Gambit: "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh and Gran Torino.

"Waco Jim" Cavanaugh

It struck me, when I was sending a copy of the last post to "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh, that he probably wishes he had made better choices in 1993 and later, in 1995 when he committed perjury about fire from the helicopters in front of Congress. I mean, unless he's a real mad dog (and informants say he isn't), he's got to hate that moniker "Waco Jim." I mean, really HATE it.

Which, of course, is why I do my damnedest to popularize it. No one ever answered for that monstrous crime. We all still live under "Waco Rules." And Cavanaugh, perhaps not the most guilty of the culpable feds, but certainly one of them, ought to be irritated. It is oh-so-minor payback for his very real sins.

One of my friends yesterday asked me again to explain what a gambit was. I started to give him a chess board reply, then realized there was a concrete example he could better relate to.

"Ever see Gran Torino?" I asked him.

"Sure. It's a great flick."

"Remember the end, when Eastwood goes over to the gang-banger's house and beats the hell out of one of them, then he comes back and tricks them into firing on an unarmed man?"

"Yeah, they shot the shit out of him."

"That was a gambit."

"You WANT the ATF to shoot the shit out of you?"

"No, it's a gambit. The pawn noves forward and occupies the square in chess, why? Because while he's on it, the opposition can't occupy it. They can't move forward in that little neck of the chess board woods because he's there. But if they take him, they open themselves up to other counter-moves that they REALLY won't enjoy. Pawn grubbing in chess is a quick way to lose."

"Mike, the feds kill people all the time and get away with it."

"No they don't. Not all the time. And until the Obamanoids declare war on the American people, they still have to explain themselves to somebody in a court of law. Remember I said about how cockroaches hate the light? Well they really do. And the ATF will not be able to righteously bust me because I have been scrupulous about obeying the law as it now stands. Every time in the 90s they would send a snitch or a provocateur to entrap me, I would pick up the phone and call the state ABI. I have nothing in my house that is illegal, and in fact I've dispersed most everything legal I do own to deny them the "big bad dangerous arsenal" photograph. Back in the 90s, I put pieces of rebar and sprinkles of black powder in every soffit in my house I could find, just to be able to read the headlines: 'ATF tears local man's house apart, finds nothing.'"

"But they can still kill you and plant something on you."

"Sure, but the thing is, WILL THEY BE BELIEVED? Anybody who knows me, or has read my stuff on the Internet, knows what I just told you is true. I don't mess with illegal crap. Period. So, say they plant something. It doesn't change a thing."

"Yeah it does, you'll be in federal prison."

"No I won't. I'm not taking Olofson's Choice. We know now thanks to Olofson and others that you can't get a fair federal trial, and the prisons are filled with people who hate me. The Aryan Brotherhood would kill me as soon as look at me. I've fought racist shits like them all my life, and what's worse, I've been effective at it. The Muslim Brotherhood hates my skin color. MS-13 would kill me because I was a Minuteman and worked the border. Hell, if I thought I could get solitary confinement I might submit, but do you think I would get any consideration from the Bureau of Prisons? They're just another claw on the Leviathan Beast. Just ask poor Olofson. So no, I won't go to prison. I won't even submit to arrest. They have removed that option. When you can't get a fair trial, then all you're left with is an unfair shootout. I've said that before and I mean it. I am an innocent man. I will die an innocent man at the hand of unconstitutional criminal thugs acting under color of law. There are worse ways to die."

"They'll 'taze you bro.' From behind in the grocery store. Drop you right in the vegetable section." We both laughed.

"So? I've got congestive heart failure. The jolt would probably kill me anyway. Heck, even if they throw a net over me, I can still struggle until my heart gives out. I will not submit."

I looked at him and repeated, "I will NOT submit."

"OK. OK. You don't have to convince me, you gotta convince Cavanaugh."

"No I don't. I just have to introduce 'strategic and tactical uncertainty.' That's what a gambit is all about. Cavanaugh's not stupid. Don't ever make the mistake of thinking your enemy is stupid. You'll get yourself and other people killed. Cavanaugh is smart enough to know that taking me out just for what I say, no matter how he hates WHAT I say, is risky. There's courts, there's oversight and then there's the 'One Hundred Heads.'"

"Yeah, I remember that."

"So, he may think that all of that is just talk, but what if it isn't? What if, in order to silence me, he starts a war? He may not believe that. Hell, he probably doesn't. BUT HE CAN'T BE SURE. Look, most of these guys just want to make it to retirement and draw Uncle Sugar's pennies. They're not evil in and of themselves, they just represent an out-control agency that nobody responsible has called to account. That's what makes them so dangerous on the one hand because they think, some of them, that they can get away with anything because they always have. People like that start wars. On the other hand, almost all of them care deeply about surviving long enough to draw their pensions and are allergic to anything that might threaten that. Which brings us back to Gran Torino."

"Huh?"

"Gambit, remember? Does killing me, or more importantly ANYBODY high profile on our side, bring on more trouble than that individual's removal is worth? Because remember, how we got here was a muttered ATF threat on the guy I wrote Holder about. This is far bigger than just me. In fact, it's not really about me at all, so much as it is backing down the Obamanoids and an agency that not even they control, without ANYBODY getting killed. Them or us. So, we must generate strategic and tactical uncertainty. Gambit. Look, every chess player worth his salt recognizes a gambit when it happens. The smart ones figure a way around it. The stupid ones don't and usually lose." I paused.

"The other possibility is that this is all delusions of grandeur on my part and Cavanaugh is merely mildly amused at my blathering. But reports say he isn't. And the threats against the other guy are sure enough real."

"So what if Cavanaugh's too stupid to see it's a gambit?"

"He's not. But even if he is, so what? Our side wins in the end." I pointed to the heavens.

"Oh, shit Mike, quit yer preachin'."

I laughed.