Dakota Beacon

It was an act of brutality.  One could reasonably call it government-sponsored terrorism.  

Does the law matter anymore?  

This is a legitimate question and it is directed at supposed “conservative” and “MAGA patriots”.  Because if the answer, once unreeled in real world terms is “no”, then there are no conservatives, no patriots - MAGA or otherwise.  

Here are a few lines saluting veterans on Veterans Day. They are taken from Rudyard Kipling and Alfred Lord Tennyson. Hearts of veterans everywhere will recognize the impressions, nostalgia, and emotions unique to the bonds of camaraderie of fellow service members. Enjoy.

WHAT THE NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL ELECTION REALLY MEANS FOR THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

Zohran Mamdani ran a killer campaign. Free buses that run on time? Only the most daring adventurer would be so bold! Freezing rent? That couldn’t possibly lead to freezing pipes. What about the police? Who needs ‘em? Crime is way over-reported if anything. And what the heck? Why not throw in some affordable healthcare for all? It’s a little worn around the edges but it’s a fan-favorite and it still charms the snake out of the wicker basket the same as it always did.

By 1920, there were 3,560 black physicians in America, a figure including 65 black women. While this didn’t represent “proportionality” — blacks were 10 percent of the U.S. at the time — it did constitute 2.5 percent of the total number of American physicians. Not bad in a country supposedly so “white supremacist” that blacks were surely relegated at the time to cotton-fields toil. (Black youths may want to ponder this, too, when believing they “just can’t make it” in 2025 because the “man” is keeping them down.)

Many wouldn’t guess black Americans enjoyed such success a century or more ago, indoctrinated as they are with Howard Zinn-esque revisionist history. In fact, while I was hardly a politically correct youth (we didn’t use the word “woke” back then), I myself was surprised when getting a glimpse into actual American history

We need to draw a line.  Trump thinks no laws apply to him - in this his detractors are correct.  This is one of the reasons why I personally resented his presence on the Republican ticket.  We should never have to vote for a Democrat in order to keep someone like Trump out of the White House.

So what’s it like wading into a “No Kings” protest? I can tell you because this is precisely what I did this past Saturday.

The scene was Larchmont, a tony suburb of New York City, in Westchester County. And as reporters at other such protests have already pointed out, present was an odd crowd, but not the usual odd crowd. I didn’t, for example, see any young Antifa types. Quite the opposite.

How did the United States Congress put Americans, once again, into a government shutdown? I’ll describe the situation as I understand it.

Every year the US Congress works on a federal budget for the next fiscal year. The government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 of one calendar year through September 30 of the next year. But this was not always so.

If children are raised in a corruptive environment, however, they will develop an emotional attachment to vice. And because as “the twig is bent, so grows the tree,” they will then glom on to ideologies that correspond to vice. Any wild guesses as to what such an ideology might be in our time?

This gets at the problem confronting us: We can’t make America great again if popular culture is making the world late-stage Rome again. It was Andrew Breitbart who said “Politics is downstream from culture.” But we must be mindful of a corollary: Political destruction is downstream from cultural corruption.

I went to hear Glenn Beck last evening.  He was in Grand Forks to fill in for an event scheduled with Charlie Kirk.  I was looking forward to a hard-hitting debate sort of event.  It turned out to be something different.

What do readers want to read? Something different? A bit offbeat? Unusual and maybe ever so quirky? Over the years The Passing Scene published many varied topics of interest to a variety of readers.

Last week’s topic, Bitcoin, fit that pattern. Readers certainly have heard of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But how much do they really grasp? Or even want to know? The answer straddles a line between curiosity and no interest at all. Reducing the topic to everyday language might raise interest.

Bitcoin as a topic generated inquisitive comments that gave me the idea for a different approach to cryptocurrency, that is, factors that seldom get discussed.

What’s not to love?  Well, the problem with all of this is that had this been people’s mindset in 1776, we would be singing “God Save the King” today.  A general sense of morality is absolutely fundamental to any kind of free government by the people.  We have to be above this.

We live in fast moving and interesting times. Who would have thought a few decades ago that a challenge to the US dollar as a medium of exchange would arise? The advent of cryptocurrency has done just that. But not many folks grasp the idea of “electronic currency”. Come to think of it, what is the difference between a piece of paper on which is printed “One Dollar” backed by a verbal “promise to pay” and the idea of electrons standing for “one” of anything that people agree has value? As a neophyte in the world of cryptocurrency, what follows is what I have come to understand.

On or about 7:10 pm, Wednesday, September 17^th, a Minnesota mother and two of her children entered an otherwise empty theater and were ambushed by former comedians and assaulted for approximately ninety minutes.

Western civilization slowly slips away, and citizens barely perceive what is happening. It is not as if our civilization were stolen from under our noses but rather, citizens have failed to guard the ramparts.

Culture does not reject nihilism on impulse. Nihilism grows in a cultural Petri dish infecting one generation then another and eventually spanning a civilization. Meanwhile, we conceal from ourselves the unpleasant awareness of our culture decline.

Oswald Spengler wrote “The Decline of the West” in two volumes. Volume I was published in 1918 and volume II in 1922. This work became highly influential in early 20th-century philosophy presenting a cyclical theory of civilizations and arguing that Western civilization was in its final phase of decline.

The problem with electing a populist rather than a committed constitutionalist was illustrated this week with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reaction to the fallout after the murder of Charlie Kirk.  

How big is “big?” How much is 100? 1,000? I cannot begin to visualize these numbers much less envision a million of anything!

Suppose a couple celebrates 18,262 days of married life. This is a big number, but we usually state it more conveniently as fifty years of marriage – a golden wedding anniversary.

Large numbers stated relative to a recognizable quantity help to clarify. In other words, compare a large number to some recognizable point of reference to aid in comprehension.

It echoed Churchill in a way - they will fight on the streets, the beaches, wherever they are, to protect their island.  One report says there are 110,000 free speech patriots and about 5,000 counter-protesters.

Autumn! My favorite time of year! In my own egocentric way, I can picture Autumn being created just for me! Crisp morning air, the aroma of burning grass and leaves, honking geese overhead -- all of this is a grand introduction to the Holiday season ahead. Stanzas excerpted from a few autumn poems will get you in the mood.

You might have seen a recent video of a young Scottish girl brandishing a knife and a hatchet to ward off a migrant man who had been harassing her and her younger sister. On the clip you can hear the fear in her voice as the man taunts them. “Don’t touch my little sister, she’s only twelve!”

Guess how the story ended? Police arrested the girl for possession of a bladed weapon. They did not detain or even investigate the migrant man.

This incident illustrates a breakdown of the legitimacy of British government. Read on.

George WIll proves once again that he is a vacuous, hopeless old neocon, one of those who have thrived on worldwide conflict and destruction.  He is a parasite, in other words.  He has always been a parasite, but for years under RINO administrations like that of the Bush dynasty, took cover under  the popular perception that these RINOs were better than the “other” party.  They weren’t, of course, only more dishonest.

So ends August, 2025.  It looks more like August, 793 or 1223.

A direct answer to a simple question – one of President Trump’s lawfare nemesis, of course.

Another question. Has the federal judiciary degenerated into an insolent “every judge for himself” scene? Absorbing the daily news, one would think so. From all appearances it’s every judge for himself as district courts and appeals courts serve up radically different verdicts. Decisions, reversals, stays, restraining orders, injunctions, freezes, thaws -- federal courts are in uproar as case after case fighting the Trump administration comes before them. Courts may be in turmoil, but for the most part, Trump continues to win the legal battles. A little research pays big dividends.

On TV news I watched protesters demonstrating against police reinforcements in Washington, DC. Are these people nuts?! Do they really want to keep the high crime rate in their city? Or are they out-of-town paid demonstrators creating political theater hired by Crowds on Demand, RentaCrowd, or CrowdHire? The George Soros Open Society Foundations and their ilk are known to fund such organizations.

Jargon describes the use of paid demonstrators. “Astroturfing” is the practice of creating the illusion of broad grassroots support by hiring people to take part in protests or campaigns. “Guerrilla Marketing” denotes unconventional tactics including staged events or flash mobs.

The Babylon Bee responded with tongue in cheek: “Police are trampling on the rights of hardworking carjackers and muggers. True freedom means never being arrested.”