"Damn the Gunwalker Scandal! Full speed ahead!" Admiral "Old Bloody Hands" Cummings to demand more gun control today. Puppet Theater for children.

"Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" Admiral David Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864.

Katie Pavlich: "Democrats to Introduce Gun Control Legislation Tomorrow."

Democrat Representatives Maloney, Cummings and McCarthy, all members of the Minority on the House Oversight Committee chaired by Republican Congressman Issa, plan to hold a press conference tomorrow to announce new gun control anti-gun trafficking legislation in light of Operation Fast and Furious. The "Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act," is designed to "keep high powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels."

U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) will join other members and a leading law enforcement organization for an event Friday, July 15th, 11:00 a.m. at the House Triangle to introduce the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” which establishes a dedicated firearms trafficking statute to empower law enforcement to keep high-powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.

"Damn the Gunwalker Scandal! Full speed ahead!" Old Bloody Hands Cummings, 15 July 2011.

So let me get this straight, democrats want to punish law abiding Americans and impede on Second Amendment rights with new legislation "to prevent gun trafficking to Mexico," however, aren't willing to focus on the ATF and DOJ's role in deliberately putting high powered firearms into the hands of criminals including Mexican drug cartels? It doesn't matter how many gun control laws we have on the books if the federal government is willing to break them to push a political agenda, however, this is not surprising.

Second email from Chait to Newell after the F&F dog-and-pony show in January. It is always about the politics.

Pavlich continues:

The announcement of new legislation comes just a day after Townhall obtained emails showing Operation Fast and Furious was designed to promote gun control and four days after the DOJ Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who is under investigation for his involvement in the scandal, released new reporting requirements for multiple sales of certain semi-automatic rifles.

So "Old Bloody Hands," who could have short-circuited the murderous Gunwalker debacle if he had but held long-overdue oversight hearings into ATF management malpractices when HE ran the committee, cynically and hypocritically demands more power and money for the same agency that, pursuant to orders from the leading figures in the Obama administration, is the largest gun smuggling facilitator to the southern hemisphere in history?

The New York Times, of course, predictably agrees.

We mustn't get too caught up in all of this puppet theater for credulous children. As the Gunwalker Scandal revelations continue to cascade out into the public eye, such delusional adventures into collectivist alternate reality will begin to look more and more like what they are -- the pathetic last gasps of a self-discredited bunch of power-mad bunkum artists screaming "Pay no attention to the Scandal behind the curtain!"

List of firearm confiscationist yellow rat bastards for tomorrow's not-hearing by old "Bloody Hands." Helmke's swan song & Bouchard's "expertise."

U.S. Rep. Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings -- so called because he had control of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee prior to the 2010 elections and never held an oversight hearing that might have addressed ATF management problems and short-circuited the Gunwalker Scandal -- is holding something of a hoplophobe indoor garden party tomorrow.

Channing Turner at Main Justice called this hopped-up advertisement for gun control a "minority hearing." It is not, for Cummings doesn't have the authority to call a formal hearing on his own.


U.S. Rep. Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings

Dave Workman calls it a "forum" or “briefing.”

The quintessential hoplophobic collectivist creep Senator Chuck Schumer will be there.



Arturo Cervantes, listed by the Minority witness list as "Mexico Ministry of Health," is supposed to be there as well.

Dr Arturo Cervantes on right in 2009, when he was head of the Road Traffic Accident Prevention Centre in Mexico City.

Dr. Cervantes will no doubt give stirring expert testimony on how Project Gunwalker firearms disrupt Mexican traffic patterns. That is his specialty, I believe.

There of course will also be the usual firearm confiscationist suspects:

Colby Goodman, Author of “U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Mexico: New Data and Insights Illuminate Key Trends and Challenges.” Readers of Kurt Hofmann's St. Louis Gun Examiner column will recall his story on Mr. Goodman from 2 May, "Author of study quoted by anti-gun groups changes story, implicates 'Gunwalker.'" I'm sure vigorous questioning by old Bloody Hands will elicit the changing story that Kurt wrote of.

Paul Helmke, retiring president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, will be there, up for his last swan song before leaving the Brady Bunch for parts as yet unknown.

Thomas Mahoney, Assistant State’s Attorney Supervisor, Gang Prosecution Unit, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Mahoney is a buddy of Andrew Traver, the notoriously anti-firearm Chicago SAC of ATF who the Obamanoids wish to become the replacement for Ken "Gunwalker Man" Melson. Mahoney served on the same Joyce Foundation/IACP "Gun Violence Summit Advisory Group."

Eric Olson, Senior Associate, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He has already given us a look at what his testimony will be -- here is what he had to tell the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs in May of this year.

And what hoplophobe fun fest would be complete without Kristen Rand, Legislative Director of the Violence Policy Center?

More interesting to me, and certain to be Bloody Hands star witness is Michael R. Bouchard, former Assistant Director Field Operations, ATF. "Look! Look! We've got an ATF witness, too!"

The ATF street agents I talk to are not that impressed with Mr. Bouchard's agency career. One said, "Yeah, he was a coward who wouldn't come forward when Truscott was stealing the silverware during the anonymous whistleblower thing. He sat as the Director's ass't like former SAC Vanessa McLemore. He's a disgrace and should shut the fuck up. He was the former ADFO who ignored threats to Dobyns."

The Washington Times reported his bio in January of 2004:

A veteran agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been named to head the ATF’s Office of Field Operations, where he will oversee regulatory and criminal enforcement for 23 field divisions throughout the country.

Michael R. Bouchard, who supervised the ATF’s investigation and apprehension of Washington snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, will also be responsible for oversight of ATF personnel who inspect federally licensed firearms and explosives dealers and manufacturers, and for all criminal investigators focusing on illegal firearms and explosives matters, arson, violent gangs, and alcohol and tobacco diversion.

He will also oversee the resource deployment of the ATF’s National Response Teams, which respond to major arsons and bombings nationwide.

Mr. Bouchard was formerly the deputy assistant director for the ATF’s Strategic Intelligence and Information division.

Mr. Bouchard began his career as a police officer and detective in Connecticut in 1979, moving to the ATF in 1987, where he has served in numerous positions at its headquarters and across the country. He headed the ATF field division in Baltimore, where he was responsible for criminal and regulatory enforcement issues in Maryland and Delaware. He also served as resident agent in charge of the Boston field division, where he handled the investigation into one of the largest arson-for-profit fires in the history of Massachusetts.

As head of the ATF’s Resource Management Branch, he also oversaw the logistics for the Oklahoma City bombing deployment and all church fires in the middle to late 1990s. He headed the Arson Enforcement Branch, served as chief of the Arson and Explosives Programs Division and as director of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative.

As a member of the National Response Team, Mr. Bouchard supervised the ATF’s efforts at several major incidents, including the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon.

A native of Connecticut, Mr. Bouchard received a bachelor’s degree in fire-arson investigation from the University of New Haven in Connecticut; and a master’s degree in national-security strategy from the National War College in Washington.

He also serves on the arson and explosives committee with the International Association of Police Chiefs, and previously served on committees with the National Fire Protection Association and the International Association of Arson Investigators.

That was as high as he was going to rise in the ATF heirarchy. As CNS News
reported in March 2006, Bouchard was called on the carpet by Congress to explain why the ATF got involved in some "gun show stings" that went badly wrong.

But it was the Truscott scandal which did in Bouchard's career. As Dan Eggen reported in Pravda-on-the-Potomac in February 2007: "ATF Officials Who Challenged Director Moved to Lower Posts."

Two senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who opposed many questionable management and spending decisions by the agency's former director are being moved to lower-ranking positions effective Thursday, officials said.

Deputy Director Edgar A. Domenech, who also served as acting director last year, is being moved out of ATF headquarters to lead the agency's Washington field office. The assistant director for field operations, Michael Bouchard, will become an assistant to Michael J. Sullivan, a U.S. attorney who is temporarily running ATF.

The transfers are widely seen within ATF as demotions. They come seven months after the sudden departure of Carl J. Truscott, the former director, who clashed with Domenech and other senior executives over spending and management practices.

An inspector general's report issued after his departure showed that Truscott -- who previously served as head of President Bush's security detail at the Secret Service -- engaged in a wide-ranging pattern of questionable expenditures on a new ATF headquarters, personal security and other items. The report also said that he violated ethics rules by forcing employees to help his nephew prepare a high school video project.

Domenech took over for Truscott after he resigned and reversed a decision to include a costly engraved quotation from Bush's speech to Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the new headquarters entrance.

ATF spokeswoman Sheree Mixell characterized the moves as routine and said "both are important positions."

Domenech and Bouchard could not be reached to comment last week.

The new deputy director will be Ronnie A. Carter, a 27-year ATF veteran, who has headed the agency's Dallas office since 2002. Bouchard's replacement is William J. Hoover, a 20-year veteran. Hoover headed the Boston office for about three years before taking over the Washington office in January 2006.

Bouchard decided to retire immediately after his demotion.

He has always been good for a comment or two since then, whenever Pravda wants a quotable quote to back up a pro-gun control story by "reporters" James V. Grimaldi and the forgiven plagiarist Sari Horwitz, such as this one in October of last year: "ATF's oversight limited in face of gun lobby."

"We were always given just enough food and water to survive," said Michael Bouchard, former ATF assistant director for field operations. "We could barely just keep going. The ATF could never get that strong, because the gun lobby would get too concerned."

Of course, from the Democrats' point of view, Bouchard has also said some very inconvenient things about Gunwalker. For example:

Defenders of the agency questioned whether Melson is about to become a sacrificial lamb for decisions made higher up in the Justice Department, the ATF’s parent.

“If anybody thinks the ATF is calling the shots on this, they’re wrong,” said Michael Bouchard, the ATF’s assistant director for field operations from 2004 until his retirement in 2007. “For ATF top officials to take all the hits on this is totally unfair.”

I'm sure Bloody Hands will be eager to explore THAT sentiment.

The best news on this not-hearing? A spokesman at the Minority staff on the Committee told me sadly that it will not be on C-SPAN. I'm sure that Sari Horwitz will cover it anyway.

You can't make this stuff up. Old Bloody Hands & the anti-firearm rights fish cop from the FLEoA circus. The Adventure of the Stuffed Fish Smugglers

Chris Schoppmeyer, anti-firearm rights VP for Agency Affairs at the FLEoA Circus, and federal fish cop. Eliot Ness he ain't.


When we last heard from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association here at Sipsey Street, they were condemning Obama's remarks about ICE agents in Mexico.

FLEOA says they're "the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit professional association exclusively representing 26,000 active and retired federal law enforcement officers from 65 different agencies."

At the time, FLEOA proclaimed:

FLEOA intends to honor the memory of hero Special Agent Jaime Zapata by continuing to advocate for agent’s safety abroad. FLEOA extends its heartfelt prayers and condolences to Special Agent Zapata’s family, and wishes Special Agent Victor Avila a strong and rapid recovery. FLEOA will honor the ultimate sacrifice made by Special Agent Zapata during the annual Candlelight Vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on May 13th.

Now, the FLEoA Circus is going to honor the memory of Jaime Zapata and Brian Terry by giving political cover to the craven politicians who are desperately trying to deflect attention away from the program that killed them.

Chris Schoppmeyer, VP for Agency Affairs at FLEoA, is going to serve as Old Bloody Hands Cummings' straight man at the press conference today pimping the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act.”

From his FLEoA bio:

Chris Schoppmeyer has been in federal law enforcement for over 28 years, first as a Wildlife Inspector and Refuge Law Enforcement Officer for the US Fish & Wildlife Service and for the past 21 years as a NOAA Fisheries Service Special Agent stationed in New Castle, NH. Chris has been a FLEOA member since 1990. From 2001 to 2007 he served as the Agency President for the NOAA Fisheries Service, Office for Law Enforcement. In 2003 Chris formed NH Chapter 67 and has served as Chapter President since then.

Chris’s entire career has been dedicated to conservation law enforcement. He holds two degrees from Unity College, Maine in Conservation Law Enforcement and Daniel Webster College in NH for Organizational Management. During his career as a fisheries agent, Chris served a 10 month assignment as a Staff Assistant to a NH congressman, focusing on environmental issues. Chris has received numerous awards including the Chevron Conservation Award in the Citizen Volunteer category. As Vice President of Agency Affairs, Chris will serve as the liaison between the Agency Presidents for over 70 agencies and the National Executive Board.

Adam Goldman, writing for the Associated Press in March 2007, gives us a sense of this hard-charging federal fish cop.

Agents in New York try to staunch tidal wave of illegal seafood

NEW YORK — The armed agents stroll into the frigid market, where the pungent stink of seafood assaults them. The smell pervades their clothes and the scaly, gooey water clings to their boots.

They pass burly men slinging slabs of fish with gleaming hooks and table saws ripping through frozen chunks of swordfish and tuna. Tempers flare as forklifts dart around the cavernous building known as the Fulton Fish Market.

Agents Chris Schoppmeyer and Scott Doyle barely notice any of this. They're only interested in clams today. They want to know which of the wholesalers have unknowingly bought the shellfish from a company involved in a smuggling operation.

They stop at a fish stand. Schoppmeyer recognizes the name. He's got a bite. "They were definitely sold here," Schoppmeyer says.

Such fishing expeditions play out on a regular basis for agents at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's little-known law enforcement office.

"Drop those illegal clams, back away from the crate, and put your hands on top of your head!" Chris Schoppmeyer (on right) in search of savage gangs of illegal seafood buyers.

Ooooh, a fish cop. Just the right sort of "expert" to testify about firearms laws and weapon smuggling south of the border. You know, you can't make this stuff up.

Kinda reminds me, in a low-budget sort of way, of Klaus Nordling's Lt. Drake of the U.S. Naval Intelligence and the Adventure of the Stuffed Fish Smugglers.


Mystery Men #12 (July 1940)"The Stuffed Fish Smugglers"

(Go here to read the whole comic strip.)

NYTwits produce a Gunwalker Scandal story with a marvelously understated headline. Plus, more misdirection from "Hatless Lige" Cummings.

"Anybody seen my hat?" Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings wants you to believe he left his political hat at the door.

Best NYTwit understated headline ever: "Firearms Bureau Finds Itself in a Rough Patch."

Rough patch? Smack in the middle of the worst federal government scandal ever that has killed hundreds, if not thousands, and the New York Times calls it a "rough patch"? That's like saying Little Big Horn was Custer having a disappointing day.


25 June 1876: General Custer's disappointing day.

Then there's the old "give it to the FBI" mantra.

With 2,500 agents and a budget of roughly $1 billion, the A.T.F. has long been a stepchild to the bigger and more prestigious Federal Bureau of Investigation, and some say the two agencies should merge. Among them is Jim Kessler, a founder of Third Way, a centrist policy organization here, who said a merger would insulate the bureau.

“It needs to be within the cocoon of a much stronger, unassailable law enforcement agency,” Mr. Kessler said, adding that the N.R.A.’s aim is to “keep it weak, but keep it alive.”

The FBI has long resisted that idea because they don't want the scrutiny that comes with the mission. And believe me, as long as the current firearms laws remain on the books, American firearm owners down want the secretive FBI to have that mission either.

Indeed, the idea of putting the A.T.F. out of business draws opposition from various quarters for different reasons.

Mr. LaPierre said Congress must give the bureau “a complete scrub from top to bottom” before deciding its future. Mr. Grassley wants to find out if Justice Department higher-ups were “pulling the strings in Fast and Furious.”

Representative Cummings, who concedes that the bureau made mistakes, wants to strengthen the agency, though his bill is unlikely to pass. And he would like to see it have a leader.

“All this is about life and death,” he said. “This is serious stuff. At some point we have to leave our political hats at the door.”

Oh, right. Like Cummings himself is. What? Is he looking for a new moniker, like "Hatless Lige" to replace "Old Bloody Hands"?

Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings does damage control in Gunwalker Scandal.

"Just a moment, Mr. Chairman, I need to go wash these bloody hands again."

Put bluntly, had Rep. Cummings and his Democrat colleagues done their jobs back when they wielded the power, “Project Gunwalker” may very well never have happened and its victims would still be alive today. -- David Codrea, 2 April 2011, "Cummings' objection to Issa ATF subpoena ignores own 'Gunwalker' culpability."

Old Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings is at it again.

"Our Committee has a responsibility to investigate allegations of waste, fraud and abuse. However, despite my repeated requests, Chairman Issa has refused to meet with the Department of Justice to ensure that his actions do not compromise ongoing investigations and prosecutions, including a trial of 20 individuals that is scheduled to begin in June."

The tactical jack-off. Democrats attempt to legislatively procreate by public political masturbation. What an old Marine veteran of Okinawa told me.

(NOTE: Hide the children. We're going to be talking Onanism of various kinds here.)

"Masturbation is to sex as philosophy is to reality." -- Attributed to Karl Marx.

From the LA Times: Amid Fast and Furious probe, Democrats push new gun control bill.

The debate surrounding gun control laws has reignited following the Fast and Furious investigation, and the latest volley was launched Friday.

Two House Democrats introduced a bill that would make the trafficking of firearms to known felons or someone intending to commit a felony a federal offense. The bill, put forth by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), was drafted in response to testimony from law enforcement agents, who have said current law leaves gaps in enforcement against straw purchasers who often supply drug cartels with weapons. . .

Cummings denied that the legislation was an attempt to detract from the ongoing investigation.

"I want to make it clear we are very troubled by Fast and Furious. It is our belief that we are going to have to look at this case very carefully and we must go where the evidence leads," said Cummings, who is the ranking member on the committee investigating the matter. "But conducting oversight is pointless unless we translate what we learn into action."

Uh, huh. Let me share an anecdote from the 90s. It has the advantage of being true.

(Phone rings after midnight. I pick it up.)

Heavy breather: "I'm gonna kill you."

MBV: (Laughs.) "Riiiight."

Heavy breather: "I'm gonna KILL you."

MBV: "Look pal, you don't know the difference between real sex and masturbation. If you were gonna kill me, you'd just do it. You wouldn't be beating your gums and beating your meat calling me up to tell me about it."

Heavy breather: (Silence.)

MBV: "Besides, what kind of moron calls up and makes a death threat on a phone line that's under federal court-ordered wire tap?!?"

Heavy breather: (Click.)

"Cummings denied that the legislation was an attempt to detract from the ongoing investigation."

Uh, huh.

For those of you who take this demonstration of futile public political masturbation seriously, John Richardson has the text of this spurt to nowhere here and the accompanying memo here.

Now Old Bloody Hands Cummings and his gun confiscationist harridans and harpies who co-sponsored this have to know that it is a non-starter, a complete waste of motion. It is masturbation rather than sex -- it certainly won't accomplish legislative procreation nor is it an expression of love, except in the Woody Allen sense.


"Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love." -- Woody Allen, in Annie Hall.

As these people, savvy politicians all, know, there really is no point to this exercise. None, save one. I can best illustrate it by telling you a story that an old Marine veteran of Okinawa once told me. It is the Tale of the Tactical Jack-off. It supposedly happened a few days into the battle for "Sugar Loaf Hill." I say "supposedly" because I have no way of knowing the truth of the story. I never heard repeated by anyone else and it sure isn't written down anywhere that I know of. The old Marine is gone now, but I have to say that he told a unbelievable tale convincingly. He convinced me anyway.

Okinawa was a meat-grinder and nowhere worse than Sugar Loaf Hill. There was a point, the old Marine told me, when a couple of guys were hit advancing up the slope, one of them a popular sergeant. Both were wounded badly. The Japs, who had perfect line of sight on them, left them alive to sucker guys into the killing zone. It worked. Four men tried, four men died. The Nambus and Arisakas got them all. The CO ordered that no else try. One Marine, a tall lanky blond-headed kid (the old Marine thought he was from Minnesota) volunteered to distract the Japanese while others would effect the rescue. "How're you going to do that?" he was asked. "Leave that to me," he replied. "Just be ready when I get their attention."

The young Marine worked his way back down, crossed under cover and concealment and finally managed to get about a hundred yards or so down to the right, where a little hillock lay which could be seen by just about the entire Japanese position above.

The young Marine then stripped off all his clothes, revealing a large erection. Leaping up on the hillock where he could be seen by everyone, American and Japanese alike, he began what the old Marine called, laughingly, in wonder, "the only tactical jack-off I ever seen."

The hill fell silent as the young Marine demonstrated for the multi-national crowd. Several Marines jumped up and ran to get the two men. One had died, but the sergeant was still alive. All made it back to cover without a shot being fired.

Having accomplished his missions, the young Marine jumped back down behind the hillock, pulled on his dungarees, and returned to his squad. The battle quickly resumed.

As I recall, I expressed a good deal of skepticism about the story. This was long before I had ever heard from Iraq war veterans of the "Combat Jack." (Described in some detail in Generation Kill by Evan Thomas. Some guys, it seems, get a hard-on in the middle of a firefight.) In any case, the old Marine insisted it was true.

And that, poorly told, is the "Tale of the Tactical Jack-off of Okinawa."

The Democrats are attempting something similar here, trying to distract from the Gunwalker Scandal by engaging in otherwise futile public political masturbation. They obviously haven't heard Bill Cosby's warning on the subject.

At PJM, Bob Owens asks: Can demagoguery stymie the growing Republican investigation?

House Dems Set to Demonize Gun Owners with Gunwalker Hearing

Owens on old "Bloody Hands" Cummings:

Instead of seeking answers from those Obama administration officials who are culpable for a rogue government program that has left cops, soldiers, and civilians dead, the congressman from Baltimore will use his position in order to provide airtime to those who would place blame at the feet of American citizens.

There may be a more disreputable role for a congressman to play during such a scandal, but I’m finding it hard to think of one.

Autopsy of Injustice. Let the dead teach the living in the Gunwalker Scandal.

"So that is where we are, as far as I know. The committee may have a rabbit in their hat. In fact, if they've been doing what they claim to have been doing they should have a whole warren of embarrassing rabbits for Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano and the sitting president of the United States. If. . . Maybe. . . Or, the fix is in, which means they have decided to try to save their rotten system and not the country."

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn

It is early on the morning I fly out to Mordor-on-the-Potomac. I awoke too soon from my sleep with this essay almost fully formed in my head, and so I present it you, gentle readers, as a follow-on to the previous post, including the words above, which I am told has excited some consternation and displeasure at the Issa committee.

The term "autopsy" in its modern sense dates from the the 1650s or thereabouts. It derives from the Greek "autopsia" which means "a seeing with one's own eyes," and its spirit is embodied in the Latin phrase "Mortui vivos docent," or, "Let the dead teach the living."

There are those, and they are not only folks working for Darrell Issa, who believe that I am being too harsh, too suspicious, of the year-long investigation. Various people called me yesterday to chide me for a lack of faith and respect. "Why did you have to embarrass the Congressman about Davos?" one asked.

Truth be told, I don't care whether the independently wealthy Darrell Issa goes to Davos. Good on him, both for making the money and having the ability to jet around the world. I mentioned it only because I knew it would get their attention, these people who almost consistently refuse to answer my questions directly. Heck, I even understand that, knowing what Rachel Madcow or "Bloody Hands" Cummings would do with the knowledge to try to discredit the investigation with guilt by association.

I poked them about Davos, not because I think Issa is hobnobbing with George Soros in some grand, Alex Jones conspiracy or simply out of pique that the committee has mystified me and other more mainstream journalists with their actions (or, in most cases, inactions), but rather because I have had almost two decades of "autopsia" when it comes to federal law enforcement scandals and, perhaps more than any other observer of this, the worst of such scandals, I believe that the dead should teach the living.

(Sidenote: It is no small thing that the committee has for many weeks cut off the flow of information to "mainstream" journalists who, unlike me, actually have a pay grade. Have you noticed how many Gunwalker stories Sharyl Attkisson of CBS has done lately? Zero. Zip. Nada. Bupkus. You know why? I have no specific knowledge, but I can tell you that editors -- especially editors who are made nervous by the threat that this scandal poses to their Dear Leader's regime -- do not keep reporters on stories where the sources dry up. And the committee has in great measure dried up the flow of information on what it is that they are doing. If they are now upset that people wonder why that is and what it portends, even to the point of making unfair guesses, well . . . they have only themselves to blame.)

"Mortui vivos docent."

The Randy Weaver family. The ATF wanted to make him an informant against the Aryan Nations. He refused. In the end, the U.S. Marshals killed his 14 year old son Sammy with a shot in the back and the FBI "accidentally" shot his wife Vicki in the head as she held their 10-month-old daughter Elishiba. With optics that FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi used, he could have seen Vicki Weaver's back teeth, even firing through the door glass as he did. As Wikipedia notes, "A Justice Department review later found this second shot was unconstitutional and the lack of a request to surrender was 'inexcusable', since Harris and the two Weavers were running for cover and could not pose an imminent threat." The FBI dubbed their temporary camp "Camp Vicki" and during the ensuing ten-day standoff negotiators taunted the survivors with "Vicki, come on out, we have blueberry pancakes." The negotiators later claimed they didn't know Vicki was dead, but Lon Horiuchi certainly did.

Politicians of both parties saw to that Lon Horiuchi was protected from legal consequences. FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts (a "FOL" -- "Friend of Louie," FBI Director Louis Freeh -- was censured for his role and in the subsequent cover-up. He was allowed to retire in 1997, after also participating in the command decision at Waco.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Some of the kids at Waco before their encounter with the FBI Hostage Roasting Team.

Here's some views of the end result of your tax dollars at work:

No one -- NO ONE -- was ever punished or even inconvenienced by what they did to these children at Waco. Eric Holder was instrumental in covering up the circumstances of the Waco inferno, including the prosecution of U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston, the only federal employee who seemed remotely interested in getting to the bottom of what actually happened. In this, Holder had bi-partisan help from the GOP. (See This Is Not An Assault: Penetrating the Web of Official Lies Regarding the Waco Incident by David T. Hardy & Rex Kimball.)

This bi-partisan cover-up cooperation continued to pay Eric Holder dividends into the 21st Century. From an article by Tommy Witherspoon in the Waco Tribune, 16 January 2009:

U.S. attorney general nominee Eric Holder not questioned about Waco Branch Davidian siege.

U.S. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder was prepared to be bombarded during his Senate confirmation hearings Thursday with a host of questions about a variety of topics, including his role as acting attorney general during a special investigation into the 1993 Branch Davidian debacle.

While he fielded questions about waterboarding terrorist suspects and the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, Senate Judiciary Committee members didn’t get around to asking about the Branch Davidian investigation.

Former Attorney General Janet Reno recused herself from a special investigation that was conducted by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth into how the fire started in April 1993 in which Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and 75 of his followers perished.

Reno’s recusal left Holder, then No. 2 at the Justice Department, as acting attorney general for the purposes of Danforth’s 14-month, $17 million investigation.

Sen. Arlen Specter — ranking Republican on Senate Judiciary — indicated earlier this week that the Branch Davidian siege and Holder’s involvement in Danforth’s investigation might be a topic discussed during Holder’s confirmation hearings. Internet blogs have been rife with speculation about possible Holder testimony on the siege.

Danforth said this week that he supports Holder’s nomination and thinks he will be an excellent attorney general. He said as acting attorney general, Holder was the person to whom Danforth and his investigators submitted requests for information.

“He was very good and played it straight,” Danforth said. “I think that, oftentimes, the reaction to people in agencies or departments where there is an investigation going on is to circle the wagons. But that was not him at all. He was very forthcoming and very cooperative with us and provided the information we needed.”

Waco attorney Bill Johnston, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute 11 Branch Davidians on murder charges, was the only person prosecuted as a result of Danforth’s investigation.

Johnston admitted that he failed to turn over his personal notes to investigators that they said revealed Johnston knew at least by 1994 that the FBI used tear-gas devices capable of sparking a fire on the final day of the 51-day standoff with Koresh.

They said Johnston also lied to a special grand jury in St. Louis about his level of cooperation.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Baylee Almon, barely alive, pulled from the rubble of the Murrah Building, Oklahoma City, 19 April 1995. She died shortly afterward.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Kenny Trentadue.

The official explanation of the bombing -- what Oklahoma investigative journalist J.D. Cash derisively called "The Lone Bomber Theory" -- was seriously complicated by credible reports of "others unknown." As I wrote recently:

A U.S. Attorney in Arizona made the proffer to McVeigh associate Michael Fortier in order to flesh out the "lone bomber theory" and divert attention away from Elohim City, the Aryan Republican Army and federal undercover informant Andreas Carl Strassmeier.

The name of that United States Attorney was Janet Napolitano.

The Oklahoma City Bombing, we now know, was at least influenced by and at worst executed by participants in a larger FBI operation called PATCON (See here and here. PATCON, and the cover-up of its deadly offshoots, was carried out under administrations of both parties. Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano are both long-time players in this cover-up, but then it has its GOP participants as well.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Brian Terry, Killed in Action, 15 December 2010, Peck Canyon, Arizona.

Let the dead teach the living. And what do these hundreds of dead -- thousands if you count the Mexican victims of Gunwalker, and I do -- as a result of federal law enforcement actions over the past two decades teach us? What do the bi-partisan cover-ups in all these cases teach us? They teach us that trusting anyone in the federal government when they utter the phrase "we will get to the bottom of it" is folly. They teach us that the Eric Holders of the world -- these evil men who commit crimes under color of law, violating the Constitution that they swore an oath to uphold -- could not succeed in their crimes without the urbane and sophisticated John Danforths of the world who cover for them.

My problem is that I have seen with my own eyes too much. I no longer trust. I can no longer be patient. For we who have trusted and been patient in our previous searches for federal justice have always been betrayed by the same people who claimed to be determined to "get to the bottom of it."

If my long education in bi-partisan perfidy in the cover-up of federal murder and mass murder has made me impatient, abrasive, untrusting and cynical, I make no apology. If we do see a complete and honest investigation of the Gunwalker Conspiracy, it would be a triumph of faint hope over jaded experience.

But that's not the way to bet.

"Mortui vivos docent."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Praxis from "Day of the Panzer" -- "The isolated and terrifying world of a combat rifleman."

While in Ohio, I picked up Day of the Panzer: The Story of American Heroism and Sacrifice in Southern France by Jeff Danby, Casemate, 2008, at my favorite Columbus-area bookstore, the Village Bookshop in Linworth. My days are pretty hectic up here, helping out my mother as she needs some spring cleaning done, but my nights are still insomiac, and I just finished the book last night.

In late August, 1944, Company L, 15th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, commanded by a dynamic combat leader, CPT James "Red" Coles, was ordered to advance through Allan, France, in attempt to flank and cut off retreating elements of the German Nineteenth Army. At Allan, the Germans stopped running. Stripped of key supporting elements because of a lack of fuel and transportation SNAFUs, Company L and its supporting armor elements were traveling light. The result was a very tough fight for Allan in which Company L was quickly in danger of being cut-off and overrun. That they weren't was entirely a matter of leadership, training and the realization by enlisted men that, in the words of Jeff Danby, there was "no way to go but forward."

Back at Allan, meanwhile, the Panther tank no longer posed an imminent threat to the the village. Like a restless and distracted predator, the mighty panzer backed farther into the northwestern fields of town where its crew could better obsevre the territory south of the village. Even with this repositioning, the furious gun battle raging along the north creek did not lessen in intensity. The Germans had established a small network of machine gun positions that pinned down the men of L Company in the fields, and kept American reinforcements frozen in the village. Two of Coles' men, however, decided independently to take drastic personal measures to break the impasse.

Cpl. Dominick Delmonico, a strong and husky twenty-nine year old from Cincinnati and an assistant squad leader in 3rd Platoon, crawled out alone from the safety of a nearby house toward chattering German machine gun positions 100 yards away. Delmonico had a reputation as a talkative guy, but on this afternoon he was all action. An avid amateur basketball player before volunteering, Delmonico brazenly decided to rely on some of his court footwork for survival. With bullets whizzing overhead, hed maneuvered to within twenty-five yards of the nearest machine gun and tossed two grenades in quick succession. Both landed and exploded directly in the nest, killing the two-man crew instantly and seriously wounding two supporting riflemen.

The audacious attack drew unwelcome attention in Delmonico's direction, especially from a second machine gun nest 100 yards to his left. A heavy shower of automatic and rifle fire kicked up the soil around his prone body. Rather than lie and wait for the bullets to eventually find him, Delmonico scampered for cover along the banks of the dry creek. Once there, he discovered to his dismay that he was still exposed to enemy fire. The unrelenting rain of bullets continued snapping past his face and peppering the ground around him. When he realized that waiting for his squad mates to catch up with him and silence his tormentors was a poor choice, he took matters into his own hands a second time. Using the north bank of the dry creek as cover, Delmonico crouched and crept toward the second machine gun nest. At times along his perilous journey he was fully exposed and forced to scramble ahead of the German bullets trailing his every move. By sheer luck or the grace of God, he made it within thirty yards of the nest. Though better protected, he had no way to go but forward.

Delmonico was just beyond the range of an accurate grenade toss but he figured he could still use one as a distraction. He pulled the pin and hurled the bomb toward the second nest. After waiting a couple of seconds, he leapt to his feet and charged the position with his raised M-1. Locking his gaze on the nest, he spotted the distracted machine gunner in his sights and shot him dead just as the grenade exploded. Three other Germans at the position, stunned by the grenade blast and Delmonico's looming figure, raised their hands in surrender. Shortly afterward, Delmonico's squad and other L Company men moved in to secure the territory the native Ohioan had single-handedly cleared.

Another 3rd Platoon man, Pfc. Donald Sigrist, a nineteen-year old kid from Altoona, Pennsylvania, also decided to take matters into his own hands. A German machine gun nest positioned no more than seventy-five yards, not only kept he and his squad mates pinned down with frustrating efficiency, but maintained a clear field of fire across most of the north side of Allan that prevented the arrival of reinforcements. The enmy gunners knew it, too, and flaunted their superior position with zeal.

The chaos of battle often makes the coordination of effort impossible. Men drilled ceaselessly to act as a team, think like a team, and automatically follow the commands of a team leader, often abruptly reduce to mere individuals once the shooting starts in earnest. A man hugs the ground, lifts his rifle from time to time, and attempts to return fire on an enemy he usually cannot see. his action adds little more than a whisper into an already hellish cacophony -- a din that he ceaselessly prays will just go away. He sees a squad mate a dozen yards away in the same situation -- embracing the ground and struggling with shaking hands to pop a fresh ammo clip into his rifle. He wonders if his own eyes carry that kid's same petrified and bewildered stare. Often he doesn't even know his battlefield companion's name, only that he's a replacement from West Virginia. He no longer tries to learn names for fear of losing another anolther friend. He listens for, but never hears the voice of his sergeant. He wonders if his sergeant is even alive. This often the isolated and terrifying world of a combat rifleman.

During such times, an individual has nothing to draw upon but his training and an inner strength that lies dormant in every man, but untested in most. He must squarely confront those fears that have been his constant companions. Usually he tries to alleviate the fear by telling jokes, horsing around, or drinking alcohol.

Captain Coles had long since realized that the true enemy in battle lurked in one's own mind. A dark, elusive demon peddles incessant anxieties and doubts about pain, maiming, death, and failure -- anything to ensnare and parayze an imagination and lead a man to ultimate ruin. To some, Coles' mastery of battlefield fear seemed superhuman, other-worldly, and frustratingly unattainable. To others who saw him daily for the flawed and mortal man he was, they grasped his simple secret of success. It was the sliver of light in the pitch-black maelstrom. In order to have a chance of surviving the day, winning the war, and making it home alive, a man had to surrender everything for the chance to win it back again.

Pfc. Sigrist suddenly saw that light. He no longer feared a bullet ripping through his head or his chest. He no longer thought of his parents or his three sisters at home. He had no future or past. His whole focus became the eternal present dominated by a single reality; an intolerable machine gun nest seventy-five yards away had to be eliminated, and the nine-pound rifle in his hands was the instrument of deliverance. Sigrist stood up in clear view of everyone and locked his M-1 on the two men manning the gun and feeding the ammo ribbon. He emptied an eight-round clip into the two before they had any chance to react, then popped in another clip and emptied that for good measure. Courage was all that was needed to silence the gun, and Sigrist's bravery left the seemingly invincible two-man crew sprawled out dead next to their machine gun. Before Sigrist could slip in a third clip, two remaining German riflemen supporting the position scrambled away into the brush. Either man could easily have shot Sigrist as he stood to fire, but their fears got the better of them. They were still overly worried about what he was not.

That afternoon at Allan, L Company bent and twisted under pressure but did not break. The company's first real battle since the bloody Anzio breakout escalated into another surprising test of survival. Despite a swarming counterattack, a stubborn string of machine gun nests, and a marauding panzer with a veteran crew, the men of L Company not only held their line but also fought back with grit and spirit; a summer filled with endless training, the stability of the veterans as mentors provided for the replacements, the "follow-me" example and bare-knuckled discipline of Captain Coles -- all were factors that helped avert disaster. Above all, individuals like Sigrist, Delmonico, Leithner, and others overcame their personal fears and risked their lives to regain the initiative. Their unselfish actions saved the company and helped break the German stranglehold north of Allan. (pp. 218-221)

Danby reports in his Postscript:

Cpl. Dominick Delmonico was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions at Allan, France. He was later promoted to staff sergeant, survived the war, signed up for occupation duty, and remained in L Company. One year after the liberation of southern France, the people of Besancon invited their liberators to return for a parade and celebration. During the drive back to base, the truck he was riding in broke an axle, slid off the road, and overturned on top of him, killing him instantly. In his last letter home to his wife, Delmonico had written about how excited he was to return to Besancon as an honored guest. (pp. 262-263)

Of Sigrist, Danby writes:

Pfc. Donald R. Sigrist was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions at Allan. Seriously wounded in October, he returned to L Company and was eventually made a sergeant and squad leader. Sigrist was wounded again on December 26, 1944, and returned to L Company a second time. On January 12, 1945, the 20-year-old was killed leading a night patrol. Donald left behind his parents and three sisters in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He now rests in Epinal, France. (p. 268)

"What line has to be crossed… before we start mowing them down to make our point?” Murder-bent collectivist harridan Susie Madrak volunteers for the Julius Streicher Memorial Award.

What a 21st Century Advocate of 20th Century Mass Murder Looks Like.

Susie Madrak, who also blogs at Suburban Guerrilla (be sure and go there to admire the masthead of a cartoonish Ms. Madrak wielding a submachinegun and throwing a hand grenade in response to an eviction notice), has put us all on notice at the notorious Crooks and Liars website: "So At What Point Do We Actually Stand Up To The Gun Nuts?" She writes, in part,

Rick Perlstein writes about how Democrats completely surrendered our political will to control guns when the Obama administration backed away from the Bundy ranch. And I have to admit, he makes a good point. I assumed the feds would be back later -- as in, a few weeks. How long has it been now? By the time anything actually happens, will it have any real deterrent effect?

But Perlstein doesn't mention the big honkin' elephant in the room: Namely, at what point does the federal government literally go to war with its own citizens? Because we're not talking about bank robbers here, we're talking about (mostly) non-criminal cranks -- scofflaws and political malcontents. So what line has to be crossed in the good old U.S. of A. before we start mowing them down to make our point? Because you can't talk about the Bundy ranch without talking about Ruby Ridge, and Waco.

Several readers brought this collectivist jeremiad of murderous intent to my email inbox and included links to Bob Owens' and Brock Townsend's comments.

Ms. Madrak has never been shy about collectivist advocacy of violence, witness this from 2011:

"I have to say, as much as I like what the Occupy movement is doing, I think they were wrong to explicitly rule out violence. This country does nothing until the elites feel threatened."

Yes. Well. So the submachinegun and the grenade cartoon was an expression of Ms. Matrak's fondest wishes, perhaps? I wondered immediately, just what this harridan doing in the late sixties? She certainly sounds like an unrepentant member of the Weather Underground. As for myself, I elected to take the collectivist advocate of citizen-murder-by-government harpy by the talons and pluck her feathers directly. To wit,

From: georgemason1776@aol.com

To: suburbanguerrilla@comcast.net

Sent: Thu, Jun 26, 2014 11:21 am

Subject: Congrats on your latest C&L post! Your voluntary self-nomination for the Julius Streicher Memorial Award is duly noted.

"I have to say, as much as I like what the Occupy movement is doing, I think they were wrong to explicitly rule out violence. This country does nothing until the elites feel threatened." -- Susie Madrak, 7 October 2011.

Ms. Madrak,

Several of my readers brought my attention to your Crooks and Liars post entitled "So At What Point Do We Actually Stand Up To The Gun Nuts?" which includes the paragraph:

But Perlstein doesn't mention the big honkin' elephant in the room: Namely, at what point does the federal government literally go to war with its own citizens? Because we're not talking about bank robbers here, we're talking about (mostly) non-criminal cranks -- scofflaws and political malcontents. So what line has to be crossed in the good old U.S. of A. before we start mowing them down to make our point? Because you can't talk about the Bundy ranch without talking about Ruby Ridge, and Waco.

Interesting use of language, the phrase "before we start mowing them down to make our point." Which begs the question, what exactly is "our (your) point"? Citizen disarmament for everyone? I think not. Certainly it is evident that you identify with the present regime's ability to work their will upon people without the possibility of those targeted people to resist. This seems an odd opinion for someone whose website features a cartoon of herself firing a submachinegun and throwing hand grenades in response to an eviction notice. From this contradiction I conclude that your objection is not to weapons in the hands of the people, but simply to weapons in the hands of people with whom you and the present regime disagree with. Well, that is certainly understandable, you being an obviously unrepentant collectivist. As with all such true believers in the various butcher philosophies of the 20th Century, you define "peace" as the silence, imprisonment or death of all who oppose you. I know, I used to be a collectivist myself. (See http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/05/missed-anniversary-vous-les-americains.html as well as my talk last year on collectivist lies here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zwz6wEuZks).

It is surprising to run into someone who espouses collectivist tyranny yet who is so honest about it, however. Most collectivists are inveterate liars. If you view my talk on collectivist lies referenced above, you will hear the story of how my daughter once got in trouble at school for defining the difference between a socialist and a communist as: "A socialist is a communist who has not yet found his AK-47 nor the will to use it, whereas a communist is a socialist who HAS found his AK-47 and the will to use it on you." The difference is merely one of self-awareness and opportunity. Yet it is refreshing to have found someone who is so honest and unabashed in her collectivism. Your bloody suit fits you well. You accuse us of "want(ing) a civil war so bad, they (we) can taste it." Yet we merely wish to be left alone from your collectivist meddling and the iron fist of government which you would use to enforce it. It seems to us that it is you who has the hunger for other people's liberty, and property and lives. Frankly, it is your bloody appetites which are the problem here, not ours.

But before you start stacking up our bodies and those of our families in service to your collectivist goals (and how many million of us are you willing to see dead to make your point?), I should have the good manners to remind you that the Law of Unintended Consequences, which can neither be repealed nor its sentences appealed, always applies to both tyrants and wannabes. You may ask Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu about their unexpected Christmas present back in 1989. Unfortunately, you'd have to go to hell to have that particular conversation. (See my post, "'Resistance is Futile': Waco Rules vs. Romanian Rules," at http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/06/four-years-after-resistance-is-futile.html)

Of course you are not a tyrant yourself, you may argue, not even a doorkicker of the kind you suppose will unthinkingly do your bidding to work your will upon the rest of us. You are merely an advocate. Well, then, may I refer you to the case of Hitler's favorite "journalist," Julius Streicher? He started out as an advocate too. That fact did not save him from doing the executioner's jig at Nuremburg. We here at Sipsey Street recognize such present-day collectivist advocates as yourself with the Julius Streicher Memorial Award from time to time. Thus, your voluntary self-nomination for the Julius Streicher Memorial Award is duly noted. Old Julius would be quite proud of your use of marginalizing language to dehumanize your intended victims, to smear their principles as evidence of mental pathology or worse. Yes, you certainly deserve the NOMINATION to the Streicher Award, but I'm afraid you will have to compete with several other previous self-nominations already on file for this year. Whether you deserve to WIN the Award will be determined at a later date. And of course whether you deserve Streicher's fate will be decided by the unseen historical judges who mystically enforce the Law of Unintended Consequences and have done so consistently throughout the centuries. For myself as a Christian, I sincerely hope that you avoid Streicher's fate, no matter how sorely you now tempt it.

But of course I also hope that we avoid the civil war and mass butchery of innocents that you seem to advocating for the rest of us.

Sincerely,

Mike Vanderboegh

The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

PO Box 926

Pinson AL 35126

“The Catastrophe” - What the End of Bronze-Age Civilization Means for Modern Times

The Destruction of Troy by Jan Brueghel the Elder

Every city in a Desolate Crescent from the Aegean to the Sinai was razed to the ground: a bloody, sudden inverse of millenia of building. People lost cities, cultures, names. Gods were forgotten. Traditions died. Empires ended: splintering first into regions, then cities, then smaller. The mightiest and best organized, like Egypt, managed to bend every nerve, staving off collapse for a generation before shattering.

Finally, there was a gap: the long total blank that frustrates the hell out of anyone trying to look back. What is known is that everything stopped, with the catastrophe's survivors left only with legends of a better time and a centuries-long struggle for bare subsistence.

This was the Bronze Age Collapse, the first Dark Age in recorded history, and the one everyone forgets about (when you think of Dark Age, do Egyptians battling the Sea Peoples come to mind? No, it's togas, Goths and vomitoriums) despite the fact that it was arguably more devastating than the end of the Roman Empire.

To imagine the scale, picture this: almost every city in Western Europe and North America destroyed. Not reduced, not scaled down. People-don't-live-here-anymore-just-ruins destroyed. Everywhere else is in turmoil. Armed bands, growing larger with every subsequent disaster, keep spreading out in search of new loot. Some particularly rich pocket of civilization (East or West Coast U.S., France, Japan, Australia, take your pick) strains every nerve to deal with the threat, drafting all able-bodied adults to arms. The immediate physical danger is stopped (say by air power and machine guns), but the process so uproots the civilization that it too collapses in a generation.

It was that nasty. It was an apocalypse. That's why there's a hell of a lot to be learned from the first time the lights went out. --

http://thebreakingtime.typepad.com/the_breaking_time/there-is-no-they/

Egyptian soldier fighting a warrior of the "Sea People."

My thanks to Wretched Dog for forwarding this link and this link to:

“The Catastrophe” - What the End of Bronze-Age Civilization Means for Modern Times by Thomas F. Bertonneau at


Excerpts:

“If the affluent society should begin to federate members of the external proletariat for unskilled labor or military service, as the Bronze Age kingdoms seem to have done with the Shardana and the Shekelesh and as the Roman Empire did with the Gothic barbarians, then the internal and external proletariats can arrive at a sense of a common grudge and, however dimly perceived, of a common cause. The avarice of the proletariat can grow stronger than the commitment of the civic classes to their own preservation.”


“Archeologists, historians, and classicists call it “the Catastrophe.” It happened more than three thousand years ago in the lands surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean. Neither geological nor climatological but rather sociological in character, this chaotic enormity erased civilization in a wide swath of geography stretching from the western portions of Greece east to the inner fastnesses of Anatolia, and all the way to Mesopotamia; it turned south as well, overrunning many islands, finally swamping the borders of Egypt. It left cities in smoking ruin, their wealth plundered; it plunged the affected regions into a Dark Age, bereft of literacy, during which populations drastically shrank while the level of material culture reverted to that of a Stone Age village. “


“Envy or resentment, disregard for law and civilized achievement, and a strong proclivity to violent expropriation of other men’s chattels constitute the chief traits of the Hesiodic 'Iron Age.'”


“The fate of Troy at the hands of the Achaean expedition foretells the fate of many a heroic kingdom on its monarch’s return. Homer thus grasps acutely that he lives in a time of providential revival. Homer knows that between his own brightening day and the last sunlit era stretches a prolonged twilight commencing with abrupt destruction and consisting in fallow centuries.”


“The architects of the Cypriote cities built according to a sophisticated aesthetic, influenced by the old Cretan civilization. These exquisite towns met their death at just about the same time as the Anatolian cities met theirs. At one Cypriote site, the fleeing citizens hid their valuables in cubbyholes, imagining that they might soon return. Cyprus, like Attica, evidences a modicum of cultural continuity in the aftermath of the Catastrophe. The new style compares with the old, however, in an impoverished way. The people resettle not so much in the old places as in difficult-to-reach mountain fastnesses. The new architecture is – defensive.”


“Widespread drought leading to famine and disease, which the records of Hatti attest, might well have created a social crisis, with a cascading effect, with which administrative inflexibility could not cope. Yet as Drews emphasizes, despite their cumbersomeness, the Bronze Age kingdoms apparently functioned as usual right up to the hour of their sudden demise.”


“…contempt sprung from envy: the envy of the savage who sees across the borders into the ease and luxury of a more highly developed way of life and schemes how he might profit by the labor of others.”


“The cities are vulnerable; a mass of skirmishers can defeat the chariot brigades. The victorious horde can take what it wants from the defenseless settlement – food, wine, plate, and women. Rumors of the Dorian success might well have emboldened the Gasga to descend on Hattusas. Soon, all sorts of marginal people would have reached the decision to strike now and take their chances. No one had a plan. The motive everywhere was invidious, concupiscent, and bestially myopic. It stemmed from long-festering differences and capacities.”

Go to the links and read the whole thing. Then start looking for defensible ground.

Mike
III

"For Freedom Float the Flags I Love"

Major Hogan: Surprised to see me, Richard? Well you've done a grand job, a grand job. But now, at dawn tomorrow, with the help of my agent Commandante Teresa, who I believe you've met, I want you to seize the chapel at Torre Castro and hold it against all comers until Major Vivar has raised the gonfalon of Santiago over the chapel roof.

Richard Sharpe: Seize Torre Castro? With six men and a straggle of Spaniards? Can't be done! May I remind you of our main mission, sir? To find a missing gentleman?

Major Hogan: Not now, Richard. Our mission is Torre Castro. Spain is a sleeping tiger! If the people of Torre Castro rise up, even for an hour, the shock will shake the whole of Spain. Carry on, sir.

Richard Sharpe: Rise up? Do you really believe men will fight and die for a rag on a pole?

Major Hogan: You do, Richard, you do.

-- Sharpe's Rifles, 1993.

Men of MacBride's Irish Transvaal Brigade during the Boer War, 1899.

On the 4th of March 1902, Confederate veteran Dr. Orion T. Dozier presented the poem, "For Freedom Float the Flags I Love", to the Gaelic Literary Guild's Robert Emmet Anniversary celebration at the Jefferson Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama. The Second Anglo-Boer War was sputtering to a conclusion of Boer defeat and English victory when Dozier rose to speak. It must have brought back bitter memories of 1865 to the good Doctor. In the poem, which I reprint only in part here, Dozier is struck by the similarity of the flags and the men of three lost causes: the Confederacy, the struggle for Irish independence and the Boer's failed war against the British Empire. He also uses the poem to criticize the United States' new imperialism at the time, exemplified by the campaign to subdue the Philippine Insurrection.

There was much sympathetic sentiment among Irish nationalists for the plight of the Boers and John MacBride, a friend of Arthur Griffith's, organised the Irish Transvaal Brigade by recruiting Irish or Irish-American miners living in the Transvaal.

The brigade (also known as MacBride's Brigade) was operational from September 1899 to September 1900. In that time, the brigade fought in about 20 engagements, with 18 men killed and about 70 wounded from a compliment of no more than about 500 men at any one time. When it disbanded, most of the men crossed into Mozambique, which was a colony of neutral Portugal. Colonel John Y. F. Blake, a former United States Army officer was the brigade's commander. When he was wounded, his second-in-command, Major John MacBride, took command. At the Siege of Ladysmith, they serviced the famous Boer artillery piece, called Long Tom, and they fought at the Battle of Colenso. Having worked in the gold mines, they had a well deserved reputation as demolition experts and it was they who delayed the British advance on Pretoria by blowing up bridges. -- Wikipedia.

The Vierkleur flag of the Transvaal Republic

Dozier refers to the Irish Transvaalers in his poem, marking their fight as a landmark in their own struggle for independence which Dozier predicted.

It was fitting that Dozier used the occasion of the celebration of the birth of Robert Emmet to sing the praises of lost causes, for Emmet represented what, up until that time was the quintessential lost cause.

The Leinster flag was used by the United Irishmen in 1789 and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).

Robert Emmet, born on the 4th of March, 1778, was an Irish nationalist leader who led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured, tried and executed on September 20th, 1803. emmet was enshrined in the Irish nationalist canon by the fortitude with which he met his death and the eloquence that he displayed in his "Speech from the Dock," after he had been sentenced to death. An excerpt:

“ Let no man write my epitaph; for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance, asperse them. Let them and me rest in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, and my memory in oblivion, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.”

On 19 September, 1803, Emmet was found guilty of high treason, and the death sentence required that he be hanged, drawn and quartered. He was executed the following day by hanging, and was beheaded after death. His remains were secretly buried and their location remains a mystery to this day.

Dozier's poem is long, excessively so in my opinion, and becomes lurid with bloody predictions of an exiled Irish army and navy coming to drive the British from their native land in an invasion of horse, foot and artillery -- a campaign that was the dream of every turn-of-the-Twentieth Century Fenian -- but which was hopelessly outdated and frankly militarily impossible when the Confederate veteran wrote it.

But it is the first part of the poem which speaks to me here, over a hundred years later in the opening decade of the 21st Century. See if it speaks also to you:

I love the man who loves his God,
His country and his fellow-man,
No matter what his state or birth,
No matter what his creed or clan;
And in my very inmost heart,
In spite of all that fates decree,
I love him ever more and more,
The more he loves his liberty.

I love the flags, the fallen flags,
Of every land of all the world
By men upreared in freedom's cause,
But which oppression's hands have furled.
Their memory, like a sweet incense,
A fragrance sheds, all hearts to thrill,
And keeps aglow the lingering spark
Of liberty remaining still.

And by my faith in living God,
I still maintain that free consent
Of subjects is the only grant
Entailing right of Government.
That conquest only paves the way
For brigands and despotic might,
Which in the sight of Holy God
Was never, nor can e'er be right.

I love the glorious stars and stripes,
My great fore-father's flag and mine;
It gives me joy to see it wave
Where'er it floats o'er Freedom's shrine,
But if profaned by traitor hands,
To subjugate on foreign shore
A nation struggling to be free,
If I were there, -- 'twere mine no more.

Nor would I follow in its wake,
Nor treat with those who thus offend,
For all who dare that flag pervert,
Deserve the death which has no end.
And rather than that I should aid
In such unjust, unholy shame,
I'd suffer this warm heart of mine
Torn from my breast and cast in flame.

But if there be on this wide earth
A people bowed by galling yoke
Of tyrant, Emperor, King, or Czar,
Who would be free, and should invoke
"Old Glory's" shielding strength and might,
Before God I'd bid it fly
And with it there myself would go,
To make them free, or 'neath it die.

I love the flag, the honored flag,
Now drooping o'er the dying Boer,
'Tis tattered, drooping, sinking low;
Perhaps to float on earth no more.
But braver deeds in freedpm's cause
Were never done by sons of Mars,
Than those beneath Paul Kruger's flag,
Old Erin's and the Stars and Bars.


The Stars and Bars of the Confederate States of America

And well may England stand aghast
While she reviews the awful cost,
And contemplates the countless graves
Filled with the legions she has lost
In trampling down that honored flag,
Since well she knows not all her dead
Were stricken down by native Boers,
For thousands died of Irish lead.

Nor will the Irish e'er forget
To right the wrongs of England's might,
Nor ever shirk or slight a chance
To show how they love to fight
'Neath any flag in freedom's cause,
Her mean, rapacious course to check,
While she retains her despot heel
Upon their prostrate country's neck.

Nor love I less old Erin's flag,
Kept sacred thro' the countless years
Unspotted by a single stain,
Save by a loving people's tears.
I love it for its sacred cause,
A cause forever dear to me, --
The right ordained of God to man, --
The right inherent to be free.

Its hue, the shamrock's living green,
whose roots lie deep in mother sod,
And like that plant, tho' crushed and torn,
That flag though under foot be trod
Survives in spite of time and fate,
And like the sun in yonder sky
Comes forth renewed at every turn,
By God ordained never to die.

Born in the love of liberty,
By faith enshrined in every heart
That beats in breast of patriot
Disdainful of the tyrant's art;
That flag shall yet triumphant wave
Above the land that gave it birth,
And kissed by every ocean breeze.
Be hailed in every port on earth.

There is more, but this first half of Dr. Dozier's poem speaks to me across the years. Ireland's flag did finally wave over Irish soil, but it was not as the result of a U.S.-led Fenian invasion but of guerrilla war -- a guerrilla war designed largely by Michael Collins and based upon the lessons taught by the great Boer leader, Christiaan de Wet.

Christiaan de Wet, Boer guerrilla leader.

Collins studied de Wet's campaigns, and incorporated their lessons into the concept of the "flying columns." Collins did so with the assumption that the British could never introduce -- do close to home -- the barbarous tactics of scorched earth and concentration camps for Boer women and children which broke the back of Boer resistance. In the end, he was right.

But let us for a moment back up to this verse of Dozier:

Nor would I follow in its wake,
Nor treat with those who thus offend,
For all who dare that flag pervert,
Deserve the death which has no end.
And rather than that I should aid
In such unjust, unholy shame,
I'd suffer this warm heart of mine
Torn from my breast and cast in flame.

You see, this is the difficult thing we face -- now, today, in the near future. "For all who dare that flag pervert." The thing is, the people who are even now laying claim to more of our liberty and property will send men to enforce their will. And when they do, they will be flying this flag:



It happens that this is our flag, too. Who then is entitled to claim it? Whose vision shall, in the end, this flag represent? The Founders? Or the collectivists who have risen to power determined to kill off once and for all their Republic? Whose flag is it?

I know this. If it is still to be ours, we must fight for it. We must fight for the restoration of what the Founders meant by it. We must, and will, fight for that "rag on a pole," and for all the Founders' meant by it and all the additional meaning added to it by generation after generation of bloody sacrifice sustaining the liberty it represents.

They will claim it. We must reclaim it. Make ready.


(Author's note: Before you folks start screaming about neglecting the novel, you should know that this is a part of one of the chapters and thus I had to transcribe it anyway. You will see how it fits into the narrative of the book in short order. This will not, I realize, be enough to keep some of you from complaining. I shall bear your misplaced calumny with fortitude. MBV)