Month: July 2020

Lend Me Your Ears

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“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears.”   Shakespeare surely could craft a line.  A few weeks ago, I was watching Brando’s take on Mark Antony in Julius Caesar.  He gave the line a different emphasis.  Instead of declaiming it as a sonorous prologue to his eulogy of Caesar he barked it out as a command for silence from an unruly crowd.  It came off odd, almost jarring.  It wasn’t what I expected.  But it could work dramatically and it went along with Brando’s portrayal of Antony.

And it occurred to me that here was a man standing in the center of the Roman Republic surrounded by the common people and willing to stir them up while his murderous enemies were just down the street.  He took his chance to wake up the people, to stir them to life.  Rome in 44 B.C. was already in the midst of a long series of upheavals as the extreme wealth made possible by the army’s conquests fueled the oligarchs in their systematic destruction of republican life which guaranteed the eventual rise of Augustus and the Empire.

So, Shakespeare read Plutarch and imagined a late republic demagogue haranguing the Roman street to incite them to mutiny against the Senate in favor of the party and friends of the murdered populist dictator of Rome.  And he throws around the words ambitious and honorable and can make the first seem like a lie and the second sound like an epithet.

It’s very unlikely that what Marcus Antonius actually said to the Roman crowd could be translated into anything like what Shakespeare had him utter but the spirit of the conflict is there.  The Roman people were being dispossessed by their ruling class.  Citizenship was being diluted by extension to the provinces and the government was ruled exclusively by and for the rich.  Staggering number of farm slaves made it impossible for the small citizen farmer to compete with the enormous plantations that the rich senators ran.  Army service became an endless and prison-like sentence.  Rome was becoming just like any eastern despotism that had preceded it.  The only thing lacking was the title of king.

A careful scholar of Roman and American history would surely tell you that history never repeats itself but merely echoes universal human themes in every age and place.  But to be totally honest, it’s close enough for me.  We’re watching free men turning into serfs before our eyes.  Just as the Roman republic was rotted out by the power of the wealthy to outmaneuver and finally enslave the plebeians, just so, we are being manipulated and disenfranchised by the elites and their globalist minions.  We are being propagandized and gaslit and being stripped of our heroes and our history.  We are being displaced and disposed of.

Well, let me try it on for size.  My platform isn’t the Roman Forum after the death of Caesar but it’ll have to do.  I’m not eulogizing an assassinated leader I’m mourning for the murdered American Dream.

Friends, Americans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears.

What is going on now is not America.  Even during the Civil War, we had recognizable Americans on both sides fighting over issues of freedom and independence but both sides considered themselves Americans down to their toes.  Now we live in a country where almost half of the people living here hate America and all it stands for.  All they like about it is its wealth and they are quickly arranging for that to be swallowed up in a paroxysm of violence and destruction.  This is not a civil war; this is an invasion.  An alien ideology is being fostered and spread by these anti-Americans and the elites are supporting this invasion because they no longer think of themselves as Americans but as citizens of the world, or better, as the rulers of the world.

So, this harangue is for my countrymen, for those who are proud of America, not for the anti-Americans.  They can go to hell.  Think of this as an occupation.  Many occupied countries have survived and finally thrown off their conquerors.  Think of the Russians and the Mongols.  What is important is to find a way to protect you and yours from the effects of the occupation.  You have to protect your way of life and the things that make life worth living.  Take pride in your heritage and history and find others that do too and form a community with them.

And work to overthrow the invaders.  Never cooperate with their anti-American programs.  Never support their businesses or leaders.  Support anyone who shows pride in America and refuses to knuckle under to their propaganda.  Support them financially, politically and personally.

Pass along traditional values to the next generation.  Teach them the true history of the United States and tell it honestly with all the bad along with the good.  Let them know that America wasn’t a land of saints.  It was a land of free and courageous people that fought and competed in a tough world where there were winners and losers and that they created the greatest country ever seen on God’s green earth.  Tell them the truth about the subversion of this country and how it works.  Protect them from the degenerate and dishonest forces that exist to corrupt the young.  Explain to them the dangers of the world around them and how to find the good things in life that have real meaning and then support them in their journey through a world that is difficult for the young.

And enjoy life.  Find good people who believe in the things you believe in and spend as much time as possible with them.  Do all the things you enjoy and do it apart from the evil and the stupid.  There is no joy in their company only anger and disgust.  Let them spend their time among their depraved and insane allies.  They hate us but they have no love for each other.  Let them consume each other in their rage filled game of intersectional virtue signaling.  Depriving them of access to normal people is one of the best punishments you can bestow on them.

And beware of the moderates.  If they claim to be able to see the point of view of both sides of this war as equally valid then keep them out of any community of Americans you want to build.  They’re useless and worse than useless.  They will turn on you when things get tough to garner favor with their friends on the Left.  They will destroy any organization they find.  Stick with people that believe what you believe.

And most importantly don’t despair.  The ranks of our enemies are full of the weak and the stupid who have allowed themselves to be hypnotized by awful people who only want to destroy the things that they themselves cannot enjoy.  We will win if we show determination.  These people will have no legacy.  Their values do not support life.  They destroy it.  We can prosper and grow but they can only blight and wither everything they touch including themselves.  So, chin up.  You’re part of a nation of millions of people who believe what you believe and love the same good things you do.  And they’re too smart and courageous to be kept down forever.  We’ll find a way and we’ll get our country back.

Defund the Police Looks Like a Winner … for President Trump and the Republicans

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Over at the Federalist a Chinese immigrant relates how her Trump hating democrat friends have had enough of the looting and will take Trump if it saves them from the mob.

 

The “Defund the Police” movement has not only turned more Americans into gun owners and supporters for the Second Amendment, but may prove to be a boon for President Trump’s reelection campaign. Since downtown Oakland saw some of the worst riots and looting in the nation, I recently checked in with a friend who lives there to make sure she and her family are safe.

Like me, she’s an immigrant from China and experienced Chairman Mao Zedong’s “Cultural Revolution” when growing up. Unlike me, she has supported Democrats for years. She loathes everything Trump stands for, from his immigration rhetoric to positions on foreign policy. For the sake of our friendship, we typically avoid discussing domestic politics as well.

This time, however, she went straight to domestic politics. She told me she and her family were safe but the riots and looting in downtown Oakland were terrifying. She was heartbroken to see so many immigrant-owned “mom and pop” stores ransacked or even burned to the ground.

She conveyed that while she wanted to see justice for Floyd, night after night of destruction and lawlessness were just “too much.” They reminded her of China’s “Cultural Revolution” from 1966-1976. She told me: “I didn’t come all this way to America to re-live a ‘Cultural Revolution’ in 2020.” Then she said something I would never have thought she’d say before: “Trump is right. We need law and order.”

What can you say?  Stupid Democrats, sure, but even they can see reality when it burns their neighborhood out.

 

Shatner Does it Again

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Not since his triumph singing “Rocketman” has the listening world been electrified by such deeply moving talk-singing.  Be prepared to be shatnered.

I have held off posting the proceedings of the recently held ShatnerKhan II.  I hope my time off this week allows me to chronicle the vitally important results of this scholarly event.

 

A Moderate Throws In the Towel at the NY Times

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Here’s what happens when a liberal journalist thinks real journalism can still be done at the New York Times.

“My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.”

Imagine if an actual conservative journalist was discovered on the premises.  They’d probably burn him at the stake.

Never Let Your Enemy’s Stupidity Go to Waste

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Maybe it’s because it’s July, my favorite time of the year.  And because I’m on vacation this week, which removes a very serious irritant in the way of my annoying boss.  But whatever the reason, I’m just not able to feel gloomy this week.  I’ve decided that I will look at the flip-side of all the horror going on and paint a rosy picture of the time ahead.

First of all, I read that the Federal government has declined to grant Minnesota a declaration of national emergency to allow them to receive federal funds to help them repair the estimated $500 million worth of damage done by Mayor Frey’s city sponsored arson/looting riot.  Putting that on top of the cost of all the police overtime needed to try to quell the ongoing gang wars currently depopulating the more toxic neighborhoods of Minneapolis and adding in the losses in city taxes associated with the closing of so many businesses, some leaving the city permanently and some unable to re-open at all, it paints a picture of a city on the rocks.  And just to make sure that things don’t get better, the city council’s decision to defund the police has a large number of officers opting for early retirement with the rest of them essentially refusing to perform any police function riskier than directing traffic.

The upshot of the police stepping back is the gangs have declared it open season on their enemies and their neighborhoods have become shooting galleries with, unfortunately, young children becoming a prominent part of the collateral damage to the civilian population.  The non-criminal population has complained to the city council and warned them that defunding the police is tantamount to starting a war in their neighborhoods but the council doesn’t really care about their problems so far.  They’re so excited by the whole police defunding narrative that they can’t see where this will lead.

I’m trying to guess what proportion of Minneapolis will have to leave to catch the city council’s attention.  Minneapolis has a population of 430,000 people.  If 20,000 people leave, which would be in line with what’s happening in New York (5%), that would surely put a serious dent in the tax base.  Especially since the ones leaving will be the upper middle class that has the wherewithal to leave.  Sometime this fall I’m imagining the sum total of the misery they’ve created is going to come crashing down on the mayor and city council.  That should be a sight to see.

And pretty much the same sequence of events is going to play out in all the blue states that played this game of revolution theater.  They incurred enormous costs and inflicted horrendous losses on their tax base, demoralized their citizens and destroyed their police forces.  So that come this fall when they are talking of opening school, they’ll be afraid to send their kids for fear of them not surviving the roaming bands of savages.  What a delightful time to be a law and order candidate!  Seriously, it may not matter in places like New York and California but I’m guessing that places like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania will be ripe for the picking for campaign ads featuring their favorite state politicians ordering the police to stand down while the mob flows over and annihilates the functional parts of their city like a column of army ants stripping the flesh off the bones of an unfortunate animal in their path.

And how about the statue nonsense?  I’m guessing the whole Columbus thing hasn’t helped the Democrats to any Italian-American votes.  And now that they’ve started taking down statues of Frederick Douglas and even Abraham Lincoln, I think it’s going to sink in for all but the stupidest that this isn’t about respect, it’s about trying to demoralize Americans and take away their heritage.  I think the President did a good job at Mount Rushmore to remind people of the heritage that men like Washington and Jefferson have left us and how stupid it would be to renounce men who created this amazing land and wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, two of the most important documents in the history of mankind.  Yes, yes.  I see amazing opportunities to point out to the voters and to Americans in general just how feckless the Democrats have become and how much damage they’ve inflicted on their own people.  And once the COVID lockdown continues in the blue states and business stays paralyzed, they are going to be in a bad place.

And on top of the negative ads it should go without saying that a positive message is even more important at a time like this.  It should be highlighted that recovery from the economic damage of the COVID lockdown is moving rapidly to bring us back to a strong economy in 2021.  Going along with this should be message for the base in terms of pushing back on the tech companies in their assault on the Right and protecting religious liberties.  Hopefully Barr and his team won’t prove to be completely useless and will finally move to punish the intelligence agency conspirators who caused chaos during the President’s whole first term.

So, cheer up.  The Democrats have left open their flank to incoming fire to such an extent that it will make the Battle of Marathon look like a game of pattycake.  Creepy Uncle Joe will be completely at a loss as to what to say.  I’m guessing he’ll just take a knee and stay there until the election is over.