On Higher Expressions of American Values

George Rebane

On this annual time of celebrating the birth of our land of the free and home of the brave a friend sent me a thoughtful essay making the case that today this has become a time of the year for somber reflection.  The reasoning was sound as the author pointed out the schisms that today separate us.  On the opposite side of the argument we have the usual stories, primarily from the Left, that attempt to convince all of our American unity as long as we are unified in accepting their programs to make America into a second-class socialist state.

In past observances of July 4^th we have noted that the two sides seek markedly different futures for America – one side decrying the nation’s past and publicly denying its patriotic destination, while the other side spells it out and celebrates the historic road that, with some miles unpaved, we have traveled.  Yet, more than ever today, half the country does not know where we have been, what we have done, nor does it share a common vision of our future.

In preparation for the 2019 holiday, the anti-American Left decried President Trump’s celebration of our Independence Day in our capital with an extraordinary patriotic display of our military and fireworks to remember.  They told the country that this was “politicizing the Fourth”.  It’s hard to tell whether their ignorance or cynicism was showing its true colors.  The Fourth has ALWAYS been a political holiday ever since its political birth in 1776 Philadelphia.  Throughout our history every politician and political faction/party has made their presence known on the Fourth, and the more so for politicians who were then in office.

However, on 4 July 2019 the major broadcast networks refused to carry ‘Salute to America’ from the National Mall for the simple reason that, under the administration of President Trump, it was to celebrate and highlight our country’s role as the world’s white hat hegemon that has maintained an historic Pax Americana during which enormous progress has been made in eradicating disease, hunger, and lifting hundreds of millions from the grip of grinding poverty

Today we continue to see leftwing activists – e.g. Donn K. Harris in the 1jul23 Union (here) - at all levels argue that our national debate need not be harbinger to war.  In his counter to a 10jun23 piece by Ms Thea Hood (here) making the case that our Great Divide is preparing the country for war,  Mr Harris states that the ongoing national debate is just Americans continuing to express their differences, and such debates are never a prelude to war.  His arguments embrace all the hubris and surety of progressive thought, making clear that his notions of such as ‘fair debate’, ‘excess passion’, ‘hyperbole’, and ‘unwarranted sarcasm’ prevail.  I suppose that Mr Harris never considered the failure of debates that led to our Revolutionary War and the War Between the States (aka Civil War).

As long as we cannot identify a common ground on which to sort out our fundamental differences, those that take us to opposite forms of governance, we continue our debate in the darkening shadow of war.  In the meantime, let’s take every opportunity to make celebration of our nation’s birth remind us of what once was possible in this fair land, and may again become so.

Comments

[Gregory]

Harris is a piece of work... a nasty stacked ad hominem.

I've been thinking of writing a Union piece, but for now, I'm wondering what he was doing for the 20 years missing from his linkedin resume, 1980 to 2000:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnkharris/details/experience/

Mr. Harris... if you're reading this... what were you doing between being an airman in Iceland and working in the 'frisco and Oakland schools?

[Gregory]

He also wrote, "Proud to have served, though my criticism of American political choices is fierce and unbending."

No doubt of that.

[Scott O]

Harris is an idiot. He wants free and fair debate. Except of course in all the cases where his side actually states there will be no debate. He is either a liar or just astoundingly ignorant of reality. The left is increasingly doing its best to make sure only their views are in the schools, the govt, and the public square. Differing views are labeled as "misinformation" or simply "dangerous". People who express views at odds with left-wing orthodoxy are often fired for just that reason.
I'm currently reading 'The Plague Of Models' by Kenneth P Green. Other titles by him are available on Amazon but I had read this one would not be. It would be interesting for Amazon to explain why they will not carry it.
Maybe Zir Harris can explain it.

[scenes]

re: Donn K. Harris.

Some more words here.
https://www.colormehuman.org/board

speechifying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JswPNqD6-s

...and obviously yet another writer of Emily Litella columns for The Union. At least the price is right.

I tend to give these guys something of a break since a)I can't blame them for taking advantage of a system and b)these kinds of gigs require constant selling of oneself as they're far outside of any real marketplace of valuable doings. It really isn't dissimilar to being a professional entertainer. Self-belief is of paramount importance of course.

If nothing else, maybe it's just the overhead of a rich society. In ancient Egypt, the various groups of priests skimmed off a lot of the hard-earned output of farmers while following the forms and rituals that kept the universe on an even keel. Those incantations ain't gonna chant themselves.

[Gregory]

George, *prepare* for war?

Too late, the American Cultural Revolution is already in full swing. It arguably started in 1937 and was rolling forward by 1968 with cries of "Marx, Mao

[Gregory]

"Marx! Mao! Marcuse!"

Ignited in 2020 with George Floyd's death (whether you think it was a choking or a fentanyl overdose), it has been in the works for decades.

[scenes]

JHK pens a missive with a bit of hope for Independence Day, but you have to dig a bit.

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/blobocracy/

[Scott O]

scenes 3:15 - re the Kunstler piece - I'm surprised he's that hopeful. Note this line:
"Soon, all the lying, including the lying about our money, will bring on events that’ll deprive the Blob of its nourishment."
The Blob is statism. And various incarnations of that sort of governance have done quite well (for themselves) for decades with almost no money at all. Venezuela and Cuba come quickly to mind. "Money" for the state and the idiots that the state "educates" is paper from a printing press or even just numbers that appear in one's bank account.
They can do that forever.
Well - "what about the USSR?"
And I say - "look at China".
The Soviets blew it because they got too far over their skis. They wanted to be a world super power with a space program and all the bells and whistles. The Chi-Coms saw they needed to first build an economy on actual value and use their labor base to become really useful for the rest of the world.
Not that China hasn't got issues. They have. Too much legacy govt control and corruption. I keep thinking our nation's best hope is that China wrong-foots it and sinks into a mire just as our country is doing with bad monetary decisions.
Yeh - I'm rooting for us to be the best of the worst. Sad.
But as long as "civilization" veers towards the insane notion that everyone has a right to have all of the free shit they want, it won't go well for us all.

[Gregory]

China is expected to shrink by about 100,000,000 folk this year.

The kids just won't procreate like they used to.

[Scott O]

Gregory 5:17 - "The kids just won't procreate like they used to."

You know it's not just China. This is a thing in Japan, Europe and among most Euro/Anglos in this country.

Let's re-visit the experiment:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-mouse-utopias-1960s-led-grim-predictions-humans-180954423/

[The Estonian Fox]

Scott O 10:14 PM

I liked this line from the write-up:
"Moral decay could arise “not from density, but from excessive social interaction,” Ramsden says. “Not all of Calhoun’s rats had gone berserk. Those who managed to control space led relatively normal lives." So are the red states and rural areas far enough removed from the blue cities? Gee, and where did we get this "excessive social interaction" concept from? Used to be 2-5% of the population were excessive social interacters, now it seems in the 50% area.

Then also- "Another researcher, Jonathan Freedman, turned to studying actual people — they were just high school and university students, but definitely human." We might want to question Mr. Freedman's judgment about the human part when you examine today's universities.

[scenes]

"Moral decay could arise “not from density, but from excessive social interaction,”

It's interesting to think about how you might measure that. Physical location of people, number of words uttered per day, number of words typed per day?

You can partly test your red v. blue notion here, but there's bound to be a bunch of confounding issues besides density.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_fertility_rate

It's worth considering the birth rate in Nigeria. My bet is that it's pretty likely that people there are hypersocial compared to anything I'm used to.

Another angle might be the growth of The State in control over children's upbringing, birth control, ability of women to have independent economic lives (largely due to growth of bureaucracy I would wager). In a world where responsible married couples are actively discouraged, you might guess a lack of interest in having children by women, they can always find some dude in a bar after all. But...

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/RUS/russia/birth-rate
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birth-rate

I wouldn't expect those to match so well.

In any case, Demographics Is Destiny as they say. If you simply follow current trends, the whole Earth will consist of sub-Saharan African subsistence farmers at some point (again), but that's bound to change for some reason or another.

For all I know, the only hope for humanity to exist in the future will either consist of birthing tanks or devolution to a pre-industrial state.

[Don Bessee]

A little rebalance of freedoms -

Federal judge blocks Biden administration officials from communicating with social media companies

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/federal-judge-blocks-biden-administration-194932262.html

;-)

[scenes]

Ben & Jerry's celebrates the 4th in high style.

https://imagez.tmz.com/image/c6/o/2023/07/05/c653c80fde7346f98c6bee2707f96e34_md.jpg

What in the hell is wrong with these people? Is absolutely everything seen through the lens of their politics? Naturally, they're owned by a giant conglomerate (Unilever).

What it boils down to is that Antifa and BLM are the street armies of the corporate West. Even the fixation on Trump by local concert promoters has it's part to play in the Giant Machine.

[Don Bessee]

So firing chaplains and massive nonduty woke classes with an overlay of drag queens has a predictable outcome when your military were traditionally American Patriots so when you disrespect their values you get this -

A recent WSJ article outlined another alarming trend: the children of military families, who typically make up 80 percent of US Army recruits, are telling their children not to serve, especially those from the South.

The Army, Air Force and Navy are on track to miss recruiting goals this year. The U.S. military has typically met annual recruitment goals since 1973. The U.S. Army missed its recruiting goals by 25% last year.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/austin-administers-military-oath-office-new-recruits-us-military-faces-continued-recruiting-crisis

;-)

[The Estonian Fox]

From the Daily Caller 7/5-
"WHITE HOUSE RECORDS: Biden Personally Met With SPLC Staff 6 Times, Foreshadowing Renewed Attacks on Parent Groups".

"White House records show that members of the SPLC have visited the White House at least 11 times over the short span of three years. These meetings mostly involved Biden himself, and typically featured officials from his Cabinet."

Why would the SPLC have to meet with any president that often? My guess is each meeting took 30 to 60 minutes with the pres. & Cabinet staff. Time that could have been spent solving an actual problem or two. Why were these meetings not dismissed out-of-hand as a waste of time? The pres. or his staff must consider them really important, and show where his priorities are focused.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/07/05/white-house-records-biden-personally-met-splc-staff-6-times-foreshadowing-renewed-attacks-parent-groups/

[scenes]

EF@4:46AM: "Collaboration between the federal government and the SPLC should alarm Americans as the federal government ramps its weaponization of domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies. "

It looks to me like it works both ways.

Given that the SPLC is a great big protection racket (SURE HATE TO SEE YOUR COMPANY ON OUR BADTHINKER LIST), I'd say that the SPLC is also part of The State's outsourcing of authoritarian measures.

MSM does a perfectly good job as a Ministry of Truth, BLM/Antifa/college-kids-with-signs/teachers-with-little-kids-with-signs provide an enforcement apparatus for varying situations, the FBI can strong-arm social media into a censorship service, large banks and financial services companies can enforce unofficial government policy by denying access, internet oligopolies can not sell your book/product/video.

Heck, even the Nuremberg Rally flags for the month of June down in Nevada City were privately provided.

Really, this whole situation is a lot further along than anyone would care to admit. Really, it's all a genius move to sidestep the Constitution while using a tool of the Right against them (DON'T YOU THINK COMPANIES CAN CHOOSE WHO THEY SELL TO??). Naturally, the polite middle-class white people will just sit and take it.

It's all good.