It’s an ill wind that blows no good. The dream that my descendants might live in a land where the writ of the District of Corruption no longer runs grows ever more real with each such outrage against the decaying corpse of the Republic.
anonMarch 31, 2023, 9:01 AM
When my daughter was 4 we took her to see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. She said, “It’s exactly what I didn’t expect!” (Guess she thought it would be golden.)
Well, the current state of the US is exactly what I never expected. I am too old for this.
God Bless America.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
(—Robert Frost)
ghostsniperMarch 31, 2023, 10:44 AM
“A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. It marks the end of a years long investigation into hush money paid to adult movie star Stormy Daniels in 2016, allegedly to buy her silence about their affair.”
==========
What, in that paragraph (which seems to be mostly conjecture) is illegal?
What is the conjecture part?
1. hush
2. porn star
3. adult movie star
4. allegedly
Remove those made up words and you have:
“A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump over money paid to Stormy Daniels. It marks the end of a years long investigation into money paid to Stormy Daniels in 2016, allegedly to buy her silence about their affair.”
Again, what is illegal in that?
Giving a woman money? Bill Clinton did that.
Having an affair? Where’s the blue dress?
Can Trump, after this settles, sue the hell out of whomever did this?
Casey KlahnMarch 31, 2023, 3:11 PM
Ghost, I read somewhere that Trump paid nothing to Ms. Daniels, and so it’s possible that even that premise is bullshit. What they do is pile on the number of indictments so that one might possibly get a conviction. As I understand it, none of this would prevent Trump from being elected/inaugurated in 2024. The whole thing is designed to scare low-information voters into thinking Trump is dirty, and cannot be elected. Unelectable is what they want him to be, but smart political pundits think he’ll become ineluctable, which means this will raise his profile among American voters past Elvis, Johnny Carson, George Washington – you name it. Ineluctable means incapable of being avoided – Trump will be solid gold politically.
Neo: your meme is exactly how we feel. I felt that way when the Mar a Lago raid went down, and that which we feared from the raid has come upon us. A bullshit politically motivated raid now dominoes to the arrest of a former POTUS and what will stop them from the next thing and the next insult to our sensibilities? Like I said on Wednesday’s thread: Biden arrests Trump, then disarms Americans. A banner week: Lenin and Stalin are applauding from Hell, but jealous. Dark Brandon, indeed.
Ghost, anon, and captfee, here I thought that the case at the grand jury had fallen completely apart and was going to lead to no indictments, but maybe the DA (I can’t say his name because that’s racist) decided fuck it, roll the indictments out in as many as possible so the inevitable losing will either find one weak spot and lead to a conviction, or else the DA is insane (likely), or else he’s just making a political calculation to reinforce the crazy anti-Trump base, even though the case has no merit. It’s lying in order to command one news cycle and then you expect it to be forgotten by everyone except the mentally deranged who insist that Trump colluded with Russia and the Covid Vax was a good thing. Those are the one’s whose ignorance glitters at the burn pit.
Trump will be indicted, and then he will be the political martyr of all political martyrs. His name will become synonymous with political martyrdom. Like Caesar, who had the worst month of March in history, this politically banal event will make trump gigantic. No wonder Biden has moved so suddenly to disarmament. I was wondering about Biden’s timing on that. Now I think we may know why we shouldn’t be armed. We might spot a tyrant and do what the constitution tells us we’re to do.
AnonymousMarch 31, 2023, 4:31 PM
History suggests a few well-placed assassinations turns things into unexpected directions … say 1963? Maybe 44AD? 1914?
Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions — especially his traps — and drove south.
Several weeks later he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
It was a Saturday morning — a lazy day — when he walked into the general store. Sitting around the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town’s local citizens.
The traveler spoke. “Gentlemen, could you direct me to the Okefenokee Swamp?”
Some of the oldtimers looked at him like he was crazy.
“You must be a stranger in these parts,” they said.
“I am. I’m from North Dakota,” said the stranger.
“In the Okefenokee Swamp are thousands of wild hogs.” one old man explained.
“A man who goes into the swamp by himself asks to die!”
He lifted up his leg. “I lost half my leg here, to the pigs of the swamp.”
Another old fellow said, “Look at the cuts on me; look at my arm bit off!”
“Those pigs have been free since the Revolution, eating snakes and rooting out roots and fending for themselves for over a hundred years. They’re wild and they’re dangerous. You can’t trap them. No man dare go into the swamp by himself.”
Every man nodded his head in agreement.
The old trapper said, “Thank you so much for the warning. Now could you direct me to the swamp?”
They said, “Well, yeah, it’s due south — straight down the road.”
But they begged the stranger not to go, because they knew he’d meet a terrible fate.
He said, “Sell me ten sacks of corn, and help me load it in the wagon.” And they did.
Then the old trapper bid them farewell and drove on down the road. The townsfolk thought they’d never see him again.
Two weeks later the man came back. He pulled up to the general store, got down off the wagon, walked in and bought ten more sacks of corn.
After loading it up he went back down the road toward the swamp.
Two weeks later he returned and again bought ten sacks of corn.
This went on for a month. And then two months, and three.
Every week or two the old trapper would come into town on a Saturday morning, load up ten sacks of corn, and drive off south into the swamp.
The stranger soon became a legend in the little village and the subject of much speculation. People wondered what kind of devil had possessed this man,
that he could go into the Okefenokee by himself and not be consumed by the wild and free hogs.
One morning the man came into town as usual. Everyone thought he wanted more corn.
He got off the wagon and went into the store where the usual group of men were gathered around the stove. He took off his gloves.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “I need to hire about ten or fifteen wagons. I need twenty or thirty men.”
“I have six thousand hogs out in the swamp, penned up, and they’re all hungry. I’ve got to get them to market right away.”
“You’ve WHAT in the swamp?” asked the storekeeper, incredulously.
“I have six thousand hogs penned up. They haven’t eaten for two or three days, and they’ll starve if I don’t get back there to feed and take care of them.”
One of the oldtimers said, “You mean you’ve captured the wild hogs of the Okefenokee?”
“That’s right.”
“How did you do that? What did you do?” the men urged, breathlessly.
One of them exclaimed, “But I lost my arm!”
“I lost my brother!” cried another.
“I lost my leg to those wild boars!” chimed a third.
The trapper said, “Well, the first week I went in there they were wild all right.”
“They hid in the undergrowth and wouldn’t come out. I dared not get off the wagon.”
“So I spread corn along behind the wagon. Every day I’d spread a sack of corn.”
“The old pigs would have nothing to do with it.”
“But the younger pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn than it was to root out roots and catch snakes. So the very young began to eat the corn first.”
“I did this every day. Pretty soon, even the old pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn.”
“After all, they were all free; they were not penned up. They could run off in any direction they wanted at any time.”
“The next thing was to get them used to eating in the same place all the time. So I selected a clearing, and I started putting the corn in the clearing.”
“At first they wouldn’t come to the clearing. It was too far. It was too open. It was a nuisance to them.”
“But the very young decided that it was easier to take the corn in the clearing than it was to root out roots and catch their own snakes. And not long thereafter, the older pigs also decided that it was easier to come to the clearing every day.”
“And so the pigs learned to come to the clearing every day to get their free corn.”
“They could still subsidize their diet with roots and snakes and whatever else they wanted. After all, they were all free. They could run in any direction at any time. There were no bounds upon them.”
“The next step was to get them used to fence posts.”
“So I put fence posts all the way around the clearing. I put them in the underbrush so that they wouldn’t get suspicious or upset.”
“After all, they were just sticks sticking up out of the ground, like the trees and the brush. The corn was there every day. It was easy to walk in between the posts, get the corn, and walk back out.”
“This went on for a week or two. Shortly they became very used to walking into the clearing, getting the free corn, and walking back out through the fence posts.”
“The next step was to put one rail down at the bottom. I also left a few openings, so that the older, fatter pigs could walk through the openings and the younger pigs could easily jump over just one rail.”
“After all, it was no real threat to their freedom or independence. They could always jump over the rail and flee in any direction at any time.”
“Now I decided that I wouldn’t feed them every day. I began to feed them every other day.”
“On the days I didn’t feed them the pigs still gathered in the clearing. They squealed, and they grunted, and they begged and pleaded with me to feed them.”
“But I only fed them every other day. And I put a second rail around the posts.”
“Now the pigs became more and more desperate for food. Because now they were no longer used to going out and digging their own roots and finding their own food. They now needed me. They needed my corn every other day.”
“So I trained them that I would feed them every day if they came in through a gate. And I put up a third rail around the fence.”
“But it was still no great threat to their freedom, because there were several gates and they could run in and out at will.”
“Finally I put up the fourth rail.”
“Then I closed all the gates but one, and I fed them very, very well.”
“Yesterday I closed the last gate. And today I need you to help me take these pigs to market.”
— end of story —
The price of free corn
The allegory of the pigs has a serious moral lesson. This story is about federal money being used to bait, trap and enslave a once free and independent
people.
Federal welfare, in its myriad forms, has reduced not only individuals to a state of dependency. State and local governments are also on the fast track to elimination, due to their functions being subverted by the command and control structures of federal “revenue sharing” programs.
I for one am going to start referring to PDJT as, “Precedent TRUMP” since he has set so many precedents. Being the first President to be indicted is just the cherry on the cake. Can’t believe these fools stepped into this trap, too. When he is dishing out the payback; Investigating taxes of not only Former Presidents but their business partners and families, raiding their homes, and their taste of this piece of work, it will be sweet justice. Patience and trust.
ghostsniperMarch 31, 2023, 5:37 PM
He sed “Precedent”
HA! Good one Rev.
AnneMarch 31, 2023, 5:35 PM
Would someone please post the link for this picture? I need to pass this around by email!
TerryMarch 31, 2023, 7:31 PM
Anne, cursor on image, right mouse click, then left click ‘Save Image As’.
AnneApril 1, 2023, 10:03 AM
Thank you, Terry, but I am working on a very old Apple–no right-click, or left-click operation. Any other suggestions?
@ Casey, don’t know if you’ve seen this yet.
Last week a leg got knocked off that 3 legged stool the anti-gunners have been wobbling on top of.
Turns out Stoner created the Armalite 15 for the, get this, for the CITIZEN market, not the military market.
NBC news and the Twits who purvey that BS about “Stoner would’a…” don’t fool me for a second. I read long ago about the marketing of the Armalite carbine to the civilian market.
If NBC had its way, they’d add in the last paragraph: “and Stoner said that musketry was all the Second Amendment protected, as well as sticks and stones. Any fool knows that the US government regulates itself and the citizen has shit to say about his lot in this democracy-the 2A being in no way a bulwark against federal overreach, and only arms nasty guardspersons on weekends and holidays, so that they can stand palace guard in DC when guys like Biden get ‘elected’ and installed in DC.”
azlibertarianMarch 31, 2023, 6:21 PM
“…When he is dishing out the payback; Investigating taxes of not only Former Presidents but their business partners and families, raiding their homes, and their taste of this piece of work, it will be sweet justice.”
The problem that Trump will face after the inauguration in 2025 is the same one that he had in 2017: The .gov is filled with 10,000 Lt.Col Vindmanns. Which IRS agent will be doing all these investigations? How many Lois Lerner acolytes remain in the IRS? Which FBI agents are to do these raids? These guys? https://images.app.goo.gl/ZFSRZ6WrHGzKk2hP8
If Trump has suddenly found the key to appointing effective Cabinet-level nominees and White House staff, I haven’t seen evidence of it. [In fairness, I haven’t seen that evidence in any one else either.] I’d like Trump to go Conan the Barbarian and hear the lamentations of the Democrat women and soi bois, but the Deep State is deep….maybe deeper than can be dealt with by any one man.
ghostsniperApril 1, 2023, 3:43 AM
The last part of your least sentence seems to be very true, and it seems Trump vastly underestimated that the last time around. I’d like to think the 4 years between terms have been a huge learning experience for him.
Trump needs to think of his role as prez sort of like one of his huge construction projects.
DELEGATE
TRUSTWORTHY and LOYAL partnerships.
Break the project down to bite size pieces then assign teams (of pitbull lawyers) to each bite.
Entire organizations need to be ground down to dust and then swept out the door with large numbers of former employees arrested and/or fired, and closed down.
Casey KlahnApril 1, 2023, 4:17 AM
azlibertarian and ghost: I felt like I was using some exaggeration or hyperbole when Trump first walked down Pennsylvania Avenue the day of his inauguration, and I said that when he took that walk, simultaneously each agency needed to be raided, arrests and pink slips issued, hard drives seized, and padlocks placed on the front door. The FBI, CIA, IRS, BATF, Interior-you name it. Now, in hindsight, I was only seeing what would be required to torch that scene, metaphorically speaking. Trump was a fantastic president in his first term, and has been a wonderful businessman and public personality, but I wish to hell he’d been a goddamned infantry officer. Infantry officers know that when you’re preparing the battlespace, expecting a fair fight is for dumbasses. Never fight fair in war; you must dominate.
Another thing I said during his first term was that DC needs to be Balkanized. Sunset the really deep, dark agencies, like the FBI and CIA, and then the ones that still survive need to be moved out into the real America. The BIA needs to be headquartered in new Mexico, or Oklahoma. If Interior survives, it needs to be in Eastern Washington, or North Dakota. The Pentagon to Florida, or Georgia. I also said that Trump had shitty cabinets because there are no wise men in Washington DC. Diogenes could see that with a blindfold on.
DeSantis thinks he’s cool because he’s said Florida will not cooperate with the extradition of Trump. What DeSantis really needs to do is check that his manhood has descended, and ring MaL with National Guardsmen and defend the president from what everyone knows is a travesty of justice. The Dems have frequently disregarded the constitution, and now fear no retribution for this egregious political theater. The sooner we kick them in the ass, the better we’ll be going forward. The guard shouldn’t fight the secret service, but a move like I’m suggesting would make clear that this is political war, and our side has balls. As it is, our side looks like Bambi in the shotgun position.
In regards to the thought of Trump appointing trustworthy men in cabinet positions, or other high positions within the federal government, is there are not many men whom, if appointed to perform certain badly needed housecleaning operations, whom would perform said operations during their terms, and then walk away and return to simply a life of solid American citizenship. Most, if not all, individuals who get a taste for the power they are wielding within the federal government, are unwilling to walk away. Power is a drug with vast effects. Even some of the founding fathers instrumental in crushing the tyranny of the British succumbed to the drug. Difficult times are breathing down our necks.
ghostsniperApril 1, 2023, 9:14 AM
That’s what contracts are for. And subcontractors.
All the details are spelled out in the contracts, cost, duration, expectations, etc., and when gauged with performance deadlines things get done. You know, like in real life.
I’ve hired many people over the years and the very first person I ever hired was done so the old fashioned way. I paid him by the hour. Last time I ever did that. I let him go 3 days after I hired him. He was costing me too much and the return on my investment was terrible. After that I only hired people on a subcontract basis (contract terms spelled out up front) and I was almost never disappointed. When the job is completed the contract is terminated. Everybody involved knows what is expected of them and feeling do not get hurt. Clear, precise, written communication that can be used as reference later.
Trump could put me in charge of the team that would sweep through the IRS. In the first week my team would evaluate the project and after 10 business days I would provide Trump with a complete outline of what he could expect from my team over the next 6 months, the time required to provide the clean sweep. At the end of the contract Trump would give me a performance award of $1,000,000.00 in 90% gold US coins and he would never hear from me again, unless he wanted to hire me again under a new contract. That 90% gold is all the “power” I would want.
Everything I wrote above and much, much more happens every single day out here in the private section but never happens at all in any faction of gov’t. That’s why the private sector is continuously thriving and the gov’t is continuously failing and only exists at all because of the coercive confiscatory rules it rewards itself with against the private sector.
AnneApril 1, 2023, 9:41 AM
What about those military contractors overseas?
AnonymousApril 1, 2023, 10:23 AM
Something new to think about. Here is a problem I would like to have your thoughts about.
For example: If I wanted to start a small private business hosting small parties for dinner in my backyard, what are the legal criteria for being able to exclude certain groups of people? I know the cake man in Colorado has succeeded in defending himself against several cases, but still they come after him for not wanting to serve homosexuals demanding he make their wedding cakes. What is the status of these laws? What if I do not form a business, but merely report it as “income” What if I want to choose who I invite what are the parameters for that? How will my insurance company cover the action either as a business or not? Please put your good minds to this, I will be very appreciative of your input.
Casey KlahnApril 1, 2023, 2:30 PM
This is possibly the end of executive power in the USA. It isn’t just Fort Sumpter, it’s Hiroshima.
What prevents an incumbent from arresting his political opponents, a la a Banana Republic? Nothing, of course. Biden may have the most corrupt DOJ ever this side of The Star Wars Empire Senate, but a state government or some federal DA somewhere can try to indict him. The House can convene indefinitely to just look, line item by line item, at every Joe Biden source of income since he was a little law student back home in Delaware. Income from China. Russia. Ukraine. Mexico.
Chief Executive? BwahhhaHaaHH
AnonymousApril 1, 2023, 4:17 PM
One side obeys the law (sort of) and respects procedures. The other ignores both. America may be gone (and won’t be back as we recall it) but we aren’t. I forget the reference but there was a parody or some such decades ago about the Revolution: the British fought in well-established battle lines and the Americans “cheated” by firing from broken lines, behind trees, and such. Time to ignore the rules; it’s a new revolution or submission at this stage. I trust Putin more than Obiden.
Something that the Demoncrats understand and Republican and Independents do not. United we stand, divided we fall. The republicans are full rinos but in reality they are traitors who will do the bidding of anyone who is not for Trump.
DianaApril 6, 2023, 8:13 PM
I agree! May God give us the courage to defend our Country
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
It’s an ill wind that blows no good. The dream that my descendants might live in a land where the writ of the District of Corruption no longer runs grows ever more real with each such outrage against the decaying corpse of the Republic.
When my daughter was 4 we took her to see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. She said, “It’s exactly what I didn’t expect!” (Guess she thought it would be golden.)
Well, the current state of the US is exactly what I never expected. I am too old for this.
God Bless America.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
(—Robert Frost)
“A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. It marks the end of a years long investigation into hush money paid to adult movie star Stormy Daniels in 2016, allegedly to buy her silence about their affair.”
==========
What, in that paragraph (which seems to be mostly conjecture) is illegal?
What is the conjecture part?
1. hush
2. porn star
3. adult movie star
4. allegedly
Remove those made up words and you have:
“A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump over money paid to Stormy Daniels. It marks the end of a years long investigation into money paid to Stormy Daniels in 2016, allegedly to buy her silence about their affair.”
Again, what is illegal in that?
Giving a woman money? Bill Clinton did that.
Having an affair? Where’s the blue dress?
Can Trump, after this settles, sue the hell out of whomever did this?
Ghost, I read somewhere that Trump paid nothing to Ms. Daniels, and so it’s possible that even that premise is bullshit. What they do is pile on the number of indictments so that one might possibly get a conviction. As I understand it, none of this would prevent Trump from being elected/inaugurated in 2024. The whole thing is designed to scare low-information voters into thinking Trump is dirty, and cannot be elected. Unelectable is what they want him to be, but smart political pundits think he’ll become ineluctable, which means this will raise his profile among American voters past Elvis, Johnny Carson, George Washington – you name it. Ineluctable means incapable of being avoided – Trump will be solid gold politically.
Neo: your meme is exactly how we feel. I felt that way when the Mar a Lago raid went down, and that which we feared from the raid has come upon us. A bullshit politically motivated raid now dominoes to the arrest of a former POTUS and what will stop them from the next thing and the next insult to our sensibilities? Like I said on Wednesday’s thread: Biden arrests Trump, then disarms Americans. A banner week: Lenin and Stalin are applauding from Hell, but jealous. Dark Brandon, indeed.
Ghost, anon, and captfee, here I thought that the case at the grand jury had fallen completely apart and was going to lead to no indictments, but maybe the DA (I can’t say his name because that’s racist) decided fuck it, roll the indictments out in as many as possible so the inevitable losing will either find one weak spot and lead to a conviction, or else the DA is insane (likely), or else he’s just making a political calculation to reinforce the crazy anti-Trump base, even though the case has no merit. It’s lying in order to command one news cycle and then you expect it to be forgotten by everyone except the mentally deranged who insist that Trump colluded with Russia and the Covid Vax was a good thing. Those are the one’s whose ignorance glitters at the burn pit.
Trump will be indicted, and then he will be the political martyr of all political martyrs. His name will become synonymous with political martyrdom. Like Caesar, who had the worst month of March in history, this politically banal event will make trump gigantic. No wonder Biden has moved so suddenly to disarmament. I was wondering about Biden’s timing on that. Now I think we may know why we shouldn’t be armed. We might spot a tyrant and do what the constitution tells us we’re to do.
History suggests a few well-placed assassinations turns things into unexpected directions … say 1963? Maybe 44AD? 1914?
Need a link to “The Pig Trap”?
The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp
Some years ago, about 1900, an old trapper from North Dakota hitched up some horses to his Studebaker wagon, packed a few possessions — especially his traps — and drove south.
Several weeks later he stopped in a small town just north of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.
It was a Saturday morning — a lazy day — when he walked into the general store. Sitting around the pot-bellied stove were seven or eight of the town’s local citizens.
The traveler spoke. “Gentlemen, could you direct me to the Okefenokee Swamp?”
Some of the oldtimers looked at him like he was crazy.
“You must be a stranger in these parts,” they said.
“I am. I’m from North Dakota,” said the stranger.
“In the Okefenokee Swamp are thousands of wild hogs.” one old man explained.
“A man who goes into the swamp by himself asks to die!”
He lifted up his leg. “I lost half my leg here, to the pigs of the swamp.”
Another old fellow said, “Look at the cuts on me; look at my arm bit off!”
“Those pigs have been free since the Revolution, eating snakes and rooting out roots and fending for themselves for over a hundred years. They’re wild and they’re dangerous. You can’t trap them. No man dare go into the swamp by himself.”
Every man nodded his head in agreement.
The old trapper said, “Thank you so much for the warning. Now could you direct me to the swamp?”
They said, “Well, yeah, it’s due south — straight down the road.”
But they begged the stranger not to go, because they knew he’d meet a terrible fate.
He said, “Sell me ten sacks of corn, and help me load it in the wagon.” And they did.
Then the old trapper bid them farewell and drove on down the road. The townsfolk thought they’d never see him again.
Two weeks later the man came back. He pulled up to the general store, got down off the wagon, walked in and bought ten more sacks of corn.
After loading it up he went back down the road toward the swamp.
Two weeks later he returned and again bought ten sacks of corn.
This went on for a month. And then two months, and three.
Every week or two the old trapper would come into town on a Saturday morning, load up ten sacks of corn, and drive off south into the swamp.
The stranger soon became a legend in the little village and the subject of much speculation. People wondered what kind of devil had possessed this man,
that he could go into the Okefenokee by himself and not be consumed by the wild and free hogs.
One morning the man came into town as usual. Everyone thought he wanted more corn.
He got off the wagon and went into the store where the usual group of men were gathered around the stove. He took off his gloves.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “I need to hire about ten or fifteen wagons. I need twenty or thirty men.”
“I have six thousand hogs out in the swamp, penned up, and they’re all hungry. I’ve got to get them to market right away.”
“You’ve WHAT in the swamp?” asked the storekeeper, incredulously.
“I have six thousand hogs penned up. They haven’t eaten for two or three days, and they’ll starve if I don’t get back there to feed and take care of them.”
One of the oldtimers said, “You mean you’ve captured the wild hogs of the Okefenokee?”
“That’s right.”
“How did you do that? What did you do?” the men urged, breathlessly.
One of them exclaimed, “But I lost my arm!”
“I lost my brother!” cried another.
“I lost my leg to those wild boars!” chimed a third.
The trapper said, “Well, the first week I went in there they were wild all right.”
“They hid in the undergrowth and wouldn’t come out. I dared not get off the wagon.”
“So I spread corn along behind the wagon. Every day I’d spread a sack of corn.”
“The old pigs would have nothing to do with it.”
“But the younger pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn than it was to root out roots and catch snakes. So the very young began to eat the corn first.”
“I did this every day. Pretty soon, even the old pigs decided that it was easier to eat free corn.”
“After all, they were all free; they were not penned up. They could run off in any direction they wanted at any time.”
“The next thing was to get them used to eating in the same place all the time. So I selected a clearing, and I started putting the corn in the clearing.”
“At first they wouldn’t come to the clearing. It was too far. It was too open. It was a nuisance to them.”
“But the very young decided that it was easier to take the corn in the clearing than it was to root out roots and catch their own snakes. And not long thereafter, the older pigs also decided that it was easier to come to the clearing every day.”
“And so the pigs learned to come to the clearing every day to get their free corn.”
“They could still subsidize their diet with roots and snakes and whatever else they wanted. After all, they were all free. They could run in any direction at any time. There were no bounds upon them.”
“The next step was to get them used to fence posts.”
“So I put fence posts all the way around the clearing. I put them in the underbrush so that they wouldn’t get suspicious or upset.”
“After all, they were just sticks sticking up out of the ground, like the trees and the brush. The corn was there every day. It was easy to walk in between the posts, get the corn, and walk back out.”
“This went on for a week or two. Shortly they became very used to walking into the clearing, getting the free corn, and walking back out through the fence posts.”
“The next step was to put one rail down at the bottom. I also left a few openings, so that the older, fatter pigs could walk through the openings and the younger pigs could easily jump over just one rail.”
“After all, it was no real threat to their freedom or independence. They could always jump over the rail and flee in any direction at any time.”
“Now I decided that I wouldn’t feed them every day. I began to feed them every other day.”
“On the days I didn’t feed them the pigs still gathered in the clearing. They squealed, and they grunted, and they begged and pleaded with me to feed them.”
“But I only fed them every other day. And I put a second rail around the posts.”
“Now the pigs became more and more desperate for food. Because now they were no longer used to going out and digging their own roots and finding their own food. They now needed me. They needed my corn every other day.”
“So I trained them that I would feed them every day if they came in through a gate. And I put up a third rail around the fence.”
“But it was still no great threat to their freedom, because there were several gates and they could run in and out at will.”
“Finally I put up the fourth rail.”
“Then I closed all the gates but one, and I fed them very, very well.”
“Yesterday I closed the last gate. And today I need you to help me take these pigs to market.”
— end of story —
The price of free corn
The allegory of the pigs has a serious moral lesson. This story is about federal money being used to bait, trap and enslave a once free and independent
people.
Federal welfare, in its myriad forms, has reduced not only individuals to a state of dependency. State and local governments are also on the fast track to elimination, due to their functions being subverted by the command and control structures of federal “revenue sharing” programs.
I always like this essay on The Pig Trap…
https://taxicabdepressions.com/?p=1193
I for one am going to start referring to PDJT as, “Precedent TRUMP” since he has set so many precedents. Being the first President to be indicted is just the cherry on the cake. Can’t believe these fools stepped into this trap, too. When he is dishing out the payback; Investigating taxes of not only Former Presidents but their business partners and families, raiding their homes, and their taste of this piece of work, it will be sweet justice. Patience and trust.
He sed “Precedent”
HA! Good one Rev.
Would someone please post the link for this picture? I need to pass this around by email!
Anne, cursor on image, right mouse click, then left click ‘Save Image As’.
Thank you, Terry, but I am working on a very old Apple–no right-click, or left-click operation. Any other suggestions?
Here you go, this is the link to the copy of the picture that is stored on AmericanDigest’s server:
https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/trump-suit-3.png
@ Casey, don’t know if you’ve seen this yet.
Last week a leg got knocked off that 3 legged stool the anti-gunners have been wobbling on top of.
Turns out Stoner created the Armalite 15 for the, get this, for the CITIZEN market, not the military market.
https://www.captainsjournal.com/2023/03/28/interview-with-reed-knight-on-eugene-stoner-and-the-ar-15/
and
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/family-ar-15-inventor-speaks-out-n593356
NBC news and the Twits who purvey that BS about “Stoner would’a…” don’t fool me for a second. I read long ago about the marketing of the Armalite carbine to the civilian market.
If NBC had its way, they’d add in the last paragraph: “and Stoner said that musketry was all the Second Amendment protected, as well as sticks and stones. Any fool knows that the US government regulates itself and the citizen has shit to say about his lot in this democracy-the 2A being in no way a bulwark against federal overreach, and only arms nasty guardspersons on weekends and holidays, so that they can stand palace guard in DC when guys like Biden get ‘elected’ and installed in DC.”
“…When he is dishing out the payback; Investigating taxes of not only Former Presidents but their business partners and families, raiding their homes, and their taste of this piece of work, it will be sweet justice.”
The problem that Trump will face after the inauguration in 2025 is the same one that he had in 2017: The .gov is filled with 10,000 Lt.Col Vindmanns. Which IRS agent will be doing all these investigations? How many Lois Lerner acolytes remain in the IRS? Which FBI agents are to do these raids? These guys?
https://images.app.goo.gl/ZFSRZ6WrHGzKk2hP8
If Trump has suddenly found the key to appointing effective Cabinet-level nominees and White House staff, I haven’t seen evidence of it. [In fairness, I haven’t seen that evidence in any one else either.] I’d like Trump to go Conan the Barbarian and hear the lamentations of the Democrat women and soi bois, but the Deep State is deep….maybe deeper than can be dealt with by any one man.
The last part of your least sentence seems to be very true, and it seems Trump vastly underestimated that the last time around. I’d like to think the 4 years between terms have been a huge learning experience for him.
Trump needs to think of his role as prez sort of like one of his huge construction projects.
DELEGATE
TRUSTWORTHY and LOYAL partnerships.
Break the project down to bite size pieces then assign teams (of pitbull lawyers) to each bite.
Entire organizations need to be ground down to dust and then swept out the door with large numbers of former employees arrested and/or fired, and closed down.
azlibertarian and ghost: I felt like I was using some exaggeration or hyperbole when Trump first walked down Pennsylvania Avenue the day of his inauguration, and I said that when he took that walk, simultaneously each agency needed to be raided, arrests and pink slips issued, hard drives seized, and padlocks placed on the front door. The FBI, CIA, IRS, BATF, Interior-you name it. Now, in hindsight, I was only seeing what would be required to torch that scene, metaphorically speaking. Trump was a fantastic president in his first term, and has been a wonderful businessman and public personality, but I wish to hell he’d been a goddamned infantry officer. Infantry officers know that when you’re preparing the battlespace, expecting a fair fight is for dumbasses. Never fight fair in war; you must dominate.
Another thing I said during his first term was that DC needs to be Balkanized. Sunset the really deep, dark agencies, like the FBI and CIA, and then the ones that still survive need to be moved out into the real America. The BIA needs to be headquartered in new Mexico, or Oklahoma. If Interior survives, it needs to be in Eastern Washington, or North Dakota. The Pentagon to Florida, or Georgia. I also said that Trump had shitty cabinets because there are no wise men in Washington DC. Diogenes could see that with a blindfold on.
DeSantis thinks he’s cool because he’s said Florida will not cooperate with the extradition of Trump. What DeSantis really needs to do is check that his manhood has descended, and ring MaL with National Guardsmen and defend the president from what everyone knows is a travesty of justice. The Dems have frequently disregarded the constitution, and now fear no retribution for this egregious political theater. The sooner we kick them in the ass, the better we’ll be going forward. The guard shouldn’t fight the secret service, but a move like I’m suggesting would make clear that this is political war, and our side has balls. As it is, our side looks like Bambi in the shotgun position.
In regards to the thought of Trump appointing trustworthy men in cabinet positions, or other high positions within the federal government, is there are not many men whom, if appointed to perform certain badly needed housecleaning operations, whom would perform said operations during their terms, and then walk away and return to simply a life of solid American citizenship. Most, if not all, individuals who get a taste for the power they are wielding within the federal government, are unwilling to walk away. Power is a drug with vast effects. Even some of the founding fathers instrumental in crushing the tyranny of the British succumbed to the drug. Difficult times are breathing down our necks.
That’s what contracts are for. And subcontractors.
All the details are spelled out in the contracts, cost, duration, expectations, etc., and when gauged with performance deadlines things get done. You know, like in real life.
I’ve hired many people over the years and the very first person I ever hired was done so the old fashioned way. I paid him by the hour. Last time I ever did that. I let him go 3 days after I hired him. He was costing me too much and the return on my investment was terrible. After that I only hired people on a subcontract basis (contract terms spelled out up front) and I was almost never disappointed. When the job is completed the contract is terminated. Everybody involved knows what is expected of them and feeling do not get hurt. Clear, precise, written communication that can be used as reference later.
Trump could put me in charge of the team that would sweep through the IRS. In the first week my team would evaluate the project and after 10 business days I would provide Trump with a complete outline of what he could expect from my team over the next 6 months, the time required to provide the clean sweep. At the end of the contract Trump would give me a performance award of $1,000,000.00 in 90% gold US coins and he would never hear from me again, unless he wanted to hire me again under a new contract. That 90% gold is all the “power” I would want.
Everything I wrote above and much, much more happens every single day out here in the private section but never happens at all in any faction of gov’t. That’s why the private sector is continuously thriving and the gov’t is continuously failing and only exists at all because of the coercive confiscatory rules it rewards itself with against the private sector.
What about those military contractors overseas?
Something new to think about. Here is a problem I would like to have your thoughts about.
For example: If I wanted to start a small private business hosting small parties for dinner in my backyard, what are the legal criteria for being able to exclude certain groups of people? I know the cake man in Colorado has succeeded in defending himself against several cases, but still they come after him for not wanting to serve homosexuals demanding he make their wedding cakes. What is the status of these laws? What if I do not form a business, but merely report it as “income” What if I want to choose who I invite what are the parameters for that? How will my insurance company cover the action either as a business or not? Please put your good minds to this, I will be very appreciative of your input.
This is possibly the end of executive power in the USA. It isn’t just Fort Sumpter, it’s Hiroshima.
What prevents an incumbent from arresting his political opponents, a la a Banana Republic? Nothing, of course. Biden may have the most corrupt DOJ ever this side of The Star Wars Empire Senate, but a state government or some federal DA somewhere can try to indict him. The House can convene indefinitely to just look, line item by line item, at every Joe Biden source of income since he was a little law student back home in Delaware. Income from China. Russia. Ukraine. Mexico.
Chief Executive? BwahhhaHaaHH
One side obeys the law (sort of) and respects procedures. The other ignores both. America may be gone (and won’t be back as we recall it) but we aren’t. I forget the reference but there was a parody or some such decades ago about the Revolution: the British fought in well-established battle lines and the Americans “cheated” by firing from broken lines, behind trees, and such. Time to ignore the rules; it’s a new revolution or submission at this stage. I trust Putin more than Obiden.
Something that the Demoncrats understand and Republican and Independents do not. United we stand, divided we fall. The republicans are full rinos but in reality they are traitors who will do the bidding of anyone who is not for Trump.
I agree! May God give us the courage to defend our Country