So.

On 4 September, this year, The House of Representatives has stated it's intent to reconvene early, in order to take up the "gun violence" question and pass laws regarding it. It just so happens, coincidentally, that also on 4 September, I'm going to find myself with far too much time on my hands... but I digress.

So far, the stated intent is to pass laws involving more stringent background checks, to pass laws banning "high capacity" magazines, laws to prevent people who are convicted of MISDEMEANOR "hate crimes" from buying guns, and a bill to incentivize "red flag laws" in the individual states.

Some days later, they plan to convene to address the "assault weapon" issue separately. Here's a hint: the Second Amendment was designed SPECIFICALLY to protect "weapons of war" in citizen hands. Confiscation of them is what got America started as an independent nation, free from British rule, to begin with.

The British Monarchy did much the same to America a couple hundred years ago. There is an article about it on the internet here
a few excerpts from that article:

Quote:Import ban on firearms and gunpowder

1774-75 confiscation of firearms and gunpowder
...

"It was these events that changed a situation of political tension into a shooting war."
...

"Before dawn on September 1, 1774, 260 of Gage's Redcoats sailed up the Mystic River and seized hundreds of barrels of powder from the Charlestown powder house."

Quote:"Governor Gage directed the Redcoats to begin general, warrantless searches for arms and ammunition. According to the Boston Gazette, of all General Gage's offenses, "what most irritated the People" was "seizing their Arms and Ammunition.""
...

Oct 19, 1774 "King George III and his ministers blocked importation of arms and ammunition to America. Read literally, the order merely required a permit to export arms or ammunition from Great Britain to America. In practice, no permits were granted."
...

"Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin was masterminding the surreptitious import of arms and ammunition from the Netherlands, France, and Spain."
...

"The British government was not, in a purely formal sense, attempting to abolish the Americans' common law right of self-defense. Yet in practice, that was precisely what the British were attempting. First, by disarming the Americans, the British were attempting to make the practical exercise of the right of personal self-defense much more difficult. Second, and more fundamentally, the Americans made no distinction between self-defense against a lone criminal or against a criminal government. To the Americans, and to their British Whig ancestors, the right of self-defense necessarily implied the right of armed self-defense against tyranny."
...

"The American War of Independence began on April 19, 1775, when 700 Redcoats under the command of Major John Pitcairn left Boston to seize American arms at Lexington and Concord."
...

(The powder had been moved for safe-keeping. - Ninurta)
...

"When the British began to withdraw back to Boston, things got much worse for them. Armed Americans were swarming in from nearby towns. They would soon outnumber the British 2:1. Although some of the Americans cohered in militia units, a great many fought on their own, taking sniper positions wherever opportunity presented itself. Only British reinforcements dispatched from Boston saved the British expedition from annihilation--and the fact that the Americans started running out of ammunition and gun powder."
...

21 April 1775 - "in Virginia, royal authorities confiscated 20 barrels of gunpowder from the public magazine in Williamsburg and destroyed the public firearms there by removing their firing mechanisms. In response to complaints, manifested most visibly by the mustering of a large independent militia led by Patrick Henry, Governor Dunmore delivered a legal note promising to pay restitution."
...

"The government in London dispatched more troops and three more generals to America: William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne. The generals arrived on May 25, 1775, with orders from Lord Dartmouth to seize all arms in public armories, or which had been "secretly collected together for the purpose of aiding Rebellions.""
...

"At the June 17 Battle of Bunker Hill, the militia held its ground against the British regulars and inflicted heavy casualties, until they ran out of gunpowder and were finally driven back. (Had Gage not confiscated the gunpowder from the Charleston Powder House the previous September, the Battle of Bunker Hill probably would have resulted in an outright defeat of the British.)"
...

"On June 19, Gage renewed his demand that the Bostonians surrender their arms, and he declared that anyone found in possession of arms would be deemed guilty of treason."
...

"On July 6, 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, written by Thomas Jefferson and the great Pennsylvania lawyer John Dickinson. Among the grievances were General Gage's efforts to disarm the people of Lexington, Concord, and Boston."
...

"As the war went on, the British always remembered that without gun control, they could never control America. In 1777, with British victory seeming likely, Colonial Undersecretary William Knox drafted a plan entitled "What Is Fit to Be Done with America?" To ensure that there would be no future rebellions, "[t]he Militia Laws should be repealed and none suffered to be re-enacted, & the Arms of all the People should be taken away, . . . nor should any Foundery or manufactuary of Arms, Gunpowder, or Warlike Stores, be ever suffered in America, nor should any Gunpowder, Lead, Arms or Ordnance be imported into it without Licence . . . .""
...

"To the Americans of the Revolution and the Founding Era, the theory of some late-20th Century courts that the Second Amendment is a "collective right" and not an "individual right" might have seemed incomprehensible. The Americans owned guns individually, in their homes. They owned guns collectively, in their town armories and powder houses. They would not allow the British to confiscate their individual arms, nor their collective arms; and when the British tried to do both, the Revolution began. The Americans used their individual arms and their collective arms to fight against the confiscation of any arms. Americans fought to provide themselves a government that would never perpetrate the abuses that had provoked the Revolution."

Quote:"Laws disarming people who have proven themselves to be a particular threat to public safety are not implicated by the 1774-76 experience. In contrast, laws that aim to disarm the public at large are precisely what turned a political argument into the American Revolution."

 Nuclear Deterrent......U.S. NAVY Submarines
 

Quote: 

If you’re concerned about N. Korea, don’t be.    And how many subs would it take to eliminate all the hostile territories in the Middle East?   Just 1(ONE)

The U.S. Navy has 18 of the most deadly and feared weapons ever created.

Meet the Ohio-class submarine. In naval terms, it makes up the Fleet Ballistic Missile subs (FBMs).

These 18 weapons are also known as "Trident" subs because they're a part of America 's "Nuclear Triad".


Our subs can also enter fresh water such as our Great Lakes (which already has the US Navy's USS Kentucky SSBN-737 & other smaller Los Angeles-class Attack Subs)

However, there are more logistics to this equation …

… starting with its power source.

They are powered by an internal S8G PWR nuclear reactor that turns the sub's 2 turbines which drive the rear propeller shaft.

An Ohio-class has unlimited range w/1 exception...it’s limited to the vessel's supply of food for the crew.

Other than food, she can produce her own oxygen and water supply for her crew.


It actually moves faster under water than on the surface.

Surfaced – max speed of 14 mph

Submerged – 23 mph, officially, but, unofficially, it's been reported to move up to 29 mph

These subs (w/the exception of re-supply time) are operating underwater year-round.

The Ohio-class along w/our Navy's smaller attack subs are nearly impossible for our adversaries to locate.  But they know 1 thing.. 18 Ohio-class subs are lurking somewhere around the world.


The firepower…

For defensive/offensive attack abilities against other subs, all 18 have 4 533mm Mark 48 torpedo tubes.

Mark 48 torpedoes have an effective range (officially) "greater than 5 miles".

Depending on depth of launch, they travel at speeds up to 63 mph and detonate using a proximity fuse (when the torpedo senses the opponent's sub/ship).

14 of these subs are ballistic missile submarines (SSBN).

And 4 have been converted to guided missile submarines (SSGN).

What can they launch?  For reference, a kiloton (kt.) = 220,462,262 lbs.  A single kt. is over 220.4 million pounds.

The 8 oldest of 14 SSBN carry the following nuclear armament: 24 Trident I/C4 missiles that cover a range of 4,600 miles.

Each missile has Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV).

MIRVs are capable of being aimed to hit multiple different targets with nuclear warheads.

A single missile carries 8 thermonuclear warheads that can break-off to hit up to 8 targets with 100 kilotons of TNT (total of 800 kt. of TNT).

For perspective, “Fat Man”—the largest of the 2 nukes dropped to end WWII had a total of 21kt of TNT.

The 10 newer SSBNs armament: 24 Trident II/C5 missiles that cover a range of 7,000 mi.
Each Trident II SLBM missile can carry 12 MIRV thermonuclear warheads...these can hit 12 targets w/up to 475 kt. of TNT (total of 5,700 kt. of TNT).

A single missile from these 10 Ohio-class subs: equal to 1,256,634,893,400 pounds of TNT as in -1 trillion 2 hundred 56 million plus lbs. of BOOM.

Upgraded 4 SSGN Guided Missile subs armament: 22 tubes w/7 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles (total 154).

Tomahawks are versatile.  They can be equipped with thermonuclear warheads.

In addition, the SSGNs can be used to deliver many other specialized weapons such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)...& 1 real cool group of weapons.

They can convert 2 of the 22 tubes into swimmer lockout chambers which provide a dry dock shelter for Navy SEALS or Marine special operation scout teams.

In the dry dock tubes, SEALs can prepare to get on their SDV mini-subs.


The Ohio-class is our largest submarine.

There you have it, the most feared weapon on Earth!

It's always ready, almost impossible to find, & can deliver SEALs or hit specific targets.
And then there's the worst case scenario, nuclear war.

Thing is...

When the bad guys know the 2nd-strike capabilities of the Ohio-class submarine, they’re never going to mess with the United States of America



Thank you to the few who stay under water to provide us with the last line of defense

Here's Chubbs, I saw him live many years ago and his humour is local-born.
(He lives not that far away from me!)

He would have most snowflakes vomiting into their handbags.

Quote:[/url]  
'Easy Rider' actor Peter Fonda dead at age 79
By Alex Dobuzinskis
 
[url=https://assets.thaivisa.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2019_08/2019-08-16T225710Z_1_LYNXNPEF7F1OY_RTROPTP_4_PEOPLE-PETER-FONDA.JPG.2808d49e99ed34b48a345f1ddf129dc1.JPG]
FILE PHOTO: Actor Peter Fonda poses for a portrait on a replica of the "Captain America" bike in Glendale, California October 23, 2009. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo
 
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Oscar nominated actor Peter Fonda, who played a cool and introspective motorcyclist in the 1969 film "Easy Rider" that captured the spirit of the era's counterculture movement, died on Friday at age 79, his family said in a statement.
 
Fonda, the son of Hollywood leading man Henry Fonda and the brother of Jane Fonda, died at his home in Los Angeles on Friday morning of respiratory failure from lung cancer, the statement said.
 
"It is with deep sorrow that we share the news that Peter Fonda has passed away," it said, adding: "In honour of Peter, please raise a glass to freedom."
 
"While we mourn the loss of this sweet and gracious man, we also wish for all to celebrate his indomitable spirit and love of life," the family said.
 
Fonda played the wanderer Wyatt in "Easy Rider," opposite the late Dennis Hopper who co-starred as fellow biker Billy and directed the film.
 
In the movie, Wyatt and Billy set out on their motorbikes to discover America and have a number of misadventures, befriending an attorney played by Jack Nicholson, before meeting violent deaths.
 
"Easy Rider," with a script co-written by Fonda, helped usher in a period known as the "New Hollywood" era of filmmaking, which often avoided happy endings and other conventions of the Hollywood studio system.
 
Fonda was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the script of "Easy Rider" and went on to act in movies and television shows at a steady pace in the decades after, achieving a second career highlight when he was nominated for a best actor Oscar for his role as a beekeeper in the 1997 drama "Ulee's Gold."
 
His other notable film appearances included supporting roles in the remake of the western "3:10 to Yuma" and the action-fantasy "Ghost Rider," which both came out in 2007.
 
Jane Fonda, who is known for her role in the 1968 film "Barbarella" and in the ongoing Netflix series "Grace and Frankie," expressed sadness at her brother's death.
 
"He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family," she said in a statement. "I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing."
 
MOTHER'S SUICIDE
 
Peter Fonda, born in 1940 in New York City, lost his mother, the socialite Frances Ford Seymour, as a child when she took her own life.
 
Fonda later said in interviews he did not know his mother's death had been due to suicide until years later. The late Henry Fonda, who during his life had five wives, had earlier told Seymour he wanted a divorce.
 
Growing up, Peter Fonda attended a number of boarding schools and suffered serious injury when he accidentally shot himself with a rifle at age 11.
 
He admired his father, the star of films such as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "12 Angry Men," but would later describe him as emotionally distant, at least with his son.
 
Peter Fonda is survived by wife Margaret DeVogelaere and by his children with former wife Susan Brewer, Bridget and Justin Fonda. Both children have also worked in Hollywood.

Oops! Bad news for Hillary Clinton.     She didn't realize her emails were being copied and sent to another person, Paul Combetta, "an IT aide Clinton hired who used BleachBit to destroy emails after they were subpoenaed and misled FBI agents."

Quote:

• All but four of Hillary Clinton’s 30,000 emails were copied, likely secretly, to a Gmail address called CarterHeavyIndustries@gmail.com, according to a new Senate report.
  
  
• The FBI says that the account was linked to Paul Combetta, an IT aide Clinton hired who used BleachBit to destroy emails after they were subpoenaed and misled FBI agents.
  
  
• Combetta said he sent all of her emails to the Gmail account as part of trying to copy them to a new server. Combetta was copying Clinton’s emails off of an old laptop that he was supposed send back in the mail, but there’s no evidence he returned it, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General.
  
  
• When an intel agent discovered the copying to a third-party account, he said Peter Strzok seemed disinterested. The intel agency feared the email account could be a link to a foreign power, but the FBI refused to explain it to them.
  

Here are a few links for those who might be interested


http://www.ufocasebook.com/himalayanbase.html

Quote:Villagers Say Aliens Building Base in Himalayan Mountains


Mountain villagers in the Tarai region of India's Himachal Pradesh state claim that UFOs have been seen "by day and by night" near the high-altitude glaciers of the Himalayas and that "aliens are building a very large underground base up there."
Since Sunday, October 10, 2004, UFOs, ranging in size from "very large cylindrical objects of a dull silver colour" to
"small speedy discs," have been seen over the glaciers north of Chini, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from India's border
with China. UFOs seen at night were said to "glow red and gold."

"More Indian military personnel and local natives are coming forward in the Himalayas' Tarai area and are reporting many
exceedingly abnormal activities and UFO sightings all around the clock."
"Some (Indian) helicopter pilots are complaining about sophisticated jamming."

"A young boy in Nepal drew a picture of what appears to be an extraterrestrial flying object.
He saw it while playing with many friends on the ground. The boys reported that these vehicles have no sound, can take off
vertically, and can float in defiance of gravity. These vehicles can disappear all of a sudden," reported Sumit Chatterjee.

"Some of the IAF (Indian Air Force--J.T.) pilots are continually reporting seeing strange flying objects in the Himalayas near the
Chinese border."

"A Tibetan (Buddhist) monk who recently visited India said these activities have been going on since 1998."
"According to a scientist of the Indian Geological Survey, UFOs and strange beings are visiting a 100-square- kilometer portion
of the Tarai.

Visits have occurred frequently during the past 18 months. The northeastern region of Himachal Pradesh has experienced many
varied sightings." Chatterjee added, "Among the local people is a rumour that 'they' will land here in the next seven years.
Some Indian ufologists say that beings from Sirius will land on Earth and publicly reveal themselves in 2012."
"Is this the final prophecy of the landing that the Mayans predicted centuries ago?"

"The military personnel are talking privately but maintain that for national security reasons nothing more can be said. But at least
one of the officers has come out and said bluntly that these are UFOs."
"There are many indications that a large underground base is now being built within the hard andesite (bedrock) of the high
Himalayas. The construction is going on in the high terrain close to the No Man's Land between India and China."

"Another interesting thing--increased Indian and Chinese army activity has been seen in the region."
But the strangest report comes from the Chinese side of the border. A Chinese armored brigade, outfitted with T-80 main
battle tanks, was ordered to proceed to the border from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) base in Niuke. But when the tanks
got to Zhada, they got a real surprise.

"Recently an artificial lake was created in China" west of Zhada, "very close to the Indian border. "The lake" filled the Langchui
River (called the Sutlej River on the Indian side--J.T.) valley and "threatened to flood the Indian side. India and China both
refused to investigate the incident.

Then, all of a sudden, the local Chinese people reported that the lake was no longer there.
Whatever remained of the lake was no longer a threat to the Indian villagers. What really happened?" Chatterjee asked,
"What caused an artificial lake of this size? And who took care of removing the problem?"

"It appears that the aliens melted a glacier and created the temporary lake to prevent those Chinese tanks from reaching the
border," said Krishnari Bai Dharapurnanda, a UFO Roundup correspondent in India.

"There are many rumours at the Indian Space Research Organisaton (ISRO). They say these UFOs are definitely planning and
building a fortress in the Himalayas for a purpose known only to the aliens themselves."

In China, UFO Roundup correspondent Chen Jilin reported, "No news is coming out of the Langchui Valley. It is a military region
with very tight security.

But the rumour is, the Extraterrestrials are active in the region with the collusion of the (Chinese Communist) Party and New
Delhi, to ward off an attack from the Anglo-Americans and the Israelis."

Many thanks to Sumit Chatterjee, Krishnari Bai Dharapurnanda and Chen Jilin for this news story.
UFO Roundup

Quote:Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...aign=cppst

Breaking now... https://www.rt.com/usa/466511-gunman-phi...lice-shot/

Quote:Five officers are reported to have been shot by a man, who opened fire at law enforcement in Philadelphia’s Nicetown-Tioga section Wednesday afternoon. Media are urged to pull back from the area.
The incident began unfolding at 4.30 pm local time, when police responded to a call related to "narcotics activity," according to Philadelphia Police Captain Sekou Kinebrew.
The scene remains active, with police calling on residents and media to stay clear. The nearby area was put on lockdown with officers directing the traffic away.

I'm alarmed... nay, shocked enough that my socks are rolling up and down as I type, that this sneaky
activity was going on! I... (stammer) I just can't believe it.

Quote:Facebook paid contractors to transcribe voice chats in Messenger app.

'Facebook has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe voice chats carried out using
the company's Messenger app, it has emerged. The contractors - many from outsourcing firm TaskUs
-were able to hear Facebook users' conversations, sometimes including "vulgar content", according to
Bloomberg.



They were not told where the audio was recorded or why it needed to be transcribed, only to transcribe it.
This led some contractors to feel their work was unethical, according to the people with knowledge of the
matter.

Facebook has confirmed the anonymous reports that it has been transcribing users’ audio, and said it will
no longer do so, following scrutiny of other companies. "Much like Apple and Google , we paused human
review of audio more than a week ago," a spokesperson for the company said.

It added that contractors were checking the accuracy of Facebook's voice-to-text service in Messenger,
which uses artificial intelligence to transcribe conversations.

Users who were affected chose to have their voice chats transcribed in Messenger and granted access
to their phone's microphone for this purpose, according to Facebook.
However, they were not informed that clips of their conversations may be subjected to human review.

Facebook's data-use policy states that its systems "automatically process content and communications
you and others provide to analyse context and what's in them."
But it includes no mention of other human beings screening the content. 

The news comes after other major tech firms including Apple, Google and Amazon have all come under
fire for their use of human workers to review voice recordings. They claim that employees listen to these
recordings in order to grade the responses of their AI voice assistants, and make them better at
understanding and replying to users.

Apple and Google have both now paused their review programmes, and Amazon has given users the ability
to opt out of having their voice recordings manually reviewed...'

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First Outta The Gate: Thanks to Mystic Wanderer for the links.

No fooling, this is been going on from some time. It's easy to spout names like 'Project Mockingbird'
and growl that the media have been infiltrated. But the internet came from the military and right there,
is your first clue.

Now it has a silly-happy name that smacks of puppies and Dora The Explorer, the internet now offers you
a world -a reality if you will, where nobody goes to bed unhappy without Google's say-so and those who
oppose this type of social-engineering are booed and pilloried.

Google is your God now... or so they think.

Quote:Google Insider Turns Over 950 Pages Of Docs And Laptop To DOJ.

'A former Google insider claiming the company created algorithms to hide its political bias within
artificial intelligence platforms –in effect targeting particular words, phrases and contexts to promote,
alter, reference or manipulate perceptions of Internet content –delivered roughly 950 pages of
documents to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust division Friday.



The former Google insider, who has already spoken in to the nonprofit organization Project Veritas,
met with SaraACarter.com on several occasions last week. He was interviewed in silhouette, to
conceal his identity, in group’s latest film, which they say exposes bias inside the social media
platform.

Several weeks prior, the insider mailed a laptop to the DOJ containing the same information delivered
on Friday, they said. The former insider is choosing to remain anonymous until Project Verita’s James
O’Keefe reveals his identity tomorrow (Wednesday).*

He told this reporter on his recent trip to Washington D.C. that the documents he turned over to the Justice
Department will provide proof that Google has been manipulating the algorithms and the evidence of how
it was done, the insider said.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the House Judiciary Committee in December, 2018, that the search engine
was not biased against conservatives. Pichai explained what algorithm’s are said Google’s algorithm was
not offensive to conservatives because its artificial intelligence does not operate in that manner.

He told lawmakers, “things like relevance, freshness, popularity, how other people are using it” are what
drives the search results. Pichai said even if his programmers were anti-Republican, the process is so
intricate that the artificial intelligence could not be manipulated and it was to complicated to train the
algorithm to fit their bias.

Google did not immediately respond for comment on the insider’s claims, however, this story will be updated
if comment is provided. The insider says Google is aware most people are unaware or not knowledgeable
about these advanced IT systems and therefore unable to determine who is telling the truth.

“I honestly think that a free market can fix this issue,” he told this reporter at a meeting in Washington D.C.“
The issue is that the free market has been distorted and what’s happened is that the distortion is so grotesque
and the engineering is so repulsive, all we need to do is just expose what’s going on. People can hear that it
is bad but that can be bias.

But when they see what Google has actually written with the documents, this will actually be taught in universities
of what totalitarian states can do with this type of capability.” “It will be so revolting that it doesn’t matter what the
solution is, a solution will just form as a reaction to this manipulation they have done,” the Google insider said.

He said he’s asked himself many times if he’s overreacting “and every time I simply look back at the documents
and realize that I am not.” “It’s that bad,” he said. “Disclosing Google’s own words to the American public is
something I am, must do, if I am to consider myself a good person. The world that google is building is not a place
I, or you or our children want to live in.”

Quote:James O'Keefe
@JamesOKeefeIII
⚡️TOMORROW: Our ML Fairness Google insider comes out of the shadows.  
AND: OVER A THOUSAND of pages of internal documents are released.  
Google might take this new video down.

Another Google insider, who has come forward already, told O’Keefe and other media outlets recently that it is the
programmers at Google who use the algorithms to manipulate the information to advance its leftist agenda.
Greg Coppola, a software engineer, told Project Veritas that he doesn’t “have a smoking gun.”

However,  “I’ve just been coding since I was ten, I have a Ph.D., I have five years of experience at Google, and I just
know how algorithms are. They don’t write themselves. We write them to make them do what we want them to do.”
“I look at Search and I look at Google News, and I see what it’s doing,” he said. “I see Google executives go to
Congress and say … that it’s not political, and I’m just so sure that that’s not true.”

The unnamed Google insider first spoke to O’Keefe’s Project Veritas. O’Keefe has been criticized by the left for outing
the political bias of executives and employees of Google and other social media companies.
In the nonprofits most recent video, Project Veritas uses their undercover techniques to get Google employees to talk
openly about their disdain for Trump and how their artificial intelligence operates.

Jenn Gennai, who heads Google’s Responsible Innovation Team, did not know she was being filmed by O’Keefe’s group.
She told the undercover journalist that “the reason we launched our AI principals is because we’re not putting our line in
the sand. They were not saying what’s fair and what’s equitable so we’re like, well we’re a big company, we’re going to
say it.”...'

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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/201...ore-168200

Quote:U.S. Intelligence Positions Hong Kong as Proxy Conflict With China – Thankfully President Trump Sees Trap…
Posted on August 13, 2019 by sundance
The situation in Hong Kong is a geopolitical dynamic that will likely become much more volatile in the next few weeks, months and/or years.  One constant in an ever-changing universe is how the UniParty in DC will attempt to drag the U.S. into the issues.

First, Hong Kong is China.  Whether a generation of people look back with regret to the time when Great Britain ceded the territory to Beijing is irrelevant.  China has, and will have, full control over Hong Kong; and that’s the way it is.  This will not be reversed.
Any effort for the people within Hong Kong to reverse the situation and escape the clutches of oppressive communism while retaining their liberty will only lead to massive bloodshed.
Unfortunately for Hong Kong, as President Trump decouples the U.S. economy from the duplicitous communist Chinese enterprise, Beijing will grasp more control over the heavily Western-influenced economic strata in/around Hong Kong.

Stand back and look at the bigger picture.  President Trump has neutralized, essentially made irrelevant, Beijing’s use of their proxy province, North Korea.  President Trump has embraced Kim Jong-un, not as much out of a position of warmth – but rather as a tactic to block China from weaponizing the DPRK as leverage during the U.S-China trade confrontation.
Beijing still uses their influence to shoot rockets, test missiles etc and president Trump ignores it now.  Why?  Because North Korea already has nuclear missiles; they’re the same nuclear missiles China has… and it is silly now to think China will remove their nuclear missiles to gain an economic benefit.
If U.S. policy isn’t trying to remove nuclear weapons from China, then why would U.S. policy try to remove nuclear weapons from the DPRK.?  They’re the same nukes.
Losing their DPRK leverage, and understanding Beijing has no direct tools to defeat the U.S. in an direct economic confrontation, means China will look elsewhere. That’s where Hong Kong comes into play.
[Always remember, despite the U.S. tariffs on China, there are no tariffs on Hong Kong]
Do we feel sympathy watching a once free society slip into the grips of an oppressive and totalitarian system now ruled by a communist dictator for life in Chairman Xi Jinping?  Sure we do.  But they made these choices decades ago… now they have the consequences.
If Hong Kong tries to resist Beijing, they will be crushed.  Hundreds more will be arrested and disappeared.  Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, will be killed.  There is already a ongoing flight of wealth out of Hong Kong as the smart and wealthy position their assets overseas to survive the arrival of Beijing’s storm troopers.
The future for Hong Kong is dark.  It is not going to end in anything resembling what exists today.  Hong Kong will be Beijing 2.0, and will be entirely dominated by Chinese authoritarian rule.  The difference in 2019 is the speed at which it is happening.
Things are speeding up now in direct proportion to the severity of the U.S. decoupling our economy from China.   As the Chinese economy weakens, Beijing will get more desperate.
Many voices around President Trump will cry out for intervention.  The UniParty will demand intervention and decry President Trump’s instinct to stay away from the self-made crisis.
It is not our issue; and engaging in Hong Kong only opens up another pathway for China to play the duplicitous leverage game…. Beijing will play the “we’ll spare, delay, or dilute the Hong Kong absorption, if you agree to our trade terms” game. [lies, lies, lies]
President Trump needs to engage with China and Hong Kong as one nation, under one rule, with one motive and intent.   Trying to win a Chinese trade conflict while parsing the economy of China from the economy of Hong Kong, is like trying to parse the nukes in China from the nukes in North Korea.
Hong Kong is lost.  Hong Kong belongs to China.  Thousands of Hong Kongers will be killed or disappeared into camps as Beijing absorbs the region.  The U.S. cannot continue to engage globally in an effort to protect nations from the consequences of their own decisions.
If Great Britain wants to send an armada of battle ships to warn Beijing against aggression with Hong Kong, then we should support.  Wait… wha?  Oh, Great Britain no longer has a Navy because the high-minded EU collective wanted to hold hands and sing ‘we-are-the-world’ instead of planning to defend its interests for the past twenty years….  I digress.
Hong Kong is not our issue.
The CIA will try to make it our issue.  The State Department will try to make it our issue.  The UniParty in DC will try to make it our issue.  John Bolton will try to make it our issue. Activists in Hong Kong will try to make it our issue.  All of the far-left globalists will try to make it our issue….  Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney will try to make it our issue; but it’s not our issue.
We pray for peace and send our prayers, but we cannot succeed in the larger economic confrontation with cunning China if we attempt to ignore the direct connective tissue between Beijing and Hong Kong.
Instead, start applying the Chinese tariffs on Hong Kong as soon as Beijing tanks arrive.
Tough love.