Deconstruction, Revolution

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/protests-riots-democrats-media-blame-trump/

Having read the top linked yesterday, which in summary says "the silent majority is out there, they are just quiet". 

We are in the midst of a revolution, a cultural and racial one, that seeks to refute the past, damn the present, and hijack the future. So far, however, we have only heard from one side, the revolutionaries and their enablers themselves.

Then today, in Power Line, I see this ... 

We are approaching a very weird election in which one of our major parties is taking a stand in favor of rioting, looting, arson, destruction of federal property, and violent attacks on law enforcement. The Democrats seem to think that this is a winning formula. If it is, our republic is doomed. While we may be in deep trouble, I don’t think we are that far gone yet.

One more thing: perhaps the only non-rhetorical question in today’s hearing came from Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell: “Do you commit to not release the Durham report before the election?” Barr’s answer: “No.” Obamagate is the reason why the Democrats undertook to demonize Attorney General Barr before he was even sworn in. They know it is a chink in their armor, and they have no defense against the facts except to defame the messenger. Hence their over-the-top attacks on William Barr. Whether the Durham report and/or indictments will arrive in time to do any good is another matter.

What we see here is a repeat of the elections during Reconstruction under Grant ... 1869-1877. Now as then, Democrats wanted to defeat the federal government in enforcing the rule of law and the Constitution. From the time of the Civil War, up to and including today, the Democrats remain the party of POWER -- the whip, the lynch mob, the riot, fake elections where voters are intimidated, illegal voters are allowed to vote, or the votes are just "mailed in" to be "counted" by Administrative State Democrats, and maybe most of all, depersonalization and isolation -- be it a white hood or a mask, it is effective! 

Do I still have hope that PL is right, and the Durham report will be decisive? Certainly a tiny bit, however having already seen the fake "Russiagate" totally exposed as the greatest political scandal in American history where the Deep State aligns with the MSM and Democrats to attempt to frame a duly elected President, the scheme is exposed, and the people yawn -- just going back to binge watching
entertainment" -- that hope is very small. 

Covid Death Returns To Normal

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/07/whither-coronavirus.php

Not a lot to add ... in the real world, Covid is effectively over ... sure, like many other things, people continue to die at "a rate".

The Covid Coup, Christian Failure

https://americanmind.org/essays/the-covid-coup/

A long but worth it article on what Covid is really about. NOTE -- what I, this author, and nearly all are saying when we question things about Covid is about the RESPONSE to the Covid virus!  Yes, there IS a virus, YES, it is deadly for CERTAIN GROUPS OF PEOPLE, and YES, there are ISOLATED cases of "young healthy people" dying of it!

In my small town, a young boy died from having his tonsils out. Like all such deaths, it is likely under reported (no surgeon wants to admit that this elective surgery "caused" death). So YES, there WILL be a few young healthy people that "die of Covid".

Just as a horrible plane crash does not "prove" that flying is dangerous (just that it isn't perfectly safe), so, a few young healthy people dying of Covid is something that needs to be put in the context of magnitude. Much of what is wrong with Covid reporting and response is that the reporting and response has an agenda that is wildly different than the reporting and response to previous very similar viruses.

I personally believe we humans are quite arrogant to say that we "cause" much of anything -- life and death are in God's hands, pregnancy is a gift, death comes when and how God decrees it will. We ought not be fatalistically careless,  and we certainly would be well served to be REALISTIC in the limits of our oh so limited mortal "power"!

The article makes a solid case for the following:

What history will record as the great COVID scam of 2020 is based on 1) a set of untruths and baseless assertions—often outright lies—about the novel coronavirus and its effects; 2) the production and maintenance of physical fear through a near-monopoly of communications to forestall challenges to the U.S.. ruling class, led by the Democratic Party, 3) defaulted opposition on the part of most Republicans, thus confirming their status as the ruling class’s junior partner. No default has been greater than that of America’s Christian churches—supposedly society’s guardians of truth.

I have been so blessed to have a pastor that did not fail, in fact, he stood up courageously through the entire trial and continued to provide the blessings of Holy Preaching and Holy Communion.

The bottom line here is "Whom do you believe"? Science?  There is no such thing as a "belief in science" -- as Feynman says --  “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. When someone says ‘science teaches such and such’, he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn’t teach it; experience teaches it”

To put it more simply, scientists don't believe experts or much of anything -- their domain is experimentation, EXPERIENCE!

And so is the Christian believe -- the experience of Communion with Christ through his body and blood! For believing and practicing Christians, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain"! To put our belief in "science" or "experts" rather than Christ to endanger our eternity!

Trust in the LORD!

The Decadent Society

National Review does a great review of this work.

So what is "decadence?

To Barzun, and to Douthat, decadence is a sense of “falling off.” It is repetition, not innovation; satisfaction, not yearning. It is the managed decline of an elite technocracy, not the striving for greatness that marks a civilization on the way to something. It is easy to see how the topic would concern the author, in this age where the American population is so divided over whether America must be made great again.

My definition is;  "the worship of comfort, pleasure, wealth, power and fame vs the worship of God, especially his gifts of radical ideas" -- like God becoming man, or E=MC ² 

Failure to worship God is Hell ... both in this world, and the next. In this world it is boredom, meaninglessness, hopelessness and despair. In eternity? In this world, you can still imagine that suicide is a way out -- I'm sure that one of the things that makes Hell really bad is that you are constantly aware of your total lonely and eternal separation from God and anything "good" -- especially love and companionship. I believe you finally get to be the "god" of your own universe in Hell, and that universe is you -- just a hopeless, sinful, angry, judgmental, hateful, YOU! ... forever. Hell is eternal hate, Heaven is eternal love. 

On that cheery note, I liked what was said in the review of our time as a meme ...

Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Now, in weekend clashes between basement-dwelling weirdos, we see it occurring a third time: as a meme. That it happens isn’t decadence, but that we pay attention to it surely is. The decline of healthy institutions and the rise of ersatz versions of the same is everywhere, and Douthat is not wrong to see that hollowing out of society as a step on a downward slope.

One of the possibilities for our future was on page 173 ...

The other possibility… is that today’s class war will come to an end when the managerial minority, with its near monopoly of wealth, political power, expertise and media influence, completely and successfully represses the numerically greater but politically weaker working-class majority. If that is the case, the future of North America and Europe may look a lot like Brazil and Mexico, with nepotistic oligarchies clustered in a few fashionable metropolitan areas but surrounded by a derelict, depopulated and despised ‘hinterland.’” 

As easily read and fair assessment of our current state of affairs. I'd recommend "Why Liberalism Failed" over this one, but "Decadent" is more readable.

Noosegate

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/06/no-noose.php

As is common the "racism" was fake -- no "noose".  Sadly(for the left)  though ...

This is a familiar story. An alleged racist outrage gives rise to the mandatory outpouring of righteous anger, but turns out to be nothing at all. As we and countless others have often observed, the demand for racism greatly exceeds the supply. Incidents like this one turn out to be either hoaxes (most often) or something completely innocuous (also common) just about every time. The fact that the race industry needs to constantly pounce on ridiculous instances like this one tells you all you need to know about the frequency of actual racist incidents in America. If racism were common, not rare, its advocates would have many more real incidents to be outraged about. Instead, they have to make do with imagined ones. 

It is a sad commentary on American life–not that racism is rare, but that so many find it advantageous to pretend that it is common.

On the leftist plantation, "racism" is one of the important whips used to keep the Deplorables enslaved. 

The State Backs Marxist BLM

https://spectator.us/black-lives-matter-state-backed-religion/


Well, not just "the state", the leftist state "church" as well ...

The religious fervor underlying these demonstrations is undoubtedly a significant factor in why they have been granted license to supersede legal strictures relating to the pandemic. In some cases, more traditional religious leaders have offered personal legitimation. Cheryl Garbe, senior pastor at First Wayne Street United Methodist Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana described witnessing smoke-bombs go off in the parking lot of her church on the chaotic first night of rioting in the city. (Fort Wayne is one of many locales where riots unexpectedly broke out — much of the downtown area remains boarded up.) Subsequently, Garbe made the ‘very tough decision’ to install massive, unsightly wooden boards on the exterior of the church in order to protect the stained-glass windows. ‘I felt like if we did not protect the church and something happened, it would be another reason for people to criticize the movement,’ she said. ‘I felt like to have a church damaged could potentially be destructive to us addressing the issue of social justice.’

As I've said way too often, we ALL worship SOMETHING ... therefore it is critical that we understand that fact and pray for the Grace to be led by the Holy Spirit into the etternal Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ! 

BLM Tears Down Grant, Consistency

https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/06/20/blm-protesters-tear-down-statue-of-ulysses-grant/

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the Chernow Grant Biography, and much appreciated "American Ulysses".

Grant did more than ANYONE including Lincoln to advance the cause of blacks in America. Without Grant (and Sherman) Lincoln LOSES in 1864, President McClellan sues for peace, and the Confederate States of America live on -- with Lincoln being a total failure and butcher.

Here is Frederick Douglass on Grant:

“a man too broad for prejudice, too humane to despise the humblest, too great to be small at any point. In him the Negro found a protector, the Indian a friend, a vanquished foe a brother, an imperiled nation a savior.”

An absolute mandate of left wing thought is "consistency Is NOT an Issue" -- it isn't even a "consideration" -- in fact, consistency in anything beyond slavish agreement and celebration of the left narrative, no matter how INconsistent that narrative is, is a prime leftist virtue. Leftist thought demands INconsistency and "truth" being whatever leftist power says it is.  The prime meaning of leftism is "our power is truth, all else must bow to the power of the left".

Naturally, if whatever is the narrative is today is "truth", than history must be destroyed! History cries out that leftism is a horror, so therefore it must be destroyed and replaced by the "Insoc of today".

They of course believe that they have truth -- "just trust the science" is one example. The problem being that scientific "fact/truth" is only inductively "true", the next test, study, etc may well falsify today's "fact". It may turn out that eggs are not bad after all!  "Settled science" is one of today's cruellest oxymorons.

To be a leftist is to have no problem at all with completely different treatment of Joe Biden and Bill Clinton accused of sexual harassment, vs completely different treatment of Clarence Thomas and Brent Kavenaaugh. The only consistency required for the left is consistent fealty to their dogma. In fact, to be a leftist in good standing, you must be PROUD to support that inconsistency!

God created man to seek him, so we all seek "god" -- very often an earthy idol such as power, wealth, knowledge, or human "virtue", where "virtue" is defined as adherence to some earthly dogma  -- today's favorite being "Woke" --  Secular Humanism's "Flavor Of The Day".

"You will know them by their fruits" is what the Bible tells us. Scribes, Pharisees and the "Woke" proudly signal their "virtue" via a host of mechanisms  -- support for BLM, masks, etc.

The absolutely inhuman task (only possible through the  Holy Spirit) demanded of Christians is to not commit exactly the same sin by proudly signalling our judgement of those fallen to human "virtue" in return. We can "discern" to "be not afraid", and to put God first by continuing to worship and commune, trusting that God is ultimately in charge, and in a billion years he will still be in charge, and these seemingly "important" matters of today will be in perspective.

... and I look forward to having a cigar in heaven with old "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.

Community

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/07/thoughts-from-the-ammo-line-333.php

A thought provoking discussion of what "community" really is. Here is what it isn't:

You ever notice the flagrant misuse of the word “community”? As in, “the gay community” believes this, or “the Black community” thinks thus and so, because they are monolithic GroupThink people with no individuality? 

If you have competing criminal gangs living a few blocks from one another that have drive-by shootings by fatherless sociopaths, where’s the “community” part? Especially when the stray bullets kill little kids and old ladies hiding in their houses rather than the rival drug dealers. I ask again: how is that a “community” just because they all have the same skin tone? Oh, there were and are definitely black communities throughout this great and good land, but not every neighborhood deserves that appellation just because everybody in it is a shade of the same color.

"Community" is a set of individuals  that may have LOTS of diversity of thought, however due to being in fairly close physical proximity and having similar transcendent beliefs in what is ultimately important -- historically, all some sort of Christian, or at least "God fearing", and American -- as in they actually believe that the written Constitution and the history of America is important, unique, and a critical advancement in world history. Being blessed to live in an exceptional nation and being blessed to freely worship the God of the universe as they saw him were primary -- from there on down, their priorities valued having friendly relations with their neighbors, and treating all people, even their "enemies" with respect and possibly even love.

On the long list of things we have lost, yet many choose to fake like we haven't -- as in "smart mask wearing community" signalling the "virtue" of their "community" over those not wearing masks in some location.

Goodnight Dad

Death remains a reality that we would love to deny, however, like actual real facts, it is a stubborn reality. In this age of postmodern woke relativism, "facts" are very hard to agree on, however death remains a stark fact in defiance of relativism. It is a worthy reality to reflect on rather than avoid.

My dad and I could argue for hours on virtually any topic, and exceeding rare in our time, we truly enjoyed it, He detested Reagan, big business, the military/industrial complex, all the oil companies "in cahoots", and "the rich". Everyone should be limited to a maximum of $50K in wages, anything else was gouging. The idea of an expanding economic pie was always "malarky" for him -- there was only so much, and when you took more, someone else got less.

So, being I thought Reagan was great, the USSR deserved the ash heap of history, I worked for IBM (in the old days, the poster child for big business), I found most military (and other) technology to be cool, I thought oil prices were controlled by supply and demand ... and a host of other differences, we always had great plenty to discuss / argue about -- and then we had ice cream.

This miracle was possible because both of us were trained to discuss without "losing it" by true masters  -- he by his dad, me by him. Men could discuss any issue, it was the foundation of America for sure, and probably just being a man. Being able to state and defend positions was a key virtue.

It was also possible because both of our priority systems at least desired to put God first, then followed by family, friends, and then in some order, things like work, baseball, fishing, FLOWERS (for dad), books (for both of us). At times, on some issues, politics might make it to "5 or 6", but that was was the max -- with God, family and friends being locked at top, and the virtue of NEVER "losing it" being so critical that the shame of such was unconscionable. It worked.

Aside from his perpetually sunny outlook that I will always covet, our age symmetry was a special blessing -- we were 30 years apart, so the 30/60 and 60/90 birthdays allowed us to see things in a perspective that was somewhat unique. I wrote on this after the 60/90. http://www.moosetracksblog.com/2016/12/30-60-90.html

So the last month or so, I've taken a vacation from Facebook. While dad and I loved to discuss, we never "solved" anything. When the USSR fell, Reagan had nothing to do with it, it was all the greatness of Gorbachev (NPR agreed with him on that).

The discussions WERE "good" -- they certainly helped me know him better, and I assume vice versa. They sharpened our minds. As I retreated from FB, I time travelled back to the Civil War through first "Fierce Patriot" and now Chernow's "Grant", one of the last books dad read.

As BLM shows us, Jim Crow, the 60's riots and much else makes obvious, there isn't much of anything "solved" in this vale of tears. What does sadden me is that not only are we definitely not "progressing", we are clearly regressing. Longstreet was Grant's best man, and after the war, they were friends. Grant's (and Lincoln's) wives were slave holders. Grant and Lee amicably shook hands at Appomattox and had respect for each other as men and warriors.

Today many find the wearing or not wearing of a mask being of more importance than God, family, friends, etc. That doesn't strike me as "progress", however I'm certain that nothing that I say will change any hearts and minds. Only Christ can do that.

In but a little while I will be able to discuss with dad for eternity. I believe there will be discussion in Heaven. Moses and Hezekiah changed God's mind, Jacob wrestled with God and at least sort of prevailed. I personally look forward to shore lunch with Jesus -- and dad.

Facebook is high on my list of temporal trivia. In the face of eternity (or even 100 years) it is as significant as one hand clapping. I'm sure I'll be drawn back in -- I enjoy the "good stuff". The kids and grandkids, the pretty views, support for those going through challenges, important info from my Pastor and other Christian leaders -- I certainly don't want to be a social media scold, especially since it would be just more evidence of my being a hypocrite. All things in moderation.

As a Christian, I suppose I "should" not feel as sad as I do ("should" is a word I seek to banish) -- I have faith, though certainly short of a mustard seed, and no doubt "little" even compared to disciples on stormy seas. A great light in the my existence has been extinguished -- for "a little while".

Goodnight Dad, and sleep tight. When Christ returns for all to see, we will enjoy that eternal morning together.

NY, NJ, MA, Half Of Covid Deaths

https://fee.org/articles/3-states-account-for-42-percent-of-all-covid-19-deaths-in-america-why/

"There are lies, damed lies, and statistics"  ... maybe Disraeli, maybe Balfour, apparently through Twain. 

Why is it a true statement? Because one can select the stat that appears to "prove" your point, while ignoring statistics that would appear to disprove it. Like the blind men describing an elephant by which part of it they are feeling, stats strongly depend on selection -- often both in the sampling and in the reporting.

Pretty much, if anyone quotes a raw number, you know that they are lying to you. Without scaling, the information is useless. Scaling to magnitude is the MINIMUM to engage in anything approaching statistical honesty.

Indeed, Sweden’s death rate is remarkably close to that of France, which Williams praised as a model in contrast to the “utter disaster” in the US. However, the US actually has a lower per capita death rate than both Sweden and France—at least for now. (While it’s true COVID cases are on the rise again in the US, deaths recently reached three-month lows.)

So NY, NJ and MA account for nearly half of all the Covid deaths in the US. Seems like anyone interested in understanding how to deal with Covid or future similar viruses would be focusing there as opposed to surges in CASES elsewhere. 

However, in this age of everything being political, the only really important part of the narrative is "Orange Man BAD"!