by Bob Barr | Jul 8, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com For years, American cities run by Democrat mayors and city councils have been beset by serious fiscal problems. Now, however, these “blue” cities are reaping a far more tragic harvest of the mismanagement they have sown – violence and death. What transpired in Atlanta over the July 4th weekend was sadly predictable, except that is, to the city’s mayor. At this critical juncture, Atlanta’s police department has a leadership vacuum, with the former chief having stepped down immediately following the death of civilian Rayshard Brooks at a local Wendy’s on June 12th. For the past month, armed thugs have been patrolling a number of streets in Atlanta and adjacent areas without fear of arrest. Meanwhile, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms dithered and preened before the media, hoping to elevate herself in Biden’s not-so-discreet search for an African American female running mate. Last Saturday, on a day most Americans were celebrating our nation’s founding, eight-year-old Atlantan Secoriea Turner paid the price for living in a city void of leadership. The child was fatally shot while was riding in a car driven by her mother who was simply trying to go around a barricade erected unlawfully on a public street by armed thugs. Mayor Lance Bottoms publicly condemned the shooting, but pointedly refused to accept any responsibility for having created the circumstances that allowed the tragedy to occur in the first place. In failing to accept responsibility, Atlanta’s mayor was following in the footsteps of other mayors whose leadership lethargy has led to violence in the cities over which they exercise power, including Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, and elsewhere. After-the-fact, self-serving...
by Bob Barr | Jun 3, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com For three months Americans in all parts of the country have meekly submitted to government mandates to “shelter in place” and “social distance.” Then, in a matter of days last week, cities large and small descended into chaos at the hands of violent mobs facing hesitant police. Institutionalized obedience to government that so easily had maintained compliance with measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19, quickly vanished in a rash of burning, looting and violence against police and civilians alike. The speed with which this descent took place is alarming, and the damage wrought as a result will have long-lasting and negative effects. There may be a widely held perception that the important institutions undergirding our society are sufficiently strong to withstand repeated pressures, and that they will erode if at all only after many decades. While such a view might have been accurate in ages past (after all, it took centuries for the mighty Roman Empire to crumble), the technology and instantaneous communication that have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, businesses and governments, has condensed that timeline dramatically. The social adhesive that law and order provide for our society to function properly is unravelling before our very eyes. This is not to say what we have been witnessing in the riots that have rocked cities from Milwaukee to New York and even to our nation’s Capital, sprang full born within just the past week. What we are in fact seeing is the blooming of a poisonous plant, the seeds of which were sown in many ways over at least the past several months. Last summer,...
by Bob Barr | May 20, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com Earlier this month – on May Day to be precise – one of the most liberal members of Congress (Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush) introduced a bill that would provide $100 Billion in its first year to jump start the process of “contact tracing” for COVID-19 infected persons. The bill would accomplish this through a proposed army of “mobile health units” and government-authorized visits to “individuals’ residences.” The bill quickly attracted conservative opposition, due in part because the number assigned to it – H.R. 6666 – is similar to “666,” which is the biblical “mark of Satan.” Predictably, left-wing media sources have been quick to ridicule such characterizations as an easy way to undermine substantive opposition to the measure. Make no mistake, however, the bill is a dangerous piece of legislation, not because of its number, but because of its substance. H.R. 6666 may not the work of the Devil, but it is the latest in a long line of legislative vehicles pushed by congressional Democrats (and some Republicans) to increase the federal government’s power to gather and database private information on citizens. This helps to accomplish what always has been the ultimate goal of the modern Democratic Party: control of the populace. In this latest effort, House Democrats have employed the tradecraft for which the Congress has become notoriously adept – hiding the true purpose of legislation behind a façade of protecting people from a known or perceived danger. In this case, the scourge of COVID-19. The avowed purpose of this and similar measures is, of course, not to erode individual privacy, but to “make us safe.” As with the...
by Bob Barr | May 6, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com How much does silence cost? For China, it is at least $180 billion, which is how much the Chinese have spent in American investments over the last decade and a half, in sectors ranging from real estate to sports and entertainment. There is a financial incentive to such investments, of course, but the biggest and best return for the Chinese government may be the reluctance of American institutions to bite the hand that feeds them. It is an investment strategy that has paid off well for the Chinese Communist Party, particularly among leftist institutions in our country. Organizations that never seem to have issue finding fault with America are noticeably quiet when it comes to China. Take, for instance, last October when Daryl Morey, general manager for the NBA’s Houston Rockets, tweeted support for the Hong Kong protestors. If it were a tweet about social justice or paying NCAA athletes, it likely would have been little noticed. However, because the tweet was indirectly critical of the Chinese Communist Party, it created significant backlash for the NBA, ultimately costing them hundreds of millions of dollars as games were blacked out in China as punishment. Although the league did, at least, resist calls from China to fire Morey, the message from Beijing was clear – keep your mouth shut or risk losing a billion dollars in deals. Hollywood also remains firmly seated on the pro-China bandwagon. Movie actors and industry big wigs are notorious for their rants against America, routinely turning the Oscars into one long Democrat Party stump speech. No similar criticism is leveled at China, and the reason...
by Bob Barr | Apr 21, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which controls the government and the citizenry of mainland China with an iron fist, is in large measure directly responsible for the incalculable economic and personal misery that has been visited on the United States and virtually every other country over the past four months resulting from the release of the coronavirus pandemic. It is time for the Trump administration to take concrete legal, economic, and diplomatic steps to hold Beijing accountable for this catastrophe. That the virus originated inside mainland China is beyond dispute. What is becoming increasingly clear is that the CCP deliberately and intentionally withheld vital information about the virus from the United States and other nations, so as to limit our ability to stem its reach and minimize its devastation. The Chinese government continues its campaign of misinformation and subterfuge to this day. This vile regime must be held accountable and the United States must lead that crusade. The result of China’s intentional deception about COVID-19 has cost tens of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in economic loss, even as it has led to immense suffering among the healthy as well. None of this was caused by good faith mistake or negligence. It was calculated and deliberate. The remonstrations by China’s lackeys at the World Health Organization (WHO) notwithstanding, the United States must take the lead in holding China accountable, in concrete and meaningful ways. To start, President Donald Trump should announce the economic losses caused by COVID-19 will be offset by the U.S. debt owned by China; given that debt is a little over one trillion dollars, the...
by Bob Barr | Apr 1, 2020 | Townhall Article |
Townhall.com For more than 150 years, gun laws in the United States were essential, as written in the Bill of Rights: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” It was not until the second half of the 20th Century that gun control as we know it took hold. By that time, of course, the United States had survived a bloody civil war, expanded territorially from the eastern seaboard to the Arctic Circle, fought in and emerged victorious in two World Wars, and was the only superpower to stand against the expansionist communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Red China. To say that the Second Amendment was instrumental in these iconic American stories is an understatement. Guns are intimately woven into the fabric of America’s unique, rugged individualism that has seen us survive numerous hardships in our country’s short existence; all without losing our quintessential grit and spirit of freedom. At least, it seems, until now. With the stroke of their pens, a number of far-left local mayors and state governors responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, have declared the Second Amendment “non-essential.” Based not on centuries of American history and decades of legal precedent saying otherwise, these anti-gun officials saw a window of opportunity to make irrelevant, even if temporarily, a sacred constitutional right. Closing down firearms retailers and shooting ranges effectively prevents large numbers of citizens from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to possess a firearm for self-defense; it also impedes the ability of police officers in...
