Category: Politics

Trying not to start the public floggings

Track Away, Fibbies

Resistance

Here’s something I knew was coming:

The federal government believes that the threat of violence and major civil disturbances around the 2024 U.S. presidential election is so great that it has quietly created a new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers.

The challenge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the primary federal agency charged with law enforcement, is to pursue and prevent what it calls domestic terrorism without direct reference to political parties or affiliations—even though the vast majority of its current “anti-government” investigations are of Trump supporters, according to classified data obtained by Newsweek.

“The FBI is in an almost impossible position,” says a current FBI official, who requested anonymity to discuss highly sensitive internal matters. The official said that the FBI is intent on stopping domestic terrorism and any repeat of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But the Bureau must also preserve the Constitutional right of all Americans to campaign, speak freely and protest the government. By focusing on former president Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters, the official said, the Bureau runs the risk of provoking the very anti-government activists that the terrorism agencies hope to counter.

I’m 100% sure that my fevered rants and fervent support for the Second Amendment have put me on several “lists” among the various federal alphabet agencies.  But at the same time, I also know that they’re fucking incompetent — I mean, they missed the 9/11 hijackers, FFS — so I thought I’d just help them out.


(by your definition, anyway)

Let me count the ways:

  1. I believe that the United States of America is the greatest nation the world has ever seen, and I want to restore its power, prestige and majesty to its post-WWII heights.
  2. I support Donald Trump, even though I’d rather not — but he’s the best option for people like me.
  3. I believe in the Second Amendment.  Actually, I believe in all the Amendments, without reservation.  And I want all those who, like me, swore allegiance to the Constitution and its principles to abide by them.
  4. I support homeschooling.
  5. I believe in smaller government.
  6. I know that our taxes are too high and our tax laws too complicated.
  7. I believe in the Four Boxes of civic participation (letter box, soap box, ballot box and when the first three have failed or been made illegal, the cartridge box).
  8. I think that our borders need to be closed to foreign incursions, and the current illegal border-crossers in custody should be repatriated en masse, with no exceptions.

There are a few more, but I think that list should suffice.

Go ahead, assholes:  track me all you want.  I’m only one man, and I publish under my own name — no pseudonyms, no aliases, no pen names — so it should be easy, even for the likes of you.  But this is where I stand.

Newsom’s Newcomer

Politics

Let’s go over CalGov Newsom’s checklist for the replacement for the late Feinstein’s Senate seat:

  • Woman —
  • Black —
  • Lesbian —
  • Supports abortion —
  • Reliably socialist —
  • Not a California resident — (she was born in California, but she’s resident in Maryland and actually registered to vote there — technically, she’s disqualified, but this is California so who cares)

Doesn’t matter;  she’s only there to maintain the Socialist majority in the Senate — no doubt her replacement (if she’s not elected in 2024) will be just as bad, or worse.

Still Turning

Resistance

Last week I talked about the anti-ULEZ movement over in Londonistan.

But wait! There’s more!

Furious locals chased away a Ulez crew – some of whom were driving Sadiq Khan’s mobile ‘spy’ vans used to enforce the scheme. Footage of the incident shows angry locals ejecting the Ulez team from Sunningvale Avenue, in Biggin Hill, southeast London.

Activists opposed to Mr Khan’s flagship policy – which last month expanded to cover the entire city – have already attacked hundreds of static cameras prompting the London Mayor to roll out a fleet of vehicles to catch those flouting the rules.

But these too have become a target, with opponents to the Ulez – who call themselves ‘Blade Runners’ – slashing their tyres, spray painting cameras and smashing windows.

Anti-Ulez activists held a yellow high visibility jacket in front of one of the cameras while locals berated the Ulez workers.

Images show one of the Ulez vehicles with its windows and windscreen smashed, in the latest escalation by activists determined to thwart Mr Khan’s much-hated levy.

Next step for Burgomeister  Khan:  spy vans to see who’s harassing the spy vans?

My reaction:

British Worms Turning

Good Stuff, Resistance, Taxes and Theft

I haven’t been Over There for a while, and it’s probably a Good Thing I haven’t because in addition to London’s “congestion charge” (a.k.a. let’s create an additional tax revenue stream by scalping drivers) there’s now something called the Ultra Low Emissions Zone “ULEZ” (here’s the explanation, I couldn’t be bothered to type it out).

Anyway, it seems that more than a few Londoners have taken exception to this little scheme.  Cameras (both fixed and in mobile units) are used as an enforcement tool, like London doesn’t have enough of those poxy things already — and the fed-up public have decided to take matters into their own hands, to show Hizzoner the Mayor what they think about this nonsense:

For the first time since the anger of the Poll Tax riots during Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister or the anti-Iraq war demonstrations under Tony Blair, we are witnessing an outpouring of anger against the government. In this case it is anger at the anti-car measures by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Citizens are attacking and disabling the network of cameras in London that monitors all traffic and fine cars that do not meet certain standards.

The attack on the motorist in London goes back to 2003 when the then London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, implemented the Congestion Zone whereby drivers would have to pay to enter. The public were told that this would cut congestion but many felt it was just anyway to extract money from the motorist. Public transport in London is very good but never before has there been a road charge in the UK. The London Congestion zone was, and probably still is, the largest in the world.

The next attack on motorists was the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) which was also introduced by Ken Livingstone in 2008 and was, as the name suggests, a charge/fine based on vehicle emissions. It was expanded a number of times and now covers all of London. This was to target older trucks and large vehicles. Ken Livinstone was a Labour socialist mayor but the next intrusion came from the so-called Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

In 2014 Boris announced the creation of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) which was targeted at car drivers. Five years later the ULEZ zone started in central London and older cars entered the zone to pay for the privilege of driving on London roads for that and every day. The cost of driving an older car into central London was now £12.50 for ULEZ and £15 for Congestion Charge. That’s over $30 a day to drive on a public road.

The fightback we are seeing today has been dubbed the ULEZ “Blade Runners.” Hundreds of the ULEZ cameras have been damaged or destroyed across London. Campaigners/vigilantes/angry citizens (take your pick) are cutting wires on the equipment and spraying the lenses with paint. Up to a quarter of all the cameras have been attacked. To combat this fight back, Sadiq Khan has employed an army of CCTV camera vans to drive around and fill these blackspots. But now we are seeing vans parking in front of these vans to block their camera and render them useless.

There is so much frustration against this onslaught in motorists that the legacy media is even running stories on the Blade Runners and interviewing them so their story can get out. This “lawbreaking” seems to be championed by sections of the media which is intriguing and encouraging. The public has been invited to take part in consultations on the introduction of both of these charges but the government was always going to implement them. They claim it is about the environment but it seems to be about something else which the government are always short of. Money!

The congestion charge rakes in £220 million every year. That’s a quarter of a billion dollars every year. A quarter of that (£55 million) is used to administer the zone but the rest is pure profit. A tax on the motorist. The ULEZ expansion is estimated to net Sadiq Khan up to £300m in its first year. That’s half a billion dollars a year.

The attacks on this network are only increasing. Not only are the public against the fines but they are also against this new level of surveillance. Sadiq Khan operates a network of 1,544 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. ULEZ will add another 2,700.

Does anyone believe the lie that this is about saving the planet and nothing to do with raising more tax?

LOL.  Keep it up, British people.

Ordinarily, I’d suggest a more drastic solution to the problem, i.e. an ancient and much-used British legal device:

…but no doubt some Brit rozzer would have a problem with that.

Quote Of The Day

Politics, QOTD

From Glenn Reynolds:

“At some point, the government’s behavior is sufficiently illegitimate that people will start acting outside of the usual channels. We’re getting dangerously close to that point, and our feckless overclass either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, or actively wants that to happen.”

He’s talking specifically about the attempt to muzzle Trump for the 2024 election, but in fact you could apply it to pretty much everything they’re doing right now, whether it’s gun control, primary school education, destruction of the oil industry or [fill in the blank].