Trump found this out. He was the darling of the left elite. He wrote checks and hosted fundraisers. He was given humanitarian awards.Then he woke up and realized that if the left continued on their course, his way of life was threatened so he decided to run for president for the wrong party.
The left elite cranked up their smear campaign and he still won. I am afraid that he may not be long for this world as that appears to be the only way to stop him.
What's your point? How many people who run for President don't have a grudge of some sort against someone or some entity that they want to say "fuck you" to? That they want to prove they can beat/humiliate/prove they are smarter than?
We've had a real minority of Presidents who weren't trying to prove something to their alive or dead fathers, to start the whole shebang off.
Perhaps the most potent weapon in the arsenal of all these modern-day incarnations of Cardinal Richelieu is the odious power of plea bargaining.
Not only does it provide for the exponential proliferation of laws far beyond the ability of the State to try violators by jury, thus creating Harvey Silvergate's "Three Felonies a Day" situation, by which nearly anyone can be prosecuted at any time for anything.
It also incentivizes prosecutors to pile on charges without much caring about probability of conviction, putting the defendant in an almost impossible position unless they have large resources, extremely favorable fact patterns, and considerable intestinal fortitude.
The result: Federal prosecutors enjoy a 99.6% conviction rate, and only 2% of cases go to trial.
It is the modern legal mechanism to implement Beria's brand of tyranny right here, in the Land of the Free™, don't you know.
This is true in any realm of litigation, civil or criminal.
And not only do you need to be able to pay for a lawyer--you often need to be smarter than your own lawyer too. And hope they listen to you when you point out the problem.
"Smot" people know there is a hard way to mine gold and an easy way. The easy way is with explosives. Omelet, broken eggs...the cost of doing business...sometimes collateral damage, sometimes fall out.
"[The countries of Europe] are now going into a multicultural mode and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role and without that transformation, Europe will not survive."
Yeah I'll take some video right now of all the bullshit I contend with by trying to feed my family and creating jobs. In fact, I have 2 people on payroll for just handling "the pain of the process being the penalty". Seriously Jimmy it is mind numbing.
The Legal Aid Society in any city (any city that still has one) can give you a list of miserable lost souls destroyed by plea bargains because they had no resources to fight false charges and weren't the sorts of people one tends to want to champion.
There's a lot of well-earned contempt for college kids these days but the ones who volunteer with The Innocence Project, they are quite the exception to the perception.
There are dozens of task a business owner has to deal with where authorities compel compliance by camoflauging coercion (all of which is to confiscate our "coin") as compulsion
A local sausage maker in my community had his FDA approval yanked because he refused to wear a mask. Then, he was told he needed to be searched before entering a fairgrounds as a vendor when no other vendors had been searched. He refused, was not allowed to set up the booth he paid for, and lost the business opportunity. This vendor has shared his opinions on his social media posts and has been pilloried by a group that has never been a customer. I credit this man for standing his ground and staying true to his beliefs, but his business has suffered tremendously. Many grocery stores stopped carrying his product because he wouldn't wear a mask when he entered their store. In some ways, it might have been smart if he had just worn some silly cloth mask to carry on with his work, but he felt strongly about the injustice and stood his ground. The state made his life very difficult.
Even before COVID, they were going after small dairy & meat producers. The smaller, the better. The big guys get away with all kinds of cruel slaughterhouse crimes, but the little Amish farmer gets shut down because he doesn't have a license to make his beautiful, fresh milk into heritage cheeses.... (just one example, from about 7 years ago)
BTW, I don't know the status of his work, but atty Robert Barnes was defending just such an Amish farmer, Amos Miller. And I see now more organizations are backing so-called PMAs, private marketing groups, of customers who want such farm produce, and if you're in the PMA, you still can support that small farmer.
That's if small farmer can survive the seizure of his produce, equipment, and destruction of his place of business....some can, but - definitely lawfare winnows out the weak & small.
You mean like regulations and taxation? To keep, say, business owners from acting in strength together? If you have time, I would ideate this so much better with specific examples of how you are kept from the strength in numbers and what the strength in numbers does or could look like. I truly want to be able to think about this more capably.
Here’s an example from my own experience as a business owner. Pharmacists are forbidden from asking other pharmacists what their compensation from an insurance company is. If we do this it’s called collusion and we can be fined or go to jail. This is so we all don’t get together and demand adequate compensation to fill a simple prescription. The cost to fill that prescription involves not only having to keep that drug in stock, but also rent, employee salaries, taxes, utilities, and all the sundry expenses any business has. Our payment rests entirely on being paid a fair amount for each prescription and whether we are able to sell other products over the counter. There are literally millions of examples of this type of restriction on the books that make it damn near impossible for businesses to operate at a small scale which is why they disappear more and more each year. The little guy is forbidden to act in unison with other little guys to hold strong which is why Walmart and cvs and Home Depot are going strong while the rest of us have dissolved under the weight of federal state and local regulations. After all no one offered me a 20 year tax abatement for building my pharmacy but every 20 years in my town Walmart moves to a new improved location with a new abatement. 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼is my only response to this. I got out when the getting was still good.
There is an interesting phenomenon here in Australia where 272 (or was it 372?) essential medicines are in critical supply. Many people I know are struggling for diabetes medicine - and it's really scary to run out of antidepressant, quite a few of those on the list. Even cardiac drugs, iirc.
I can't help but to wonder if there's a system wide reformulation going on. Watch this space.
I, too, had my own pharmacy back in the day. I would not fill Cipro (brand name only back then) because I lost $12 on every prescription. Nowadays I would be forced to fill it regardless of loss.
Yes and how many folks now can’t fill their prescriptions anywhere because their insurance payments to pharmacies is so below cost (especially for expensive brand name drugs that hurt your wallet just sitting on the shelf) that no pharmacy will sign their contracts. I remember reading all those things and thinking there has got to be a better way. But they had you by the nads. I started working in a drug store in 1984. Man was it a very different world. About the only insurance anyone took was Medicaid. Everyone else paid out of pocket and damn sure took only the things they needed not all the garbage they do now. The insurance industry has been summarily bad for health I’d say. And supremely good for pharmaceutical companies.
In the thirty some odd years we have lived in our neck of the woods, we've seen three local pharmacies close up shop. Meanwhile, as you've said, there's a CVS or Walgreens every three miles it seems.
Strength in numbers requires a significant number of people dissenting, especially those with little to lose. I never wore a mask when all I had to lose was a shopping, eating, or observing opportunity. But the majority were go-along-get-along" zombies. (God bless you, Ryan.)
To cheer you up, may I point out that while learning the system feels wrong, that is a far safer path than standing in the way of the Jagganatha, making a big grand-standing gesture.
The romanians learned it. The czechs learned it. All over the world people know this, that the big players - corporate or state or church - will /always/ use the process as a punishment if you openly and brazenly set yourself against them.
The keywords are "openly against them".
Be clandestine. Be sneaky. Be clever about it. And always set things up so Power profits more from leaving you be, than going after you.
Tl;dr-version:
Case in point from my nation:
If you accumulate too hefty a sum of fines on your car, it can be impounded and sold off. But not if it's a rental. "But rikard, what rental company would rent out a car to a bad risk?"
Well, I'm glad you asked. This is the way it's done: I set up a dummy corporation in Serbia or Irak or Tunisia, using a box adress. I pay a local criminal (about to serve time) under the table to accept ownership of my fleet of rusty old clankers. I then rent those cars out, uninsured, to people who do not qualify to rent from Hertz f.e.
The stooge sits in prison, getting a monthly kick-back from me (prisoners earn about $3/hour here, before tax, if they work inside the prison) so he's happy - because all the debt he's accumulating doesn't matter to him - he owns nothing they can repo anyway, the cars not being worth more than the scrap value. He owns nothing and is happy, you could say.
I'm happy because I'm earning untaxed money hand over fist from my shady customers. My customers are happy because they can drive as they please and park wherever.
And the state doesn't care because it's not a violent crime and to actually nail me for this we're talking thousands of hours of manpower due to legalistic shenanigans - and at best, if they did nail me, I'd serve less than two years and since all of my worth is tied up in stocks and assets owned by shareholder-companies not involved with my shady business, they would at best get the scrap value of the cars.
So it's simply not worth it to the state.
Now, to be clear, this is a rough guide to how organised crime does it here in Sweden, has done for decades - and let me be even more clear when I say I don't actually do that kind of business.
Anyways, much belaboured point: you don't fight a giant or cyclopes up front. You help it destroy itself.
Most organized crime everywhere grew from the organizing of the extremely disadvantaged into mutual protection gangs. Then of course they branched out.
And of course because so many of these gangs originated in highly violent honor-based societies, there wasn't a lot of delicacy around methods of enforcing loyalty and how you think of outsiders. A tribal-brained guy in a suit and wearing a genuine Rolex is still a tribal-brained guy with all the traditional behaviors.
Yup. Except for disadvantedged bit, that's not true the way criminologists use it. Never was, either. Most poor people have never been violent or particularly criminal, tribal society or not.
Primp and crimp to your heart's content; the wolf remains a wolf and never becomes a toy-dog.
Sure. But opportunistic wolves often go into the protection racket so they don't get kicked out of the village, and before the villagers realize it, they're out-strategized even if not outnumbered. And then the wolf says "Don't worry; I'd never go after *you.*"
John Gotti was always very popular in his own neighborhood. It was really safe for everyone who lived on his street...
"Nice flock of sheep you got there, friend, shame if anything would happen to them you know. Tell you what, a bundle of wool and the odd leg of lamb every now and then and I'll set Bruce here to keep watch on them for you, pal"
Once had a Hell's Angel-guy as a neighbour in the city. The block was never as peaceful as then. Sadly, the "ethnic" gangs /do/ "shit where they eat", being little more than savages.
The least criminal group in Sweden is senior citizens, followed by handicapped and mentally retarded. Also the poorest groups, by a wide margin.
Nature may be cruel but plenty of common sense underlies the brutality. The wolves who kick the odd one out of the pack perhaps smelled a dangerous deviation from healthy brain wiring.
In human societies the extremely mentally unhealthy often get to or inherit alpha positions and an efficient culling goes against law and morality.
Thank you, Rikard. I've had the feeling for some time we Americans need to drop the Hollywood image of grandstanding against overwhelming power, and instead learn from the Czechs and others (changing street signs overnight so the Soviet tanks got disorganized, etc.)
We are all ultimately helped by the unveiling of secrets and the dis-covering of lies. It was nice when we didn't know, and we didn't perceive it as a concern in our lives. I am thankful for the opportunity to see more, understand more, and hopefully do work which is worthy both to myself and the world to which we have been given.
This is often brought up by those of us who know all to well how the narrative works.
Also see the difference between those who were arrested during the BLM protests and the Jan 6 "Insurrection." This insurrection is the Diet Coke of insurrections. The police/security were escorting the "insurrectionists" through the freaking halls.
But this is what happens when disagreement becomes hate, and protest becomes insurrection.
Well, the aftermath of Jan 6 is clearly meant to be a lesson to anyone who dares dissent. BLM protests were meant as scare tactics of a different sort and were obviously cheered on and probably instigated by the Dem party. But Jan 6 is intended to show how they can find pretty much anybody and come after anybody in the early morning hours, they can incarcerate you without cause and hold you without a hearing, and you can remain in jail indefinitely without recourse. They have done and are doing this and it doesn't seem as if anyone can stop it. The feckless so-called "opposition" party is either in mute agreement or quaking in their boots so they say and do virtually nothing. This is how totalitarian governments take over. Most people don't comprehend it until it's too late.
Yes, I think so much of this is meant to demoralize. You don't like the rules and restrictions? You think they are arbitrary, capricious, and draconian? Hold my Zima™.
Like so much leftist flatulence these days, the idea that this was an "insurrection" is beyond absurd.
How many of the "insurrectionists", do you suppose, own firearms? And what are the odds, do you suppose, that all of them somehow forgot to bring *any* of them to attempt to overthrow the most heavily armed State in the history of mankind?
One would think that not even a toddler could believe it, yet vast herds of our fellow citizens apparently do.
The fact that they vote explains much of the mess we are in.
Most of our fellow citizens are what Thomas Sowell has called "stage one thinkers." They read the legacy media, repeatedly read the word "insurrection" in connection with Jan 6, and that's it. Their thinking goes no farther than that one word. They never get to the stage of considering all the oddities and inconsistencies surrounding what occurred Jan 6. Nope, they just remain at Stage One.
The difference between the 2 commenters is remarkable. Rebellion has become treason? Apparently, I have been committing treason since I was a teen. Who Knew?
It's a kind of magic, or hypnotism. Framing and labeling can be really hard to distinguish. What can you do?
I'm thinking... Try to reflect always upon your own language and communication. Prefer original expression to handed down terms. Try to ask foundational questions about what is being talked about, what it means, what are other ways to see... Invest yourself in vastly different cultures, times in history, and imaginal exploration, such that you have the capacity to see things from liminal and varied places. What else?
I saw one of those social experiments where even one person being willing not to follow along with a farce was sufficient to open the pathway to many who otherwise didn't have the courage or awareness.
Ah yes! I had the privilege of being a very odd duck growing up, so it is easy for me to offer something different and sometimes offensive to others. Even the ones who feel uncomfortable speaking do have the spark. I keep thinking how to both put a stick in the fire and help the sparks discover how they can light up.
“they do not play nice because they want you to be afraid. and they want you to be afraid because fearful people dare not speak against what is being done to them.” And it’s working beautifully.... when you daily see blatant miscarriages of Justice, you cower. I hate these thugs.
The big problem is the huge number of decent but naive people who cling to the romantic idea that a judiciary is somehow above the political fray. (As if normal human groupthink suddenly stops at the door to the judges chambers.) It probably never was but certainly isn't in the 21st c. West (still less-so anywhere else of course.) It's similar to the romantic delusion whereby the British have, for decades, been sold on the myth of the impeccably 'impartial' BBC....with its 25000+ Left-wing workforce plus its I0 or 11 conservatives: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/carry-on-governing
In Chicago, long-time alderman Ed Burke was just convicted of, broadly speaking, corruption. He is married to former IL Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. Wonder what they talked about at dinner at night and if they shared their government issued pay while he was corrupting.
Stripping qualified immunity from all govt employees would be nice. Let one prosecutor be held liable, financially or physically, and you will see a less agressive lawfare state immediately. (Not gonna happen, but I can dream)
This is a big issue in, say, family court, CPS. Neglect and abuse allegations are artificially increased by the systematic creation of a professional network of mandated reporters. They must report to keep themselves in the clear, even if they are unsure. And then, in most states, anonymous allegations are allowed with no repercussion or accountability. Some states are changing that, like Texas recently. And court employees like family court judges and GALs are immune to misuse and idiocy in their vast gray area interpretations of Best Interests.
perhaps trusting would be a better word. generally, just people who try to go along to get along, focus on themselves and loved ones, and try to respect and appreciate others without ruffling feathers. problem is, these people (sheep) are naturally naïve and weak - they expect nobody or no entity would ever try to intentionally harm them.
For quite a while I’ve thought progressive DAs and prosecutors are conducting terrorism by proxy. They turn criminals loose on our cities, terrifying the law-abiding citizens. Like all terrorist campaigns you hurt the people you plan to rule until the pain is so great the people wail in grief and demand deliverance, and you, the fomenter become the deliverer . And never are the DAs fingerprints found on the terroristic acts.
In the 90s I worked for an MD PhD in Houston named Dr. Burzynski, who had discovered - and was treating patients with - a cancer remedy he called Antineoplastons. He had treated my dad for a highly-malignant brain cancer with some success and I thought maybe I could help him bring his remedy to approval. The orchestrated opposition he faced was quite a thing to have witnessed and lived through - and included a raid by the Feds at the behest of the FDA, two federal criminal indictments of 75 counts each, and two federal criminal trials - all in the space of the 3 years I was there. Gato, your article really helps frame and put it all in perspective.
Was there a documentary made about this? I know some was covered by The Truth About Cancer. Do you have any good references for us to hear more about this incredible story? Have you written your own account of your experience? I would be so interested to hear it.
Yes, Eric Merola made an amazing documentary on this story https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1632703/ Apparently he's followed up with several more recent updates too. I've only seen the original film - I worked with him on it a bit by providing info and footage of the Senate hearings - and Eric completely got the whole story, did an amazing job. Dr. Oz interviewed Burzynski and Merola in 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVejUrKnh6E. There's a lot out there on him - some of it no longer available "For violating youtube's terms of service" ha ha.
"the real plan is to make the process the punishment."
Remember the saying, "So sue me"?
That's exactly the sentiment that the lawyer for Gov. Whitmer of Michigan conveyed when the Michigan Supreme court ultimately decided that her orders were unconstitutional. Regular people don' t have the time, the energy, or the money to slog through the endless bureaucratic red tape to bring a lawsuit and stick with it through to the end.
you’ve hit that nail squarely on the head. and I agree, we all are (or will be) in the crosshairs. it’s going to take an inordinate amount of courage from everyone of us to remain there.
It is another face of the same die that rolls up “watch us fly our Jetstreams to COP28 and know we know you know how powerless you are.”
And yet, and here’s the win: when you know that nothing is sacred, that your rights exist but still may be abridged by tyrants, that they can take all you have and all you love and live in luxury forever, you have seen truth. You can face your worst fears as a Stoic. The more they take, the more you win, because you get *stronger* while they overdose on Xanax in their constant fear that the Barbarians will breach the gates, that the Black Marias will pull up in front of their mansions, that their comforts will be stripped away and they will be naked and helpless.
You never get away with anything. Americans consume 55% of the world’s pharmaceutical drugs. The price is paid. When you stand in integrity, you are whole. Wedded to luxury, you are a slave.
"how many jan 6th protesters when faced with this massive full court press and the vertiginously high stakes of the game were intimidated (or even forced) into taking deals by their terror of the risks and their inability to retain the sort of expensive legal representation required to survive a gauntlet such as this?"
Or committed suicide, as at least one did that I am aware of.
This happens all the time and is awful. Humiliate yourself and plea guilty to a crime you haven’t committed, or be bludgeoned with the full force of the legal system. Your life is ruined either way.
"For my friends--everything. For my enemies--the law!"
-Óscar Benavides
Yes, we have descended to 1930s Peru.
And the elites in power are always too stupid to realize how quickly that distinction between friends and enemies can flip.
Trump found this out. He was the darling of the left elite. He wrote checks and hosted fundraisers. He was given humanitarian awards.Then he woke up and realized that if the left continued on their course, his way of life was threatened so he decided to run for president for the wrong party.
The left elite cranked up their smear campaign and he still won. I am afraid that he may not be long for this world as that appears to be the only way to stop him.
He decided to run for President because Obama mocked him at the annual journalists' roast-fest.
And why did Obama decide to run?
Obama’s decision was made for him, during his youth, by the CIA.
100%. First half white president ever
What's your point? How many people who run for President don't have a grudge of some sort against someone or some entity that they want to say "fuck you" to? That they want to prove they can beat/humiliate/prove they are smarter than?
We've had a real minority of Presidents who weren't trying to prove something to their alive or dead fathers, to start the whole shebang off.
Okay. I merely asked why you thought Obama ran. Merry Christmas.
TDS works both ways
Yes, and then the law is applied to them with great violence
That Nikon with the long-view lens? At first it came across as ... some sort of an assault gun. Great meme, Gato!
love the "weaponized" assault camera - useful to ensure nothing can escape documentation and eventual exposure :)
It’s a brilliant way to make the point
Thanks for pointing that out.....
Finn.... fooled me I thought it was an assault rifle.
Mistaking it for an AR style rifle, okay. Mistaking it for an assault rifle? Those don’t exist.
Exactly!
Yeah I too did a double-take when I saw the Nikon strap, and then the cobbled together lens and tripod combo. Hilarious, Bad Cat.
I loved that, too. Had to do a double take to see it. Is that an AR15 hundred millimeter lens?
I think that’s the point of the meme.
yep.
Yes Gato!
What they're really trying to accomplish is to take away the one thing that can "break" these tactics:
Strength in numbers.
Leverage to level opposition by delevering strength in numbers.
They are simply ending the fight before there can be one.
Which is sort off the "take-home" I get from your excellent piece.
Any business owner can relate to this. In fact I am while I sit in my office, at this moment, preparing my quarterly's.
it's "hearts and minds."
it's as much about breaking the will to fight as any fight itself.
Perhaps the most potent weapon in the arsenal of all these modern-day incarnations of Cardinal Richelieu is the odious power of plea bargaining.
Not only does it provide for the exponential proliferation of laws far beyond the ability of the State to try violators by jury, thus creating Harvey Silvergate's "Three Felonies a Day" situation, by which nearly anyone can be prosecuted at any time for anything.
It also incentivizes prosecutors to pile on charges without much caring about probability of conviction, putting the defendant in an almost impossible position unless they have large resources, extremely favorable fact patterns, and considerable intestinal fortitude.
The result: Federal prosecutors enjoy a 99.6% conviction rate, and only 2% of cases go to trial.
It is the modern legal mechanism to implement Beria's brand of tyranny right here, in the Land of the Free™, don't you know.
This is true in any realm of litigation, civil or criminal.
And not only do you need to be able to pay for a lawyer--you often need to be smarter than your own lawyer too. And hope they listen to you when you point out the problem.
Yup libertate. They throw all kinds of spaghetti on the wall, knowing that most don't have the shekels to fight it
And the people with the shekels just love fighting. They live for it. Whereas the rest of us just want to live.
Bingo
This is interesting. I usually divide us up into Those Who Wish to Rule and Those of Us Who Just wish to Be Left Alone.
But there is a definite Those Who Love to Fight group that mostly just want to see the world burn.
They have to destroy the village in order to save it.
Sorry we bombed your village, here's some gold.
Isn't this the gold you stole from our vil...
BOMB THE VILLAGE AGAIN.
"Smot" people know there is a hard way to mine gold and an easy way. The easy way is with explosives. Omelet, broken eggs...the cost of doing business...sometimes collateral damage, sometimes fall out.
Lolol
Like Barbara Lerner Spectre says...
"[The countries of Europe] are now going into a multicultural mode and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role and without that transformation, Europe will not survive."
Dead on
I agree, strength in numbers. Is there a link to these people who are embattled in this kind of "lawfare?"
Yeah I'll take some video right now of all the bullshit I contend with by trying to feed my family and creating jobs. In fact, I have 2 people on payroll for just handling "the pain of the process being the penalty". Seriously Jimmy it is mind numbing.
The Legal Aid Society in any city (any city that still has one) can give you a list of miserable lost souls destroyed by plea bargains because they had no resources to fight false charges and weren't the sorts of people one tends to want to champion.
There's a lot of well-earned contempt for college kids these days but the ones who volunteer with The Innocence Project, they are quite the exception to the perception.
I don't quite understand what you are saying and I really want to. Could you give some examples? I'd appreciate you elaborating more your idea.
There are dozens of task a business owner has to deal with where authorities compel compliance by camoflauging coercion (all of which is to confiscate our "coin") as compulsion
A local sausage maker in my community had his FDA approval yanked because he refused to wear a mask. Then, he was told he needed to be searched before entering a fairgrounds as a vendor when no other vendors had been searched. He refused, was not allowed to set up the booth he paid for, and lost the business opportunity. This vendor has shared his opinions on his social media posts and has been pilloried by a group that has never been a customer. I credit this man for standing his ground and staying true to his beliefs, but his business has suffered tremendously. Many grocery stores stopped carrying his product because he wouldn't wear a mask when he entered their store. In some ways, it might have been smart if he had just worn some silly cloth mask to carry on with his work, but he felt strongly about the injustice and stood his ground. The state made his life very difficult.
I still have $47k in masks fines. Fuck em'. They're never getting it.
Pardon my French
If only I had more than one like to give.
Good on you mate.
Thx. 20 & 21' were painful years. I can't even bring myself to think about all the money I lost.
To be honest there wasn't much sympathy for the business owners from our fellow citizens.
It's like our dreams, hard work and wealth were expected to be sacrificed.
I just have to look at it as my time in the barrel. If not contempt and resentment creeps in.
Even before COVID, they were going after small dairy & meat producers. The smaller, the better. The big guys get away with all kinds of cruel slaughterhouse crimes, but the little Amish farmer gets shut down because he doesn't have a license to make his beautiful, fresh milk into heritage cheeses.... (just one example, from about 7 years ago)
BTW, I don't know the status of his work, but atty Robert Barnes was defending just such an Amish farmer, Amos Miller. And I see now more organizations are backing so-called PMAs, private marketing groups, of customers who want such farm produce, and if you're in the PMA, you still can support that small farmer.
That's if small farmer can survive the seizure of his produce, equipment, and destruction of his place of business....some can, but - definitely lawfare winnows out the weak & small.
This is a perfect example
You mean like regulations and taxation? To keep, say, business owners from acting in strength together? If you have time, I would ideate this so much better with specific examples of how you are kept from the strength in numbers and what the strength in numbers does or could look like. I truly want to be able to think about this more capably.
Here’s an example from my own experience as a business owner. Pharmacists are forbidden from asking other pharmacists what their compensation from an insurance company is. If we do this it’s called collusion and we can be fined or go to jail. This is so we all don’t get together and demand adequate compensation to fill a simple prescription. The cost to fill that prescription involves not only having to keep that drug in stock, but also rent, employee salaries, taxes, utilities, and all the sundry expenses any business has. Our payment rests entirely on being paid a fair amount for each prescription and whether we are able to sell other products over the counter. There are literally millions of examples of this type of restriction on the books that make it damn near impossible for businesses to operate at a small scale which is why they disappear more and more each year. The little guy is forbidden to act in unison with other little guys to hold strong which is why Walmart and cvs and Home Depot are going strong while the rest of us have dissolved under the weight of federal state and local regulations. After all no one offered me a 20 year tax abatement for building my pharmacy but every 20 years in my town Walmart moves to a new improved location with a new abatement. 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼is my only response to this. I got out when the getting was still good.
There is an interesting phenomenon here in Australia where 272 (or was it 372?) essential medicines are in critical supply. Many people I know are struggling for diabetes medicine - and it's really scary to run out of antidepressant, quite a few of those on the list. Even cardiac drugs, iirc.
I can't help but to wonder if there's a system wide reformulation going on. Watch this space.
I, too, had my own pharmacy back in the day. I would not fill Cipro (brand name only back then) because I lost $12 on every prescription. Nowadays I would be forced to fill it regardless of loss.
Yes and how many folks now can’t fill their prescriptions anywhere because their insurance payments to pharmacies is so below cost (especially for expensive brand name drugs that hurt your wallet just sitting on the shelf) that no pharmacy will sign their contracts. I remember reading all those things and thinking there has got to be a better way. But they had you by the nads. I started working in a drug store in 1984. Man was it a very different world. About the only insurance anyone took was Medicaid. Everyone else paid out of pocket and damn sure took only the things they needed not all the garbage they do now. The insurance industry has been summarily bad for health I’d say. And supremely good for pharmaceutical companies.
Sumotoad - you probably literally saved lives by not filling Cipro - horrible side effects for some people.
In the thirty some odd years we have lived in our neck of the woods, we've seen three local pharmacies close up shop. Meanwhile, as you've said, there's a CVS or Walgreens every three miles it seems.
Strength in numbers requires a significant number of people dissenting, especially those with little to lose. I never wore a mask when all I had to lose was a shopping, eating, or observing opportunity. But the majority were go-along-get-along" zombies. (God bless you, Ryan.)
Passive aggressive? Maybe?
Yes, OSHA, ETC.ETC
insightful, as always... "the hypocrisy is not a mistake, it’s a bludgeon"
Acquiescence by Absurdity
This is a thought provoking piece. I’m pretty depressed right now. : )
To cheer you up, may I point out that while learning the system feels wrong, that is a far safer path than standing in the way of the Jagganatha, making a big grand-standing gesture.
The romanians learned it. The czechs learned it. All over the world people know this, that the big players - corporate or state or church - will /always/ use the process as a punishment if you openly and brazenly set yourself against them.
The keywords are "openly against them".
Be clandestine. Be sneaky. Be clever about it. And always set things up so Power profits more from leaving you be, than going after you.
Tl;dr-version:
Case in point from my nation:
If you accumulate too hefty a sum of fines on your car, it can be impounded and sold off. But not if it's a rental. "But rikard, what rental company would rent out a car to a bad risk?"
Well, I'm glad you asked. This is the way it's done: I set up a dummy corporation in Serbia or Irak or Tunisia, using a box adress. I pay a local criminal (about to serve time) under the table to accept ownership of my fleet of rusty old clankers. I then rent those cars out, uninsured, to people who do not qualify to rent from Hertz f.e.
The stooge sits in prison, getting a monthly kick-back from me (prisoners earn about $3/hour here, before tax, if they work inside the prison) so he's happy - because all the debt he's accumulating doesn't matter to him - he owns nothing they can repo anyway, the cars not being worth more than the scrap value. He owns nothing and is happy, you could say.
I'm happy because I'm earning untaxed money hand over fist from my shady customers. My customers are happy because they can drive as they please and park wherever.
And the state doesn't care because it's not a violent crime and to actually nail me for this we're talking thousands of hours of manpower due to legalistic shenanigans - and at best, if they did nail me, I'd serve less than two years and since all of my worth is tied up in stocks and assets owned by shareholder-companies not involved with my shady business, they would at best get the scrap value of the cars.
So it's simply not worth it to the state.
Now, to be clear, this is a rough guide to how organised crime does it here in Sweden, has done for decades - and let me be even more clear when I say I don't actually do that kind of business.
Anyways, much belaboured point: you don't fight a giant or cyclopes up front. You help it destroy itself.
Rikard, I am amazed that my 3 sentence nondescript post inspired your remarkable post. Thank you
Thank you - Even a grubby silver lining is still silver.
Most organized crime everywhere grew from the organizing of the extremely disadvantaged into mutual protection gangs. Then of course they branched out.
And of course because so many of these gangs originated in highly violent honor-based societies, there wasn't a lot of delicacy around methods of enforcing loyalty and how you think of outsiders. A tribal-brained guy in a suit and wearing a genuine Rolex is still a tribal-brained guy with all the traditional behaviors.
Yup. Except for disadvantedged bit, that's not true the way criminologists use it. Never was, either. Most poor people have never been violent or particularly criminal, tribal society or not.
Primp and crimp to your heart's content; the wolf remains a wolf and never becomes a toy-dog.
Sure. But opportunistic wolves often go into the protection racket so they don't get kicked out of the village, and before the villagers realize it, they're out-strategized even if not outnumbered. And then the wolf says "Don't worry; I'd never go after *you.*"
John Gotti was always very popular in his own neighborhood. It was really safe for everyone who lived on his street...
"Nice flock of sheep you got there, friend, shame if anything would happen to them you know. Tell you what, a bundle of wool and the odd leg of lamb every now and then and I'll set Bruce here to keep watch on them for you, pal"
Once had a Hell's Angel-guy as a neighbour in the city. The block was never as peaceful as then. Sadly, the "ethnic" gangs /do/ "shit where they eat", being little more than savages.
The least criminal group in Sweden is senior citizens, followed by handicapped and mentally retarded. Also the poorest groups, by a wide margin.
Nature may be cruel but plenty of common sense underlies the brutality. The wolves who kick the odd one out of the pack perhaps smelled a dangerous deviation from healthy brain wiring.
In human societies the extremely mentally unhealthy often get to or inherit alpha positions and an efficient culling goes against law and morality.
Thank you, Rikard. I've had the feeling for some time we Americans need to drop the Hollywood image of grandstanding against overwhelming power, and instead learn from the Czechs and others (changing street signs overnight so the Soviet tanks got disorganized, etc.)
We are all ultimately helped by the unveiling of secrets and the dis-covering of lies. It was nice when we didn't know, and we didn't perceive it as a concern in our lives. I am thankful for the opportunity to see more, understand more, and hopefully do work which is worthy both to myself and the world to which we have been given.
I don't disagree. Sometimes the knowledge can be burdensome. Ignorance is worse
How depressing is this:
https://m.facebook.com/reel/897324712100427/
This is often brought up by those of us who know all to well how the narrative works.
Also see the difference between those who were arrested during the BLM protests and the Jan 6 "Insurrection." This insurrection is the Diet Coke of insurrections. The police/security were escorting the "insurrectionists" through the freaking halls.
But this is what happens when disagreement becomes hate, and protest becomes insurrection.
Well, the aftermath of Jan 6 is clearly meant to be a lesson to anyone who dares dissent. BLM protests were meant as scare tactics of a different sort and were obviously cheered on and probably instigated by the Dem party. But Jan 6 is intended to show how they can find pretty much anybody and come after anybody in the early morning hours, they can incarcerate you without cause and hold you without a hearing, and you can remain in jail indefinitely without recourse. They have done and are doing this and it doesn't seem as if anyone can stop it. The feckless so-called "opposition" party is either in mute agreement or quaking in their boots so they say and do virtually nothing. This is how totalitarian governments take over. Most people don't comprehend it until it's too late.
THIS IS SPEAKING TRUTH.
Yes, I think so much of this is meant to demoralize. You don't like the rules and restrictions? You think they are arbitrary, capricious, and draconian? Hold my Zima™.
There is no opposition "party."
Like so much leftist flatulence these days, the idea that this was an "insurrection" is beyond absurd.
How many of the "insurrectionists", do you suppose, own firearms? And what are the odds, do you suppose, that all of them somehow forgot to bring *any* of them to attempt to overthrow the most heavily armed State in the history of mankind?
One would think that not even a toddler could believe it, yet vast herds of our fellow citizens apparently do.
The fact that they vote explains much of the mess we are in.
Most of our fellow citizens are what Thomas Sowell has called "stage one thinkers." They read the legacy media, repeatedly read the word "insurrection" in connection with Jan 6, and that's it. Their thinking goes no farther than that one word. They never get to the stage of considering all the oddities and inconsistencies surrounding what occurred Jan 6. Nope, they just remain at Stage One.
Yup first order thinkers. They can't think in net negative/positive terms.
Isn't that exactly what universities are pumping out?
Nailed it
The difference between the 2 commenters is remarkable. Rebellion has become treason? Apparently, I have been committing treason since I was a teen. Who Knew?
This is funny but not funny. This also part and parcel with the power of labeling.
To label is to change language. Dangerous stuff.
It's a kind of magic, or hypnotism. Framing and labeling can be really hard to distinguish. What can you do?
I'm thinking... Try to reflect always upon your own language and communication. Prefer original expression to handed down terms. Try to ask foundational questions about what is being talked about, what it means, what are other ways to see... Invest yourself in vastly different cultures, times in history, and imaginal exploration, such that you have the capacity to see things from liminal and varied places. What else?
Speak truth even when "uncomfortable".
That's what's "what else?" imo.
And banding together at the local level.
I saw one of those social experiments where even one person being willing not to follow along with a farce was sufficient to open the pathway to many who otherwise didn't have the courage or awareness.
Ah yes! I had the privilege of being a very odd duck growing up, so it is easy for me to offer something different and sometimes offensive to others. Even the ones who feel uncomfortable speaking do have the spark. I keep thinking how to both put a stick in the fire and help the sparks discover how they can light up.
You sound like a natural born anti-labelist. Join our cult, we offer free hair cuts and Flavor-Aid.
I'm in!
With you!
That is 19 seconds of pure gold truth. Thank you Ryan.
This is all of history comin' around again. Our idiot mistake, we thought we wuz modern.
“they do not play nice because they want you to be afraid. and they want you to be afraid because fearful people dare not speak against what is being done to them.” And it’s working beautifully.... when you daily see blatant miscarriages of Justice, you cower. I hate these thugs.
The big problem is the huge number of decent but naive people who cling to the romantic idea that a judiciary is somehow above the political fray. (As if normal human groupthink suddenly stops at the door to the judges chambers.) It probably never was but certainly isn't in the 21st c. West (still less-so anywhere else of course.) It's similar to the romantic delusion whereby the British have, for decades, been sold on the myth of the impeccably 'impartial' BBC....with its 25000+ Left-wing workforce plus its I0 or 11 conservatives: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/carry-on-governing
In Chicago, long-time alderman Ed Burke was just convicted of, broadly speaking, corruption. He is married to former IL Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. Wonder what they talked about at dinner at night and if they shared their government issued pay while he was corrupting.
I wonder why the feds decided to continue pursuing the case after taking the Presidency in 2020.
Stripping qualified immunity from all govt employees would be nice. Let one prosecutor be held liable, financially or physically, and you will see a less agressive lawfare state immediately. (Not gonna happen, but I can dream)
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This is a big issue in, say, family court, CPS. Neglect and abuse allegations are artificially increased by the systematic creation of a professional network of mandated reporters. They must report to keep themselves in the clear, even if they are unsure. And then, in most states, anonymous allegations are allowed with no repercussion or accountability. Some states are changing that, like Texas recently. And court employees like family court judges and GALs are immune to misuse and idiocy in their vast gray area interpretations of Best Interests.
You're right. The original perpetrator is our government. For example look how they ruined Michael Flynn's life.
"Stripping qualified immunity from all govt employees would be nice."
Endorsed.
the problem with most people is that most people are good
and most good people cannot fathom just how evil others truly are...
Define "good."
perhaps trusting would be a better word. generally, just people who try to go along to get along, focus on themselves and loved ones, and try to respect and appreciate others without ruffling feathers. problem is, these people (sheep) are naturally naïve and weak - they expect nobody or no entity would ever try to intentionally harm them.
*conscientious*
Not evil.
;)
I for one support common sense camera control laws, such as hi-capacity film reel bans and photo free zones.
You're on FIRE today
(Please read in Nick Cage voice)
That's high praise.
For quite a while I’ve thought progressive DAs and prosecutors are conducting terrorism by proxy. They turn criminals loose on our cities, terrifying the law-abiding citizens. Like all terrorist campaigns you hurt the people you plan to rule until the pain is so great the people wail in grief and demand deliverance, and you, the fomenter become the deliverer . And never are the DAs fingerprints found on the terroristic acts.
In the 90s I worked for an MD PhD in Houston named Dr. Burzynski, who had discovered - and was treating patients with - a cancer remedy he called Antineoplastons. He had treated my dad for a highly-malignant brain cancer with some success and I thought maybe I could help him bring his remedy to approval. The orchestrated opposition he faced was quite a thing to have witnessed and lived through - and included a raid by the Feds at the behest of the FDA, two federal criminal indictments of 75 counts each, and two federal criminal trials - all in the space of the 3 years I was there. Gato, your article really helps frame and put it all in perspective.
Was there a documentary made about this? I know some was covered by The Truth About Cancer. Do you have any good references for us to hear more about this incredible story? Have you written your own account of your experience? I would be so interested to hear it.
Yes, Eric Merola made an amazing documentary on this story https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1632703/ Apparently he's followed up with several more recent updates too. I've only seen the original film - I worked with him on it a bit by providing info and footage of the Senate hearings - and Eric completely got the whole story, did an amazing job. Dr. Oz interviewed Burzynski and Merola in 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVejUrKnh6E. There's a lot out there on him - some of it no longer available "For violating youtube's terms of service" ha ha.
Thank you! I want to watch that, and I'm saving it in my hero and cancer file.
"the real plan is to make the process the punishment."
Remember the saying, "So sue me"?
That's exactly the sentiment that the lawyer for Gov. Whitmer of Michigan conveyed when the Michigan Supreme court ultimately decided that her orders were unconstitutional. Regular people don' t have the time, the energy, or the money to slog through the endless bureaucratic red tape to bring a lawsuit and stick with it through to the end.
you’ve hit that nail squarely on the head. and I agree, we all are (or will be) in the crosshairs. it’s going to take an inordinate amount of courage from everyone of us to remain there.
It is another face of the same die that rolls up “watch us fly our Jetstreams to COP28 and know we know you know how powerless you are.”
And yet, and here’s the win: when you know that nothing is sacred, that your rights exist but still may be abridged by tyrants, that they can take all you have and all you love and live in luxury forever, you have seen truth. You can face your worst fears as a Stoic. The more they take, the more you win, because you get *stronger* while they overdose on Xanax in their constant fear that the Barbarians will breach the gates, that the Black Marias will pull up in front of their mansions, that their comforts will be stripped away and they will be naked and helpless.
You never get away with anything. Americans consume 55% of the world’s pharmaceutical drugs. The price is paid. When you stand in integrity, you are whole. Wedded to luxury, you are a slave.
"how many jan 6th protesters when faced with this massive full court press and the vertiginously high stakes of the game were intimidated (or even forced) into taking deals by their terror of the risks and their inability to retain the sort of expensive legal representation required to survive a gauntlet such as this?"
Or committed suicide, as at least one did that I am aware of.
This happens all the time and is awful. Humiliate yourself and plea guilty to a crime you haven’t committed, or be bludgeoned with the full force of the legal system. Your life is ruined either way.