In the last few months, we have seen a concerted (if not coordinated) effort to destroy various facets of the fabric of the United States. Whether or not the destroyers will be ultimately successful remains to be seen, but the confluence of these seemingly unrelated events seems a bit fishy to me. Let’s dig.
First, we started the year with Impeachment proceedings brought against President Trump. No crime was identified, but that was not necessary, as the House Of Representatives told us so. They filed the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, knowing that no ‘high crimes or misdemeanors’ had been committed—if so, they surely would’ve listed them in those Articles. The Senate predictably voted for acquittal of the Articles strictly down Party lines, except for a single GOP vote on a single Article (thanks, Mitt).
But in the meantime, while all of this impeachment stuff was occupying the efforts of the House, Senate, and President, word was leaking out about a new corona virus, COVID-19, out of Wuhan, China. President Trump first mentioned the virus in his State of the Union Address at the end of January. Trump had already convened a Task Force regarding the virus, and immediately suspended air traffic between China and the US, followed by traffic from Europe to the US, as the virus spread there (mostly in Italy). For his efforts, Trump was branded the usual nonsense of ‘racist’, ‘xenophobe’, etc., as if protecting the US was a mean, cowardly act of some sort.
The virus hit China and Italy HARD, with SCARY morbidity rates. Extrapolated to the US population, initial death estimates in the US were in excess of 2 MILLION! To try to avoid a worst-case catastrophe scenario, where our health care system, hospitals especially, would get completely overrun, Trump declared a State of Emergency. A few days later, Trump issued guidelines, again based upon the opinions of his ‘experts’ at the CDC and NIH. This included ‘shelter in place’ suggestions (stay home unless absolutely necessary), as well as prohibiting crowds of 100, then 50, then 10 people at a time. These rules were to be in place for two weeks, to prevent that hospital overrun. But the net effect of these rules was to basically STOP the US economy cold, removing customers from all sporting events (cancelled), bars (closed), restaurants (curb service, take-out, or delivery only), and any business deemed ‘non-essential’.
While the President can make such rule ‘suggestions’, enacting such things falls to the Governors of each State. Here is where the variety and inconsistency ruled. Some States, like South Dakota, decided to ignore the suggestions—its population is so spread out, ‘social distancing’ is performed by default. Some States took the ‘shelter in place’ to historic levels, virtually outlawing businesses from opening. And some States took the ‘two week’ time frame and shattered it, extending their version of quarantine into several MONTHS affairs. Some even stated that the goal had changed from ‘flattening out the curve’ for our health care system to ‘until we get a vaccine’! If that was the new benchmark, their State’s economy could be closed for YEARS! Small businesses were already failing and closing, as the two-to-three month closure was simply too much to keep them open. Three weeks from the start of the shutdown, over 40 MILLION Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits.
Next, in order to try to ease the economic impact of the shutdown, Congress did what it does best—spend. But they did so in historic numbers. The first ‘relief’ bill totaled $3T! To put that in perspective, total tax receipts for 2018 were around $3.6T. But shoved into this bill were so many items completely unrelated to the emergency, it became a smorgasbord of expensive wish-list spending. With promises of more to come!
But finally, when the fatality numbers of reality wound up small fractions of the estimates (as of this writing, less than 120,000 people have had their deaths listed due to COVID-19. And some of those were never tested, or tested positive but died due to other causes. Let’s just say the 118,000 number is highly suspect, and leave it at that). So States began slowly re-opening their economies, implementing phased approaches to those openings: six foot separation between customers, partial occupancy, slower opening for hair and nail salons, etc. Oddly enough, States with GOP governors opened quicker than States with Democrat governors. It seems the GOP governors saw more damage to their States via the lockdown of their economy than the virus itself. Those numbers were born out, in hindsight, although it may take years to get a true accounting of such things. In any case, the moribund economy started to recover. Certainly not all sectors, not all areas—the cruise ship business may take years to recover, if it even does. Waitstaff, servers, and anyone in the hospitality or entertainment industries are still overwhelmingly unemployed. Sports arenas and events are still cancelled. Re-hiring has begun, with folks keeping an eye on COVID-19 case numbers reporting. But being ‘sheltered in place’ has another adverse effect: people are simply tired of being cooped up.
But wait! As soon as the economy started to walk from a dead stop, another seemingly unrelated cataclysm popped up! A multiple felon, George Floyd, a Black man, tried to pass off a counterfeit $20 bill at a Minneapolis, MN convenience store. Police officers responded to the store’s 911 call. While numerous people cell phone filmed the ensuing take-down of Floyd, a Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, a White cop, decided the best way to handle the situation was to put his knee into Floyd’s neck, on the ground, for nearly nine minutes. Floyd complained that ‘he couldn’t breathe’, yet Chauvin continued. None of the other three MPD officers intervened. Floyd died—on camera(s). Of note: the coroner found that Floyd died of heart issues, with Fentanyl in his system, not strangulation. But that does NOT matter. Nor does the ‘sketchy’ details of the take-down and aftermath–conspiracy nuts went crazy with this thing! Within hours, protests of White police brutality of Black people sprung up nationwide. Had they remained peaceful protests, they would not be mentioned here. Instead, protests turned into riots, looting, arson, and general mayhem. All across the US, large cities (in predominately Democrat cities and States) were on fire. Untold billions of dollars of damage happened in the span of two or three days. Not only were several businesses looted to the bare shelves, and several burned to the ground (including churches, for some reason), several folks died in the violence. Notably absent from the wall-to-wall TV broadcasts of the mayhem was any police presence at all. The same folks that assigned SWAT teams to prevent businesses from opening, now disappeared, as the very reason for SWAT teams’ existence happened, mayors issued stand-down orders. Given free reign, total chaos ensued. Of note: light or no bail policies in NYC and other cities meant immediate release for those few actually jailed for their mayhem. Many Hollywood stars have pledged millions of dollars to a fund to bail out the ‘protesters’. Also note: it is rather easy to conflate protesters with rioters. Don’t. Protesters are Constitutionally protected folks, as long as they remain ‘peaceful’. Cross that line into violence, criminality begins. Oh, and remember ex-felon, the late George Floyd? He was given THREE televised funeral services, with appearances by the usual race hustlers. Notably absent was reference to his criminal record—upon dying via cop, he gained a level of sainthood not seen by many.
In Seattle, WA, ANTIFA decided to occupy seven blocks of downtown. Originally named Capitol Hill, it was next referred to as CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), then renamed to CHOP (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest). The renaming was necessary when they realized that autonomous meant ‘no help from anyone’–can’t have THAT! Instead, CHOP now receives food, water, and supplies from…the mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkan! Not only did Durkan remove the entire police presence there (including ceding a police precinct house), she is also supplying them, and referring to them in PLEASANT terms!
As a backdrop to all of this, Black Lives Matter has increased in stature, as the protests continue. Statues of anyone remotely offensive to BLM have been destroyed nationwide. Hundreds of businesses have pledged financial support of BLM. Every media platform is apologizing for slavery 180 years ago (as if the 600,000 dead in the Civil War made no impact). And to criticize BLM leads to job loss. Several companies have now promised to re-brand anything that might be considered racially insensitive. ‘Aunt Jemimah’ syrup is under fire to re-brand. In Texas, MLS listings are changing ‘Master Bedroom’ and ‘Master Bath’ designations to ‘Main Bedroom’ and ‘Main Bath’ to avoid scrutiny.
In summary, our Legislative system is failing, becoming hyper-partisan more so than ever before. Our safety systems are failing, disappearing when needed most. We have a few bad cops, with terrible records, that remain on the force, to brutalize citizens. We have mayors and Governors siding with the lawbreakers over citizens (kinda like illegal immigration).
So, with all of the chaos in place, what do we do? Are we angry enough yet? Is it time to remember how society and civilization are SUPPOSED to function? Let me give a brief summary of the old approach:
1. Property owners and business owners pay property taxes and sales taxes. In some States, they also pay franchise taxes and Income taxes. Federally, we have a progressive Income Tax, to fund national priorities.
2. In return, localities buy services that individuals and individual businesses cannot: fire departments, police departments, food inspectors, traffic patrols, street cleaners, jail systems, court systems, prison systems, highway builds and maintenance, 911 dispatch systems, water treatment systems, etc. Part of the system financed is that of Federal, State, and Local law creation.
3. It is a reasonable assumption that the folks in point 1 expect the systems in point 2 to operate well, within reason. It is a reasonable expectation that police and fire departments will keep local citizens and businesses reasonably safe from crime and mayhem. Elected officials, namely mayors and police and fire chiefs, will coordinate and operate their departments as effectively as possible. Noting that police and fire cannot be everywhere instantly, we assume they will arrive as quickly as possible, when emergencies arise. They are called ‘first responders’ for a reason, although in reality, the homeowner is frequently the initial line of defense against lawbreakers.
4. If one commits a crime against people or property, they are jailed, awaiting trial. Some can post bail to be free until arraignment, others are not afforded that luxury. Trials take place, presided by a judge, who is supposed to be an impartial entity, assuring that the legal process is maintained. In some cases, judges may also assign sentences to parties found guilty of crimes; in others, a jury is empaneled to perform that task (as well as determine guilt or innocence).
5. Serious criminals, having been found guilty in point 4, are isolated from society in our prison system. It is both a punishment and a protection of society as a whole. Once a criminal has paid his debt to society, he resumes his place in society. In reality, it is very difficult for an ex-felon to resume that place. Most businesses will not hire them. Return to criminal behavior is a frequent occurrence.
6. Contrary to popular belief, racism and bigotry are NOT crimes. While reprehensible behaviors, there are no laws prohibiting either. However, there are laws preventing businesses from discriminating against anyone, either in hiring, treatment, firing, or serving customers for any protected class—meaning race, color, religion, age, sex, etc.
7. Police have rules, too. They are extensively trained, as their jobs are quite difficult, with many officers not surviving their work day. We allow them to be armed, as they are a boundary between lawful and lawless. But those rules are critical. If they exceed those protections, police become criminals, subject to the same rules as point 4 above. Most police are members of police unions, so removal and punishment of stray cops is difficult, if non-existent. This needs to change, if we want to maintain confidence in the entire department. ‘Bad apples’ exist in every walk of life, but few walks of life can have as detrimental effect on the public as ‘bad apple’ cops.
Now let’s discuss current conditions. I can make a case that points two thru seven of those listed above are now broken. With mayors and governors flaunting the law, supporting implicitly or explicitly lawbreakers, with lawbreakers out on the street the same night of their crimes (due to low or no bail policies), with removal of police forces entirely from riot conditions, with the allowance, if not endorsement, of the situation in Seattle to continue…the civilization contract has been voided, and is no longer in effect. Why should ANY individual or business pay taxes, other than to fund our military? If our persons or property are no longer protected in any way, why are we paying tax dollars to those agencies? Note: it is not a failure of the agencies themselves, but of their leadership. If it is every man or woman for themselves, why should we observe ANY gun laws? The folks imposing such laws have private security, paid for by the same taxpayers they wish to deny protection. Are we obeying laws at all, simply because it is habit? That we happen to be nice? That we happen to adhere to a higher moral code?
What can we do? My suggestion will offend MANY. My solution is to play by the rules of the lawbreakers. When they willingly step outside of the boundaries of society and civilization, the only recourse is to meet them at that level. Current status appears that only lawbreakers have ‘rights’—the burned-out husks of life-long endeavors of business do not; the surviving families of the dead do not. So, the rules of engagement should change to fit the behavior of the lawbreaker. Apply as much lethal force as necessary. PERIOD. The lawbreaker chose the rules, it is time for us to reciprocate. Burn down a building, or loot a business? BANG! I am not kidding in the slightest. Up to this point, criminals have met little or no resistance—they’ve even been given carte blanche to continue their destructive behavior! Time to end that NOW.
A point should be maid: the overwhelming percentage of the US population is peaceful, hard-working, and law abiding. It is the radical few that are causing such wanton destruction. It is time to thin them from the civilization they chose to step outside of and demonize. I have a sneaky suspicion that it won’t take too many dead lawbreakers to convince the others of the foolish error of their ways. I think it’s time to find out.
