Camouflaged Vipers

To try to gain legitimacy, Antifa adopts the coloration of a host protest group, like those protesting George Floyd's murder, and at an opportune time emerges from their camouflage to begin wreaking mayhem and anarchy. The embedded video in the linked article clearly shows this tactic in living color. They march with other protesters dressed in shorts and t-shirts, break off to the side and change behind large BLM banners into their black "working" uniforms replete with brass knuckles, body armor, etc., and then emerge to push to the front of the crowd and attack Chicago police officers. This is undoubtedly going on in every other major American riot venue (f.k.a. "American cities under Democrat rule").

Interestingly, these same tactics are used by Leftists around the world to destabilize governments. They are not legitimate protests but are intended to destroy opposition by violence and intimidation. In so doing, they are walking in the footsteps of their Nazi Brownshirt predecessors of the 1930s and the CCP thugs currently in Hong Kong. And this political performance theater is all played out on the "stage" of American cities, inevitably run by Democrats, who are sacrificing their cities, businesses, and citizens, for the "greater good."  

For the rest of us who have never desired to live in places like Nazi Germany or Communist China, it is rapidly approaching critical decision time - do we go along to get along or do we start acting like Americans again and make robust use of the unalienable rights recognized by the Constitution? Many have said that the United States will never fall from a foreign enemy, it is only from within that it could happen. True - and they are knocking at the door. 


https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-chicago-police-release-video-of-antifa-using-protest-as-cover-changing-to-all-black-arming-against-cops

Happy Independence Day

“Critics say that America is a lie because its reality falls so short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.”     Samuel Huntington

Despite all the riots, the lies, the perfidy by politicians, the United States still stands for hope. Stand with her this Independence Day and work toward more perfectly realizing her hope for all in the future. 

Defeating Real Tyranny - June 6, 1944/D-Day

Thank You

Probably Not

As you may know, the case against President Trump's first National Security Advisor has collapsed due to all sort of illegal legal behavior that is really beginning to have a rotten aroma. All of a sudden former President Obama has jumped into the fray, voicing concern about the very foundations of justice being shaken by this clear miscarriage of justice. Yeah right. 

Kyle Smith in National Review draws a pretty telling analogy to test the verity of the former President's alleged concerns:

Picture a racist white FBI agent who hates a black student and became enraged when that teen publicly insulted one of the agent’s close friends. Say the FBI sends two guys over to the teen’s house, claiming it suspects him of being involved in drug trafficking, and starts asking the kid questions in hopes that the kid will lie.

Suppose the FBI does not read the kid his rights before questioning him. Suppose the FBI discourages the kid from hiring a lawyer and tells the kid its investigation is friendly, not an effort to incriminate him. Suppose further that the FBI, after grilling the kid, still doesn’t think he lied (but merely that he forgot details of things he’d been asked about). Suppose the FBI then dragged out the case so long that the kid rang up $5 million in legal bills, then threatened to arrest the kid’s mother. Suppose the FBI withheld exculpatory evidence from the kid’s lawyers and agreed to leave the kid’s mother alone if he pleaded guilty — but didn’t tell the judge about this side deal.

If the teen finally pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements, would Obama then say, “Aha! Justice is served! The kid admits being guilty!”? If the prosecutors, years later, finally dropped the case against the kid, would Obama say, “You begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk” because he thought the kid deserved everything that had happened to him?

Justice you say? The ripe odor of a family of skunks moving into the neighborhood I say.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/dont-shrug-at-obamas-michael-flynn-scandal/

Our Friends in China

Jim Geraghty in National Review's Morning Jolt (4/23/20) commenting on Sen. Tom Cotton's take on where the Covid-19 virus originated:

"It will probably not surprise you to learn I think Senator Tom Cotton has the assessment of the likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 arising from an accidental exposure of a naturally occurring virus just about right:

While the Chinese government denies the possibility of a lab leak, its actions tell a different story. The Chinese military posted its top epidemiologist to the Institute of Virology in January. In February Chairman Xi Jinping urged swift implementation of new biosafety rules to govern pathogens in laboratory settings. Academic papers about the virus’s origins are now subject to prior restraint by the government.

In early January, enforcers threatened doctors who warned their colleagues about the virus. Among them was Li Wenliang, who died of Covid-19 in February. Laboratories working to sequence the virus’s genetic code were ordered to destroy their samples. The laboratory that first published the virus’s genome was shut down, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported in February.

This evidence is circumstantial, to be sure, but it all points toward the Wuhan labs. Thanks to the Chinese coverup, we may never have direct, conclusive evidence—intelligence rarely works that way—but Americans justifiably can use common sense to follow the inherent logic of events to their likely conclusion."

Sounds about right. Will this colossal debacle be enough to wean America from its addiction to cheap Chinese goods? Time will tell but we need to make noise or be assured that politicians and corporations will sneak back for more to line their own pockets instead of looking out for the best interests of the people of this country.

Starting to Think About Takeaways

With the exception of a few large hotspots around the country (NYC region, Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago) it's starting to look like we are turning the corner on the coronavirus plague. Oregon has continued to be relatively lightly impacted. The latest figures show 1,322 confirmed cases with a death rate of only 9 per million population. To give this number some perspective, Oregon had 509 deaths/100,000 population for auto accidents(2017), 160.4/100,000 for cancer (2015) and 134/100,000 for heart disease (2017). Dr. Bud Pierce has been posting a weekly update on how things are going in Oregon with the coronavirus and his most recent report is quite positive. https://youtu.be/fX7_kmmap3w

Taking all this into consideration, it's time to begin thinking about some takeaways:

• The Chinese statistics on coronavirus are baloney. As of this morning, the U.S. is reporting 475,749 confirmed cases. China says theirs hit 82,941and then stopped cold. China has a population 4 times that of the United States. Shanghai's public gathering places shut down completely this week, as did a city in northwestern China. I call bulls*&@#! Not possible. 
• The Chinese are nobody's friend.  From sitting on early reports of how contagious this virus is, to hoarding medical supplies, to threatening to cutoff medical supplies if the U.S. and others didn't sing the Chinese tune, these guys are not anyone's friend. They did the same to the Italians, actually even worse because they sold the Italians back medical supplies that they Italians had donated to China before Italy was hit. China is not delivering ventilators they contracted for to Brazil and the ones sold to England are breaking down frequently. The world's nations consequently need to follow through and make major adjustments in dealing with this government. 
• Governments stockpiling emergency items.  It's not just the Feds. Government down through at least the state level have a critical responsibility to maintain these stocks. Just do it!
• National plan to address a pandemic. My father-in-law worked for Westinghouse at the start of WW II. He told the story of how, on the day after Pearl Harbor, military officers walked through the plant's doors with plans to convert the factory to wartime production of entirely new items. The medical sector has responded well, by and large, in this current crisis, but WWII speed and comprehensiveness is necessary to implement a master plan if and when this situation recurs. 
• The U.S. needs to onshore manufacturing. We got caught with a huge percentage of our medical supplies from medicines to protective gear to equipment being made in China. They did threaten to cutoff our supply lines while we were in crisis and it is simply stupid beyond belief if we don't onshore this sector of manufacturing. We also need a comprehensive study of all manufacturing sectors to determine what is in the national interest to bring home. 
• Globalism is on life support.  And should be. The national interest trumps cheap prices when it comes to key items. There is no duty to make a few mega corporations/tycoons richer by letting them rely on cheap or even slave Chinese labor. We may have to pay a little more for key products made in this country, but when crunch time comes, it will have been a small price to pay.
• Urban density isn't such a good thing. There appears to be a high correlation between high urban density and high incidence of the disease, both here and in Europe. The more spread out we are, the resistant we are to a pandemic. We need to totally rethink land use planning from this new perspective. 

There are undoubtedly many more takeways that will be coming from this situation. It is critical, however, that we not only discuss and vet them, but that we make them. Quickly.