Liberty: which can you have if only one? Economic? Political?

Posted on 2024-04-16 by TPOL Nathan

Consider the following quotes, please:

Now:

But:

Of course, we need to know what it is to “force” political freedom. Perhaps it is fairly simple: refuse to let people become dependent on government, not let them submit.

That is certainly a major problem today. We do not see protests like this demanding that government stop welfare and even reduce, let alone, shut down the Nanny State:

Liberty – freedom – requires breaking the chains that bind us. And sometimes the hardest to break are those which we place on our ownselves.

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Raising up a martyr

Posted on 2024-04-15 by TPOL Nathan

“I would rather lose my freedom than surrender to this group of thugs, tyrants, and fascist scoundrels.” – The Donald, recent CPAC speech.

T(hat was once a common American attitude. It is exemplified by a now-often-disrespected New Hampshire motto: “Live free or die.” But back to looking at martyrs.)

Persecution and even killing generally works so well in defeating your enemies. Particularly political and religious. Especially when you go after their leadership, their icons. Of course, we are being sarcastic.

We don’t like Trump, here at TPOL. (Nor do we like RFK Jr, Uncle Joe, the Greens’ Steom, the dictators of California or Florida or Texas, etc.) But this use of lawfare against The Donald is rapidly turning the man into a living martyr. Latest? The State of Illinois has declared he can’t be on their ballots. Latest of three States, and no doubt with more to come. And of course, the first criminal trial of a former US President has started in New York.

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Is the world exploding?

Posted on 2024-04-13 by TPOL Nathan

Chicken Little had nothing on the modern media, and not just the clickbait brigade! (Although all the oldline, mainstream media and much of the new and supposedly independent media seem to have adopted that modus operandi.)

Consider:

Newsweek: Lake Mead’s water level is falling – we’re all gonna die of thirst

The Irish News (US): More than 40 still stranded a day after fatal cable car accident in Turkey – they’re all gonna die of thirst and starvation (and panic)

News Nation: DeSantis signs bill banning heat protection laws for outdoor workers – they’re all gonna dies of heat stroke and heat exhaustion

The Center Square: Supreme Court unanimously rules against exorbitant government fees – All them guvmint buro-rats all gonna quit or die ’cause they won’t get paid

Essa News: Hezbollah’s formidable show of force. Missiles rain on Israel. And BBC: Iran launches drones at Israel in retaliatory attack – All those Israelis gonna die – or immigate to the States (NYC and Florida and the Catskills, no doubt)

AFP: It’s inflation, stupid: Biden faces renewed election threat – Trump’s gonna win and become a military dictator, all the women will die (no abortions), all the Hollywood and NYC and Nashville libs gonna get sent to Gitmo or reeducation camps. And democracy is gonna die!

Fox News: China is a threat to peace worldwide – We all gonna die or get turned into Solyent Green to feed hungry Chinese – after they sink every American, Brit, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Indonesian warship of course

Live Science: Nuclear Fusion Reactor could be here as soon as 2025: “cleaner energy” – We all gonna die because atomic energy killed millions of people in Japan in 1945 and we all know fusion bombs are much more powerful than mere fission bombs

These of course are just a few of the scary headlines that we hear on the radio, see on TV or Internet News, and get plastered on X, Facebook, and all the other social media.

Why? Why exaggerate about things? Why write fiery headlines that are not even backed up by the tiny handful of truth found in the article. If that?

Well, it sells ads – clicks, at least. Just like newspapers used to do – in the days when metropolitan dailies competed between each other and paid newsboys a pittance to hawk their papers. Long before the time when the typical smaller daily newspaper serves up equal parts of celebrity gossip, sports scores and gossip, and “good living” gossip. And a series of clickbait headlines.

But of course, there is more: these headlines sell FEAR. Fear about tomorrow. Fear about your neighbor. Fear about your health (and about Big Medicine and Big Pharma, all at the same time). Fear about your children. Fear about disease, about war, about famine.

It is all about spin – all about getting you and me to waste money, to waste time and effort preparing for dealing with fear. But of course, only in the way the media and their partners want you to prepare and deal with it.

So, to paraphrase a popular saying. Keep calm. Take a deep breath. Be prepared, of course. But make sure that you see through the fearmongering. And don’t buy into the solution that ultimately all of these media (even the independent alternative press) pushes: No man (or woman) on a white horse is riding to our rescue. We need to stand on our own two feet and let the fears and troubles of today be enough for the day.

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Texas, my oh my

Posted on 2024-04-12 by TPOL Nathan

We here at TPOL completely skipped it last month, as we remembered the 188th anniversary of the Fall of the Alamo in 1836.

Yes, a 200-year-old flag. See below for its story! Meanwhile read on about why we remember that now, a month later.

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Colorado discourages gunowners and defenders of liberty

Posted on 2024-04-09 by TPOL Nathan


To put it another way: Colorado Democrats wage war on peaceable gun owners

With, we point out, the assistance of Republicans and so-called independents. Wasn’t it just yesterday that Colorado leftists wanted to “defund the police” in Colorado? Courtesy of Black Lives Matter and LandBack and Occupy Everything? Now the statists in the legislature want to create a new special unit within the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Why? Mostly to target gun owners over paperwork and technical violations (or alleged violations) of arbitrary laws. ALL gun owners: not just criminals.

Colorado’s governor and most legislators want to ramp up the war on gunowners. And liberty.

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Electrical power, greenies, and liberty

Posted on 2024-04-08 by TPOL Nathan

The question was recently asked, Can a city the size of Los Angeles rely solely on renewable energy sources like wind, hydroelectricity, and solar power without the use of fossil fuels or nuclear power plants?

In today’s American and Californian political climate, more and more pressure is being put on utilities (including municipally-owned and -regulated ones) to “go green.” Even natural gas is deemed by environists and their shills in Congress and State legislatures to be so evil it must be eliminated as quickly as possible.

The utter stupidity of this is revealed by questions like this. Because the answer is incredibly dire.

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Let’s compare the FBI to…

Posted on 2024-04-06 by TPOL Nathan

… A whole host of historical tools of tyranny and corrupt government.

We’ve all read the labels and shelf-stickers telling us about the store brands and generic versions of various foods and drugs, right? “Compare to BIG BRAND NAME whatever.” Sometimes it is true, and that can save a lot of money for shoppers. Indeed, sometimes the generic or store brand is actually superior to the well-hyped and pricier brand name products.

It is much the same in government and political circles, isn’t it?

More and more we read comparisons of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI, the Feebes, the G-men, etc.) to such infamous organizations as the Ost-Zone (DDR) Stasi and perhaps the KGB and its predecessors.

I think there is strong evidence in 2024 that there is an organization far more like the FBI than those evil organizations. And it is much more than the idea that the FBI is an evil organization. (As lovers of liberty: free-market anarchists – we see all government organizations as being inherently evil. Even when they sometimes do good things.)as it and those are.

That organization? The Pretorian Guard of the zombified Senate and People of Rome: the Roman Republic.

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A Baker’s Dozen reasons not to vote in the 2024 election for massa

Posted on 2024-04-04 by TPOL Nathan

Editor’s note: Hopefully, all readers will see this as the satire it is intended to be.But these do make us think about this activity. Provide your own reasons to, or not to, vote this year.

A Baker’s Dozen reasons NOT TO VOTE in the Presidential election in 2024

  1. Joe Biden
  2. Donald Trump
  3. Robert F Kennedy Jr.
  4. The (still unknown) Libertarian candidate
  5. Jill Stein (Green)
  6. It just encourages them all
  7. It is yet just another advance auction of stolen goods
  8. If elections really made any difference, they wouldn’t have them
  9. I have much better things to do with my time, like cleaning out my attic
  10. I don’t want to upset my relatives. Or my neighbors.
  11. I do want to upset my relatives. And my neighbors.
  12. I don’t want to feel morally bound by participating.
  13. I can’t vote “none of the above.”

Whatever your reason(s), be thankful that elections in these States are not mandatory: we do not have to risk some sort of punishment if we do not wear an “I voted” sticker at the end of the day or the next day. Nor do we have elections as an official holiday: we can still call the nfront office and various other businesses and expect to hear a human voice on the other end. (Even if after punching in a long string of numbers into the silly answering system!)

But the worst thing about elections is the very poor choice of selections: not even a “none of the above” in most places. But as you can see above that is just one of at least thirteen reasons to avoid darkening the door of your nearby voting place.

Let alone voting early or by mail. But THAT is another commentary.

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A Baker’s Dozen ™ things to not say to a gunowner

Posted on 2024-04-03 by TPOL Nathan

Why not say them? Well, it generally isn’t (99.99999 percent of the time) because that gunowner is going to hate you so much that they remove you from the land of the living. (99.99999 is one chance in 10,000,000.)

And it is not because we are going to stop being friendly – or even friends – with you. And certainly does not mean that we aren’t going to use our weapon to defend you if you are attacked and are innocent. It doesn’t even mean that we are not going to defend your right to say whatever you please, and hate guns (and gunowners).

But… we might talk you to death as we very carefully (and usually very lovingly) talk you to death. Explaining in great detail (and hopefully with no profanity) why you are so wrong in saying that here in the States in 2024.

Here is our list:

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America in hospice care

Posted on 2024-03-29 by TPOL Nathan

We apparently have now entered the longest general election campaign in American history. With both Uncle Joe and The Donald securing sufficient delegates to win their respective gang’s nomination, they are now officially able to go after each other tooth and nail in a massive fit of political theatre. Which has already indeed started, at an intense level. Nasty enough to make us more than leery as to how incredibly down and dirty it will get between now and the Noverber elections.

As someone pointed out, the first presidential political rematch since Eisenhower was challenged by Adlai Stevenson.

Lucky us.

And for all of their many faults, Adlai and Ike were generally polite gentlemen: at least in public. Stevenson didn’t even bring up to butcher bill of the European Theatre in WW2.

But now? Forget the minor candidates like RFKJr and Jill Stein, and whomever will carry the torch of the Libertarians, the Natural Rights Party, the Prohibitionists, and the “non-torch” of the No Labels bunch. We know that The Donald and Uncle Joe (or is it better to be called “Godfather Joe”) and their haters will dominate the news, the talk shows, the social media, and more. It is, indeed, the political battle between the senile old guy and the insurrectionist.

And the “lower level” races, whether the Senate or the House of Representatives or State (and even local and tribal) elections? Even more nasty. No wonder incumbents are dropping out like flies in a hot bay window instread of facing what they no doubt consider the horrors of the next seven months.

The disgusting nature of American politics – the sausage making – is fully on display. And getting worse.

To us at TPOL is it not obvious?

It is clear that we are seeing a terminal illness. Further treatment at this point is fruitless: we are probably left with monitoring the life signs and making sure that arrangements have been made.

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