others are so turned off by government and the two choices (which are mostly what people see) for Massa and other offices that they refuse to participate in the charade. The Christian Post last week announced that a Barna pool and study claimed that as many as 104 million “people of faith” including 32 million “self-identified” christians who “attend church regularly” do not plan to vote in 2024.

All lovers of liberty have a lot of concerns over the accuracy of polls and studies by academic institutions, regardless of their claimed affiliation. At the same time, we understand the reluctance to get involved in political matters of governments.

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Are you ready for total war?

Posted on 2024-10-25 by TPOL Nathan

Not just a catchy computer game name, “total war” is a common name for an extreme version of war between nation-states, or even between nations and “unconventional combatants” – rebels, revolutionists, even corporations and religious groups.

Most people equate “nuclear war” with total war, though that is far from accurate. Nuclear weapons can be, and probably usually will be, part of a total war, but war can be total even with conventional – and even primitive – weapons. Witness the Mongol invasions, the actions of the Assyrians, and even the Roman wars with Carthage.

How do we deal with, prepare for, and survive total war is a subject worth discussing. And so we shall do in a future commentary. Specifically, what can an anarchist, a lover of liberty do to prepare for and live and work through a total (or near-total) war?

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The evils of modern “health care” again demonstrated

Posted on 2024-10-24 by TPOL Nathan

Courtesy of a wide variety of politicians, bureaucrats, Regressives, and just plain crazy and sociopathic people? The more we read about things like this, the more evil it seems.

The entire socio-political mania about transgenderism and transitioning people – particularly children and teens – into their supposed “mental gender” is really a very recent phenomenon. Pretty much just in the 21st Century, in fact. Yes, there had been rare cases of people attempting surgical or chemical changes in sex in a human. Just as cross-dressing has been around since Roman times and before. But always seen as a severe mental aberration and something to be more pitied than feared. Just as there have always been a few poor individuals who were born severely disabled – including hermaphrodites and cojoined twins and the like.

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The stupidity of Woke culture – and companies

Posted on 2024-10-23 by TPOL Nathan

A recent news story tells of a Marine ordered off her Delta airline flight because she was wearing the teeshirt below – which a “flight attendant” (a steward, not a stewardess) said was “threatening.”

We are told, he said, ‘I don’t care about your service, and I don’t care about her service. The only way you’re going to get back on the plane is if you take it off right now.'”

Now, this lady Jarhead was more polite than many Marines I know – and modest. She didn’t just pull the shirt off there in the aircraft cabin and sit down in her seat in her bra. She instead left the aircraft and found and pulled on a sweatshirt to cover the teeshirt. And got back on. But it caused her to miss her connecting flight and therefore messed up her trip to visit her sister (another Marine).

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A little discussion of election politics in South Dakota

Posted on 2024-10-22 by TPOL Nathan

South Dakota, with the usual 2 senators and just 800,000 people (therefore just a single US Representative) is small potatoes as residential elections go. But still, these things add up. Especially with all the mud-slinging about the Electoral College, and the various candidates for the new Massa.

Every State is unique – many have very strange quirks that influence their local politics and the impact they have on regional and federal politics. South Dakota is no different. Understanding this can help in encouraging and educating people to reject the power of mandatory human governments and how it makes life miserable for most people – if not virtually all of us.

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