Wake Up America! Freedom is NOT Free!

 

Are You Thankful for America? Then Fight for Her

11/25/2021 - Laura Hollis Townhall.com

With Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, aided and abetted by a relentlessly partisan (and deceitful) media, the left is on the march. They're going to usher in a new order, by hook or by crook. They are dismantling the foundation of this country as fast as they can, and what's going to be left once they're done "building back better" is going to be devoid of decency, much less anything else of value.

The left favors poverty over prosperity, incompetence over skill, ignorance over experience, theft over commerce, arsonists over property owners, predators over children and criminals over law-abiding citizens. This isn't hyperbole; look at their policies, the people they put in positions of power, those they praise and those they prosecute.

As a businessman, former President Donald Trump understood the wisdom of leaving the nuts and bolts of the economy to the free market system in which millions of enterprises and their owners compete for customers' valuable dollars.

By contrast, the numbskulls in the Biden administration constrict oil production, send prices of gas and consumer goods soaring and then blame it on OPEC and the oil companies. President Joe Biden's unconstitutional vaccine mandate is causing walkouts among pilots, hospital personnel, police forces and truckers, at a time when we need all these workers badly. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg takes paternity leave in the middle of a supply chain crisis. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laughs when asked what the Biden administration is doing about oil prices and admits she has no idea how much oil the country uses daily. Vice President Kamala Harris' evident lack of ability has become the stuff of daily meme mockery, but she outdid herself with her recent "explanation" of inflation. ("Prices ... have gone up.")

Biden's nominee for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova, wants oil and gas companies to go out of business. "(W)e want them to go bankrupt," she says in one video, and in another, "The way we basically get rid of those carbon financiers is we starve them of their sources of capital." A former resident of the Soviet Union, Omarova also wants to nationalize banks and private investment. (She was arrested for shoplifting from T.J. Maxx in 1995; should we be surprised when someone with a history of personal theft extols the virtue of government theft?)

If prosperity is not the left's strong suit, neither is public safety. In 2020, the death of George Floyd while in police custody plunged the nation into widespread civil unrest. There were nearly 600 violent riots across the country. Forty-eight of America's 50 largest cities had rioting, arson and violence. Dozens of people were killed. Thousands were injured. (More than 2,000 were police officers.) In cities like Portland and Seattle, the violence went on for weeks. The national damage was calculated at more than $2 billion.

Democrats and the media excused it, calling the riots "mostly peaceful protests." Harris stumped for money to post bail for rioters and looters, and told talk show host Stephen Colbert, "Everyone beware, because they're not gonna stop ... everyone should take note of that. They're not gonna let up. And they should not."

Americans trying to defend themselves in the midst of this chaos found themselves targeted for prosecution. The prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse (recently acquitted of murder charges in shootings during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year) is only the most recent example. In June of last year, St. Louis residents Mark and Patricia McCloskey confronted armed protesters who had accessed their property by destroying a wrought iron gate. The McCloskeys were themselves armed. No shots were fired; no violence took place. But the McCloskeys were arrested and charged, and Missouri's chief disciplinary counsel, Alan Pratzel, petitioned the state supreme court to indefinitely suspend the McCloskeys' law licenses for "moral turpitude."

Across the country, Americans are increasingly victimized by the left's system of sanctioned lawlessness. New York's elimination of cash bail has resulted in criminals being released to commit crimes again. California announced last year that it would no longer prosecute retail theft less than $950. Shoplifting is now rampant. Hundreds of security videos posted on social media show people brazenly stealing from drug stores, luxury retailers and everything in between. With little legal recourse, retailers are reducing hours or closing stores.

Lives are being lost, as well. Earlier this week, a man slammed his car into a crowd of people during a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in what police are describing as "an intentional act." Six people are dead and dozens are hospitalized; many are children. The accused, Darrell Brooks, is a serial criminal and sex offender with 12 convictions and arrest records in Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin. Just three weeks ago, he was released on $1,000 bail after running over the mother of his child with his car.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has defended the kind of "progressive" bail reform that let Brooks out on a paltry $1,000 bond. In a 2007 interview, he said, "Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach."

See? Your life and the lives of your children are just necessary casualties in pursuit of progressive ideologies that protect criminals and leave law-abiding citizens vulnerable.

And the hits just keep on coming. Parents who object to pornography or critical race theory in schools are being targeted by the Justice Department, as are conservative journalists such as James O'Keefe, whose home was raided by the FBI last week.

The message the left is sending, loud and clear, is this: "We want what you have, and you'll give it to us, or we'll take it by force. If you object to our agenda, we'll send our shock troops to torch your towns and cities. If you defend yourself, we'll prosecute you. Your children are ours to indoctrinate. If you object, we'll call you 'racists' and 'domestic terrorists.' What we don't want, and don't want you to have, we'll destroy."

Midterm elections are a year away, but it is not too soon to start rallying the troops. On this Thanksgiving Day, we need to be grateful enough for our country and we have to commit to fighting for her -- before there's nothing left to fight for.

 

 

Andrea Speaks Kind Words For All of Us

 

There’s still much for which we should be thankful in 2021

By Andrea Widburg www.americanthinker.com

I spend every day reading the news and then writing about it. Since COVID landed on America’s shores, that’s been a rather depressing task. Lockdowns, masks, election chicanery, Biden and Harris, Afghanistan, inflation, Critical Race Theory, rising fuel prices, transgender madness.... The list of negative things seems endless. And yet there is still so much for which we should be thankful I thought I’d take Thanksgiving as a day to write about things that I see as blessings, rather than things that depress me.

At a personal level, I’m blessed with a wonderful family, good friends, a happy community, and good health. If that were all I had for which to be thankful, it would be enough.

Still, at a personal level, I’m blessed to be working at American Thinker. Thomas Lifson is a visionary who understood early on that conservatives with things to say needed an outlet with editors who can help bring their ideas to the public. He’s also an extremely nice man whom I’ve had the pleasure of calling a friend for over 15 years. The other editors at American Thinker—Monica Showalter, J.R. Dunn, and Drew Belsky—are also lovely people and I consider myself fortunate that I can work with them.

Casting my net wider, beyond the personal, I still believe that, despite its travails, America is the best place on earth. I’ve traveled fairly extensively in Europe and Asia over the years. During my travels, I’ve seen beautiful, even wondrous, things, both manmade and natural, and met good and interesting people everywhere. Still, after every trip, I’m always so happy to return home, not just because I missed my creature comforts and my dogs, but because Americans are the best people in the world: Friendly, optimistic, generous, helpful, energetic, and creative. They have a dynamism that’s just missing in the older worlds overseas. 

I’m grateful that we had four years of Trump’s presidency, not just because he tried darn hard to make a difference but also because his presidency revealed the rot that is American leftism. I grew up as a Kennedy-style Democrat because that’s what my parents were. That Democrat party is dead and gone. In its place, we have a hardcore leftist party that, having failed to convince Americans, who believed in economic mobility, that economic socialism is a good thing, fell back upon racial division, victim theory, COVID, and climate change to break America apart and panic her citizens sufficiently that they’d abandon their liberty.

And in that same vein, although it’s a stretch, I’m kind of grateful for...Biden and Harris. Trump’s presidency revealed how ugly and angry leftists are, and that they are willing to do anything for power. But it’s Biden and Harris, with their polls at 38% and 28%, who have shown the American people that the problem in D.C. wasn’t Trump. It was never Trump. The problem is that leftists are incompetent, tyrannical, hate-filled, anti-American, and deeply divisive. Dr. Jekyll’s kind face is gone and we can finally see that the left has always been Mr. Hyde. That clarity is useful.

There are lots more things for which I’m grateful but I won’t bore you with them. I have for many years almost aggressively cultivated an “attitude of gratitude.” I’ve only got one shot at this life and it’s up to me to view it as a blessing and to make those people whose lives intersect with mine, whether for a fleeting moment at a grocery store checkout or for longer intervals (family and friends), find that time pleasurable, not boring or sad.

Oh, wait! There is one more thing. I’m grateful for the people I’ve gotten to know during the two years I’ve been here at American Thinker. I am the frontline for email here and, while we occasionally get someone too angry to be civil, 99.99% of the emails I receive are from people who want to share an interesting idea, have a little conversation, or just say thank you for something they read. Because of the volume of emails I receive, I cannot respond to anyone at length, but I always value these contacts and feel that I’ve made many friends.

So, thank you to all of you who are among the blessings I’m counting for this Thanksgiving 2021.

 

Biden Disgusting Revolting Immigration Policies Are Rewarding Mexican Cartels

 

Mexico's cartels did not get AMLO's 'hugs, not bullets' memo

By Silvio Canto, Jr. www.americanthinker.com

A couple of years ago, President Lopez-Obrador said something about promoting hugs rather than bullets as his plan for halting Mexico's notorious cartels.

It went like this:

Prior to becoming president, AMLO promised “hugs, not bullets,” a demilitarization of security, an end to high value targeting and a focus on social spending and anti-corruption to reduce the root causes of violence.

It was "woke mexicano" and did not work any better than "woke americano." Mexico recently surpassed the 100,000-deaths milestone in its war with cartels, Jorge Ramos of Univision wrote. Not even Ramos, a lefty, thinks the 'hugs not bullets' strategy, is working.

A couple of days ago, the Mexican cartels sent a message about Cancun. This is from The New York Post:

The hand-printed signs, in neat block letters, appeared in the Tulum marketplace the morning after two tourists were shot dead and three others wounded at a roadside eatery in the bohemian Mexican resort town.

“Attention merchants of Tulum … this was a warning,” said the sign, which went on to threaten “managers and owners” of bars and restaurants on the “Mini Quinta” tourist zone. That’s where the foreigners, visiting the Malquerida Bar last month, had the bad luck of getting caught in cartel crossfire.

The signs were photographed by a local citizens’ advocacy group, which posted them to social media. The message threatened death to merchants who refuse to fork over bribes to the drug trafficking gangs and was signed by Los Pelones — “the bald ones.”

It caught the Mexican government's attention because they sent the armed forces to secure the area.

What we are seeing, according to a friend in Mexico, is several very interesting developments:

First, the criminal elements in Mexico have been emboldened by President Biden's border policy. They are doing lots of business bringing people to the border and charging them a nice fee. Furthermore, who knows what deal they are making with these people once they get here. In other words, what future payments, cash or "services," are due once they settle into the U.S.?

Second, we are watching a battle for territory between the cartels. This is a gang fight not too different than what we see in Chicago every weekend.

Last, but not least, the Mexican government knows that violence involving tourists is bad news for a country desperately needing cash after the pandemic. So they will use whatever force is necessary to keep the gangs out of Cancun. My fear is that the cartels have simply grown to a point where they can't be stopped by Mexican authorities.

Should you go to Cancun? Be very careful.