You need to suffer so I can live my best life.

So I got in a discussion with someone who is a friend of a friend of mine. We were discussing the state maintaining social distancing, mask orders, and other government mandates. This is how the important part went:

Divemedic:

The virus is out there. Wearing a mask, lockdowns, all of it are not a long term solution. We are killing the economy and costing lives in an attempt to do what? People are still going to get this virus. Remember all of the “flatten the curve” stuff? All of the things we are doing is NOT going to prevent people from catching the virus. All it will do is prolong the amount of time it takes to infect the people who are going to get it.
This virus is widespread enough that it is going to be with us for years, perhaps forever.

Panicked Lady:

And if we all get it and 67% have lasting, long term complications? What is that going to do to the workforce and the economy?

DM:

Those same people will get it eventually, no matter what you do. Only then, they will all be jobless and poor.

PL:

So, just to clarify, where does that leave people like me who are high risk? Are we just supposed to live inside, not shop, not work, and just wait for the possibility of “herd immunity” to work? What do our senior parents do? Do they just live inside for months/years, waiting for the possible immunity? Or are we just expendable?

DM:

So are we all supposed to remain cloistered because you are sick and want to go out?

PL:

I want to work. I want to live my life just as much as everyone who isn’t wearing masks. I haven’t hugged my mother or my boyfriend in months to try to maintain my own safety. I’m not asking anyone to stay cloistered. I’m asking you to wear a mask, just like you wear pants, and shirts for the good and decency of everyone.

DM:

That IS my answer. You are sick. That sucks. I feel bad for you. However, it isn’t my responsibility to take care of you. Instead of facing the fact that there are things you can no longer do, you demand that the rest of us change our behaviors, businesses go bankrupt and lay off employees, all so you can avoid being inconvenienced by YOUR illness. You demand that the rest of us change our behavior to suit you.
If your neighbor told you he had severe asthma and demanded that no one in your neighborhood mow their lawns, bar b que, smoke, or paint their homes so he could sit outside at the pool without worrying about his asthma, would that be reasonable? Of course not.
Do I think you are expendable? No. However, that in no way requires that I change my life to suit you. Not only that, there is not one single study that shows masks are effective in preventing the spread of COVID 19. Not one. 

PL:

And if you would like a study- here’s one- http://files.fast.ai/papers/masks_lit_review.pdf
Don’t ask a grad student to provide proof. We are good at that. 

DM:

You didn’t provide proof. That “study” is not a study, it is a review of literature. From your own study:

4. Mask Efficacy Studies
Although no randomized controlled trials (RCT) on the use of masks as source control for SARS-CoV-2 has been published, a number of studies have attempted to indirectly estimate the efficacy of masks. Overall, an evidence review finds “moderate certainty evidence shows that the use of handwashing plus masks probably reduces the spread of respiratory viruses.”
I don’t think that literature using words like “estimate”, “moderate certainty” or “probably reduces” is good enough to order businesses to operate at reduced capacity, close, or other disruptive activities.

PL: You are selfish and just want people to die. 
Blocked.

Communications

The saying is “Shoot, move, and communicate.” I won’t give away the entirety of my communications plan, but here is a partial list of equipment that I have. (The majority of it is Yaesu, for the simple reason that I only want to have and learn one version of the programming software):

Regional Comms:
Yaesu FT897 mobile radio mounted in the house. I also have batteries and antennas capable of taking this radio into the field.

Area comms:
Yaesu FTM-400XDR. This is my only digital radio. It is loaded with features, and I got it for about $400. You are fortunate to find one for less than $550 nowadays. I have it mounted in a vehicle.

Yaesu FT-7900R This is a vehicle mounted radio that operates in the 2 meter and 70cm band.

Uniden CMX760 This is a vehicle mounted CB radio.

Handheld:
Yaesu FT60R- This is a dual band handheld radio that has all sorts of advanced features.

Yaesu FT270R: This is a 2 meter handheld that has the advantage of being water resistant.

Because it does you no good without someone to talk to, I have some radios to share. For sharing, I have about half a dozen Baofeng UV-5r radios with spare batteries. They operate in 2 bands (2 meter and 70cm), are not as nice as the Yaesu radios I have, but do have the advantage of only costing $25 each. At that price, I can afford to give some away if needed.

Tying it all together

For months, I have been watching the US fall deeper into the clutches of an insurgency designed to overthrow the US government and replace it with a communist dictatorship. As late as two weeks ago, I was being called crazy. Heck, two years ago, I would have called me crazy. So I have spent the last two weeks laying out my case. Now it is time for me to present my closing argument.

I must admit that, as I worked on this, I came to realize that the condition we find ourselves in has been in the making for at least a decade. Perhaps longer. Events that led us to this include the deaths of Andrew Breitbart and Antonin Scalia, the assassination attempt on Republican house members, the impeachment attempts on President Trump, and more.

Like Mein Kampf, the insurgents laid out their entire plan for us to monitor. Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals spells out their entire plan in black and white. In part one of my three part series on insurgency, I explained the first stage of their plan. Phase one of the insurgency is the preparation phase. The insurgents spent time and energy building up an organizational and logistical foundation, upon which they built the entire plan. Saul Alinsky picked up on the fact that the American system of government could only be destroyed from within once radical operatives had control over society’s institutions. There are large portions of the Federal government that are now more loyal to the insurgency than are loyal to the Republic.

Just as I pointed out in part two of the Roots of the Insurgency story, the insurgency must eliminate or silence any opposition to the insurgency and increase the population’s dependence upon the goodwill of the portions of the government that are under the control of the insurgents. At the same time, we divide the people into “We” and “they” factions. In this case, along racial and class lines by telling a portion of the public that they are not as prosperous as “they” are because “they” are holding “us” back through an unfair system. How can you tell that it is working? Businesses change names of products, taglines, and branding. Once the government begins bowing to the political strength of the insurgents, the insurgency is at the peak of its political power. This is the point at which even more portions of the government cross over to openly support the insurgency. Those who do not submit will have their reputations, businesses, and lives ruined.

It is during phase two that the insurgency can now begin to use force. It begins modestly- assassinations, disappearances, unexplained deaths that aren’t fully investigated, and seemingly random attacks. In my opinion, this has been going on for several years. In fact, Antifa even announced on November 4, 2017 that they were beginning the revolution. I blogged about it at the time. 

Then comes  overt action. Just as I pointed out in part three of Roots of an Insurgency, the insurgency enters the crisis stage. Violence begins to be more frequent, and right out in the open. The militant wings of the insurgency come out of hiding and directly challenge the authority of the government. Not only is it the goal of the insurgents to beat the government, but to convince the people that there is no point in fighting, because the insurgency is too strong. The portions of the government- local, state, and Federal, who are under control of the insurgency will allow the insurgents to continue to operate, and will even support the actions of the insurgents. The government that is loyal to the status quo is then openly challenged to a fight. If the government accepts the challenge and win, they look like tyrants, but if they lose or refuse to accept the challenge, they look weak.

This is also the stage where purges begin, books are burned or rewritten, and the history of the old regime is destroyed. This prevents any sort of “counter revolution” from gaining any traction.

The US Army calls this the “Open Insurgency Stage.” According to the Army:

 At this stage, no doubt exists that the government is facing an insurgency. Politically, the insurgents are overtly challenging state authority and attempting to exert control over territory. Militarily, the insurgents are staging more frequent attacks, which have probably become more aggressive, violent, and sophisticated and involve larger numbers of fighters. As the insurgency becomes more active, external support for the belligerents probably becomes more apparent, if it exists.
An insurgency at this stage often progresses from undermining state authority to displacing and replacing it. Insurgents may develop a “shadow government” that mirrors state administrative structures and may establish “no-go” areas where government representatives have been driven out and where only large formations of security forces can operate.

“No go” zones like the ones in New York, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere. At the same time that insurgents are attacking more and more often, they demand that we defund and dismantle the police to replace it with BLM personnel. (There goes that shadow government and replacing state authority.)

I previously believed that we were in phase two. I was plainly wrong. We entered phase two during the summer of 2016, once the powers that be realized that HRC might not win the Presidency. Once violence begins, the lines get a bit blurry, but I really believe that we are currently in phase three or the end of phase two. What comes next? Who knows? Who is John Galt?

I think there is a classic “October Surprise” to come. I think that it is odd that Biden isn’t even really campaigning. He hasn’t even chosen a running mate. Why? Has he given up? Doubtful. Is he that sure he will win? Is he really going to be the nominee? Or will his running mate be the surprise? Michelle Obama? It would be foolish of him to pick HRC, unless he hires a food taster.

Whatever the case may be, whatever the Democrat party does with the Biden campaign will tell us a lot about where they see the nation heading.

At any rate, we are in a violent phase of a revolution, a coup, an insurgency, call it what you will. I rest my case, and leave it up to each of you to look at the evidence and decide for yourselves where we are.

Militia

I can’t decide if these militia are cosplayers who are merely playing a part, or if they seriously think that they are ready for the revolution but incompetent. I don’t understand the fascination they seem to have with .22LR. They certainly won’t be able to engage anyone at any sort of range with underpowered cartridges and no attention to sights of any sort.

Just remember that a .22 can still kill you, and a bad shooter can still get lucky.

I didn’t mark up these pictures, but they are informative:

Roots of an insurgency, part 3

This is a three part series. Part one is here. Part two is here.

In the first two parts, we talked about how the insurgency laid the groundwork: protests, propaganda, and initial recruitment. The second part covers how, now that the groundwork has been laid, mild violence begins.

Mao called this the “crisis” phase. The crisis state distinguishes resistance movements from social movements more generally. The essential characteristic defining an insurgency that has entered the crisis state is a decisive moment of escalated confrontation between opponents, however long or short. I think the recent nationwide riots fulfilled that characteristic.

Moving from an incipient to crisis state occurs when the movement grows powerful enough to pose a serious threat to its opponent. How we can determine when the threat has become serious is when the opponent of the resistance, the government, escalates its approach because previous methods of countering the resistance failed.

Scholars have identified signals of this crisis state to include a decisive loss of legitimacy by the government, financial collapse, breakdown in authority, strong symbolic actions, and perception of dual sovereignty or provisional authority, among others. (I think that this is why the movement is trying so hard to establish an autonomous zone.)

A great example of this would be Northern Ireland in 1972 was in the crisis state. The maintenance of barricaded “no-go” and “free” zones in Derry/Londonderry and Belfast during this period contributed to perceptions of provisional authority and separation of resistance from opponents. Heightened contention and escalation of resistance action occurred after British troops killed thirteen demonstrators at the civil rights march that became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

The insurgency gains power if the group or movement either persists through, or gains strength from, the crisis state. Surviving the crisis state deepens its organizational into an established opposition player. In other words, the essential characteristic of a resistance in the institutional state is an established role in society.

Once the last phase begins, totalitarian elites let loose their inclination to brutally eliminate their perceived enemies. Once this phase begins, things happen very quickly. The entire country will collapse in a matter of weeks.

Violence is considered a means to achieving the goal of centralized power. There is not even a pretense of due process or respect for free speech. Yes, there are pretexts given for eliminating perceived enemies, excuses that have the perpetrators projecting their own intentions upon their victims, but the accusations are merely for show.

Where are we?

America is still a free nation with laws on the books that protect individuals from abuses by the state. That appears to be changing. Criminals being released from jails to make room for business owners who are violating COVID closure orders. Rioters walking away with no charges. Rioters attack cars and motorists, the motorist tries to escape, and then the motorist is charged with a crime for injuring one of their attackers while escaping.

It even seems as if there are police and prosecutors who are actively assisting the insurgents. That is typical, and there will be much more of that as time goes on. Expect to see military units who side with the insurgents. In a country armed with thousands of nuclear weapons, anything can happen.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are currently in the early part of phase 2. Violent action has begun, and the crisis phase has begun. There are two ways forward from here. Either this insurgency will survive the crisis phase and things will get worse, or the insurgency will wither and die.

Miscalculation

The group from my last post claims that they are carrying weapons because they believe that the police will not use less lethal force like tear gas on a crowd that contains people who are armed, because police do not want to begin a firefight. Here is the quote:

Rules of engagement for the police force are actually different now that we’re armed. They can’t openly fire into a crowd with people with AR’s or rifles because that would lead into a firefight. It’s a strategic thing that we do for our people, to be armed,

Make no mistake, he is banking on the fact that no one will dare oppose them for fear of getting in an active firefight. He knows that the police can’t risk that while there are large numbers of unarmed protesters in the crowd. He is essentially using the crowd as human shields. He is also standing there armed with an unloaded weapon.

If anything, these actions bring us closer to the mag dump that will start full on combat.

Stolen insurgency

I know I have written about the NFAC and other insurgents. They are a clear danger to the American public. They also have posers out there who are stealing the look in order to gain more press and “legitimacy” for their cause. Take these guys:

Let’s start with clothing:

Take a look at the 7 people dressed in black in the above picture. They are all wearing “rigs” that appear to be some sort of military appearing rigs for carrying weapons and associated equipment. Look closer. The ones that the men are wearing obviously do not have any armor panels in them. They are shells only. The woman is wearing a chest plate designed for baseball catchers. The man on the right has a shell that is covered with magazine pouches, but they are all empty.

Look at the three who are wearing berets. The patch they have is from the 66th Infantry Division, not the New Black Panther Party.

There is a closeup of the woman and her rifle.

If you zoom in, you can clearly see three things: There is an M&P logo clearly visible on the mag well, the ejection port is clearly too short to be anything but a .22 (making the rifle a Smith and Wesson M&P15-22 Sport). This leads one to also notice that the magazine is empty. Also note that the sling swivel is empty (indicating that she is clutching it because there is no sling) and the rifle only has the fold down BUIS that ship with the rifle, and they are folded down.

You can also see the man next to her is wearing a completely empty ballistic vest cover.

So I did some checking. It turns out that the white guy in the picture up top is a guy by the name of Michael Pierino. He is an Atlanta area professional actor. Here is his IMDB page. He is mostly a bit actor from things like “The Walking Dead.”

Also from IMDB, here is a cast picture from a short he was just in called “Protectors of Life”

Some more searching discovers that the people in the top photo are ALL actors. They claim to be “for real” and are not being paid to act. If this is true, they are in REAL danger. Carrying unloaded firearms and empty plate carriers while trying to provoke a civil war is just asking to get owned in a gunfight.

The attorney who is representing them- Alann Pugh. He also appears to be posting to Instagram as SpiikeG.