Poverty and Family Structure

            Tons of studies have shown that poverty is the greatest cause of developmental problems in children. Children who grow up poor are far more likely to do poorly in school, to run away from home, and to commit suicide. As adults they are far more likely to abuse drugs, commit crimes, and go to prison.

            Other studies have shown that the United States has the world’s lowest rate of children living with both parents. That rate is 69%, compared to China where the rate is 97% and in neighboring Canada where it is 85%. Racial differences are just as startling: only 39% of African-American children live with both parents, compared to 74% for white households. It is not racist to point this out; this unfortunate reality is a serious problem for the black community.

            The link between poverty and family structure is undeniable. Roughly half of all families headed by single mothers are likely to be poor, while 10% of families headed by both parents are not.

            One would think that Black Lives Matter, a social movement advocating racial justice would care about that. Strangely, its mission statement on this issue goes in the opposite direction.

            At its launch in 2012, the founders of Black Lives Matter made no secret of their Marxist ideology and their national goal of removing our system of democracy and capitalism and replacing it with a totalitarian communist state. But since the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson and especially after the brutal murder of George Floyd and the violent protests that it engendered, BLM’s focus has been on building a network of local chapters of like-minded organizations opposing police violence against black people.

            To broaden its appeal, Black Lives Matter is stressing inclusivity by displaying empathy for all blacks who suffer from discrimination based on sex or gender identity, age, religion, immigration status, or what it calls “the tight grip of heteronormative thinking,” otherwise known as the domination of our culture by straight white males.

            But when it comes to problems associated with single-parent homes, it doesn’t place the blame on the deterioration of family values. Instead it seeks to “dismantle patriarchal practice,” and identifies the problem as caused by “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirements.” In other words, it minimizes the importance of having a father in the home. Instead, it prefers “extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children…” Where have we heard that before?

            On another subject, it is sad that some of us were not able to celebrate the 4^th of July as we have in the past. Few fireworks or parades, no family barbecue. But one person was not unhappy with that. Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who made his mark kneeling during or national anthem, called the celebrations commemorating the nation’s founding “a celebration of white supremacy.” I wonder what football fans in New England would have thought if the Patriots had picked up Kaepernick to replace Tom Brady. Better still, would Colin have insisted that the Patriots change the team name?

           

This Is War

            Sometimes a leader of Black Lives Matter reveals the truth about the organization’s intentions. In a recent TV interview, Hawk Newsome, President of Greater New York Black Lives Matter, said quite candidly, “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down the system and replace it.”

          It doesn’t matter whether Newsome was speaking figuratively or literally: the desired result is the same. Antifa, the violent military arm of Black Lives Matter, has already demonstrated its power; it has torched stores, offices, police precincts, and even churches without opposition. The message is clear: violence and destruction will go on until BLM’s goal is met.

          What goal is that? It’s not ending racism. Racism is only the pretext, the excuse for going to war with America. Racism is the Trojan horse. Black Lives Matter is a serious ideological movement that opposes our democratic system of government, the system that has made us the freest people in the world, and it rejects the capitalism that has made us the most prosperous.

          Black Lives Matter despises our values and our culture. It wants nothing less than the destruction of western civilization. The toppling of statues by BLM-inspired mobs is a clear signal that our very history must be erased. And if you think that Black Lives Matter will be satisfied when all the statues it finds offensive have been torn down, read what BLM activist Shawn King wrote:

          “All the murals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus and his European mother and their white friends should also come down. They are a gross form of white supremacy created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down.”

          There you have BLM’s enemies list in a nutshell: European (Western) civilization and white people, with Christianity thrown in for good measure.

          Check out Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the co-founders of Black Lives Matter. They boast of being radical Marxists whose avowed goal is to completely remove democracy and capitalism from this country and replace it with a totalitarian, communist state. And they will do it unless somebody stops them.

          Now, America doesn’t want to go to war with Black Lives Matter. After all, BLM has some serious gripes about our slave-owning past and our racist cops. Right? So let’s try appeasement first. Let’s not defend that Minneapolis police precinct under attack by the mob. Let’s rename Washington’s 16^th Street NW, call it Black Lives Matter Plaza, and paint the new name in bold, yellow letters on the pavement so even the president can see it. Let’s not interfere with the creation of an armed autonomous zone in the heart of Seattle. Let’s apologize to Colin Kaepernick and promise to kneel with him when he returns to the NFL. Let’s remove the likeness of Aunt Jemima from our box of pancake mix.

          The fools in Congress think they will deliver peace by putting handcuffs on the police. Corporations and Hollywood elites think that donating millions to BLM will buy justice. The mainstream media thinks it speaks for all Americans when it shows empathy for Black Lives Matter. We have become a nation of cringing, guilt-ridden apologists.

          We don’t want war, but we don’t realize that the enemy is already inside our gates, spilling from the Trojan horse.

The Enemy at the Gate

          Black Lives Matter is not about ending police brutality.  “Defund the Police” is not about re-training the police but eliminating law enforcement altogether. The death of George Floyd was merely a pretext for launching BLM’s campaign against our democracy. Protests are a means to humiliate everyone into paying homage to BLM, to give it legitimacy, to enlist ignorant youth to join the ranks, to force political leaders to their knees, and to extort financial support from corporations and foundations.

            We should have no doubt that Black Lives Matter is a serious ideological movement that seeks to overthrow our values and our culture. The toppling of statues by the BLM-inspired mob is a clear signal that our very history will be erased. And if you think that Black Lives Matter will be happy when all statues it finds offensive have been torn down, read what BLM activist Shawn King wrote:

            “All murals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus and his European mother and their white friends should also come down. They are a gross form of white supremacy created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down.”

            Black Lives Matter intends nothing less than the destruction of western civilization. The arson, looting, and property destruction by its Antifa brothers is a message that violence and anarchy will go on until BLM’s goal is met.

            What is that goal? We need go no further than listening to Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the co-founders of Black Lives Matter. They boast of being radical Marxists whose avowed goal is completely removing democracy and capitalism from this country. They want a totalitarian communist state, and they will achieve that goal unless someone stops them.

            But first, let’s try appeasement. Let’s rename Washington’s 16^th Street NW, call it Black Lives Matter Plaza, and paint the new name in bold, yellow letters on the pavement. Let’s evacuate and not defend that Minneapolis police precinct under attack by the mob. Let’s not object to the creation of an armed autonomous zone in the heart of Seattle. Let’s apologize to Colin Kaepernick and kneel with him when he returns to the NFL Let’s remove the likeness of Aunt Jemima from our box of pancake mix.

            We have become a nation of cringing, guilt-ridden apologists. The enemy, I’m afraid, is well inside our gates.

         

Madness n the Streets

            The proximate cause of the protests raging around the country was the gruesome video of George Floyd gasping for breath under the knee of Derek Chauvin.  But the cauldron of anarchy had been brewing for a long time.

            Black Lives Matter, the radical anti-police organization, was launched in 2012, but the cowardly, black-clad Antifa thugs responsible for the arson and destruction of property trace their ideological Marxist origins all the way back to the Soviet Union in 1921, with re-incarnations in 1932 Germany and Britain’s Anti-Fascist Action in 1985. Antifa’s long-term objective has always been to abolish capitalism in favor of a communist world order, and its methods have always been characterized by extreme violence. By goading authorities into action, they become ideal partners in Black Lives Matter’s crusade to abolish the police.

            The protesters in the streets, however, are not all black, and only a few resort to torching police cars and throwing bricks through windows. They are mostly in their 20s and 30s, many of them college graduates whose minds were shaped by the leftist educators who dominate university culture.

            Academia, then, carries much of the blame for what is tearing our country apart. So many of the youths now marching in our streets were never trained in the intellectual pursuit of the truth or about civic virtue. Instead, they were indoctrinated in the radical view of America as a capitalist and imperialist nation of racists, sexists, and homophobes with a history of oppressing people of color. It’s no wonder these protesters have bought the lies of Black Lives Matter and cannot see the destructive agenda of Antifa.

            A photograph I saw of a protester in Brooklyn says it all. The young, black woman is holding up a sign that says, “No Justice, No Peace, Abolish the Police.” Her open jacket reveals a T-shirt with the hammer and sickle communist symbol across the front. She is surrounded by young men and women—all white.

            Exactly how do protesters like these think that abolishing the police will result in justice and peace? Are they so ignorant of history that they would end the freedom and prosperity we enjoy and replace it with communism? Have they never been taught about the tens of millions killed by the likes of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot?

            Sadly, these champions of “justice” are the same ones cheering as statues are being torn down in San Francisco, Boston, and Richmond. And not just of Confederate generals, but of historic American figures like Junipero Sierra and Francis Scott Key. And what did Miguel Cervantes ever bequeath to us that his statue deserved to be defaced? Christopher Columbus? Washington and Jefferson? Even Abraham Lincoln? What kind of justice demands that all of them must be found guilty of racist oppression and erased from our collective memories? What madness.

The Lies of Black Lives Matter

            The image of Derek Chauvin pressing his knee to George Floyd’s neck was horrific. But when the brutal act resulted in Floyd’s death, it became a gift from heaven for Black Lives Matter.

            The radical protest movement that adopted the slogan of Black Lives Matter was launched in 2012 after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, although there was no evidence to show that Zimmerman acted in anything other than self-defense.

            The shooting of Michael Brown by a policeman in Missouri in 2014 led to cries of “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” The facts proved this to be a lie, but Black Lives Matter had found its true motivator: the killing of blacks by racist police. BLM organized protests in cities and university campuses around the country, even though BLM’s charge of systemic racism was not supported by data on police killings of blacks.

            In Staten Island later that year Eric Garner died after a police choke hold. The officer was accused of murder but was not prosecuted, and a new slogan was born: “I Can’t Breathe.” It would resonate once again in Minneapolis.       In the meantime, protests grew louder and more violent, In December 2014, two officers were assassinated in Brooklyn in a revenge killing for Eric Garner’s death.

            BLM led more protests when Freddie Gray died in police custody in 2016. It didn’t matter that the three officers involved were found not guilty; the movement had a new life. And protests grew more violent yet. Five officers were assassinated in Dallas, three more in Baton Rouge.

            Covid-19 took center stage in the news in 2020 until May 25, when the world saw an 8-minute video of George Floyd losing his life under the brutal knee of Derek Chauvin. And since then we have been witnesses to the worst violence and destruction in our country’s history in response.

            Lost among the impassioned eulogies for George Floyd was the hushed truth about what led to his death. One immense painting of Floyd shows him wearing the wings of an angel. But he was no angel. George Floyd had a history of criminal trespassing and theft with a firearm. He was jailed multiple times and sentenced to five years in prison for aggravated robbery. On the day he died, he was arrested for passing a counterfeit bill. Handcuffed and high on fentanyl and meth, he resisted arrest for three minutes before being forced to the ground by officers. None of this was on the 8-minute video that went viral.

            “No Justice, No Peace,” cried the mob. Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with murder and will likely spend most of the rest of his life in prison. But that was not enough for Black Lives Matter. It now called for defunding the police.

            To ensure that its objectives were met, BLM intimidated politicians, academics, corporations, and Hollywood elites to bow abjectly in obeisance to BLM’s “truth.” Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Democrats donned African garb and knelt in submission. Even some cops prostrated themselves in admission of guilt. The mayor of Washington renamed a plaza for Black Lives Matter. Armed radicals created an autonomous zone in the heart of Seattle.

            The ultimate BLM lie is that America, from its very founding, is guilty of systemic racism. Statues of Confederate heroes must be pulled down. Military bases named after Confederate generals must be renamed. Even monuments to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson must not be spared. History must be re-written, and reparations paid.

            Are there bad cops and racists among us? Of course, there are. But that fact does not justify the radical movement to anarchy. And it doesn’t excuse the silence of leaders who should be challenging BLM’s lies. What is happening to my country?

The Enemy Is Us

          China (the Chinese Communist Party, not the Chinese people) is our mortal enemy. It has vowed to become the world’s number one superpower, and to achieve this it must first destroy America. And it is well on its way to doing just that.

          For at least the last decade, but especially since the accession of Chairman XI Jinping, it has put together a multi-faceted strategy to defeat us on every front. It has used its cheap labor to shut our factories; it has flooded our shores with cheap products; it has created a virtual monopoly on pharmaceuticals; it has stolen our intellectual property; it has sent its diplomats to spy on us, and sent its 4students to our universities to learn from the best of our academies; it has taken the lead in advanced technological developments.

          On the international front the Chinese have brazenly built and armed islands in the South China Sea to control shipping routes in that area; it has funded North Korea’s nuclear weapons program; it has allied itself with America’s opponents, like Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela; it has launched a massive Belt & Road initiative to advance its interests in—and eventually control—third world countries.

          Then it seized on a brand-new strategy that just fell into its lap by accident. When Wuhan became infected with Covid-19, it immediately closed the city to prevent the spread of the disease to the rest of China, but allowed infected people to travel abroad to infect the rest of the world, all the while colluding with the WHO to prevent others from learning the truth and taking steps to control the virus. China intentionally infected the rest of the world, and its leaders are now rubbing their hands in glee at seeing how well their strategy has succeeded in America.

          China could not possibly have imagined a better way to destroy our economy and impoverish our citizens; it could not possibly have found better allies than our governors and mayors to do their dirty work by shutting down our schools and businesses, by locking our citizens indoors, by denying them their constitutional rights to assemble, to worship, and to work.

          President Trump called this the worst attack on our shores since Pearl Harbor. And he was right.        

          Now Chairman Xi and his cohorts are laughing even harder as they see the United States doing their dirty work for them. They are no doubt cheering for the rioters who are burning, looting, and destroying our cities. And they couldn’t be happier at seeing our impotent leaders actually justify the protests, as they are powerless to stop the violence.

          Again, President Trump, for all his hesitation, is the only one to call for all our resources, even our military, to engage in the fight to stop the thugs and the criminals—and yes, the terrorists—from destroying our country.

          It’s about time all of us realize that The United States has found a new mortal enemy. And that enemy is us.

         

           

Sic Semper Tyrannis

          Sic semper tyrannis (thus always to tyrants) is said to have been uttered by Brutus as he stabbed Julius Caesar. The phrase was also used by John Wilkes Booth after shooting Abraham Lincoln.

            We have many tyrants these days operating out of state houses and mayoral mansions. I’m not suggesting we assassinate them, but I am saying it is time for them to recognize that the tyranny they exercise is doing irreparable harm to this country, while oppressing the very citizens they were elected to serve.

            When Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti extended his stay-at-home order indefinitely, he said it was to save lives. He added he was guided by science and nothing else. This sanctimonious idiot certainly was not guided by common sense.

            When mayor Bill De Blasio told the citizens of New York City that he would send NYPD officers to haul swimmers out of the water, he said it was to protect them. How stupid is that? After pointing out that his city will remain shut down, he claimed that “things are going well.”

            Really, Mr. Mayor? Try telling that to the man who invested his life savings in a taxicab that now sits in his driveway. Try telling that to the owner of the little restaurant on the West Side who no longer sees the clients who enjoyed his French cuisine before going to the theater and then stayed overnight in a hotel down the street. Idled cabs, shuttered restaurants, darkened theaters, empty hotel rooms—is this what you mean by things going well, Mr. Mayor? Are you actually pleased that your orders are destroying your city? Are you smiling and waving goodbye at all the thousands of people who are leaving New York, never to return?

            There are many other government tyrants issuing silly and arbitrary orders. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer says you can take your boat out on the water, but you can’t take passengers with you. New Jersey’s Phil Murphy says you can play tennis, but not doubles. California Governor Gavin Newsom agrees with Garcetti that you can go to the beach to surf and swim, but you can’t picnic or sunbathe on dry sand. The list of idiotic orders is very long. What they all have in common is the utter lack of common sense. Drunk with power, these officials are impervious to ridicule.

            Reality is stark: businesses big and small are declaring bankruptcy, with Hertz, J.C. Penney, and JCrew only the latest in a long line of familiar names; shops are closing their doors permanently, with millions of jobs gone forever. We now have over 20 million people on unemployment, with poor chances of ever being rehired.

            Our leaders are willfully blind to the misery they are causing in their zeal to save lives. They cannot see the price people will pay in poverty, malnutrition, depression, and despair. We are already seeing increases in suicides, opioid abuse, domestic violence, crime. Why can’t the tyrants see this?

            C.S. Lewis saw the problem very clearly: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive….those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end if they do so with approval of their own conscience.”

            Many, including me, are predicting that history will look upon the Great Lockdown as the worst mistake this country has ever made.