It’s Time to Invoke the Insurrection Act

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“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” ~Ronald Reagan, July 31, 1968

What about the justice for the other 330 million Americans who didn’t participate in the murder of George Floyd? When will we get justice for all of the people rioters killed and maimed and property they destroyed over the weekend?

In many places in America you still can’t get a haircut, but you can go out and riot. In California, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, you can’t go to church, but you can riot with impunity and burn down lifelong dreams of business owners without facing jail time. One such riot led to the murder of a federal agent protecting a courthouse in Oakland. 11 Secret Service agents were taken to the hospital after trying to repel a mob near the White House.

This has become a federal issue. We’ve never seen such a perverse sense of “justice” in this country. The reason we have a federal government is to protect liberty when state governments are either inherently unable or unwilling to do so. There is no greater threat to liberty than violent mobs sacking every major and mid-sized city, destroying businesses, and beating innocent people to death. Just as George Washington did with the Whiskey Rebellion, Trump should have sent troops immediately to quell these rebellions and use deadly force to restore order. That this has gone so far with so much destruction reflects a failure of biblical proportions on the part of this government, especially when juxtaposed to the heavy hand used in crushing civil liberties for a voodoo strategy of “fighting” a virus.

During the Ferguson riots in 2014, Trump tweeted:

Then he was a private citizen. Now he is president. Yet now we have a Ferguson in dozens of cities. So what happened to candidate Trump, who drew a sharp contrast in 2016 by saying during a debate with Hillary Clinton, “Secretary Clinton doesn’t want to use a couple of words, and that’s law and order. And we need law and order. If we don’t have it, we’re not going to have a country.”

Ryan Girdusky reported that Jared Kushner and the other proponents of weak-on-crime policies have convinced Trump to take a more muted response for fear of ruining their plan to supposedly win some of the black vote:

Girdusky has a lot of sources in the White House and has covered the political civil war between those supportive of the MAGA agenda and Jared Kushner for quite some time. If his take is true, then Trump would be throwing away this election for nothing.

Trump should use the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last invoked during the 1992 Rodney King Riots in LA. It’s time to use deadly force. George Washington sent in troops to quell the Whiskey Rebellions, which was much less violent and widespread than these acts of mass mob terrorism.

In response to the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, Washington commanded, “All persons, being insurgents…to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes” and warned “all persons whomsoever against aiding, abetting, or comforting the perpetrators of the aforesaid treasonable acts.” That was the first use of federal force pursuant to Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, which tasks the federal government with guaranteeing states’ protection from domestic violence.

The show of force ended the rebellion with minimal life lost. Peace through strength.

Trump needs to understand, as Washington did, that absent the restoration of deterrence with the use of deadly force, this cancer will spread and more people will ultimately be killed. At its core, this is why we have a government. The fact that in the nation’s capital there could be an iconic church set on fire after authorities already were alerted to the rioting from the previous night (with 11 Secret Service agents hospitalized) is mystifying.

Next is the issue of prosecutions. It’s good that Trump has promised to designate ANTIFA a terrorist group, but he should treat all rioters as terrorists, regardless of their affiliation. He must prosecute all of the rioters under federal terrorism charges, as well as anti-insurrection laws, such as 18 U.S. Code § 2383, which prescribes federal punishment for anyone who “incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto.”

During his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in the summer of 2016, Trump noted that “the most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens” and that “any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.”

“Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities,” said Trump in his Cleveland speech. “Many have witnessed this violence personally, some have even been its victims. I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and I mean very soon, come to an end.”

How nostalgic that night was when the would-be president declared, “Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.”

Well, Mr. President, those promises have come due more than you could have imagined at the time. That is the Donald Trump voters elected. (For more from the author of “It’s Time to Invoke the Insurrection Act” please click HERE)

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“We’re on the Wrong Side of History, Past the Point of No Return”

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What’s happening in America right now are the most vivid examples yet why “revival or bust” has been our show mantra for years. There are too many Americans who either weren’t taught the American vision, or who oppose it, to have a unifying melting pot around core values as we used to. Which helped us rise above our imperfections and injustices to still produce the greatest beacon for liberty this fallen world has ever seen. The light is flickering now.

Therefore, there’s only one outcome here: revival or bust. Either another Great Awakening will take place, which brings us back to the old magic, or there will be some form of national divorce — which is what bust is. When one spouse thinks the only reason the other could possibly disagree with them on anything is the most sinister of motivations possible, that marriage as-is cannot be saved.

Our cities aren’t secure. Our nursing homes aren’t secure. Our churches aren’t open. Our kids can’t go to school or the playground. Our businesses can’t fully open. We now have 40 million unemployed. If it was any other country, we’d consider this was divine judgment. We’re on the wrong side of HIStory here.

Which brings us to Trump, who now does become a central figure in how this plays out. Not because of him uniquely, but because of what those who love him and hate him more than they should see in him. One side thinks they found themselves an American Winston Churchill. And the other side recognizes the worldview they seek to erase thinks that, and therefore have made making America become a failed state on his watch their personal D-Day.

Caught in the middle of all this are Trump’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the goulash of beliefs he’s assembled around him in his administration/movement. For every culture warrior there’s a Jared Kushner or Steve Mnuchin. For every great evangelist there’s a Paula White. So his administration is constantly driving with the gas and the brakes at the same time. With often the initial impulse to do what is right in response, but then lacking the follow through/will once enemy resistance is met.

Meanwhile, the enemy sees resistance as barely a speed bump.

In California right now law enforcement won’t stop looting of private businesses and riots. But they will stop you from really having church, and a majority-Republican appointed Supreme Court signed off on that. In most places in America right now a large gathering of people cannot eat at a restaurant, but they can burn it down. You were safe from the virus at the biggest of big box stores, but no family-owned local businesses for some reason. And a vocal segment of our population has made covering their faces with surgical hijabs, which actual science shows isn’t going to save them, a virtue signal worth dying for.

Up until now, Trump has gotten by with largely tough talk. He’s done good things, but they’ve all really been easy if we’re being honest. He hasn’t really defied any part of the system that defies us. And we’ve largely judged him on a sliding scale in comparison to his predecessors, because of how betrayed we’ve been by the Republican Party all these years.

Whether Trump is truly Batman here come to finally confront the mean streets of Gotham (or not) is irrelevant, because what’s happening now is the spirit of the age has upped the ante thinking he might be — or because many of us think that he is. The Joker has revealed himself. Chaos reigns. And if we all didn’t know there was going to be a cost to wanting to finally confronting this, surely we do now.

Trump’s tough talk won’t suffice here. He tried it on Twitter, they instantly called his bluff the next day. He’s tweeting about the rioters, yet the riots continued. He’s not up against newsroom metrosexuals obsessed with avocado toast, has-been deep state bureaucrats trying to use MSNBC’s small audience to do a Pink Panther-level clumsy coup, or space cadet Pelosi. These have never been the real villains, merely caricatures.

The likes of CNN and its ilk are Trevor Slattery, doing political porn for largely wealthy and white fake woke folks to get off in between croquet tournaments and Howard Zinn book club meetings. This is pathetic content for the self-righteous to justify being even more so. Wealthy white people who think they’re down with the struggle, when they’re really just doing Marie Antoinette impersonations.

They’re not the real Mandarin. The real Mandarin phoned home with a riot at CNN’s corporate headquarters, so you would know the real thing. The real Mandarin called Trump’s Twitter bluff the very next day. The real Mandarin has been out in the streets this weekend, calling Trump’s bluff. And then filming beatings with their phones rather than helping the victims.

See, the real Mandarin thinks Trump is just a bloviating billionaire. He’s not Tony Stark. He’s not some bad ass, and he’s never going to be your Iron Man. He’s going to launch rockets like its 1969, while your kids weren’t permitted a 2020 graduation or wedding. All show and no go. All style no substance.

The spirit of the age is calling Trump’s bluff, which means its really calling many of ours. Just as it did when it made too many of us stay home, lose our job and business, and all over unvetted science that has proven to be junk from the bowels of flat earth. Some of you are still at home, emailing me about the Second Amendment and how you’re trapped in your homes. One of these things is not like the other.

We don’t need anymore tweets or addresses. This nation is past rallying with sentimentality anyway. We need action. We only need action.

Starting with Antifa and all other mobs who are violent, loot and riot are instantly declared domestic terrorists, and treated accordingly. If state and local law enforcement will not protect their citizens they will be defunded at the federal level. Just as federal authorities had to enforce the 13th and 14th Amendments when states and locales wanted to remain racist in the past, they will defend the Constitution from their lawlessness now. The oath says all enemies — foreign and DOMESTIC. That includes criminal charges against state and local officials who don’t defend the civil rights of their citizens.

We are overdue for a broad, and finally honest, conversation about race in this country in our time. Both how far we’ve come and where we still need to go. To come now, and reason together. But we refuse to do so while being domestically terrorized. We will not incentivize lawlessness.

We supposedly have a law and order president who doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. Time to see it. Not read it on Twitter. Not hear it from his apologists in conservative media. We need to see it.

That is real villainy out in our streets. And it will only be stopped by real justice.

You’re up, Mr. President. Your hand has been called. What are you holding?

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Lockdowns in Review: Bad for Stopping Virus. Good for Tyranny

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Most people are familiar with the example of Sweden as a country that bucked the lockdown fad in response to the threat of COVID-19. But fewer people seem to be talking about the example of Japan. How Japan succeeded in mitigating widespread fatalities might not be 100% clear yet, but what is clear is that a lockdown is not one of the ingredients, because Japan never issued one.

Japan is home to the largest city in the world, and subways are a way of life in Tokyo. Yet at 7 deaths per 1 million people, Japan’s death rate is 43 times lower, per capita, than that of the U.S. Tokyo had just 292 deaths, 1/56 of the total dead in New York City, even though the Tokyo metropolitan area is much larger than that of New York City. Now, Japan is one of the first countries to declare victory and lift its state of emergency.

So, what’s the secret?

Based on everything we’ve been conditioned to believe, we would have to conclude that Japan must have locked down people in their rooms with tape on their mouths and contact-traced every time someone went to the bathroom, right?

In fact, officials did none of that. They did not mandate draconian shutdowns, did not destroy their economy, and didn’t even engage in mass testing the way South Korea did but were just as successful in keeping the fatalities down. Thus, lockdowns are irrelevant to any mitigation.

What did they do? It’s hard to say which ingredient helped more than others, but in general they focused like a laser beam on one simple policy that is responsible for most of the spread – avoiding mass gatherings that function as super-spreaders. And they did so early. Most Western countries acted too late, and when they acted, they engaged in gratuitous fascism to the point of arresting a single man surfing alone in the water. Instead of all that, Japan immediately avoided super-spreading events.

We see the same results everywhere. In Hong Kong, 20% were likely responsible for 80% of the spread. In Israel, 1%-10% were responsible for 80%. Countries that dealt with that from day one had better results. Thereafter, whatever they did made zero difference. Any discussion of lockdowns, mass mandatory testing, mask-wearing, and contact-tracing long after the introduction of the virus through large events is useless and only results in disproportionate collateral damage.

Cutting off international travel and avoiding large, crowded events are the only mitigation efforts that can make a difference early on. Once the horses leave the barn, a country will suffer the same curve-like pattern of infection for 6-10 weeks, no matter what it does thereafter.

Perhaps the Japanese were alerted earlier than others to deal with this in a commonsense way by their experience with the infected Diamond Princess ship, already quarantined at the port of Yokohama in early February. They were alerted to the potential danger of the viral spread, but at the same time, they were also able to see that the virus was not highly deadly except to those with pre-existing conditions, per the experience of those onboard the ship.

It’s true that nearly all Asian countries had much better results than Western countries. This may be because their populations have been exposed to more forms of coronavirus and have a larger degree of cross-immunity, as well as a healthier, less obese population than most Western countries. However, given Japan’s lack of lockdown and ubiquitous testing, it should have had a bigger problem than comparable Asian countries, if we are to believe those who adhere to lockdown dogma with immutable faith.

Moreover, we need not just rely on the experience of an Asian country to demonstrate that lockdowns have zero effect on the trajectory of the virus. Just look at the European countries and U.S. states that have come out of lockdown earlier as an example of positive results without a lockdown.

Switzerland, like nearly every other Western country, did not enjoy the low death rates of the Asian countries. But 222 deaths per 1 million is well in line with the average. Officials also announced an end to the national emergency, and the country is doing so well that they announced this week they will take their reopening to the next level. They plan to reopen all outdoor zoos and pools, reopen all businesses, and allow all gatherings up to 300 people. They have already been in phase one for quite some time and have not seen a resurgence of hospitalizations or new cases overall.

Also, per their internal studies on the lack of significant child-to-adult transmissions, they are encouraging grandparents to care for their grandchildren again. Elementary schools reopened on May 11, and there have been no problems. Now all high schools will reopen, per the recommendation of Alain Berset, the minister of health and member of the governing Federal Council. Summer camps will be allowed to open normally, so long as they don’t exceed 300 campers.

We’re seeing this throughout countries in Europe and in states like Florida, Georgia, and Texas, where they are simply not seeing a resurgence in hospitalizations. Their hospitals are empty. Despite being the first European country to reopen, Denmark’s R0 – the average number of infections caused by one person – declined from 0.9 to 0.7 during the first week of May.

Even the director of health at the World Health Organization, María Neira, is now beginning to rule out a mass second wave. “There are many models that advance with a high probability,” said Neira on Monday. “They speak from a punctual regrowth to a major wave, but this last possibility is increasingly being ruled out.” (Translation from Spanish by Google translate.)

Which is why the only sane pathway forward, which would also recognize the even larger share of life lost to the lockdown, would be for the healthy and less vulnerable to completely resume normal life with reasonable hygiene and avoidance of indoor crowding. And no, we don’t need to test everyone in order to have our lives back. The Norwegians realized that testing is worthless for the general population and should be reserved for nursing homes, health care workers, and those who appear sick.

The Left always said that America needs to be more like Europe and Japan in terms of health policy. Well, why are they suddenly so shy about playing follow the leader? (For more from the author of “Lockdowns in Review: Bad for Stopping Virus. Good for Tyranny” please click HERE)

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The Key Reason DC Hates President Trump – It’s a Big Club, and He Ain’t in It…

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Something 99% of American voters do not understand. Congress doesn’t actually write legislation. The last item of legislation written by congress was sometime around the mid 1990’s. Modern legislation is sub-contracted to a segment of operations in DC known as K-Street. That’s where the lobbyists reside.

Lobbyists write the laws; congress sells the laws; lobbyists then pay congress commissions for passing their laws. That’s the modern legislative business in DC.

CTH often describes the system with the phrase: “There are Trillions at Stake.” The process of creating legislation is behind that phrase. DC politics is not quite based on the ideas that frame most voter’s reference points.

With people taking notice of DC politics for the first time; and with people not as familiar with the purpose of DC politics; perhaps it is valuable to provide clarity.

Most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a House or Senate representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past. There is not a single person in congress writing legislation or laws.

In modern politics not a single member of the House of Representatives or Senator writes a law, or puts pen to paper to write out a legislative construct. This simply doesn’t happen.

Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works right now.

Outside groups, often called “special interest groups”, are entities that represent their interests in legislative constructs. These groups are often representing foreign governments, Wall Street multinational corporations, banks, financial groups or businesses; or smaller groups of people with a similar connection who come together and form a larger group under an umbrella of interest specific to their affiliation.

Sometimes the groups are social interest groups; activists, climate groups, environmental interests etc. The social interest groups are usually non-profit constructs who depend on the expenditures of government to sustain their cause or need.

The for-profit groups (mostly business) have a purpose in Washington DC to shape policy, legislation and laws favorable to their interests. They have fully staffed offices just like any business would – only their ‘business‘ is getting legislation for their unique interests.

These groups are filled with highly-paid lawyers who represent the interests of the entity and actually write laws and legislation briefs.

In the modern era this is actually the origination of the laws that we eventually see passed by congress. Within the walls of these buildings within Washington DC is where the ‘sausage’ is actually made.

Again, no elected official is usually part of this law origination process.

Almost all legislation created is not ‘high profile’, they are obscure changes to current laws, regulations or policies that no-one pays attention to. The passage of the general bills within legislation is not covered in media. Ninety-nine percent of legislative activity happens without anyone outside the system even paying any attention to it.

Once the corporation or representative organizational entity has written the law they want to see passed – they hand it off to the lobbyists.

The lobbyists are people who have deep contacts within the political bodies of the legislative branch, usually former House/Senate staff or former House/Senate politicians themselves.

The lobbyist takes the written brief, the legislative construct, and it’s their job to go to congress and sell it.

“Selling it” means finding politicians who will accept the brief, sponsor their bill and eventually get it to a vote and passage. The lobbyist does this by visiting the politician in their office, or, most currently familiar, by inviting the politician to an event they are hosting. The event is called a junket when it involves travel.

Often the lobbying “event” might be a weekend trip to a ski resort, or a “conference” that takes place at a resort. The actual sales pitch for the bill is usually not too long and the majority of the time is just like a mini vacation etc.

The size of the indulgence within the event, the amount of money the lobbyist is spending, is customarily related to the scale of benefit within the bill the sponsoring business entity is pushing. If the sponsoring business or interest group can gain a lot of financial benefit from the legislation they spend a lot on the indulgences.

Recap: Corporations (special interest group) write the legislation. Lobbyists take the law and go find politician(s) to support it. Politicians get support from their peers using tenure and status etc. Eventually, if things go according to norm, the legislation gets a vote.

Within every step of the process there are expense account lunches, dinners, trips, venue tickets and a host of other customary financial way-points to generate/leverage a successful outcome. The amount of money spent is proportional to the benefit derived from the outcome.

The important part to remember is that the origination of the entire process is EXTERNAL to congress.

Congress does not write laws or legislation, special interest groups do. Lobbyists are paid, some very well paid, to get politicians to go along with the need of the legislative group.

When you are voting for a Congressional Rep or a U.S. Senator you are not voting for a person who will write laws. Your rep only votes on legislation to approve or disapprove of constructs that are written by outside groups and sold to them through lobbyists who work for those outside groups.

While all of this is happening the same outside groups who write the laws are providing money for the campaigns of the politicians they need to pass them. This construct sets up the quid-pro-quo of influence, although much of it is fraught with plausible deniability.

This is the way legislation is created.

If your frame of reference is not established in this basic understanding you can often fall into the trap of viewing a politician, or political vote, through a false prism.

The modern origin of all legislative constructs is not within congress.

“We have to pass the bill to, well, find out what is in the bill” etc. ~ Nancy Pelosi 2009

“We rely upon the stupidity of the American voter” ~ Johnathan Gruber 2011, 2012.

“If Congress isn’t going to convene until the bill is ready to vote on… who the hell is writing the bill?” ~ Tom Massie, 2020

Once you understand this process you can understand how politicians get rich.

When a House or Senate member becomes educated on the intent of the legislation, they have attended the sales pitch; and when they find out the likelihood of support for that legislation; they can then position their own (or their families) financial interests to benefit from the consequence of passage. It is a process similar to insider trading on Wall Street, except the trading is based on knowing who will benefit from a legislative passage.

The legislative construct passes from K-Street into the halls of congress through congressional committees. The law originates from the committee to the full House or Senate. Committee seats which vote on these bills are therefore more valuable to the lobbyists. Chairs of these committees are exponentially more valuable.

Now, think about this reality against the backdrop of the 2016 Presidential Election. Legislation is passed based on ideology. In the aftermath of the 2016 election the system within DC was not structurally set-up to receive a Donald Trump presidency.

If Hillary Clinton had won the election, her Oval Office desk would be filled with legislation passed by congress which she would have been signing. Heck, she’d have writer’s cramp from all of the special interest legislation, driven by special interest groups that supported her campaign, that would be flowing to her desk.

Why?

Simply because the authors of the legislation, the originating special interest and lobbying groups, were spending millions to fund her campaign. Hillary Clinton would be signing K-Street constructed special interest legislation to repay all of those donors/investors.

Congress would be fast-tracking the passage because the same interest groups also fund the members of congress.

President Donald Trump winning the election threw a monkey wrench into the entire DC system…. In early 2017 the modern legislative machine was frozen in place.

The “America First” policies represented by candidate Donald Trump were not within the legislative constructs coming from the K-Street authors of the legislation. There were no MAGA lobbyists waiting on Trump ideology to advance legislation based on America First objectives.

As a result of an empty feeder system, in early 2017 congress had no bills to advance because all of the myriad of bills and briefs written were not in line with President Trump policy. There was simply no entity within DC writing legislation that was in-line with President Trump’s America-First’ economic and foreign policy agenda.

Exactly the opposite was true. All of the DC legislative briefs and constructs were/are antithetical to Trump policy. There were hundreds of file boxes filled with thousands of legislative constructs that became worthless when Donald Trump won the election.

Those legislative constructs (briefs) representing tens of millions of dollars worth of time and influence were just sitting there piled up in boxes under desks and in closets amid K-Street and the congressional offices. Legislation needed to be in-line with an entire new political perspective, and there was no-one, no special interest or lobbying group, currently occupying DC office space with any interest in synergy with Trump policy.

Think about the larger ramifications within that truism. That is also why there was/is so much opposition.

No legislation provided by outside interests means no work for lobbyists who sell it. No work means no money. No money means no expense accounts. No expenses means politicians paying for their own indulgences etc.

Politicians were not happy without their indulgences, but the issue was actually bigger. No K-Street expenditures also means no personal benefit; and no opportunity to advance financial benefit from the insider trading system. Republicans and democrats hate the presidency of Donald Trump because it is hurting them financially.

President Trump is not figuratively hurting the financial livelihoods of DC politicians; he’s literally doing it. President Trump is not an esoteric problem for them; his impact is very real, very direct, and hits almost every politician in the most painful place imaginable, the bank account.

In the pre-Trump process there were millions upon millions, even billions that could be made by DC politicians and their families. Thousands of very indulgent and exclusive livelihoods attached to the DC business model. At the center of this operation is the lobbying and legislative purchase network. The Big Club.

Without the ability to position personal wealth and benefit from the system, why would a politician stay in office? It is a fact the income of many long-term politicians on both wings of the uniparty bird were completely disrupted by Trump winning the 2016 election. That is one of the key reason why so many politicians retired in 2018.

When we understand the business of DC, we understand the difference between legislation with a traditional purpose and modern legislation with a financial and political agenda.

When we understand the business of DC we understand why the entire network hates President Donald Trump.

Lastly, this is why -when signing legislation- President Trump often says “they’ve been trying to get this through for a long time” etc. Most of the legislation that is passed by congress, and signed by President Trump in his first term; is older legislative proposals, with little indulgent value that were shelved in years past.

Example: Criminal justice reform did not carry a financial benefit to the legislative bodies, and there was no financial interest funding the politicians to pass the bill. If you look at most of the bills President Trump has signed, with the exception of a few economic bills, they stem from congressional construction many years, even decades, ago.

Think about it carefully and you’ll see it. The “First step act”, “Right to Try”, etc. were all shelved by Boehner, Pelosi, Ryan, McConnell, Reid and others before them. When the value of legislation is measured by the financial underwriting and payoffs behind it, what type of legislative calendar does that require?…. (For more from the author of “The Key Reason DC Hates President Trump – It’s a Big Club, and He Ain’t in It…” please click HERE)

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Honor Our Fallen by Understanding Their Missions

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. . .Our service members’ sacrifice is an abstraction when the average citizen has little idea where we are fighting and why. Our military’s broader missions don’t get much public attention, and our elected leaders struggle to describe them in easily digestible soundbites. Indeed, our complex war against transnational jihadists defies tidy abbreviation. The days of a discrete “war in Iraq” are gone. Our “war in Afghanistan” rages on, but is vastly reduced. The “war on terror” as a catch-all term is uselessly ill-defined. . .

Around 10,000 U.S. troops support the Afghan government against the Taliban and ISIS while peace negotiations proceed intermittently. A decade ago, 100,000 troops served on the ground. Now, only a few hundred participate in front-line combat missions alongside Afghan commandos, mainly against ISIS.

Most troops provide training, logistics, and air support to the Afghans. Without our help, the fragile Afghan government risks being overwhelmed by Islamists. The resulting anarchy might permit jihadist groups to carve out a sphere of influence and export terrorism, forcing us to return later. Since last year, 15 service members, all U.S. Army soldiers, have fallen to hostile action in Afghanistan. An additional six from the Air Force and Army died in non-hostile incidents. . .

About 6,000 service members partner with Iraqi forces and hunt the remaining ISIS cells. The Iraqi military, though far from perfect, is more capable now than in 2014, when it collapsed in the face of an ISIS blitzkrieg.

Our troops now train the Iraqis to prevent ISIS from making a resurgence. We also present a latent challenge to Iran’s expansionist designs on the region. It’s a risky situation, as seen when Iran-backed militias targeted our forces in December, precipitating our killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January. Leaving would open the door for Iraq to become an Iranian satellite and trigger the reemergence of the ISIS. Last year, we lost five service members to hostile action: three Marines, a soldier, and an Air National Guardsman. A U.S. interpreter was also killed. Three others died in non-hostile incidents. (Read more from “Honor Our Fallen by Understanding Their Missions” HERE)

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COVID-1984: The Criminal Is the Victim and the Victim Is the Criminal

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“I’ve never asked for anything my entire life – no welfare, no unemployment benefits. I just want to open my barber shop; I’ll abide by any restriction they make.”

Those were the words of my local barber in Baltimore County, who teared up when I asked him if he was open. He sorrowfully told me he had to close due to the dictatorial and illegal mandates of the governor of Maryland and county executives. “Just open up your shop and if the police come around, tell them you are not the owner; you are simply looting the cash register and you are even wearing a mask,” I suggested to the man, who has cut my hair for 20 years. He thought I was joking. I had to explain to him that I was dead serious.

We are now living in times when even hyperbole, parody, and absurdity don’t fully capture the illogical, illegal, and immoral actions taken by our government. Baltimore County has released 400 criminals from jail, the city has released many more, and both are easing off arresting dangerous criminals after a year of record murders in both jurisdictions.

In March, Albert Peal, 52, was accused of raping two women in Baltimore County. Police had multiple videos of him committing the acts and were in the process of searching for more potential victims. Yet the judge released him under the false premise of stopping the spread of the virus in jail because he felt he was no threat to the community!

Men like this are under the same degree of house arrest as the rest of us, and in fact, if my barber were to get caught simply opening his shop with one customer at a time (while hundreds are streaming into local Home Depots and Walmarts), he could get sent to jail! Where is the U.N. Human Rights Council?

The same trashy politicians who wrongly assert that too many people will die in prisons, thereby justifying release of dangerous criminals, are wrongly asserting that small businesses are a threat of spreading the virus, thereby justifying the arrest and imprisonment of business owners. Somehow, if you are a peaceful and productive citizen, they are not concerned about you getting killed by the virus in jail.

Baltimore isn’t the only place where sex offenders are being let off the hook. Oakland, California, police have closed their sex offender registry unit, where those on the list are required to check in. Naturally, they are now focusing their surveillance on you and me instead.

There is no bottom to the decayed values driving the release of criminals at all costs. Tens of thousands of criminals have been released early or pardoned, and we will be feeling the effects of it for years to come, as we will feel the effects of so many other unfathomable and impetuous decisions made without any democratic input.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 79% of criminals released from state prison reoffend within six years and 83% recidivate within nine years. Yet many of them don’t wait a single day. Daniel Orozco, 28, was released from the Monterey County, California, jail despite being arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and driving the wrong way. No, of course a man like this was not a danger to the public, according to the judge. Well, just 10 minutes after his release, Orozco was accused of carjacking a woman and chocking her 11-year-old son in order to convince her to hand over the keys.

In California, roughly 700 inmates are being released every week for the past two months. Six of the seven high-risk sex offenders released from Orange County jail have already been rearrested. In Fresno County, 12.5% of all criminals released under coronavirus jailbreak have been rearrested. The sheriff warned that they typically see a 70% recidivism rate within three years statewide. And how many criminals are not being caught because Gov. Gavin Newsom is too busy using the police to spy on and arrest people going to the beach?

As if that weren’t enough of a stab in the back to the average citizen, Newsom is now proposing cutting prisons even more in order to alleviate the budget crisis stemming from the shutdown. So, this man shuts down everyone’s business and then complains about the revenue loss. His solution? Abolish incarceration!

In fact, the joining of the immoral and perverse policies of placing peaceful Americans in bondage while setting criminals free has come full-circle in California, with criminals now taking advantage of the mandate to wear masks. Police in Santa Ana, California, say robberies in the city have risen by 50%. Not only are there more criminals on the street, but they can now use the universal mask mandate as the perfect cover to commit crimes before people know what hit them. “We’re seeing more and more suspects wearing the mask and using that to their benefit,” said Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.

Except the difference is if you are wearing a mask while opening your business, you will be deemed a criminal, whereas if you are looting the business … well, it’s just another “low-level” theft.

This would be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic. Last week, Heather Perry, a 21-year-old Denver woman, was allegedly murdered by Cornelius Haney, a man previously convicted of armed robbery who was released thanks to a coronavirus jailbreak order promulgated by Gov. Jared Polis.

Federal law (18 U.S.C. §242) states, “Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Perhaps it’s time to use the empty space in the jails to house the politicians who are breaking the supreme law of the land. (For more from the author of “COVID-1984: The Criminal Is the Victim and the Victim Is the Criminal” please click HERE)

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DEFIANCE – There Are More of Us Than Them

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In April something was bugging me… a familiarity amid the COVID lock-down status & another time… I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until a dear friend reminded me.

Many U.S. states are acting like the early 1980s and the imposition of Martial law in Poland to target the Solidarity movement. Subsequently I wrote about it on a Twitter thread, because the parallels were really quite remarkable.

Both Poland circa 1980 and the U.S. friction in 2020, center around fragile economic issues. Both were an outcome of state control; and the key connection is government targeting control over the workers.

In both examples the state took exclusive control of the economic and social state of the citizens, and the courts provided no option for redress. In both examples the state locked down the citizens and would not permit them to interact with each other.

In 1981 the government in Poland initiated Martial Law and citizens were forced to communicate underground. In 2020 a considerable number of U.S. state governments locked-down citizens in similar fashion and banned citizen assembly.

In 1981 in Poland the communist regime used economic psychological pressure, selecting workers permitted to earn wages. Those workers identified as “essential” to the state. In 2020 many State governors selected workers to earn an income by designating them “essential” to the state.

In 1981 in Poland; communication amid the Solidarity Movement was forced underground. In 2020 many oppressive State governors demanded social media remove public content adverse to the interests of the Stay-at-Home confinement orders. Big Tech complied with the authoritarian dictate.

In 1981 Polish authorities arrested anyone organizing protests against the authoritarian state. In 2020 numerous authoritarian officials arrested citizens for non-compliance with unilateral dictates. From a New Jersey governor arresting a woman for organizing a protect; to an Idaho mother arrested for allowing her children to play at a park; to a Texas salon owner arrested for operating her business.

In 1981 Polish authorities had a program for citizens to report subversive activity against the state. Snitching. In 2020 New York City, LA and numerous state and local officials started programs for citizens to report non-compliant activity against the state. Similar snitching.

In both 1981 Poland and 2020 USA we also see media exclusively creating ideological content as propaganda for the interests of the authoritarian state (controlling citizens).

Interestingly, as we begin to see the American people saying “enough”, and openly defying the authoritarian state. There’s another parallel that is comparable, enlightening and quite remarkable.

Just before the authoritarian state in Poland collapsed there was a rapid movement for the citizens to take to the streets in defiance of state control. I remember watching with great enthusiasm as I saw a very determined Pole shout on television:

…”we take to the streets and today we realize, there are more of us than them”…

Fast forward more than thirty years later and those glorious voices are prescient. The power of the government comes from the people; or as we say in the U.S. “from the consent of the governed.” Thus the underlying principle behind our defiance.

If the people will lead, the politicians are forced to follow:

If one person refuses to comply, government can and as we have witnessed arrest them. However, if tens of thousands rebuke these unconstitutional decrees, there isn’t a damn thing government can do to stop it…. and they know it.

If one barber shop opens, the owner becomes a target. However, if every barber shop and beauty salon in town opens… there is absolutely nothing the government can do about it.

If one restaurant and/or bar opens, the state can target the owner. But if every bar and restaurant in town opens; and if everyone ignores and dispatches the silly dictates of the local, regional or state officials… there isn’t a damned thing they can do about it.

The power of the local, regional or state authority comes from the expressed consent of the people. As soon as the majority of people deny that consent, those officials and state authoritarians lose all of their power. Yes, it really is that simple.

Go live your best life.

You’re worth it.

PS. Another similarity – ultimately the key control issue, the heart of the battle in Poland, came down to an election finally held in 1989. Likewise the key control issue, the heart of battle in the United States will come down to an election in November 2020.

(For more from the author of “DEFIANCE – There Are More of Us Than Them” please click HERE)

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Don’t Count on Republicans Opposing Pelosi’s Panic Bill. Make SURE of It

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There’s no way Republicans would agree to the new $3 trillion Pelosi bill, right? A $900 billion bailout for the states, $75 billion for mortgage bailout, $100 billion for a renter bailout, $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service, a $100 billion bailout for schools that didn’t lose any money and actually saved on overhead, and another round of $1,200 checks for adults making up to $75,000 along with the same amount per child, even if they never lost any income during the shutdown. There’s no way Republicans will support this, right? Wrong.

Republicans already passed a bill pretty similar to this one, and the same man who negotiated that bill for Trump doesn’t appear to have a problem with new spending. CNBC reports that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was “unfazed” by the staggering debt we are amassing because of our strategy to deal with coronavirus. “One of the reasons I do feel comfortable with us spending all this money is because interest rates are very low. And we’re taking advantage of long-term rates,” Mnuchin said on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street earlier this week.

Doesn’t he sound like a used car salesman?

What Mnuchin won’t tell you is that one of the reasons we have failed to grow our economy at 3% any year since 2005 and 4% since the late 1990s is precisely because the existing debt already weakened our ability to use peak employment for efficient economic growth. We cannot possibly comprehend how the bills they already passed will alter our economy for years to come.

But the broader implication of Mnuchin’s comments is that Republicans and the White House, absent early and vigorous opposition from conservatives, will likely go along with some form of this new bill. That is what they have done every time.

Unlike the White House, Democrats actually practice one of the dictates of “Art of the Deal,” which is always to ask for more than you think you will get. This is why they ask for slightly more money than they want and also stick in extraneous provisions dealing with other political priorities. For example, they originally only asked for a $500 billion state bailout and have now upped it to $900 billion.

Then Republicans, rather than militating against the entire premise of the lockdown and the faulty law and science behind it, as well as the premise of subsidizing unemployment and encouraging lockdown, agree to the entire strategy. However, they spend 100% of their time focusing on extraneous provisions of the bill or the exact dollar amount or structure of the socialist programs that they ultimately agree to.

Remember the GOP obsession with the Kennedy Center funding last time around? You would have thought that was the subject of the bill, judging by the rhetoric of Republicans during that debate. In fact, any sane person would have traded the Democrats a gold-plated Kennedy Center in return for not fueling and incentivizing a lockdown, bankrupting our nation, and creating monopolies for large conglomerates in every industry that we cannot even begin to imagine in the coming years. Republicans agreed to all of this before, and there is no reason they won’t agree again. In fact, Trump is already promising a state bailout to reward the states for destroying the country.

The first step for Republicans to properly fight the next legislative battle is to admit they were wrong to go along with it the first time. They must admit that the first $3 trillion bill they passed, along with the Federal Reserve shenanigans, will destroy small business in this country by creating artificial monopolies for large companies hooked into the orbit of the government – the same way Obamacare destroyed private practice and small insurers in health care, the bank bailouts destroyed community banks, and the recent farm bills destroyed family farms. Now, every industry will look like those three industries, where you can count the number of players on one hand. The bill passed by Congress will create more artificial inequality than anything a free market could have done in a thousand years.

According to researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, at least 100,000 small businesses will permanently close. What about the pathetic “stimulus” bills and Mnuchin’s promise of virtually free debt? Yeah, those market distortions actually hurt small businesses. As the Washington Post explained:

The result is likely to further shift the balance of power — and jobs — toward big businesses that have a better chance of surviving the uncertain year ahead by borrowing money or drawing on large cash reserves. Emergency actions by the Federal Reserve, backed by the Treasury, have made borrowing money almost free for large companies. In the 1980s and 1990s, small businesses employed over half of American workers, but that dynamic has shifted over time. By 2017, only 47 percent of private-sector employees were at small businesses, and the pandemic appears to be reducing that again.

Then there are the indiscriminate checks being mailed out to people who never lost their jobs. So much money was wasted that divorced families are now getting duplicate checks for the same child. Dead people are getting checks in the mail, as well as foreign nationals. $1 billion intended for small business wound up being mailed to public companies. Even nonprofits, including Muslim Brotherhood mosques, received funding. Has any Republican who supported the bill recognized the mistakes?

Once they recognize their errant ways, then we can trust them to actually fight the meat and potatoes (not just the gravy) of the Pelosi pander bill, conditioning funding on ending lockdowns permanently, targeting the money for reparations, not crony stimulus programs, and creating a true stimulus built on tax and regulatory cuts, not welfare. We need a paycheck bill, not a welfare and socialist monopoly bill.

However, that would require Trump to fire Mnuchin and actually appoint a negotiator who is somewhat different from what we would see under a Biden administration. Mnuchin is to fiscal policy what Fauci is to the lockdown policy – indistinguishable from the Democrats.

So yes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans might promise that this bill is “dead on arrival” in the Senate, but it’s only dead in this exact form. The more they focus on fighting the cranberry sauce and pecan pie of the bill, the more we will see them acquiesce to the turkey itself. Like Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football, this happens every time. (For more from the author of “Don’t Count on Republicans Opposing Pelosi’s Panic Bill. Make Sure of It” please click HERE)

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Simple Arithmetic Demonstrates That the Epidemic, Outside Nursing Homes, Is Essentially Over

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We are weeks past the peak of coronavirus hospitalizations, yet the reported national death numbers keep rising 2,000 or more every single day. It made no sense to anyone who has followed the curves in any other country, but now we have our answer. The Hartford Courant reported that 90% of all deaths in Connecticut last week were in senior care facilities. This explains why these increased deaths don’t make sense with the reality of empty hospitals in most places.

This revelation should change everything we know about the current state of affairs with coronavirus. Governors are justifying the continued lockdown by pointing to rising deaths, sometimes significantly, in many states and counties. But it now appears, using simple arithmetic, that in most states, the overwhelming majority of deaths are in nursing homes, and in some states and counties, nearly every new death is in a senior facility. And in fact, even in nursing homes, it appears that while numbers are being recorded now, the actual deaths occurred earlier during the peak. Nothing else matters until this fact comes to life.

80%-90% of new deaths, 50%+ total deaths are in senior care facilities

As I reported yesterday, not only do deaths in nursing homes now compose more than 50% (and in some states as high as 80%) of total deaths from the beginning of the entire epidemic, that percentage is sharply increasing in every state day by day. This means that nearly all the new deaths, depending on the state, are occurring in nursing homes.

Every state has a recorded death count that you can track by date, but the recording of the subcategory of nursing home deaths is pretty new in most states, and there is no cumulative tally by date. Nonetheless, using news reports and data from previous dates, we can easily see how many of the new total deaths since then were from nursing homes.

Phil Kerpen has recorded these numbers in his Twitter account, and I have independently verified them by going to each state’s database.

Those are some state numbers of the total nursing home deaths in a respective state’s overall deaths since the beginning of the epidemic. But then you have Virginia, where there have been new recorded nursing home deaths that are higher than the entire total from the past week.

What this demonstrates is that not only are most new deaths occurring in nursing homes, some of them are also being backfilled into the count now that states are beginning to focus on nursing homes as an important demographic data point. This means that depending on the state, either some of the deaths weren’t originally recorded at all during the peak weeks, or they were recorded in the state’s total but because the patient died in a hospital, they weren’t initially listed as a nursing home death, even though the patient came from such a facility.

I’m seeing the same thing in my home state of Maryland. There have been 317 new recorded deaths in Maryland from April 28 through May 6, and 333 from nursing homes! Again, clearly, not only are there few coronavirus deaths outside nursing homes any more, but even some of the nursing home deaths are either being added retroactively to the state’s overall total or having the effect of revising the previously reported non-nursing home subtotal down because they are now researching past hospital deaths of nursing home patients.

For example, in Baltimore County, 124 of 149 total deaths occurred in these facilities. That is 83% of all deaths. But if you tally the numbers since April 29, there are 59 new nursing home deaths, even though the total county deaths only went up by 55.

Different states and counties have varying numbers. In Minnesota, for example, 89 percent of the new deaths recorded on Tuesday were in nursing homes. Some might not be quite as dramatic, but they tell the same story. The curve has long been flattened, the deaths have nearly stopped in most areas of the country outside nursing homes, and even in nursing homes, some of the numbers are being backfilled, and there are serious questions about the data and criteria for coding these deaths.

This is why some counties in Pennsylvania are asking the state to be transparent and separate out nursing home deaths from other deaths per day. They are being told they cannot open up because there are still people dying, but the question of whether the tragedy is largely confined to nursing homes or whether it’s widespread makes a huge difference. Most counties in Pennsylvania are seeing upwards of 80% of deaths occurring in nursing homes in recent days and weeks. The government of Livingston, New Jersey, is making the same request because 80% of all recorded deaths are occurring in long-term care facilities, and the growth of that share of the pie is accelerating every day.

I have checked over 30 states that produce data on nursing home deaths and have found that in each one, the share of deaths that nursing homes compose of the statewide total has dramatically increased to varying degrees over the past 1-3 weeks.

The implication is that there is no excuse whatsoever not to open up the country and throw all our resources at protecting nursing homes. But it also raises questions as to what is going on with the count in nursing homes.

A scary national death tally built on questionable nursing home data

Fox News reported on Tuesday regarding the New York numbers: “Exactly how many nursing home residents have died remains uncertain despite the state’s latest disclosure, as the list doesn’t include nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals before dying.”

At least during the peak time, that could have been a large number, if not the majority of nursing home deaths. This could shed light on what is going on now. Could it be that the numbers aren’t surging quite as much as the toplines suggest, but that some states are now recording more prior deaths as nursing home deaths? The implication of this would mean that even the states that have less than 50% of deaths recorded from nursing homes, such as New York (it’s about 36%) might wind up all being over 50%. The Washington Post already predicts that more than half of the nation’s total deaths are in nursing homes. That would mean that no more than 36,000 deaths so far were ever from non-nursing home patients and that nearly none of them are now.

Then there is also the issue of reliability of the data. There are concerns overall that too many people who tested positive for COVID-19 but died of “a clear alternate cause,” to quote Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, are being added to the count. However, this concern is magnified now that most of the numbers are coming from nursing homes. We know that once the virus gets into nursing homes, the overwhelming majority, if not all, of residents will test positive for the virus, as we’re seeing in other confined spaces, such as ships and prisons. While it is very deadly and dangerous for them, clearly not all who die in nursing homes are dying of COVID-19. People die fairly suddenly in nursing homes every day, probably more so than anywhere else.

Take New York’s nursing home death data, for example. States and counties began adding “presumptive” deaths to the overall fatality count in recent weeks. But usually the presumptive deaths are only a fraction of the confirmed deaths, and with New York’s overall total deaths, that fact is no different. Now, take a look at these numbers in New York just for nursing home deaths:

Confirmed: 2418

Presumed: 2585

There are actually more presumed deaths than confirmed deaths among the nursing home demographic. That is astounding. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to smell something fishy.

Remember, roughly 20%-24% of all deaths in America every year occur in nursing homes, and studies have shown that most die from dementia (36%), cardiovascular issues (30%), or pulmonary issues (23%). It’s very easy to see how, now that they are testing everyone in these homes, and most are likely testing positive, any typical death would be coded as a COVID-19 death.

Then there is the question of how many nursing home patients are dying now as a result of decisions by governors to force nursing homes to take back patients from hospitals after they tested positive for the virus. We know this had devastating results in the tristate area around New York City, and now Governor Gavin Newsom is doubling down on the same policy in California.

We need transparency

With our entire way of life destroyed because of false arithmetic and false science, what is the CDC doing with the tens of billions of dollars we gave it? At a minimum, they should publish a breakdown every day of the following:

How many nursing home residents died, as distinct from those who died among the general population, along with a state-by-state breakdown.

How many deaths occurred on the day they were recorded vs. how many were backfilled.

How many of the nursing home deaths are confirmed as having died as a result of the virus, as opposed to just having tested positive (like tens of millions of Americans who likely had the virus but didn’t get a severe case).

How many coronavirus patients were admitted straight from hospitals to nursing homes, broken down by state.

The results of any antibody serology tests the CDC has conducted (there’s no way they haven’t, and if they didn’t, that would be criminal) and a full breakdown of the real fatality rate, stratified for each cohort of age, gender, race, and health status. If they don’t have this data, then what is the purpose of throwing tens of billions at them?

A definitive national and state-by-state number of how many of the 72,000+ deaths were in long-term senior care facilities.

The reason we need independent conservative writers like me to investigate what should be the most publicized data ever is because our overlords do not want us to discover what these results would reveal. (For more from the author of “Simple Arithmetic Demonstrates That the Epidemic, Outside Nursing Homes, Is Essentially Over” please click HERE)

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This Letter From Pennsylvania’s House Speaker Blows up the Lockdown Lie

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Today, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of V-E Day. It was the ultimate triumph of grit, determination, and a unified sense of purpose behind liberty that, despite its painful human and monetary cost, freed an entire world and spawned 75 years of America superpower status – not just as a leader globally, but as a nation of freedom and prosperity at home.

Now, in a matter of just two months, we’ve flushed trillions of dollars in a greater investment than World War II, and we have nothing to show for it but a destroyed economy, a destroyed deterrent against a generation of dangerous criminals, a physical and mental health crisis, lost education of a generation of schoolchildren, lifelong dreams of small business owners down the toilet, and the end of freedom itself – all for a lie that was apparent from day one.

The Greatest Generation invested for, sacrificed for, fought for, and achieved liberty and prosperity; we invested for, sacrificed for, and self-destructed for tyranny and a police state for all but truly dangerous criminals who have been released by the tens of thousands under this lockdown insanity.

When pondering the enormity of the short-term and long-term effects of this destruction and how our government, absent strong intervention, will become increasingly a police state, read this letter from the speaker of the House of Pennsylvania, Mike Turzai, to get a sense of how we were lied to about the impetus for such drastic action.

Sadly, 3,106 of our citizens have died due to Covid-19. The average age of those that have passed away is 79 years old.

To date, of these 3,106 deaths, 2,108 of these persons lived in nursing homes, personal care homes and assisted living residences. That means 67.9% those who have died lived in these types of settings.

Of the 3,106 persons who have died, 11.9% had 4 comorbidities, 22.7% had 3 comorbidities, 27.2% had 2 comorbidities, 22.6% had 1 comorbidity and 11% had zero comorbidities. While these percentages only add up to 95.4%, these were the statistics that were provided to us verbally.

Of the 3,106 persons who died, 61% had hypertension, 54% had heart disease, 37% had diabetes and 30% had chronic pulmonary disease.

According to the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), citing Pennsylvania Department of Health statistics, there are 37,000 beds in Pennsylvania hospitals.

As of today, 2,572 of these beds were occupied by Covid-l9 patients, which amounts to 6.95%.

There are only 539 patients in the hospitals on ventilators, which amounts to 1.46% of all hospital beds.

Hence, we chopped our proverbial head off to deal with a very defined and isolated problem. As I’ve chronicled, there’s nothing unique about Pennsylvania. This is the story of nearly every state, where 95%-100% of deaths were in nursing homes or among those with several underlying conditions, and the median age of death was either at or above life expectancy.

We knew from day one from clear studies of the Diamond Princess ship in early February that this was a problem almost exclusively for the elderly and those with three or four very specific ailments. All of our resources needed to be used to protect that vulnerable population in a targeted and strategic approach, as we do with nearly every public policy problem. Even after this became apparent, two to three weeks into the crisis, the politicians doubled down on failure and tyranny and are doing so to this day.

Our governments destroyed our entire country under the guise of caring about lives while they left the nursing homes vulnerable. We didn’t even kill the proverbial ant after using the nuclear bomb! We didn’t err on the side of caution; we erred on the side of obliteration. Now they are planning to do this intermittently in the future for viruses of even lower magnitude.

Remember the “15 days to flatten the curve” and ensure that hospitals weren’t overrun? Well, outside New York City, they never even came close to being full, and now they are ghost towns – nearly two months into this insanity that governors refuse to end. Minnesota destroyed its economy and health care system for an epidemic in which over 80% of the fatalities were in nursing homes and 99.24% had underlying conditions. The country now faces up to 30% unemployment. The lockdown has flattened nothing but society, liberty, and livelihoods.

Our grandparents fought two superpowers through the worst circumstances and not only kept the country running, but grew it to new heights. After all, they were the descendants of George Washington’s army that fought the Revolution during a smallpox epidemic.

If these acts of national heroism made them the Greatest Generation, what do these governmental acts of illogical, immoral, and illegal self-immolation make our generation? (For more from the author of “This Letter From Pennsylvania’s House Speaker Blows up the Lockdown Lie” please click HERE)

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