Tag: State

Government, Motivation

A Look Back At How It Started

Just like the ‘shot heard around the world’ that ostensibly kicked off the revolutionary war on a bridge just outside of Concord, nobody is sure who fired the first shot. Some say it was a Texas National Guard MP. There’s even speculation that it came from across the border. Regardless, the dozen Border Patrol agents and four US marshals quickly returned fire. Six national guard solders were killed and several more wounded. The dead and wounded soldiers were all unarmed – members of an engineering group installing fencing, who attempted to stop the Border Patrol group from entering their staging area.

The Major overseeing the local deployment of the Texas Tactical Border Force assumed from the panicked radio chatter that a large armed force was attacking his troopers. He quickly surged all available MP’s and Texas state troopers to the area. Word passed down that the soldiers killed were unarmed, fueling revenge and anger.

When the first humvees rolled into the staging area and saw the carnage… the Border Patrol agents and Marshals milling about never stood a chance. They made the fatal mistake of pointing service weapons at the rage filled incoming troops. All Border Patrol agents and Marshals were killed almost immediately.

Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20. Most pundits claim that the decision by Texas governor Abbot to secure the scene and declare Texas jurisdiction was the gasoline that sparked the fire. Abbot sealed off a roughly ten mile area and refused to allow any federal officials into the vicinity. By not allowing federal officials to participate in the incident investigation, he sparked a flurry of state sovereignty vs federal power discussions throughout DHS and the White House. Both sides immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.

Chief of the Border Patrol, Jason Owens, was furious. After fuming for days at not being allowed access to the crime scene and his dead agents, he made a fateful decision. He directed several BORTAC teams to infiltrate and secure the staging area that had been initial point of battle. He authorized use of deadly force to reclaim what felt was a federal government controlled area of operation.

BORTAC teams are elite, SWAT-like units, that rival military special forces in their selection process, training, and skills. The BORTAC teams infiltrated under cover of darkness. Unfortunately no amount of skill or training can overcome overwhelming numbers without air support. Texas national guard, state troopers, even Texas Rangers, all took part in the multi-day battle that ensued.

The BORTAC teams were cut off by hundreds of soldiers, unable to retreat. They fought valiantly, but were no match for the rage-fueled Guard units. Memories of Sam Houston and ‘Remember the Alamo’ revenge are still a very real thing in Texas. In all, 48 BORTAC agents were killed, along with 7 Guard soldiers, and 2 state troopers.

So that’s how we got to this sorry state of affairs. Texas has seceded. The fifteen Texas military bases continue to be a mess of Federal and State battle for control. New Mexico is vowing to stay neutral. With the cartels now locked out of Texas, they began surging drug and human trafficking to Arizona. In response Arizona was forced to take control of their border, pushing out Federal units, similar to Texas. The Western Forces states are now beginning to coalesce around the idea that they will be eventually attacked by the remaining loyalist states.

History will tell if this new President can pull the nation back together. Will he be a Lincoln, or something else? Ultimately, the wise Benjamin Franklin’s words have come back to haunt us.

His response after the September 17th, 1787 constitutional convention, in reply to Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

Government

The Hive Revolution
  • We’ve had four generally accepted industrial revolutions. Coal, Gas, Electronics and Nuclear, and the Internet. The deep thinkers and Wall Street analysts have been trying to predict what the fifth revolution, or 5IR as it’s known, will be. I postulate that it will be the advent of the Hive and that this pandemic will be looked back on as the catalyst that catapulted 5IR forward. The Hive is the collective, distributed workforce. It’s a gig economy. It no longer matters where you live. Virtually all labor can be sourced online. The pandemic forced companies to allow “work from home”. Many companies are dumping their expensive real estate, realizing it’s no longer needed. Remote workspace companies sputtered, but will roar back once humans can interact again. Every possible labor specialty is now available online – billions of individuals busy producing their specialized skill, available to everyone from anywhere at all times. Businesses are increasingly becoming simple aggregators of the hives collective work.
  • The problem with the Hive is the Queen. Hives exist to serve the Queen. If the Hive were a true distributed system we’d have capitalist bliss. Unfortunately we have a few Queens in the form of Amazon, Google, AT&T, Disney, Microsoft, Fox, Twitter, and Facebook. These few bemouths collectively control most of what you purchase, watch, read, and your work environment. They actively shut down and censor any opinions they don’t agree with. They’ve made it impossible for a small mom and pop retail store to compete. Microsoft has implemented “productivity measuring tools” in all its software. Workers are not to be trusted. These companies literally know everything there is to know about you. Where you go, the time of day you went, how long you spent there, your search habits, reading habits, shopping patterns, how much you earn, what you watch, and most importantly – your political thoughts and opinions.
  • You can’t blame the Queens. Queens are just doing what Queens will do. The ability to rein in a Queen rests with the collective voice of the people in the form of their elected officials. Our government is intended to represent us, to step in when a Queen gets a little too rambunctious. Therein lies our problem. The government has become a little too enamored with the power they wield. They see themselves as a Queen, a new ruling class of elites. They’ve stopped protecting the Hive. Us folks in the lower classes have been the proverbial frog in the pot of slowly boiling water, blissfully unaware. This pandemic and the election suddenly lifted the skirt a bit and gave us a peak. Our elected officials are drunk on power, printing money, trillions out thin air to distribute to their friends and donors. They’ve shut down hundreds of thousands of business, gone forever. Meanwhile they’ve allowed the Walmarts and Home Depots to stay open. You can’t go to your local coffee shop or to get your hair cut, but you can happily go to Target to score some Black Friday deals. You’re not allowed to eat in a restaurant, yet you can go to Costco and wander around eating hot dogs from the food court. The Hive outnumbers the Queen but at some point critical mass is reached and the majority of the Hive become zombies of the state. China and North Korea come to mind. The people of those countries have become mindless puppets. The ability for free thinking people to express an independent thought has disappeared. The collective Hive will turn on anyone who resists the state. The government has used the Queens to frighten the Hive into submission. Don’t believe me? Try to go shopping without a mask on. Try to post an unflattering news story about the Bidens, or question climate change on Twitter or YouTube and watch it get taken down. Facebook will flag it with a fact checked as untrue label and the commenters will pounce, labeling you a flat earther.
  • So is it too late for our Hive? We’ve allowed the state to shut down business, mandate face coverings, and limit interactions with other humans, including members of your own family. Airlines and countries are actively pursuing a Covid passport that will be needed to travel. Spain will be keeping databases of people who refuse the vaccine. Officers of the state shut down business at will. Airlines eject families because two year olds aren’t wearing masks. Theaters have police remove a disabled child for not wearing a mask. Surfers are arrested for surfing alone, in contradiction to pandemic law. The state is changing election and immigration laws as fast as they can go, all to improve their ability to stay in office. How long do you think it will be before a social credit system is in place that will impact your ability to get a job, travel, or post your thoughts freely on the internet? I fear it may be too late already. However, there is unrest. You’re starting to see daily acts of rebellion, of pushing back against the state. Roughly four million people became first time gun owners this year. All available ammo has been scooped up. The lockdowns are beginning to produce pockets of resistance. Will it be enough? Will the thinking Hive start driving out the elites, or has critical mass already been reached? Americans are a unique group of people. It will be interesting to watch.
  • Speaking of the pandemic that shall not be named, take a look at this graph of the case curve of all 50 states. Notice anything? The curves are almost identical in shape for every state. Lockdowns, no lockdowns, masks, no masks, it doesn’t seem to have made a difference in the outcome. The virus is going to do what viruses do. We could have printed that same several trillion dollars, used it to protect the elderly and nursing homes, shore up hospital capacity, and kept our economy flowing. But hey, at least you’ll get $600 dollars.

Song of the day: Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen