Fears

     Many fear. Few are entirely aware of why.

     Three things determine all human action:

• Desires,
• Fears,
• Beliefs.

     These are the motivators. They and they alone animate all our decisions and subsequent actions. They are pre-logical: that is, they form the bedrock of human existence from which reasoning of any sort must begin.

     But the motivators themselves proceed from a still deeper source: our perception of objective reality, which C. S. Lewis called the Tao:

     The Chinese also speak of a great thing (the greatest thing) called the Tao. It is the reality beyond all predicates, the abyss that was before the Creator Himself. It is Nature, it is the Way, the Road. It is the Way in which the universe goes on, the Way in which things everlastingly emerge, stilly and tranquilly, into space and time. It is also the Way which every man should tread in imitation of that cosmic and supercosmic progression, conforming all activities to that great exemplar. 'In ritual', say the Analects, 'it is harmony with Nature that is prized.' The ancient Jews likewise praise the Law as being 'true'.
     This conception in all its forms, Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Christian, and Oriental alike, I shall henceforth refer to for brevity simply as 'the Tao'.

     But if the Tao comprises all of objective reality, then it contains more than just what we seek, enjoy, and strive to preserve. What we fear emerges from the Tao, as well. For objective reality is not benevolently disposed toward Man in all its forms and aspects. One of its variable, not-always-benevolent aspects is Man himself.

---

     These days, there is much to fear. Usurpers have captured the federal government of these United States. Their intentions, as far as we can know them, amount to shredding the Constitution de facto and ruling by force alone. Naked power lust undergirds everything they do and have done. Anyone who dares to criticize them is their blood enemy, whom they will destroy if they can.

     But there is this as well: they fear us:

     In the days leading up to the Biden inaugural, the nation’s capital has been turned into an occupied military zone like Baghdad. Armed troops authorized to use lethal force are manning checkpoints to enter and leave downtown Washington, D.C. Green Zone and Red Zone perimeters have been established. Several bridges into the city from neighboring Virginia are scheduled to be closed next week for the inaugural.

     Quoth William Jacobson:

     You don’t need 25,000 armed National Guard troops to protect an inauguration, and you certainly don’t need that and more to protect a mostly virtual inauguration.

     Garrisoning the city in advance of a “mostly virtual inauguration” certainly seems like a fear-driven action. But fear of what?

     There are some possibilities. One is that this is a deliberate overreaction as a show of force to deter anyone even thinking about causing a problem. In a rational world, given the Capitol Hill riot, that would be an obvious explanation.

     But this massive military show of force smacks of protecting against a threat that has not yet been disclosed publicly. They seem to be planning against a military mutiny. That’s how it feels.

     Festung Washington, indeed.

---

     When your nation’s capital is transformed from a relatively ordinary urban zone to a walled, fortified citadel, you no longer live in anything resembling a representative republic. We may justifiably fear what they have in mind – and history speaks eloquently of what tyrants do with the power they seize. This garrisoning of Washington screams that the Usurpers fear the very people they claim the authority to rule.

     We can use that.

     Keeping the Usurpers in a state of fear might help to impede their plans. Festung Washington, though established to exclude us, can also be used to confine them. After all, they and their bureaucrats can’t go everywhere surrounded by a military guard. There simply aren’t enough soldiers to do so. American patriots are ubiquitous – and we constitute a soldiery of our own.

     So we must keep the Usurpers in fear. We must repeat mercilessly that we know the 2020 election was stolen. We must publicize the evidence of their crimes at every opportunity. We must emphasize that we intend to resist their ukases.

We must make every Usurper fear to leave Festung Washington.

     It might have repercussions, especially for those most vocal in the effort. But the game is now about who fears whom, and to what degree. If we can master our fears, we can exploit theirs.

     The Roman imperial army was greatly feared by those whose lands the Empire colonized. Their motto, whether or not it was spoken openly, was Oderint dum metuant: “Let them hate us, as long as they fear us.” They made sure of it, by reliable methods.

     American patriots should not care that the Usurpers hate us. That they should hate us who oppose them and want to see them cast down is only natural; you might say it’s embedded in the Tao. But hatred by itself is impotent. We should care that they fear us – and we should stoke their fears by the most reliable methods.

     Give it some thought.

Recapitulation

     The Fortress is having its entire heating and hot water system replaced today, which will make it a cold, waterless, generally difficult period here. Moreover, the work is scheduled to begin early, just an hour or two from now. So rather than blather in my usual fashion, allow me to present a few links and two highly instructive graphics.

     First, the links:

• Leftists always attempt to exterminate their opposition.
• The pre-criminalization of the President.
• This is who they are. This is what they do.
• American “liberals” are alone in their support for this.
• I’d ask him “what was your first clue?” but...
• The atomization of Americans continues.
• Sit down and shut up, Citizen.

     All good stuff, and all highly relevant to our current situation. But what nails it down are these two graphics, which have appeared at several other sites – enough so that I can no longer remember from whom I stole them:

     And:

     Ponder it all. And do have a nice day.

After The Fall

     "For centuries Galactic civilization has stagnated and declined, though only a few ever realized that. But now, at last, the Periphery is breaking away and the political unity of the Empire is shattered. Somewhere in the fifty years just past is where the historians of the future will place an arbitrary line and say: 'This marks the Fall of the Galactic Empire.'
     "And they will be right, though scarcely any will recognize that Fall for additional centuries."

     [Isaac Asimov, Foundation]

     The destruction of a political entity as large as a contemporary nation-state is not a discrete or “digital” event. It’s a process that stretches over years, sometimes decades. During that process, great forces contrive to present an appearance of normality and “everything under control,” even as still greater forces work to hollow the edifice and render it susceptible to toppling. when the final collapse arrives, many are shaken by its “suddenness.” Many more pretend to be, though they were aware of the process, and its probable terminus, all the while.

     I have come to believe that the fall of the constitutional federal republic called the United States of America began some decades ago. Despite America’s appearance of world-bestriding power, the process probably started well before the World Wars, no later than the Wilson Administration. What we’re witnessing now, as a corrupt Congress prepares to certify the takeover of the federal executive branch by America-hating insurrectionists while a corrupt judiciary looks on indifferently, is something akin to Cheyne-Stokes respiration. There may still be life in the patient, but the odds are great against its return to true vitality.

     Some will attempt to resuscitate the patient. Others will do their best to prevent them. Most will watch in helpless bewilderment, baffled at how the greatest sociopolitical experiment in human history could have come to this. And yes, afterward a semblance of normal American life will continue, for most if not all.

     Not many will be aware that the process began long ago. It could have been halted at its inception, had our forebears had a modicum of foresight and the willingness to act. But lack of awareness of a terrible fact doesn’t affect the fact itself.

---

     I’ve only just learned of this development:

     WASHINGTON (AP) — Bracing for possible violence, the nation’s capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests by President Donald Trump’s supporters in connection with the congressional vote expected Wednesday to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.

     Trump’s supporters are planning to rally Tuesday and Wednesday, seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. “There are people intent on coming to our city armed,” D.C. Acting Police Chief Robert Contee said Monday.

     It’s a typical, scurrilously Left-slanted Associated Press article. Nevertheless, it leads with an important fact: military forces are being deployed to prevent any protest of the stolen election. Note that nothing of the kind happened when Antifa / BlackBloc forces assaulted pro-trump celebrations in Washington four years ago. The insurrectionists are maneuvering to prevent even the appearance of resistance to their coup. They must feel a need to preserve a facade of “the consent of the governed” against any suspicions to the contrary.

     The District of Columbia is but a few steps from transforming itself into a walled city, a citadel in which the power elite are secure against the outrage and protests of the hoi polloi. The Establishment surely desires that outcome. The use of soldiery to prevent the massing of opposition is the penultimate stage of their coup. The final stage is the disarming of the citizenry: a stroke the usurpers have already announced as their intention.

     As many others have already observed, the Founding Fathers would be shooting and erecting gallows today. But they would have started doing so long ago.

---

     This morning I am gripped by a terrible foreboding. I’d hoped that President Trump would have a clinching move to play, a rabbit out of the hat that would set the coup at naught and bring its plotters to justice. It appears that no such move is in prospect. Certainly we can expect nothing from our cowardly jurists, who would rather watch the nation burn than accept any hazard to themselves. But then, what is left, other than a mass uprising by We the People?

     Will a great mass of We the People confront American soldiers armed with military grade weaponry and pre-assured – quietly, no doubt – that any casualties to “rioters” will be quickly and cleanly swept under Washington’s voluminous rug? If so, what would follow? How many are willing to stake their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the possibility of replevin from this blatantly stolen election?

     To you who plan, in the face of all the disincentives, to go to Washington tomorrow and confront the usurpers and their Myrmidons: I salute you. I hope there are millions of you. I hope your numbers so intimidate the usurpers that they flee in terror before a round can be chambered, much less fired. I pray that it won’t cost you everything you hold dear.

     But that, sadly, is a hope against hope. The usurpers have pushed all their chips to the center of the table. They have come too far, and have nowhere to retreat; they must win or die. If the mass murder of American patriots is required to preserve their gains, then the mass murder of American patriots is what will be.

     Stay tuned. And pray.

Turnaround Games And Rebellion Dreams

     There really isn’t much to say about the presidential election that hasn’t already been said, many times and quite ably. The election was stolen, everyone with three or more functioning brain cells knows it was stolen, and everyone knows that Congressional Democrats and the majority of Congressional Republicans will vote to certify it even so. Their motives might vary, but the result will be that Congress will certify a blatantly stolen election to get the anti-Establishmentarian Donald Trump out of the White House and install a properly house-trained Establishmentarian puppet. All that having been said, I’ll confine myself to a single observation. (About the election itself; you know very well that I can’t confine myself to a single anything. At least, not for long.)

     Had the presidency been stolen for a sitting Republican whom the GOP Establishment found to their taste, here is what would have happened:

• Congressional Democrats would assail the election as obviously stolen;
• Congressional Republicans would defend the election results as honest and valid;
• We’d endure the same foofaurauw we’ve suffered since November 3, but with colors reversed.

     (Oh, one more thing: the media would side with the Democrats. We’d hear nothing from the Tappers, Stelters, Ryans, and so on about questioning the election returns being “sedition” or “treason.” But you could have worked that out by yourself.)

     If nothing else could have done so, this election has clarified the central political issue of our time: America’s federal government has far too much power, an incomprehensible percentage of which resides in the Oval Office. Therefore, merely saving Donald Trump’s second term is not enough.

     It’s time for other measures.

---

     According to James C. Scott as quoted by Tim Condon, “Irish democracy” consists of widespread passive resistance to the decrees of the Omnipotent State:

     Quiet, anonymous, and often complicitous, lawbreaking and disobedience may well be the historically preferred mode of political action for peasant and subaltern classes, for whom open defiance is too dangerous….One need not have an actual conspiracy to achieve the practical effects of a conspiracy. More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by what was once called “Irish Democracy”—the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people—than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs.

     The premise behind “Irish Democracy” is that the State lacks the enforcement power to have its way with millions upon millions of rebels. It’s Mohandas Gandhi’s strategy, albeit without his overt confrontations with the institutions of government. “You can ignore the State and do as you please, as long as you keep your head down.”

     Interactions between individuals with compatible motives are the best settings for “Irish Democracy” style rebellious action. Here’s a typical case from the late Cyril Northcote Parkinson. A British subject is goggling over the bill from his surgeon:

     "Your fee of £4000," the patient said, "represents the proportion I retain from the last £44,500 of my income. To pay you without being worse off would mean earning another £44,500 more than last year, no easy task."

     "Well," replied the surgeon, "you know how it is. It is only by charging you that much that I can afford to charge others little or nothing."

     "No doubt," said the patient. "But the fee will absorb £44,500 of my theoretical income -- no inconsiderable sum. Might I ask what proportion of the £4000 you will manage to retain?"

     It was the surgeon's turn to scribble calculations, as a result of which he concluded that his actual gain, after tax had been paid, would amount to £800.

     "Allow me to observe," said the patient, that I must therefore earn £44,500 in order to give you £800 of spendable income; the entire balance going to the government. Does that strike you as a transaction profitable to either of us?"

     "Well, frankly, no," admitted the surgeon. "Put like that the whole thing is absurd. But what else can we do?"

     "First, we can make certain that no one is listening. No one at the keyhole? No federal agent under the bed? No tape recorder in the -- ? Are you quite sure we can keep this strictly to ourselves?"

     "Quite sure," said the surgeon after opening the door and glancing up and down the corridor. "What do you suggest?"

     "Come closer so that I can whisper. Why don't I give you a case of scotch and call it quits?"

     "Not enough," hissed the surgeon. "But if you made it two cases -- "

     "Yes?"

     "-- and lent me your cabin cruiser for three weeks in September -- "

     "Yes?"

     "-- We might call it a deal!"

     "That's fine. And do you know what gave me the idea? I studied Parkinson's Second Law and realized that excessive taxation has made nonsense of everything!"

     [C. Northcote Parkinson, The Law and the Profits]

---

     Removing the overt confrontations makes “Irish Democracy” much safer than any other form of rebellion. The State needs conspicuous, targetable rebels. It cannot use terror of its forces without someone to turn into an “example.” No conspicuous rebels means nothing for the State to crucify for the edification of the public. As we mathematical types like to say, quod erat demonstrandum.

     Think that through. What makes anyone, or any institution, conspicuous? One sufficient qualification is great size. The State loves bigness for that reason, among others. That’s why we have an economy dominated by a few thousand mega-corporations. It’s far easier to shackle a giant corporation than the ten thousand small businesses it replaced. The benighted thing can’t move quickly enough to get out from under the State’s crosshairs.

     Another sufficient qualification is noise. The angry, vociferous rebel is asking to be targeted by the State, whether he intends that or not. We may deem him noble for his outspokenness in the cause of freedom, but there’s no denying that he’s courting a huge risk. Should the State decide that he’s acquired enough of a following to be a genuine threat, that risk will be reified.

     The third sufficient qualification is disruption of an important aspect of the economic status quo. There are many things one can do that will send a tremor through the economy. Above a certain magnitude, such tremors threaten the self-seeking arrangements of people in power. When that happens, they will act against the disruptor. The “poster boy” for this phenomenon is Michael Milken, who despite having committed not even one illegal act, was targeted for destruction by the Establishment whose dominance and perquisites he threatened.

     Those three qualifications constitute a checklist: characteristics to avoid if you want to stay below the State’s radar.

---

     I could go on about this, but I don’t think there’s a need. The implications are fairly plain. If you deem the governments of these United States to have become illegitimate, you might find the notion of “Irish Democracy” attractive. Think about the observations above. Think about how you could arrange your affairs so as to dismiss the demands of the State while remaining free of its scrutiny. While it would be harder for some than for others, millions of Americans and their enterprises could contrive to ignore the demands and decrees of the governments that claim “authority” over us.

     There are other approaches of varying appeal, such as “going Galt.” They amount to the same thing: rebellion without the need to load the magazines and man the barricades. Choose the course that best accords with your tastes.

Portents

     Friday the Thirteenth is upon us! It’s a good day to talk about portents and omens, isn’t it? And as it happens, I have a few for your consideration.

     First, have a gander at this editorial from the Tennessee Star:

     On Friday afternoon, Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter: “Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future? I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”

     Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin took it a step further tweeting, “Any R now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not to follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into ‘polite’ society. We have a list.”

     Got that – we have a “list.”

     And for a while the list of those to be deprived of the opportunity to have a job or “be accepted into ‘polite’ society” was online at the Trump Accountability Project or TAP.

     Ominous stuff, eh? But the implication that these lists and purges are contingent upon a Democrat victory strike me as misconceived. If you really want to feel a thrill of fear, contemplate this:

The Left’s project will continue even if President Trump manages to win.

     Moreover, it will have almost as much force and terror propelling it as if Biden were to win. Here’s the proof: It’s happening already.

     The Left is both utterly ruthless and without any conscience. Those are its chief advantages. It destroys its opponents without a conscience pang, whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. That’s what makes a minority – even a relatively tiny minority – able to terrorize a much larger population. Though a minority, the Left is always on offense: it has what chessplayers call “the initiative.” No one knows where it will strike next – and it’s flatly impossible to defend all our flanks at once.

     Haven’t we seen people lose their jobs for having disapproved opinions on political and quasi-political subjects? Aren’t we already familiar with “cancel culture?” Haven’t we heard enough reports of conservatives being physically harassed and assaulted by Leftists — and not only in public places, but in their homes as well? The Left didn’t need electoral ascendancy to do what it’s already done. It will continue regardless of the outcome of the 2020 elections.

     Consider the pusillanimity of corporate America in this regard. What does it take to get an employee with disfavored opinions told to hit the road? Just a few complaints. Sometimes even one or two will suffice. (I described one typical case in a fictional setting in Love in the Time of Cinema and another in Statesman.) Must I spell out the reasons, or are they clear from the current legal and political environment?

     It’s not just internally that corporations exhibit such arrant cowardice. A business is highly sensitive to “its margins.” By that, I don’t mean its profit margin, though that is important, but the margins in its customer space: those who might buy its products except for factor X, and those who might not buy its products should factor Y emerge. The firm is ever vigilant about advancing on the first margin and protecting the second one. That’s why boycotts are effective, even though they seldom impinge on more than five percent of a company’s sales, whether actual or potential.

     Thus, American business is capable of being bullied by threats to those margins. The bottom line is all that matters. (“A corporation has neither a body to be kicked nor a soul to be damned.” – quoted without attribution by Isabel Paterson in The God of the Machine.)

     Don’t imagine that any mere electoral victory will put an end to the Left’s campaign to terrorize those who differ with them. Nothing can do so but the Left’s total destruction, down to the very last man – and yes, I mean that literally, with all its ugly implications.

An Early Morning Thought

     For me, early morning is the time for “thinking about the unthinkable,” as the late, great Herman Kahn once put it. The “unthinkable” has many sub-varieties. One of them is the degradation of the United States into just one more totalitarian hellhole.

     “But how could that happen?” I hear you cry. If Project Veritas has its facts right, it’s happening now:

     If federal agents are really doing this, then it’s time for a Second American Revolution.

     It might start small:

     Devin came awake in the darkness to see his brother’s silhouette gliding down the sleeping loft’s stairs. Andrew was fully dressed. He moved with the silent fluidity of a great hunting cat on the stalk.
     Devin sat up and strained to hear whatever disturbance in the night had alerted Andrew, but nothing reached him. He threw off his sheet and clattered down the stairs, coming to a halt just before he crashed into his brother. Andrew smirked at him in the near-total darkness.
     “What’s up, Drew?”
     The elder MacLachlan put a finger to his lips. “Go get dressed. Make it quick.”
     Devin raced back up the stairs. When he’d clothed himself and descended again, Andrew handed him the shotgun, then took down the Winchester and headed for the cabin door.
     Andrew hurried down the dirt path that was the only connection between the cabin and the world beyond his freehold. Devin followed close behind, straining to match his brother’s stealth of movement. About three hundred yards from the cabin, Andrew waved him off the path and into the thick brush that flanked it. They crouched and waited. Nothing moved in the meager light from the almost-new moon.
     About a minute later, Devin heard a low grinding sound from something moving ponderously up the path. It took a few seconds before he could identify it: wide pneumatic tires at low pressure. Someone was driving an off-road vehicle toward the cabin.
     He started to rise, but Andrew’s hand descended on his shoulder and squeezed. The elder MacLachlan’s eyes were fixed on the road.
     The vehicle came into view. It looked to be a luxury four-by-four that had been painted a dark forest green. Its weight pressed its enormous tires nearly flat against the dirt path. Its headlights were off. Behind the windscreen Devin could see two faces, both expressionless.
     He glanced at his brother. Andrew remained statue-still.
     When the truck was within ten yards of their lookout, there was a bright flash and a loud report, and one of its tires disintegrated. The vehicle listed immediately and violently. For an instant Devin expected it to flip, but it righted itself narrowly and came to a halt.
     Two tall, husky men in dark clothing dismounted quickly from the truck and squatted to look at the denuded wheel. Andrew rose silently and moved toward them. Devin hurried to catch up.
     The first of them to notice Andrew’s approach rose and turned to catch the Winchester’s stock squarely across his face. There was a crunching of teeth and bone, a spray of blood, and the intruder went down. The other turned without rising, while simultaneously trying to free a gun from a back holster. Winnie caught him under the chin with an even sharper crack. He flipped backward and sprawled in the dust. Both lay still.
     Andrew stared down at them with the rifle at the ready. Devin swallowed his heart.
     “You’re not going to kill them, are you?”
     Andrew shook his head. “No need. Fetch their guns and wallets.”
     While Andrew watched, Devin rifled the two unconscious men’s pockets. Both yielded up automatics, billfolds and badge folders. The badges identified their possessors as employees of the Department of Justice. Devin handed the folders to Andrew, who glanced at them and nodded with no hint of surprise.
     Well, who else would it have been?
     “What next, Drew?”
     Andrew’s eyes darted to the truck. “Take a look at their cargo, see what you can make of it.”
     The back of the truck was full of electronic gear Devin couldn’t identify. It could have been sophisticated spy equipment, or parts for obsolete radios and televisions. He looked at his brother and shrugged.
     “No weapons?”
     “Nope.”
     “Too bad.” Andrew beckoned Devin back to his side and handed him the Winchester. “Cover ‘em.”
     Devin held the rifle on the uninvited guests and watched as his brother crushed the fingers of each man’s right hand with a savage blow from the heel of his boot. They returned to consciousness with much shrieking.
     Andrew stepped back, reclaimed his rifle from Devin and leveled it at the two men. Their screams stopped at once.
     “You’re trespassing. This is private property, and it’s posted every sixty feet for its whole perimeter. Get into your buggy and get back down that path before I send you to hell where you belong.”
     “We’re federal agents,” one hissed. He clutched his freshly maimed hand to his chest.
     Andrew nodded. “I know that. I decided to spare your lives anyway. Don’t make me feel a fool for doing it.” He raised the Winchester and sighted it.
     The intruders fled.

     ...or it might start really big. But one way or another, the time will have come.

Little Commentary Required Dept. (UPDATED)

     That’s as complete a case as anyone could make. No one else on network or cable news has been willing to make it, or anything like it.

     My main thought today is that Tucker Carlson had better watch his back. He’s Fox News’s top draw, but the rest of the Fox lineup has already gone limp before the Left’s threats and pressure. The pressure on Carlson to conform is likely to become immense. That he hasn’t broken yet is a testament to the strength of his convictions...and his character.

     Stay strong, Gentle Reader. Demand investigations. Insist on facts. Pray for our country

     UPDATE: The second wave of suppression has begun: "free speech" site Parler has just informed me that the URL of this site is restricted!

The Chaos Commences

     Wisconsin: 10 electoral college votes.
     North Carolina: 15 electoral college votes.
     Michigan: 16 electoral college votes.
     Georgia: 16 electoral college votes.
     Pennsylvania: 20 electoral college votes.

     Those states control a total of seventy-seven electoral college votes. President Trump leads by large margins in four of them – large enough that, in previous elections, the various media “decision desks” would have called those states for him and his opponent would have conceded the race to him. But 2020, of course, is different.

     Now we will see the legal challenges commence and the troves of “found ballots” emerge. The Secretaries of State in four of those states are Democrats. They will do their best to bend the rules in Biden’s favor. The criteria for which ballots are deemed worthy of inclusion will be the loosest they can contrive under their states’ respective laws.

     What will come of it? Are there enough legitimate votes for Biden to pull the rug out from under President Trump? No one can say at this time. But whatever that count may be, the deciding factor could prove to be the number of illegitimate votes the Democrat machines of those states can contrive to get past the election rules.

     This is what comes of:

• Voting by mail;
• Same-day registration;
• No signature matching;
• No voter ID required at the polls;
• The counting of ballots cast after Election Day.

     The trustworthiness of American election procedures has been destroyed, possibly for good.

     I feel certain that, had the election been conducted along traditional lines, President Trump would have been soundly re-elected, perhaps even with a majority of the national popular vote. But that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone. What I can glimpse, however cloudily, of what’s to come has me terribly frightened.

     There will be dueling arguments for which ballots must and must not be counted. There will be accusations and counter-accusations from the two contending camps. There will be rioting and massive destruction in America’s cities. And America will be largely paralyzed as the electoral madness plays out.

     Little of this would have been possible were it not for the Wuhan Virus and the arguments it supported for voting by mail. That’s the most vivid of all the danger flags we face. Note that it was states governed by Democrats that led the charge for that innovation. Note also that it was prominent Democrats who were responsible for most of the hysteria-mongering over the “pandemic.”

     There must be a reckoning...but whether there will be, and if so, when it will arrive, remains unclear.

     Pray for our country.

Tonight's Theme Song

(Shake it up!)

The Hour Is Upon Us

     You know what to do.

Interregnum Or Restoration?

     This will probably be the last thing I post at Liberty’s Torch until Election Day is behind us. My thoughts this morning center on conceptions of continuity and upheaval, and what they mean within the nominal political order of these United States.

     We who comment on current affairs are prone to overusing dramatic words and phrases. We want to have an impact, you see. We seek to rivet you to our emissions, to make you think you’re reading something that could be massively consequential. So we’re prone to “overstating the case,” whatever the case may be.

     One of the words we tend to use inappropriately is revolution. “A revolution in federal budgetary management.” “A revolution in regulatory policy.” “A revolution in American foreign policy.” “A revolution in Americans’ attitudes.” With so many revolutions being bruited about, you really have to wonder why you can’t hear the gunfire.

     If we were compelled to be accurate in speaking of the events we style “revolutions” or “revolutionary,” those words would be almost completely absent from our lexicon. Revolutions are the stuff of Third World countries ruled by dictators and juntas. That’s because there’s no other way for the order of things to change in such places. And even in such benighted lands, the word “revolution” is often less appropriate than “coup.”

     The United States hasn’t had a revolution since the one that gave birth to the country. We’ve had a number of disturbances to the continuity of our affairs, the Civil War / War Between The States / Late Unpleasantness being the most dramatic. But a true revolution, in which the Constitutional order is completely destroyed in favor of some wholly alien arrangement, has not occurred here.

     What Americans suffer is something less easily discerned and therefore far more insidious. It’s called gradualism. Small changes to our political arrangements at the margins, insufficiently resisted when proposed even when openly antithetical to the Constitution’s guarantees, accumulate over time. The wheel turns by such small increments that we can hardly detect its motion. But given time enough, the tiny changes – an infringement on freedom of speech here; a restriction of the right to acquire weapons there; an arrogation of power over some longstanding social arrangement; a “tax” or regulation imposed not for revenue generation but to engineer compliance with an illegitimate but noble-sounding aim – sum to a complete transformation of the Land of the Free into something utterly alien.

     Revolution? No. Slow, incremental transformation? Yes.

---

     In the first paragraph of the previous segment, I spoke of the nominal political order of the U.S. “Nominal,” of course, means “in name:” the Constitutional order we speak of when asked about it. It’s been clear to me for some time that that order has been thoroughly subverted. If it’s been clear to you as well, congratulations. You’re one of a clear-eyed few.

     The “big reveal” took place during the House of Representatives’ ditherings over ObamaCare. Someone – I forget who – asked the odious Nancy Pelosi where in the Constitution Congress was granted the power to legislate on such matters. She indignantly said “That is not a serious question” and stalked away. Later on, she cited the “Necessary and Proper” clause and said, quite plainly, that it “gives us [Congress] the power to do anything.”

     I shall refrain from analyzing the Necessary and Proper clause here. Rather, I shall ask a deeper question: If Congress has a legitimate power to do anything by Constitutional decree, then why does Article I, Section 8 enumerate seventeen explicit powers? Indeed, if the aim was to erect a federal government with unlimited powers over all things without exception, why have a Constitution at all?

     But Pelosi’s arrogation of unbounded power to Congress passed the public with hardly a whisper of protest. Shortly thereafter Congress passed ObamaCare in its entirety, and Barack Hussein Obama signed it into law. It was the victory parade of gradualism, and as such went almost unremarked by the national media.

     We had no idea that the United States was headed for an upheaval only a few years later.

---

     Donald Trump’s 2015 declaration of his candidacy for the presidency didn’t seem all that threatening to the existing political order at first. After all, it was his second time – he’d campaigned for the nomination of the Reform Party in 2000 – and his previous foray into presidential politics sank without a trace. But in 2016 Trump was serious, determined, and energized. He won “going away,” with an Electoral College margin far larger than even his most optimistic backers expected.

     It was an upheaval...by the standards of the political Establishment. Its members were unanimous in denouncing the “upstart” as a danger to the nation, a threat to the “rule of law.” But President Trump’s actions in office made it appear somewhat different to the citizenry. To us, it looked more like a restoration: a return to the American norms and standards that preceded the “progressive” Establishment’s accession and its gradualist campaign.

     Granted, it hasn’t been a “perfect” four years, whatever that might mean. Yet President Trump has been remarkably consistent and effective in carrying out his campaign pledges, and the nation has benefited hugely as a result. It took two utterly contrived “scandals,” a Chinese-engineered pandemic, and all the hatred and fear-mongering a Left-dominated press could conjure up to impede the Trump agenda. Despite all that, the Trump economy is already roaring back from the unwise and unnecessary “lockdowns” urged upon us by an irresponsible medical Establishment that will never pay a cost for its “mistakes.”

     Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow or hopefully, very shortly thereafter, we will learn whether the four years just behind us constitute a brief interregnum, a mere interruption in the march of anti-Constitutional, anti-American “progressive” socialism, or whether they’re the opening of an ongoing period of American restoration. The voting and all the phenomena surrounding it will decide.

     There will be vote fraud and voter intimidation. There will be ballot harvesting. There will be fabricated votes and voting by non-citizens. There will be shenanigans in the media’s coverage of events, both while the balloting is in progress and afterward...perhaps long afterward. Despite our most ardent efforts, we could be bitterly disappointed. But we can only do what we can do.

     Vote Trump. And pray.

American Catholics, Take Note!

     You will never read anything more timely than what follows. It’s an open letter from Archbishop Carlo Vigano, at one time the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, to President Donald J. Trump:

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DONALD J. TRUMP
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Solemnity of Christ the King

Mr. President,

     Allow me to address you at this hour in which the fate of the whole world is being threatened by a global conspiracy against God and humanity. I write to you as an Archbishop, as a Successor of the Apostles, as the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America. I am writing to you in the midst of the silence of both civil and religious authorities. May you accept these words of mine as the "voice of one crying out in the desert" (Jn 1:23).

     As I said when I wrote my letter to you in June, this historical moment sees the forces of Evil aligned in a battle without quarter against the forces of Good; forces of Evil that appear powerful and organized as they oppose the children of Light, who are disoriented and disorganized, abandoned by their temporal and spiritual leaders.

     Daily we sense the attacks multiplying of those who want to destroy the very basis of society: the natural family, respect for human life, love of country, freedom of education and business. We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health emergency that is revealing itself more and more fully as instrumental to the establishment of an inhuman faceless tyranny

     A global plan called the Great Reset is underway. Its architect is a global Ă©lite that wants to subdue all of humanity, imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual freedoms and those of entire populations. In several nations this plan has already been approved and financed; in others it is still in an early stage. Behind the world leaders who are the accomplices and executors of this infernal project, there are unscrupulous characters who finance the World Economic Forum and Event 201, promoting their agenda.

     The purpose of the Great Reset is the imposition of a health dictatorship aiming at the imposition of liberticidal measures, hidden behind tempting promises of ensuring a universal income and cancelling individual debt. The price of these concessions from the International Monetary Fund will be the renunciation of private property and adherence to a program of vaccination against Covid-19 and Covid-21 promoted by Bill Gates with the collaboration of the main pharmaceutical groups. Beyond the enormous economic interests that motivate the promoters of the Great Reset, the imposition of the vaccination will be accompanied by the requirement of a health passport and a digital ID, with the consequent contact tracing of the population of the entire world. Those who do not accept these measures will be confined in detention camps or placed under house arrest, and all their assets will be confiscated.

     Mr. President, I imagine that you are already aware that in some countries the Great Reset will be activated between the end of this year and the first trimester of 2021. For this purpose, further lockdowns are planned, which will be officially justified by a supposed second and third wave of the pandemic. You are well aware of the means that have been deployed to sow panic and legitimize draconian limitations on individual liberties, artfully provoking a world-wide economic crisis. In the intentions of its architects, this crisis will serve to make the recourse of nations to the Great Reset irreversible, thereby giving the final blow to a world whose existence and very memory they want to completely cancel. But this world, Mr. President, includes people, affections, institutions, faith, culture, traditions, and ideals: people and values that do not act like automatons, who do not obey like machines, because they are endowed with a soul and a heart, because they are tied together by a spiritual bond that draws its strength from above, from that God that our adversaries want to challenge, just as Lucifer did at the beginning of time with his "non serviam."

     Many people -- as we well know -- are annoyed by this reference to the clash between Good and Evil and the use of "apocalyptic" overtones, which according to them exasperates spirits and sharpens divisions. It is not surprising that the enemy is angered at being discovered just when he believes he has reached the citadel he seeks to conquer undisturbed. What is surprising, however, is that there is no one to sound the alarm. The reaction of the deep state to those who denounce its plan is broken and incoherent, but understandable. Just when the complicity of the mainstream media had succeeded in making the transition to the New World Order almost painless and unnoticed, all sorts of deceptions, scandals and crimes are coming to light.

     Until a few months ago, it was easy to smear as "conspiracy theorists" those who denounced these terrible plans, which we now see being carried out down to the smallest detail. No one, up until last February, would ever have thought that, in all of our cities, citizens would be arrested simply for wanting to walk down the street, to breathe, to want to keep their business open, to want to go to church on Sunday. Yet now it is happening all over the world, even in picture-postcard Italy that many Americans consider to be a small enchanted country, with its ancient monuments, its churches, its charming cities, its characteristic villages. And while the politicians are barricaded inside their palaces promulgating decrees like Persian satraps, businesses are failing, shops are closing, and people are prevented from living, traveling, working, and praying. The disastrous psychological consequences of this operation are already being seen, beginning with the suicides of desperate entrepreneurs and of our children, segregated from friends and classmates, told to follow their classes while sitting at home alone in front of a computer.

     In Sacred Scripture, Saint Paul speaks to us of "the one who opposes" the manifestation of the mystery of iniquity, the kathèkon (2 Thess 2:6-7). In the religious sphere, this obstacle to evil is the Church, and in particular the papacy; in the political sphere, it is those who impede the establishment of the New World Order.

     As is now clear, the one who occupies the Chair of Peter has betrayed his role from the very beginning in order to defend and promote the globalist ideology, supporting the agenda of the deep church, who chose him from its ranks.

     Mr. President, you have clearly stated that you want to defend the nation -- One Nation under God, fundamental liberties, and non-negotiable values that are denied and fought against today. It is you, dear President, who are "the one who opposes" the deep state, the final assault of the children of darkness.

     For this reason, it is necessary that all people of good will be persuaded of the epochal importance of the imminent election: not so much for the sake of this or that political program, but because of the general inspiration of your action that best embodies -- in this particular historical context -- that world, our world, which they want to cancel by means of the lockdown. Your adversary is also our adversary: it is the Enemy of the human race, He who is "a murderer from the beginning" (Jn 8:44).

     Around you are gathered with faith and courage those who consider you the final garrison against the world dictatorship. The alternative is to vote for a person who is manipulated by the deep state, gravely compromised by scandals and corruption, who will do to the United States what Jorge Mario Bergoglio is doing to the Church, Prime Minister Conte to Italy, President Macron to France, Prime Minster Sanchez to Spain, and so on. The blackmailable nature of Joe Biden -- just like that of the prelates of the Vatican's "magic circle" -- will exposehim to be used unscrupulously, allowing illegitimate powers to interfere in both domestic politics as well as international balances. It is obvious that those who manipulate him already have someone worse than him ready, with whom they will replace him as soon as the opportunity arises.

     And yet, in the midst of this bleak picture, this apparently unstoppable advance of the "Invisible Enemy," an element of hope emerges. The adversary does not know how to love, and it does not understand that it is not enough to assure a universal income or to cancel mortgages in order to subjugate the masses and convince them to be branded like cattle. This people, which for too long has endured the abuses of a hateful and tyrannical power, is rediscovering that it has a soul; it is understanding that it is not willing to exchange its freedom for the homogenization and cancellation of its identity; it is beginning to understand the value of familial and social ties, of the bonds of faith and culture that unite honest people. This Great Reset is destined to fail because those who planned it do not understand that there are still people ready to take to the streets to defend their rights, to protect their loved ones, to give a future to their childrenand grandchildren. The leveling inhumanity of the globalist project will shatter miserably in the face of the firm and courageous opposition of the children of Light. The enemy has Satan on its side, He who only knows how to hate. But on our side,we have the Lord Almighty, the God of armies arrayed for battle, and the Most Holy Virgin, who will crush the headof the ancient Serpent. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom 8:31).

     Mr. President, you are well aware that, in this crucial hour, the United States of America is considered the defending wall against which the war declared by the advocates of globalism has been unleashed. Place your trust in the Lord, strengthened by the words of the Apostle Paul: "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). To be an instrument of Divine Providence is a great responsibility, for which you will certainly receive all the graces of state that you need, since they are being fervently implored for you by the many people who support you with their prayers.

     With this heavenly hope and the assurance of my prayer for you, for the First Lady, and for your collaborators, with all my heart I send you my blessing.

     God bless the United States of America!

+ Carlo Maria Vigano
Tit. Archbishop of Ulpiana
Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America

     We are at war: an undeclared war, to be sure, but then, in our time most serious wars are not declared. That doesn’t make them less serious.

     Vote on November 3. And pray.

A Concise And Handy Summary

     In three minutes, this video points out five major, highly significant differences between the Democrat and the Republican platforms. Keep it handy!

     Most Americans will vote according to their stances on some subset of those five issues.

Leftists In Media True To Form

     If you’ve viewed any of the Lesley Stahl “interview” of President Trump –I have — you’re already aware of Stahl’s robotic attempt to deflect attention from the well-verified, well-confirmed Hunter Biden laptop containing damning evidence of Biden family corruption, including the former vice president himself. The laptop, she insists, “can’t be verified.” Why not? “Because it can’t be verified.” This doesn’t even rise to the level of circular reasoning. It’s mere repetition – and President Trump wouldn’t allow it.

     But it’s the habit of left-wing partisans who masquerade as “journalists” to do that. Show them clear evidence that global temperatures have no causal relationship to carbon dioxide emissions...show them that some professor they admire has falsified his case against the right to keep and bear arms...show them that majority sentiment was plainly for some Republican initiative or against some Democrat initiative...show them a case of Democrat corruption that’s as plain as 72-point type and they’ll mechanically chant “No evidence!”

     It’s simply what they do. Journalists, as a trade, aren’t particularly bright, and left-wing “journalists” are substandard even in that company. They aren’t smart enough to have any other tactics at hand. Nor does it ever occur to them that their opponents, alert to the proclivities of left-wing “journalists,” might have something in their back pockets.

     With the Bobulinski disclosures now part of the public record, there can be no further doubt that the emails and text messages on the laptop are both authentic and damning. Of course, only the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and the New York Post are reporting plainly on the Bobulinski evidence. The rest of the media are busy straining to attack Bobulinski’s credibility. That’s what you get from media organs that have been thoroughly colonized and conquered by the Left.

     In a sane society – i.e., one in which “journalists” who are really Democrat activists with bylines aren’t tolerated by the information-consuming public – the blatant corruption revealed by the laptop would be the end of the Biden for President campaign. Which, I suppose, is as much a criticism of our society as it is of the laughable “standards” proclaimed by those who purport to provide us with “the news.”

Planned Chaos

     No, I’m not thinking of the book by Ludwig von Mises, though it is somewhat relevant. I have in mind the mushrooming portents of violence-to-come that’s presaged by these stories:

• Fourth-Generation Warfare
• DonaldTrumpWatch website tracks Trump donors.
• Activist group plans post-election chaos.
• Anti-Trumpers plan mass resistance.
• The AntiFa Industry At Work.

     There’s a great deal of consistency in the reporting on this subject. What frightens me in particular is that there’s a general consensus that the results of the election will not matter. Even in the event of a landslide Biden victory – not particularly plausible, but let’s allow the possibility – disruptions and violence intended to induce President Trump to leave office will follow. Homeowners known to have supported the president will be targeted for arson. Individuals who’ve been seen wearing Trump-supporting T-shirts, hats, or buttons will be assaulted when they leave their homes. Aggressions far beyond the usual “cancel culture” BS will be rampant.

     Chaos is coming. The Left is going all in. And no: You really don’t have enough ammo.

---

     For a long time – at least three decades and probably longer – two periodicals have been regarded as the flagship publications of the American Left: The Nation and The New Republic. As a rule, when a major opinion piece breaks in either one, you may take it as written that it proclaims an element of Leftist doctrine. That makes this New Republic article a matter for widespread dissemination and discussion.

     Before I excerpt the most relevant portions of the article, I shall say this: I have several copies of the article saved, including some on removable media. It cannot be taken from me by any hacker. I will not permit The New Republic’s editors any post facto mealy-mouthed “We were only kidding” nonsense. If you would care to read the whole thing, then regardless of whatever The New Republic does or its preferences to the contrary, all you need to do is tell me so.

     Now to the critical excerpts. Please read them all, with attention.

---

     Having won a clear Electoral College victory, Trump has taken the opportunities he has been given to nominate three [Supreme Court Justices]. Senate Republicans have been approving them through the process the Constitution set out. They acted strategically to hold one of those seats open. You will not find in the Constitution a prohibition against doing so, or, for that matter, any suggestion that the court should be evenly balanced between the appointees of two political camps or parties that didn’t exist at the Founding and that aren’t intrinsic features of our political order.

     Republicans haven’t flouted the constitutional order. They’ve made use of it. Things haven’t gone wrong because a system that was humming along fine until recently has been damaged in some fundamental way. The system is humming along essentially as it always has with increasingly dire results. The crisis is not that the American constitutional system is broken but that the American constitutional system is working—perhaps not as the Framers intended but, as a legal and administrative matter, mostly as it was designed to....

     Those in the center giving a thought to court-packing now are considering “constitutional hardball not to win the game,” as Jurecic and Hennessey write, “but to get to a place where the cycle of retaliation and politicization can be ended.” But if it’s possible—granted, a very large if—why shouldn’t the game be won? We’ve seen multiple periods of one-party dominance in our history; we’ve also seen defeated political parties wither and die. Why shouldn’t the Republican Party join them?...

     The American left should work toward abolishing the Constitution someday—either for a new document or a new democratic order without a written constitution....

     This and this alone was the genius of the Founders and Framers: not a special capacity for principled compromise and not extraordinary foresight or a collective wisdom sure to endure through the ages, but rather the force of their will. That is what it takes to break from an empire; that is what it took to cobble a nation together out of states with divergent economic and sociopolitical interests. And as we approach the close of a year in which we’ve fought bitterly over what we should claim from our history and what we should take from these men, it seems probable that we should try to inherit at least their audacity—whatever spirit convinced them they possessed the consciences and the intelligence to create not only a new country but a kind of society new to the world.

     Do we have any less a right to do so? It is beyond debate that we are their moral superiors; after over two centuries of democratic experience here and of observing the democracies that have bloomed across the globe, we know infinitely more about the institutions that they built and democratic governance than they did. They declared themselves the tribunes of a public that they defined and delimited for their convenience. On the day we as a people finally rise beyond narrow faction and above the power of capital ⁠to make ourselves a new republic, it is certain that we will do better—securing for truly all Americans not only a framework of now familiar political freedoms but a framework of economic rights rooted in the notion that democratic values and a revulsion for arbitrary, unchallenged authority should shape more than just our system of government. Until then, a half-measure: If it is given the opportunity, the Democratic Party—without hesitation, guilt, or apology—should pack the Supreme Court to its advantage.

     The author’s name is Osita Nwanevu. We might well ask where he and his antipathy to the American Constitutional order were born.

---

     Some time ago, I wrote:

     Few politicians, whatever lip service they give to the Constitution, are happy to be constrained by it. This is because by its very existence the Constitution expresses a small set of rules which together constitute the principle of republican government:

• There must be a Supreme Law;
• It must be easy to refer to and to comprehend;
• All other law must conform to it.

     Compare that to the principle of democratic / majoritarian government:

• A majority can make and enforce whatever laws it wishes at any time.

     ...and to the principle of authoritarian government:

• What the Fuhrer decrees shall be the whole of the law.

     The typical politician who owes his office to a democratic process, and who wants to remain in that office for as long as possible, will chafe under the constraints of the Constitution. He'll seek ways to circumvent it in matters that permit him to pander to his constituency. If pressed, he'll make excuses:

• "This is something the Founding Fathers didn't foresee."
• "The amendment process takes too long and doesn't always work."
• "The crisis is far too urgent; we have to act now, regardless of Constitutional constraints."

     Those are the most popular excuses. No doubt there are others.

     The republican principle, of which the Constitution is the American expression, is the only protection Americans have from tyranny, whether majoritarian or autocratic. What freedom we still retain is ours because our politicians haven't yet worked up the collective courage to defy the Constitution in certain particulars. However, they get closer to discarding it completely with every passing day.

     Nwanevu prefers majoritarian government – government in which there are no recognized rights: i.e., no recognized constraints on what the government may do to you. The sole barrier against that sort of rule by the mob is the proclamation of a Supreme Law. Nothing else will serve. But power-lusters, angry about having their schemes thwarted or delayed, will always chafe under such a principle. Nor does it matter whether they’re really well-intentioned. They always think they are:

     It is beyond debate that we are their moral superiors; after over two centuries of democratic experience here and of observing the democracies that have bloomed across the globe, we know infinitely more about the institutions that they built and democratic governance than they did. [Nwanevu again]

     What they want is power:

     Those who have seized power, even for the noblest of motives soon persuade themselves that there are good reasons for not relinquishing it. This is particularly likely to happen if they believe themselves to represent some immensely important cause. They will feel that their opponents are ignorant and perverse; before long they will come to hate them...The important thing is to keep their power, not to use it as a means to an eventual paradise. And so what were means become ends, and the original ends are forgotten except on Sundays. [Bertrand Russell]

     Unbounded, unconstrained power always culminates with the slaughter of the opposition. There are no known exceptions.

---

     As I said above, when a major opinion piece breaks in either The Nation or The New Republic, it proclaims an element of Leftist doctrine. Those periodicals are wholly owned propaganda mills for the Left and never, ever deviate from the line the Left’s kingpins have adopted. There was a time when that was not so. Indeed, I remember when no other than Michael Kinsley, as reliable a left-liberal as has ever lived, conceded in the pages of The New Republic that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual, Constitutionally guaranteed right. He wasn’t happy about it...but he conceded it. However, that time is long past.

We now know what the Left has planned,
And what the chaos is intended to further.

     All the masks are off. Indeed, they burned to ash in the fires that have consumed large portions of formerly great American cities. There is no longer any excuse for saying, whether to others or to yourself, that “they mean well.” That could not be further from the truth.

     Prepare accordingly. And pray.

Make This Go MEGA-Viral

     I’m confident you will not see a more powerful political ad in your lifetime:

     Spread it around. PLEASE!

Some Stories Speak For Themselves...

     ...while others must be trumpeted repeatedly and relentlessly against a storm of enraged hyperpartisan Big Tech censors:

     Confirmation of what already seemed pretty close to certain, eh? But where’s the Big Tech censorship angle in this, you ask? Why, it’s right here:

     Twitter has refused to unlock the New York Post's account since Wednesday unless the outlet deletes six tweets about its reporting on 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, the Post reported.

     Both the San Francisco-based social media platform and Facebook came under fire this week after the two blocked users from sharing a Post article showing purported communication between 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and an adviser to a Ukrainian energy company....

     Twitter confirmed to FOX Business that the Post "has been informed what is necessary to unlock their account."

     The company previously said the Post's Hunter Biden stories violate the website's Hacked Media Policy against displaying "hacked" information -- an allegation that the Post called "baseless."

     Is anyone in America prepared to argue that this “Hacked Media Policy” is not a “Protect the Democrats At All Costs” policy? It certainly didn’t prevent Leftist Twitter users from tweeting about the debunked Steele dossier or President Trump’s leaked tax returns.

     Sometimes the hard evidence of an evil is suppressible. But sometimes it isn’t, as is the case today – and that makes fevered attempts to suppress it just more hard evidence of the crime itself.

---

     For some months now I’ve been pessimistic about the future of this country. It’s looked to me as if no matter what good Americans might do, the Left would send us down the chute to civil warfare of the worst sort. They’ve already made several major cities uninhabitable. They’ve terrorized a significant (and still increasing) number of commercial concerns. Their doings have been fan-danced aside by the mainstream media, while alternative media and citizen journalists have been harassed, threatened, and assaulted for attempting to report the facts. All this has proceeded with the tacit cooperation and gratitude of the Democrat Party, which has baldfacedly told us that only the election of Joe Biden to the presidency will bring the violence to a halt. They might as well come right out and say it: “Nice country you’ve got here. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.”

     The violence has been spreading, amoeba-like, from the cities to the suburbs surrounding them. Whether it’s gaining or losing force as it moves is unclear, but the motion itself is alarming. The bloodshed to date has been horrifying, but it will be as nothing compared to what will follow should well-armed suburban and rural Americans confront these vermin.

     We suburbanites are the reason for the current shortage of guns and ammo. While we’re not looking forward to the necessity, we’re ready to use it all in defense of our loved ones, homes, and communities. And we’ll fire damned few warning shots — if any. So the rioters would be best advised to stay in the Democrat-infested cities that have let them run riot to date.

     But that’s not a sustainable situation. The cities are being drained of everything that makes it possible to live in them. They already lack effective law enforcement. Employers there are relocating and taking thousands of jobs with them. A dwindling number of suppliers remain willing to truck supplies into them. An even more swiftly dwindling number of retailers remain willing to do business in the cities, in the face of looters and vandals who seemingly have carte blanche to do as they please. Presently the afflicted cities will begin to starve.

     All this to replace a fiercely patriotic, highly successful president with a 77-year-old, provably corrupt dementia sufferer, so the socialists, the corporatists and globalists, the Red Chinese, and Kamala Harris can have their way with him – and us.

     It is to laugh...hollowly, and with many a tear.

---

     I doubt the above was what you came to Liberty’s Torch to read this fine Sunday morning. All the same, it’s what’s on my mind, and I write about what’s on my mind. Yes, the proof of the Biden family’s corruption is now ironclad, beyond all possible refutation. Yes, the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency is now nearly certain. Yes, he’s likely to return with a strengthened mandate that will enable him to quell the riots, to arrest the conspirators and planners behind them, and to press on with his admirably America-centered agenda. Yes, yes, yes.

     But even if all that of should occur exactly in the right order and to the right effect, America has still been scarred. The guts of our political system have been riven by corruption. The magnitude of it is greater than most of us were willing to believe. Our political class has revealed itself to be composed of thugs, thieves, touts, and time-servers concerned solely with their paychecks and pensions.

     It’s too weak a summation to say that we’ve “lost our innocence.” Indeed, we lost that long ago. Remember Wilson’s suppression of dissent during World War I? Remember Teapot Dome? Remember FDR’s seizure of our gold, his cartelization of the economy, his Court Reorganization Bill? Remember Lyndon Johnson’s “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years” -- ? Remember Bill Clinton’s “there is no sexual relationship with that woman, Monica Lewinsky” -- ? Remember Barack Hussein Obama’s “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” -- ?

     Should it not be we, the decent majority, who are out in the streets petitioning for a redress of grievances? Apart from isolated ceremonies like the annual March for Life, why haven’t we been doing so?

     If I read the portents accurately, pretty soon fiery essays and protests will be of no further moment. I fear the arrival of that day. I don’t think I have enough ammo. I probably don’t pray enough, either. I’d bet you could say the same of yourself. Verbum sat sapienti.

Signs Of Unease

     Many in the Right are uneasy about the polls, virtually all of which now claim a double-digit lead for Joseph Biden over President Donald Trump. Of course, we know that polls can be misleading – indeed, some polls are structured so as to mislead – but numbers such as the ones we’ve been seeing from Gallup, Zogby, and so on are disconcerting nevertheless. This is especially the case given President Trump’s fine performance in office to this point.

     But the unease isn’t solely on the Right:

     After asking his 6th grade students in his daily online class chat to name someone they admire and why, he went into full shutdown mode — literally — when one of his students said he most admires Donald J. Trump.

     I admire Donald J. Trump because he is making America great again. And because he is the best president the United States of America could ever, ever have. And he built the wall so terrorists couldn't come into in the U. S. Trump is the best person in the world. And that's why I had admire him.

     Upon getting that reply, Stanton kicked the student out of the chat room, deleted the chat, and went on an extended rant about how inappropriate the answer was.

     "The example that was shared in the chat, which I went ahead and erased for us, was not appropriate right? Especially as that individual has created so much division and hatred between people and specifically spoken hatred to many different individuals, ok? … Again, that individual has spoken hate to many individuals and I don't think is an appropriate example for a role model that we should be admiring."

     So you can’t have the kiddies expressing admiration for the president, eh, hero? I think we know to whom your vote will go. But above and beyond that, Stanton’s expulsion of the student from an online class bespeaks fear: the fear that the student might elicit similar sentiments from his classmates. Yes, even though they’re well below voting age. They could influence their parents, don’t y’know!

     This other indicator of unease has been tagged as possibly a hoax, but to me it looks like...well, what it looks like!

     Imagine the indoctrination taking place inside Kingsland Junior/Senior High School in Spring Valley, Minnesota, when they have to ask the neighborhood residents to remove their Trump flags in order to create “peace in the neighborhood.”

     So you can’t have “peace” if there are people living nearby who disagree with you! But who, pray tell, is really disturbing the peace in Minnesota? Might it be Black Lives Matter “protestors?” Or perhaps AntiFa or Black Bloc? The only “unpeaceful” incidents at pro-Trump rallies have been when a “protestor” has attacked a rallygoer!

     Yes, the Left is as uneasy as the Right. No one quite knows how events will shake out on November 3 or afterward. The Left is betting on propaganda, vote fraud, intimidation, and violence. The Right is betting on pro-Trump enthusiasm and the weakness of the Left’s candidates and campaigns. And regardless of anyone’s claims to the contrary, no one knows the odds.

     Three weeks from today, we’ll find out if the pollsters have learned anything since the 2016 campaign season. Until then:

1. Buy ammo.
2. Pray.

     And with that, it’s back to work on the sequel to The Warm Lands.

Election 2020: Clarifying The Issues

     The following two images – once again shamelessly stolen from Mike Miles at 90 Miles From Tyranny — should make it perfectly clear why any decent American should and must vote to re-elect President Donald J. Trump:

     Them’s the facts, Jack. Either you care enough to overlook a few sarcasms and “mean tweets,” or your hatred of Trump has deranged you beyond recovery.

     I have spoken.

Candidates Who Can’t Cut It

     I recall that during the presidential campaign in 1980, one of the Democrats’ jabs at Ronald Reagan was that he was “too old,” and therefore probably not physically up to the rigors of the presidency, which are considerable. Reagan’s robust good health – Martin Anderson once described him as having “the build of a linebacker” – confounded everyone during his eight-year tenure in the White House.

     Let’s return to a slightly more recent presidential campaign:

     The numerous times Mrs. Clinton was visibly suffering poor health were glossed over by most of the mainstream media. They were determined to get her into the Oval Office even if they had to carry her there on a stretcher. It didn’t work out for them. A candidate of about the same age, but who possessed – and possesses – amazingly good health and “dragon energy” defeated her, sending the Virago from Chicago to a well-deserved retirement.

     You’d think that after that fiasco, the Democrats would know better than to put forward yet another obviously physically infirm candidate for the presidency. You’d be wrong:

     Sick and senile Joe Biden is eight days away from getting crushed in a debate with Donald Trump. The effects are starting to show. After taking about ten steps to make some token comments today, sick and senile Joe Biden was so out of breath, he was choking and could barely get the words out of his mouth.

     Please go to Pacific Pundit (linked above) to view the videos.

     This is a species of cruelty I would not have expected from the blackest of black-hearted villains...but the Left knows no limits to what it will do to retake the White House. The Dems’ strategists deemed Biden their best chance to defeat President Trump. To them, nothing else matters. Certainly not kindness toward a sick old man.