getting squirrely

playing for peanuts

meet peanut and mark. peanut is a squirrel. his mother died. he was taken in by mark who raised him and turned him into a social media celebrity. it’s a happy ending disney story of the kind disney used to make before peanut would have had to be gay and biracial.

well, at least it was until the wicked witch came along in the form of obersturmbannführer karen monica keasler who was so offended by this fluffy tail fairytale that all the way from texas (peanut was in new york) she called down the wrath of the public health agencies.

these health agencies went after this squirrel like pike hitting a baitfish. they stormed the house (with a warrant), detained the humans for over 5 hours, tore the place apart, and then killed peanut the squirrel and a rescued raccoon named fred who appears to have been collateral damage.

nothing about this is OK.

what’s fascinating is what an astonishingly bad issue this winds up being for the “progressive left” because it’s just another in the long litany of inhuman outrages that come from the dictatorial regulatory state they all champion. past a (quite small) size, bureaucracy becomes monstrous and anti-human.

and this is way past that point.

this is hideous violation wrapped up in a ridiculously powerful avatar.

and symbolism matters.

you want a “mascot” for big government intrusion? well here is a martyr.

welcome to the whirlwind. buck it and you will not like what you reap because this is the one thing the dictator may countenance least: a big, genuine upwelling of justified rage against officious tyranny.

why was the entire internet squirrels on saturday?

because they did more than violate a home and a life. they violated “wicks law.”

and you cannot violate wick’s law on the internet and walk away. nosirrebob you cannot.

and you wanna know why i absolutely, unequivocally fricking LOVE the internet?

well this is why.

the whole place went wild and in this wildness rooted in seeming superfluity and small ball squirrel squabble arose something bigger, more powerful, more poignant.

because this ties into so, so many things.

animals are having a helluva election cycle.

and cometh the hour, cometh the hero.

you cannot build or plan for an outpouring like this.

it’s part of what makes it so powerful.

it comes only as sincere expression that “enough is enough” as the rage of small things finds currency for the objects of anger may be tiny, but the issues they exemplify are not.

respect for "home as castle" is a foundational idea in rights and common law. surrendering this notion for any reason enables the next intrusion. you no longer have rights, just privileges subject to revocation.

and people who fail to respect the sanctity of your home will take more than just your squirrel.

lest you think i exaggerate, let us ask them and hear them in their own words:

this is not veiled threat. this is overt, porn on the coffee table threat broadcast in proud arrogance on national TV.

it’s about as subtle as cancer and every bit as metastatic.

“Just because you are in the sanctity of your home, doesn’t mean we’re not going to walk into your home and check to see if you’re being responsible and safe in the way you conduct your affairs.”

this is a horrifying idea, a monstrous idea.

it’s also staggering hypocrisy. “well, unless you’re one of us,” is the embedded implication. the same state that cannot find or arrest illegal immigrants wanted for violent crimes unless it’s time to give them a new cell phone or refill their EBT card can somehow send actual shock troops to take down the scourge of errant sciuridae for the heinous crime of “being cute on the internet” or “having political views we do not like.”

and this was a full blown bridge too far.

even gatopals™ like leslie-lou were ready for war.

this issue is about more than squirrels. this is about your right to breathe free in your own abode secure in your liberties and possessions from unreasonable search, seizure, intrusion, and yes, even murder.

and enough is enough.

they just broke down doors to kill an orphan squirrel.

pause to consider:

someone thought this was not only OK, but a good use of resources. whole systems sprung to life to enable and abet this. courts, health agencies and agents, layer upon layer of systemic purpose bent to this end and saw no flaw or failure.

it was concerted action, output from a machine.

one would think that in such a time perhaps everyone could pause and take a beat and say “ok, too far. that was hideous and broken and wrong and whatever partisan poo-fest i’ve been flinging, well, we can all agree not to do insane stuff like this.”

lol. you must be new here.

yeah, i’ll bet you took that down. (whatever the views of mark, peanut and fred were cute animals doing cute animal stuff before becoming avatars of injustice and attacking them is monstrous)

and it’s hard not to draw parallels to, uh, other stuff.

and as with “they’re eating the cats” this violation of wick’s law is the excuse for people to say what they had hitherto been proscribed from saying: that the state has become something past ridiculous and has veered into oppressive, nasty harm.

the power of the outpouring once more leads me to believe that there is so much pent up discontent looking to ground in some sort of lightning flash.

and there is plenty to be upset about.

the party of joy through rules has been astonishingly silent on this. they seem to want to pass it off as “nothing” and “just a health code violation.”

but it’s not. it’s a huge issue about agents of the state storming a home, breaking things, and killing innocent animals. it’s worse than “we had to burn the village to save it” jingo, it’s vichy level imposition about that which should, frankly, be none of leviathan’s scaly snouted business.

it’s farce played as tragedy.

really think about this:

a riled up karen from 1500 miles away makes a call and an actual SWAT team of health agents break into and wreck a home, detain the humans, and kill the animals all for what? in service of what? in mitigation of what?

who in their right mind would want to live like this and to leave this kind of inhuman, unaccountable power lying around in the hands of the kinds of people who would use it like this?

there should be outrage because this was outrageous.

and while we’re dropping truth bombs, here’s another

go ahead, pick holes in that one.

if i sound pissed, well, it’s because i am. this is a sign of a very sick situation, one that can go very bad, very fast. a state that can do this and walk away is not one you can trust to have near you. you want to control dangerous animals? well that’s the one to get a leash on. not squirrels that jump into your arms. not raccoons that eat whipped cream. the feral bureaucratic state and its armed agents who stand ready to break down doors and take and ravage that which is yours for the flimsy pretext of “because the law says we can.”

the simple fact is i hate these people. i hate that people would do this. but most of all, i hate that we have a system in place that entitles, enables, and extols this. nothing moral may grow in such sordid soil.

does this lecherous left want to kill your pets as some sort of proactive purpose? probably not. but they want the power that the people who did this used to do it. they will allow you no castle. hell, walz just made minnesota a “duty to retreat” state where standing your ground, even in your own home when threatened by intruders, is illegal.

that’s where this gang wants you.

backing away, unable to respond. giving ground. succumbing to depredation and insecure in your person and property.

they wish to take your speech

and your ability to defend it.

i am deathly sick of being this political. i really, truly am. i am the reluctant soldier pulled into this fight because i simply cannot countenance what i am seeing.

these people are the antithesis of the idea of the american republic, of free speech and free people underpinned by rights to self-defense of self-determination and self governance.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

and we cannot in good faith consent to this any longer.

trump is not my ideal hero nor perhaps would he be the champion i would choose in this fight. but he’s the one we have and voting nemesis over hubris seems the only sane and sound choice.

and that’s not peanuts.

so go follow your conscience.

and go and fight the good fight.

because enough is enough.