voltaire did not have a lego set of the bastille...

capitol

When It Stops Being A Laughing Matter

As the January 6 prosecutions begin and the hunt is on for alleged "domestic extremists," the politicization of law enforcement continues to accelerate.

He called himself a QAnon Tier I Ranger SEAL Operator, and had the 17 tabs down one sleeve to prove it. “In a situation like this, Embed, you stick to me and I’ll get you home, brother. Unless the GPS gets us lost again.”

Behind the wheel of his F-150, looking for parking near the state capitol, I knew he meant it. The eyes, always the eyes. In the backseat was his AR-15 with the handle on top, equipped with several dozen accessories from Bass Pro. His personal gear said he was ready, clothing half in arctic-urban-backyard camo, half blaze orange. “I can’t afford this s*** unless I can get two seasons out of it,” he said. He asked I call him “Mike,” though I found out on Facebook his real name is Michael. His tactical hair gel caught the light as he spoke.

“If we find free parking we approach from the east. If we have to feed the meter, I come in from the north.” The tactical radio rang. “Honey, I told you it’ll be after 6p.m. … I don’t know, get a pizza,” he said in some sort of Pepe code.

“The mission today is to occupy the space in front of the CNN crew and dominate the interviews. CNN will identify themselves by removing their heads from their own butts, so watch for the signal. Stay frosty in case we spot Maddow and I call an audible. And bunch up so it looks like there’re more of us.”

You’re right, that didn’t happen. I made Mike up. It’s funny.

But this did happen: Daily Beast published a “scoop” revealing one of the men charged in the January 6 riot had a fully assembled Lego model of the Capitol in his home, which the FBI insinuated was used as a tactical planning tool and thus seized as evidence. It formed part of the prosecution’s argument against bail. It sounds like a joke.

The problem is that it wasn’t true; the man merely had the unopened Lego set and the prosecutors lied. The accused rioter remains in jail. The Lego set is still available on Amazon.

And this is also true and not so funny. Most of the 539 people arrested for the January riot did not commit acts of violence, and face accusations of little more than gussied up trespassing. Many were charged simply with violating a 6 p.m. curfew. Yet almost all have been denied bail and are being held in solitary as a “safety measure”—lockdown 23 hours a day.

In any other context such treatment of innocent people would raise a woke storm. The ACLU claims “prolonged solitary confinement is torture and certainly should not be used as a punitive tool to intimidate or extract cooperation.” Except, that is, in what has become a punitive political prosecution. The decision maker on jail conditions? Biden’s attorney general.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-it-stops-being-a-laughing-matter/

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By Gus Leonisky at 29 Jul 2021 - 10:45am
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pasteurized history...

By Andrew Bacevich

By and large, ordinary Americans like their history much as they like their milk: homogenized and pasteurized, with all impurities removed. Our preferred narrative of the past is the Ken Burns PBS version: plenty of drama and lots of human interest, but ultimately uplifting rather than subversive or discomfiting. Oh, yes, and packaged with an old-timey soundtrack.

Whatever the particulars of their background or upbringing, ordinary Americans know that ours is the greatest nation ever. Greatness in this context does not imply grace or refinement or superior cuisine. It refers to opportunities seized, wealth accrued, power wielded, and privileges enjoyed, with more of the same still to come, as the Almighty Himself surely intends.

If the past as recorded, interpreted, and conveyed has an agreed upon purpose—and most Americans think it ought to—that purpose is to chronicle the nation’s ass-kicking rise to global primacy. While the allowable metanarrative may reference the odd disappointment or momentary setback, it emphasizes obstacles overcome by a people given to snarling “don’t tread on me” when annoyed. Year by year, decade by decade, century by century, American-style freedom and democracy thereby come closer to perfection. So at least most ordinary Americans like to believe.

My reference to “ordinary Americans” is not meant to suggest that every U.S. citizen subscribes to the “We’re number one!” school of historiography. But I’m willing to bet that virtually all of the 74 millions who in 2020 voted for Donald Trump do. And so do more than a few of the millions who voted for Joe Biden, himself on the record as declaring the United States “the greatest nation on earth.”

Granted, members of the intelligentsia don’t necessarily subscribe to the views entertained by ordinary Americans. After all, their job is to think otherwise. They delight in subverting and discomfiting. So they skewer, deflate, and raise a ruckus.

Consider, by way of recent examples, critical race theory and the “1619 Project” initiated by the New York Times. Each attacks the patriotic narrative at what has always been its weakest point: on matters related to race. Each in its own way appears intent on rendering that narrative untenable. Hence, the semi-hysterical response that each has elicited, not all of it attributable to the cynicism of Fox News and the Trump-compromised Republican Party.

But trust me: That response is vastly overwrought and needlessly so.

It is an odd thing, but true: Intellectuals are as susceptible to fads as teenagers. Confusing novelty with insight or truth, they rush to climb onboard whatever is the shiniest new bandwagon to appear in the campus parking lot. We live in a moment when the purveyors of the latest intellectual fads—consider the celebrity status of Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates — happen to be riding high. That they are making the most of it is understandable. You would too.

To my fellow citizens who find all of this disconcerting, I would simply say this: Chill. Take it from a former teacher: What gets conveyed in the classroom is probably the least important source of the education that your children actually acquire in high school or college. If you really want to keep them from succumbing to corruption, take away their cellphones.

Most ordinary Americans, regardless of color, are always going to prefer 1776 to 1619 as a point of origin for our national story. And given a choice between the racialist doctrines that are currently all the rage in some quarters and the insistence on inalienable rights explicit in Mr. Jefferson’s Declaration and woven into Dr. King’s preaching, the overwhelming majority will opt for Jefferson and King.

On this front, in other words, the good news is the bad news: Ongoing controversies notwithstanding, Americans really do believe that theirs is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. And except in passing, few are likely to entertain any second thoughts on that score.

And who knows? The bad news just might prove to be the good news. At a moment of acute national disunity and dysfunction, resurrecting the ideals to which the American Revolution gave voice just might provide a path to salvation.

Life, Liberty, Equality: How’s that for a political slogan?

Andrew Bacevich, TAC’s writer-at-large, is president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His new book is After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-bad-news-and-the-good-news/

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By Gus Leonisky at 29 Jul 2021 - 8:05pm
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unmasked resistance...

‘Come into my office & arrest my entire staff’: Capitol Police ordered to ARREST maskless staffers, Republicans say they’ll resist

Capitol Police say they’ll arrest staffers who try to enter the House of Representatives without a mask, and report members who refuse to comply. Republicans have vowed to resist, calling out Speaker Pelosi’s “abuse of power.”

Capitol Physician Brian Moynihan announced on Tuesday that face masks would once again be required to enter the House side of the US Capitol, regardless of the wearer’s vaccination status. The measure was supported by top Democrats, but opposed by many Republicans. Even Moynihan himself was seen flouting his own guidance, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) claimed to have seen Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) forgoing her mask while “in a crowded room.”

Nevertheless, the Capitol Police have been instructed to enforce the mandate to the fullest extent of the law. A memo circulated by Chief of Police J Thomas Manger on Wednesday instructs officers to order any visitors and staff who refuse to wear masks to leave the building, and arrest them for unlawful entry if they refuse. Officers are also instructed to file a report with the House sergeant-at-arms if any members of Congress refuse to comply.

Some Republicans have already vowed to resist. “Might as well come into my office and arrest my entire staff,” Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian-leaning Republican from Kentucky, tweeted on Thursday. “We are not wearing masks … the physician and the chief of police don’t have this authority.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/530598-pelosi-capitol-masks-police-arrest/

Read from top. There was a time when the resistance was from the Bolsheviks and not from the perfumed rich Republicans...

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By Gus Leonisky at 30 Jul 2021 - 8:47am
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pelosi's bishop...

Nancy Pelosi has received yet another rebuke from her bishop.

Salvatore Cordileone, the archbishop of San Francisco, chastised the Speaker of the House for calling herself a “devout Catholic” who supports abortion rights.

“Let me repeat: no one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” Archbishop Cordileone wrote in a statement last Thursday. “The right to life is a fundamental—the most fundamental—human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights. To use the smokescreen of abortion as an issue of health and fairness to poor women is the epitome of hypocrisy.”

Cordileone continued: “It is people of faith who run pro-life crisis pregnancy clinics; they are the only ones who provide poor women life-giving alternatives to having their babies killed in their wombs. I cannot be prouder of my fellow Catholics who are so prominent in providing this vital service. To them I say: you are the ones worthy to call yourselves ‘devout Catholics’!”

This is what Pelosi said at a recent press conference which prompted the rebuke from her bishop:

“As a devout Catholic and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family, five children in six years almost to the day. But it’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should [do] and it is an issue of fairness and justice for poor women in our country.”

Pelosi has proclaimed herself a “devout Catholic” on multiple prior occasions. Big League Politics made note of this in a January article on Archbishop Cordileone’s reply to her remarks about Trump supporters. She said that pro-life Trump voters “sell the whole democracy down the river” over abortion, which apparently gives her “great grief as a Catholic”:

Nancy Pelosi is notorious for pulling the “Catholic card,” probably even more so than Joe Biden. In 2012 she even met with then Pope Benedict XVI, who no doubt reminded her that human life begins at conception and that all Catholics have an obligation to believe and uphold that truth. Nine years later, however, and her stance on abortion has not changed a bit.

In other recent Pelosi news, Big League Politics has reported that she now appears to be using the US Capitol Police as her own “personal Stasi” to arrest people who come into the Capitol without a mask and refuse to leave the premises:

“On July 27, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new mask guidance that all individuals, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, should wear a mask in indoor spaces to reduce the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19,” a bulletin to the Capitol police reads.

The bulletin continues: “According the CDC, the Delta variant has become “the dominant coronavirus in the United States and continues to challenge aspects of disease control, public health, and the urgency to complete vaccination for unvaccinated individuals.”’

“Based on this information, the Office of Attending Physician (OAP) advised that Congress follow the CDC’s guidance to require mask wearing in interior spaces to help reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection,” the bulletin adds.

Later in the memo, the call for visitors or staffers to be arrested if they refuse to comply with the regime of forced masking is made.

“If a visitor or a staff member fails to wear a mask after a request is made to do so, the visitor or staff shall be denied entry to the House Office Buildings or House-side of the U.S. Capitol. Any person who fails to comply or leave the premises after being asked to do so would be subject to an arrest for Unlawful Entry,” the bulletin reads.

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/archbishop-of-san-francisco-chastises-nancy-pelosi-for-claiming-to-be-devout-catholic/ Read from top. FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Gus Leonisky at 17 Aug 2021 - 7:32am
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murder on the capitol express...

In the aftermath of the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by supporters of then-US President Donald Trump, the US Capitol Police investigated 35 officers’ actions and disciplined six. Video from the event showed several instances of fraternization and even aiding the rioters entry and navigation of the legislature.

The US Capitol Police (USCP) Office of Professional Responsibility announced Monday that an officer who shot a woman outside the House chamber during the January 6 insurrection would face no internal discipline for the incident.

The Monday statement says the review found the officer’s action “lawful and within Department policy,” noting those policies state that “an officer may use deadly force only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury.”

“The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members [of Congress] and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the US Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away. USCP Officers had barricaded the Speaker’s Lobby with furniture before a rioter shattered the glass door. If the doors were breached, the rioters would have immediate access to the House Chambers.”

The US Department of Justice had previously cleared the officer of criminal wrongdoing in April, claiming prosecutors would be unable to prove the officer had acted “willfully” to violate the law or had deprived Babbitt of a constitutionally protected right.

Ashli Babitt, a 35-year-old retired Air Force veteran from California, was part of the mob that broke into the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, shortly after a “Stop the Steal” rally hosted by then-US President Donald Trump outside the White House. While Trump was later acquitted in an impeachment trial of having encouraged his followers to storm the Capitol, the message at the rally was nonetheless one calling for a stop to Congress’ certification of the results of the November 2021 election, which was then underway. Trump claimed he hadn’t lost the election, as Democratic candidate Joe Biden had only won due to fraud.

Four others in addition to Babbit, were also killed during the attack on the Capitol, including a USCP officer. Although the entry of hundreds of rioters into the Capitol temporarily dispersed Congress and sent lawmakers scrambling to safety, the riot ultimately failed at its goal, and the building was soon cleared and the election results certified. More than 20,000 US troops then garrisoned Washington, DC, through Biden’s inauguration several weeks later, with the last national guardsmen only leaving in late May.

While she died a strong Trump supporter, Babbitt had been a Democrat before the real estate mogul took office in 2017, when she became a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, which holds that Trump is locked in battle with a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophile Democrats who he will one day vanquish.

When she was shot inside the Capitol on January 6, she was among a group of rioters who were attempting to bash their way through the shatter-resistant glass on the barricaded doors outside the House chamber. Videos captured by several of the rioters show several USCP officers on the other side of the doors, one of whom is mostly hidden from view but whose pistol can be plainly seen.

While some of the rioters notice the gun and can be heard calling out to others about the weapon, Babbitt was seemingly undeterred, and when she was shot in the shoulder she was attempting to climb through a busted-out window. The single gunshot brought pause to the dozens of rioters outside, and they rushed to take care of the wounded Babbit. When she arrived at the hospital, she was declared dead.

“His bravery on January 6 was nothing short of heroic,” Mark E. Schamel, the attorney representing the officer in question, said of his client in an April statement to the Washington Post. “He stopped the rioters from gaining entry into the Speaker’s Lobby and saved the lives of countless members of Congress and the rioters. His heroism should be no surprise to those who know him.”

Her husband, Aarton Babbitt, sued the DC Metropolitan Police Department in June in an attempt to get information about the officer who shot Ashli, including the officer’s name. Trump has made the demand for answers part of his rallying cries at public appearances since the failed insurrection.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202108231083695523-internal-probe-clears-of-wrongdoing-us-capitol-police-officer-who-shot-ashli-babbitt-on-january-6/

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