Civil Defense Perspectives vol. 36 #1
The incursion into the Capitol building on Jan 6 is frequently called an “insurrection” by the media. A very strange one indeed. There were zero guns confiscated. There was only one violent death: an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot by the Capitol police. There was no attempt to remove and replace the sitting government, but rather a demand to investigate allegations of election fraud before certifying the results. There were no hostages, no bombs, no incendiaries—a stark contrast with the attacks by Islamic terrorists, Antifa, or the Weather Underground in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Woke leftist agitators might be allowed to occupy and destroy government property in Portland and Seattle with impunity, but persons who participated in the D.C. demonstration are being hunted down more aggressively than 1950s Communist revolutionaries. One peaceful physician, Dr. Simone Gold, who said she had been invited to gave a speech on COVID-19 at the rally, allegedly entered the Capitol. She was pursued all the way to her home in California. In a SWAT team-style raid, 20 armed officers broke down her front door, and she was jailed overnight before being allowed to make a phone call (tinyurl.com/3bnb25mr).
Reportedly, about 500 people (tinyurl.com/3rjmjhmy) have been charged, sometimes after being turned in by friends and family members. The assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, Steven D’Antuono, said that agents have more than 140,000 pieces of digital media, “and we are scouring every one for investigative and intelligence leads…. We continue to ask for more.” The FBI is maintaining a page on its website for images they’ve culled from all that content, loading up images of faces onto posters (https://tinyurl.com/23h5966x).
Some accused of leading the charge are still jailed, without trial, in solitary confinement. Defendant Ryan Samsel was allegedly beaten savagely by a correctional officer while handcuffed, suffering a dislocated jaw, an orbital fracture, probable loss of an eye, and other injuries (https://tinyurl.com/e73jc59t).
The Capitol is now surrounded by a high fence and heavily garrisoned by the National Guard. Politicians are afraid.
What Does the Capitol Hill Incident Mean?
Financial analyst Richard Maybury asks whether there’s a rebellion against the Swamp. What should investors watch for?
Maybury recounts that the Navigation Acts were a key provocation for the American War of Independence. These lengthy convoluted regulations and taxes were considered burdensome and unethical, and were violated at every turn in America, turning virtually everyone into a smuggler or tax dodger. John Hancock was known as the Prince of Smugglers. To shut down the underground economy, England sent naval ships to patrol coastal waters. One day, the Gaspee, a 10-gun schooner, was lured onto a sand bar while chasing a smuggler. Crowds, who were cheering from the shore, spontaneously rushed to their boats, rowed out to the grounded ship, swarmed it, shot the captain, and burned the ship. The colonists believed they were fighting in accordance with a Higher Law (Early Warning Report, April-May, 2021).
The Gaspee Incident was a spontaneous uprising of normal people—not a rent-a-mob protest like those so frequent today. “For an investor, rent-a-mob incidents don’t mean much,” Maybury writes. “It’s when ordinary, working class folks rise up that you know the politicians and bureaucrats have created a monumental disaster for themselves…. That signals a massive upheaval is near…. Money flows will change drastically.”
Jan 6 was not quite a Gaspee Incident. It was not entirely spontaneous. Protesters were led by various agitators, who had planned in advance. However, an analysis by The Atlantic concluded that “The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists” (https://tinyurl.com/n7j2b7p4). Arrestees were middle-aged, middle-class, and 89% had no known connection to extremist groups. Most remarkably, 40% were business owners.
Maybury doubts that anyone in government understands the improbability of that fact. He thinks that the next two years will determine what our lives will be like for the next 200. “Will the upheaval go in the direction of the American…System of Liberty, or the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror?”
Worldwide Pushback
Massive peaceful protests by ordinary citizens against lockdowns, including 100,000 citizens in London, are occurring in much of the world (https://tinyurl.com/9sz3dy7k). Not-so-peaceful protests were staged in Rome by bar and restaurant owners from across Italy (tinyurl.com/eraz76k). Police for Freedom marched in the Netherlands (tinyurl.com/hc2kmbaw). In multiple rallies in Germany, some chanted, “Wir sind das Volk,” a slogan commonly used during anti-communism demonstrations in East Germany (tinyurl.com/2c52834a).
Aggressive, militaristic policing is becoming commonplace, against isolated violators of COVID policies, as well as against some demonstrators and journalists. There are two types of law, warns Tucker Carlson (https://tinyurl.com/98aw86pd).
There are also two types of media coverage. If you were not in central London on Apr 24, you probably don’t know that one million people marched through the streets of London against medical tyranny and “vaccine passports,” writes The Daily Expose, “possibly the largest protest the United Kingdom has ever seen in which millions from all walks of life attended. Mainstream media described the event as just “scores of people” or “no more than 10,000.” While BBC News remained silent, Marianna Spring, who bills herself as an “award-winning specialist reporter covering disinformation and social media for BBC News,” posted on Twitter that the “few thousand anti-lockdown protesters” marching through London were people who had “fringe beliefs” and believed “online conspiracies.” In contrast, window-smashing by Extinction Rebellion activists was front-page news (tinyurl.com/26bw2wef). Another massive London protest May 29 received little coverage (https://tinyurl.com/38x6j9m9).
Is Resistance Futile?
Whether by design or not, COVID lockdowns and anti-energy (“green”) restrictions are impoverishing Americans who have some independence from government, while the elites prosper. But rebellion against the Swamp is spreading globally, and there are Black Swans like the Texas Big Freeze. Be prepared.
Two-Tier Economy
At the January 2021 meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, the biggest names in finance pushed requirements that accord preferential treatment for Woke industries and relegate dissenters to picking up the scraps. Preferred companies are those that run their operations in a “sustainable” manner (i.e., reducing carbon emissions) or promote goals such as “gender equality” and “racial equity.” Others would face penalties such as “exclusion” and “divestment,” according to the guidelines of the UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which counts dozens of major banks among its members. This financial stranglehold will enable the objective of the WEF, “to curtail the mobility and consumption of the vast majority and reduce them to captives of the Great Reset agenda,” writes Michael Rectenwald, formerly of New York University and an authority on corporate socialism—a convergence of government and business interests in establishing a form of totalitarian, socialist rule. “The measures will also trickle down to the consumption of end-users, whose carbon emissions will be reduced by default. They won’t have any say about driving gasoline-powered vehicles, because such vehicles will not be produced and gasoline will no longer be available” (tinyurl.com/pntsynyd).
Xi Jingping Kicks Off Davos Conference
After a glowing introduction by WEF chairman Klaus Schwab, Chinese president Xi Jingping gave the opening address at what has always been primarily a European event, signaling the growing importance of China in the international order. Xi apparently wants the world to see China, not the U.S., as the linchpin and seemed to be warning Joe Biden against a hawkish trade policy like Trump’s (tinyurl.com/2anaw8sh). The fence and National Guard around the Capitol are irrelevant in this context.
Identitarian Movement in Europe
Yes, there is a youth movement in Europe that intends to fight to preserve its traditions. Members identify as Austrian, German, Czech, Slovenian, Italian, Spanish, French, etc., and share a “Defend Europe” symbol (tinyurl.com/sej2v56). “European people are dying because we are tolerant to those who don’t respect our identity.” They stand “United for Our Children.” They assemble, they march, they sing the old patriotic songs, and they know their history. They are censored, harassed, and humiliated by the regime, their peers, and their own parents.
The upper middle class remains wealthy and secure. “Conservatives” may be annoyed by Wokeism, but it has not affected their lives. As in America, it is not their jobs that are being destroyed, their girls who are being raped, or their homes that are being confiscated. Governmental programs designed to take care of the mass of immigrants are a source of handsome income for the upper middle class on both sides of the aisle. There are well-paid jobs for social workers, supervisors, teachers, managers, or suppliers of food and taxpayer-funded housing.
Youth may be accused by their elders of being lured by “fringe groups” on the internet, but some young persons recognize that the old-timers will be dead or demented when the bills come due, while they will be entering their prime years. So they continue flying the yellow flag with the Spartan chevron, undeterred by oppressors from the deep state.
Causus Belli
The age-old cause for war is parents’ fear that the future of their children is jeopardized, writes Richard Maybury.
“The government has made itself so overwhelming powerful in everyone’s lives that it has likely split the country as cleanly as in the Civil War (1861-1865). Half the population fears the beast, and the other half loves it, trusts it and wants it to grow without limit” (Early Warning Report, March 2021).
“There is no way to bridge this Grand Canyon of discord”— short of government slashing its encroachments. The government fearers are starting to see that taxes, regulations, and monetary policy are destroying their ability to provide for their families.
Cyberwarfare
Our world has become extremely dependent on computer technology, which depends on electricity. This infrastructure could be wiped out for a long time by a solar flare or electromagnetic pulse. Moreover, Maybury (ibid.) points out, the “cloud” is under the ocean: 98% of international voice, data, video, and internet traffic goes through fiberoptic cables at the bottom of the ocean. The 700,000 miles of cable are completely vulnerable to wiretapping and sabotage. They transmit $10 trillion in financial transactions every day. The situation is so hopeless, Maybury writes, that the U.S. has publicly claimed the right to retaliate against cyber attacks by dropping atomic bombs. But how to identify the perpetrator?
Ransomware attacks have become commonplace. Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid $5 million in cryptocurrency in an attack that crippled fuel delivery to the U.S. East Coast (https://tinyurl.com/2t9m6yr2). Revenue lost to cybercriminals may have already reached $1.5 trillion per year.
The “Pearl Harbor” of cyberwarfare was the 2019-2020 SolarWinds hack, which lasted at least 8 months and invaded an estimated 18,000 private and government networks, including the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, State, and Defense. This delayed action weapon uses routine software upgrades as vectors. Governments warring against each other have infested the world with genius military-trained hackers.
The Real Steal
The mission of the Jan 6 protesters was futile, in the opinion of David Stockman, however much election fraud may have occurred, because it is the constitutional responsibility of states to certify election results. No state sent dueling slates of electors, and no state legislature petitioned Congress asserting that its tally was the result of fraud.
Stockman notes that both parties are complicit in the “real steal” of trillions from future taxpayers and the “tens of trillions of windfall gains to the top 1.0% and 0.1% that have been pilfered from the main street economy owing to the Fed’s hideously unhinged money-pumping” (https://tinyurl.com/yfxsxwe3).
The political activism and censorship by the tech titans, he states, “has become the most dangerous threat to democracy ever to arise in America” because they are “immune to the normal laws, incentives and imperatives of honest free market capitalism” (https://tinyurl.com/4uufp2c5).
The fence will not hold back the laws of economics forever.