USS Fitzgerald – post collision with container vessel (2017)
It is bad enough that nature can bring on a typhoon or hurricane to bear on all who travel the oceans. Being a US Navy vet, I have fond memories of life out on the ocean so blue. However, there seems to be an element of danger in these waters that few landlubbers can’t relate to except on the road. It is the landlubber’s version of a distracted driver, a ship that is inattentive to its own course, speed and surroundings. Lately, this has been a repetitive issue for the US Navy 7th Fleet home-ported out of Yokosuka, Japan.
Back in 2017, the Washington Post lamented that maybe this was a case of a force stretched too thin. While this is a convenient cover story where an admiral that is ready to retire is forced out a few months early is enough to make the taxpayers believe justice was done. It turns out in the case of the USS Fitzgerald, that both the OOD (Officer of the Deck) and the CIC (Combat Information Center) officer were having a “spat”. The CIC officer, in retaliation, turned off the radar allowing the situation where the ship hit a huge container vessel that anyone’s grandmother could have seen on the radar. A spat is not typical of what you have on navy ships mind you, at least when I was there in the 70s and 80s. Maybe it has to do with the fact that these were women officers on the USS Fitzgerald? (Yes I said that, the sexes are indeed different, but this is not a label that applies 100% across the board. I have seen my share of male passive-aggressive “spats” and they ain’t pretty nor are they masculine)
But I digress, so yesterday it was reported by the US Navy via CNN that:
“A Russian destroyer …. made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville, closing to 50-100 feet, putting the safety of her crew and ship at risk,” US Navy spokesman Cmdr. Clayton Doss told CNN in a statement.
“This unsafe action forced Chancellorsville to execute all engines back full and to maneuver to avoid collision,” Doss said.
The US guided-missile cruiser was traveling in a straight line and trying to recover its helicopter when the incident occurred, he said. “We consider Russia’s actions during this interaction as unsafe and unprofessional,” Doss said.
Did anyone have an iPhone handy? Because you know, these days especially, it is helpful to have a video since the people talking only lie when their mouths are open.
OK, that video is too late to show what really happened. It also helps to know the “rules of the road” (‘Handbook of Nautical Rules #15) out on the ocean:
(#15) When two power-driven vessels are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her own starboard side shall keep out of the wayand shall, if the circumstances admit, avoid crossing ahead of the other vessel.
Which ship has has the other ship on their starboard (right) side? Yeah, you guessed it, the USS Chancellorsville out of Yokosuka, Japan, home-port for the US Navy 7th Fleet. Home of the “asleep at the wheel” Officer of the Deck because you can’t blame the helmsman as they are only allowed to accomplish speed and course changes that the OOD commands. I have been there and done that.
Furthermore, rules 16 and 17 make this all clear:
(#16) Every vessel which is directed to keep out of the way of another vessel shall, so far as possible, take early and substantial action to keep well clear.
(#17) Where one of two vessels is to keep out of the way the other shall keep her course and speed.
So what happened BEFORE the video above? I will settle for a picture that shows the wake!
Moon of Alabama does a great job of putting it all in perspective as always:
It is evident from the picture that the U.S. navy cruiser had the Russian destroyer on its starboard side and that both ships were on a collision course. It was therefore the U.S. ship that had the duty to ‘take early and substantial action’ to keep out of the way and that it had to avoid crossing ahead of the Russian vessel. The Russian ship correctly kept its speed and course until the situation required a last-minute maneuver to avoid an imminent collision.
The US ship did NOTHING, just like the USS Fitzgerald did nothing before hitting that container ship two years ago!
Roundabouts in the ocean might help, but at the end of the day, you can’t fix stupid. All one can do is insure justice is served if a collision happens and that there are appropriate compensation awarded to the offended party.
I really do not think that the 2019 US Navy is up to task for what Trump would like to accomplish across this globe (to make America great?), to be able to antagonize the Chinese and Russian fleets just as he antagonizes them with trade wars. In this regard, he is very GOP (Grand Old Party – Republican Political Party USA) and very Lincoln. Like Lincoln, he has a YUGE navy and a YUGE defense budget to blow while he attempts to overwhelm the “enemy” by sheer numbers instead of finesse or strategy. He will do ANYTHING to get his tariff revenue. Pure Lincoln.
Look for more of this in the future, pretty soon, like in 1864 when the numbers killed under Grant are released weekly (tens of thousands dead), the public will be inoculated to this ineptitude and just desire that the war be over while shielding their eyes from truth.
The path our descendants took had a significant impact on who was present in certain societies in the midst of particular events. Who would have thought that a 2nd generation French Huguenot immigrant (grandson of French Huguenot Gabriel Marion born in 1732), a Continental officer who happened to break an ankle exiting a rowdy officer party in Charles Town, which meant he was to be recuperating at home near the Santee River when the British captured Charles Town, would then morph into a guerilla leader to lead the region in freedom from the British Empire?
I guess I am curious as to the kind of people whose character is shaped by their existing situations as well as the history their family had experienced. Basically, what is the difference between Francis’ ancestors who left France after religious persecution left them few options but to emigrate the the New World, specifically the Carolinas .. and my own ancestors who left the Netherlands in 1846 for the New World, to Michigan?
“What started as a reform of one Church produces an open-ended array of competing churches, which virtually no one at the time considers a good thing.”
So we are talking about a time in this world when the Holy Roman Empire and the wedding of politics and religion was providing the masses (no pun intended), were challenged on a variety of fronts. How this played out depended on the countries and cultures that were present:
The Reformation played out differently in Germany, France, England, and the Low Countries.
I was drawn to the parts that pertained to Francis Marion, and myself.
Regarding Francis’ grandfather’s experience, there was an attempt in Germany to mend the rift between the Catholic church and the reformers:
Catholic leaders reject the most fundamental Protestant premise: The Church offers false doctrines. On a second and also important premise, there are plenty of Catholic leaders that recognize that there are and have been sinful abuses and a lack of holiness among both clergy and laity.
Further attempts are made at some sort of reconciliation between the Reformers and the Church. The final meaningful attempt was made at Regensburg in 1541, the Colloquy (or Diet) of Regensburg.
So when dialog and reason fail ..
… then come the wars. Catholic against Protestant; Catholic and Magisterial Protestants against other Protestant sects. Next comes the Peace of Augsburg, “a Holy Roman Empire with two religions, Lutheran and Catholic.”
So in France, where Gabriel Marion lives:
There is no Lutheranism in France. Calvinism arrives in the form of the Huguenots. Pamphlets, trials, executions. As late as 1554, there are still no established Calvinist churches in France – although the number of underground believers is growing. By 1562, perhaps 800 such churches exist. Most are far from Paris, in the south. The growth emboldens the Huguenots: they destroy church art, deface alters and harass clergy.
They make up perhaps ten percent of the population, but a much larger proportion of the nobility – a problem because still in the sixteenth century no ruler could rule without noble support.
There is blow-back from this violent revolt:
Beginning in 1562, a series of eight civil wars ensue; from start to finish, these last longer than the Thirty Years’ War with perhaps 3 million deaths .. wars for political power: a dynastic power struggle between powerful noble families in the line for succession to the French throne – one Catholic and the other Reformed – with the reigning royal family trying to stride the middle in the form of Catholic conciliation.
Massacres, conversions, refugees, assassinations, acts of revenge. After thirty-six years, in 1598, King Henry IV signed the Edict of Nantes, granting the Huguenots substantial rights but leaving them with no army. Fearing an erosion of these rights – as would soon enough prove a rational fear – hundreds of thousands of Huguenots flee France for Calvinist territories in England, the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Carolina Coast of the New World.
So the “type” of person that Francis’ grandfather was, was someone who opted for the relative unknown of the colony of Carolina over that of England and the Dutch Republic. A true pioneer, this man saw a vision of religious freedom AND hard work of the land to provide his family, in the long term, better opportunities for life and freedom in a ‘new world’.
I can only think that Francis’ character was part DNA and part stories of his grandfather adventures in Europe.
On to my own side note, it seems that my ancestors were able to stay in Europe another 150 years as they happened to be a part of the Dutch Republic:
Belgium and the Netherlands; the northern provinces take their independence from Spain and support Reformed Protestantism; the southern provinces remain Catholic.
The development of the Reformation in many ways parallels developments in other regions of central Europe: Lutheran and Anabaptist heresies followed by executions – more than 1,300 executions by 1566, and more than in any other region. Charles V is working hard to contain the heretics.
Nevertheless, in the Netherlands Reformed Protestantism continues to increase; Charles cedes control of the Low Countries to his son, Philip II, king of Spain. Nobles petition for a softening of anti-heresy laws; the Spanish king sharply rebuffs them, saying he would rather lose all his lands than rule over heretics.
So whenever a king feels their authority threatened, the normal reaction is to reject all appeals to opening that door for freedom. Sometimes, depending on the tenacity of the culture, or of certain underground leaders in society, revolt surges:
Be careful what you wish for, I guess: In April 1566, three-hundred armed nobles ride into Brussels and present Margaret, the king’s regent, with the Compromise of the Nobility – with a demand, backed by arms, of reducing the anti-heresy laws. Margaret has no choice but to relent; in the wake, Calvinism explodes and denunciation of Catholic idolatry and Spanish tyranny boil over.
So when you or your tribe gets the power that others abused, what is the tendency? Revenge …
Monasteries attacked and destroyed, the start of what we now know as the Eighty Years’ War. Philip sends an army of more than 10,000 men, headed by the Duke of Alva: trials of more than 12,000 people take place; 9,000 are deprived of property; more than 1,000 are executed. New taxes are imposed, provoking Calvinists and Catholics alike.
Every action produces an equal and opposite reaction …
Dutch Calvinist pirates begin seizing coastal towns, eventually taking all major cities in the province except Amsterdam. They drive out the priests and kill over 130 of them. Philip can little afford the cost of wars against the Calvinists in the north while at the same time battling the Ottoman Turks. Troops in the Low Countries go unpaid, so they mutiny – sacking Antwerp, killing 8,000 and destroying more than 1,000 homes. What a mess.
Independence is finally achieved:
The Dutch Republic is formalized in 1581; the southern provinces (essentially Belgium) go their own way.
.. but all is not yet well. There is still Catholics now under Calvinist leaders and there is always a chasm it seems with collectivism tendencies:
Yet the conflicts continue:
“In the judgement of some, Catholicism under Spanish control is better than the violent aggression wrought by militant Calvinists.”
The fighting continues on and off until 1648 with more bloodshed and more refugees. This is resolved along with resolution of the Thirty Years’ War in the Peace of Westphalia.
In the end, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands are the same thing only different. The Dutch choose a different path politically:
In the Dutch Republic there is no state church, as there are in France, Spain, England, German Lutheran territories, Scandinavian countries, or the Reformed Protestant territories of the Holy Roman Empire.
People in the Republic do not have to belong to a particular religion; while there is a state-supported church, only a small minority of the population belong to it. The Republic becomes a haven for religious groups of all sorts, and especially in Amsterdam political authorities are relatively tolerant…
“…allowing almost anyone to believe and worship together however they wish, provided they worship behind the closed doors of “hidden churches” and remain politically obedient.”
As with all politics, there is NEVER a live and let live mentality. Whenever power is achieved in a culture or society, there will never be a willingness to give away that power. This is a very broken world, and government/politics is part of that brokenness (from this article):
Even the worst features of the statist reality, Hayek showed, “are not accidental byproducts” but phenomena that are part and parcel of statism itself. He argued with great insightfulness that “the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful” in any society in which government is seen as the answer to most problems. They are precisely the kind of people who elevate power over persuasion, force over cooperation. Government, possessing by definition a legal and political monopoly of the use of force, attracts them just as surely as dung draws flies. Ultimately, it is the apparatus of government that allows them to wreak their havoc on the rest of us.
We will forever experience havoc in this world from the very entity that so many put their faith and trust in, not God, but government.
So very sick and so very sad that the masses will never awake to this truth.
Reflecting on the “progress” of man towards ordering things in this world, it is of no surprise to me the thought of “bigger is better”. Even reflecting on the rise of the Hebrew people from nomads to being slaves in Egypt, and from there to the “Promised Land” west of the Jordan River and then being ruled by judges and eventually a king, you can see this is a very human trait.
The transition toward wanting a king is not something that the Hebrew’s God wanted for them, but it was allowed, with a warning. You see, earthly kings have kingdoms, which inherently need resources, taxes and young men to supply military might for both defense and offense operations. The list goes on and on as to the drain on society, communities and families to support a kingdom let alone an empire.
I think too of the struggle in the late 1700s when American colonists, while appreciating what the British Empire had done to facilitate their ability to immigrate to such a place as America, and supplied protection from those native to this land, they had however, grown resentful at the way their “parents” were treating them, almost like there was an expectation of independence not unlike what happens to humans when the are in their mid to late teens! In this case, many if not most did not want a king after kicking out the British, but some painted the road ahead with fear so as to make many desire the safety that a king, a central state, can supply.
In both of these situations, you have a taxing authority promising protection. As Hans-Hermann Hoppe points out:
A tax-funded protection agency is a contradiction in terms and will lead to ever more taxes and less protection.
One only has to look around today to see the end result of the belief that the state could be counted on to provide safety while taxing its citizens for that safety. Not only do we see the US Empire drone bombing “terrorists” (their claim is that every death is indeed a terrorist death), but also promoting regime change in countries around the globe that have nothing to do with keeping Americans safe. From the lies that launched the invasion of Iraq to the lies that led to epic cultural destruction in Libya, attempted destruction in Syria and desired destruction in Venezuela and Iran, the empire seems determined to start a war with someone. Trade wars and sanctions with Russia and China also indicate that the US Empire is itching for a fight.
But why?
Unknown to most Americans is the fact that a series of macro-economic shifts have happened over the course of this nation’s life that seem to be at the core of the angst this country’s leaders and elites feel at this time.
Remember the phrase “follow the money”? Well, it is pretty prophetic that not only did the Bible both in the Old and New Testament state that the love of money is the root of all evil, but that an inherent distrust of our provision and safety in our Creator fuels this. If there is any entity that is the furthest from God is that of the state. The state is actually the antithesis of a loving father, it is force at its core and “war is the health of the state” – ( Randolph Bourne) is its motto.
Today’s Lew Rockwell site provides a writer by the name of L. Reichard White who is willing to identify the “whys” of this latest round of desired wars. I hope to follow up with a series of posts that go back through history and link America’s coups and wars to show how each one was premised on a lie and historically have been altered to show that these were moral victories for the state when in fact:
The sheer number of people killed by states in the twentieth century—up to 100 million, with more killed in peacetime “social reconstruction” than in wars—makes one suspect that state-provided security is extremely expensive in all respects and that meaningful alternatives have been overlooked.
So on to today’s revelation about the ways of the state and the root issue we are facing here in the 21st century, the constant wars and then some thoughts towards future alternatives.
After walking through some of the most recent “crazy” the the US Empire’s foreign policy seems to have taken since 9/11 and even before, the author states:
With all these U.S. Government interventions, at least 198 of them remember — and sanctions — it’s tempting to conclude there is no rational reason and “we” screw with other folks purely on whim, whimsey, and maybe as a hobby.
But sometimes, maybe there’s a method to this madness. And if so, it often does involve oil, just not quite the way most left-coasters think.
Oil, seems to be a common denominator. But if so, why didn’t the US occupy Libya and keep the oil? Why didn’t the US occupy Iraq and keep the oil? It just doesn’t add up. The author continues:
… because of a 1974 agreement cobbled together by the Nixon administration between the U.S. and Saudis, nearly all oil trade in the world ended up requiring U.S. dollars…
Understand that pre-1974, the US primarily used a central bank to fund its wars across the globe, and unlike your history book says, WWI (joined by the US only a few years after establishing a central bank) and WWII were not actually started by Germany, it has been only covered up that way by “Fake History” (a cousin to “Fake News”)
With a national debt of over $22T these days and over $200T of unfunded liabilities, the US government wants to stabilize and control the future, but the railroad tracks are leading to a gorge that has no bridge yet.
Not coincidentally, this [1974 action] was just three years after Nixon, attempting to finish replacing the gold standard with the U.S. paper-dollar standard, closed the gold window and thus threatened to throw the world economy into chaos. This explains a lot more than most folks realize.
Remember the “petro dollar?” Well, thanks to the Saudi/U.S. established oil-for-dollars tradition, the Brits, Germans, Japanese — in fact just about everyone — had to keep dollars on hand to pay for their oil imports.
And the oil sellers also ended up with a lot of dollars. And so did the countries they bought stuff from. And the dollar tradition spread to trade in other commodities as well. That meant that a large aggregate of U.S. dollars stayed overseas and didn’t return to the U.S.
Econ 301 is needed to understand what this means. Mr White does a good job:
Experts estimate that “majority of cash … outside the United States” is as much as 80% of the U.S. dollars in circulation. All that money overseas has a lot to do with the fact that everyone has to pay for oil, etc., with dollars.
As Case Sprenkle of the University of Illinois puts it, “Insofar as the money remains abroad and is not used to purchase goods or services from the country that printed it, it serves as an interest-free loan from poor countries to the rich.”
That’s mostly how Uncle Sam is able to run-up such huge budget deficits without causing inflation.
At this point, it will become clear to any student of history, that the actions of the US Empire since the 1953 assassination of the democratically elected president of Iran after he threatened to nationalize his nation’s oil to the most recent effort by Venezuela, sanctions, intervention, regime change and if necessary, outright war itself are the only tools the US Empire has at this point of time to get out of the hole it dug itself.
… what happens if people overseas stop using the dollar — and discover the only place they can spend it now is back here in the good ole’ U.S. of A.?
What would happen if the Saudi Arabians said they didn’t want to be paid [for oil] in dollars anymore, but wanted instead, to be paid, say in yen. There would be inflation that would make the 15 to 20 percent inflation in the early 80’s look good.—Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NEW MEXICO, C-SPAN II, 18 May 1995 ~12:33:55 PM
Unfortunately, selling oil for something other than U.S. dollars isn’t the only thing threatening the paper-standard. It’s also become the norm for governments and central banks to stockpile U.S. Treasuries to support their own currencies.
So, if a country reduces its stock-pile of U.S. Treasuries, either by selling them off or no longer rolling them over when they reach maturity — and replaces them with something else, as in the past, gold perhaps — this also threatens the U.S. dollar paper-standard.
The problem is, the paper-standard is mostly psychological. It’s literally a con — that is, confidence — game and when the confidence evaporates, game over.
And it’s very difficult to enforce confidence, no matter how many aircraft carriers, etc. you deploy. Or to predict when the confidence will implode.
Confidence is already waning on the USD Petro Dollar’s use, we know that North Korea does not participate, neither does Cuba, but lately, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and even Saudi Arabia favor de-dollarization in the oil markets, and this is huge:
I agree with Mr. White when he says:
Could that threat [Saudi Arabia’s look at USD de-dollarization] be why Mr. Trump vetoed Congress’ first attempt in 70 years to control unconstitutional U.S. war involvement by ending support for the Saudi-led murder of the men, women and children in Yemen?
What a tangled web an empire weaves. In desperation, the empire struggles to stay relevant and keep the bubble economic facade intact. Gold-based currency was a more honest way to run a nation, but quick money seems to be the way empires go.
.. killing more men, women and children is a classic result of the the paper-standard. As Ferdinand Lips explains so well, compared to the gold standard, the paper-standard makes financing wars easy and so they happen more often, are longer, stronger, and kill more innocent men, women and children.
As some folks like to put it, “The U.S. dollar used to be supported by gold, now it’s supported by aircraft carriers, B-52s and killer drones.”
I think we can safely add that it’s also supported by election meddling, coup, regime change, assassination, sanctions, invasion, and fake undeclared war. Perhaps, then, a more accurate title for this piece would be “Interventionand the Paper Standard.”
Okay then, enough depressing talk, and for those who have stayed along for this journey, what, if any, antidote is there for such a huge situation?
there’s a subtle but insidious problem with the way Trump and the U.S. Deep State are chronically implementing “All options are on the table” Games Theory. Originally a U.S. invention, Games Theory is based on poker.
The problem with poker — and BTW mercantilism as well — is that, unlike voluntary exchange in unhampered markets, it’s a zero-sum game. If you’re in a game with someone who thinks they’re playing poker, someone wins and someone loses — and they intend to make sure you’re the loser.
Unhampered markets on the other hand — and other forms of normal co-operation — are, in the long run, nearly always win-win propositions. As long as they stay unhampered — and normal.
Markets, UNHAMPERED is the key. How can markets be “unhampered”? (Remember the Hebrews when their leadership was judges, wise men who provided justice in a society or community, or the American colonists that homesteaded on acres of trees and developed ways so that they could bring value to their communities out of sight of any British flag or British noble?)
The state is a cancer for so many things in our world. I believe the only saving grace might be for the average human (not just in America, but globally) to understand the state for what is actually is. The average human needs to know “the gun in the room”.
Anarchy, the absence of rulers (not natural rules), is probably the only healthy path forward. One of the best things I have see so far this year is this 52 minute interview on Jeff Berwick’s Anarchast page that supplies a double dose of reality into the reality of 2019, the consideration of both anarchy and Jesus as a possible path forward. I am not talking chaos and religion here, so it might be good to view this YouTube so you can understand both of these options without accepting them:
Anarchast About:
Anarchast is your home for Anarchy Podcasts on the internet
To us, Anarchy means freedom. The desire to live without a violent, coercive State. Anarchy is peace, love and prosperity. Free markets. And, power to the people.
Anarchist. Libertarian. Freedom fighter against mankinds two biggest enemies, the State and the Central Banks.
Jeff is the Chief Editor of The Dollar Vigilante, a newsletter focused on investments and expatriation information to survive the coming collapse of the US dollar based financial system.
So remember, money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is. If your faith is in money and/or government, you are going to have a bad day.
I hope to post more on what the future might hold as far as alternatives to the state, especially the “in your face” state that we are seeing in the USA that used to be restricted to the USSR, Communist China and East Germany for a few decades.
Roof Korean Week is here again. After the savage beating of Rodney King at the hands of police officers and their subsequent acquittal, rioters took to the streets in what is known as the “LA Riots.”
Y’all know how to use Internet search engines like DuckDuckGo and StartPage (instead of Google, am I right?). Below is the play by play and how true heroes do not wear capes!
Korean citizens and their businesses/homes were intentionally targeted by the rioters. Sure they had nothing to do with King or the police officers who beat him, but “their prices are too high, their attitude is wrong, they have no respect for the community.”
“Respect” for the community. It is tough to do business in a community that does not understand basic economics, triggering envy is what race-baiters love to do.
Koreans were savagely attacked, while their businesses and homes were looted and burned. They did what good citizens do, they called the police and they waited for help. Unfortunately, police were stretched thin and were also being targeted for violence.
Since this point in time I must mention that the Supreme Court ruled many times about the duty of the police BOTH before and after the LA Riots:
There have BEEN OVER 10 various supreme and state court cases the individual has never won. Notably, the Supreme Court STATED about the responsibility of police for the security of your family and loved ones is “You, and only you, are responsible for your security and the security of your family and loved ones. That was the essence of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the early 1980’s when they ruled that the police do not have a duty to protect you as an individual, but to protect society as a whole.”
Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. 1981).
“…a government and its agencies are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen…” –Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App. 1981)
Citizens deserve the right to know, that waiting for police action may mean death for themselves and those they love. Self defense is a natural right given by our Creator.
So, what do good American citizens do when the police can’t or won’t help them and hordes of armed looters are descending upon them? They become peak American citizens by exercising their God given and constitutionally protected rights.
From Lexington and Concord in April 1775 to 2019, it usually takes extreme times to jar American citizens awake and know that they are on their own.
Unfortunately for the rioters, most of these fine Americans were legal immigrants from Korea. As such, many of them had fulfilled Korea’s mandatory service obligations prior to earning American citizenship and took to the 2nd amendment like beef to bulgogi [fire meat].
Outraged at the attack against their prosperous, law abiding community and abandoned by law enforcement (bUt ThE pOlIcE pRoTeCt YoU), they gathered their arms and ammunition. Many were carried to the rooftops by bald eagles (or so the legend goes) and Roof Koreans were born.
From the rooftops, these legends protected each other’s property, homes, and lives. But even among a group of legends, bigger-than-fiction heroes can emerge. Enter this handsome devil, David Joo. If you know of Roof Korea, you know David Joo by sight of not by name.
On the second day of the riots, April 30, 1992, David, a humble gun shop owner and his friend Richard Park, a purveyor of fine jewelry who owned a store in the same plaza, came under attack. Not being bloodthirsty savages, they called he police.
Four of LA’s finest showed between the waves of attacks. They encouraged the Koreans to flee for their lives and I SHIT YOU NOT promptly FLED as soon as the rioters attacked again and started taking pot shots. YOUR SAFETY IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, DO NOT RELY ON POLICE.
This point has been made time and again in the history of the United States. The myth that police (started to be a thing starting in 1830s in Boston and New York City and was in place in all major cities by the 1880s) are in place to serve and protect is something that harms your average citizens that find themselves caught up in riots, unrest and even domestic situations.
David, Richard, and their fellow citizens had to do some on-the-spot soul searching. Yeah they could run for their lives. But what’s life worth if you abandon everything you’ve spent your life toiling for, the existence you’ve sweated and labored for, in the face of danger? … There’s an ancient Korean saying. “F*ck around, find out.” And brotha, let me tell you, rioters found out real quick. David and Richard drew a line in the streets of Los Angeles, got their Leonidas on, and made their stand.
“I didn’t hesitate to shoot them”
Car loads of armed rioters and gang members made several assaults on the Roof Koreans in an effort to kill them or drive them out of the city but were unable to intimidate or defeat these law abiding civil right exercising champions of the American Dream.
Over 5 days, more than 1000 buildings in the LA area were destroyed, and over a billion dollars worth of damage done. But guess which communities endured the storm with minimal damage and injury? That’s right. The store David and Richard fought from still stands today.
Brave Americans refused to surrender their lives and livelihoods to an outraged and murderous horde. They defended themselves exercising the very right a new outrage mob is trying to intimidate, lie, and bully you into surrendering for some illusion of safety. They lie to you claiming there’s no need for high capacity magazines or semiautomatic rifles. They want you to rely on the same people who fled, abandoning American citizens to their own defenses as soon as the shit hit the fan. They stand on the graves of murder victims like a pulpit and they try to blame you and me for the actions of others and use that to try and guilt you into surrendering your constitutionally protected rights. Don’t give them an inch, and don’t let them fool you. When a mob comes for me and the police run away to save themselves or don’t even show up at all, and I’m looking out at a sea of murderous intent, I have a God given right to protect my life, my family’s lives, and our home with whatever weapon I believe best serves that purpose.
This is the bottom line, there is no way to protect yourself once you have decided to disarm for “everyone’s” safety because guess what, there are still guns around AFTER all the disarming has been completed by the collective (communist, socialist, fascist are all the same).
We aren’t responsible for mass shootings, murder, or suicides. Neither are our weapons. You are your own best defense. Don’t let weak cowards scare you into giving up the best tools for that responsibility.
Man up (used in the traditional, this means men AND women). Especially if you are a single parent with children, you need to get trained and get armed because at the end of the day, when seconds count, police are minutes/hours/days away.
“You, and only you, are responsible for your security and the security of your family and loved ones.“
Note the names have been changed to “protect the innocent”:
Halftime in this book, time for a little reflection as to how things were in 1780, how things were for us in the 1990s .. and reflecting on the future.
In dialog over the past week with my son Captain1776 regarding the recaps I have been sharing went like this:
Captain1776: “.. Can’t imagine evading, hiding, having limited food n clothes, fighting a long war away from family as your brothers and neighbors die… its crazy ..”
SF1/Dad: “.. Back then society consisted of mainly pioneer types … this allowed Marion to be supplied buy a slim majority in some areas .. today society is full of snowflakes IMHO . look at your neighbors and think how many would risk to supply you if you led rebellion against the Government. Yup .. a LOT of work to do to change hearts and minds .. will probably need to be preceded by government defaulting on it’s promises in a big way ..”
Captain1776: “..That’s some truth right there. I don’t think there’d be anyone willing to help lol. Smh!..”
I was sitting on the deck this morning in the mid-40s sunshine that SW Michigan offered up with my eyes closed. My mind reflected back to the 1990s when we had a time as family where springtime, especially by April 10th meant it was time for chickens and pigs: (Malibu holding spring chicks)
As a young father, what were my priorities? Family first .. and then community/extended ‘family’. What gave the capacity to do this? Love. Plain and simple, there were just some things that one sacrifices for that don’t always benefit ones self.
As a dad, I love all my kids, and time with them was a premium. But there was also a time that I expanded that to what I call ‘extended family’ .. usually good friends would emerge (whether it was neighbor M.S. or L.G. who I met at church, or B.P. or J.F. or even Pastor R.V.) that would expand my world. My daily thoughts were/are still for them and their families.
It does seem that since 9/11 the distractions from the American Empire and the world have taken center stage, and our love for country wants safety for all involved .. the soldiers as well as the civilians caught up being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not long after this “noble” war we learned that it was all based on a lie. Soldiers that did return from the Middle East felt as betrayed as the ones that returned from Vietnam in the 1970s. The American “exceptionalism” meant that we were to go around the world and create new democracies .. however, this too has turned into a lie.
The American media which for generations have brought Americans the journalism that shaped our worldview has started to reveal their true allegiance .. and it is not towards telling the truth.
The American educational system which for generations have taught us a local/regional/national view that has begun to unravel. More Americans everyday are starting to wakeup to the fact that we have been lied to, our parents have been lied to .. our grandparents as well as the version of history, economics and even psychology taught is a subset of what is real.
The American government’s war on poverty, war on drugs, etc. are utter failures, by design, as their monopoly works so that they just need a little more money to get it right while tricking the pawns caught in the web to experience perpetual government dependence or life in prison.
The American corporatism (corporate welfare recipients) have also corrupted our country, with a suspect food supply, suspect health”care” system that only benefits those elites that can gain profit and power from these intrusions into families and communities across America.
The American police state has made it their business to know everything about everybody, and the CIA/FBI/NSA and 14 other intelligence agencies in this country can control both individual lives as well as politics. They now have the dirt on everyone over the past decade plus that can be used as blackmail since all that data can easily be taken out of context to prove ones guilt to the myriad of laws on the books .. and even remove anyone from society with a trip to Gitmo or soon, a drone strike.
Twenty short years from the 1990s it seems that we have lost almost the rest of what America had to offer to those pioneers in the 1600/1700s that provided Francis Marion that opportunity to serve his FAMILY and COMMUNITY by doing sacrificially what he did over the course of two plus years to help the “cause” for each of the thirteen sovereign states to be independent from the English Empire.
While the erosion of locality, family & community, has been ongoing since almost right after the American Revolution .. the last 20/50/150 years has seen times that accelerated this slide.
Personally, I am in the middle of unlearning all that government schools taught me in the 1960s/1970s .. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are not the people the text books make them out to be. This is NOT an exercise in bashing others to make me look good or right. This is an effort to knock down those idols, those deified gods our state has propped up to support their narrative on being that “shining city on a hill” BS.
The real heroes are the family men and women who sacrifice their time, money and sometimes life to provide their kids and community with liberty and freedom.
Francis Marion is one of those rare people that became a legend and yet when a light is shined on their lives they were real people with a heart for others.
So while the evening news, Yahoo News or Google searches try to distract you into thinking that only the American Empire can keep you and your family safe, and that the Nanny State loves all her children and that the Daddy State (Military Industrial Complex) is a righteous power for good in this world and that the Police State can keep you safe from all the bad guys by knowing everything (if you see something, say something) .. think again.
Do your own homework and research. Teach your kids and challenge your co-workers to “change minds and hearts”. Above all, know that Papa is especially fond of you, that He has been greatly misunderstood by many religious teachers and know that Jesus is with you and can relate to where you might be at when you feel you are at the end of your rope. Trust the Holy Spirit in your heart to be your guide and your True North.
“The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops – no, but the kind of man the country turns out.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Love y’all
Spring must be a season for reflections .. soak up time with family and friends!
-SF1
Remake of in 2014 – RIP Dean Ford – Life is Short:
