America’s Fundamental Transformation

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Sundance at Conservative Treehouse posted a piece on how America suddenly went off the rails, and it’s persuasive.  Here’s a big chunk of it:

. . . As some continue to say with jaw agape, WTF happened?

The answer “why” is not complicated…. not complicated at all.

In 2008, the ‘activists’ took control of government.

In January of 2009, the leftists, community organizers and activists took control of the systems they had opposed for the preceding 50+ years.

In January of 2009, and inflection point took place; an inflection point that no one realized in forethought, scale or consequence.

Starting in 2009, all of the systems of federal government were now under the control of the people who previously fought against the systems of federal government.  Everything since is an outcome of that inflection point; that’s why everything flipped.

All of it, and I do mean every scintilla of the thing; every single granular detail and example you can put in front of me can be traced back to that moment when the activists were no longer outside government railing against the corrupt system they hated.

Starting in January of 2009, the activists took power over the United States government, and every outside institution, including media, necessarily and ideologically followed that inversion.

Starting in 2009, the systems and institutions of the U.S government now came under the control of the radical activists.

In the eight years that followed, the mission of every institution was changed.  Government was weaponized on behalf of the leftist activists who now took control of it.  Everything thereafter is a consequence of this change.

When I use the word “suddenly”, it is only for understanding the inflections point that came as a consequence.  In actuality, the severity of change inside each institution took place over several years.  That’s why the intensity of the weaponized and corrupt systems became worse over time.

As each institution was infiltrated to become more aligned with the mindset of the activists, the institutions became more radical in their targeting and weaponization.

The activists went from being outside government to being inside government.

Suddenly, the left-wing supportive media changed mission priority from railing against corrupt government, to defending the corrupt weaponization of govt.

Suddenly, the FBI went from targeting domestic threats, to targeting only the domestic threats defined as against the interests of the left-wing activists.

Suddenly, the outside activists went from being defined as social elements creating turmoil, to social elements now being defended and even promoted.

This is why we see outside activist groups like the Dream Defenders, New Black Panthers, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and more recently ANTIFA, as protected and supported by the activists inside government now in control of the systems and institutions.

All of the social, cultural and political dynamics that changed traditional “liberalism” are easily understood once you realize and accept that activists took control of the power centers of the U.S. government.

Everything that followed, including our current state of social and political turmoil, is simply a natural conclusion of that fundamental change.

The radical activists are now in control of the institutions of power.  This core shift is what created the dynamic of a very visible two-tiered justice system.  Each institution was weaponized and continues to be weaponized against those who are not aligned with the activist ideology. . . .

Read the entire piece here.

# # #

Call them what they are: communists

 

John Green at American Thinker considers the various terms used to describe the "fundamentally change America" insurgents, i.e., liberals, progressives, leftists, and Democrats:

None of those labels adequately describes those who are actively working to undermine America's founding principles.  Let's stop denying the threat and call them what they are: communists.

I was a child of the Cold War.  We learned the evils of communism in history and social studies at school.  I never thought we'd be talking about America as a communist country — yet we leave people in power who are moving us in that direction.

Let's examine what communism is.  Communism is the establishment of a communal society, in which the state controls the means of production and the populace works for the welfare of the commune — not the welfare of individuals.

Personal freedom must be sacrificed for the commune.  In the last three years, the government has attempted to take away our property rights, our rights of association, our freedom of speech, and our freedom to manage our own medical decisions — all for the good of the commune.

In communism the state controls production, dictating what will be produced and when it will be produced.  The government determines what crops can be grown and what they will be used for (e.g., food or renewable energy).  In recent years, the demands to nationalize the financial and energy industries have become increasingly loud.

Read the column here.  I am not sure if this country is being moved in that direction, or if we are already past the tipping point.

# # #

Not your father’s Democrat party

This column by the inimitable Victor Davis Hanson was published a few days ago at American Greatness, and it’s a cautionary analysis:

For all Joe Biden’s talk about “semi-fascist” and “un-American,” “ultra-MAGA” Republicans, it is the Democratic Party that has far more radically changed. It is descended into a woke, neo-socialist, radically green party. And it is committed, as Barack Obama once promised, to fundamentally transforming America. How it proceeds with that agenda is now as entirely predictable as it is creepy.

And Hanson expands on the agenda and methods by category, specifically:

• Election Warping
• Projection
• Suppression
• Changing the Rules
• Asymmetries

Hanson’s conclusion:

Conservatives should be aware that they are not dealing with the party of JFK and LBJ. The Democratic Party has nothing in common with the agendas of a slick Bill Clinton and is well beyond the “fundamental transformations” of arch-narcissist Barack Obama. 

We are faced with a strictly disciplined, no-nonsense revolutionary party, well known from history that aims to change the nation into something unrecognizable by most Americans. And it feels that it has now created the means to do it.

Read the full article here.

# # #

Cashless & Jobs memes

 Two memes seen at Bookworm Room: 

and . . .

# # #

Branco on America First vs America Last

 Another excellent cartoon by A F Branco at Townhall:

Excellent yet sad.  [Click to embiggen or go to the link above.]

# # #

Unintended consequences or deliberate destruction?

 

At American Thinker, Patricia McCarthy published an excellent summary of the damage inflicted on America to date by the Biden administration.  Here’s some of it:

. . . The damage this progressive cult has done has crippled America in nearly every way possible.  As Steve Feinstein has written, "[t]hese Democrat policies have tangibly and dramatically degraded the quality of life in America[.]"

Inheriting a nation that was energy independent under Trump, Biden put an end to that on day one.  To say his botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was catastrophic is a gross understatement.  He left billions of dollars of state-of-the-art military equipment there and effectively handed Bagram AFB to the Chinese.  Thirteen young Americans were killed needlessly, and thousands of Americans were left stranded to the Taliban.

We do not know as yet, but Biden's folly with Putin and Ukraine could lead to nuclear war.  Biden's devastatingly poor judgment has knocked the dollar off its hundred-year run as the global currency while Putin's ruble has rebounded.  None of the above would have happened or would be happening if Trump were still in office — and everyone knows this.  In short, this administration is the most destructive in American history by any measure.  Biden's Cabinet is the most incompetent in history.  The nation may never recover and the criminal cabal that put him in office is responsible.

Thanks to investigative journalists Peter Schweizer and Miranda Devine, we know that Biden and his son Hunter are congenitally corrupt and virtually owned by the Communist Party of China.  They also used Ukraine as a financial playground, as did the Clintons.  Under the circumstances, it is not outside the realm of possibility that COVID was part of a plan to see Trump ousted from office, to make mail-in ballots seem necessary and to destroy the Trump economy in one fell swoop.  We know that Fauci and his evil pals obsessed with making viruses more dangerous have long-term ties to China, as does Biden, and as do numerous other NeverTrumps in Congress.

. . .

When Obama came to office, he liked to think he was elected to manage our decline.  It was Obama who weaponized the FBI, the CIA and the DOJ.  Obama hated America; he set back race relations at least fifty years.  With the advent of Black Lives Matter, the Democrat party lurched farther to the left; they've now gone so far left that they are aligned with the CCP.  It is as though they have adopted Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 as a handbook for the running of the United States.  Can all this damage done be chalked up to stupidity and incompetence, or is it by design?  . . .

Click here for the rest. 

# # #

America: out of order

 

As usual, Victor Davis Hanson nails it.  From American Greatness:

What explains an America that suddenly no longer works? 

First, all of these problems are self-induced. They did not exist until Biden [I would assume that when he refers to “Biden,” VDH means “the Biden Administration.”] birthed them for ideological or political reasons. Apparently, his administration wanted a changing, more favorable electorate and demography at any cost. 

. . .

Second, Biden has no solutions to these self-created problems because of the ideological restraints the Left has imposed on him.

The administration fears the anger of the hard Left more than the furor of the American people. So it will not change, preferring to be politically correct and a failure than to be ideologically incorrect and successful. 

Third, when people object, this administration answers either by blaming others for its self-created mess or by seeking distractions. Now it is faulting gun owners for the crime wave it fostered, supposed “white supremacists” for the racial tensions it fanned, and Putin, whom it appeased.

The common denominator? Biden knows that he inherited a stable, prosperous America and has nearly ruined it. 

Read VDH’s full column here.  But where is the good news?  Sundance at Conservative Treehouse sums up some encouraging and significant push-backs:

[A] more assertive, deliberate, strategic and determined MAGA movement is being noticed everywhere.  There are new combat rules in response to the leftist onslaught toward our children.  . . .

Leftist favorite Netflix, is hemorrhaging users and just lost 30% of its value.  Spotify just refused to renew the leftist idols, the Obamas.  The ultra-leftist Disney Corp just lost their special district status in Orlando, and leftist Twitter is on the verge of a hostile ‘free speech’ takeover by Elon Musk.

. . .

Click here for more.

# # #

The Man Behind The Curtain

 

A.F. Branco cartoon via Jewish World Review

 # # #

Freedom and Basketball

Enes Kanter Freedom is a professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics.  He just published a piece in, of all places, The Atlantic.  Excerpts are below.  His statement will bring tears to your eyes;  he understands what America is all about, and he puts LeBron to shame.  Highly recommended!

When I first arrived in the United States, I had to adjust to a new language, new norms, and new traditions. But I was perhaps most stunned by a simple comment a teammate made. He criticized President Barack Obama, which I feared could have landed him in prison. He smiled and said: “This isn’t Turkey, brother. You have the freedom to say whatever you want.”

Americans might find the thought absurd, but the threat of prison is all too real for those living under authoritarian rule around the world. Since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became president of Turkey in 2014, after more than a decade as prime minister, at least 12,881 people have been convicted of the crime of insulting the president. Thousands have been sent to prison, including children, for offenses as trivial as posting something on social media that might hurt the feelings of an emotionally fragile dictator.

Over the past five years, Erdoğan has all but stamped out free expression in Turkey. He’s made Turkey one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, imprisoning hundreds. Erdoğan’s regime has shut down more than 160 media outlets and hundreds of human-rights groups. Turkey’s dystopian new internet law gives the regime complete control over users’ data and enables online censorship. A current proposal would criminalize the spreading of so-called fake news online with up to five years in prison. Erdoğan has targeted every defender of freedom in my country. His regime has persecuted, jailed, and even tortured tens of thousands of educators, lawyers, judges, public officials, and activists after labeling them “terrorists.” And it has targeted me.

. . .

Human rights and democracy are under threat. Around the globe, authoritarian strongmen are getting stronger. Yet far too many celebrities, athletes, and corporations still choose their money over their morals. Speaking up for victims of authoritarian violence has somehow become controversial, just because it might alienate the perpetrators. It shouldn’t take the disappearance of a former No. 1 world-tennis star for some of us to make a statement. Freedom is not about staying silent in the face of a tyrannical dictatorship that commits genocide against the Uyghurs because you prefer to preserve your business deals.

For six long years, I was without a home. I know what it’s like for a people to have their freedom stripped away. And I know what it’s like to have my own freedom stripped away. But this week, I’m reclaiming my Freedom. I just became an American citizen, and I’m making America and its freedoms a part of my very identity.

I’m overwhelmed with emotion just writing these words: I, Enes Kanter Freedom, am proud to be a citizen of the United States of America, the land of the free, and home of the brave.

Mr. Freedom's full statement is here.  And it is inspiring.

# # #

The Destruction is Deliberate

 

At American Thinker, the pseudonymous columnist Ed Sherdlu makes the case that the destruction of America is the goal of the Biden administration.  And he considers the nomination of Saule Omarova as evidence.  He starts off:

The comptroller of the currency is not another one of those do-nothing Washington jobs.  The person filling this critical role controls all federally licensed banks, credit unions, and foreign banks operating in the United States and similar institutions.  Normally, you would think receiving your postgraduate education at the University of Moscow (in the USSR) and writing your doctoral dissertation on the advantages of Marxism over free economy capitalism might be a disqualifier for this all-powerful position.  But not in the Biden administration.

To Biden and his cronies, the fact that their nominee for comptroller is a lifelong Marxist is not disqualifying.  In fact, to the radical Democrats pulling Biden's strings, Russian-born Saule Omarova's dedication to hardcore communism is one of her strongest qualifications.  Ms. Omarova makes no attempt to hide her radical leftist political and economic feelings other than to try to prevent the Senate committee considering her confirmation from accessing her other "academic" works.

As noted yesterday, some conservatives digging into Omarova's recent past may have found the wooden stake to drive through the heart of her nomination.  In a newly unearthed video clip, this woman who Biden wants to control all our nation's finances told her audience, "In order to prevent climate change, we have to bankrupt all the coal, oil, and gas companies."

Under other circumstances, we might consider this utter foolishness to be little more than the drunken utterance of some Ivy League sophomore.   Unfortunately, in this case, the threat and intent to completely bankrupt American energy producers came directly from the mouth of a person who might be given the power to do just that!

And Mr. Sherdlu concludes:

In looking at Omarova's nomination and everything else this administration has done, from the border to Kabul to the supported terrorists, including Iranians, receiving de facto permission to build their atomic bomb, I believe we are forced into one inescapable conclusion: the Biden/Harris administration's actions are not the result of ineptitude.  They are a carefully thought out, well-planned, and almost flawlessly executed plan to ensure the destruction of the United States as we know her.  It is being viciously implemented by Obama acolytes such as Susan Rice and hundreds of others who are the people really running our country under the Biden administration.

. . . Omarova's nomination leaves little doubt as to their intentions.

The full column is here.  I would like to think that Mr. Sherdlu is wrong, but it's hard to argue with his points. 

# # #

Lee Greenwood is the latest to be cancelled

 

Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" is President Trump's usual entrance music at his rallies, including yesterday's event in Georgia.  And the Biden administration can't be anywhere near that.  Jon Dougherty at BizPacReview reports:

The Biden administration’s purge of appointees to various government advisory boards by prior presidents — mostly Republicans — is continuing with the dismissal of country music great Lee Greenwood from the National Council on the Arts.

During an interview last week with “Fox & Friends,” Greenwood explained that he was initially appointed to the board by President George W. Bush then served throughout President Barack Obama’s two terms and President Donald Trump’s single term, adding he was shocked to get the letter advising him he was being replaced.

Greenwood, who wrote the country anthem “God Bless the USA,” which was a favorite of the late President Ronald Reagan and has become a fixture at Trump’s rallies, suspects that politics may be behind the decision to remove him from the arts council.

. . .

Politics?  No kidding.  The full report is here, and you'll read about other firings & dismissals of Trump advisers (Sean Spicer, KellyAnne Conway, etc) from non-partisan positions.  I am so old I can remember when Team Obama enlisted the National Endowment for the Arts to design and promote his Hope artwork/logo.  Partisanship. 

# # #

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.

# # #

Due process? Not any more

Innocent protesters are languishing in DC jail cells – with no due process and no relief in sight.  Patricia McCarthy at American Thinker reports:

Julie Kelly at American Greatness has been doing yeoman work exposing the crimes of the D.C. leftists who have targeted, arrested, and imprisoned hundreds of people who attended President Trump's speech and may have wandered toward or even into the Capitol on January 6.  While there were some bad actors there that day, most likely Antifa/BLM interlopers or genuine lunatics, most of those present were actually invited into the Capitol building, as some of the video has shown.

Who ordered the Capitol police to stand down?  Probably Pelosi, who very much wanted an "incident" with which to tar and feather Trump and his supporters.  It was possibly a calculated set-up.  Who else was involved remains to be seen, but as everyone knows by now, that event has been blown so far out of proportion as to no longer resemble at all what actually took place.

Unlike the Antifa/BLM riots that occurred across the country over the summer of 2020, the incident that day was like a schoolyard scuffle compared to the violent, destructive, and even murderous conflagrations that did hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to numerous cities.  People need to be reminded that the left, most especially Kamala Harris, Biden, and the leftmedia in its entirety, either supported those "protests" or called them "mostly peaceful" — which they certainly were not.

As for those caught up in the January 6 mêlée, not one of those who have been locked up, some in solitary confinement was armed.  Not one.  The only person killed was Ashli Babbitt, shot to death by a Capitol Police officer.  She was not armed.  The officer who shot her has yet to be named; Babbitt's family is suing to learn his identity.  Curious, since when a criminal is killed by police in the commission of a crime, the officer involved is usually identified and suspended immediately, even if the shooting was righteous.  Something is very rotten in Denmark. 

. . .

Indeed, the weaponization of all our federal institutions under the Obama administration transformed this nation in ways few of us could imagine.  Those alphabet agencies, by then viciously anti-Trump, kicked into high gear the minute Trump won the 2016 election.  Over the next four years, from the Russia collusion hoax to two phony impeachments to January 6, America became something like Putin's Russia. 

. . .

What is happening there is not only indefensible but depraved.  Julie Kelly has heard from some of those imprisoned that they are being punished for what was revealed on Mark Levin's Sunday program.  Can this be happening in America?  It is happening. 

. . .

Please, complacent GOP, go to bat for those people in the D.C. version of a Soviet labor camp.  Rescue them.  Stand and deliver.  Now is the time.

Read the full column here.  And here is the link to Julie Kelly’s piece on American Greatness a few days ago.

Counties turning red?

 

The Republic Journal has an encouraging word:

America is turning red one county at a time.  Trumbull County, OH was always a major Democrat stronghold and was the reason Obama won OH all those years ago.  Then came Trump and his pro-worker message which flipped the county by a massive 30-point swing.  Now, other counties are moving to the red column and this bodes well for Republicans to pick up another Senate seat in 2024 when Sen. Brown is up for re-election.  To fully appreciate what’s occurring in America we have to look at the historical numbers.  500,000 voters have switched from voting for Democrats to voting for Republicans in Oh.  However, that only tells have the story.  Democrats have also lost about 300,000 active voters who can’t cross that aisle but can’t pull the D lever again.  This is a massive shift in the rust belt states and should give all of us hope for our nation’s future.

I just hope he’s right.

# # #

 

Voter fraud, anyone?

 

Click to embiggen or check it out at Bookworm Room here (scroll down).

# # #

The Final Debate This Week: The Fix Is In

 

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker is outraged at the corruption of the Presidential debates.  As well he should be.  Among his criticisms is the choice of “moderator”:

Two recent actions by the Commission on Presidential Debates reveal the outrageous information control strategy being implemented.  Kristen Welker, the debate moderator, is a highly partisan Democrat working for highly partisan NBC News.  Welker even celebrated Christmas at the Obama White House with her parents, major donors to Obama.

And she gets to choose the topics – favorable to Biden, of course.

Foreign policy, where President Trump has triumphed in the Middle East, is verboten.  And any mention of Hunter Biden's activities as bagman for his father in selling American foreign policy — despite being the major theme of Trump's campaign activities — is MIA.  But once again, climate change, already discussed in debate #1and far down on the list of issues that most concern Americans, is on the agenda.  

But it just got worse — much worse.  The AP reports:

The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday that the second and final debate between the two candidates will have each nominee muted while the other delivers his two-minute remarks at the outset of each of the six debate topics. The remainder of each 15-minute block will be open discussion, without any muting, the commission said.

Welker's handpicked, Dem-favoring topics will get a monopoly in establishing the character of each segment of the debate.  This obviously is intended to force Trump to stick to the subject Dems want covered.  And pardon me if I do not trust this assurance that the mute button, whose very existence is an outrage, will not be further employed to silence Trump if he brings up Hunter's crooked deals on behalf of his father, who gets a cut of 10 to 50 percent on the proceeds, according to a text Hunter sent.

Mr. Lifson’s article is here.

# # #

Handy summary of Russia Russia Russia

Via Bookwormroom:

click to embiggen or go to the Bookworm link here and scroll down.

# # #

Another misnomer: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

image credit: 123rf.com

Stanley Kurtz was the investigative reporter who went to Chicago during the 2008 election cycle to uncover the records from the now-defunct Annenberg Challenge, a foundation that funneled funds to far left educational programs and institutions.  It was noteworthy because future President Barack Obama and the terrorist Bill Ayers both sat on the board.

Last night, Mark Levin interviewed Stanley Kurtz on his hour-long Life, Liberty, and Levin.  Mr. Kurtz has turned his attention to the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing legislation, and this innocuous-sounding piece of legislation is, in fact, one of the biggest threats to our way of life.  Candidate Joe Biden is all for it.  The link for Mr. Levin’s broadcast web page is here (video page here), and if you have difficulty with access, here are a few paragraphs from Mr. Kurtz’s essay "Biden and Dems Are Set to Abolish the Suburbs" on line (at the Ethics and Public Policy Center):

. . . Biden has actually promised to go much further than AFFH [Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing]. Biden has embraced Cory Booker’s strategy for ending single-family zoning in the suburbs and creating what you might call “little downtowns” in the suburbs. Combine the Obama-Biden administration’s radical AFFH regulation with Booker’s new strategy, and I don’t see how the suburbs can retain their ability to govern themselves. It will mean the end of local control, the end of a style of living that many people prefer to the city, and therefore the end of meaningful choice in how Americans can live. Shouldn’t voters know that this is what’s at stake in the election?

It is no exaggeration to say that progressive urbanists have long dreamed of abolishing the suburbs. (In fact, I’ve explained it all in a book.) Initially, these anti-suburban radicals wanted large cities to simply annex their surrounding suburbs, like cities did in the 19th century. That way a big city could fatten up its tax base. Once progressives discovered it had since become illegal for a city to annex its surrounding suburbs without voter consent, they cooked up a strategy that would amount to the same thing.

This de facto annexation strategy had three parts: (1) use a kind of quota system to force “economic integration” on the suburbs, pushing urban residents outside of the city; (2) close down suburban growth by regulating development, restricting automobile use, and limiting highway growth and repair, thus forcing would-be suburbanites back to the city; (3) use state and federal laws to force suburbs to redistribute tax revenue to poorer cities in their greater metropolitan region. If you force urbanites into suburbs, force suburbanites back into cities, and redistribute suburban tax revenue, then presto! You have effectively abolished the suburbs.

Read the rest here.

Related:  Mr. Kurtz’s article “Suburbs Hold Key to 2020 Presidential Choice” is here.

This is a subject of concern to every friend, associate, or family member who lives in the suburbs. This is an excellent topic to share with them.

# # #

Income inequality is fair

Image credit: ventura632.wordpress.com

A core Tea Party value is "free markets." Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell are two economists who are able to make complicated subjects accessible to Everyman. In his column today, Mr. Williams explains why capitalism is not a zero-sum game:

Some Americans have much higher income and wealth than others. Former President Barack Obama explained, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." An adviser to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has a Twitter account called "Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure" tweeted, "My goal for this year is to get a moderator to ask 'Is it morally appropriate for anyone to be a billionaire?'" Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in calling for a wealth tax, complained, "The rich and powerful are taking so much for themselves and leaving so little for everyone else."

These people would have an argument if there were piles of money on the ground called income, with billionaires and millionaires surreptitiously getting to those piles first and taking their unfair shares. In that case, corrective public policy would require a redistribution of the income, wherein the ill-gotten gains of the few would be taken and returned to their rightful owners. The same could be said if there were a dealer of dollars who — because of his being a racist, sexist, multi-nationalist and maybe a Republican — didn't deal the dollars fairly. If he dealt millions to some and mere crumbs to others, decent public policy would demand a re-dealing of the dollars, or what some call income redistribution.

. . .

A system that requires that one serve his fellow man to have a claim on what he produces is far more moral than a system without such a requirement. For example, Congress can tell me, "Williams, you don't have to get out in that hot sun to mow a lawn to have a claim on what your fellow man produces. Just vote for me, and through the tax code, I will take some of what your fellow man produces and give it to you."

Let's look at a few multibillionaires to see whether they have served their fellow man well. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, with a net worth over $90 billion, is the second-richest person in the world. He didn't acquire that wealth through violence. Millions of people around the world voluntarily plunked down money to buy Microsoft products. That explains the great wealth of people such as Gates. They discovered what their fellow man wanted and didn't have, and they found out ways to effectively produce it. Their fellow man voluntarily gave them dollars. If Gates and others had followed President Obama's advice that "at a certain point" they'd "made enough money" and shut down their companies when they had earned their first billion or two, mankind wouldn't have most of the technological development we enjoy today.

. . .

The only people who benefit from class warfare are politicians and the elite; they get our money and control our lives. 

Say what you like about Bill Gates; Mr. Williams has a point. The full article is here. 

# # #

Walls

Amidst all the pontificating about "The Wall" being "immoral" and useless, this one is making the rounds:

# # #