Privatization Historically is a tool of Privateering

...And Privateering is Legalized Piracy

Privateers wage private war, They:
1. Raise Private Armies
2. Privatize and Extract Resources
3. Privatize and loot Government Services
4. Sell their looting as Good for the looted.

Wag The Dog by a Con Artist President

Trump is now threatening Nuclear War on North Korea. The North Koreans have the ability to reply to a violent threat, in kind. The pundits are normalizing his Hitlerian threats.

Most of what Trump says is Braggadocio and bluster.

But when he makes a threat he tries to deliver with all his muster.

Trump has lied all his days since he was a youth.

The whole truth is that he is a grifter

All true, but what do we do?

Trump is entirely capable of launching an attack on North Korea. The pundits may think he's talking to China. He may think that his brinkmanship may make the Chinese will back down. I'm afraid he is trying to start a war.

National Emergency Response Service and the Militia

National Health Service

The best way to manage our health care rationally, and to provide for good healthcare for everything, is to put at least a component of it under a National Service Framework. The education, training and minimum provisioning "arming" of healthcare providers all should be organized at a National level and also carried out in each State.

Pirates, Loot and the East India Company

East India Company Looted India

The East India Company is the Model for the Modern Corporation. This is an extraordinary fact because that company ran its own foreign relations, own armies (The famous Sepoy's), fought their own wars,bribed, subverted, suborned, got contracts to perform government services and then exploited those to take over governments. They went from running trading posts in coastal cities on a lease from the Mogul Emperors, to keeping them virtual prisoners on a pension. They invaded what is now Afghanistan and both loved and despised the Moslems who had formerly dominated in India. Eventually their greed and stupidity forced them to step aside from Governing India to the role of continuing to loot it. Heck the word "loot", both as noun and verb, comes from India.

Trinity Church and Captain Kidd

Aristocracy, Trinity Church and Commoners

The first thing I noticed was that successful pirates joined the gentry. Unsuccessful ones were hung. This is illustrated by the tale of Captain Kidd who was elevated to Captain "pirate style" and not due to his family relations like most officers during the 9 years war "War of the Grand Alliance" [1688-1697]:

"By 1689 he was a member of a French-English pirate crew that sailed in the Caribbean. Kidd and other members of the crew mutinied, ousted the captain off the ship, and sailed to the British colony of Nevis. There they renamed the ship Blessed William. Kidd became captain, either the result of an election of the ship's crew or because of appointment by Christopher Codrington, governor of the island of Nevis. Captain Kidd and Blessed William became part of a small fleet assembled by Codrington to defend Nevis from the French, with whom the English were at war."

They were granted "Letters of marquee by the Governor, because that is the way that the English paid for Naval Warfare:

"Kidd and his men attacked the French island of Mariegalante, destroyed the only town, and looted the area, gathering for themselves something around 2,000 pounds Sterling." [Wikipedia article makes a great first stop: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd]

Continuing the fight:

"Kidd captured an enemy privateer off the New England coast."

But of course the borders between piracy and privateering were thin:

"One year later [1690], Captain Robert Culliford, a notorious pirate, stole Kidd's ship while he was ashore at Antigua in the West Indies." [Wikipedia article makes a great first stop: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd]

When you read about Robert Culliford. Culliford partisans claim Kidd was a pirate and that Culliford started as Kidd's Shipmate and "repeatedly check[ed] the designs" through his career. According to them Culliford led a mutiny against Kid in 1790 and appointed William Mason as Captain. All the stories of these pirates are full of these sort of inconsistencies, including some of the official records. Having his prize taken from him didn't stop Kidd from migrating to New York and:

"On 16 May 1691, Kidd married Sarah Bradley Cox Oort, an English woman in her early twenties, who had already been twice widowed and was one of the wealthiest women in New York, largely because of her inheritance from her first husband."

Privateering and piracy were means to wealth and respectability. From 1692-1697 the Governor of New York was Benjamin Fletcher, who traded in both privateering and pirate loot. Kidd contributed to Trinity Church, New York which was funded by privateering and pirate activity. Apparently New York City and Philadelphia were rivals in the Pirate trade during that time too. In 1697 Fletcher was deposed from the Governorship by Edward Randolph who is also famous for revoking the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and who the Boston revolt in 1689 was jailed. It appears that one mans "privateer" and hero could easily be tried as another's pirate -- unless he was part of an important family like the Randolphs. Edward Randolph tried to revoke the charters of all the colonies in 1700 and was defeated. [Britannica: Edward Randolph

Culliford was caught after robbing the Great Mohammed in the Red Sea in September 1698 but pardoned and "disappeared" from history (probably settled down and changed his name or into anonymity). William Mason retired a rich man. Web Sites like The Pirate King may_william.htm depict them as pirates, but the reality is that they straddled the line between respectability and piracy as did, apparently, most of the ships and crews of those privateering times, and probably many of the ships of the Royal Navy. If they'd taken the "Great Mohammed" one year earlier the prize probably would have been legal. In 1698 the war was over.

Pirate Yarns and Nomme Du Guerres

So it's not surprising that pinning down these characters, or even their names, was hard. They went to sea to make money. And whether that money came from looting ships, smuggling, delivering slaves to plantations, or catching fish or whales didn't matter so much as the prizes of wealth and respectability. Many of them became adrenaline junkies (like Blackbeard is said to have done) and perished. But many more retired in the end to quiet lives and wealthy family legacies. Next time I go into Trinity Church I'll think of Captain Kidd.

The British weren't going to punish their privateering warriors in time of warfare. But if they didn't stop when the war was ended they were in trouble diplomatically. William Kidd probably didn't know the war was over when he overstepped his bounds:

"in January 1698, Kidd's luck seemingly changed when he caught sight of the Quedagh Merchant rounding the tip of India.

The war was over. English privateers were not supposed to be preying on ships on the open ocean.

"The Quedagh Merchant was no ordinary vessel. A 500-ton Armenian ship, it carried goods—a treasure trove of gold, silk, spices, and other riches—that were owned in part by a minister at the court of the Indian Grand Moghul. The minister had powerful connections, and when news about Kidd's attack reached him he complained to the East India Company, the large and influential English trading firm. Coupled with many governments' shifting perceptions of piracy, Kidd was quickly cast as a wanted criminal."

Kidds mistake was to try to clear his name. What he should have done was what his rivals; Mason and Culliford did; quietly go to ground. If he had his name would probably be on the list of famous and wealthy families in the United States history books. And his descendants captains of industry and finance. But by trying to clear his name he got himself put on the Gimlet. On the other hand, folks wonder where his treasure went. I would suggest they ask descendents of Sarah Bradley Cox Oort who I'm sure he took care of before trying to clear his name. Buried treasure? Yeah, sure.

Further reading and episodes:

Posts on Privateering and Piracy

Many Kinds of Privateering

An Ideology of Privateering

Many forms of Freebooting

Pirates and Privateers/Privatizing History

Origins of the East India Company

Bretton Woods, NeoColonialism and the "Money Men."

Origins of the East India Company

Corrupt Court and Undue Influence

East India Company and Islamic Jihad

Utility Versus the Pirates

Tribunals Admiralty Courts & Privateers

Black Sails:

http://www.starz.com/originals/blacksails

Cross Bones

http://www.nbc.com/crossbones

I buried other URLs in the notes in the article. But here's the article on William May:

http://www.thepirateking.com/bios/may_william.htm

More on Captain Kidd:

http://www.biography.com/people/william-kidd-17179370#privateering-and-pirating

http://www.blacksheepancestors.com/pirates/kidd.shtml

An Ideology of Privateering

Essential Principles of Legalized Piracy

1. Economic Royalism – Everything should be privately owned that can generate economic value. Anything can be owned. A pirate society is an "ownership society."
2. Piracy – is only bad when illegal, so modern pirates work with legislators to make it all legal.
3. Legal instruments – like letters of Marquee, Corporate Charters, legislation are more effective than Cannons and cutlasses.
4. Privatization – Privatized warfare (Freebooting), Government functions, are preferable to public interest.
5. Worship of Contracts – If it is legal then it is moral, even if it is murder, mayhem, theft and graft. The Contracts of pirates trump laws, basic rights, promises.
6. Wealth = Virtue. The Pirates redefined Capital to include all wealth including derivative financial wealth.
7. The ideology of Privateering uses other labels, such as capitalism, socialism, "revolution" or "libertarianism", but the underlying ideology is "anything goes."

Introduction

Arr me mates! When we think of pirates we usually think of Johnny Depp playing the role of Jack Sparrow. But piracy has a history that goes way back into antiquity. For example, the reality behind "Homer" was Greek pirates versus Trojan pirates. In most of history merchant ships weren't that much different from warships. They were armed. If they saw a ship that looked stronger than them, they fled. If they were hungry and on the hunt, they pursued. In times where rule of law isn't strong enough the law of the jungle applies and each ship, merchant or warship, is a little kingdom. Thus theft, business and warfare have always been connected.

The ideology of nobility and feudalism was based on the notion that if you could steal property and defend those thefts, it was your property. And all you needed to do was to bow to those with more power and property than you had. It was an ideology of piracy. Refined and semi-legalized, we have an ideology of privateering that corrupts capitalism and socialism alike, and makes people.“hunters of men” Our Mafia is legal, descended from the “brotherhood of the coast” and has an esoteric ideology that treats other expressed beliefs as cons.

That ideology has been passed on down to today.

Formally put:

The ideology of privateering, believed by sea dogs and their successors alike, worldwide, is the notion that everything should be privately owned and governed. And that anything that can be carved up and turned into property, should be. They further believe that any such loot or property so acquired, even through force and occupation, even if later adjudicated as having been illegally obtained, as long as the theft was licensed by the regime of the time, is the property of the thief.

Original Privateers

Original Privateers sought a "letter of Marquee" that enabled them to wage private warfare and theft against enemies of the State they lived in. Modern pirates use contracts, corporations, courts and legislators to get licenses, mortgages or liens, or simply seize and convert property to their own. Privateering business is ruthless capitalism and ruthless private government. And legalized kleptocracy, venality and transactionalism.

Anything Goes “capitalism”

The ideology of privateering says that “as long as it is legal” anything goes! A pirate is only "illegal" if he doesn't have some permit from government for his piracy. If one has a title, letter of marquee, or corporate charter, as long as it isn't deemed illegal by a court, it is perfectly justified.

Under this ideology property taken, including via warfare, property, human beings or vital public services. In the ideology of privateering, looting is the point, not a simple benefit. Privateers often see themselves as warriors, for God, for Country or simply for loot. For the privateer, laws are written to justify looting. Rule by the strongest is assumed, and those who lose a battle or get conned, don't deserve any share in the loot acquired.

The logic of privateering includes:

1. Privatization: Private Government of property, people, government functions and enterprise.
2. Profiteering: in former and present times, that usually means anything goes rent seeking,...
3. Piracy: deception, theft, as long as the things stolen are from “enemies” or “losers.”
4. Enslaving enemies and victims, buying and selling anything for a buck, including people.
5. Smuggling, predatory extraction, wildcat exploration, land and resource theft.
6. Private warfare, filibustering.
7. Colonialization, neo-colonialization, subversion and overthrow.
8. Corruption, Use of corruption, courts, legislators and executives to acquire & legalize usurpation of resources.
9. Monopolization: Seeking monopolies, patents and titles from the government to freeze out competition or enforce rent privileges.

And on the contrary, if a person is deemed by law, no matter how corrupt, to no longer own a thing, their use of it is piracy.