Two days after the 2020 election, which saw Democrats capture the White House while losing ground in Congress, House Democrats held a conference call to discuss what went wrong. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D–Va.) was unequivocal: “We need to not ever use the words socialist or socialism ever again,” she said.
Indeed, socialism was something of a political loser this election cycle. The specter of it likely cost Joe Biden his chance at winning Florida. It appears President Donald Trump won over many Latinos in the state with targeted ads tying the Democratic Party to left-wing authoritarianism in Latin America. And while voters reelected all four members of the socialism-friendly “squad”—Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D–Mass.), Ilhan Omar (D–Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D–Mich.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.)—the consensus among the party’s leadership seems to be that the s-word is toxic outside of heavily left-leaning districts.
Rep. James Clyburn (D–S.C.), the House’s third-ranking Democrat, urged members not to run on “Medicare for All or socialized medicine” in the future. Even some progressive Democrats echoed these concerns. “I think Republicans did get some traction trying to scare people on this socialist narrative,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D–Calif.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “What’s the point of embracing a phrase like that?”
Flirting with socialism may have cost Democrats dearly. If Republicans win either of the two runoff Senate races in Georgia, President-elect Joe Biden will face a GOP-controlled Senate. That would mean Republicans could block virtually all of the structural changes that progressives were counting on in order to consolidate power, such as D.C. statehood, an expansion of the Supreme Court, and nuking the filibuster. The Senate can also kill off lofty legislative proposals, vote down Biden’s judicial picks, and thwart liberal Cabinet nominees. “The Biden presidency will be doomed to failure before it starts,” fretted New York magazine’s Eric Levitz.
For democratic socialists, the 2020 election cycle began with great promise: The hard left had not one but two progressive primary candidates, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.). But neither Warren nor Sanders could overcome Biden, the Democratic candidate who worked hardest during the primaries to put serious distance between himself and socialism.
Democratic socialists thought they were riding a blue wave. Instead they gave us divided government. That’s not what they intended, but it might be the best possible outcome.
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Tesla is clearing all inventory of Model S and Model X across stores and showrooms, multiple reports say, suggesting that the electric vehicle maker is preparing design refresh of the two models.
Tesla has told employees to clear all inventories of Model S and Model X in all markets by the end of the month, Electrek reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the plans. It is not typical for Tesla to clear inventory at the start of a new quarter, which, Electrek’s Fred Lambert argues, could indeed mean that a design refresh for Model S and Model X is coming soon.
The Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley group on Twitter also noted on Friday that there are no Model S or Model X vehicles in the Stanford shopping mall, or at Century City in the store, or for test drives. The owners of Teslas are speculating that the inventory clearance is to make room for something new, most likely a refresh of the models.
Moreover, Tesla shut down the production lines of Models X and S at the Fremont, California, factory on Christmas Eve for 18 days, as an email to employees seen by CNBC showed last month.
The company didn’t give a reason for the nearly three-week-shutdown, intensifying speculation that one of the reasons could have been to make updates and adjustments to the production lines of Model S and Model X.
A Tesla Model S refresh was seen on New Year’s Day near Tesla’s headquarters, Teslarati reported, citing Ryan Levenson of The Kilowatts Youtube channel. The sighting suggests that Model S could be undergoing a design refresh, according to Teslarati.
Meanwhile, Tesla said earlier this month it had delivered half a million cars last year. The total 2020 deliveries of 499,550 vehicles are just 450 lower than the 500,000 target Elon Musk had set, and they beat analyst expectations.
Visualizing How News Media Is Describing Ihe Incident At The US Capitol
Was it a riot? An insurrection? Or was it simply a protest?
The January 6, 2021 incident at the U.S. Capitol was widely covered in news media – however, as Visual Capitalist’s Govind Bhurada notes, the type of language used to describe it varied greatly from publication to publication.
Popular news media has a major impact on how society at large perceives major events. To learn more about the language used in recent coverage, we analyzed over 180 articles from Alexa’s top-ranked news websites in the United States. Here’s what we found.
Most Common Descriptions: The Event
From riot to rampage, descriptions used by news media of the incident at the U.S. Capitol were all over the map:
The most commonly used description was riot, followed by storm. On the other end of the spectrum were the less-frequent terms such as insurrection, assault, rampage, and invasion.
Interestingly, Yahoo News, Business Insider, and BBC used siege, attack, and insurrection more often as compared to Breitbart, Epoch Times, and Fox News. The Epoch Times also described the event as a breach more times than any other outlet.
Most Common Descriptions: The Participants
The participants in the incident were identified in various ways, reflecting the variation seen in describing the incident.
In alignment with the usage of riot, the most common descriptions for participants were mob and rioters, followed by protesters. The frequency of use of Trump supporters comes as no surprise, especially since many of the participants are known to have attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ Trump rally preceding the event.
While most outlets referred to the crowd as protesters in the events leading up to the storming of the Capitol building, not all used that term to describe the people who entered the Capitol building. Fox News, Breitbart, and Epoch Times used protesters more often than any other news media outlet. In fact, these three outlets account for 28 of the 37 news articles in which the term protesters appeared.
On the other hand, the term pro-Trump rioters—which was used by Yahoo News, Business Insider, and CNN—did not appear in any articles by Fox News, Breitbart, or Epoch Times.
Tonal Differences
While some media outlets stuck to relatively neutral descriptors, others used unconventional terms to describe both the incident as well as those involved.
The New York Times and the Washington Post, for example, generally adhered to neutral language. They frequently described the event as a siege and a riot, and those involved as the mob and rioters.
The Epoch Times and Breitbart employed terms like protesters and alleged Trump supporters in discussing the individuals involved.
On the other hand, Yahoo News called it an insurrection carried out by militant supporters of President Trump, and Business Insider talked of a pro-Trump assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) potentially reflects how the event was perceived outside of the United States. Terms like riot and stormed appeared most commonly in BBC coverage of the incident. The participants were evenly identified as rioters, Trump supporters, protesters, and more often as the mob.
The Impact of Media Coverage
The influence of news media on how the public perceives events is undeniable. In fact, 88% of surveyed Americans consider the news an essential tool to keep informed about public affairs.
From a riot caused by rioters to an insurrection by President Trump’s militant supporters, the way different media outlets analyze the U.S. Capitol incident impacts what their respective audiences take away from it.
Police in Uttar Pradesh, India, have charged four people, including a Korean Christian and three Indian citizens, with blasphemy and violating a law banning people from attempting to convert others. The four say they were merely delivering food aid to the poor. But police say a woman told them they told her she could get free food by coming to church and was offered money to convert to Christianity. The man organizing the food effort says the charges are trumped up and that two of the Indians who were arrested aren’t even Christian but just helping to deliver the aid.
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Police in Uttar Pradesh, India, have charged four people, including a Korean Christian and three Indian citizens, with blasphemy and violating a law banning people from attempting to convert others. The four say they were merely delivering food aid to the poor. But police say a woman told them they told her she could get free food by coming to church and was offered money to convert to Christianity. The man organizing the food effort says the charges are trumped up and that two of the Indians who were arrested aren’t even Christian but just helping to deliver the aid.
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This weekend, over 50,000 restaurants in Italy began defying the country’s strict ‘anti-Covid’ lockdown measures in a massive act of civil disobedience according to Off-Guardian.
Italian restaurant owners have been spreading their “I Am Open” message through the social media hashtag #IoOpro (“I am opening”) and customers have turned the tables on the government:
ITALY: #IoApro restaurant is open, police arrives. Customers refuse to leave & shout in unison “Get out! Get out! Get out! ..we pay your wages from our taxes, you work for us.. Get out! Get out! Get out!” #IOpenpic.twitter.com/Wqa0DYz4ls
TomTom has released its 2020 Traffic Index which highlights congestion levels in 416 cities in 57 countries. Continual increases in traffic congestion throughout the last decade were brought to an abrupt halt by the Covid-19 pandemic which has turned working patterns and commuting trends upside down across much of the world. As Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, TomTom reported that their findings for 2020 are unlike anything they have seen before.
387 cities experienced a significant decrease (average of 21 percent) in overall congestion, as well as an astonishing 28 percent average decrease in congestion during rush hours. By contrast, only 13 cities saw their traffic jams increase. So where were the global traffic hotspots in 2020 despite Covid-19 paralyzing much of the world? The index shows that Bengalaru in India has now been displaced by Moscow in top spot, and it has fallen back to sixth.
It is a threeway tie for second place with Mumbai in India, Bogota in Colombia and Manila in the Philippines all seeing congestion levels of 53 percent. The only really positive side of congestion is that it’s an indicator of a strong economy. It does of course come with a terrible environmental impact in addition to costing commuters considerable amounts of time.
The pandemic may provide an opportunity to change that, however, with a cleaner, safer, congestion-free future possible if society embraces a shift in mobility. More remote working possibilities and flexible hours can be key to driving that change while more mindful and eco-friendly traffic choices would help cut emissions and safeguard the environment for future generations.
The UK may begin easing existing CCP viruslockdown measures in March if the vaccine roll-out goes to plan, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday.
Talking to the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show,” Raab said the government plans to vaccinate 15 million—or 88 percent—of those most at risk of dying from the CCP virus by Feb. 15, followed by another 17 million in early spring, which will protect 99 percent of those most at risk.
“I think it’s true to say that when we get to a situation in the early spring, perhaps March, if we’ve succeeded in hitting those targets and we’ve made progress so far, we can start to think about the phased transition out of the national lockdown,” he said.
“I think it’s fair to say it won’t be a ‘Big Bang’ if you like. It will be done phased, possibly, back through the tiered approach that we had before.”
The UK adopted a three-tiered system of COVID-19 restrictions in October. The three tiers—medium, high, and very high—were categorized by the infection rates of the areas.
But soon afterward, Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the whole of England under a month-long national lockdown in early November, saying he had “no alternative” because the virus was spreading even faster than the worst-case scenario predicted by the government’s scientific advisers.
When the lockdown ended on Dec. 2, many places in England were put in higher tiers than before the lockdown.
Less than three weeks later, the government created a new ‘“tier four” for London and southeast England, which was equivalent to the November lockdown, after detecting a new variant of the CCP virus which was said to spread faster than the old variant.
The current national lockdown began on Jan. 6, when Johnson said the local tiered system had failed to hold back a surge of the new mutant virus.
The UK has since tightened travel restrictions further, banning travellers from southern African countries, South America, and Portugal to prevent new variants first detected in South Africa and Brazil from entering the country.
The prime minster said on Friday that he will close all travel corridors with other countries on Monday “to protect us against the risk of as yet unidentified new strains.”
There were newspaper reports on Sunday that ministers were considering adopting rules already in place in some Asian countries, which require incoming travellers to quarantine in hotels under supervision.
Asked if the government would adopt the measure, Raab said all potential measures are under review but “they’ve got to be workable.”
“I think there is a challenge in its work abilities and deliverability, but we need to look at that very carefully based on the experience of other countries.”
Human beings have a weakness: It is easy for us to see others’ problems, but not our own problems. Actually, most of us are nearly blind to our own problems.
However, if we examine how our enemies look at us, some insights may be revealed.
For many people right now, the aftertaste of the 2020 presidential election is bitter. They feel that something is very wrong with our country. But what is it?
For current events, it may be useful to look through the eyes of an adversary that many thought had been vanquished: the USSR in the 20th century
I came across a YouTube video of a 1985 interview of Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB agent who defected to the West in 1970.
The interview is about the Soviet Union’s strategy to subvert the United States. It is eye-opening and I wish to share a quote here first:
“Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism and American patriotism … The demoralization process in the United States is basically completed already … Most of it is done by Americans to Americans thanks to lack of moral standards.
As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures. Even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him concentration camp he will refuse to believe it until he is going to receive a kick in his fat bottom. When the military boot crashes him, then he will understand, but not before that. That’s the tragic of the situation of demoralization.”
It is scary to watch the video. (More video here and here.)
What Mr. Bezmenov described 35 years ago is unfolding in front of our very eyes. To me, what is most alarming is that the demoralization is mostly “done by Americans to Americans due to lack of moral standards.” Actually, as Bezmenov pointed out, “for the last 25 years, actually it’s over-fulfilled because the demoralization now reaches such areas where previously not even Comrade Andropov [KGB leader during 1967–1982] and all his experts would even dream of such a tremendous success.”
According to Bezmenov, only 10 to 15 percent of the KGB’s personnel and resources were allocated to traditional clandestine espionage in James Bond’s style, with the rest going to “legitimate, overt, and open” ideological subversion. He said that subversion happens in four stages: demoralization, destabilization, crisis, and “normalization.”
The first stage, lasting for about 15 to 20 years, the period of time needed to raise a generation, is to brainwash the public with communist ideology. Manipulation of the media and academia is required for this purpose.
The second stage focuses on throwing society into chaos, and it usually takes 2-5 years. During this stage, the status quo in economy, foreign relations, and defense systems are changed. The establishment promises all kinds of goodies in order to win people’s support for creating a massive government that is intrusive to people’s lives. Media and academia are also essential to make it successful.
The third stage instigates a crisis that leads to a civil war, revolution, or foreign invasion. This stage only took 2-6 months. This is the stage when the leftist idealists, or “useful idiots,” are no longer needed, because they would be disillusioned and become obstacles. They are going to be eliminated, exiled, or imprisoned, like what has happened in Grenada, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and China. “It is the same pattern everywhere,” said Bezmenov.
These three steps culminate in the fourth and final stage of “normalization”—the populace begins to accept and assimilate communism. This final stage can take up to 20 years to complete.
Today, 35 years after the interview, Bezmenov’s chilling prophecy still sounds so relevant. According to annual polls by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, support for socialism and Marxism among young people in the United States increases steadily. Actually, that is happening in all Western countries. Ambitious proposals like the “Great Reset Initiative” are aiming to change the world fundamentally in economy, international relations, and defense systems, and establish global governance, which sounds like Bezmenov’s stage two, destabilization.
The United States is lauded as the beacon of democracy and freedom. But our once-proud institutions based on the Constitution and the separation of powers seems so powerless under the stress test of the 2020 presidential election. The deep frustration and distrust of the system cannot be dissipated by political intimidation, or deliberate ignoring of evidence-based allegations of irregularities. Many people are deeply worried about our country’s future.
“The United States is in a state of war. Undeclared total war against the basic principles and the foundations of this system… The time bomb is ticking. Every second, the disaster is coming closer and closer. Unlike myself, you will have nowhere to defect to unless you want to live in Antarctica with penguins. This is it. This is the last country of freedom and possibility.” (Bezmenov)
How did we get this far almost unknowingly?
The Surreptitious Path of Infiltration
Sen. Ted Cruz once commented about the law school of a prestigious university he attended:
“There were more self-declared communists [in the faculty] than there were Republicans. … If you asked [them] to vote on whether this nation should become a socialist nation, 80 percent of the faculty would vote yes and 10 percent would think that was too conservative.”
The amazing book, “How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World,” gives a comprehensive analysis of the non-violent infiltration of communism in the West. In 1884, a year after Karl Marx’s death, the British Fabian Society was founded to bring about communism gradually. It encourages its members to advance socialist aims by joining suitable organizations and ingratiating themselves with important figures, such as cabinet ministers, senior administrative officials, industrialists, university deans, and church leaders. Since then, many American intellectuals began accepting communist ideas or its Fabian socialist variant.
The 1960s counterculture movement produced a large number of young anti-traditional students who were influenced greatly by cultural Marxism and Frankfurt School theory. After graduation, they entered the institutions with the most influence over society and culture, such as universities, news media, government agencies, and non-profits. What guided them at that time was mainly the theory of “the long march through the institutions” proposed by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. This “long march” aimed to alter the most important traditions of western civilization. As a result, generations of young people have been indoctrinated with the communist ideology.
Why are Intellectuals So Prone to Communism?
Intellectuals tend to be fooled by radical ideologies. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of scholars. British historian Paul Johnson found that radical intellectuals share the fatal weaknesses of arrogance and egocentrism.
This arrogance is exhibited in a statement by nineteenth-century French politician and art critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary: “Beside the divine garden from which I have been expelled, I will erect a new Eden … At its entrance, I will set up Progress … and I will give a flaming sword into his hand and he will say to God, ‘Thou shalt not enter here.’”
Rapid scientific progress since the 18th century greatly strengthened humankind’s confidence in its own ability and fueled the intellectual trend of progressivism. People started to worship humanist reason instead of God. Reason is believed to be able to lead people to the path of happiness and morality. People want to create a utopia, a “paradise on earth,” which is the essential idea of communism. As the “pastors” of modern science, intellectuals believe that they are the interpreter of the truth, and their cause is so important that no means are off-limits to serve their ends. This has caused a deluge of blood and misery.
What Can We Do?
Two hundred years of experimenting with human pride and reason has led to the declining of morality and the loss of tens of millions lives due to the ravages of communism.
Founding Father John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Interestingly enough, a ruthless communist dictator, Joseph Stalin, echoed his point from another angle, “America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”
It is time for us to be humble again, look inward, and follow the true wisdom of righteous spiritual beliefs. This is our only solution.
Feds Warn Amateur Radio Operators “Not To Commit Criminals Acts” Ahead Of Inauguration
As tech giants shift into censorship overdrive – between Parler’s deplatforming, Twitter purges, and Facebook seemingly cracking down on just about any political discussion ahead of the inauguration – and Sunday’s imagery of anti-government anarchists who showed up to several US capitols on Sunday, those who wish to coordinate peaceful protests (and perhaps not-so peaceful protests) may try to use less-monitored methods to coordinate efforts.
As such, the feds have put would-be criminals on notice.
The Enforcement Bureau (Bureau) of the Federal Communications Commission is out with a Sunday warning reminding “licensees and operators in the Personal Radio Services, that the Commission prohibits the use of radios in those services to commit or facilitate criminal acts.“
The Bureau has become aware of discussions on social media platforms suggesting that certain radio services regulated by the Commission may be an alternative to social media platforms for groups to communicate and coordinate future activities. The Bureau recognizes that these services can be used for a wide range of permitted purposes, including speech that is protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Amateur and Personal Radio Services, however, may not be used to commit or facilitate crimes.
Specifically, the Bureau reminds amateur licensees that they are prohibited from transmitting “communications intended to facilitate a criminal act” or “messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning.” 1 Likewise, individuals operating radios in the Personal Radio Services, a category that includes Citizens Band radios, Family Radio Service walkie-talkies, and General Mobile Radio Service, are prohibited from using those radios “in connection with any activity which is against Federal, State or local law.” 2 Individuals using radios in the Amateur or Personal Radio Services in this manner may be subject to severe penalties, including significant fines, seizure of the offending equipment, and, in some cases, criminal prosecution. – the memo read
The Bureau’s warning comes days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The FBI released a special bulletin last week warning about armed protests at 50 state capitols and the US Capitol in Washington, DC, ahead of the inauguration. Considering Sunday’s footage of armed ‘boogaloo boys’ who actually showed up – and who appear to be largely leftist anti-government anarchists – it stands to reason that they, or others, may try to use radio amateur radio frequencies to coordinate rallies and or attacks.
