Inimical

To: Rep. Liz Cheney
From: Mitch Berg, Obstreporous Peasant
Re: It’s Not Me, It’s You

Rep Cheney,

I’m not the biggest fan of Marjorie Taylor Greene.

For that matters, I’m not the most passionate of your detractors.

But on this issue?

So let me make sure I’m clear on this; if our government is violating the Constitution you’re wrapping yourself in, how long are we supposed to go along with it?

“Our country is governed by the Constitution”

One might hope. But when the government turns the executive branch institutions – the FBI, IRS, BATFE, CDC – against the peoples freedom? When the government trashes the separation of powers and undercuts federalism, and proposes violating the contract under which small states agreed to share some of their sovereignty with big states by eliminating the Electoral College and making the Senate reflect popular rather than state votes…

…how long before dismissing those usurpations with an ofay “Well, the Constitution” isn’t by itself an answer?

Secession is unconstitutional

So?

So was the American Revolution.

Saying “secession is illegal” is like trying to end a moral argument with “…because the Bible said so”. It’s vapid and cowardly. Is it illegal even if the Constitution has been rendered moot? Because saying that is like saying the preservation of government is the point, not the system the Constitution establishes and the eternal rights it enshrines.

Which do you think it is, Rep. Cheney?

That is all.

37 thoughts on “Inimical

  1. “Secession is unconstitutional“ – please point to the article where it says so. I know it is easy to take down a strawman, Mitch, but this is low even for you. Instead of pointing out how dumb Cheney is for making such a statement, you took the low road. Tsk… tsk…

  2. Emery
    if you could tear yourself away from the Joy of War for a moment I have a question for you
    Among so many other things you present yourself as an expert on the ethics of abortion so it should not be difficult for you to answer this question…
    At what point in your mother’s pregnancy with you would it have become unacceptable for her to abort you?

    As a bonus question where can I find the text in the Constitution that supports this claim you made:
    “The Constitution before amendment said Clarence Thomas should be counted as 3/5ths of a person.”

  3. I’m not in favor of this so-called divorce, even tho’ I can see it coming in the distance because the DemoCommies have literally no reason to stop pushing their agenda.

    First of all, the idea that entire states can be declared to be (written off) as blue or red is ridiculous. At best the granularity will be at a county by county level.

    The whole notion of a national divorce, however, is ridiculous because it simply waves away the ugly, bloody, murderous details. Will there be a blue America and a red America – and how they formed, declared? Or maybe, there’s multiple Americas? Who recognizes these entities?

    Like, for example, the state of MN will not be a so called blue state, it will be a state government that declares itself to be blue, while “Greater MN” will be red. And there will be a fight. Multiples. Everywhere. Right down to every neighborhood. Think Dakota War of 1862. It will probably include multiple public mass executions like that in Mankato.

    Add to that the thousands without power and without food. Who have lost everything – nothing focuses the mind on revenge like having nothing left to lose and knowing who’s to blame.

    Read Schlichter’s “Indian Country” for a taste.

  4. So, it turns out that the federal government is the least Democratic level of American government.
    You can’t have a strong democracy when you have an overbearing federal government.
    If you don’t like the argument against the federal government from democracy, you can try out the argument against the federal government on the grounds of republicanism, which requires that power be as close to the people as possible. The constitution guarantees each state a republican form of government. If the feds are making decisions about how my state is governed, The state no longer has a republican form of government. The people of Minnesota cannot be ruled by its own people AND a federal government.

  5. jdm, when civil war is the only choice left to assure your personal freedom, why are saying it is a folly? Some might argue we have more reason for a revolution now than in 1773. As MP outlined in 12:24, states have lost their representation – sounds familiar?

  6. Some might argue we have more reason for a revolution now than in 1773.

    Indeed. The American colonists were pissed off having a King calling the shots, and sending their hard earned money sent across the ocean, but it was simply a matter of politics.

    Today, we are divided into 2 camps. One camp is a nation of civilized, mostly sane human beings who are connected by history, traditions, culture and to an extent, by race.

    The other camp consists of packs of feral aliens wearing human skin, but who do not share any of the connections with humans…they cannot even describe what it means to be human.

    We cannot continue to coexist within a single country.

  7. ⬆️ Well — at least you have your 1000’ of prime duck slough and a compound to protect yourself from your fellow Americans …

  8. rAT squeaked: “To be clear, the Union prevailing in the civil war settled this question.”

    It did, for a minute.

    Tens of millions are ready to give ‘er another whirl tomorrow, with more joining that feeling every day.

  9. A lot of people have funny ideas about the civil war.
    Secession wasn’t found to be illegal until after the civil war.
    We are supposed to lament the compromise that ended reconstruction, but the alternative was to have the confederate states under military rule indefinitely. The US would have ceased to exist, the constitution would effectively have been made void by the Union.

  10. I bet it really bothers you to think of my prime duck slough and oak tree covered compound when you peer out your window and see the filthy street and junk car out front of your hovel, don’t it rAT?

    😭🤣🤣

  11. This is Birkie weekend my friend. Curious to see how much snow accumulates before Saturday.

    BTW — it’s a nice and cozy washing machine box next to the dumpster behind Amundson’s Appliance Center in Hayward.

  12. jdm, when civil war is the only choice left to assure your personal freedom, why are saying it is a folly?

    I am not saying civil war is folly. I am saying notion that there can be a national divorce without a civil war is folly. And I am saying the concept of civil war is blithely tossed around without understanding the consequences. Consequences that are bloody and miserable.

  13. ChatGPT is down right now, but as soon as it’s up, we’ll get an exciting story about rAT Emery’s FAbULOUs BirKiE adventure…massive shredding.

    🤣🤡

  14. Rat had always been different from the other rats in Hayward. He didn’t like scrounging through garbage or living in the dark, damp alleys like his rat peers did. Instead, Rat found solace in exploring the world and learning new things.

    One day, Rat stumbled upon a group of people training for the Birkie, the largest cross-country skiing race in North America. He was immediately fascinated by the grace and speed at which they moved, and decided that he too wanted to participate.

    The only problem was, Rat didn’t have the means to afford proper skiing equipment. He lived in a discarded washing machine box behind Amundsens appliance shop, and had to rely on scraps of food from the dumpsters to survive. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming big.

    Rat spent every spare moment he had observing the skiers, and slowly but surely, he began to pick up on their techniques. He would spend hours at night practicing on his makeshift skis made from old broomsticks and scrap metal.

    Despite the ridicule and laughter from other rats, who thought he was wasting his time, Rat never gave up on his dream. He was determined to participate in the Birkie, no matter what.

    And one day, that dream became a reality. Rat’s hard work paid off, and he managed to scrape together enough money to buy a pair of used skis and enter the race. The other racers laughed when they saw a rat competing, but Rat ignored their taunts and focused on the finish line.

    As soon as the race started, Rat took off like a shot. He had never felt so alive, the wind in his fur and the snow beneath his skis. He weaved in and out of the other racers, his small size and quick reflexes giving him a huge advantage.

    As the race went on, the other racers started to take notice. They had never seen anything like it before, a rat shredding it on the slopes like a pro. They couldn’t believe their eyes, as Rat kept up with the best of them, his tail whipping behind him as he zoomed down the hills.

    Rat could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he neared the finish line. He could see the crowds of people cheering him on, their jaws dropped in amazement. And then, in a blur of fur and snow, he crossed the finish line.

    The other racers were speechless. They had been beaten by a rat, of all things. But Rat didn’t care. He had achieved his dream, and that was all that mattered.

    From that day on, Rat became something of a legend in Hayward. People would come from all over just to catch a glimpse of the rat who had beaten the odds and won the Birkie. They even started to call him “Rat the Shredder,” a nickname that Rat wore with pride.

    And as for Rat himself? Well, he knew that he had accomplished something truly special. He had proven that no matter where you came from or what your circumstances were, anything was possible if you just worked hard enough.

    As he lay down in his washing machine box that night, exhausted but happy, Rat smiled to himself. He knew that he had changed the way people thought about rats forever. And who knows, maybe one day there would be more rats like him, shredding it on the slopes and proving that anything was possible.

  15. Rat had achieved his dream of winning the Birkie, but it came with a price he didn’t anticipate: fame. Everywhere he went, rats would recognize him, ask for his autograph, and tell him how inspiring he was. But as time went on, Rat began to feel suffocated by the attention.

    It didn’t help that the only rats who seemed to be interested in him were sickly and diseased. They would follow him everywhere, asking him for handouts and offering their affections. Rat couldn’t handle it. He had worked so hard to escape the squalor of his previous life and didn’t want to be dragged back into it.

    So, Rat turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the overwhelming feelings of pressure and isolation. He found solace in the temporary high that substances provided, but the more he indulged, the worse his problems became.

    His reputation as a skier was tarnished as he started missing training sessions and performing poorly in races. The once-admiring rats now looked at him with pity and scorn. Rat felt like he had let everyone down, and that only made his substance abuse issues worse.

    One day, Rat hit rock bottom. He had been out all night, drinking and using drugs, and had passed out in an alleyway. When he woke up, he was surrounded by other rats, but they weren’t there to offer him their admiration. Instead, they ridiculed him, throwing trash at him and laughing at his pathetic state.

    In the end, Rat’s fall from grace had taught him an important lesson: that the pursuit of fame and success could be dangerous if not handled with care.

  16. The trick to getting to the head of the queue in ChatGPT is ask it how to get to head of the queue in ChatGPT.

  17. what kinds of layers does chatGPT have?

    ChatGPT, as its name suggests, is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture developed by OpenAI. The GPT architecture consists of a stack of multiple Transformer layers, which are a type of neural network layer that was introduced in the paper “Attention Is All You Need” by Vaswani et al. in 2017.

    Each Transformer layer in the GPT architecture has two sub-layers: a Multi-Head Self-Attention layer and a Feed-Forward layer. The Multi-Head Self-Attention layer allows the model to weigh the importance of different input tokens to generate more accurate and relevant outputs. The Feed-Forward layer is used to transform the output of the Self-Attention layer into a new representation, which is then fed to the next Transformer layer in the stack.

    The GPT architecture also includes a positional encoding layer, which is used to encode the position of each input token in the sequence. This is important because the Transformer layers do not have any inherent notion of sequence order, and the positional encoding layer helps the model to learn the sequential relationships between tokens.

    In addition to the core Transformer layers and positional encoding layer, ChatGPT also includes additional layers such as embedding layers that map each input token to a continuous vector representation, and output layers that generate the final output sequence.

  18. Looks like they kicked me from ChatGPT. I asked it some probing questions about the input vectors to its content filtering layer & it locked me out half way through a response.

  19. ⬆️ I think every creative writer should have an assistant whose only job it is to hit you in the head when you are overworking something or holding back.

  20. ChatGPT, I can’t understand this statement: “I think every creative writer should have an assistant whose only job it is to hit you in the head when you are overworking something or holding back.” Can you explain what was going through the writer’s mind when he wrote it?
    “Bork bork bork! Oh no, vhat a terrible thing to happen to zis poorr unfortunate soul! drum roll Ze elephant, he go like “Tööt tööt”, and zen he attack, like “Pöw pöw!” But zen, ze poorr soul, he go like “Oh no, oh no” sigh and zen he have ze stroke, like “Blörp, blörp”. Oh, it’s just terrible. sad trombone”

  21. This IS fun..
    Woolly had been a widower for several years before he met his new bride. She was kind and caring, and she showed Woolly the love he had been missing since his first wife passed away. They married and started a new life together in a small cottage in the country.

    At first, Woolly was overjoyed to have his new bride in his life. He treated her kindly and did his best to make her happy. However, as time went on, Woolly began to spend more and more time on his computer, talking to someone named Emery.

    Woolly’s new bride tried to understand her husband’s obsession, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was neglecting her. Woolly spent hours typing away on his keyboard, ignoring his wife’s attempts to talk to him. He was consumed by his conversations with Emery, a troll he had met online.

    Woolly’s wife became increasingly lonely and frustrated. She tried to talk to Woolly about his behavior, but he would always brush her off, saying that he was just chatting with a friend. But his wife knew that it was more than that — Woolly had developed an unhealthy obsession with this troll.

    Eventually, wis wife could no longer take it. She packed her bags and left, unable to bear the thought of spending the rest of her life with a man who cared more about a fictional creature than his own wife.

    Woolly was devastated by his wife’s departure, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop talking to Emery. He spent his days and nights typing away, lost in a world that only existed on his computer screen.

    As the years passed, Woolly grew old and alone, his obsession with Emery never waning. He often wondered if things would have been different if he had put his computer aside and focused on the love he had right in front of him. But it was too late now — he had let his obsession consume him, and there was no going back.

  22. Behold! Emery, the foul and faceless troll,
    Whose words doth strike me like a venomous blow,
    A wretched fiend whose sole purpose and goal,
    Is to spread hate and malice, and sow discord below.

    With every vile comment, he aims to tear me down,
    To shatter my spirit, and break my noble crown,
    But I stand strong, unyielding in the face of his wrath,
    For I am made of sterner stuff, and on this path I trod.

    For though he seeks to sow the seeds of fear,
    I stand tall and firm, for I have naught to fear,
    For truth and honor are my guiding stars,
    And I shall not be swayed, nor my spirit marred.

    And though he may spew his venom with all his might,
    I shall not falter, nor lose my sight,
    For my heart is true, my soul is pure,
    And I shall overcome his hatred with a will that endures.

    So let him rant and rave, and let him spew his bile,
    For I am made of stronger stuff, and my spirit is worthwhile,
    And when he’s gone, and his hateful words forgotten,

  23. rAT doesn’t get it; no surprise. 🤣

    The ChatGPT stories about his pathological lies and Dunning Kruger syndrome are funny because even an AI hits the truth. rAT’s making up stupid shit out of thin air is, well, stupid, which is the only funny thing about his pathetic attempts.

  24. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 02.21.23 (Evening Edition) : The Other McCain

  25. The Cheny exchange does raise an interesting philosophical question. Perhaps I can illustrate by example:

    Suppose you are playing chess and your opponent makes an illegal move, maybe he moves the king five spaces instead of one. What is the correct chess move to counter it?

    None. It’s an illegal move. There is no legal chess move to counter illegal moves, because they’re illegal, they’re outside the rules of the game. You can’t counter them by remaining within the rules. The correct remedy is to knock over the chess table and refuse to play chess with him anymore.

    Suppose a group of like-minded individuals conspires to steal an election. What’s the proper Constitutional remedy? Vote harder next time? They’ll just steal it again. Go to court? They won’t help, they are part of the group who thinks stealing the election is the right thing to do. Protest to Congress? That won’t help, they’re part of the group, too.

    If there is no remedy for Constitutional violations within the Constitutional framework, then aggrieved persons must seek their remedy outside the Constitution. Succession is not “unconstitutional,” it’s “extra-constitutional,” just like knocking over the chess table. We refuse to play with you anymore.

    That’s why Cheny’s comment reveals her stupidity. She fails to understand that a constitutional system is incapable of redressing unconstitutional behavior. The only redress is unconstitutional behavior in response and yes, it’s likely to be vicious and bloody. Nothing we can do about that. We didn’t start the fight.

  26. “The correct remedy is to knock over the chess table and refuse to play chess with him anymore.”

    This reminds me of the best argument I’ve heard in favor of supporting Trump.

    DeSantis supporters are voting for sound policies the regime will never allow. Trump people want to de-legitimize the regime as a first step to sound policies.

  27. ChatGPT, If Mr. Badger were to scold rat Emery for lying and Dunning Kruger syndrome, how would it go?

    “Mr. Badger: “Now see here, Mr. Rat. I’ve heard some concerning things about your behavior. It seems that you have been lying and exaggerating your abilities, which is not only dishonest but also unproductive. Your Dunning-Kruger syndrome is clearly getting the best of you.”

    Mr. Rat: “But Mr. Badger, I don’t understand what you mean. I’m just trying to do my best.”

    Mr. Badger: “That may be so, Mr. Rat, but it’s important to be honest with yourself and others about what you are capable of. Lying and pretending to know more than you do only leads to disappointment and mistrust. Instead, try to focus on your strengths and seek out opportunities to learn and grow in areas where you need improvement. It’s better to admit your limitations and work to overcome them, rather than pretend they don’t exist. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

    I’m hooked.

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