How SNAP Empty Plates are De Facto Loaded Guns
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
—Abraham Lincoln, Illinois Republican State Convention: June 16, 1858
Only if you were awaking from a 10-year coma, would you be surprised to learn that the tensions between the left and right, citizens and illegals, gangs and lawful, indeed the swamp or deep state in all its forms and We the
People are reaching a potential breaking point.
Perhaps, better stated is a potential "SNAPping point."
The pace of crises imperiling tranquility and prosperity on Mainstreet USA has moved at warp. lightening speed.
It turns out that yielding on our liberties and rights via the Patriot Act lit a fuse doing little to end the future of global terrorism, yet doing so enlarged and emboldened a behemoth government where the Constitution became an annoyance.
FBI and CIA Directors J. Edgar Hoover and Alan Dulles, champions of rouge runaway agencies in the 1950s and 1960s would blush at the excesses of the post-Patriot Act versions of the monsters they created.
In the last decade we have lost any sense of outrage over FISA courts, swatting soccer Moms, cooked elections, lockdowns, censorship, Jan. 6, 2021 fables, transgenderism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Islamist-Sharia, or the legacy/mainstream media telling us how we'd better think about these things.
Lest ye be branded a conspiracy theorist, racist, or what the deep state calls enemy No. 1: Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) (Antifa/BLM don't count: see also "Mostly Peaceful").
We the electorate see a trend.
Keep us divided, along any seam possible.
Magnify anger and passion in the media.
Lawfare, dox, surveille or censor dissenters.
Marginalize standout leaders speaking to American values.
Enlist the support of big banks, industries, and media to keep all the ants in the jar and under control.
This is the apt metaphor that former Croatian fund manager, and popular geopolitics podcast guest Alex (Sasha) Krainer uses.
"The powers that be put the red and black ants in a jar, close it, and shake it intentionally." When the ants kill each other, they never take time to find out who closed the jar in the first place.
Blast forward on the timeline to Trump 2.0.
The swamp on both sides of the aisle (pro tip: there is no aisle, not really), the deep state, and the globalists have cast aside old tactics of Russia dossier hoaxes, impeachment drills, lawfare, and assassination attempts (yes, it wasn't just a deranged kid), instead moving to the hill they may well die on, a government shutdown if they don’t get $1.5 trillion for illegals to have medical care.
This is against a backdrop of seditious governors, guardsmen and police vowing to take on ICE or any force attempting to protect Americans and enforce deportations foisted on us by the lawless Biden-autopen administration.
The Mike Johnson/John Thune tribe may be guilty of "passive aggressive theater" where nominees are slow rolled and no executive actions are codified into law, but the Jeffries/Schumer tribe's rallying cry is "hold my beer," as they shut the government down, hurting honest civil service, military, our most vulnerable; that is Americans overall.
Does everyone understand that the Department of War met its payroll, only because of a philanthropic billionaire patriot? Thank you, Timothy Mellon!
Are we nearing the end of civility?
Americans in Portland, Chicago, and Los Angeles, might say we did long ago.
In Sasha Krainer's construct, Team Jeffries/Schumer are in fact closing the jar and preparing to shake it hard . . . do these men not fear the ballot box? (a topic for another article)
SNAPping Point
If the government does not reopen in a day or two, the welfare benefits will not flow to the 42 million Americans drawing them.
If the furnace blast of flaming social media posts, this week is any indication, there is a huge potential for riots and mass thefts of the grocery outlets, restaurants and innocent folks try to load their purchases into their cars.
If this previously unthinkable situation manifests, we will be in a new place as a nation.
We the People will have to make some decisions, without the help of the "Uniparty" elected.
Action Items
This week as all law-abiding citizens, working to provide for their families, play by the rules and live their lives peacefully against the backdrop of endless chaos, they must expand their thinking about risk, and ways to avoid these threats.
If you have the means to stock up and avoid areas where the ugliness could play out, do so.
Ask your local Sheriff and first responders what their plans are.
Stay in league with your neighbors and communities to show solidarity in the face of anarchy, if even temporary.
If your needs are covered, volunteer at a food pantry/bank to try and lessen the impacts for our vulnerable.
This too shall pass.
As the swamp civil war grinds on, we must all remember that it will run its course, and our union will be strong again.
A season of accountability must come. And it will. And we will be all the better for it.
Brig Gen (ret) Blaine Holt is a former Deputy Representative to NATO, lifetime member on the Council on Foreign Relations, tech entrepreneur and Newsmax Contributor. The views presented are those of the author and do not represent the views of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, or its components. Read Gen. Holt's reports — More Here.
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