FMJRA 2.0: A Fistful of Yen

Success does not need excuses, and the United States has been arguably the greatest success story in world history. Scarcely 150 years from the establishment of the first English colonies here, the American nation developed such strength as to be able to win its independence in a protacted war against the British empire which was at the time the greatest naval and military power on the planet.

Less than 150 years after winning our independence, the United States had grown into such a mighty nation as to make the decisive difference in the Allied victory in World War I, a feat repeated less than 30 years later in defeating the Axis powers in World War II. Scarcely had that conflict ended, however, than the United States found itself called to lead the free world in the “long twilight struggle” against Soviet communism in what became known as the Cold War. In this, too, America was triumphant, and by the early 1990s, what Reagan called the “evil empire” of Soviet tyranny collapsed into “the ash heap of history.”

Certainly, a nation that has accomplished such historic feats has every right to call itself successful, and to expect that its successes should elicit praise and admiration, both from its foreign allies and from its own citizens. And yet this is not what have seen in recent years.

Even now, we see riots in the streets by mobs who proclaim that America is uniquely guilty of “systemic racism.” These mobs are organized and led by activists who call themselves “trained Marxists,” i.e., adherents of the murderous ideology that Americans thought we had decisively defeated when the Soviet empire collapsed. Why do so many young people follow and support these communist agitators in their mission to destroy American society? What is the source of this destructive evil, and why is it flourishing like a poisonous weed? Obviously, I have some opinions in this matter, but it strikes me that readers may wish to share their own.

Category: Culture

Arson, Shooting in ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Protests Against Police Brutality

Posted on | July 26, 2020 | 3 Comments

Don’t call them “riots.” They’re Joe Biden campaign rallies:

A Black Lives Matter protester has been shot dead during a march in Austin, as a youth detention center and police precinct have been torched in Seattle and demonstrators gather again in Portland amid stand-offs with Donald Trump’s federal agents.
One protester was shot and killed when gunshots were fired during a protest in downtown Austin, Texas, Saturday night.
Shocking footage showed people marching along the street holding banners demanding an end to police brutality and racism when loud shots rang out.
This comes as protests gathered steam across several US cities Saturday, two months on from the Memorial Day ‘murder’ of George Floyd and in a show of solidarity for Portland where demonstrators and federal agents have clashed ever since Trump sent federal troops in.
The president has so far deployed federal agents to Portland, Seattle and Chicago.
The streets of Seattle turned violent Saturday when protesters set fire to a youth detention center and a police precinct, leading cops to declare protests had turned into ‘riots’ that afternoon.
Portland geared up for its 59th night of unrest Saturday with swathes of demonstrators marching from the federal building to the Portland Marriott where they believe federal officers are staying, in the wake of a violent night Friday that ended with at least one person stabbed. . . .
Austin police confirmed that an adult male was shot and killed near an intersection in the city’s downtown around 9:52 p.m. during the protest Saturday night.
Social media footage shows demonstrators marching through the streets shouting ‘black lives’ and waving banners reading ‘BLM’ before several shots are fired. . . .
Initial reports indicate the victim was carrying a rifle and approached the suspect’s vehicle, who then opened fire fatally shooting the man. . . .
In Seattle, violence flared long before nightfall when people went on a rampage, torching buildings in the city, while a Wall of Moms and Vets took to the streets vowing to protect demonstrators from law enforcement.
Around 2,000 people descended on the city as protests that had tempered following the dismantling of the CHOP zone earlier this month inflamed once more, after Trump said he was sending in federal troops as part of his sweeping law and order takeover in cities across the nation.
Seattle police declared the protest in Seattle a ‘riot’ just before 4:30 p.m. local time Saturday afternoon as people vandalized the East Police Precinct, set a small fire and an explosive was let off inside the building. . . .
The construction site of the new King County Juvenile Detention Facility was also engulfed in flames after a group marched on the building demanding it be closed before setting fire to the area.
Firefighters fought to tackle the raging flames billowing out of the construction area at 12th Avenue and Jefferson Street.

This collection of rancid human debris is the Democratic Party “base.” These are Joe Biden’s core constituents. The question is, why would anyone want to surrender America to such vile scum?

Category: Crime, Racism

Crazy People Are Dangerous

Posted on | July 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Crazy People Are Dangerous

Sydney Parham went viral this week when a video showed her (allegedly, I hasten to add) pouring gasoline into a Jeep and setting it on fire. Oops!

She done blowed herself up, as folks would say down home, but perhaps I had better not invoke folks down home, because some of them have been known to use language that might be considered offensive. Meanwhile, police have arrested the (alleged) arsonist:

Authorities arrested a 26-year-old Fraser woman this week on an arson charge related to a Harrison Township vehicle fire, according to a statement from the Macomb County Sheriff Department.
Sydney Parham was arraigned Friday on a charge of third-degree arson after video allegedly showed her dumping gasoline inside a black Jeep at San Remo Apartments and setting it on fire.
The blaze occurred Wednesday in the parking lot of the apartment complex.
Deputies were dispatched about 8 a.m. Wednesday to the San Remo Villa Apartments near Union Lake Road on reports of a vehicle fire and found a black Jeep fully engulfed, investigators said in a statement. Township firefighters responded and extinguished the blaze.
In a video taken at the scene and posted to YouTube, a person is shown dumping gasoline in the back of the Jeep prior to leaning forward to throw a lit match into the vehicle. The explosion threw the individual back into a nearby vehicle.
Witnesses at the scene told responding firefighters and deputies that the woman in the video was Parham and that she knew the owner of the vehicle, according to the Macomb County Sheriff Department.
Parham was pulled over in Roseville and taken into custody, where she was treated for minor cuts and burns.
Parham was given a $20,000 personal recognizance bond prior to her next hearing Aug. 5.

Many believed the Jeep that Ms. Parham allegedly torched must have belonged to her ex-boyfriend, but the vehicle’s owner denied it:

Avery Stevenson . . . didn’t want to go on camera, but he did say he knows the suspect.
He said she was not his girlfriend. He said he’s not sure what the motive could be.

Is he telling the truth? Like, a woman decides to torch your car and you have no idea what her motive is? Or is it rather the case you don’t want anyone to know you were messing around with a crazy woman?

On the other hand, maybe she’s a complete lunatic, who became obsessed with Avery and burned up his car because he didn’t reciprocate her feelings. Either way, Crazy People Are Dangerous.

Category: Crime, Michigan

‘An Expert in Russian Politics’

Posted on | July 25, 2020 | Comments Off on ‘An Expert in Russian Politics’

That’s how the New York Times describes Igor Danchenko in an article complaining that “Trump allies” revealed Danchenko’s identity as a source for the infamous Steele dossier, which was the basis of the “Russian collusion” hoax. It seems, however, that the main thing Danchenko is an “expert” about is getting drunk. Danchenko is an immigrant who worked for a while as a “research analyst” for the Brookings Institute, and while he was there managed to get arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct, as Paul Sperry reports:

The Russian-born Danchenko, who was living in the U.S. on a work visa, was released from jail on the condition he undergo drug testing and “participate in a program of substance abuse therapy and counseling,” as well as “mental health counseling,” the records show.

The guy is not even an American citizen or a green-card legal resident, but is living here on a work visa? And this is the guy that the Brookings Institute recommended to help Steele dig up dirt about Trump in Russia? Oh, there’s a tangled network of connections, but here’s the big payoff:

As a former member of Britain’s secret intelligence service, Steele hadn’t traveled to Russia in decades and apparently had no useful sources there. So he relied entirely on Danchenko and his supposed “network of subsources,” which to its chagrin, the FBI discovered was nothing more than a “social circle.”
It soon became clear over their three days of debriefing him at the FBI’s Washington field office — held just days after Trump was sworn into office — that any Russian insights he may have had were strictly academic.
Danchenko confessed he had no inside line to the Kremlin and was “clueless” when Steele hired him in March 2016 to investigate ties between Russia and Trump and his campaign manager.
Desperate for leads, he turned to a ragtag group of Russian and American journalists, drinking buddies (including one who’d been arrested on pornography charges) and even an old girlfriend to scare up information for his London paymaster, according to the FBI’s January 2017 interview memo, which runs 57 pages. Like him, his friends made a living hustling gossip for cash, and they fed him a tissue of false “rumor and speculation” — which Steele, in turn, further embellished with spy-crafty details and sold to his client as “intelligence.” . . .

Read the whole thing at Real Clear Investigations. You’d have to be crazy — or a New York Times editor, which is the same thing — to consider Danchenko an “expert in Russian politics.”

Category: Russia

In The Mailbox: 07.24.20

Posted on | July 25, 2020 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
Pagan Vigil: American Racism
357 Magnum: Another Tesla Autopilot Crash
EBL: Michelle Malkin Calls Out Ben Shapiro
Twitchy: Federal Judge Shoots Down Oregon AG’s Bid To Stop DHS Arrests In Portland
Louder With Crowder: Gunshot To The Head? In Florida, You’re A COVID-19 Victim, also, Mike Rowe Delivers Common Sense That COVID-19 Panickers Will Hate
Vox Popoli: Apparently Taylor Swift Didn’t Fix 2020, also, Good News About Women In Combat
According To Hoyt: They’re Serving Tuna In Valhalla Tonight
Gab News: Big Tech Profits From Slave Labor In Red China

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: Is The Left Finally Starting To Care About The Federal Bootheel?
American Greatness: Brookings Institution – A Key Collusion Collaborator, also, The Five Burning Questions Of This Election Season
American Power: Workers Resist The Return To Work
American Thinker: Do Global Elites Commit Crimes Against Children?
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Grand Theft Auto Friday
Babalu Blog: Marxist Protesters Plan March On Sen. Rubio’s Home For Cuba’s Communist Anniversary
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For July 23
Cafe Hayek: Populism Returns
CDR Salamander: Diversity Thursday, also, Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Completely Anecdotal Restaurant Story
Don Surber: Democrats Killed Thousands To Get Back At Trump
First Street Journal: No, Jennifer, We Are Not “All AOC”
Fred On Everything: Fulu Miziki, WhyNats, & Other Heresies
The Geller Report: Toddlers Hold Signs Saying “F**k The Police” Outside Portland Courthouse, also, WaPo Settle Defamation Suit Against Covington Catholic Student Nick Sandmann – Hundreds Of Millions?
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, also, Funding The Police
Hollywood In Toto: Apolitical Ryan Long Can’t Stop Mocking Woke Absurdities
The Lid: GOP Rep Louie Gohmert Proposes Resolution To Ban Racist Democrat Party From The House
Legal Insurrection: Nicholas Sandmann Settles Suit Against Washington Post, also, Gov. Cuomo Now Dictating Food Portions If You Want To Be Served Alcohol
The PanAm Post: Iran’s Military Network Comes Out Of The Venezuelan Shadows, also, 2020 Could Be Mexico’s Most Violent Year
Power Line: Get Woke, Sometimes Go Broke, also, WSJ Editors Resist The Cancel Culture
Shark Tank: Reba Sherrill Lies About Being A Doctor
Shot In The Dark: Snappy Answers To Casual Gaslighting, Part V
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – Are Freedom And The CIA Compatible?
This Ain’t Hell: The Army’s Polar Bears, 1918-1920, also, Valor Friday
Victory Girls: Baseball Returns With Fewer Games, More Preaching
Volokh Conspiracy: Fordham U Disciplines Student Austin Tong For Political Instagram Posts
Weasel Zippers: Seattle Man Has Had It With #BLM’s Nightly Invasions Of His Neighborhood, also, Antifa Goon Arrested For Assaulting Federal Officer Was Strapped
Megan McArdle: Sorry, Parents & Kids, Your School Probably Won’t Be Open This Fall
Mark Steyn: It’s Red China’s World, We’re Just Paying For It

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

Chicago Mayor Solves City’s Crime Problem by Removing Columbus Statues

Posted on | July 24, 2020 | 2 Comments

Chicago has been plagued by riots, vandalism, looting and arson — to say nothing of homicide, which has increased more than 30 percent, with 434 people killed so far this year — but Mayor Lori Lightfoot has solved the problem by eliminating the statues that were causing it:

Chicago’s two Christopher Columbus statues were taken down early Friday morning, nearly one week after protests erupted in the city.
Crews were seen taking down the statues in Grant Park and the city’s Little Italy neighborhood during the overnight hours. By 6 a.m., only the pedestal remained in Grant Park, where the statue stood since 1933 after being dedicated during Chicago’s second World Fair.
“The city of Chicago — at Mayor Lightfoot’s direction — has temporarily removed the Christopher Columbus statues in Grant Park and Arrigo Park until further notice,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “This action was taken after consultation with various stakeholders. It comes in response to demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely dangerous manner. This step is about an effort to protect public safety and to preserve a safe space for an inclusive and democratic public dialogue about our city’s symbols. In addition, our public safety resources must be concentrated where they are most needed throughout the city, and particularly in our South and West Side communities.”
Reports first surfaced on social media Thursday indicating the statue at Grant Park could be taken down as soon as late Thursday night.
Protesters across the county have called for the removal of statues of Columbus, saying that the Italian explorer is responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native peoples in the Americas.
Still, some Italian-Americans in Chicago said they did not support the move.
“Columbus is a symbol of hope who we’ve celebrated for years and maybe we all forgot why we celebrated Christopher Columbus,” Sergio Giangrande, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian American said. “To take someone who’s a symbol of hope for us? We are not OK with that.”
Giangrande added, however, that the group understands the safety concerns but hoped for a compromise.
“I can guarantee you that Italian Americans are not happy about this,” he said.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that she would announce a process in which the city will take inventory of the various monuments, paintings “and other things that memorialize” Chicago’s past and history.
“In time, our team will determine there are no monuments to African Americans in this city,” Lightfoot said. “There are no monuments to women. There are no monuments that reflect the contributions of people in the city of Chicago who contributed to the greatness of this city.” . . .
Last Friday, chaos erupted as clashes broke out during a protest calling for the Grant Park statue’s removal. There, 49 Chicago police officers and four demonstrators were injured. More than a dozen individuals were also arrested. . . .
In June, the Grant Park statue of Christopher Columbus was spray-painted with the letters “BLM” for Black Lives Matter. The following day, vandals hit a statue of President George Washington in the city’s Washington Park, spray painting the words “slave owner” and “God Bless Amerikkka” on the base and placing a white hood over the monument in reference to the Ku Klux Klan.
The Columbus statues in both Grant Park and the city’s Little Italy neighborhood were also vandalized last month.
Statues of Columbus have also been toppled or vandalized in cities such as Miami; Richmond, Virginia; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Boston, where one was decapitated.

So you see, these statues have caused all the problems in Chicago, which will immediately become a utopian paradise, now that those provocative racist symbols have been banished from public view.

This innovative approach to crime has inspired me to propose my own bold reform. What if we could eliminate racism by banishing from view anything that caused people to believe negative racist stereotypes or to mutter racial epithets? I can think of one such cause of racism.