President Trump’s plane nearly hit by drone

From Daily-sun.com (Aug. 19):

WASHINGTON: A major mishap was averted on Monday when a small drone-like object nearly hit the plane of US President Donald Trump when it was about to make a landing at an airport in Washington, said several people on board Air Force One, reports Timesnownews.com.

According to the eyewitnesses, shortly before the plane landed at 5:54 pm on Monday, a yellow and black coloured device with a cross-shaped body flew past the aircraft and nearly hit it on the right-hand side.

When questioned about the incident, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which coordinates air security measures in North America, referred the questioned to the Secret Service while the Federal Aviation Administration referred questioned on the issue to the Air Force.

Although most civilian drones weigh only a few kilograms and probably can’t take down a jetliner, the government researchers suggest that these drones can still damage a cockpit windshield or damage an entire engine.

There have been a couple of instances in the US where drones have actually struck aircraft, but none of the incidents has resulted in a serious crash or injuries, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

A hobbyist drone being flown illegally near New York City struck an Army helicopter on Sept. 21, 2017, the NTSB found. The impact damaged the helicopter, but it was able to land safely. [read more]

Possible assassination attempt? Scary. Newsmax.com reported the incident, so did Fox News.com. CNN’s website didn’t. MSNBC.com didn’t.

Socialism Part 4

The recollection of the liberation of the peasants and the abolition of slavery hovers vaguely in Marx’s mind and even more so in the minds of many other socialists. But they fail to see that the position of the feudal lord was quite different from that of the entrepreneur. The feudal lord had no influence on production. He stood outside the process of production: only when it was finished did he step in with a claim to a share in the yield.

…………..

All socialists overlook the fact that even in a socialist community every economic operation must be based on an uncertain future, and that its economic consequence remains uncertain even if it is technically successful.

………………….

If the socialist community does not supply the comrades with the goods which they themselves want to enjoy, but with those which the rulers think they ought to enjoy, the sum of satisfactions is not increased, but diminished. One certainly could not call this violation of the individual will ‘economic democracy.’

For it is an essential difference between capitalist and socialist production that in the first men provide for themselves, while in the second they are provided for. The socialist wants to feed and house humanity and cover its nakedness. But men prefer to eat, dwell, dress and generally to seek happiness after their own fashion.

Source: Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1951) by Ludwig von Mises.

Today's Anticapitalists Are Closer to Fascism Than They Think

From Mises.org (Aug. 6):

On the back of the economic crisis brought about by the covid-19 pandemics, we are witnessing—once more—so-called economists, historians, and pundits attempting to proclaim the failure of capitalism. Their criticisms of the capitalistic organization of human cooperation and coexistence are various, but there are three strains of ideological attack against capitalism which seem to me to occur more often than others.

There is an element about anticapitalism that is often neglected: even though anticapitalism is usually associated with socialism and leftist movements, we can find the very same anticapitalistic mentality in the fascist ideology. As Thomas DiLorenzo pointed out in his latest Mises U lecture on the topic, fascism is just a particular kind of socialism—just like communism itself is. Hence, the fact that fascists and communists share the same contempt for capitalism should not surprise anyone.

The best way to understand the anticapitalistic mentality of fascism—and how close the arguments of contemporary anticapitalists are to those of Benito Mussolini—is to read Mussolini’s 1932 essay titled "The Doctrine of Fascism," written together with Giovanni Gentile (the acknowledged philosophical ideologue of fascism).

The attack Gentile and Mussolini carry out against capitalism is (at least) threefold, and its underlying rhetoric is no different from the one of contemporary anticapitalistic and allegedly antifascist movements. First, Gentile and Mussolini advocate a greater role for government in the economy. Second, they condemn both methodological and political individualism, asserting the importance of collectivism and collective identities. Third, they blame "economism" and the role economic constraints play in shaping human behavior, deploring materialism and advocating governments that transcend the praxeological and sociological laws of economics.

Arguing for Ever More Government Intervention

The first step anticapitalists take when it comes to arguing in favor of bigger government is to belittle freedom and classical liberalism. In the paragraph titled1 "Rejection of Economic Liberalism – Admiration of Bismarck," Gentile and Mussolini write that "fascism is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines of [classical] liberalism, both in the political and the economic sphere." Doesn’t that have a familiar ring? Is it so different from the calls of many leftists for rethinking neoliberalism and capitalism?

………………..

Fascism Eulogizes Collectivism and Despises Individualism

The viscerally anti-individualistic philosophical approach of fascism is clearly laid out throughout the whole essay. For instance, in the paragraph appropriately titled "Rejection of Individualism and the Importance of the State," the fascist ideology is explicitly labeled as "anti-individualistic," insofar as fascism "stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State." [read more]

Russia building military bases in Africa: Report

From AA.com.tr (Apr. 8):

Russia is planning to step up its military cooperation with African countries as part of its new Africa strategy, including building bases in six countries, Germany daily Bild reported Tuesday, citing a secret German Foreign Ministry report.

The classified document on what it calls “Russia’s new Africa ambitions” says Russian President Vladimir Putin had made “Africa a top priority.”

An important aspect of Russia’s advance in Africa is military cooperation with some of the continent’s dictatorial regimes, it said.

"Since 2015, Russia has concluded military cooperation agreements with 21 countries in Africa," according to the leaked document.

Previously, there were only four military cooperation treaties across the entire continent, it added. [read more]

That doesn’t sound good.

Another article about Russia:

State Department says Russia is pushing coronavirus conspiracy theories online

FBI has opened 300 'domestic terror' investigations as a result of riots, attorney tells Capitol hearing on Antifa

From Fox News.com (Aug. 4):

The FBI has opened more than 300 domestic terrorism investigations since George Floyd's death in Minneapolis kicked off nationwide unrest and riots, a federal attorney revealed Tuesday in a hearing on Capitol Hill on Antifa and violent protests.

Erin Nealy Cox, a U.S. attorney tapped by Attorney General William Barr to lead a task force on violent anti-government extremists, said the feds have opened hundreds of federal criminal investigations surrounding the violence and rioting since May 28.

"They have since May 28 [opened] over 300 domestic terrorist investigations," Cox told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on preventing violent protests. "That does not include any potential civil rights investigations or violent crime associated with the riots."

In addition, Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told lawmakers that an estimated 140 federal law enforcement officers guarding a Portland federal courthouse sustained 277 injuries due to the violent and sustained nightly attacks at the building.

At one point in the Senate hearing, he picked up a frozen water bottle and banged it on the desk, saying they have been thrown at officers as well as pipes and Molotov cocktails.

The hearing Tuesday titled "The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence” revealed deep divisions in how Republicans and Democrats view the sustained protests that have gripped the nation since Floyd's death while in police custody. [read more]

Police body camera footage proves George Floyd's death is not as simple as the media say it is

From Washington Examiner.com (Aug. 4):

The death of George Floyd was more complicated than the liberal media like to portray it, and the leaked police body camera footage this week doesn't really make the issue any clearer.

If anything, the video takes some air out of the idea that Floyd's death was the result of one or more racist officers looking to kill another unarmed black man.

That might be why CNN and MSNBC aren't airing it around the clock the way they had the initial 30-second video of officer Derek Chauvin leaning on Floyd's neck with his knee.

The footage, first published Monday by the Daily Mail, shows the beginning of Floyd's encounter with police, starting when officer Thomas Lane approached the parked vehicle that Floyd was sitting in. Lane taps on Floyd's window, and Floyd, alarmed, shuffles around before opening the door.

From the beginning, it's clear that Floyd is in some kind of mental or emotional distress, frantically telling Lane, who is pointing a gun at him, and the other officer present, Alexander Kueng, that he's "sorry" and that he "didn't do nothing" (despite the police not having accused him of anything) while repeatedly failing to do as instructed.

Floyd was told to keep his hands on the steering wheel, which he didn't immediately do. He was asked to step out of the car, to which he kept pleading for the officer not to shoot him, even as the Lane told him, multiple times, "I'm not going to shoot you." (Lane is heard later in the video stating that he is concerned about Floyd's hands because he thought me might restart the car and attempt to drive away.)

Throughout Floyd's entire interaction with police, he struggles, perhaps at least in part because he had a genuine fear of the police. He's seen begging not to be shot. He's heard telling the police, "I'm not that kind of guy" and that he "just lost my mom." And he repeats over and over that he's claustrophobic, that he can't breathe, and that he feels like he's going to die.

All of that, however, was taking place before Floyd was forced to the ground. He only ended up on the ground after police were unable to get the 6-foot-four-inch, 223-pound man to sit inside the squad car. Oddly, Floyd asked to be placed lying on the ground instead of in the car. [read more]

Another article on George Floyd:

Attorney For Ex-Minneapolis Police Officer: George Floyd ‘Overdosed On Fentanyl’

Socialism Notes Part 3

If the connection between the yield of labor and the income of the laborer is dissolved, as it must be in socialist society, the individual will always labor under the impression that proportionately too much work has been piled on him. The over-heated, neurasthenic dislike of work will develop which nowadays we can observe in practically all government offices and public enterprises. In such concerns where the pay depends upon rigid schedules, everyone thinks he is overburdened, that just he is being given too much to do and things which are too unpleasant — that his achievements are not duly appreciated and rewarded. Out of these feelings grows a sullen hate of work which stifles even the pleasure in completing it.

The socialist community cannot count on the ‘joy of labor.’

……………………

Socialism would eliminate the small retailers. But in their place it must set up distributive centers which would not be cheaper. Cooperative stores do not employ less hands than the retail stores organized on modern lines, and many of them, because of their large expenses, could not compete with the latter if they were not granted privileges of exemption from taxation.

…………………………

Socialism knows no freedom of choice in occupation. Everyone has to do what he is told to do and to go where he is sent. Anything else is unthinkable.

…………………..

Under Bolshevism in Russia and Hungary, the artists, scientists and writers, who were recognized as such by the selectors appointed for this purpose, were exempted from the general obligation to work and given a definite salary. All such as were not recognized remained subject to the general obligation to work and received no support for other activity. The press was nationalized.

Source: Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1951) by Ludwig von Mises.

More articles about socialism:

• Why Smarter Computers Won’t Make Socialism More Workable
• Socialists as White Saviors

Will Democrats accept election loss? New report says no.

From Washington Examiner.com (Aug. 4):

So there is much discussion of Trump and the election results. But there is another, equally pressing question: Will Democrats accept the results of the election if Joe Biden loses? A new report suggests the answer could be no.

The report comes from a secretive group called the Transition Integrity Project. A bipartisan, anti-Trump organization, TIP was created last year by Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks and historian and think tanker Nils Gilman, "out of concern that the Trump administration may seek to manipulate, ignore, undermine or disrupt the 2020 presidential election and transition process."

In June, TIP organized a meeting of 100 "former high-ranking government officials, senior political campaigners, nationally prominent journalists and communications professionals, social movement leaders, and experts on politics, national security, democratic reform, election law, and media." The project originally kept the names of the 100 secret, but about 40 have now agreed to be publicly identified. (The rest remain anonymous.) Among the publicly known names are some of the most ardently anti-Trump voices in media and politics. Norm Eisen, who served as outside counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during impeachment, is part of the group, as is John Podesta, the former Hillary Clinton campaign chair who played key roles in the Obama and Bill Clinton White Houses, and former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile. There is former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, now seen denouncing the president on cable TV, and another former governor whose name remains secret. To make the group bipartisan, there are several members from Never Trump Republican and former Republican ranks: Reed Galen, a key organizer of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, Bill Kristol, Max Boot, David Frum, and others. [read more]

Dems haven’t accepted the 2016 election yet. So what else is new.

Other stories on the 2020 election:

• The Real Reason Democrats are Pushing for Mail-In Ballots
• President's legal team charges ‘massive’ election interference
• The Double Voting Problem
• Hillary Clinton Teams Up with Soros in Conspiracy To Prevent Trump’s Victory In 2020
• We must have remote voting
• Soros Groups’ Vote-by-Mail Drive Aims to Expand Government Control
• 4 Points in Understanding China’s Goal for Meddling in US Elections
• FEC commissioner: 'Substantial chance' 2020 results won't be known on election night
• Marc Thiessen Says A Biden-Harris Ticket Is ‘A Trojan Horse’ For Socialism
• Facebook Bans Pro-Trump PAC From Advertising, Citing ‘False’ Content
• Mail-in Voting and the Future of American Democracy

Australian Professor: Ivermectin 'Amazingly Successful' in Killing Coronavirus

From News Max.com (Aug. 8):

An Australian drug known as Ivermectin, which is already in use throughout the world to treat parasitic conditions, is showing great results in killing coronavirus in studies involving patients, according to Sky News.

"Because I'm involved in developing these in the U.S. where all the patients are, there are a number of studies that are amazingly successful. We're talking close to 100%. In fact, we haven't seen a result yet under 100%. It looks like corona is very simple to kill,"  Professor Thomas Borody, medical director of Australia's Center for Digestive Disease. "It's available as a prescription medication. You wouldn't use it alone ... but you add two other things to it such as doxycycline and zinc."

Ivermectin is already approved by the FDA and is on the World Health Organization's list of model list of essential medicines.

"We had a 14-hospital trial in Bangladesh. We got [cured] 100 out of 100. In China, they tried to reproduce it. They got 60 out of 60 cured ... So I am behind the Ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc treatment because it has very few side effects and is a real killer of coronavirus," Borody said. [read more]

'Mafia tactics': Immigrant restaurant owner accuses BLM of extortion

From WND.com (Aug. 3):

Claiming Black Lives Matter activists are trying to extort local businesses, members of the Cuban community in Louisville, Kentucky, ralled on Sunday in support of a local restaurant owner.

The rally came as the owner of La Bodeguita de Mima, Fernando Martinez, was accused of racism for publicly criticizing the "mafia tactics" of protesters he claims are trying to intimidate him and other business owners, reported WHAS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Louisville.

The BLM protesters argue they are simply trying to improve diversity in local businesses, insisting they hire more black staff and undergo diversity training.

In a letter, they demanded the businesses of Louisville's NuLu community have a minimum of 23% black staff, purchase a minimum of 23% inventory from black retailers or donating 1.5% of net sales to a local black nonprofit or organization, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. [read more]

More BLM stories:

• Black Man Who Protected His Wife From Trespassing BLM Protesters Charged With Assault
• Portland rioters and Black Lives Matter demand our unconditional surrender
• 14-Step Action Plan for Stopping Targeted Violence in America’s Cities
• Riot declared after Portland protesters set police union building on fire
• Second round of looting puts Chicago at a crossroads
• Seattle City Council votes to scale back police department funding as officer pay on chopping block
• Black Lives Matter Organizer Equates Looting In Chicago With ‘Reparations’
• Seattle BLM protesters demand white people ‘give up’ their homes
• BLM mob beats white man unconscious after making him crash truck: video
• California Black Lives Matter Leader Charged with Five Felonies, Faces 15 Years in Prison (VIDEO)
• WATCH: Black Chicago Residents Interrupt BLM Rally To Support Looters, Demand BLM Leave Neighborhood

Declassified Senate Report Reveals CIA Tried to Talk FBI Out of Relying on ‘Very Unvetted’ Steele Dossier

From National Review.com (July 29):

The FBI continued to rely on intelligence from Christopher Steele, the former British spy who alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, even after the CIA warned his allegations were “very unvetted,” according to newly declassified documents.

“We would have never included that report in a CIA-only assessment because the source was so indirect. And we made sure we indicated we didn’t use it in our analysis, and if it had been a CIA-only product we wouldn’t have included it at all,” the CIA’s deputy director of analysis told the Senate Intelligence Committee in an April 21 report.

The report, declassified on Tuesday, shows that the FBI successfully pushed to include Steele’s information in a January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election after a “bitter argument” with the CIA.

While multiple claims by Steele have since been debunked by investigators, the bureau had also used Steele’s intelligence to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Then- FBI director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe argued that Steele’s information was relevant to the question of Russian interference in the 2016 election and lobbied the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to include Steele’s dossier in the January 7, 2017 ICA.  [read more]

Another article on the subject:

4 Takeaways From Top Obama DOJ Official’s Testimony on ‘Rogue’ FBI

Socialism Notes Part 2

Under Socialism all the means of production are the property of the community. The community alone disposes of them and decides how to use them in production. The community produces, the products accrue to the community, and the community decides how those products are to be used.
Modern socialists, especially those of the Marxian persuasion, lay great emphasis on designating the socialist community as Society, and therefore on describing the transfer of the means of production to the control of the community as the ‘Socialization of the means of production.’ In itself the expression is unobjectionable but in the connection in which it is used it is particularly designed to obscure one of the most important problems of Socialism.

The word ‘society,’ with its corresponding adjective ‘social,’ has three separate meanings. It implies, first, the abstract idea of social inter-relationships, and secondly, the concrete conception of a union of the individuals themselves. Between these two sharply different meanings, a third has been interposed in ordinary speech: the abstract society is conceived as personified in such expressions as ‘human society,’ ‘civil society.’

Now Marx uses the term with all these meanings. This would not matter as long as he made the distinction quite clear. But he does just the opposite. He interchanges them with a conjurer’s skill whenever it appears to suit him. When he talks of the social character of capitalistic production he is using social in its abstract sense. When he speaks of the society which suffers during crises he means the personified society of mankind. But when he speaks of the society which is to expropriate the expropriators and socialize the means of production he means an actual social union. And all the meanings are interchanged in the links of his argument whenever he has to prove the unprovable. The reason for all this is in order to avoid using the term State or its equivalent, since this word has an unpleasant sound to all those lovers of freedom and democracy, whose support the Marxian does not wish to alienate at the outset.

Source: Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1951) by Ludwig von Mises.

Articles about socialism:

• Socialism and the Corporation: A Love-Hate Relationship
• The World’s Worst Idea
• Cuban Americans Tell What Life Under Castro Was Really Like
• Why We Need Entrepreneurs and Market Prices for a Healthy Economy

2019’s Joker is 2020’s Reality

From American Thinker.com (July 29):

The year 2020 in America feels like the end scene in 2019’s Joker where Gotham burns as the citizenry embraces the chaos spurred on by chaos-messiah, Arthur Fleck, the Joker. For the last four years, an audience of Americans watch America embrace the chaos-messiahship of the left as their saints questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election, immediately sought impeachment, flip-flops on COVID-19, and now stands idly by as long-reigning progressive governments in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland descend into Jokeresque chaos.

When the movie debuted last October, opinion pieces from left to right decried the movie. Claims from leftists wanted the movie pulled simply because of the portrayal of potentially harsh realities of mental illness. Conservative Christians wrote blogs on the nihilistic, postmodernism threatening the worldview of our children.

The harsh realities of mental illness in America and how we take care of our mentally ill deserve exploration and extrapolation. Progressives should not be afraid of important thinking on critical issues. The movie does not impose nihilism or postmodernism onto the audience to prove Arthur Fleck’s epiphany “there is no meaning.” The movie is not indoctrination. It is indictment.

Instead, the movie communicates that mental illness is a real issue. Nihilism is the sign of a crazy person. Postmodernism fulfills “ideas have consequences; bad ideas have victims.” All of this is crazy. It leads us to more crazy.

Who realizes that it’s crazy to not address mental health issues and buy into worldviews of nihilism and postmodernism?

The audience. The audience knows this is all crazy.

Specifically, the audience knows Arthur Fleck is the Joker or has the prescience that he will become the Joker at some point. It’s just a question of how and when. When the audience generally watches a movie, it usually has an inside-track the characters seem to not be able to pick up on. The audience sees backstory. Parallel storylines. Emphases on key moments.

The point of Joker is that he’s mentally ill. To be non-pc, he’s crazy. Everyone can see or sense Arthur Fleck is crazy. That he’s dangerous. Does the system care? No, it’s a bureaucracy, so cutting budgets for necessary mental health programs only cuts funds for faceless human beings. Who you don’t directly interact with cannot hurt you… [read more]

I’ve seen the movie Joker. The ending is like what is happening today by mobs in the streets.

Could Face Masks Be Spreading the Coronavirus?

Commentary from J.H. Capron on American Thinker.com (July 29):

I used to wonder how the Salem Witch Trials could have happened.  I don't anymore.

With the "Karens" (male and female) going hysterical in this viral panic, I clearly understand now why it's said, "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance."  Ignorance, or maybe better put, a lack of knowledge, sets up the American people to be exploited by their own politicians and government officials.  But, relative to a pathogen, it also sets them up to become disease transport agents via a mandated fomite: the face mask.

For those not familiar with the term "fomite," it's a non-biological object contaminated with a pathogen, making the article a source for spreading the pathogen.  For me, this viral panic has made it evident that most people have no understanding of viruses, their life cycles, and how they propagate.  The fear of the unknown is the outgrowth of this lack of knowledge.  It leads people to take irrational actions that will spread a pathogen.

Here we are in the 21st century, and the general public is no smarter than the general public was in the 17th century when it comes to dealing with the unknown.  So let's look at a pathogenic event in the early 20th century.

In 1918, we had the Spanish Flu (also known as the Spanish Fever).  The medical world was in the initial discovery phase of viruses...as a theory.  The ability to actually see a virus would not come about until the invention of the electron microscope in the late 1930s.  Viruses are at least 100 times smaller than bacteria.  I suspect that the medical profession believed that this outbreak was the result of an unknown, tiny bacterium that could not be seen with a microscope.  After all, the Bubonic Plague was bacterial.

So what were people asked to do?  Wear cloth face masks with five to six layers of gauze.

Let's think about that period in our history.  A large number of children died before the age of five.  The average age of death for adults was much lower than it is today.  The education of the general population was minimal.  Sanitation and personal hygiene also left a lot to be desired.  With face mask hygiene not defined, I have a deep suspicion that contaminated face masks helped spread the virus. [read more]

Something to think about. I suggest removing a face mask by the straps that go around the ears—not the mask itself. Now Dr. Fauci is telling people to wear goggles. Then again he was against face masks before he was for them. Scientists shouldn’t be inconsistent with their advice. If they don’t what the answer is then say that. It’s okay to be humble. Even for scientists.

COVID-19 Has Led to an Increase in Human Trafficking, Experts Say

From The Daily Signal.com (July 28):

The sexual exploitation of women and children has likely increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say.

Groups such as Polaris and International Justice Mission work to fight human trafficking and to free the estimated 40 million victims of modern-day slavery. Their work has not slowed down during the global pandemic.

Sadly, experts say, the virus is leading to an increase in violence against women and children.

“Buyers are getting more violent, more aggressive, trying to pay less,” Robert Beiser, strategic initiatives director at Polaris, told the Daily Signal in a phone interview.

Polaris operates the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which exists to connect victims of sex or labor trafficking with resources to help them find a way out of the abuse. The hotline also serves as a tip line to prevent future trafficking cases.

The hotline has received more than 48,000 calls or texts from individuals asking for help this year alone. Polaris has documented more than 63,000 cases of human trafficking within the U.S. since 2007.

Beiser said the coronavirus actually has created a climate for human traffickers to exploit the most vulnerable. A recent study, conducted by his group, found that crisis trafficking situations rose by 40% in April of this year compared with the numbers for April 2019. [read more]

Yale epidemiologist says hydroxychloroquine is 'the key to defeating COVID-19'

From Just the News.com (July 25):

In Ivy League epidemiology professor is claiming that hydroxychloroquine — the drug that has been at the center of a politicized medical debate for the last several months — is "the key to defeating COVID-19," and that medical officials should be widely prescribing it to save the lives of thousands of coronavirus patients.

Harvey Risch, a professor of epidemiology at Yale as well as the director of that school's Molecular Cancer Epidemiology Laboratory, argues in a Newsweek op-ed this week that "the data fully support" the wide use of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment of COVID-19.

"When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective," Risch argues in the column.

……………….

Risch, at Newsweek, argues that multiple studies over the past several months have demonstrated that the drug is a safe and efficacious treatment method for COVID-19. [read more]

The Great American Story Course Notes Part 8

John F. Kennedy called his campaign platform the new frontier.

According to Professor McClay, Martin Luther King, Jr. drew inspiration from Christianity, the
Constitution, and Gandhi.

The Southern states had voted solidly Democrat until the election of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

President Nixon’s approach to the Vietnam War was to achieve peace with honor.

According to Professor McClay, one of Nixon’s most surprising diplomatic achievements was improving relations with the Chinese.

Following Richard Nixon’s presidency, some political scientists feared that the presidency had
become autocratic and imperialistic.

Under Nixon, the economy underwent a period of high inflation and economic stagnation.

According to Professor McClay, although many within the conservative movement of the 1970s
disagreed on specific policy proposals, they were in general agreement on certain principles
such as limited government, free market economy, and anti-communism.

Although a conservative Republican by the time he was elected president, Ronald Reagan was a
liberal Democrat in his youth.

According to Professor McClay, establishment Republicans opposed Reagan’s nomination in
1980 and wanted to run George HW Bush for the presidency instead.

The Soviet Union was dissolved in December of 1991.

According to Professor McClay, President George HW Bush was interested in establishing a new
international order that was prosperous, law-abiding, and democratic following the end of the
Cold War.

Operation Desert Storm was undertaken in response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait
in 1990.

Source: "The Great American Story: A Land of Hope"

Concealed Carry Law in Texas Prevented Mass Murder

From The Daily Signal.com (Jan 6):

The same weekend that Orthodox Jews in Monsey, New York, were fighting off another knife-wielding anti-Semite thug with chairs and coffee tables—they were fortunate the perpetrator hadn’t brought a firearm, like the killer who targeted a yeshiva in Jersey City only a few weeks earlier—Jack Wilson, a 71-year-old congregant and security volunteer at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, took mere seconds to stop a potential mass murderer.

Earlier in the year, to the dismay of the usual suspects, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had signed a bill making it explicitly legal for Texans with concealed carry licenses to bring their weapons into places of worship.

These kinds of protections allowed Wilson to achieve something that no gun laws now being pursued nationally by Democrats has ever accomplished: He stopped a mass shooter.

My guess is that Wilson, a former deputy sheriff, is the kind of guy who probably wouldn’t have broken the law and carried a firearm into church had it been illegal to do so. The killer, on the other hand, I’m wholly certain, would have been undeterred by any laws.

Yet allowing people who pass ongoing criminal background checks and take state-mandated training courses to bring their guns to a church or a school is a move that generates tremendous hostility among gun control advocates.

We must “do something” about gun violence, but we’ve learned that, in the liberal vernacular, that’s nothing more than a euphemism for “do something to inhibit law-abiding citizens from owning guns.”

Even when Abbott signed the law that clarified the right of people to enter churches with concealed firearms unless otherwise prohibited, it was framed as something nefarious by the media. [read more]

The police can’t be everywhere when a madman with a gun (or any other weapon for that matter) starts taking innocence life. That’s why the 2nd amendment is in the Constitution. And if stupid mayors and city councilmen do away with their police or defund them then law abiding citizens will surely have to protect themselves and their property from chaos.

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the second basic need people need is safety (the first is food, water, warmth, shelter, etc.). People’s needs haven’t changed, so, when it comes to needs this basic need still exists. People can’t go past this need if it isn’t satisfied. That’s why the 2nd amendment exists when gov’t can’t protect people (its primary function).

As someone said in a song “don’t let ‘em take your gun.” I’m surprised the NRA didn’t use the song as their theme song in their ads. Maybe they don’t know about it.

Senate ‘Assault Weapons’ Bill Bans 205 Guns, Magazines, and More

From Think Americana.com (April 10):

Democrats are dead set on infringing upon our God-given right to defend ourselves by any means necessary and the way that they best do this to us is through incrementalism.

What they do is take away just little things, one at a time until we don't even realize what happened and it's too late to do something about it.

One bill from Sen. Dianne Feinstein list 205 guns, magazines, and bump stocks, to be made illegal (even though bump stocks are illegal already).

Feinstein thinks that this would cut down on gun violence but based on a Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice report, the 1994-2004 assault weapons ban had no effect on crime.

The bill would also include mandatory universal background checks.

According to Breitbart,

The Senate “assault weapons” ban outlaws 205 specific guns, magazines holding 11 rounds or more, and bump stocks, which are already illegal.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the bill’s sponsor, cites alleged benefits from the 1994-2004 “assault weapons” ban in an effort to bolster the chances for passage of the new version. However, she ignores the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice report showing that the 1994-2004 ban could not take credit for any reduction in crime.

In addition to banning 205 different guns, “high capacity” magazines, and bump stocks, the Senate “assault weapons” ban includes a universal background check requirement for any future transfer of firearms covered by the ban.

Like the 1994-2004 ban, Feinstein’s bill defines “assault weapons” based on cosmetic features. Therefore, the legislation bans commonly owned semiautomatic rifles that take detachable magazines and “[have] one or more military characteristics including a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock.”

During the Democrat debate back in September of last year, Beto O’Rourke said proudly, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.”

Obviously, that didn't work out for Beto too well because now he's at home sitting in front of the tv watching Ricky Gervais roast Hollywood on the Golden Globes. That's what you get when you threaten to go against the Constitution. [source]

Antifa Protestor Who Attacked a 56-year-old Trump Supporter Gets 18 Months in Jail

From Think Americana.com (Jan. 4):

A member of the far-left group Antifa that brutally attacked a Trump supporter in New York City will get 18 months in jail.

32-year-old David Campbell was sentenced at a Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, which was two weeks after he pled guilty for his role in a vicious assault outside of the "Night for Freedom" party.

Campbell admitted the despicable act of following the 56-year-old man out of the event and punching him to the floor before choking him while he is on the ground.

……..

Is 18 months long enough? It was reported he was going to get three to five years, but with the plea deal he was able to get down to 18 months. [read more]

Good. But not long enough. Should be at least two years.

Bastille Day: The Beginning of Liberal Madness

Commentary by Ann Coulter on Town Hall.com (July 15):

This Tuesday, the French celebrated Bastille Day, the mob attack on a Parisian prison that has come to symbolize the French Revolution, a period of massive violence that produced nothing other than a lot of dead Frenchmen. Their revolution was the screech of a mob, much as we are seeing in several of our own cities and towns today. So let's review this absurdly celebrated event.

As is common with mob violence, the storming of the Bastille was set off by a rumor. People began to whisper that the impotent, indecisive king, Louis XVI, was going to attack the new legislative body, the National Assembly.

-- Hands Up! Don't Shoot! (Even Eric Holder's Justice Department found that claim was a lie -- after multiple millions in property damage and human suffering.)

-- Mass protests over police killing an innocent black man in Detroit! (Turns out, Hakim Littleton was firing a gun at them.)

-- Althea Bernstein's face was burned with lighter fluid and a match thrown at her by four "classic Wisconsin frat boys"! (After initial flood-the-zone coverage, that story sure disappeared fast.)

In need of weapons to defend themselves from the imaginary attack, on the morning of July 14, 1789, about 60,000 French citizens armed with pikes and axes assembled at Les Invalides, a barracks for aging soldiers, to demand weapons and ammunition.

……………

Eventually, the mob broke through the gate of Les Invalides and ransacked the building, seizing 10 cannon and 28,000 muskets. But no ammunition. So they headed for the Bastille, which had once been a fortress.

The rabble feared the Bastille because of false rumors of political prisoners being tortured behind its walls. In fact, the Bastille held only a half-dozen prisoners that day, most of them common forgers. They were not being tortured, and the prison was in the process of being shut down, anyway.

With legions of Parisians banging on the gates of the Bastille, the prison's commander, Marquis de Launay, invited representatives of the people inside to negotiate over breakfast.

……

In reaction to the storming of the Bastille, Alexander Hamilton politely warned the Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution: "I dread the vehement character of your people, whom I fear you may find it more easy to bring on, than to keep within Proper bounds, after you have put them in motion."

Lafayette didn't listen. Three years later, he was fleeing France for his life. I hope the Democrats have a better plan. [read more]

A mob is a mob. I don’t care what century it is or what country the mob is in. Those who intently create a mob may well regret it because sooner or later the monster you create (call it the Frankenstein effect) will turn on them. A mob has its own inertia and mentality namely irrational violence.

All these mobs are part of the top-down-bottom-up-inside-out plan that Obama’s czar Van Jones talked about. The mob is the bottom-up part. The top-down part are the mayors defunding the police, enacting no-bail polices, spraying BLM graffiti on streets, etc. A person doesn’t have to directly give orders to people to commit acts. Sometimes all he/she has to do is create an environment to encourage the acts. The mob will get the hint. Meanwhile the city dwellers experiencing the inside-out part are nervous and/or scared. The rich can move or hire protection or have walls built around them, the middle/working class may or may not have those options. And as for the poor they are stuck where they are at. Then again the rioters don’t care about the poor. They only care about their evil, mad, destructive ideology.

More articles on the subject:

• BLM photojournalist beaten and doxxed by Antifa for 'snitching' to Portland police
• Oakland mayor who supports Black Lives Matter movement has house vandalized with BLM graffiti
• Federal officers in Portland may have been permanently blinded by lasers, officials say
• Mal-Educated Rioters and Spineless Politicians Wage a War Against Democracy
• EXPOSED: BLM unites with Islamists and communists to DISMANTLE the West
• Rioters Are Using Racial Discontent to Promote Marxist Agenda
• Q;A: Here’s What Is Happening on the Ground in Portland
• Why This Revolution Isn’t Like the ’60s
• 47 arrested, 59 officers injured in Seattle protests that turned violent
• Radio host mocked Trump by saying Seattle protests were peaceful, then rioters torched his apartment building
• White BLM Rioter Berates African-American Immigrant Doctor: ‘I’m More Black Than You on the Inside’
• Man knifed in back at Portland protest: ‘I was stabbed for being a conservative journalist’