Wednesday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Good morning Deplorables, hope y’all are holding up during the sneak preview of communism.

Our Dress Rehearsal for a Police State

Via American Greatness

If you love liberty, you must see that it is jeopardized more than at any time since America’s founding. And that means, among other things, that at this time, a vote for any Democrat is a vote to end liberty.

People will argue that a temporary police state has been justified because of the allegedly unique threat to life posed by the new coronavirus. I do not believe the data will bear that out. Regardless, let us at least agree that we are closer to a police state than ever in American history.

“Police state” does not mean totalitarian state. America is not a totalitarian state; we still have many freedoms. In a totalitarian state, this article could not be legally published, and if it were illegally published, I would be imprisoned and/or executed. But we are presently living with all four of the key hallmarks of a police state:

No. 1: Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.

The federal, state, county and city governments are now restricting almost every freedom except those of travel and speech. Americans have been banned from going to work (and thereby earning a living), meeting in groups (both indoors and outdoors), meeting in their cars in church parking lots to pray and entering state-owned properties such as beaches and parks—among many other prohibitions.

No. 2: A mass media supportive of the state’s messaging and deprivation of rights.

The New York Times, CNN and every other mainstream mass medium—except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial and opinion pages only) and talk radio—have served the cause of state control over individual Americans’ lives just as Pravda served the Soviet government. In fact, there is almost no more dissent in The New York Times than there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms are removing posts about the virus and potential treatments they deem “misinformation.”

No. 3: Use of police.

Police departments throughout America have agreed to enforce these laws and edicts with what can only be described as frightening alacrity. After hearing me describe police giving summonses to, or even arresting, people for playing baseball with their children on a beach, jogging alone without a mask, or worshipping on Easter while sitting isolated in their cars in a church parking lot, a police officer called my show. He explained that the police have no choice. They must respond to every dispatch they receive.

“And why are they dispatched to a person jogging on a beach or sitting alone in a park?” I asked.

Because the department was informed about these lawbreakers.

“And who told the police about these lawbreakers?” I asked.

His answer brings us to the fourth characteristic of a police state:

No. 4: Snitches.

How do the police dispatchers learn of lawbreakers such as families playing softball in a public park, lone joggers without face masks, etc.? From their fellow citizens snitching on them.

The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, set up a “snitch line,” whereby New Yorkers were told to send authorities photos of fellow New Yorkers violating any of the quarantine laws. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti similarly encouraged snitching, unabashedly using the term.

It is said that about 1 in every 100 East German citizens were informers for the Stasi, the East German secret police, as superbly portrayed in the film “The Lives of Others.” It would be interesting, and, I think, important, to know what percentage of New Yorkers informed on their fellow citizens. Now, again, you may think such a comparison is not morally valid, that de Blasio’s call to New Yorkers to serve a Stasi-like role was morally justified given the coronavirus pandemic. But you cannot deny it is Stasi-like or that, other than identifying spies during World War II, this is unprecedented in American history at anywhere near this level.

This past Friday night, I gathered with six others for a Shabbat dinner with friends in Santa Monica, California. On my Friday radio show, I announced I would be doing that, and if I was arrested, it would be worth it. In my most pessimistic dreams, I never imagined that in America, having dinner at a friend’s house would be an act of civil disobedience, perhaps even a criminal act.

But that is precisely what happens in a police state.

Read the entire article HERE.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says some leagues might have to skip season due to coronavirus pandemic

Via Yahoo News

As the sports world remains shut down — with a few exceptions — by the coronavirus pandemic, some leagues are trying their hardest to figure out a way to salvage their season.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s top public health expert, said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday that some sports might have to skip the rest of their seasons if the conditions remain dangerous:

“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” he said. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.’”

Fauci reportedly said that the key factor in whether or not sports leagues can return to action is how quickly the U.S. can gain broad access to tests with quick results.

Until the day comes that there are enough tests out there for leagues to use them without taking them out of the hands of those who need them for purposes more important than sporting events, it seems unlikely any major leagues’ plans to hold a season will get off the ground.

Per the Times, Fauci said any return to action would have to happen gradually, with authorities prepared to step in if the number of coronavirus cases begin to grow again:

“I would love to be able to have all sports back,” Dr. Fauci said. “But as a health official and a physician and a scientist, I have to say, right now, when you look at the country, we’re not ready for that yet.”

Among the top leagues, the NBA and NHL have both paused seasons that were already in progress, while MLB has indefinitely postponed the beginning of a 2020 season initially scheduled to begin in late March. The NFL, having wrapped up its season in February, has until early September before games are scheduled to begin, but will need to make a decision on postponing its season long before that.

Read the entire article HERE.

Atlantic Mag Hopes Coronavirus Leads America to China-Style Speech Censorship

The far-left Atlantic Magazine is openly lobbying for the coronavirus pandemic to lead to more China-style speech censorship here in America.

I know the above sentence sounds like hyperbole, like I’m taking the Atlantic’s argument to an extreme… But I’m not. This is precisely what the Atlantic is calling for and hoping for…

As the saying goes these days, the Atlantic is saying the quiet parts out loud…

As surprising as it may sound, digital surveillance and speech control in the United States already show many similarities to what one finds in authoritarian states such as China. Constitutional and cultural differences mean that the private sector, rather than the federal and state governments, currently takes the lead in these practices, which further values and address threats different from those in China. But the trend toward greater surveillance and speech control here, and toward the growing involvement of government, is undeniable and likely inexorable.

In the great debate of the past two decades about freedom versus control of the network, China was largely right and the United States was largely wrong. Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet, and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.

…

We live—and for several years, we have been living—in a world of serious and growing harms resulting from digital speech. Governments will not stop worrying about these harms. And private platforms will continue to expand their definition of offensive content, and will use algorithms to regulate it ever more closely. The general trend toward more speech control will not abate.

If that isn’t frightening enough, the piece was written by two law professors.

So we now have two law professors, one from Harvard, using a mainstream publication to argue in favor of big tech and big government teaming up to censor speech and ideas, in favor of embracing a communist country’s speech oppression techniques as a means “to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.”

And who exactly will be put in charge of deciding what our “society’s norms and values” are?

I’m guessing it won’t be We the People. And it sure as hell won’t be Donald Trump, the only person elected by way of a national referendum.

No, it will be the corrupt media and bureaucrats and, of course, Harvard law professors, who will decide what America’s “norms and values” are.

Dear God.

The American left is finally coming out of the Stalinist closet, and not only embracing a big, central government, but also big business in the form of big tech.

The American left is finally coming out of the Orwellian closet to announce that Slavery is Freedom! Government Censorship is Freedom! Big Business Controlling Speech and Blacklisting Ideas is Freedom!

What’s especially grotesque about this is that if you want to talk about our society’s norms, there was a time when the idea of encouraging our government to use Facebook as a black site to abuse our civil rights would have been laughed out of the offices of the Atlantic. What could be more illiberal?

But true liberalism is dead at places like the Atlantic, replaced with a dangerously unstable leftism that openly seeks to control the free flow of speech and ideas by way of massive corporations. And then the Atlantic sells this malevolent oppression of ideas as the key to preserving democracy.

Read the entire article HERE.

Environmentalists Get Newest Michael Moore Doc Pulled From Distribution Over ‘Misinformation’

Via The Daily Wire

It may be more difficult to see Michael Moore’s next documentary, and not because movie theaters are closed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. A group of environmentalists — leftists — pressured Moore’s distributor into dropping the film, leaving the documentary, which focuses on the environmental movement, in limbo.

Moore debuted his film online on Earth Day as a way of paying homage to his first film, a short documentary about pollution in his home town of Flint, Michigan, Moore made when he was in high school. “Planet of the Humans,” is supposed to be a natural extension of Moore’s first movie, showing how little the environmental situation has improved in the fifty years since “Pollution in My Hometown” premiered.

“50 yrs ago today, on the 1st EarthDay, I showed my first documentary ‘Pollution in My Hometown’ to the ppl of Flint. I was 15yrs old. It was my EagleScout project. 50 yrs later, the planet is in WORSE shape. I won’t be silent. Watch ‘Planet of the Humans,’ Moore tweeted as an introduction to “Planet of the Humans.”

Certainly, Moore assumed his efforts would be well-received. Although his last few efforts — a documentary about the election of President Donald Trump called “Fahrenheit 11/9,” and a one-man show about his “resistance” in the Trump age — both flopped, Moore is a beloved member of the progressive left and his films always find an audience.

This time, though, Moore seems to have made a mistake: “Planet of the Humans” criticizes the left’s obsession with alternative energy sources and renewable fuels.

Moore’s criticisms aren’t without merit. In the film, he derides alternative energies like wind and solar as “useless,” ultimately dependent on fossil fuels, and unable to meet the great demand for energy that drove the desire for fossil fuels in the first place. Moore also seems to “ignore” the Green New Deal, one of Moore’s most vocal critics points out, likely because the Green New Deal is a thinly veiled attempt to destroy American industry and prop up progressive pet causes rather than an adequate way of addressing climate change.

Moore also, critics say, takes aim at darlings of the progressive environmentalist movement, labeling them as either figureheads or profiteers.

Read the entire article HERE.

Inspiring: Celebrities Spell Out ‘We’re All In This Together’ With Their Yachts

Via The Babylon Bee (Satire)

MALIBU, CA—Many described the scene as breathtaking or awe-inspiring. Others were so touched they couldn’t find the words to communicate how they felt. Most simply wept.

No matter how they expressed their emotions, everyone agreed that the scene off the Malibu coast Monday morning was exactly what America needed to get through this pandemic. Celebrities gathered their multi-million-dollar yachts on the waters of the Pacific Ocean and spelled out “WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.”

“We’re just like you,” said Ellen DeGeneres on her Instagram as her servants sailed her yacht into position to form the apostrophe. “Yes, maybe I have a yacht and you’ve only ever been on the Storybook Canal boats at Disneyland, but still. It’s pretty much the same thing.”

“Stay home, save lives — it’s not that hard,” said Patton Oswalt, whose fleet of yachts made up several of the letters. “Look, poor people, it’s not worth risking your life just to go to Fuddruckers or work a job or whatever it is you peasants do all day.”

After the stunt was over, Oswalt had his chauffeur drive him home in his hot tub limousine as he snorted several million dollars’ worth of powdered caviar.

“All of humanity is fighting this together and we’re all as one,” said Lady Gaga, who was wearing a bathing suit made out of gold bricks. “Though, I mean, don’t try to get on my yacht. My guards will literally shoot you. That’s not a metaphor.”

Check out all of the Bee’s takes on politics and culture HERE.

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