Unwarranted Invasion

The Owl Bar, in Baltimore, Maryland, operated as a speak easy during the prohibition era. Source: Getty Images

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‘America is not in any way limited to a special group of people; it is for people who want to be special in their own way. It’s not for people who want to follow the feds’ Big Plan; it’s for people with plans of their own.’

Baltimore street scene:

Walking to the office yesterday, we passed a grey-bearded black man on the church steps. It was 17 degrees outside, very cold for Baltimore. He was gathering up his things — including an aluminum walker — after having spent the night outside, on the cold, stone steps.

As we saw him struggling with his kit…

“You need a hand?” we asked.

We took the walker and brought it down to the sidewalk as he limped down the steps, holding the rail.

“Kinda cold to be sleeping rough,” we said.

“Yeah…my daughter kicked me out of the house.”

We gave him a $5 bill and some advice.

“Maybe better to apologize to her for whatever you did and swear you will never do it again…at least until the weather is warmer.

”Merry Christmas to you.”

And here’s the latest news:

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced the creation of the “Tech Force” on Monday, a program aimed at securing American technological dominance by modernizing government infrastructure and accelerating the adoption of AI across federal agencies.

Time was, we expected that after a life well lived, we would go to Heaven and get our reward there.

Now, the reward is expected right here in America, as tech breakthroughs cause the blind to see, the deficit to disappear, and the USA to dominate the planet.

But those benefits are available only to a select few, according to the Vance/Thiel/Karp triumvirate, and only with the guidance of the US federal authorities.

So today, as yesterday, we grope for an insight. And we begin by pirouetting not just to yesterday…but spinning back to almost 400 years ago when our ancestors floated up the bay from Virginia and the pennant of Cecil Calvert first made its appearance in the Chesapeake tidewater.

The Toleration Act of 1634 set the Maryland colony up as a refuge for Catholics. But some people are always trying to force others to worship their gods, speak their languages, follow their rules and boss around their neighbors. The Act was rescinded, then it was re-instated, repealed again, and finally re-enacted after Charles Carroll, a Catholic and believed to be the richest man in the colonies, signed the Declaration of Independence.

A century later, many people in America thought there too many Catholics. Hordes of liquor-guzzling, papist ‘paddies’ from Ireland and ‘wops’ from Italy immigrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“No Irish Need Apply,” was a time-saving hint back then. Demon Run was the fentanyl of the wild Irish slums.

But our heart fills with pride when we see that Old Line State standard. Not for its ambiguous role in the Revolution (Maryland’s Eastern Shore was famously loyal to Britain…its families discreetly drew the curtains on July 4th and cursed the founding fathers)…nor for the brave men it sent to fight in the War Between the States (they stuck to Jeff Davis to the bitter end)…but for its one moment of glory, when Maryland refused to go along with the busy-bodies and bullies. Kerry Hinton:

Maryland was the only state that never passed an enforcement law, refusing to commit any resources to policing the ban [against alcohol]. Throughout the 1920s, Maryland earned a reputation as a “wet” state, and the Chesapeake Bay was a hot spot for bootleggers importing illegal liquor from overseas.

Maryland’s anti-Prohibition stance was led by local politicians such as Governor Albert Ritchie, who called the 18th Amendment an “unwarranted invasion by the Federal Government of the liberties of the Maryland People.”

(Our grandfather bought Governor Ritchie’s bookcase; it still sits in our Baltimore parlor. We cross ourselves each time we pass.)

But who today still laments the ‘unwarranted invasion’ by the federal authorities into every aspect of our lives? The battle has been lost. Maryland has been defeated. The history of America can be seen as a long fight to turn the country into something it was never meant to be. Alexander Hamilton crushed the Whiskey Rebellion. The Articles of Confederation were ditched in favor of a strong central government. The War Between the States closed the door; there would be no escape. Manifest Destiny…the Alien and Sedition Act…WWI…Vietnam – each step brought us closer to the ‘full spectrum dominance’ its rascals seek.

And today, scalawags from the hills of San Francisco to the flat sands of Florida — as well as from the rest of the entire world — take up lodging in the Maryland suburbs of DC. They could be in the 16th Arrondissement of Paris. Or in the rich barrios of Mexico City. Like the ‘casta politica’ everywhere, they are there to plot and connive…for a new union of church and state, technocrats and politicians…headed up by hooded priests of the new ‘Tech Force’…and their Generalissimo.

More to come.