Happy Independence Day weekend

President Trump celebrated the Independence Day weekend at Mount Rushmore.  Sundance at Treehouse posted this photo

and linked to the livestreams of the event.  

Happy Independence Day!

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"Abolished" ad

This 30-second ad is everywhere. but just in case you missed it . . .

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Schlichter: Stop Making Sense

It does seem almost impossible to make sense out of the chaos we are seeing everywhere.  Kurt Schlichter is always funny, and he always makes sense.  Here’s are some snippets from “Stop Making Sense” at Townhall:

You cannot reason with these people. Forget trying to convince them. You are not going to talk them out of their quest for power over you by deploying bourgeois conceits like "facts" and "evidence." Yet so many of us see what's happening and still take to Twitter or (increasingly) Parler to point out the sheer ridiculousness of the enemy's latest antics. But these actions are not ridiculous. They are tactically genius. Instead of confronting an impenetrable defense, they just scuttle around it and attack into our rear.

. . .

It's time for us to riot, not in the streets, because we have jobs and we're not going to destroy our own stuff, but at the ballot box. That's where we lay waste to their Venezuelan dreams. In the primaries, vote for woke conservatives, not establishment saps. And then in November, vote straight Republican down the ballot.

. . .

Finally, step four: Stop making sense. Unless it's directed at the unwoke, making sense is a waste of your time. This is about power. Time to use yours.

Mr. Schlichter’s article is here.  And it’s a bit of a wild ride.

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Lincoln meme

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

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What can conservatives DO?

art credit:  medium.com

It is alarming to see the riots, violence, lawlessness, and, well, insanity everywhere.  Most of the GOPe / Uniparty are standing around, wringing their hands in despair and doing not much of anything.  What can the concerned citizen do in these frightening times?  Fletch Daniels at American Thinker has an idea of what conservatives can actually DO.

Cultural tyranny reigns in America, the last step before full-fledged political tyranny. 

Lurking beneath the surface of virtue signaling leftists are tyrants seeking to exert their will over those they despise.  The defining leftist culture enables them to ruthlessly use all the power at their disposal, both real and imagined, to enforce a single acceptable viewpoint on society. 

. . .

Democrats in this country do not feel they need to hide their political allegiance or culturally approved viewpoints.  Most never shut up about it, believing they are speaking truth to power, even as they bask in the approval of the corrupt and wicked power centers. 

.. .

I wish I had a dollar for every American who uttered the phrase, “Never in my lifetime did I expect to see…” over the last few weeks.  We are living in the upside-down when patriotism is outlawed, the vilest of criminals are celebrated, and brave law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line daily are slandered as the worst of society so thoroughly that it descended into evil farce, when a kid’s show “Paw Patrol,” came under attack since it is apparently racist to have a positive police character in a children’s show.  

This is war and the left is playing to win.  Anyone who doesn’t get that by now, to include most of the NeverTrumpers, is either irredeemably stupid or an active collaborator.  Every pillar of cultural power in America, to include the unholy trinity of academia, the media, and government has declared cultural war on at least half the country.  And yet NeverTrumpers reserve almost all of their scorn for those with the audacity to not drop to their knees and surrender. 

. . .

The problem is that the silence enables the leftists to continue to drive the narrative and normalize ideas and behaviors that would have been considered unfathomable just a few short years ago while winning more converts, which shrinks that sane majority.  It is their toxic ideas that are being force fed to every young person in America and we are paying a heavy price for that. 

And here’s Mr. Daniels’ suggestion:

I’d like to see far more people vocally pushing back against the mob within their social circles.  Every person who pushes back emboldens others to do the same. 

Even if you don’t want to spoil the party or make everyone at the picnic uncomfortable, it’s worth the try.  My own batting average is low, but I count at least half a dozen in my circle who were apathetic liberals before I started speaking up, and they are now committed and vocal conservatives.  Mr. Daniels' full article is here.

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COVID-19 panic: the agenda

There’s a political agenda with the never-ending coronavirus hype.  Sundance at Conservative Treehouse reports:

In order to support the most important political objectives of the DNC writ large in the 2020 election, COVID-19 hype is essential:

• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot easily achieve ‘mail-in’ voting; which they desperately need in key battleground states in order to control the outcome.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot shut down rallies and political campaigning efforts of President Trump; which they desperate need to do in key battleground states.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot block the campaign contrast between an energetic President Trump and a physically tenuous, mentally compromised, challenger.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats do not have an excuse for cancelling the DNC convention in Milwaukee; thereby protecting candidate gibberish from himself.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats do not have a mechanism to keep voters isolated from each-other; limiting communication and national debate adverse to their interests.  COVID-19 panic pushes the national conversation into the digital space where Big Tech controls every element of the conversation.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot keep their Blue state economies easily shut-down and continue to block U.S. economic growth.  All thriving economies are against the political interests of Democrats.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot easily keep club candidate Joe Biden sealed in the basement; where the electorate is not exposed to visible signs of his dementia.
• Without COVID-19 panic it becomes more difficult for Big Tech to censor voices that would outline the fraud and scheme.  With COVID-19 panic they have a better method and an excuse.
• Without COVID-19 panic Democrats cannot advance, influence, or organize their preferred presidential debate format, a ‘virtual presidential debate’ series.
• [Comrade Gretchen Whitmer knows this plan, hence she cancelled the Michigan venue]
• All of these, and more, strategic outcomes are based on the manufactured weaponization of the COVID-19 virus to achieve a larger political objective.  There is ZERO benefit to anyone other than Democrats for the overwhelming hype surrounding COVID-19.

Read the full report here.

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Resist the lockdown

cartoon credit: leadersedge.com

Heather MacDonald hits the nail on the head, as she always does.  Her column at Spectator USA (“Where are the deaths?: The drum beat to halt the re-openings gets louder by the day. It should be resisted”) begins:

The coronavirus doomsayers could not even wait until the fall for the apocalyptic announcements of the dreaded second wave. Because the red states recklessly loosened their lockdowns, we are now told, the US is seeing a dangerous spike in coronavirus cases. ‘EXPERTS SKETCH GLOOMY PICTURE OF VIRUS SPREAD: FAUCI TELLS OF “DISTURBING” WAVE, WITH A VACCINE MONTHS AWAY,’ read the front-page lead headline in the New York Times on Wednesday. ‘VIRUS SPREAD AKIN TO “FOREST FIRE”’ read another front page headline in the Los Angeles Times on Monday, quoting Michael Osterholm, one of the media’s favorite public health experts. Osterholm had told NBC’s Meet the Press: ‘I’m actually of the mind right now — I think this is more like a forest fire. I don’t think that this is going to slow down.’

The ‘this’ is an uptick in daily new cases from 19,002 on June 9 to 38,386 on June 24. The high to date in new daily cases was on April 24 — 39,072. Since April 24, the daily case count started declining, then began rising again after around June 9. What virtually every fear-mongering story on America’s allegedly precarious situation leaves out, however, is the steadily dropping daily death numbers — from a high of 2,693 on April 21 to 808 on June 24. That April high was driven by New York City and its environs; those New York death numbers have declined, but they have not been replaced by deaths in the rest of the country. This should be good news. Instead, it is no news.

. . .

There are no crises in hospital capacity anywhere in the country. Nursing homes, meat-packing plants, and prisons remain the main sources of new infections. Half the states are seeing cases decline or hold steady. Case counts are affected by more testing; the positive infection rate captured by testing is declining. The current caseload is younger, which is a good thing. The more people who have been infected and who recover, the more herd immunity is created. Meanwhile, daily deaths from heart disease and cancer — about 3,400 a day combined — go ignored in the press.

But the drum beat to halt the still far too tentative reopenings gets louder by the day. It should be resisted. The lockdowns were a mistake the first time around; to reimpose them would be disastrous for any remaining hope of restoring our economy. The damage that has been done to people’s livelihoods and future prosperity will continue to outweigh the damage done by the coronavirus. The only vaccine against poverty and resulting despair is a robust economy. 

Read the full column here.

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