Monday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Good morning Deplorables, there are 100 days to save the country.

Stress Test of a Straining Superpower

By Patrick J. Buchanan

How great a burden can even an unrivaled superpower carry before it buckles and breaks? We may be about to find out.

Rome was the superpower of its time, ruling for centuries almost the entirety of what was then called the civilized world.

Great Britain was a superpower of its day, but she bled, bankrupted and broke herself in the Thirty Years War of the West from 1914-1945.

By Winston Churchill’s death in 1965, the empire had vanished, and Britain was being invaded by a stream of migrants from its former colonies.

America was the real superpower of the 20th century and became sole claimant to that title with the collapse of the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991, an event Vladimir Putin called “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.”

Has America’s turn come? Is America breaking under the burdens it has lately assumed and is attempting to carry?

Today, at the presidential library of Richard Nixon, who ushered Mao’s China onto the world stage, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is laying out a strategy of containment and confrontation of a China that is far more the equal of the USA than was the USSR.

Writes Hudson’s Institute’s Arthur Herman:

“In the 1960s, manufacturing made up 25% of U.S. gross domestic product. It’s barely 11% today. More than five million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000.”

China controls the production of 97% of the antibiotics upon which the lives of millions of Americans depend. She provides critical components in the production chains of U.S. weapons systems.

Beijing commands more warships than the U.S. Navy and holds a trillion dollars in U.S. debt. Moscow never had this kind of hold on us.

Writes Herman: “Since 2000, America’s defense industry has shed more than 20,000 U.S.-based manufacturing companies. As the work those companies once did domestically has shifted overseas, much of it has gone to China. From rare-earth metals and permanent magnets to high-end electronic components and printed circuit boards, the Pentagon has slowly become dependent on Chinese industrial output. Asia produces 90% of the world’s circuit boards — more than half of them in China. The U.S. share of global circuit-board production has fallen to 5%.”

Decoupling from China and re-industrializing America would be an immense undertaking. But unless and until we do it, we remain vulnerable.

Another decades-long struggle, this time with China, like the Cold War that consumed so much of our attention and wealth from the 1940s to 1991, is not the only challenge America faces.

Through NATO, the U.S. is still the principal protector of almost 30 European nations. And despite Donald Trump’s promise to end our forever wars, 8,500 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, 5,000 in Iraq, hundreds in Syria, thousands more in Kuwait and Bahrain.

There are other huge new claims on America’s time, attention and resources. Some 145,000 Americans have perished in five months of the coronavirus pandemic, more U.S. dead than all the Americans soldiers lost in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

A thousand Americans are dying every day, a higher daily death toll than in World War II and the Civil War combined.

The U.S. economy has been thrust into something approaching a second Depression. The 2020 deficit runs into the trillions of dollars. Our national debt is now far larger than our GDP and soaring. Tens of millions are unemployed. And the shutdowns are beginning anew.

From the protests, riots, rampages and statue-smashing of the last two months, it is apparent that millions of Americans detest our history and heroes. Though nowhere in recorded time have 42 million people of African descent achieved the measures of freedom and prosperity they have in the USA, we are daily admonished that ours is a rotten and sick society whose every institution is shot through with “systemic racism.”

The racial divisions are almost as ugly as during the riots of the 1960s in Harlem, Watts, Newark and 100 cities that exploded after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

In the numbers of citizens now shot and killed every week, great American cities such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago are looking more like Baghdad.

The Democratic Party is promising to take up the issue of racial reparations for our original sin of slavery. The first order of business, we are told, is ending inequality — of income, wealth, educational attainment and health care. The racial disparity in police arrests, prosecutions, incarcerations and school expulsions, must end.

But if the trillions we have spent to address these inequalities since the Great Society days have failed to make greater progress, why should we believe that we even know how to succeed, absent the imposition of a rigid socialist egalitarianism of results?

The Old Republic is facing a stress test unlike any it has known since the Union was threatened with dissolution in the Civil War.

Check out all of Pat’s columns HERE.

Draft Of 2020 Democrat Platform Is A Socialist, Anti-White Manifesto

Via Chris Donaldson/Trending Politics

The complete lack of any set of actual policies that could appeal to all Americans has led the radicalized Democratic party into the darkness of open racism.

In an inversion of when the party was openly antagonistic to blacks, supported slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws, today’s iteration of the nations’ oldest political party has become a vessel of anti-white bigotry.

With racial relations now at the lowest point in half a century thanks to Barack Obama and his fellow social arsonists, the party of JFK and FDR has traded their one-time mantle of defenders of the working class for one of a divisive hostility toward white people that could shatter the republic if President Trump is defeated in November.

For a glimpse at the virulent animosity toward whites, one need look no farther than the 2020 DNC platform, a draft version of which was just published and which expands the definition of “white supremacy” so broadly that it could potentially include all who were born with a light complexion.

Via The Washington Examiner, “Democratic National Committee platform mentions ‘whites’ 15 times, all damning”:

The draft 2020 Democratic National Committee platform being circulated in Washington aims to reinforce the view that liberals are best situated to battle for minorities seeking higher wages, better housing and jobs, and more money for schools.

With the August convention coming on the heels of the Black Lives Matter protests, it features support for the movement and an expanded pledge to root out racism.

The preamble says, “We will give hate no safe harbor. We will never amplify or legitimize the voices of bigotry, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or white supremacy.”

In promising change, it sets up one group that has it too good and is holding minorities back: whites.

n more than 80 pages in the draft platform published by Politico, whites are mentioned 15 times, all critical, including three references to white supremacy or supremacists and one to white nationalists. The document doesn’t capitalize white as it does Black, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.

In most mentions, the reference is to how whites are better off at the expense of others. And the promise often is to “close the gap” between minorities and whites, though no solutions are offered.

Badly stung by the rejection of Hillary Clinton by white working-class voters in 2016, the Democrats are out for revenge.

The platform also has been heavily influenced by Bernie Sanders, the race-baiting crank whose appeal to gullible young people has planted the seeds of socialism in a nation that is now coming apart at the seams.

Published by Politico, the draft platform has numerous references to whites who are lumped in with white supremacists, a shift that began after President Trump’s election but has taken on a much more overt tone in the last few months.

Some excerpts:

– President Trump’s words and actions have given safe harbor and encouragement to bigots, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, and white supremacists.

– Median incomes are lower and poverty rates are higher for Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, compared to median white households.

– And there is a persistent, pernicious racial wealth gap that holds millions of Americans back, with the typical white household holding six times more wealth than the typical Latino family and 10 times more wealth than the typical Black family.

– The extreme gap in household wealth and income between people of color — especially Black Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans — and white families is hurting our working class and holding our country back.

– Each year, the United States spends $23 billion more on schools in predominantly white districts than in non-white districts.

– We will root out systemic racism from our military justice system, where black service members are twice as likely as white ones to face court-martial.

The takeover of the Democratic party by the Marxist-inspired Black Lives Matter and their socialist allies is now complete and America has never seen a party as openly racist as this one – at least since before the civil rights era.

As renowned American writer Eric Hoffer once wrote in his seminal 195 book The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements:  “Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.”

The DNC platform makes it perfectly clear who that devil is.

Read the entire article HERE.

It Might Be Time To Let the Liberal Riot Hellholes Burn

Via PJ Media

A little over a month ago I led the Briefing writing about the CHAZ/CHOP embarrassment in Seattle, only semi-seriously suggesting that it might be best for President Trump if the that little experiment in anarchy stuck around until election day. The one good thing about CHAZ/CHOP was that the brats didn’t riot as much while they were playing live-action SimCity.

As with just about everything that has happened since March, things have gotten even more out of hand since then. The Pacific Northwest has become riot central now, with both Seattle and Portland spiraling into chaos that seems more like a bad movie than real life.

Seattle is becoming more problematic by the hour. Bryan wrote a great post over the weekend about why that’s not likely to get better any time soon. It mostly comes down to the fact that there are no adults in charge there anymore. The mayor and city council are unhinged ideologues who are playing for the cameras while endangering the lives of their police department and citizens.

They have neutered the ability of law enforcement to the point where the police sent a letter to local businesses informing them that they would no longer be able to respond when large riot crowds were present. Thankfully, a federal judge got involved but that’s only a temporary fix.

Down the road in Portland a perma-riot scene is taking place as well. Last week discussed the federal presence that President Trump sent to the city and I was all for that at the time. Now…maybe not so much.

Other than some decent beer and food, I’m not sure why we need to keep Portland or Seattle around anyway. Let the riots continue and see just how badly the woke white liberals want to still pretend that they’re far left progressives. Once the violence spills over into tonier neighborhoods — and it will — a lot of the “down with the struggle” Democrats might just decide that they’re done playing hippies from 1968 and get the hell out of Dodge.

A point I’ve been making over and over this year is that these liberal cities need to feel the pain of electing childish leftists. When your police chief is imploring your mayor to not proceed down a path of lawless madness and the mayor is ignoring her, it’s time for the idiots who voted for that mayor to wallow in some harsh reality and consequences for a while. Riot on and see how that works out for you.

Read the entire article HERE.

Minnesota couple banned from Walmart after wearing Nazi flags as face coverings

Via The Hill

Two people that were seen over the weekend wearing Nazi flags as face coverings at a Walmart in Marshall, Minn., are temporarily banned from visiting Walmart facilities, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to local media.

The representative told local NBC station KARE 11 on Saturday that the ban will apply for one year at least after the two customers were reportedly issued trespass notices from the local police department over the Saturday incident.

In footage that emerged on social media Saturday and prompted viral backlash online, a man and woman could be seen wearing the swastikas over their faces while going through a checkout line at the local Walmart.

The couple could then be seen gesturing at people off-screen that told them they were “sick” for the display, with the woman in the video flipping her middle finger at the other customers.

“You’re sick. You have an illness. You can’t be American and wear that mask. You cannot. We literally had a war about this,” a man, identified by the Minnesota Reformer as Benjamin Ruesch, could be heard telling the couple off-camera.

“If you vote for Biden, you’re going to be in Nazi Germany. That’s what it’s going to be like,” the woman wearing the Nazi flag says back at one point.

“You’re literally wearing a Nazi flag right now,” a woman off-screen tells her.

“Yeah, ‘cause socialism’s gonna happen here, right now, in America,” the woman donning the swastika responds.

Read the entire article HERE.

Rutgers Declares Grammar Racist

Via The Washington Free Beacon

English Department pledges to incorporate ‘critical grammar’ into program

he English department at a public university declared that proper English grammar is racist.

Rutgers University’s English department will change its standards of English instruction in an effort to “stand with and respond” to the Black Lives Matter movement. In an email written by department chairwoman Rebecca Walkowitz, the Graduate Writing Program will emphasize “social justice” and “critical grammar.”

Walkowitz said the department would respond to recent events with “workshops on social justice and writing,” “increasing focus on graduate student life,” and “incorporating ‘critical grammar’ into our pedagogy.” The “critical grammar” approach challenges the standard academic form of the English language in favor of a more inclusive writing experience. The curriculum puts an emphasis on the variability of the English language instead of accuracy.

“This approach challenges the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard ‘academic’ English backgrounds at a disadvantage,” Walkowitz said. “Instead, it encourages students to develop a critical awareness of the variety of choices available to them [with] regard to micro-level issues in order to empower them and equip them to push against biases based on ‘written’ accents.”

Additionally, the department said it will provide more reading to upper-level writing classes on the subjects of racism, sexism, homophobia, and related forms of “systemic discrimination.”

Leonydus Johnson, a speech pathologist and libertarian activist, said the school’s change makes the racist assumption that minorities cannot comprehend traditional English. Johnson called the change “insulting, patronizing, and in itself, extremely racist.”

“The idea that expecting a student to write in grammatically correct sentences is indicative of racial bias is asinine,” Johnson told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s like these people believe that being non-white is an inherent handicap or learning disability…. That’s racism. It has become very clear to me that those who claim to be ‘anti-racist’ are often the most racist people in this country.”

Read the entire article HERE.

No COVID-19 Here: Restrictions Relaxed for Gay Bathhouses, Sex Venues In San Francisco

Via SF Weekly

Gay bathhouses could have an easier time returning to San Francisco, after the board of supervisors approved an ordinance that would ease restrictions for adult sex venues on July 21 with a unaminous vote.

This will amend the Heath Code, requiring the Director of Health to “adopt minimum health and safety standards” for commercial adult sex venues. It will also remove decades-old policies that required these businesses to monitor sexual activities and prohibited private rooms and locked doors.

These regulations were put in place in 1984, when the AIDS crisis was devastating gay communities in San Francisco. They specifically targeted sex clubs and gay bathhouses, and while sex clubs eventually reopened in the city after shuttering their doors, gay bathhouses never did, according to the Bay Area Reporter.

That could change after the COVID-19 pandemic is over (this new ruling will not affect the city’s reopening timeline). The ordinance, led by Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, will help “decriminalize sexuality” according to a press release by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

“It’s time for regulations that were put in place at a time of fear and a lack of knowledge to catch up with the progress we’ve made in the fight to end AIDS,” Joe Hollendoner, CEO of San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said in the press release. “With PrEP, U=U and other advancements in sexual health, bathhouse restrictions are antiquated and stigmatizing.”

Read the entire article HERE.

NBA Now Requiring All Players To Wear Masks Depicting Chinese Flag

Via The Babylon Bee (Satire)

U.S.—After James Harden wore a Blue Lives Matter bandana around his face earlier this week and was swiftly condemned for it, the NBA clarified its masking policy: all players are required to wear masks, but they must depict the Communist Chinese flag.

“We need to stay safe, mask up, and show our support for the Communists,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “American flag masks, Blue Lives Matter masks, or any other unapproved political statement will not be tolerated. We have to love our neighbor by masking up and showing our loyalty to President Xi, may he live forever.”

“This is about keeping our players safe and keeping the money flowing in from China.”

At publishing time, it had been confirmed that all jerseys will now read, “WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!” on the back.

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

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