So You Want To Do Physical Removal...

The alt-right and sellout-anarchists are either naive or intentionally lying about their creed.

British police at Croydon Airport send Jewish refugees back to occupied Poland

The alt-right and their bosom buddies, the Cantwellian Helicopter Libertarians, want to throw people out of helicopters like Pinochet's regime did to dissidents. Those that aren’t excited to commit mass murder in the name of 'liberty' or capitalism still favor a more sterilized, softer form of “physical removal” in the form of deportations or imprisonment.

I say to them: Fine. Physically remove people. But those calling for physical removal better be man enough to do it themselves! History is filled with mass murders that were tolerated by people who chose to remain silent and not get their hands dirty. In 1945, vanquished Germans cried "We didn't know!" to the Allies.  No more of that. If people want physical removal, they need to lead by example and actually start ripping people from their families, not do what the socialist Republicans do and blissfully outsource that violence to the State.

The alt-right conservatives and their expendable auxiliaries, the Helicopter Libertarians, would argue that the federal and state governments exist whether libertarian anarchists want it or not. Therefore, they say, the best chance that ‘freedom’ has in America is for libertarians to use these entities to remove people who are threats to liberty.  That's cute.

What the alt-right ignores is...  (Read more at the Swamp)

The Hot War: Bombs Away

Published by OMNI

1951: The Cold War has just gone hot!

Harry Turtledove doesn’t identify as an alternate history writer, but rather as “a historian who writes science fiction.” Bombs Away isn’t quite what most readers would think of as science fiction, but this alternate history novel does deal a lot with the science of nuclear weapons, fallout, and contamination. Turtledove delivers another masterfully crafted novel that provides a frighteningly plausible picture of World War III, or when the Cold War turned Hot.

The novel begins in the early winter of 1950 in North Korea...  Veterans of the war against Germany and Japan will be recalled to service; Germans who fought for Hitler will be called to their county’s “emergency militia”... (Read more)

American Stalin — ‘Joe Steele’ book review

I’ve been a fan of Harry Turtledove’s writing ever since I picked up a copy of Great War: American Front back in 2009. Turtledove has the ability to weave the stories of numerous ordinary people together to make one large patchwork fabric of an impressive, epic tale.  Such is the case with his 2015 novel, Joe Steele.

Joe Steele is based on a short story of the same name written in 2003, and expanded in 2014 to be a long, standalone novel.  In this novel, the man who would become Stalin is an American, a Democrat congressman from California rather than a Georgian-born Communist Party bureaucrat in Russia.  Born and raised among farm laborers in Fresno, Joe Steele is a dedicated socialist and is militantly pro-labor.

The story follows the Sullivan Brothers, reporters both, over a twenty year period.  One will unwillingly become a propagandist for the regime while the other is deported to a labor camp and must later fight on the front lines to atone for his political crimes.  Our story begins at the height of the Great Depression.

When the nominating process at the 1932 Democratic National Convention comes to complete gridlock between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joe Steele, no one knows who will challenge Herbert Hoover for the Presidency.  The sudden death of FDR in a house fire leaves Joe Steele the uncontested nominee and the eventual landslide victor over Hoover.

President Steele immediately begins a series of economic reforms under the first Four Year Plan—an allusion to Stalin’s Five Year Plan but tailored to the President’s term in office—with makes FDR’s New Deal look like a children’s game.  The federal government begins confiscating property under eminent domain for large-scale collective farming.  The Supreme Court justices who rule the new policies unconstitutional suddenly find themselves in front of a military tribunal for a show trial, and promptly sentenced to death by firing squad.  Joe Steele then moves on to purge the military establishment and key political opposition (as well as purging loyal followers who pose a future potential threat to the regime).

J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover also plays a prominent role in the novel.  Joe Steele’s second term is when the Government Bureau of Investigation—an alternate-history play on the FBI but resembling Stalin’s NKVD and later KGB—sets up a system of labor camps in North Dakota, Colorado, and New Mexico where political prisoners work themselves to death for “political reform.”  These are an obvious take on the true-history Gulag concentration camps in the Soviet Union.

This novel shows America slogging through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War much the way it did in true-history, but with the frightening tones of an endless Executive dictatorship, one-party rule, and a police state.  It’s frightening to watch Norman Rockwell’s America descend into a totalitarian state.  While certain true-history events are changed—for instance, a ‘Japanese War’ kicking off the Cold War instead of the Korean War, or Albert Einstein refusing to design an atom bomb for Joe Steele—much of the novel is grounded in truth.

For starters, Turtledove proves his expertise in the field of U.S. history by using real case law from the Civil War that allows the federal government to try civilians by military tribunal rather than by jury trial.  And while Americans may sleep well today believing themselves safe from labor camps, current federal documents tell a different story.

President Obama signed a series of Executive Orders that essentially allow the federal government to create an America similar to the version in Joe Steele.  Free speech is nothing but a privilege as long as Executive Order 10995 remains in effect, allowing the government to seize and control all communication media.  Natural resources and utility companies aren’t safe from seizure while Order 10997 gives the government carte blanche over all electrical power, gas petroleum, fuels, and minerals.

A maximum security FEMA camp in Wyoming

Collective farms are made possible by Order 10999, giving the government authority to take over all farms and food sources.  Order 11004 gives the Housing and Finance Authority the power to relocate communities, build new housing, and transit large populations.

Even worse, labor camps are also made possible by President Obama’s Executive Orders.  Order 11002 allows the Postmaster General to watch the entire population by operating a national registration of all persons.  Order 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision in times of war or peace.

After reading what the federal government currently has the power to do, does Joe Steele still look like pure fiction?  This novel is highly recommended to any students of American and Soviet history, as well as anyone who values liberty.

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Joe Steele cover art courtesy of Turtledove Wiki. J. Edgar Hoover picture courtesy of The Guardian.  FEMA camp image courtesy of Popular Mechanics.  These images used according to Fair Use.

Life and Death—The Boredom, Dispatch 5

Thank you for reading about my continuing exploits on my quest.  I’m trying to fill my holiday season with actions that are productive and/or meaningful to me before I go back to working at the job I love.

Catch up with Dispatch 1 , Dispatch 2 , Dispatch 3 , and Dispatch 4.

Sunday, Day 17 of The Boredom, was spent mostly with family. Still, I dedicated more than a few hours to peaceful solitude in front of the glow of my computer screen.

Not gonna lie, playing The Lord of the Rings Online has become one of my favorite pastimes.  It’s an epic role-playing video game and the designers created worlds that allow me to explore and learn more about the regions and peoples written about in one of the greatest literary masterpieces of Western civilization.

Day 18, Monday, was mostly spent working on manuscripts and doing research, both for building my business and for a future writing project.  The academic research has been for the purpose of writing a multi-volume history of the Vietnam War, entirely from a libertarian perspective.  So far I have seventy pages of notes typed out on the computer, single-spaced and 12-inch font.

In the evening I attended my Civil Air Patrol (U.S. Air Force Auxiliary) squadron meeting.  Our guest that evening was an Air Force colonel who happened to be the staff director for the Fourth Air Force at March Air Reserve Base.  He spoke with us in the headquarters board room—really a section of the squadron’s double-wide, walled off by chalk boards on one side and bookshelves on the other—and I managed to get an interview before the end of the meeting.

I take pride in having volunteered in the Air Force Auxiliary.  I originally joined to have a joint activity with my nephew, whose old man was long gone and badly needed a structured program at the time, but I stayed because I truly enjoy the program.  Three years later, I’m a First Lieutenant and one of the most active public affairs officers in California Wing.  I take pride in my own accomplishments and in serving with this incredible, humanitarian manifestation of the “organized militia.”  Plus, it’s pretty badass that CAP sank two German submarines prowling our coast during World War II, with dozens more air-struck and damaged into retreat.

Day 19, Tuesday, I had my nose in books, smoked too many cigarettes, and then forced myself to go to the gym.  It seems like I’m only ever motivated to work out when I’m on base...  Oh well, at least I went.  The highlight of my day was finally getting in the mail my new green vinyl record of the Misfits' Project 1950 Expanded album—the entire thing is punk rock covers of oldies songs.  Listening to that was too cool!

Wednesday was spent doing more research, further work restoring manuscripts, and I managed to step into the sunlight to get some lunch.  In the evening I went to my older sister’s house to honor our tradition of, whenever I’m back from the desert, watching Modern Family as a family—myself, my sister, and my niece and nephews.

I don’t even remember Thursday.  I honestly don’t remember caring.  It was probably a pleasant day.

Friday, Day 22, I punished myself at the gym.  I did a full forty minutes of cardio, then migrated upstairs to do the bar dip for four sets of twenty-five suspended reverse sit-ups.  I followed that up with three sets on the horizontal chest-press machine—one set for my left arm, and one reduced-weight set for my stump.  I do my best to work out the right side of my torso despite my limb deficiency.  I’ve been lucky enough to reverse some of the muscular atrophy on that side.

Following the chest-press I grabbed a forty-pound weight bar and did four sets of squats, fifteen reps each.  While it’s been good for my thighs and tush, it’s been remarkably good for my right shoulder muscle (which is noticeably smaller than my left).  I finished everything off with another ten minutes of cardio—this time on an exercise bike—and in my time at the gym I downed another chapter of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

Saturday, Day 23 of The Boredom, was as incredible day of days.  I got up at 0530 (not my finest of hours), showered, and put on my CAP uniform.  After picking up a Powerade, Red Bull, and a stick of beef jerky—the popular food of the modern warrior—I made my way to squadron headquarters by 0645.  The squadron departed for Riverside National Cemetery.

Our mission was to participate in Wreaths Across America, an event to place holiday wreaths at the graves of departed armed forces veterans, thus keeping their memory alive.  The event was very touching and moving.  The only part that weighed on me was talking with some of the Gold Star wives and mothers.  Whenever military family members see me, they see the crew cut and the missing arm and mistakenly do the math to think I’m a combat veteran.  I tell them I’ve never been in combat, but they don’t care—they already respect the uniform and they have things they need to get off their chest.  I have an obligation to these women who lost so much for their country, to listen to what they need to tell me.

And so seventy-year-old women wept in front of me for the husbands they lost in Vietnam, and forty-year-old women wept for the sons they lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.  What particularly disturbed me was the Vietnam War widows—forty or fifty years later and the grief still hits them hard.  It always stays with you and doesn’t go away, just like Abe’s death in Al Anbar province hasn’t gone away from me after ten years.

I got off duty just in time to drive across Riverside, where I made it just in time for my friend’s wedding.  One of the senior NCOs in my unit—we’ll call him “Job,” after the Biblical figure—was getting re-married.  Since he’s been through emotional hell and back in his life—long story, you don’t want to know—and he’s become a mentor to me over time, I wasn’t going to miss his wedding for the world.

Three amazing things happened that afternoon.  First, I saw my friend truly happy for the first time in years.  Second, an important bond was strengthened.  I noticed several tables had reserved seating; one was reserved for the bride’s family—a thriving, bustling table—and another reserved for the groom’s family.  The latter was empty; the entire groom’s family has since passed away.  I asked “Job” if I could eat my meal at his family’s reserved table and he said, “Yes, I consider you family.”  And I made sure he saw me eat at that table.  The third wonderful thing that happened was that I met an intriguing older woman—one who’s kind, classy, sexy and smart.  We shot the breeze for hours and had a ball.  Phone numbers were exchanged.

After I got home from Riverside I had a nice hour-long visit with my older sister.  She and I are very close and I consider it a blessing that one of my siblings is also my close and true friend.  Following the visit that primarily consisted of laughing and talking smack about psychotic relatives, I picked up my good friend Midshipman.  He and I had gone up to Big Bear and Holcomb Valley together two weeks ago.

Midshipman (right) and I (left)

We sped over to the American Legion hall in Azusa, California, to join my friend “Shark” for his birthday celebration—SharkFest 2014.  Let me just tell you, SharkFest was AWESOME!  It was seriously the best party I’ve been to in months, if not longer.  A cemetery and a wedding in one day are a bit much, especially after talking with the war widows.

Shark is a Navy veteran who saw combat in Afghanistan.  Nowadays he’s a student at Mt. San Antonio College.  I met him through the San Bernardino County Libertarian Party, he was always supportive of my writing, and we’ve been friends ever since.  We were celebrating his 31^st birthday that night.

It was such a relief to shoot the breeze and swap stories with veterans and fellow current reservists my age.  The special bond between veterans that you read all the clichés about, then mentally discard, is real.  I hadn’t realized the extent before, but I did that night.  I realized that I’m not a 19-year-old FNG—f***ing new guy (a liability)—in a shiny new uniform, amazed by everything going on around him.  I’ve been a weekend warrior for seven years, added to three years of extra duty with the Auxiliary, and another two years as a contractor embedded with the regular Army.  I’ve done my share, endured both the outdoor elements and the bureaucracy, and it was great to be around other guys and girls who actually knew what the hell I was talking about!

Gotta love Vietnam vets!

Better yet, the party wasn’t great just because I met solid people and partied hard with my buddies.  Other than making a host of new friends, I danced with some of the prettiest girls in the San Gabriel Valley, civilian and veterans!  One girl, currently a student, was the prettiest woman Marine I’ve ever seen—seriously, I’m a sucker for dark brown hair and green eyes.  Better yet, she’d been “downrange” (military slang for the wars), which made her a badass.

The entire night was therapeutic, and the entire day was an incredible ending to my week.

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CAP historical painting courtesy of CAPhistory dot org.  All other images are by the author.

Books, Heartbreak, and Alcohol Drama (The Boredom—Week 1, Part 1)

Thank you for reading more about my quest to do meaningful, productive things while I kill time before returning to my amazing job that I love.

Day 3.  Sunday had a productive start.  Not only did I open both eyes, but I even managed to crawl out of bed and slide into some clothes that were probably clean.  I decided to press my winning streak by writing some more—the more I write, the more I can publish and share with the world.

I sat down for a good minute and I wrote a libertarian review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  The review primarily focuses on guerrilla warfare in Mockingjay and ties that imagery into Murray Rothbard’s writings on guerrilla warfare in the American Revolutionary War (Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Vol. IV, ch. 3).  This one has been one of my more highly trafficked articles of late, so I’m pleased at the exposure it’s getting.

I burst out of my creative trance, hightailed it through the shower and picked up both of my teenage nephews at noon.  I like to spend as much time with those boys as possible, especially since their old man took off years ago.  It’s good bonding time, plus I get to talk to them about things that matter.

My nephews and I enjoy seeing movies together.  I took them both to see the awful Red Dawn remake, and the younger one accompanied me to Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein on the big screen.  This time, I took the boys to see Fury before it’s out of theaters.  They really wanted to see it, I certainly didn’t mind seeing it again, and I figured this is a good way to round of the last two WW2 movies I’d showed them: Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

I don’t know what it is about this generation of kids, but they’re way too fond of Holocaust jokes and Call of Duty has made them all think they know what war is.  Basically these intense, gut-wrenching, realistic movies have given them an idea of what violence and suffering really look like.  They’re great teaching aides and Fury was a great finishing touch, with its depiction of Allied misconduct in the war while it still praises the overall heroism and courage of the Greatest Generation.

The boys enjoyed the movie and got something out of it.

Sunday night I got together with some good friends for a backyard bonfire.  Not gonna lie, I take great pride in the fact that I can build a fire in this age of technology.  I figure if some natural disaster happens and the power grid goes out, a lot of people are going to suffer needlessly.  Other than that, knowing how to build a fire is super nice for relaxing outside in cold weather.

Day 4, Monday, was largely uneventful.  I wrote a bit before working on manuscripts for near-future publications.

In 2015 I plan on launching an independent publishing house.  This won’t be like Political Spectrum Publishing.  I’m very proud of PSP and the amazing book it produced—VOICES OF REVOLUTION: Americans Speak Out for Ron Paul.  However, after the Voices book was released and it became increasingly clear Ron Paul wouldn’t be the Republican nominee, the whole train lost steam.  Also, real-life commitments got in the way (such as other campaigns I worked, my job, a toxic relationship, and of course, finishing college).

PSP was a great learning experience, but that was the worst time in my life to have tried—or half-assed—to start a business.

Realistically, a startup business is more like a newborn baby than a Giga Pet—if you don’t know what those are, thanks for making me feel old!

Therefore, my new publishing house is going to be something I can show my own father, look him in the eye, and be proud.  Hey, if I’m not proud to present something to the man I respect most, what business do I have presenting it to the world and even asking for their money?

I’m tentatively calling it The American Liberty Library (ALL). The name is catchy yet meaningful—the focus will be both fiction and nonfiction books that simultaneously entertain or engage and promote libertarian ideas.  Other than forming my business model and plan, I’ve actually been preparing product, hence my working on manuscripts.

Of course the American Liberty Library will be my preferred method of publishing my own books—almost done with #3!—but that won’t be all.  It’ll include some essential classics like Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and the writings of Bastiat, but I’ve also been doing hours of searching for dormant manuscripts.  There are many remarkable books on liberty and in sync with libertarian ideas, but they’ve been lost to time and are in the public domain.  I think it’s time some of these forgotten classics made a comeback!

Tuesday, Day 5 of the Boredom, was an interesting day to say the least!

Ever since we saw each other Friday night, the special gal from Rancho was been acting very strange toward me.  Tuesday morning I found out what I needed to know.  I wish she had just been honest with me instead of getting my hopes up, but it’s better to know anyhow.  Now I don’t have to wonder.

I went to the gym and had a great workout to get my mind off of things.  Then I swung by In ‘N’ Out for a protein-style Double-Double and animal-style fries, washing it all down with a cold Dr. Pepper.  It was a feast fit for kings!

I finished digitally restoring the manuscript for Harold Frederic’s 1893 novel, The Copperhead.  Some of you may be familiar with the novel’s movie adaptation, Copperhead, by Gettysburg director Ronald F. Maxwell.  It’s a well-written novel and has a totally different ending than its film adaptation, so this is good!

That evening, I picked up some friends for what was to be an amazing night out.  For months, whenever I’m in town, I’ve headed up to the Saddleback Inn at Lake Arrowhead, California for karaoke and fun times.  The people there are always really cool and there’s never drama, only people trying to enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately, it was dead that night.  I’ve never seen this normally-cracking place so entirely dismally dead.  Therefore, one of my friends decided it wasn’t going to be a good night.  He got ridiculously drunk—we hadn’t even been there an hour before he was smashed—and he ended up getting belligerent and talking a ton of trash to the bartenders.

Needless to say, the owner of the establishment personally asked us to get him the hell out of there.  Basically, I’d driven everyone there for a solid one-hour each way drive, for us to be home by 11.  That night was a loss.  I was really disappointed that one of my closest friends could make such an ass of himself in public and embarrass me in front of people I respect at one of my favorite hangout spots.  They were all cool about it, they knew he was drunk, etc., but the company you keep is the name you carry, and they’re going to remember that I brought that guy.

Day 6, Wednesday, I woke up a little later than planned.  I emailed a client regarding a side job, and then did what was unpleasant, but necessary.  I called the girl from Rancho to give the breakup talk.  She didn’t answer; I didn’t expect her to.  So I left a long voice mail balancing a list of grievances with respect and the promise that I would neither cause her any drama nor stand in the way of her happiness.

So here I am.  Now, I’m off to go do something useful.  Check back in a few days for another update on The Boredom.

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Mockingjay Part 1 art is the property of Lionsgate films and other respective owners and stakeholders, used here according to Fair Use laws for the promotion of the movie. Copperhead movie poster is the property of Swordspoint Productions, Brainstorm Media, and other respective owners and stakeholders, used here according to Fair Use laws.

Five Libertarian Ideas #28 - Libertarian talking points

Intellectual property and crony capitalism

Part of the reason DVDs and Blu Rays are expensive to buy is due to the MPAA and major studios successfully lobbying Congress for evermore anti-piracy legislation, which artificially decreases the supply of movies on discs. When I was a teenager and spending money was very limited, I used to go to Chinatown and buy crystal-clear bootleg DVDs for $5 a pop. The utility of a store-bought DVD or bootleg DVD was the same, so I maximized my spending power by buying multiple cheap DVDs rather than spend $20 on one store-bought. This was before lightning-speed downloading and streaming.  Regulation of the black market didn't, and doesn't, work. –10/16

Mao Zedong (left), Ho Chi Minh (right)

Intervention in Indochina

The endless ironies of foreign intervention and foreign aid boggle the mind at times. In 1945, an anti-Japanese guerrilla leader was dying from malaria and dysentery. US intelligence agents nursed him back to health. The guerrilla leader would later be known as Ho Chi Minh, responsible for the deaths of 58,286 Americans, 3 million Vietnamese, and untold numbers of Cambodians and Laotians. –10/19

Libertarians and pre-libertarians

Those who identify as libertarian do so because of a conscious decision to live by libertarian principles. The numberless masses who either sympathize with libertarianism, or who agree with the Golden Rule and personal responsibility without knowing libertarianism, are pre-libertarian. They are great minds waiting to blossom. The most fanatical statists who insist on maintaining omnipresent government are simply anti-liberty. –10/20

Rocky Mountain fur trapper

Liberty and survival

The history of westward expansion in America is the history of individuals carving out a livelihood where there was yet no government. They were solely responsible for producing, or trading for, the means for their own survival. I have the ability to do the same; the benefits of the division of labor, and my need for social interaction, compel me to choose to live in an area over which a government rules. However, only the most fanatical statists actually need government to keep them alive. Others can do it on their own, regardless of government. –10/20

Obamacare and changing the dialogue

It's hilarious that emails from Barack Obama's website are calling government-run health insurance "Obamacare." This shows that after years of bashing the Affordable Care Act and President Obama, Republicans have finally changed the dialogue (albeit in an immature way). While the neocons spent years getting people to hate "Obamacare" (which I call Son of Romneycare), libertarians spent years discussing auditing and ending the Federal Reserve, abolishing the IRS, and bringing our troops home. Now it's taking hold! –10/21

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Mao and Ho picture by the government of North Vietnam, c. 1955.  "Old Bill Williams" painting by Alfred Jacob Miller, c. 1839.  Both images are in the public domain and were obtained from Wikipedia.