Flynn's Blog
Like many people, I've about had enough with the nonsense that has been shoved down our throats by an activist media and an electorate that doesn't know any better. We've seen our first Marxist President elected, and he's wasted no time in remaking the American landscape to his own liking, with the assistance of a Congress drawn to solidifying it's own power like cub scouts are drawn to fart jokes: inexorable.

Each day produces a fresh travesty which is pointedly ignored by most; they're too interested in their bread and circuses.

  About JGU
The John Galt Underground is a gathering spot for conservative and libertarian bloggers, commenters and readers who feel increasingly disconnected from the political landscape and are looking for for a place to express their points of view outside of the services of internet entities that don't always have their best interests at heart.

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You can contact me (Flynn) concerning both this blog and JGU itself at Flynn [at] johngaltunderground [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you.

JGU operates using the RUCKUS 0.3 publishing engine, a development version hosted by OhioStudios.com.

All Posts
Tired. Tired as I can Imagine.
by Severinus Flynn on 7/24/2009 4:11:11 PM
Don't know for how much longer I can keep up with the politics; I'm burnt. Can't keep up with the psuedoanonymity, can't keep up with my self-imposed dedication to analytical reason and unemotional recitation of reality as I see it. I'm human, am I not?

I've read and discussed with a few others about how blogging changes them, and indeed I see where a few of them define themselves by the venting posts they publish. I can't go that route either; as the catharsis they might experience (I can't speak for them) I don't think is mine to experience. Or at least not any longer.

Don't get worried, I'm not doing anything rash or untoward; this rumination consists solely of the act of blogging, journaling, diary writing, vanity publishing; call it what you will. I have to consider where I take this.


Click here to read more "Tired. Tired as I can Imagine.".

Apropos of... Well, Everything, I Guess
by Severinus Flynn on 5/14/2009 4:27:28 PM, last edited 5/14/2009 4:27:28 PM

Obama: With Investors Like These, Who Needs Enemies?
by Severinus Flynn on 5/5/2009 12:59:44 PM, last edited 5/5/2009 12:59:44 PM
I'll post a few of the multitude of links enumerating the heavy-handed, and indeed hard-headed tactics the Obama administration is using to try to prop up certain industries and, at least according to the talking points, spur investements and re-invigorate the economy.

Much of the problem relies upon the seeming desire by the Administration to institute policy changes by heads of markets and industries by the sheer presence of his persona. It's almost as if Obama's head is spinning because when he snaps his fingers, CEOs and bondholders don't simply jump up and perform to his rhythm.

More after the jump.


Click here to read more "Obama: With Investors Like These, Who Needs Enemies?".

JGU Photoshop Series: Obama Sells his Car Industry Policies
by Severinus Flynn on 4/30/2009 3:25:10 PM

I Have Only One Thought On Specter
by Severinus Flynn on 4/29/2009 10:10:47 AM, last edited 4/29/2009 10:10:47 AM
It's that he retains his promise not to be an "automatic 60th vote for cloture." I am by no means sad at his departure from the Republican party; indeed I think he left it in all but name a long time ago. But then again, it was only a few weeks ago when he stated that he it was his intention to remain associated with the GOP, so I don't see where his promise means anything anyhow.

Go Toomey!

Click here to read more "I Have Only One Thought On Specter".

Chrysler: Corporate Zombie in the Making
by Severinus Flynn on 4/28/2009 3:11:54 PM, last edited 4/28/2009 3:11:54 PM
I admit that I am having trouble understanding the details of the recent agreement between Chrysler, LLC., The UAW (more specifically, the UAW's retiree's health care fund) and the US Treasury. In this article in Bloomberg.com, a contract was drawn up today showing that an agreement had been reached where in exchange for a forgiveness of half of the $10.6 Billion owed the Retiree's fund, Crysler would grant the UAW a 55% share in the company. The contract faces ratification by Union locals, which is expected to pass.

More after the jump.

Click here to read more "Chrysler: Corporate Zombie in the Making".

Alarm Unnecessary for Swine Flu -Obama
by Severinus Flynn on 4/27/2009 11:53:51 AM, last edited 4/27/2009 11:53:51 AM
If you consider it in situ with the state of the rest of the National outlook, what with the borders being wide open, nationalized health care, crippling debt, overwhelming tax policy, inability to keep state secrets, well, secret, lukewarm reaction to pirates on international waters, pissing off our allies, inability to fill cabinet posts, criminalization of policy of the previous administration, back-door nationalization of banking, investment, real estate and automotive industries...

He might be right. The Swine Flu may not be the thing to be alarmed about.


Click here to read more "Alarm Unnecessary for Swine Flu -Obama".

The Increasingly Balkan States of America
by Severinus Flynn on 4/24/2009 2:06:52 PM, last edited 4/24/2009 2:06:52 PM
I feel the need to state the obvious.

According to the Chicago Tribune and various other sources over the last 24 hours, the Obama administration is readying the release "dozens of photos" portraying American milatary and intelligence officers "abusing" detainees from the War on Terror Overseas Contingency Operations.

Prodded by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 44 photos will be released on May 28th of this year, possibly to coincide with the ramp-up and subsequent equivocation over Eric Holder's attempts to begin investigations into Bush-era policies, doctrines and legal opinions that were at odds with those of the current administration.

Those with any sort of memory at all will remember that any report of abuse of prisoners are followed upon by increased violence against US and Allied troops, embassy workers, care workers, international aid workers and other extranationals in unstable portions of the world. When Newsweek reported in 2005 that guards at the Guantanamo Bay detainment facility had desecrated a Koran by flushing it down a toilet, at least nine people were killed due to the resultant furor: and this concerned an inanimate object. And it wasn't even true.

More serious than this was the release of photographs of the doings of guards at the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. The reaction was intense and widespread to most Mideast countries, Europe, and many allies when the iconic photos of Lynndie England and Charles Grainer posing in front of humiliated prisoners began making the rounds. The damage these photos caused is likely incalculable as it was used in massive amounts of propaganda and recruiting material, catalysts for violent street rallies, and raids by Jihadist militias. How many people were killed due to these photos? We'll never know.

Clearly, there is only one practical offshoot of the release of "abuse" photos by intelligence or military officers... at best, to stir up strong foreign and domestic resentment to US military forces and intelligence services, and at worst to get people killed under the guise of "allowing complete transparency to the doings of the previous administration", which undoubtedly will not be reciprocated upon any of Barack Obama's doings.

Barack Obama expended large amounts of promotion in the campaign theme of "Bringing America Together." He was roundly lauded for his perceived ability to eliminate partisan divisions and craft legislation designed for the best interests of consituents of all political stripes. Yet, the furthest retreat of such designs is shown in the criminalization of political opinion and the intentional efforts on his part, and that of the Democratic leadership, to divide the American public. This has taken the form of denigrating participants of the recent Tea Parties across the country (all the while denying that the movement had any validity). Political benchmarks have been shown to include the complete lockout of Republican initiatives and amendments in all but the most trivial of legislation- indeed, even yesterday the Senate was ready to use a Rules tactic to ascribe budget bills status to be off-limits to amendments and filibuster, even though the controversial Health Care Reform nationalization is expected to be a keystone measure contained within.

The tea parties concerned the raising of taxes and drastic increases in entitlement spending and the balooning of the national debt. Some participants shouted "No taxation without representation!" These days, we do have representation in the sense that we have elected legislators being sent to Washington to express our interests, but in a way we still don't have Representation in a literal sense: When our House and Senate members are locked out of the room - literally- while the process of bill Reconciliation continued in the middle of the night, without any copies of the bill being provided to the minority leadership in any searchable form, hours before the final vote. Is this really "Representation"?

Welcome to the new Balkan States of America, where the express interest of the current government is to cut off half of the voting population from the killswitch that keeps the Federal Government from trampling roughshod over the idea of the Consent of the Governed.


Click here to read more "The Increasingly Balkan States of America".

One Last Time: There Are No FEMA Cam- Umm, What's This...?
by Severinus Flynn on 4/17/2009 4:47:39 PM, last edited 4/17/2009 4:47:39 PM
Whereas no small amount of hay has been made over the rumors, largely since considered disproven by most, of "FEMA camps" being constructed to house people under the auspices of national emergency measures. I didn't believe in them myself, but I've heard the water cooler talk on the radio and a little internet shrieking which follows all such outbursts. Of the larger "players" who have addressed the issue, Glenn Beck finally came out and said that after significant research that although he couldn't disprove the existence of such camps (one can't, after all "disprove" something in a scientific sense) he could not verify that they existed or were even to be constructed. Puported video of such "FEMA camps" stirring up debate were actually of an AMTRAK repair facility. Case closed.

Case closed indeed, I thought- then along comes House bill 645 which lays it all on the table. Full text of the bill can be found at OpenCongress.org here, and similarly over at GovTrack.us -both sites being nearly as official and authoritative as any you'll find, shy of the Library of Congress.

Subtitled the "National Emergency Centers Establishment Act," the bill would create at least six large "housing" centers located exclusively on military bases within the US.

I've read the full language of the bill and it avoids mentioning any details that would indicated the amount and method of housing, which could give better clues as to the real vs. perceived intention behind the bill. Hardened dormitories, etc. might indicate "permanent" relocation infrastructure whereas warehouses for tents would indicate otherwise- you get the idea. I have two major issues with this bill directly:

[Section 3,(b),(1)] Minimum Requirements- A site designated as a national emergency center shall be-- (1) capable of meeting for an extended period of time the housing, health, transportation, education, public works, humanitarian and other transition needs of a large number of individuals affected by an emergency or major disaster;
How long? Not even an order of magnitude as to the possible numbers of people to be housed "for an extended period"? It's not listed anywhere in the bill.

[Section 3, subsection(d)] Preference for Designation of Closed Military Installations- Wherever possible, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall designate a closed military installation as a site for a national emergency center. If the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense jointly determine that there is not a sufficient number of closed military installations that meet the requirements of subsections (b) and (c), the Secretaries shall jointly designate portions of existing military installations other than closed military installations as national emergency centers.
Why closed Military bases? Certainly, an argument can be made about utilizing assets that aren't doing anything else. But if the intention is to allow the infrastructure already present for the facilitation of such ends, then creating or reconditioning decommissioned infirmaries, mass food storage areas, dorms, administration buildings and transportation and communication infrastructure on abandoned land would be more prohibitively expensive than adding on to operating military bases.

One item that using such areas would provide is that of security. Such places are typically quite remote, surrounded by fences, and somewhat removed from population centers. From a perfectly logical standpoint, the best place to locate an emergency temporary residential camp would be on the outskirts of major population centers where they are of easy access to the largest groups of people, yet positioned in a direction "upwind" of prevailing weather patterns in case the emergency was caused by a biological attack on that population center or from a radiological or nuclear fallout condition. Placing a reloaction camp at such distances away from population centers is counterproductive froma striclty "national disaster" standpoint.

I am leery of this bill.

Thanks to Elphaba for bringing this to my attention.


Click here to read more "One Last Time: There Are No FEMA Cam- Umm, What's This...?".

Yes, Yes... Posting Has Been Slow...
by Severinus Flynn on 4/16/2009 9:25:54 AM
...But posting should resume later today and tomorrow. In the meantime, go read this article on the Texas Gov claiming (correctly) that Texas (and indeed any other state) has the right to withdraw from the Union should it be desired by the will of the people. For, truly, the Government rules only by the consent of the people; where that consent doesn't exist, ultimately those in power are powerless. Consider that in the context of "going Galt". Oh, and here's a little palette cleanser...




Click here to read more "Yes, Yes... Posting Has Been Slow...".




 
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