507 private links
In George Orwell’s prescient novel, 1984, the slogan of the Party is
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
The idea is both simple and profound. By eradicating and reinventing history, it is possible to completely reframe reality for future generations. This is routinely done by leftwing academics searching for penumbras and emanations of the US Constitution. //
Salon runs one of these epic falsehoods titled Sorry, NRA: The U.S. was actually founded on gun control. //
This is simply nutbaggery. Madison’s draft amendment is only intended to protect Quakers and Mennonites from being compelled to provide military service. It’s pretty simple.
Ed-squared also turn the logic of the Second Amendment upon its head. If the Founders had, indeed, harbored fear of an armed populace then they went to great lengths to hide it. Take a look at the militia laws extant in the colonies at the signing of the Constitution.
Connecticut required every male over sixteen to keep a musket, powder and shot.
Virginia declared that all free men were required to possess a musket, four pounds of lead and one pound of powder. If a free man was not financially able to afford a weapon, the county had to provide one.
New York dictated a fine of five shillings to any male, sixteen to sixty, who could not arm himself.
Similar statutes are in all colonies. The clear intent of these laws is not that they link firearms ownership to militia membership, rather they are aimed at people who don’t have firearms in order to ensure the colony has a militia. Think of these laws in the same way that you’s think of laws requiring kids to be immunized before they can go to school. The laws aren’t aimed at people who voluntarily immunize and the purpose isn’t to further public education. Rather mandatory immunizations are on the books as a way of coercing people who would not immunize voluntarily. //
A free and an independent people are a direct threat to the progressive experiment. The only way they will achieve that goal is to lie and lie relentlessly and shamelessly until they control the past. We can’t allow that to happen.
Southside Judge Smails
a day ago
I didn't know any of that...any specific books recommended?
anon-y2mh Southside
a day ago edited
Probably the biggest one I can think of off the top of my head was "At Dawn We Slept" by Gordon Prange.
However, something to think about - the USN actually wargamed an attack where the US had 24 hours warning. Pacific Fleet was able to sortie, and they met Kido Butai some four or five hundred miles north of Pearl Harbor.
Where they proceeded to get their asses kicked (it hurts to say, but I say that as a veteran myself - call Pearl Harbor what it was) as badly as they did in real life. There were only 2 carriers available in PacFlt at that point. One was off delivering aircraft to someplace (Midway, I believe). Don't remember where the other was, but they were not in any shape at all to contribute to a battle with 6 Japanese carriers.
The gotcha was where they were. In the real world, Pearl Harbor was only something like 60 - 100 ft. deep. The Navy was able to salvage and patch many of the ships initially sunk or mangled. Had they met the Japanese navy 500 miles northwest of Pearl, they would have been in multi-thousand foot deep water. Any ship lost there would have been lost permanently.
The point is that Pearl Harbor has on several occasions been called the most "successful defeat" in USN history. Had they been warned, the death toll would have been higher and the permanent destruction of PacFlt (minus the two carriers) would most likely been almost total.
anon-y2mh Mrs. deWinter
2 hours ago edited
Hat tip!
First, I owe Mrs. deWinter and mopani an apology. When I wrote my original post, I had a false memory and used an incorrect number. There were 3 carriers (not 2) in PacFlt's order of battle. The carriers were Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga. Enterprise was returning from a mission to send a Marine fighter squadron to Wake Island. On the morning of 7 December, the task force was about 215 miles west of Oahu. Lexington and her task force was returning from a similar mission to Midway, and was, on the morning of 7 December, 500 miles southeast of Midway. She alone, of the 3 carries, was in a position to do something about Kido Butai. However, the smart money would have been a direct order to her commander telling him to run for it. There was no way on the face of this planet that Lexington was in a fit state to go up, effectively by herself, against any two of the 6 Japanese carriers present. Had she attempted to do so, she would almost definitely been sunk, losing a significant number of her sailors.
The third carrier (the one I'd forgotten about because she wasn't present in theater that morning) was Saratoga who was just pulling into San Diego when the attack started in Hawaii.
One other thing I touched on but didn't really go into depth on was the death/injury toll. Of the 8 battleships present in Pearl Harbor that morning, 5 were either sunk outright or damaged badly enough that they would be expected to sink had that damage occurred in deeper waters.
Of those 5 battleships, only two (Arizona and Oklahoma) were completely written off. The remaining three (Nevada, California, and West Virginia) were ultimately moved to Puget Sound, WA for repairs and refit.
Being the only ship to successfully get underway, Nevada was hit by at least one torpedo and 6 bombs, forcing her crew to turn out of the channel and beach her near the mouth of the harbor (had she sunk in the mouth of Pearl Harbor, the harbor would have been utterly useless until she was cleared out of the way). After repairs, Nevada, was used for convoy duty in the Atlantic and provided fire support for 5 landings (Attu, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa).
California was hit by two torpedoes and a bomb. However one of the hits started a fire which disabled part of the electrical system that powered the pumps. So she slowly sank over the next 3 days. After she was refloated and repaired, she took part in the Battle of Suriago Straight, she was hit by a kamikaze during the invasion of Lyangen Gulf. Following repairs, she was again present and providing fire support during the invasion of Okinawa.
West Virginia sank after multiple torpedo hits. After being refloated and repaired, she was sent to support the invasion of the Phillipines (Gen. MacArthur and his "I Have Returned" moment), taking part in the Battle of Suriago Straight, as well as the battles of Lyangen Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.
So I think it's safe to say that those three ships materially contributed to the success of the war effort, and none would have been available had they been sunk 400 miles northwest of Oahu.
Now the men are something different. There were 2,008 sailors killed and 710 wounded during the attack, with roughly half of the fatalities coming from the explosion on board Arizona. We can probably deduct the Army/Army Air Corps casualties (218 killed, 364 wounded) from the totals, as the Army Air Corps couldn't have been present due to range from Pearl Harbor. The Marines would still have suffered some fatalities, but it would come down to whether or not they were deployed on the ships or if they were shore Marines at the time.
Let's start with keeping the Marines out of it, and deducting the Army/AAC totals from the Navy. That would leave us with a floor of 1790 killed and 646 wounded.
This is where it gets really sketchy to determine what a reasonable total should be. If we determine that California, Nevada, and West Virginia were total losses (with only California sinking slowly enough to get more than a tithe of her men off), we'd be looking at 778 casualties from Nevada and 1157 casualties from from West Virginia, assuming that they sank in a similar way in this universe as they did in ours. In our world, West Virginia lost 106 killed and Nevada lost 60 killed and 109 wounded. So, if you take the C-A-T =DOG numbers that we came up with above, my back-of-the-napkin arithmetic raises the casualties from 2043 killed and 1178 wounded to something on the close order of 3450 killed and 646 wounded (the numbers I have access to don't easily differentiate between wounded and killed, so I've been kind of lumping everything into the killed basket).
And this is, frankly, almost more important than saving 3 ships for battle later. Our back of the envelope estimate says we'd lose 1400 or so more trained sailors. And from a human perspective, we'd lose another 1400 or so brothers, sons, and fathers. In Pearl Harbor, these men were able to frequently self-rescue by crawling to other ships via mooring lines. They were close enough to shore that, assuming that they could dodge the burning oil slicks, they stood a passable chance of getting to dry ground. In the middle of the Pacific, they'd have to take their chances that someone would be around to rescue them, as they would be in no position to rescue themselves.
So, yeah. I'll freely admit that the above was a bunch of back-of-the-napkin arithmetic held together by more wild guesses that I should have used, but it kind of puts things in perspective.
Where would our nation be without men like this? When the attack came, they performed. It was a deadly dangerous business. So many of these men saw friends maimed and killed. Even the survivors bore scars, some within, some without. But they recovered from the attack and went on to flood in increasing numbers across the Pacific, and they won. It's hard to imagine what may have happened if they hadn't, but they did. Vaughn P. Drake Jr., from what we read of his life, made no great deal of his service. Many of his peers did likewise. There was a job to do, they did it, and then they went home and got their lives back. They are heroes nonetheless, and now there is one fewer hero in our world. //
Mr. Drake will be laid to rest in Winchester Cemetary in Winchester, Kentucky, with full military honors, as he deserves. There are now only 15 confirmed survivors of the December 7th, 1941 attack.
To Vaughn P. Drake Jr.'s family, I can only say this: All of America is proud of Mr. Drake; we, as a nation, are richer for the existence of men such as he. Indeed, without men like him, we might very well not have a nation at all. //
7againstthebes
21 hours ago
Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness. GB Shaw
The above characterizes that entire generation of people. Men that were willing to absorb punishment in order to close with their enemy and dish out punishment of their own. Men and women that did the job and came home and made their life happen. Made society happen. Made new industry happen. People that brought about a new era of prosperity to this country.
They never whined about the hardships. They just worked to make everything better.
Judge Smails
19 hours ago
Read a book sometime ago about this subject. It would appear to me that adequate intelligence was not being passed from DC to Pearl regarding Japan. Still, that radar system that was operational did what it was suppose to do and painted the massive amount of aircraft in formation (over 300), far larger than those three unarmed B-17s. The soldier watching it phoned the duty officer and was told "not to worry about it." Outrageous. We knew an attack was coming, but not where. Could have been the Philippines, Singapore or Thailand. No one thought Pearl was in jeopardy for some reason. Astonishing.
Air patrols should have been up looking west through north. It would have been easy to spot over 300 aircraft in formation as they closed on the north coast of Hawaii. Two days before, Japan told all its embassies to destroy their sensitive material. DC knew this. Tragic, horrible day.
anon-y2mh Southside
16 hours ago edited
Probably the biggest one I can think of off the top of my head was "At Dawn We Slept" by Gordon Prange.
However, something to think about - the USN actually wargamed an attack where the US had 24 hours warning. Pacific Fleet was able to sortie, and they met Kido Butai some four or five hundred miles north of Pearl Harbor.
Where they proceeded to get their asses kicked (it hurts to say, but I say that as a veteran myself - call Pearl Harbor what it was) as badly as they did in real life. There were only 2 carriers available in PacFlt at that point. One was off delivering aircraft to someplace (Midway, I believe). Don't remember where the other was, but they were not in any shape at all to contribute to a battle with 6 Japanese carriers.
The gotcha was where they were. In the real world, Pearl Harbor was only something like 60 - 100 ft. deep. The Navy was able to salvage and patch many of the ships initially sunk or mangled. Had they met the Japanese navy 500 miles northwest of Pearl, they would have been in multi-thousand foot deep water. Any ship lost there would have been lost permanently.
The point is that Pearl Harbor has on several occasions been called the most "successful defeat" in USN history. Had they been warned, the death toll would have been higher and the permanent destruction of PacFlt (minus the two carriers) would most likely been almost total.
America remains the freest nation on earth. Does that mean you get to keep your student visa if you use it to support terrorism? No, but to cite that as proof that Europe is more liberal on free speech is laughable. The Economist should be ashamed. //
Bootsie
3 hours ago
In Europe you have freedom to say anything you want, as long as it is what the government says you can say. Is that about right? //
anon-g9p7
3 hours ago
Diversity leads to tribalism.
The most vicious tribe wins. //
anon-aqgv anon-exgv
3 hours ago
Europe has "free speech" for Leftists only. //
TexasVeteran
3 hours ago edited
"Europeans can say almost anything they want both in theory and in practice."
That’s a bald faced lie, just ask Tommy Robinson! Even pointing out a negative fact about Islam will land you in jail.
"Europe’s universities never became hotbeds of speech-policing by one breed of culture warrior or the other."
Because there's no dissent.They all think alike— on the left!
"No detention centres await foreign students who hold the wrong views on Gaza."
Another lie, they’ll, end you to prison for supporting Israel!
Ninety-nine years ago, H.L. Mencken - the "Sage of Baltimore" - released his book, "Notes on Democracy," which I really need to go read again. Mencken was no fan of big government, even by the standards of the 1920s; in fact, you could argue that he was no fan of government at all. What's interesting about his work is his prescience.
Granted, society and politics run in cycles. The Strauss-Howe Generational Theory is one attempt at defining these cycles. So is the old saw that goes, "Tough times make tough people; tough people make good times; good times make weak people; weak people make tough times." //
Mencken. He wasn't an optimist. But when you read his work, you wonder if he didn't have some kind of premonition as to what's going on in the United States today. Back then, in the Roaring Twenties, Mencken made this observation:
The ideal government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone – one which barely escapes being no government at all.
Good government is that which delivers the citizen from being done out of his life and property too arbitrarily and violently – one that relieves him sufficiently from the barbaric business of guarding them to enable him to engage in gentler, more dignified, and more agreeable undertakings.
In other words, the only legitimate role of government is to protect the citizens' liberty and property. //
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself … Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.
All government … is against liberty.
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. //
Sarcastic Frog
2 hours ago
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself …"
This was true in ancient times; it was true in 1926; and its true today.
Unlike almost every other country, the US was founded on rebellion- people thinking for themselves and resisting the pressure to obey the government for the sole reason of "because we tell you to."
There are those who hate this quality and actively push against it with their NewSpeak and pronouns and "canceling".
I hope we will always have the rebels, who think for themselves and resist the conformity.
anon-t75 Sarcastic Frog
2 hours ago
"A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson. //
anon-t75
2 hours ago
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." ~ Thomas Jefferson. //
idalily
2 hours ago
My favorite Mencken quote: "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." Not sure quite why I love it. I just do.
Helen Andrews
Feb 20, 2024
12:04 AM
The year 1994 marked the beginning of the era of globalization. For a short time after the end of the Cold War, it was unclear what would be the driving theme of the next period in history. Then it emerged: borderlessness. The theme of the new era would be the free movement of goods, people, and capital. In a few short months on either side of January 1, 1994, the European Union was formed; the Marrakesh agreement was signed, creating the World Trade Organization; the Channel Tunnel opened; and the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect.
Hubris was present from the beginning. During the negotiations over NAFTA, union leader Richard Trumka, then of the United Mine Workers of America, later president of the AFL-CIO, asked a Clinton administration official whether he was worried about the effect of free trade on American blue-collar workers. The official said yes, but eventually “wages would start to go up again, and things would even out around the world.” Trumka asked him how long this would take. The official answered, “About three to five generations.”
We are now one generation into this process, thirty years from the start of NAFTA, so we are at a good point to ask: Are things evening out? Is the new equilibrium we were promised any closer, and it is better than the one we had before? //
On the 30th anniversary of NAFTA, its opponents stand vindicated and its defenders are chastened—or at least they should be. In many corners of the left and right, free trade dogma is as strong today as it was the day NAFTA was signed. It is therefore worth looking back to see what exactly went wrong with NAFTA, what made people blind to its flaws, and why its costs proved greater than anyone predicted at the time. //
The U.S. lost 5 million manufacturing jobs between 1995 and 2015. Even in advanced technology products, we now have a massive trade deficit. Globalization has not made our manufacturing sector leaner and meaner. Between 2011 and 2022, manufacturing productivity in the U.S. actually declined. To be clear, these dismal numbers are not mainly the fault of NAFTA. The number of jobs lost to Mexico was relatively small; the China shock dwarfs it. Yet NAFTA set off the chain of events that allowed globalization to run free the way it did. It gave the free traders a big win and reshaped the coalitions to their advantage.
There have also been non-economic costs to NAFTA that don’t show up in economic statistics. For one, NAFTA made Mexico fat. The same cheap corn that pushed the farmers off their land flooded grocery stores with processed food and high fructose corn syrup. Coke became cheaper than water. The result was that Mexico’s obesity rate almost doubled; 17 percent of adults are now diabetic, compared to 9 percent in 1990. In 2016, diabetes was Mexico’s leading cause of death. If you believe the online nutrition gurus, NAFTA exported the same obesogenic diet patterns based on massive corn subsidies that have caused Americans to get fatter in the last half-century, far more than our rates of calorie consumption and physical activity can explain. It also gave an economic boost to the same corn producers fueling that dynamic at home.
NAFTA also made Mexico liberal. Today Mexico has gay marriage, gay adoption, and abortion, all things that would have been unthinkable when the agreement was signed. //
The lawsuit that led to the 2023 Mexican supreme court decision decriminalizing abortion was brought by a progressive NGO funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Tides Foundation. //
Pork prices surged after the pandemic because, as journalist Rana Foroohar explains in her book Homecoming, “the largest pork producer in the United States, Smithfield, is owned by a Chinese company that takes orders from the Chinese government, which understandably wanted to export to China what pork was available during a time of scarcity.”
The Heritage Guide to the Constitution is intended to provide a brief and accurate explanation of each clause of the Constitution as envisioned by the Framers and as applied in contemporary law. Its particular aim is to provide lawmakers with a means to defend their role and to fulfill their responsibilities in our constitutional order.
"Well, there's a lot of things that I suppose that I worry about. And some of these things will seem esoteric to people. The birth rate is very low in almost every country, and unless that changes, civilization will disappear," Musk said in part two of his [Fox News] "Special Report" exclusive interview Friday.
Musk pointed to declining birth rates in the U.S. and Korea, warning that "nothing seems to be turning that around. Humanity is dying." //
America’s birth rate hit an all-time low in 2023:
The nation’s fertility rate has declined since 1957, when there were 122.9 births per 1,000 women ages 15–44. Data for 2023 puts the current fertility rate at less than half the 1957 rate, 54.5. //
"I worry generally about the strength of America. America is the central column that holds up all of Western civilization... If that column fails, it's all over. You can't run off to New Zealand or some other place. It's over. So either we strengthen that column and make sure America is strong, and we'll be strong for a long time, or that roof's coming down," he told Baier.
Every year, nearly 1 million new citizens are welcomed into the United States through naturalization ceremonies, all of whom must pass the American citizenship exam by answering 6 out of 10 questions correctly.
While 90% of legal immigrants pass the exam, only 36% of Americans can pass it!
There are plentiful documents about the Cuba connection with the CIA because of Operation Mongoose, the plot to assassinate Castro by "the anti-Castro group." The CIA was angry that Kennedy left their anti-Castro Cuban assets unprotected during the Bay of Pigs. And believe it or not, some of those same anti-Castro Cuban spooks were also connected to the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, a break-in that was ultimately used to frame Richard Nixon. Yes, really. //
So why has the information been hidden and redacted for so long? Robenalt believes both President Lyndon Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wanted to rush the Warren investigation to stop speculations about Oswald and the Soviets. They were concerned about triggering World War III.
"They were worried that it was going to be blamed on the Cubans; they were worried it would be blamed on the Russians, and they were not willing to risk nuclear war over all of this," he says. //
Eupher
7 hours ago
both President Lyndon Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wanted to rush the Warren investigation to stop speculations about Oswald and the Soviets. They were concerned about triggering World War III.
Much more likely, IMHO, was Johnson wanted to get the Warren Commission's "work" neatly packaged and wrapped up just in time for the '64 election. And it worked. //
Isaiah53_5
5 hours ago
“…there wasn't enough time for Oswald, armed with a bolt action rifle, ‘to shoot, load and shoot again…’”
I read about this years ago. If memory serves, Oswald fired three shots in about 11 seconds. Critics said it would take longer to shot three aimed shots. They concluded that Oswald fired two shots and another gunman fired the third.
The counter to this argument is to note the shot “clock” starts with the first shot. The shooter would then have 11 seconds to make two more aimed shots.
The move rescinds a mandate issued by former President Bill Clinton in 2000 that required federal agencies to provide language assistance for non-English speakers.
“Agencies will have flexibility to decide how and when to offer services in languages other than English to best serve the American people and fulfill their agency mission," a fact sheet obtained by The Hill reads. //
Shelley G
@ShelleyGldschmt
·
Follow
This is so much more important than people realize.
The necessary condition of being a nation is sharing things in common, such as language, culture and values.
Having English as our official language will be a great unifying influence in these times of polarization.
3:56 PM · Feb 28, 2025. //
It seems like a common-sense move that will benefit legal immigrants seeking to achieve the American dream. English proficiency is considered essential for integrating into U.S. society. It helps with community involvement, political participation, and daily communication.
Not to mention, English language proficiency, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — "determined by the applicant’s ability to read, write, speak and understand English" — is part of the naturalization process. //
Sarcastic Frog anon-fl4c
4 hours ago
Well...back in 1776 we were having a bit of a disagreement with Great Britain. After the ratifying of the Constitution in 1787 several of the founding fathers did NOT want English to be the official language. They argued back and forth, with English, German, French, Spanish (that didn't last long), and even Hebrew being considered. They finally decided that, since they couldn't agree on any of them, the US wouldn't have an official language.
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
·
Gross! The ordinary people and the unlicensed peasants are able to speak with and even influence elites in DC who are running the government. The NYT is horrified.
3:36 PM · Feb 26, 2025. //
The article attempts to put reasons why these things should be there, but only makes it more obvious that Musk is doing the people's work.
And that's exactly what's happening here. Rufo and Raichik are oftentimes passed the information from people like you and me. Using their platforms that they built over time, they drag these things into the light where Musk can see it more clearly, then Musk gets his team on it and elevate it to someone with the authority to destroy it, sometimes that person being Trump himself.
It's not just these two, either. Musk doesn't just interact with influencers. He interacts with people of all stripes, taking their advice, listening to their suggestions, and acting accordingly.
And this is what truly drives the left bonkers.
The left values authority, and no one has more authority than over-educated elites. They're the ones who know best! How dare the unwashed take control of something they're not qualified to run?
But that's exactly how America functions.
My own definition of "Christian nationalism" would be this: An orientation for engaging in the public square that recognizes America as a Christian nation, where our rights and duties are understood to come from God and where our primary responsibilities as citizens are for building and preserving the strength, prosperity and health of our own country. It is a commitment to an institutional separation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society. It is a belief that our participation in the political system can lead to beneficial outcomes for our own communities, as well as individuals of all faiths.
Today is Presidents Day. It shouldn’t be.
It’s yet another example of Washington politicians screwing around with important, organic commemorations that celebrate key national figures in our country’s history for superficial contemporary priorities.
Most recently, in 1968 a Democrat Senate, a Democrat House, and a Democrat president eliminated the national celebration of George Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22. The first president was dead, so he couldn’t object. //
News Flash! George Washington was not born today, on Feb. 17. No president was. He was born on Feb. 22, 1732, in Virginia just in time for his historical calling. He reportedly paid little attention to his birthday. No bouncy tent, no clowns and balloon tricks.
But in 1789, a grateful new nation began celebrating Feb. 22 as a government holiday in Washington, along with July 4th. In 1879, that became the official national holiday. //
The same was true for No. 16, Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12, 1809, the first president born outside the 13 original colonies (KY). //
We did not learn much about the president’s four sons. I suspect because three of them died as children. That and the Civil War would explain their father’s sad face shortly before his murder in 1865 (on the right above). //
But that all ended in 1968.
That’s when Congress turned the third Monday in February into Presidents Day.
Who cares about actual history if you can wrangle another three-day weekend by ignoring it.
The invention of "Presidents Day" from whole cloth has sapped most of the meaning from its observance.
Largo Patriot
31 minutes ago
It's so typical of a federal bureaucracy run by Democrats for the last half century that two of the most consequential presidents in our nation's history have to share a holiday so one black civil rights hero can have his own.
KanekoaTheGreat @KanekoaTheGreat
·
Al Sharpton Asks: Can you imagine if James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government?
🙄🙄
9:04 PM · Feb 16, 2025.
One day, our children's children will read American history, and can you imagine our reading that James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government? So they could stay in power? That's what we're looking at, we're looking at American history. //
Lisa Steves @theLisaSteves
·
Replying to @KanekoaTheGreat
Thomas Jefferson along with 55 other men committed treason by signing the Declaration of Independence from the British Government. So Yes, I can 100% see Thomas Jefferson overthrowing a government.
10:28 PM · Feb 16, 2025
Almost 70 years ago, the U.S. State Department dispatched a new ambassador to a Southeast Asian nation. As often seemed to happen, the new U.S. official was no expert on the nation, its economy, or its culture. He did not speak the language. And his concerns were more geopolitical and career-oriented. //
Communism at the time of that ambassador’s appointment was the worst threat ever to global democracy. It had already taken over Eastern Europe, prompted the Korean War, and was inspiring guerrilla movements around the world, especially in Asia, where some colonial powers like France still reigned.
Using the American Revolution against Britain as his model for successful guerilla warfare, Ho Chi Minh was succeeding in ousting the French from Indochina, soon to become Vietnam.
It turns out, this story about the ignorant, bumbling new U.S. ambassador was all made up, total fiction. It was the plot of “The Ugly American,” a blockbuster 1958 novel that would shape the thinking of a future president and millions more through a successful movie starring some actor in his 30s named Marlon Brando.
The compelling book by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer was a longtime best-seller. It spoke to a deep-seated American fear, which survives to this day, that the world’s bad guys would be victorious because a naïve United States, geographically isolated from foreign trouble spots, failed to fully accept its responsibility to help other countries and thereby protect itself. //
During and long after World War I, the U.S. produced and sent millions of tons of food to feed war-torn Europe. That effort was spearheaded by an Iowa orphan and mining engineer named Herbert Hoover, who gained international fame.
He also served as Secretary of Commerce and, in 1928, became the first Quaker and last Cabinet member to win election as president.
The vast Marshall Plan to feed and rebuild Europe after World War II cemented a reputation for generosity in the minds of the world and ourselves and a dawning awareness that Americans had a strong self-interest in helping others.
As someone who read Ugly American at the time, I can say the psychological impact of that book was even stronger than the 1974 one for “Jaws,” which unleashed our inner fears of immense monsters just out of sight.
The warnings of Ugly American — that the U.S. had to be smarter abroad — so impressed first-term Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-MA) that he gave copies to every other senator. And then, two years later, he took those impressions with him into the White House with some lethal consequences. //
Just four months into his presidency, Kennedy reversed President Eisenhower’s policy of non-intervention in foreign conflicts. That had kept the U.S. out of fighting in Indochina and Egypt when France and Britain seized the Suez Canal.
Fatefully, in May 1961, Kennedy sent 500 troops to South Vietnam. They were just going to advise the local army, you understand, in its struggle against Communists infiltrating from North Vietnam. //
Fast forward to Afghanistan, 2001. The initial decision seemed reasonable for the U.S. and NATO allies to attack al Qaeda there and the Taliban, which had hosted terrorist training camps for the 9/11 attacks.
But then, once again, mission creep slipped in. //
Three hundred years before Christ, Alexander the Great could not pacify what became Afghanistan. Nor could the British in the 1800s. In 1989, the Soviets gave up their attempt after 10 years.
It took the U.S. and allies 20 years before they gave up and left in a humiliating 2021 withdrawal that Joe Biden's ineptness made worse than necessary.
The Western costs were 2,465 U.S. service fatalities, 1,144 allied and contractor deaths, and $2.3 trillion.
The Taliban won anyway.
Now, we return to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was active there. The goal of President Kennedy, who also founded the Peace Corps, was to unite scattered foreign aid programs in one semi-independent agency under the State Department to promote social and economic progress in other countries. //
There is no doubt, however, that some of the billions distributed by USAID have benefited many millions. The agency helped eradicate smallpox, stemmed the spread of AIDS in Africa, and provides treatments.
The mission was to make investments abroad that would encourage and ignite further progress. Not provide free lunches today but teach literacy so people could get better jobs tomorrow. Help provide clean water and teach better health care, especially for infants and children. Provide nutritional guidance. Improve agricultural methods to boost production and reduce erosion and pests. //
The fact is that although the U.S. is by far the world’s largest provider of foreign aid, such spending only runs around one percent of the total federal budget of $6.1 trillion; in Fiscal Year 2023, it was 1.2 percent. //
A Warning Written for Tomorrow
January 18th, 2021.
The capital of the free world looked like a war zone.
Armed troops patrolled empty streets. Barriers rose like steel forests. And in a quiet corner of the White House, someone uploaded forty-five pages to the government website.
No ceremony. No press release. Just a document dropped into the digital void.
"The 1776 Report"
But Two days later, it vanished.
Scrubbed from official servers.
Dismissed as propaganda.
Lost in the chaos of transition.
And yet, something survived.
What most Americans never knew was that this wasn't just another government report. This was a diagnosis of what was killing the American spirit—and more importantly—a blueprint for its renewal.
Written not for 2021, but for this exact moment in 2025, as things begin to change.
"We have arrived at a point," it warned, "where the most influential part of our nation finds these old faith-based virtues dangerous, useless, or perhaps even laughable."
Simple words. Surgical precision. Like a doctor naming a disease everyone felt but no one would acknowledge.
But here's what made the report extraordinary:
it mapped the exact pressure points where renewal would begin.
Like a military assessment written for civilians like me.
A battle plan disguised as historical analysis.
"The facts of our founding," it declared, "are not partisan. They address the concerns of ALL Americans—every class, race, religion, and region. Properly understood, these facts resolve the concerns and fulfill the aspirations of our entire people."
Critics called this empty rhetoric in 2021.
They should have read more carefully.
Those weren't just words.
They were coordinates, marking exact points where American renewal would begin. //
The sun rises early in Washington. Its first rays catch marble columns that have watched over the capital for centuries. But something's different in these opening weeks of 2025. Something electric. Something unstoppable.
Inside those buildings and institutions being audited and gutted for the first time in forever, a forgotten report's prophecies are finally becoming reality.
Look closer.
The DS meeting its match in digital sunlight.
Critical Theory crumbling against hard truth.
Identity politics dissolving in the face of American renewal.
Sean Spicer
@seanspicer
·
Follow
@POTUS @realDonaldTrump kicks off #BlackHistoryMonth with a proclamation from @WhiteHouse recognizing the work of Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass
6:47 PM · Jan 31, 2025
Throughout our history, black Americans have been among our country’s most consequential leaders, shaping the cultural and political destiny of our Nation in profound ways. American heroes such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Sowell, Justice Clarence Thomas, and countless others represent what is best in America and her citizens. Their achievements, which have monumentally advanced the tradition of equality under the law in our great country, continue to serve as an inspiration for all Americans. We will also never forget the achievements of American greats like Tiger Woods, who have pushed the boundaries of excellence in their respective fields, paving the way for others to follow.
This National Black History Month, as America prepares to enter a historic Golden Age, I want to extend my tremendous gratitude to black Americans for all they have done to bring us to this moment, and for the many future contributions they will make as we advance into a future of limitless possibility under my Administration.
This is a long time coming. For years, the accomplishments of black Americans like Thomas and Sowell have been overlooked, downplayed, and blatantly ignored by the left, who seemingly can't handle any black person who doesn't fall into line with their radical policies. Back in 2016, the Smithsonian opened the National Museum of African American History and Culture with nary a word about Clarence Thomas to be found in the entire building, something Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) later called an "irresponsible bias." The Smithsonian eventually added Justice Thomas to an existing display about Justice Thurgood Marshall. Mighty nice of them. //
Ronster
3 hours ago
Since the very first time I heard the phrase "celebrate diversity" I have asked why not celebrate unity. As in United States. But then that's the Leftist/Marxist/Democrat way: diversity = divide and conquer.
Baja Sun Ronster
2 hours ago
Diversity is the key to controlling the population.
The more diverse the cultures, the less likely we are to stand united against a tyrannical government.
Divide and conquer.
Badgering Americans with the false claim that America was ‘founded’ by immigrants creates the idea that she is prohibited from protecting her sovereignty out of fear of being ‘un-American.’ //
On Sunday, CBS News’ Margaret Brennan tried to get one over on Vice President J.D. Vance, badgering him about immigration and claiming “this is a country founded by immigrants.” But this narrative isn’t just inaccurate, it’s a calculated lie intentionally pushed to justify radical open border policies that threaten to dismantle the very country our Founders built.
Vance held his own, refuting the baseless claim by noting the country was founded “by some immigrants and some settlers” and that such a founding is not a “get-out-of-jail” free card for having the “dumbest immigration policy in the world.”
And Vance is right.
Britain began establishing the 13 original colonies in the early 1600’s. Over the next century or so, hundreds of thousands of Brits moved to the British colonies that were established by settlers — not immigrants. There was no “nation” being immigrated to by the first settlers. //
“But what about the Native Americans? They were nations!” some may contend. But they were not. They were tribal clans. Clans are peoples, but not nations (and to boot, Native Americans are believed to have come from Asia before crossing the Bering land bridge and making their way to the present-day United States).
Yet the left will repeat the claim that America was “founded” by immigrants to serve one purpose: to erase the country’s unique identity and justify endless immigration. If we are truly a nation “founded” by immigrants, then logic would follow it would be wholly un-American to want to control mass immigration (both legal and illegal) since our inception was a result of such immigration.
But America was never just a multicultural experiment that began with and requires an endless influx of immigrants (both legal and illegal) to sustain itself. The settlers were not a hodge-podge of random cultures and religions and languages and customs. America was founded by Anglo Protestants who pulled ideas of liberty and independence from Anglo-liberalism, which grounded itself in the idea of equality, freedom, and government controlled by the people (it was most commonly associated with thinkers like John Locke). These settlers forged a new nation, instituted customs, traditions, and a national identity.
And our Founders understood the importance of a national identity, with Thomas Jefferson writing in 1776 that while he is “for extending the right of suffrage (or in other words the right of a citizen) to all who had a permanent intention of living in the country … Whoever intends to live in a country must wish that country well, and has a natural right of assisting in the preservation of it.”
In simpler terms, assimilation was a requirement of anyone coming to America. //
But if America is really just a “nation of immigrants,” then what does it mean to be “American?”
Well, nothing. If simply being born here or moving here qualifies someone as “American,” then “American” ceases to be a unique identity. It’s diluted to the point of meaninglessness.
Alexander Hamilton warned us in 1802 that “the safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common National sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exception of the citizens from foreign bias, and prejudice …”
In other words, without a common identity, we’re toast. And the annual importation of millions of foreigners threatens that national identity, especially when we no longer demand complete and total assimilation.
So the short of it is: No, America was not “founded” by immigrants. But badgering Americans with the false claim that America was “founded” by immigrants (and is therefore responsible for endlessly welcoming immigrants) creates the idea that the country is prohibited from protecting its sovereignty out of fear of being “un-American.” The goal is simple: browbeat Americans into believing that America is merely an economic opportunity zone that is open to anyone from anywhere irrespective of the cost to our country.