Obama At The Bat

From Mark W.... with over 8 million views.

They'll Never Do This Again- The Sunday Collage

On Tuesday of this week, I traveled by high speed Elantra to Butte, Montana. I go there a few times a year to eat cornish pasties, pork chop sandwiches, and other assorted delicacies like pastries from the Town Talk bakery. (I am currently on day 3 of my once a year Atkins diet) We always gamble a little in Butte and I think I beat them out of 30 bucks.

I used to stay at the old Finlen Hotel in uptown Butte, but now I stay at the Miner's Hotel. I wouldn't have it any other way. The city has an emotional claim on me.

There is an adjective residents use to describe themselves. It's called Butte tough and I am going to try and describe what that means to me. I think that unless you have lived in Butte- you may not understand it. But first, please allow me a few strokes of the paintbrush.

As a child, I remember this old gentleman on Platinum St. who used to pull quarters out of our ears and give them to us. He was always well dressed and just strolled along. I remember the Mencarelli's house- I had my first drink there when I was 11. I stopped to watch a kids baseball game last week at Scown field. The kids that were playing baseball that day were the same age as I was when I played at that field in the shadows of the Anselmo head frame. Scown field was where I hit my first home run- and Mr. Scown was my coach. 

When I was a kid growing up in Butte, 40 below temperatures were pretty common and usually happened at least once or twice a year. Winter seemingly lasts forever here- due in large part to the fact that Butte lies at the western foot of the Continental Divide. The mine was still in full swing in the late 60's and early 70's when I was growing up. The uptown part of Butte is filled with late 19th century architecture and homes. The old part of town is built on very steep terrain with winding, crazy streets that no city planner could even imagine. Some of the streets are so bad- that they are impassable and potholes lurk everywhere. Streets get far worse the higher up you drive toward Walkerville. The old part of Butte boasts large brick homes and mansions. Further up the hill- the little suburb of Walkerville didn't fare as well. The only way to describe Walkerville is that it is kind of a shanty town with no shortage of rusting junk laying about. The original residents of Walkerville were all immigrant miners- too poor to build homes out of brick so they had to settle for little wood houses. Houses that many simply built themselves. They walked out their front doors, maybe a quarter mile or less, to work in the mines each day.

If Butte is tough, Walkerville is tougher. Here's a decent blog post that I found with some accompanying pictures- pictures which capture a little bit of the flavor of the place.  http://jonjostcomingtoterms.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/settings-walkerville-and-butte/

The dark side of Butte was that it was a giant mining camp with thousands of poorly educated miners from all over the world. Crime and corruption were rampant. The murder and violent crime rates were once the highest in the nation and the theft and arson rates might not have been far behind. There were shootings, bombings, and fights. Everyone it seemed- engaged in fights. Gambling and prostitution were done out in the open.

They once called Butte the Gibralter of unionism. Even the butchers and barbers had unions. Unionism spawned all kinds of work stoppages, mayhem, and murder over the years. http://www.butteamerica.com/labor.htm

Very often as a kid growing up in Butte and sometimes as an adult in Boise- I found myself defending Butte's honor. Some Montanans like to call Butte the armpit of the world or simply refer to it as Butt, Montana. Oh... how I get tired of hearing that over and over. I still don't like it and every once in a while- I let some would be smart ass have a taste of their own medicine.

So, what's it like to be Butte tough? Butte tough is about being there. It's about surviving horrible mine conditions, decades of calamities, all kinds of crime and shootings, brutal winters, and seasonal depression. It's about striking (and having no income) against a cutthroat company who thought nothing of manipulating and plundering the working class, infiltrating union meetings with Pinkerton spies, and killing at least 2500 miners in unsafe conditions. It's about crippling disease. It's about working 12-hour days, 6 days a week, choking on dust and putting rock in the box. It's about living in houses that always need repairs and driving on streets that the lack of a tax base has all but forgotten. It's about cursed earth- working among some of the worst soil erosion on the planet, toxic dust, and a pit filled with water so acidic that it can obliterate an iron train rail in two weeks. It's about being abandoned by your government when you desperately need clean up jobs for a Superfund site which one day- will have to be cleansed. It's about disease, alcoholism, drug abuse, an abnormally high suicide rate, and 10 dollar an hour jobs if you can land one. But mostly, being Butte tough is about enduring.

And despite the dark side- I love Butte. I love the architecture, the history, the heroism, and the spirit of those who stayed on long after the mine closed. This was their home- good times or bad.  I love the people who share the common bonds of what might be described as a desperate life. I love the 100 year old beer and cigarette ads painted on the brick walls of buildings in uptown Butte. I love the peeling paint, the wrought iron fences, the concrete gargoyles and lions adorning those structures. I love copper. I love the food, the crazy streets, and the granite curbs. I love the spirit of people who came here to find their piece of the American dream. I love those giant black head frames and all the tragedy and greed they represent. I often wish that people could have experienced this place like I did. 

Because deep down I know- they'll never do this again.





 









 

The Next Presidential Sociopath Will Arrive in 2016

*Today redacted emails were found proving that the White House knew the "Islamic videographer" excuse for Benghazi was bullshit which all of us knew. Expect nothing in the mainstream media about it.

When I think of the worst, most sociopathic people of our time- Hillary Clinton often comes to mind. I have a friend that was once attached to her in the form of executive protection- and who told me that Hillary hates cops and pretty much calls all the shots especially in matters concerning Chelsea. That Hillary spent 5 million on Chelsea's wedding speaks volumes of the mindset of this entitled class of people.

Hillary should make a perfectly dysfunctional head of the executive branch.

Not only was she responsible for covering up Bill Clinton's affairs and drug use, Whitewater, bribery via cattle futures, hiding Vince Foster's personal effects after his death and refusing to comply with the law and turn them over, extortion by the use of Presidential pardons in exchange for million dollar campaign contributions, (Marc Rich) stealing items from the White House, bilking taxpayers by charging them rent for a guest house in NY for Secret Service personnel- and letting Americans die needlessly in Benghazi and lying about it. All of these things are easily discoverable in a typical internet search.

Think about the things she has done that we don't know about.

Hillary Clinton should be in prison. Instead she will likely be the democratic party nominee for President. After 8 years of her corrupt leadership- this country should just about be cooked.

A piece from a friend in my email this a.m. Sound familiar?

Recall that Hillary did her college thesis on Alinsky's writings and Obama writes about him in his books.

Saul Alinsky died about 43 years ago but his writings influenced those in political control of our nation today.

Saul David Alinsky, a writer, was an American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of the modern community organizing movement. He is most noted for his book Rules for Radicals.

Died: June 12, 1972, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Education: University of Chicago
Spouse: Irene Alinsky
Books: Rules for Radicals

According to Alinsky there are eight levels of control that must be achieved before you are able to create a socialist state. The first is the most important:

1) Healthcare– Control healthcare and you control the people
2) Poverty – Increase the Poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.
3) Debt – Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.
4) Gun Control– Remove the people's ability to defend themselves from the Government. That way you are able to create a police state.
5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing and Income)
6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school.
7) Religion – Remove the belief in God from Government and schools
8) Class Warfare – Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (Tax) from the wealthy with the full support of the poor.

 I can hardly wait for "What difference does it make?" Hillary Clinton's arrival. The sheep in this country will make her President. God help us.

Another Free Speech Eulogy- The Sunday Collage

All aboard the crazy train for the weekly sojourn. I tried on so many titles for this- I have since edited and simplified the title. I am gonna have to cut back on the Xanax.

(Disclaimer* I have used the "N" word in this piece, please make sure you have taken your blood pressure medication before continuing.)

Dollar stores, predatory loan shops, and tattoo parlors. That is the new economy of Boise.
There are hundreds of these things all over town. That and a healthy supply of vacant commercial property everywhere makes it pretty difficult to buy into the premise that the economy has recovered. This is a political meme. The pretend recovery. We're going to piss down your back and tell you it's raining. We always need more rain. So I giggled the first time I saw this.

The optimist says, "the glass is half full." The pessimist says, "the glass is half empty." The realist says, "Hey, my glass has piss in it!"

I am the third guy. I have always been that way. I don't think there is any better description of me.

So I want to talk about another political meme today. I think you'll like it- but first a slight meander.

I have this job hauling freight which I like for the following reasons. There is no boss riding in the truck and telling me where to turn. People are genuinely happy to see me because rather than arresting them- I usually arrive with a huge TV or treadmill or some equally enormous muscle tearing piece of freight. The work is so simple that I do not not go home and wonder whether I did the right thing or not. I do not have pictures of carnage in my mind.The people I work with, including the bosses, are very good people. I am grateful for all of that and the fact that I can simply take a week off whenever I please. Like next week.

But the best part about this job is that it gives me plenty of time to think, to drive around and look at tattoo and loan shops, dollar stores, and vacant property while thinking on how one class of people think they are entitled to free speech while denying someone else the very same right. So the story I'm about to relate to you is about free speech and why it is so critically important to protect it.

I have a friend in Boise who I once worked with years ago- when we were kid cops. I always liked Rich. The salient point here is that Rich is black. Very often, Rich posts things on his Facebook page that have something to do with being black. Sometimes but certainly not always, the nature of those black remarks pokes fun at white folks or broad strokes them a little ignorant. Now I'm not sure whether that's good or bad but the part that I am positive and adamant about- is that Rich has every right to free speech and to convey his truth and perspective.

And here's where it gets a little crazy. Earlier this week, Rich started posting the rantings of BLM scofflaw Cliven Bundy and painting him as a racist. Rich even went so far as to state he wanted to thin out his friends list a little bit, so he invited people to agree with Bundy in order that he might identify and delete them or whatever the hell they call it on Facebook. The comments that followed Rich's anti- Bundy remarks were what you might expect. A lot of folks calling Bundy an idiot and heaping some hate on, almost universally and unanimously, in the fashion we have all become accustomed to.

It is a key point to bear in mind that what you say and who you are- are not always the same thing. It is a lot more humane to attack errant speech specifically and then perhaps- surgically remove it- rather than curing it by killing the patient. 

Now I've listened to Bundy's remarks and what he is trying to say is no more inflammatory than most of the shit I've been listening to from whites and blacks my whole life. I actually agree with much of what Bundy is trying to convey- I just hate that he used race to try and convey his points. Because the real issue doesn't have a damn thing to do with racism. What Bundy can't get his arms around is that we have a real oligarchy in the United States wherein the rich and banking elite have joined forces with the government to enslave all of us. That he used old racist stereotyping and metaphor to try and make his points was of course- the wrong conduit. That gave everybody with an axe to grind- the opportunity to label Bundy based on his speech.

The left leaning envirocons and self avowed non racist class claimed moral high ground by calling Cliven a racist. The Bundy supporters tried to explain Bundy's remarks and tried to keep folks focused on our government's overreach- over the jeers of the leftists.http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/04/cliven_bundy_delenda_est.html Unfortunately the leftists, with so much ammunition, were able to label the Bundy supporters as wrong thinking neanderthals who see the glass as half empty with Cliven Bundy as their mascot. Like Rich's friends- the left claimed victory. They have long ago broken those racist chains that still bind dimwits like Cliven Bundy.

This thinking was quite evident all over the web this week. Once you've been labeled a racist- there is no going back. There is no rehab, no second chance. You are an idiot forever. Nothing you will ever say will be given any credibility. Live a life of good deeds but screw one sheep and you will not be known as Bob the good guy. You will be known as Bob the sheep f#$%^*.

Nothing can kill free speech quicker than chastising, ridiculing, and labeling somebody for the speech that they select. That is the damage that peer pressure brings to bear on free speech. If you don't protect the free speech process- one day- you'll wake up and it will be gone.

Which brings me to an encounter I had at a gas pump in Shakopee, Mn., just outside Minneapolis in the summer of 2007. The day after the bridge collapsed. I noticed a Mexican guy, a former illegal alien it turns out, staring at my motorcycle. A conversation suddenly broke out and during that conversation this former illegal alien told me that the south in general and particularly New Orleans- where I was going- was full of niggers. Now I wish that I could tell you that upon hearing that term, I suffered a debilitating stroke but that did not happen. I remember looking at him at that very moment and thinking that was an incredibly odd thing for an illegal alien to say. Had I gotten hung up on his use of the "n" word I might have missed the point he was making. He was making a point about pity parties, claiming victim status, and missing out on the American dream. Fortunately I did not have a nervous breakdown when I heard something objectionable. Therefore, I heard the message. This is precisely what happened to Cliven Bundy this week. His message, his free speech, and in essence his credibility- all died when he selected blacks and slavery as his metaphor.

The leftists wanted to kill Cliven all along. But Cliven committed suicide instead. That stuff happens.

You see I know that the reason free speech is number ONE in the Bill of Rights is because a group of radicals using free speech are what gave us our freedom. I also realize that at some point in the future, a bunch of radicals using free speech are going to give us back our freedom. The salient point being- don't get so focused on being right or wrong that you forget what's important and drink half a glass of piss by mistake.

I'll see ya in Butte next week.





 

How To Build Your Own Lynch Mob- The Sunday Collage

Thanks to all of you who said nice things to me about the Wounded Knee blog. That by the way, was a once a year deal. I am just not that consistently bright. If you are hoping to find something as equally good today- you are shit out of luck.

Ok, so my mom reads this. Other than my sister and younger brother, there aren't many children that my mother is proud of. Mom has three kids. So I had to clean up the original title of this piece- fragments of which can be found in the next few sentences.

Back in my policing days, I had a fellow law enforcer who had a poster of a gorgeous blond hanging in his locker. At the bottom of that poster the caption read, "Somewhere, some guy, is sick of her shit."

The point being that despite her good looks, she was a pain in the ass. And replaceable. I think we all know somebody like that.

Now I'm going to move from replaceable women to all sorts of things with the blinding speed of an old A.D.D. patient swilling coffee and wearing tinfoil. Please try to keep up if you are new here.

In college, I had this professor named Ralph Maughan. I always viewed him as sort of a hippie. He taught Political Science in jeans and tennis shoes. He was a heap big environmentalist and still is. I think I was already pre-disposed to protecting the environment having been raised in Butte and exposed to the worst man made environmental disaster in the lower 48. In Butte, you can see first hand how greedy corporate interests can quite literally destroy the planet and walk away. I actually cringe a little bit while watching gold mining shows on television to this day- as miners rip up some pristine mountain top- looking for gold.

At any rate, Ralph Maughan is an ultra environmentalist and I think- he was once a past president of the Sierra Club. I also believe he had quite a bit to do with the re-introduction of wolves. I had lost contact with him over the years until this week. Ralph, you see, has a blog of his own called the Wildlife News. At the Wildlife News, the writers and the readers are pro anything that has to do with protecting the environment. Mostly I'm ok with that- up until such point that the envirocons tell me I have to pay for their really lame ideas.

Environmentalists and common sense part ways when they want to do some ridiculous thing like introduce a hated predator that we have since replaced in the food chain. People hate wolves, generally speaking- and they will kill them. I on the other hand, love wolves. In fact, a lot of my college research and writing projects were centered on wolves because at one point in my life I was absolutely obsessed with them. That's why I was against wolf re-introduction. I did not want to see wolves get killed because if I understand one animal better than wolves- it is human beings.

So the environmentalists and wildlife people have won a little battle but will lose the war- because as the population expands- they will once again remove top of the food chain predators like grizzlies and wolves. Today's victory in the annals of time- will be tomorrow's loss. 

We all assume that environmentalists walk with a left lean and mostly I think- that's true. They tend to be Federal Government supporting statists because the only way an environmentalist can advance their agenda- is to get laws passed by one, supreme, umbrella government which supports their agenda and which also tends to diminish opposing agendas. It would be too difficult to get individual states to agree to some sweeping proposal like wolf reintroduction. Think rancher dominated legislatures like Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. They would have never signed off on wolf re-introduction and the environmentalists knew that. So that is where the culture clashes. Environmentalists v ranching interests.

Do not get these passions confused with politics. These are too opposing forces. One believes in stewarding the environment and wildlife and one believes in his God given right to make a living and to protect his assets. Politics unfortunately, is how we decide who wins and who loses. 

Freedom thrives where laws are scarce. Every time you pass a law- freedom suffers. Laws restrict human behavior. I'm for moderation when creating new laws. I've always been against creating unenforceable or silly laws- that is the libertarian in me.

Which brings me to Cliven Bundy and his trespassing cows.

During the week, I found myself on Wildlife News reading all of the predictable comments and threads with regard to Cliven Bundy and his stand off with the Federal Government. The folks at Wildlife News call Cliven a welfare rancher, a criminal, and a right wing nut job. 

Why? Because they have a one way lens on their telescope. They only see life one way. Their way. And they don't give two shits about any other way- because they believe they are the keepers of the moral high ground. They will argue and delete you. The law they think- is always on their side. The law, history shows us, has always been on the side of overthrown governments just before they get overthrown. It is not such a stretch to understand that a crooked and over reaching government will pass laws to try and protect itself.

I'm not going to link the Wildlife News here. Honestly, there's just too much politics embedded in that site and I don't want the track back here. 

Do I think people should be allowed to damage publicly owned land? No. But the evolution of the United States encouraged homesteading, farming, and ranching. That's been our history which occurred long before I landed on this rock. So maybe we've passed that moment in time where we no longer want people to use or cultivate wild or public lands. Are there solutions and remedies? Of course. The Federal Government could return lands to the individual states. People like Bundy could be grandfathered in and eventually their rights to graze could slowly sunset or phase out. Maybe this government, which has no problem allowing bankers to commit fraud while extorting giant billion dollar fines- could negotiate some form of settlement with Bundy. This is all more constructive and above board than using some pretense that cows destroy tortoise habitat. 

I have to tell you this. I enjoyed seeing a bunch of right wing nut jobs with guns back down the Federal Government and the left wing nut jobs. And I'll tell you why..

It's not because I'm some anarchist (well, maybe a little) but I have grown weary of the Federal Government and their shit. I am sick of hearing about non existent economic recoveries, about Bureau of Labor Statistics figures that are nothing but propaganda and lies. I am sick of a government which refuses to enforce the rule of law on fraud committing bankers, a government which has stolen trillions from our treasury, and continues to cover up every scandal from Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and IRS. I am sick of being told to obey the law while the Treasury won't even allow an audit of the FED or of the gold allegedly contained in Fort Knox. I am sick of QE programs, the worst Congress and President ever, and the erosion of our human and civil rights.

Did you see those ridiculous little "First Amendment" pens the government set up near Bundy's ranch? Protest here- where nobody can see you. Laughable.

The problem with most people picking sides in the Bundy battle is that while they debated the nuances and issues of who was right and who was wrong- they forgot to look at the big picture. The big picture is the one where millions of people are getting sick of a government that thinks it can bully whoever it chooses without reprisal.

It doesn't matter whether Bundy was right or not. Whether he paid his fees or his cows walked on the backs of tortoises. Our government is like a bully that has done so many wrongs- that even when it manages to do one thing right- nobody cares anymore. That's the moment we are in right now.

That's why thousands of people flocked down to Nevada. They weren't fighting Bundy's war. They were fighting their own war against an oppressive government that continues to steal and erode their freedoms. That mob is growing. People might just be getting sick of this government's shit and the BLM may have figured that out this week.

You want to die over cows and tortoises? I guess not. If the government is good at anything right now- it is getting very good at disenfranchising millions of us. It would have been interesting to see what they would have done after the fall elections.

Happy Easter everyone!






 

Corporate Welfare, Globally Speaking

Where the Cactus Grows- The Sunday Collage

So once again, another showdown on BLM range land- this time with Clive Bundy and his cattle. It's ok to detonate atomic bombs in the Nevada desert which apparently has little or no effect on the endangered desert tortoise. Instead, the chief enemy of the desert tortoise as we all might surmise from government sources- are grazing cattle.

So between slaughtering wild mustangs, re-introducing wolves, and putting a stop to tortoise murdering cows- our BLM masters have been hard at work managing our range lands for us.

I have four or five friends- liberal friends- who are forever posting their conservative hating rants on Facebook. I confront a couple of them from time to time. Not because it doesn't lead to nowheresville but quite simply because I get tired of reading their narrow minded vitriol.

You know the type. The GOP did this, the GOP did that. We care about people- they don't.

Now you'd think that level of unconsciousness would erode some over time- but instead- I believe it has gotten far worse- at least for these 4 or 5. At any rate, one of them posted a "BLM is rounding up and slaughtering wild mustangs" piece a week or so ago. Something like this. http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/14/17708998-the-case-of-the-missing-mustangs-what-happened-to-1700-wild-horses

Of course the BLM denies any knowledge of the mustangs eventual fate. Think Hogan's Heroes and Sergeant Schultz. "I know nushink!"

I use all of these things only as illustrations.

So let me tally up the grand successes of the Federal Government while utilizing their wildlife wizardry and animal central planning. We have a wolf re-introduction program which has cost millions and maybe billions, and is an utter disaster. The Feds have spent gawd knows how much rounding up and slaughtering wild mustangs because they have determined what numbers the range can withstand and they presumably have protected the desert tortoise from the voracious attack of grazing cattle.  

All of this "management"- can be accomplished by the states themselves. It is an interesting point to note that a bunch of non resident political hacks sit in Washington D.C. tell everyone else (we refer to them as residents) how to use their own lands.

By Saturday, Cliven Bundy and armed militia men had backed down the Federal Government. Oddly enough, this occurred sometime after people began noting the absence of Senator Harry Reid in the fray. Citizen journalists began to peer into the Reid connection only to find out that Reid has solar projects slated for this very area. With Chinese partners. Indeed, they are very likely, tortoise friendly solar projects. Maybe they have little turtle shelters underneath the panels.

Last week I wrote about how the Feds tried to buy the Wounded Knee killing ground from the Sioux. The Sioux tribe refused to take the government bribe. One only has to go to Custer's battlefield to see what happens when the government takes over. The same things happen at Mt. Rushmore, at the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, or any other place the government can find to further plunder the public. And get this...

There will always be someone who carries the government water. Statists who always say things like, "Well they need to be able to pay for upkeep, salaries, uniforms and pointy hats, all those sorts of things."

Last year, American taxpayers paid 400 billion dollars worth of interest to bankers on behalf of the national debt because Congress refuses to spend within it's means. Of course, this number can only rise. Four hundred billion buys a lot of admission tickets and pointy hats.

I point this out every time I hear one of their water boys tell me that we have to pay for the cost of these venues. I tell them, I have already paid.

In fact, I'll be paying again this week. Tuesday to be precise.  

The solution of course is for the Federal Government to get out of our lives. Refund some of the tax money they have been seizing from citizens so that we can put out a fire once in awhile and decide how to administer our own lands. Return tourist destinations to state control or allow states to best collaborate on how to administer their own tourist venues. Local control makes a lot of sense. Chief Executives, like Governors and state legislatures can decide what to do with lands within their borders and let the residents of that state select governance based on how well they manage those things. Without the spectre of Federal government interference.

Texas is so lucky. Not one acre of BLM land. No confrontations.

I'm not against government- I'm just against bad government. I'm not against Federal Government- but I am against a Federal Government that thinks it has the authority to do anything it wants and is quite willing to attempt to do so. I'm proud that Americans and militia men took a stand and asserted their rights as free men to assemble this week. 

Now we are beginning to understand why Homeland Security bought all of that ammunition.

Can you name one society or culture anywhere that perished because they removed layers of redundant government? I can't. But I can sure name cultures that were obliterated because they ignored the creep of central planners.

I gotta tell ya, I know that area of Nevada near Mesquite pretty well. I have traveled through that desert many times including the back highways on my motorcycle. Sand, snakes, scorpions, and a few rabbits. A lot of cactus, rocks, and scrub brush. It's a tough, very hot place. As you look out at the terrain, it's hard to imagine that any of it really needs any managing at all. It's not like there are enormous herds of cows devouring the vegetation and tiptoeing on the backs of desert tortoises. It's not like that at all. It is an immense place- completely barren and unpopulated.

That desert has survived quite nicely just the way that it is. I think it will continue to do so with or without the Bureau of Land Management, cows, or desert tortoises.