"This cabal [democrat-socialists] is foolishly certain that once the overall populace loses faith in their ability to affect their future through the electoral process, they will meekly accept the inevitable hegemony of this oligarchy. They are also naïvely confident that there will not be a general uprising, as they have witnessed what they perceive to be near universal submission by the general public to the unconstitutional and often inane dictates by those in power ostensibly protecting the public from the Chinese Coronavirus."
Go along to get along right into totalitarian-socialism. Can you withstand the cant? "Cant" from Dictionary.Com: "insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety".
America has been moving toward socialism for a long time. Bits and pieces, yet never openly so until now. Norman Thomas, a noted socialist, was wrong:
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
We know what we are doing. And it's a totalitarian style of socialism that the majority of Americans have flat given into during the pandemic. How prophetic was this statement by Gore Vidal?
"As for civil liberties, anyone who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city."
We have failed to be vigilant. We are losing more and more liberties daily. Andrew Jackson rightly said:
"But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing."
Of course, America has a very rich history of so-called fake news going back at least to the spark that started the Revolution in 1770: The Boston Massacre. As massacres go, the Boston event was fairly tiny but large enough to serve the purpose of the rabble-rousing media. Within a week of the March shooting the Boston Gazette published the following article:
A few minutes after nine o'clock four youths, named Edward Archbald, William Merchant, Francis Archbald, and John Leech, jun., came down Cornhill together, and separating at Doctor Loring's corner, the two former were passing the narrow alley leading Mr. Murray's barrack in which was a soldier brandishing a broad sword of an uncommon size against the walls, out of which he struck fire plentifully. A person of mean countenance. armed with a large cudgel bore him company. Edward Archbald admonished Mr. Merchant to take care of the sword, on which the soldier turned round and struck Archbald on the arm, then pushed at Merchant and pierced through his clothes inside the arm close to the armpit and grazed the skin. Merchant then struck the soldier with a short stick he had; and the other person ran to the barrack and brought with him two soldiers, one armed with a pair of tongs, the other with a shovel. He with the tongs pursued Archbald back through the alley, collared and laid him over the head with the tongs. The noise brought people together; and John Hicks, a young lad, coming up, knocked the soldier down but let him get up again; and more lads gathering, drove them back to the barrack where the boys stood some time as it were to keep them in. In less than a minute ten or twelve of them came out with drawn cutlasses, clubs, and bayonets and set upon the unarmed boys and young folk who stood them a little while but, finding the inequality of their equipment, dispersed.
On hearing the noise, one Samuel Atwood came up to see what was the matter; and entering the alley from dock square, heard the latter part of the combat; and when the boys had dispersed he met the ten or twelve soldiers aforesaid rushing down the alley towards the square and asked them if they intended to murder people? They answered Yes, by G-d, root and branch! With that one of them struck Mr. Atwood with a club which was repeated by another; and being unarmed, he turned to go off and received a wound on the left shoulder which reached the bone and gave him much pain. Retreating a few steps, Mr. Atwood met two officers and said, gentlemen, what is the matter They answered, you'll see by and by. Immediately after, those heroes appeared in the square, asking where were the boogers? where were the cowards? But notwithstanding their fierceness to naked men, one of them advanced towards a youth who had a split of a raw stave in his hand and said, damn them, here is one of them.But the young man seeing a person near him with a drawn sword and good cane ready to support him, held up his stave in defiance; and they quietly passed by him up the little alley by Mr. Silsby's to King Street where they attacked single and unarmed persons till they raised much clamour, and then turned down Cornhill Street, insulting all they met in like manner and pursuing some to their very doors. Thirty or forty persons, mostly lads, being by this means gathered in King Street, Capt. Preston with a party of men with charged bayonets, came from the main guard to the commissioner's house, the soldiers pushing their bayonets, crying, make way! They took place by the custom house and, continuing to push to drive the people off pricked some in several places, on which they were clamorous and, it is said, threw snow balls. On this, the Captain commanded them to fire; and more snow balls coming, he again said, damn you, fire, be the consequence what it will! One soldier then fired, and a townsman with a cudgel struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his firelock; and, rushing forward, aimed a blow at the Captain's head which grazed his hat and fell pretty heavy upon his arm. However, the soldiers continued the fire successively till seven or eight or, as some say, eleven guns were discharged.
By this fatal manoeuvre three men were laid dead on the spot and two more struggling for life; but what showed a degree of cruelty unknown to British troops, at least since the house of Hanover has directed their operation, was an attempt to fire upon or push with their bayonets the persons who undertook to remove the slain and wounded!
Mr. Benjamin Leigh, now undertaker in the Delph manufactory, came up and after some conversation with Capt. Preston relative to his conduct in this affair, advised him to draw off his men, with which he complied. The dead are Mr. Samuel Gray, killed on the spot, the ball entering his head and beating off a large portion of his skull.
A mulatto man named Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence and was here in order to go for North Carolina, also killed instantly, two balls entering his breast, one of them in special goring the right lobe of the lungs and a great part of the liver most horribly.
Mr. James Caldwell, mate of Capt. Morton's vessel, in like manner killed by two balls entering his back.
Mr. Samuel Maverick, a promising youth of seventeen years of age, son of the widow Maverick, and an apprentice to Mr. Greenwood, ivory-turner, mortally wounded; a ball went through his belly and was cut out at his back. He died the next morning.
A lad named Christopher Monk, about seventeen years of age, an apprentice to Mr. Walker, shipwright, wounded; a ball entered his back about four inches above the left kidney near the spine and was cut out of the breast on the same side. Apprehended he will die.
A lad named John Clark, about seventeen years of age, whose parents live at Medford, and an apprentice to Capt. Samuel Howard of this town, wounded; a ball entered just above his groin and came out at his hip on the opposite side. Apprehended he will die.
Mr. Edward Payne of this town, merchant, standing at his entry door received a ball in his arm which shattered some of the bones.
Mr. John Green, tailor, coming up Leverett's Lane, received a ball just under his hip and lodged in the under part of his thigh, which was extracted.
Mr. Robert Patterson, a seafaring man, who was the person that had his trousers shot through in Richardson's affair, wounded; a ball went through his right arm, and he suffered a great loss of blood.
Mr. Patrick Carr, about thirty years of age, who worked with Mr. Field, leather breeches-maker in Queen Street, wounded; a ball entered near his hip and went out at his side.
A lad named David Parker, an apprentice to Mr. Eddy, the wheelwright, wounded; a ball entered his thigh.
And so on. Read and study what really happened at the site and afterward during the trial. It was obviously not a massacre but possibly an overreaction of a very few frightened soldiers in an attempt to control a mob action threatening to become a riot.
If you choose to do X rather than Y or another, you do X. Can you then prove that you could have done Y or another? If you cannot 'prove' it, then is what you do done without free will? Predestined? Most likely, assuming all systems are functioning properly, we chose X because all our life experiences combined with the current environment, gave us no choice.
Or better, what the hell is wrong with American educators that while so many can't seem to teach children math or English, they can take valuable teaching and preparation time to experiment with brainwashing students in a large number of pseudo-phycological theories.
I am a 30-year Army vet who spent five years in combat zones earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Stars for valor. I served and fought because I love, believe in, and am proud of the United States of America, its founding values, and the governmental and capitalist systems that have made it so great. As a civilian, I continue to do so.
Vince Everett Ellison, The Iron Triangle, 2020, "If protest brought about desired change, Black people would be the most successful race in the country and Asians would be the least. Instead, the converse is true."
This may open up a ton of outraged comments by some - Many who will argue how "wrong" this post is. My suggestion: Save your time and effort! You're not changing the reality of what we are living by trying to somehow justify this insanity. Nevertheless, I couldn't resist because we are becoming the Twilight Zone. We have become a nation that has lost its collective mind!
If a dude pretends to be a woman, you are required to pretend with him.
Somehow it’s un-American for the census to count how many Americans are in America.Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections are good.
It was cool for Joe Biden to "blackmail" the President of Ukraine, but it’s an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquires about it.
Twenty is too young to drink a beer, but eighteen is old enough to vote.
People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.
Inflammatory rhetoric is outrageous, but harassing people in restaurants is virtuous.
People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees.
Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.
Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome.
$5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for “free” health care is not.
If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.
People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.
We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to us.
Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.
Criminals are catch-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of THEIR rights.
And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us "racists"?!
Nothing makes sense anymore, no values, no morals, no civility and people are vying of a Chinese virus.
We are living in an upside down world for sure.
Russians influencing our elections are bad, but illegals voting in our elections are good.
It was cool for Joe Biden to "blackmail" the President of Ukraine, but it’s an impeachable offense if Donald Trump inquires about it.
Twenty is too young to drink a beer, but eighteen is old enough to vote.
People who have never owned slaves should pay slavery reparations to people who have never been slaves.
Inflammatory rhetoric is outrageous, but harassing people in restaurants is virtuous.
People who have never been to college should pay the debts of college students who took out huge loans for their degrees.
Immigrants with tuberculosis and polio are welcome, but you’d better be able to prove your dog is vaccinated.
Irish doctors and German engineers who want to immigrate must go through a rigorous vetting process, but any illiterate gang-bangers who jump the southern fence are welcome.
$5 billion for border security is too expensive, but $1.5 trillion for “free” health care is not.
If you cheat to get into college you go to prison, but if you cheat to get into the country you go to college for free.
People who say there is no such thing as gender are demanding a female President.
We see other countries going Socialist and collapsing, but it seems like a great plan to us.
Some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, and other people are not held responsible for what they are doing right now.
Criminals are catch-and-released to hurt more people, but stopping them is bad because it's a violation of THEIR rights.
And pointing out all this hypocrisy somehow makes us "racists"?!
Nothing makes sense anymore, no values, no morals, no civility and people are dying of a Chinese virus. We are living in an upside down world for sure.
Liberty: Karl Popper from The Open Society and Its Enemies:
“ . . . our greatest troubles spring from something that is as admirable as it is dangerous — from our impatience to better the lot of our fellows.” As a system such as ours designed to breed discontent and radicalism. It is our very freedoms that encourage opposition to them. Notice, strangely, that those who oppose our ideals and systems through the free use of those ideals and systems are the first to demand that those same ideals and systems be suppressed, erased, or even destroyed morally and legally. Since our country's beginning the foundation, although weakened, has survived.
Freedom of Speech and Religion(1st Amendment) and the Right to Bear Arms (2nd Amendment):
I agree without exception. Those who do not, are and have always been welcome to seek to amend the 1st Amendment of the Constitution in accordance with Constitutional provisions.
I interpret the
No platforming.
Defining hate speech as completely subjective. https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/514251-how-silence-is-violence-threatens-true-free-speech-and-public-civility
How 'silence is violence' threatens true free speech and public civility
“Silence is violence” has everything that you want in a slogan from brevity to simplicity. But it can also be chilling for some in the academic and free speech communities. On one level, it conveys the powerful message that people of good faith should not remain silent about great injustices. But it can at the same time have a much more menacing meaning to “prove the negative” by demanding that people show that they are not racist.
In a previous column, I warned of the thin line between speech codes and commands, as people shift from compelling silence to compelling words. “Once all the offending statues are down, and all the offending professors are culled, the appetite for collective suppression will become a demand for collective expression.” Such a line between punishing and compelling speech is easily crossed if free speech itself is viewed as a threat.
This goes beyond the cases of journalists, academics, and others fired for voicing their dissenting views. Even expressing support in the wrong way can be a terminal offense, such as declaring “all lives matter” rather than “black lives matter,” which led to the firing of Massachusetts dean Leslie Neal Boylan or Vermont principal Tiffany Riley. While most of us support the movement, it has become the official position of many colleges, and variations are not tolerated. The concern is not only an establishment of the orthodox values but also the forced recitation of the values.
National Review article, July 21, 2020, by Dmitri Solzhenitsyn
It is in this environment that groups such as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) operate. Samantha Harris, a senior fellow at FIRE and a specialist in free speech and Title IX law, spoke with me over the phone last week.
On the progression of campus culture, Harris said:
It has become more stifling, I think. It’s hard to find a concrete measure of the extent to which free speech is suppressed, but it certainly feels like it has become more so. When I first started at FIRE in 2005, free-speech and free-expression crackdowns seemed like they were from the top down; students wanted to express themselves, and administrators were stopping them from doing so. Now, it’s students themselves demanding speech to be repressed, and I think this has a lot to do with the education they receive in grades K–12; specifically, not being taught the value of free speech in a liberal society.
Vince Everett Ellison, The Iron Triangle, 2020
Near the end: What scares me the most right now are the successful efforts by anarchists, Black Lives Matter racists, academics, far-left politicians, many members of the entertainment industry, a number of corporations and businesses to control speech (and subsequently thought) and cancel our culture.
Cancel Culture:
If a country allows its symbols (nationally representative flags, heroes, statues, economic systems, etc.) to be destroyed, it is forfeiting its national identity and is well on its way to surrendering to the mob doing the destruction and is heading toward totalitarianism. Destroying a country's symbols is a symbol of the desire to destroy the country. As Francis P. Sempa says in his article, The Assault on Civilization, written for Real Clear History, "If we let the forces of anarchy reign, if law and order is not restored to our cities, if historic memories and manifestations of the past are erased, Western civilization as we know it will not survive." In a later passage in the same article he writes regarding what is happening in today's America, "Totalitarian reeducation is beginning and liberalism is ill-equipped to confront it."And as George Orwell wrote in 1984,“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
The North American Scrabble Players Association announced it is removing more than 200 words from the official list of words eligible for scoring in the word-building board game. The CEO of the association, John Chew, has been making the rounds with media outlets to explain the “necessity to take action on issues of diversity and inclusivity” as Chew wrote in a letter to association members. Chew, however, has not revealed the list of banned words with the exception of the N-word.
Media:
For the most part the mainstream media have become a joke. They are either thoroughly anti-Trump, anti-Constitution, anti-conservatism, anti-capitalist, and anti-America or they support Trump and the Constitution, are always conservative, anti-left, anti-socialism, anti-communism, anti-totalitarianism, anti-liberal (are there any remaining?),
Social Media:
Immigration:
Simple. I believe in the rule of law and I trust that an impenetrable wall on our southern border is one solution to stop or at least significantly slow non-American citizens from entry. If an individual enters this county by other than as provided by current law, they are here illegally and should be prosecuted and deported as quickly as possible. Otherwise, change the laws.
Education:
Anti-Racism Training
1619 Curriculum.
School Choice
Colleges and universities. I have always believed that higher education administrators and professors were intelligent, fair-minded people. Obviously, I have been out of that environment a long time. That is not now far from being the case. From their unbelievable and blatantly unfair implementation of Obama's guide to Title IX with regard to sexual abuse and harassment; catering to student snowflakes by creating safe spaces, trigger warnings, deplatforming or allowing the deplateforming of speakers, tolerating the destruction of patriotic artifacts, the American flag, and statues of historic figures, pandering to Marist groups such as Black Lives Matter, Council on American-Islamic Relations, ANTIFA, Black Bloc, Occupy, and John Brown Gun Club. Why have the majority of university professors become fair left anti-American communists? Do they really believe that we would be better off upon the conversion of our country to communism or socialism? As academics, they should be familiar with the failed countries around the world that have adopted socialism or worse, communism. Don't they realize that the radicals will never be satisfied and that eventually they will be coming for them? There will always be another group of radicals that are more radical than the current group. Do they not know the history of revolutions? Think of Robespierre, Stalin's The Great Purge. Know that sooner or later they will come for you.
I am unapologetically white and I did not make any person of any color a lesser human being or subject them to any form of servitude or slavery. If any person perceives him or her selves as a victim they are so by choice. As Vince Everett Ellison says in his book, The Iron Triangle, "Every adult person is responsible for their own lives. Until the former slave affirms, accepts, and takes responsibility for his own freedom, he cannot be helped."
Implicit Bias: White Supremacy: A racial slur. White Privilege: A racial slur.
White Silence: A racial slur. Form an article by Francis P. Sempa, July 08, 2020: "Protestors hold signs with the words “white silence is white violence,” meaning that if you do not speak out as they want you to, you are committing an act of “violence” and presumably should be prosecuted.
Critical Race Theory:
The City Journal, September 16, 2020
Under the dogma of critical race theory, the neo-Marxist Left now treats members of “oppressor” groups (whites, males, Christians, Jews, conservatives) as inherently guilty by virtue of their group membership; conversely, members of victim groups are considered morally innocent. By this logic, claims of victimization by members of victim groups necessarily must be believed, while members of oppressor groups are already guilty by virtue of their group membership. This formula eliminates any need for due process, since the mere perception of victimization constitutes proof of same.
Conservative African American economist Thomas Sowell says that the term “systemic racism,” which is central to the Black Lives Matter movement, has “no meaning.”
Sowell is set to appear on Fox News’ Life, Liberty and Levin on Sunday evening with host Mark Levin at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT).
You hear this phrase, ‘systemic racism’ [or] ‘systemic oppression’,” host Mark Levin told Sowell. “You hear it on our college campuses. You hear it from very wealthy and fabulously famous sports stars. What does that mean? And whatever it means, is it true?”
“It really has no meaning that can be specified and tested in the way that one tests hypotheses,” answered Sowell, who added that the currency of the phrase reminds him of the “propaganda tactics” of Nazi Germany, where Sowell claimed that if a lie was “repeated long enough and loud enough” it would be widely believed.
Anti-Racist Training:
Any effort to raise one's self up at the expense of another is a violation of natural morals.
Reparations:
Cultural Appropriation:
Crime and Criminal Justice:
Kim Foxx, Illinois' Cook County (includes Chicago) States Attorney (like a district attorney) announced on July 9, 2020, that they will no longer prosecute crimes such as Disorderly Conduct, Public Demonstration, Unlawful Gathering, Criminal Trespass to State Support Land, and Curfew Violations committed by so-called protestors. And that serious crimes such as Resisting/Obstructing Arrest, Assault, Aggregated Assault, Battery, Aggregated Battery to Police Officer, Reckless Conduct, Mob Action, and Obstructing Identification will not be prosecuted where they are not supported by body-worn footage, dashcam footage or other substantial evidence. In other words, the word of the police is not good enough that a crime has been committed. Liberal bail laws set violent looters free soon after their arrests. In Seattle, Washington, left-wing revolutionaries took over a police precinct and surrounding city blocks and issued “demands” to abolish the police and empty the prisons. Seattle’s liberal mayor called the radicals “patriots,” while Washington’s liberal governor appeared oblivious to it all. Most ominously, radicals are waging war against law enforcement, and liberals in power pledge to disarm, defund, or disband the police.
Corporations, Governments, and Celebrities:
Why are corporations and governments afraid of Black Lives Matter? They are tripping over each other to be more "woke" than the other. Silly! Pandering!And Hollywood celebrities are to be ignored, whatever their politics. They are but actors that do best when they stay in their lane. They do not need to be embarrassed as I will be for them.
Inevitably more and more power and resources find their way into the hands of fewer and fewer people, until society breaks. Historically this is true, something like 100% of the time. Eventually people with power find a way to use their power to gain more power, to rig the system in their favor, and to pass on advantages to their children. Eventually you need regulation to re-level the playing field, or you get revolution that wipes the slate clean and starts all over.
Economy:
Jobs
Free Trade
Taxing and Spending
Abortion:
Murder!
Guns:
Religion:
I am not a religious person. I sometimes believe there is a God like the one my parents believed in, but usually, I doubt it. Nevertheless, I have a certain Christian-based morality guiding my actions albeit liberalized when I see fit because a particular code seems nonsensical, unnecessary, or harmful.
[C]ivilized society requires a certain rule and order to hold back from the edge of anarchic savagery where it is always precariously poised. Human beings must have at least a minimum security in life and property, must be able to move through the streets and between the cities, must accept certain common rules in their mutual intercourse, or civilization does not exist. If this necessary order is subverted, the civilization is destroyed, whether the subversion takes place from the best or worst of motives, whether or not it is in some supposedly moral sense justified, whether it is carried out by saints or devils. At some point the guardians of a civilization must be prepared to draw the line.
CAIR, ANTIFA, Black Bloc, Occupy, YLF & JBGC
The Prince, Noccolo Machiavelli, 1513:
Among the praiseworthy men, the most praiseworthy are leaders and founders of religions, after came founders of republics and kingdoms..Infamous and detestable, on the other hand are the destroyers of religion, the wreckers of kingdoms and republics, the enemies of virtue, of learning and of every other act that benefits and honors the human race. Such are the irreligious, the violent, the ignorant, the useless, the slothful, the cowardly.
In his 1972 Nobel Prize essay, Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn commented on the riots and disturbances then still raging across America and Europe. “Dostoevsky’s devils,” he warned, “are crawling across the whole world in front of our very eyes, infesting countries where they could not have been dreamed of,” and are “announcing their determination to shake and destroy civilization.”
About a year ago I wrote here of the silliness of the theory. I remain concerned about the effects on education as our teachers are again used as guinea pigs to test various other theories (frequently referred to as "strategies" to promote credibility) designed to counter the potential effects of unconscious or implicit bias. Profesional training is required to implement the strategies. So another professional development (PD) period is added to the myriad of sleep induced PD subjects.
I have many concerns about the left turn the country has taken in last decade or so, but my biggest concern is losing our rights to think and say what we want. Repressed speech begets repressed thought. And we are ending in that direction at a speed I would have never thought possible 50 years ago. Our youth are becoming puppets of non-imagination.
From a November 6 2020 tweet: Emily Abrams (@emabrams)
We’re launching the Trump Accountability Project to make sure anyone who took a paycheck to help Trump undermine America is held responsible for what they did.
Real Democrats don't scare me. While we can count on their policies being bad, there will be opportunities to change those. However, the socialist democrats do scare me. They are too reminiscent of the so-called Terror of the French Revolution. First, they went after their political enemies. That not being enough to quale their bloodthirst, they went after their own, ala Robespierre. Due to the continued failure of our education system, most Americans do not know their own country's history much less than of Europe, so we are doomed to repeat the worst of it. Should Biden win the presidency, he will be but a puppet to the radical social democrats and they have already begun to collect names. So, if you wear/wore a MAGA hat, adorned your yard with a Trump for President sign, or even fly/flew the flag of the United States, stock up on ammo and oil your guns. Do not go down without a fight.
