Managing Editor Al Perrotta is on vacation.

Since election night 2016, when our elites howled at the sky in primal rage that the vulgar, Deplorable people dared to vote against their instructions, the Democrats and their RINO sock puppets have been acting like angry monkeys. They just keep hurling their poop at the wall to see what will stick. What will distract the voters from the fact that arrogant, sneering elites wish to impose viciously unpopular, coercive laws and policies on helpless citizens? Which sleight of hand will work?

From Putin’s alleged hack of our voting machines, to phony Russia collusion, to fake charges against Mike Flynn, all the way to the show trials of the January 6 protestors. It never ends. And our media join the chatter, gibbering excitedly in the hope that this piece of poop or that won’t slide the wall to the floor of their cage. If it does, they just lose interest and root around for the next one.

Risking a World War to Save the Democrats in the Midterms

As I wrote in my column yesterday, I am absolutely convinced that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan is another political trick, albeit one that’s recklessly dangerous on a scale it’s hard to overstate. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait … these were prudent, low-risk strategies compared to the U.S. provoking a military conflict with China right now. For us to fight for Taiwan right now would be like Tsar Nicholas II’s creaky regime fighting for Serbia in 1914, and stumbling into its grave.

Yes, China’s regime is profoundly evil, as I’ve been writing for years, highlighting its vivisection of Uyghur prisoners in concentration camps. And its biowarfare attack on the West during COVID. But we’re in no shape to fight it, with our military hollowed out by crazy vaccine mandates, demoralized by purges of “right-wing extremists” (i.e., Christians), and stuffed now with overweight girls, trannies, and snowflakes. And we certainly should not be battling the behemoth we helped enrich and arm over what it considers a vital interest, and we do not: the pseudo-quasi independence of a Taiwan we abandoned in the early 1970s.

So let us pray, above all, for peace.

The FBI Wants You … to Shut Up

Assuming peace prevails somehow, there are domestic problems aplenty, thanks to our rule by a regime that scorns democracy, constitutional freedoms, political pluralism, Christianity, and thus America.

Think I’m exaggerating? The FBI continues its transformation into a political secret police before our eyes. Project Veritas has uncovered an internal training document from that agency. It helps agents to smoke out “extremist” citizens and groups. What are some of the giveaways of such potential terrorists? They talk about the American Revolution, criticize “tyranny,” cite the Second Amendment, and use flags like Betsy Ross’s. Seriously, these staples of historic, bipartisan patriotism and heritage are now red flags for government agents. Go read more at The Post Millennial.

The Feds Will Wiretap Your Kids

And once our American Stasi has you on its radar, what will it do? It might try to recruit you for a terror plot it invented, such as the fake scheme to kidnap and try Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — who really was behaving tyrannically and illegally, as her own state’s highest court ruled, but never mind that. Or it might put a wire on your kid and send him home to tape you criticizing the government, then later put you in prison. Again, it sounds like I’m kidding, or burning through the tinfoil on my hat. But read the facts about the prosecution and conviction of January 6 protestor Guy Reffitt. As Gateway Pundit reports:

Guy Reffitt, an oil worker from Texas, was sentenced on Monday to more than seven years in prison for attending the January 6 protests in Washington DC. Guy Reffitt did not engage in any violence. He did not enter the US Capitol.

The FBI wired up his son and sent him into their home to record his dad talking smack. The FBI used the recordings to prosecute the oil worker. The Soviet Union was also famous for turning children against their parents.

I remember when leftists would call for sanctions on regimes that imprisoned their political opponents for peaceful protests. Now the left is wielding such tactics against American patriots, while most Republicans sit silent — hoping the Democrats will jail or silence their populist opponents, so they be happy RINOs.

Reffit’s son may have turned on him, but his wife is standing by him. I can’t improve on her comments:

We didn’t expect anything more from the two-tiered justice system here in the DC area. There’s not going to be a 1-6er who will not be persecuted for their political ideology. No matter if you’re a liberal, and independent, a Republican, this is not OK. The way that people protest in the future will be determined on their political ideology, if it’s OK to charge them or not to charge them … .

He went that day because the United States is the last great stand we have. And if we allow our country to be driven into the ground by the corrupt, evil politicians here in this city, one day at your kitchen table the FBI is going to come in and tell you that you stood up at the school board meeting and you are now a domestic terrorist.

So wake up, America. This isn’t just about Guy Wesley Reffitt. This isn’t just about 1-6. This is about our liberties being stomped on.

Remember that in confronting China we stand for … freedom, or something.

Moloch Also Eats Money, by the Billions

What kind of regime is the Deep State and its political spies keeping in power? A deeply corrupt one that preys on the helpless. That’s what we learn from the latest report by Expectant Mother Care Frontline (EMC) of New York City. That’s a heroic crisis pregnancy center run despite massive government harassment, in the abortion capital of America (my former home town). EMC informs us in its latest newsletter:

New York governor Kathy Hochul is continuing to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into abortionists’ coffers. 

Last April, anticipating the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Hochul gave millions to abortion clinics, funded efforts to recruit out-of-state women, and drafted legislation blocking malpractice suits against these death clinics. 

Now she’s at it again — with a hefty sum set aside for one of her pals. It turns out that the Department of Health is awarding the management of a multi-billion-dollar program to a company owned by a major Hochul campaign donor. 

This donor — Russ Maxwell, president and owner of the Syracuse-based Medical Answering Services — also held a campaign fundraiser for Hochul. He and his husband Morgan McDole have given thousands to Hochul over the years. Now, New York state will pay Maxwell’s company one billion dollars a year for the next five years!

That’s how the game is played, people. Moloch demands to be fed. Not just babies, but billions

Along The Stream

Don’t miss Bradley Polumbo’s column on how free speech is dead in Britain: a U.K. man was arrested for posting a meme satirical of the Trans Pride flag … because it caused someone else “anxiety.” Don’t expect rabid Islamists living on the dole and demanding sharia and honor killings to face repression, though. They’re part of a Magic Minority which elites consider an equally important fetish, alongside the sexually “diverse.”

Make sure to read Stream columnist Timothy Furnish’s charming column about his (starring!) part in a community theater production of a Shakespeare play. He found it a great exercise in social connection, bringing together people from all different backgrounds and worldviews to present a great work of art from our common cultural treasure-house.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”