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Online Luis Gonzalez

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Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« on: February 09, 2026, 11:17:52 am »
Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
The ICE funding fight, the February deadline, and the ritual that always leaves the swamp stronger

The Last Wire

Every “government shutdown” is marketed as a high-stakes clash over spending, accountability, or principle. In reality, it’s political theater with a predictable outcome. The lights go out for the public. The permanent bureaucracy keeps humming. And the people who actually feel the pain aren’t the ones with power.

Shutdowns don’t shrink government. They discipline dissent, shield entrenched agencies, and turn federal workers into hostages. Essential operations continue. Budgets reappear. Back pay gets issued. And the same institutions emerge larger, less transparent, and harder to challenge.

This piece argues that shutdowns function less like fiscal restraint and more like a protection racket. Create just enough chaos to scare voters, then restore order on your own terms. Rinse. Repeat.

If you’ve ever wondered why shutdowns never seem to change anything, or why they always strengthen the very systems they claim to confront, this is worth your time.

Read the full piece at The Last Wire.




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Offline DefiantMassRINO

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2026, 11:28:03 am »
The only thing that will shrink Government is a revolt in the Treasury Bond Market by Bond Vigilantes.
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Offline catfish1957

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2026, 11:45:34 am »
Quote from: DefiantMassRINO on February 09, 2026, 11:28:03 am
The only thing that will shrink Government is a revolt in the Treasury Bond Market by Bond Vigilantes.

I'm game!!!!
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Offline andy58-in-nh

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2026, 11:54:44 am »
Deep State Blackmail is a tiresome game, with the legacy news media always taking the side of the crooks, largely by engaging in emotional manipulation via sob stories.
 
Don't worry. Poor little Mama Muckinfuch will still get her welfare checks. And if we cut the Federal budget by 10%, the vast majority of Americans wouldn't lose a damn thing.
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"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people."    -Calvin Coolidge

Online Bigun

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2026, 12:17:48 pm »
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

Frederic Bastiat
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"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

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Offline catfish1957

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2026, 12:26:53 pm »
Like Def-MA RINO said above....  If every conservative decides and pledges NOT to reinvest T-Bonds (Long bonds especially) at redemption date in protest......   That might get some attention. 

Best way to kill the snake is cut off it's head.
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I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.  Note:  Posts may also be allegorical in nature, and not literal.

Offline andy58-in-nh

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2026, 12:43:10 pm »
Quote from: Bigun on February 09, 2026, 12:17:48 pm
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

Frederic Bastiat
:yowsa:
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"If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people."    -Calvin Coolidge

Online Luis Gonzalez

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2026, 01:03:25 pm »
Quote from: Bigun on February 09, 2026, 12:17:48 pm
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

Frederic Bastiat

Yes sir!
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"The growth of knowledge depends entirely upon disagreement." - Karl Popper

“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place." - Frederic Bastiat

“You can vote Socialism in, but you’re gonna have to shoot your way out of it.” - Me

Offline catfish1957

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2026, 01:08:48 pm »
Quote from: Bigun on February 09, 2026, 12:17:48 pm
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

Frederic Bastiat

Another analogy is  aligned with Gunnery Sgt. Hartman's editorial comments around  "The Reach Around"




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I display the Confederate Battle Flag in honor of my great great great grandfathers who spilled blood at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh.  5 others served in the WBTS with honor too.  Note:  Posts may also be allegorical in nature, and not literal.

Offline Free Vulcan

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2026, 01:19:02 pm »
It's like a hostage negotiation every so many months.
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Online Smokin Joe

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Re: Shutdowns Are a Protection Racket
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2026, 03:42:36 pm »
The left will keep having these tantrums so long as it works and gets them what they want.

Stand your ground like good adults.
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Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis
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