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About theartfuldilettante

The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.

America is Run by Mobsters and Psychopaths

Pictured: Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, who won’t go near Republican colleagues on the high court without a mask.

Once people who crave power gain physical power over others, they don’t let it go. When you tolerate or even applaud the exercise of that power, you encourage them to triple down on their grip. That’s why the mask mandates, the vax mandates, the lockdowns and all the other things have not stopped and will not stop, not in territories run by power mad people (all the blue states in the USA, and many of the purple ones). In Delaware, for example, the governor stopped the mask mandates in May of 2021 — after 14 months. Suddenly, last week, he reinstated those arbitrary and lawless edicts, with very little explanation and no evidence of any perceived need to require an explanation. “It’s what I say; and you will do it.” People are scratching their heads. “I thought this BS was over?” No, it’s never over. When you’re dealing with glorified mobsters masking as “governors” or “legislators”, you’re still dealing with mobsters. They crave physical power, and they exercise it for its own sake. They will continue to exercise this power, easing up when they feel like it, and then reasserting it when they feel like it. They don’t even know what they’re doing, and they don’t even care; it’s the assertion of the power that matters to them. I would say that they’re animals, but that would be an insult to animals.

It’s what mobsters, criminals and sociopaths do. It’s nothing new, and it should not be surprising. It’s not “politics.” It’s human psychology — at its worst. They will continue until or unless they are physically restrained from doing these things again. Back in the spring of 2020, I would have supported then President Trump ordering these governors to stop what they’re doing, in the name of the U.S. Bill of Rights — which supercedes all of their power. Arrests of governors and high officials would have been entirely appropriate. To most, this seemed insane at the time. Now, two years later, what do you think?

I fear we are past the point where elections will make much of a difference. For one thing, in mobster areas, the elections are laughingly rigged. The unlimited exercise of government power provides every opportunity to rig an election. Case in point: “The pandamic is back. So we must have mail-in voting.” And as Stalin said, the people in power get to count the votes. Mail-in voting is not the only means of committing fraud, but it may be all these left-wing one-party mobsters in charge of blue states need. It sure worked in 2020.

It’s not going to end so long as we delude ourselves that we are NOT dealing with mobsters and sociopaths, and that this is all somehow “democratic” or characteristic of any rights-respecting republic ever known in history. These mobster governors don’t even have to pass a law. They don’t even have to go through the procedure of passing a law. “I say so. You do it.” As with masks and vaccinations, so with many, many more things to come. Believe me: the future edicts will extend well beyond “pandemics.”

For now, red states are safer than blue ones. Purple states like Virginia may hang by a thread, for a few more years. But the one-party federal regime in D.C. (forget Biden — it’s the PARTY that counts) will eventually assert total control over places like Florida and Texas, I fear. Those states will either submit, or be faced with a bloody fight. There’s no escaping that awful choice. Think Ukraine vs. Putin; or Taiwan vs. Communist China.

Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong. Show me one shred of evidence, especially from the last 24 months, that suggests I am. Show me the widespread support for freedom that’s ready to assert itself. I don’t see it. I do see psychopaths, sociopaths and legalized mobsters controlling not only all of the federal government and most of the state governments, but virtually all of the schools, the corporations, the culture and the media. Oh, and check out that picture of our Supreme Court justice in a face bubble.

Good, decent and freedom-loving people have got to figure out how to stop obeying and start challenging, before it’s really too late.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Boycott the Beijing Olympics

The American way of life has been nearly destroyed over the past two years by a virus that came from communist China. Politically, economically, and socially, America has been devastated. As of this writing, 850,000 Americans have died. Why, then, is the U.S. Olympic team preparing to head to Beijing to participate in the Winter Olympics? If ever there was an Olympics that should be boycotted, this is it.

The purpose of the quadrennial games is, or ought to be, to promote goodwill among nations while allowing athletes a stage where they can test their skills against world-class competition. No one believes that is the purpose of the Beijing Olympics. In the opening ceremony, President Xi Jinping could apologize to the world for allowing the coronavirus virus to spread from Wuhan throughout the planet while authorities hushed it up and worked hard to prevent its spread to the rest of China. That would be a demonstration of goodwill and a modicum of decency, given the millions globally who have died. That is not going to happen.null

For China’s leaders, the purpose of these Olympics is purely political. It is to celebrate China’s way of life. That includes the Chinese Communist Party and its repression of 1.4 billion people and the establishment of China as a global superpower capable of engaging in biowarfare against any nation it chooses with impunity. Having paid billions to the regime to air these Olympics, that won’t be a message that NBC (and the American corporations that have also paid dearly to advertise during event coverage) will convey over two weeks’ time.

Despite ubiquitous “social justice” advocacy by Americans corporations, religious leaders, and the mainstream media — notably MSNBC and CNBC, the political arms of the parent company presenting the Olympics — there is a moral indifference to what the American people have suffered from the Wuhan virus and to the grotesque human rights abuses committed by the Beijing regime.

The NBC executives who made this Faustian bargain would argue that the China of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward — previous regimes responsible for the deaths of an estimated 100 million Chinese citizens — is a different country from the one we find today with its growing cities and technological advancements. Different, perhaps, in body count, but not in its cruelty.

The Chinese Communist Party of today has mastered the political repression of the Chinese people with its social credit scoring and has focused its punishment on those that are either not ethnically Chinese, such as the Uyghurs, or are politically isolated, such as the Falun Gong, or are politically dangerous, such as the growing Christian population. Their harsh mistreatment is a warning to the rest of the Chinese population to behave.PROMOTED CONTENT

What has happened to the 12 million Uyghurs, who live in Xinjiang province, is especially gruesome. The Uyghurs are ethnically of Turkic descent and practice Islam. Today, up to 3 million of them are believed to be confined to internment camps that are euphemistically termed “vocational training camps.”

What is life like in these camps? Slave labor and fear are the common themes. The most grisly fate is forced organ harvesting, in which Uyghurs are killed so their bodies can be cannibalized for sale on a macabre global market operated by the government. There is some evidence that members of the Falun Gong religious sect are suffering the same fate.

There are also reports of Uyghur women being used as sex slaves for the People’s Liberation Army.https://e665138e09f2972b1869dfdb9dbbc552.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

In the waning days of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially classified all this mistreatment as genocide, a designation that has not changed under the Biden administration’s State Department and Secretary Antony Blinken. For its part, the Biden administration announced a “diplomatic boycott” of the Olympics. This toothless response generated little more that scorn in Beijing. Even the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act recently signed into law by President Biden is likely to have little effect on the behavior of the Chinese government.

As for the athletes, and they are not an insignificant part of this, it is often said that they would pay the price if the United States were to boycott the games. This is not an insignificant sacrifice, and shouldn’t be glossed over, but it’s nothing in comparison to the human rights horrors suffered by the millions of victims of this regime.

Hitler in the Berlin Olympics of 1936 was trying, it was said, to prove the racial superiority of the Aryan race. This was self-evidently nonsense,  as Jesse Owens and his American teammates demonstrated. But Germany still won the most gold medals and most medals overall, and Adolf Hitler used the games to demonstrate both to the world and those within Germany the Nazis’ commitment to building a new world order.

The communist Chinese are not trying to prove their racial superiority. That’s an attitude they have firmly established in their own minds, and they couldn’t care less what barbarian nations such as the United States believe. What the CCP wishes to establish is that the Western way of life — America in particular and democracy in general — is morally bankrupt, not to mention ineffectual. They wish to prove that there is a new world order and that they are the vanguard. And they will have as eager allies the propaganda machine of Western media such as NBC and its affiliates, who will present China in the best possible light.

Americans are better than that. There is an American way of life that is worth defending and it does not include kowtowing to the totalitarian Chinese Communist Party. Boycotting these Beijing Olympics would be an affirmation of both our basic decency and our basic sense of justice. Whether it is done for the over 850,000 Americans who have been killed by the Wuhan virus, or for the Uyghurs, or just to show the CCP that we will not idly let war be waged against us, it is not too late to do what is right.

Brian T. Kennedy is the chairman of the Committee on the Present Danger: China, the president of the American Strategy Group and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute. He is the author of the 2020 Encounter Books Broadside: “Communist China’s War Inside America.” @BrianTKennedy on Gettr.

Can Humanity Survive Washingon’s Delusional Belief in its Omnipotence

The Russians called a security conference with Washington and NATO. The Russians explained that security is a joint undertaking and that security only exists if every country feels secure. The CIA responded with accusations against Russia handed to the CIA-puppet Biden regime and the CIA-puppet US media. The national security advisor read the script to us peons: Russia intends a false flag attack on its own troops so that it will have an excuse to invade Ukraine.
The national security advisor is so stupid that it does not occur to him that if Russia wants to invade Ukraine Russia will. Russia needs no excuse, and there is no one in Washington or NATO who can do anything about it.

The Russians explained that they do not feel secure. They are constantly demonized, sanctioned on the basis of accusations in the Western press, and their president insulted. Military maneuvers are conducted on their borders, and the US Navy is in the Black Sea where it has no purpose to be. Washington broke its word given to Gorbachev and has not only moved NATO to Russia’s borders but also established missile bases in Poland and Romania. Washington has overthrown the Ukraine government in an attempt to evict Russia from her Black Sea naval base, established a puppet Ukrainian government hostile to Russia and to the Russian population of eastern Ukraine, and is gradually invading Ukraine economically and militarily with Americans on the ground training Ukrainians in the use of the American supplied arms.

On top of all of this, Washington and NATO are talking about making Ukraine, formerly a province of Russia, and another former province of Russia, Georgia, members of NATO which shows indications of ringing Russia with bases in preparation for war.

Russia explained that the situation is so threatening that it is unacceptable. During the long Cold War the two powers tried to reduce tensions by stabilizing the relationship, but in the 21st century Washington has disavowed all the arms control agreements that were accomplished in the 20th century, and has behaved aggressively toward Russia.

Russia explained that she will no longer tolerate the implied threat of US/NATO bases on her borders and most certainly will not permit Ukraine and Georgia to be members of NATO. Any move by the West in this direction will result in “dire consequences.”

As an old cold warrior as a member of the anti-Soviet Committee on the Present Danger and as a member of a secret presidential committee that helped Reagan end the Cold War, I can tell you that I am astonished that Washington has not heard what the Russians have, in all frankness, told them.

If the Committee on the President Danger had heard the Russians say this in the 1980s, we would have told President Reagan to acknowledge their concern and reduce the tension.

Today the situation is so different that to an experienced cold warrior such as myself it is extremely scary. But the idiots in Washington, who face a far more powerful Russia armed with weapons that Washington can only dream about, have no fear. Washington, the collection of the most stupid and arrogant people in the world, is exposing human life to untold risk on the sole basis of Washington’s belief in its own omnipotence.

Washington is so lacking in omnipotence that its belief in it is a sign of insanity.

According to Russian news reports, Russia is moving four entire armies from the far east to the Western fount. These four armies, even without those already present in western Russia, are sufficient to instantly destroy any force NATO and the US can muster and overrun all of Europe in a few days.

Moreover, Russia can likely mobilize 10 million troops quickly, and China, whose president has stated publicly that China has more than a treaty agreement with Russia, can mobilize 50 million soldiers. NATO, for all the bluster of its idiot Secretary General, has zero prospect of withstanding Russia in non-nuclear war.

This means, and the Kremlin knows this, that to save face Washington would have to go nuclear. This would mean the total destruction of the US and Europe. They would cease to exist.

For Russia with its extensive anti-missile defenses and nuclear bunkers for 40-50% of targeted populations, the war would be disastrous, but Russia would survive.

Russia does not want such a war. Russia doesn’t want to destroy anyone, not even Ukraine. Russia has asked for a security guarantee. That is all.

If we experience Armageddon, it will be only because Washington refused a security guarantee to Russia.

Democrats Want You Imprisoned for Disagreeing With Them

Forty-five percent of Democrats liked the idea of limiting the spread of the virus “by having federal or state governments require that citizens temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine.”

Nearly half of Democrats, 48%, believe that “federal and state governments should be able to fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.” [from NEWSMAX]

If you don’t think we’re in a civil war of some kind, I suppose you’ll just need a little more time to see this all play out.

I believe the number is higher than 59 percent, and that some would favor even harsher measures. It’s not about vaccines. It’s about compelling people to obey a totalitarian regime, which the overwhelming majority of “Democrats” want.

A number of people wrote on my social media threads that the number simply CAN’T be this high, even among Democrats. They cite Biden’s unpopularity (33 percent, and sinking) as evidence.

Biden may be unpopular — he surely is — but this doesn’t mean that most Democrats still don’t want totalitarian statism. If they’re turning on Biden, it’s only because he’s not delivering. It’s really important to understand that most of your Democrat-Communist friends, associates, neighbors and relatives really don’t care what happens to you; not if you disagree with them on anything.

It’s probably not inaccurate to claim that more Democrats than not would have you rounded up and put into some kind of detention context — certainly if you’re unvaccinated, and probably for other crimes against the state, as well. If you think Biden’s ineptitude changes all that, then you’re wrong. The question is not whether most Democrats and leftists WANT you punished. Their unequivocal support for having people fired from their jobs for being Trump supporters is proof enough of that. The only question is how much of it they’re going to get. They may abandon Biden, but then they’ll search for a REAL dictator to do the job.

If you doubt me, then just watch to see what happens with the supposed upcoming elections.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

The End of Freedom

Rev. 13:7 reads, “And it was given unto him (the Antichrist) to make war with the saints [the people that get saved after the Rapture], and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”

The Antichrist will rule over all kindreds, tongues, and nations (rule over a world government including the U.S.).

The government of Antichrist must be more powerful than the government of America.

America must give or lose its sovereignty, and that is what globalism and the New World Order are about.

It is important for us to know that the UN has agreed to establish a world government by 2030 or sooner.

If God allows globalists to establish a world government by 2030, the Rapture will happen before that.

A reader sent the following link to a video that some may want to watch.

According to the video:

*Today, Americans are free to do what they want to do except where they are prohibited by law.

*Covid vaccine passports are being used to change the way things are done today so that Americans will soon be under a new and different system that will not allow them to do anything except that which the government has given them permission to do.

*Getting fully vaccinated will not prevent Americans from being subject to the rules of this coming new system. Permission to travel, eat at a restaurant, work, buy, etc., will be dependent upon one’s obeying the government’s new rules, and the new rules will be changed as often as the government wants to change them.

*If something happens and a citizen is a day or two late getting their next vaccination or booster shot, they will already be out of the system and blocked from traveling, eating out, etc.

*Even worse, this system is being designed to be expanded, it is already being used in China, and it is coming to America and the whole world soon.

*What Americans are experiencing today is just a taste of what is coming.

*Big tech companies are already monitoring, collecting, and saving vast amounts of information on everyone.

*Surveillance cameras are everywhere, but something worse is coming: punishment for those seen breaking the new government requirements.

*Once vaccine passports become the law, punishment will come, and there will be no going back.

*Freedom will be extinguished.

*Will Americans allow this generation to be the end of freedom?

Below are some events that made the news this week.

One, concerning the decline of America: on Jan. 6, 2022, it was reported that a new poll found that 76.8% of respondents (more than three out of four) now believe that “American society and culture are in a state of decay.”

It was Pres. Obama (not this writer) that said, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

It was Joe Biden (not this writer) that said, “The affirmative task we have now is to actually create a new world order” (world government).

Two, concerning the coming godless world government, world religion, and persecution of Christians: on Jan. 8, 2022, it was reported that a coalition of prominent evangelical pastors in Canada has come out against a new Canadian law (Bill C-4) that will allow the criminal prosecution of Christians that speak out against homosexuality and transgenderism in Canada.

The group voiced their opposition to the bill by posting a letter criticizing the Canadian Members of Parliament for rushing through a bill without debate or public comment that defines Bible teaching on sexuality and gender as a “myth.”

According to the law, those that believe the “myth” that there are only 2 genders (male and female) and say they believe it can be threatened with 5 years in jail.

Three, for those that think the Bible is a book of myths, on Dec. 19, 2021, it was reported that new research on an ancient aqueduct in Jerusalem suggests that the aqueduct was built by Pontius Pilate (the Roman leader that governed Israel from about 26-27 AD to about 36-37 AD).

According to the Bible, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus to death.

The fact that archaeology continues to confirm Bible dates, places, names, teachings, etc., is very important.

Four, concerning perilous times and world government (a borderless world): on Jan. 7, 2022, the 2-year anniversary of America’s assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, his replacement vowed to retaliate against Americans inside their homes in the U.S.

Despite this threat to send terrorists to attack American citizens inside the U.S., America’s border with Mexico remains wide open for the terrorists to enter.

Five, Jan. 1, 2022, was the sabbath in Israel, and the Jewish Scripture for that day was about the seventh plague in Egypt (Hail and fire; Ex. 9:18-26).

While Jews were in the Synagogues reading the Scriptures, “quail-size” hailstones and lightning (flashing fire) were falling in an Egyptian town on the Red Sea.

Whether this was a coincidence or a message from God is debatable, but it is a fact that Jews believe God will send plagues at the end of the age, and this happened.

Six, concerning a peace treaty in the Middle East that will begin the Tribulation Period: on Jan. 10, 2022, a bipartisan group of House and Senate members launched a Caucus to strengthen the normalization agreements that several Arab nations have signed with Israel and to “widen the circle of peace” between Israel and other nations.

Seven, concerning famine: on Jan. 8, 2022, it was reported that several U.S. supermarkets are reporting incidents of empty shelves and a growing concern over a possible shortage of meat, eggs, and potatoes.

(More: It was reported that McDonald’s in Japan has stopped selling large and medium orders of French Fries (it is small or nothing), Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kenya has removed French Fries from their menu, and potato chip producers in South Africa are having trouble getting enough potatoes to produce their chips.)

(More: on Jan.10, 2022, it was reported that it might be months, perhaps 6 months, before some store shelves are restocked to normal levels.)

(More: on Jan. 12, 2022, it was reported that inflation has caused a 7% rise in prices compared to one year ago. This is the largest increase in 40 years.)

Eight, concerning deceit and wickedness: on Jan. 12, 2022, it was reported that leaked military documents from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) appear to show that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine were identified as curatives for Covid (as medicines that will cure Covid) in April 2020.

If this is true, someone needs to be held accountable for denying access to a cure for Covid from citizens.

Medical personnel that have lost their jobs for providing their patients with access to Ivermectin and/Hydroxychloroquine should be compensated and restored.

Here is a link to the article.

Nine, on Jan. 12, 2022, it was reported that Washington State will hold a Zoom meeting today to discuss an amendment to a state law that will allow officials to arrest and hold unvaccinated citizens against their will in internment camps.

Internment camps are already being used in China and Australia, and this could be the beginning of their use in the U.S.

(Note: My article will be sent to the Rapture Ready editor before I know the result of the Washington State meeting.)

Ten, this may not relate to Bible prophecy, but on Jan. 11, 2022, it was reported that Covid caused a 34% decline in new blood donors last year, prompting the Red Cross to declare a national blood crisis for the first time.

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

Daymond Duck

Democrats are Priming Themselves to Accept any Defeats

How will Democrats react to the thumping that most observers believe they will get in the 2022 midterm elections? Or to the possibility that in three years a Republican could be sworn in as the 47th president?

They relish the Jan. 6 opportunity to endlessly relive the supposed danger that a disgraceful but still pathetically ineffectual riot posed to the republic, which they have spent the last 12 months misrepresenting as an “insurrection” or failed coup d’etat by Republicans.

The media treated the date as a sort of new national holiday to reinforce the awfulness of former President Trump and his deplorable supporters. But all that hyperbole about that riot being the moral equivalent of the Confederates firing on Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, or even the 9/11 terrorist attacks hasn’t convinced many people living outside the leftist bubble of CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times to believe Republicans are a party of insurrectionists.

From the outside, the inflamed rhetoric of Jan. 6 fever appears to be an utterly cynical exercise in gaslighting. That was most apparent when used to justify Democrats’ push for so-called “election reform” laws that President Joe Biden claimed last week to be the only thing standing athwart a return to “Jim Crow” racism. The legislation is, in fact, an effort to federalize elections, discard every rule aimed at ensuring voter integrity, and in effect rig the process to Democrats’ advantage.

Democrats May Believe Their Own Spin But the more one digs deeper into the avalanche of Jan. 6 articles in left publications like The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many others or listens to leading Democrats and party activists talk about the subject, the less cynical it seems. Democrats have been drinking their own mix of toxic partisan Kool-Aid to the point they actually believe that Trump and Republicans are authoritarians and plotting to destroy American democracy.

This amounts to a political faith that is building toward a belief that Republican victories in November 2022 will be inherently illegitimate and must be rejected by hook or crook. The same applies to their hysteria about 2024 which, as the literature produced on the subject indicates, they have half convinced themselves has already been stolen.

That these conspiracy theories masquerading as defense of democracy bear more than a slight resemblance to the conviction on the part of some Trump supporters that there was no way their man could have fairly lost in 2020 is an irony lost on the left. As much as they are certain that any doubts about 2020 are the product of Trump’s “big lie,” their embrace of their own collection of conspiracies about vote suppression and Republicans stealing elections is nothing less than another “big lie.”

The impact of the myths about Jan. 6 being an insurrection and democracy endangered by a GOP assault on voting rights has, in effect, painted the Democrats into a corner where any defeat must be considered proof of a rigged system.

Prepare for Extreme Measures Seen in that light, it’s not enough to denounce Democratic rhetoric as false or cynical. The net effect of their claims is that those who have been convinced of it are calling for extreme measures to prevent an election loss and are already preparing to regard their party’s likely coming rejection by the voters as another coup, no matter how honest the count may be.

The full consequences of this are unknowable but, at the very least, Americans should prepare for efforts by the Democrats’ cheering section in the corporate media and by the Big Tech overlords of the Internet to go further than they did in 2020 to prevent such an eventuality. In the event that fails, more “mostly peaceful” riots in the aftermath of Republican election victories are likely. As with the violence and looting unleashed by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, that will not be termed an “insurrection” by those still raging about what happened on Jan. 6.

All that, and not Republican opposition to the Biden presidency and Democratic legislation, is the most serious blow to the fabric of American democracy imaginable.

Jonathan S. Tobin is a senior contributor to The Federalist, editor in chief of JNS.org, and a columnist for the New York Post. Follow him on Twitter at @jonathans_tobin.

America: Be True to Yourself (MLK)

All we say to America is, ‘Be true to what you said on paper.’ If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Martin Luther King