What Could Possibly Go Wrong? DHS Is Compiling A Database Of Journalists And ‘Media Influencers’

Not only are self-defense rights, free speech, and freedom of religion are under attack in the United States. The government has now decided to also battle the freedom of the press and has enlisted the Department of Homeland Security to help them in their quest to squash liberty.

It could be because not all media outlets tow the line and promote the government as their religious supreme deity. Or it could just be that there will be an attempt to hush those who speak out against the government. Or the new database could just list those involved in media and journalism and mean nothing. And if you believe that last one, we’ve got some beach front property in Wyoming to sell you.

Every day, journalists face serious consequences including physical violence, imprisonment and death. A few days ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists launched its annual Free The Press campaign to raise awareness about imprisoned journalists throughout the world. On May 3, UNESCO will once again mark “World Press Freedom Day“to inform citizens of violations of press freedom — a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.” –Forbes

But that’s all beginning now, here, in the “land of the free.” Last week, SHTFPlan interviewed Sarah Leach who was detained without charges for survivalist posts on her own Facebook page. But we are expected to believe that DHS has no nefarious reasoning for compiling a list of all journalists, bloggers, podcasters, or as they like to call them: “media influencers”?

FedBizOpps.gov posted a relatively benign-sounding subject: “Media Monitoring Services” by DHS. Of course, the government always makes basic human rights violations sound benign when we all know they are anything but. The details of the attached Statement of Work outline a plan to gather and monitor the public activities of media professionals and influencers and are enough to cause nightmares of constitutional and basic fundamental human rights proportions, particularly as the freedom of the press is under attack worldwide. Yes, that includes in the United States.

And “attack” is not hyperbolic.

Just take one look at the “fake news” epidemic. While outlets like CNN get away with bold-faced lies, others who tell the truth are labeled “conspiracy theorists,” and that’s all by design.

Any time a credible but politically unpalatable explanation for real-world events is expressed in the American public sphere, it is often denounced as “conspiracy theory”, then dismissed and studiously ignored by the mass media. Public opinion, the public herd mind, obediently follows suit and closes itself to any such crazy conspiracy talk. –Econintersect

It’s already been discovered that the fake news “public relations” (which is what the father of propaganda, Edward Bernays, renamed propaganda so it would be more easily digested by the masses) attempt was an attack by Democrats in 2016 and meant to discredit anyone who didn’t support their leftist agenda.

Without propaganda and brainwashing, leftist policies would have died decades ago. People are born wanting freedom from tyranny. It takes an effective campaign starting in childhood to change their minds and support their masters willingly while decrying those who seek actual freedom from oppression. –The Daily Sheeple

So can we take a guess as to who will at the most risk of the government-compiled list of “media influencers?” If you’ve guessed those critical of the government, you’d be correct. It certainly seems like the government is losing control over the minds of too many as critical thought makes a comeback and pushes back on the propaganda spoon-fed to the willing sheep.

Unfortunately, increasing government encroachment on the freedom of the press is the sinister backdrop to all of this. Freedom House, which has monitored the status of the press for nearly 40 years, recently concluded that global media freedom has reached its lowest level in the past 13 years. The independent watchdog organization blames “new threats to journalists and media outlets in major democracies” as well as “further crackdowns on independent media in authoritarian countries like Russia and China.” And then it goes one step further. –Forbes

Forbes then posed two questions that won’t readily be answered, and when they are, it will probably be too late for liberty. Could this DHS action be a way for the government to keep track of American and foreign journalists as well as “citizen journalists,” threatening not only the freedom of the press but also individual freedom of speech? And what, exactly, is the government planning to do with the information that it compiles?

If you think this is all just conspiracy theory and it could never happen to you, read Sarah Leach’s first-hand account of being harassed and detained and stolen from for the crime of being a survivalist and posting about it on Facebook:

Interview With Prepper: ‘We Were Held Without Charges’ For Survivalist Facebook Posts

Freedom is literally under attack by the United States government and there’s no longer any easy or consoling way to state it.

Mike Adams: Political Coup FAILED; Prepare For ARMED Communist Coup

Now that the political coup has failed epically, what’s next?  Could the deep state and global elitists have an armed Communist coup planned?

It may have seemed like something far-fetched and out of a novel about a future dystopia just a few years ago, but it’s now become all too real.  Mike Adams, also known as the Health Ranger, is sounding alarms that a violent armed coup could be coming next. “Now that the attempted political coup against America has been exposed and halted, the demonic, deranged Left will move toward a KINETIC WAR/revolution that will unleash a civil war across America,” says the description of Adams video posted to YouTube.

“They tried to steal it [the 2016 election] and they failed,” Adams said. “Watergate was small-time compared to this.”

“They [globalist leftists] tried to stage a coup on election day…they tried this whole ‘Russia collusion’ conspiracy theory with the complicit mainstream media playing along as propagnada puppets, planting false stories that the FBI then cited in their FISA application, to DEFRAUD the FISA court judge in order to get approval for spying on Trump team officials.”

But does that mean since all else failed, that the left will attempt to forcibly remove Donald Trump from office? It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard that that’s a tangible possibility.

“Now, they’re gonna move into the ‘kinetic phase’ and here’s how they’re gonna pull it off….their plans are so easy to reverse engineer. As Trump goes after these corrupt FBI officals, and as Congress seeks indictments against people like James Comey, the left will say that that’s a political coup taking place and they’ll call for a rising up of left-wing, brainwashed, zombie, people all across America to ‘take back their country.’ They are going to twist it around 180 degrees while they are attempting a communist coup takeover of this country.”

Adams warns that the day is coming in which the propaganda media will convince the left to violently attempt to overthrow the government in order to enact a communist, globalist agenda. He may not be all that far off either. The United Nations has admitted that Agenda 21 is real and mass brainwashing is required to get people to accept their slavery rather than fight for their freedom.

“The deep state coup failed. Now, the only option they have left is to have an actual kinetic assault. Which is what communist regimes have done throughout history.” –Mike Adams

They Actually HATE America! Multiple High-Profile Liberal Politicians And Media Figures Are OFFENDED By USA Chants And Words Such As Church And Family During SOTU Speech

In what can only be described as a truly shocking moment in American history, multiple high-profile Democratic politicians and media figures reacted in horror over the fact that America was promoted during parts of President Trump’s State of the Union address.

That’s right, liberal politicians and their media puppets were actually angry that parts of the speech included the idea of putting American citizens, of all races, ahead of the needs of other countries.

Shockingly, some even took their “anger” further, with one leading Democratic voice actually standing up and leaving after chants of USA filled the room. Or, in other words, a politician elected to represent Americans hates the idea of the United States so much that he couldn’t even stand hearing it shouted.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez, a man many on the right already believed cared more about illegal immigrants than his own constituents, was so triggered by Trumps “soaring” rhetoric that he fled the House chamber.

As Trump praised the Capitol building itself, applause and chants of “USA USA USA!” broke out, causing Gutierrez to retreat to a safe, anti-American space.

We have a bipartisan standing ovation — and a lot of “USA!” chants. https://t.co/00Kmhu7ges

— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) January 31, 2018

Additionally, liberals within the media also reacted with anger over the presidents choice of words during the speech, including MSNBC’s Joy Reid who was triggered by the president using what one would assume are completely normal words such as family and church.

This is not satire. I repeat this is not a satirical piece. Joy Reid was actually triggered and angered by the use of the words family, church, police, and military. If this is not direct proof of hardcore anti-American, pro-globalist sentiment I don’t know what is.

Church … family … police … military … the national anthem … Trump trying to call on all the tropes of 1950s-era nationalism. The goal of this speech appears to be to force the normalization of Trump on the terms of the bygone era his supporters are nostalgic for. #SOTU

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 31, 2018

Paul Joseph Watson reported on the insanity:

Yes, you read that right. Reid is literally upset that Trump used the words church, family, police, military and the national anthem during his address to lawmakers.

It was perhaps the most bizarre reaction of the night, and there was no shortage of competition.

Twitter users took Reid to task for her apparent unease with every day words and ‘American as apple pie’ concepts.

“No, Joy, the Left is so out of touch you don’t even recognize normal when you see it,” responded one.

Not wanting to be left out of being publicly angry that the president is praising America, the liberal ACLU (which has done some good work in the past but in the age of Trump has become yet another Soros funded disinformation machine) actually attacked the president for using the word America 80 different times.

Jamie White reports:

The American Civil Liberties Union complained President Trump used the word “America” too many times in his State of the Union speech.

“Tonight, President Trump said the word ‘America’ more than 80 times in his speech. Yet, after a divisive first year, we hear and feel how exclusionary that ‘America’ is, with policies that have harmed so many vulnerable American communities,” said ACLU national policy director Faiz Shakir Tuesday night in a written statement.

“The ACLU stands ready to protect these communities, both in the courts and at the polls.”

“In particular, the immigration plan put forth by Trump would hold Dreamers hostage to his demands for a harmful border wall and an even larger mass deportation force. We are at this crossroads because of the President’s deeply destructive ideas fomented by his nativist allies and divisive rhetoric. We will continue to stand up for these young immigrants and ensure they continue to contribute to our country. We cannot let America’s Dreamers be deported.”

Bizarrely, the word “America” itself is now seen by the left as racist and xenophobic.

Keep in mind, the Democrats literally set still as the president called for a merit based immigration system, making startling clear to the American people that they are now a party that represents “foreign insurgencies” over their own constituents.

Dems sit on their as @POTUS calls for “merit based immigration for those who love and respect our country”. Are @HouseDemocrats @HouseDemocrats apparently now “the Party for Foreign Insurgencies”??

— M. Zuhdi Jasser (@DrZuhdiJasser) January 31, 2018

Hard-left figures on Twitter, including anti-American Islamist Linda Sarsour, were angry that anyone stood for anything Donald Trump said, including his plans for a fair immigration system and the amazing fact that black unemployment is at an ALL TIME LOW.

Electoral strategy 2018 – vote out every single one of those in the chambers that stood over and over again to applaud xenophobia, stripping of healthcare, and blatant lies. #SOTU

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) January 31, 2018

For her part, liberal darling Elizabeth Warren made clear that she despised the entire speech, apparently ready to publicly hop on the hard-left anti-America agenda.

I went to the #SOTU. I wanted it burned into my eyes. If there’s ever a moment when I’m too tired to keep fighting, I just have to close my eyes & see @realDonaldTrump , @mike_pence & @pryan applauding themselves for punching working families in the gut, & I’m back in this fight.

— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) January 31, 2018

Make no mistake. This is not about liberals standing up against Republicans that they politically disagree with. This is about a portion of the Democratic Party, and the left as a whole, publicly harboring actual HATE for the American people while at the same time using all their power to promote and help illegal immigrants.

It does not get any clearer. These people are NOT working for the American people and actually seem to hate us.

The sooner we realize this fact the sooner we can fight back against it in a united way.

Former Facebook Executive: ‘You Don’t Realize It, But You Are Being Programmed’

A former Facebook executive, who openly admits to not using social media, has come out about the role he played in “ripping apart the fabric of society.”  Chamath Palihapitiya has publicly declared that he didn’t really understand “the consequences” of what he was doing.

This isn’t the first time a social media powerhouse has come forward with regret for helping create a social media platform either. Facebook’s first president, Sean Parker, opened up about his regrets over helping create social media as we now know it last month. Parker has said that social media creates “a social-validation feedback loop” by giving people “a little dopamine hit every once in a while because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever.”

Palihapitiya, who worked for Facebook from 2005-2011, expressed his concerns during a recent public discussion at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He told the audience, “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” 

“So we are in a really bad state of affairs right now, in my opinion. It [social media] is eroding the core foundation of how people behave by and between each other. And I don’t have a good solution. My solution is I just don’t use these tools anymore. I haven’t for years,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, the former vice president of user growth. “I don’t know if I really understood the consequences of what I was saying, because of the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people and it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other,” Parker said. “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”

Palihapitiya, who is a millionaire thanks to his role in Facebook’s growth, also admitted it wasn’t about the Russian ads. We’ve done this damage to ourselves and fueled an addiction of sorts. “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he told the audience said. “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem—this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.” And Palihapitiya admitted to feeling guilty for his role. “I feel tremendous guilt. I think we all knew in the back of our minds—even though we feigned this whole line of, like, there probably aren’t any bad unintended consequences. I think in the back, deep, deep recesses of, we kind of knew something bad could happen. But I think the way we defined it was not like this.”

Palihapitiya said he doesn’t use social media because he “innately didn’t want to get programmed.” As for his kids: “They’re not allowed to use this sh*t.” That seemed to strike a nerve too.  Palihapitiya admitted that social media is “programming” the behaviors of users. “Your behaviors—you don’t realize it but you are being programmed. It was unintentional, but now you gotta decide how much you are willing to give up, how much of your intellectual independence,” he told the students in the crowd. “And don’t think, ‘Oh yeah, not me, I’m fucking genius, I’m at Stanford.’ You’re probably the most likely to f*cking fall for it. ‘Cause you are f*cking check-boxing your whole Goddamn life.”

The consequences of a social media addiction were unknown until recently. Now, it certainly seems almost as harrowing as an alcohol addiction. With one in six Americans now on anti-depressants and desperately seeking attention through social media, could Palihapitiya be onto something? Has social media damaged the social fabric of our society?

The Pilgrims’ Story: Separating Fact From Fiction

Schoolchildren all across America are learning about the Pilgrims this month, but for many of them it’s the politically correct version – sanitized of anything that might offend.

On this week’s edition of Off The Grid Radio, you’ll hear the non-PC story of the Pilgrims from one of the world’s foremost experts, Sue Allan, who separates myths from facts and provides details about the Pilgrims you’ve never heard.

Allan is an author and speaker who gives tours of Pilgrim sites in the United Kingdom, and her knack for making you “feel like you were there” is unmatched.

The Pilgrims, she says, were some of the nation’s first survivalists, and their stories of persistence and endurance rival anything out of Hollywood.

Allan also tells us:

• Why the depictions of Pilgrims you see in paintings are almost always wrong.


• What the Pilgrims did to stay out of jail in England – a story so incredible it is sure to inspire.


• How the Pilgrims survived their journey across the Atlantic, despite not having enough food to eat.


• Why she believes the Pilgrims’ story must include their faith – or else not be told at all.


• How the Pilgrims could have avoided that first harsh winter, if only they had done this one thing.

Perhaps most incredible of all, Allan tells us how the “first Thanksgiving” we’ve been taught for decades perhaps wasn’t the first Thanksgiving at all. Allan has been featured in a series of documentaries, including the BBC’s Coast and Kirk Cameron’s Monumental. Listen as this expert tells the Pilgrims’ story as only she can.

Hacking The Power Grid: They Can Induce Blackouts On American Soil AT WILL

The American power grid has been hacked.  It also appears that these hackers may take down the entire grid “at will” and induce blackouts when and where they choose.

For an unknown reason, however, the hackers restrained themselves from taking down the power like they did in Ukraine recently.  They simply hacked their way into the system, although speculation is that they just wanted to look around…for now.

You could have seen this one coming a mile away. The narrative is taking shape, folks. The boogie men are being put into place… and when the time is right, “The Powers That Shouldn’t Be”, will send the signal to their henchmen to set off the next crisis, stoking fear in everyone’s hearts. Out of chaos, order! –The Daily Sheeple

A report by internet security experts, Symantec, says that a hacking group called Dragonfly 2.0 has gained access to 20 power company networks.

The targets were in the United States, Turkey, and Switzerland. According to Symantec, the hackers did gain access to the interface they would need to control the power equipment, with which they could cause a widespread blackout.

According to one expert, they were just in there looking around. John Hultquist, a researcher for FireEye security, said of another such intrusion, “In our experience groups that have solely targeted energy like this have been carrying out reconnaissance for attack.” –Organic Prepper

Yet Fortune claims that we should not “freak out” because these hackers got into the power grid.  Fortune went on to say that the American power grid is complex and a take down would be difficult. (Yeah.  So complex hackers can’t get in…oh, wait…) But mainly they simply state without any evidence to back up the subjective statement, that adversaries seeking to take down the grid are at the beginning of their journey of destruction, and not at the end.

These adversaries had access to the networks that operate the industrial equipment used to power our country. That sounds scary. But the belief pushed by governments, Hollywood movie scripts, and media headlines for years—that we are standing on the brink of cyber-induced blackouts and mass chaos—is misinformed. Our adversaries are at the starting point of their journey to cause significant disruption to our power grid, not the finish line. –Fortune

But that isn’t comforting to those who understand what a power grid failure would look like, in the grand scheme of things. Disabeling large portions of the grid would cause chaos.  And many, including Symantec, appear to think this was a much bigger issue than initially thought. While the cyber security company believes that this hack was to just “poke around,” it signals that those seeking to do harm are moving onto their next phase of an attack. With recent campaigns potentially providing them with access to operational systems, access could be used for more disruptive purposes in future.

Back in July of this year, hackers got into an American nuclear power plant in Kansas. On the bright side, they were just into the business side of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kansas, and did not obtain access to the controls. But it’s still pretty unsettling that they’d even get that close. If someone was able to get into the control section, not only could they cause a power outage, but they could potentially disable the nuclear safeguards. Eric Chien suspects that while this hack was originally blamed on the Russians (because, really, what isn’t blamed on the Russians?) that the Dragonfly 2.0 hackers were the ones who were responsible. “It’s highly unlikely this is just coincidental.” –The Organic Prepper

The Organic Prepper also points out that it’s hard to miss the fact that this could be nothing more than a red flag event.

Symantec’s report refuses to disclose which power plants were compromised, but there seems to be no doubt the hackers were able to gain access to operational control of them. And while this has been going on for a few years now, they’re getting bolder and nearly have the pieces in place to widespread sabotage our power grid.

Some code strings in the malware were in Russian. However, some were also in French, which indicates that one of these languages may be a false flag. Conflicting evidence and what appear to be attempts at misattribution make it difficult to definitively state where this attack group is based or who is behind it. –The Organic Prepper

Advancements in technology have made manual controls obsolete. Meaning that controlling the power grid is a matter of know-how and internet prowess.  Cyber warfare is the war of the future and there is more and more proof that it isn’t a matter of if, but when.

Click here to subscribe: Join over one million monthly readers and receive breaking news, strategies, ideas and commentary.

Please Spread The Word And Share This Post

Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 250 people
Date: September 13th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

4 Reasons America Is STILL The Greatest Nation On Earth

With all of the turmoil and controversy in our nation over the last few decades, it’s easy to criticize the USA as a country in decline.

However, it is times like these that we need to gird up our loins, fight for what we believe in, and remember that despite the many faults we can currently name with the United States, this is still the greatest nation on Earth. Here are four reasons that we — on this Fourth of July – can still celebrate being an American:

1. The First Amendment

It’s true that our freedom of speech and freedom of religion are under attack in modern America, and I don’t deny that we are standing and looking over a cliff that freedom haters are desperately trying to shove us off of. Yet we can still express ourselves as we wish, thanks to the First Amendment to our Constitution.

In many countries, speaking out against the government — or even writing blog posts such as this one — are cause enough for imprisonment at best and death at worst. Even our good friends Canada and the United Kingdom fine people for making comments that our Constitution protects.

Learn About The ‘Real Constitution’ And What The Founders Truly Intended

In America, we can protest peacefully with signs in the street, we can call our congressmen with complaints or suggestions, and we even can publicly write an opinion about how we think that our leaders are dirtbags or criminals if we believe that to be the case — all without any fear of being taken away in the night or dragged to prison.

Further — and more importantly — we still have the freedom to practice our religious beliefs. I understand and agree that at this moment in time this freedom is closer to being curbed than at any previous time in our history, but if you go to church this Sunday to worship, you won’t be questioned by government authorities. In many countries, simply admitting that you follow Christ — or Buddha, or Vishnu, for that matter — can land you in prison or even result in your death.

The First Amendment to our Constitution guarantees these rights, and it is arguably the greatest contribution to freedom in the history of the world since the Magna Carta was signed.

2. Guns

Although the quote is thought to have been fabricated, tradition holds that Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said during WWII, “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” Whether the quote is accurate or not, the idea is still true to an extent today. It’s estimated that one in three households in the USA has guns, and that is as it should be in our Founders’ eyes. In fact, the number of registered hunters in the US is estimated to be between 25 and 45 million. Combined and united, this would by far be the largest standing army in the world. Keep in mind that this doesn’t include gun owners who aren’t registered hunters. And it’s all possible because our Founders placed this right in the Constitution, in the Second Amendment.

Discover The Only Way Back To True Freedom And Liberty In America…

Yes, there are threats to gun ownership every other week by the Left. For now, though, we still have the right to defend ourselves, from enemies foreign and domestic, and the means with which to do so. Very, very few other countries in the world can come anywhere close to that claim.

3. Sea to Shining Sea

There’s no doubt that God brought our forefathers to this land. There is no other country on the face of the Earth with the natural resources and variety of climates and land types that we have. Beaches, mountains, deserts, valleys, prairies, tundra, you name it — we’ve got it.

Not only do we have this vast and beautiful land, but we can travel freely to any of them without passports, papers or any other restrictions. Consider Europe as a comparison. There are different climates and landforms there — all within a smaller area than our single country, but traveling between them means traveling across different countries with different rules.

As far as natural resources, no other landmass — let alone country — on the planet compares in the slightest to what we have here. We sit on top of the largest deposits of oil and natural gas anywhere. Our timber is practically unrivaled. The list goes on and on. This is by far the most blessed piece of land on our globe, despite the constant attempts to restrict our access to the resources we own.

4. Opportunity and Wealth

In many countries, the caste or social status you are born into is where you will remain for life. Other countries allow people to advance themselves but don’t have the opportunities to make such advancement feasible or even possible. America, though, is the land of opportunity. Despite what the Leftists would have us believe, you can still go from rags to riches in the USA if you have the desire and drive to do so.

The majority of the world’s wealthiest people live here. We hear constantly from the media about how many poor and underprivileged there are in this country, yet in reality the poor in the US are richer than the poor of just about any country – and are actually richer than the rich in some countries. Stick that in your “occupy” movements and smoke it. The poor in this country have cell phones, air conditioning and cable television. The poor in many countries eat dirt and bugs to survive.

Yes indeed, despite our many downfalls and problems, there is still no better place on this Earth to live than the good old USA. And that is also one of our biggest problems.

There are many who want to strip us of what we have, and more than a few of these are right here among us. The top dog is always under attack by those who would tear them down, and we are by far the biggest target around.

There are only two things that can keep these beasts at bay. The first is our own diligence. Great nations always fall when the citizens become complacent, self-righteous and morally depraved. Always.

The second is our loving and providing God, under whose protection we have been for two centuries. Yet those of us who know and love the Truth understand that His protection of our country is conditional on us acknowledging and following Him. When we turn our backs on Him, He will undoubtedly return the favor in kind. I pray that we have not already fallen this far, although in the flesh it’s very hard to see how we are not either standing at the precipice – or are already in freefall, having gone over it, unaware of our impending fate in our own ignorant bliss.

Do you agree or disagree? What would you add to the list? Share your thoughts in the section below:

America ‘Descending Into Chaos’ Similar To 1968, Respected Columnist Says

America may be moving into a period of political chaos and violence similar to that in the late 1960s. So says New York Post columnist John Podhoretz, who noted some disturbing parallels between the year 1967 and events today.

“The first five months of [this] year have certainly felt like a time of political disorder in the United States, a disorder that some have welcomed as the cost of changing the country’s direction and others have found enervating and frightening,” Podhoretz wrote. “It’s been bad, but not 1968-level bad. But then came Wednesday’s ghastly shooting spree at the congressional Republican baseball practice.”

Podhoretz, who serves as editor of Commentary magazine and was a speechwriter for Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, was seven in 1968. He remembers it well.

Are Your Prepared For Blackouts? Get Backup Electricity Today!

“[LBJ]  announcing he wouldn’t run for re-election. Assassinations, first of Dr. King and then of Bobby Kennedy. Urban riots showing neighborhoods burning along with nightly footage of the war in Vietnam. Massive demonstrations against the war, and Columbia, the university in my neighborhood, shut down by a sit-in,” he wrote. “The long, hot summer, concluding with Chicago cops clashing with protesters outside the Democratic National Convention. The year 1968 was characterized by violence at home and violence abroad, and a sense that America itself was on fire.”

Podhoretz believes the shooting of U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R.-La.) and four others by James Hodgkinson – who wanted to kill Republicans – could be a turning point. His column ran under the headline, “It feels like America is descending into chaos.”

“This was a planned act of political slaughter to make what appears to be an ideological point — the first such major event since the assassins’ spree that began with JFK in 1963, reached an apogee in 1968, and came to an end with the nearly successful attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981,” he wrote. “Will this prove to have been a lone event? Or is it the beginning of another long, hot summer my son will remember forever — the herald of a new kind of chaos with a signature frighteningly reminiscent of 1968?

“Even the fact that I can ask this question, and that I’d wager you are not immediately scoffing at it, suggests we may be at the precipice.”

Podhoretz concluded, “We all know the kindling is there. The baseball-field shooter was a consumer of far-left anti-Republican media; it would only take one consumer of media on the other side to seek to equalize the suffering to ignite a national powder keg.”

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the section below: