Sunday, August 16, 2020

President Trump: Vaccine distribution will prioritize vulnerable groups .President Trump talks Biden, coronavirus & economy

President Trump recently announced which populations are likely to have first access to a future COVID-19 vaccine. One America’s Hans Hubbard reports.


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Getting Behind Enlightened Nationalism



 Article by Patrick Buchanan in The American Conservative

Getting Behind Enlightened Nationalism

 In devising new policies, let us marry the patriotism of Theodore Roosevelt to the human vision of Wilhelm Roëpke.

 

Enlightened nationalism is not some blind worship of the nation. It is not a nationalism that wishes to denigrate or dominate others. It is a passionate attachment to one’s own country: it’s history, heroes, literature, traditions, culture, language, and faith. It is the spirit that enables a people to endure, as the Polish people endured, under occupation, to rise again to live in the sunlight. 

Intellectuals, writes Regis Debray, “forget that nations hibernate, but empires grow old…that the American nation will outlast the Atlantic empire as the Russian nation will outlast the Soviet Empire.” This community called a nation is more than any “division of labor,” or “market” that may encompass it.

An economy is not a country. A nation’s economic system should reinforce the bonds of national unity, but the nation is of a higher order than any imaginary construct of an economist. A nation is organic, alive, it has a beating heart. The people of a nation are a moral community who must share values higher than economic interest, or their nation will not endure. As scholar Christian Kopff asks, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his country?”

What is wrong with the Global Economy is what is wrong with our politics; it is rooted in the myth of the Economic Man. It elevates economics above all else. But man does not live by bread alone. In a true nation many things are placed on a higher altar than maximum efficiency or a maximum variety of consumer goods. Once, conservatives understood that. 

Neither the national economy nor the free market is an end in itself. They are means to an end. A national economy is not some wild roaring river that must be allowed to find any course it will, to be admired for its raw power and beauty. It is to be tamed for the benefit of the nation. 

The same holds true for the market. While an unfettered free market is the most efficient mechanism to distribute the goods of a nation, there are higher values than efficiency. To worship the market is a form of idolatry no less than worshipping the state. The market should be made to work for man, not the other way around.

“What is the market? It is the law of the jungle, the law of nature. And what is civilization? It is the struggle against nature.” So declared France’s Prime Minister Edouard Balladur at the close of the GATT negotiations of 1993; he is right. 

In devising new policies, let us marry the patriotism of Theodore Roosevelt to the human vision of Wilhelm Roëpke, the student of von Mises and refugee from Hitler whose vision informed the post-war miracle of Ludwig Erhard. Roëpke “saw the market as but one section of society…‘whose existence is justifiable and possible only because it is part of a larger whole which concerns not economics but philosophy and theology.’…There is more to the whole of life…than maximizing GNP.”

What do we mean by “economic nationalism?” We mean tax and trade policies that put America before the Global Economy and the well-being of our own people before what is best for “mankind.” Trade is not an end in itself; it is the means to an end, to a more just society and more self-reliant nation. Our trade and tax policies should be designed to strengthen U.S. sovereignty and independence and should manifest a bias toward domestic, rather than foreign commerce. For, as von Mises said, peaceful commerce binds people together, and Americans should relay more on one another.

A human economy will harness the mighty engine of a free market for higher ends than maximum efficiency or maximum output. Neither the goodness nor the greatness of a nation is measured in GDP. America was a good country before it became a great nation. Efficiency does not come first. The good society, a decent income for all our families, the good life for all our people, come first. 

What are the goals of a new nationalism and human economy?

Full employment, with our working people as well compensated and rewarded as any on earth.

A wider, deeper distribution of property and prosperity. 

A standard of living that rises each year, and a “family wage” that enables a single parent to feed, clothe, house, and educate a large family in decency. 

A tax system that leaves Americans with the largest share of the fruits of their labor of any industrial democracy. 

Diminished dependence on foreign trade for the necessities of national life.

Restoration of America’s lost sovereignty. 

Self-sufficiency in all areas of industry and technology vital to the national security. 

Maximum freedom for citizens and private institutions—consistent with a moral community and the common good.  

This article was excerpted from Pat Buchanan’s 1998 book, The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/getting-behind-enlightened-nationalism/ 






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Joe Biden Spreads Wild Conspiracy Theories, Shows the Ridiculous Hypocrisy of Democrats and the Media



One of the things the media spends the most time whining about is the supposed dangers of conspiracy theories. This includes actual conspiracy theories such as QAnon, which news outlets are convinced is going to lead to the downfall of society, to things they just call conspiracy theories, like the very real and proven corruption at the FBI.

In regards to QAnon, they can’t shut up about it right now despite its obviously minuscule effect on society, if it has any at all. Conspiracy theories centering on Russia have obviously been far more damaging and mainstream, yet the media insist they aren’t conspiracy theories at all. Starting to see the pattern?

Enter Joe Biden, who is going around spreading wild conspiracy theoriesabout the Post Office while the media pretend he’s not a mentally unstable, doddering old man.



This is the current liberal narrative. Namely, that Donald Trump is secretly destroying the Post Office to prevent people from voting in November. That’s spawned idiocy like this.


In reality, nothing nefarious is going on. The USPS, which is indeed cash strapped because it’s a terribly run organization that’s always cash strapped and has been for most of its history, is streamlining operations. Part of that is removing redundant, little used mailboxes when there is another one literally just a few feet away.



But the “USPS in crisis” narrative is what Democrats see as their next political tool now that coronavirus hot spots are waning, Iran didn’t melt the earth after we killed Soleimani, and Israel was able to make peace with its Arab neighbors without starting a major conflict. Selling panic porn is the name of the game, and they plan to keep it up until November.

Here’s the reality.



In truth, there’s a very simple way to make sure your vote counts. Get off your duff and go vote. There is no science behind the idea that it’s dangerous to do so. If you are very old and want to vote absentee, then apply for an absentee ballot. Problem solved. There is no crisis here, no matter how much the Democrats want to claim there is.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is so out of his mind that he sounds like he should be writing for The DailyKos. If Trump tried to spread such a conspiracy theory, the media would lose their minds. Orange man bad and all that. Biden gets to hide in his basement though while Kamala Harris does softball interviews with Trevor Noah. In the end, the lesson here is that the Democrats and the left are massive hypocrites. Conspiracy theories for me but not for thee. Will any media firefighter call out Biden’s spreading of such nonsense? Don’t hold your breath.

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FBI Attorney Clinesmith Did NOT Enter a Guilty Plea On Friday To the Filed Information — That Is Not Normal



Yesterday I filed a “hot take” story on the breaking news that former FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith was set to plead guilty to a single charge of making a “False Statement” in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 1001, in relation to his actions in altering key information about Carter Page’s history as a CIA cooperating source, which resulted in false information being submitted as part of the FISA process leading to a FISA warrant targeting Page.

A couple things happened during the course of the day that is unusual and raises questions in my mind based on my experience.  Before I get to those I want to address a few important facts about Clinesmith, and clean up a few details from my story yesterday that wasn’t precisely correct when taking into account both the Inspector General’s Report on Four FISAs that first “outed” Clinesmith’s illegal actions, and the description of those actions in the Information filed yesterday.

First, Kevin Clinesmith was not an FBI Agent.  He was an attorney hired by the FBI into a legal position — a position in the FBI’s General Counsel’s Office.  These are “in-house” lawyers at the FBI who handle all kinds of legal issues as part of the FBI’s internal operations but have limited involvement in the actual work investigating cases.  Their responsibilities depend on their assignment, but as a general matter, they ensure FBI policies and procedures are being complied with by Agents and Supervisors as they go about conducting counterintelligence and criminal investigations.  But depending on the case and the case agent, they can be tasked with performing specific tasks in support of an investigation.  In the case of Clinesmith’s misconduct, he was tasked by the original case agent with finding out from the CIA if Carter Page had any history of cooperation as a source of information about anything involving Russia.

One fact about Clinesmith’s employment history set forth in the Information I find shocking — the Information states that Clinesmith’s employment with the Bureau as an OGC attorney began July 12, 2015.  That is only slightly more than one year prior to Crossfire Hurricane (CH) being opened.  So the FBI assigned an attorney with ONE YEAR OF EXPERIENCE in the Bureau to work on a Counter-Intelligence investigation opened against he Presidential candidate of the party out-of-power to determine whether that candidate had illegal connections to a hostile foreign power????

My RedState colleague Michael Thau pointed out here that at the time of Clinesmith’s illegal actions he was working as part of the Special Counsel’s Office team put in place by Robert Mueller.

Shocking and unbelievable.  BUT it is not atypical in the Bureau where oftentimes the view is that agents/analysts/OGC attorneys are “fungible”.  By training and procedures, all are equal to each other.

As described in the IG report, the sequence of events that eventually ends with Clinesmith’s criminal activity began as follows — from Page 156:

[I]nformation about a FISA target’s relationship with another U.S. government agency is typically included in a FISA application….  OI would work with the FBI to fully understand any such relationship and describe it accurately in the relevant application.
Toward that end, on September 28, 2016, the OI Attorney emailed Case Agent 1 a draft of the FISA application, copying other members of the Crossfire Hurricane team. In a comment in the draft application, the OI Attorney asked “do we know if there is any truth to Page’s claim that he has provided information to [another U.S. government agency]-was he considered a source/asset/whatever?” In response to the OI Attorney’s question, on September 29, Case Agent 1 inserted the following comment in the draft:
“He did meet with [the other U.S. government agency], however, it’s dated and I would argue it was/is outside scope, I don’t think we need it in. It was years ago, when he was in Moscow. If you want to keep it, I can get the language from the [August 17 Memorandum] we were provided [by the other U.S. government agency].” Based upon this response, the OI Attorney did not include information about Page’s prior relationship with the other agency in the FISA application.

“OI” is the Office of Intelligence within the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.  OI Attorneys practice before the FISC and are responsible for the submission of FISA Applications – and ultimately the accuracy of those submissions.  A FISA application must be approved by OI before it can be moved to senior management officials for approval prior to submission.

Based on this section of the IG’s Report, Clinesmith was not involved in the original decision to not include any information about Page’s past relationship with the CIA, and Case Agent 1 did represent that he had read the attachment to the August 17 email from the CIA.  The Report continued:

However, the information Case Agent 1 provided to the OI Attorney was inaccurate. As described in the August 17 Memorandum from the other U.S government agency to the FBI, Page first met with the other agency in April 2008… and he had been approved as an operational contact for the other agency from 2008 to 2013…. [A]ccording to the August 17 Memorandum, Page provided information to the other agency in October 2010 about contacts he had with a Russian intelligence officer (Intelligence Officer 1), which the other agency assessed likely began in 2008. Page’s contacts with Intelligence Officer 1 in 2007 and 2008 were among the historical connections to Russian intelligence officers that the FBI relied upon in the first FISA application (and subsequent renewal applications) to help support probable cause… According to the August 17 Memorandum, the employee of the other U.S. government agency who met with Page assessed that Page “candidly described his contact with” Intelligence Officer 1. Page’s relationship with the other agency was not mentioned in any of the four FISA applications.

The original application and first two renewals never mentioned Page’s past involvement with the CIA.  In March 2018, it is widely speculated based on his guilty plea that James Wolfe, head of security for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, leaked the first Page FISA Application to a reporter he was sleeping with, and that reporter identified Page as having been subject to a FISA warrant two weeks later.  Prior to the third application to extend the FISA warrant, the IG Report found as follows:

In April and May 2017, following news reports that the FBI had obtained a FISA targeting Carter Page, Page gave interviews to news outlets denying that he had collected intelligence for the Russian government and asserting instead that he had previously shared information that he had learned with the U.S. intelligence community. In mid-June 2017, in response to concerns expressed by members of the Crossfire Hurricane team, [CLINESMITH] contacted the other U.S. government agency by email to seek clarification about Page’s past status with that agency. The other U.S. government agency responded by email to [CLINESMTH] by directing the attorney to memoranda previously sent to the FBI by the other U.S. government agency that informed the FBI that Page did previously have a relationship with that other agency and that the last contact occurred in July 2011… However, when asked about Page’s prior status with that other agency by a Crossfire Hurricane supervisor, SSA 2, who was going to be the affiant on the final FISA renewal application, [CLINESMITH ] told SSA 2 that Page had never had a relationship with the other U.S. government agency. In addition, [CLINESMITH] altered the email that the other U.S. government agency had sent to [CLINESMITH] so that the email stated that Page had not been a source for the other agency; [CLINESMITH] then forwarded the altered email to SSA 2, who told us he relied on the email.

Clinesmith was charged yesterday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia via a single count “Information”.  This is a charging instrument that can be used as an alternative to seeking an indictment from a grand jury, but it is only valid in that respect if the defendant named in the Information agrees to waive his constitutional rights to have criminal charges filed against him originate from a grand jury in the form of an indictment.  That agreement is usually part of a “pre-indictment” agreement by the named defendant to plead guilty to the charges — in this case the single charge — set forth in the Information.

The Information filed by US Attorney Durham — under the title “Special Attorney to the Attorney General” — goes through the same basic sequence of facts but includes some additional evidence that the IG might not have had access to as part of his investigation given that he lacked subpoena power.

The Information tracks the same sequence of events in 2016 with regard to the initial inquiry of the CIA with respect to Page’s history as a source.  The Information then details what Page’s history was, including his prior contacts with Russian Intelligence, his communication with the CIA, and that none of the FISA applications had mentioned his historical communications with the CIA.

With regard to the Clinesmith’s actions, the Information states:

6. …. During the preparation of FISA # 4, an FBI Supervisory Special Agent (“SSA” ), who was the affiant on FISA #4 , asked the defendant to inquire with the [CIA] as to whether [Page] had ever been a “ source” for the [CIA].
7 . On June 15, 2017, the defendant sent an email to a liaison from the [CIA], stating: “We need some clarification on [Page].  There is an indication that he may be a “[ digraph]” source. This is a fact we would need to disclose in our next FISA renewal…  To that end, can we get two items from you? 1) Source Check/Is [Page] a source in any capacity? 2 ) If he is , what is a “[digraph]” source ( or what ever type of source he is) ?”
8 . Later that same day, the [CIA] Liaison responded by email in which the liaison provided the defendant with a list (but not copies) of documents. That list included a reference to the August 17 Memorandum the [CIA] had previously provided to certain members of the Crossfire Hurricane team . The liaison also wrote that the [CIA] uses
the [digraph] to show that the encrypted individual is a [U.S. person].  We encrypt the [U.S. persons] when they provide reporting to us. My recollection is that [Page] was or is … [digraph] but the [documents] will explain the details. If you need a formal definition for the FISA, please let me know and work up some language and get it cleared for use.
10.  On June 19, 2017, the SSA followed up with an instant message to the defendant and asked, “ Do you have any update on the [CIA Source] request?” During a series of instant messages between the defendant and the SSA, the defendant indicated that [Page] was a “ subsource” and “was never a source.”  The defendant further stated “ [CIA] confirmed explicitly he was never a source.”  The SSA subsequently asked “Do we have that in writing.”  The defendant responded he did and that he would forward the email that the [CIA] provided to the defendant.
11.  On June 19, 2017, immediately following the instant messages between the defendant and the SSA , the defendant … forwarded the [CIA] Liaison’s June 15, 2017 email to the SSA with alterations that the defendant had made so that the CIA Liaison’s email read as follows:
My recollection is that [Page] was or is “[digraph]” and not a”source” but the [documents] will explain the details.  If you need a formal definition for the FISA, please letme know and work up some language and get it cleared for use (emphasis added).
The defendant had altered the original June 15, 2017 email from the CIA Liaison by adding the words “and nota source” to the email, thus making it appear that the [CIA] Liaison had written in the email that [Page] was “not a source” for the [CIA].  Relying on the altered email, the SSA signed and submitted the application to theCourton June 29, 2017. The application for FISA #4 did not include [Page’s] history or status with the [CIA].

Normally the Information and a Memorandum of Plea Agreement are filed simultaneously, and the filing of the two documents is the basis upon which the district judge to whom the case is assigned will schedule a hearing to for entry of the guilty plea. 

The arrangements are normally coordinated in advance of the filing — a simple telephone call to the Chambers of the assigned Judge is all that it takes after the papers are filed. 

Typically the hearing takes place the same day as the filing where — as here — the filing happens in the morning.

But no Plea Agreement was filed yesterday.  One explanation might be that the random assignment of a judge resulted in the case being assigned to District Court Judge James Boasberg, who was recently named by Chief Justice Robert as the Chief Judge of the FISC.  Judge Boasberg has been handling the “Clean-Up on Aisle Four” mess that was the fall-out from the IG Report on Four FISAs, overseeing the FBI/DOJ revisions of the procedures by with FISA Applications are reviewed and submitted, as well as making determinations as to what sanctions/discipline might be imposed on officials who participated in the Page FISA.  It would be inappropriate for Judge Boasberg to now preside over the criminal case filed against Kevin Clinesmith with is part and parcel of the wider abuse of the FISA process by the FBI/DOJ in conducting the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.

Hopefully,we will see the Plea Agreement next week, which will include — maybe — a more detailed factual recounting of Clinesmith’s crimes as part of his admission and guilty plea to the charge set forth in the Information.

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The Twilight Of Great American Cities Is Here. Can We Stop It?



 Article by Joel Kotkin in The Daily Caller

The Twilight Of Great American Cities Is Here. Can We Stop It?

The dreadful death of George Floyd lit a fire that threatens to burn down America’s cities. Already losing population before the pandemic, our major urban centers have provided ideal kindling for conflagration with massive unemployment, closed businesses and already rising crime rates.

The forms of disintegration vary. In overwhelmingly white cities like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis, violence has featured white radicals endorsing the extreme agenda of the neo-Marxist Black Lives Matter. In more diverse cities, such as Chicago and New York, protests have devolved into basic thuggery as law enforcement has been curtailed and large portions of the prison population have been released.

The pandemic has shaken the once confident ranks of new urbanists. At a time when even The New York Times is suggesting that density and packed transit lines worsened the contagion, some still embrace theology over data, with some advocating ever greater density, more crowding in cities, and mass transit. Fortunately, people tend to be less theological about their locational choices. According to The New York Times, 420,000 people left New York City between March 1 and May 1. This nearly equals the city’s total population increase from 1950 to 2019, according to demographer Wendell Cox.

Pandemic Impacts

The impact of dense conditions on the pandemic is clear. Overall, high-density locations have suffered three times the COVID-19 fatality rate of less dense, generally suburban areas and eight times those of more rural environments. Cities’ vulnerability comes not simply by calculating people per square mile, but by “exposure density” brought on continued contact with people, particularly in crowded, unventilated places like subways, small apartments, elevators and offices. After all, the New York area, the epitome of dense, transit-oriented urbanization, still accounts for roughly one-third of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths. 

Even as the pandemic has spread to other parts of the country — notably meat packing plants, border towns and Native American reservations — the correlation is simply impossible to ignore. High rates of poverty and overcrowding, clearly factors in COVID-19 infections, can occur anywhere but seem most devastating in places where poverty meets density. The Brooklyn and Bronx boroughs, with higher rates of poverty than fashionable Manhattan, have endured a fatality rate 7.5 times the national average.

Urban planners, real estate speculators and their flacks may ignore these numbers, but people take their own health, and that of their families, more seriously. A recent Harris poll suggested that upwards of two in five urban residents are considering a move to less crowded places. More people, notes the National Association of Realtors, are seeking out single family houses with yards and workspaces. Even in New York, where suburban sales (particularly to Connecticut) are rising rapidly, Governor Andrew Cuomo has been reduced to begging wealthy Gothamites to not depart for less taxed states.

Some urban refugees are even looking beyond the suburbs to the countryside. In New York, the rural counties north of the city have experienced a huge increases in demand even as demand for city apartments drops. This pattern is also seen in other rural getaways such as Montana, rural Colorado, Oregon and Maine.

Even before COVID-19, millennials, as we found in a recent study for Heartland Forward, have been heading to second- or third-tier metropolitan areas like Fargo, Des Moines, Fayetteville and Grand Rapids. These areas are gaining migrants even as some big cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have actually lost millennials over the past five years.

The Changing Economic Paradigm

Over the past decade the mainstream media — proclaiming that millennials would continue pouring into cities — wore itself out promoting the economic future of big, dense cities. Neil Irwin of The New York Times claimed “superstar cities” like New York, San Francisco and Seattle will prevail since they had “the best chance of recruiting superstar employees.” In contrast, rural and interior regions would become home to “the left behind,” while others boldly predicted that suburbia would be “the next slums.”

Little noted was the fact that, throughout the past decade, suburbs account for upwards of 80% of metropolitan job growth. This share has likely gotten bigger. Since the pandemic, the fastest drops in job postings have been, outside Hawaii, in the elite regions such as San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston and San Jose. Similarly these same cities have all experienced strong declines in rents, even as more affordable, less politically correct cities like Cleveland, St. Petersburg, Indianapolis, Columbus, Reno and Chattanooga have seen healthy increases.

Perhaps nothing will amplify these trends more than the rise of telecommuting. Some 60% of current U.S. telecommuters, according to Gallup, wish to keep doing so for the foreseeable future. Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom predicts that, once the pandemic ends, the online workforce will have increased from six percent before the pandemic to something closer to 20%. A University of Chicago study suggests this could grow to as much as one-third of the workforce, a finding also confirmed by a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta report.

Ultimately people will determine the shape of cities. Even when offices opened early this summer in New York, real estate brokers report, most workers refused to return. This is not merely an expression of fear. Before the pandemic , noted Gallup, three times as many Americans expressed preference for rural or small town life as for the big city. Critically, this includes knowledge workers: A recent survey of professionals found 70% sought to move to a less dense area. 

Corporate executives have also been surprised by how seamless the shift to online work has been, reaping surprising productivity gains; most believe this trend will continue after the pandemic. Mortgage giant Nationwide and other major financial institutions — Barclay’s, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase — have decided to reduce their large office footprint.

The tech industry, often celebrated as the city savior, is particularly susceptible. A June survey of venture-backed startups showed that three-quarters expect to remain fully or mostly remote; barely five percent anticipate a total return to the office. Concentrated in areas that already have the highest rates of telecommuting, many software jobs are intrinsically easy to do remotely. Many tech companies, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Salesforce, also predict that a large proportion of their workforce will work remotely after the pandemic. With two out of three tech workers now willing to leave San Francisco, many, according to Redfin, are seeking more suburban locations, and even a shift to the countryside.

These shifts could have a severe financial fallout, with a potential haircut of $3.3 trillion in commercial mortgages. Particularly vulnerable will be retail rents in places like New York, now plummeting, as well as financially dodgy mega-dense developments like Hudson Yards, the proposed new massive development in Sunnyside, Queens and other similar efforts in Chicago. Two largely Chinese-financed projects, one in already troubled downtown Los Angeles and another in San Francisco, may end up never being fully completed. Just earlier this month, a Los Angeles high rise office tower sold for one third below its asking price a year before.

The New Political Equation

Rising disorder in our major cities — paced by a shocking rise in homicides in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York — represents an arguably greater long-term threat. Security is a now hot topic among corporate location executives, notes Jay Garner, head of the Site Selectors Guild. Garner reports that barely 10% of companies want to locate in big city while most prefer suburbs, smaller cities, or rural areas. The top places cited by companies include such Boise, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Kansas City and Indianapolis.

Garner now wonders how attractive “woke” cities like Seattle or Portland or Minneapolis, with their debilitated law enforcement, may be for investors. Certainly they would be concerned about Chicago, where even a rumor concerning police can create protests accompanied by looting on the city’s fabled Magnificent Mile.

Rioting turns out not to be a good economic strategy. As we saw in the 1960s and again after the Los Angeles riots in 1992, which I personally witnessed, disorders first bring pledges from corporate elites and government, the pleasures of violence and political posturing do not improve conditions. Yet decades of racial protest have engendered little prosperity: high-poverty urban areas doubled in population between 1980 and 2018. The return of  “no justice, no peace” rhetoric is unlikely to improve conditions in the inner city or encourage business to move to downtowns. South Central Los Angeles, the site of two of the worst riots in American history, over the past 50 years has suffered a growing gap with the surrounding area in terms of homeownership, income and educational attainment. 

In the short run, at least, it seems likely that cities under “progressive” rule will continue to lose employers. Amazon, for example, is gradually de-emphasizing Seattle, which seems determined to raise taxes on affluent employees and lessening police protection. The mega-firm is moving more jobs to suburban Redmond and Bellevue. Many long-time Bay Area and greater Los Angeles employers — Bechtel, McKesson, Parsons Engineering, Jacobs, Toyota, Nissan — have relocated predominately to sunbelt suburbs. Besides concerns about taxes and policing, the looming threat of draconian climate policies, has had the effect of driving companies, particularly manufacturers, to other states.

Republicans and President Donald Trump clearly see in the gross urban dysfunction a political opportunity. Theirs would be a very persuasive argument if it came from a trustworthy source and was not so blatantly politically motivated. Moderate Democrats and independents also need to make the argument that far-left politics, constant disorders and reducing police presence undermine urban prospects.

This is not a call for hardline conservatism, which enjoys only a limited constituency in urban areas. Instead it is a plea to reverse an urban pattern that, as noted in a new MIT study, has undermined their historic role as places for upward mobility. As coastal people move into more conservative regions like Dallas-Ft. Worth, some suggest there will be a more liberal electorate, at least on social issues.

What is needed is a broad alliance among the remaining sane elements in cites, with a greater focus on protecting both job creators and strong neighborhoods. The old policies of urban Democrats, focused on jobs, schools and infrastructure, would resonate nicely, particularly in working class communities. Ultimately, conservatives should seek out partnership with these forces and cultivate support in working class neighborhoods, now threatened the most by urban decline, the pandemic and surge in lawlessness. Such a political alliance will be necessary if we wish to salvage the heritage of our great cities.

 https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/15/twilight-american-cities-coronavirus-floyd-protests-kotkin/

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Trump Supporters Going for World’s Record Boat Parade In Florida, and Hilarious Jabs at Biden



Looks like they may have the record if reports from the ground are accurate.

They needed 1,181 to break the record which is officially from Malaysia in 2014 although a “Trumptilla” boat event in South Carolina in July had over 3000 vessels.

Saturday’s event was off Clearwater, Florida with an official count being taken at the Welch Causeway Bridge in Madeira Beach.










Some wags also managed some jokes at Joe Biden’s expense during the event, decorating a wreck with Biden flags and having him bail out a sinking ship.





National Co-chair of Women for Trump Pam Bondi spoke to “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“This is a not-so-silent majority, and this is what’s going to get the president re-elected,” Bondi said. “These are families on every single boat.” Not to mention watching and along the shores. 

Cliff Gehart, one of the organizers, told FOX 13 he believes they had close to 2000, but that they will have to wait for the officials to review the footage to officially declare the count. 

While this one is going for the record, there have been Trump boat parades going on every weekend in the summer in a variety of places across the country.

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Thai protests: Thousands gather in Bangkok to demand reforms

Thousands of protesters staged another anti-government rally in the Thai capital, Bangkok, on Sunday to demand political reforms.
Demonstrators want a revised constitution and are also calling for reform of the monarchy - a sensitive subject in Thailand.
Under Thai law, anyone criticising the royal family faces long prison sentences.
There have been almost daily student-led demonstrations in recent weeks.
Several protest leaders have been arrested.
But organisers said they hoped Sunday's rally would show broader support for change beyond the student groups.
"We are here from all different groups, all different ages," said one protester, a 29-year-old student who only gave their name as Kukkik.


Observers said Sunday's protest at Bangkok's Democracy Monument was one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations since Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha took power in a 2014 coup.
They waved banners and chanted: "Down with dictatorship, long live democracy."
The protesters are demanding that Mr Prayuth - a former general who won disputed elections last year - stand down.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says recent inclusion of the monarchy in the protesters' demands has electrified the debate.
About 600 police officers were monitoring the protest.
Nearby, dozens of supporters of the monarchy also staged a rally.






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Socialism: The tyranny of the least and the dumbest



 Article by Edward Thal in The American Thinker

Socialism: The tyranny of the least and the dumbest

The man who famously said, “God is Dead” and was instantly acclaimed by those who wished God to be dead also described Socialism as the tyranny of the least and the dumbest.

That’s a problem for Socialists because they’re the ones who want God dead.

Friedrich Nietzsche was the 19th century German philosopher who theorized about man’s desire to fill the void in the absence of God by looking for a superman to rule the world. He called it a “will to power.” But Nietzsche firmly rejected Socialism as a governing philosophy, describing it as “a restless mole under the soil of a society that wallows in stupidity.” He added that the doctrine of socialism has at its core a will to negate life.

Socialism is all these things, and more. It is the religion of the Anti-Christ. In Marxist theory, Socialism is the final step in a transition to Communism, which is itself the final step to the establishment of a kingdom of darkness populated by human drones enslaved to support ruling elites.

Few remember (because these things are no longer taught) that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union began life in 1898 as the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Lenin, the first great leader of the Russian Social Democrats, hated Christians and Christianity. He wrote that Social-Democracy bases its whole world-outlook on Marxism and its philosophy of a materialism which is absolutely atheistic and positively hostile to religion. Marxism has always regarded all churches and every religious organization as instruments for the exploitation of less educated people.

This is the philosophy that infuses today’s Democratic Party and seeks to turn America into a socialist paradise. Yet the last 100 years of world history demonstrates that Socialism has a record of failure so blatant and so costly in human lives and human happiness that only a tyrant, a fool, or someone dangerously ignorant of the truth, would ignore it.







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Concerns Raised As President Xi Seen Wearing Biden-Harris 2020 Shirt



BEIJING—Concerns about foreign interference in U.S. elections have been raised as President Xi Jinping was seen taking a pleasant morning stroll yesterday in his brand-new Biden-Harris 2020 campaign shirt. The president walked around the city, enjoying the sights and smells and the occasional distant cry of an undesirable being loaded onto a train to a concentration camp. Later in the walk, he got hot and took off all his clothes, but the other members of the party continued to praise him for his "brilliant" and "intricately woven" wardrobe.

"We're starting to think China might be taking sides here," said one analyst after viewing the footage of the president clearly wearing a Biden-Harris 2020 shirt. "We're not certain -- and don't quote me on this -- but we're thinking China may not be 100% neutral."

The Biden campaign denied sending the swag to the communist leader, with Harris saying, "Questioning me is sexist and racist" and Biden saying, "Who's Xi? Is Xi cute?"
Chinese journalists questioned President Xi on the apparent meddling in U.S. elections, but these journalists have not been heard from since. American journalists, of course, simply praised the president for his wise and cunning choice.

Not to be outdone, President Trump sent a bobblehead to Putin.

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When 'Woke Muscles' Meet Men Who Fight



 Article by William L. Gensert in The American Thinker

When 'Woke Muscles' Meet Men Who Fight

Recently, I learned from family, friends, and neighbors what happened when Antifa, seeking to cause havoc, came to an Italian-, Irish-, and now Albanian-American Bronx neighborhood and another almost exclusively Italian-American Bronx neighborhood nearby.

Apparently, when confronted by an organized and motivated opposition, they decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retired from the field of battle.

How unexpected.  When their cowardice was exposed, they took their ball and went home — or, perhaps, to another area where they knew they would not face resistance to their riotous depredations.

The one Bronx neighborhood, which is residential but has many small businesses on the main thoroughfare, did not suffer the riots, looting, arson, and violence that have been prevalent in cities and towns across America.  When Antifa came for it, the Italians, Irish, and Albanians, armed with pistols, rifles, baseball bats, swords, and knives, merged onto the main thoroughfare, blocking it and other tertiary streets.  Faced with armed resistance, Antifa's forces were compelled to accept who and what they are, a band of spoiled white college kids who like to break things, play dress-up, and pretend they are a force to be reckoned with.

Threatening to "cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war," they turned and fast-walked away in different directions.  They most likely decided that it would no longer be fun if they were required to pay a price in blood for their pernicious urgings.

I am told they never returned.

The other Italian neighborhood, not contiguous but not far from the first, and entirely residential, closed the bridge leading into the neighborhood with barricades consisting of their cars and whatever else could be dragged to the fore to create a wall Antifa thugs would need to breach to get to the million-dollar houses located within the area.  Well armed men stood in wait, ready to do what they had to do not to become a news story of loss and sorrow.

Again, Antifa, upon meeting opposition, especially armed opposition, immediately disbursed in different directions, destroying their ability to regroup.

Again, I am told they have not been back.

Antifa before its recent iteration consisted of a ragtag bunch of almost entirely white college kids wearing anything that resembled riot gear, with 55-gallon plastic drums cut in half to serve as shields.  They were a joke.

Yet Antifa during the last few years has received some training and is better organized and probably Soros-supplied with remarkably similar kits — no more fake equipment.  Today, these people sport professional gas masks, sophisticated communication equipment, real riot helmets, some body armor, and occasionally even weapons.  Each individual Antifa seemingly supplies his own black clothing.

Unmarked cars and vans patrolling pre-designated riot areas provide pallets of bricks and frozen water bottles to be used as projectiles against the police.  Select units are supplied with Molotov cocktails to burn pre-selected buildings to the ground.

Their use of urban insurrection tactics is now prevalent, something that was not the case a mere few years ago.  It is obvious that some organization has trained them to work as seemingly organic units waging justified revolution for the cameras.

They exude the aura of success and self-confidence only because Democrat governors and mayors will not allow police to respond and Americans "have not yet begun to fight."

Truthfully, they are not a fighting force; they are not even a gang.  They are still what they have always been: a bunch of cowards who will melt away should they meet organized resistance — especially resistance from well armed locals with skin in the game.

When they are destroying property with no repercussions, they are big and bold, empowered by "woke muscles."  Yet when they meet people who are willing to fight to protect family, property, and livelihoods, they are nothing more than cowardly brats pretending to be bigger and badder than they are.

Most estimates of the number of firearms extant in America put the amount as between 300,000,000 and 400,000,000 privately held weapons.  Like most experts and politicians in America on most things (see: Fauci), they are wrong — very wrong. There are probably more than 700,000,000 firearms in the hands of Americans.

The number of people armed with guns on the main street in the first neighborhood, and on the bridge in the other neighborhood, I have been told, exceeded 60%.  Considering how hard it is to get a gun license in New York City, I would say most were carrying illegally.

Surprisingly, defunding and disarming the police works both ways.

This popular resistance, when Antifa came for their homes and businesses, and with the police demoralized and in retreat, showed the faux rebels they would use force, perhaps even deadly force, to protect their lives, families, livelihoods, and property.

As with all bullies, Antifa folded, choosing to seek areas where no one would fight back.

While not contiguous, these two neighborhoods have a reputation, to some extent earned, as rife with members of organized crime.  The first neighborhood in particular was even singled out under the 1964 civil rights legislation as one of the few locations in America that was required to seek preclearance from the Department of Justice for any new voting changes — such as changing the location of a polling place.  That designation was rescinded only by a 2013 Supreme Court decision during the Obama presidency.

Both neighborhoods are what is commonly called "tight-knit."  But any neighborhood willing to fight back, I suspect, would face similar results.

The rioting continues because Democrat governors and mayors want it to continue.  They believe that the violence and destruction can be used against Trump politically to cost him re-election.  The many Americans who are suffering because of their feckless leadership are, to them, merely necessary collateral damage.  Imagine: if leftists are fine with hurting Americans to gain power, what will they do to us when they have it?

The devolution of society in blue cities and states is a deliberate insurrection targeting the Trump presidency.  It will not stop until either the leftist millenarian bloc controlling Joe Biden gains power should he win the presidency or Americans directly affected by this chaos put an end to it.

Antifa is an illusion that will dissipate when faced with men who "are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore."







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