Mark Steyn: America is not "Too Big To Fail"

 

This weekend the inimitable Mark Steyn posted his column as the catastrophic events unfolded in Afghanistan.  It is a depressing read, and as America’s past and present involvements in Afghanistan impact on our “fiscal responsibility”  (a subject within the scope of Tea Party’s mission), I am linking to it.  Mr. Steyn considers not just the Biden administration’s failures, the U.S. military’s failures, Afghanistan and the Taliban, but also larger consequences, for America and across the globe.  Here’s Mr. Steyn’s opening:

To reprise a line from a decade-old column of mine:

Afghanistan is about Afghanistan – if you're Afghan or Pakistani. But, if you're Russian or Chinese or Iranian or European, Afghanistan is about America.

That's the point to remember: if you're an Afghan schoolgirl, today is the fall of Kabul; elsewhere, in the chancelleries of allies and enemies alike, it's the fall of America. Even by their usual wretched standards, the world's most somnolent media are struggling to stay up to speed on the story. Here's the scoop from USA Today:

Taliban's Afghanistan Advance Tests Biden's 'America Is Back' Foreign Policy Promise

You don't say! Did he misread the prompter, or mishear the guy in his ear? "America is on its back", surely?

But don't worry, the world's most lavishly over-funded "intelligence community" is on the case:

Kabul Could Fall To The Taliban Within 90 Days, U.S. Intelligence Warns

Thank you, geniuses. That was Thursday. So it turned out to be well within ninety hours - which is close enough for US intelligence work.

. . .

One of the depressing aspects of the Swamp is that everything becomes a racket - including even your armed forces. Look at that buffoon at top right, the guy who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Thoroughly Modern Milley: that's an awful lot of chest ribbonry for a nation that hasn't won a war in three-quarters of a century. During his recent wokier-than-thou Congressional testimony on "white rage", I wish someone would have asked Thoroughly Modern what they were all for:

Well, this is for Korea... Vietnam... This small ribbon's for the Jimmy Carter helicopters-in-the-desert fiasco, because that went tits up far quicker than it usually takes... Here's the Pentagon Female Empowerment Award I got for introducing Take Your Child Bride To Work Day to Jalalabad... This one's from the Association of Non-Binary Staff Colleges for Most Transitions in a Single Battalion... Oh, and this most recent one is for getting into a Twitter spat over Tucker Carlson...

If you don't have total contempt for Milley and the rest of the brass right now, you're part of the problem.

And here’s a chilling scenario:

America is not "too big to fail": It's failing by almost every metric right now. The world-record brokey-brokey-brokeness manifested by the current spending bills is only possible because the US dollar is the global currency. When that ends, we're Weimar with smartphones. Clearly, Chairman Xi and his allies occasionally muse on the best moment to yank the dollar out from under. If you were in Beijing watching telly today, would you perhaps be considering advancing those plans?

. . .

Click here to read the full column.

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Understanding vaccine hesitancy

 

Konstantin Kisin has a lengthy piece on Tablet Magazine tracing years of government and media deception, malfeasance, and complicity.  Here’s Mr. Kisin’s big finish:

. . . It is at this point that vaccines become the main focus of government policy and media commentary.

The same people who told you Brexit would never happen, that Trump would never win, that when he did win it was because of Russian collusion but also because of racism, that you must follow lockdowns while they don’t, that masks don’t work, that masks do work, that social justice protests during pandemic lockdowns are a form of “health intervention,” that ransacking African American communities in the name of fighting racism is a “mostly peaceful” form of protest, that poor and underserved children locked out of shuttered schools are “still learning,” that Jussie Smollett was a victim of a hate crime, that men are toxic, that there is an infinite number of genders, that COVID couldn’t have come from a lab until maybe it did, that closing borders is racist until maybe it isn’t, that you shouldn’t take Trump’s vaccine, that you must take the vaccine developed during the Trump administration, that Andrew Cuomo is a great leader, that Andrew Cuomo is a granny killer, that the number of COVID deaths is one thing and then another … are the same people telling you now that the vaccine is safe, that you must take it, and that if you don’t, you will be a second-class citizen.

Understand vaccine hesitancy now?

The full story is here.

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The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion

 

image of dystopia via dystopia wallpapers

Sundance at Conservative Treehouse has been my go-to source for years -- for in-depth analyses and reporting on significant current events.  I first discovered his website when he was digging through the evidence, and manipulation of evidence, in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case.  That was in 2012-13.   Here’s his take on what we’ve been witnessing over the past dozen+ years, especially as it relates to the current COVID-19 hysteria and government over-reach:

It has been almost ten years since CTH first outlined the 1984 interview between Yuri Bezmenov and G. Edward Griffin titled “Deception was My Job”.  [2013 CTH Article Here] However, it is worth revisiting the interview as we find ourselves increasingly influenced by a deliberate effort to control U.S. society.

Mr. Yuri Bezmenov was a Soviet informant and KGB operative who defected to the United States in the early 70s.  Within the interview [full video here], Bezmenov lays out the four stages of “ideological subversion” created by radical Marxists to indoctrinate and weaken nations from within.

It is my contention the Chicago Marxists aligned with Barack Obama (revolutionary communists) were/are following this ‘four stage’ roadmap.  The U.S. State Department is filled with like-minded travelers who align with this approach.

Some researchers have identified the objective as connected to the Fabian Socialist goal, others have called it “The Color Revolution”, but the names do not matter much; what matters is the map they follow, the four stages:

♦Stage One: Demoralization – Elimination of American Exceptionalism, fundamental change of national identity, structural deconstruction of foundational principles, elimination of religion. Embedding a new societal design upon the psyche of generations through ideological academia. Peer pressure by elites upon academics and society to convince that prior values were inherently flawed, racist, prejudiced etc. National identity is diluted with aspersions toward historical references. National history is re-written, re-defined, and molded to fit the new intended behavioral model and create the new values.

♦Stage Two: Crisis – Creation of economic, financial, and national security crisis. Also includes social crisis and breakdown of previous self-evident restrictions on moral behavior. Cloward Piven approach to overloading the system, ie more takers than producers. The crisis produces benevolent leaders who will promise to deliver “things” (Hope and Change) to meet people’s needs through Social and Economic Justice. False illusions that the situation is under control if certain strategic directions are followed (Bailouts, Stimulus, Jobs Bills, Regulations of industry, Unconstitutional Power Grabs, Dismissal of Historical Laws, Changes in legislative processes, Changes in checks and balances of power etc).

♦Stage Three: Normalization – The uncomfortable feelings of change including losses of freedom are absorbed and accepted. Lost national identity becomes accepted as the norm within the new societal model. A period of national rebranding transition where people are so overwhelmed by the change they become numb and begin to accept a ‘new normal’. This period of normalization lasts indefinitely as the progression is continually advanced and acceptance takes place in small controlled doses. (New limits on behavior, Regulations, TSA Patdowns, Intrusions into privacy, Controls into daily life) These things begin to be accepted as “just the way it is now”.

♦Stage Four: Destabilization – Unlike the period of “Crisis” the people who helped orchestrate the change are now no longer needed. The new overarching centralized governmental model begins to take control. Leftist usurpers who initially thought they were going to be part of the new power structure begin to realize they were used and manipulated and they themselves become the new enemy. Because they have first hand knowledge of the agenda they are the primary target for elimination. They may simply be disregarded, obfuscated, thrown out, or they may be collected, imprisoned, or worse killed. There is no longer room for dissention. Dissent is only possible within the free system that has now been deconstructed. Therefore the leftist purpose is served once the destabilization is complete. Totalitarian Government takes control.

Perhaps a reasonable person would argue that elimination of economic capacity (to live freely) is just as restrictive as living inside a walled camp. If you cannot live freely, earn a living freely, move about without restrictions, and determine for yourself your choices, then what really is the difference between being thrown in an internment camp and having the invisible chain link fence of diminished freedom built around your home?

If government can control your income through taxation, employment and redistribution; tell you what to eat by deciding your choices for you; tell you how much energy you are allowed to consume through rules and regulation; tell you what kind of car you can be allowed to drive; tell you what type of toilet you can buy; tell you what kind of detergent you may wash with; determine what information you have access to through the TV media and internet access; and then control your capacity to receive the healthcare of your choice; then really what is the difference between living in a collective camp under such rules and living where you are now but following the same rules ?

I would argue that we are solidly in the middle of stage #3 (normalization), while all around us Stage Four (destabilization) is beginning, perhaps as planned. We talk about the new “isms” all the time. Heck, most of what we discuss is our reluctance to engage in acceptance of the “normalization”, and our seeming frustration to be able to influence “it” to stop presenting us with new acceptance challenges.

And here is the kicker:

♦Everything you just read above was written in 2013.  If we consider the constant nudges, probes and pushes from the leftists in government and society (BLM, Antifa, Occupy Wall Street, etc.), we can consider them as different approaches, tests or probes per se’, toward the same totalitarian outcome.  Then if we overlay the weaponization of COVID-19 fear as the biggest effort so far, well, from that perspective SARS-CoV-2 takes on a new strategic dimension.

There is much more at the link here.  I’d recommend the whole thing for weekend reading and re-reading.

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This Is 1938: First, They Came for the Unvaccinated

 

Wayne Allyn Root at FrontPage compares America in 2021 to Germany in 1938 (“This Is 1938: First, They Came for the Unvaccinated”).  Alarm bells?  He does not exaggerate.  Here are some extracts:

It's time for alarm bells. It's time for me to play the part of Paul Revere: "The communist tyrants and dictators are coming! The communist tyrants and dictators are coming!" They're coming first for unvaccinated Americans.

This is 1938. . . . It was the pre-Holocaust. It was the time before the nightmare, when the foundation was being laid to destroy the freedom, free speech, businesses and lives of millions of Jews.

Everything happening today to the American people ... to the U.S. Constitution ... to freedom ... and particularly to unvaccinated Americans reminds me of 1938. This is only the beginning. It gets much worse from here.

First, "the papers." Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports are just like 1938, when the Gestapo demanded papers from every German.

. . .

Now Democrats want American citizens, not illegal aliens, not criminals, but patriots born in this country, to produce papers 24/7. We'll need papers to enter restaurants, bars, nightclubs, concerts, casinos, conventions and hotels and to board a train, plane or bus. We'll need papers to enter a supermarket, or we'll starve to death. All for the crime of being unvaccinated against ... wait for it ...

The flu.

All for the crime of being unwilling to inject an untested, rushed to production, experimental, "for emergency use only" shot into our bodies.

. . .

By the way, this isn't about vaccines. If you want the vaccine, take it. I'd never stop you. I'd never limit your freedom, your choice. This is about vaccine mandates — forcibly injecting Americans who don't want it. That's 1938.

But there's much more in common with 1938. Mask mandates. If you're scared, wear them. I'm not scared. I don't want to wear them. Mandates are about forcing individuals to lose their freedom, choice, individuality and human rights. That's 1938.

Lockdowns are a match with the Warsaw Ghetto. Jews were locked down. Jews couldn't work. Jews couldn't travel. Jewish businesses were labeled "nonessential."

If government can force us to close our businesses, to kill our jobs, to decide who is nonessential, then this is 1938.

. . .

Media and social media as the public-relations wing of the government. That's called propaganda. Remind you of 1938? Back then, the Jews' books were burned. Today, it's those of conservatives, patriots and specifically the unvaccinated. We are silenced. Our facts are labeled "misleading." Only the facts that agree with big government's agenda count. That's 1938.

. . .

Unless we stop it now. Unless we take a stand now. Unless we draw a line in the sand now.

First, they came for the unvaccinated. Trust me: Next, they're coming for you.

Mr. Root’s full article is here.  And it’s why I’ve been linking to Sen. RandPaul’s video/transcripts to Just. Say. No. to more mandates and lockdowns. 

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Make Coffee Great Again

 Our household purchases Covfefe Coffee, and its 30-second ad has been making the rounds.  

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What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?

 

Image via NOQ

This blog has linked to previous articles by or citing Dr Joseph Mercola.  The other day at NOQ, Dr Mercola asks

What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?

His summary points are:

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• High-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality will require staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to show proof of COVID “vaccination,” starting September 7, 2021
• Vaccinated-only bars and restaurants have also popped up in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans
• A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. High profile examples include Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley
• PayPal is vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,” which could include just about anything, including anti-vaccine rhetoric
• CNN anchor Don Lemon has suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food in grocery stores and have their driver’s license taken away

In 2020, the proposition that COVID-19 countermeasures would come to include forced vaccination and vaccine passports, resulting in a segregated society where only those participating in the COVID injection experiment have human rights, was labeled a wild conspiracy theory unworthy of discussion.

Fast-forward to August 2, 2021, and Forbes announces, “No Vax, No Service: Here’s Where Bars and Restaurants Across U.S. Are Requiring Proof of Vaccination.”1

The full article is here.  Previously:  Sen. Rand Paul says NO to all this.  Note: There was no point calling Sen Portman's office to ask that he oppose the bazillion dollar and misnamed "Infrastructure" bill -- Portman had a major role in negotiating that monstrosity, and of course he voted for it.  So instead, this blog is encouraging Tea Partiers to act on Rand Paul's call-to-arms.

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Mark Steyn on "COVID Forever"

 

Mark Steyn is always worth the read. From his website: 

A year and a half into this thing, how's it going?

From Canada's Globe & Mail, which is like The New York Times but without the jokes, it seems the New Normal is going to have to be cranked up a notch:

Overwhelming evidence now demonstrates that the dominant mode of transmission of SARS-CoV2 is airborne, yet mitigation strategies have not evolved with this knowledge.

Indoor environments where people are in close contact present the highest risk for transmission. Work-from-home should continue as much as possible, as it is premature to return to the office unless absolutely necessary. When indoor close contact is occurring, cloth or medical masks should be replaced with respirator masks, which provide superior protection through a combination of exhalation source control and inhalational filtration.

Respirator masks, huh? They're pricey but stylish - and your kids will soon get used to them.

[I did not know what a respirator mask was, so here's an image: 

- ed.]

On the other hand, from Iceland's top epidemiologist:

Þórólfur Guðnason sagði í Sprengisandi á Bylgjunni í morgun að vonbrigði séu að hjarðónæmi hafi ekki náðst með bólusetningu. Hann segir að einungis ein önnur leið sé fær til að ná hjarðónæmi, að leyfa veirunni að dreifast um samfélagið.

Which means more or less:

Þórólfur Guðnason said on Sprengisandi á Bylgjunni this morning that it is disappointing that herd immunity has not been achieved through vaccination. He says the only other way to achieve herd immunity is to allow the virus to spread through the community.

The great monolithic herd of public health commissars then took the tire iron to him, and Mr Guðnason has now walked that back.

Meanwhile, in America - or at least on Twitter - it's business as usual. Lars McMurtry is following the science:

The CDC should roll out a new program: Get the shot or get shot.

The unvaccinated need to be rounded up and lined up in front of open trenches, Their choice is simple.

America has had enough of their virus. We need to get back to normal life.

With or without them.

The bad news is that America can't dig open trenches, because all the shovels and excavators are made in China and the supply chain's a bit disrupted. The good news is that what Joe Biden calls "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" mostly involves the vaccinated giving the Delta variant to the un-, so Mr McMurtry may get his wish albeit a little more incrementally than he'd like.

My view is that the Icelandic guy is right - that is, before he was clubbed into submission. To recapitulate a pithy line from another apparently silenced researcher, stopping humans from being human won't stop the virus from being a virus. Whatever the original justification (ie, to prevent the collapse of hospital systems), maintaining lockdown after, oh, late April 2020 did nothing to the virus except retard the development of herd immunity and, in the absence thereof, enable it to incubate more lethal variants than it would otherwise have done.

What's the upshot? This medical prof from East Anglia now says "herd immunity will never happen". Well, whose fault is that? Quarantining millions of healthy people while setting a target of zero-Covid is a pandemic policy that no sane government has ever attempted.

Given that we're now being told we have to live with Covid forever, we could at least take measures to punish the Chinese biowarfare lab and its enthusiastic funders in America's diseased public-health bureaucracy for loosing this thing on the world.

Ah, but that's even less likely than open trenches...

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