Recon

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

What the Hell Happened to Chris By-The-Throat?

Yeah, so I realize I haven't blogged in awhile.

Life has resumed the usual state of zen chaos here in Babylon. I'm not going to lie; there was a brief period of homelessness. Our lease ran out before our new apartment opened up and we stayed at the campground in a sort of extended bugout.

Let me tell you the worst thing about the SHTF that you never considered; you will probably still have to go to work. And working graveyards while trying to sleep during the hottest part of the day, year and month? Yeah, fuck that shit. Fuck it to death.

In the exciting news category, I am working on the next to last chapter of the book. You can spy a preview below if you want. This is the rough manuscript and it needs a lot of TLC, but it is seriously the closest to being finished with a novel that I have been so I'm excited anyway. There is a market for post apocalyptic Conan / Walter Mitty fiction so the time has never been riper for a hack like me to make it in this world. Or not, but at least I'll have finished something for fuck's sake.

Anyway, on the off chance that I do get published I don't want the first break in another painful blogging hiatus to be "Hey, buy my book you motherfuckers."

I'm just sayin' homie, I'm just sayin.

You'll see more of me in the coming months; I have rediscovered my method for writing blog entries at work while getting around the filter. I don't know if you should be more grateful or scared.

Friday, August 26, 2011

The Stoner's Guide to Project Gunwalker

This is an article in two parts. The first part will explain what Gunwalker actually is. If you are already familiar with Operation Fast and Furious (The government name for Gunwalker) then you can skip ahead to part two, where I explain why you, the average American Cannabis smoker, should give a shit about this issue.

Part One

Project Fast and Furious is an operation supposedly designed to curb arms trafficking by Mexican drug cartels by, uh, giving them a bunch of weapons. It was executed by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms without the knowledge or consent of the Mexican government. The scandal was broken by pro gun blogger Mike Vanderboegh after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed with what many now believe to be a BATFE smuggled AR patterned semi automatic rifle. The amount of weapons smuggled has not been released by any official source, but is estimated in the hundreds.

That Gunwalking occurred is not in question; the only question seems to be who authorized it and how high up the authorization goes. Acting director of BATFE Kenneth Melson looks like he is going to take the fall for sure, but leaked internal memos and testimony of ATF agents are showing that DoJ is at the very least obstructing justice during the ongoing investigation by Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa. Federal “Catch Me Fuck Me” is going on at the highest levels in DoJ to determine whose career ending buck this particular scandal stops with, but it is not impossible that Attorney General Eric Holder, a long time gun control proponent and all around rat fuck bastard, has his stinking fingers all over it. Holder has repeatedly denied any knowledge of gunwalker. Suspicions have been cast on other law enforcement agencies as well, most notably DEA and FBI, and it is becoming clear that operations occurred in multiple states around the same time.

Perhaps the most damning evidence about Gunwalker is the way media is handling it; every major news outlet except CBS has blackballed it, even while repeating debunked statistics about American guns fueling Mexican cartel wars.
For more information about Project Gunwalker, check out the National Gun Rights Examiner timeline in five parts

Part Two

Okay, so now that you are up to speed, Mr. and Mrs. American Stoner, why should you give a shit in this latest war crime in the War on Drugs? You already know the Mexican cartels will wither away with decriminalization of the most popular drugs, you already know that a corrupt government is killing you in the name of public health with no knock assassinations, and you probably even know that violence on both sides of the border is becoming more commonplace. You certainly know that the War on Drugs has been the greatest threat to our civil liberties in the history of this nation. Why does this particular bit of news matter to you?

Because it means that the current administration has no plans to repeal drug prohibition any time soon. They have proven too useful as a source of manufactured crises to be discarded. The cartels make for a wonderful bogeyman; even the most hardcore decrim advocate gets a little squeamish when talking about the ruthless bastards that make up the Sinola and Zeta power structure. These men have multibillion dollar operating budgets and no respect for your life or mine. Anyone who opposes an operation to take down these cartels is automatically an enemy of the state, right? And if that comes at the price of a few more restrictive measures on your liberty, well, isn’t that the price of safety?

There is only one turd in this punchbowl-“Gunwalker” had little to no chance of bringing down any cartels. They released these guns into the wild with no means to trace them beyond the first ATF supervised-and-stamped transfers in the gun stores utilized by the operation. Beyond that? We have no idea where these weapons are, how many of them there are, until they turn up at crime scenes and are sent to the ATF for tracing.

There is a growing nucleus of American gun owners who believe this is a Reischtag fire-a manufactured crisis to get Americans to accept new regulations on gun ownership. I am a gunnie, and I have my concerns in this direction, but I have not bought into it just yet-I’m waiting for a special investigation before I decide, though the circumstantial evidence (gun control under the radar, anyone?) is pretting damning.

Still, I know I am speaking to a larger audience than my usual pack of gun blog scumfucks, so I want to get away from the gun side of the issue and talk about something else, something all the other gun bloggers are not concerned with but that I am. Assuming this latest farce of drug policy enforcement was a botched scheme to impugn American gun owners, what does that mean to American stoners who could give a shit about gun policy?

For this lie to be perpetuated and generate enough fear to actually impact American gun laws, the cartels must continue to exist. Even assuming they aren’t in bed with American politicians the way they are with Mexican politicians (a hell of an assumption, if you ask me) the cartels have a vested financial interest in keeping drug prohibition the standard policy for the richest and most drug consuming nation there is. And the fact that they are possibly being used as a lever to pry a couple of amendments from the Bill of Rights means that the State needs them as well. We are looking at an unprecedented level of parasitic ass kissing from two organizations proven perfectly willing to murder innocent drug users in their beds.

Folks, above ground legalization will become a pipe dream if Gunwalker goes unpunished and unnoticed in mainstream society. The government gets more power (what it wants) and the cartels get more money (what they want) and we get fucked.

If you ever want to see an end to the drug war, then stop letting the government use it as an excuse to do whatever the hell it wants. They say Gunwalker is merely a gun issue, and indeed, the only people who seem to care about it are all pro gun bloggers like Mr. Vanderboegh. But this is not a gun issue; this is just the latest shot in a war that We the People are still losing. If this special forces, preemptive strike, fuck yo civil rights shit becomes SOP, if the gloves truly come off the leviathan…then there will be no above ground chance at drug policy reform. The State, and the media mouthpieces who serve the State, need to be told loud and clear that they can’t get away with these kinds of dirty tricks anymore.

If not, well, welcome to Dystopia, motherfucker. Check your fuckin’ civil rights at the door.

So, what do we do for now? Well, I’m waiting for the investigation to go forward, but a little pressure would not go amiss here. Call your Congresscritter and demand shit. Wave signs, write letters, sing kumbaya, whatever it is that you do to protest unjust policy. Link this article in other stoner forums and facebook groups; you have my permission to reprint it in full for protest purposes. Kick up a goddamned fuss. As long as this scandal is ignored by a starry eyed apologist media, the State can proceed with confidence even if it has to throw the wolves some bleeding meat. They must be aware that their actions have consequences.

Even Unintended Consequences.