Is It Our Government? Or Their Government?

What is the creature we call the State? 

Or are WE creatures of the State?

by Anthony Esolen for American Greatness

If you were an archaeologist ten thousand years from now, searching through the rubble of our civilization, how could you tell what Americans thought of their government, supposing all books had been burnt and all virtual records had vanished into the dissipated Cloud?

Before I suggest an answer, I’d like to note an ambiguity about the phrase, their government. For the verb embedded in government can have an active, a middle, or a passive force. If we think of it as active, the phrase suggests that Americans are governing: government is something they do in order to secure the common good. They are in charge. They say, to take an example from my youth, “Let us buy that land owned by the defunct coal company, level it, bury the coal-flakes under a few feet of earth, and build a ball field.” They say, to take another such example, “Let us finally get around to putting up signs on our streets, so that strangers, not to mention our own people, will know where they are going.”

If you think these matters are trivial, consider that much of what a national government does legitimately is but what a town would do, writ large. Consider also that before the seventeenth amendment mandating the direct election of senators, your local farmer down the road, representing your small district in the state legislature, might be a swing vote for deciding your state’s next senatorial election, and thus did local government hold a powerful lever, easily accessible to ordinary citizens, for moving the national government one way or another.  Americans governed. The archaeologist would still have to determine to what extent they were able or were permitted to govern, and with what results.

If we take the verb with what grammarians call a “middle” sense, between the active and the passive, the phrase their government suggests that Americans are governing themselves. They are both the actors and those who are acted upon. I don’t mean that some Americans over here pass laws, which other Americans over there have to obey. I mean that the same people do the same things. They are the ones who ask whether, to take an example from my youth, it is a wise or a foolish thing to teach arithmetic to children by means of set theory rather than by the old methods of calculation. They are the ones whose job it is to ask whether, to take an issue that has gone to federal courts at tremendous expense of money and labor and attention, it is a good or bad thing for the football coach to lead his team in prayer at the beginning of that violent game. They, the common people, govern.  

We can go a little farther in this middle sense. Much of what self-governors do, they do not by themselves and among themselves, but within themselves. I may practice the craft of sculpture by getting the feel of marble and learning what do to with a hammer and a chisel or a rasp and a file. But when I practice a virtue, my soul itself is the marble I am working on. To ask, then, whether or how or to what extent Americans governed themselves, you must ask about their virtues, especially those that involve some sweat or pain, or that subordinate the self to something or someone superior to it: virtues such as self-restraint, duty, honesty, diligence, piety.  What kind of people were these self-governors? What did they aspire to? Did they in fact govern themselves?

And then there is the passive sense. There’s no evading it. To govern, we must be governed. What did Americans think about their government, that is, the creature or the mechanism that governed them? Here I am not talking about whether that government did its assigned tasks well or badly. Many a primitive tribesman may have had much to say about the folly of the current council of elders, comparing them invidiously to elders of bygone years. I am talking about what kind of thing they thought their government was, regardless of its merits.  What was that creature, the State? Or were they the creatures of the State?

Without records, what might the archaeologist do? He might, I think, consider government buildings. I am thinking here of two courthouses, both from Kent County, Rhode Island-the county where my family and I lived for more than twenty years.

The old courthouse, now a town hall, is on the main street in East Greenwich. It is built on a human scale, in the so-called “federal” style. It has wooden sides and a slate roof, like many homes in its neighborhood. Surmounting the facade and echoing the shape and style of the front entry, there stands a triangular pediment, a visual allusion to the public buildings of ancient Greece and Rome- our cultural ancestors in democratic and republican government. Yet the courthouse is meant to be specifically American and with a New England flair; hence the dormer windows in front and the central watchtower and belfry, for looking out to sea and for ringing the curfew or the alarm. Those echo the steeples and belfries of the churches nearby. With good reason, since the town hall was a kind of civic manifestation of, or reflection of, the highest concerns of man, which involve his relationship with God, as both his Creator and his Judge.

Then there is the new courthouse. It is not in East Greenwich. Nobody really cares where it is, because it does not have any function embedded in any specific locale. In fact, it sits on a business-dominated access road to a highway. No one would walk to it. Just as it has no relation to any neighborhood, it has no architectural relation to any of the ordinary things people do. It does not look like a home. It does not look like a church. It is a five-story edifice made of aluminum, plate glass, and brick, in massive and mutually incoherent sections, without any of the small features that announce to the onlooker that a human hand once planed the beam or dressed the stone. On the grounds in front, near the street, stand five large concrete spikes, slanted toward the building, looking like the teeth of some imaginary beast. At the right, beside a massive brick wall with the words “Governor Philip W. Noel Judicial Complex” fastened near the top like a garish advertisement, there sits a graveled area, bounded with a chain-link fence and great loops of barbed wire, for those most guilty and unfortunate souls whom the Judicial Complex has got between its jaws. The building’s most interesting visual feature, the one thing you can imagine having something physically to do with the human body, is meant as a threat, to confine or to rip the flesh.

The old courthouse looked like a place where human beings did human things.  You could imagine children milling about it, and in fact the people of East Greenwich have erected a couple of bronze statues of children to grace the lawn in front. The new courthouse looks like a place where human beings have things done to them, things they do not enjoy, and perhaps, after a certain point, things they have no say in. It is part machine, part monster. You see no trace of the Parthenon, or the Roman forum, or Notre-Dame de Paris, or Monticello, or a New England congregationalist church, or a farmhouse along the Connecticut River. It has no past; it acknowledges no present; it aspires to no future.

What does the archaeologist conclude? Perhaps this: it is the emblem of a people who were governed, but the power had passed from their hands into what they no longer controlled, and perhaps what they no longer could even conceive of except in the most abstract and bloodless terms. Had they lost their bearings? They had forgotten they ever had bearings to lose. They built big buildings, not great or grand buildings, and they allowed themselves not to be uplifted by them, but to be dwarfed or crushed.

America, must it remain so?

X22, And we Know, and more- Sept 17

 

I saw something truly horrifying today, something that reminded me of why I absolutely loathe cyber bullies and why I've said before that the WGA and SAG need to die off.

The number 1 lesson I've learned after being cyber bullied a few times in the past is this: NEVER, EVER give in to the bullies, because they will continue to come after you like they own you! If they know they can beat you down with 1 thing, they will continue to use that weakness to their advantage until you are 100% miserable forever!

That's what the WGA and SAG unions are: 2 unions that support using cyber bullying to basically terrorise their members into complete compliance!! Those kind of tyranical tactics should 100% be illegal, and no union should ever support that at all. Because it 100% makes them look like the kind of monsters they keep trying to say the studios are to them.

I've only paid attention to them since May because unless they are not on strike, I don't get the NCIS's and I don't get full closure for Hetty. I do not, and will never support them in any way other then to keep hoping they make a damn deal to end their strikes strictly because I want my shows back and NOT cancelled! That is it. Other then that, I hope both unions eventually die off because of bankruptchy or something else because they are 2 power bullies who want to rule over all their members like tyrants, and I despise bullies.

Growing Warnings: Biden Could Get Scorched by Green Dependency on Red China

posted by Ben Weingarten at American Greatness

President Biden’s stance toward China hardened this month when he issued an executive order prohibiting American investment in Chinese companies developing advanced technologies that could be used by the military.

But a growing chorus of critics, including some Democrats, argue that the administration’s effort to grapple with America’s foremost adversary is contradictory, illustrated in the White House’s Beijing-empowering pursuit of ambitious climate-change goals. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, as the White House has called for, will almost assuredly make the United States dependent on China while enriching Beijing.

China currently holds a commanding position in the clean energy industry, controlling the natural resources and manufacturing the components essential to the Biden administration’s desired alternative-energy transition. Energy experts believe that its dominance will become more entrenched because of domestic environmentalist opposition to perceived “dirty” mining and refining operations, and the Biden administration’s “clean energy” spending blitz – which could provide Chinese companies and subsidiaries with billions in subsidies.

The Biden administration also considers it imperative to get buy-in from Beijing on reducing emissions, given that China produces more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions globally. Biden administration critics see China as an unreliable partner that will leverage the administration’s desire for it to go green to its own advantage.

“China,” says Senator John Barrasso (R-Wy.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, “is playing us for suckers.”

China’s alternative energy clout comes from its command over supply chains that culminate in the production of wind turbines, solar panels, and lithium-ion batteries on which the net zero transition depends. On top of its own large domestic reserves, it has invested in mines worldwide and grown into a global hub for raw material refining and processing.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China is the leading producer of 30 of 50 minerals, including rare earth metals, that the U.S. government deems critical, particularly for usage in energy technologies. Rare earth metals are integral to the magnets key to electric vehicle motors and wind turbines. America is 95% net import-reliant on such materials, which China produces 70% of globally. According to the International Energy Agency, the PRC dominates “across the [rare earth] value chain from mining to processing and magnet production.”

Other critical minerals for clean-energy technologies include: copper, which his key to solar cells, wind turbines, and electric vehicles; cobalt, key to lithium-ion batteries; nickel, also key to such batteries and in renewable-energy storage; and lithium itself. China is the world’s largest refiner of all these minerals and produces 50-70% of all lithium and cobalt globally. The U.S. has no refining capacity for many of the same materials.

The Energy Policy Research Foundation concluded, in a report supported by the RealClearFoundation (which also funds RealClearInvestigations), that “replacing oil and gas with metal-intensive renewables and batteries risks further reinforcing China’s dominance in these critical minerals, at the expense of the energy security of most of the world.”

“By cultivating leadership in clean energy technologies,” the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has assessed, “Beijing is seeking to profit from a global clean energy transition while further deepening its geoeconomic leverage.”

Some lawmakers worry that China might hold such leverage over Biden himself. In 2021, the New York Times reported that Hunter Biden had “helped secure cobalt for the Chinese” in 2016, while his father was vice president. The matter could resurface in connection with a potential impeachment probe into the Biden family’s alleged international influence peddling.

Acknowledging China’s alternative-energy prowess, and therefore U.S. dependence on Beijing to hit its green targets, the Biden administration has pushed legislation – including the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocates $369 billion in green subsidies and incentives, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which commits billions more – and sought to use executive authority and regulatory power to build America’s alternative energy infrastructure.

Republican lawmakers have criticized the Biden administration for imposing environmental restrictions they see as hamstringing the president’s stated agenda by blocking domestic projects that would unleash key natural resources.

The U.S. Army Corps revoked a key permit for a major domestic nickel-mining project in Minnesota, as recommended by the EPA, on grounds that it might not comply with the water quality requirements of a sovereign tribe downstream of the project. The Biden administration has also been reticent to engage in seabed mining, with U.S. Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry indicating the administration is “very wary of procedures that could disturb the ocean floor.” Even if America overcame these environmental concerns and fast-tracked mining projects, it’s not clear that it could sustain a wholly domestic clean energy industry.

RCI contacted trade groups representing the solar, wind, and electric industries present at a Treasury-led clean-power generation roundtable to ask them about the feasibility of decoupling from China, and whether and to what extent meeting the White House’s green goals would redound to China’s benefit, but did not receive any responses.

Neither the White House, Treasury Department, nor Kerry’s office responded to a series of related inquiries.

The United States Should Heed Javier Milei’s Warning About the Rise of Socialism

posted by Jeff Charles at RedStateVIP 

The global landscape has been teeming with calls for social justice, egalitarianism, and a stronger government hand in fixing the problems many are dealing with across the world. With persisting socio-economic disparities, among other issues, people are crying out for solutions. However, there has also been a sharp backlash against policies that many would describe as socialist in nature.

Indeed, the election of former President Donald Trump in 2016 and the Brexit movement in the United Kingdom seem to suggest that people have grown weary of left-wing authoritarianism. In the United States, the push for a bigger government is running full steam ahead as the two major parties contribute to the growth of the state. However, the emergence of Javier Milei, a libertarian populist leading the presidential polling in Argentina seems to suggest that the world might be on the cusp of change.

During an interview with Tucker Carlson, Milei savaged socialism and its use of the social justice movement to enforce far-leftist views on the rest of the population. He described how the embrace of socialism caused the economic woes his country is currently experiencing. His remarks could serve as a clarion call to the United States, which has not immersed itself as deeply in the pool of left-wing authoritarianism as South American nations.

“Never embrace the ideas of socialism. Never let yourselves be seduced by the siren song of social justice, never let yourselves be trapped by that nefarious phrase that where there is an need there is a right, but that this is not done alone,” he said during his conversation with Carlson, also noting that America has “to be prepared and…fight the cultural battle day by day.”

Milei pointed out that the hard left has “no problem to get inside the state and apply [Antonio] Gramsci’s techniques,” which involves “seducing artists, that is, culture, seducing the media or getting into the contents of education.”

He ended his comments with a stark warning: [Socialists] are going to get into the state, and from the state, they are going to impose an agenda that, in the long run, will end up destroying everything they touch.”

Milei essentially gave the blueprint Marxists are using to amass enough power to enforce their will on the rest of us at the end of a gun. Gramsci, an Italian Marxist philosopher, was known for emphasizing the role of culture in gaining dominance. Through the arts, media, and education, they seek to convince, coerce, cajole, and compel the rest of us to embrace their ideas. I’m sure some of this already sounds familiar, right? In this way, the Marxist crowd seeks to erect a cultural hegemony designed to shape public opinion.

As the legendary Andrew Breitbart often pointed out, “politics is downstream from culture.” The hard left has perfected the art of dominating the culture and using their influence to gain more power in the government – especially at the federal level. The Republican Party and establishment conservative movement have not only been impotent in stopping this snowball from gaining momentum, but they have also been complicit in the effort to grow the government.

At this juncture, the nation is in a precarious position. The far left has established dominance over almost all of our major institutions. They use the education system to indoctrinate young minds to ensure they will support socialism when they become adults. Through the entertainment industry, they disseminate their ideology through “woke” propaganda. In fact, the Marxist crowd has even infiltrated the military, the press, and several government agencies.

To put it simply, they have already gained massive footholds in important areas of society. Fighting back against that will not be easy. While our foe is not invincible, it would be folly to underestimate its power. Using a top-down approach to destroy the Marxist stranglehold on society will not work. They have already taken full control in these areas.

However, starting from the bottom up is a better strategy over the long term. The authoritarians have not yet wrested control over these areas from we the people. This is why I continually preach the value of local politics. Focusing on our communities first will help build the foundation from which we can truly fight for liberty.

Is Digital Gold The Solution To Democrats’ Digital Dollar?

Biden’s executive order gives away the left’s objective. It says digital currency has ‘profound implications for … the ability to exercise human rights; financial inclusion and equity; and energy demand.’

Chuck DeVore reporting for The Federalist

Digital currency is already here in the form of Bitcoin. Governments don’t like that cryptocurrency’s transactions are virtually untraceable — potentially aiding criminal activities — and they see an opportunity to expand their control far beyond what is possible with cash via the establishment of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

President Joe Biden’s March 9, 2022, executive order on digital currency gives away the left’s objective. The order says that digital currency has “profound implications for … the ability to exercise human rights; financial inclusion and equity; and energy demand and climate change.” That’s a lot to expect from a medium of exchange, and we can expect that the left’s plans for a CBDC would be even more ambitious.

Fear of a meddlesome CBDC is why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills in May that prevent CBDCs from being used in the Sunshine State.

But there are advantages to CBDCs, including increasing the efficiency of the financial system. This is why China and its BRICS friends are moving ahead on creating CBDCs.

But in China’s case, not only is it seeking first-mover’s advantage, but it is also attracted by the potential for absolute control that a centrally run digital currency could bring, with China’s nascent social credit system, now run by regional governments, potentially able to go national, then international.

A Possible Work-Around

The challenge in meeting the CBDC threat is that you can’t beat something with nothing.

That’s where best-selling author Kevin Freeman comes in with his latest book, Pirate Money: Discovering the Founders’ Hidden Plan for Economic Justice and Defeating the Great Reset. In it, Freeman proposes the creation of a digital currency based in bullion and backed by the states as legal tender.

First, the title: why “pirate money”? Because the eponymous pirates of yore viewed gold and silver as real money — though today, it’s rather inconvenient to lug about.

Freeman begins to make his case by reminding his readers that the value of the dollar has declined 87 percent since President Richard Nixon “temporarily” took America off the gold standard in 1971 — thus, what takes a dollar to purchase today could be had for 12.5 cents 52 years ago. This is because the dollar “is at its core unbacked ‘fiat’ money.”

Shifting to CBDCs, Freeman details how a CBDC could be misused by our federal government — stuff that would even impress George Orwell. With China, a CBDC would hand the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the power to use “the Digital Yuan (to issue) … a line-item veto on personal spending. They can immediately extract fines. Or they can issue rewards.”

Thus, knowing what’s wrong with the digital dollar, Freeman tells the reader what could work digitally:

The ideal money today would be based in gold and silver, held and protected by a sovereign state, and available electronically. … But if that gold were in a Texas vault, for example, and the state kept track down to minute fractions of an ounce of your holdings, and paid whomever you directed, it would be ideal money.

Freeman notes that such a method of exchange already exists — sort of. It’s called Glint. This app lets you buy gold and keep it in a vault in Switzerland. Moreover, you can use your phone to pay for everyday items, just like a credit card.

But there are a couple of catches.

First, since it’s not legal tender, the Internal Revenue Service requires the reporting of your transactions, and you’ll be taxed on any earnings (though, ironically, much of those “earnings” may simply be the result of the dollar’s ongoing decline in value). Second, the gold is in Switzerland. And, while it’s insured, how can you really be sure it’s there and always will be?

To eliminate the pesky IRS demanding to see all your transactions (as it does today with Bitcoin), the bullion-backed method of exchange would have to be legal tender — for example, a unit of exchange based on the state of Texas’ gold deposits in its own, newly created Texas Bullion Depository, established in 2018.

Unsustainable Debt and China Competition

With his idea fleshed out, Freeman then issues two warnings.

First, the national debt is on an unsustainable course, with rising interest rates set to swamp the federal government’s ability to pay. He calls this “The Coming Storm and the Great Reset.”

Second, China will seek to exploit this coming crisis to dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

The second really can’t happen without the first, though — and China has its own deep economic problems, compounded by paramount leader Xi Jinping’s maniacal drive for total control. As bad as things get in the U.S., at least our financial mess is out in the open for all to see, with our political class a bit less able to engage in currency manipulation than the CCP.

Even so, Freeman’s suggestion that states, likely led by Texas, develop their own gold- and silver-backed legal tender, as the Constitution allows in Article I, Section 10, seems a prudent backup in the event of a dollar meltdown. Even having a backup in place would likely strengthen the dollar, as it would make China’s monetary meddling less effective as a weapon.

I make much the same case in a paper entitled “Texas Defense” released by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on Sept. 12.

Gold and Silver’s Drawbacks

Lastly, as with many bullion-boosters, Freeman doesn’t touch on some aspects of gold and silver that take a bit of shine off the metals.

First, gold and silver are, as with any good, subject to the laws of supply and demand. In the century after the Spanish empire’s conquest of the Americas, the massive influx of silver introduced inflation, not only to Spain, but the rest of Europe. From 1500 to 1600, prices increased 2.5 times — since, prior to the advent of industrialization, productivity increases were relatively stagnant compared to the increase in the money supply (though on an annualized basis, inflation by modern standards was very tame — only about 1 to 1.5 percent per year).

Further, significant shares of gold and silver are used for jewelry and industrial purposes — the metals don’t just sit around in vaults at central banks.

Still, as Freeman points out, “throughout history, gold and silver have never been worth zero” — which is more than you can say for paper money.

The prime value of Freeman’s Pirate Money isn’t that it raises the alarm over the growing weakness of the dollar or the potential horror attendant with CBDCs, but that he offers a practical, constitutional pathway for states to create an alternative system of exchange that could work to ensure the operation of the economy in the wake of a dollar disaster as well as stave off the creation of a federal Central Bank Digital Currency.

California’s Pro-Trans Child Custody Bill Is Pure Emotional Blackmail

Rabid ideologues who want to remake America and its children in their own image aren’t afraid to use the most vulnerable as pawns.

Kylee Griswold reporting for The Federalist

There’s a bill sitting on Gavin Newsom’s desk right now that would not only render the First Amendment null and void but also strip parents of their most fundamental rights and responsibilities toward their children. It’s not a matter of if the far-left California governor will sign it, but when.

The bill, the Transgender, Gender-Diverse, and Intersex Youth Empowerment Act (AB 957) — which last week passed the Senate and then, on a party-line vote, the Assembly — dictates that courts must consider “gender affirmation” in child custody battles. The soon-to-be-law states that in seeking to determine the “health, safety, and welfare of the child,” courts must consider “a parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity or gender expression.”

While some Democrat apologists in the media pretend it’s absurd to think this means conservative parents would ever lose custody of their children by nature of holding conservative values — It doesn’t say judges *have* to side with the loving, accepting parents, you hateful rubes! — we know how this will go. It’s California, for crying out loud.

But we don’t have to extrapolate much. Other media have dropped the facade and told us exactly where this bill will lead. Here’s CNBC:

Under the proposed law, parents, who fail to acknowledge and support their child’s gender transition, could face potential consequences, including the loss of custody rights to another parent or even the state itself. The bill’s supporters argue that it is in the best interest of children, aiming to create a more inclusive and affirming environment for gender-diverse youth.

There’s the quiet part out loud: A mom or dad who opts not to indulge their child in mental illness, who uses the child’s given name, prohibits the use of puberty blockers, or discourages sterilizing hormones or surgery could lose the child not only to the other parent, which is egregious enough — but to the state.

As Sarah Parshall Perry, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has pointed out, this law would stomp on the Constitution’s guarantee to free speech and the free exercise of religion. It would “muzzle” parents and prevent them from rearing their children in accordance with their deeply held beliefs — beliefs, by the way, that have been regarded by both Christians and non-Christians as basic laws of nature and fundamentals of civil society until about five minutes ago.

This is more than a legal dilemma for Constitutional scholars and gender-studies midwits to bat around in mahogany rooms and shoddy amici, however. If it feels more nefarious and personal — that’s because it is. We’ve seen it before.

It’s classic Democrat emotional blackmail. It’s the left waging psychological warfare on its ideological opponents with barely veiled threats. Oh, you want to see your own child? Well, that’s interesting because xir needs some hormones xe says you won’t provide. You don’t seem too concerned with xir’s health and safety.

This brand of emotional blackmail has already been tested and perfected with the suicide card. That is, the aforementioned gender-studies “experts,” medical professionals, journalists, and other Very Smart People™ have decided, based on little to no evidence, that transgender medical interventions are the only acceptable course of action for confused kids. In fact, anything short of full “affirmation” is deadly, they say.

With this conclusion in mind — and at the expense of mounting evidence showing pro-trans policies cause the most harm — they’ve devised “research” that Democrats then present as unassailable. The methodology of these biased studies is wildly problematic. Pro-trans ideologues habitually equate correlation with causation, fail to treat gender dysphoria as a mental illness and ignore underlying mental health issues such as depression, discount the potential role of wrong-sex hormones in unhealthy ideations, ignore hard facts about the ways puberty eventually resolves almost all dysphoria in minors, discounts rampant social factors, and turns a blind eye to the growing chorus of detransitioners who fell for leftist lies and are now filled with despair.

But never let bad science get in the way of an agenda. Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?, they manipulate. A lack of acceptance has driven trans suicide rates and self-harm through the roof.

A law this unconstitutional is bound to wind up in the courts. And I suppose we should be thankful there’s one remaining recourse. But if all conservatives have on their side is a waiting game until the courts eventually slap California lawmakers on the wrist, they have nothing. In fact, getting GOP-opposed laws tied up in the slow gears of the court system is exactly what Democrats are expecting. They’re counting on it. The more they can keep conservatives and jurists busy, the more radical laws and policies they can keep shoving out the door. We can’t stop them all. How many poor parents and children will be casualties in the meantime?

But don’t lose the human element in the legislative games. Rabid ideologues and iconoclasts who want to remake America and its children in their own image aren’t afraid to use the most vulnerable among us as pawns. Self-censorship will only be the start. It’s emotional blackmail, plain and simple. Do what we say, or else.

New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham Makes U-Turn on Controversial Gun Ban

Jeff Charles reporting for RedState 

It looks like the good guys have won again. Less than a week after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an “emergency” order prohibiting the carrying of firearms in Albuquerque, she has backed down. The governor, who issued the order ostensibly to combat a recent rash of gun homicides, has amended the order to apply only to parks and playgrounds.

The supposed change of heart came after a week of backlash against the order from those arguing that it violated the Second Amendment. While the order is still being challenged in court to ensure Lujan Grisham cannot impose another such measure, gun owners in Albuquerque can now legally carry their firearms again.

From a press release published by Gov. Lujan Grisham’s office:

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an updated public health order today outlining additional measures to combat gun violence in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. The governor made the announcement in Albuquerque alongside state legislative leadership and public safety officials Friday.

“I’m going to continue pushing to make sure that all of us are using every resource available to put an end to this public health emergency with the urgency it deserves,” said Gov. Lujan Grisham. “I will not accept the status quo – enough is enough.”

Provisions in the updated public health order issued Friday include:

• Removing the previous provision around firearms and replacing it with a provision that temporarily suspends the carrying of firearms at parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.

• Directing the New Mexico Department of Corrections and the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to provide assistance to the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center and its contractors to ensure adequate staffing, space, and screening for arrested and incarcerated individuals; provided that nothing in this provision shall be construed to limit the authority and responsibility of Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in managing its operations.

• Directing all participating New Mexico Managed Care Organizations to immediately ensure that individuals who need drug or alcohol treatment have received a permanent, adequate treatment placement within 24 hours of the request.

• Directing the New Mexico Human Services Department to send relevant Managed Care Organizations letters of direction requiring them to provide their plans to achieve continual behavioral health network adequacy.

These rules do not apply to parklands managed by the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department or State Land Office.

When the governor issued the order, she was criticized by people on the right and, surprisingly, on the left. A rally was held days after the order was issued in which armed participants protested for their right to keep and bear arms.

Further complicating the matter for Lujan Grisham was the fact that the county sheriff indicated that he would refuse to enforce the order. The state attorney general also announced that he would refuse to prosecute people arrested for violating the measure. It was clear that the governor did not have the support she needed to keep the order in place.

This development is being hailed as a major win for supporters of gun rights. Perhaps now, the state’s government can focus on actual solutions to violent criminality -- rather than disarming those who need to defend themselves from it.

Democrat Insurance Policy? Biden Seeks to Protect Federal Workers From Future Republican President

Jeff Charles reporting for RedState 

Remember when former President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating Schedule F, a policy that makes it easier for a president to fire federal employees? It appears the Biden administration is trying to make it harder for a president to take such action. The move comes after a number of Republican presidential candidates vowed to slash the executive branch considerably if elected.

The White House seems to be anticipating a potential Republican victory in the 2024 election. Given the current polling showing President Joe Biden in a statistical tie with Trump, they might have cause for such concerns.

The Biden administration is trying to protect unelected federal bureaucrats from being fired in the event of a Republican victory in 2024, according to a document filed with the Federal Register on Friday morning.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), an agency that manages all federal workers, proposed a rule that would protect the vast majority of career civil servants from being dismissed without cause, and give them the right to appeal, according to the filing. The rule would oppose the efforts of some Republican presidential candidates — should they become president — to unilaterally fire bureaucrats who disagree with conservative policies, as they have vowed to do.

“The 2.2 million career civil servants active today are the backbone of the Federal workforce … [t]hese employees take an oath to uphold the Constitution and are accountable to agency leaders and managers who, in turn, are accountable to the President,” the filing reads. “[M]ere disagreement with leadership—without defiance of lawful orders—does not qualify as misconduct or unacceptable performance.”

Typically, firing a federal employee is about as difficult as winning a game of tennis with a brick wall. This move on the part of the Biden administration seeks to make it even harder.

GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have both indicated that they would take a chainsaw to the executive branch if they are elected, citing rampant left-wing bias in the federal government. Indeed, at least some federal employees were actively working against Trump’s agenda while he was in office. Anyone remember Mr. Lodestar?

During Trump’s stint in the White House, he issued Executive Order 13957, creating Schedule F, which granted the president more latitude when it comes to hiring and firing federal workers. Upon taking office, Biden rescinded the order. The new proposal would grant unelected bureaucrats more protection even if they decide they want to work against the wishes of the administration.

While the OPM’s rule proposal might seem intended to promote continuity and stability, it's clear that this is an effort to hinder political rivals from removing folks who are motivated by ideology rather than duty. It is also worth noting that even if this proposal becomes the rule, the next president could reverse it -- just as Biden did with Trump’s order.

Still, this move shows even further that Democrats are deeply concerned about Biden being defeated in 2024. If this were not the case, they wouldn’t be trying to formulate this type of insurance policy.

GOP Drops 'Devastating' Video of Joe and Hunter Biden Talking 'Business' With Potential Client

Nick Arama reporting for RedState 

How many years has Joe Biden told us a ton of malarkey that he never spoke about business with his son? 

After so much evidence came out that they no longer could deny it, the White House then made an Orwellian transposition, claiming they'd always said Biden was never "in business" with his son, which wasn't what he said. In any event, evidence shoots down both of those claims.

We reported on new information about a breakfast meeting with Joe and Hunter Biden, as well as two of his business associates. One of the associates was trying to get a favor from Joe, while Hunter and Devon were trying to have that business associate work with Burisma. 

Now, the House Oversight GOP has dropped a new video. The video shows Newsmax's Greg Kelly commenting on a C-Span video from April 22, 2005, of Joe and Hunter Biden in attendance at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner thrown by the South Carolina Democratic Party. 

At such events most politicians, if they bring anyone, it's their spouse. But Joe Biden, the keynote speaker at the dinner, took along Hunter. Gee, three guesses as to why. Joe Biden works the room and introduces Hunter to various people. The whole C-Span video is remarkable for how much Joe Biden has deteriorated since then; it's marked. He's working the whole room, completely coherent the whole time, if a bit pandering and garrulous. But still not weird and inappropriate like he has become now. It's almost sad, when you realize what he once was and what he is now. 

In the clip, Joe and Hunter are talking with two people who appear to be a husband and a wife. Joe says, "Maybe we can work something out." 

"Yeah, yeah, that is what we will do,” the woman responds. 

The man said, “Hunter was just telling me about his law firm in Washington, his law firm.”

“Yeah,” Joe acknowledges him. 

“Do you have a card by any chance?” the man queried Hunter. Then he offers to give Hunter his card. 

Hunter claims he gave all his cards away. Guess having Daddy working the room for him was very successful. 

Then Hunter and the man go off to the side to talk business while Joe, having made the critical connection for Hunter, continues to speak to the wife about pleasantries. 

"Watch the men step away separately to conduct business," Kelly explained. "That's how it worked!" "Circumstantial but devastating," Kelly termed it. 

Now, we don't know what came out of that interaction. We can't tell what they are talking about, as Joe and the woman were smooze-talking over them.

But the meeting and the business discussion couldn't have happened without Joe Biden. As Kelly said, you can see how it works seamlessly, with Joe making the connection for Hunter. How many times did it happen that day? And how many times since then has it happened, with all the different business associates? 

This is what the Biden team would doubtless spin as talking about "the weather." 

Week 81: Putin's War

streiff reporting for RedState 

Welcome to Week 81 of Vladimir Putin's cakewalk to Kiev. This is also 81 weeks without a thermonuclear holocaust despite NATO blowing through every "red line" the Kremlin has drawn. 

In my view, there were three significant items dealing with Putin's War this week. First, Crimea officially became a combat zone. The Ukrainian military had nipped at Crimea in the past, but this week brought a full-scale assault on the Black Sea Fleet in port. When the smoke cleared, Russia had lost a landing ship and a submarine, along with the use of the only Russian Navy dry dock on the Black Sea. The vessels hit can't be called sunk, as they weren't in the water, but neither is economically repairable. The second item was the G20 prizing corporate unity over doing the right thing. I'm not sure that was a shock to anyone, but it is a significant change from last year. Lastly, senior Russian officials are no longer feigning interest in negotiations. The party line is that Russia must win.

Politico-Strategic Level

Black Sea Fleet Takes It on the Chin

Wednesday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Black Sea Fleet homeport, Sevastopol. The attack was the end result of a few weeks of related operations that greatly reduced radar and air defense coverage of the target area. Two Russian Navy ships were damaged beyond repair, the Ropucha-class landing ship, Minsk and the Kilo-class submarine, Rostov-on-Don. This is possibly the greatest naval loss in history in a land war against an opponent without a navy. See my post on the attack here: Ukrainian Attack on Russian Fleet Leaves One Ship and One Sub Destroyed With No Nuclear War.

Part of the attack was by three unmanned surface vessels (USV) against a Russian patrol ship. None of those USVs hit their target.

G20 Gets Rolled

Ukraine's run of diplomatic victories ended at the G20 summit on Friday. Where last year's statement condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it was barely mentioned this year.

After hundreds of hours of negotiations and more than a dozen drafts, representatives of the world’s richest nations faced a difficult choice late Friday evening: Accept watered-down language about Ukraine in a final G20 declaration, or have no declaration at all.

As the clock ticked down, the leaders chose the former, hoping to avoid open fractures within their group, a ding to the G20’s credibility and embarrassment for the summit’s host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In doing so, the group was left with a statement that avoided any explicit condemnation of Russia’s invasion, opting instead for vows from the 20 member states to respect territorial integrity and work toward peace.

In practice, this means nothing, as most members of the G20 aren't involved in the Ukraine War, and the G7 and NATO are still staunch supporters of Ukraine. But it shows that China swings a big stick outside of the industrialized West and is willing to use that power to run interference for its client state.

Putin and Kim Meet, Part II

Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un met this week in Vladivostok.

The subject was billed as security in Northeast Asia, but the real subject was Russia's shortage of artillery ammunition and North Korea's need for oil, gas, and technology. 

Kim declared on Wednesday that his country would support Russia that his "very first priority is relations with the Russian Federation."

"Now Russia has risen to a sacred struggle to defend its state sovereignty and protect its security in opposition to the hegemonic forces that oppose Russia," he went on. "We have always supported and support all decisions of President Putin, as well as decisions of the Russian Government. I also hope that we will always be together in the struggle against imperialism and for the construction of a sovereign state."

The Kremlin announced that Putin will visit Kim in Pyongyang in October.

Romania Establishes No-Fly Zone

Since July, Russia has been targeting grain and seed oil terminals on the Danube River and the Black Sea. Some of those terminals are just a few hundred yards from the Romanian border. On September 4, a Russian drone missed Ukraine and hit Romania. Romania responded by ordering the evacuation of some villages closest to the Danube, moving air defense units to the area, and declaring a no-fly zone over the contested area.

It is only a matter of time until Romanian air defense systems start engaging Russian drones.

The Truth About Aid to Ukraine

There is a perpetually dishonest faction of self-styled conservatives; this would be the "freedom for me but not for thee" crowd that tries to convince the uneducated that the US is carrying Ukraine by itself. This is not true.

This is one occasion where Europe has stepped up and showed it is serious about collective defense. The money spent to help integrate Ukraine into the European economy and forever put to bed Putin's silly demand for a sphere of influence -- where he can dictate the foreign and domestic policy of neighboring states -- shows that Europe, for all its problems, has a much better grasp on what is at stake than a lot of members of Congress.

Negotiations Outlook

If you follow the war at all, you see a constant call for a negotiated settlement. This is really shorthand for "give Russia what it wants." There is no evidence that Russia is willing to offer any deal that does not include Ukraine relinquishing four oblasts plus Crimea to Russian control. More to the point, there is no evidence that Putin has backed off his initial war objectives of replacing the freely elected government with a pro-Russia quisling one, disbanding the Ukrainian armed forces, and forbidding ties between Ukraine and the West.

When interviews like this appear on state television, it is a sign that Putin is not preparing his country for a negotiated settlement. 

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has no illusions.

This war will be decided on the battlefield.

Mother of All Stop-Losses

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Andrei Kartapolov has announced that all Russian soldiers sent to Ukraine will remain there until the end of the operation. There will be no discharges. They will be allowed a leave of indeterminate length every six months.

The implication here is that Russia does not have access to an infinite supply of manpower and that the manpower that is available may not be terribly interested in a military career. It is difficult to see how enlisting for indefinite service in a war zone incentivizes enlistment.

Americans Act as "Observers" in Russia's Fake Ukraine Elections

Last week, Russia held elections in the five Ukrainian oblasts it has illegally annexed; see Putin’s Illegal Annexation of Ukrainian Territory Marks the Beginning of a War Without a Perceivable End. None of those annexations have been recognized by the international community. Yet, three Americans made the trip to act as "observers" and give Putin's attempt to create facts on the ground the color of legitimacy: Steve Gill, G. Kline Preston IV, and Wyatt Reed.

The United States referred to “the sham elections in occupied areas of Ukraine” as “nothing more than a propaganda exercise”, and stated that it “will never recognize the Russian Federation’s claims to any of Ukraine’s sovereign territory”. The US also reminded “any individuals who may support Russia’s sham elections in Ukraine, including by acting as so-called ‘international observers’, that they may be subject to sanctions and visa restrictions” (Source, including complete list of "observers.")

Usually, I'm opposed to the US hammering private individuals, but these people are acting like labor relations counselors at a Uighur concentration camp. 

Sometimes, It Seems Like They Aren't Even Trying

In this episode, we see Russia's UN Orc, Vasily Nebenzya, trying to convince the world that Zelensky, not Russia, is the threat to Ukraine.

If It Weren't for You Meddling Kids...

Operational Level

The situation on the ground remains largely unchanged from the last update. The Ukrainians are still pursuing their tactic of quick raids to draw a Russian response and attack the reinforcements as they arrive in the operational area. The Russians, for their part, cooperate by attacking into anything that could be construed as a Ukrainian advance.

Weather will bring an end to the Ukrainian offensive in the next six weeks. So we might see a major push before the rainy season sets in and halts all operations until January, or we might see the Ukrainians content to consolidate their gains and continue their war of attrition on the Russian lines of communications as they replace equipment lost and damaged during the offensive.

My gut feeling is that the Ukrainians will let the clock run out on this offensive and prepare for the next round. 

I'll be the first to admit that I misjudged the effects of seemingly endless minefields on the ability of Ukraine to carry out the mobile, combined arms warfare favored in the West. The lack of attention by NATO and associated members of the Ramstein Contact Group to the equipment needed for dynamic penetration of minefields shows I was not alone. I don't consider the Ukrainian offensive to be a failure, but it is not the war-ending operation that a lot of us hoped for. That said, a lot of damage has been inflicted on the Russians. Ground has been gained. And the Ukrainians are by no means a spent force at the end of the offensive, as the Russians were by July 2022.

Last week, I posted about the difference between Russian and Ukrainian priorities for artillery fire. Russian fire overwhelmingly hits Ukrainian front lines. Ukrainian artillery prioritizes Russian artillery, air defense, electronic warfare, command and control, and logistics. Frequently, when Ukrainian troops complain about a lack of artillery support, the real complaint is that the targets they want hit aren't a high priority. Recently, there has been an indication that another Russian asset has been added to the list: Lancet drone launchers.

I think this has become a high priority because, over the last year, there have been basically zero such videos, and now they are appearing with some frequency. My guess is that specialized units have been created to track Lancets back to the launch site and search for the launch team.

New Weapons

Malloy Heavy-Lift Drones

The British are supplying Malloy heavy-lift drones to Ukraine. There is no word on how many will be sent, but having the ability to resupply units without using vehicles has a lot of advantages. Using the drone as an aerial medevac also has possibilities.

Combat Operations

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

This seems to be an outgrowth of a tactic that popped up last winter of using single tanks to rampage along a section of Russian trenches. The idea seems to be simply to hit a section of trench line, kill everything, and retreat. There is no attempt to occupy terrain. This could be in reaction to Russia's habit of smothering captured areas in rocket and artillery fire. There is also an implication that the tanks are not afraid of encountering anti-tank weapons of any kind. I'm not a huge fan, but if it works, go for it. 

Northern Front

The action on this front is confined to two areas. This front is generally a low-priority area with a steady level of combat. The Ukrainians are trying not to give ground but will do so grudgingly to preserve their force. The Russians don't have the men or supplies to mount a sustained offensive. 

Kharkiv

Svatove-Kupiansk-Kreminna 

Russia has continued pressure on the Ukrainian lines outside Kupiansk. Both sides have made gains and losses in this area. As I've said before, the Russian offensive here reached a culminating point a couple of weeks ago. What the continued fighting here does is keep some Ukrainian forces pinned down that could be put to better use elsewhere.

This is the status of the front line. If there is a place in the Ukrainian line that I would say concerns me, it is this sector. The men have been fighting a grinding and under-resourced defensive action since last winter. What is happening on the Ukrainian side is very opaque, but if care hasn't been given to rotating these men off the line for rest and retraining, that is a situation tailor-made for an abrupt rout. The same applies to the Russians, of course.

Donbas 

Bahkmut-Klishchiivka-Andriivka 

The Ukrainian Army continues to make slow progress south of Bakhmut. This week, three villages situated on the high ground above Bakhmut fell to the Ukrainian Army. The unit defending Andriivka, one of the new mechanized infantry units formed of mobilized men, was cut off and retreated in poor order. Reports on Telegram from both sides indicate this unit has been stricken from the order of battle.

Despite the lack of any physical importance, Bakhmut is the scene of the only Russian victory in the last 12 months, and this will force the Russian commander to take troops from other areas to hold this ground.

Avdiivka 

Very little in the way of combat is happening in this area. Pro-Russian social media accounts proclaim a major Russian offensive to create a "cauldron" and destroy the troops in the Ukrainian salient. The Ukrainian presence here does more to freeze a large number of Russian troops into defensive positions and keep them out of action than anything else. We shouldn't take our eye off a quiet sector in a critical location. If the Ukrainians could pull something out of the hat here and threaten the lines of communication behind Donetsk City, the air could come out of the Russian balloon to the south very, very quickly.

Partisan Activity

This could've been a run-of-the-mill traffic accident...if the deceased had not been a prominent propagandist for the quisling government in Russian-occupied Donbas and high-profile pro-Russian fighter in the 2014 invasion, as well as a military commander in the ongoing war.

You can add "Nazi" to his bio, too. Dubovny is in images 1, 3, and 4. You can get a translation by right-clicking the text.

There Is a Metaphor Here, if You Look

Southern Front

The main effort of the Ukrainian offensive remains on the Orikhiv-Tokmak-Melitopol axis. After a burst of progress last week, things seem to have slowed down again. Over the past 10 weeks, we've learned to associate this with Ukrainian sappers trying to clear minefields. The volume and type of reporting on this area lead me to believe something is up, but who knows?

Zaporizhzhia

Robotyne-Novoprokopivka-Verbove 

Fighting continues in the salient the Ukrainians have pushed into the Russian line between Novoprokopivka and Verbove. There was reporting that more progress was made where the Ukrainians penetrated the second defense belt of the Surovikin Line. 

Russia is throwing everything it has to contain this penetration because they know how important it is. The Russian attacks have focused on the area north of Robotyne and Verbove. Instead of merely blunting the advance that is happening west and southwest of Verbove, they are trying to break into Ukrainian penetration at the shoulders and clip it off.

The Ukrainians are now advancing down the Russian trench lines instead of hitting them head-on. This is still slow work, but it negates any kind of defense-in-depth the Russians were trying to achieve. Don't look for fighting in Verbove or Novoprokopivka. The Ukrainians will leave forces to contain the Russian garrisons and advance through the gap between those towns.

Kherson 

No measurable progress was made in this area. Raids continue along both banks of the Dnieper River. The Ukrainian bridgehead has not been reported to have grown. Underline "reported."

Rear Areas

Crimea

 More Strikes on Air Defense Systems

Wednesday night, Ukrainian Navy and Special Operations units teamed up to take out a Russian S-400 battery in Crimea. Special Operations forces launched a drone attack that destroyed the radar system for the S-400 battery; this was followed up by Neptune anti-ship missiles that have been converted to a land attack mode.

The degradation of Russian air defense systems makes all Russian bases in Crimea subject to a broad range of attacks.

Russia

Russian Ships Leave Sevastopol

In my post on the missile/USV attack on Sevastopol that severely damaged a landing ship and a submarine as well as the only Russian drydock on the Black Sea, I speculated that the Russian Navy might abandon Sevastopol as too vulnerable.

This is a little like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The Ukrainians made Sevastopol untenable by destroying the antiaircraft and radar early warning systems that protected the naval base. Changing anchorages won't prevent the same tactic from working again.

What's Next

I think we'll see one final pre-rasputitsa (or bezdorizhzhya, if you insist on Ukrainian words) push south of Bakhmut and towards Melitopol. Due to the lateness in the season, both of these will be focused on gaining key terrain to all further attrition of Russian forces until the ground freezes. The first F-16s should enter Ukrainian service in the first quarter of 2024. These, combined with the effort to kill radar and surface-to-air missile systems, will change some of the dynamics on the front lines. 

Based on signals coming from Washington and Berlin, this winter will see the arrival of the German Taurus cruise missile and the US ATACMS (Biden White House Poised to Send ATACMS Tactical Ballistic Missile to Ukraine). If so, this winter will feature a Ukrainian offensive against the road, rail, a port facilities that keep the Russian Army supplied. The Ukrainian Army will assume a defensive posture to rearm, refit, and train replacements and units as supply shortages keep the Russians from launching a major winter offensive. Next spring, the Ukrainians will give another shot at turfing the Russians out.