90 Miles From Tyranny

Saturday, September 12, 2020

How an Extreme Leftist Ideology Has Gone Mainstream

A high school classmate of mine, an honor roll student and leader back then, long known for her objectivity, sent a compelling letter to a handful of friends. She gave me permission to anonymously reprint her insightful letter, which I slightly modified only for length:

Hello friends, 2020 is such an important election year, I want to share my thoughts with people I believe share my concerns about a possible Donald Trump loss.

In November, we will not be choosing between two old men from our traditional parties. It will be a fight between the cornerstone of our democracy – free-market capitalism – and an extreme-left ideology that has gone mainstream, driven by a confluence of developments:

1) The rise of Black Lives Matter. Many ‘woke’ young people and suburbanites protest so that they can feel good about themselves and ‘atone’ for their whiteness. Most of them don't know that the three founders of BLM are self-proclaimed Marxists whose agenda is to tear down and remake our country.

2) People with far-left beliefs. "The Squad" and others like them have achieved positions of power in the federal government

3) The emergence of Cancel Culture. We see the rise of cancel culture causing censorship at our universities and in the media, and targeting individuals who stray, even in a minor way, from extreme leftist doctrine.

4) A growing entitlement mentality. A large number of the young, ‘entitled’ generation seek radical change. Some are now in positions of power in business and in government (i.e., journalists, mayors, and city council members for instance, who seek to defund the police).

5) A decline in homogeneity. In a few decades, Caucasians will be in the minority. As any population becomes more heterogeneous, widely held, shared values fade away. Hence, what it means to be an American, passed down from "The Greatest Generation," will dissipate. Picture Minnesota's Ilhan Omar running things.

6) A sprawling Antifa movement. Despite their new, official status as domestic terrorists, or because of it, Antifa in the U.S. is gaining more prominence and influence.

7) A complicit media. The U.S. mainstream media is completely in league with far-leftist aims, insists Antifa isn't a threat to domestic tranquility, and covers for BLM leaders who are advocating for...

You Have Always Voted For Democrats, Why Stop Now?

How the Atlantic twisted the truth

Jeffrey Goldberg has four "anonymous" sources. Trump has 11 named ones

The Atlantic has stunk up an otherwise beautiful Labor Day weekend with a uniquely ugly story. Anti-Trump editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg claims that Donald Trump snubbed a World War One American cemetery in France because ‘it’s filled with losers’, and the Doughboys buried there are ‘suckers’. Goldberg also asserts that ‘Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain’ on November 10, 2018.

President Trump categorically rejected the Atlantic’s tale. He called it a ‘total lie. It’s fake news. It’s a disgrace.’

‘I was ready to go to a ceremony,’ Trump told journalists at Joint Air Base Andrews Thursday night. ‘But the helicopter could not fly…because it was raining about as hard as I’ve ever seen. And, on top of that, it was very, very foggy.’ The Secret Service would not transport Trump by motorcade, he added, since ‘it was a very long drive’.

The Atlantic’s Goldberg wrote: ‘Neither claim was true.’

Who to believe? Goldberg or Trump?

Goldberg cites ‘four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day’ — all anonymous.

In contrast, at least 11 named members of Trump’s Paris team corroborate him. So does an email from an unidentified military aide. So do the weather data. Trump’s next-day agenda also discredits the Atlantic.

President Trump’s most compelling witness is former national security adviser John Bolton. Since getting sacked last September 10, Bolton has become a stalwart Trump critic

Nonetheless, Bolton told Fox News: ‘I didn’t hear either of those comments or anything resembling them. I was there at the point in time that morning when it was decided that he would not go. It was an entirely weather-related decision and, I thought, the proper thing to do.’

Pages 241-242 of Bolton’s 577-page anti-Trump tome, The Room Where It Happened, published June 23, torpedoes the Atlantic’s foundering ship:

Reimagined Policing, Unarmed Milwaukee 'Community Service Officer' Is Shot And Killed During A Dispute About Grass Clippings With Muslim Neighbor

Many far left Democrats have given in to the rioting and looting mobs and have agreed to “reimagine” policing, but it can have deadly effects.

Part of the reimagining of police includes sending psychologists and social workers, who are unarmed, in lieu of armed police officers to certain calls.

Among those calls would likely be minor neighbor disputes, like one community service officer had with his neighbor in Milwaukee when he was shot and killed, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Community Service Officer Naeem Sarosh, 35, was attempting to complain about grass clippings to his neighbor Mohammed Afzal, 65, when Afzal responded by shooting and killing him.

The Sentinel reported that the two had many disputes living next to each other for years and it came to a head last Monday when Sarosh complained to Afzal about grass clippings after the latter had finished cutting his lawn.

The interaction was caught on a camera affixed to Afzal’s home, the complaint said. After knocking, Sarosh turns away from the door and walks back to his side of the property and awaits Afzal’s answer.

The two then appear to have a relaxed conversation, the complaint said. Sarosh stands with his hands in his pockets, leaning slightly backward and makes no sudden movements. He motions toward the grass as he speaks while Afzal stands in the door threshold.

But then Afzal suddenly raises a gun and fires at Sarosh, who turns and runs back toward his home. Afzal fires a second time, striking Sarosh in the back.

Afzal said he answered the door with his gun in has hand and fired it because Sarosh had his hands in his pockets and he believed he could have a weapon.

This was not a call that Sarosh was called to, but this is the type of situation a community service officer would be called to, unarmed, according to a press release from 2006 that describes what a community service officer would be in Milwaukee.

“The final report of the Community Services Staffing Task Force, chaired by Ald. Terry L. Witkowski, calls on the Common Council to pass enabling legislation to create the community service officer position,” the press release said.

“The CSO would be a civilian position in the police department that responds to non-emergency calls for service, traffic control, traffic incidents and other matters not requiring an armed...