Through Their Fingers

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Recently I’ve been hearing of a con almost every other week. Some, in the still very early stages of planning have even contacted me and asked if I wanted to be a guest of honor, and attending guest, or if I knew of someone they should be inviting.

All of these cons either claim they want to be Liberty con and/or they were inspired by Sad Puppies, specifically the idea that science fiction (and stories in general) could and should be fun again and not some doleful “literary” exercise approved of by college professors and looked down upon by everyone else.

Meanwhile what I’d call the history structure of science fiction fandom has been captured by the hard and insane left and has at this point — through exploiting the control mechanisms put in to avoid a popular revolt — gone to China, probably — due to the rules — permanently. It’s also merrily nominating only Chinese authors, and the happy figleaf of “maybe these are great books is bs”. First, we know the Chinese government is financing voting memberships and if you think they’re great SF readers…. well, there’s no help for you. And for another, if they were good we’d already have found them and translated them.

But the loss of the Hugo, which at any rate had been tainted with literature and the academic version of missionaries trying to get geeks to wear pants and not on our heads where we prefer them. Or if you want it plainer: for a lot of years, with rare exceptions, the Hugo had gone to boring stuff and become a “do not buy” signal. So it’s not a horrible loss.

OTOH the little cons waking up everywhere are a sign of hope and that the fandom itself isn’t dead. It’s groups of friends here and there (the expected attendance at these cons so far is fifty to a hundred people) going “You know what, after the covidiocy I miss cons, and we don’t ALL fit into liberty con. How about…”

For a year or two they’ll be unorganized and frankly pretty terrible at it. But they’ll get better and they will grow.

And as for our polity, our beloved Democratic Republic, which has been sold to China by the execrable Fraud In Chief Of The US, which is why they installed him in power by massive, unremitting fraud? (Look, not in dispute. They wrote a Times article bragging about doing it!)

Well, if our courts won’t act, and all the instruments of our sovereignty have been pulled away, there remains one bastion: us.

To and extent Roger Kimball is right in here.

Right now our only hope is to do thinks locally and at state level. Let the feds spin in their own filth, and do what needs to be done.

OTOH there are things we can’t do. Sure, Texas can get other states to help it protect the border. But a lot of the border states had their elections frauded. I’m looking at you Arizona. Precisely, I’d guess, to facilitate the invasion. So, what to do?

Well…. the cities could start coming up with plans.

In fact at all levels, it’s going to devolve to the individuals, the municipalities, the states. Because the Federal government is not only bankrupt. It’s gone crazy. What it does is not only NOT what we need, but it’s often actively against us.

So, it’s down to the equivalent of a few fans and their friend group.

And as you know I think we’re going to be all right. Sure, there’s difficulties. There’s things that don’t scale super-well. But America is the land of innovative solutions, and we don’t know what’s possible until we do it.

The more they tighten the hand of officialdom, the more we escape between their fingers, like sand.

And sand has an advantage over water. We chafe all those who hold too tightly.

Sure, there will be rough patches. We can all feel one approaching. But in the end we win, they lose.

Go build under, build over, build around.

Be not afraid.

206 thoughts on “Through Their Fingers”

  1. Holding onto sand is tricky.
    Too loose, it blows away.
    Too hard, it squeezes out between your fingers.
    You can only keep it wet so long, and the process of keeping it wet means you’ll lose more at the same time.
    Our ruling class is making all the worst mistakes of holding sand and doing damage to everything in the process.

  2. I’ve been wondering lately (with virtually no evidence, keep in mind) if the true cause of much of Arizona’s political chaos is the cartels. It would have started out with buying a few politicians, which makes perfect sense for any group with cash – legal or not. And those politicians would have recruited friends, who brought in friends of their own, until you end up with the current situation. The cartels moving openly against unaligned politicians (Lake, for instance) would probably cause enough public outrage for hammers to be dropped courtesy of the Feds. So politicians not on the take are still physically safe. But if you take their cash, you’d better stay bought. And you’d better make sure that the unaligned don’t get important offices in the state.

    Just a theory that’s nagging at me.

    1. I very strongly suspect that a lot of our political chaos is funded by various cartels, and that’s why the resistance to recognizing they are international terror organizations.

      1. Well, the War on Drugs was really always a war against us — against the freedom to make our own decisions and be treated equally before the law — so in that, government and the cartels have common ground.

        1. And that kind of abject bull crud is exactly the kind of nonsense that shows up on the theoretical right.

          Special tip: “the first hit is free”, enforced by biological reality, is not the actions of someone who is respecting and defending your ability to freely choose anything.

          When someone is feeding you half-truths?
          Get suspicious.

          1. For folks interested, try looking at the contrast in places where they are “nice” and don’t fight the ‘war on drugs’.

            My school had refugees from that area, because they were the wrong color and their parents literally moved away to save the kids’ lives.

            One of the reasons we moved from the Seattle Blob was those “harmless” pot shops, and the crime that followed them.

            Demanding non-enforcement of a class of law has very obvious results. You don’t want to live in them, even if someone does give it a catchy name.
            Double-plus if they can’t tell you what, specifically, is bad with each law they want ignored– and add an exponent to that, if they lie. (Hiding information, such as a law no longer existing, or having been a local law when they are attacking federal, is also “fun.”)

            1. California’s got serious problems, and not just because of the taxes on marijuana. The cartels are getting bolder with their weed farms in the state. And those farms aren’t because of the taxes the state imposes.

              1. Family friend’s son got out of the grow business when he was approached and informed he would be helping to launder smuggled weed.

                With a surprising amount of sanity for him, he just flat quit.

              2. Given the issues pre-date legalized pot, and the better informational ability now, we might just know about more of the grows.

                “How to not get killed by squatters” has been a Thing since at least the 80s.

          2. Hold up now… After looking at what I wrote, I can see how it looked like I’m advocating for some kind of bull-crap utopia in which all the people do all the drugs and dance around in hippie-hippie joy-joy forever — but that’s not at all where I was going.

            My point is that the government has done a whole bunch of evil, indefensible things in the prosecution of its “war on drugs,” starting with propagandizing it as war to begin with, and running through things like civil asset forfeiture and (as you pointed out) selectively ignoring and not enforcing its own laws whenever it suits the psychopaths in charge. The overall effect of the whole thing (if not the true goal of it) is to enlarge government authority at the direct expense of civil liberties.

            You can defend drug prohibition, and I won’t disagree all that much — but as for the homily about half-truths, right back at you. If you’re defending the government, you’re shoveling a pretty heavy load of those yourself.

            1. My point is that the government has done a whole bunch of evil, indefensible things in the prosecution of its “war on drugs,” starting with propagandizing it as war to begin with, and running through things like civil asset forfeiture and (as you pointed out) selectively ignoring and not enforcing its own laws whenever it suits the psychopaths in charge.

              In order, that is assuming your conclusion, an objection that is your emotional judgement about media, a very popular golden example of less than half truth that goes back to the country’s founding and doing the research on the claims made about it are what made me realize how many folks were either lying or had not bothered to actually do the research in the twenty-some years that the research became not just possible but easy, an issue that is only related to the ‘war on drugs’ because of the folks who object to the ‘war on drugs’ and otherwise predates it, and then a repeat of your conclusion.

              Your ‘back at you’ can go jump in the lake.

                1. Hm, that’s the second time in one single exchange that your assertions were met with substance, and you tried to shift the subject– twice declining to defend your claimed facts, and twice trying to attack the person.

                  Amazing how that pattern keeps showing up when folks push something that is, at best, half true– and fueled by emotion.

                  I suppose that beats doing something like discussing the asset forfeiture reform the give-us-money liars were pushing that mostly cut down the time given to find out who the “these aren’t my pants” property belongs to and contact them, and then took the money and gave it to Congress.

                  (But they were so nice, they were only going to take half of the Coast Guard’s asset forfeiture income.)

                  1. Are you referring to the 2000 CAFRA, the 2014 bill, or the 2023 H.R.1525 FAIR Act?
                    Reading through the text of the latter, I see a lot of things my non-lawyer self would approve of: moving from preponderance to clear and convincing standard, shifting burden of proof onto the government, making the equivalent of ‘public defender’ available in forfeiture cases.

                    I’ll admit I don’t know enough about the reduced notification times mentioned to know if that’s a thing I’d support or not. It sounds like ‘must notify sooner’, which could be okay, but see previous not a lawyer disclaimer.

                    As to proceeds, I would much prefer they not go to the capturing agency to avoid even the appearance of self dealing.

                    1. The things that are broadly agreed to be good — some of which are requested by agencies doing forfeiture, and some of which are already done– could have been put in a one page bill that would’ve been able to stand on its own quite strong merits.

                      Instead there is dang good reason they tried to legislate by press release with the help of folks who use to do good work (we’d donated for years), but who now just want people upset so they can fund-raise.

                      As to proceeds, I would much prefer they not go to the capturing agency to avoid even the appearance of self dealing.

                      But we’re to trust the same oversight that the agencies have to keep Congress honest?!

                    2. An unfortunate litany of complaints that seem to apply to lots of issues: legislate by press release, shorter stronger bill, fundraise on upset. Institute for Justice? Name and shame.

                      My thoughts on beneficiaries of forfeiture are shaped by my view of state/local abuses I’ve seen in Iowa and Illinois, where law enforcement/judiciary can be too close. Perhaps it’s different at the federal level. There, I can see an argument that requiring judicial rather than administrative forfeiture proceedings gets more bang for your separation of powers buck. I do not wish to be accused of trusting Congress!

                    3. Institute for Justice? Name and shame.

                      Honestly, I couldn’t remember their name when I was writing, and it was too late in a very long day to go look for where we use to donate to them– they really did use to do good work, along the lines of HSLDA for homeschoolers.
                      Always sad to see someone that was doing good work fall.

                      My thoughts on beneficiaries of forfeiture are shaped by my view of state/local abuses I’ve seen

                      Ooof, that’s another thing that makes this subject a mess– the noisiest folks ignore that state law isn’t federal, even when they’re giving examples of abuses to argue for federal level reform.
                      (Heck, all varieties of asset forfeiture tend to get rolled in, as well as stuff that changed decades ago, and sometimes things that were illegal when done, on top of the leave-out-important-information ones.)

                      Federal wise? If someone is willing to claim (say “this is mine”) stuff seized as either evidence or crime related items, they can’t take it without proving guilt. They can hold on to it during the court case, but that’s no different than any other evidence or element of a crime. (For obvious reasons– I’d be very upset if I caught someone with my bike, and because he said “oh, it’s my bike” they let him have it until the court case was over. It’d be gone.)

                      Most of the time things are turned over because folks know that if they say “yes, this is mine,” it’s evidence against themselves.

                      Hm…now I’m wondering if part of the push to undermine that is an attempted 5th amendment violation– just framed as doing someone a favor, by giving them back their stuff… which, if it isn’t actually theirs, would be an excellent way to frame someone all nice and legal-shiny.
                      I’d been figuring it was pushed by the Cartels that are tired of their pressured-into-working guys doing “these aren’t my pants, I don’t know where that money came from, not my car, borrowed it from someone I don’t know their name” stuff. (A major business expense for them.)

                    4. “Most of the time things are turned over because folks know that if they say “yes, this is mine,” it’s evidence against themselves.”

                      Or, because they haven’t and won’t be charged with a crime, there is no public defender, so they have to hire a lawyer they can’t afford to.

                      Fox is more than happy to countenance violations of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments because they hit people she disapproves of. And state LEOs are routinely cut in on it, as their own website points out.

                      https://www.justice.gov/afms/about-asset-forfeiture-program-afp

                      “promote and enhance cooperation among federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement agencies.”

                      She’ll handwavium away any cites you come up with, though.

                    5. Or, because they haven’t and won’t be charged with a crime, there is no public defender, so they have to hire a lawyer they can’t afford to.

                      Except that if they say yes, it is theirs, then it triggers the legal process of being charged with a crime. That is why the comment you responded directly to points out they say it is not theirs because it would be evidence against them. THEY think they’d be charged and found guilty of the crime involved.

                      Which you have spent several years ignoring, even when given citations repeatedly.

                      Even when I have reminded you, repeatedly, that I am one of the people who has admitted that an item found being involved in criminal activity was mine, which is why they gave it back as soon as they verified it was mine.

                      Just because you wish really really hard for something to be true, doesn’t mean that it is, and repeating it with increasing violence does not make it more true, either.

                      Given that you already publicly admitted that you now refuse to give support for your assertions because I insist on going and digging up the actual cases, which turn out to be nothing like what Reason magazine and associated pushers claimed to have happened– and generally result in finding out the only quoted source was the lawyer for the accused– it’s pretty clear that you know full well your chosen position is not well supported.

                      Additionally, you are once again accusing others of handwaving when, in fact, you are the one waving his hands around yelling about something that was not under discussion– the federal level asset forfeiture (Congress has authority to change), vs state or lower level asset forfeiture. (Congress does not have the authority over.)

                      Now feel free to carry on to your regularly triggered claim that I’m going to be dead Any Day Now at the hands of those icky icky law enforcement types that I actually talk to and ask questions of, as you have for years now at this point.

  3. Drip, drip, drip. Talk about books you like. Talk about books They don’t like. Point out simple, local things, like “Did the city ever say exactly why the D.I.E. committee was needed? Whatever became of that, anyway?” Keep your charity local, where you can watch where it goes. Or look at colleges and organizations with really good reputations that don’t accept federal money.

    Tell good stories. Sing or play fun songs. Build under, build around.

    1. Could actually use some book recommendations. Servants of War was a ton of fun, as was Other Rhodes was, but stories just aren’t hooking me right now.

      Flipping through a pile of bought but not yet red, and nothing really is calling me. I guess I’m just feeling burned out. Been playing Jedi Survivor, and while the gameplay is fun, the characters have hit a point where I sort of don’t really care what happens to most of them, yet I still have to keep talking with them to move stuff forward.

      I guess I need something with characters that are interesting and feel worth caring about?

      2. Is this where I shamelessly plug my ‘Republic of Texas Navy’ series? Two books and one short story out, another short story coming soon in ‘Falcons of Malta’ from Raconteur Press.

          1. Bob,

            Working on it now. Unfortunately real life keeps getting in the way. 🙂

        2. The proper procedure for plugging your books, as prescribed by the Beautiful but Evil Space Princess who hosts this blog, is posted in italics below:

          If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

          You mentioned a short story that has already been published. I am intrigued, and I wish to learn more.

          1. Sarah,

            I apologize for how I phrased that part of my reply. I am aware of your required process for submitting such requests. I had intended that to be somewhat ‘tongue-in-cheek’.

            Aurictech, the short story I mentioned is in ‘Haunted Libraries Vol 2’ on Amazon.

      4. “…stories just aren’t hooking me right now.”

        So are you looking for stories, or for different games with more interesting characters?

  4. Exactly as you say Sarah! I’m signed up for SonOfSilvercon, and they fit your description perfectly. They’ll be disorganized and, with luck, limp along for a couple of years until they find their footing. The San Diego Comic-Con started that way, and it was a close call the 2nd or 3rd year after the receipts had been stolen, gone missing. It was a funding drive by the Big Guys™, Bradbury, RAH, etc. that got them through until my friend, the late, lamented John Rogers righted the ship and eventually launched into the stratosphere.

    I haven’t paid attention to the Hugos or Nebulas since before Sad Puppies (of blessed memory). I would suggest that, if new Cons want to create awards, they restrict it to actual attending members.

    PS, it goes to my state of mind that, when I read your first sentence, I thought you were talking about con-artists.

    1. “when I read your first sentence, I thought you were talking about con-artists.”

      Odd minds think alike.

  5. “They can jail us. They can shoot us. They can even conscript us! They can use us as cannon fodder in the Somme! But… we have a weapon more powerful… than any in the whole arsenal of the British Empire. That weapon… is our refusal! Our refusal to bow to any order but our own!m Any institution but our own! Our friends in the Royal Irish Constabulary want to shut me up. Jail me again, shoot me, who knows? But I’d like you to send them a message! If they shut me up, who’ll take my place?”

    That senile eejit Biden should really learn some history. There aren’t enough chekists in the state to police everyone, Irish Democracy is the sandpaper that wears down the tyrant.

  6. To be totally honest, these days the only “awards” worth a damn are the “word of mouth” awards, i.e., how many people have told you about, or have you heard telling someone else about, a given book/series/author in glowing terms. Any more formal awards are gameable, and for that reason almost certainly already gamed.

        1. Noted. The Reader will peruse them for more grist for his habit. Thanks!

    3. My BIL reads like 3-4 books a day, so he burns through KU like a teenage boy at a buffet. Thanks to him (he’s labeled ‘book pimp’ in my phone contacts) my to-read list never gets smaller…

      1. I am seriously jealous. I used to be able to read like that, ever since having a stroke it typically takes me weeks to finish a book. It sucks big time.

  7. C4R (comment for reading)

    It’s what the Reader does…

  8. Is there a website or mailing list for such cons?

    We haven’t attended Fanta-Sci yet even though it is almost close enough to not rent a room, because we didn’t know about it (and then the whole tree-cutting-the-house-in-half incident occurred).

    We are going to LC again this year and hope to attend Fanta-Sci next year, but we’d love to know if there’s another nearby.

    1. If you’re close enough to go to Fanta-Sci, you might try Con Carolinas. The Webers have been there recently, and it’s in Baen’s back yard. MarsCon is also, next year (it’s in January) run by the same guy that does FantaSci.

      1. Well, okay, but you asked for it.

        While I can do a little HTML, I must warn you, I have the aesthetic sense of a hagfish, the world’s most beautiful creature. If anyone here can make a better css file, please.

        Anyway, in about 2 to 5 hours (however long it takes me to upload a couple files and for DNS to propagate), check out wrongfuncons dot com.

        At some point, probably in June, I’ll make a submission form or something like that.

        1. Also, if anyone knows the website for Son of Silvercon, if there is one, let me know.

    3. Sarah, let me second AFFA’s request for a list of sanity-friendly cons (for certain values of sanity, of course). If there is not a webpage listing handy, might I suggest you draw one up yourself? They’re sending you all their information, and information wants to be free, right?

      Also, can anyone back up Chrismouse’s suggestion of ConCarolinas? LibertyCon is turning out surprisingly devilish for me to reach, but Charlotte will be pretty easy from my Undisclosed Location. Heck, if I’d known they might not reject me like a donated organ, I would have signed up before now. Technically, I suppose I still could: it’s a week and a half away.

      1. Oh. I haven’t been keeping track. Yes, we should have one. I have a friend involved in organizing a bunch of them, but the only ones in my brain right now are Son of SIlvercon, because I’m going, and B-con because Jeff Greason, a friend, is the science GOH. Of course, ConFinement next…. March, where I’m GOH.

          1. I’m wondering about FenCon. It was pretty cool last time but there was woke tension…I wonder how that will play this year.

            2. So this year, there won’t be a FenCon as such. They moved it to next year (March, I think.) Primarily because, yes, tension between woke folks and…everyone else. But as Sarah said, a new con is arising/has arisen. P-Con (We’re all nuts here!) will be in September at the DFW Westin, I believe. First year, and they need folks willing to make the trek. At least two of the three Moms of the Apocalypse are heavily involved with programming and running it, so you know it should be a good time.

                1. Yes. P-con.us.
                  Jeff Greason as science GoH, Chuck Gannon as Science fiction GoH, and Jane Lindskold as fantasy GoH. That’s a pretty good line-up for a first year con.

  9. TXRed’s talk about books you like; I notice I’ve four reads going right now; March 1968 Analog (Copy available on Ebay for $12.12, mine’s not for sale.), February 1969 If, Charles Fort’s LO! (First published 1336 if I remember right, mine’s the 1941 edition) and Alan Moore’s Jerusalem (2016).

    & parenthetical aside; (As far as my attempts to keep up on the local, Fairbanks, Alaska news, I all the way up to the August 29, 1910 issue of The Alaska Citizen wherein I was pleased to find Mr. Lunn has settled his dispute with a black bear. It started with a question of right of way on a log crossing a creek, Mr. Lunn made his case with the flat of an axe.)

    Also am building under, around and doubling down. We’re clearing space at the west end of my 80 acres to build a structure for my savage teenage granddaughter who will be emancipated, reached our state’s age of majority, next spring.

    1. I thought Fort was precocious, but beating Gutenberg by a century is just off the charts!

      1. Sigh 1936, In 1336 he only penned his first draft of the book. 😉
        Though my typing was off 600 years, my memory was off by 5 years anyway Lo! was first published in 1931, not 1936.

  10. “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”

    Our lives, Feds. Not your lives. Not the lives of others. OUR LIVES!

    Everyone needs to mind their own beeswax, especially the Feds. And we need to just get on with things as best we can given the level of interference in our particular neck of the woods. If we do what we can to live our best lives, there should be enough of us who know how to carry on and pick up the pieces that things should be much better for our grandkids and their kids.

    Remember, even as bad as it seems now, things are much better today than they were in my grandparents’ day. We have unimaginable riches that the wealthy could not even obtain then.

    Oh sure, they are trying to kill us off, but humanity has been fighting against enemies since the dawn of history. And we are Americans and extreme odds just make us clever and resourceful.

    I almost feel sorry for them.

    Almost.

      2. Yup there are a bunch of old jokes about American military doctrine:

        The Soviets: “One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine.”

        The Nazis: “The reason that the American army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos and the American army practices chaos on a daily basis.”

        America: “If we don’t know what we are doing, the enemy certainly can’t anticipate our future actions!”

        They’re not absolutely true and yet… Its just Americans being American.

        1. “This effect is known as Little Groups of Paratroopers. This is, in its purest form, small groups of 19- year old American Paratroopers. They are well-trained, armed-to-the-teeth and lack serious adult supervision. They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as “March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who is not dressed like you…” …or something like that. Happily they go about the day’s work.”

          No idea where this originated, but it’s a reference to the Allied paradrops the night before D-Day.

          1. The Normandy drops were almost catastrophically wrong. Instead of dropping effective divisions near assigned targets, the paratroops were scattered all over the place, often scores of miles off target.

            The contingency order was to do what you could where you could.

            Which actually worked out very well. The Nazis thought there were many more units deployed, because the coverage was so broad. Plus we also dropped large quantities of fake patatroops.

            So the vast swath of random rear area chaos and mayhem worked to disrupt and confuse the Nazis.

            Once again, Americans improvising their way from debacle to victory.

            1. When I was trailing along after Grandpa Carl in Normandy in June 1994, he talked a lot about the improvisation the paratroopers did. At one point they commandeered, um, briefly borrowed, a tank and did some things you are Not Supposed to Do with said vehicle. But it cleared out the Germans hiding in a row of houses.

              Imagine a herd of peeved 18-22 year old guys, without adult supervision. Now turn them loose on unsuspecting foreign shores. They are well armed, creative, and did I mention, peeved? Welcome to Normandy, June 1944.

              1. All that, in spades.

                The Nazis were going nuts trying to figure out where the Airborne were centered, thus where their command and control could be attacked.

                Except, there really wasn’t much center to attack. And the resultant coverage was five times the “doctrine” coverage of the known units. Which meant their had to be whole divisions more that Intel missed.

                Which, strangely, got fed back into the “then there must be even more about to hit Calais” deception.

                The eventual “how the hell do you clear a hegerow” solution was some bubba-engineered farmboy brush cutter blades welded to tanks. Totally improvised, and totally effective.

                1. Not only that, they made them out of cut-up German beach obstacles — those 8-foot-high black caltrops made out of crossed I-beams you see in The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan.

                  Hey, waste not, want not. 😀

        2. Basic American tactics: take a bunch of 18-20 year olds, give them a whole bunch of firepower, remove any adult supervision, and point them at the enemy.

      1. “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” – Oscar Wilde(?)

        The “moderation in very small doses” principle. 🙂

  12. “The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”

    -Princess Leia Organa.

    And the Princess was right: Palpatine, Tarkin, and their ilk believed that the existence of the Death Star and the Destruction of Alderaan would terrify the Galaxy into submission and stamp out all traces of resistance to Imperial rule. They gravely miscalculated: instead of cowing the Galaxy, they instead tore the mask of benevolent rule off of the Emperor and his government. Thousands of worlds declared open rebellion against the Empire, and untold numbers who previously would never have considered taking up arms flocked to join the Alliance to Restore the Republic. That single act did more to further the Alliance’s cause than a hundred Rebel victories.

    So to is it in the real world. The Totalitarians on the Left think that the harder they clamp down on the normies, and the more they cater to the fringe, the more they solidify their control over Everything. But what is really happening, and what they can’t fathom, is that their ratcheting up their control and their craziness is having the opposite effect: it’s revealing the the folks in the middle – the Great Silent Majority, if you will – just how insane, delusional, depraved, and just plain evil they really are. And the Normies, the ones who wanted to be left alone, and even those on the Left who hold views that used to be considered mainstream by the Left, are fleeing the Party in droves and embracing the cause of Liberty.

    I just hope it isn’t too little, too late. And while I believe that some sort of “adjustment” is inevitable, I pray it won’t be as bad as my nightmares, i.e. that we don’t make Srebrenica and Sarajevo look like Sesame Street.

  13. Unfortunately, the only thing more left than the federal government is a big city government. I don’t think the US as a whole can count on the municipalities to act in the best interests of the US as a whole.

    Certainly not when it comes down to cleaning up the elections.

      3. And whining that they need beaucoup Fed money to stave off the “emergency”.

        “Wait, you thought we meant it?!? We can’t handle this many ‘refugees’!” (All of several thousand in a city of several million.)

        Schadenfreud indeed.

  14. If the Chinese government has bought the Hugo Awards lock stock and barrel, the response from the other side is going to be . . . fascinating. Because there’s no way that the Chicoms will give two farts about all the diverse mediocrities that have been awarded the past decade or so. None of those people will matter on the ballot this year. If the voting bloc persists, they won’t matter until the Chicoms collapse or lose interest. They’ll be stuck trying to craft softball criticisms about the lack of trendy gender/racial nominees without being accused of racism by their own side, or mindlessly praising the “diversity” of a monoracial ballot.

    1. There is decent Chinese sf/f, but most of it is webnovels.

      Some is amazingly anti-foreign by choice, while others seem to be pressured to include some blah-blah (and then forget about it). Still others slide under the radar, and thus they have all sorts of friendly foreigners. Worldbuilding differs greatly in effectiveness.

      1. So, there’s a possibility that a bunch of fascists will put xenophobes on the Hugo ballot?

        Will Larry get his apology?

    2. Thus far, all those criticizing Chengdu or mentioning the number of Chinese “fans” who paid by check with no address have been summarily ordered to shut up.

      It seems to me some enterprising young apparatchik watched what happened with Sad Puppies and realized he could BUY Worldcon for about $20K US in absentee memberships. That’s cheaper than buying end caps at bookstores in Germany.

      https://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2020/10/communist-china-runs-your-bookstore-and.html

      I posted that three years ago, and to the limited extent that I ever bothered to go and look, Steve Davidson [still a a-hole, sorry Steve] remains the only commenter at the vile hive of scum and villainy who said anything bad about Chengdu and their enslavement factories. He got told to shut up, and there’s been nothing much said about it since.

      The dog which didn’t bark is apparently dead and stuck in a freezer somewhere by now, he’s not-barking so hard.

      The astute observer will note the current accusations of political corruption and election interference by China in Canada’s last couple of elections, and connect a few dots from that. It was revealed recently that the “charity” which runs what is described by CSIS as a “Chinese Communist Party police station” in Montreal has received $4 MILLION dollars from the Canadian federal government in the last three years or so.

      Did the CCP buy Worldcon and ship it to China forever? Probably. Did the usual suspects all suddenly shut up and let them? Apparently.

      Is China Mike promoting a Chinese publishing company from Singapore running a “contest” on his vile hive? Absolutely.

      Will some tool come here and accuse me and everyone else of hatey hate and Rrrrrracism!!! for daring to mention any of this? Assuredly.

      But that’s okay. Because now we can SEE you, boys and girls. We can see you.

  15. I’d suggest no peace bond on hall costume weapons as a good sign – venues may impose one so not an absolute rule.

    It’s a joke as the staff itself is an adequate weapon sometimes hidden in plain sight – you would not part an old man from his walking stick? – but I do have a nice home made decently sharp 1095 blade tucked in a nice red oak staff pour epater les bourgeois. I encourage others to amuse themselves likewise.

    1. No, the training is not there; but you may be able to find people who can help.

  17. Can’t tell if I’m getting more sensitive to the propaganda or they’re just shoe-horning it into EVERYTHING. I heard good stuff about a new HBO series of post-zompoaclypse shenanigans called Last of Us. Since I was house/pet sitting at a house with HBO+ I decided to indulge and watch the first season. It WAS pretty good in terms of plot, effects, writing, acting etc. But near the end, the protagonists find a tough, heavily-armed, well-run survivors colony in Jackson Wyoming where a brother of the elder protagonist lives. As they’re being shown around the tour guide flat out states that they’re system is communism, despite literally all evidence on screen and in the source material just totally contradicting that. The younger protagonists gleefully proclaiming “This place actually fucking works!” was just the ridiculous icing on the stupid cake. Switched over to music on YouTube and read a Conan the Barbarian book.

    1. It’s based off a video game series. The first game was a classic with storytelling a lot of people with various views appreciated, though one of the woke members of the staff got a bit of it into a DLC. Then came Part II where he became director – pushing out a successful female director who’s been a part of some awesome games I might add – and really got his woke on so it’s hardly surprising that any TV series based of it would be more him than her and suffer for it.

      1. I was aware that the premise, plot, characters and a lot of the writing were largely based on a video game, which is probably why it was such a good and interesting story (caveat: I haven’t played any of them). I LOVED the character Bill because he was a paranoid, anti-authoritarian, individualistic gun owner with a Don’t Tread on Me flag who feared and mistrusted the government and was proven 100% right. The Wyoming survivors looked and acted like protagonists of an L. Neil Smith novel, then clumsily claimed out of no where their survivalist fortress town was communist. It was so shoddily tacked on that is was obvious some stupid lefty Hollywood writer just had to shove it in there to justify their delusions to the us, the unwashed viewing public.

        1. That sounds like studio fiat to me, which is also my pet theory for Bratty Warrior Princess Galadriel. The producers cast the thing before starting a writers’ room, and there ain’t no way they spotted the moderately pretty, 5′ 3″ art house/horror actress who later needed immersion therapy to cope with the battle scenes, and thought: “This is exactly who we want strutting around in armor, slaughtering cave trolls!”

          1. It happens in non-fiction, too. I had to add a line to my history monograph about voting rights before 1920 and the 1960s. Which had nada, zip, zilch to do with the topic at hand, but the publisher insisted. feline eyeroll here

  18. I went to the NH Ren Faire this weekend. Among the vendors were 5 reasonably local authors; of whom I picked up 3 writers 1st books because the flyleaf blurbs sounding like something I might like. Since all of them had multiple books in series or even in more than one genre, I figured that other people had enjoyed their stories enough that they went through the effort of writing more and having more printed. One’s from Maine, one’s from here in New Hampshire, and one poor fellow lives over near Saratoga Springs in New York (I forgot to tell him he needs to get out of the Evil Empire State.) None of them are Chinese. And I don’t recognize their names from any of you folks who hang out here (although you can never tell for sure who’s publishing what under what name.) Publishers were Kensington Publishing Corp from New York, one from Champagne Book Group, Albany Oregon, and one appears to be self-published (no company indicated). They’re all fantasy, swords and sorcery types. I suppose I’ll have to submit reports via the Goodreads monthly group.

  19. According to a Nielsen, , Bud Lite sales are down again week over week. That’s six consecutive week’s decline. They’re now down 30% year over year. Since the only thing these people understand is money this has gotten their attention. If Target gets hit for their extra cloth crotch bathing suits for “tucking” then I suspect we’ll see a roll back.

    Up till now they’ve had nothing but upside as they can posture without cost. Cost changes everything. Free money is gone, for now it’ll be back, if their actions hit their pocket book then look for a rapid reversal.

    1. Hopefully so. I’ve seen it speculated that Target probably won’t take as much of a hit since trendy urban leftists have been one of their markets for a while now in no small part due to things like getting rid of boys and girls toy sections so long ago but I don’t have the expertise that you and others do. Even with them readily available in my new home I’ve never found them worth shopping at personally when I can usually find more of what I need at a better price elsewhere.

      1. Target is Walmart for suburban wine moms, What I’m hoping for is a preference cascade. Supporting the trans thing has been a positional good among the ladies that lunch, should that change then the reversal would be fascinating. The fact that the bud lite drinkers could be classed as oiks counts against a cascade, but these things are very fickle.

        The fact that their daughters might be missing out on scholarship places to guys that tuck might count against the trans thing too. Holding onto an idea without cost is very very different to holding on to that idea when their is a cost.

        2. Target has always felt soulless to me compared to Walmart. I have shopped there, but always reluctantly.

        3. Can’t boycott a store I haven’t been to in 18 years*, but I’m seeing the people on Gab are getting pretty annoyed. The LGBTWTFBBQ display got a lot of reactions, none of it friendly. I recall Target getting a lot of grief because of them letting trannies into the Ladies’.

          FWIW, they’re now promoting a Tshirt promoting some creature with a 666 in it’s screen name. Said person (being generous, here) is also very pro-Satan on it’s social media.

          I’m not sure the store is going to get the results they want. I wonder if there will be a mostly peaceful protest?

          (*) None in Flyover Falls, and found great alternatives locally.

        4. “The fact that their daughters might be missing out on scholarship places to guys that tuck might count against the trans thing, too.”
          THIS. VERY MUCH THIS.
          I’m hearing a lot about it from suburban moms with daughters. These daughters have been playing a sport for ever. Years and years of early morning practices, summer camps, and hours of training on the weekends. The reward for years of hard work – getting on the varsity team and a sports scholarship to college.
          These moms are seeing the spots on the varsity teams and the scholarships going to boys, some of which didn’t play the sport until last year.
          These moms are NOT happy.
          More and more sports organizations, school systems and municipalities are moving towards outlawing bio males from competing against women in amateur sports. That trend is going to accelerate rapidly in the next few years.

          1. Gee, I wonder about cheerleaders?
            Yes, guys can already be cheerleaders. So what? This also takes years of hard work and sacrifice. Could a “trans woman,” beat out the girls?

      2. Ace had a post up today about Target, and in the comments someone mentioned that Target has been bleeding cash for a while now. I doubt the outrage over the swimsuits and Satanist clothing designer is going to hurt much at this point. Most people who were inclined to avoid Target over something like this probably did so back when the company mandated all gender bathrooms. But it’s also not going to help. And if the company is going to survive into the future, it’s going to need to start recovering customers.

        2. I’m not sure that’s really the case. They’ve been buying back shares at a really high rate and they issued a lot of debt in 2022. That’s sorta standard over the last few years what with free money and all. An awful lot of firms changed their capital structure to use the cheap debt and reduce their cost of capital. It’s not really burning through cash as it is traditionally defined. Of course, should something hit their sales in a big way, that debt makes them significantly less resilient. That’s the thing with free stuff, it’s seldom ever really free.

          What I don’t know, because it’s a lot of work to find out, is whether this was a true payment to shareholders through buyback or theft by management. (E.g.,) Over 10 years or so, The book of faces and the company named after a really big number issued shares to management that exactly offset those bought back. Exactly the free cash flow to equity of the companies over the decade as it happens, F-ckers the lot of them.

              2. Daddy always told me, “Don’t do a crime if you can’t retire on the proceeds”.

      3. They certainly aren’t taking enough of a hit, partially (at least in my neck of the woods) because they’re the only store in town that has a decent selection of baby goods. Ironically.

        So, that’s where my sister-in-law shops for my niece.

    2. There was a “display tank” of BudLight and Budweiser, presumably for Memorial Day next week, at the Walmart we visited today. Don’t think that’s really going to work well.

      There was also a $6 back rebate in the Ibotta app. Not sure that’s going to help, either.

        1. Bud is a pretend beer. Bud Light isn’t even that. (It’s “sex in a canoe” beer. At best).

  20. Off topic. Will be taking a break from commenting. Might get a chance to read blog. Might not. Also depends on whether hubby takes his turn on the laptop.

    Have fun everyone.

    1. Hmmm indeed. That sounds suspiciously like the feds are getting ready to turn off normal communications via internet and phone. And I can’t think of a single GOOD reason for them to do so.

      1. If I were a suspicious sort of cat, I’d wonder what the ratio of D to R congresscritters was. But I’m not suspicious.

        1. The Reader is. That was the first question that came to his mind reading the story.

          1. Particularly when it wasn’t about 100 phones. Anons on gab figure it’s a false flag planned for Real Soon. Time to clamp down on them deplorables, I suppose.

              1. Look out, it’s a Reichstag Fire Alarm!

                Like Confederate Flag Dude on Jan 6, this is a literal false-flag operation. Wonder how many Fibbies it took to put it together? Or the Half-Whitmer Kidnapping Plot, 4 eager Fibbies and 2 reluctant Good Ol’ Boys.

                Why are Leftroids so obsessed with Nazis? They LOST! We kicked their asses all over Europe and Africa, wiped out their ‘Thousand-Year Reich’ in 3 years. They’re a despicable footnote in history.
                ———————————
                I used to live on a farm. I know what bullshit smells like.

                  2. Wait, the truck was empty except for a Nazi flag? Whaaaaa?

                    Where do you even get a Nazi flag? Does the FBI have a secret Nazi Flag Factory hidden away in northern Virginia?

                    And, I never knew there were neo-Nazis in India. There must be a serious shortage if we’re importing them now.
                    ———————————
                    Does the Left drive those idiots barking mad, or were they drawn to the Left because they were already batshit crazy?

                    1. Well, if his family was from northern India, technically he is an Aryan. But not of the blonde-tall-übermensch sort.

                    2. There’s a market for Nazi flags for history buffs who have the “defeated enemy” walls.

                      The ladies that ran the gun-and-sword-shop when I was in Spokane had one, and explained it to me when I was looking at the flags too long. 😀

                    3. The demand for evil white supremacists greatly exceeds the supply. H1B visas for white supremacists.

                    4. They borrowed it from the guy who showed up at the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.

                      I must say I did find the artistic arrangement of that flag on the ground to be most fortuitous for the news photographers.

                    5. Well, Joe Biden has a fake Oval Office set; so why not a fake terrorist white supremacist vehicle attack and planned kidnapping of the President? Did the driver have a newly printed GOP membership card in his wallet too? Probably pocket copies of the Constitution, and a necklace with crosses and Stars of David dangling from it too.

                    8. Something something jobs Americans just aren’t doing.

                      What we’re seeing is a Reichstag Fire Drill: The Insiders are on the outs, so half dress up like their imagined enemies, call each other names and switch costumes

                1. U-hauls used to be the favored transport of the “Patriot Front” before they started taking the subway.

              3. For all the pointing at their enemies screaming “Nazi!!”, the Democrats sure are following the Nazi Play-Book page for page…
                ———————————
                “Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has switched on the ‘Put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye’ sign. Thank you for flying with us, and have a nice day.”

        2. The article says the agency offered the phones to all the senators but only 50 accepted….party of accepting senators not given.

          1. Why can’t the senators buy their own damn phones? It’s not like any of them are living on the streets. I know, I know, AOC can’t pay off $40,000 in student loans while collecting a salary of $190,000 a year for, what, 5 years now? For a degree in economics, no less! I guess it’s no wonder they’re all so dismally bad at managing the government’s money when they can’t even manage their own.
            ———————————
            There are forms of stupidity that businesses can’t indulge in. There are no such limitations on the stupidity of government.

            1. Again, official reason being they’re special “emergency,” phones. But then, why did only half the senators accept them?
              People are tying the multiple tons of missing ammonium nitrate, the “emergency,” phones and the U-Haul attack together on Twitter and wondering just what’s coming down.
              (My paranoid side just noted the other part of the ammonium nitrate explosive is fuel oil, so will it be an anti-fossil fuels thing?

              1. Fuel oil is a piece of cake. Just steal a load of heating oil or diesel. I have no idea what proportions to mix it in for maximum yield; but I suppose a cement truck works fine as both a blender and delivery unit. But cement trucks aren’t likely to make it through the barriers. A big dozer could, but they move too slow. I’d bet on a big scraper, since they can get up to a decent rate of speed, and the scraper compartment can hold a lot of “cargo”. But nobody is going to be able to drive a scraper through Washington D.C. without having a pile of cops all over them.

                Thing is, these scenarios all assume that the driver is a suicide jockey. They’ll either be gunned down by the various security details on the way in, or while attempting to flee; or they’ll get blown up in their own explosion.

                1. But the false flag(s) must not actually do any real injury to things the false flaggers value. So a “failed” attempt can work for them… or aim at something not of value to them, but of value to those against them, and then shed false tears by the tankerload.

            2. Actually AOC’s degree from Boston University in International relations (wikipedia has the data if you can avoid throwing up in your mouth for the hagiography found there) with a focus in economics. When it first came up I looked the major up that focus consisted of 2 courses in economics tailored to the International relations degree, not even basic Micro and Macro but two gut courses with a (not surprising) very heavy socialist slant. This education was suitable to get her a job as a bartender (and not a good one) from things I’ve seen. But yeah she didn’t pay back her loans, (and last I saw loan payment was still on hold from the COVID nonsense).

    1. Somehow I don’t think any of us who know your thoughts on those characters are surprised you’d go there.! It is true, though. 🙂

  24. It’s good to hear that at least some of fandom is waking up. The changes I saw 15 years ago drove me away from fandom and conventions. As is all too often, fandom was ahead of everyone else on wokeness.

    1. The parts of it I’ve seen have run the range from Nice Left to Proto-Woke (until it turned into what it is now) as far back as I can remember, which is a big part of why I value the community here, in ILOH’s MHN, and places in that general space so much.

  25. On the subject of cons, the amount of sheer hatred directed at BasedCon from the usual suspects encouraged me to look it up. Seems it is in Michigan, I could drive there.

    In September, if I’m feeling like it, I might wander over to Grand Rapids and see what’s going on. Anything that makes the usual suspects lose their collective schlitz this bad, could be worth a look.

    I can predict there is NOTHING going on in Canada that I want to join in. Ever since Toronto Comic Con went full-Stazi with their security, I’m -superbly- disinclined to participate. Pretty much anything going on in Ontario happens in Toronto, and involves a million rules, and they frisk you at the entrance. Super fun, so enjoyable.

    You want to treat me like a possible terrorist, you don’t get my money.

    As to the WorldCon, watching those amazing a-holes pretend that Sad Puppies are hateful evil Nazis but the Chinese Communists (who BOUGHT that Chengdu con for a few thousand bucks) are wonderful nice guys, it makes me pretty glad I signed up as a Sad Puppy in 2016.

    1. I can’t think of a con that I want to go to these days.

      Local anime con has pushed out most non-yuri adult art out of the dealer’s room and artist alley.
      Local gaming con has made it clear that any used game sales are to be DEI-friendly.
      Local SF con has gone extremely woke over the years.
      All have codes of conduct that would have gotten younger me (guy that was relatively decent just…trying too hard) thrown out and maybe even arrested.

      Which is sad, because that’s one of the few points of social contact that I had pre-COVID.

      1. I managed to find non-x rated art at Toronto Comic Con a few years ago, ~2016ish. I had to look, but I found a nice one of Violet Evergarden and some SAO ones.

        Social contact? 20,000 nerds shuffling around Toronto Convention Center, trying not to scream because of the over-stimulation. I did enjoy the cosplay girls, they were cute. But not enough to put up with being frisked by some minimum wage rent-a-cop with wandering hands.

        1. I can understand that, most of the people I knew at cons I met and lived in the area.

          Most of them have left to other places. And trying to make friends here and now…I don’t know how. The area is not quite my people, the communities are very insular and difficult to enter.

          1. Start your own group. That is what build around means. Not trying to sound like an ass, I do all the time anyway, so yes, I have to explain most of the time. That way people understand my intentions. I truly just want to help and encourage. I have few friends, I know how awkward it is. I say as a joke a lot “I am 63 going on 14” it just seems that that age is what I most can equate with now. Socially Awkward teen. I am not sure if I think too much or to little?

    2. I attended BasedCon (the second year) last year. It was kinda low-key, but a LOT of willingness to “lend a hand” and such. One memorable line was that due to various circumstances the Ayn Rand panel wound up being cancelled. “The Rand panel seems to have gone Galt.”

      At the “Dealer’s Table” (which was sort of ‘here it is, find the seller and pay if interested’) was this for a while:

      1. I have been debating whether to sign up for it or not. I have only a couple days to do so. Worth it or no?

      2. I have been debating whether to sign up for it or not. I have only a couple days to do so. Worth it or no?

      1. One of those Glorious Failures…

        One of Edison’s underlings had an Idea.
        How to make artificial diamond.
        It, and he, failed. No diamonds.
        But the consolation prize was perhaps worth MORE.
        Hello silicon carbide (aka ‘carborundum’).
        This…. is an AMAZINGLY USEFUL substance.
        Diamond? No. But “close enough” for most… and INEXPENSIVE.
        WIN!!!

  27. And over time we can blunt the sharpest steel and wear away rock itself. We can shift with the tide, and flow like water. We make ice manageable, and we can fly with the wind. Beware, for if we don’t like you we can bury you for all time, like the forgotten glories of the past. May the God’s forgive them, they know not who they are F***ing with.

  28. Meanwhile the regime that claims that it considers Native American tribal members to be a protected class just gunned one down for reporting the presence of illegal aliens trespassing on his property:

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2023/05/22/native-american-man-gunned-down-after-calling-cbp-on-trespassing-illegals-n1697296

    Presumably arresting the trespassing illegal aliens would have expose the administrations role in facilitating their illegal entry into the USA. Additionally they just sent a message that those who report illegal aliens who are trespassing due so at the risk of the government murdering them for doing so.

    1. Poking around for any further information, it looks like the original claim he called the border patrol is incorrect, he called the local (tribal) police who called for backup for a “possibly dangerous situation.”

      https://www.kvoa.com/news/local/autopsy-completed-on-man-shot-and-killed-by-federal-agents/article_afe4c37a-f8f9-11ed-b1cf-932381c10faa.html

      Notable lack of official statements that I can find, which usually means the situation was much messier– this includes the tribal police.

      Family not accusing the Border Patrol, too, rather talking about wanting to know what happened – and not wanting their names used.

      Not a lot of names in the thing at all, so not easy to do the usual check-ups for odd selection of quotes, but the claimed friend-downgraded-later-to-knew-him-her-whole-life Ophelia Rivas lady has some online writing, about how bad border militarization/having a wall is. (look for ‘Zapatistas’) Probably standard opportunity grabbing, possibly some very nasty local politics.

      Hunting around, I can’t actually find anything but quotes from her. Even the characterization of Mr. Mattia’s life beyond being a family member is quotes from her.

      Did eventually find an official statement from the tribe.

      “The Tohono O’odham Police Department (TOPD) and the FBI are investigating an officer-involved shooting that took place in the Meneger’s Dam community of the Tohono O’odham Nation the night of Thursday, May 18, 2023.

      Nation member Raymond Mattia lost his life in the incident. Our hearts go out to his family and all those impacted during this difficult time,” Chairman Ned Norris said.

      “As the investigation proceeds, the Nation expects full consideration of all related facts of the incident and an appropriate and expeditious response from relevant public safety agencies. Because the investigation is ongoing, we will refrain from making further comment at this time.”

      That is the most official statement I’ve ever seen. I’m impressed because the town on the videos looks pretty dang small, so they can’t have that many people–which would also explain why they’d be calling BP for help, even if it wasn’t a case with active menacing. There have been multiple guys-who-made-official-waves who ended up dead on the border in the last several years, and the photos of Mr. Mattia, he looks like he wouldn’t be pushed around easily.

      :finally finds something:

      Hm.

      It was responding to shots fired.

      Will make second comment to link to article, has a lot more details than “was standing practically in door”.

      1. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-border-patrol-agents-killed-man-arizona-answering-99529324

        The statement released Monday night by U.S. Customs and Border Protection said tribal police had asked Border Patrol agents for help in responding to a report of shots fired west of the Menagers Dam community on tribal land near the U.S. southern border. The village is on the reservation east of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a sprawling UNESCO biosphere reserve known for its remote, rugged terrain that borders the Mexican state of Sonora.

        At around 9:30 p.m., the agents were told that reports indicated shots had been fired near the home of a “named individual” and a tribal officer went to the location to look for the person, with the agents following in separate cars, the statement said.

        A few minutes after arriving, the police officer and the agents encountered a man outside of a home near their parked cars, authorities said.

        The man threw some kind of object toward the officer that landed a few feet away from his feet and then “abruptly extended his right arm away from his body and three agents fired their service weapons, striking the individual several times,” according to the statement.

        Because of bad weather, no air ambulance was available to take the man to a hospital and despite lifesaving efforts he was declared dead shortly after 10 p.m., CBP said.

        Tribal chairman Ned Norris Jr. on Sunday identified the man as Mattia, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, and offered the family his condolences.

        Since then, Norris has not issued additional details about the shooting, including whether investigators found a weapon. A spokesperson for the tribe has not responded to numerous follow-up queries.

        1. ….yeah, “threw something at the tribal police when he and BP responded to reports of shots fired” is pretty much “messier.”

            1. I tend to be more believing of the folks who don’t quote exclusively from one side, especially when they had to know the information that they withheld from me.

              When the only folks quoted by name are activist with a related, and unmentioned, axe to grind?

              That is not the behavior of someone trying to tell the truth; at best the PJ Media reporter was lazy and wanted to have a sensational story, and did not do his job of reporting.

              1. True, for this single instance; my apologies. But when it comes to any story involving a Federal agency, given the information about government shady dealings which has come out over the past couple of years, I certainly don’t accept it a face value; far too much well-documented CYA for me to do so.

                FWIW, the family of the man killed seems to have the most rational attitude, at least as reported: Let’s wait and see what the investigation shows.

                1. :nods:

                  There have been several cases of folks caught being shady.

                  Of course, reporters get caught doing it even more often (remember how many famous cases turned out to be totally made up?) but they sometimes come at things from cross-purpose.
                  .
                  What’s that thing from Heinlein that Sarah likes to quote, something about not recognizing an event he was actually AT from the descriptions in papers?

                  1. I do indeed remember those made-up stories; I also remember how many of them involved one 3-letter agency or another, or Congress, or both, and activities unconstitutional and/or illegal.

                    Concur on the reporters; I had that experience myself a few times. Once personally from an “interview” by a reporter from the Ft. Lauderdale News back in ’61 or ’62, when I was in HS, the rest about things of which I was a participant or close observer. In fact, from what I can recall nothing with which I was personally familiar, and which showed up in the papers, was reported even remotely accurately. Most of the MSM aren’t interested in facts, but in sales and/or viewers; “if it bleeds it leads, and if necessary we’ll provide the blood”.

                    1. I do indeed remember those made-up stories; I also remember how many of them involved one 3-letter agency or another, or Congress, or both, and activities unconstitutional and/or illegal.

                      Now, how many of those reports were similar to this “gunning down guy who called border patrol for trespassers”?
                      And then nothing more is ever heard, unless it’s tossed out as proof that all is lost?

                      Remember the flurry about “zomga feds purchasing CANONS!“– and it was the name for the noise makers used to scare birds so they don’t clog jet engines?

                      Or “department of education SWAT team”– where the warrant was from a DoE investigation, yes, was served by perfectly normal police, and after the trial the guy and his ‘estranged’ wife turned out to be part of a large student aid fraud ring specializing in identity theft? (You know, exactly what they should be doing if they’re going to have student aid at all?)

                      Police camera ‘supposedly failed to function before officer involved shooting’– yeah, because the last visual on the camera is the shovel the now-dead goblin was using to try to kill the officer who shot him.

                      Like the blow up on this blog when folks were outraged there weren’t any FBI whistle blowers, then were upset there weren’t enough, and then when THAT was shown to be them listening to the people who wanted them to be upset they were upset the whistleblowers weren’t on the main stream news making announcements?

                      Hm.

                      It’s almost like the usual Soviet nonsense about trying to destroy all trust didn’t actually stop.

                    2. I believe you misinterpreted the comment you quoted. My (intended) point was that there were quite a few stories, made up by the media, which various agencies had a hand in creating (or pushing, such as the Steele document) which have a distinct leftist bias. Yes, there have been many hyped-up accounts by both sides; while I don’t recognize some of the ones you noted I have seen many others, again, from both sides. I generally tend to wait until the dust settles, but too many times the dust gets swept under the carpet (at least for a while; check the Durham Report). And now (possibly; I’ll wait for the final info) the current DOJ is going to indict Trump for the “classified documents” fiasco, while ingnoring more-egregious violations involving classified documents by Brandon. Again, leftist bias, at least IMHO.

                      “It’s almost like the usual Soviet nonsense about trying to destroy all trust didn’t actually stop.”

                      No, it didn’t, but we seem to disagree regarding the source and motive regarding the current dis/misinformation campaign (I could be mistaken; if so I apologize). All is definitely not lost, but things remain very chancy for the continuation of a Republic of free citizens.

                    3. We mostly agree– the “mostly” being that the Steele dosser was identified, at the time, by folks doing Actual Reporting, as being nonsense.

                      And that was from, well, doing what got blogging big: digging around and doing actual reporting.

                      It’s easier than it has ever been– which is why we’re noticing things, now.

                      Like the “attempted white house attack” that was… oops, a rather dark immigrant teen who appears to be an absolute nutjob, who drove down BLM Avenue and hit the far side of the park across the road from the White House, and had a Nazi flag in there.

                      In that case, though, Twitter got on it and had his photo out before the more progressive sorts could even get their neatly staged Nazi flag stuff going viral, and the “bomb attack” thing got caught as an AI image.

                    4. Agreed, with the proviso that AFAIK none of the Big Three (Four? Five?) “journalists”, the ones you’d normally expect, in RationalWorld, to do “Actual Reporting”, questioned the Steele Dossier more than very briefly, and dismissed any significance it would have if it turned out to be false, as it did. And there are those 51 Intel “experts” and the “Russian disinformation” about the crackhead’s laptop, also obediantly parroted by those same “journalists”…

                      And they’re still doing it.

                      Regardless, good exchange; we do seem to agree on the important points. And thanks to Our Gracious Hostess for allowing this sort of semi-off-topic “stuff”. 🙂

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