A profile of the conspirators in the Michigan plot
There are six men named in the federal indictment charging them with planning to kidnap and murder Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. They face multiple charges that could carry life terms of imprisonment.
Adam Fox
Adam Fox, 37, of Grand Rapids, is a contract worker at Vac Shack, a vacuum cleaner repair shop in Grand Rapids. Fox has worked there for 10 years and recently has lived on the premises, in a basement room where he hosted at least one meeting of the fascist group to discuss plans to attack Governor Whitmer.
Described in the federal indictment and many press accounts as the leader of the group, he is said to have appealed for 200 men to storm the state Capitol in Lansing and take hostages, before downsizing the plot to focus on kidnapping Governor Whitmer, putting her on “trial” for treason and then executing her. He purchased an 800,000-volt Taser for use in the kidnapping.
Barry Croft
Barry Croft, 44, of Bear, Delaware, is a self-employed long-haul truck driver who, according to one report, owes $35,000 to the IRS. He is now jailed in Delaware pending extradition to Michigan. Some press accounts portray him as a link between the Michigan conspirators and a nationwide fascistic milieu. The operation against Whitmer reportedly has its origins when Fox and Croft made contact over social media. Croft has a record of right-wing political views going back a decade, and he has been linked to far-right trends like the Three Percenters and QAnon on social media. He supported Trump in 2016, in large measure because he shared Trump’s anti-immigrant views.
Croft was convicted of a series of felonies, including assault, burglary, and possession of firearms during a felony, from 1994 to 1997, when he was 18 to 21 years of age. His longest prison term from those offenses, all in Delaware, was from December 1997 to November 2000, after which he apparently did not reoffend. At least that was the belief of the Delaware pardon board, which accepted his petition for a full pardon “for employment purposes,” which was issued by Democratic Governor John Carney last year.
Once engaged with the Michigan group, Croft was among the most active, attending weapons training sessions in Michigan and Wisconsin, planning meetings in Ohio, and developing a specialty as a bomb-maker. Using a commercial firework and what he called his “chemistry set,” he built the improvised explosive device that the group tested in Luther, Michigan on September 12.
Ty Garbin
Ty Garbin, 24, of Hartland in Livingston County, is an airplane mechanic, apparently now unemployed. He is now jailed in Kent County (Grand Rapids). He or his family own several rural properties, including a house and surrounding land in Luther in Lake County, which was the base of operations for surveillance of Whitmer’s vacation home. Garbin also owns another piece of property in Cadillac, Michigan, and a boat which was to be used to take Whitmer to Wisconsin.
Federal agents and state police staged a massive raid on the night of October 7 at Garbin’s manufactured home at 1662 Lansing Avenue in Hartland, arresting him, Fox, and other co-conspirators. Garbin shared the home with several older people, whose relationship to him has not been disclosed. (They are not his parents, who live in Wyandotte, Michigan, and they were not arrested.) The home has at least four vehicles, two of them pickup trucks, parked around it. The federal charging document claims Garbin was a member of a militia group and met Fox at a Second Amendment rally at the state Capitol in Lansing, presumably on June 18, where he agreed to take part in further direct action.
Kaleb Franks
Kaleb Franks, 26, of Waterford Township, a northwest suburb of Detroit, is a mental health aide at Meridian Health who studied at Washtenaw County Community College. He is also now in Kent County Jail. According to the federal charging document, he initially expressed reluctance at joining an effort to kidnap and kill Whitmer, but then changed his mind and became an enthusiastic proponent, declaring, when the group met in Luther on September 13, “Kidnapping, arson, death. I don’t care.”
While he purchased his home on Holbrook Avenue in Waterford in 2018 for only $11,660—an indication of straitened financial circumstances—he spent $4,000 during the summer on a helmet and night-vision goggles for use in the surveillance of Governor Whitmer’s vacation home. Where this money came from has not been disclosed. He participated in several tactical training exercises in Munith, Michigan, where the two leaders of the Wolverine Watchmen, Peter Musico and Joseph Morrison, lived.
Daniel Harris
Daniel Harris, 23, of Lake Orion, a northwest suburb of Detroit, was a Marine infantryman on active duty from 2014 to 2019, most recently stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After discharge from the military, he returned to Michigan and was living in his parents’ house while working in construction. He is now in Kent County Jail.
Harris attended a planning meeting in Ohio on July 18 which “discussed attacking a Michigan State Police facility,” according to the federal charging document. Later that month the group decided to focus on kidnapping and killing Whitmer. After a tactical training session in Munith on August 9, Harris reportedly said of the plan to seize Whitmer, that the attack should be straight out execution: “Have one person go to her house. Knock on the door and when she answers it, just cap her.…”
Brandon Caserta
Brandon Caserta, 32, of Canton, in the western Detroit suburbs, lost his job at a Chipotle restaurant some time after Whitmer’s March 16 order closing all restaurants and bars in the state due to the coronavirus, which was later lifted to allow take-out operations, and further lifted to allow limited in-house service. He is now in Kent County Jail.
Caserta had a very active presence on social media, including posts in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Trump supporter who gunned down two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August. He appeared on social media in a Hawaiian shirt, in the style of the fascist “Boogaloo Bois,” and on at least one video attacked Trump from the right-wing anarchist standpoint, while depicting the COVID-19 pandemic as a conspiracy against America.
Seven men were named in state indictments charging them with 19 total counts of terrorism, material support for terrorism, gang membership, and various firearms charges, connected with planning an assault on the state Capitol and targeting individual policemen for attack. All are alleged to be members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a recently formed militia, after in some cases belonging to other militia groups previously.
Joseph Morrison
Joseph Morrison, 26, of Munith, about 12 miles northwest of Jackson, was a Marine Corps reservist from 2014 until now, most recently assigned to a military depot in Battle Creek, Michigan. He is now jailed in Jackson County on $10 million bail. He is allegedly the “commander” of the Wolverine Watchmen and uses the online title “Boogaloo Bunyan.”
Morrison shares a house on Dunn Road in Munith with Peter Musico and is reportedly married to Musico’s daughter. He has no apparent employment outside of his Marine reservist duties, which were terminated the day he was arraigned on state felony charges in Jackson. The Marine Corps claimed that the termination had nothing to do with the charges.
Peter Musico
Peter Musico, 42, of Munith, shared the home on Dunn Road with his daughter and Morrison. He is now jailed in Jackson County, held on $10 million bail, and described as the other leading figure in the Wolverine Watchmen. The house is run down, surrounded by vehicles in various states of disrepair, and was recently subject to a tax lien of $1,731, which Musico apparently paid off, although like Morrison he has no reported employment. There is a large Confederate flag visible near the house.
Neighbors have called the police in the past about the condition of the property and the firing of high-powered automatic weapons. By one account, there was a regular Sunday weapons exercise from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. involving dozens of men in military-style fatigues. Musico had a YouTube channel on which he regularly denounced Whitmer and praised President Trump.
Paul Bellar
Paul Bellar, 21, of Milford, was in the Army, stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, until he was discharged last year with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was arrested in South Carolina, where his father lives, and now faces extradition to Michigan. He had lived in a mobile home park in Milford until he was evicted for non-payment of rent during the summer.
According to the state charges, in the Wolverine Watchmen, Bellar was “appointed the role of ‘Sergeant,’ had specific expertise in medical and firearms training and designed tactical exercises for training.” He now faces charges of providing material support for terrorist acts (a 20-year felony), gang membership (a 20-year felony), and carrying or possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony (a two-year felony).
Shawn Fix
Shawn Fix, 38, of Belleville, is a truck driver, employed at a local trucking company for the past seven years. He is now jailed in Antrim County, where Governor Whitmer’s vacation home is located, with the court setting a $250,000 cash bail on charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying or possessing a firearm during commission of a felony.
Fix lived in an old house on a dirt road near the Lower Huron Metro Park, with two “Truckers for Trump” lawn signs, an American flag, and a flag with a coiled snake and the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” He was apparently not active on social media but participated in weapons training exercises and in surveillance of Governor Whitmer’s summer home.
Eric Molitor
Eric Molitor, 36, of Cadillac, worked for Adelphia, a large telecommunications company, either as a contractor or direct employee. He is now jailed in Antrim County, also on $250,000 bond. He was active on social media, posting about the QAnon conspiracy theory and the ultraright Three Percenters, and praising Kenosha gunman Kyle Rittenhouse.
Molitor is married and has extensive family ties in the Cadillac area in the northern lower peninsula. His residence was closer to Whitmer’s vacation home than any other member of the conspiracy, and he reportedly participated in the surveillance of it.
Michael Null
Michael Null, 38, of Plainwell, was active in the Michigan Liberty Militia prior to joining the Wolverine Watchmen. He is now jailed in Antrim County on charges of providing material support for a terrorist act and felony firearms, with bail set at $250,000 cash. No information has been made public on his occupation or social media activities, but he was photographed carrying an assault rifle on April 30 at the state Capitol in Lansing along with his twin brother William, and at a subsequent anti-lockdown rally in Grand Rapids in May.
William Null
William Null, 38, of Shelbyville, also active in the Michigan Liberty Militia before the Wolverine Watchmen, is also jailed in Antrim County, with bail set at $250,000 cash. He is believed to work for Long & Foster real estate, but in what capacity is not clear. He was photographed along with his twin brother Michael at the April 30 armed rally at the state Capitol, standing next to Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf.
At a subsequent rally against the coronavirus lockdown in Grand Rapids, Sheriff Leaf was speaking to a crowd and pointed out Null, a large man wearing tactical gear and carrying an assault rifle, and declared, “This is our last home defense right here, ladies and gentlemen.”
The crowd of several hundred chanted “USA! USA!” in response. At the June 18 “American Patriot” rally at the Capitol building in Lansing, William Null was photographed working on the security detail for the event, which was attended by Adam Fox, Ty Garbin, and several others of the future conspirators.
HOW MANY MORE ILLEGALS BEFORE THE GLOBALIST DEMOCRAT PARTY HAS
DESTROYED MIDDLE AMERICA ALL TOGETHER???
Study finds 90
percent of Americans would make 67 percent more without last four decades of
increasing income inequality
HAVE YOU EVER WITNESSED A BANKSTER-OWNED
DEMOCRAT POL DOING SOMETHING FOR MIDDLE AMERICA???
Joe
Biden Promises Welcome for Venezuelan, Cuban Migrants
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Democratic candidate Joe Biden is offering a green light to
migrants who want to flee from Cuba and Venezuela.
“The Venezuelan people need our support to recover their
democracy and rebuild their country,” Biden told a political event in Florida
on October 7. “That’s why I would immediately grant Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) to Venezuelans” in the United States, he said.
The TPS status allows foreigners to live and work in the United
States, and to get welfare and access to K-12 schools. Since 2017, President
Donald Trump has blocked TPS for Venezuelans, amid campaigns by Florida business groups and D.C.-based
progressives. Trump has also worked to shrink TPS populations created by prior
presidents.
Biden continued:
There are almost 10,000 Cubans languishing in tent camps along
the Mexican border because of the administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
That’s the administration actively separating Cuban families by not processing
visas [and] through restrictions on family visits and remittances. I think we
have to reverse that.
If implemented, Biden’s welcome policy “will set off a new
exodus from those countries as people try to take advantage of the opportunity
to stay in the United States,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the
Center for Immigration Studies.
Biden’s plan would hurt Americans, she said. “What scholars
found specifically when they looked at the [1980] impact of Cubans in South
Florida is that the wages of American workers who were competing for unskilled
or less skilled jobs went down significantly … The usual suspects will benefit
— the employers who will have a labor surplus and will get away with paying low wages, [and]
the slumlords who can fill
up their substandard affordable housing.”
The impact of low wages and surplus labor on Floridians was
sketched in a June 2020 article in the Washington Post:
KISSIMMEE, FLA. — The pandemic had forced them from their home.
Then they had run out of money for a motel. That left the car, which is where
Sergine Lucien, Dave Marecheau and their two children were one recent night,
parked in a lot that was tucked behind a row of empty storefronts.
Even when the economy was booming, Dave and Sergine had lived in
a state of near homelessness, shuttling between seedy motels that had become a
shelter of last resort for thousands in the Orlando area. Last year, after six
years of the motel life, they had saved enough to finally make it out. They
bought an RV and rented a spot in a quiet and clean mobile home community.
Sergine promised the kids they would never go back.
Now all that was gone. In theory, they qualified for a $3,400
federal stimulus check, but they had no bank account or address to collect it.
In theory, Dave was entitled to unemployment, but as of May only about 43
percent of the state’s 1.1 million claims had been paid.
“I would immediately grant temporary
protected status to Venezuelans as President." 🇻
— @JoeBiden🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4vGTctYTLX
— Fernand R. Amandi (@AmandiOnAir) October 7, 2020
“We have to be extremely prudent in offering any kind of
temporary humanitarian protection,” Vaughan told Breitbart News.
Politicians ignore the emotional incentive for migrants to get
into the United States, Vaughan said. “For the privileged, it might be a
dollars-and-cents calculation. But for others, it’s more than that — it’s an
opportunity to live freely with the opportunity to have a decent quality of
life [and] to put their children on a trajectory towards prosperity.”
TPS migrants are rewarded for being in the United States, she
said. “They are allowed to immediately access welfare programs, as happened
with the Cubans [in 1980 and 1994] and Haitians [in 2010] — unlike other asylum
seekers or green card admission – at an enormous cost.”
Even apparently small changes in border rules can precipitate
floods of migrants, she said. The Central American migration began as “a
trickle at first [in 2010], and quickly turned into a flood because the
smuggler started to take advantage and fed this idea of coming here with kids,
or sending your kids.”
The Central American migration was largely stopped in 2020 — but
only because President Donald Trump and his deputies fought numerous
high-profile battles with the agencies, various pro-migration groups, the
establishment media, and many judges to impose a set of migration curbs.
Trump’s 2020 plan offers broadly popular restrictions
on immigration and visa workers.
But Biden’s 2020 plan promises to let
companies import more visa
workers, to let mayors import temporary
workers, to accelerate the inflow of
chain-migration migrants, to suspend immigration enforcement against illegal
aliens, and to dramatically increase the inflow of poor refugees.
“The number of [foreign] people who could potentially benefit
[from Biden’s welcome] is limited only by the tolerance of our government,”
Vaughan said. But Biden had his progressive supporters “live insulated
from the effects of it, whether it is their schools, their job markets, or
their neighborhoods … they live in a bubble.”
Biden’s allies “disregard the effects of their actions on
regular Americans, which means it’s selfish elitism.” Like the characters in
the 1925 novel, The Great
Gatsby, she said, “they use working people for their own sexual and
emotional gratification and cast them aside, caring nothing for the effects on
people’s lives.”
Opposition to refugees is bigotry, sneers
WashPo columnist.
If @crampell stepped outside the country club,
she'd see cheap labor hurts Americans' income, society, productivity &
competitiveness.
But snobs praise diversity to reject solidarity w/ citizens.https://t.co/WdcYgwNU0R
— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) October 7, 2
Study finds 90 percent of Americans would make 67 percent more
without last four decades of increasing income inequality
25 September
2020
A new study from the RAND Corporation, “Trends in Income From
1975 to 2018,” written by Carter Price and Kathryn Edwards, provides new
documentation of the profound restructuring of class relations in America over
the last 40 years.
The study, which looks at changes in
pre-tax family income from 1947 to 2018, divided into quintiles of the American
population, concludes that the bottom 90 percent of the population would, on
average, make 67 percent more in income—every year (!)—had shifts in income
inequality not occurred the last four decades.
In other words, any family that made less than $184,292 (the
90th percentile income bracket) in 2018 would be, on average, making 67 percent
more. This amounts to a total sum of $2.5 trillion of collective lost income
for the bottom 90 percent, just in 2018.
Furthermore, the study concludes, that had more equitable growth
continued after 1975 (a date they use as a shifting point), the bottom 90
percent of American households would have earned a total of $47 trillion more
in income.
Given that there were about 115 million households in the bottom
90 percent of the US in 2018 population (out of a total of 127.59 million in
2018), that would mean that each of these households would, on average, be
$408,696 richer today with this lost income.
To reach these conclusions, the authors break down historical
real, pre-tax, income into different quintiles of the population (bottom fifth,
second fifth, third fifth, fourth fifth, highest fifth). Looking at the period
between 1947 and 2018, they divide the years based on business cycles (booms
and busts of the economy).
Growth in Annualized Real Family Pre-tax, Pre-Transfer Income by
Quantile from RAND, “Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018,” by C. Price and K.
Edwards.
Their data quantitatively expresses the restructuring of class
relations that began at the end of the post-WWII boom. Facing intensified
economic crisis, automation, and global competition, the US ruling class
undertook an aggressive campaign of deindustrialization, slashing wages and
clawing back benefits won in the previous period by explosive struggles of the
working class, while simultaneously funneling money to financial markets,
expanding the wealth and income of both the upper and upper-middle class.
As the data shows, while the bottom 40 percent of American
households made significant percentile increases to their income, relative to
the top 5 percent, for the 20 years between 1947 and 1968, in the 40 years from
1980 to the present, this trend was reversed. In 1980-2000, the bottom 40
percent of the population experienced a net income gain significantly below
that of the top 5 percent. It must be noted that because these are percentile
increases, the absolute differences between the gains of the rich versus the
poor is far larger.
Furthermore, not included in this data is wealth. In the last 40
years, and especially the last 10 to 20 years, the stock market has become the
principal means through which the top 10 percent of the population has piled up
historic levels of wealth.
Significantly, the data from 2001 to 2018 shows a sharp slowdown
in income gains for all sections of American society as per capita GDP growth slowed
and US capitalism experienced a historic decline. However, while the income of the top 5
percent of the population may have only grown by about 2 percent between 2008
and 2018, the wealth of
the top percentiles of the population exploded. For example, according to data
from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, the wealth of the top 1 percent of the
population increased from almost $20 trillion in the first quarter of 2008,
just before the worst of the financial crisis, to almost $33 trillion at the
beginning of 2018.
By using the data, the authors come up with a set of
counterfactual incomes based on what would be the different income brackets in
2018 without a shift in income distribution. The top 1 percent, instead of
making on average $1,384,000 would make $630,000. The 25th percentile, instead
of making $33,000 would make $61,000.
Data source: RAND; Graphics by Marry Traverse for Civic
Ventures; as published in TIME Magazine
The authors of the study also make several other important
observations by breaking down their data on the basis of location, education,
and race.
Over 40 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under are
now food insecure in the US
Kevin Reed
7 May 2020
·
·
·
·
·
A blog post on the website of The Hamilton Project has revealed
that hunger in the US has expanded to historically unprecedented proportions
since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among households with
young children.
Reporting on evidence from two surveys, The Hamilton Project
shows that by the end of April 2020, more than 20 percent of all US households
and over 40 percent of mothers with children under the age of 13 were
experiencing food insecurity. These figures are between two and five times
greater than they were in 2018, when food insecurity data was last collected.
Households and children in the surveys are considered food
insecure if a respondent “indicates the following statements were often or
sometime true”:
- The food we bought just
didn’t last and we didn’t have enough money to get more.
- The children in my household
were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.
Lauren Bauer, a fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings
Institution who specializes in social and safety net policies, wrote in her
blog post on Wednesday, “Rates of food insecurity observed in April 2020 are
also meaningfully higher than at any point for which there is comparable data”
from 2001 to 2018.
A woman clutches a child while waiting with hundreds of people
line up for food donations, given to those impacted by the COVID-19 virus
outbreak, in Chelsea, Mass., Tuesday, April 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Further placing the present ability of families to put food on
the table in historical context, Bauer writes, “Looking over time, particularly
to the relatively small increase in child food insecurity during the Great
Recession, it is clear that young children are experiencing food insecurity to
an extent unprecedented in modern times.”
Bauer explains that the surveys conducted their own national
sampling of mothers in late April by asking the same questions used by the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) in previous food insecurity studies.
Significantly, Bauer also explains that the USDA aggregates a
battery of questions on access to food from the Current Population Survey in
2018. If the nearly two-to-one ratio between the percent of mothers with children
under the age of 12 who had food insecure children in their household and the
percent of families with children who were not eating enough because they
couldn’t afford enough food were maintained today, the “17.4 percent [of]
children not eating enough would translate into more than a third of children
experiencing food insecurity.”
The Hamilton Project (THP) is a Democratic Party economic policy
think-tank associated with the Brookings Institution. Launched in 2006, the THP
featured then-Senator Barack Obama as a speaker at its founding event, who
called the organization “the sort of breath of fresh air that I think this town
needs.”
The publication of the US hunger data is part of an initiative
by THP to push for increases in government spending on national food programs
such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as
food stamps.
However, the Democratic Party proposal to increase food stamp
benefits by 15 percent is being considered as a temporary measure “for the duration
of the economic crisis,” according to the New York Times. In any case, the increase is still
insufficient to provide the poor what they need to adequately feed their
families, with the average monthly benefit of $239 going up by $36 to $274
under the Democrats’ proposal.
Meanwhile, with tens of millions who have lost their jobs during
the pandemic unable to collect unemployment benefits due to delays and backlogs
in government systems that are ill-equipped to handle the increase in applications,
the same kind of bureaucratic mismanagement is certainly to be expected in the
present wave of SNAP assistance applications.
Along with every social program over the past four decades,
federal food stamp assistance has been attacked by Democratic and Republican
administrations alike as “welfare” that is undeserved by those receiving it.
Before the pandemic, President Trump boasted that he forced 7 million people
off of food stamps since taking office and the Congressional Republicans were
working on a plan to further reduce eligibility and expand work requirements to
qualify for the benefit.
The return of mass hunger in America is an inevitable product of
the response of the US government and ruling establishment to the pandemic,
which has been a mixture of utter indifference to the suffering caused by the
health crisis and outright cruelty toward the working class, poor and elderly
who have been attacked by COVID-19 infection and death as well as the
deprivation associated with the economic crisis.
Clearly, the staggering magnitude of the impact of the pandemic
on families has been revealed by the findings of The Hamilton Project food
insecurity study. As dire circumstances confronting millions of people persist
and deepen, the crisis is pointing directly to social convulsions that have not
been seen in the US since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/25/ineq-s25.html
Study
finds 90 percent of Americans would make 67 percent more without last four
decades of increasing income inequality
Gabriel
Black
25 September 2020
·
·
·
·
·
A new study from the RAND Corporation, “Trends
in Income From 1975 to 2018,” written by Carter Price and Kathryn Edwards,
provides new documentation of the profound restructuring of class relations in
America over the last 40 years.
The study, which looks at changes in pre-tax family
income from 1947 to 2018, divided into quintiles of the American population,
concludes that the bottom 90 percent of the population would, on average, make
67 percent more in income—every year (!)—had shifts in income inequality not
occurred the last four decades.
In other words, any family that made less than
$184,292 (the 90th percentile income bracket) in 2018 would be, on average,
making 67 percent more. This amounts to a total sum of $2.5 trillion of
collective lost income for the bottom 90 percent, just in 2018.
Furthermore, the study concludes, that had more
equitable growth continued after 1975 (a date they use as a shifting point),
the bottom 90 percent of American households would have earned a total of $47
trillion more in income.
Given that there were about 115 million
households in the bottom 90 percent of the US in 2018 population (out of a
total of 127.59 million in 2018), that would mean that each of these households
would, on average, be $408,696 richer today with this lost income.
To reach these conclusions, the authors break
down historical real, pre-tax, income into different quintiles of the
population (bottom fifth, second fifth, third fifth, fourth fifth, highest
fifth). Looking at the period between 1947 and 2018, they divide the years
based on business cycles (booms and busts of the economy).
Growth in Annualized Real
Family Pre-tax, Pre-Transfer Income by Quantile from RAND, “Trends in Income
From 1975 to 2018,” by C. Price and K. Edwards.
Their data quantitatively expresses the
restructuring of class relations that began at the end of the post-WWII boom.
Facing intensified economic crisis, automation, and global competition, the US
ruling class undertook an aggressive campaign of deindustrialization, slashing
wages and clawing back benefits won in the previous period by explosive
struggles of the working class, while simultaneously funneling money to
financial markets, expanding the wealth and income of both the upper and
upper-middle class.
As the data shows, while the bottom 40 percent
of American households made significant percentile increases to their income,
relative to the top 5 percent, for the 20 years between 1947 and 1968, in the
40 years from 1980 to the present, this trend was reversed. In 1980-2000, the
bottom 40 percent of the population experienced a net income gain significantly
below that of the top 5 percent. It must be noted that because these are
percentile increases, the absolute differences between the gains of the rich
versus the poor is far larger.
Furthermore, not included in this data is
wealth. In the last 40 years, and especially the last 10 to 20 years, the stock
market has become the principal means through which the top 10 percent of the
population has piled up historic levels of wealth.
Significantly, the data from 2001 to 2018 shows
a sharp slowdown in income gains for all sections of American society as per
capita GDP growth slowed and US capitalism experienced a historic decline.
However, while the income of
the top 5 percent of the population may have only grown by about 2 percent
between 2008 and 2018, the wealth of
the top percentiles of the population exploded. For example, according to data
from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, the wealth of the top 1 percent of the
population increased from almost $20 trillion in the first quarter of 2008,
just before the worst of the financial crisis, to almost $33 trillion at the
beginning of 2018.
By using the data, the authors come up with a
set of counterfactual incomes based on what would be the different income
brackets in 2018 without a shift in income distribution. The top 1 percent,
instead of making on average $1,384,000 would make $630,000. The 25th percentile,
instead of making $33,000 would make $61,000.
Data source: RAND; Graphics by
Marry Traverse for Civic Ventures; as published in TIME Magazine
The authors of the study also make several
other important observations by breaking down their data on the basis of
location, education, and race.
Over
40 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under are now food insecure in
the US
Kevin
Reed
7 May 2020
·
·
·
·
·
A blog post on the website of The Hamilton
Project has revealed that hunger in the US has expanded to historically
unprecedented proportions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially
among households with young children.
Reporting on evidence from two surveys, The
Hamilton Project shows that by the end of April 2020, more than 20 percent of
all US households and over 40 percent of mothers with children under the age of
13 were experiencing food insecurity. These figures are between two and five
times greater than they were in 2018, when food insecurity data was last
collected.
Households and children in the surveys are
considered food insecure if a respondent “indicates the following statements
were often or sometime true”:
- The
food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have enough money to get
more.
- The
children in my household were not eating enough because we just couldn’t
afford enough food.
Lauren Bauer, a fellow in Economic Studies at
the Brookings Institution who specializes in social and safety net policies,
wrote in her blog post on Wednesday, “Rates of food insecurity observed in
April 2020 are also meaningfully higher than at any point for which there is
comparable data” from 2001 to 2018.
A woman clutches a child while
waiting with hundreds of people line up for food donations, given to those
impacted by the COVID-19 virus outbreak, in Chelsea, Mass., Tuesday, April 28,
2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Further placing the present ability of families
to put food on the table in historical context, Bauer writes, “Looking over
time, particularly to the relatively small increase in child food insecurity
during the Great Recession, it is clear that young children are experiencing
food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times.”
Bauer explains that the surveys conducted their
own national sampling of mothers in late April by asking the same questions
used by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in previous food insecurity
studies.
Significantly, Bauer also explains that the
USDA aggregates a battery of questions on access to food from the Current
Population Survey in 2018. If the nearly two-to-one ratio between the percent
of mothers with children under the age of 12 who had food insecure children in
their household and the percent of families with children who were not eating
enough because they couldn’t afford enough food were maintained today, the
“17.4 percent [of] children not eating enough would translate into more than a
third of children experiencing food insecurity.”
The Hamilton Project (THP) is a Democratic
Party economic policy think-tank associated with the Brookings Institution.
Launched in 2006, the THP featured then-Senator Barack Obama as a speaker at
its founding event, who called the organization “the sort of breath of fresh
air that I think this town needs.”
The publication of the US hunger data is part
of an initiative by THP to push for increases in government spending on
national food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
However, the Democratic Party proposal to
increase food stamp benefits by 15 percent is being considered as a temporary
measure “for the duration of the economic crisis,” according to the New York Times. In any case,
the increase is still insufficient to provide the poor what they need to
adequately feed their families, with the average monthly benefit of $239 going
up by $36 to $274 under the Democrats’ proposal.
Meanwhile, with tens of millions who have lost
their jobs during the pandemic unable to collect unemployment benefits due to
delays and backlogs in government systems that are ill-equipped to handle the
increase in applications, the same kind of bureaucratic mismanagement is
certainly to be expected in the present wave of SNAP assistance applications.
Along with every social program over the past
four decades, federal food stamp assistance has been attacked by Democratic and
Republican administrations alike as “welfare” that is undeserved by those
receiving it. Before the pandemic, President Trump boasted that he forced 7
million people off of food stamps since taking office and the Congressional
Republicans were working on a plan to further reduce eligibility and expand
work requirements to qualify for the benefit.
The return of mass hunger in America is an
inevitable product of the response of the US government and ruling
establishment to the pandemic, which has been a mixture of utter indifference
to the suffering caused by the health crisis and outright cruelty toward the
working class, poor and elderly who have been attacked by COVID-19 infection
and death as well as the deprivation associated with the economic crisis.
Clearly, the staggering magnitude of the impact
of the pandemic on families has been revealed by the findings of The Hamilton
Project food insecurity study. As dire circumstances confronting millions of
people persist and deepen, the crisis is pointing directly to social
convulsions that have not been seen in the US since the Great Depression of the
1930s.
Thirteen arrested in far-advanced pro-Trump conspiracy to murder Michigan’s governor and overthrow the state government
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Michigan State Police have arrested more than a dozen men across the state in connection with well-developed plans to kidnap and kill Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, seize power in Lansing and install a pro-Trump regime.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the raids and search warrants at a 1 p.m. Thursday press conference. She listed more than a dozen towns and cities where raids were carried out overnight, including Sterling Heights, Belleville, Cadillac, Canton, Charlotte, Clarkston, Grand Rapids, Hartland, Luther, Munith, Orion Township, Ovid, Shelby Township and Waterford Township.
Both Nessel and Governor Whitmer put the political blame for the right-wing terrorist conspiracy on President Trump and his open alignment with ultra-right and white supremacist groups.
Initial statements as well as the indictment filed by the attorney general indicate that the Michigan conspiracy is just one element of a historically-unprecedented plot inspired and very possibly directed by a sitting president to violently overthrow the Constitution and establish a dictatorship.
“We have a president who seems to condone these actions,” Nessel told MSNBC, citing his “tweets to ‘liberate Michigan,’” which followed armed right-wing protests at the state Capitol. She argued that Trump’s statements were “not a dog whistle, but a command to action.”
Six men face federal charges of terrorism and conspiracy: Brandon Caserta, Adam Fox, Kaleb Franks, Ty Garbin, and Daniel Harris, all of Michigan, and Barry Croft of Delaware. Seven more, all of Michigan, and all linked to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen, face felony state charges of terrorism, material support to terrorism, gang membership, and possession of firearms during the commission of a felony: Paul Bellar, Shawn Fix, Eric Molitor, Joseph Morrison, Pete Musico, Michael Null and William Null.
Garbin and Franks made a court appearance in Grand Rapids on Thursday morning and asked for court-appointed attorneys, based on their financial status.
According to the press conference and the charging document, the FBI initially learned of discussions about the violent overthrow of the state government over social media. Federal agents recruited at least two informants within the group and sent in several undercover agents. Both the informants and the agents made recordings of conversations and entire meetings, which will comprise much of the evidence in any future trial.
The plans to kidnap and kill Whitmer were carefully prepared. The charged individuals allegedly conducted surveillance of Whitmer’s vacation home on two occasions in late August and early September, having concluded that this location offered the best opportunity to seize her. They prepared maps showing the location of nearby police stations and state police barracks and calculated how long it would take police to respond to an emergency.
One of the participants built an improvised explosive device, which they detonated to test its effectiveness. A similar device was to be placed on a highway underpass to be used against police pursuit in the event of a successful kidnapping. Another participant purchased an 800,000-volt Taser to be used in the attack on the governor. There were discussions about removing Whitmer to the state of Wisconsin where she would be put on “trial” for treason and then executed.
The state charges include preparations to attack and kill policemen and state troopers involved in protecting Whitmer or in enforcing various aspects of the statewide lockdown that she imposed last spring in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The plans included seizing control of the state Capitol.
Michigan was at one point the third-worst state in terms of deaths and infections, but the lockdown and other restrictions have had a significant effect in recent months. It now ranks 10th in total deaths and 17th in terms of infections.
Whitmer, in a prepared statement delivered at the statehouse, said “Trump has spent the past seven months ignoring science, giving comfort to those who spread fear, hatred and division.”
Trump “stood before the American people just last week and refused to condemn white supremacist groups,” she continued, referring to Trump’s debate with Democrat Joe Biden. “Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke but as a call to action.”
It was noteworthy that three federal officials stood with Nessel at the announcement of the arrests and backed her claims that the armed right-wingers were seeking to overthrow the state government. FBI assistant special agent Josh Hauxhurst said that the FBI’s “primary mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.”
US attorneys Matthew Schneider and Andrew Birge made similar declarations, which in the context of Trump’s threats to defy the results of the November 3 election seemed to pit them directly against the president who appointed them.
“All of us standing here today want the public to know that federal and state law enforcement are committed to working together to make sure violent extremists never succeed with their plans, particularly when they target our duly elected leaders,” Birge said.
The fascist conspirators were planning to attack Whitmer just before the election. The timing strongly indicates direct coordination with the plans by Trump to incite violence, declare martial law, suspend the voting and arrest his political opponents. Given the scale of the effort in Michigan, whose designation as a “battleground” state now seems ominously apt, the obvious question is what plans are ongoing in similar states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona, among others. Two other states were targeted, like Michigan, by Trump’s tweets: “Liberate Virginia” and “Liberate Minnesota.”
There are many more questions than answers about this conspiracy. It is not clear whether the FBI even informed Trump or the White House, or even their Justice Department boss, Attorney General William Barr, about the ongoing Michigan operation. Certainly, Trump himself seems to have been unaware of the impending raids. Only hours before the FBI and state troopers began rounding up his armed supporters, Trump was tweeting venom against Whitmer, praising last week’s ruling by the Michigan state supreme court that the 1945 law under which Whitmer issued her lockdown orders was unconstitutional.
There was a public conflict between the FBI and the White House two weeks ago after FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress on September 24 that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in mail balloting, and that white supremacist groups were the largest threat of domestic terrorism in the United States, not Antifa, which he described as an ideology rather than an organization. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows denounced these claims in a vitriolic rebuke of the FBI director.
The Elements of Revolution Are All in Place
Including an election from which there could be no turning back.
In a recent poll, 61 % of Americans said we’re on the verge of civil war. What’s coming is cataclysmic, but there are better ways to describe it. Instead of civil war, think revolution.
Some believed the proletarian revolution was coming in the 1930s, during the Great Depression – others, during the rise of the New Left in the 1960s.
But they were only sparks that never ignited.
What was kindled decades ago, now has burst into flames.
The pieces are all in place: rioting without end, war on the police, government complicity with anarchy, one party firmly in the grasp of revolutionaries, ongoing efforts to erase our history, radicals with a death-grip on the culture and an election from which there could be no turning back. To view any of these elements in isolation would be a tragic mistake.
The riots following the death of George Floyd have been anything but spontaneous. They were planned and organized by Black Lives Matter, Antifa and others. The founders of BLM describe themselves as “trained Marxists.”
Every time there are charges of police brutality (given the sort of characters the police are forced to deal with on a daily basis, these are inevitable), the switch is thrown: first come the useful idiots with their signs and slogans, then the outside agitators (with U-Hauls disgorging riot gear), then the looting and burning, then the assaults on police, then the calls to defund the police and on and on.
The goal is chaos, leading to uncertainty, apprehension and politicians willing to give the terrorists whatever they want to buy peace. What they want is to raze this country and build something resembling Cuba or Venezuela on the ruins. That’s how the Biden camp intends to Build Back Better.
The police have taken the brunt of this. According to a story in the September 26th New York Post, in New York City alone, 472 officers have been injured in rioting -- 319 seriously enough to be hospitalized. Across the country, cops have been shot, stabbed, burned and run over with cars.
Police retirements have reached a record high. Police chiefs have resigned and ordinary crime has soared. Calls to defund the police grow. Biden wants to put shrinks in squad cars to help the police deal with domestic violence.
Cops are our first line of defense against the jungle. Joseph Wambaugh called them The New Centurions in his 1971 novel of the same title. Crippling law enforcement is an all-important step on the road to revolution.
Democratic mayors and governors are complicit. In September, the Department of Justice designated New York City, Seattle and Portland jurisdictions where “local governments … are permitting anarchy, violence and destruction.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler refused to allow police to use tear gas to dispel rioters. (The city’s chief of police rhetorically asked, “How much violence is enough?”) The mayor of Seattle allowed Antifa to occupy an historic area of the city for a month.
In the first Presidential Debate, Joe Biden declared, “I am the Democratic Party right now.” When queried if he’d asked Democratic mayors to address the rioting more forcefully, he responded, in effect: What can I do. I’m a private citizen? That’s how much the Biden Party wants urban anarchy to end.
Prosecutors elected by George Soros’ PACs refuse to prosecute rioters, who are often back on the streets in a matter of hours. St Louis City Attorney Kimberly Gardner was elected with $190,00 of Soros money and reelected with $119,000. A police official described his department’s relationship with her as “abysmal.” Gardner is prosecuting a couple for defending their home with guns, while refusing to charge the trespassers who were menacing them.
Kamala Harris tweeted out a link to a group raising bail money for Minnesota rioters. Biden campaign workers contributed themselves. Biden described Antifa as “an idea.” Try to imagine Churchill calling the brown shirts “an idea.”
Biden’s condemnation of the war on civilization is worse than nothing at all.
After avoiding the matter for months, at last, when the polls turned against him on the issue, he disavowed “all forms of violence,” while refusing to condemn Black Lives Matter or Antifa (which is a fantasy, after all). He equated isolated instances of police misconduct (“police violence”) and mythical “right-wing militia groups” with the Marxists and anarchists who have set our cities ablaze. How can you spot the white supremacist at a race riot? He’s the one on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds.
Public schools and higher education are the breeding grounds for the next generation of incendiaries. As the president said in his July 4 Mt. Rushmore speech: “Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but were villains.”
When they’re not distorting history, our schools simply refuse to teach it. In one survey, only 27% of those under 45 years of age had a basic understanding of U.S. history. Only one in three could correctly identify the three branches of government.
Indoctrination (like the 1619 project) is complimented by the steady stream of anti-American, anti-Caucasian propaganda from Hollywood, and the wealth of Fortune 500 firms poured into Black Lives Matter. They’re marching through the institutions -- from the classroom to the newsroom, to the screening room to the boardroom.
Against this backdrop we face the most consequential election of our lifetime, now less than 30 days away.
The Democratic Party is ruled by the revolutionary left. Vice President Biden is its Marshal Petain – the smiling, doddering old fool. Sanders, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talaib, Schumer and Pelosi will pull the strings behind the scene.
If they win, Antifa and BLM will be used to attack and intimidate opponents of the regime -- morphing from storm troopers to S.S. Resistance will be labeled racism.
With statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico (and who knows where else), court-packing and ending the filibuster, our system of government will be permanently altered to assure that this election will be the last real election.
Like France in 1789, Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1932, we stand at the brink. Thank God Trump is no Louis XVI.
Don’t think civil war. Think firing squads, gulags and death camps. Think the Black Lives Matter flag flying over the White House and Capitol.
Kamala Harris Did Not Condemn the Riots Until Late August
When Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) faces Vice President Mike Pence on the debate stage Wednesday night in Salt Lake City, it will be one of the first times she has faced questions publicly since becoming Joe Biden’s running mate two months ago.
One of the few times she has answered questions was in an interview with the NAACP last week, when Harris praised the “brilliance” of the Black Lives Matter movement and its Marxist founders. She also said people should protest “peacefully.”
It was one of the few times that Harris has spoken out in any way against the violence that has swept through the streets of American cities over the past few months as Black Lives Matter protests led to looting, vandalism, arson, and attacks on police and journalists.
In fact, Harris did not speak out against the violence until the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August — when poll numbers began to turn against the Democratic ticket, who failed to mention the riots at their party convention.
Harris also called on supporters to donate money to bail out those arrested during riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody:
If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
Those released included violent criminals, such as domestic abusers.
On May 30, just hours after “peaceful protesters” outside the White House in Lafayette Park attacked police, and assaulted journalists, Harris joined the demonstration. That same day in her home state of California, Black Lives Matter protests were exploding into riots. “Peaceful protesters” in L.A. destroyed police cars, looted stores, and vandalized synagogues. The next day, the “peaceful protesters” in D.C. partially burned St. John’s Episcopal Church across the street from Lafayette Park.
In a statement she delivered at the Senate Judiciary Committee two-and-a-half weeks later, Harris praised the nationwide protests: “There are thousands of people marching in the streets in 50 states demanding meaningful change. The people are demanding action.”
She added that “we must re-imagine what public safety looks like,” which is a euphemism for defunding the police. She did not condemn the riots, nor did she emphasize the importance of nonviolent protest as a means of change.
Instead, Harris insisted — against glaring evidence to the contrary — that the riots were, in fact, “peaceful” protests. And she led the charge against law enforcement.
We’ve all seen the pictures of horrific injuries peaceful protestors have sustained after being shot with rubber bullets—including broken bones, permanent blindness, and deep bruises.
My colleagues and I are calling for an immediate review of the use of rubber bullets by police.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 11, 2020
In July, as rioters attacked a federal courthouse in Portland, she introduced a bill to block what she called “federal paramilitary occupations in Portland and other American cities.” Harris did not condemn the rioters; instead she condemned the Trump administration’s response to the riots as the actions of “an authoritarian regime.”
Harris and Biden only began to condemn the riots forcefully after Kenosha in late August. Like Biden, Harris’s initial response was to blame police.
Jacob Blake should not be fighting for his life right now.
As @JoeBiden said, there must be an immediate investigation and the officers involved should be held accountable.
Jacob, our nation is praying for you and your entire family. https://t.co/F4CSs6JnjS
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 24, 2020
She began speaking out more clearly against violence after a right-wing protester was murdered in Portland days later by a left-wing protester who described himself as “100% Antifa.”
I join @JoeBiden in condemning this violence. This can not—and must not—be who we are. Americans deserve a president who will heal our country and bring people together—not fan the flames of hate and division. https://t.co/21h00uFFR7
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 30, 2020
Biden, at least, had condemned violence before — though usually while blaming police and describing rioters as “peaceful.” Kamala Harris left it until very late.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
This article has been updated to include Harris’s call for bail for rioters arrested in Minneapolis.
Looting Begins as Violent Protest Continues in Wisconsin
The march from Milwaukee to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, descended from peaceful protest to vandalism to looting on Wednesday night. Under the cover of darkness, dozens of protesters began smashing windows of homes and businesses and moved on to loot a convenience store.
Independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager captured video of multiple looting a gas station convenience store in Milwaukee Wednesday night.
Gas station looting in Milwaukee #Wauwatosa #WauwatosaProtests #WauwatosaRiots #AlvinCole #JosephMensah pic.twitter.com/TeK7WMcDf4
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 8, 2020
looting at speedway during the protests in wauwatosa #Wauwatosa #milwaukee pic.twitter.com/QYr2XQO6GY
— hailey (@leabea15) October 8, 2020
As the looting continued, a store employee began handing out bags to looters.
The cashier actually gave away bags to the looters as they pillaged the store #Wauwatosa #Milwaukee #WauwatosaRiots #AlvinCole #JosephMensah pic.twitter.com/y0PgacIGy1
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 8, 2020
Not content with simply stealing goods from the store, the “peaceful protesters” also destroyed property and turned over coffee machines.
Coffee station toppled inside Speedway as another night of unrest in Wisconsin continues #Wauwatosa #MilwaukeeProtests #AlvinCole #JosephMensah #Milwaukee pic.twitter.com/koIwytjCm1
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 8, 2020
Rioters finally dispersed as police began to arrive. But, not before gathering up more goods from the convenience store.
Speedway left in complete catastrophe after tonight’s looting. Police arrive to disperse the crowd #Milwaukee #Wauwatosa #AlvinCole #JosephMensa pic.twitter.com/fn7LbTF5di
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 8, 2020
Another video tweeted by Townhall Media shows dozens of people ransacking the store and leaving with whatever they could carry.
At another stand off between police and BLM marchers, the crowd inched their way towards the cops, using a car as cover. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. pic.twitter.com/5lQDwfE1BB
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 8, 2020
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
BLM rioters move into rich, liberal suburb as resident complains that they are supporters
Affluent liberals deceive themselves that they will get a "pass" from violent radical revolutionaries if they sympathize enough with their causes. The latest group to begin to learn the hard way lives in swing state Wisconsin.
The latest Black Lives Matter mostly peaceful™ protest is in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, an affluent (average household income above $100,00) Milwaukee suburb that gave Hillary Clinton 62% more votes than Donald Trump in 2016. The casus belli is explained by the New York Times:
The Milwaukee [County] district attorney said Wednesday that he would not prosecute a Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot an armed Black teenager in a mall parking lot in February, setting off renewed protests over the killing.
Joseph Mensah, a Black police officer in the Wauwatosa Police Department, shot the teenager, Alvin Cole, 17, on Feb. 2 after he refused to put down a firearm and ran away from the police following a confrontation at the Mayfair Mall, John Chisholm, the Milwaukee district attorney, said on Wednesday. He said officers reported that Mr. Cole had pointed the gun at them at one point, and that he had fired the gun while running away.
Rioters obviously believe that firing a gun at cops does not justify cops firing back, and in support of this proposition, they trashed store windows in Wauwatosa;
spraying graffiti;
and, of course, looting because stealing free stuff is lots more fun than working for it.
But, as in Portland, OR, the mostly peaceful™ demonstrators moved into residential areas, where they broke windows and drove over lawns and shrubbery. Hey, libs, you're not safe in your home, especially if the police are defunded!
One resident, later identified as Jason Fritz, engaged the demonstrators in conversation as they drove motorcycles over his front lawn and shrubbery, complaining that this is a liberal neighborhood that largely supports their cause.
Interviewed this morning on Fox & Friends, Fritz stated that this was the fourth time that mostly peaceful™ demonstrators had come by his house, and stated, "Something clicked inside me and said, 'No more.'"
It will be interesting to see how Wauwatosa votes this time.
Crush and Destroy Culture
I have always felt that the term “cancel culture” was far too mannerly and tame. It scarcely captured the degree of hatred the Left and its social-media zealots unleashed with any transgression from woke orthodoxy. Even doctrinaire liberals, tried and true “progressives” with a lifetime of fidelity, have felt the sting of leftist vengeance after betraying the cause on a single, isolated point. Individuals have been disgraced, careers ended, livelihoods wrecked, and reputations trashed over minor infractions of the ever-evolving progressive canon. And that is how they treat former friends and allies. Conservative foes are filleted and quartered outright in broad daylight.
I recently found myself the target of leftist vitriol and experienced the full fury of “cancel culture.” The events and tactics are worth reviewing.
I produced a 50-second pro-2nd amendment video in my backyard with my 25-year-old son. I placed two Trump-Pence signs in front of us. An American flag behind us. I spoke of my love of country, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights, in particular our Second Amendment. I said that we were not looking for trouble but would not run from it, and tossed out a challenge to “BLM” (Black Lives Matter, the organization). I closed by saying that I liked President Trump. Of note, my son and I were holding our respective AR-15s. Not pointing them, mind you, just holding them.
The context, of course, is the more than four-month siege on America’s cities, the violence, rioting, and arson occurring since the George Floyd incident on May 25. Many of us seethe at this ongoing disorder and the unwillingness of Democrat politicians that govern these cities and states to control it. It is also galling to find our dominant institutions supporting the radical street thugs.
Into this maelstrom, I posted my 50-second video on my Facebook and Twitter pages. The next morning, I was seeing patients in my medical practice. One of my employees who monitors my social media noticed tens of thousands of views and thousands of comments, reactions, and shares. By the end of the day, it was going “viral,” with both supporters and detractors responding and sharing. The insults, hatred, and threats, however, were extreme.
“I’d rather die from cancer than have you as a doctor,” one cheerful commentator asserted, among many other choice statements far more appalling.
Then came the menacing comments and “doxing” of my home and office as detractors posted my name and address on Facebook and Twitter. Individuals I had never met called my office, disparaging my work as a physician. Some asked for the office manager, thinking I was employed, attempting to pressure the employer into firing me. I am self-employed, and so that ploy was not effective.
The attackers took to my Google business page and left nasty comments and one-star reviews to damage my reputation and practice. There were threatening and derogatory calls to my local hospital, which had to increase security. The hecklers contacted my State Medical Board, prodding them to revoke my medical license. There were also plans for a demonstration at my house that same week on Friday at 6:00 P.M.
On the first night of the video, my son, who appeared in the video, was concerned because of the threats and doxing. He worried about the safety of our home and family but also the impact on his career. At his request, I deleted the video. It did not help him. The next day, he lost his job. Furthermore, it had already been “screen captured” and spread by others throughout the internet despite removing it from my page.
On Friday at 6:00 P.M., the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, four police cars were outside my house to provide protection. I met with the police and thanked them. They seemed supportive. As it turned out, the protesters did not show.
As yet, my practice remains busy. I live my life as always, but with greater awareness of my surroundings. I have installed security cameras. And, yes, I carry.
There is a great divide in the country today. Our opponents have declared war. Consider that, in this case, there was my 50-second video. Patriotic, pro-American, pro-2nd Amendment, and, perhaps, a bit provocative. But merely a video. On the other side, there have been four months of continuous burning, looting, assault, and murder in our cities. There have been calls for defunding and abolishing the police. Democrat politicians, local, state, and national, rather than condemn the mayhem and violence, encourage it as do their media allies. So, too, the academy, Hollywood, corporate America, and professional athletes. BLM and Antifa, the Marxist perpetrators of the turmoil, with the open support of our principal institutions and the Democrat Party, call for “burning down the system.” They deface synagogues and churches and refer to Jesus as a “white supremacist.” Yet, in this contest, hardly equivalent, my otherwise harmless little video was sufficient cause to denounce and threaten me in the vilest ways, including attacks against me personally, my home and family, reputation, career, and livelihood.
We are in the midst of an assault on our Republic, a Marxist revolution under the guise of “racial justice.” Who knows what will come after the election in November? The passions today are no less extreme than they were in 1860. Both times, Democrats were attempting to dismantle the nation.
We are well beyond cancel culture. The proper term is “crush and destroy culture.” But it is worse than that. It is an insurrection, and the enemy has taken over our leading institutions. Unwittingly, though, these forces of darkness have roused the sleeping giant. Patriots and citizens, modern-day Paul Reveres, have organized and pushed back as we have seen in Kenosha, Oregon, Ohio, Colorado, Seattle, and elsewhere, including outside Walter Reed Medical Center during President Trump’s brief hospitalization. Thousands I have never met rose to defend me in the social media and telephone blitz against me. We outnumber them. We can and must defeat these, the enemies of civilization.
Richard Moss, M.D., a surgeon practicing in Jasper, IN, was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He has written A Surgeon’s Odyssey and Matilda’s Triumph, available on amazon.com. Contact him at richardmossmd.com or Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Over 40 percent of mothers with children ages 12 and under are now food insecure in the US
A blog post on the website of The Hamilton Project has revealed that hunger in the US has expanded to historically unprecedented proportions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among households with young children.
Reporting on evidence from two surveys, The Hamilton Project shows that by the end of April 2020, more than 20 percent of all US households and over 40 percent of mothers with children under the age of 13 were experiencing food insecurity. These figures are between two and five times greater than they were in 2018, when food insecurity data was last collected.
Households and children in the surveys are considered food insecure if a respondent “indicates the following statements were often or sometime true”:
- The food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have enough money to get more.
- The children in my household were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.
Lauren Bauer, a fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution who specializes in social and safety net policies, wrote in her blog post on Wednesday, “Rates of food insecurity observed in April 2020 are also meaningfully higher than at any point for which there is comparable data” from 2001 to 2018.
Further placing the present ability of families to put food on the table in historical context, Bauer writes, “Looking over time, particularly to the relatively small increase in child food insecurity during the Great Recession, it is clear that young children are experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times.”
Bauer explains that the surveys conducted their own national sampling of mothers in late April by asking the same questions used by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in previous food insecurity studies.
Significantly, Bauer also explains that the USDA aggregates a battery of questions on access to food from the Current Population Survey in 2018. If the nearly two-to-one ratio between the percent of mothers with children under the age of 12 who had food insecure children in their household and the percent of families with children who were not eating enough because they couldn’t afford enough food were maintained today, the “17.4 percent [of] children not eating enough would translate into more than a third of children experiencing food insecurity.”
The Hamilton Project (THP) is a Democratic Party economic policy think-tank associated with the Brookings Institution. Launched in 2006, the THP featured then-Senator Barack Obama as a speaker at its founding event, who called the organization “the sort of breath of fresh air that I think this town needs.”
The publication of the US hunger data is part of an initiative by THP to push for increases in government spending on national food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
However, the Democratic Party proposal to increase food stamp benefits by 15 percent is being considered as a temporary measure “for the duration of the economic crisis,” according to the New York Times. In any case, the increase is still insufficient to provide the poor what they need to adequately feed their families, with the average monthly benefit of $239 going up by $36 to $274 under the Democrats’ proposal.
Meanwhile, with tens of millions who have lost their jobs during the pandemic unable to collect unemployment benefits due to delays and backlogs in government systems that are ill-equipped to handle the increase in applications, the same kind of bureaucratic mismanagement is certainly to be expected in the present wave of SNAP assistance applications.
Along with every social program over the past four decades, federal food stamp assistance has been attacked by Democratic and Republican administrations alike as “welfare” that is undeserved by those receiving it. Before the pandemic, President Trump boasted that he forced 7 million people off of food stamps since taking office and the Congressional Republicans were working on a plan to further reduce eligibility and expand work requirements to qualify for the benefit.
The return of mass hunger in America is an inevitable product of the response of the US government and ruling establishment to the pandemic, which has been a mixture of utter indifference to the suffering caused by the health crisis and outright cruelty toward the working class, poor and elderly who have been attacked by COVID-19 infection and death as well as the deprivation associated with the economic crisis.
Clearly, the staggering magnitude of the impact of the pandemic on families has been revealed by the findings of The Hamilton Project food insecurity study. As dire circumstances confronting millions of people persist and deepen, the crisis is pointing directly to social convulsions that have not been seen in the US since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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