Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Creeping Totalitarianism Report

     This disturbing article from David French demonstrates factual reporting as it was once practiced:

     “They came with a battering ram.”

Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking.

She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram.

She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full view of the police. Some yelled at her to grab some clothes, others yelled for her to open the door.

“I was so afraid,” she says. “I did not know what to do.” She grabbed some clothes, opened the door, and dressed right in front of the police. The dogs were still frantic.

“I begged and begged, ‘Please don’t shoot my dogs, please don’t shoot my dogs, just don’t shoot my dogs.’ I couldn’t get them to stop barking, and I couldn’t get them outside quick enough. I saw a gun and barking dogs. I was scared and knew this was a bad mix.”

She got the dogs safely out of the house, just as multiple armed agents rushed inside. Some even barged into the bathroom, where her partner was in the shower. The officer or agent in charge demanded that Cindy sit on the couch, but she wanted to get up and get a cup of coffee.

“I told him this was my house and I could do what I wanted.” Wrong thing to say. “This made the agent in charge furious. He towered over me with his finger in my face and yelled like a drill sergeant that I either do it his way or he would handcuff me.”

They wouldn’t let her speak to a lawyer. She looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off.

The neighbors started to come outside, curious at the commotion, and all the while the police searched her house, making a mess, and — according to Cindy — leaving her “dead mother’s belongings strewn across the basement floor in a most disrespectful way.”

Then they left, carrying with them only a cellphone and a laptop.

     Disturbing? Indeed, terrifying. But why?

     Wisconsin, the cradle of the progressive movement and home of the “Wisconsin idea” — the marriage of state governments and state universities to govern through technocratic reform — was giving birth to a new progressive idea, the use of law enforcement as a political instrument, as a weapon to attempt to undo election results, shame opponents, and ruin lives.

     That’s why.

     To the best of my knowledge, the Gestapo-like raids above, all of which targeted conservative activists in Wisconsin, have not been reported by any major media organ. There’s been no mention of them in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Philadelphia Enquirer. Why?

     I’m afraid you already know why.


     The raids above were conceived by Milwaukee district attorney John Chisholm, a highly partisan Democrat whose wife is a shop steward in a Wisconsin teachers’ union. They were judicially approved by Judge Barbara Kluka, another Democrat. And of course, they were carried out by unionized Wisconsin police.

     The motivation could not be clearer. Democrats only believe in free speech for Democrats. They’re particularly disturbed by the ascendancy of conservative Republican governor Scott Walker. That Walker has rationalized the state’s budget, turning a habitual deficit into an annual surplus, and his actions to reduce the bargaining privileges of Wisconsin’s municipal and state unions, have enraged Wisconsin Democrats beyond all description.

     God help the conservative who dares to challenge the power of Wisconsin unions.

     Will district attorney Chisholm face any legal penalties for his utterly unfounded “John Doe” investigations and the terrorization of Wisconsin conservatives by use of police power? Will Judge Kluka face any penalties for facilitating those SWAT-style raids? What about the happily cooperative Wisconsin police? For that matter, now that National Review has publicized the affair, will the Main Stream Media take an interest in this blatant use of political power to suppress the free speech and organizing rights of Americans?

     Don’t bet the rent money on it.


     I’ve written before about the evils attendant to prosecutorial discretion and sovereign immunity.

     The combination of grand jury biddability and prosecutorial discretion has given rise to an assembly-line character in the criminal justice system. Prosecutors tend to be as ambitious for advancement as anyone else in "public service," and in their case the road to higher positions is paved with copious convictions, whether or not those convicted deserve their fates. Inasmuch as the luxuriance of criminal law has created a state of affairs in which every one of us, whether wittingly or not, is "guilty" of something, an aggressive prosecutor can "rack 'em up" by pursuing a simple strategy:
  1. Look around for "suspicious" behavior -- i.e., behavior on the part of a private citizen that can be made to appear suspicious;
  2. Ruthlessly probe every element of the "suspect's" life, using the effectively infinite resources of the State, until enough "suspicious" behavior has been amassed;
  3. Assemble a huge list of charges to place before a grand jury;
  4. Present the case in such a fashion as to promote the more plausible accusations and obscure the less plausible ones, thus securing a grab-bag indictment;
  5. Offer the indicted person a plea bargain that will spare him centuries in prison and complete pauperization at the bargain price of a few years and/or a few thousand dollars.

     There is no brake to this strategy. Excessive law plus complete prosecutorial discretion plus a competent prosecutor's ability to lead a grand jury by the nose combine to put even a simon-pure citizen at the mercy of the criminal justice system. And what a system it is! Had it been consciously designed to put the maximum number of persons in prison regardless of guilt or innocence, it could not have been done better.

     Those evils are on vivid display in David French’s article. Yet it would be foolish to expect any correction to them. The State never willingly surrenders power. It only takes; it does not give. And when persons whose ideology tells them that:

  • Their politics makes them morally superior to those who disagree; and:
  • The ends justify the means; and:
  • They will face no penalties for whatever they do;

     ...have the opportunity to wield State power for their political benefit, no Earthly force is sufficient to restrain them.

     I’ve ranted about this more than once:

     Prosecutorial discretion, when coupled to sovereign immunity -- doctrines absolutely anathema to the Anglo-American legal tradition -- make it possible for statists to conceal evil motives behind a cloak of righteousness. No one can come out against "law enforcement" without exposing himself to pillory as an "anarchist." Worse, when the evil motives are revealed and the pressure is removed from the statists' targets, no remedy is applied and no restitution is offered to the victims.

A long time ago, in commenting on a similar case that occurred in Florida, the legendary Russell Baker wrote that "When the government says it is going to get you, it is going to get you." It appears that nothing has changed since then, except for the identities and political orientations of the prosecutors and their targets.

     Need I say more?


     A number of the bloggers who entered the fray around the time I did have gone silent or near to it. Consider Mike Hendrix and Emperor Misha, two old favorites of the DextroSphere. Several others have gotten by mostly on reposts.

     I miss their regular emissions, but I can understand the trend. We’re tired. We’re getting old. And we’ve been repeating ourselves rather a lot.

     That’s what happens when outrage follows outrage with neither redress nor remorse. We’re still angry, but we’re beginning to feel that there’s little point to continuing on. And we dislike to think we’re huddled in an otherwise empty room, with no one listening to us but one another.

     The American people appear to have been enervated to the point of surrender. The Howard Beale character in Paddy Chayevsky’s screenplay for Network captured my sense of it perfectly:

     I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.

     We know things are bad — worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'

     Is it really this way? Are we unwilling to rear up on our hind legs and roar defiance into our oppressors’ faces?

     Do you want your freedom back? Do you want to feel reasonably safe from “your” government? Voting every two or four years ain’t gonna do it, people. It will take actual resistance to the tyrants by persons brave enough to do so – and staunch support of those brave ones, political, legal, financial, and moral, by the rest of us.

     I know, I know: Who bells the cat? It’s the old question, the one we use to paralyze ourselves. It’s more effective than ever. The State in our time can target individuals with frightening accuracy, and can bring overwhelming power to bear against them, as David French has told us. The Redcoats didn’t even have rifled barrels on their muskets.

     Is there a Patrick Henry in the house?

     Never mind. Forget I said anything. I’m just an old man who claims to remember what it was like to be free. We didn’t even have color TVs back then, so how good could it have been, really?

     All rise for Flag salute. Here are your internal passport, your work permit, and your ration card. Now sit down and pay attention to the political officer. He’s here to serve!

14 comments:

FrozenPatriot said...

"There is no brake to this strategy."

Enough heads of enough prosecutors (and others wielding tyrannical force) exploding from enough well-placed, high-velocity bits of lead would apply brakes to this tactic of pure evil. If, after engaging in such deceleration efforts, you find that the practice isn't slowing, it simply means enough heads haven't yet exploded. Keep at it.

That this hasn't yet begun en masse is a bit of a marvel. Perhaps such occurrences are squelched in order to lead us to believe we haven't a chance of successfully rising up against tyranny.

Anonymous said...

Fran, I don't disagree with you, but I do want to point out that, if your typing of posts is your "rearing up" against the oppressors -- while more than sufficient to keep some of us apprised of the situation and spurring us on to do more -- it has been scarcely more effective at dismantling the growing tyranny than voting every two or four years. I don't mean to diminish your contributions, to the contrary, I contend that they are much more valuable than you might give them credit for, namely for keeping the like-minded among us informed with issues and talking points...but as for some kind of bold, unified, physical resistance...you asked the question, so I ask you, what do you expect? _I_ am ready, but I am just one man. I see your typing, and I see myself and others responding, but we have homes, and families, and some degree of complacent comfort and Liberty...I don't see the critical mass of torrid activism that's going to do anything meaningful about it just yet.

Meanwhile, I DO resist in my own ways. I don't talk about it or publicize it, to keep attention off of myself, but I AM resisting. I'd guess that you and many of your other readers are too. But most importantly, we are TALKING about it, face-to-face, with others, people who we wish to bring up to speed on our cause. And for this, you ARE having an impact, and something IS happening. It's not going to happen overnight, and it's probably not going to happen for years. But it is happening. There are also concurrent setbacks, and there's no telling which way things will go, or what unforeseen horror lurks on the horizon.

Reading into your post today, I don't think you are going to receive the personal satisfaction of a direct correlation between your work and some effect. But you ARE contributing to that effect, every day, with every word. We're in this together, it's going to take time, and we may fail in the end. But we keep trying, and hope that our contributions lead to favorable results. Meanwhile, we don't unilaterally stick our heads up too far, so we can live to fight another day.

Malatrope said...

As you say, most of us who see what's happening are alarmed as much by our direct memory of a free United States as by any ideological bent. The Enemy that is transforming the nation is very aware that we are an old and soon to be historical problem to be ignored. Our grandchildren will simply give grampa's gun collection to the State, when asked, to be melted down, while commenting that grampa "was a little weird". Their strategy walks a very fine line where they must not wake the dragon before being certain that it can be trivially defeated.

We are one new president's term away from that point, I believe. Our strategy, as opposed to trying to cancel out the egregious acts, should be to encourage them – because if we continue like zombies down the road that has been paved for us we will run into the shredders at the end.

The State has to be forced to tip their hand to the point where the mass of armed American wakes the hell up and screams that they won't take it anymore!

I'll admit that I thought that point passed us a long, long time ago.

andy5759 said...

Sir, you write of your growing frustration regarding great wrongs going unremarked in the MSM, and of the apparent inactivity of the general population. The Anglo-American man (and woman of course) are slow to stir, reporting and musings such as yours give essential ammunition to those of us attempting to stir. Yes, there is an element of like talking to like, I am converted but I need ammunition which I find here and elsewhere. It is important to enter a battle of wits fully armed. Thankyou for being here and long may you continue.

GamegetterII said...

"Offer the indicted person a plea bargain that will spare him centuries in prison and complete pauperization at the bargain price of a few years and/or a few thousand dollars."

This bullshit would stop tomorrow if every person charged by .gov inc. with a yard long indictment composed and supported entirely by police and prosecutor's works of fiction would simply demand a jury trial.
The entire "justice" system would grind to a halt.

Anonymous said...

We hear you loud and clear!

No--your work and efforts are not in vain. Many are waiting for the "cauldron" to boil over. Just yet, it's just simmering. Patience.

Use the "legal System?" Please! I've been down that road for 40 years and it's corrupted beyond all measure. Law is a dead, bloated, and festering corpse. Screw the law.

The springs are getting compressed; once they exceed OEM ft/lbs, "Katy! Bar the door!"

Anonymous said...

I suspect all populations look apathetic - until the revolution happens. Anyway comfortable people do not rebel. When the economy crashes...

"There is no brake to this strategy."

There is one, and it doesn't require waiting for the revolution to start. Just decide for yourself whether or not you are willing to be stuffed into the criminal "Justice" meat grinder. If not, then your course is obvious: Do not allow anyone to arrest you. You are now at war.

Jimmy the Saint said...

"That’s what happens when outrage follows outrage with neither redress nor remorse."

But that's the thing - there won't be redress until retribution is openly called for. Of course, doing that exposes one to immediate and highly personal consequences. However, absent that call, the listing of outrages is, at best, another in a series of "Let's you and him fight" articles.

"It will take actual resistance to the tyrants by persons brave enough to do so – and staunch support of those brave ones, political, legal, financial, and moral, by the rest of us."

Yup. The problem is that pretty much we have neither. Someone will have to be the first guy over the parapet - and everyone knows what will happen to him, and the second, and the third, etc. But unless we get one, there won't be any, and tyranny wins by default.

Of course, to up the odds of getting a good leader, we have to get enough people on the same page - which also hasn't happened.

Anonymous said...

source: Holy Love.org

April 21, 2015

"I am your Jesus, born Incarnate."

"For just a moment, let us look at My Father's Commandment - 'Thou shalt not steal'. This Commandment does not only refer to such crimes as robbing a bank, but more subtle transgressions, as well. For instance, a person's reputation can be stolen through gossip or rash judgment. The Truth can be stolen through compromise. The faith can be stolen from hearts through intellectual pride or surrender to doubts. Freedoms are stolen through the abuse of authority and the misrepresentation of the Truth."

"These crimes go unrecognized in day-to-day combat against evil. They are in the background, so to speak; motivating and instigating evil attitudes in the heart of the world. Eventually, these thefts take their toll and come to light, but they leave a trail of destruction behind and it is often too late or impossible to correct the damage."

"This is why it is necessary to allow Holy Love to be the inspiration and motivation of every thought, word and deed. Then the heart of the world would be cleansed and renewed in every positive way."

"If you look at the state of the world now - how the legal system is supporting evils such as illicit use of drugs, abortion, sodomy and general moral decline - you can readily see how Satan is robbing the world of righteousness."

"My Call to you is godliness through the Truth of Holy Love. In this Truth be united."

Read Ephesians 4:25; 5:1-2,6-10 +

Therefore, putting away falsehood, let everyone speak the Truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. . . Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. . . Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

+ Scripture verses asked to be read by Jesus.
-Scripture taken from the Ignatius Bible.

Reg T said...

One point: on the matter of a grandson giving your guns to the State to be meted down, do as I am doing. Mine are being left to a Christian parent who has taught his young children a love for, and respect of, firearms.

David Landro said...

You are not alone in your frustration and consternation... There are so very few of us and as you say, Get'n old.

There will be no more voting for me. This is a pacifier to give the masses a slim, tenuous hope that their voice counts. That there is a chance that change for the good is possible. It is set in place to keep us from doing what is necessary, what we know we should be doing.

News flash, the fix is in. There is only one way out of this and it is resistance. Plain and simple. Any way you can.

We must banish the thoughts of "Maybe this time will be different." Do what is needed. Now.

We are all Davids facing a towering leviathan... Goliath. History records that Goliath can be brought down. We; all together, will have our liberty and freedom... Standing tall or lying low, toes up...But we will have it.

There is no way to stop this behemoth other than... well, you know... Don't you?

Reg T said...

Fran,

Another thought for us to keep in mind: to paraphrase an old saying, "Those whom the State would destroy, they first vilify."

When a Patrick Henry stands up and says, "No more", or a citizen goes 5o guns against a SWAT stack intending to take him out, before they rendition or kill him, the MSM will "discover" that he is a child molester, has kiddie porn on his computer, or is a domestic terrorist, with an arsenal of six or seven guns (what do the liberals know ;-) including "a .22 caliber assault rifle with a thousand rounds of ammunition".

When someone finally responds to an unacceptable attack of lawfare or other .gov abuse, we need to question that vilification in which .gov and the MSM (but I repeat myself) engage. We need to stand willing to give that person the benefit of the doubt, and to risk ourselves by providing assistance if possible (as at Bundy's Ranch), or a safe house/refuge at the least.

To permit another Waco or Ruby Ridge to occur without aiding those involved would be a mortal sin. (says this old heathen).

Anonymous said...

Fran, you often work elements of your Christian faith into your writings, and I appreciate it when you do so. If there is a silver lining to the moral rot and decay that has begun to rapidly accelerate, it is that I have turned to Christ again -- after years in the spiritual wilderness of agnosticism and (at best) Deism. I consider it a recognition that our problems cannot be solved without the grace of God, and as a society we have done so little to deserve it.

So I present this question to you or any who care to answer: at what point would it no longer be a sin to offer maximum physical resistance against agents of incipient tyranny?

0007 said...

FP - the term "100 Heads" was coined by M. Vanderbeogh(sp?) I believe, and covers your thought quite well.