"In 1863, riots swept across New York City. Needing bodies to reinforce the ranks at the height of the Civil War, the federal government had instituted a military draft. All across New York, immigrants and the city's underclass took to the streets, angry and fearful they would have to fight in the Union Army. The New York Times, a pro-Union and anti-slavery newspaper, was a leading target of the mob. However, the staff of the paper was well-armed.

"In fact, the paper had three Gatling guns -- an early machine gun -- on hand to intimidate the crowd and defend the building. (One of the guns was manned by Leonard Jerome, a wealthy friend of Times co-founder Henry Raymond, and the grandfather of Winston Churchill.) It's a mystery where the Times got the Gatling guns, which were only invented and offered to the War Department the year before. The most likely explanation is that they were procured from the military -- some claim Raymond got the guns because of his friendship with President Lincoln.

"While this was once an oft-told tidbit of New York Times lore, apparently many of the paper's current writers are unaware the Times may not exist if it weren't for U.S. military protection from rioters. On Wednesday, much of the younger staff of the paper went into open revolt against the editors for publishing a piece by Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton arguing that military intervention may be needed to restore order in the wake of the riots America has experienced in the last week.

"The coordinated message that the Times employees chose to parrot was hyperbolic and unserious. Several of the paper's reporters took to Twitter and declared en masse, 'Running [Cotton's op-ed] puts black New York Times staff in danger.' ...

"The answer to speech you disagree with is, of course, more and better speech. Airing arguments that you disagree with, even vehemently, is necessary and often clarifying. That's why in recent years the Times has run op-eds by such appalling figures as Vladimir Putin and the Taliban. In 1941, the paper even ran Adolf Hitler's byline. Somehow none of those pieces caused a widespread staff revolt."

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"One could be forgiven amidst the protests and continuing coronavirus crisis for forgetting that in Washington, DC, this week, Congress is looking into serious allegations that Barack Obama's Department of Justice was spying on the Trump campaign. In normal times, it would be the biggest news story in America, and Wednesday's shocking admissions by former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be an absolute bombshell.

"The key moment came in questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who asked, 'If you knew then what you know now, would you have signed the warrant application?' referring to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant renewal concerning Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

"'No,' testified Rosenstein, 'I would not.'

"And just like that, it became clear that the national torture of three years of the Russian collusion investigation simply should not have occurred. The problems were myriad. In Rosenstein's words, the FBI 'was not following the written protocols, and that significant errors appeared in applications.' What has emerged from the recent inspector general's report and this testimony is that the Obama administration's efforts to investigate and prosecute Trump administration officials wasn't based on facts, but negligence or malice."

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"The majority of Americans support calling in the military to 'supplement' police forces as they 'address' protests over the death of George Floyd, a new poll released Tuesday shows.

"Fifty-eight percent of registered voters of the Morning Consult poll said they were in favor of bringing in the military. And 33% of respondents said they 'strongly support' the use of military for such purposes, with 25% 'somewhat' supporting it.

"Eleven percent of registered voters said they 'somewhat oppose' the measure, and 19 percent said they 'strongly oppose' it.

"Older Americans were the most supportive of using the military, with 68% of people aged 65 and up in favor of it to some extent. Generation Z (defined as those born between 1997 and 2012) had the lowest level of support for the use of the military, with 30% saying they supported it to some degree.

"The poll also found that 71% of registered voters supported calling in the National Guard to supplement police forces -- 18% opposed the measure, and 11% said they didn't know or had no opinion."

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"Restoring order to America's cities isn't a complicated proposition.

"All it requires is resources and determination and a firm rejection of the longstanding progressive fallacy that an overwhelming police presence is 'provocative' and 'escalatory' and must be avoided.

"As has been established across decades of civil disturbances, it is police passivity that emboldens mobs. When the cops stand by, or don't show up or, even worse, run away, it is a permission slip for destruction. They might as well supply the spray paint, bricks, and hammers for the crowds, and beckon them into the local Target or Nike store to take whatever they want.

"Out-of-control looting is almost always a failure of municipal resolve or police tactics, and we have seen plenty of just such cowardice and foolishness over the last several days, most notably in Minneapolis, ground zero for this spasm of urban disorder. ...

"It is simply not true that rioters will be quickly sated if they are allowed to break and burn things freely. Disorder feeds on itself. Looting one store, overturning one police car is never enough.

"There is no alternative to imposing curfews, zealously enforcing them, arresting violators, and calling out the National Guard if there's not enough police manpower for the job. This doesn't escalate the violence, it stops it."

"Law enforcement is a vital response to any riotous uprising. Indeed, I believe the failure to enforce the laws without apology from the start of the upheaval last week has fueled its ferocity. It would be naive to claim that much of the violence, which is being incited and coordinated by radical groups, might not have happened anyway -- these groups are always on a hair-trigger, pouncing on any opportunity to make mayhem. But how badly things get out of control has a lot to do with the resolve of state and federal law enforcement. The laws do not enforce themselves.

"Progressive dogma notwithstanding, rioting spearheaded by radicals and anarchists does not exhaust itself if governments just give them time and space to get their yah-yahs out. Passivity, conveying the message that the laws will not be enforced, is provocative. It increases the appetite for rioting, which is only sated once the sociopaths have run out of things to burn and loot. ...

"What has happened over the last few nights in major cities of the United States is unacceptable. It has gotten worse because the federal and state governments have failed to convey the signal that order will be maintained and the rule of law enforced.

"That must end. The president and governors must work together to restore order, including by deployment of the military where that is necessary. The Justice Department and state law enforcement, particularly the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Forces, must make it clear that lawbreakers will be arrested and serious crimes will be vigorously prosecuted. Anti-America must be made to understand that America has had enough."

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"Everyone is so afraid now. I grew up idolizing Evel Knievel. Kids now idolize Greta Thunberg."

"Attorney General William Barr appointed a federal prosecutor to review so-called 'unmasking' requests that Obama administration officials submitted against Trump associates, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department said Wednesday.

"Kerri Kupec, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said on Fox News that Barr appointed John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, to conduct the review.

"Bash will carry out the probe in coordination with U.S. attorneys John Durham and Jeff Jensen, who are looking into various aspects of the Trump-Russia investigation.

"'The attorney general determined that certain aspects of unmasking needed to be reviewed separately as a support to John Durham's investigation,' Kupec told Fox News' Sean Hannity.

"On May 13, Republican senators released a list of 39 Obama-era government officials who submitted requests for intelligence reports during the presidential transition period that identified Flynn, the incoming national security adviser."

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"As one of his last acts in office, Richard Grenell, the outgoing director of national intelligence, declassified a batch of Trump-Russia documents, including one that a senior U.S. intelligence official said is 'very significant' to the origins of the Russia probe.

"Grenell also declassified transcripts of December 2016 phone calls between Michael Flynn and former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Fox News reported Tuesday.

"A senior U.S. intelligence official confirmed the Fox News report to The Daily Caller News Foundation. ...

"The official told Fox News that the document related to the origins of the Russia probe is 'very significant in understanding how intelligence was manipulated to support launching the Russia investigation.'"

"Our governmental COVID-19 mitigation policy of broad societal lockdown focuses on containing the spread of the disease at all costs, instead of 'flattening the curve' and preventing hospital overcrowding. Although well-intentioned, the lockdown was imposed without consideration of its consequences beyond those directly from the pandemic. ...

"The lost economic output in the U.S. alone is estimated to be 5 percent of GDP, or $1.1 trillion for every month of the economic shutdown. This lost income results in lost lives as the stresses of unemployment and providing basic needs increase the incidence of suicide, alcohol or drug abuse, and stress-induced illnesses. These effects are particularly severe on the lower-income populace, as they are more likely to lose their jobs, and mortality rates are much higher for lower-income individuals.

"Statistically, every $10 million to $24 million lost in U.S. incomes results in one additional death. One portion of this effect is through unemployment, which leads to an average increase in mortality of at least 60 percent. That translates into 7,200 lives lost per month among the 36 million newly unemployed Americans, over 40 percent of whom are not expected to regain their jobs. In addition, many small business owners are near financial collapse, creating lost wealth that results in mortality increases of 50 percent. With an average estimate of one additional lost life per $17 million income loss, that would translate to 65,000 lives lost in the U.S. for each month because of the economic shutdown. ...

"Here are the examples of missed health care on which we base our calculations: Emergency stroke evaluations are down 40 percent. Of the 650,000 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in the United States, an estimated half are missing their treatments. Of the 150,000 new cancer cases typically discovered each month in the U.S., most -- as elsewhere in the world -- are not being diagnosed, and two-thirds to three-fourths of routine cancer screenings are not happening because of shutdown policies and fear among the population. Nearly 85 percent fewer living-donor transplants are occurring now, compared to the same period last year. In addition, more than half of childhood vaccinations are not being performed, setting up the potential of a massive future health disaster."

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"[F]rom these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."