As it happens, Monday last week I was at my county court house renewing my carry license.
Because they figured out how to keep doing their jobs, despite ChinCOVID.
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I listened to a couple of interesting radio shows today on Israel Newstalk radio while I was working outside. One of them was Political Hitman, and the topic was the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The other was The Jay Shapiro show, and his topic was The American Election and Israel.
Both of them dovetail with the dumpster fire we are seeing on a daily basis. The left is fast accelerating from #AspiringTyrants to #Tyrants. They no longer feel they need to hide their agenda and their plans for America. I don’t know if I was ever naive enough to think that the left wanted what was best for America, they just thought there was a different path to achieve it. They don’t want that, they want to destroy her. At the root of their belief system is communism. Communism where everyone is equal. In misery. They all have the same, deprivation, misery and pain. Except of course, the ones at the top, they dine very nicely on the suffering of others. The enabling people always seem to think they will somehow be at the top of the food chain. I guess that’s why they’re called useful idiots.
Then we hear that Venezuela or Cuba, or Russia, or or or didn’t do “socialism” right, or they don’t want that kind of “socialism”. I’ve got a newsflash, there is no “right” and it’s only socialism until the populace is completely defenseless. Then like the biden harris harris biden administration, the mask comes off. You see it’s a very predictable result. And this is from 2006, so it’s higher by now.
The BREATHE Act demands the dismantling of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and immigration detention centers….
would create a commission to study reparations proposals for African Americans, based on “mass criminalization – including the War on Drugs, the criminalization of prostitution, and police violence; border violence; and the systemic violation of the U.S. Government’s treaty obligations to Tribal nations.”….
The legislation calls for the removal of all police, school resource officers, and armed security from schools, plus the metal detectors and surveillance equipment would be banned.
Public school systems would be required to develop curricula that examines “the political, economic, and social impacts of colonialism, genocide against indigenous people, and slavery.”
No mention was made if there will be time for math, science or English classes. Maybe they will be electives.
The left will use the power of the government against it’s citizens in a heartbeat, that’s how they roll.
But one of the most disturbing things I am seeing is the willingness of ordinary people to justify using fear, threats, intimidation and violence to attack people that love America but have a different opinion of politics. I would say they have a different moral compass. Actually, I would say they have a moral compass. Full stop. It’s full on gaslighting. For the last 4 years we’ve been treated to lies from the left and the media during obamagate, the Steele dossier, the fraudulent (and very expensive) impeachment efforts. Attacks on Trump supporters, sometimes enabled by the very law enforcement officers they defend. WATCH: D.C. Cops Direct Trump-Supporters into Gauntlet of Protesters, Do Nothing When They Are Assaulted Let alone the rallies where antifa attacked conservatives and the police stood by on their stand down orders. The Left’s Wanton Violence Against the MAGA Marchers
Wayne County canvassers doxxed and threatened over votes Canvasser Palmer got to listen to someone saying where her children went to school along with the urging people confront them as well. The two canvassers had their information released on line via twitter, home address, phone numbers, email addresses. Seems @jack dorsey wasn’t worried about how they came by that information. The NY Post should sue the heck out of him.
And many of the demoncratic governors are perfectly fine with playing their role by destroying the economy and middle class in their states. Or fiefdom as the case may be.
The Coronavirus may end up killing more jobs and businesses than people.
Of course, the rules are different for the rulers, correct?
California Medical Association Officials Among the Maskless Guests Who Joined Gavin Newsom at Swanky Birthday Dinner Mask-less, too many people, no social distancing, indoors. The works. And apparently the medical profession is just as “concerned” about the Wuhan Flu. The state’s guidelines for Thanksgiving say that residents who don’t cancel their plans should celebrate with not more than 2 other households, keep the time spent together to a minimum and open windows or dine outside.
But across America (the real one) people are beginning to say they’ve had flat enough of this.
But I have news for these elites that think their alliance with the storm troopers of blm and antifa have assured them compliance and victory. It may not be so easy. Antifa wants chaos and anarchy. That means the endgame is no demoncrats as well. Actually I maintain that party died the day pelosi and schumer knelt down wearing kinte cloth in an abject surrender and appeasement.
But the signs are there, you think antifa and blm support harris biden and the rest of the communists?
Like Illan Omar said, they want the destruction of America. Newsome, Cuomo and the lot are just useful idiots.
I find history fascinating. I referenced a Political Hitman episode earlier in this column. In this episode he talked about the Altalena, the ship that was bringing arms and new immigrants to Israel to fight in the battle for Independence. The Irgun had done a campaign in Europe to raise funds and buy arms to fight and the desperately needed supplies were coming in on the ship. Menachem Begin was head of the Irgun, and he was right wing.
David Ben Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin were left wing. They ordered the Altalena attacked. I’ve done a column with more details on that here. But the point Howie was making in the podcast is the left was willing to destroy the arms and ammunition that would win the war for the Jews and secure their homeland in order that the right not be in control of the government of Israel. Including firing on Jews in the water as they jumped from the burning vessel.
They did not succeed in killing Menachem Begin that day, and he called off the fight in order that the country shouldn’t be destroyed. He later became prime minister.
There is little if anything to admire about the left. It’s about power and control, of government, of people.
Menachem Begin faced off with Joe Biden once (at least) on June 22, 1982. There used to be video of this, but I can’t find it now. Go figure. But here was his reply to Hidin’ Biden.
“Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”
Senator Biden reportedly banged the table with his fist, and Begin retorted,
“This desk is designed for writing, not for fists. Don’t threaten us with slashing aid. Do you think that because the US lends us money it is entitled to impose on us what we must do? We are grateful for the assistance we have received, but we are not to be threatened. I am a proud Jew. Three thousand years of culture are behind me, and you will not frighten me with threats. Take note: we do not want a single soldier of yours to die for us.”
If we let the left succeed, we will not recognize America very shortly I’m afraid. The left is about power and control and the people that seem to choose it’s path like to hurt things. People, businesses, religion. So many of them lack information to make wise, informed choices and form honest opinions because the media has abandoned their duty. They are all in now with trying to control people by denying them accurate information and feeding them false information in an attempt to control them and the outcome of events.
As our nation is held hostage by a cabal of corrupt demoncratic operatives a few things come to mind.
The media is attempting their cherry on top coup. For years they’ve pushed their Russian collusion farce when it was Hillary that colluded. Fox news has come out of the closet as cnn light. In fact I’ve heard folks switched over to cnn on election night from Fox because it was LESS biased. But now the media is pushing the lie of President Elect Biden. They have no interest in truth, only in agendas.
And they will tolerate none of their people discussing the rampant attempts at vote fraud taking place. Because you know, a Judge talking about vote fraud, why that’s just crazy!
I don’t know about your area, but in mine you can get NewsMax free with just an antenna. Their election night coverage was far different than fox’s apparently. Fox was slow to call Florida for President Trump, but way too quick to call Arizona for Mr. Biden. Even cnn or msdnc didn’t do that.
So the mainstream media with a couple of exceptions have gone into the (septic) tank, and nobody even had to put a gun to their heads. Judas Goats
Tons of stories of vote fraud in various and sundry forms abound.
Just by the by, I head the postal workers union endorsed Biden. It defies logic that the people of Pennsylvania would vote for a man and his running mate that have promised to eliminate so many of their jobs by banning fracking. Then there will be the cost to the state in terms of lost revenue. If there’s not much income, there’s not much income tax, not to mention people don’t spend. But the socialist/democrat party are willing to hurt any and all in their quest for power. The line is always shifting, flatten the curve>no more cases of Wuhan flu. Energy independence (which we are) > no fracking. Hypocrisy the name of democrats
What I find interesting is the GOP gained seats in the house and held the senate. Yet President Trump would lose? Very odd indeed. Now, I’m not good at statistics, but I found a really interesting column by someone who says he is a retired accountant, and he did audits. This column is fascinating, yes there are some naughty words, but the column is still well worth reading. He lists the number and types of “red flags” as being indicators of fraud.
I’ve heard politicians and radio hosts talk about that even if the demoncrats steal this election we’ve held the senate and in January the two senate seats in Georgia that are facing a run-off election will stay Republican.
Are you kidding me??? If, and I say IF the demoncrats pull off this level of corruption in the voting system, no republican will ever win an election again unless it’s some tame puppet like Mitt Romney. It would do Republicans good to remember all those parades taking place this year were waving TRUMP flags and banners, not pictures of elephants or REPUBLICAN…
Now I understand why demoncrats did all those sound bites about President Trump accepting the results of the election and having to drag him out of the White House. It was just to set up the notion in people’s minds. Just like FakeBook and Twatter started yammering on about how it’s normal for elections to take month. They lay out their scenario and the media pushes the facts into the mold.
And this is why Trump isn’t going anywhere. The Deplorables now have to become The Ungovernables. No more negotiations, discussions, turning the other cheek, etc.
Rabbi told a little joke this morning during services.
Bibi Netanyahu calls up President Trump and says “Wow, all the division, anger, hostility and violence in your country now. I can tell you how to solve this. Let me tell you about the two state solution”.
You know, I’d prefer that to this. Because I really don’t want this.
If you want to pray up on this, here is a little collection of prayers that I got from a group that is praying for him. It’s in Hebrew, Transliterated and English. Prayers for President Trump
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has long been known by the firearms industry and owners as arbitrary, capricious, and full of enough uncertainty to make Werner Heisenberg jealous. And just as Schrödinger had to peer into that box to discover whether cat had perished or lived on, gun owners must wait on the ATF to randomly determine the state of our implements; whether they be guns or piles of ore, and what sort of gun. Even the caliber can change from the ATF’s act of observation.
I can’t tell you how much confidence knowing the FBI is involved in an investigation inspires in me!
They are people of honor, of integrity known for their truthfulness and commitment to through investigation. Their crime solving ability is legendary, right? Criminals know they don’t stand a chance with those reknown sleuths are on their trail! They can’t be fooled, they are relentless and thus we can rest assured that truth, justice and American interests are safely protected in their capable hands.
So I’m sure it is in fact climate change that has set our beautiful forests in Oregon and Kalifornia ablaze. But whatever, we can rest assured, it is not antifa!
The FBI on Friday released a statement addressing viral ‘online rumors’ that political groups like Antifa are setting fires in Oregon.
“FBI Portland and local law enforcement agencies have been receiving reports that extremists are responsible for setting wildfires in Oregon. With our state and local partners, the FBI has investigated several such reports and found them to be untrue. Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away local fire and police agencies working around the clock to bring these fires under control. Please help our entire community by only sharing validated information from official sources.” – the FBI said in a statement.
I recently got a desk calendar book from ArtScroll, and I just love it. At the bottom of every other page is a little something. This was the little something quite recently.
from Pirkei Avot
And this is exactly what we are seeing. Mob rule and elected officials that are scared like rabbits to do their job.
And why you ask, were the peaceful rioters after Jake Gardner? A) He was a volunteer on a Trump Campaign. B) He was accused of white supremacy. Why?
The harassment campaign against Gardner did not begin with the rioter that he shot in self-defense, but it may have been the reason that the mob was at his bar smashing his windows in the first place. For years, the far-left in Omaha has been targeting Gardner for supporting President Donald Trump and for building a third, unisex, bathroom in his bar for transgender customers to use.
….
In 2016, Gardner installed a third bathroom after an altercation between a transgender person and a biological woman took place in the restroom of one of his bars. The story made the local news after major outcry from LGBTQ activists in the city. He explained that a person wearing women’s clothes, but with male genitalia, had urinated standing up in the women’s bathroom, making a woman in there uncomfortable. She confronted the person, who then assaulted her. The attacker was kicked out of the bar and the victim declined to file a police report. That incident made Gardner decide to install a third bathroom, which could be used by people who needed it.
“The last thing I would want to do is hurt a member of (the transgender) community,” Gardner told the Omaha World-Herald at the time. “But people’s feelings are going to be hurt when you bring something up that is sensitive.”
For this the left went after him, attacked his bar (and other establishments) attacked his 71 year old father and him. He shot in self-defense. There is video of Jake trying to defuse the situation.
The left lost their collective minds, he wasn’t going to be charge? They were going to riot. So a grand jury was called.
His friend Sharp confirmed this, and elaborated on the threats against Gardner and his family, both prior to fatal incident with the rioter, and before.
Sharp noted that people were doxxing his mother and that his family was receiving death threats — in no small part thanks to a local activist named JaKeen Fox.
“Bottom line, without pressure from BLM the grand jury would have never been called,” Sharp said. “The leader of that push, JaKeen Fox, wrote tweets saying ‘Rest In Power’ to the Dallas cop killer.”
A “Go Fund Me” account was established for him to pay his legal expenses. Go Fund Me took it down.
“The indictment of Jake Gardner would never have happened without the community, the people, who stood up for justice and demanded action from city officials. Jake Gardner is gone, but the white supremacist attitudes that emboldened him are still with us today,” Hunt tweeted
And this is where we are. Not one single shred of evidence that Mr. Gardner was ever a white supremacist. The Democrats, #AspiringTyrants haven’t been able to abolish the 2nd Amendment (yet) so they will persecute you and prosecute you if you defend yourself. Your fate is subject to mob rule and threats. People are swallowing each other using the force of mobs and corrupt government. The agency responsible for law-enforcement is dirty and running cover for the mobs, and the mobs are preying on honest citizens. R’ Chanina was very wise, and very far-sighted.
One who is merciful to those who are heartless will end up being heartless to those who are merciful.(Midrash Zuta, Midrash Tanchuma, Yalkut Shimoni)
This quotation ia attributed to Resh Lakish, R. Elazar, R. Shimon Ben Levi, R. Yehoshua Ben Levi. It is apparent that this belief was widely held.
The proof brought is from Shaul who against Divine decree, spared Agag, the Amalekite leader, and then seven chapters later Shaul slaughters a town of Kohanim blinded by his jealous rage for David. The Rabbis read I Samuel Chapter 22 in light of what Shaul had done in I Samuel Chapter 15 where Agag is temporarily spared only to be killed by Shmuel.
It is difficult to understand how one’s sympathy even for a heartless monster could cause one to be heartless toward an innocent. Maybe the Sages felt that when one loses a moral compass for right and wrong, cruelty and kind, all things are possible. A moral order requires judgment, and without that, the wrong people will be on the receiving end of ones wrath.
Have you ever wondered what that would look like? How being kind to the cruel could lead you to be cruel to the kind/merciful? I think we are seeing that play out before our very eyes on a daily basis.
And we certainly are not the only country that is seeing the lives of criminals given a higher value than that of their victims, or the victim’s family. In May of this year an Arab Bucket O’Chum living in Israel killed a young Israeli soldier by dropping a cinder block on his head. In Israel the “home” of a convicted terrorist is to be “destroyed”. What that means in real life is the family of the terrorist gets a bucket load of money whilst he is locked up. If the IDF actually does destroy the terrorist’s abode, then the FA (Falestinian Authority) will build them a newer nicer room/house. So, in this case, terrorist was convicted and the “merciful” Israeli high court will not allow the IDF to destroy the room because
The 2-1 decision to overturn the demolition order had the support of Justices Menachem Mazuz and George Kara.
The demolition would have rendered homeless Abu Bakar’s wife and eight children, who were not connected to the attack in any way, both justices said.
It should be satisfactory to seal the room Abu Bakar inhabited, as opposed to demolishing the home that houses nine people, they said.
“The wife and children were not attributed by the claimants to any involvement in the criminal actions of the father – not in any form of assistance, knowledge of intention that the action would take place, nor in retrospective support of [Abu Bakar’s] actions,” Mazuz wrote.
“The perpetrator himself was captured and prosecuted and is expected to serve a lengthy prison sentence, if convicted,” he wrote. “Hence, the demolition of the home is primarily designed to cause damage to his wife and children, who remain living in the home and whose demolition will leave them homeless.”
How nice, how merciful. How cruel.
Ben-Yigal’s girlfriend told Channel 13: “I am ashamed that such people exist in this country. [They] will not destroy the terrorist’s house because his family is ‘innocent’? And what are we? Why do we have to go through this? Do I deserve it? Do his parents, sisters, friends [deserve this]?”
“I have no words, but shame,” she said. “IDF soldiers put their lives on the line so that [the justices] can sleep peacefully at night. But even in their deaths they can’t give them respect? My Amit, I am sorry that you sacrificed your life, and there isn’t even a drop of appreciation and logic.”
Mercy from the left for the terrorist.
In this country we have a member of the Patriot Prayer group who was shot and killed by a member of antifa. I see most of the media labels Patriot Prayer as “right wing”. Right wing? Hmm, what does that mean? Apparently that you want small government that respects individual rights, freedom and are supportive of the police, you love America and acknowledge the G-d of creation. GASP. Boy if anything will get you labeled right wing these days, that’s probably it. I’d link their facebook page, but while BLM and antifa still have a presence of facebook, Patriot Prayer does not. Facebook took it down. Probably to stop the spread of covid. Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon is as morally bankrupt as facebook
With unruly demonstrations in Portland nearing the 100-day mark, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and other Democratic leaders on Thursday called for an end to violence even as federal agents were continuing to arrest protesters who allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers.
“The violence must stop,” Brown wrote. “There is no place for white supremacy or vigilantism in Oregon. All who perpetrate violent crimes must be held equally accountable.”
The statement does not single out the small minority of left-wing protesters who have been setting fires, vandalizing buildings and throwing objects at police. Brown’s spokesman, Charles Boyle, said it “is a collective call to action for an end to violence in Portland and affirms that those who commit violent acts must be held accountable.”
Violence on both sides. Really? The people who see it that way do so because of moral relativism, I believe.
Evidence that moral relativism is seen as more “fair” or “neutral” than a “hardline” stance on morality is seen in a 2002 column from Fox News analyst Bill O’Reilly, who asked “Why is it wrong to be right?” In his article, O’Reilly cites recent Zogby poll findings regarding what is being taught in American universities. Studies indicate 75% of American college professors currently teach that there is no such thing as right and wrong. Rather, they treat the questions of good and evil as relative to “individual values and cultural diversity.” The problem with this, according to O’Reilly, is that “they see the world not as it is, but as they want it to be. And annoying questions about moral absolutes and unacceptable behavior are usually left unanswered.”
To some, and I believe the majority, if not entirety, of the left there is no real right or wrong, no good and bad or evil. Evil is what ever they choose to say it is, for right now. That’s fluid too. I mean, who’d have thought two years ago taking pictures of a black woman off a pancake box because of the color of her skin would be celebrated? Her family is hurt, but hey, it’s all for the greater good. Saving humanity by sacrificing a woman’s accomplishments and some history. It will probably help stop the spread of covid too.
But some of the left’s absence of morals has become the “new normal”. The “new normal” where they get to decide who, and who’s life matters.
I’m not sure which of the reasons was compelling enough for “Judge” Amy Baggio to let this guy loose. The times he didn’t show up in court, didn’t pay his fines, was driving 111 mph with his daughter in the car as he was racing his son on the freeway who was driving another car. Whichever of those reasons “Judge” Amy found compelling enough, she set him free to go kill. Does that make her an accessory?
In Provo, Utah, a group of armed Black Lives Matter terrorists surrounded a vehicle at an intersection. The driver would not exit the vehicle to be beaten by the mob. One of the BLM activists pulled a gun and demanded the driver come out, when the driver refused the terrorist opened fire shooting the driver. The driver hits the gas and tries to escape, the terrorist fires through the rear window as another armed terrorist joins the fray from the opposite side of the street. According to local media, police are determining whether to charge the driver of the vehicle for not complying with the mob’s demand for the beating; thereby putting the other terrorists at risk. “It’s unclear if the driver of the SUV who was shot is facing any possible charge for driving through the protesters after being shot.”
I’m sad this is even a tiny conundrum for the police, because it really shouldn’t be. Because the rioters matter and the innocent person just trying to get somewhere and use the streets his taxpayer dollars paid for does not matter. Per the left, the propaganda arm #MSM #FakeNews #MediaLiesMatter, the Political arm #Democrats #Socialists #Communists and their military arm #blm #antifa. #BidenHarrisRiots
Portland rioter Phillip Lawrence Nelson was arrested for a double murder just one week after Portland officials let him out of jail for interfering with a peace officer. The rioting charges were dismissed and he was out on the street the next day. One week later he committed a double murder.
He was a rioter, and therefore worthy to be turned loose. The kids he killed, ah well.
A 32-year-old accused felon committed another violent assault against an innocent man after being bailed out by the nonprofit funded by Biden’s staffers.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund received $35 million in donations during the George Floyd riots and Biden’s campaign staffers were among the people who made substantial donations.
Kamala was soliciting, there’s a tweet from Biden’s VP candidate asking for people to send money to the group to bail rioters out of jail. Thereby sparing them the consequences of their actions.
Brandon Straka and his #WalkAway movement held a rally in Dallas, Texas today. During the rally the local Black Lives Matter mob stormed the stage. The young BLM Democrat then put his fist in the security guard’s face when he was forcibly removed from the stage area. That’s when the black security guard leveled the BLM terrorist and tossed him away from the area.
Police came and arrested the #WalkAway security guard.
Did the security guards black life not matter? Like David Dorn’s black life didn’t matter? Did the people exercising their right to free speech matter? Nope, Dallas chooses only thugs get free speech.
In addition to terrifying diners in restaurants, they also climbed onto homes and tried to break into apartment buildings.
So if your restaurant has managed to survive the Fauci WuhanFlu lockdown, and you are just now getting diners back, who can only dine outside of course, because, you know, the covid, your diners will now be staying home in droves because who wants to pay money to go out and be attacked by the military arm of the Democratic-Socialist party? Democrats, betraying business owners for years. So do the lives and livelihoods of the law-abiding citizens just trying to run their business or have a treat and eat out matter? Nope, only thugs matter.
Mercy from the left for the destroyers.
What about the Kenosha riots, the man who started it all. Jacob Blake, the Sainted Jacob Blake that the left so mourns his fate. How did he wind up in such unfortunate circumstances?
Well, let’s see in May he committed domestic violence, stole the victims car and credit card. She had a restraining order and he came back, broke in and raped her as she was in bed with one of her children. She called the cops and they came. There is more to it than that even. The fact that he was unfazed by two tasers and they police couldn’t wrestle him to the ground makes me think PCP.
So, her life, the lives of her kids are unimportant to the left. Only the thug’s life, not hers. Never try to tell me #MeToo and #BelieveAllWomen is a real thing on the left. They couldn’t care less about women. It’s all political theater. I’d feel worse for his victim except she is now calling herself his fiance and suing the city of Kenosha. They had never lived together despite the 8 years and 3 kids they had together. As President Trump went to Kenosha to meet with business owners and law enforcement officers, Kamala the VP candidate from the Demoncratic-Socialist party met with the criminal, Jacob Blake. Ah well, each knows their voting base, right?
See, thugs, blm and antifa (the military arm of the Democratic-Socialist party) have no fear of law-enforcement. None. And this doesn’t bode well for law-abiding citizens. Some blm/antifa shut down a bridge in Washington, not in Seattle. To their shock, the Washington state police arrested one and hauled him out of his car. This despite being threatened by another blm not to touch him. The Washington State police did their job and arrested more than one. And even as they were arresting them this one little thugette was stomping around, yelling, threatening and was already on the phone making arrangements for lawyers and bail money. They knew they wouldn’t be doing much time. The people they inconvenienced trying to get to their jobs? Meh, who cares right?
Democrat District Attorney Diane Becton from Contra Costa, California ordered attorneys to consider the looter’s needs before filing charges against looters in their community. Becton was funded by George Soros groups by the tune of $275,000 in her race for District Attorney.
They’ll get arrested and get right back out. The police know this, especially if there is a Demoncratic DA. So why should they risk ruining their lives for nothing, right? There are cops I’m sure and so frustrated, and some probably scared. It’s a brave new world, right? The store owners, and innocent people injured in the looting and rioting, they don’t matter to the Democratic-Socialist party so much, only thugs.
Destroying law and order, businesses, lives and civilization just another day in the life of the aspiring Democratic-Socialist party members.
Actually the #BidenHarrisRiots aren’t the first attempt at destroying lives and achieving Cloward and Piven. And Cloward-Piven Strategy Explained. The Wuhan flu with Demoncrats continuing lockdowns (except from San Fran Nan’s hair salon, of course) have really moved the needle towards Cloward-Pivin. Convenient that, and the propaganda/media very helpful on that end as well.
Glenn Beck did quite a good series on Cloward and Piven. Here is part one, it looks like there are 4 parts. This was done back in 2010, and it’s more relevant than ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dnLgTo6MU
Well, well. That 4 part video series is now gone, but this one is still there.
To the merciful left, Wuhan Flu is not even a conundrum. One covid death is too many. This is so important that they’ve padded the deaths. Why would they do that? Because Democratic-Socialists love power and control .
The hypocrisy should be staggering. Little Mom and Pop businesses struggling to survive, law-abiding citizens not allowed to visit or have yard parties, attend religious services without limits but rioters are given a pass, and politicians even join them. Limited taxpayer dollars on spent on street art glorifying the criminals, while law-abiding taxpayers are not even safe to drive on them. Because parasitic politicians know they can go back and bleed the taxpayer for more funds to redistribute to their favorite social justice cause.
It’s not just the loss of jobs, the end of school for children or the nonstop panic the mainstream is stirring up in an effort to knock out President Trump.
The COVID-19 panic is having even more profound effects on the American society.
“The number of people looking for divorces was 34 percent higher from March through June compared to 2019, according to new data collected Legal Templates, a company that provides legal documents,” Fox News reported.
In their merciful zeal to not lose even one life to covid (co-morbidity or not) the left is willing to destroy pretty much everything else.
Up until this point there had been no simple, rigorous analysis that accurately and definitively conveys the true costs of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Accordingly, Revolver News set out to commission a study to do precisely that: to finally quantify the net damage of the lockdowns in terms of a metric known as “life-years.” Simply put, we have drawn upon existing economic studies on the health effects of unemployment to calculate an estimate of how many years of life will have been lost due to the lockdowns in the United States, and have weighed this against an estimate of how many years of life will have been saved by the lockdowns. The results are nothing short of staggering, and suggest that the lockdowns will end up costing Americans over 10 times as many years of life as they will save from the virus itself.
The left who pride themselves on being liberal, tolerant, accepting, kind and merciful have become authoritarian, rife with cancel culture shutting down free speech. You’re not allowed to say anything contrary to their narrative. And if you don’t say what they demand you say upon cue, you may be physically harmed. In public no less. No worry about repercussions on their end. The merciful left are bullies attacking when they feel themselves immune from consequences legal, ethical or moral because they do not have a moral compass. The media is complicit. Don LeMONE opined on some left wing TV station that maybe Biden should say something about the riots. Not because people were being killed, not because businesses and livelihoods were being destroyed but because of …polling. Again, to the left only power matters, not lives. I don’t care what color they are. Because unlike the left, conservatives are not racist.
In who the left chooses to show kindness, the are most assuredly showing cruelty to the kind.
Gropin’ Joe and Senator Kneepads seem convinced that this time “gun control” — victim disarmament — will be a winner with the voters, unlike every other presidential election for the past few decades. That’s going to be a tough sell in an age of perpetual“mostly peaceful protests, lefty politicians releasing criminals, standing down and defunding police, and millions of people looking around and deciding this is a good time to finally buy a gun.
That might fly in Dimwit-controlled urban criminal factories, but it’s less popular in fly-over country. But I think Joe/Hoe 2020 can successfully rephrase that for middle America.
Amusingly, Trump could use that message to get re-elected.
[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]
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I may have mentioned, just in passing from time to time, that I have serious doubts about much of what we’ve been told about the Wuhan Flu. I may have mentioned, just in passing from time to time that I have serious concerns about the amount of power the government is grabbing based on the latest glop falling out of the mouth of Anthony Fauci who enables and encourages this sort of tyrannical behavior. I may have mentioned, just in passing from time to time that I fear for our future as I see people who will probably never “feel safe” leaving home if they aren’t wearing a mask and everyone around them isn’t wearing one. I have grieved the catastrophic losses farmers have faced having to plow under crops and kill off livestock. I have watched in shock as the government has seized small businesses away from owners, sometimes families that have held on to a business through the depressions only to see it shut down in one swift pitiless swoop. You need government to get a car title, a driver’s license and other transactions. Those services are basically unavailable. You can call and leave messages, you will not be called back. You can make an appointment, however to do that someone has to answer the phone. Your questions will most likely be unanswered unless you might get lucky with a chat bot. Welcome to communism. Long lines for almost non-existent but required government services. Store shelves that are sometimes empty and sometimes stocked have become the norm. And prices? Well, what do people think will happen when a large part of the food crop has been disrupted and wasted, cause, you know, covid and safety. Meanwhile as prices go up, there is massive unemployment because you know, covid and safety. The MSM #FakeNews breathlessly announces “spike in covid cases” and unless it has to do with a Trump rally seems shocked or smugly satisfied depending on how they are spinning that story. Why is this a shock? Darn near every hospital has a “covid testing” program? They will test anyone and everyone. What is interesting to me is the callers to radio shows I’ve heard that said they made an appointment to be tested, went to be tested, waited as long as they could to be tested and left without being tested at all only to be notified later they tested positive. And it has now come out that some facilities are reporting 100% positives, because they haven’t reported any of their negative results. Florida’s COVID Positivity Rate is Skewed – Countless Labs Are Reporting 100% Positivity Rate – Medical Centers Admit REAL Rate is 9% Or Less!
What if, I told you that this whole pandemic is mostly a scamdemic meant to influence the election and seize power? I mean, it’s not like the radical leftists are above lying to try. Russian Collusion anyone? But when frightened with death, it seems people become quite compliant. And with tyrannical governors and mayors threatening people for going out without wearing a mask, or for going to religious services all the while doing the things they deprive their lowly subjects of doing one should really wonder, WTH? Is it just me or is anyone else wondering since the worst of it is suppose to be over, why is Walmart NOW requiring everyone to wear a mask? Cities in the midwest with low infection rates are deciding to force everyone to wear a mask. It’s like a demented game of Simon Says. Massachusetts is considering a permanent mask requirement according to a friend of mine held captive in the state.
Permanent masks? Really?
Now the World Health Organization wants people to quit using nice anonymous cash, and use those nice traceable cards for all purchases. Not that probably half of the US will be upset at being traced. They willing loaded those tracing apps onto their phones. So they can be slapped into lockdown again and again if they were exposed to someone, possibly based on one of those faulty tests?
Deaths were counted as covid because they may have had covid with they finally succumbed to the battle with terminal cancer they had fought for the last 5 years. We will never know the actual death toll.
Remember how “Hands up don’t shoot” turned out to be a lie in the Michael Brown case that set the town of Ferguson Mo on fire? Well, in the rush to judgment in the George Floyd case, it seems a couple of things have been left out of the media narrative. Those things are called facts. Or Did George Floyd Die of a Drug Overdose? A word about this site, I’d never heard of it, a buddy of mine was trying to post some article from unz to facebook, facebook blocks it. At once. So I tried, yep, blocked. Definitely some anti-Semitic content on there, but there was this when I was checking out what kind of a website immediately violates facebook’s delicate sensibilities. Toxicology reports are interesting. So over yet another lie, cities have been burned, people have been murdered, all over a potentially false narrative.
This article is long, really long, but please read it. It’s by Angelo Codevilla who is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute and professor emeritus of International Relations at Boston University. It details the amount of lies, the types of lies and a good reason for why we’ve been fed the lies about the Wuhan Flu. And most importantly, it gives some excellent suggestions for what the remedy could be. Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a “new normal”. Especially not when it has been forced down our throats for no good reason.
The U.S. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) modeled the authoritative predictions on which the U.S. lockdowns were based. Its model also predicted COVID deaths for un-locked-down Sweden. On May 3 it wrote that, as of May 14, Sweden would suffer up to 2800 daily deaths. The actual number was below 40. Whether magnifying this falsehood was reckless or willful, it amounted to shouting “fire!” in a crowded theater. What justifies listening to, and paying, people who do that kind of science?
Establishing any infectious disease’s true lethality is characteristically straightforward: test a large sample of the population proportionately representative of location, age, sex, race, socioeconomic categories. Follow up with the subjects a month later to add up the rate of infections and learn the results thereof. Period. Today, we still lack this definitive, direct knowledge of COVID’s true lethality because bureaucrats have prevented widespread testing for the purpose of firmly establishing the one figure that matters most. That is because that figure’s absence allows them to continue fearmongering.
In May the Centers for Disease Control, by then discredited professionally (though not, alas, in the mass media), was forced to conclude that the lethality rate, far from being circa 5% was 0.26%. Double a typical flu. The CDC was able to keep the estimate that high only by factoring in an unrealistically low figure for asymptomatic infections—never mind inflated figures for deaths. But the U.S. government, instead of amending its recommendations in the face of reality, tried to hide reality by playing a shell game with the definition and number of COVID “cases.”
The less than honest Fauci
Snippet 2, the solution
Senator Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) Committee on Government Affairs, with oversight over the Centers For Disease Control, can set the record straight about how its relationship with China’s laboratories, with the World Health Organization and with the Chinese government itself has shaped how the U.S. government has dealt COVID. The CDC having grasped enormous powers over American life, the Committee can inquire about the level of expertise it has brought to its task. What, if anything, justifies its claim to scientific management? The Committee can also audit how the CDC’s expenditure of funds and efforts among a variety of political, non-health topics affected its readiness to deal with the recurrence of viruses from exotic places.
Its subcommittee on Oversight and Emergency Management, under Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), himself a physician, is well placed to expose who knew what about the COVID-19 virus, when they knew it, who told the public what, and on what basis. The public has noted with dismay the discrepancy and contradictions about COVID-19 from supposedly medical experts, most prominently by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
And these are only the first two listed. There are more, and they make sense. This needs to happen, and it would be good if it happened this way so that the frightened people will have a chance to see they’ve been lied to by politicians using their fear to control them, and, I would say entrap them. There needs to be a clear message this will never happen again. Otherwise this is going to become the default reaction. They will use fear of health and private businesses will be seized again, unemployed will skyrocket, along with the suicides and cases of domestic violence. Hunger due to mismanagement still faces us. There needs to be criminal prosecution. For the murders committed by #KillerCuomo, and the other governors who shoved Wuhan Flu patients into nursing home.
The CDC recently revised its death rate estimate down to just 0.4 percent.
One percent of counties in the country account for nearly half of all Covid-19 deaths nationally.
Ten percent of counties account for nearly 90 percent of all deaths.
Roughly 30 percent of the counties in the country haven’t experienced a single coronavirus death.
Nearly half of all coronavirus deaths have come in nursing homes.
In many states, nursing homes and assisted living facilities account for far more than half of all deaths—around 80 percent in Minnesota and around 70 percent in Ohio.
#KillerCuomo
I heard on a radio show this morning about an apartment building in Ventura county that locked down a 7 story apartment building containing mostly elderly and behavioral issue tenets. Mandatory testing, and no one allowed in or out, their card keys were instantly deactivated. Sort of like a red flag law of apartment buildings. No consideration was given to how these people were suppose to get food or other necessities of life. Just done with no process or warning. I suspect after the story started hitting national airwaves they reversed direction as the order as automagically been lifted.
I saw a meme on facebook: I asked my doctor when the Covid-19 pandemic would end. He said how should I know, I’m a doctor not a politician!
Yes, we’ve been living with a plague, but it’s a plague of lies and I’m sick of it.
In my last column I discussed how Communist Russia planned to take over America, via information revealed by Yuri Bezmenov, KGB defector. But this Marxism has many tentacles, so much evil has come together that the pot has more than boiled over.
I listened to a podcast recently from Avi Abelow, Avi was a compatriot of Ari Fuld’s HY”D. In this episode he had Barry Shaw, Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israeli Institute for Strategic Studies as his guest. Barry was discussing the threat BLM poses to the America of the past. It’s a show well worth listening to.
I personally don’t know anyone that supports racism, thinks it’s a good idea or wants more of it. But since the election of Barry Sotero which was supposed to show that racism in America was being healed it’s gotten worse. Barry took the chance to foment racial division, the war on Police and the take over of large parts of the economy ie the cellphone industry and healthcare to name a couple. I support an end to racism, going all directions.
Of course, some forms are acceptable. From January 2020
I do think some are unaware of what Black Lives Matter really stands for, and what their goals are. Yes, black lives matter, ALL lives matter. Apparently that is now a rraaaccciiisst statement. But one of the things Barry Shaw brought out was the founding and founders of BLM.
“We actually do have an ideological frame,” Cullors said. “Myself and Alicia are particularly trained organizers — we are trained Marxists. We are super versed on ideological theories…”
You know, if statures of Lincoln and George Washington, Ulysses Grant and an abolitionist are being torn down, it’s a pretty good clue this has nothing to do with slavery. Remember just a few short years ago when people opined that the attacks on statues would soon extend past those of the Confederacy and the Confederate flag to others and they were told to take off their tin foil hats? Maybe they should get an apology, huh? It was never about that, it was about boiling frogs.
But Black Lives Matter web site still repeats the tired old lies, I guess they think everyone watches #FakeNews so they don’t know any better. From their about us page, I’m not linking to it.
BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer
Trayvon was beating a guy’s head against a sidewalk, most folks don’t take kindly to that.
From their what we believe page
We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.
Huh? What exactly does destroying the family unit do to promote “social justice” or help improve the lives of blacks?
Enraged by the death of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, and inspired by the 31-day takeover of the Florida State Capitol by POWER U and the Dream Defenders, we took to the streets. A year later, we set out together on the Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride to Ferguson, in search of justice for Mike Brown and all of those who have been torn apart by state-sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism.
So, either their beliefs are delusions, or they just lie and don’t think folks will question them, because to do so is rrraaaccciiisttt. As previously stated, most folks don’t take kindly to having their heads bashed against sidewalks, and Mike Brown was trying to take an officer’s sidearm away from him. Hands up don’t shoot never happened. Wilson was cleared by Sotero’s justice department, and if they could have got him, they would have.
The number and race of people killed by the police
Then there is blaming only white people for slavery. Well, actually no. Prior to Anthony Johnson’s lawsuit in the British court system in 1655 (Before the War for Independence) didn’t matter if you came from Ireland or Africa, you served seven years and were set free with a little grub stake of some sort. But that changed with Anthony Johnson’s lawsuit. Anthony Johnson was a black former slave who had earned his freedom in just that way. He also had 4 white indentured servants, but there is no record after the first lawsuit if he also kept them as slaves. So, the first legal slave owner in America, was a black man. Nor was he the only one.
Krisanne Hall JD, has an excellent YouTube channel and this is part of this episodes lecture. “Black men and women were free before America was even free from Great Britain”.
The Democrat party is dead. This, this is the day it died.
The Democrat party lost to the leftists, who lost to the progressives who have now lost to the communist/marxist influence. It’s dead, stick a fork in it, the modern Democrat party is the party of Lenin, Marx and Stalin.
So, if all this really isn’t about “systemic racism” what is it about?
It’s about fundamentally changing America. While Sotero was in office, it became forbidden to say anything about Islam or Muslims. You were labeled Islamaphobic. This charge completely ignored the fact that people were upset and enraged at the actions of those committing terrorist acts. So many of them were muslims, and the cry of Allie’s Snack Bar became well known. Which, just by the by, does not mean “G-d is great” as the media dutifully repeated. It means “Allah is greater”, meaning greater than the whimpy G-d of the Jews and Christians.
Now it is forbidden to say anything about the rioting, looting, violence and destruction because that’s rrraaaccciiiiissst. Well, I have news, a bunch of those doing the rioting,looting, violence and destruction are white leftists. And I’m pretty sure the shop owners and people attacked and burned out of their homes don’t care about the color of the person lighting the match.
Something else people may not realize is BLM’s alliance with Hamas. Sort of explains their trip to Gaza a few years ago doesn’t it? I was surprised at the time, not realizing the depth of BLM’s knowledge of middle eastern affairs. But it wasn’t about that. I’m not sure how old this article is, but it’s well worth reading. Hamas and Black Lives Matter: A marriage made in hell
Bazian once publicly called for an “intifada” in America. In the Media he claimed he was speaking rhetorically, but what is happening now is in fact his “intifada” coming to fruition. The race riots in Ferguson, in Baltimore and Milwaukee and the shooting of police officers in Dallas and elsewhere in the country are finally importing the violence Israel faces every day. And it will probably only get worse because these events are not designed to promote discourse but rather to bring down the current society. In Israel, it is to end a Jewish state in the Arab-Muslim umma. In America, it is to gain control of our government to facilitate the attacks on Israel and eventually subvert the rule of law in the U.S.
Terrorism is a business for Hamas, and business is booming. An alliance with Black Lives Matter is creating an even bigger business.
According to Diana West, “here is more on Antifa/jihad connections from Edward Klein’s book, All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump. Note that in Portland they were chanting, “Allah-u Akbar, smash these Nazi scums.”….
On numerous occasions, Antifa has openly threatened to massacre American patriots and even President Trump. This group is one of Obama’s legacies, created to inflict more pain on the American people. “Eight years of Obama’s leadership has left America demonstrably weaker and more divided. Rather than the promised “healing”—racial and other—the Obama era frayed the ties that bind us.”
Yes, yes I’d say it does provide a cover for jihad.
It started with George Zimmerman, self-defense became a crime to be tried in the court of public opinion, and considering the number of people who listen to #FakeNews and believe it, that’s a big pool.
Then came the jihadi attacks and charges of Islamaphobia. Now the attacks on the police, businesses and people bring charges of racism when people (of any color) complain.
McClosky said one of the militants pulled out a loaded pistol magazine and clicked them together and said ‘you’re next.’
“We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened. It was, it was about as bad as it can get,” McCloskey said.
McCloskey believes that the only thing that stopped the crowd from approaching his home was his rifle.
Emphasis mine. The couple has now been doxxed. Irony of ironies, he’s an attorney who has represented alleged victims of police brutality. The mob didn’t care. Because it’s not about police brutality either.
They couple that protected their dog, their home and their lives by arming up against the “peaceful” BLM mob may now face charges. Did you catch earlier where I said this happened in St. Louis? Well, the prosecutor in that town is the corrupt Kim Gardner who apparently hasn’t been brought up on charges yet, but she still may be over her handling of the case against the former Governor. The case with former Gov Eric Greitens was covered here.
So for those elected officials that are all in favor of de-funding the police, watching elitism is an interesting thing isn’t it? To be part of the elitist privileged. You know who avails themselves of it? The communist/marxists.
A police report obtained by DailyMail.com showed that Chiara was among those arrested for refusing to move off the road and throwing objects at NYPD officers.
“Peacefully” mayor? I do not think that word means what you think it means.
“This security service is intended to be temporary and bridge to other security measures implemented by council members themselves,” city spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie said Monday.
McKenzie said the city has spent $63,000 over the past three weeks for security service for three council members. She said contracts for less than $175,000 typically do not need public approval from council, and they do not expect these expenses to surpass that threshold.
For the past 11 days, each of 16 city council members — with the lone exception of Councilman Alan Domb — have had three city detectives working 8 hour shifts every 24 hours to provide them with private security. Since May 30th, some 48 plainclothes detectives were paid to sit in unmarked police cars outside the homes of City Council members. That’s instead of going out to investigate crimes, or obtain search warrants and arrest warrants. The estimated cost of the City Council security detail: about $178,000 without including the costs of overtime….
“They think Donald Trump is going to reimburse the city because they declared an emergency,” one cop cracked. “What a f*cking joke.”
Especially when you consider that every chance he gets, Mayor Jim “Sanctuary City” Kenney does nothing but trash Trump.
Except it won’t be President Trump, it will be us, U.S. the people who have been hit hard with unemployment, loss of business first due to the Wuhan Flu and then due to the riots. I object to ANY federal money being spent to bail out these lame brains. They caused the problem with their policies and decisions, they can find their own solutions. It’s not our job to fix their mess. Elections have consequences.
So what will the police be replaced with? I mentioned this briefly in Russian Collusion, but since Minneapolis is Illan Omar country, one option may be “community policing”. After all, it’s already in place in NYC. Unlike the Jewish and Asian groups that worked with the police on setting up their community patrol, the muslim group who had cars marked just like the NYPD and uniforms made to look like the NYPD did not work with the NYPD.
When the actual police are scared to do their job, or their hands are tied by elected officials how do people think this is going to turn out? Look at a few of the linked columns above and you will know. When the poor officer who is being sacrificed to the whims of the mob in Atlanta is tried, what will be the result? Because no matter the outcome, there will be riots, burning and looting. In other words, more “peaceful protests”. At some point officers are going to lay down their badge and say enough, I’m going to take care of my family and that’s it.
What is it the mob wants? For us to be so cowed we can no longer express opinions, we can no longer have debates, it will be their way……or else. We are living in an American Intifada.
“They don’t have a right to object. That is the rule and that is the regulation, and they have to comply with that.’ Governor Andrew Cuomo (Democrat, New York), in forcing nursing homes to take COVID-19 patients, resulting in thousands of nursing home deaths, NBC News, 4/25/20. On May 17, when questioned about his decisions, reports RedState, Cuomo said: ‘Older people, vulnerable people, are going to die from this virus. That is going to happen…[W]e can’t keep everyone alive”.1
They drank the Kool Aide
“We’re all in this together” is a government slogan oft repeated by its witless mouthpieces: movie stars, professional athletes, entertainers, and elite cultural dilettantes. Unlike waitresses, hair stylists, restaurant and hotel workers, officials who slammed businesses shut still receive a check squeezed from the taxes of those they put out of work. Where is the “we” in all this suffering? Is it government of the people when officials can strike at any moment, like a cobra, destroying the lives and businesses Americans labored long and hard to build? We?
“Question Authority” was the de rigueur bumper sticker pasted on the Volvos of Bay area liberals when I was a policeman2 in California.
Question Authority
Having metamorphosed from the larval to the adult stage of the liberal life cycle, they now are the authority and chief dispensers of government KoolAid. Those who once urged Americans to question government authority now wield the club of censorship beating down voices that…question authority. Citizens who dare to exercise their Bill of Rights, they arrest. “Drinking the KoolAid” is a phrase with horrific antecedents and it is instructive to reprise its origin.
[Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor a theologian. Observations with respect to denominational practices are for elucidation only].
Jim Jones, a self-avowed communist, grew up a bright charismatic young man in Indiana. His Marxist views were well known but proved no impediment to the Methodist Church’s District Superintendent ordaining him a minister. His support for racial integration in the 1950s was another matter. Methodist leaders asked him to leave so Jones formed his own church, the “Wind of Deliverance”.3 While attending big-tent revivals, he learned the lucrative connection between experiential based religion and fundraising. Jones adopted those methods.4
In 1965, Jones renamed his church the Peoples Temple and moved it to San Francisco where he adopted the name “The Prophet”. By the mid-1970s, Jones was rich and hobnobbed with powerful state politicians and mover and shakers. Newspaper journalists learned from ex-cult members there was a dark side to the Peoples Temple and began investigations. Reports of embezzlement, stealing church member’s money, and drug use, began circulating in newspapers. Fearing legal consequences, in 1977 Jones moved his cult to Guyana, South America where he established Jonestown as a socialist agricultural commune. He ruled it with an iron fist. He confiscated drivers’ licenses and passports and meted out punishment for rules infractions including beatings and interning people in dirt holes. Family members stateside heard these stories and pressured their Congressman to investigate. On November 14 1978, California U.S. Representative Leo Ryan led an unofficial delegation to Jonestown. Four days later, his work finished, Ryan, his entourage, and 14 defectors, headed to the local airstrip. Jones feared what they would reveal so he ordered the Ryan party assassinated. His hit squad attacked at the airstrip murdering the Congressman and four others. When Jones learned the others escaped, he knew they would head straight for the police. He decided mass suicide was the only answer. His lieutenants mixed up a concoction of Flavor Aid and cyanide.5 They filled cups for the obedient and syringes for the reluctant. When the Guyanese police arrived, they found 913 dead cult members, 276 of which were children. Jones was dead by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head.6 Over time, the term “drinking the Kool Aid” came to mean people who accept, embrace, and believe what political organizations, union leaders, the media, and so forth, tell them uncritically, rejecting evidence to the contrary. For them, propaganda is gospel.
This past Saturday I entered an almost empty Ace Hardware store. By the time I made it to the checkout counters, the store was packed out. I stood in line behind a sullen faced middle-aged man wearing a black United Auto Workers Union Ford T-shirt. Once at the counter, he told the teenaged Asian girl behind a plastic shield, to spray the counter before he would touch it. When she asked a colleague where the bottle was, he became angry. “You don’t know where it is means you are not spraying down the counter between each customer,” he barked angrily at her. He was wearing no mask. I wanted to yell, “Drop the Kool Aidand leave her alone you Coroniac!”
I am stunned by the willingness of Americans to drink the government’s Kool Aid with respect to edicts that have eviscerated the economy and imprisoned people in their homes. Even churches have fallen in line without questioning the efficacy and legality of these diktats. Who is asking how executives, be they mayors, county executives, governors, or the president, acquired legislative powers to make laws to which are appended police enforcement? Who is asking if government is violating the Bill of Rights? Who is asking if government lockdown edicts are constitutional? Even so-called reopening policies reflect ingestion of government’s Kool Aid.
Great Clips Hair Salons require online appointments. They have removed waiting room chairs. Once there, patrons must wait in hot cars until summoned by a stylist. Ten people may have their haircut at one time but they cannot permit two or three to wait in the lounge, masks or not? Many doctor, dentist, and physical therapy offices permit only patient entry. If chauffeured, drivers must remain in their cars, in the heat, unable to find a bathroom mask or no mask. A young man I know passed his driver’s test. In order to complete the process at the license bureau, he had to book an appointment online. The problem is they are booked for over a month. However, they allow “walk-ins”. This requires people to line up and wait until the end of the day. He waited five hours, in 90+-degree heat, outside. His father waited two hours in his car. The closest bathroom is behind a dumpster. This is safe? “Customers”, when they finally make it inside, are required to wear a mask. Clerks behind the counter are and were not. Rumors several people died and those waiting in line simply stepped over their bodies remain unsubstantiated. Government requires people to have a driver’s license and then makes no provision for them to do so under less than inhumane conditions. They do not care. They are the government.
A Baptist pastor with whom I am acquainted sent an email to church members detailing protocols for reopening. He admonished members to trust and obey his and the leadership team’s decisions. He based protocols on the “wisdom” of local political officials, upon whom he “leaned” along with the word, prayer, and “discernment and discretion to lead G-d’s church each step of the way”. He removed 100 chairs from the church auditorium to enforce “social distancing”. Considering this church is typically packed out, members arrive early to save seats and even rows for habitually tardy family members and friends, where will they sit? Coffee is no longer available in the Coffee House. Why? Does Red China’s Virus contaminate the boiling hot water? More likely, Church leaders cannot trust adults to obey County edicts limiting human gatherings to ten or less. Apparently, “science” has determined if 10 people or less congregate, they are safe but add one more, and they all die. A “Welcome Team” will be at the entry door, armed with clipboards, taking down names of attendees. Why is that, so the church will know whom to contact if someone later tests positive? Who does the contact tracing, the Church or government officials? The pastor did not say. Forget nursery and Sunday school classes. Canceled. The ten-people rule? Where will they go, the auditorium?7
This Church prohibits all forms of physical social interaction including handshakes and hugs. Does this include family members who live together, arrive together, and sit together? They do not say. They banned early entry. Would be seat-savers must line up, six feet apart, at the one entry door. Ushers will ensure proper government mandated distancing. Only one person may enter at a time. What is the rationale for six feet as opposed to seven, or eight, or twelve? When I move up in line, taking the place of the man who was in front of me, won’t I enter the wake of his exhalatory backwash? Social distancing applies to potty breaks as well. Ushers guard bathroom doors to ensure members, standing in lines inevitably long, maintain proper separation. Worse, they allow only one person in at a time. One person at a time? Bathroom guards had better collect cellphones, makeup, and magazines or it could get ugly. Ushers wipe down bathroom doors and knobs between each use but not toilet handles or sink faucets. For Diabetics who often most go frequently, these protocols are untenable. Church dismissal is single file with each person maintaining proper distance. The pastor writes that Romans 13: 1-2 requires people to obey their secular rulers (city, county, state, and federal). Remarkably, the church requires no one to wear a mask. This is truly odd. He adds that Ephesians 4 requires members to preserve unity by supporting and obeying these reopening rules.8 One wonders, who made them, the DMV?
Policies like those of hair salons, doctor’s and government offices, and churches are feel good window dressing. They calm Henny Pennys and placate politicians who revel in fashioning red tape and hoops through which people must jump. If the pandemic remains that deadly, why reopen at all? If infections reappear, does that mean these measures failed? Then what, close forever? If to ask these questions engenders anger in response, is it because those imposing draconian protocols share no interest in their efficacy and legality? Where to begin with respect to Biblical support for unquestioning obedience and asking no questions. We begin with the New Testament Bereans.
Acts 17 finds Paul, formerly Saul a Pharisee, on a missionary tour through Greece and Asia Minor. On this mission, Paul visits various synagogues where he discusses and debates with local Jews over who Jesus is. When it became unsafe for Paul to remain in Thessalonica (modern day Greece), the brethren sent him to Berea. The Jews in this Greek town were renowned for studying everything they read, including the Scriptures, and testing their veracity.9 I will follow this model.
In Romans 13: 1-2, Paul writes, “Everyone is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For these is no authority except from G-d, and those which exist, are established by G-d. Therefore whoever resists has opposed the ordinance of G-d; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves”.10 Is Paul referring to ecclesiastical or secular civilian authorities considering the latter were pagan or heathen. English and European Kings fastened onto Romans 13 to claim a divine right to rule. This meant no one could question the monarch’s rule. Manegold of Lautenbach (1030-1106), a theologian, priest, and member of the Church Canon, addressed Romans 13 writing that people choose their rulers. Their function is to “protect the good, destroy the wicked, and administer justice to every man”.11 Justice refers to administration of G-d’s Law. By entering into a compact (covenant) with a ruler, the people also enter into one with G-d. The people and their governors are under equal obligation to obey the terms of the compact. Should the ruler violate the terms of the pact, the “people are justly and reasonably released from its obligation to obey him. For he was the first to break the faith that bound them together”.12 Manegold argued the king’s authority within the pact is derived from “the consent of the people” and not from conquest or divine right. English bishop John of Salisbury (1115-1180) contended that if government disobeys the law, secular or divine, it becomes the duty of people to oppose their ruler as “resistance to tyranny” is obligatory.13
Thomas Aquinas also addressed Romans 13 noting Paul referred only to those authorities who “derive their authority legitimately from G-d” and not those who come to power through illegal means (conquest, coup, and so forth). G-d is not the author of disorder, anarchy, and lawlessness. If a legitimate authority commands people to commit an immoral or illegal act, they are obligated to resist.14 In 1579, French theologian Philippe du Plessis Mornay wrote Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (vindication of resistance to tyrants) in which he argued “governmental leaders are bound by the same laws of G-d as anyone else”. Kings rule as “delegates” of G-d. Their authority is limited to administering G-d’s law and justice.15 Mornay agreed with Paul that government is ordained by G-d but, as an institution in general rather than an endorsement of any specific form of government. Absent the personal rule of G-d on earth, without government, mankind tends toward anarchy and lawlessness ultimately leading to rejection of G-d. However, people are to oppose tyrannical government because it provokes resistance, which may spark rebellion resulting in anarchy.16
America for the most part was a Judeo-Christian nation at the time of the Revolution. Her various denominations, Baptists, Catholics, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and so forth, agreed Romans 13 means people are not to “overthrow government as an institution and live in anarchy nor does this passage mean they had to submit to every civil law”. The template by which people determine if resistance is legal is to ask; is the intent simply to overthrow unpopular rulers, or is it to restore an aspect of G-d’s law wounded by the actions of their rulers? If resistance is to “bad laws, bad acts, or bad governments”, then it is justified.17 Americans resisting violations of their Bill of Rights would not be in violation of Romans 13.
No executive at any level of government has the right to legislate. This is the proper and constitutional role of City Councils, State Assemblies, and the federal Congress. Any law that includes punishment and deprivation of rights must be subject to a veto by the people. The diktats of executives violate the legislative process and as such are immune from consent of the governed. No level of government has the authority to violate, let alone suspend Constitutional rights. In the lead up to the War of Independence, America’s religious leaders, in pulpits, militias, and in the Continental Army were at the forefront of resistance to tyrannical British rule. They carried Bibles and rifles. Today, in the face of harsh rules fastened on the necks of Americans, they are nowhere to be found.
Finally, in Ephesians 4, Paul declares that the Church has unity because it is one body through Christ with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one doctrine. He is calling for unity in faith and doctrine. Obedience to that one faith is what demonstrates unity, not obedience to the edicts of secular authorities passed on by church leaders having no bearing on theological doctrine. Religious leaders must be prudent when using Scripture in support of secular civil law. Family and friends ask me if we will return to “normal”. Considering the amount of Kool Aid Americans are consuming, this is a good question.
“Lockdown U.S.A. bears little resemblance to America. It is a grim, oppressed place, with empty streets and closed stores and snitches. Masked pedestrians, few and far between, trudge to permitted destinations, following one-way arrows painted on sidewalks and in grocery aisles. Tattles and scolds socially regulate their fellow citizens on proper maskage, calling those who question this depraved new normal ‘murderers’ and ‘granny killers’.18
Covid fears
11 Rush Limbaugh, “Teachable Moment: This Is What Socialism Looks Like” The Limbaugh Letter 6 (June 2020), 10.
22 The Word program attempts to change any word designating one of the two sexes (gender refers to femininity or masculinity of nouns) to some ambiguous trendy hermaphroditic word and I have to change it back. Considering how hard it is to teach people there are but two sexes, it’s the science, after all, my computer is probably hopeless.
44 I visited a Pentecostal Church wherein services culminated with people working themselves up into a shaking sweating lather, and then passed out on the floor. Ushers collected money in large KFC buckets with the minister exhorting church members to make them clink and heavy with coin. At another conservative church in the Midwest, I will not mention the denomination but it requires full emersion for baptism, the pastor “caught” me reading a book on English history and “warned” me against the dangers of “head-knowledge”. I am a retired history teacher…
55 It was not Kool Aid. The manufacturer of Kool Aid attempted to educate people that it was not their product, nevertheless, the name stuck.
