Scroll down to read this post.

 

Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Democrats get a taste their own vicious swatting tactics

The first amendment: no longer honored
No longer honored.

For more than a decade anonymous leftists have used the ugly tactic of swatting to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who opposes them, with the hope that in some cases it might even cause the attacked person or someone in his or her family to be killed.

For those still unaware of what swatting is, let me explain. The attacker simply calls the police and reports falsely a dangerous gun-related crime in progress at the victim’s home, often suggesting there are hostages involved. The police then respond in full force, guns drawn and in large numbers. The victims, who are often asleep at the time, are suddenly faced with a military style attack by SWAT teams, at their home with their family (including children) present, with the real chance that someone will make a mistake, overreact, and begin firing.

The left has been doing this to conservatives both in and out of the political world for years (for a few specific examples going back to 2012, go here, here, and here). In some cases the perpertrators have been caught (with many being teenage boys reacting to the leftist press and thus acting out stupidly), but usually the evil-doer is not identified or punished.

Without question however this tactic has become increasingly popular on the left, which in itself has become increasingly radicalized and intolerant of any opposition.

It now appears the left is beginning to reap what it has sown. In the past few weeks a number of very prominent Democrats have been swatted themselves.

Jack Smith is the Democrat prosecutor who is pushing that same election interference case against Trump that Chutkan is overseeing.

Not surprisingly, there have been those in the conservative press who have expressed some glee about these recent swatting attacks against Democrats. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!” they chortle.

None of this is good, however. It indicates once again the utter collapse of our civilization. How can you have a civilized society when rational unemotional discussion is replaced by tactics of violence? You can’t.

In fact, the swatting tactic is simply an extension of loud public demonstrations, albeit an extreme extension. I remember well the attitude of my parents as well as all political pundits towards the leftist anti-war demonstrations back in the 1960s. They considered such things not only uncouth, but a terrible way to debate public issues. The casue didn’t matter (whether you were for or against the Vietnam War), the act of going out in public like a mob and demanding action seemed childish, immature, and juvenile. This was not how adults behaved.

Swatting takes these mob actions to a new higher level. Those who use this tactic reveal an unhealthy certainty about their beliefs that gives them the godlike right to kill. Why waste time in a mob blocking traffic (a now popular protest technique) when you can enlist the aid of the police to kill those who disagree with you?

The words of William Tecumsah Sherman at the very start of the American Civil War come to mind again. At the time he was the superintendent of the Louisiana State Military Academy, surrounded by quick-tempered southerners calling for secession and war. He responded as follows:

You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing.

Or as stated more succinctly in Psalm 22 of the Bible, “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity.” The Democrats have progressively (to use their word) raised the stakes since the 1960s, resorting to more and more exteme, illegal, and violent methods to get what they want. First it was protests. Then it was abusing the power of government to create laws illegally (Obama: “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.”) Soon it was slandering anyone who criticized them. Later it was attacking anyone who attended a Trump rally. Next it was tampering with the vote, followed by ugly legal maneuvers to deny their main opponent, Donald Trump, a place on the ballot box. Then it was sending the FBI to the homes of innocent citizens to make violent arrests.

Swatting is simply the next escalation in this ugly war against open debate and civilized discourse between opponents.

At some point however the Democrats’ victims must respond in kind. The recent swatting attacks on these Democratic Party partisans are a first example of this. So is the growing effort by Republicans now in several states to remove Joe Biden from the presidential ballot, using the same kind of unproven allegations that the Democrats have concocted against Trump.

The coming upheaval

All of it is bad however. All of it. We are no longer a society that can tolerate debate, of any kind, and therefore we are devolving into a society where violence is the only recourse.

How can the 2024 election be resolved peacefully under these conditions? Even if it is run legitimately (a possibility that large numbers of the public no longer have faith in), one side or the other will refuse to accept the results no matter what, and will firmly believe, with absolute certainty, that they have the right to use violence to achieve the victory they were denied.

This is an accurate description of the attitude of partisan Democrats since the 2000 election. It is now beginning to describe accurately the attitude of partisan Republicans.

Unless both sides — especially the Democrats who started this process — recognize the danger and back off, the future does not look good.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

15 comments

  • F

    An essay written with wisdom and common sense.

    Thank you.

  • sippin_bourbon

    “None of this is good, however. ”

    I am glad you said this. Because swatting has resulted in fatalities, both directly (shot by police) and indirectly (heart attack as a result of the fear/trauma). I find at least one instance of a officer being injured in the process as well.

    It is the most insane and irresponsible tactic used by a generation incapable of understanding life beyond their keyboard and video screen.

    It should not be a communications offense, but listed as a form of attempted homicide.

  • BillB

    The Democrats will not back off. They have convinced themselves that they have the moral high ground and will enforce this by any means necessary.

    I fully believe that we will be in a violent internal and un-civil war by the end of 2025. It will be the Democrats at the root of it by trying to remain in power. And as I have said in some comments of similar nature, the Democrats if they are losing will invite the UN (China and Russia) in to “restore” the peace.

  • At some point however the Democrats’ victims must respond in kind.

    When one faction denies the unalienable rights of others, as the Democrats have done for years in the name of their vision of the “common good”, it has a chafing effect upon the denied parties that will lead to revolt, as sure as it did in places like Romania in the last century.

    What we have to keep in mind is that, before we cross the Rubicon the Democrats have crossed with imprudence, how do we turn off the extreme actions once the battle is won, before other demagogues emulate the Democrats in the use of such actions?

    And this doesn’t just involve SWATting … there are people who suggest that the GOP take the shortcut of emulating the Democrats re: ballot harvesting. That would make the practice – and its inherent compromise of the electoral process – the norm for the foreseeable future. Every election from now on would have a Roger Marris asterix appended to it.

    The only answer I have is this: whatever we do, it must be done in a manner that respects the unalienable* rights of the individual,. even if it means not being “nice” to those who would deny them. Perhaps a look back to the old Warner Bros. cartoons featuring Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf, where they behaved towards each other very differently on-the-clock vs. off-the-clock, might help us figure out the balance to seek.

    * a profound and significant term, that we have reduced to the level of a Yang holy word and thereby rendered the idea insignificant in our society … opening the door for the abuse of each other in the name of our own righteousness.

  • David Eastman

    Thjs is really indicative of how bad things have gotten, and how it’s going to have to get worse before it can get better. For so long, those on the left have gotten away with ever increasing attacks against the very fabric of a legal cooperative society, that they can’t really even imagine there being consequences. And generally, those on the right are either unwilling to fight back on reasoned, moral grounds, or simply out of fear that they, unlike a lot of lefty activists, can lose a great deal.

    Just recently several of my friends and acquaintances were planning to host a small pro-Israel/Anti-Hamas demonstration here in Portland. We knew Antifa would be all over us, we had planned to have all sorts of observation, to the point of people blocks away getting video and photographs of cars and people approaching and leaving, to get people who might not be masked at that time, etc. We also consulted with lawyers and the police, and that basically put an end to the idea. We had determined exactly what we could and could not legally do, in terms of protecting ourselves, identifying any attackers, etc. And the result basically came down to “you will get violently assaulted, and no matter the legality of anything you do in your defense or to identify the perpetrators, it will result in criminal charges and civil lawsuits and your lives will be destroyed in the process, you will lose your jobs, your homes, everything.”

    That’s bad enough, but then you get people that just shrug and say “that’s not right, but what can you do?” And won’t countenance anything but continuing to hide, not let their non-lefty status show on social media, etc.

    As has been said, and occasionally (though not recently) repeated on Instapundit, “The Tea Party was polite resistance. MAGA was a little more emphatic. The Proud Boys, that got a little less polite. You won’t like what comes next.”

  • Dave Walden

    I would urge all to consider:

    The Democrat philosophy is collectivism – i.e., the so-called “common good,” the “greatest good for the greatest number,” etc., ad nauseum/ad infinitum. These “ideals” represent moral ideals. As such, “the ends justify the means” becomes their (said ideals and those who hold them) moral guiding light.

    Conversely (notice I do NOT cite Republicans), America’s political philosophy is based upon individualism. America was founded on the ideal of the moral responsibility of the individual and the rights necessary to fulfill such moral responsibility.

    Because of this MORAL perspective America’s POLITICAL guiding light became “the means ARE the ends.”

    I would agree that 2024 and beyond are going to be “unprecedented.” The political fight that will burst onto the firmament is actually a moral conflict – one that pits 2000 years of collectivist moral ideals against those new ideals of our founding.

    One side, Democrats and the Left, righteously pursuing defense of life when viewed as a collectivist “anthill” or “beehive.” The other, a panoply of individual human beings “freed” by the political ideals of our founding, politically represented by a “hodge-podge” of ideas and ideals, loosely based on American “tradition.” A tradition of individual rights inconsistently understood and acted upon.

    Alas, it is to be one hell of a conflict. Likely one “to the death.” Death of what? Life as we have been fortunate enough to have known it and have taken for granted! I wish the hell I was wrong!

  • Related because it is about the systematic diminishing and destabilizing of America:

    “Black America, you are being disrespected, diminished and sold out. The dumbing down of American youth and society in general is alive and well in academia in America.”

    Read it and weep for your country, and share with a “progressive” friend……….

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/african-american-sensibilties-in-chemestry

  • Democrats within Congress attempting to “SWAT” evidence out of the record:

    Jim Jordan: ‘Let Me Give You Some Evidence’: https://youtu.be/BGeWQRkuTM8?si=BOFAG5ObYfFtjOLb 3 MIN.

    It is all related, it is all one big political psyops in the political warfare that the Constitution structures.

    Why? Because this is the ONLY way that the people can come to know some measure of truth so they can direct THEIR government and country.

  • Mr. Blkbrd

    Any call that is NOT traceable should be accepted.

    The person who commits an act of “swatting” should be charged with murder.

    Any person who is targeted where NON traceable calls have officers responding and there is damage to property or person should be compensated monetarily.

    Finally. Any person who is swatted and has a legal right to be there AND responds to the invasion of said property should be able to respond with lethal force if needed AND be immune from prosecution either civil or criminally.

    Will any of this happen? Nope.

  • jeremiah

    The author is exactly wrong.

  • Edward

    BillB wrote: “I fully believe that we will be in a violent internal and un-civil war by the end of 2025. It will be the Democrats at the root of it by trying to remain in power.

    It was the Democrats who started the previous civil war, too. They didn’t like the results of the election, thinking that Lincoln would end slavery. Since the Democrat Party was created to defend the institution of slavery, the Civil War was their last means necessary.
    ________________
    Dave Walden wrote: “One side, Democrats and the Left, righteously pursuing defense of life when viewed as a collectivist ‘anthill’ or ‘beehive.’

    The left side has not done well with defending life. Democrats advocate killing the unborn, and leftist governments were responsible for 100 million deaths in the 20th century.

  • Related:

    A.I. IS OF COURSE, POLITICALLY “WOKE”

    “A.I. is of course politically woke and anti-Conservative I.E. anti free choice, anti-free speech, anti-self-determination and by extension anti Constitution and anti-American in its programming. Who could have imagined such a thing?”

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/a-i-is-of-course-politically-woke

  • Cotour

    Is “SWATTING” effective?

    Ask Joe Tacopina?

    “Former President Donald Trump’s legal team got a shakeup Monday after his attorney, Joe Tacopina, withdrew himself.

    Tacopina told the outlet he withdrew “on all matters.” In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the Manhattan-based case alleging Trump gave “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniel and falsified business records, Tacopina also stepped down, according to ABC News.”

    What they leave out and a story that I know exists, but it is very hard to find on the internet. Joe Tacopina’s home with his children inside was Swatted with a call to the police stating that there was an ongoing murder I believe. Joe pulls up to his home with police laser beam scopes on his forehead.

    “Joe Tacopina | Defense Attorney | 01-02-23

    January 2, 2024 • 13 mins
    Defense Attorney Joe Tacopina joins Sid to talk about being swatted by authorities simply for his ties with his client and former President and Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices”

    Listen to him tell the story: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-sid-friends-in-the-morning-90707954/episode/joe-tacopina-defense-attorney-139874973/

    And now he has resigned from the Trump defense team.

    So you tell me whether SWATTING is effective or not.

  • Cotour: Excellent catch. I might post this as a blacklist column.

  • He resigned without any comment as to why.

    No comment needed; he had the crap scared out him concerning the safety of his children.

    Message received.

    But he has apparently been cowed and is now a known lawyer that can be controlled, he has limited himself. And his wife probably has a bit to say about what is what here. And that is understandable. But he is now a controlled asset of sorts.

    Everyone has their limits in weighing the benefits and costs of doing business.

    Strategy Over Morality is alive and well in the Pedestrian Realm:

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/what-is-really-going-on-strategy-over-morality

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *