“This will be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment.” That was U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams on April 5, touring the Sunday morning shows to warn of the worst week yet for pandemic death in the United States.
A storm cloud of fear hangs in the air, palpable as the billions of cowering human bodies now living under threat of annihilation, festering in hearts, censoring rational thoughts, rotting souls, turning atheists to prayer. A virus has invaded planet earth, apparently threatening the extermination of humankind. And true to form, the victims look to their oppressors for guidance, then follow unquestioningly.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
— H.L. Mencken, In Defense of Women, 1918
A little over 20 years ago, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) conducted a military exercise that involved a “hypothetical scenario” of hijacked planes flying into both the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
What seemed to allow this deadly night to descend was that the intellectual patterns that were supposed to be in charge of things, that should comprehend the threat and lead the fight against it, were paralyzed.
— Robert M. Pirsig, Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, pg 305
Our fundamental responsibility is to protect the American people, the homeland, and the American way of life.
— National Security Strategy of the United States, 2017 (President Donald Trump)
The United States government has no greater responsibility than protecting the American people.
— National Security Strategy, 2015 (President Barack Obama)
At home our most important priority is to protect the homeland for the American people.
— The National Security Strategy of the United States of Americas, 2002 (President George W. Bush)
“Condemnation before investigation is the height of ignorance” — widely attributed to Albert Einstein, but whoever the author was had it right. [William Paley — DV Ed]
There is a vast literature on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, who died on a November 22nd Friday like this in 1963. I have contributed my small share to such writing in an effort to tell the truth, honor him, and emphasize its profound importance in understanding the history of the last fifty-six years, but more importantly, what is happening in the U.S.A. today.
“Rally around the Pentagon!” is a phrase you don’t hear every day. It doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Support the Troops!”, which has been the undeclared war cry of the United States Propaganda Services for nearly three decades now.
