Fire and Fury
“I saw you standing in the middle of thunder and lighting.
I know you’re feeling like you just can’t win but your trying.
It’s hard to keep on keeping on when you’re being pushed around.
Pushed around.
Don’t even know which way is up, you just keep spinning down, down, down.
Every storm runs, runs out of rain.
Like every dark night, turns into day.
Every heartache will fade away.
Like every storm runs, runs out of rain.
It’s gonna set you free.
It’s gonna run out of pain.
And set you free.”
I would love to say that conflicts all over are in decline. But they are not. It seems like positions everywhere are being hardened and violence, either actual or rhetorical, is on the rise. Let’s look around at some of this escalation.
LA Riots: As a native Angelino, I have seen my share of riots in South Central Los Angeles. This week’s riots are different in that the people in charge of the governments of Los Angeles and California seem to have no interest in stopping them. Last year’s Democratic nominee for president even called them “overwhelmingly peaceful”, which is an escalation of the “mostly peaceful” moniker for the George Floyd riots that caused billions of dollars in damages and a number of murders. To describe what is happening there, I will quote Greg Gutfeld who posted this on X: “a sanctuary city where I can burn shit while waving my native country’s flag, demanding they don’t send me back to the country of the flag I am waving.” These are largely foreign nationals waving foreign flags attacking police, citizens and property in the United States. If that doesn’t call for federal action I don’t know what does. The LA police chief said they were “overwhelmed” before Karen Bass probably threatened to fire him.
Just as happened with the George Floyd riots, I am sure this will inspire (along with paid rioters courtesy of George Soros) similar riots in other cities around the country. Coming riots are already announced in NYC, Seattle and Atlanta. One thing is certain. The fight between Americans and foreign nationals illegally in this country is escalating.
Hate the Jews: With the gunning down of an engaged couple on the street in Washington, DC, the burning of a governor’s mansion where the governor in residence happens to be Jewish, and the fire bombing of a pro-Israel group in Colorado, attacks on Jews in the United States are at a level I have never witnessed in my lifetime. Given that Arabs living in Judea (Palestinians) are unlikely to have their own country any time soon, the backlash against Jews will likely continue.
Democrat-inspired violence: Add these things to the murder of a healthcare executive, which has inspired legislators in Sacramento to name a bill after the “heroic” murderer, it is clear that the Democratic Party is raising the stakes so high as to justify violence, destruction and murder in pursuit of their political objectives. This too is unprecedented in my lifetime. Let me assure you that we on the right saw threats to freedom that we deemed to be very consequential when Democrats were in complete control. However, the event of January 6th was the only incident where violence ensued. And in that instance, the only death on that day was that of an unarmed protestor. The violence on the left is widespread, destructive, lethal and either encouraged or permitted by Democrat politicians. And that encouragement is on the rise, in part because it will not succeed in backing the current administration down from it’s policy objectives.
As I am writing this, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, just excoriated ICE agents for wearing masks. He has never opposed the rioters and murderers wearing masks. He demanded we all wear masks during the pandemic. The Democratic Party truly is rooting for criminals to win and law enforcement and law-abiding citizens to lose.
Ukraine and Iran: President Trump is desperately trying to deescalate and end both of these wars. But the opposite seems more likely at the moment.
The Ukrainian attack on Russian airfields was bold and brilliant and effective. I presume they hoped that this kind of thing might encourage Putin to want to sue for peace. But it may just have made him more angry. Putin’s history doesn’t indicate that making a peace deal is in his nature in spite of the considerable deal making skills of Donald Trump. As the Russians suffer their one millionth casualty in this war, might the military launch a coup of Putin? Again, he is no dummy and the success of such a thing looks slim.
Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Doing so would mean the extermination of Israel and everyone living there. The Iranians supposed desire for “peaceful nuclear power” is a red herring for a country drowning in oil and other sources of energy. But there is no indication that they will give this up in any negotiation. That means their nuclear program must be taken out militarily. I don’t know how this can be avoided at this point.
China: Efforts to make a trade deal with China also seem to be faltering. The Chinese will need to stop stealing and spying and subsidizing industries so they dominate them. I doubt they will agree to that. We are entering a “cold war” with China. More on that in another missive.
Elon v The Donald: This rhetorical conflict is at once childish and destructive. The richest and most powerful men in the world sniping at each other like nine year olds in a schoolyard brawl and it is beneath both of them. Furthermore, there is a country and a world to save and they both have major roles in doing that. Instead they hurl insults and threats at each other when basically, they are playing on the same team.
I have long said that God gives all of us gifts, but He gives none of us all the gifts. Musk and Trump are enormously gifted individuals. But they have flaws as we all do. If you have ever read a thorough biography of one of your heroes out of the past, you will always find evidence of their significant flaws.
These two have egos the size of Montana. That is both a strength and a weakness. The weakness shows up in these sorts of schoolyard brawls when neither can politely defer to the other.
Trump, to his credit, is trying to craft legislation through the legislative process established in the constitution. This is difficult and requires endless compromise to get the necessary willing votes. Elon sees that this bill is not what he thinks it should be. He is a CEO used to dictating the path his company takes. Democracy doesn’t work like that. Rightly or wrongly, the votes aren’t there for what he wants. Trump, for all the Democrats rhetoric about being a dictator, is far from it. This bill is not what he wants either, but it is all he can get.
Elon’s DOGE accomplishments are epic. Not just for the money saved, but for exposing the cultural Neo-Marxism that was embedded in almost every part of the federal government. We are all grateful for that. But it is time for these two to put aside those galaxy sized egos for a minute, acknowledge that they have disagreements but aspire to the same goals, and move forward.
More: Above, I have just mentioned what has happened in the last two weeks. There’s plenty more escalating conflict in DC and in various states and cities in the U.S. And even more around the world. In the words of Neil Howe, the Fourth Turning is here.
The content of this missive is not uplifting. Hence I chose a song that is. “Every storm runs out of rain,” it says. These storms will run out too, at some point. I wish I could say that point is soon. I fear that we have not reached peak conflict yet. Not by a long shot.
We can only hope that these storms will blow over before too long, that the peak of the storm will not be too destructive, and that the good guys will prevail in the end. But I do know this. God is in charge. And it is in Him that I trust.
Until next time, which may not be every week as I take some breaks in the summer,
I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast & Live Free
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