neo has a good summary of the election problem and the courts with The Kari Lake election fraud verdict: Part II. — “if fraudsters are creative enough and go outside the bases for challenge established by the statute, it appears that no lawsuit could succeed. … So I’m not going to do a close review of the evidence presented in court, because whatever it was it was not going to be able to meet the requirements unless it was a confession or a record of the plotting itself.” — Sundance also calls it Fishy Business – Arizona Mandatory Recounts Revealing Significant GOP Gains, Hobbs Sealed Results Until After Her Lawsuit Completed — “Then there’s this very interesting development….” — “It appears Mrs. Hobbs intentionally did not want the recount information coming out until her lawsuit to become governor was completed.”

neo also has a New York Times phenomena to explore. Republicans pounce on the poor beleaguered FBI. — “Why are the Republicans doing this to those agency innocents, fighting for truth, justice, and the American Way? It’s because of Trump, of course” — One question is why reporting at this level can be this biased and ignorant. A second level of concern is the propaganda aspect.  

About that medical profession … The local gorilla still holds on to the pandemic panic, Monica Showalter asks: Remember the ‘horse paste’ hullabaloo about ivermectin? (American Thinker) — “The stuff worked, but news of ivermectin’s effectiveness was, we now learn, also censored by the government’s lackeys and lapdogs at Twitter, according to the latest Twitter files revelations, and every effort to allow news of the actual science was shut down, its proponents ridiculed as nuts and “horse-paste” enthusiasts. … now we’ve got a meta-study out, that’s a study of studies, telling the truth of the matter.” Then there’s two items at KevinMD.com.  Curtis G. Graham, MD says Think you aren’t a part of the destruction of the medical profession? Think again. His warning is about a lack of business education leading to failing private practices leading to government takeover of the profession. As if to prove his point, anonymous, a medical student, uses his first dying patient sob story to to bash insurance and highlight his revelation that ‘free market principles’ does not work in healthcare. He seems to be suffering about basic economic or historic education. His preferred route has been tried many times and the results have not been effective. He also misses the point of his sob story is a result of socialized medicine and that he should carefully consider what Dr. Graham is saying about the destruction of the medical profession.

Meanwhile, the major medical institution in Reno still thinks masks will prevent the spread of a respiratory virus. Do they still punish any of their doctors that dare to follow what used to be considered proven and accepted practice, you know – things that were actually effective like Ivermectin? Then look at the COVID inoculation are trying to do to those who keep pointing out the growing evidence and properly evaluating risk versus benefit versus cost. 

Elections continue to fester. The Left is after Lake now that a judge has ruled against her. It seems incontrovertible proof of very closely interpreted law with prior precedents is needed to pursue election fraud. So now the Left wants fines and other money and also the law licenses of any lawyer with wrong views of the case. Jay Valentine says — “This week, leftists and RINOs admitted, under oath, that they changed the print settings, on election morning, so Republican votes would not be tabulated, on the one day most Republicans vote — and the Maricopa County judge said “…it wasn’t intentional.” — and wonders about The End of Free Elections? — “We cannot stop election commissions from changing print settings, but we can keep them mostly honest on election rolls by reconciling one government database with another and forcing the government to make them match — constantly.” — There is an effort, The Fractal Team, is reconciling government databases and pursuing corrections on a county by county basis.

What’s driving the effort to clean up voter rolls? Harvesting Low-Effort Votes Is Working Great For Democrats, So They’re Going For More (Victoria Marshall, Conservative Review) — “Republicans must be wary of Democratic efforts to fortify elections in 2023 and beyond. … Republicans must realize election integrity is not a seasonal push nor a battle isolated to 2020. Rather, they must be on offense for years to come.” — It is this never ending push on many fronts that created Biden’s Unopposed Imposition of Stalinism (Ed Brodow, American Thinker) — “None of this is happening by accident. … “The average American is fed up with being browbeaten by a bunch of crazy left-wing radicals,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Fed up is one thing, doing something about it is another.” — “Biden is able to get away with this outrage because millions of American voters are pathetically uninformed. In our world, critical thinking is not a treasured commodity. If we taught people to distinguish fact from fiction, Biden couldn’t get away with his lies and deception. … What disturbs me the most about Biden’s Stalinist policies is that our citizens have become unwitting collaborators. … This lack of concern is a message to the Biden gang that they can continue to demonstrate contempt for voters without consequence.”

The FBI has professors Turley and Hanson in dismay. Hanson wonders What Will the FBI Not Do? (American Greatness) and — “Who watches the watchers?” … “The FBI is now, tragically, in freefall. The public is at the point, first, of asking what improper or illegal behavior will the bureau not pursue, and what, if anything, must be done to reform or save a once great but now discredited agency.” — Turley notes the telling response of the FBI and suggests that When the FBI Attacks Critics as “Conspiracy Theorists,” It’s Time to Reform the Bureau — Elon Musk is noted as concluding that all those ‘conspiracy theories’ about Twitter turned out the be true. The documentation he released proved the point with emphasis and that is why the question of what to do about it is gaining traction.

Another facet of this corruption is The Omnibus Spending Bill Scam (Paul E. Scates, American Thinker) — “The Founding Fathers didn’t include a provision in the Constitution for the removal of federal office-holders once they are elected.  They assumed an informed electorate would ensure they didn’t elect such people.  But when the majority of Americans are so willfully politically ignorant and apathetic that they spend less time deciding on who to vote for than on what to have for lunch, the absence of such a provision becomes a real problem. … George Orwell describes us perfectly: A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices.” — The problems with the budget, its in your face lame duck ‘up yours’ approach, the procedural malfeasance that produced it, and its long term implications are all popular topics for discussion. But, like the Arizona election and the FBI response to the Twitter reveal, and the Senate minority leader shenanigans, the defense is awesome and massive and inane yet (seemingly) accepted by those Orwell accomplices. Is frustration mounting? What will happen? How far will it go?

Neo came up with the idea a few days ago that both sides were seeking Truth. The reality is that one side, the Left is trying to create truth while the, the Right is trying to find it. Truth can be ideology but that is not as issue in the current dialog. Truth as opposed to false witness is what is at stake right now.

The election integrity fracas continues to raise questions and wonder. Judge Peter Thompson Rules Elections with Broken Machines in 60% of Precincts and No Chain of Custody for Ballots Are Free, Fair and Certifiable (Jim Hoft. Gateway Pundit) — “Here again, are the key points ignored by Judge Thompson in Kari Lake’s lawsuit.” —  Kari Lake failed to meet a standard that is impossible to meet (Ted Noel , American Thinker) says — “She presented uncontroverted testimony that the dimensions of the ballot on Election Day were changed from the dimensions that were tested before the election. … As Kari Lake noted, the election was run “outside the law.” Yet Maricopa County Judge Peter Thompson ruled that Lake didn’t meet her burden of proof.” … “The appellate court ought to realize that errors involving fully ten percent of the entire voting electorate are larger than those assumed by the earlier courts, rendering their precedents inapplicable. … Given the facts on the ground, no presumption of election regularity can logically be maintained.  But granting Lake a victory at this point is a bridge too far.” — BUT The Dismissal of Kari Lake’s Election Lawsuit Shows Voter Disenfranchisement No Longer Matters (Rachel Alexander, Townhall) — ”The trial court judge in Kari Lake’s election lawsuit predictably threw out her case on Saturday, putting on a sham trial that on the surface looked fair to the general public that doesn’t know any better, but to legal minds was a travesty of justice.”

There Certainly Was an Insurrection, But Not by Trump (Brian C. Joondeph, American Thinker) — “Was Trump behind the “insurrection” as Reps Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney insist? Or was the federal government fomenting insurrection? And was January 6 part of a long pattern of government insurrection going back decades?” — “What’s the common theme? Government agencies actively promoting one favored political party while damaging their political enemies, Soviet-style, to influence elections and disrupt Constitutionally based government. In other words, an insurrection.” — Don’t Buy What Democrats Are Selling as Reality (Bruce Kaufman,  American Thinker) — “We live in a topsy-turvy world, where true reality is often altered and replaced with a new surreal Democrat reality.” — “Beware!  If you believe in the Democrats’ faux reality, you do so at your own peril!  The spider will have caught you in its web.”

Seeking truth, the honest to reality witness kind, is why We Must Know the Past (Jeffrey Folks, American Thinker) — “What critical theorists refuse to admit is that they themselves, with the freedom of speech that they so often abuse, are the beneficiaries of the American experiment.  They are even less likely to admit that the woke thinking they encourage would establish a new social order in which large swaths of the population would be relegated to second-class citizenship or worse” — “Critical theorists are quick to discover flaws and to magnify them into crimes like suppression and even genocide.  The only ones whom woke thinkers find to be innocent are themselves, when in fact woke thinking is leading America toward authoritarianism based on racist, sexist, and queer criteria for membership in the new elite.”

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). — what does it mean? (Candice Lucey, Christianity.com)

Why remember? Consider what people do to history and knowledge and experience. ¡No Pasarán!: Only four of the 31 authors contributing to the 1619 Project are historians, and none are experts on the U.S. founding; It shows or Today’s Global Warming Insight (Seth Barrett Tillman, New Reform Club) — “Why do these people think it is their role to educate us? Why?”

Those who proceed from Isaiah are trying to reveal a truth. Those pushing the 1619 project or climate idolatry are trying to hide a truth. How can you tell? Which comports with evidence? Who profits? What is the message actually given and does it provide accurate witness? Dilbert today provides insight into qualifying the messenger, too.

Professor Turley notes one of the indicative behaviors of the guilty in “Conspiracy Theorists…Attempting to Discredit the Agency”: The FBI Attacks Critics Objecting to its Role in Twitter’s Censorship System. — “It is not clear what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Twitter’s censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role.” — “The statement shows an agency that is still engaged in framing public opinion and echoing the narrative being advanced by the White House. … There was a time when that was not a “conspiracy theory.” — The Valley and the Swamp (G. Murphy Donovan, American Thinker) notes that — “Truth does indeed often hide in plain sight … The real value of all those Twitter email dumps so far is that we now have probative evidence for what many already knew.” — 

“No surprise, then, to hear that the Intelligence Community and the FBI deny that they censor news or selectively enforce the law.  The FBI doesn’t just think it is above the law; it now knows it.

“The first great tragedy of the 21st century is the soft coup against America, a joint venture between Big Tech and Big Intel, where tactics and operations formerly reserved for foreign enemies are now used against American citizens.

This gets into the same league of rationalizations as in the question Did The Ways & Means Committee Play The Supreme Court On Trump’s Tax Returns? (Josh Blackman, Volokh). In this one, the rationalization is about proper IRS function but the goal was voyeurism into the private affairs of a citizen. That gets into a String of errors in federal statistics favoring Democrats raising concerns of manipulation (Ben Whedon, Just the News). — “A recent string of errors and apparent discrepancies in federal statistics has raised concerns that such metrics, long regarded as irreproachably nonpartisan and credible, may have fallen prey to manipulation in favor of the incumbent Democratic Party.” — “The Immigration Court’s failure to respond to or address TRAC’s findings of significant data quality issues regarding minors is particularly concerning given the highly sensitive nature of children facing deportation,” — The quiet on these three issues is also telling and why The Election Integrity Battle Must Be Won before It Is Fought (Mac Madden, American Thinker) — “Republicans should have learned that once the votes are cast, it is nearly impossible to litigate fairness.  They did not.  It’s fair to say that in spite of all the talk after the 2020 election about fixing election integrity, very little was  done that actually improved things.” — “We need a strategy.  What’s a strategy?  A strategy answers the following questions: What are we going to do?  When are we going to do it?  Who is going to do it?  How much will it cost?  Where will we get the money?” — On that end is Trump issues a fiery rebuttal to January 6 committee. (Andrea Widburg, American Thinker) — “The 845-page report looks comprehensive, but it’s not, and that’s one of the main points Trump makes in his statement.” — That is why the minority issued its rebuttal, too, — The Senators are feeling it, too. Omnibus Bill: Don’t Get Mad, Get Even ( Renee Parsons, American Thinker) — “There is a general consensus that a dozen or so U.S. senators who are mostly aligned with the America First movement have screwed up royally by allowing the 4,100-plus-page omnibus $1.7-trillion budget to be adopted”

What’s is sometimes missed is that the noise level on all these behaviors is rising. We’ve reached terminal velocity: Washington state bureaucrats bemoan ‘rational thinking’ (Olivia Murray, American Thinker) — “As I scanned the curriculum, it was clear that the overarching theme really is “Ignorance is Strength” — albeit conveyed in a myriad of ways.” — also see It’s Time To Tell The Truth About Colonialism In Africa (Casey Chalk, Federalist) — “Historian Bruce Gilley’s provocative book, ‘In Defense of German Colonialism,’ makes a compelling case that many historical narratives surrounding Africa are motivated by politics, not facts.” — That is cited as A scholar is trying to give more dimension to Africa’s colonial history (Andrea Widburg, American Thinker) who expands the theme with — “As Steven Pinker explains in a book I never tire of citing, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, all Stone Age societies (that is, societies without wheels, with minimal tools, and without stable habitation) have developed in the same way: They form tribes that engage in constant warfare with surrounding tribes.”

“History is interesting because nothing is all good or all bad. Leftists, with their relentless demonizing of the West and their glorification of the non-West, not only make history boring, but they also set up unnecessary conflicts in the modern era while denying agency to both colonizers and colonized.

Another example of the distortion of history is the story about the Keystone Pipeline Allowed to Reopen, Media Continues Lying about Spill. (Ben Wetmore, Gateway Pundit). This was about an oil spill in Kansas exaggerated by the ideological opportunists. Meanwhile ‘baby, it’s cold outside’ — but that’s another phenomena being subject to hyperbole and a tool for rationalizing fact free ideologies.

The big news seems to be Dems Vote to Release Six Years of Trump Tax Returns in Stunning Invasion of Privacy (Bob Hoge, Redstate) — “The intrusion of government into our private lives and the ongoing weaponization of federal departments have reached truly scary new heights.” — Report on Trump Tax Returns Has Been Released, Here’s the Big ‘Bombshell’ the Press Is Obsessing Over. (Bochie, Red State) note the hyperventilating over normal practice. There are reports elsewhere that now Democrats are alleging the returns weere not properly audited. That’s called digging deep to excuse and rationalize — “accusations about Trump’s taxes were always nonsensical and ridiculous” — This is just another flailing after J6 Committee Formally Accuses President Trump of Daring to Oppose Clinton and Biden, Thereby Inciting an Insurrection (sundance, Last Refuge) with nothing there. — “The more they do this, the more I appreciate the Rosetta Stone that President Donald J Trump represents.” — 

The FBI’selection efforts are still boiling and spitting out disgusting crud. Full Scope Of The Russia Hoax Coup Coming Into Focus? (Mark Wauck, Meaning In History) gets going on the FBI counter assault to Congressional investigations. — “To me, this is pretty wild. And it’s ongoing—the Barr/Wray burying of the Hunter laptop, the 2020 fake election, the J6 hoax, the Mar-a-Lago raid. These are all extensions of the original coup plot, which are now designed to accomplish what Hillary failed to do in 2016: Keep Trump out of political life in America. I weep for my country.” — This gets into wondering Why Did the FBI Want Joe Biden to Become President? (John Leonard, American Thinker) — “FBI agents swear to an oath of office … Please remember that oath as we now talk about the latest development in the ongoing saga … This leads one to an obvious conclusion: the FBI has become the American Stasi. As of today, I have become very distrustful and afraid of my own government. I halfway expect my house to be raided and my own arrest coming for the crime of speaking truth to power.” — 

Then there’s The media’s biggest grift: fake stories sold as truth. (Jack Hellner, American Thinker) — “I wish that politicians would not fabricate stories but I sure as heck don’t care what the media and other Democrats say because so much of what they do and say is made up in order to infect the United States with leftist policies to destroy the greatest and most prosperous country that ever existed.” — A catalog of examples is provided. Another is COVID Communism Has Been Contagious. (J.B. Shurk, American Thinker) — “reality looks very different from what many people once perceived it to be.” — It’s another catalog — “American rights have been sliced and diced until all that is left is the will of the government.  The will of the people, as so many J6 defendants can attest, has limped along on life support, while Big Government assassins seek to smother it dead.” — The Omnibus bill ensures continued January 6 persecutions and Nancy Pelosi’s failures helped create the Capitol kerfuffle on January 6 (Andrea Widburg, American Thinker) — are two more for the catalog that In Elections, It’s Not The Votes That Count, It’s The Ballots That Count (Ted Noel) —  “Politics may be a blood sport, but frankly, when the stupid party (Republicans) insists on “issues,” the evil party (Democrats) quietly laughs. When you’re at war, you must overwhelm the enemy, and that’s what Dems do. With ballots, not votes.” … “Every time the Dems invent a new scam, we need to identify it soonest. Then we need to employ countermeasures just as quickly. We must win this war by starving the enemy. And make no mistake, the Democrat party is our enemy, not our opponent. They want to destroy us and America. It’s time to stop being the stupid party.”

Victor Davis Hanson wonders if there is the will to do what is needed. He suggests 10 Steps to Save America. It is a catalog of what has gone wrong with suggestions for a course correction. — “These are just a few of the many ways that the United States could stop the present madness—which, after all, was entirely self-created.” The section headlines:

• Cut the Debt
• Secure the Border
• Tap Natural Resources
• Oppose Discrimination
• Disrupt and Reform Higher Education
• Revive the Armed Forces
• Fix Voting
• Drain the Swamp
• Upend the Welfare State
• Restore Norms

There’s a lot of ‘misinformation’ parading around as ‘science’ to support a fantasy. Ben Bartee highlights an example: Social Engineers: Unvaxxed Get in More Traffic Accidents. — “Any opportunity to bash the unvaxxed, no matter how absurd the justification, is like catnip to the corporate media. They can’t resist.” — “If you’re uninjected, don’t be surprised if, in the near future, your insurance company justifies a premium hike on the grounds that you can’t provide proof of vaccination, and are therefore a greater liability. The American Journal of Medicine said so.” —

But that’s just a part of it. See The Feds’ ‘Misinformation’ Scam. Patrick J. Gibbs puts the Twitter brouhaha as paramount in 2022. — “Until we see reforms after such investigations, defenders of free speech should refuse to recognize any “misinformation exception” to the First Amendment.” —

And in left field there is the question Why reparations now? Mark C. Ross says “The absurdity of the concept of reparations for slavery, an institution that ended several generations ago, is beyond mind-boggling.  But there’s a blatantly cynical reason for the sudden lurch in that direction: formerly reliable Black voters are now slipping away from the Democrats.” — “The dystopic nature of our inner cities cannot be traced back to slavery.  Modern-day political machines are the culprits.  Paying women to have fatherless children; running schools that avoid imparting basic math and literacy skills while lowering the standards for achievement; suppressing police responses to avoid bad optics and litigation… all add up to imposed squalor.  And none of this can be traced back to slavery or any of its aftereffects.” — and did you know — “the British colonists brought in Scots and Irish slaves to fill the labor deficit created by the vastness of America.  These were not indentured slaves who only needed to work off the cost of their passage to achieve their freedom.  They were true chattel: property that was bought and paid for.” —

“The folks who are having the money thrown at them have no reason to complain and the folks whose money it used to be have little, if any, voice left to complain.  What a country!”

Naming your opposition is a means of target identification. You can see this in ‘news’ reporting and in prosecutions as well as heated and hyperbolic political rhetoric. Joseph Hanneman via The Epoch Times (via ZeroHedge) says it’s ‘Absurd’ To Call Oath Keepers Insurrectionists Or A National Security Threat,  citing testimony from a Former FBI Agent. This was in an Alaska attack to disqualify a newly elected Representative. — “Use of the term domestic violent extremism is “an information operation,” Guandolo said” — This leads to Clarice Feldman and Deep State Suspicions which starts off on the CiA and the Kennedy assassination the to the FBI and Twitter. — “Who elected these agencies and people to govern us? How much more of this corruption will be uncovered? Who benefited from the assassination of JFK and the election of Joe Biden and presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (whom, incidentally, the released records reveal had, indeed, been a member of the KKK)?” — Now we get another absurdity to add to the pile from Bonchie. First Details of Donald Trump Criminal Referrals Show the Abject Idiocy of the January 6th Committee. — “The January 6th committee is apparently determined to end things with the equivalent of stripping naked and running through the bear enclosure at the zoo.” — just like that Alaska trial. — “I’m speaking as if the vote is a forgone conclusion because we all know it’s a foregone conclusion … As to the details, the three referrals will be for insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Let’s talk about that.” — “I’m not sure all the facts and logic in the world matter here. Trump is going to be indicted. It’s just a matter of timing. The January 6th committee was simply meant to may political hay for the mid-terms while providing a hook for the DOJ. And while the entire thing is idiotic and spits on the rule of law, it may well accomplish its mission.”

Another expression of the cancer is in a history lesson from Bruce Deitrick Price: Why Are Communists Determined to Destroy the US? — “Education, as we’ll see, is the first refuge of scoundrels” — “Always remember that Marx had predicted inevitable communist revolution caused by economic factors.  Now it turns out that, as a first step, the revolutionaries have to dismantle the entire Christian revolution.” … “As a result, communism is everywhere in our society, attacking, attacking, attacking. … These fanatics never take a day off.  They won’t be happy until you’re unhappy.” — Eric Utter says “Kansas universities may soon dispense with their algebra graduation requirement because too many students fail the courses.” Universities may drop algebra graduation requirement because students find algebra too difficult. — “If graduation rates are now more important than what students are taught, than why not only offer gender and women’s studies courses…and underwater basket-weaving?” — There are still people who value (and enjoy) mathematics. Stephan Wolfram is one and his website is all about “computation meets knowledge.” For the algebra challenged, check out his Learn Algebra from the Ground Up with Wolfram Language—Wolfram Blog.  

In the ‘who do you hero?’ values expose there is Victor Davis Hanson providing a comparison and contrast lesson about Two Antithetical Billionaires. — “He had learned early on that loud leftist talk, big promises of philanthropy, and huge cash infusions to the media and leftist candidates – all under the veneer of “effective altruism” – ensured de facto immunity for his Ponzi schemes from both bad press and government investigation. … In contrast, consider how the Left now despises Elon Musk as much as it once worshiped Sam Bankman-Fried.”

“How sad that the Left despises a man who built real things against the odds and took risks to champion free speech. And how predictable it worshiped a leftist fraud who bilked a million investors and ruined the lives of thousands.

“The hatred of the accomplished Musk and the worship of the hollow man Bankman-Fried are sad commentaries on how liberalism has descended into progressivism and ultimately into Stalinism.

As if that isn’t stark enough, Civis Americanus wonders How can the Anti-Defamation League bash Trump while promoting Al Sharpton? — “The ADL’s “concern” does not, however, seem to extend to its own association with the prominent racist and anti-Semite Al Sharpton.” — What he notes is the TDS cancer that throws out any realistic reference in order to impugn and diminish their target. See Hinderaker for an example of this hubris at Powerline. You’d think that, with Trump’s record, folks might stop to think before condemning as does Andrea Widburg wondering Is there a brilliant ulterior motive behind Trump’s baseball card fundraiser? — “A reader, however, emailed me a different suggestion: Trump may have devised a way to circumvent the requirement that a campaign must identify all donors, which can be dangerous for Trump supporters.”

Robert Arvay shows how insidious this phenomena is in Spacing out: NASA shows leftist bias against Trump, Musk. — “Sadly, we have all gotten too accustomed to the fact that the bureaucracy is left-leaning at best, and oftentimes worse than that.  Such is apparently the case with NASA, and the shame of it is that the screeds that NASA publishes are gratuitous.  They not only do nothing to advance NASA’s programs, but also undermine confidence in its political independence.” — “NASA is doing what the article said it fears from Elon Musk: being distracted by political considerations.”

The history lesson for the day is from Jack Bovee who alleges that Creative Historical Interpretations Are Not History. — “The dominating narrative in American schools and the popular culture today is that slavery began in America in 1619.  Unfortunately, there is about as much truth in that scenario as there was in the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” media crusade in August 2014.” — “In the first half of the seventeenth century, more White Europeans were seized and taken to Africa than Black Africans seized and taken to America.” — “This has been the toll of the false historical narrative. Literally, the survival of our nation is at stake. – How do we correct the problem? Simple.  We demand a return to the honest teaching of American history.” —

This slavery business seems to be a jealousy and envy problem by one group trying to use it as a badge of prestige having trouble competing with another group whose victimization and slavery is even established in the Bible. And yes, TDS gets fed here, too.

In light of California’s struggle with reparations and the President apologizing to African leaders about slavery evils, some reality exposure is needed. Don Surber has a bit for those seeking a grip on what actually is. The West didn’t colonize. It civilized. “Yes, there was slavery, particularly in Africa. But slavery had always been there. … For a few centuries, Ghana was one of the richest nations on Earth thanks to its role in the slave trade.”

“The West conquered the world and brought advanced technology and prosperity. Compare and contrast those isolated tribes in the Amazon to how Brazilians live. It is no contest. Natives are better off thanks to the West.

VDH is asking “Are we sure that there is all that much ruin left in the United States?”. Our Parasitic Generation is seeking reparations of all sorts. — “We are $31 trillion in collective debt. The new normal is $1.5 trillion budget deficits. The military is politicized and short of recruits. We trade lethal terrorists for woke celebrity athletes as if to confirm our enemies’ cynical stereotypes.” — “Our California always is a preamble to America’s future. Our present is likely your tomorrow.” — are we “A Nation of Thieves?”

“More accurately, the Democrats should be noted as the “party of innocent death.” That is, a death sentence is OK as in abortion or euthanasia but not for committing capital crimes. Olivia Murray says In a last act of inverted morality, Oregon’s outgoing governor commutes death sentences for criminals, but not babies. — “if justice cannot be achieved by “taking a life”, then there is no such thing as “reproductive justice.” She just gutted her own faulty belief system” — Another example of selective harm is from John Dale Dunn: The New England Medical Journal Uses Denial To Advance Transgenderism. — “The problem is that the sexual deviancy advocates want the societal norms destroyed in favor of nihilist and “anything goes” approaches that are politically motivated and a part of destroying societal moral norms. … Advocating pharmacological and surgical mutilation is anti-science and fails to address the pathology.”

“Denialism now takes its place in the rhetorical armory of the left as another weapon to stifle debate and intimidate those opposing a narrative that the socialist/sex deviancy army pushes to promote the fetishist/transvestite/sexual fluidity movement. It is no coincidence that Boston Children’s Hospital was recently exposed as another medical center engaged in mutilating confused children and adolescents.

Insurrection continues to provide a fertile field for diversion, denial, and deceit. It starts with Controlling the Department of Justice. Steve McCann says “The unabashed political persecution and unconscionable years of pre-trial incarceration for some January 6th protestors in direct violation of the Sixth Amendment. The near-psychotic obsession to indict and convict Donald Trump of any specious federal crime.” — Then there is The Democrats’ Slow Motion Insurrection – Issues & Insights: “Their mostly bloodless coup to suspend constitutional limits and seize unchallenged power has been thoroughly calculated and expertly executed.” — “Modern Democrats are constantly in conflict with liberty.” — Jack Gleason thinks Election-Fraud Corruption Is Deeper than Anyone Can Imagine. — “The left and their RINO allies, along with who-knows-how-many other corporate and foreign actors, have set up the most complicated electoral fraud system in history.  Every step of the voting process — from who is allowed to vote, how they vote, how the votes are tallied, to how the results are reported — is compromised.  They are so far into their corruption that being exposed is not an option.  They will do literally anything to avoid being caught.” The voter rolls provide a point of attack for corrections. It is happening there and on other fronts as well. It seems to be a guerrilla assault on an organized army. Perhaps common interests will help organize the efforts. 

It seems a stimulus has stirred the pot and there’s a lot of thinking, debating, arguing, and conflict regarding the mismatch between public perceptions, interests, and expression. Geoffrey Clarfield takes on the identity aspect from an anthropologist’s POV to explain Why Trudeau Keeps on Winning. — “Once multiculturalism became king in Canada, the winning political party is the one that knows how to play the “ethnic card.” — 

“It is beginning to make sense to me. Issues count for nothing. Immigrants who have never experienced old-fashioned representative democracy will vote along ethnic lines. The rest of us, or what was once called ROC (“the rest of Canada”) will vote Conservative in the hope that we can stop the bleeding and return us to fiscal and ideological normality. It is a losing strategy.

Jay Valentine says you can see the problems in the record. Cooking the Books: Why Republicans Always Come up Short. — “Elections, like corporations, have books everyone can see to make an election or investment decision. … Election records begin with the voter registry.” … “The hidden set of books contains the ballot and phantom and address inventory.” … “Part of the scam is Republican denial.  It is a critical ingredient, and the leftists work diligently to make it happen.” … “There may still be two sets of books, but now the good guys can read them both.”

The Arizona example is on the table. Daniel R. Street looks at the Showdown in Arizona: Will Kari Lake Prevail in Her Election Lawsuit? — “The issues raised with the 2022 Arizona elections are far more extensive, and troublesome, than the tabulator/printer issues alone.” — here’s a “A basic understanding of the litigation, the claims, and the applicable law will inform readers.” — Emerald Robinson provides her take with 9 Revelations From Kari Lake’s Arizona Lawsuit. — “The lawsuit is 70 pages long, and full of enough blatant election corruption and government malfeasance to make even a communist blush.”

If you need a bit of a diversion from these sorts of things, take a look at how to Learn Algebra from the Ground Up with Wolfram Language. — “Despite its ancient origins, algebra remains a relevant foundation to nearly every part of society. There are many questions in the real world that you might want to answer without knowing every single detail, and algebra equips you with the power to find those answers yourself.”

The question is about the silence. There is boisterous outrage and irrational activism that is irrational, dishonest, and ignorant but it seems that is met by silence.The silence tends to convey acceptance. That has been costly. Roger Kimball is asking Where’s the Outrage? — “Unlock the closet where you keep your favorite conspiracy theories. It turns out, they’re not “theories” at all, at least not if by that word you mean something imagined but not true.” … “It’s all quite extraordinary—by which, I guess, I mean it’s just business as usual in the swamp.”

“I agree with David Limbaugh: “There needs to be a relentless attack from our side against the legacy media for their ongoing suppression of the truth, especially their refusal to cover these latest Twitter censorship revelations. They must never again be permitted to pretend to occupy the moral high ground.” I agree. But I fear that demand is going to go unheeded. 

“In any sane world, these revelations would have the public up in arms, literally. They would be marching against the media, the FBI, and the current administration. The anger would be acrid and ubiquitous. 

“That’s in any sane world. In our world, alas, you can hear the carpet being pulled back so that the whole dirty mess can be swept underneath it. Where’s the outrage? Nowhere to be found.

Calming the outrage is the story for Derek Hunter in The Twitter Files That Really Have Leftists Worried. — “But what is unique is how so-called journalists are reacting to it. They have spent years denying what everyone saw happening, pretending the very idea was beyond the pale. Now they’re pulling the “Everyone knew it was happening, they were open about it” card. Or at least trying to.” — Jazz Shaw gets into the mechanisms used: Twitter Files dump number 4. How Donald Trump was banned. — “There are also indications that Twitter was paying far more attention to the “big names” in the progressive movement than their own rules.” — This all boils down to making the point by David C. Rose that Institutions Matter…But So Does Culture. — “Some cultures convey moral beliefs that culturally encode the automatic rejection of untrustworthy actions.” … “When a critical mass of individuals abides by such beliefs, it becomes rational to presume most others can be trusted in most circumstances, producing a high trust society. Just as North would have predicted, by reducing transaction costs this makes cooperation through economic activity possible on a grand scale, unleashing human flourishing as never before.” This Trust is being eroded. Corruption and costly decisions proliferate on the broad scale. Costs escalate. People suffer. 

Objective evidence inquiry (‘science’) continues to be an issue as it is corrupted by subjective ideological support. Zerohedge has stories such as To End Climate Lunacy, Stop Treating Warming & C02 Hysterically and FDA Says Ivermectin Doesn’t Work Against COVID-19 But Points To Studies That Show It Does. Aaron Sibarium describes The Hijacking of Pediatric Medicine as one outcome of ‘faux science’. — “We have documented the ideological takeover of American medicine and the law. We have exposed how many of our schools are indoctrinating children rather than educating them. And we have reported on legacy news organizations that put politics ahead of the public they purport to serve.” – the assault on children under the aegis of organizations such as American Academy of Pediatrics includes the lockdown fiasco, COVID inoculations without effective cost versus benefit consideration, climate FUD mongering, gender mutilation, education philandering to fads, masking, and indoctrination. — “The pandemic showed how a small group of like-minded doctors, acting with virtually no oversight, can push extreme policies through the AAP based on very little evidence” — 

“The reason to trust modern doctors over ancient healers is that more of what we tell you to do is justified by well-done studies,” Prasad said. “But how do we hold that perch when we just make stuff up?”

Musk is on the third tranche on the collusion between the government and BigTech to censor and squash Democrat opposition in elections. Victoria Marshall gets into another dimension of this fraud in describing how the Virginia Dems’ GOTV Guide Instructs Going After Dead People. — “I don’t know how you can in good conscience instruct your workers to solicit votes from people in those categories.” — Then there’s the saga just starting regarding Maricopa County lawfare highlighting the many problems and anomalies from the recent election there.

An awareness of the cultism is growing. The Climate Alarmists Are Deeply Disturbed People – Issues & Insights — “rather than admit their errors, they point to natural events as evidence that they’re not wrong and keep warning us that the end is near. – There must be something wrong with them.” … “We’re not saying the climate alarmists are insane. But we feel it is our duty to point out that they do say the same things over and over and expect that this time they’ll get it right.”

Tyler Cowen plucked out a list of observations to get From the comments, on CDC reform. — “selection bias – overrun with academics — monocultural — incestuous — activists are running rampant — Doing your job well is boring” — an endemic problem inherent in social behavior. 

The stench of the elections and the ongoing saga of denial continues to disturb the narrative. Sundance says President Trump Was Correct About the Constitution and Elections – Kari Lake’s Lawsuit Shows Why. — “What President Trump is noting, is the exact same reason why Kari Lake’s lawsuit, like every other election lawsuit before it, will fail.   Our U.S. Constitution permits election fraud and manipulation, as long as that state level election fraud and manipulation does not break federal law. … This election reality is why control over state level elections is where the battle has to be fought.” — That then leads to David L. Smith concluding that Pence was wrong in January 2021. — “There would be no mention in the Constitution of a Vice President (VP) presiding over the counting of state Electoral College (EC) votes if it were a mere perfunctory duty.” — 

“Pence had a duty and an opportunity. He missed an opportunity to stem a blood flow. Fraud in elections can result in a judgment that the election did not take place. And the aggrieved are everywhere. It is going to be taken up sooner or later, and I shudder if it is never taken up.

A part of that “duty and opportunity” is from citizenship. David Zukerman issues A call to the good people of MAGA to denounce the left’s anti-Trump slanders — “History, I believe, will note that the more preposterous the false accusation against Donald J. Trump, the quicker the stirred-up crowd will toss reason aside and follow the persons spewing anti-Trump slander.” — The twitter fracas is a part of this as Now We Know: While Twitter Was Busy Silencing Conservatives, It Let Child Porn Fester – Issues & Insights. This is a matter of priorities — “Apparently, silencing conservatives is more important to them than protecting children.” — That shows up in your neighborhood, too: Public Libraries Are Becoming Cathedrals Of Wokeism where Tristan Justice notes that — “Kirk Cameron was never going to be allowed to hold a Christian-based story hour in the Cathedral of Woke.” — 

The propaganda machine is a part of this. For example, see The “Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter” Myth | ZeroHedge by John Lott Jr via RealClearPolitics.com. — “The New York Times, like the Washington Post and other news outlets, is intent on construing any racist as a conservative, right-winger. But they aren’t. And if there’s any ideological cause that really is sparking violence, it’s environmental extremism.” — and that extremism contrasts with a stand down citizenry as described by Victoria Marshall in listing 3 Unsexy Reasons Warnock Beat Walker In The Georgia Runoff. Those responsible are rationalizing the result with ‘quality candidate’ arguments or ‘Trump did it’ excuses. Meanwhile the activists raised the money and planned where best to spend it, organized a ballot harvesting army, and engaged in pre-preemptive lawfare. — “If Republicans can’t stop their tactics, then the GOP would do well to mirror them.” — the question is whether they will rise to the occasion. 

Communications is a two way street. Both ends of the street have to be committed to the integrity of the message in order to have useful transfer of meaning and knowledge. That commitment is suffering on many important fronts in today’s social discourse.  Catherine Salgado: Trump Clarifies Statement Misrepresented as Call to End to U.S. Constitution. You’d think that someone who has no history of disregard for the law or the U.S. Constitution and who keeps being right in substance would matter to those who hear him. But no, many jump right on the most negative perception they can muster. They have no question about how anomalous their perception may be and no interest in make certain their end of the communications has integrity. As an occasional slip-up, this would be no big deal but when it comes to TDS it has lead to much expense and misery and there is no indication of any interest in correction. That is the tragedy. Those with awareness would not need a clarification such as Trump offers that “that he was not calling for an end to the Constitution. In fact, the post seems to be an awkward argument that a stolen election — and thus an illegitimate government — means that the Constitution would no longer be in force, and thus laws that exist for a republican form of government would not provide solutions.” — “The truly controversial and bombshell thing Trump claimed was that we are no longer living in a Republic. That’s what the media — and the American people — should be debating.”

Mark J. Fitzgibbons is another look. Did Trump really call to terminate the Constitution? — “what followed may have been another Charlottesville moment among the media, other Trump haters, and more.” … “Those who believe Trump is evil and ignorant will of course read what they want into his post regardless of his intent and the actual meaning.” … “Anti-Trumpers are more than happy to use this new Charlottesville hoax moment to distract from Elon Musk’s release of the Twitter censorship files.”  — Elle Purnell says TIME Admits ‘Election Denier’ Is Nonsense Invented To Vilify GOP which is one tactic used to distort effective communications. — “Aguilera continued her attempt to differentiate Republican “election denial” from Democrats’ totally-above-board-and-not-at-all-the-same behavior” … “The phrase is just a nonsense smear invented to chill speech, silence challenges to the regime, and paint Republicans as unelectable.”

Democrat voter fraud has a history that should flavor perceptions. J.R. Dunn provides Democrat Voter Fraud: A Brief History.  — “The Dinkins Magic Voting Machines … An Inconvenient Decision … Votes from the 8th Dimension … Goshdarnit, People Liked Him … Trump Agonistes … 2022” … “we need to call on Goldfinger’s dictum: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. We are way past “three times” at this point.” … “This is the second election in a row marked by impossible results. Not “extraordinary,” not “unusual,” but impossible.”

Tristan Justice points out that Trump Isn’t The Greatest Threat To Democracy. His Exile Is. — “From the Russia collusion hoax to impeachment, Democrats have normalized the radical weaponization of government institutions to thwart their opponents no matter the cost, setting the precedent for decades of political warfare to come with dangerous potential to escalate.” … “Contrary to these hyperventilated claims that are now routine among Democrats and the Beltway press, however, it’s the establishment’s reaction that threatens to undermine American democracy, with witch hunt after witch hunt designed to burn the orange-haired witch.”

If Americans don’t vote because they don’t trust that their votes will count, then America doesn’t have a democracy to begin with. If Americans can’t engage in the marketplace of ideas in the digital public square, then America doesn’t have a democracy to begin with. If Americans are barred from even voting for their chosen candidate, then America doesn’t have a democracy to begin with.

Where does this lead? Nancy Flory reviews Shame of a Nation: A Must-Watch Documentary That Examines the Events of January 6, 2021 — What Really Happened. — “The macing, spraying and beatings were just the beginning. Many of the January 6 defendants, locked away in a D.C. jail, have not seen their families since their arrest. What’s more, they have yet to have a trial for their alleged crimes. Now people want to know why.”  — This is the truth Trump was trying to communicate. It is sad and tragic that many of those who should know better chose instead to add to the misperceptions and diminish the weight of the message. 

While Hinderaker et al are blinded by bias, Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit joins Don Surber on the latest anti-Trump hoax. — “What he’s saying is that we are PAST the rules, regulations and articles of the Constitution. Which we knew didn’t we? This was a color revolution, which means a revolution that uses the country’s rules and regulations against the country to install a usurping entity under the cover of law.” — “Trump is — as he always does — trying to get people to talk about things. He’s not calling for war or revolution. He never did.” Another take is by David Zukerman: President Trump is the hero of many a Capra film. — “In every one of these wonderful, populist movies, the hero finds himself targeted for destruction by a villainous character representing the establishment … Moral of the Capra quartet: the MAGA-kind must ignore the villainous demonizing from the foes of populism, be aware of the media’s censorship, and remain steadfast in support of the Capraesque MAGA leaders.”

 Victor Davis Hanson wonders How Corrupt is a Corrupt Media? — “the public cannot trust that the news it hears or reads is either accurate or true.” — Suppression – Fantasy – Chronological Manipulation – Asymmetry – Unethical Behavior – defined with examples to explain why — “there is no media. It has ceased to exist, and the public plods on by assuming as true whatever the Pravda-like news outlets suppress and as false whatever they cover.”

Then there’s the 65 project. The Left is Using Lawfare Including Threats of Prosecution to Ignore Massive Voter Disenfranchisement. Rachel Alexander says “The 65 Project is all over conservative election attorneys in Arizona. I’m the former Maricopa County Elections attorney, and it’s like a who’s who list of my colleagues in Arizona.”

“Unfortunately, the left has convinced people that witness testimony no longer counts as “evidence” in election fraud cases, laughing at patriots when anxiety-prone judges find an easy technicality to throw out a case. Witness testimony alone has been used to send people to the death penalty, but the left has overturned jurisprudence here in an unprecedented trampling of our justice system. The left is also threatening to prosecute rural county supervisors who fight back.

Not only election fraud: What Do You Do When BLM Attacks You in Your Car? — “she’s prepared to go to trial rather than accept a light sentence of six days of community service and her license suspended for a year. … One would have to be nervous as a mouse cornered by the house cat to know that his future and his life hangs in the hands of any jury these days, given the political climate.” — “Make no mistake: it was the protesters who created this dangerous situation and then cried foul when they came up on the short end of things, with several of their members injured. … Self-defense is still a very real and righteous legal defense in America — or at least it used to be.  Everyone will have to make his own choices, if and when the time comes.  Just don’t let the Marxist-Maoists make you a victim.”

The corruption and malfeasance from government ‘persuasion’ is front and center in the Twitter brouhaha. Andrew C. McCarthy explains How the FBI’s nod, wink got social media to censor The Post’s Hunter Biden reporting. — “Stop looking for a smoking gun. That’s not how this game works. … I can explain the apparent disconnect. It is not necessary for FBI officials to issue specific warnings to convey the message that a story should be killed.” … “That’s how this game is played. The players know exactly what they’re doing. They say enough to endorse the lie but leave themselves room to deny that they did so. They think we’re idiots.”

The ‘research’ fraud isn’t only on COVID inoculations and masking, climate change, or ‘renewable’ energy, it’s showing as a general purpose useful tool. Eddie Scarry: Twitter Hate Is Rising, Claims Group That Says So And That’s That. — “It would be easy to laugh in the faces of the ADL people but it’s not a joke. Putting out these junk studies has real consequences.” Baseless allegations, hyperbolic exaggeration, statistical sleight of hand, appeal to authority and other logical fallacies – maybe there’s good reason to think the audience is all idiots.

The 2020 election fraud is back front and center with the Twitter exposure. William Sullivan says the allegation that the Biden campaign and Democrat party colluded with Twitter to swing the 2020 election — “is now an absolutely indisputable fact that even the most dishonest of people would have difficulty arguing against.” — Neo describes how The left circles the wagons on the Twitter censorship story. — “The story about the media and Twitter coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 election in order to help elect Joe Biden is now followed by a coverup of the coverup – or excuse-making, minimization, rationalization, and/or counterattack. – This is what they do.”

“if that hunch of mine is true, it is the reason we’re in the crisis we’re in. Too many people – and way too many in the press – are unable and/or unwilling to look at each story objectively. People have learned to look away or dismiss things that don’t fit their ideology. That’s a human tendency anyway – after all, a mind is a difficult thing to change – but it’s been encouraged and exacerbated by a press that should be seeking the truth rather than echoing partisan falsehoods.

Andrea Widburg notes The sound of silence: the media almost completely ignore Twitter revelations. — “When it comes to a real threat to democracy—one of the bastions of the modern public square secretly and systematically working with a political candidate in a presidential election, and possibly working with government insiders, too—they believe that the greatest risk is letting the public know what really happened.” — Brad Slager:  The Press’ Panic Over ‘Twitter Files’ Reveals How They Manipulated the System. — “There are two primary reactions we are seeing in the press. Bob Hoge covered in detail how many of the major news outlets completely bypassed covering the Musk document release. The other is on the opposite end of the spectrum, and that is how journalists are actually working on dismissing this story.” — J. Peder Zane: The Trumpification Of Elon Musk.

“The relentless attacks on Elon Musk since he purchased Twitter should be familiar to most Americans. It’s exactly what Democrats and their media and corporate allies did to demonize Donald Trump.

The McCarthyite formula is simple: Claim you are defending high-minded principles (Democracy! The rule of law! Civil discourse!) to justify efforts to delegitimize someone you’ve identified as a political opponent.
…

Ponder for a moment the ubiquity and ferocity of attacks on this one man and the outrageous effort to cast calls for censorship as ringing defenses of liberty. Consider too that this, like the treatment accorded Trump, has not just been normalized, but valorized.

When authorities lose the power to convince, they coerce. That is what is going on now as they tell us to shut up and submit. Please tweet that out.

Studies on the effectiveness of masking for covid are getting harder to ignore. RedState has some good stories but the nagware is too much. ZeroHedge is more tolerable and presents Ian Miller on Not Even N95 Masks Work To Stop Covid. — “The bewildering lack of awareness of their own hypocrisy seems to be a feature of COVID-obsessed politicians and public health authorities.” — this gets into another Twitter censorship and cancellation topic.

Clarice Feldman thinks The Media Undertakers Must be Getting Exhausted. First up is the FTX scandal and its Democrat and media darling. The there’s Elon Musk feeding the docs to Matt Taibbi and now Bari Weiss. — “the Fourth Estate biggies apparently like suppression of dissent and are happy to keep their readers from knowing what Taibbi reported.” — “In China, protestors against Xi’s absurd COVID lockdowns gather and hold up blank pieces of paper to protest the lack of free speech. What do we have to do? Confine ourselves on social media to cat and dog pictures and pretend we are having open dialogues on matters of interest to citizens?”

On the Trump front, John Hinderaker has jumped the shark and needs to go re-join Mirengoff. He thinks Trump Is Finished. Basically, his TDS bias is repeating the Charlottesville hoax. Don Surber is a bit more sane perception and observation: Republicans can’t win without Trump supporters — “the media manufactured another scandal out of the incident. Conservative poseurs obediently are clutching their pearls over this like the little country club Republicans they are.” It shows how bad the animus is when he cites pundits like Ed Morrissey for “the biggest online stupidity that I read last week”. Hinderaker and Morrissey used to be careful with perceptions and bias but, it seems, they are losing it. When it comes to Trump, it’s any way to find offense no  matter how irrelevant; no matter how loosely a perception. Surber looks at a list of these and says “Maybe Republicans cannot win with Trump. I do not know that. What I can guarantee you is Republicans cannot win without Trump supporters. If he does not win the nomination, we become free agents.”

Another example of this Trump negativity is highlighted by reports of the search and seizure. Sundance has the story President Trump Special Master Appointment Overturned by Appeals Court – If Secret Search Warrant is Valid, All Seizure Valid – But You are Not Allowed to See Search Warrant, Because National Security. — “the appeals court essentially said if the search warrant was legally predicated and legally valid, and if the search warrant was used legally, then all the seized documents are valid for the investigative purposes of the DOJ – regardless of their content.  The only way to fight the authority of the DOJ seizure is to challenge the legality of the search warrant.  However, here’s where things get weird.” It’s another case of trying to find a crime to hang on the man no matter what gets trampled in the process. The Salam Witch Trials are being outdone in front of us.