I have no interest in or desire to engage in "proactive" violence (as opposed to self-defense, which is always permissible.)  Even if you can get through whatever keyholes you may have in terms of ethics or morals on such an act I am left with the inescapable conclusion that those who remain when you're done simply aren't worth what you spent (your life.)

However, if called upon to defend the status quo, whether it be the local sheriff, county, state or federal government I would refuse.  Why?  Because that too is not worth spending my life on.

Would I spend my life to protect a federal government that has refused to enforce 100+ year old anti-trust law and has allowed the medical industry to screw the population out of trillions of dollars over the last 20+ years, never mind Beelzebezos and Zuckerpig screwing the entire population via their data sales, H1bs, destroyed firms and offshoring?  No.

Would I spend my life to protect a state or local government that has refused to enforce those very same laws, despite them being on the books here, and instead has incessantly raised taxes on the citizens to fund the rip-off practices of these "industries" that have as their best analog the (actual) mafia?  No.

Would I spend my life to protect a local sheriff who is very interested in giving out traffic tickets and DUIs but can't be bothered to enforce those very same laws against local medical providers and hospitals?  No.

Would I spend my life to protect any of the myriad CEOs and other "mavens" that have stolen their wealth from the population at large by offshoring jobs, supporting illegal invaders, suppressing wages via H1b abuse or engaging in cross-subsidy games recognized as illegal 100+ years ago under that very same anti-trust law, or who run companies that admit to being able to "sway any political contest" through abuse of data or who collect and sell access to same and similar?  No.

Would I spend my life to defend any employee of a state government which "sues" a pharmaceutical firm for intentionally marketing opioids under false pretense?  Such a suit, if won, will be paid by the customers of the firm since they'll simply jack up the price!  The state could indict the executives and marketing folks for involuntary manslaughter but instead they choose to make the victims pay twice -- first with their health or life and then again in money!  No.

Would I spend my life to defend and protect any member of the media that have been complicit in all of the above?  Hell no.

The local Catholic Church -- and others I drive by -- have parking lots full of cars when it's time for mass.  Given that we now know with certainty, and in fact we did back in 2002 or thereabouts, that the clergy, bishops, cardinals and Rome knew damn well that pedophilia was essentially a "second occupation" for many priests -- well north of 10,000 of them in the US alone -- tell me why I would associate with or assist anyone who attends such mass or puts a single nickel in the plate?  I terminated my affiliation as soon as this was evident but nearly nobody else has.  Why are not these edifices gone, confiscated to pay redress to the victims and every one of those guilty either directly or by cover-up in prison?  Why has not this evil edifice, to be blunt, been destroyed?  Every one of the persons in those pews has been and currently is knowingly funding the literal rape of children for a period going on nearly two decades at this point!  Do you think I would spend my life to defend any of theirs?  They-will-burn-in-Hell no.

Would I spend my life to protect a county commission (ours) that hiked our property taxes 11% last year instead of enforcing that very same body of law -- when the reason for the hike is specifically stated to be the rapacious cost of health care both for county employees and inmates at the local lockup?  Double Hell no.

Never mind the millions of older Americans who have literally been forced out of their homes due to the property tax ramp game as a result of these scams.  My former home near Chicago has seen a clean doubling of property tax assessments since I sold and left.  Others I know have also seen an insane ramp; a 50% increase over the last 10 years in many areas is common.  What has been the increase in Social Security payments during that time?  An effective zero due to ZIRP.  So how does a senior on fixed income come up with that sort of increase?  

They can't.

I can name literally hundreds of similar instances.  The myriad CEOs of financial institutions from before the 2008 meltdown -- and since, in the case of Wells FuckYou -- who have presided over dozens if not hundreds of acts that had you or I stolen the same amount of money would have left us facing decades in prison yet none have gone to jail make me retch. Elon Musk didn't appear to have just misled people with his recent tweet on taking Tesla private; he now claims to have had alleged "discussions" about a buyout with the Saudis for roughly two years previous and he was buying stock in the meantime while in possession of that material inside information which, if those discussions actually happened and is not a lie constitutes insider trading.  This, if true, is a 20 year in prison felony.  The government tweets about busting people for this very offense quite frequently (including just recently a sitting US House member) yet Elon Musk just admitted to doing the same thing in an open letter on the corporate web page and... he's walking around DefCon free as a bird.  If you or I pulled that crap they would have arrested us and led us away in handcuffs right here, right now.

Why the fuck would I spend my life defending any organization, person, state, local or federal authority who sit on their fat asses instead of getting out the handcuffs when a (very) rich SOB brazenly and publicly appears to admit to violating the same law they just got done busting a Congressman for?  They can all -- the FBI, SDNY and SEC -- go fuck a duck as I will never risk spending my life to defend any of theirs given their willful and intentional refusal to act as required by law.

I'm aware of a murder that took place in a big city about two weeks ago.  I didn't know the victim but someone close to me did.  The killing took place on a freeway, late at night, in the middle of one of the largest cities in the country.  There are DOT cameras literally every few hundred feet in that town on those freeways (I've driven the specific road where it occurred) and yet despite shell casings being found in the vehicle where his body and stopped car was, not wrecked but parked in the right lane, which strongly implies that he stopped and then was shot from either inside or just outside the car (and the assailant then fled either on foot or in another vehicle) none of the "wonderful" city and state officials can manage to find anything related to what other vehicles or people were in the immediate vicinity at the time in question.  If you believe the cops actually give a fuck about ordinary people and arresting assailants even when murder is involved -- given the density of video imaging in the immediate vicinity which essentially had to have captured that murder when it occurred and the escape of the shooter I have a bridge to sell you.  If that was a cop that had been shot there would have been a nationwide manhunt, including the FBI, within hours if not minutes.  Instead we get the cops jacking off for days instead of immediately viewing all the video from the immediate area and trying to find the person who committed the murder.  If you think, given this fact, that I'll spend my life to defend, rescue or protect any shithead-in-blue, ever, you're dumber than a box of rocks.

Here's reality: If I ever see any of these people -- federal, state, county or local officials, or others complicit in similar acts -- in a burning car on the side of the road I wouldn't even piss on it.  I can personally guarantee that I would show them the same passive indifference to the fucking they are taking through chance or some other person's nefarious act that they have shown to everyone else when the shoe was on the other foot over the last several decades.  Unlike when I am a captain of a vessel upon the water I have no legal duty to assist if I am able -- and thus I pledge here and now, in public, that I will not, ever, under any circumstance, assist and I certainly will not risk spending my life in such a pursuit.

Period.

This sad state of affairs in our nation is not stable yet the outrageous behavior -- and damage -- continues to build by the day and it's not the decent people of this nation that are causing it.  It's all the assholes who either willfully ignore the lawbreaking despite a legal duty to stop it or are actively participating in it.

Eventually some percentage of those who cannot find justice and have been personally hurt or even destroyed by these outrageous violations of the law, criminal felonies intentionally ignored by the government for decades despite the harm done to real people by them on a literal daily and continuing basis, will decide they've had enough of this crap and the willful, intentional indifference and blindness by government and corporate actors across this country.

Their decision to spend their life at that moment will be a coldly-calculated and pure act of revenge.

Such an act, or even millions of similar acts, when they occur -- and they will eventually occur due to the utter and complete refusal of our government to put a stop to any of this crap by the rich and powerful despite its illegality -- cannot be defended.

But such an act can be understood, and if those acts of revenge are directed at the people who committed the wrongs, and not wildly-incoherent violence harming those who either tried to help or had nothing to do with the abuses, I am no longer willing to condemn same.

Instead I will tip a glass filled with two fingers of a nice Scotch in quiet respect for those who have decided, quite-sanely, calmly and deliberately, that they simply have had enough and will endure those abuses no more.  The government at all levels could have before and can today decide to put a stop to this crap and yet while they prosecute a sitting House member for a very-legitimate crime others who do the same thing, or even engage in much worse offenses and screw the public out of trillions or even rape children are not only ignored they are treated by the media and lawmakers as cult heroes.

I will not excuse the indefensible -- but one does not have to excuse or condone an act to understand and have respect for it.