12-10-09

Damn Lucky Dog…..again….

Lets see now, where was I. Oh yeah, making a run down to the Denver area to see the ANACS people who certify and authenticate coins (and tokens?). I had a hell of a time getting around in the city of Denver, actually Englewood but it is all one big city. Miles and miles of city in speed mode in all directions. I finally found a Motel 6, which was being remodeled and looked like it was being torn down really. I suppose it could have gone either way. It is surrounded by those big very expensive motels. I can sleep anywhere but this excitement over the rare token and the damn trailer ticket has been hard on my sleeping. I lay awake and go from finding and talking tokens to being in court, pleading my case to the damn judge. I get a few hours sleep but it seems like I am exhausted from the ordeals when I get up.

I went to the coin place and the BIG guy wasn’t in yet. I was sent off for an hour to get a cuppa or something. First time I have ever gotten a mocha from a McDonalds… it wasn’t bad and I could get free wifi in the restaurant and take a nice shit in the head. They do keep a nice shitter, but weak paper.

I was sort of surprised to find the BIG guy didn’t know shit about tokens but YES they were sure they could do a nice job on it and the part I liked was that they would keep it in their safe for me. I didn’t want to just to have that token with me as I don’t have anywhere to keep it safe.

I made it on back down to the Windspirit and gathered up my pod and bloodhound and made it back up to my camping spot up on the ridge. OH, I just love this spot. The sun comes up early over the hills and stays out high in the sky all day. My little solar panel just drinks up that Vitamin D sunshine and stuffs the battery with its juice.

I started my walks up the little road past my camp. The first few days I could sure feel the effects on my legs at night. I only went about half way up those first days but finally made it all the way up to the gate, which I would guess, is maybe two miles and it sure is steep in spots. Lots of heavy breathing to get up there, but there are flat spots to catch your breath. I met one pickup of hunters that were after quail. The guy said there was too much cactus for them and they left. I love that cholla cactus it keeps the riff raff out…..

Down at the Windspirit it was rather quiet. There were only three people there for a time as some of the regulars were off for Thanksgiving or other reasons. It is always nice to go down and meet the people there as they come from all over and are usually really nice folks. There has been a lot of tree loss this summer because of some damage to the watering system from a bull that got in the grounds. The folks that were there this summer redid the whole watering system and now have the control hub located up at Don’s place where the whole system can be managed.

Everyone has jobs to do and one of them this fall seems to be cutting down the dead trees and cutting firewood and brush removal. The place is looking good. Most of the citrus isn’t ripe yet but I did grab a grapefruit and it is always nice to pick fruit off the tree and eat it.

The token deal has been sort of off my mind as the damn court date was getting closer and closer. I had been looking at the weather as well as hearing how a big storm was about to blow in. My court date was on Tuesday at one thirty but the storm was predicted to blow in on Monday. I didn’t want to get caught on the wrong side of the Dripping Springs wash from a big rain event, so I pulled camp and headed to town. I found I could park outside the local library and pick up their wifi so I read on the computer until late and made my way to an old drive through restaurant that was no longer in operation. I had scoped that area out before and it was a really nice place to camp for the night. The next day Monday, it sure did start to rain. I spent most of the day wandering around town and seeing what was new, not much other than they had built a new multiplex movie house where one of the big buildings had burned down a couple of years ago. There were more unoccupied storefronts and after talking with a couple of the storeowners, they said it was terrible for business. There were a few stores that evidently are doing ok but most are getting a little tippy.

I was in talking  with a jeweler who has some really nice things. He is putting all his money in silver and gold since he lost a bunch of dollars in the stock market. We were talking about a lot of things when I mentioned that I hated those little highway patrol suv’s that they park along the side of the road to catch speeders. He said it is mostly to catch guys without seat belts…… Oh, shit…. I usually wear mine but there are times….

That damn Wal-Mart is doing a land office business though. I went in and used their photo machine to make copies of the token photo I had on my little camera chip. It actually worked out pretty slick even though I had to have a lady that was waiting to use the machine, help me. I think I could have done it myself but she also wanted to help, so what the hell. I hate it in there……and I am always afraid someone who knows me will see me in there.

Monday night I went back up to that camp spot at the restaurant that just happened to be on a ridge. After I got there it really started to blow hard and the rain picked up. I tried to sleep though it but the little pod was rocking and pitching around I finally got scared that it would roll over and down the damn hill with me in it. That Airstream is good in the wind but that was a serious wind for sure. I finally got up at about one in the morning and drove down in the valley and parked in a parking lot behind a big semi truck, which was a lot better. The wind was blowing that rain so hard it was like getting hit with a beebee gun up on the ridge.

Today I was talking with a gal that said it was blowing here (Sunsites) at over a hundred miles an hour!!! In Globe that next morning, the power crews were out early getting things back together again. The traffic lights were out so they had cops at all the light intersections directing traffic. That seems like a better place for them bastards than out on the highway giving tourists tickets.

Anyway, I finally made it to the courthouse at one thirty. There must have been twenty-five people waiting for them to open the doors to the courtroom. I was about the only white guy there other than a couple of kids that had a security officer with them. A woman came in with a batch of papers and started reading off names and there were a lot more people than names she had so she went back in and came back out in a half hour and called out a few more. Well maybe she had half of us but the judge came in and we started. I can’t hear shit so don’t know all what was being said but the judge listened to them and made decisions I guess. 

I noticed it here in Globe years ago when I worked here (1969) that it is segregated. The white folk, the Indians (Apache) and the Mexicans all stay together and don’t mix. Oh, the Primo’s too (The Spanish who are on speaking terms with God, and look down on the  rest of us).

It was the same here in the courtroom. Every name that was called I would have had a hard time pronouncing. Anyway after a couple of hours there were only about ten of us left. A woman came up to me and asked why I was there. I told her I was here because my ticket said I had to be here. She asked if I signed in. NO, I wasn’t told to sign in, it says to be here in the court at one thirty…. It was now about three thirty. So I had to leave and go sign in so they could find my ticket I guess. Back to the courtroom and wait. Another gal sticks her head in the courtroom and asks for Rex, or at least that is what the guy sitting next to me said. Yeah? She wanted me to come back over where I signed in. I told her I already signed in….. Back over I go and find she wants to make this real fast and easy. Do I plead guilty or not guilty? I told her I plead “nolo contendre”. Oh, she didn’t like that, and wanted me to just plead one way or the other. I want to see the judge I said. Well, I am the deputy judge she said. “Well, I want to see the Real judge  and not the Dippity clerk”, I said……. She didn’t like it but agreed that I could see the judge. Sheesh, what did they think I was there for anyway, make it easy on them? Not me….

Finally after I got back and settled down I got called up. It is the first time I have ever had my name said with a Spanish pronunciation. I was really ready for this as I had over a hundred hours of court experience in my dreams pleading my case. The judge by the way was a woman so I had a little advantage I figured as she probably didn’t know squat about towing trailers and such. I always figure it is best to muddy the water too as I go along, so I gave her a complete run down on how I had upgraded the axle and added the 12” electric brakes, which is a little over kill but I wanted to be extra safe. On and on about how I had checked in with highway patrolmen about being legal in AZ since I was from Montana. The main focus here is that I had been given the tip that Montana and Arizona have something called Reciprocity, which means that if it is legal to pull the trailer in Montana it would be legal in Arizona and vice versa. I had struggled with the Arizona laws on the internet and had never been able to find this agreement, IF it even exists. That didn’t slow me down though as I had with me a copy of an email that the local detective lieutenant of the Miles City police had sent me, telling me that I was legal to pull the two trailers in Montana as long as they were under 75 feet. My little train is about 56feet. Well, she got on her computer and searched and searched and couldn’t find shit either. She even went to a Red book on her bench of laws and struggled though that for a while too, saying it had been years since she had studied those…….

Finally after about a half hour she gave up and decided that she would let me off and waived the fine of $171….. and wished me “Merry Christmas”…. No jail time either…!!!

In a way it was worth it going to court, but not if I consider the time spent sleepless thinking about it. I still need to find out if for sure there is a reciprocity agreement on this so I can pull my little train down here next time. It is a real pain to have the bike in the back of the pickup and have to unhook the trailer and then get the damn thing out of the truck. I don’t have a ramp so to get the bike in I had to back the truck up to a steep hill and ride the bike down it and hope I could stop before running through the cab of the truck. Now I have to find a ramp to get the bike out of the truck. Well, I guess I have $171 dollars for that if needed.
Here I want to thank my friend Gary for the tip on reciprocity even if it is not true. Gary is the guy I bought my new sidecar from and is the Montana BMW Motorcycle Ambassador. Gary has been in the trailer business for over forty years and not much gets by him on a way to help anyone out. It is wonderful how my dog log readers often help me through the rough spots. Thanks to all of you…Sometimes an old dog needs help…..

After I got out of court, I headed over to Safford. You have  to go through the San Carlos Apache rez and it sure is not a good feeling seeing all the poor conditions that are on our Indian reservations. It was nice to get close to Safford though as it is farming country. the alfalfa fields were still green but they had turned out cows on some of the fields. As you get closer to town it is all cotton land. The cotton has been harvested and stacked at the cotton gin. The fields were mostly turned in for the winter but I saw some fields were being irrigated for maybe a green manure crop or maybe just to pre irrigate before planting.

The Suzuki shop was open when I came by and I pulled around and stopped to ask about getting a ramp for getting my bike on and off my pickup. I walked in and the place was almost empty. A few what looked like used bikes in the showroom and as I walked back there was just huge open spaces. Past the parts department and finally in the very back I found the owner in his little office. They didn’t have a ramp but I sat down and visited with the guy for a while. It turns out he is the only motorcycle dealer in the area. Four of the shops have closed down in the last four months in the area. One of those was in Globe where I had stopped and was surprised to see everything was gone…..

He said he was a big Suzuki dealer but it was costing him $5,000 a month in inventory to keep all the machines on the floor. He finally told the company that he couldn’t pay them anymore and they came with three semi trucks and hauled them all away. There must be a huge storeroom someplace where all the new bikes that they can’t sell are stored. With all the motorcycle dealers going out of business, it sure doesn’t look very good. He did say that he had a really top-notch repair shop and he was making money on that as well as parts, but hadn’t sold a bike in ages. He had a really rough Suzuki DR 650 outside when I walked in. I looked at it as it was almost just like the Oz dog I rode this last winter in Australia. It had been sitting out in the Arizona sun for a few years and the rubber parts were hard as rocks and the seat the same other than it was shedding its cover in strips. I had to ask the price even though I sure don’t need one, but if it was really cheap……. It wasn’t cheap at $2600 especially when you figure all the replacement parts it needed. It was probably used by one of the Mexican irrigators and they can sure be rough on stuff if they are anything like the ones in Nevada. This bike was pretty well cleaned off of turn signals and well scratched. With only 6K miles….

I was telling him about my trailer ticket and then happened to mention about the damn seat belt cameras on the highway. He said that I shouldn’t pay the tickets if I get any. There was a big article in the paper a couple of weeks ago saying that you didn’t have to pay any tickets, unless you were served with the paper. He said he never has paid one for either speeding or the seatbelt. He says that they do take your picture but everyone just hates that and are still pissed off that the former Governor Janet (cant spell her name but she is now the head of Homeland Security) put them on the  road. She evidently did that because the state needed money and that would be an easy way to collect some. Wow, that sort of mentality is now running our country’s  Security. I was reading George Ure’s site this morning and came across this….

Snipet..

But here's something more worrisome than Climategate or Swine Flu out in the wings.  Every so often I get an email that spells out a possible US  future in crystal-clear terms  - the discussion of which is not fear mongering at all:  It's revealing actual planning... but for what?  A new kind of police authority is in the works for America.

The document I've been studying is a Rand report called "A Stability Police Force for the United States: Justification and Options for Creating U.S. Capabilities."

In this paper - which to those of us with a strong Constitutional bent and respect for posse comitatus is an exercise in 'thinking the unthinkable' - there's a sort of working conclusion that a new super police agency - a "Stability Police Force" it's called - run by either the military (MP) system or the U.S. Marshall's Service, are achievable options for the US central government to consider implementing

An extract of the Rand study is illustrative of their thinking:

"Discussion of Options

The present chapter omits any discussion of cost, which appears in Chapter Seven. Of the options presented, our analysis suggests that the hybrid Marshals Service option is preferable. With the ability of civilian agencies to significantly enhance their tactical suitability by placing SPF members in those police agencies that excel in their skill area, the Marshals Service could significantly increase its tactical suitability by leveraging placements to the point where it would dominate the other options, with the exception of the variable “Experience in Building Indigenous Capacity.” However, even with respect to this variable, any SPF would build this capability over time. An MP SPF could not achieve the same benefit, without relief from the Posse Comitatus Act. Soldiers could not serve in civilian policing capacity to the same extent, and so could not maximize an MP SPF’s tactical suitability rating through the experience to be gained by the hybrid option. If relief from Posse Comitatus were forthcoming, then the MPs could benefit from the advantages offered by this staffing option as well."

"Relief from the Posse Comitatus Act"?  Stabilization Police Force?  Stabilizing what?  How?

A check of Wikipedia on the health of Posse Comitatus reveals:

"Recent legislative events On September 26, 2006, President Bush urged Congress to consider revising federal laws so that U.S. armed forces could restore public order and enforce laws in the aftermath of a natural disaster, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

These changes were included in the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (H.R. 5122), which was signed into law on October 17, 2006.[3]

Section 1076 is titled "Use of the Armed Forces in major public emergencies". It provided that:

The President may employ the armed forces... to... restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition... the President determines that... domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order... or [to] suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such... a condition... so hinders the execution of the laws... that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law... or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.[4]

In 2008, these changes were repealed in their entirety, reverting to the previous wording of the Insurrection Act

There's a fair amount of discussion in the Rand  paper of things like financial disincentives for failing to deploy against fellow citizens and so forth.  Chilling stuff to read.

---

After a quick read of the Rand study, I figure the emergence of a new Stabilization Police Force is only a matter of time, and depending on how the political winds blow in Washington, I'm just guessing the U.S. Marshall's Service will be a lot of hiring down the road.  Either that, of the MP recruiting similarity in temporal markers between the opening of Dachau in 1933 and the ramp-up in hiring of the German SS in the 1932-33 period.

No, there's no detention camps operating yet that I'm aware of, but when they do, it's important to note the discussion of a special "Stabilization Police Force" here in the USA which could be applied against enemies of the State, whatever that definition might include.

---budget of the Army will be going up.

End snip…

 If you really want to scare the shit out of yourself you can go to that link… it doesn’t look good my friends. Try keeping a low profile it might help. When they take me, you may be NEXT…!!!

 It is too bad that the police force has gone from peace officers to law enforcers. I hear on the radio now that down here next to the border they are stepping up trying to catch the drug dealers that are shipping back truck loads of shrink wrapped hundred dollar bills across the border to Mexico that they collected from the dope. It is all about MONEY….

The owner of the bike shop pointed me to a really good Mexican restaurant and it sure is nice to be back down south for the food that is here. I don’t often eat at restaurants but down here it is different…. Yummy!!!!!

I am camped I the Cochise Stronghold now at a favorite campsite. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the sun has to come up over a little hill in the morning before hitting the camp. It is nice and quiet here with only one other camper in the area. I’ve taken some time this morning to write this dog log but really need to get out and hike around a little bit…….

it is a nice sunny camp and today after a rather chilly morning, it is tee shirt weather. Sounds a lot better than my friends in Montana saying twenty below…..

I haven’t taken but a few photos since the last dog log but here is one I took down in Winkleman.

This guys 900 pound Victory motorcycle. The darn thing is HUGE and he just loves it. He was a Harley rider for years but got pissed about his last one when they couldn’t seem to fix it and bought this $22K rig. He says it is faster by far and can beat most anything on the road with it. He even bet five sport bike guys that he wouldn’t be the last one, on a really curvy road, a hundred bucks. He said he came in second….

This other photo is of a guy at the Globe library. He is from Ireland and he and his daughter are riding the bikes starting up at the Artic circle in Canada and intend to go down to the end of South America. The wife and daughter ride the tandem one. they had quite a load on those bikes.