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The Great Task Remaining Before Us
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
— Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
Election Night at Ricochet
Join us this evening from 6PM ET / 3PM PT on to talk with your fellow members about the election in a Ricochet Live Chat. Then at around 9PM ET / 6PM PT we will start a Zoom broadcast (on the live chat page) with Bethany Mandel & Jon Gabriel, with visits from Peter Robinson & Rob Long, and other Ricochet friends and alum, and we’ll hear from Ricochet members who want to share their thoughts as well.
So gird your loins, grab your favorite beverage, and strap in for a history night with friends at Ricochet.
Goodbye, Sweet Henrietta
My sweetest Henrietta died on Friday morning in my lap. I hope that my touch in her last conscious moments was comforting to her. She was attached to me as no other cat has ever been, and I to her. I found her in an actual trash pile in Brooklyn, NY, on October 17, 2011.
We had thought that she had arthritis since January of this year, and I had been giving her medication for that three times a week. Once a jumper who spent most of her time on top of the refrigerator, she had slowly relinquished her former heights until she spent most of her last few months on our bed, which is only 18 inches off the ground.
About a month ago we took her to the vet’s because she was having difficulty breathing. We saw that from about that time on her mobility was quickly declining. I began to have to carry her to the litter box because she couldn’t get into it on her own. Last Monday we took her in again and our vet realized that her mobility issues were neurological, likely due to a tumor somewhere on her spine. The vet gave her a steroid shot, which helped her for several days. Thursday she began having trouble breathing again, and that night I lay on the floor of the bathroom, where she had retreated, and thought that she would die there. I looked in her eyes and slowly blinked, the cat way of saying, “I love you.”
I watched both my mother and my brother-in-law die. I know what it looks like. I know what it sounds like. Henrietta had the same death rattle they had. She kept on coughing, then flopping over onto her other side. When she coughed, liquid came out. We give humans in such condition morphine, to relieve the pain. Henrietta had nothing. A few times I thought she had died, so I whispered, “Henrietta,” and she flicked her tail in recognition. At some point in the night, she seemed to rally, and dragged herself to the bed, but wasn’t able to climb onto it. I gently lifted her up, and she lay on my stomach for the rest of the night. She had never done this.
It took Henrietta almost five years before she sat in my lap the first time. When I found her she had been abandoned by her previous owners. (After they had her declawed.) She was left in an old carry case. I had seen it on a Saturday night, next to our trash cans in front of the Brownstone where we rented, and I assumed my landlady, who had a cat, was simply throwing out an old case. Monday morning when I was leaving for work, I happened to take out the trash, and as I was putting the lid back on the can, I happened to look down and I saw her staring at me through the mesh of the case. So I know she had been there for more than 36 hours. Alone. Abandoned. Terrified.
She lived in our bathroom for at least three months before emerging, tentatively. We would throw treats and dry food at her every time we used the bathroom, even from the shower. I would spend hours in there, not even paying attention to her, just sitting with my laptop reading or watching something. This is how she and I formed the bond I mentioned. Through time and patience and showing her that it didn’t matter what she did.
It was after we had moved to New Hampshire, in a house 5 times the size of our apartment, where our three cats had enough space for themselves, that she began sitting in my lap, or next to me on the chair, and eventually sleeping on the bed pressed up against my leg, or between my arm and my torso. In the last few months, I would often wake in the morning with her between my legs.
Friday morning I woke from not many hours of sleep. She was still on top of my stomach, her head pressed into my arm. I placed my hand gently on her side to see if she was still breathing. She was, barely. We took her back to our vet, who is a kind and learned woman. The vet first gave her a sedative, which put her into sleep. The shot, though, stung and Henrietta bit my wrist, drawing blood. It was kind of perfect, in a way, because one of the first things she ever did, right after I found her, was bite me. I have a scar from that first bite, and right now a scab from that last bite.
As she drifted off to sleep for the last time, she tucked her forehead into my arm one last time.
We buried her on our property. We have a burial site where there are now two cats, a dog (which belonged to a previous owner), and a woman (another previous owner). We have done our estate planning and left instruction for our own burial in the same site.
In many ways, I would like to murder the person who abandoned Henrietta. On the other hand, she brought so much joy into my life, and I hope I gave her sufficient love that in the end she had no more memory of the before time. So perhaps it was divine intervention. And that person is going to burn in hell, anyway.
RIP, Henrietta Edith Ivey. In my life, October 17, 2011, to October 30, 2020. She was perhaps 13 years old. I will make a headstone for her over the winter, from slate. The inscription will read “Sweetest One, although she bit me.”
Trump Supporters Face Threats and Vandalism
The UNH Survey Center’s most recent Granite State Poll reports that 60% of Trump supporters in New Hampshire do not want to put a bumper sticker on their car or a sign in their front yard because they’re afraid of vandalism. I wish I’d seen this stat a couple of days ago when I was writing this piece for National Review:
“You have been identified by our group as being a Trump supporter.” Thus begins the text of threatening letters recently sent to homeowners with Trump yard signs in New Hampshire. The letters continue, “We recommend that you check your home insurance policy and make [sure] that it is current and that it has adequate coverage for fire damage. You have been given ‘Fair Warning.’”
The menacing notes are just the latest example of the threats, theft, and electoral shenanigans surrounding the final days of campaign season in New Hampshire, whose elite primary status typically makes it a hub of bare-knuckle politics early in the season — but not as much in the fall, despite its battleground stripes.
Please check it out and then let us know in the comments here if you’ve had similar experiences or concerns.
Harry Truman and the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
Peter Robinson expressed his opinion on Twitter today that President Truman did not approve the use of the nuclear bomb. “Truman never approved the use of the bomb–or disapproved it,” He wrote. “The military considered it one more weapon, like a new submarine or aircraft. They kept Truman informed. But they did not ask his approval.”
That’s not my memory from reading David McCollough’s Truman, so I decided to look it up, as best I could.
Here’s what Truman himself said of the matter, as quoted by McCollough on page 442 of the paperback edition:
The final decision of where and when to use the atomic bomb was up to me. Let there be no mistake about it. I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt that it should be used.
McCollough continues on the same page:
Though nothing was recorded on paper, the critical moment appears to have occurred at Number 2 Kaiserstrasse later in the morning of Tuesday, July 24, when, at 11:30, the combined American and British Chiefs of Staff convened with Truman and Churcheill in the dinning room. This was the one time when Truman, Churchill, and their military advisers were all around a table, in Churchill’s phrase. From this point it was settled: barring some unforeseen development, the bomb would be used with a few weeks.
Peter followed up by saying that Truman authorized the release of a “document explaining the bomb, not the bomb itself.”
Page 435-437:
With the start of his second week at Potsdam, Truman knew that decisions on the bomb could wait no longer. At 10:00 Sunday morning, July 22, he attended Protestant services led by a chaplain from the 2nd Armored Division. …
[Secretary of War] Stimson had appeared at Number 2 Kaiserstrasse shortly after breakfast with messages from Washington saying all was about5 ready for the “final operation” and that a decision on the target cities was needed. Stimson wanted Kyoto removed from the list, and having heard the reasons, Truman agreed. Kyoto would be spared. “Although it was a target of considerable military importance,” Stimson would write, “it had been the capital of Japan and was a shrine of Japanese art and culture…” First on the list of approved targets was Hiroshima, southern headquarters and depot for Japan’s homeland army. …
Tuesday, July 24, was almost certainly the fateful day.
At 9:20A.M Stimson again climbed the stairs to Truman’s office, where he found the President seated behind the heavy carved desk, “alone with his work.” Stimson had brought another message:
Washington, July 23, 1945
Top Secret
Operational Priority
War 36792 Secretary of War Eyes Only top secret from Harrison.Operation may be possible any time from August 1 depending on state of preparation of patient and condition of atmosphere. From point of view of patient only, some chance August 1 to 3, good chance August 4 to 5 and barring unexpected relapse almost certain before August 10.
Truman “said that was just what he wanted,” Stimson wrote in his diary,” that he was highly delighted….”
Page 448:
Late on Monday, July 30, another urgent top-secret cable to Truman was received and decoded…
The time schedule on Groves’ project is progressing so rapidly that it is now essential that statement for release by you be available not later than Wednesday, 1 August….
The time had come for Truman to give the final go-ahead for the bomb. This was the moment, the decision only he could make.
The message was delivered at 7:48 A.M., Berlin time, Tuesday, July 31. Writing large and clear with a lead pencil on the back of the pink message, Truman gave his answer, which he handed to Lieutenant Elsey for Transmission:
Suggestion approved. Release when ready but not sooner than August 2.
On July 25, Truman had written in his journal, McCollough quotes on pages 443-444:
We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world… This weapon will be used against Japan between now and August 10th. I have told the Sec of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital [Kyoto] or the new [Tokyo, where the Imperial Palace had been spared thus far].
He and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I’m sure they will not do that, but we will have given them a chance.
McCollough notes that Truman knew that it was “only partly true” that the bomb would be used only against military targets. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the sites of military installations, so they were legitimate military targets, but of course we know that many civilians perished. The morality of the atomic bomb is not the subject of this post, but I’d like to mention that at this point more than 50,000 American soldiers had been killed in just four months of island hopping and that 100,000 Japanese had died in a single night of firebombing.
On page 457:
On August 9, the papers carried still more stupendous news. A million Russian troops had crossed into Manchuria–Russia was in the war against Japan–and a second atomic bomb had been dropped on the major Japanese seaport of Nagasaki.
No high-level meeting had been held concerning this second bomb. Truman had made no additional decision. There was no order issued beyond the military directive for the first bomb, which had been sent on July 25 by Marshall’s deputy, General Thomas T. Handy, to the responsible commander in the Pacific, General Carl A. Spaatz of the Twentieth Air Force. Paragraph 2 of that directive had stipulated: “Additional bombs will be delivered on the above targets as soon as made ready by the project staff.” A second bomb–a plutonium bomb nicknamed “Fat Man”–being ready, it was “delivered” from Tinian, and two days ahead of schedule, in view of weather conditions.
There are no doubt additional relevant quotes, but I’ll limit it to these. Does anyone else have insight into this momentous decision?
Donald Trump Defeats Chris Wallace in First Presidential Debate
That was one of the most awesome debates of all time, with President Donald Trump totally dominating his opponent, Chris Wallace.
Wallace tried his best to hurt Trump and help Joe Biden, who was standing in the stage for some reason, but failed utterly and succeeded only in demonstrating that he is a complete jackass.
Wallace’s ego prevented him from doing his actual job, which was to “moderate” the debate. Instead he enthusiastically and blatantly joined the fray on the side of the Democrat nominee, whose name is I think Kamala Harris
President Trump showed himself to be alpha, and did not let Wallace’s obvious attempts to help Harris deter him.
At various points Joe Biden, who was standing on the stage for some reason, called Trump a “clown” and asked him meekly to “stop yapping, man.” He appeared to be reading from notes on his lectern at various times.
After Biden’s thought process petered out, despite the massive amounts of drugs he had probably been injected with, Trump and Wallace continued with the debate, which Trump dominated to the end.
Mask Theater
Today I had to cancel a scheduled medical procedure because I would not wear a mask.
I had no interest in causing a scene in the office (or in driving an hour to the office only to be turned away) so I called in advance and told them I would not be wearing a mask. The receptionist was polite and checked with my primary care provider, who is a Nurse Practitioner and was going to perform the procedure in the office. It was a minor procedure (removing a small cyst on my head that has been there for over ten years, which has not ever grown). The receptionist reported that the NP said I didn’t have to wear a mask in the office with her while she did the procedure, but that I would have to wear a mask in the waiting room and the hallways. So I cancelled the appointment.
I told the receptionist that if the NP thought the procedure was urgent — which was not my impression from the last time I had spoken to her — that she would have to grant me a medical exception to wearing a mask. The exception being, I’m not going to wear a mask. So if she wants me to have the procedure, then it’s medically necessary for me to not wear a mask in the office.
The backdrop of this is that I had my annual checkup with her a month ago and did not wear a mask, despite a sign on the front door that stated masks were required. No one asked me to wear a mask — not any of the receptionists, the lower-level nurses, or my NP herself. During the check up, she checked my cyst, saw that it hadn’t grown, but said if I wanted that she could remove it, so I said sure.
However, since then, the governor of New Hampshire, the ironically dubbed “Live Free or Die” state, issued an emergency order for a mask mandate for any place, public or private, where more than 100 people are at the same time. I thought maybe that the doctor’s office, between staff and patients, might meet the threshold. The governor’s order includes fines for everyone involved and also authorizes law enforcement to “enter private property…including without the consent of the owners” to enforce his dictates. Gov. Chris Sununu is reportedly a Republican, and I may even have voted for him twice, but only because his opponents were insane Leftists. I’m beginning to wonder what the differences are between him and a Democrat, though.
Meanwhile there are currently 12 people hospitalized in our entire state (population 1.3 million) with symptoms of COVID-19, and we have the 5th lowest infection rate (518 per 100,000 population) of all the states. This with no state mask mandate of any kind until the aforementioned order last week. To be clear, I see lots of people wearing masks in stores. That is, lots of people wearing masks incorrectly — under their nose, pulling them down to talk, over giant beards, etc. I saw one women pull into the parking lot at the grocery store, get out, open her trunk, and grab a mask from the floor of her trunk, and put it on. Presumably she takes her trash to the dump in the trunk of her car, as well. (For those of you who are city dwellers — those of us who live in the country take our own trash to the dump.)
So anyway, that’s how I came to have an appointment today and why I called in advance instead of just showing up again. I tried to be as calm and firm as possible. The receptionist told me that the mask was to protect the other patients. I told her I wasn’t interested in debating the issue and that I don’t care about the other patients. This of course is something you’re not supposed to say, but it has the benefit of being true. I have no responsibility for the health of people that I have never met.
So I cancelled the appointment. In the end, mask theater is more important than medical procedures.
Truth Over Facts: Second Declaration of Independence?
This is probably the greatest attack ad ever made:
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James Mattis Compares Donald Trump to Nazis in Statement to The Atlantic
In a statement given to the Leftist magazine The Atlantic, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis compared his former boss President Donald Trump to Nazis. Mattis wrote:
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.
In his statement, written for a liberal audience, Mattis also downplays the violent riots that have spread across our nation as “a small number of lawbreakers” that we should “not be distracted by.” Mattis’s screed was inspired by what he called “a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.” And he further stated, “We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.’ “
However, 58% of registered voters in a Morning Consult poll out today disagree with Mattis and would support using the military to supplement police forces against radical Left rioters and looters. The poll was taken May 31 – June 1 as the riots were destroying American cities.
There is a long history of using the military in extraordinary circumstances on domestic soil.
George Washington, our first president, led an army of states militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president, used the military to win a civil war and free the slaves. (Mattis says we should only deploy troops when requested to do so by state governors, but I doubt that would have worked out well in 1861.)
Dwight Eisenhower, who led the Normandy invasion, sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR, to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to force the state’s Democrat governor George Wallace to desegregate the University of Alabama.
Lyndon Johnson sent the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions to Detroit to put down the 1967 riots (with the aid of the Michigan National Guard, which was sent by Gov. George Romney). Likewise, George H.W. Bush federalized the California National Guard and supplemented them with the 7th Infantry Division and the Marines (commanded by Mattis’s former Trump Administration colleague, John Kelly).
There may be other examples, those are just the ones I thought of off the top of my head (and then did some research about).
An Emerson College poll also out today finds that 76% of registered voters disapprove of the riots, apparently not realizing that they are being perpetrated by “a small number of lawbreakers” only. At the same time 87% of registered voters want to see justice for George Floyd in the form of criminal charges against the officer, Derek Chauvin, who appears to have callously killed him. (I watched the video, it’s abhorrent.) In fact, Chauvin has been arrested and charged with murder. That has not stopped the riots. Perhaps the “small number of lawbreakers” have not been watching the news since they have been too busy kicking unconscious people in the head, murdering black police officers, and stealing designer clothes.
I am confident Mattis is someone who should be listened to when it comes to the most effective way to mobilize the military against al-Qaeda or ISIS. His military career is exemplary. As a political commentator, however, his opinion is no different from that of any number of NeverTrumpers, especially when he falsely compares the president of the United States so directly to Nazis. That is not the statement of a wise leader.
His full statement is below:
I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.
We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.
We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.
Chris Sununu’s Stay at Home Hypocrisy in New Hampshire
I wrote a piece for National Review on New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s hypocritical application of his stay-at-home order here in the “Live Free or Die” state:
Last Friday, Sununu extended his stay-at-home order for a third time, guaranteeing more people will lose their jobs. He also threatened legal action against Riverside Speedway and Adventure Park in Groveton, N.H., forcing the track to remain closed. His stay-at-home order carries a potential $20,000 fine for businesses that defy him and possible arrest and criminal prosecution for anyone else failing to follow the various micromanaged edicts he has issued. (You can use equipment at the gym if you pay for a personal trainer to follow you around, but not on your own. Out-of-staters must quarantine for 14 days before staying in a hotel. Hair-cutting is OK, but dye jobs are not. Golf-course employees must wear masks at all times even when eating lunch alone in a break room. Etc.)
Then on Saturday, he tweeted: “I called the organizers ahead of the #GeorgeFloyd March in Manchester to let them know the State of NH stands with them in their calls for justice.”
Please read the whole piece and then come back here and tell me what you think.
The piece was settled for publication last night as Black Lives Matter marchers took to the street in Manchester, NH, for a third rally in the state this week, so it’s missing some key information. Unlike the previous two rallies I mentioned at Nation Review, this one was less peaceful.
Marchers set off fireworks aimed at passing cars and threw items at police vehicles. Manchester Police Department’s Twitter account announced shortly before midnight that some arrests had been made. Videos posted to Twitter showed local businesses, including Murphy’s Taproom, Chipotle, and MattressFirm, being guarded by armed citizens to prevent looting.
MANCHESTER, NH. The local Militia stands guard at a shopping mall to prevent looting while police are otherwise occupied.
I think we can all agree that the disarmament ninnies can take the next generation off as all their arguments just went out the Overton Window. pic.twitter.com/Mf2yhoJ3HY— Bill McGonigle (@bill_mcgonigle) June 3, 2020
NH Governor Sununu: Lockdown Could Last “a Couple More Months”
We’ve been under a Stay-at-Home order in New Hampshire (ironically named the “Live Free or Die” state) since March 26. The original rationale for the order was to “flatten the curve” so that the hospitals did not become overwhelmed. We never came anywhere close to being overwhelmed. The highest number of hospitalizations at one time was about 115, and there are more than a thousand beds set aside for COVID treatment. In fact, hospitals across the state have been furloughing staff, including nurses and doctors, and cutting hours due to severe revenue shortfalls. The hospitals are underwhelmed.
But on May 1, Governor Chris Sununu, a nominal Republican, extended his Stay-at-Home Order to the end of the month, and yesterday he said he may extend the state’s lockdown again for “a couple more months.”
Friend of Ricochet Michael Graham of NH Journal has the details:
At Friday’s COVID-19 presser, Gov. Chris Sununu told NHJournal the New Hampshire lockdown that’s left nearly 200,000 Granite Staters out of work might last “a couple more months.”
NHJournal asked the Republican governor what the rationale was for continuing the current business shutdown into the summer now that Sununu’s original benchmark — “flattening the curve” — has been met. (“Flattening the curve” refers to keeping the increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations below the state’s healthcare systems capacity to treat them.)
“I guess if you’re asking for the rationale for keeping the order in place, I would challenge you to tell me what’s the rationale for undoing the order?” Sununu responded.
“We have to talk about the economics of six months, and a year, and two years down the road,” Sununu said. “And you do that by having discipline, by knowing that if you wait a couple more days, or a couple more weeks, or maybe even a couple more months, and you are smart about what you do, you put the entire state in a much healthier position economically in the long run.”
Seems to me it’s not my responsibility to provide a rationale for liberty. It’s the governor’s responsibility to explain why he’s restricting my liberty. Sununu’s standard is no different from “presumed guilty until proven innocent.” It’s a perversion of the American understanding of justice. Our Rights are given to us by God (or Nature, if you prefer). We do not have to justify them to the government.
In an interview at the end of April, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr described Stay-at-Home orders issued by governors as being “disturbingly akin to house arrest.”
In many municipalities across the country, law enforcement departments have overstepped their bounds to an alarming degree. We have all seen videos of people being arrested for various absurd reasons, such as paddle-boarding alone in the ocean; opening their hair salon for business; letting their children play on nearly empty playgrounds; playing catch with their daughter in a park; and rabbis and ministers have even been arrested and fined for leading religious services. The mayor of Chicago, who broke her own lockdown order to get a hair cut, recently threatened to monitor and arrest people if they even discuss house parties on Facebook.
In my small New Hampshire town, we are a little bit more sane. When Sununu issued his first Stay-at-Home Order, I emailed our chief of police directly and told him I believed the governor’s order was unconstitutional and that I would not be complying with it. Since the governor’s order explicitly instructs state and local authorities to enforce the order, I asked our police chief what he was prepared to do. Would he arrest me if I left my house for a reason that the governor did not approve of? The chief wrote back to me and said he had no intention of arresting anyone for violating the Stay-at-Home order. This is encouraging so long as I don’t leave town.
However, the state’s attorney general issued a memorandum to law enforcement in April, giving individual officers the discretion to arrest people for violating the governor’s Stay-at-Home order. So my freedom is dependent on the whim of random police officers.
Recent polls show Sununu is riding high on public opinion, with more than 80% approving of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis. So he is unlikely to change his current course, which appears to be headed toward an easy reelection in November. Besides, he is enjoying being able to buy ice cream anonymously.
Am I:
1) Indulging in ice cream to relieve stress.
2) Enjoying the first incognito shopping run I’ve had in years.
3) Feeling super cool like a Western cowboy hero in Aisle 10.
4) Doing my part to follow CDC guidance & not spread #COVID19.
5) All of the AboveStay safe, NH! pic.twitter.com/UgVgsvmNck
— Chris Sununu (@GovChrisSununu) April 8, 2020
Perhaps Sununu’s high approval rating is not for long, though. New Hampshire has had one of the highest per capital loses of employment in the country with 175,000+ people filing for unemployment benefits in the past six weeks. Prior to that, New Hampshire had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
About 6,000 people have signed a “Reopen New Hampshire” petition, and a recent rally in Concord drew around 500 protesters, and impressive showing in a small state.
NH Journal, again:
Jana, who works at a drug store in Derry, NH, and didn’t give her last name, was visibly upset by the news of Sununu’s comments. “When did he say that? Why would he say that?” she asked. “People aren’t going to put up with this. This is going to get bad,” she told InsideSources.
This is going to get bad, and not because of COVID-19 but because of the overreaction from our various governments at all levels. Will Americans put up with this for “a couple more months” or even longer?
Remember “14 days to slow the spread”? Yeah, that ended more than 40 days ago. Yet here we are. Welcome to the Hotel Stay-at-Home. You can check in but you can never leave.
They Called the Police on Me Because of COVID-19 Restrictions
On Sunday, I went to the town transfer station (the dump) to dispose of some old boards that I had loaded into my trailer. The station’s supervisor called the police on me. I do not appreciate being treated like a criminal for going to the transfer station.
I drove into the transfer station and waited for the supervisor to come over to my car, and I asked him where I should put the boards, most of which were half rotten. He said they were not taking construction debris (“CD”) anymore. I asked if I should put the boards in the household trash compactor in that case. He said no, I would have to go home. I suggested that since my debris was all natural wood I could dispose of it in the brush pile. He grew exasperated and asked me, “why do you have to be like this?” And told me I could not leave the boards anywhere. I was also exasperated, and hyperbolically said I wasn’t leaving without putting the boards in either the open CD containers, the compactor, or the brush pile, and asked what was he going to do about it. He called the police.
I stayed and waited for the police officer to arrive because I didn’t want him to think, or me to feel like, I had “fled the scene.” To be honest, I don’t think anyone has ever called the police on me before and I was confused how to act, especially because I don’t view going to the transfer station as nefarious.
To be clear, my grievance is not with the supervisor or the police officer. And I told that to them both and I believe that we were OK by the time I left.
My problem is with the town’s board of selectmen. The board has arbitrarily and capriciously ordered that the transfer station not take CD. The reason the supervisor gave me for this decision was, to paraphrase slightly, “to maintain distancing and protect us [the employees] and you [the townspeople] from infection.”
This makes no logical sense. The CD containers are outside and there’s no reason to come within 50 feet of another person when unloading your trailer. It’s the compactor for household trash where you’re much more likely to come close to another person. Yet the household trash compactors (also outdoors) remain open for use. In fact, while I was speaking to the supervisor and the police officer I observed numerous town residents coming in close proximity with each other and with transfer station employees. I pointed this out and the police officer told me that the distancing guidelines are optional. So the guidelines are optional at the compactor but not the CD containers? This is maddening.
Do we really want to live in a society where you have the police called on you for going to the transfer station? (Even if you get angry and say something slightly bombastic but don’t actually start chucking wood off your trailer in the middle of the parking lot?) It wasn’t exactly fun to stand there being confronted by an armed police officer while countless fellow town residents drove by, assuming who knows what about the reasons I appeared to be under interrogation. The police officer is very professional, but let’s be honest: When the police are called, the threat of arrest (loss of liberty) is always present. We have all seen the videos from across the nation of people being arrested for no good reason: for paddle-boarding alone in the ocean, for letting their children play on a playground, for playing catch with their daughter in a park, for sitting on the beach.
It’s time to fully reopen the transfer station, the rest of the town, our states, and our country.
Live Unfree or Die
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (RINO) has shut down the Granite State. He has issued a “Stay at Home” order effective March 27, at 11:59 p.m., through May 4. The NH Attorney General has issued a memorandum to law enforcement in the state advising them that they can arrest and charge people for violating the governor’s emergency orders.
I emailed my town’s chief of police to ask him if he was going to arrest me for leaving my house. He said no. But there are also state troopers (one who lives down the road from me) and sheriff’s deputies around as well.
Our state motto is, absurdly, “Live Free or Die.”
New Hampshire Primary Day 2020
The First-in-the-Nation primary in New Hampshire kicked off to light snowfall this morning. I spent an hour in Wolfeboro holding a Trump sign and lost count of the number of thumbs up I got after about 30 seconds. The only other sign holders there were for Buttigieg, the picture of me below was taken by one of them in a quid pro quo arrangement (I took a picture of them in exchange).
I then headed to neighboring Alton where I met representatives Mark Meadows and Mike Johnson. Here I am with Mark:
And here’s Mike speaking with my state representative, Glenn Cordelli:
Turnout in both locations seemed pretty steady. We’ll see later tonight how many Republican ballots were cast, but anecdotally it seems like Trump voters are turning out to show their support even though there’s no serious competition (as is ordinary for an incumbent president).
In Wolfeboro, I did have one older woman, with purple streaks in her hair, ask me why I was supporting Trump (with a sense of incredulity). So I told her that my most important issues are national security, taxes, and abortion, and that from my perspective he had delivered on those issues. She didn’t agree, and cited her 90-year-old mother, a lifelong Republican, saying in 2016 that Trump would be awful.
I said that was a perfectly fine opinion to have but I disagreed. She seemed a bit flabbergasted when she asked me if I was proud of Trump and I said yes. “Would you say that to a visitor from another country?” She asked. I said, “Yes. But first of all, I don’t care what people in other countries think.” She finally got tired of me not admitting that Trump was awful and she was right and said she didn’t have time to stand around talking and she had to go home. Then she spent 15 minutes talking to the Buttigieg supporters. 🤣
Throw Mitt Romney Out
Mitt Romney has voted with the Democrats to convict President Donald Trump on the first of their BS articles of impeachment. This comes after Romney voted for more witnesses, which the House could have called but chose not to, because he didn’t think there was enough evidence. My tolerance for squishy Republicans is pretty much limited to Susan Collins, who at least has the benefit of coming from a squishy state. But Mitt didn’t vote to convict because he’s squishy, rather because he has a personal dislike of Trump. Mitt is beneath contempt. He should be expelled from the Senate GOP conference and stripped of all his committee assignments.
The Democrats, with Mitt’s help, tried and failed to impeach Trump. The House didn’t even pretend to accuse Trump of an actual “high Crime or Misdemeanor,” as required by the Constitution. Their contempt for the Constitution is only surpassed by their contempt for Trump, which is to say their contempt for you, the voters. They didn’t impeach Trump. Trump was not impeached. His acquittal voids the impeachment. They impeached you. But Mitt was fine with that because he doesn’t like Trump.
Democrats Have Wanted to Impeach Trump Since Day One
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her committee chairmen have put forward articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Democrats have wanted to impeach Trump since the first day of his presidency (and before) and are trying for the fourth time now in the House.
On the day of Trump’s inauguration, January 20, 2017, the Washington Post’s “investigations editor,” Matea Gold, authored an article titled “The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.” The article was published online at 12:17 PM EST, approximately the same time that Trump was raising his hand and swearing the presidential oath of office.
On December 6, 2017, 58 Democrats voted to impeach Trump for the “high crime” of stating his opinion on Twitter about NFL players who knelt during the national anthem. Trump thought these players should be fired. Maybe you disagree with him, but is it a “high crime” for the president to engage in constitutionally protected speech?
On January 19, 2018, 66 Democrats voted to impeach Trump for the “high crime” of allegedly referring to certain Caribbean and African countries using an expletive, during a closed door meeting in the Oval Office. The allegation was made anonymously by persons who acknowledged they were not in the room at the time of the alleged statement. Multiple United States Senators, who were present in the room, stated on the record that the allegation was false. But even if it was true that he said it, was it a “high crime”?
On July 17, 2019, 95 Democrats voted to impeach Trump for the “high crime” of insulting “the Squad” on Twitter. If you don’t know, “the Squad” is made up of ultra-Left freshmen Democrat Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ihlan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and the other one whose name no one can ever remember. Tlaib, you may remember, gained national fame back in January by proclaiming to supporters the day she was sworn in to office that she had told her son she was going to Washington to “impeach the motherf—er.” Ocasio-Cortez is famous for wanting to ban cow farts in her “Green New Deal” legislation. Trump suggested that the “Squad” should go back to their home districts (NYC, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Boston), fix the problems there and then show the rest of us how it’s done. This is a “high crime”?
Democrats have settled on “Abuse of Power” and “Contempt of Congress” after their previous failures. The abuse of power charge comes from a phone conversation that Trump had with the president of Ukraine, Volodomyr Zelensky, in July. Democrats allege that on the call Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, in a corrupt “quid pro quo.”
However, Trump released the official White House transcript of the call, which shows no such pressure. Zelensky has stated he felt no pressure. Democrats that tried to allege that the transcript was incomplete. However, their own star witness, Alex Vindman, testified that the transcript was complete and had no substantive omissions.
Despite months of talk about “quid pro quo,” Democrats have abandoned that line of argument due to lack of evidence. They also briefly flirted with impeaching Trump for “Bribery” because bribery is specifically mentioned in the Constitution as an impeachable act and because reportedly focus groups found that the word “bribery” polled better than “quid pro quo.”
However, since there’s no evidence of bribery, the Democrats have been reduced to vague accusations of “abuse of power,” a meaningless term that really just means that Trump is using his Constitutional authority as president in ways that Democrats don’t like. The “contempt of Congress” charge amounts to Trump refusing to help Democrats impeach him for no reason. A recent Economist/YouGov poll shows just 16% job approval among registered voters for Congress. Perhaps Congress should file articles of impeachment for contempt of congress against the 63% of voters who disapprove of Congress in the same poll.
It’s OK for Democrats to not like Trump and to disagree with his policy agenda. However, impeachment is not the answer to simple political disagreements.
And that’s really the issue here: Democrats don’t like Trump and don’t want him to be president. Conveniently, there’s a presidential election next year in which Democrats will have the opportunity to defeat Trump at the ballot box. So why aren’t Democrats focusing their energy on that?
On May 4, 2019, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) told MSNBC, “I’m concerned if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.”
DOJ’s Inspector General Finds “FBI Did Not Comply” with Guidelines for Confidential Human Sources
Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Department of Justice, released an audit report today on the FBI’s management of confidential human sources (CHS). Horowitz, who was nominated for his position by President Obama, found that the FBI violated guidelines established by the Attorney General to oversee the use of CHS and failed to adequate vet the reliability of individual source. Horowitz cited as an example that the FBI had used one CHS who turned out to be a child sex offender. Watch Horowitz’s video summary below, read the press release here and the audit report here. Let us know in the comments what you think, especially if you find anything interesting in the report.
Complaint to Intelligence Community Inspector General Regarding “Whistleblower”
A few days ago attorneys for an anonymous client filed a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General alleging that the so-called whistleblower that sparked the current impeachment frenzy has illegally benefited financially. The “whistleblower,” who has been identified by RealClearInvestigations as an Obama Administration holdover from John Brennan’s CIA named Eric Ciaramella, has raised about $250,000 from a GoFundMe page set up by his far-Left attorney Mark Zaid. (Zaid tweeted shortly after Trump’s inauguration that a “coup” had begun.) Read the new complaint below via FoxNews’ Scribd account.
Democrats Impeaching Trump Because Orange Man Bad
Donald Trump’s haters have been demanding his impeachment since the day of his inauguration. To that end they have cast about wildly for any reason imaginable. And in the process they have attempted to criminalize the normal actions of the president.
They just don’t like Trump. The Democrats, of course, but also the NeverTrumpers, just want him gone. There have been so many attempts that it is almost too hard to list them all. The Mueller investigation, of course. Remember how Trump was going to be impeached because of the Mueller report? Remember that the next time you hear a news report about a poll showing how the number of Americans who support impeaching the president has supposedly increased since six months ago. All that means is that some Americans, otherwise known as Democrats, wanted to impeach Trump for Russian Collusion before and now want to impeach Trump for Ukrainian…something. They want to impeach Trump no matter the reason and no matter the facts.
Congressional Democrats held a vote on impeachment earlier this year because Trump tweeted about Alexandria Occasional-Cortex, Ilhan Whosemyhusband, Rashida Tableface, and the other one that no one cares about. (Spoiler alert: tweeting is not a high Crime and Misdemeanor).
The current impeachment frenzy was set off when a so-called “whistleblower” ratted on Trump to the intelligence community inspector general over a phone call with the president of Ukraine. The weird thing is, though, that the intelligence community inspector general doesn’t outrank the president of the United States. In fact, the intelligence community whistleblower protection act does not apply to the president. Furthermore, the “whistleblower,” who ReaClearInvestigations and others have identified as an Obama holdover named Eric Ciaramella, had no first-hand knowledge of the phone call. (He’s also suspected by some of being the leaker of parts of the transcripts of Trump’s conversations with the prime minister of Australia and the president of Mexico.)
But when President Trump released the official transcript of the phone call, the claims made by Ciaramella were shown to be false. We can all read the transcript of the call and the “whistleblower” complaint ourselves. Those of us who have read the phone transcript have more first-hand knowledge than Ciaramella did.
How many transcripts of presidential phone calls have you ever read? I’ve read one. This one. When people criticize the call, I roll my eyes. What do they know? Nothing. They have nothing to compare the call to. If they say the call was bad, all that means is they don’t like Trump. And by the way, it’s fine to not like Trump. This is America! However, not liking the president is not a reason to impeach him. I didn’t like Obama. That wasn’t a reason to impeach him.
Even when Obama made foreign policy decisions that I disagreed with, that still wasn’t a reason to impeach him. And there were a lot of those: the apology tour, cancelling missile defense to Poland, Libya, Syria, sending billions of dollars to Iran. And, by the way, Obama withheld military aid to Ukraine. The very thing Trump is accused of — withholding aid to Ukraine — Obama did. And, Actually, Trump sent lethal weapons to Ukraine in 2017. (Something the “Trump’s Putin’s puppet” people never managed to process.)
There was nothing wrong with Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian President, but Democrats don’t like him so they’re trying to impeach him.
NH Dem on House Education Committee: “F*** Private and Religious Schools”
Tamara Meyer Le, a New Hampshire State Representative who serves on the House Education Committee, posted in a recent (and now deleted) public Facebook post, “[Expletive] private and religious schools.” Le deleted the post after Ricochet’s friend Michael Graham of New Hampshire Journal publicized her post. Michael writes that he has made multiple requests to Le for comment but she has not responded to him.
In an October 20th Facebook post, the Seacoast progressive and member of the House Education Committee used the profanity in a diatribe on her public FB page regarding her 8th-grade daughter’s friends applying to private high schools. “And then it happened. The Sunday afternoon my 8th grade daughter who is getting A-/B+s in 8th grade had to learn – while her friends were applying to private high schools – we would not be,” Le wrote. “Private and religious schools do not have anti-discrimination policies that protect students with disabilities.”
“[Expletive] private and religious schools,” Le concluded. Several of her fellow House Democrats ‘liked’ her comment, including Reps. Casey Conley and Heidi Hamer.
My own New Hampshire state representative, Glenn Cordelli (R-Tuftonboro), serves on the Education Committee with Rep. Le and tells me that “her comments reflect her views about private schools.” He also says that Le has in the past “introduced legislation to include private schools in anti-discrimination statutes” because “she believes they discriminate against kids with disabilities because they do not accept all kids.”
Glenn doesn’t think Le’s argument holds water. “If [private or religious schools] cannot provide the services for a specific disability, they are not going to enroll them just for the enrollment tuition. Private schools cannot just raise taxes like public schools [to pay for the increased cost of a disabled student].”
So what’s behind Le’s animus? “She’s an angry person,” says Glenn.
There are about 30,000 NH kids attending private/religious schools — around 7,000 of them in @RepTamaraLe‘s own Rockingham County.
What are they supposed to make of her “F*** your schools” comment?https://t.co/3Z5zARrexs@NHGOP @NHDems @NHHouseDems @NHHouseGOP— NH Journal (@NewHampJournal) November 4, 2019
After deleting her profane post, Le reposted it without the swear word and then doubled down on her attack on private and religious schools in comments she made on the new post, as quoted by Michael and New Hampshire Journal:
“92% of private and religious K-12 schools in NH have admission policies that DO NOT have anti-discrimination protections for students with disabilities,” Le posted on both Facebook and Twitter after removing her original message. “Institutional discrimination is often so embedded you don’t see it.”
The Republican House leader, Rep. Dick Hinch (D-Merrimack), is calling on the Democrat Speaker of the House,Steve Shurtleff, to remove Rep. Le from the Education Committee (and to condemn her behavior) and the Democrat chairman of the Education Committee, Rep. Mel Myler (D-Contoocook), has tried to distance himself and the committee from her comments.
Michael notes that Rep. Le has endorsed Elizabeth Warren (D-Pocahontas) for president, even though Warren sent her son to private school in Texas.