UPDATE May 5, 2021: freedom to be equal to our neighbors
Is Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) taking PR lessons from Joe Biden? The House Democratic Caucus Chair made this statement during a media interview after the president’s joint address to Congress last week:
Republicans tried to convince the American people that we are competing against each other as part of the effort to divide us.101
Republicans are not the ones turning neighbor against neighbor. Democrats promote a divisive inequality narrative that not only tells Americans we are unequal because of our race, gender, and other inalienable differences, but passes out rewards on the basis of those differences to level the playing field. Even the American Rescue Plan’s $5 billion in aid to struggling farmers is doled out on the basis of race. White farmers need not apply.
This emphasis on identity and equity leads to an unfortunate conclusion: unless we are surrounded by people of our own gender and ethnicity we are not in the company of equals. Instead, the American landscape is a woke minefield of inequality and discrimination. Even our words are fraught with risk. “He” or “she,” “mother” or “father” can get us in trouble. How many have read up on what aporagender and cisnormativity mean? You better find out. You could be in big trouble at your company’s new mandatory sensitivity training.
In all seriousness race, not gender is the heavy hitter that delivers for Democrats. When it comes to exploiting our differences nothing works better than pitting black against white. Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) understands this:
We can’t move forward until we tackle systemic racism in America. Our CBC colleagues reminded us that racism isn’t an issue for Black Americans to fix – it’s incumbent upon white Americans to fix.102
That makes perfect sense because white Americans are also the majority taxpayers Democrats will depend on to fund their equity agenda.
As long as we are accused of being guilty for discriminatory difference between ourselves and our neighbors so Democrats can profit politically we will not be equal. Joe Biden’s betrayal of his promise to unify our nation makes a mockery of the term fellow Americans because we are most certainly not. We are whites, blacks, browns, Asians, native Americans, gender dysphorics, and whatever new groups the left will dream up to use against us.
Democrats destroyed the notion of equality in America because it didn’t suit their needs. They took away a freedom most of us probably don’t even recognize, the simple freedom to live next to people we feel comfortable being around because we are all Americans with a common goal.
No longer do we have the freedom to be comfortable sitting in a restaurant next to a table of diners who don’t look like us. We may question moving into a neighborhood where our neighbors are not the same race. We might choose not to sit next to a person of another skin color in church. Our teachers will be objects of suspicion because we won’t know if they are teaching our kids to hate themselves with critical race indoctrination.
It is incumbent on Americans to refuse to buy into this divisive, anti-American narrative. The reward is regaining our freedom to walk down the street, say hello to the people next door, and not be suspicious or resentful or in the slightest because “we the people” is what matters most.
UPDATE May 21, 2021: the Capitol Riot was not 9/11, but the January 6 Commission will endanger your freedoms anyway
Democrats are in trouble. Things are not going well. Landmark legislation like H.R. 1 remains stalled. The economy is floundering. Their president is incompetent and try as his handlers might, we all notice.
This means it’s time to distract the country with a new witch hunt. Impeachment is not on the menu but a massive, nationwide investigation is.
Unlike attacking Donald Trump, Democrats’ new commission to “investigate” the January 6 riot is about attacking all of our freedoms, even the freedoms of the radical left. The rationale sounds reasonable enough:
January 6 was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history and the American people deserve to know exactly what happened.103
That bit of hyperbole was from Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO). The same phrase was repeated verbatim by House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)104 and other Democrats who obviously believe that if they repeat it often enough January 6 will be no different in our collective consciousness than real American tragedies.
Even the Civil War and its staggering loss of life is deemed a valid comparison to January 6. Nancy Pelosi chose 9/11 and its thousands of dead instead. She bemoaned the fourteen months it took to establish the 9/11 Commission,105 presumably to instill a sense of act now and think later urgency popular to force through really bad ideas.
Disrespect to the Civil War and 9/11 dead aside, every American including card-carrying members of Antifa should beware what Democrats are up to. One sentence of their legislation sums up why we should worry:
To investigate and report to the President and Congress on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures that may include changes in law, policy, procedures, rules, or regulations that could be taken to prevent future acts of targeted violence and domestic terrorism, including to prevent domestic terrorist attacks against American democratic institutions, improve the security posture of the United States Capitol Complex while preserving accessibility of the Capitol Complex for all Americans, and strengthen the security and resilience of the Nation and American democratic institutions against domestic terrorism.106
If they left anything out to open our doors wide to every manner of privacy intrusion, I’m not seeing it.
This is not about finding out what happened on January 6. This is about investigating America and Americans for any and all information Democrats can get their hands on for any purpose they find politically useful. If it’s related to January 6, so much the better. If not and what they find leads to more investigations and prosecutions, whatever they do will be in the name of protecting America and our democracy.
Raskin’s delight should make every American very afraid
Despite the shroud Democrats have hung around January 6, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) could not contain his joy at the chance for another witch hunt as H.R. 3233 passed the House on Wednesday:
I am delighted that the House has now voted to create an independent bipartisan Commission to examine the events and causes of the violent insurrection against America on January 6.107
Bipartisan? Barely. We can vote the turncoats out later.
More important, violent insurrection against America? That’s not a factual statement. Insurrections are against governments, not countries despite Democrats’ delusion that they are in, fact, the partisan embodiment of our nation. If we are naïve enough to believe that this is really about an attack on America we deserve what’s about to happen to the freedoms and right to privacy we enjoy because we live in the country Raskin and company are preparing to trample with their newest investigation.
UPDATE June 3, 2021: freedom of opportunity
You don’t hear much from Democrats about freedom of opportunity. You hear about opportunity that aligns with their radical, left wing economics bought and paid for with your money.
The government can buy opportunity and hand it out at the pleasure of politicians. It can also kill opportunities that fall out of favor, like the opportunity for good jobs Biden cancelled when he revoked the Keystone Pipeline permit. The president swapped good incomes with the promise of opportunity to come when Congress is ready and willing to provide it:
The President is calling on Congress to invest $35 billion in the full range of solutions needed to achieve technology breakthroughs that address the climate crisis and position America as the global leader in clean energy technology and clean energy jobs.108
When Washington tinkers with our freedom opportunity it’s a give and take affair. The government gives and the government takes away. Opportunity the government gives to one sector of the economy or one group of people usually means opportunity taken away from another.
Equity is the new guiding light for everything the Democrat Party endorses. The propaganda campaign for Biden’s infrastructure boondoggle is sweeping and all too familiar:
Like great projects of the past, the President’s plan will unify and mobilize the country to meet the great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the ambitions of an autocratic China.109
Democrats even claim that their plan will pay for itself,110 a claim that is uncomfortably similar to their promise that Obamacare would lower our health care costs.
Free market capitalism offers freedom of opportunity for Americans. Government opportunity controlled by the radical left destroys that freedom in favor of Soviet-style economic planning controlled by one political faction.
House progressives demand that we “Go Big” and “Go Fast” in “addressing long standing Democratic priorities:”
Given the scale of our unemployment, caregiving, health care, climate and inequality crises; the historically low cost to make the necessary investments our country needs; and the singular governing opportunity presented to us, we urge our colleagues in Congress to pursue a larger up-front investment that truly meets this historic moment.111
This is what freedom of opportunity really means to the congressional left:
At the Progressive Caucus, we know that all it takes to fix this is a shift in our priorities — to end corporate giveaways and tax loopholes, to take on the bloated, wasteful Pentagon budget, and to rewrite the rules of our rigged economy.112
So the solution to a rigged economy is rigging the economy for Democrats? Rewriting the rules means the end of your freedom of opportunity. If you want that well-paying job to support your family your skills better match what the Democrat Party finds politically valuable or you will have to depend on another kind of Democratic opportunity: welfare.
UPDATE June 16, 2021: freedom from paying for more federal worker holidays
Congress is about to vote itself and federal workers another paid day off on the backs of taxpayers. Making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a slam dunk for politicians terrified of falling under the left’s racial scrutiny microscope. Who is going to say no while the names of innocent birds are being scrutinized by America’s arbiters of racial correctness?113
18 Republicans went along for the ride when Democrats pushed S.475 through the Senate. Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson sounded resigned:
Last year, a bill was introduced to celebrate Juneteenth by providing an additional paid holiday for 2 million federal employees at a cost of $600 million per year. They attempted to pass the bill without debate or amendment process. Although I strongly support celebrating Emancipation, I objected to the cost and lack of debate. While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter.114
Now we have two early summer federal holidays, though few of us will share in the Juneteenth day off. It is strangely hypocritical that we celebrate our “dark history of slavery and oppression”115 and the tragic loss of life during our wars with barbecues, picnics, and beaches.
The House is panting to get the bill approved so every June 19 we can pay to hear Democrats like Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-MA), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), and Tina Smith (D-MN) assail America’s racist past and all the work left to be done:
For too long, we have tried to whitewash our nation’s history instead of confronting the uncomfortable and painful truth. This legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday is but one step we can take to begin to right the wrongs of the past and ensure equal justice in the future. 116
It’s not clear why these lawmakers think that another federal holiday will secure equal justice or right any historical wrongs. Most Americans won’t share in the holiday regardless of their skin color. If they want to do the right thing lawmakers should stop punishing taxpayers who are enslaved to funding Capitol Hill’s opportunistic, agenda-laden spending whims.
Besides, if Democrats were serious about “confronting the uncomfortable and painful truth” of our history why would they trivialize the Emancipation with a day of summer barbecues for federal employees paid for in part by Black Americans who have to work on Juneteenth to pay the taxes for Congress’s newest holiday?
UPDATE July 5, 2021: freedom to celebrate Independence Day
In honor of America’s Independence Day President Biden remarked that getting vaccinated is the most patriotic thing we can do. Mind you, this is from a man who doesn’t believe America is worth a border so we have to take any insight about patriotism with a large grain of salt.
Months ago Biden promised that if we were good girls and boys we could celebrate Independence Day within limits:
Think about it this way: Better times are ahead. And as I’ve said before, we can have a safe, happy Fourth of July with your family and friends, in small groups in your backyard. 117
The authoritarian arrogance behind that remark aside, the president is following up on Democrat Party attacks on Independence Day that began well before he was elected to office.
The administration cited the pandemic and tribal opposition as the reasons behind banning fireworks at Mt. Rushmore. The Washington Post offered pictures from the National Mall showing a crowd of “thousands of Americans”118 celebrating. Most do not appear to be wearing masks, so let’s move on to the real problem with Mt. Rushmore.
With Donald Trump in office the commemoration of Independence Day in South Dakota did not cave to fears of the pandemic. Neither did it bow to opposition against a commemoration on federal land taxpayers support. Democrats were furious, just as they were furious about the previous years’ celebration on the National Mall:
President Trump has used federally funded public spaces like the Lincoln Memorial and Mt. Rushmore for campaign rally-like celebrations on July 4, 2019,and July 4, 2020, respectively.119
When it came to Native American arguments against the celebration they turned to an article not from an American news outlet, but from the BBC.120
Now the left has a man in the White House with the power to end the Mt. Rushmore commemoration and any other federal Independence Day celebrations deemed offensive to woke Democrats. Flimsy excuses don’t hide the simple truth that Biden knows the movers and shakers in his party would tear down the Mt. Rushmore monument in a heartbeat if they could. Not only are the historical figures in the monument targeted by leftists, the sculptor is accused of being affiliated with white supremacists.121
So instead of fireworks at Mt. Rushmore to buoy our national spirit and bring us “Back Together” as one American people we get Joe Biden telling us Independence Day will be better in 2022 and Anthony Fauci telling us we better not put those masks away just yet even if we are vaccinated.
Will we still have the freedom to celebrate the Fourth next year as Independence Day, or will Democrats have so thoroughly trampled the notion that patriotism is anything other than white nationalism that we will be celebrating Freedom for all People Day or, if Biden bows further to extremists controlling the White House, Freedom for All People Who Aren’t White Day?
Or maybe it will be something much more subtle, like a national fireworks ban to end a public health hazard. There is time. We still have three more Democrat-controlled Independence Days to go.
UPDATE July 17, 2021: freedom to be misinformed because the First Amendment allows it
The COVID-19 Delta variant gave the Biden regime the excuse it needed to cross the line and discard the First Amendment once and for all. No matter your political affiliation we should all be very, very afraid of where this is headed. COVID is the excuse, not the reason for the newest crackdown on our freedoms.
In a July 15, 2021 press conference Surgeon General Vivek Murthy got things started:
Health misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information about health, according to the best evidence at the time. And while it often appears innocuous on social media apps and retail sites or search engines, the truth is that misinformation takes away our freedom to make informed decisions about our health and the health of our loved ones.122
Then Jen Psaki brought the hammer down:
We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We’re working with doctors and medical professionals to connect — to connect medical experts with popular — with popular — who are popular with their audiences with — with accurate information and boost trusted content. So we’re helping get trusted content out there.123
Even if the White House and congressional Democrats were honest this would still be completely unacceptable. Given their record of lying to the public a policy of moderating online content that is not patently illegal is absolutely terrifying, especially when you consider the far-left officials appointed by this administration and what they might consider to be wrong information.
Misinformation and disinformation are in the eyes of the politicians in control. That’s not good for our democracy and it certainly isn’t good when it comes to preserving your First Amendment freedoms.
COVID is the excuse. January 6 will be the reason to take away your freedom.
When the government turns authoritarian and censors public discourse to suit its needs with the excuse that it’s protecting the people it’s easy to expand the overreach. This is especially scary considering the Democrat Party’s determination to investigate the January 6 Capitol incursion.
Practiced conspiracy nut Adam Schiff (D-CA) set the stage:
The decision by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans to attempt to bury the truth and hide their complicity, along with that of Donald Trump, in the January 6 assault is the height of cowardice and callousness.124
Complicity? It’s not just the Republican leadership who should worry. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) got right to the point:
The events of January 6 were largely choreographed in advance. The attack was planned in the open on popular social media platforms.125
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) agrees:
The federal government was unprepared for this insurrection, even though it was planned in plain sight on social media for the world to see.126
The solution is Nancy Pelosi’s H.Res. 503, which casts a very broad net over our nation including:
investigations into influencing factors related to such [January 6] attack.127
targeted violence and domestic terrorism relevant to such terrorist attack.128
influencing factors that contributed to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol and how technology, including online platforms, financing, and malign foreign influence operations and campaigns may have factored into the motivation, organization, and execution of the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol;129
Why do we need this investigation?
to strengthen the security and resilience of the United States and American democratic institutions against violence, domestic terrorism, and domestic violent extremism.130
Influencing factors and online platforms can mean almost anything. There has been such a propaganda assault from the left surrounding January 6 that we should expect nothing will be left off the table as the 2022 midterms edge closer and Democrats cries about threats to our democracy get louder.
Don’t worry about a George Floyd race riot commission
The January 6 attack was over in hours. The rioting last summer persisted for months and still threatens with every news story about the police and a person of color. One can easily make the argument that this was a threat to our nation, public safety, and the rule of law. Not only was there no investigation, Democrats recited the mantra “peaceful protects” ad nauseam to excuse the violence. If this destruction was at the hands of right wing extremists, what do you think the response would have been?
We’re about to find out.
Continued on next page
People do not understand how the Democrats and the Obama administration are slowly strangling the very freedoms that the Revolution was fought for. The facts are clear when you see the Constitution being trampled on by Obama, and then realize that he could not pass a gun owner background check, which is why he has sealed “ALL” of his records.
If congress were to pass any new legislation on background checking it must include the requirement that “ALL” politicians running for public office must “PASS” those requirements or be disqualified.
As it stands right now, Obama could not ” PASS” a standard FBI check from the details that were written in his book, which is why his certification was challenged. The judges that had cases before them refused to hear the arguments and thusly dismissed those cases. What gutless wonders we have in the justice system including the Supreme Court.
Obama is tearing our nation apart. and he is banking on the ignorant that don’t pay attention. obama has a shady past and i am not convinced that he is a true citizen of the united states. If you vote democrat you are voting to end america as a freedom country. Obama is taking it all away and people are not paying attention. when it’s gone and you are under the control of a dictator you will wish you had paid attention. but this country has been under attack before obama but now it’s speeded up so much it will be a miracle if we can keep it
We’ll find out next week how well people are paying attention, won’t we, Sandy? I agree, it’s pretty amazing that no matter how bad things are or how misguided the actions of public officials, they still manage to convince people to support what they do. Watch what happens in the Illinois governor’s race next week. If Pat Quinn wins, it’s a pretty good sign that we are truly lost.
freedom from harm is not a reasonable freedom. Freedom from unjust aggression is reasonable, and the primary reason for government.
Thanks for your remarks, Ed. Interesting how some of what’s happening now at the hands of government could be considered unjust aggression, like the searches they conducted in Rhode Island looking for New Yorkers. It’s difficult to know where to draw the line between government overreach and the public interest, but that was quite a line to cross.
Obama signed a bill to allow the media to profess false narratives for the peoples ow good HR4310
Joseph Goebbels would be so proud.
I don’t know if the intention was to turn lies into the sole means of communicating with the people to the complete exclusion of the truth, but it has certainly paid off for Democrats and the White House.
Wow, the RWNJ is strong with this one.
I’m listening, John.