Gettysburg- A Fourth of July Long Ago

(reposted by request)

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass.Let me work. - Carl Sandburg

One hundred and fifty five years ago today, brave men fought in and around a small town in Pennsylvania to determine whether the Union would endure or whether it would not.

The Battle of Gettysburg broke the tide of the advance of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and while the war itself didn't end for another 22 months, Gettysburg decided the outcome.

Lee's objective was psychological as much as strategic. By 1863 there was substantial sentiment in the North to allow the Confederacy to go its own way and end what had become an increasingly bloody, unpopular and costly war. By subjecting the North to the same sort of invasion the South had been subjected to - in essence, bringing the war home - Lee hoped to increase this sentiment and force the North to negotiate a settlement.

Gettysburg was very much an accidental battle. Neither side was really looking to fight here, but the armies accidentally collided, largely because Lee was deprived of Jeb Stuart's cavalry in the early stages of the battle and thus lacked his usual awareness of where the Union forces were. Once the initial impact was made,on July 1st 1863 in a battle between Brigadier General John Buford's Union cavalry division and two corps of Union infantry and two large Confederate corps that attacked from the north and northwest under General Richard Ewell, the armies came together and the battle was on.

An astounding fact about Gettysburg is that the victorious commander of the Union forces, General George Gordon Meade, had only been in command of the Army of the Potomac for a scant three days, after General Joseph Hooker was relieved of command. Meade was caught by surprise with the sudden collision of the two armies, but he reacted with coolness and unexpected courage at several points when the battle could very well have been lost with a different sort of general in charge.

The missing man at Gettysburg, one who might very well have altered the course of the battle and of history was Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, who was accidentally killed by his own troops after his amazing victory at Chancellorsville.

The key to Gettysburg was the control of the high ground, the hills and ridges outside the town. After Gen. Buford's troops were scattered into the hills that first day of battle, they could easily have been driven out of the high ground with an assault by the victorious Confederates, and had Stonewall been in command there's no doubt he would have driven his troops to do exactly that, digging them in on the high ground and reinforcing them with Longstreet's divisions to wait for General Meade's Union Army to come at them. Gettysburg would then have been a very different battle. But the troops Jackson would normally have commanded were under the command of General Richard Ewell.

General Ewell, even after he was ordered by Lee to take the Union position on Cemetery Hill "if practicable" chose not to make the attack. There's no question that Stonewall Jackson would have ordered his troops to take the high ground and dig in to wait for the main Confederate forces which were coming to the ridges from the  west. In that case, it would have been the Union forces attacking uphill at an entrenched Southern army backed up by dug in  artillery. The battle coud verywell have ended quite differently.

When Ewell finally did attack, on the second and third day of the battle, it was the Union forces who were reinforced and dug in and the Confederates who were forced to assault them. Ewell's hesitancy likely cost the South the battle.

On the second day of the fighting, July 2nd, General Lee sent General Longstreet's divisions against the Union Left flank in an attempt to roll it up and knock the Union forces off of the high ground. Meade sent reinforcements to the Left flank to shore up positions that later became legendary - the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Plum Run Valley and the Devil's Den. The Union forces held on in spite of horrendous casualties. One of the most amazing exploits of that day happened in the defense of Little Round Top, where Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, a former college professor in command of the 20th Maine maintained a precarious hold on the Union's extreme left flank under assault from General John Hood's troops.When the 20th were almost out of ammunition, Colonel Chamberlain led them in a surprise bayonet charge downhill that swept the Confederates off the hill, saved the position and likely the Union, a deed for which he later won the Medal of Honor.

On the third day, July 3rd, Lee decided to risk everything on a frontal assault on the right center on the Union lines, and 12,500 Confederate troops advanced from the ridge line three-quarters of a mile (1,200 meters) towards Cemetery Ridge in that gallant attempt to reverse fortune known to history as Pickett's Charge.

It was a slaughter. The Union artillery had deliberately held its fire during the Confederate bombardment prior to the Charge, but as the Confederate troops approached they were hit with fierce artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and from the Union center. Nearly one half of the Confederate troops who participated in the Charge failed to return from the attack. Somehow, some way, Confederate General Lewis Armistad's brigade managed to make it through the withering fire and briefly breach the Union lines at a place called the "Angle", a place with a low stone fence near a small wooded area. But they were quickly hurled back, and with that, the battle was essentially over.

After the battle it rained, something that occurred frequently enough to give rise to a belief among soldiers on both sides that the smoke and gunpowder somehow brought on the weather.

The two armies, both licking their wounds and having been through almost more than men should be able to bear gazed at each other across the field of battle on that long ago July Fourth. On both sides combined, there were over 50,000 casualties from three days of battle.

Late in the evening, Lee began the torturous retreat southwards. Did he understand at that point that the war was lost? Perhaps, since he was recorded as telling his troops "This is all my fault." We have no way of knowing. But on that July Fourth, one nation's hopes for independence were doomed and another nation's hopes reaffirmed.

After the battle, there were huge amounts or corpses that needed to be disposed of, and the Union decided to make the site a national cemetery, for convenience as much as anything else. Four months after the battle, on November 19, the cemetery was dedicated, and a ceremony was held.

The main speaker was a nationally known orator, Edward Everett. In those days of oratory as a national sport, he was expected to deliver a real rip snorter of a speech, and he reportedly did just that.

Oddly enough, Everett's isn't the speech that's remembered.Almost as an afterthought, the organizing committee invited President Abraham Lincoln to participate a scant two weeks before the ceremony, where they requested that he appear and "make a few brief remarks to honor the occasion".

So after Edward Everett finished his speech, which clocked in at close to an hour, the President rose and delivered those few brief remarks, ones that started with "Four score and seven years ago" and have come down to us through the mists of history.

Gettysburg today is a living version of Sandburg's poem, in a way. The grass has done its work,but much of the original landscape has been altered and it takes some effort to visualize what happened there. To do that, you have to go there when its quiet and listen to the ghosts. Trust me, they're there in abundance and they'll tell you the whole story if you feel like listening.

Best wishes for a wonderful July Fourth...and take a moment to remember and honor the ghosts of July Fourths past. They deserve that much, at least.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

Boris Johnson - Just Another Cowardly, Empty Suit

When Boris Johnson first became the UK's Prime Minister, my original opinion was that he would finally see Brexit completed, deal with the migration problem and put the UK back on the right path. Yes, he fooled me too, although given the alternative of a Labour Party with anti-semitic Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson was the best choice available.

It has turned out that the difference isn't all that much, really.

Bojo has done little or nothing to deal with the UK's problem with violent migrants. In fact, none other then Nigel Farage has actually filmed the UK authorities allowing boatloads of Muslim migrants shipped across the Channel by France into Britain with virtually no vetting.

Crime in London continues to skyrocket, and Mayor Sadiq  Kahn of course has done little or nothing to stop it. Nor have London's police, who are obviously under orders not to do so. Just recently, the Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters took a large part of the city apart. 

Enoch Powell

In the latest dust up, the mob was allowed by the police to do quite a bit of  beating down on anyone they wanted to as well as a lot of looting and destruction,  vandalizing statues of Queen Victoria, Lord Nelson, one of King James II, George Washington and Winston Churchill as well as a number of historic buildings like the Cenotaph War memorial, The National Gallery,  The police essentially ran away as themob chanted "Run piggy run.". Those who attempted to stop the carnage were assaulted by the mob which had no fear of them at all.

And why would they? London’s assistant commissioner for police Anil Kanti “Neil” Basu said he would “probably” have joined Black Lives Matter protests himself if he was not a police officer. That even though 60 of his police officers were injured by the rioters, some of them quite seriously.

And Boris Johnson's comment on the vandalizing of a statue  of one of Britain's greatest leaders? "Churchill sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable today.”

 Like perhaps Churchill's assessment of Islam? Sheer cowardice on Bojo's part, but this fits in with Mayor Kahn's new campaign to 'diversify the landmarks of London.'  And believe,that's not all that's being 'diversified' in London as well as other cities in Britain.

And remember Boris Johnson's talking about a new and better relationship with Israel? Don't bet on it. He's proved himself to be basically a more sophisticated and smoother version of Jeremy Corbyn.

His latest stunt is to  join other hostile EU countries in  threatening Israel with sanctions if Israel applies Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and parts of Judea and Samaria where Israeli cities exist..the opposite of what he said before.

MP Crispin Blunt, a  member of Bojo's own party put this together in collusion with something called the Council for Arab British Understanding. There's no question this was done with Bojo's consent.

Blunt was one of 130 British parliamentarians who signed a letter to Johnson in May urging him to impose sanctions on Israel if it moved ahead with its sovereignty plan.

Bojo's remarks at question time about this? Here they are:

“I believe that what is proposed by Israel would amount to a breach of international law and we strongly object to it, and we believe profoundly in a two-state solution and will continue to make that case.”

Sanctions then?

My, my! First of all, Israel didn't propose this. President Trump did as part of his peace plan.

Second, according to international law, ALL of Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank to the uninitiated) belongs to Israel.  And Britain happily signed on to that.

In 1922, Britain, as the  Mandatory Power appointed by the League of Nations decided to ask for permission to divide the Palestine Mandate into two parts, one for a Jewish state the other for an Arab state because they wanted to reward Abdullah, one of the sons of the Hashemite Sharif of Mecca with a kingdom.*

This new treaty,the San Remo Accords was ratified  between Britain,the League, the Jews and the Arabs, It stated that the Jews would receive everything west of the Jordan River (22%) and the Arabs  would get everything east of the Jordan River(78%). The Brits made sure the new Arab  kingdom, named Trans-Jordan was quickly created. After which they went out of their way to prevent the creation of a Jewish state in numerous ways.

The most disgraceful of these was to prevent Jews from migrating to Palestine while allowing unlimited Arab migration. In 1939, Neville Chamberlain, a known anti-semite issued an order not to let any Jews into Palestine at all... at a time when thousands of Jewish refugees who had fled to France and other countries had nowhere else to go. He also  appointed a rabid Jew hater and Nazi Ally, Amin al-Husseini as leader of the Palestinian Arabs. During WWII, when Israel's Jews fought with the Allies, Husseini was in Europe recruiting Bosnian Muslims for Hitler's armies and translating Mein Kamph into Arabic.

After WWII, when Labour's Clem Atlee took over, he made the decision to allow Husseini back into Palestine. At the same time, the Brits were still not allowing Jews into Palestine, and even had their own concentration camp on Cyprus for any survivors of the Holocaust they caught trying to get in, and in some cases, they even sent Jews back to the very same camps in Europe they had been  imprisoned in.

In 1948, when Israel declared its independence  the UN recognized it, although  Britain didn't. The UN also made the San Remo Accords part of its charter, in Article 80.

So according to international law, the area in question all belongs to Israel.

When the Arabs made it very plain in 1948 that they intended a jihad to get rid of the Jews, the UK, which when it pulled out left a number of strategic areas like the Taggart forts in Arab hands They also armed the Arab nations involved and in the case of Jordan, even sent  officers to command them under Colonel John Glubb, a notorious anti-semite. In other words, three years after Auschwitz was liberated, the Brits were  aiding and abetting what could have become a second Holocaust. 

As for the two state solution, aside from the fact that's already been tried and has utterly failed, there is no reason for it since Jordan exists and most of the Arabs who started calling themselves 'Palestinians' after the'67 war have Jordanian citizenship, including the so-called refugees, They've had it since 1954, courtesy of Jordan's parliament. And that includes Mahmoud Abbas.

If the Brits want to give these people a country so much, perhaps they should hand them a piece  their country. Why not? Parts of it are already filled with Muslims, there are already sharia courts, more mosques than churches, honor killings, sex grooming gangs, acid throwing etc. and the Brits don't seem disposed to change any of  that.So they'd be right at home

As for Boris Johnson, he's essentially just another Theresa May with a penis.

He is obviously not the solution to what's ailing Britain, although it seemed like it at the time.

It's obvious to me that the solution is more like this....and I hope the Brits wake up.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

Corparate America Caves... Half a Billion to Antifa And Black Lives Matter

A number of the businesses you might currently patronize hate you. They have bowed to pressure and are cringing, so they've  coughed up $454 million to support Black Lives Matter and their Antifa allies.

What that means, of course, is that they are more than willing to back rioting, anarchy, pogroms against Jews and the complete destruction of law and order. It means they no longer care about you and have taken sides against you,your businesses, your homes  and your families. It means they consider our Constitution so much toilet paper and our freedom unimportant.

This resembles nothing so much as the German companies who jumped on Hitler's bandwagon after he took power and they rushed to give the Nazis money so they could get in on the gravy train and by protection for themselves. It resembles the way America's treasonous  Tories behaved  during America's revolution and founding.

It means they have taken sides in what amounts to a war. It means they support racism, anti-semitism  and anarchy. And they foolishly believe that bribing BLM and Antifa will buy them protection.

Some businesses are even  donating to controversial bail funds like the Minnesota Freedom Fund so they can bail out violent looters, criminals and rioters.

Here is a list thus far, and I'm sure it will grow.

Sony Music—a fund “to support social justice and anti-racist initiatives around the world”—$100 million

Walmart—a new racial equity center—$100 million

Warner Music—campaigns against violence and racism and social justice causes related to music industry—$100 million.

Nike—“Organizations that put social justice, education and addressing racial inequality in America at the center of their work”—$40 million

Alphabet/Google—various organizations, starting with $1 million each to Center for Policing Equity and Equal Justice Initiative—$12 million

Amazon—American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, Brennan Center for Justice, Equal Justice Initiative, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Bar Association, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Urban League, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Year Up—$10 million

Facebook—“groups working on racial justice”—$10 million

Target—long-standing partners such as the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum in addition to adding new partners in Minneapolis-St. Paul and across the country—$10 million

Verizon—National Urban League, NAACP, National Action Network, Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, Rainbow Push Coalition, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund—$10 million

United Health—YMCA Equity Innovation Center of Excellence and Minneapolis-St Paul businesses—$10 million

Goldman Sachs—donor-advised fund to support “leading organizations addressing racial injustice, structural inequity and economic disparity”—$10 million

Spotify—matching employee donations—$10 million

Disney—organizations that advance social justice—$5 million

Procter & Gamble—NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, YWCA Stand Against Racism, and UNCF; also smaller organizations that mobilize and advocate, such as Courageous Conversation—$5 million

Cisco—Equal Justice Initiative, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Color of Change, Black Lives Matter, and a Cisco fund for fighting racism and discrimination—$5 million

Lego—organizations supporting black children and educating all children about racial equality—$4 million

Microsoft—Black Lives Matter, Equal Justice Initiative, Innocence Project, Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, Minnesota Freedom Fund, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund—$1.25 million

Starbucks—“Organizations promoting racial equity and more inclusive and just communities” nominated by employees—$1.25 million

Intel—support of efforts to address social injustice and anti-racism across various nonprofits and community organizations, and encouraging employees to consider donating to organizations focused on equity and social justice, including the Black Lives Matter Foundation, the Center for Policing Equity, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, all of which are eligible for Intel’s Donation Matching Program—$1 million

McDonald’s—unspecified—$1 million

Uber—Equal Justice Initiative and Center for Policing Equity—$1 million

Duke Energy—nonprofit organizations committed to social justice and racial equity–$1 million

The Travelers Companies—organizations such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Urban League, YWCA Minneapolis, and the We Love Midway fund established by the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the City of St. Paul–$1 million.

Warby Parker—organizations “combating systemic racism”–$1 million

PwC Charitable Foundation—NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Dream Corps, ACLU, and the Center for Policing Equity—$1 million

Glosser—$500,000 to various organization that are focused on combating racial injustice, including Black Lives Matter, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and We The Protesters; also an additional $500,000 in grants to black-owned beauty businesses—$1 million.

Etsy—$500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative, $500,000 to Borealis Philanthropy’s Black-Led Movement Fund, and match any employee donations—$1 million.

Yelp Foundation—Equal Justice Initiative and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund—$500,000

H&M—NAACP, ACLU, and Color of Change—$500,000

Levi’s—$100,000 to the ACLU and $100,000 in grants to Live Free USA—$200,000

Lululemon—the Minnesota Freedom Fund—$100,000

There's no count yet about how many celebutards are also kicking in to finance this anarchy and attack on our country,our culture and our freedom.   Nor am I mentioning the media companies like CNN and the New York Times who are actively supporting this carnage. Dealing with them is an easier matter...you simply don't watch and don't watch the movies and TV shows these people appear in.

So how to  deal with companies that nourish this sort of cowardly and anti -America behavior? There are ways. One way is to pass this list around to others. Another way is simply not to do business with them and let them know why via e-mail. My friend Bookworm has a sample e-mail here, or make up your own. No profanity, no threats, simply let them know why you aren't going to patronize them anymore,because now you know which side they're on. If they feel like alienating law abiding decent customers no matter what race or ethnicity they are, that's a choice.

There's no need for Americans who love their country to put up with this kind of craven cowardice. They are colluding with the enemies of our democracy and our republic

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

Defund The Police? Sure, Why Not?

The latest demand by the folks at Black Lives Matter is to defund the police departments in the cities they and the Antifa pals have rioted in. The carnage in these cities is supposed to be a message and a warning, I suppose.

And why not? Apparently some politicians seem to like the idea just fine. So do a number of celebs, who are busily raising funds to promote this.

Richard Vogel/Ap

In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti referred to the LAPD as 'killers', took to his knees in surrender

in front of a number of 'protestors' and promised to defund the LAPD.

He has in fact defunded the LAPD to the tune of $150 million and cancelled a budget increase that had already been approved. He also pledged to cut another $250 million "to be focused on our black community here in Los Angeles, as well as communities of color, and women, and people who have been left behind, for too long.”

Every city department will be affected by major budget cuts to satisfy the people who rioted and looted the city.

“We all have to step up and say: What can we sacrifice?”

Racial justice, he said, was “worth sacrificing for.”

Of course, Asians, Jews, Latino, Black and White business owners who saw their businesses go up in smoke are not included.

Spokespeople for the LAPD said that aside from reducing manpower, the cut may mean firing all or most of the civilian employees...like 911 operators.

The director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Jamie McBride responded, to no real avail:

Eric, do you really believe that Los Angeles police officers are killers? The same officers that provide you 24-hour security at your residence 365 days a year? The same officers that gave you political rescue when crime was out of control, when shootings were exploding? The same officers you sent to address your failure to get homelessness under control?

And Garcetti's capitulation is by no means enough for the  'activists.' They are insisting that the police budget be cut by 90% . I kid you not.

Of course, now that thousands of criminals have been freed in California and New York just prior to the riots, it's a perfect time to defund the police, right?

And it's not just LA.

In Minneapolis it got even more phantasmic.

Mayor Jacob Frey, who jumped all over his own police force also went to capitulate to the mob, without success. They basically chased him out of their 'protest' and no matter how many boots he licked it wasn't enough. Not even for his own city council, let alone the mob.

According to Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender"If you are a comfortable white person asking to dismantle the police I invite you to reflect: are you willing to stick with it? Will you be calling in three months to ask about garage break-ins? Are you willing to dismantle white supremacy in all systems, including a new system?"

The new system, of course, will be police free  or at best have a small group of disarmed security guards for the well connected.

Of course, you should be willing to abandon your right not to have your home broken intot. Otherwise, you're a Racist. Right? Especially if you do call the cops..oh wait, there won't be any cops, remember?

You see, your either an 'ally' willing to beg on your knees, express shame for your white privilege and cheerfully allow the people who have broken into your home to make off with whatever they want or you're a white supremacist.

Understand?

Unfreakingbelieveable.

As a matter of fact, serious conversations are being held right now about defunding the police forces in  Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle, and Portland. My my, all Democrat run cities that had major riots and places where Antifa and Black Lives Matter are welcomed warmly by these cities politicians for the most part and literally can get away with murder.

Now this actually might work. Cities that wish to do this should be allowed to, but only under the following conditions:

1) The inhabitant of these cities should be allowed to vote on whether they still want police. Of course, if the city government decides to defund police no votes are necessary in true socialist style. Who wants to hear from those racists anyway?

2) Those inhabitants of the city who are stinking racists and decide they want police should have a designated time, say a month or two to leave the city limits.

3) Now that these cities no longer have these white supremacists...and probably a number of black, Asian and Latino citizens who also like the idea of a fully funded police force like the race traitors and Uncle Toms they are, we can proceed.

4) These cities would be independently run and governed. The inhabitants could vote (even felons, and illegal migrants, there might be quite a few of those) in municipal elections but not in federal elections.

5)  Since the police would likely leave since they no longer would have jobs, they can be hired by the feds or the state to maintain barriers around these cities. They would not be permitted to enter these newly autonomous cities, nor would the inhabitants be allowed to exit without special permits and positions.

 6) This would also have the benefit of satisfying those inhabitants who are woke and like the idea of no police to limit their activities. Whatever system the 'government' of these cities decide to enforce what's left of any laws they still have is their business. Also, since some inhabitants have left, there would be ample empty housing available for section 8, crack houses, or what have you as well as for the citizens to live in.

7) The Federal government or state governments where these cities are located would not be responsible for financial aid or law enforcement. Exceptions would be Social Security and pensions for those people now receiving them who continue to reside in these autonomous cities.  In every sense these cities would be autonomous enclaves. They would not be allowed to exercise the rights and powers already  under the jurisdiction of the Federal  government under the Constitution. That would include foreign policy, postage and currency, immigration , etc.

8) The Federal and state governments where these newly independent enclaves are situated would enter into negotiations with these new autonomous enclaves to come to a fair and equitable settlement for payments or arrangements for  state or federal facilities and buildings.

This could actually work. These people would no longer be a real part of a country they consider racist, sexist, fascist, capitalist, what have you.  On the other hand, the rest of the United states of America would no longer be responsible for the welfare, financial help, law enforcement or government of these independent enclaves. They would be able to live out their socialist dream.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

Candace Owens " George Floyd Is No Martyr

Candace Owens belongs to a group of African Americans who see beyond the BS and understand what the real problems black Americans face are...and it isn't 'white racism.'

She's totally correct that George Floyd is no martyr. He's a thug who is simply convenient to the Democrats, BLM and Antifa and the left with an election coming up. As I mentioned here 

 he has a great deal in common with the rest of the so called 'martyrs' used to incite riots and racist 'hate whitey' dialogue.

Like Trayvon Martin*, Rodney King, and the so-called 'Gentle Giant' he has a rap sheet for a number of violent crimes, including theft,   a number of drug dealing offenses, robbery, and a home invasion where he pointed a loaded gun at the stomach of a pregnant black woman while she begged for her life. In fact, he had a bag of cocaine with him when he was stopped.

He had just committed or  was in the process of committing a felony when he had his altercation with police.

He was crazy high on drugs  when he was stopped, another felony. That was revealed by the autopsy.

Instead of doing  what the police asked him to do, he resisted furiously to the point where they had to drag him out of his car. The two friends (accomplices??) he had with him did exactly what the police said to do. Both of them  are alive and neither was injured in any way.

My point here is not that George Floyd deserved to die in the way he did, but that Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Democrat politicians, the Leftist Media and the various companies, individuals and institutions  using him as a 'battle cry', martyr and role model for virtue signalling is cynical to a disgusting degree and simply a matter of convenience. It is also racist in and of itself, since lauding people like this insures more will follow George Floyd using the same pattern for their lives. They too will get involved in crime,  drug use, and refuse to obey police at some point.

Candace Owens makes an interesting point here...that black culture is the only one that makes heroes out of career criminals like George Floyd. She also shows us something I've been aware of for some time...that white men are far more likely to be killed by police then black men, even though black men, 6% of our population commit a ridiculously out sized percentage of violent crime....

So here's the question.

How long are a substantial percentage of Black Americans going to allow themselves to be used this way?

Where are Black fathers? 75% of black births happen out of wedlock.

How long are you going to be tools for the Democrat party and the Left? Do black Americans realize that the vast majority of Democrat supported Planned Parenthood's abortions and baby parts for sale come from black babies? Read up on Margaret Sanger, who started Planned Parenthood and why she did it. And maybe remember which political party fights tooth and nail to finance and protect Planned Parenthood.

Do you think your kids don't learn something from you or other black Americans when they see you looting and destroying? You bet they do and it puts them on the same path as George Floyd. Is that what you really want? Think about why they might learn from you about  not  following a policeman's instructions and resisting violently and how that might end.

Think about it.

And again, I'll repeat what I've written elsewhere. If you think America is a racist country with no opportunity for black Americans and where your kids are in danger of being shot by police, I suggest you think seriously about finding another country to migrate to. It's a big world and a truly moral decision would be to migrate to someplace you think would be  better. That's a moral decision and one I would certainly make if I felt like that.

*Trayvon Martin didn't have much of a rap sheet, but he was clearly headed that way. He was no innocent, having a background as a truant, a liar, a thief, a schoolyard bully, and a doper.He was on suspension when he was shot in February, after officials caught him with a 'marijuana pipe' and a baggie with drug residue; He was suspended three times for graffiti, being in possession of  'burglary tools' and a bag full of women's jewelry and for attacking a bus driver. He was on suspension when he had his altercation with George Zimmerman, who he assaulted. Except for not doing jail time, he fits the profile perfectly.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

There's Some Riots Going On..And It Was Planned

There's a number of riots going on in America right now. And there's no doubt they were planned.The excuse for them is the death of one George Floyd, a black man who was arrested by police in Minneapolis and died while in their control. There's a video (isn't there always?) showing Mr. Floyd being pulled over by police who were trying to arrest him for check forgery or passing counterfeit money, depending on what version you read.

BUT...I'm a bit puzzled. In the famous video, it shows George Floyd refusing to leave his car after he was stopped. The policeman dragged him out of his car and handcuffed him. SOP so far.  Then we see him handcuffed and seated on the pavement. Again, SOP (Standard Operational Procedure). Then we don't see anything until we see Floyd on the ground near the right side passenger door of his car with the cop kneeling on his neck. Definitely NOT SOP.So how did he get moved from leaning against the wall to the sidewalk near the car? What happened in between?

Did he make a run for it and have to get chased down? Did he heavily resist getting into the cop car? It will be interesting to find out. In any event, one of the other cops should have intervened. Did they?

And old and close high school friend of mine now retired from the LAPD tells me that something must have happened, because kneeling on someone's neck like that is a last resort and hardly ever used. In any event it was a stupid move.

Since this is Minneapolis, the four police officers involved were immediately fired, and the cop who did the kneeling has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter less than 30 hours after the incident took place.* And of course, violent riots broke out, mostly  in blue run cities. As we all know, they tend to be rather lenient of such things for political reasons.Nashville had its entire City Hall set on fire and of course, there was the usual 'shopping spree.' There's nothing that  expresses grief and a passion for law and order then grabbing a big screen TV for free or looting department  and liquor stores.

While the um, protests were masterminded by Black Lives Matter, Antifa's thugs and thugettes were obviously a huge part of the show. In fact, Antifa was very much involved.

Police cars and police were attacked, and in LA police were even shot at, although they were under orders NOT to shoot back. The mob, after the usual looting and destruction actually went onto the 101 Freeway, where they blocked traffic and attacked two police cars who were trying to keep them from being run over.

In Oakland's riot, A black federal officer, Patrick Underwood, was shot and killed and another FPS officer was wounded and in critical condition. They were victims of a drive by shooting right in front of the Ronald Dellums Federal Building. A number of other police were injured and some were killed in other 'peaceful demonstrations' around the country.

The most feckless and disgusting comments came from Jacob Frey, Minneapolis mayor and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms.

Get a load of this!

Mayor Jacob Frey

@MayorFrey

We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region.

White Supremacists?? Really?

I'd say there was a mixture.

As for Mayor Bottoms, her response was disgraceful. First she talked about her black sons and how 'as a mother' she worries everyday about whether they'll be killed by the nasty, racist police. Who of course have been given a license to kill black people by President Trump who should 'just shut up.' She also explained to the rioters that they were looting and burning 'black owned businesses' without any words of concern for the destruction or looting of any businesses or property but those of her fellow blacks.

Talk about racism...I have a feeling she's bucking for the slot as Biden's VP.

The police for the most part are having any of their efforts to enforce law and order in their cities stymied by orders from the politicians involved and anything they do subject to micro analysis. Which of course means very little is being done towards stopping any of this. If you have a job, a pension and possibly your personal freedom to protect, you step very carefully if at all and just try to keep safe. And with a few exceptions, that's exactly what the cops are doing.

It's alsoobvious to me that the riots are well organized.There are plenty of reports of pallets of bricks having been "conveniently" staged near stores, banks and other buildings to be handy for the looters. Given the sort of people who were on the streets and the way it was coordinated in various locations, there's no doubt this was staged.

Ah, the age old question...Cui Bono, who benefits?

Obviously, the Democratic Party and the Left for various reasons.

First they're stuck with Biden (probably) and he isn't really making too many black friends
as of yet. This is an opportunity for his handlers to write up some statements for him to make about economic inequality, reparations for slavery, how wonderful Black Lives Matter is, et cetera. And also a perfect way for the Dems to paint Trump as an authoritarian/racist/what have you, and make him call out the National Guard or even the military to end the riots.

I can just see an elderly gentleman with the initials GS on the phone saying '"The pandemic isn't working. Call out the rioters. Let me know how much money you need."

George Soros spent  spent something like   $30 millions to defeat George Bush, and Bush was a dysfunctional  RINO.  Imagine how much he is spending to incite this civil war and defeat Donald Trump! And he's probably not the only one. The DNC has lots of millionaire celebs and others willing to shell out for the cause.

You'll notice that a lot of black race pimps are also being given time just now to sound the trumpets.

Robert Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television has the answer of course. He wants $14 trillion in reparations for slavery to people who were never slaves. The black population of America is 45,532,100 - 13%. That works out to $330,000 for every black man, woman and child in America.

Of course, Mr.Johnson neglects to figure in what's already been paid in terms the War on poverty, social welfare, affirmative action which gave backs priority in financial aid and placement in universities over far more qualified applicants, The money for the funding for the traditional black colleges, the money that formed and funded the civil rights movement (both almost entirely donated by Jews), repayment to businesses who were wrecked and looted in the various riots,  and of course,the cost of the Civil War, all figured in today's money.

In any event, I suggest that we start funding any reparations by confiscating Mr. Johnson's entire net worth to begin with.After all, he was never a slave...

Cornell West was on CNN just the other day yakking to Anderson Cooper about how wonderful and  the riots are, how evil Trump is and how we need to 'change the system' with  socialism that 'spreads the wealth around democratically' because America is 'a failed social experiment.'

West is a known anti-semite and a real fan of Black Lives Matter, another anti-semitic group, so this is to be expected.  Antifa has the same agenda when it comes to Jews and Israel. In Fairfax, a Jewish neighborhood in LA, every synagogue was vandalized by these people, as well as other synagogues and Jewish community buildings in other cities.

 

Speaking of race pimps and Jew haters, Al Sharpton also had a few things to say on his home network MSNBC  I won't even dignify them by repeating them.

Dan Bongino has the right of it as usual 

This is a rebellion and an attempted coup.Exactly.

So how do we stop it?

It's actually fairly simple. You stop bad behavior when there are consequences for it. Anyone who has ever trained a dog or raised a child understands that. If there are no consequences, the bad behavior continues. In this case of course, the bad behavior has been tolerated for some time...the politicians who run these cities need the votes, y'know. And felons and the kind of people who violently engage in looting and domestic terrorism are part of the bloc who votes for them especially in blue run states and cities.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), a decorated war vet and one of my favorite politicians put it this way:

The riots and the anarchy we’ve seen across the country have nothing to do with the death of George Floyd,” Cotton said. “In Washington, D.C., they set fire to a historic church attended by every president since James Madison. They defaced the Department of Veterans Affairs and the World War II memorial, which honor our veterans. They defaced the Lincoln Memorial, a temple in which we remember the great emancipator.”

“What the president can do is say that justice will be done in accordance with law for George Floyd,” he added**. “And we will always respect the right of peaceful protest, as many of these cities saw in the daytime. But the rioting, the anarchy, and the looting ends tonight. If local law enforcement is overwhelmed, if local politicians will not do their most basic job to protect our citizens, let’s see how these anarchists respond when the 101st Airborne is on the other side of the street.”

I have to agree. The one sure cure for rioting and looting is a dose of lead. Apparently a number of Americans feel this way. When the people who are supposedly charged with enforcing the law can't or won't, then it's time to take charge of it ourselves, or have the feds do it, since they don't need to answer to some mayor or governor catering to a certain voting bloc for re-election

I have never been prouder of President Trump than I have been the last few days. He has faced the most unwarranted criticism and outright lies from the media and the internet social media sites like Twitter and Facebook of any recent president and he has done it with courage. To see him yesterday walking to the vandalized historic St. John’s Episcopal Church while the Media rats yelled at him was definitely an act of courage. His reward, of course, was to be accused by these same media rats  of firing tear gas at 'peaceful protestors' for a photo op. As we now know, that was a blatant and deliberate lie.

Joe Biden's handlers even wrote him a lying statement to repeat for the media as well;

"When peaceful protestors dispersed in order for a president, a president from the doorstep of the people’s house, the White House, using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo-op at one of the most historic churches in the country or at least in Washington, DC, we can be forgiven for believing the president is more interested in power than in principle."

As we now know, these 'protesters' were far from peaceful,  and United States Park Police acting Chief Gregory T. Monahan made the following statement:

At approximately 6:33 pm, violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids. The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street.

…

As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers’ weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls. No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park.

Happy Hands Joe has always been a liar, so no surprise.

President Trump was also rewarded with some shrew of an Episcopal Bishop screaming that the president, 'had no right to go there.' She apparently forgot that every president since James Madison has visited that church. Disgusting.

And President Trump's simple  statement in response to the hideous media jackals bellowing at him  was simply to say, "We have the greatest country in the world. We're going to keep it that way."

The media  and social media have  also intensified their excusing of the violence, looting and vandalism as 'protest.' CNN, MSNBC, the New York Ties  the Washington Post and Twitter have been particularly odious.

Here's CNN's Chris Cuomo..

"Now too many see the protests as the problem. No, the problem is what forced your fellow citizens to take to the streets: persistent, poisonous inequities and injustice. And please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful."

Umm here, Fredo...it's called the First Amendment:

↓

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Fredo is also an Antifa supporter and cheerleader, so this is no surprise.

Even his big brother, New York's Governor openly said the protesters aren't peaceful. Not that he's doing much about it. Of course, he's also responsible for freeing lots of violent felons from jail and refusing to jail plenty of other criminals, which certainly intensified the problem,no?

Ok, so where do we go from here?

This is a sign of the Left's desperation. The impeachment fraud failed, their media allies don't have the clout they used to, the Pandemic didn't work, and they're stuck with Joe Biden. So bring on the riots, hmm?

Except that's not going to work either, although it's going to continue until it's forcibly stopped. The Left still have no clue who they're dealing with.

President Trump and AG Bill Barr have already started the game. Now that Antifa is officially a terrorist organization, not only can they be fought effectively but the people who have been funding them can also be investigated, arrested, tried and jailed for material support for terrorism. That could very well include certain millionaires, Hollywood celebs, and even certain politicians. The rot goes deep. It's also quite possible that certain media outlets can be sued for inciting violence.

Trump is also in a position to declare martial law if the Dem mayors still handcuff their police and refuse to do anything constructive. As I said, lead cures riots and consequences ends bad behavior...it never fails. And finally, given how the investigations regarding the attempted coup now going on, there are very likely to be a lot of Obama's former associates and fellow conspirators headed for jail.

Our gutsy President  also has the alternative of exercising his deal making expertise. 'You want money to rebuild your city after you sat back and let it burn? I want your unconstitutional sanctuary laws repealed and your voter registration lists and cooperation with ICE. Otherwise, no deal.'

And me? I live in a state where you don't even need a permit to buy a long gun, although you do need one for  a handgun.You can buy all the ammo you need.  Its Democrat Governor tried to change that and ended up having to forget the idea when both the population and the legislature rebelled. I doubt he gets re-elected based on how I hear him generally referred to. While where I live has a small percentage of Black people,they're decent people with jobs, houses and something to lose, the police here are respected, crime in general is low and overall, it's a pretty civilized place  so there haven't been any riots here nor are there likely to be.

If this doesn't describe where you live, I'd arm up. An armed society is a polite society, and if you live in a blue run city, the police might not be there or  simply won't be able to do anything to help you..orders from upstairs, you know.

We do have a great country...and yes, we're going to keep it that way. Just wait and see

* Wow, that was quick! A lot faster then they moved to charge a black Somali policeman who shot an unarmed white woman in cold blood not too long ago.

** President Trump immediately ordered the FBI and the DOJ to thoroughly investigate this as soon as it happened.

Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.

Bubble-Wrapped Americans: How the U.S. Became Obsessed with Physical and Emotional Safety

By Sam Jacobs

“In America we say if anyone gets hurt, we will ban it for everyone everywhere for all time. And before we know it, everything is banned.”

Professor Jonathan Haidt

It’s a common refrain: We have bubble-wrapped the world. Americans in particular are obsessed with “safety.” The simplest way to get any law passed in America, be it a zoning law or a sweeping reform of the intelligence community, is to invoke a simple sentence: “A kid might get hurt.”

Almost no one is opposed to reasonable efforts at making the world a safer place. But the operating word here is “reasonable.” Banning lawn darts, for example, rather than just telling people that they can be dangerous when used by unsupervised children, is a perfect example of a craving for safety gone too far.

Beyond the realm of legislation, this has begun to infect our very culture. Think of things like “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces.” These are part of broader cultural trends in search of a kind of “emotional safety” – a purported right to never be disturbed or offended by anything. This is by no means confined to the sphere of academia, but is also in our popular culture, both in “extremely online” and more mainstream variants.

Why are Americans so obsessed with safety? What is the endgame of those who would bubble wrap the world, both physically and emotionally? Perhaps most importantly, what can we do to turn back the tide and reclaim our culture of self-reliance, mental toughness, and giving one another the benefit of the doubt so that we don’t “bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security,” as President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about?

Coddling and Splintering: The Transformation of the American Mind

Two books published in 2018 provide parallel insights into the problems presented by the safety obsession of American culture: The Splintering of the American Mind by William Egginton, focused on the tendency of Americans to tunnel themselves off into self-selected bubbles, and The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, which deals more with the tendency to avoid any uncomfortable or unpleasant information.

There is an interesting phenomenon involved in coddling: Australian psychologist Nick Haskam first coined the term “concept creep.” Basically, this means that terms are often elastic and expand past the point of meaning. Take, for example, the concept of “trauma.” This used to have a very limited meaning. However, “trauma” quickly became expanded to mean even slight physical or emotional harm or discomfort. Thus the increasing belief among the far left that words can be “violence” – not “violent,” mind you, but actual, literal violence.

In the other direction, the definition of “hero” has been expanded to mean just about anything. Every teacher, firefighter and police officer is now considered a “hero.” This isn’t to downplay or minimize the importance of these roles in our society. It’s simply to point out that “hero” just doesn’t mean what it used to 100 or even 30 years ago.

Once this expansion of a term occurs, there is never any kind of retraction. Trauma now means just about anything, and violence will soon be expanded to include lawful, peaceful speech that one disapproves of. Once this happens, there will be no going back. In the words of Sam Harris:

“We (as a society) have to be committed to defending free speech however impolitic, or unpopular, or even wrong because defending that is the only barrier to violence. That's because the only way we can influence one another short of physical violence is through speech, through communicating ideas. The moment you say certain ideas can't be communicated you create a circumstance where people have no alternative but to go hands on you.”

It is extremely dangerous to begin labelling everything as violence for reasons of free speech, but perhaps even more dangerous is the notion that when anything is violence, nothing is violence. Redefining words as “violence” means that we have little recourse for when actual violence occurs.

The Coddling of the American Mind notes some other concepts that are important as we speak of America’s obsession with “safety” above all else. First, that coddling combined with splintering means that people’s political views are much more like fanatical religious views than anything. They don’t see themselves as having to debate ideas or seek common ground. Rather, the opposing side and its proponents are seen as “dangerous” and must be discredited at all costs. It is worth noting that this is much more common among the left than the right or the center, which has now become more the place where “live and let live” types congregate.

The problem with this goes beyond simply being irritated by irrational people barking at you or at someone else: There is an entire generation of people who are seriously lacking in critical thinking skills. They think that labelling people and name-calling are excuses for a reasoned argument. In the words of Voltaire, “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

These problems are hardly confined to political radicalism or academia. Indeed, the corporate sector is no stranger to this kind of safety obsession. There is the phenomenon of “woke capital,” where the corporations find the latest celebrity cause-du-jour and use it as a marketing strategy.

There is currently an extreme risk aversion in management science. Companies will now do basically anything to avoid “a kid getting hurt” or someone’s delicate sensibilities being offended.

Education from kindergarten up to the universities is increasingly about teaching doctrines and ideology, rather than critical thinking and problem solving skills. All of this is a dangerous admixture that combines the full weight of the academic, cultural and business elites in this country. And its consequences are far reaching.

Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces

For those unaware, a “trigger warning” is a person’s advisory that disturbing content is going to be posted. However, in an example of concept creep, the meaning of “disturbing” has become expanded to mean, well, just about anything that might offend a leftist. It is also sometimes known as a “content warning,” “TW” or “CW.”

A similar concept is that of a “safe space.” What used to be a term used for a place where people in actual danger of physical harm could express themselves, a “safe space” now means a place where there is no room for disagreement or questions because language is literally violence.

This might all sound very silly and we definitely agree that it is. However, it is quickly becoming de rigeur not just in academia, which is increasingly functioning as a bizarre combination of a daycare center for 21 year olds and an indoctrination program, but also in the corporate world and in the media.

It’s not surprising that such foolishness has reached our corporate elites, because so many figures within that world come from the Ivy League. Harvard Law, for example, was the center of a controversy where they were urged not to teach rape law or even use the word “violate” (which makes it pretty hard to talk about violations of the law). A Harvard professor argued that greater anxiety among students to discuss complicated and nuanced séxual assault cases was impeding the ability of professors to adequately teach their students. This in turn would lead to poorly prepared attorneys for rape victims in the future.

Beyond a simple discussion in the academic sphere, there are student groups on campus who urge students not to attend or participate in class discussions focused on séxual violence. The same student groups advocate for warning students in advance so they can skip out on class and even to exclude “triggering” material from tests. Once again, the real victims here are the victims of séxual assault whose attorneys will be ill-prepared to advise them, to say nothing of the cumulative effect on the prosecutorial environment.

Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis was subject to a lengthy investigation by a kangaroo court and frivolous Title IX complaints over an article she wrote for The Chronicle of Higher Education about campus séx panics. Top comedians like Chris Rock now refuse to perform on college campuses, a place that has typically been their bread and butter.

Another key term to understand here is “microaggressions” which means just about anything. Offensive statements under this umbrella include things like “I don’t see race,” “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”

To readers of Generation X or older, this all might sound like a resurgence of political correctness and, indeed, to some extent it is. However, there is something different about the current anti-speech craze sweeping not just campuses, but also boardrooms: Political correctness was, at least in theory, about the elimination of so-called “hate speech” (for example, using “mentally disabled” instead of “retarded” or “little person” instead of “midget”) and also about broadening the canon of literature to include more women and minorities.

One doesn’t need to agree with either objective or be as generous as we are to see that the West has entered a new, accelerated and intensified version of the old political correctness that is qualitatively more dangerous. The “safe spaces” phase of this is about eliminating anything and everything that might be emotionally troubling to students on campus.

This assumes a high degree of fragility among American college students. But perhaps this assumption isn’t totally off base.

The Road to Safety Obsession

If you were born before 1985 or so, your childhood was vastly different than of those born after you. As a child, you probably came and went as you pleased, letting your parents know where you were going, who you would be with and when you might be home. You rode your bike without a helmet and if you were bullied at school there’s a good chance that you view this as a character-building experience, not one of deep emotional trauma.

So what happened?

A few things. First, in 1984, the “missing child” milk carton was introduced. America became obsessed with child abduction in response to several high-profile child kidnappings over the period of a few years. Etan Platz, Adam Walsh and Johnny Gosch are just three of the names known to Americans during this time period. In September 1984, the Des Moines, Iowa-based Anderson Erickson Dairy began printing the pictures of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin on milk cartons. Chicago followed suit, then the entire state of California. In December 1984, a nationwide program was launched to keep the faces of abducted children front and center in the American mind.

The milk cartons didn’t find many kids, but they did create the panic of “stranger danger,” where children were taught to fear strangers even though the lion’s share of child abduction, molestation and abuse comes from friends, family and other trusted figures such as public school teachers or camp counselors. Most missing children in America are runaways and in 99 percent of all child abductions, the perpetrator is a non-custodial father. There is at least one case of “stranger danger” being harmful – a lost 11-year-old Boy Scout who thought his rescuers were looking to kidnap him.

Some of the protocols established out of this were useful, such as AMBER Alerts and Code Adam. Awareness of child abduction in general was raised and as a result there’s significantly fewer child abductions today than there were in 1980. Indeed, stranger abduction is incredibly rare in the United States. But this has come with a dark side.

You might be familiar with the myriad of cases in suburban America where children playing alone are arrested by the police because they don’t have adult supervision. The parents are then questioned by the police or, in some cases, the state’s Child Protective Services.

There was also the panic after the mass shooting at Columbine High School, which led to the bubble wrapping of schools alongside the home. “Zero tolerance” policies were implemented alongside school-wide peanut butter bans.

And so the result is that there are at least two generations of American children raised in a protective net so tight that they not only have trouble expressing themselves, but also being exposed to failure and discomfort. What began as a good-faith effort to prevent child abduction and increase overall child welfare has ended up, as a side effect, creating a world where children were raised in such safety that they can’t even handle being upset.

This has not only insulated children from the consequences of their own actions and the normal pains of growing up, but also gives the impression that no matter what their problems, “adults” are ready to step in and save the day at any moment.

It’s worth noting that, in recent years, there has been a sharp rise in mental illness among young people, both on campus and off, including those with severe mental health problems.

Cops and the 24-Hour News Cycle

There are two other cultural phenomena worth exploring: The television series Cops and the 24-hour cable news cycle. As of April 2020, Cops is still on the air, having moved from Fox to Spike TV in 2013.

Cops was more than just a TV series, it was a cultural phenomenon that changed television. The cinéma vérité style used by the show was to be copied in the 90s by virtually every reality show you can name. Curiously, it came out around the same time that crime rates had plummeted comparatively to the 70s and 80s. And just at that time, people started having the worst in human behavior beamed into their homes for entertainment every Saturday night.

At the same time, CNN was bringing news into your home 24 hours a day without end. This meant they had to fill programming around the clock – and most news is bad news. So in addition to a hugely popular program centered around chasing criminals in the act, Americans also had a constant stream of bad news and dangerous events pumped into their homes. The result was the end of the “free range child,” the kind who learned through play and discovered risk management through trial and error. This was replaced with children whose entire existence was micromanaged by adults, with little to no unsupervised play time.

The ability to learn through failure is a well-established principle going back to the Greeks, who called it pathemata mathemata (“guide your learning through pain”). The knowledge and wisdom gained through failure and pain are arguably more lasting and valuable than those learned in school.

The Generation Gap: Millennials and Gen Z

Older generations (Generation X and Baby Boomers) have a tendency to conflate Millennials and Gen Z (also known as “Zoomers”). However, there are two key differences, one cultural and one clinical: First, Zoomers are much more digital natives than their Millennial counterparts. They didn’t get constant internet access or mobile access at college. They’ve had it since they were in middle school in many cases.

While this is bound to create secondary cultural differences, we know of one clinical difference between Millennials and Zoomers: Zoomers are much more prone to mental illness, specifically depression, anxiety, alcoholism and self-harm.

Depression and anxiety in particular are through the roof for girls, with moderate increases for boys. While self-reported cases are up, we also have harder clinical data: There has been a 62 percent increase in hospital admissions.

The Baby Boomers and Gen Xers created an environment where it is safer than ever to be a child, but at what cost? There has been widespread and verifiable psychological damage done to the younger generation, which is likely being compounded by the coddling taking place in our nation’s universities.

Screen Time and Social Media

“Screen time” is the new obsession for parents, especially among, ironically, those who work in high-tech Silicon Valley jobs such as Steve Jobs, father of the iPhone. But there seems to be an emerging consensus among those who have actually studied the topic that the problem isn’t “screen time” per se, but rather the more specific use of it in the form of social media. This has been identified as the cause of depression and anxiety, particularly among girls.

Why is social media usage particularly impactful among girls? Dr. Haidt and others postulate that it’s because they are more sensitive to the “perfect” lives being lived by beautiful social media influencers – at least the lives that they lead online. What’s more, there is a lot of exclusion and bullying taking place on social media. In days past, you only heard about the party you didn’t get invited to, but now you get to watch it unfold in real time on Snapchat or other platforms. And cyberbullying is much harder to track and police than its real world equivalent.

There’s a related bubble wrapping going on with regard to a different sort of screen time: Kids today are often forbidden from playing with plastic guns or even finger guns. There is the notorious case of the 7-year-old child who was suspended for biting a Pop Tart toaster pastry into the shape of a gun. But millions of children come home (from the same schools where finger guns can warrant a suspension) to play Grand Theft Auto for hours on end.

Indeed, there is some evidence that suggests that violent movies and video games can trigger violent thoughts in some, but not all, people who view them. The National Institute of Mental Health has done an extensive study detailing the impact that violent media has on those who view it.

Read the rest here...

An Open Letter To Britain And The British People,

Awhile ago I wrote an article with a similar title that got a certain amount of circulation. Consider this a post Brexit  update, because there's a lot that hasn't changed. Even worse, the disease is beginning to effect America.

 I write this with mixed feelings. While I have a number of British friends and acquaintances, I’m afraid I have little respect left as a whole for what Britain has become today.

What inspired this update was something Katie Hopkins wrote recently that is well worth reading. It's about this little 7 year old, Emily Jones:



 This adorable child was enjoying a sunny spring day with her family at Queen’s Park in Heaton, Bolton on March 22 when a 30-year-old Somali woman sitting on a bench near by stabbed the girl in the neck for no reason at all in front of her family. Emily was rushed to a nearby hospital but  died shortly afterwards.

 As Police officer Rebecca Gardner told the court, ‘Emily was on her scooter playing. As she rode past a wooden bench, a female sat on the bench and suddenly attacked Emily, stabbing her in the neck, causing catastrophic injury.’

Her killer was an illegal migrant who was allowed into the UK for goodness knows why. It's known that the police have admitted they were aware of her, had her 'on our radar.' So why didn't they do something about it?  Why?Because that's how it is in the UK nowadays. The killer's  identity is being hidden by the powers that be and  the media of course is  burying the story and of course the details about her murderer,  allowing her to hide behind her race and  religion. Meanwhile, her lawyers are pushing to get her off based on how “mentally ill” the Somali murderer is. The fact that she was in the UK illegally and the police knew is somehow not important in the least.

As you can see, nothing much has changed since I wrote the original article.

Can you just picture how different things would be if  a white British male had done this to a Muslim child? Or if her father had seen this beast pull out her knife, pushed little Emily out of the way and terminated the killer or even struck her? In either case, it would be front page news on the BBC and every British newspaper,complete with pictures of the killer and his identity would be revealed. If it had been Emily's dad, the fact that he was defending his little daughter from a vicious killer would mean very little. He'd be in jail for a long spell. And since most of Britain's citizens have been disarmed, there's probably very little her father or mother could have done to defend her and save her life anyway.

America is by no means immune to this darkness.  Five chassidic Jewish men, most of them elderly were recently attacked brutally by a black man armed with a machete in Monsey, New York. In spite of there being no question about the killer's identity or motive, (the 'suspect'  Grafton Thomas was found with his victim's blood all over him as well as the murder weapon). He also tried to run into a synagogue and attack but someone inside managed to close the door first.Public defender Kristine Ciganek argued her client had no criminal history and lived with his mother. Actually he had been charged previously with menacing and reckless endangerment charges lodged against him, which were  to be dismissed  if he avoided legal trouble.

The police investigation also found that Grafton Thomas had a major fixation on Jews, including reading Mein Kampf and some of Hitler's speeches as well as visiting a number of anti-semitic websites and keeping a journal of his sick ideas. When asked why he had done what he did, he replied "I just wanted to change the complexion of society."

 Thomas entered a not guilty plea, of course. And his lawyer's case, of course, is that he was 'mentally unstable and thus not responsible.'

Believe or not, this man was released without bail thanks to New York state's new laws. Read the list at the link.You won't believe what you can get away within New York state. The judge also ruled that Grafton Thomas would undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Rest assured he will likely be acquitted.
And this is by no means an isolated instance.

Here's food for thought. If people like these really are capable of this kind of violence because of their mental state, why keep them around? Don't we put rabid animals to sleep, especially if they have attacked  humans? Why not eliminate violent thugs in cases like these where there's no doubt? Why should they have even years of life in prison, something denied to Emily Jones simply because she came within reach of a murderous beast? And why not return to the old ways of capital punishment, which actually were something of a deterrent?

 Great Britain was once one of the free, civilized nations of the world, a country that exemplified the rule of law and the love of freedom. As many of you may now understand, that isn’t true anymore, and that saddens me.

The Brexit fiasco is a good example.Years after the British people voted to sever ties with the EU, the British government and Theresa May were more than willing to surrender British sovereignty to Brussels and to Germany and agreed to a ‘transition period’ lasting until 2022, with the UK following all EU policies without having any voice in making them. Among other things, the UK would not have been able to even regain full control of UK fisheries.

Not only that, but Britain’s borders would have been required to remain open to Muslim migrants and ‘refugees’ for the entire period. And all European Union citizens and ‘residents’ coming to the United Kingdom through this period into the 2020’s were to have full rights forever, under what the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier called a “new resident status,” saying this would give those citizens “legal certainty.”

Apparently the powers that be in the UK decided that the EU's idea that UK was to have no say in who comes to Britain, or how long they can stay was a good one...and so was not having  any power to remove them.  Allahu Akbar!

Well, Brexit finally went through, though it took a lot more time and another election. But the essential issue still remains.If you think Britain has a problem with restive Muslim migrants now, just wait a few years as even more of them flock to the UK. They’re already out breeding you, and given the large number of them on the dole, you’re paying through the nose to facilitate the takeover of your own country.

 

And public safety? A lot of your police even now were prepared to follow orders and protect their jobs and pensions by keeping quiet and hiding something they knew full well was going on…Muslims gangs raping literally hundreds of British underage girls and using them as prostitutes. Nothing has ever been done about this for the most part, and any one who risked their freedom Like Tommy Robinson, any journalist like Katie Hopkins who refused to keep quiet, and any teacher, social worker or government employee who tried to draw attention to this atrocity lost jobs, were demoted and in some cases lost their freedom.

Your police have even stooped to the level of obeying orders from their superiors not to prosecute Muslims for clear violations of British law!



Since it’s a bit hard to decipher in places because it was obviously recorded clandestinely, I’ll tell you what’s on this video. Muslims have been publicly praying in a Royal Park in London, which is a blatant violation of British law. London’s Metropolitan Police have deliberately refrained from enforcing that law, but in this case, the police are caught red handed. First, the police try to lie and claim the law doesn’t exist until someone actually reads them the exact wording and statute number. Then they finally admit that they have orders from their superiors not to enforce the law against Muslims and only Muslims!

(Apparently the powers that be at YouTube agreed with me that this was a blatant admission of how the British police have been ordered to behave and yanked it.)

Then, the police sergeant keeps asking this brave thought criminal to give him her ‘details’ which she wisely refuses to do, especially since she’s also surrounded by a number of outraged, aggressive Muslims. And anyway, giving your real name and address to London’s police in these situations when you’re already labeled an ‘Islamophobe’ and a ‘racist’ has consistently proven to be unwise.

How many other laws have your police been instructed to ignore when it comes to Muslims?

Do you really think this situation isn’t going to get even worse in the future you have coming unless you do something about it? The British Police are going out of their way to recruit more Muslim police officers as I write this. And rest assured that a number of them will be fast tracked for promotion and supervisory positions, particularly in London and other cities Muslims now dominate. As this process matures, for the most part the police will defend you even less in the future than they do now.

Once Islam really takes over your country, you will fear to even let your daughters, sisters or wives walk to school or to market. British girls will be abducted off the streets, gang raped, and beaten until they are forced to say the shehadah* and covert to Islam. And after that, they will be ‘married’ to one of the perpetrators and you will never even be allowed to see them again without their lord and master’s consent. You think I’m exaggerating? This has already happened to a great many Christian girls living in Egypt, Pakistan and other Muslim dominated countries. Do you think it won’t happen in Britain? Do you imagine your churches won’t be bombed or burned to the ground? They will.

This is what’s coming unless you stop it. If you don’t, you really have only three choices. You can surrender, flee if you can, or fight. Surrendering involves either converting to Islam or living the life of a dhimmi, without even the right to testify in court. And you'll be paying the jizrah tax to your Muslim overlords for the privilege of living according to their whims. Fleeing would mean migrating to Australia, New Zealand, Canada or America for the most part, assuming you can get in.If you can’t or won’t do either and you don’t fancy the life of a slave, the remaining choice is to fight. And the longer you avoid it, the tougher it’s going to be.

There are several serious obstacles you will need to overcome if you choose the third option. First, you have allowed yourselves to be disarmed, and that will need to change. Second you need to organize, and given the placid response by the British people to what’s been done to you so far, arousing them may take some doing. If the death of Emily Jones and the scandal of how your police covered up the sex grooming gangs hasn't roused them, I'm not sure what will. A society that refuses to protect its women and children is a conquered one. Is it any wonder some of your new 'residents' are acting in this way?


If you Brits wake up,  these obstacles can be overcome at this point, because you are the many and they are the few. And yes, by ‘they’ I also include the power structure and their hirelings who have brought a once proud and free nation to this point.

Arming yourselves is imperative, and not all that difficult. Basic but effective firearms can be constructed with a little knowledge, a secure workplace and some basic tools. They can also be stolen or smuggled in if necessary. You might also find that a lot of your fellow Brits have guns and ammo stowed away after reporting them as ‘lost’ or ‘stolen.’

There are also other weapons that can be easily obtained that are still quite effective and have advantages of their own. Crossbows are silent, accurate, easy to use and fairly deadly. A metal bolt from a modern crossbow can go through the walls of an average house or office. And they also have the advantage of leaving no powder traces or other telltale signs of being used, as well as no revealing flash at night to show where the shot came from. Modern re-cranking tools also make reloading a lot easier than it used to be. Swords, knives, axes and machetes can also be quite effective in the right time and place.

Your organizing should be on two levels, public and private. The public side might include politicians like the more nationalistic Tories, as well as UKIP and other parties and politicians willing to put aside their petty differences and unite. You may even find Muslims who came to the UK to leave behind things like sharia, jihad and honor killings willing to unite with you.

Obviously,while there are many nationalistic Tories, the party itself has done fairly little to date when it comes to the real problem. You need to insist on it. Nothing scares a politician as much as  organized voters telling them they'll be out of a job unless they deal with this NOW. If you aren't able to do this, the alternative,of course, is that the UK will eventually have a pro-Islamist Labour Prime Minister, perhaps even London Mayor Saddiq Kahn. And if the present mayor stays in power in London and people like him rule other Muslim majority cities, what do you think your lives will be like?

The private side is something else again, and calls for a fair amount of security and secrecy. Back when Britain was in danger of being invaded by the Nazis, PM Winston Churchill put together an entire system of secret cells of resistance fighters throughout Britain, men with training in covert sabotage, assassination and other resistance activities who had secret, well hidden locations stocked with arms, explosives, food and ammo. Fortunately, they never had to be used but such a system would have been quite effective if the Nazis had actually invaded. Keeping the groups in small cells ensured that if any of them were captured, they would be able to give up only the members of their own cells at worst, no matter what was done to them. It’s a system worth exploring. And if you look around carefully, you might just find some of the old hands still alive from WWII or more recent conflicts like the Falklands or AfPak who would be willing to pass on a few tricks from their training.

Just so no one faints away from shock, I’m not talking about an insurrection. This can still be handled politically at this time. But I am talking about preparedness, which is always a virtue, especially for a free people. It often prevents totalitarian politicians from pursuing their heart’s desire.
Thomas Jefferson had something to say about that once: "What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms." 

George Mason, another of the founders also put it quite well: "To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them."

Think about it.

Finally, leadership. I have an admission to make here. While you finally appear to have found some leadership in Boris Johnson*, it remains to be seen what he will do about the present situation. It seems like anyone who challenges what is being done to Britain these days is simply declared a ‘racist,’ fired and/or disgraced if they’re lucky and threatened – sorry, ‘cautioned’ – by the police, fined or even imprisoned if they’re not so lucky. And if they’re not UK citizens and try to enter the country to give a speech, be interviewed or attend a conference,  they’re detained and then thrown out of the country with zero due process for what Mao’s Red Guard would have called ‘incorrect thought.’

Here in America, we have a president, Donald Trump who seems to champion exactly the policies that  are likely what the UK  needs to be rescued…a stop to importing Muslim migrants from some of the most violent, dangerous countries in the world, better vetting of migrants who were or are allowed in, a nationalist foreign policy, a strong military, defense of American workers and a championing of the right of the American people to be armed and  able to defend themselves.
Is it any wonder your press and your political leaders and overlords despise President Trump? That they insult him and paint him in the worst colors, that they defame him even to the point of demanding he be barred from coming to the UK?

President Trump might not be perfect, because no president is. But just look at the political leaders you have! They’re actually engaged in the process of turning Britain from a free country into something far different, a nouveau version blending the worst elements of  1984 with A Clockwork Orange, except this time with Alex, Dim and his pals having names like Mohammed and Abdullah. I doubt even George Orwell’s or Anthony Burgess’s imagination stretched that far. And let’s not forget, you voted for this. You chose them as your leaders. What were you thinking???


Leadership is a funny thing. It can come from someone in an obvious position who steps forward in time of need, or from someone previously despised and rejected before, like Sir Winston Churchill. It can come from a military figure or a politician. It can even come out of nowhere when you least expect it. But you need to find it, and fast. Or perhaps, if you’re fortunate, it will find you at your hour of need.

In the end, the choice is up to you. What is your freedom worth to you, your children and your children’s children? Is this future I’ve painted above really what you want for yourselves and your posterity?

For what it’s worth, I’m hoping you get back up off the floor and win this one…for your own sake.And for Freedom's.After all, you’ve done it before.

*Correction. BoJo is no leader, and has no problem bowing down to the EU and allowing lots of 'refugees'  into Britain, mostly Muslims and Africans from France.


Rob Miller writes for Joshuapundit. His articles have appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Examiner, American Thinker, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Clear Politics, The Times Of Israel, The Times of Israel, Breitbart.Com, Yediot and other publications.