"Crosshair Evaluation". Another Vanderboegh golden oldie

Folks,

I was doing some research in old floppy disks tonight and came up with this portion of an email from October 1996 wherein I addressed an avowed 'Net-Nazi on the subject of Nazis and Marxists being "kissin' cousins."

Mike
III

I rather think that racist terrorists and/or Marxists have nothing to do with American Constitutional militiafolks, except that they are avowed enemies of the Constitution and thus legitimate subjects for our "crosshair evaluation".

(Crosshair evaluation, to the uninitiated, is what you do when a potential enemy approaches you on the battlefield and you're not sure if his intentions are to harm you or to peaceably surrender. Pass 'em if they're peaceable, kill 'em if they're not.)

Some Foot Soldiers of Obama's Gangster Government: Taking Care of the Bosses Who Take Care of Them

Oops! Wrong image. I didn't mean Brownshirts. (Or did I? Functional difference? Buehler? Anybody?)

"You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker."



We have here the whimpering end of the case against the New Black Panther Party poll "watchers" who engaged in voter intimidation on the part of Obama during the last election. This stuff is so corrosive to public order it can hardly be over-emphasized. Such outrages merely strengthen the arguments of the Klan and neoNazis, who are out there recruiting actively amongst folks who are totally repelled by this kind of crap. Accidental or intentional? Do the Obamanoids WANT a race war in this country? Maybe they think that if the conflict to come is cast in those terms, that they can win. And you know what, maybe they're right. Which is why we must avoid getting sucked in to the big lie by the little kernel of truth.

Mike
III

Charges Against 'New Black Panthers' Dropped by Obama Justice Dept.

Three men were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force -- one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.

The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force -- one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. Prosecutors also say he "supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews."

The Obama administration won the case last month, but moved to dismiss the charges on May 15.

The complaint says the men hurled racial slurs at both blacks and whites.

A poll watcher who provided an affidavit to prosecutors in the case noted that Bartle Bull, who worked as a civil rights lawyer in the south in the 1960's and is a former campaign manager for Robert Kennedy, said it was the most blatant form of voter intimidation he had ever seen.

In his affidavit, obtained by FOX News, Bull wrote "I watched the two uniformed men confront voters and attempt to intimidate voters. They were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters."

He also said they tried to "interfere with the work of other poll observers ... whom the uniformed men apparently believed did not share their preferences politically," noting that one of the panthers turned toward the white poll observers and said "you are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker."

A spokesman for the Department of Justice told FOX News, "The Justice Department was successful in obtaining an injunction that prohibits the defendant who brandished a weapon outside a Philadelphia polling place from doing so again. Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law. The department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote."

New Black Panther Jerry Jackson


MBV: Note in the above story there is one word that doesn't appear: DEMOCRAT. If you want to know whose political plantation these thugs labor on, go here.

Official Document says Black Panther was “representing the Democratic Party”

May 30, 2009 by MR

When confronted by Philadelphia Police, Black Panther Jerry Jackson stated that he was “an official watcher” - meaning that he had been appointed by a party or candidate to observe the election at the polling location. Only voters, election board workers, and watchers may enter a polling location. The New Black Panther Party isn’t an officially recognized political party in Philadelphia, so they couldn’t appoint him. So who gave this guy a credential?

We already reported here that Jackson is an elected member of the Philadelphia Democratic Committee. And a document obtained from the Philadelphia Board of Elections confirms he was “representing the Democratic Party” at the polls in November.

Here is a copy of the watcher certificate he was issued and below is some of his “official” activity.


From the complaint that was spiked by DOJ:

7. Defendants New Black Panther Party, Malik Zulu Shabazz, Samir Shabazz, and Jerry Jackson have engaged in coercion, threats, and intimidation, and attempted coercion, threats, and intimidation of voters and those aiding voters…

8. On November 4, 2008, during the federal general election, the Defendants Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson deployed at the entrance of a polling location in Philadelphia. Defendants wore military style uniforms associated with the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. These uniforms included black berets, combat boots, bloused battle dress pants, rank insignia, and black jackets.

9. During his deployment at the polls… Defendant Samir Shabazz brandished a deadly weapon. The weapon was a nightstick… Defendant Samir Shabazz pointed the weapon at individuals, menacingly tapped it in his other hand or other places… Shabazz was accompanied by Defendant Jerry Jackson during this activity, and the two men stood side by side, in apparent formation, throughout most of this deployment.

10. Defendants Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson made statements containing racial threats and racial insults at both black and white individuals while the polls were open for voting.

Liberty Logistics: Is the Ammo Shortage the Result of a Government Conspiracy or an NRA Marketing Campaign?

Correct answer? Neither.

Courtesy of Wretched Dog we have this link to Powder Valley from Rawles' survivalblog.com site:

At this time we are not taking any new backorders for primers that are not listed here. We currently have over 50 million primers on backorder. If you currently have a backorder in place your order will be processed as primers become available. Once we begin receiving more primers from the manufacturers and are able to begin filling current backorders we will update the website.

And Powder Valley is just one little company selling primers and other reloading components. The same folks who are writing blogs devoted to "535 Reasons Why David Rockefeller Hates You Personally" have been trying to convince people that the ammo shortage is the result of some sort of government conspiracy. On the other hand, the left-wing collectivists have been blaming "the NRA marketing campaign" both before and after the election that "Obama's gonna get yer guns."

Neither are correct. Market forces alone are responsible for this shortage. Both are selling the concept of a boogeyman for their own reasons, because their explanations fit into their preconceived notions. If we allow for the fact that

a. much of the demand is being created by newbies who never heard or read an NRA fundraising email or magazine ad, and

b. the repeated affirmations from manufacturers that they are doing the very best they can to keep up with demand (and why wouldn't they, it is how they make money after all?) then

c. the shortage must be the result of market forces alone. So what started the ball rolling?

Obama's election certainly got it going, and his anti-gun history and the awful appointments of hoplophobes to his cabinet didn't help. But there is something more existential going on here beyond "get them while you can."

Obama's policies -- the implications of ALL of his policies -- are what has extended this rush into corners of the country and populations of the citizenry where it has never before touched. Increase in crime because of economic dislocation, hyperinflation devaluing currency making real property the only safe store of value -- that is why this rush has made the Clinton rush look like nothing much at all.

I was taught in Econ 101 at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio by a magnificent professor of Lebanese-Christian descent named William Jennings Bryan, Jr. (his daddy had enthusiastically embraced all things American along with his citizenship) that except in matters of love and sex, all economic transactions are rational. That is, no matter what the price agreed upon is, it is -- at that time -- worth what the buyer pays for it.

So, you can either buy now, or buy later, but eventually you must buy for whatever ammunition you have now is only good for one shot per round. You may reload it, of course, but that is another round. No conspiracy is involved, only buyers, sellers and objective conditions responsible for demand. The Elmer Fudds may decry our "panic buying" interfering with their deer hunting, or the police departments may complain about the shortage of training ammunition, but this does not mean people who stock up are stupid.

Is it so stupid to buy ammo NOW with depreciating currency, when later it may have to bartered for with other real property, or worse, paid for in blood?

So buy what you can, put it on backorder if you must, but get in line NOW. The fact is that this is probably a game of societal musical chairs and you don't want to caught unprepared when the music finally, irrevocably, stops.

Mike
III

Once Upon a Tea Party . . . An early example of my political fiction.

Form 4473

Folks,

Thirteen years ago, I wrote the piece below suggesting that 4473 parties might be an effective tactic in blunting federal registration/confiscation schemes. Like all of my non-fiction essays, it was written for a specific purpose to address a specific concern. Today, I would write this a bit differerently. In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing with Absolved, Resolved and Dissolved.

One thing that has changed is the technology. As Anonymous wrote below in response to my post ""This is Bill Buppert. If you are reading this, YOU are the Resistance.":

Since taking, destroying or disrupting the enemy's assets are so important, it makes me wonder whether the most important weapon a resister has is his rifle, or his computer. The tyrants run the government electronically. A bug in the system can do alot more damage than many rifles.

Yes, exactly. Anyway, enjoy, but remember I wrote this in 1996. Things are different now. They are, in fact, more dangerous.

Mike
III


Once Upon a Tea Party....

By Mike Vanderboegh

The following tale is fiction. Nothing quite so far-fetched could ever happen in our country, I'm sure.

Once Upon a Tea Party.....

Transcript, Court Ordered Wiretap, (205) 555-1234, 2103hrs, 11 February, 1999:
"Jim, it's me."
"Yeah."
"You heard the news."
"Yeah." (Pause.) "When?"
"Tomorrow, just like we discussed. We all know the drill, no sweat, nobody gets ....."
"Yeah, O.K." (Pauses.) "I'm goin' fishin tomorrow. Will you feed my dog? I won't be back till late. I'll leave my keys under the mat."
"Sure thing, Jim."
"See you later."
"Yeah."
(Call ends.)

Headline, USA Today, 12 February, 1999: "Assault Gun Confiscation Act Passes, Clinton Orders Dealers To Provide Records. Gun Owners Promise Massive Disobedience." (Picture Caption: "Come and get mine yourself, Clinton, or better yet, send Charlie Schumer." says Mike Vanderboegh, Alabama militiaman, brandishing his semiautomatic rifle.)

"The Assault Weapon Confiscation Act was a foregone conclusion after the Democrats regained control of the House and Senate in the aftermath of the October, 1998 chemical warfare attack in Detroit. That terrorist massacre of over 7,000 inner city residents was blamed on the Michigan Militia by the FBI's new director, James Kallstrom. Unfortunately, all of the alleged militia perpretrators were killed in an attempt to arrest them by members of the U.S. military's Special Operations Command, so definitive blame may never be assigned for the massacre. The political consequences of the attack, however, were clear from the day the bodies of the Michigan militiamen were hauled from the burnt-out raid site. Militias would be outlawed, assault weapons would be banned, if the Democrats were able to use the issue to regain control of Congress. They were, and semiautomatic so-called "assault weapons" are now forfeit. Gun owners have 60 days to turn them into their local police or county sheriff. Simple possession of a previously legal weapon will be punishable by ten years in prison and a $200,000 fine. Use of any weapon to resist the enforcement of the act is punishable by death." -- USA Today, 12 February, 1999, Page 2a.

The Battle of Charlie's Gun Rack

The door to "Charlie's Gun Rack" swung open, and two men in cheap suits walked up to the sales desk and flashed their badges. "ATF", one announced. "Assholes"
muttered one of the customers in a low enough voice to make it's source legally indistinguishable. The larger of the two agents glared in the general direction of the insult.

"You know why we're here, Charlie," said the other to the long, lanky Texan who had his legs propped up on the desk.

"No, Ah don't know why a couple of cosmopolitan sophisticates such as yerselves would take a chance on comin' all the way out here to "Fort Stinkin' Desert". Why don't y'all tell me and break my suspense?"

That got a belly laugh from the front of the store, but the agents were unamused.

"We're here for your records, Charlie. Your logs and all the completed Brady's and 4473's you've got here and in storage. You know the law."

"Yer law, guncop. Clinton's law, not constitutional law," said Charlie bitterly.

"That's for the Supreme Court to decide, Charlie."

"Yeah, and by the time the case gets there, ya'll have all the records and all the guns. Probably have all the records on computer and all the guns ground up by then, won't ya?"

"That's not my concern, Charlie. Right now I've got the job of enforcing the law and picking up your records and I hope you'll cooperate with me, or I'll be forced to take them and you to Dallas," replied the agent.

Charlie smiled and nodded. Unnoticed by the agents, a customer slipped out of the front door and walked down the street toward the sheriff's office. Once out of view
of the gunstore window, he began to run.

"Waalll," drawled Charlie, "Ya'll gonna find that a little difficult to accomplish."

"Oh, yeah," said the bigger agent in what he imagined was an ominous voice, "How's that?"

"Well first off," said Charlie, "somebody broke in here last night and took every one of my records-- Brady's, 4473's, the logs, my gunsmithin' register, everythin'."

"Bullshit!" said the big agent.

"Naw," said Charlie, "ain't no bullshit, it's the smokin' hot Gospel truth. And you know what? I went down to my storage shed to check on the old ones I had there and they're all gone too. To tell you the truth, I thought it was you chickenshits that'd come and done it in the middle of the night cause ya'll didn't have the balls to come and get 'em in the daylight, but I see now I was mistaken."

The gunstore erupted in laughter, and the big agent's face which was already red, grew a darker shade of purple.

"That's it, you sonofabitch," snarled the big agent, starting to move around the desk, "you're coming with us. Conspiracy to violate the Act."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," boomed out a voice from the doorway. The agent stopped and turned, and Charlie eased his grip on the ParaOrdnance .45 pistol he had under his chair, hidden from the agent's view.

Sheriff Bob Tolliver advanced into the store, so the ATF agents could plainly see his uniform, his badge and his open-holstered sidearm, which he happened to have his hand resting on.

"Look boys," Tolliver said amiably to the ATF men, "Charlie here reported his records stolen to me first thing this morning. He's filed an official report which I'll be glad to give you a copy of to take back to your superiors so's they know you didn't come all the way out here for nothin'."

Somebody laughed, and the Sheriff continued, "Now as far as takin' Charlie back with you, I don't mind if he wants to go voluntarily to answer any questions you boys have." Turning on Charlie, he asked, "You want to go with 'em Charlie?"

"Hell no," Charlie replied, "I got things to do."

"Well, that's it then," said Tolliver, "If you boys want to know anything about the theft other than what's in the report you'd better ask him now."

"Look you Barney Fife....." the big agent spluttered. "Shut up, Dick!" ordered the other ATF man. Turning to Charlie, the agent gamely asked, "OK, Charlie, do you have any idea what the..."burglars" looked like?"

Charlie thought for a second and said, "You know there was one guy hanging around the shop yesterday that didn't quite fit in... he had a buddy too. Never seen either of 'em before."

Knowing he was stupid for asking, the ATF man asked, "Well, what did they look like?"

"Well, the one guy looked like a deadringer of the sketch of John Doe Number Two and his buddy was seven foot tall, had green skin, yaller hair and a earring in his nose. Oh, yeah, the tall one was wearing an "Al Gore in 2000" teeshirt. I had 'em figured for ATF snitches. You know 'em?" Charlie grinned.

The shop erupted in hoots and laughter. A deputy entered and handed a piece of paper to Tolliver, saying, "Here's the report, Sheriff."

Tolliver in turn handed it to the smaller, older and wiser ATF man. "Well, here's your report. I'm sure ya'll be wantin' to get back to Dallas now. I took the liberty of letting the sheriffs of all the surrounding counties know ya'll were in the area so we can make sure ya'll have a safe trip back. You can thank me later, by phone, when you're safely back in Dallas. Ya'll have a nice day."

And with that, Sheriff Tolliver turned and left the shop.

"Look," started the big agent to his partner, who cut him off short. "Later, Dick. Can't you read between the lines? Just shut up and follow me."

The ATF men left Charlie's without a word. Behind them, the shop erupted in convivial bedlam.

Out on the street, it took a moment for the agent's eyes to adjust to the bright Texas mid-day sun. Without realizing it, they had stepped out of Charlie's door into the middle of two lines of armed men, facing each other, and the ATF agents. Some were in uniform. Some in work clothes. Beyond the men on the opposite side of the street stood Sheriff Tolliver, his deputies and the town Mayor, as well as representatives of the local press (no photographers, though).

The two lines of men (and some women, the agents noted) formed a corridor from the door of Charlie's shop to their car, parked across, and slightly down, the street.
Every one held a semiautomatic military-style rifle-- the same kind that were banned by the new Act the ATF men had come to enforce. The escort was standing at attention, their rifles held at "present arms", their combat harnesses full of loaded magazines, many with holstered pistols hanging from military belts or shoulder holsters. Some wore kevlar vests and helmets. Each one fixed the ATF men in a steely gaze as the Feds walked quickly, breathlessly, to their car.

The ATF men jumped in their motorpool car, the formation parted, and they "U-turned" and sped out of town, oblivious to the words "GUN GESTAPO" which had been spraypainted in big letters on the trunk lid.

The armed men and women in the street erupted into cheers. Charlie was carried from the gunshop on the shoulders of his customers. Sheriff Tolliver was smiling in relief, but was less enthusiastic. Leaning his head down closer to the mayor's ear, he cautioned, "They'll be back....with friends." Unable to make himself heard over the din, the mayor could only nod in agreement. It wasn't over. It was just starting.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The same day, in another part of the country.......

"Plausible Deniability"

Les Miller always opened up his gunshop at 10:00 am on the button. He usually got to the shop around 7:30, disarmed the alarm, checked the surveillance footage from the night before on fast forward for anything unusual while the coffee was brewing, and then sat down to peruse the morning paper and the firearms industry publications that had come in the mail the previous day.

The headlines this morning were full of the "Assault Weapons Confiscation Act" passed the day before and signed by the President in a midnight ceremony in the White House with Charlie Schumer and the usual gun-grabbing politician/suspects beaming with approval. Les didn't want to even read the paper this day. He knew this act would not be obeyed by a number of his customers. He knew that with just an incident here or there, a civil war could start, which was something the politicians seemed not to know or care about. Troubled as he was, Les paid little attention to the stepside van pulled up in front of the out-of-business shop next to his.

Just as he worked the lock with his key, his best friend Walter Thurston pulled up in a beat-up Chevy Blazer. At first startled enough to reach back for his pistol, Les relaxed when he recognized his old army buddy. "Walter, what the heck brings you slumming down here in this part of town so early in the morning?"

He could tell instantly his friend was as troubled as he was when Walter replied, "Bad times, old friend."

"Well, we've seen those before you know......Come on in and I'll brew us up some coffee. And then we can talk about bad times coming and good times gone....wait here for a sec while I disarm the alarm."

The alarm off, the two men entered the store. Les tossed his keys to Walter, "Lock the door back will you, and I'll go put the coffee on." Walter stood at the door, fumbled with the keys, then turned to go to the back of the store without relocking the door.

"Les," he said loudly over the sound of the water filling the pot, "I came by because the ATF is going to be here this morning to confiscate your 4473's."

Surprised, Les stuck his head out of the bathroom door, "Oh yeah, how do you know?"

"Well I've got a buddy down at the Federal Building and he let me know last night that they're going to be moving fast to secure those records before they can be destroyed by any militia people."

"Well, I guess that makes sense from their point of view but I'll be damned if I'd like to seem them do it. There's a lot of my friends names on those things. Yours too."

"Yeah I know," said Walter, "That's why I'm here."

"You want me to pull yours out, Walter? I'd have to lose the logs and the Brady paperwork too. I'd go to jail. I'd like to help you but I've got a family too, you know."

"I know Les," sighed Walter, "That's why I'm here. To give you what the bureaucrats call "plausible deniability."

"Huh?" said Les, pouring the water into the coffeemaker. Les turned and his old friend stood there holding a Keltec P11 9mm pocket pistol pointed right at him.

"Now you don't want to go to jail, and me and my other friends don't want to either. So we've come to get your records, and we'll leave you here for the ATF to find, hale, hearty, in one piece and totally without anything the ATF is interested in. And with "plausible deniability."

"Tyrannies, and the bureaucracies that serve them, work on paperwork-- either paper or electronic in this day and age. Destroy the paper (or the computer files) and you destroy the ability of the tyranny to exercise its plans. That's what we intend to do today, now, in your shop. Were gonna have a modern day tea party. A "4473 party" if you will. Nobody gets hurt, no real property gets stolen. As far as I'm concerned, no crime gets committed. We might just do a little bit to stop an even greater crime."

"I see," said Les. He might have fought anyone else. Even though he hated the new law and hated Clinton, come to that. No one would take what was his, not even paperwork. But Walter was his best friend. They grew up together, fought over the same girls in high school. In Vietnam each had saved the other so often they had quit keeping count. And after it was over they had come back to their home town with a shared fervent desire never to go anywhere else people would shoot at them. Now it seemed, the shooting might start again. Here. Now. In their town. He still had the impulse to draw his .45. He overrode it.

"OK," said Les as turned his right side to Walter, offering his .45 for plucking, "Just make it good, and make it fast."

Relieving Les of his sidearm, Walter motioned him to his chair. "Les, I'm real sorry about this. But it's the only way I can see to get the job done and protect you. I'm going to tie you to your chair with plastic flexties and tape your mouth shut. I've got to slug you at least once and draw some blood so the Feds will believe it was involuntary on your part. I've got a nice fresh pillow case to put over your head so you won't see the guys who haul off your records. With luck you'll be rescued by the news media or the local cops before the Feds get here so you'll have more witnesses. One last thing. We know about the records in the EZ-Store locker and we cleaned those out last night. Are there any more records other than the ones I once saw in your storeroom back there?"

Les shook his head, "No, that's it."

"OK, I hope you forget who it was that slugged you, but I'm willing to take the chance even if you're not. This has got to be done, Les. And I'm sorry as hell it's got to be me that does it to you."

And with that said, Walter slugged his best friend with his own pistol, splitting scalp, pulling hair and spilling blood.

In a moment, his unconscious friend trussed securely, Walter pulled a walkietalkie from his pocket and clicked twice.

The stepvan erupted as men painted as Mohawk Indians bolted from every door and rushed into the shop. Across the street, a TV camera crew hastily summoned for the event took pictures while their militia contact verified that no closeups were being taken. The first Mohawk into the shop tossed Walter an Indian headress and a costume mask.

When the last of the records was loaded into the stepvan, two other vans pulled up, loaded Mohawks and sped away in opposite directions. The last shot the camera crew got was of Walter, taking a final look around. The militia media man gave them permission to do a closeup shot of Walter's masked face. When he got the focus, the cameraman started to laugh uncontrollably. The leader of the raid had chosen a Bill Clinton mask to wear under his askew Indian warbonnet.

By the time the footage was being aired on the NBC Nightly News, the last of the records was going into an impromtu bonfire in a quarry outside town. Even the ATF was forced to admit that Les seemed an innocent victim of what they called "militia terrorists." He couldn't quite remember exactly who it was that had gotten the drop on him that morning. In the final analysis, the ATF had far more trouble elsewhere than to worry about what Les Miller knew, or didn't know.

**************************************************
"Charlie Schumer's Last Stand"

HEADLINES: USA TODAY, 12 February - 21 March 1999:

"Gunowners Engage In Massive Civil Disobedience Nationwide",

"4473 Parties" Staged By Gun "Nuts" Dressed as Mohawk Indians.

Two ATF Agents in Raid Party Killed By Sheriff Deputies In New Mexico Standoff.
Surviving Agents Disarmed & Returned To Federal Authorities.

National Guard Units Refusing Federal Orders In Present Crisis.

Governors Seek Immediate Relief From Supreme Court on New Gun Ban.

Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas Killed In Mysterious Car Crash. Court Business Suspended Until Clinton Can Appoint Successors.

The 4473: What Is It? Why Is It An Issue?

ATF, DOJ COMPUTERS ATTACKED BY VIRUS & EMP ATTACK.
Militia Hackers Destroy Gun Registration Databases

ATF WAREHOUSE BURNS IN MASSIVE RECORDS FIRE.
Two Militiamen Killed, Three Captured.

Former Federal Informant Says Detroit Gas Attack a "Sting Gone Bad"
Republicans Demand Investigation.
Was Detroit the Democrats "October Surprise?"

AT THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR, CLINTON BLINKS

GUN BAN TO BE REVERSED, SAYS CLINTON

Senator Charles Schumer Implicated In Detroit Gas Attack
Phone Records Of Dead Informant Show Many Contacts With Schumer

JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF MEET WITH CLINTON
RUMORS OF IMPENDING COUP SWIRLING AROUND WASHINGTON

Senator Charles Schumer Found Dead Of Apparent "Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound"

CLINTON RESIGNS AS PRESIDENT, AL GORE RESIGNS AS VICE PRESIDENT. HOUSE SPEAKER DICK GEPHARDT TO ASSUME PRESIDENCY.


*********************************************************
People's Tribunal Exhibit #A-213, U.S. Vs. Vanderboegh, et al. 1999 (Defendants charged with Treason, Sedition, Conspiracy To Subvert the National Sporting Firearm Protection & Assault Weapon Confiscation Act of 1999.)**

**Vanderboegh, an Alabama militia leader, was convicted with four of his co-conspirators of all charges in a "show trial" in the middle of the Gun Ban Crisis. Vanderboegh, his partners in crime and 428 other political prisoners were freed during a guerrilla attack on the Talladega Federal Prison complex, 19 March, 1999. All were subsequently pardoned by order of President Gephardt. Vanderboegh's current whereabouts are unknown.

EMAIL MESSAGE RETRIEVED FROM PARTIALLY DESTROYED COMPUTER DISC RECOVERED IN RAID BY FBI, BIRMINGAHM, ALA., 21 FEBRUARY 1999.

"This is Bill Buppert. If you are reading this, YOU are the Resistance."

Marshal Petain Does a Deal With Hitler

Bill Buppert once again has a great post at Lew Rockwell, here. It is entitled, "Life in Vichy America." Go to LRC and be sure and follow the links. To get the full meaning of his characterization of America the Vichy, you should get the French documentary, "The Sorrow and the Pity."

Mike
III



"Life in Vichy America."

"You can only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power – he's free again." ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Collaboration in a negative connotation is an active or passive surrender to an overarching regime which removes freedom and liberty and replaces it with an ordered command mechanism to modify or influence your behavior. One can consider the British Loyalists in the American colonies to be collaborators and their fates on occasion were quite ghastly. This can happen as a result of foreign occupation or a replacement of statist forces over time through elections, coups and administrative fiat in an increasingly tyrannical government. The state is a remora that needs a host to survive and convincing the host that the relationship is beneficial to both parties is the key to the remora’s survival. If Obamunism provides one salutary service to the nation, it is a televised demonstration project on how gangster government (is that redundant?) thrives in an environment where the rule of force trumps the rule of law. On your own counsel, is your acceptance and compliance voluntary or a submission to staying one step ahead of the jailer?

When the Germans rolled into France in June 1940, the French Third Republic toppled to be replaced by État Français or the French State. Vichy France was established after France surrendered to Germany on 22 June 1940 and Marshall Phillipe Pétain removed the administrative center of France from Paris to Vichy. Southern France remained relatively autonomous from direct German control until 11 March 1942 when the Allies landed in North Africa in 1942. The Vichy government ruled over France until the Allied repatriation of the Free French under de Gaulle in June 1945. This government was acknowledged and legitimized by the US and Canada, among others, until 23 October 1944.

During this entire time a guerilla war raged between the French Resistance and the maquis and the Vichy/German government in France and some of its colonial holdings. The Vichy government was simply the latest installment to provide a stage for the adversaries to engage in real and rhetorical combat. This civil war had its origins in the 1789 Revolution when the people who did not agree to the destruction of the Ancien Régime continued to sow division resulting in tremendous dissent and disruption throughout French history in the nineteenth century. During WWII, the behavior and resistance of these anti-Vichy forces was used as an opportunity to expand the state and was responsible for the post-WWII socialist government after the war.

"Historians distinguish between a state collaboration followed by the regime of Vichy, and "collaborationists," which usually refer to the French citizens eager to collaborate with Nazi Germany and who pushed towards a radicalization of the regime."

The French started taking measures against undesirables such as communists, socialists, Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other unfortunates who became subject to harassment, imprisonment and death. The French then reactivated and reflagged various existing concentration camps for the government’s latest victims. Stanley Hoffman avers that "an ideologically-motivated cooperation with a Nazi Germany [was] seen as the only bulwark against the spread of Bolshevism in Europe". Of course, one can note that the opposite is happening in America today.

What is fascinating are the dynamics that animated the relatively easy slide of the republican French into a fascist dictatorship channeling the National Socialist agenda into a French variant that had its moments of viciousness that would do the Nazis proud. This brought to the surface centuries-old conflicts that had been brewing and finally spasmed violently in resistance organizations against the Vichy regime’s predations against urban undesirables and rural pockets of refusal, among others.

These sentiments are now starting to manifest themselves in America. There are people for whom desperate economic times are forcing their ideological hand to reexamine support for a state that seems to work against the wealthy and self-employed, among others. We have collectivists versus individualists; rural versus urban; wise users versus green fascists and an entire panoply of opposition forces starting to coalesce and bringing their fights to the surface.


So what does WWII occupied France have to do with modern America? I would suggest we have labored under a Vichy-style occupation since 1865 when a virulent form of government supremacism extinguished states rights in the original Federal system and then the Progressivist virus metastasized under Theodore Roosevelt and the rest is history as the republican vision of a decentralized, localized and minimal government became as anachronistic as the notion of natural rights.

Vichy Propaganda Poster

We are all Vichy French in America today. Your decision is to choose Free American or Vichy French. Your choice is collaboration with a regime that seeks to control your every behavior and rob your children of their inheritance or to stand athwart history and say enough is enough. Collaboration is the willful ability to hold your nose and do what you know is the wrong thing. Collaboration is the desire to look the other way as a large coercive system robs your neighbors’ against their will and you take advantage of the spoils. Pushkin said "[w]hy should cattle have the gifts of freedom? Their heritage from generation to generation is the belled yoke and the lash."

How many folks do you know (especially collectivists) who would voluntarily pay the taxes they do right here and right now if not compelled by the threat of violence? How many folks do full stops instead of rolling stops at stop signs? How many corporations would willingly staff the accountancy and regulatory requirements imposed on them? From the local to the federal level, how many Americans would enforce or comply with the millions of idiotic regulations forced on them?

What if tens of millions of American workers simply followed Gandhi’s teaching and crossed their arms and said no more taxes, jail me instead? Imagine if state governors stood up and said all the Federal Law enforcement elements within their borders had 24 hours to resign or leave the state?

There was no foreign vector that caused this to happen as it did in WWII France yet the amount of discontent, disenfranchisement and disgust on the part of Americans matches much of what inspired the resistance organizations. Depressingly, one of the reasons the French Resistance was such a tough nut to crack throughout the war was that before the Nazi occupation, they had been hunted as Communists by the pre-1940 French regime and had a very robust cellular organization structure. Many Americans today increasingly look at the machinations in DC and view it as occupation behavior. Yet why did so many Frenchmen collaborate with the Nazi and Vichy regimes? They did it because any other behavior demanded a moral stand or courage they did not possess. We all have to take a measure of the degree of moral cowardice we are willing to live with.

Of course, this is the story of humanity. How did the Bolsheviks maintain their stranglehold over tens of millions? How do we maintain the fascinating fiction just celebrated on Memorial Day that American foreign wars since 1898 have secured our freedom? Was Spain that strong a threat? Did WWI stop the Bolshevik victory in Russia? Did WWII guarantee a free and democratic Russia? All of these can be argued into the wee hours but one observation remains unassailable: war abroad robs and strangles freedom and liberty at home. Case in point: the United Kingdom now is the most visible and truest testament to Orwell’s vision in 1984.




I think the desire to collaborate takes on many guises to include state education systems, mass media and war. For example, I just had the misfortune of visiting the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, MO. It is truly a memorial to liberty to note its passing and death but the authors of the title probably did not see the irony. I have a tremendous interest in military history but age and further research has proved to me that most wars not fought on your own soil tend to rob the invading nations of their own freedoms and liberties at home over time. Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogan in 1916 was "He Kept Us Out of War." That appears to have been less than true. Look at the fate of empires in WWI. Millions of deaths to include one out of three French lads under thirty slaughtered during a four year stalemate and tens of millions of maimed and killed for…more war in WWII. It was sickening to wander through the facility to witness a gallery glorifying the savaging of young lives and the enslavement of the world afterwards as the communist experiment found its footing and raced to see how many citizens could be robbed, jailed, maimed and killed while America raced to make the world safe for big government and soft socialism. Wilson managed to strangle whatever remnant of American independence and freedom remained which Lincoln may have accidentally overlooked. We see the ravages of Wilson’s brownshirts in the American Protective League and the germination of the slow but accelerating crawl to define Americans by national identity instead of the localist roots of village, state and region. This, of course, paved the way for the patriotic gore we see today of American flags emblazoned on every conceivable surface to celebrate war on the world and our own enslavement.

The next ten years in America will be pivotal and I believe the country will dissolve into independent nation states in what is now these united States. Take the scales from your eyes and read the real history of America. This is not a country that progresses through government but in spite of it. The change starts at the bottom with the individual. The three percent who will resist and work for liberty and freedom changed the prospects of liberty in America during the last half of the 18th century. Ask yourself: what is the price of my refusal to obey? More importantly, how dear will the price be for your children if you simply stand by and watch?

This is Bill Buppert. If you are reading this, you are the Resistance.

"The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance" ~ Thomas Paine

Liberty Logistics: A Vanderboegh Praxis Bibliography for Newbies

"The speed with which tactical forces forget the main lessons from their collected experience, particularly those pertaining to weapons usage, would be difficult to overstate." -- S.L.A. Marshall, Commentary on Infantry Operations and Weapons Usage in Korea, Winter of 1950-51, p. 15

Folks,

I was invited into a new friend's basement the other day to visit his ammunition hoard. It was impressive by newbie standards: about 2,000 rounds of 7.62x39 for his AK clones, 1,000 rounds or so of 9mm for his pistols; 250 rounds of 12 Gauge 00 buckshot and slugs for his Mossberg 590.

It was all stacked nicely off the floor on shelves, cardboard box after cardboard box. Not a steel ammo can in the place. Nothing in bandoleers and stripper clips. No combat harness, load bearing vest, no means of keeping hios weapon shooting and him in the field if necessary. Nothing.

Sigh.

I gave him a gentle lecture on combat packaging, the probable need to displace to somewhere uncomfortable, and the wisdom of not putting all of his eggs in one basket, i.e. caching techniques.

Long time readers will recall I beat the logisitics drum frequently. Well, it is time to repeat some things. Here are some links:

5 April 2008, Strippers.

12 April 2008, Riflemen.

27 November 2008, Praxis: Small Unit Logistics.

20 December 2008, Praxis: "Packaging is everything."-- Stripper clips, bandoleers, magazines, ammo cans and crates.

I thought I had one on caching, too, but couldn't find it so go here for a copy of TC-31-29/A Special Forces Caching Techniques.

There is some duplication and repetition here. All newbies should read them anyway.

Mike
III

Praxis: "I am a cautionary tale."

Road March, when you're young and in good shape.

From Jim Z. we have this email entitled, "I am a cautionary tale." It is good advice.

Mike
III

Gentlemen,

I know that you have been pushing PT for a long time in both of your blogs, and who knows, I may be the only one this stupid. After back surgery in January, I was finally able to start jogging again at the end of April/beginning of May, and to date, have made good progress, being able to jog 2-4 miles straight, with an additional 2-4 miles of walking. Today, I put my ALICE pack on for the first time in over a decade. I loaded it with about 20-30 lbs. After 3 miles, it had worn me out. Please try to drum it into people's heads that they won't be able to slap on 60+ lbs of gear (20 lbs if you just have a rifle, ammo, and water) and go easily, even if they have been jogging and exercising on a regular basis, if they haven't practiced carrying loads as well. Like I said, I may be the only one this stupid/arrogant enough to think that I could cover this distance easily, but somehow I think that there are others who are as dumb as I am.

On an unrelated subject, can you remind your readers to check the GM angles on their topographic maps and keep checking them every 6 months? The GM angle is shifting quickly and so most maps' GM angles are out of date.

Thanks again to both of you for having such useful sites.

Thanks,
Jim Z.

Liberty Logistics: From the Communist Experience -- The Logistics of the Urban Guerrilla by Carlos Marighella

Carlos Marighella (5 December 1911 – 4 November 1969), was a Brazilian guerrilla revolutionary and Marxist writer. Marighella's most famous contribution to guerrilla literature was the Minimanual Of The Urban Guerrilla, consisting of advice on how to disrupt and overthrow authority with an aim to revolution. He also wrote For the Liberation of Brazil. The theories laid out in both books have greatly influenced modern ideological activism. Unlike Che Guevara who proposed guerrilla activity taking shape in the villages, Marighela's theories on urban guerrilla warfare envisaged cities as the spring of rebellion. -- Wikipedia.

In 1969, Carlos Marighella wrote the Mini-Manual for the Urban Guerrilla. Chapter 8 deals with logistics. The link is here. Shortly thereafter, he was killed in an ambush by Brazilian police. Whether that is a statement upon the tactics laid out in Minimanual, or a reflection of the fact that even your enemies can read books, I do not know. Even so, here is his chapter on guerrilla supply.

Comments invited.

Mike
III

THE LOGISTICS OF THE URBAN GUERRILLA

Conventional logistics can be expressed with the formula FFEA:

F—food F—fuel E—equipment A—ammunition

Conventional logistics refer to the maintenance problems for an army or a regular armed force, transported in vehicles, with fixed bases and supply lines. Urban guerrillas, on the contrary, are not an army but small armed groups, intentionally fragmented. They have neither vehicles nor rear areas. Their supply lines are precarious and insufficient, and they have no fixed bases except in the rudimentary sense of a weapons factory within a house. While the goal of conventional logistics is to supply the war needs of the "gorillas" who are used to repress rural and urban rebellion, urban guerrilla logistics aim at sustaining operations and tactics which have nothing in common with conventional warfare and are directed against the government and foreign domination of the country.

For the urban guerrilla, who starts from nothing and who has no support at the beginning, logistics are expressed by the formula MMWAE, which is:

M—mechanization M—money W—weapons A—ammunition E—explosives

Revolutionary logistics takes mechanization as one of its bases. Nevertheless, mechanization is inseperable from the driver. The urban guerrilla driver is as important as the urban guerrilla machine gunner. Without either, the machines do not work, and the automobile, as well as the submachine gun becomes a dead thing. An experienced driver is not made in one day, and apprenticeship must begin early.

Every good urban guerrilla must be a driver. As to the vehicles, the urban guerrilla must expropriate what he needs. When he already has resources, the urban guerrilla can combine the expropriation of vehicles with his other methods of acquisition.
Money, weapons, ammunition and explosives, and automobiles as well, must be expropriated. The urban guerrilla must rob banks and armories, and seize explosives and ammunition wherever he finds them.

None of these operations is carried out for just one purpose. Even when the raid is to obtain money, the weapons that the guards carry must be taken as well.

Expropriation is the first step in organizing our logistics, which itself assumes an armed and permanently mobile character.

The second step is to reinforce and expand logistics, resorting to ambushes and traps in which the enemy is surprised and his weapons, ammunition, vehicles and other resources are captured.

Once he has weapons, ammunition and explosives, one of the most serious logistics problems facing the urban guerrilla is a hiding place in which to leave the material, and appropriate means of transporting it and assembling it where it is needed. This has to be accomplished even when the enemy is alerted and has the roads blocked.

The knowledge that the urban guerrilla possesses of the terrain, and the devices he uses or is capable of using, such as scouts specially prepared and recruited for this mission, are the basic elements in solving the eternal logistics problems faced by the guerrillas.

Liberty Logistics: Supply Line Warfare

Mr. O'HARA: Now gentlemen, Mr. Butler has been up North I hear. Don't you agree with us, Mr. Butler?

RHETT BUTLER : I think it's hard winning a war with words, gentlemen.

CHARLES: What do you mean, sir?

RHETT: I mean, Mr. Hamilton, there's not a cannon factory in the whole South.

MAN: What difference does that make, sir, to a gentleman?

RHETT: I'm afraid it's going to make a great deal of difference to a great many gentlemen, sir.

CHARLES: Are you hinting, Mr. Butler, that the Yankees can lick us?

RHETT: No, I'm not hinting. I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we. They've got factories, shipyards, coal mines... and a fleet to bottle up our habours and starve us to death. All we've got is cotton, and slaves and ...arrogance.

MAN: That's treacherous!

CHARLES: I refuse to listen to any renegade talk!

RHETT: Well, I'm sorry if the truth offends you.

-- Gone with the Wind, 1939.

Presented here for your edification and amusement, an interesting recap of the importance of logistics in warfare throughout history by Dr. Cliff Welborn in Army Logistics magazine. Here is the link.

Comments, particularly thoughtful ones, are invited.

Mike
III

Supply Line Warfare
by Dr. Cliff Welborn

A soldier fighting in a war today has many of the same basic needs that a soldier had thousands of years ago. Meals, medicines, and munitions are just a few of the fundamental supplies that are needed to keep a military unit operating at full capacity. Soldiers require the same basic life necessities as civilians: nutrition, shelter, and medical supplies to maintain good health. But soldiers must also have weapons and the consumables that weapons need to function, such as ammunition, repair parts, and fuel. So, not surprisingly, great warriors throughout history have carefully planned their strategies around logistics.

Logistics Strategies in History

In his book, Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army, Donald W. Engels describes many of the techniques Alexander the Great used to supply food, water, and equipment to his traveling army. In 320 B.C., Alexander’s 35,000-man army traveled with no more than a 10-day supply of food. Alexander also incorporated supply chain logistics into his overall military strategy.

Jonathan Roth provides insight to the supply chain strategy of the Roman army in his book, The Logistics of the Roman Army at War (264 B.C.–A.D. 235). Roth describes tactics used by the Roman Army to both defend their own supply lines and attack their enemies’ supply lines.

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “An army marches on its stomach.” His army lost more soldiers because of spoiled food than from battle. In 1795, Napoleon offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could devise a reliable method of food preservation for his army. This effort resulted in the first attempts to store food for extended periods of time in cans and ultimately led to modern food canning methods.

Early in the history of the United States, military leaders focused on maintaining an efficient supply chain. The position of Quartermaster General was created the day after George Washington accepted command of the Continental Army in June 1775. The Quartermaster General was responsible for acquiring provisions and distributing them to the troops. His major concerns were finances and logistics.

The U.S. military has also disrupted the enemy’s supply chain to weaken its fighting capabilities. When we think of a military supply line, we often think of the logistics considerations necessary to keep our own supply chain flowing. However, just as important to military success are tactics for disrupting the enemy supply line. A defensive strategy is to protect our own supply chain; an offensive strategy is to inhibit the supply chain of our enemy. The United States has used both offensive and defensive strategies in many wars, including the Revolutionary War in the 1770s and 1780s, the Civil War in the 1860s, the Plains Indian Wars in the late 19th century, World War II in the 1940s, and the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.

Revolutionary War (1775–1783)

Although the British had a larger and better trained army than the Americans, they had to transport soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean. George Washington, as well as other military leaders in the Continental Army, recognized that disrupting the flow of supplies to the British soldiers would destroy their ability to fight effectively.

In the Carolinas, Major General Nathanael Greene developed a strategy of harassing the British supply lines. He enlisted the help of local patriots like Francis Marion, also known as “Swamp Fox,” who led guerrilla-style raids on British supply lines. Marion concentrated his attacks on British supply camps and was able to cut the supply lines linking several British-occupied cities.

During the war, General George Washington also relied on a French fleet under the command of Admiral François de Grasse to establish a blockade in the Chesapeake Bay. This blockade cut off the supply line to General Lord Charles Cornwallis’ British troops at Yorktown, Virginia. The British were cut off from rescue or resupply, while the Continental Army and their French allies benefited from plenty of troops and supplies. This led to the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender of Cornwallis’s army, and the ultimate defeat of the British forces in America.

Civil War (1861–1865)

Before the Civil War, the economies of most southern states primarily relied on exporting cotton and tobacco to Europe and the northern U.S. states. The Confederacy did not have the factories, machinery, or skilled labor needed to establish a large manufacturing base. From the onset of the war, the Confederacy looked to Europe to supply many of their military needs.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Union Commanding General Winfield Scott presented President Abraham Lincoln with a nonaggressive strategy to bring rebellious Confederate States back into the Union. The plan would exploit the South’s reliance on exporting cash crops and importing manufactured goods by instituting a naval blockade of more than 3,500 miles of coast from Virginia to Mexico. By choking off the supply chain of inbound and outbound goods, the Union hoped to limit the South’s ability to supply its army with goods. This plan became known as the Anaconda Plan.

Later in the war, the Union Army also destroyed farms and businesses in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Major General Philip H. Sheridan to render the valley so barren that a crow flying over it would have to pack its own lunch.

Commanding General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports during the Civil War. The name came from the plan being likened to the coils of a snake suffocating its victim.

Major General William T. Sherman’s march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, in 1864, which is called Sherman’s March to the Sea, was characterized by a scorched earth policy. Advancing Union troops were ordered to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy railroads and manufacturing capabilities to keep goods from falling into Confederate hands. This tactic rendered the Confederate economy incapable of resupplying its soldiers.

Certainly, the Union’s defeat of the Confederacy depended on many factors. One of those factors was the South’s dwindling supply of battlefield provisions. With limited internal manufacturing resources and a reduction of imported goods, the Confederacy found it difficult to supply its soldiers with necessary supplies. The Union army was able to drastically reduce the effectiveness of the Confederate forces by disrupting or destroying parts of their supply chain.

Plains Indian Wars

After the Civil War, white American settlers began to spread west at an increased rate. This expansion led to conflicts between settlers and the indigenous Plains Indians. The Plains Indians roamed a geographic region from Texas to Canada and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. They included the Sioux, Comanche, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Crow, and other tribes.

These tribes relied on the buffalo for almost every aspect of their existence. They used every part of the buffalo. The meat was roasted and eaten fresh or was dried into a kind of jerky for long-term storage. The hides were used for tipi covers, robes, blankets, containers, and drums. Muscles were used for bow strings and sewing thread. Bones were used for tools, knives, pipes, and arrowheads. Horns were used for spoons, cups, bowls, containers, and arrowheads. The buffalo’s fat was used to make hair grease, candles, and soap, and its dung was used for fuel in fires. The stomach and bladder were used for water containers and cooking pots, and the skull was used for religious ceremonies and decoration. The buffalo represented the Plains Indians’ entire supply chain. As long as the buffalo were plentiful, the Indians could lead a nomadic, independent lifestyle.

Many Plains Indian tribes were reluctant to give up their nomadic ways to settle on reservation land set aside by the U.S. Government. Although it is debatable whether the U.S. Government had an official policy concerning extermination of the buffalo, it is clear that key individuals encouraged buffalo hunting. General Sheridan and General Sherman recognized the Indian’s dependence on the buffalo. When asked about the buffalo hunters, Sheridan summarized the situation as follows—

These men have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last forty years. They are destroying the Indians’ commissary. And it is a well known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed at a great disadvantage. Send them powder and lead, if you will; but for a lasting peace, let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle.

Without the buffalo, the Plains Indians could not maintain their self-sufficient, nomadic lifestyle. The buffalo was their entire supply line. In 1860, about 13 million buffalo roamed the plains. By 1890, this number was reduced to about 1,000. Ultimately, all Plains Indian tribes were either defeated in battle or accepted life on Government reservations.

World War II (1941–1945)

During World War II, Japan was a nation that depended on imports across the Pacific Ocean to fulfill its supply lines. Japan had a limited number of ships, and the ability to import goods depended on having ships available. So, Allied navies waged a tonnage war to limit the volume of supplies reaching military operations. A tonnage war is a naval strategy designed to disrupt the enemy’s economic supply chain by destroying merchant shipping.

Allied navies sank 1,178 Japanese merchant ships compared to 214 Japanese naval ships. The U.S. Navy sank over 4.8 million tons of Japanese merchant ships. By the end of the war, Japan had only 12 percent of its merchant shipping fleet operable and a minimal fuel supply available to operate the ships. Without merchant ships to import supplies for Japan’s military needs, its navy and air force became ineffective. Because of the lack of fuel, naval ships were confined to ports and air force planes were grounded.

Vietnam War (1960–1975)

In 1954, the country of Vietnam was separated into two distinct sections: Communist North Vietnam and democratic South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese Communist Party formed the National Liberation Front with the goal of unifying North and South Vietnam under communist rule. Fearing the spread of communism, President John F. Kennedy pledged support to the democratic government of South Vietnam.

The conflict was primarily fought in South Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a series of truck and foot paths used by the northern Communist troops to transport materiel to the south during the war. Supplies in North Vietnam were transported through the neutral countries of Laos and Cambodia to troops in South Vietnam. The trail was not a single road, but a network of primitive roads, jungle paths, and waterways extending over 1,500 miles of terrain. Supplies were transported by truck, bicycle, boat, and foot. Although no exact figures for the volume of traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail exist, estimates are that over 1 million tons of supplies and 2 million troops traveled from North Vietnam to South Vietnam along this trail.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail became a target for U.S. bombing missions in an effort to disrupt the Communists’ supply chain. The United States also released defoliants to expose the trail. During the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, the bombing activity along the Ho Chi Minh Trail reached a level of 900 bombs per day. Operations Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger were designed to reduce the traffic to such an extent that the enemy could not get enough supplies for sustained operations. U.S. bombing targets included truck convoys on the trail, bridges, and the roads themselves. Throughout the war, the Ho Chi Minh Trail remained a constant target of U.S. bombing missions. The trail was so important to the North Vietnamese strategy that construction crews repaired the damage after each bombing raid. So ultimately, the bombing missions had a limited effect on the overall flow of supplies along the trail.

Supply chain management is, and always has been, an important characteristic of any military organization. Soldiers must have food, water, shelter, and medicine to sustain life. They must have a supply of weapons and a means of transporting those weapons. Since ancient times, successful military leaders have recognized the importance of maintaining a supply line to keep their troops equipped. Legendary German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is credited with saying, “The battle is fought and decided by the quartermasters before the shooting begins.”

The U.S. military has recognized this concept since the Revolutionary War and General Washington’s request to create the Quartermaster General position. Enemy forces have the same supply needs as U.S. forces. If an enemy can be cut off from its supply line, its ability to fight is quickly compromised. In some cases, the enemy’s ability even to survive is compromised. The U.S. strategy of attacking enemy supply lines has been repeated throughout history. Although this aspect of military strategy may not be as exciting as battlefield tactics, it is no less critical to success. The strategy for defeating an enemy force can take the shape of many varied objectives. Disrupting our enemy’s supply line has been an effective U.S. military strategy to weaken those opponents. Without meals, medicines, and munitions, a military force is incapable of sustaining operations.
ALOG

Dr. Cliff Welborn teaches supply chain management and production at the graduate level and management and operations concepts at the undergraduate level at Middle Tennessee State University. He has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering from Kansas State University, Auburn University, and the University of Texas at Arlington, respectively.

Liberty Logistics: And the Beat Goes On -- “Somewhere in lots of basements . . . there are millions of rounds of ammunition being stored.”

Today is Liberty Logistics Day at Sipsey Street, starting with this article the link for which I found at Lew Rockwell here. Here is the money quote:

“Somewhere in lots of basements around the country, there are millions of rounds of ammunition being stored.”

Uh, make that BILLIONS. Estimates are that we're buying between 1.5 and 2 BILLION rounds per month and the factories can't keep up. Obama, count yer "children."

Though the sales of firearms seems to be slowly gradually, the demand for ammo continues from unbelievably strong to stronger still.

The WalMart method of market sampling indicates continued unprecedented demand for pistol ammunition from .45 ACP down to .380; .223, 7.62x39 & .308, and combat shotgun ammunition in 12 Gauge, especially 00 buckshot in 2.75" and 3" but also slugs.

As I have said before, there is something more existential going on here than just fear over Obama's gun confiscation appetites.

People are not buying to be able to plink without worry for the next ten years. They are stacking up for an uncertain future that may include societal breakdown and/or civil war. This has long since become a STRATEGIC DOMESTIC MILITARY FACT. This should send a shiver down the back of any American would-be tyrant. Sustained shivers, in fact.

Mike
III

More stockpiling ammunition: Fear of potential Obama laws causing mass sales

By PERRY BACKUS Ravalli Republic

FLORENCE - Every day, Darren Newsom's three Bitterroot Valley Ammunition facilities crank out 300,000 rounds of ammunition.

It's not nearly enough.

“I'm going about 100,000 rounds in the wrong direction every day,” Newsom said. “We probably have about six months of back orders right now.”
Newsom has been in the ammunition manufacturing business for more than 20 years and he's never seen demand this high.

Fearful of the Obama administration's potential to tighten gun control laws, people from all over the country are stocking up on guns and ammunition.

“I went through the Clinton years and there was a bit of a scare then,” Newsom said. “This is like the Clinton years on steroids. ? On the day of the election, our phones started going nuts. It hasn't stopped since.”

As a master distributor for ATK - the world's largest ammunition business - Bitterroot Valley Ammunition supplies other ammunition manufacturers around the country with the components needed to make bullets.

“I get a million primers in every other day and most are shipped out the very next day,” he said. “I have 100 million primers on back order right now. We just can't get enough of them.”

At a recent gun show in Salt Lake City, Newsom sold somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 rounds in the first two hours.

“It's just unreal,” he said. “Somewhere in lots of basements around the country, there are millions of rounds of ammunition being stored.”

Local businesses have felt the ammunition shortage.

At Bob Ward's in Hamilton, Mike Matteson said there has been quite a run on ammunition and reloading supplies like bullets and powder since the election.

“We are especially low right now with pistol ammunition,” Matteson said. “There are four or five calibers that we don't even have on our shelves.”

Matteson said he didn't believe manufacturers were prepared for the panic buying that's occurred since the election.

“They tell us that they're months behind on some calibers - .22 ammo is really tough to come by,” he said. “Our gun sales are up somewhere between 30 (percent) to 35 percent or better. A good percentage of those sales are pistols.”

Firearm and ammo sales aren't the only place where concerns about gun control are cropping up.

Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman has seen a marked increase in the number of people applying for concealed weapons permits since November.

Montana is a “will-issue” state for concealed weapons permits. Any law-abiding citizen who fills out the application and can show they've completed some form of firearm safety course can obtain a permit.

The county is averaging about 38 requests for renewals or new permits a month. Last year, the requests averaged about 25.

“It's definitely a noticeable increase,” Hoffman said.

The sheriff said he's hearing from people who are concerned about what might happen over the next four years with the gun control issue.

“We are being asked what would be the stance of local law enforcement if the federal government calls for the confiscation of firearms,” Hoffman said. “That's a very real concern for people.”

Gary Marbut, the longtime president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association in Missoula, said the seeds of the current ammunition shortage can be traced back almost a decade to the Y2K scare.

“Many people became concerned about their ability to get ammunition back then and they stocked up quite a bit,” Marbut said.

In the intervening years, China blossomed and bought up world copper supplies. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan used up warehouses full of U.S. ammunition that needed to be replenished. That forced higher prices for civilian ammunition and people started using some of the bullets they had squirreled away after Y2K, Marbut said.

And now, with the current economic and political uncertainty, people are looking to restock their supplies at a time when most ammunition manufacturers aren't willing to expand their operations.

“The whole demand side of this is so flexible and the supply side is not,” he said.

The ammunition shortage is creating a bit of an economic boon for Ravalli County.

Newsom plans to open a fourth manufacturing facility in Stevensville sometime in September. He employs about 50 people right now and could add up to another 100.

“There are a lot of people out of work right now,” he said. “Two years ago, I probably couldn't find 10 people to go to work for us. Now I have 10 people a day coming in here looking for a job.”

Newsom believes the need for ammunition won't go away. This scare is creating a whole new group of ammunition customers for the future, he said.

Need proof?

Take the .380 caliber pistol. A year ago, Newsom said there was hardly a demand for the ammunition. Since then, the .380 auto pistol has become very popular with women.

“One year ago, it wasn't in demand and now it's some of the most sought ammunition in the U.S.,” he said. “There are more people getting into shooting and that's one thing about ammunition - you can only shoot it once.”

Presaging a chapter in Absolved . . .

Thanks to gunrights4us.

"Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory" -- Hey, Nancy, inventory THIS.

"Don't point at me, Daddy-o; I'll cut off yer finger." -- Alvarado to People's Commissioner Tirebiter, on Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, by Firesign Theatre, 1970.

Bringing new meaning to the term "Nanny State", San Fran Nan has told the Chinese that the global warming "crisis" is an "opportunity for climate change to be ... a game-changer . . . It's a place where human rights — looking out for the needs of the poor in terms of climate change and healthy environment — are a human right."

From the AP story, "Pelosi appeals for China's help on climate change," here:

To achieve this, Pelosi said governments would have to make decisions and choices based on science. "They also have to do it with openness, transparency and accountability to the people," she said. "Everyone has to have their situation improved by it."

In answering a question from a student about how Pelosi was going to get Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions, the leading Democratic lawmaker said it was important to educate children on how to conserve energy and for citizens to build more environmentally friendly homes. "We have so much room for improvement," she said. "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."

I reckon this is along the lines of Ray LaHood's promise to "coerce" us out of our cars.

Now, I know that some folks would tell Nancy to take her nanny state inventory and shove it up her chocolate whiz-wang. But not me.

Hey, Nancy, I'm taking responsibility for my environmental actions. If you're going to subject ME to an inventory, just be sure and inventory THIS.



Hmmm, there's a thought. What IS the carbon footprint of an M14-series rifle? What sort of "cap and trade" is involved? And what would Pico and Alvarado make of that?

More along the line of Gangster Government making one too many enemies: Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings

Gangster Government anecdotes continue to proliferate like blue-bottle flies on a road apple. See here.

Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings

By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
05/27/09 3:37 PM EDT

Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans. What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty.

The basic issue raised here is this: How do we account for the fact millions of dollars were contributed to GOP candidates by Chrysler who are being closed by the government, but only one has been found so far that is being closed that contributed to the Obama campaign in 2008?

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan learned from a House colleague that his Venice, Florida, dealership is on the hit list. Buchanan also has a Nissan franchise paired with the Chrysler facility in Venice.

"It's an outrage. It's not about me. I'm going to be fine," said Buchanan, the dealership's majority owner. "You're talking over 100,000 jobs. We're supposed to be in the business of creating jobs, not killing jobs," Buchanan told News 10, a local Florida television station.

Buchanan, who succeeded former Rep. Katharine Harris in 2006, reportedly learned of his dealership's termination from Rep.Candace Miller, R-MI. Buchanan owns a total of 23 dealerships in Florida and North Carolina.

Also fueling the controversy is the fact the RLJ-McCarty-Landers chain of Arkansas and Missouri dealerships aren't being closed, but many of their local competitors are being eliminated. Go here for a detailed look at this situation. McClarty is the former Clinton senior aide. The "J" is Robert Johnson, founder of the Black Entertainment Television, a heavy Democratic contributor.

A lawyer representing a group of Chrysler dealers who are on the hit list deposed senior Chrysler executives and later told Reuters that he believes the closings have been forced on the company by the White House.

"It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers. It really wasn't Chrysler's decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President's automotive task force," said attorney Leonard Bellavia.

RedState.com's Josh Painter has a useful roundup of what has been found so far by a growing number of bloggers digging into what could be a very big story indeed. Also, see my column on this issue and how it fits into the larger context dubbed by the Examiner's Michael Barone as "gangster government."

As part of Chrysler's bankruptcy agreement with the White House, the company plans to close roughly a quarter of its 3,200 dealerships. Lists of the dealerships being cut and those retaining their Chrysler franchises can be found here in pdf format.

Many dealers contend the criteria being used to determine which dealerships survive is not clear and that many of those that are being closed in fact are profitable businesses, despite the current recession.

John Hancock, give me a call. -- "Stiffing GM's Creditors Will Backfire" -- A case of one too many enemies.

John Hancock, successful Boston businessman, smuggler and revolutionary.

Whatever the number of a man's friends, there will be times in his life when he has one too few; but if he has only one enemy, he is lucky indeed if he has not one too many. -- Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, What Will He Do With It?, Bk. IX, ch. III

Below you will find an editorial from Investors Business Daily entitled "Stiffing GM's Creditors Will Backfire." You will find it here. Read it and I will comment on the other side.

Stiffing GM's Creditors Will Backfire

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Law: Sure as the sun rises, the U.S. government's manhandling of GM and Chrysler bondholders will ripple outward, striking not only companies and their creditors but the very basis for U.S. power and prosperity.

Historians pinpoint the beginnings of U.S. power at 1811, with the liquidation of the First Bank of the United States, founded by Alexander Hamilton. Amid the winds of the War of 1812, First Bank ignored political pressure and insisted that even British bondholders, from the nation the U.S. was preparing to fight, be paid in full. The debt was paid because that was the law.

This single act reverberated for years. Word got back to Europe that the word of this fledgling country was good, even with enemies. As a result, European capital to finance the great steamships, railroads and other engines of American growth flowed.

"The return of their funds became an important chapter in American finance because it showed that the government was willing to do business on an impartial basis, and that would influence future British investments for decades to come," wrote Charles R. Geisst in his 1979 "Wall Street: A History."

Scroll to 2009. What's good for General Motors is no longer what's good for America. GM and Chrysler faced restructuring in a last-ditch bid to avoid bankruptcy. But unlike 1811's British lenders, their bondholders have been treated like enemies.

In setting terms of the restructuring as a result of its $30 billion bailout, the U.S. government saw to it that the United Auto Workers got more than their share, shredding the claims of bondholders who normally have first priority.

Chrysler bondholders got 29 cents on the dollar and were pilloried as "vultures" by the very government sworn to uphold the law. And for their $27 billion investment, GM's 1,200 bondholders, many of them small stakeholders, got an equity stake of just 9%.

By contrast, the UAW, whose only claim is the $20 billion the automaker owes in gold-plated employee benefits, got 20%, with the government ending up with the rest.

"They cut into line," said Kenton Boettcher of California-based Main Street Bondholders, 90% of whose members rejected the restructuring offer Wednesday. "I lose completely. I can't even write it off as an investment loss. It was a predetermined, prestructured bankruptcy," he told IBD.

"If 'secured creditor' no longer has meaning, who's going to make an investment by buying a corporate bond?" asked Richard Mourdock, Indiana state treasurer, who's suing Chrysler on behalf of Indiana's state pension holders.

Already fewer investors want to lend money to companies with exposure to unions or government bailouts. A new Garman Research study titled "Priority Lost" determined that corporate bonds already are losing value based on the bondholder slap-around.
"Creditors to major U.S. automakers are discovering that absolute priority may, or may not, apply to their holdings," the study said. If the slighting of bondholders is not an aberration, "this could mark a new period of uncertainty."

"This is much bigger than Chrysler," added Mourdock. "If the words 'secured creditor' have no meaning, investors are going to ask if the words 'good faith and credit' of the U.S. still have meaning.

"Americans depend on bonds purchased by people outside the U.S. right now. If the Chinese investors buying our debt see American bondholders treated this way, is it a long stretch to imagine foreign creditors won't be either?"

Word is spreading. "I think the punishment for mugging bondholders will be a reduced trust of foreigners in the U.S. legal system and an increase of the interest that foreigners will request for investing in U.S. instruments," said Ottavio Lavaggi, an Italian bondholder who sued deadbeat Argentina over its $100 billion sovereign bond default in 2001. "There is no free lunch, and robbing bondholders . . . will have consequences."

If so, this could be a turning point. In "A History of Credit and Power in the Western World," Scott B. MacDonald and Albert L. Gastmann warned of a direct correlation between credit and power. "The combination of new muscle in industrial manufacturing . . . and finance clearly elevated the military and economic power of the United States, pushing it to the apex of the global credit system," they wrote.

Is succoring the UAW worth throwing all that away?

It strikes me that, as Bulwer-Lytton warned, Obama is making one (or more) too many enemies. If you rob a man, he will want justice. If you threaten further robbery, even to the point of penury as Obama's policies logically point, you motivate the victim to take steps to prevent it. If his attacker is a common criminal, you call the police. But if the thief IS the police -- an agent of Gangster Government?

Well, then, you go and find a soldier to get a different government.

This is the position that Obama is putting many people in this country, the wealthy along with the poor.

The American Revolution took place when the wealth creators of the Colonies could no longer tolerate the threat that the Crown's policies posed to their futures. Thus it was, as it always has been, about free trade and property rights as much as free speech and elections. They are two sides of the same coin.

So now Gangster Government is alienating large numbers of the wealthy with its attacks on the rule of law. Obama once threatened them with the sentiment that he was the only one who stood between them and the populist pitchforks. Now it could well be that the wealthy may decide that the only solution is to make alliances with some pitchfork wielders of their own.

John Hancock?

Give me a call.

Mike Vanderboegh
III

Machine guns in Alabama creeks, barreled AR15 uppers and ammo in Texas dumpsters & one EXPENSIVE case of pulchritude.

Howard Nemerov reports here that eight barreled AR15 receivers, 1600 rounds of 5.56 and about 1000 rounds of miscellaneous pistol ammunition were found in an Austin dumpster AND SOMEBODY CALLED THE COPS!!!!!

Remember the Jap machineguns in a Bibb County, Alabama creek? Why can't this ever happen to ME????

But I can make an educated guess about how those barreled receivers and ammo got into that dumpster.

Let us join Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the Wayback Machine and journey back to the year 1971. The place is Marion, Ohio. I get a call from a high school buddy who is now a municipal garbageman:

"Hey, Mike, you gotta see something."

"What?"

"No, I can't tell you, you just gotta SEE it."

"OK, where is IT?"

"Meet me at the Frisch's."

Meaning the Frisch's Big Boy drive in, where we burned many a gallon of gas trying to attract (largely unsuccessfully) the attention of what passed for young Buckeye pulchritude a mere two years earlier.

Fifteen minutes later, I am there. He is parked all the way over on the far side of the lot in the middle of the day. No one is around.

Wordlessly, he opens his trunk lid.

It is packed with firearms. Pistols (I remember a mint WWI M1911 that Alvin York could have carried), scoped deer rifles, shotguns, an M1 Garand, a couple of carbines, more than thirty weapons all told.

"What the hell . . .?"

"We picked them up over on Harding Memorial Parkway," (where all the ritzy homes in Marion were in those days) he explained. "There were four garbage cans packed with guns and we split 'em up between the three of us."

"They threw them away?!?!?"

"Yeah, we went up to the door to tell 'em that they couldn't throwaway guns in the trash and this lady says, 'OK, fine, I'll give 'em to you if you want 'em.' So we took 'em. We split 'em up and took 'em. There was about a hundred of 'em. She told us they were her husband's and he just ran off with another woman. Said she guessed if he left her, he must of left his guns too."

"Can I have one?" I ventured to ask.

"Got any money?"

"No," I said disconsolately.

"Sorry, man, go find your own."

True story.

That is when I first learned the truth of the statement, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." I don't know what motivated that guy to run off with another woman, but that was one expensive case of pulchritude.

A Warning to Young Men on Thinking With the Wrong Head: The Dangers of Pulchritude.