Lessons learned from the Little Big Horn

Posted on 2026-06-26 by TPOL Nathan

Yesterday, TPOL published an article on history and remembering the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) where Lakota and Cheyenne “weekend warriors” defeated the US 7th Cavalry (“professional soldiers”) killing the talented, ambitious, glory-hungry George Armstrong Custer and another 267 men (including allied AmerInd scouts).

But despite this and other victories, the Lakota and Cheyenne lost the Black Hills War, which were the spoils of victory and conquest for the FedGov and so-called “settler” Americans. (That is, people who are Americans but not enrolled in an AmerInd tribe.)

As lovers of liberty, we can and should learn much from this war and battle. Here are a few thoughts:

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Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn)

Posted on 2026-06-25 by TPOL Nathan

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Greasy Grass (Pezhi Sla) Battle, officially the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and commonly known as the Custer Massacre or Custer’s Last Stand.

All of Southeastern Montana, including portions of I-90 between Sheridan, Wyoming, and Hardin, Montana, has been disrupted as thousands of people gather near Crow Agency, Montana, at the battlefield, a National Monument. (Keep in mind that the NPS website is (as usual for the NPS), a compendium of propaganda with a lot of facts but a lot of twisted interpretation. Ditto for Wikipedia.)

The battle was the climax of the Black Hills War (aka the “Great Sioux War) of 1875-1877. While it was the most significant action of that war, it was not the turning point that many think it to be. It is also important to remember that this was not the first war between the US Army and the Lakota. And not the first time that Lakota and Cheyenne had defeated the USA.

Why a war? Because gold seekers invaded the Black Hills (in 1874-5) after the public announcement of the discovery of gold by the Custer Expedition of 1874. The Black Hills (Lakota: Paha Sapa) were part of the treaty lands recognized by the US Congress in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 as reserved for the Lakota, together with all of what is now West River of South Dakota, a bit of what is now North Dakota, and “unceded territory” (in essence, hunting rights) in most of Wyoming Territory and a good deal of Montana and Nebraska Territories. The treaties authorized the expedition, in part to identify military post locations to keep other Americans out of the area.

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Technology – overcoming challenges

Posted on 2026-06-24 by TPOL Nathan

Today, too many people think of “technology” as having only to do with information technology. Others (rightly) speak of the evils of “technocracy” as a form of increased government control by a self-chosen elite.

But there is much more, and technology offers solutions to many problems we face today. Just as it has in the past. However, it is also just as dangerous and wrong to think that every problem can be solved with technology or that any problem can be solved only with application of technology.

(This is a failing that we believe Americans and Brits share with at least the Germans: that technology can overcome all the problems that we humans create for ourselves.)

Despite the ups and downs of the economy, political and natural climate, and wars (and rumors of war), we humans are an inventive lot. There are always new inventions. New products for sale and “coming soon.” (Or so readers of Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and government publications are taught to believe. And the adverts and articles and “academic” and popular papers tout the wonders, the marvels, of each one, and how they can solve our daily and more serious problems.)

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Immigration and the United Kingdom

Posted on 2026-06-23 by TPOL Nathan

Starmer is (we hear and hope) toast. Even Amelia, that purple-haired cutie, thinks so. And she’s been working hard to see him gone. (Of course, he is dragging it out – he may still effectively be in power for months as an election is prolonged, even though he is no longer the “Labour Leader.”)

One of the main reasons that more and more Britons have had it “up to here” with Starmer is the Tranzi push for more and more immigration. Especially from the cess-pits of the world. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all seem inundated with “refugees” who seem intent on recreating in the British Isles the very conditions that supposedly caused them to flee their homelands.

Britons seem condemned to relive history, don’t they? The last few decades of massive immigration into England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are a familiar theme in the last 2,000+ years of British history. Sure, there are some differences: many (not all, by any means) of the immigrants of the last half-century are from what were British possessions: part of the now-defunct third British Empire.

(Third? Yup. See the end note.)

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Canada – the Great Northern Threat?

Posted on 2026-06-22 by TPOL Nathan

Here in the States, the major attention to borders and potential threats has long been the border with Mexico, and the Gulf Coast with access to the Caribbean and all its little island nations. The States’ border with Canada has long been demilitarized – indeed, for pushing 150 years.

But in recent years, as Canada has gone more Woke, more Tranzi, and opened the Provinces to mass immigration from not just the Commonwealth but apparently everywhere else? Some people think we need a wall up there, too. (That disgusts us both politically and personally, even more than the idea we must fortify the border with Mexico.)

But things are not good – and the Canada we once knew – even the Prairie Provinces – is long gone. A recent Breitbart article points out that Canada’s crime rate is extremely serious. Not necessarily Chicago-style serious, but (except for homicides) higher than we find in the States overall.

The recent killings in Montreal make this more obvious.

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Power of judges expanding, not being curbed

Posted on 2026-06-20 by TPOL Nathan

This week, a federal judge in Montana cancelled oil and gas leases on 1.5 MILLION acres of land in the State of Wyoming (a different district). And more acres in Montana and the Dakotas.

Cowboy State Daily reports the action and the impact. The State of Wyoming alone will lose $330 million in royalties and fees – not counting the taxes paid by the people who work getting and transporting the natural gas, and the taxes as the money circulates through the local economies. Now, as lovers of liberty, we are of mixed feelings about the bureaucrats and politicos down in Cheyenne (or Helena, or Bismarck and Pierre) getting less money. But it is the people that won’t get paid because that oil and gas will stay in the ground, instead of fueling the economy, that really take it in the shorts. And because we know those politicians and bureau-rats won’t cut their spending when they don’t get those royalty dollars. They’ll just raise taxes and continue to line their pockets and those of their political cronies and big business.

So why did this judge do this? Including going outside his district?

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A bizarre example of judicial wickedness and corruption

Posted on 2026-06-19 by TPOL Nathan

From a correspondent in the UK: A group of teenage boys gang rape two girls on two separate occasions, film the crimes and laugh about doing it. As a punishment, they are condemned to community service, with Mr Justice Nicholas Rowland explaining at Southampton Crown Court last month that ‘I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily and understand the effects of their behaviour and support their reintegration into society.’

The decision did not go down well with the public, many of whom have grown restless at court decisions, and struggle to understand sentencing guidelines which seem alien to natural justice.

The judge has stayed true to form; in 2023 he handed out a suspended sentence to a paedophile found with the most serious grade of child abuse images, despite five previous convictions. (As it is, the offender failed to abide by the conditions of his suspended sentence and went to jail anyway.) Most people would regard unpaid work as a small price to pay to avoid prison, but many criminals are not future orientated enough to see things that way.

In the more recent case, the judge chose to be lenient because the two rapists were not only young, but too stupid to understand what they had done. This is not unusual – many vicious and violent criminals escape serious punishment because the law sees low intelligence as mitigation. They are “unfit” to be tried, to be held accountable for their actions. However evil those actions are.

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Disarmament 101

Posted on 2026-06-18 by TPOL Nathan

A neat, short guest commentary by Ryan Stubblefield

Ryan was asked this question, by a hoplophobe: Since there are more people who don’t own guns than there are people who do own guns here in the States, why don’t those non-gunowners disarm their “fearful neighbors?” That way, “we can live in a safe society free from firearms…” right?

Brian’s response is classic:

We’ll make this simple. 1/3 of the population of the U.S owns guns.

That leaves a 2 to 1 ratio of people taking their guns, Yes?

Should be plenty, normally is.

None of you are armed. I am.

Come to my door, tell me you’re taking my guns.

I instantly shoot your neighbor in the face. This fast. Say, “Bam Bam!”

I let you walk away. Now, it’s 1 on 1.

Not good odds. Right?

Don’t forget, you came onto my property and threatened to steal my guns. I don’t go to prison when I shoot your neighbor in self defense.

You go to prison for a few years for trespassing and attempted larceny of a firearm.

I’m out, free. You’re in. Your neighbor is dead.

Now it’s none to 1.

How’s your plan working out?

A quick edit. Are you afraid of not being safe because of guns? Seems like you’re the fearful neighbor here.

I’m not afraid of anyone. Simply because I can better control my situations, guaranteeing my own safety. You possibly could not. Your post already has marked you as a victim of sorts.

Count our blessings! At least some God-given liberties are recognized in the US Constitution and are not subject to the popular votes of democracy. At least in most of the States.

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Limits of power, limits on corruption?

Posted on 2026-06-12 by TPOL Nathan

A correspondent shared this piece of reporting and his thoughts on it recently:

Senate bill would force POTUS to share intel with Israel.

His thoughts: A few years into the future, breast beating Christians and others will be wondering how things have gotten so much worse economically and with respect to security and liberty in this country. Just as they do now about [many such political and moral] problems that they ignored at the very time that called for opposition.

As we have seen now for 50+ years, Libertarians in particular have tried to use the political election process to bring sanity to public affairs and restore at least some liberty. This “solution” has failed.

Others, including libertarians (lovers of liberty), at times, have tried the protest and petition route to get changes made. Once again, that “solution” has failed.

Our thoughts, here at TPOL, on P’s comments:

You are right; we can expect more of this in the near future. It is not just people like the man who is likely to replace Maine’s Collins in the Senate. (She’s bad, but he appears to be even worse.) It is people in both old parties who continue to demonstrate the truth of Acton’s Dictum. As a calculus equation, the upper limit of power is infinity, so the corruption is also unlimited.

We have surrendered power for more than a century and a half to the parasites (elected and appointed) in DC and fifty State capitols and thousands of local jurisdictions. We have given them power over our minute-to-minute lives that I think it is safe to say that few nations and societies in history have ever held.

Yet we continue to claim that we are free, in this Anno Libertatus 250.

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One more word about elections

Posted on 2026-06-11 by TPOL Nathan

Caitlin Johnstone now and then has a really neat meme.

This week’s primaries (as was the case with last several weeks) demonstrate the accuracy of her observation. Money is at the heart of multiple primary elections, as both those vying for the GOP and Demo nominations for November general elections try to convince the voters that their plan is the best way to finance government operations. (Oh, and for readers of the untitled commentary a few days ago, that guy of course won the Dem primary in Maine. Surprise, surprise!)

Of course, the pickpockets are actually partners with the puppet masters of both of the puppets. Indeed, the puppet master may have the donkey on one hand and the elephant on the other. (Yeah, we understand, most readers will have already understood that point!)

But what we find the victors of the primaries have in common? True, they want to spend the money in different ways. But they want more of your money. (And your children’s and grandchildren’s money.) Regardless of just what the money that government steals from us is used for, they will continue to pick our pockets. And almost always, up the amount they steal.

In an aside: we understand that the California primary ballots are still being counted, nine or ten days after the actual election.

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