It was anti-establishment. Not now. Anarchy, American-Style (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness) — “The current revolution is much different—and far more dangerous—for at least three reasons. … the greatest levers of influence and power—money, education, entertainment, government, the news, and popular culture—are in the hands of the Left. They have transformed legitimate debate over gay marriage into a hate crime. Transgenderism went from a modern manifestation of ancient transvestism or gender dysphoria to a veritable litmus test of whether one was good or evil. … The common denominator to the anarchy? The hardcore Left is your FBI, CIA, and Justice Department all in one. It is Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is our era’s J. P. Morgan.” — Taking on the Would-be Destroyers of America (Allan J. Feifer, American Thinker) — “The destroyers had to take a functioning country with the world’s largest middle class and tank it.  Not only that, but to tank it with the acquiescence of a significant portion of the population and make it appear noble. … This is not simply another tool of the Destroyers.  Changing our history, how we speak, our country’s iconology and our culture redefines who we are. … We must fight back with force against those with a generation or two head start on the rest of us.  If someone comes into your house to kidnap your baby, no amount of your righteous indignation will suffice in defense.  We must commit to total war against those intruders who hold such blackness in their hearts.” — 

Meanwhile, anther front for divergence and distraction has opened with TDS on display. The Blitzkrieg On Bill Barr And John Durham Is Just Beginning (Margot Cleveland, Federalist) — “what The New York Times wants Americans to believe: that politics prompted Barr to appoint Durham, and politics pushed Durham to reach whatever negative conclusion he details in his final report. … Sadly, we all know from the Russia-collusion canard what this means: The loop has been closed, and the circular reporting has begun. So now, as proof of the Times’ reporting on Barr and Durham, we have the fact that the Senate Judiciary Committee intends to investigate the special counsel probe.” — Senate to take a ‘hard look’ at ‘outrageous’ Durham probe (Kevin Haggerty , BPR) — “much like former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s “bombshell” testimony before the January 6 committee that garnered mass media attention despite being hearsay, it appears as though Senate Democrats are prepared to use a tangent in an already conducted investigation that, on its face, leads nowhere as a potential excuse to generate more hearings in the never-ending public trial of Trump.” — 

Boiling the Frog seems to have been going quite well. DEI Has Already Killed Public Education (David Catron, American Spectator) — “It’s unlikely, however, that many Americans realize just how far the disease has advanced. It has long since spread beyond a few courses embedded into the social studies curricula of secondary schools and elite colleges. … This kind of condescending nonsense, combined with the failure of educators to teach students critical skills, is why the vast majority of voters support school choice.” — California’s fake water crisis (John Horvat II, – American Thinker) — “there is nothing like a good crisis to keep things liberal, especially in eco-friendly California. The good news is that the rains dumped tens of trillions of gallons upon the parched land. The bad news is that most of the water ended up in the Pacific Ocean. … the present crisis should not be happening. However, it is occurring because man-made efforts to harness nature’s solutions have suddenly shrunk. … another strange twist to the California water “crisis” is that voters have approved water bonds with large margins. Consumers and voters want to solve the problem. However, of the $27 billion approved for water storage and flood control since 2000, only a small percentage makes it to the drawing table, much less the construction company’s job list. … Eco-ideologues who oppose human domination over nature don’t want to solve this problem.”

The response has much hand wringing but there are indications that, maybe, the frog is thinking he needs to do something about the water temperature. Kevin McCarthy Hits Nail on the Head on ‘Face the Nation’ After Question on GOP ‘Election Deniers’  (Sister Toldjah, RedState – sad what they do to good content to annoy visitors) — “To describe Republicans who had questions and concerns about the 2020 presidential election, the mainstream media has relentlessly thrown around the term “election denier” so often that, like their routine accusations of “racism,” the word has been diluted of its actual meaning. … when it comes to members of the press who don’t hold Democrats who objected to prior election results to the same standard they do Republicans. And reading between the lines, he also made another good point – that maybe sometimes questioning election results does not always mean “denying” them … Are they kidding? So supporting an audit — something many have done since time in memorium during elections — is “denial”? … The fact is that Democrats will never ever be held to the same standard Republicans are as far as the media is concerned when it comes to questioning and objecting to election results, because as per the norm, when Democrats do it it’s because “democracy is at stake” and when Republicans do it, it’s because they want to “undermine our sacred institutions” or something. … I’m so damned sick of the idiotic game-playing on this, and apparently so is McCarthy. Good on him for pushing back on the nonsense.”

Zuck Bucks are back! This is about the funding of nonprofits that ‘assist’ election authorities in selected districts. JASON SNEAD: The Left’s New Scheme That Threatens Free Elections (Jason Snead, The Daily Caller) — “Like a bad movie sequel, leftwing nonprofits like the Center for Tech and Civil Life (CTCL) are once again pumping millions of dollars in left-wing “dark money” into election offices across the country. Just like they did in 2020, these groups are looking for ways to skew elections and boost liberal turnout in battleground states. … the Alliance’s tactics are even more insidious than before. Using public records requests, the Honest Elections Project has revealed the Alliance as a bait-and switch operation meant to reshape election offices and thwart oversight and public accountability.”

The idea of holding people accountable for their behavior has been under assault on many fronts from prison reform to prosecutorial discretion. Libel and slander versus free speech is another field for a front in the war. The Supreme Court Is At The Heart Of America’s Racial Division (Wolf Howling, American Thinker) — “If you are trying to make sense of how our nation has become so toxic, a good starting point is the Supreme Court’s  1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan. That case radically altered existing law so that, for the first time in our history, it was impossible for any “public figure” to bring a successful defamation suit … What Graham has written could not be more divisive for our nation. She abandons reason and substitutes defamation posing as reasoned argument. This approach defines post-modernism. … This style utterly permeates all the victim’s studies programs in academia”

Consider a ‘squishy’ who has been making a name for herself lately by advocating an escape from accountability. GOP Congresswoman: Holding Democrats Accountable Is ‘Cancel Culture’ (Bonchie, RedState obnoxious warning) — “At a time when Republicans need to take no prisoners, this stuff (via Fox News) is incredibly frustrating. … I am begging people in politics who desperately want to be seen as above the fray, including Mace, to learn what “cancel culture” actually is. … Mace knows better and worse, I don’t even think she believes what she’s saying … Democrats never do this. They don’t constantly try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They play the game, and they play it well. Meanwhile, Republicans fight each other over the dumbest stuff, with some being willing to screw over the party if it means raising their profile. If you want to know why the GOP loses, that’s why they lose.”

Gun Control mania is another front in the accountability wars. As is typical, ignorance, deceit, and a lack of integrity are hallmarks of the effort. The silly argument that Asian mass murderers are assimilated Americans (Andrea Widburg, American Thinker) — “One of the defining hallmarks of leftism is that America invariably suffers compared to other cultures. … There are some countervailing facts Yang might want to consider before concluding that America’s gun culture infected these Asian killers. murders are the fault of America’s gun culture. … Back in the 1960s, leftists taunted those who showed a pro-American patriotism that expressed itself in the idea of “my country, right or wrong.” But there’s a flip side to this: Yang represents Marxist “hate-triotism,” which boils down to “my country, always wrong”—and that’s the case even when the facts fail to support his arguments.”

Another tactic goes back to 1934. The ATF’s New Pistol Brace Rule Is A Cluster Of Enforcement Traps (D. Parker, American Thinker) — “Let’s start, though, by breaking the latest horrible developments into manageable bites. … All of this harkens back 89 years ago to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (“NFA”). During its initial legislative sausage-making stages, the act was going to ban handguns. … At this point, with an administration proudly boasting about its desire to crack down on privately owned weapons, everyone should be mindful of the quote from Atlas Shrugged … Because the precedent the leftists gain by banning something ‘dangerous’ will be all too attractive to our homegrown socialists. They’re going to look around at what else they can do to make progress toward their authoritarian Utopia.”

Throwing a Molotov cocktail into a police vehicle might get you disbarred and a year in jail but showing up at the capitol building at the wrong time will get you beat up, assaulted with grenades and other weapons, subject to a massive manhunt, and sentenced to years in a gulag. January 6 Was the Worst Incident of Police Brutality Since Civil Rights Era (Julie Kelly, American Greatness) — “a growing body of evidence suggests neither stupidity nor incompetence can justify what now appears to be the worst incident of police brutality against political protesters since the civil rights era.” — “This is fraud and it’s also probably the ultimate case of resistance journalism.”

On the TDS front we have an example of a broad brush covering over reason and reality. It’s another Leftist attempt to overturn custom with abuse  that is likely to come back to bite them. California Would Disbar Ted Cruz And 18 AGs If It Could (Margot Cleveland, Federalist) — “This is what happens when state bars use disciplinary proceedings to conduct lawfare against political opponents.” … “it is count two of the disciplinary complaint, charging Eastman with “seeking to mislead a court,” that exposes the California State Bar as a kangaroo court.” — “To date, the bars have limited themselves to targeting just a few attorneys working for Trump, … But there is no limiting principle to prevent the bars in other states from pursuing any politician with a law license who happens to represent the wrong person. – That is an extremely dangerous precedent … if Cruz and the attorneys general impugned by the California State Bar speak out, the corrupt press may not have any choice but to report on the ridiculous theories underlying the disciplinary attacks on Eastman.”

Right think, especially Christian think, must really rankle some folks. Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips Loses Appeal Over Transgender Transition Celebration Cake (William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection) — “It’s never really over in the culture war, is it? Perhaps on a second trip to the U.S. Supreme Court we will finally get a ruling on the merits of whether anti-discrimination laws can be used to compel speech with which the speaker disagrees on religious grounds.”

Another example is heaping restrictive laws on top of restrictive laws with wild abandon. Get Ready For Democrats’ Cynical, Useless, Gun-Control Push (David Harsanyi, Federalist) — “After the twin mass shootings in California last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (flanked by armed guards) told CBS News that it was long past time to institute more gun-control laws … What he didn’t mention was that California … has passed not only every law Senate Democrats are proposing in Washington, but a slew of others.”

The Twitter exposure is showing the depth and the conformity of the depravity in the propaganda effort. Twitter Files #15: Twitter knew Hamilton 68, a media source for Russian online activity, was ‘bulls**t’ (John Sexton, HotAir) — “Roth wrote the accounts were “neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.” Instead the whole thing was just a set up for making wild allegations … So a bunch of Twitter accounts by people in the US, many of them Trump fans, were depicted as “Russia-tied information warfare” based on nothing at all. It wasn’t just media outlets who were promoting Hamilton 68. Elected Democrats were doing so as well including Richard Blumenthal and Adam Schiff.”

This continual testing of limits and boundaries, the prying into the cracks and crevices of cultural common sense, are calls for a defense. This invokes costs and efforts many would rather avoid but are forced to confront as their life choices are taken from them. Calls for arms are surfacing. Reasoned calls from those who have been assaulted. Battling the Leftist Education Playbook (Colleen Ann Ruggieri, American Thinker) — “parents all over the country find ourselves battling Critical Race Theory and transgender bathroom policies that we didn’t even know existed. Parental ignorance is no excuse. Public education has taken a dangerous turn. Parents hoping to take back their schools must start by studying the leftist school playbook.” — 

To take back our schools, we have created our own playbook. We’re reading and questioning every school policy and demanding answers. We’re speaking with dedicated teachers inside the system who disagree with what’s happening. We’re working to elect new board members, filing records requests, and seeking legal counsel to defend students’ rights. We’re communicating with lawmakers and asking for legislation to combat extreme left-wing agendas and to support school choice. We urge grandparents and community members to join us in what could be one of our last battles to save for our children, our values, and our country.

Join the fight. The 1/6 prisoners are not collateral damage. Lawyers, scientists, pundits, and others who do not toe the right line and pray to idols of the Left are not targets. The media should be for discourse and not propaganda. Schools should be for education and not indoctrination. The current affairs may be why some cite 2 Thessalonians 2 reading “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”

The failure of absolute democracies in history was a less in the founding of the U.S. government. Mob rule, the two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner fable, and ‘scientific consensus’ all highlight the need to build protections for the rights of minorities in how a government is structured and operated. That is a major source of conflict in today’s politics. Like a toddler pushing the limits of what is allowed, the law and politics are both pushing the rules and customs to find weak spots and to create them if possible.

Alinsky suggested making your opponents live by their own rules [rule 4, see Bolen report]. It seems the word did not get to his friends. Pelosi started a war Jeffries has to finish (David Winston, Roll Call) — “Certainly, there have been times when creating a new precedent has been warranted. … Democrats, especially Nancy Pelosi, should have learned from Reid’s mistakes. When breaking precedent, be careful what you wish for. … No one is arguing that Speaker Pelosi didn’t have the power to do what she did. But was it the right thing to do? Her legacy now includes becoming the first speaker to strong-arm a select committee into existence and dictate its composition without the participation of the legitimate minority party leadership. – And it was a major unforced error” — Democrats Hate Being Held to Their Own Standards: Committee Assignments Edition (Guy Benson, Townhall) — “some of this is the ‘play stupid games, win stupid prizes’ effect.  If Democrats didn’t want Republican leaders to pick and choose which of their members could serve on certain committees, they should have left those decisions to the GOP in the last Congress.  Once the die was cast on the other side, it became inevitable that reprisals would follow … Pelosi and company pried open this Pandora’s box, and now they may have to live with the results.” — 

Instapundit » Blog Archive » NO ENEMIES TO THE LEFT: Media outlets keep promoting ‘forest defenders’ and ignoring that they shot … is about the ‘whole truth’ being hidden by the media. Are you up on the Atlanta Antifa riots? Major reporting is trying to make it a Floyd type episode – not the real one but the created on. At least the governor is taking the Leftist violence seriously by calling out the National Guard. The fabrication, rationales, and distortions have another exposure in Eggs and weather cause blood clots; ‘stroke season’; and ‘sudden cardiac arrest’ forms for high schoolers (Olivia Murray, – American Thinker) — “Read on for the most notable of the chart-topping absurdities” — and here’s another one: British government data reveal very similar Covid hospitalization rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated people in many age groups (Alex Berenson) — “The British government calculated that to prevent a single case of severe Covid, nearly 1 million healthy adults under 50 would have to receive a booster.”

Paradigm shift sometimes seems to be getting rather stale but consider BELICH: Republicans Need a Tech ‘Manhattan Project’ to Win in 2024 and Beyond (RedState obnoxious warning) — “Republicans Stuck: Broken Paradigm, Old Mindset … In a world where data-driven profile marketing is now the norm, list value lies in the quality of the relationship and its common factors. … The direct mail mindset is not compatible with modern expectations, and it needs to be retired. … The Democrats operate technology the same way they run their cultural infestation, by running many, many teams, some unwittingly, all in the same direction.” — There are some indications that this is happening in the voter fraud area. It is also a major issue for sites like Redstate, Townhall, Epoch Times, and many other information sources as they struggle to find ways to monetize their efforts and transition from traditional newspaper and broadcast models to something more appropriate for websites and podcasts.

The topic today is trust, like in “can you trust your government?” Consider REPORT: Putin Wants to Buy U.S. Weapons Left in Afghanistan — But There’s Even More (Stephen Green, PJ Media) – looks like the U.S. is providing supplies to both sides. — “The Department of Defense estimates the total value of the gear Biden left behind at a whopping $7.12 billion, and now Putin is reportedly offering to buy whatever he and the battered Russian Army need.” … “this would be more of a weapons swap than a cash deal. The Taliban would give up its Western gear in exchange for diplomatic recognition and Russian weapons. Undoubtedly, ammo, spares, and replacements for Russian equipment would be easier for the Taliban to get hold of than for the Western stuff they have now.”

The pandemic is doing its part: Deborah Birx Openly Admits to Lying About the COVID Vaccines to Manipulate the American People – RedState obnoxious warning. — “One of the strangest parts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been all of the public health “experts” who openly lied to the American people while expecting to be lauded as heroes in response. Certainly, most have witnessed Dr. Anthony Fauci’s grotesque level of arrogance over the years, with numerous examples of the good doctor admitting to lying in order to get the outcome he desired from the public. For his efforts, he’s got magazine covers and million-dollar awards.” — That’s Science? Congress Must Probe The Rationale For COVID Mask Mandates (Robert E. Moffit via RealClear Wire, |ZeroHedge) — “the subcommittee must concentrate more on “The Science” than on Dr. Fauci. Throughout the pandemic, federal officials who claim to represent “The Science” gave mixed messages. This left citizens eager to follow “The Science” frightened and confused.” … “a word of caution. A scattershot, highly inflammatory process of congressional investigation will not serve the American people well. Lawmakers should not allow themselves to transform these necessary probes into tiresome “gotcha” political theater—a powerful temptation in our polarized political environment. Rather, House and Senate investigators need to target the specific rationale for each of the major federal policy recommendations over the past three years, with a view toward forging positive legislative changes that would enable the federal government to perform better when the next pandemic hits America’s shores.” — CDC Officials Who Spread Misinformation Apologized To Source Of False Data But Not To Public: Emails (Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, ZeroHedge) 

Election integrity cannot be left out of this parade, either. How Democrats Stole Pennsylvania in 2020 (Emerald Robinson) — “Despite Congress’s failure to act, Pennsylvania could well go down as the worst case of election theft in our country’s history.” — “These findings show a shocking disregard for accuracy in our most important democratic process, our elections. While a very small fraction of error is expected, a 37 percent anomaly rate is entirely too high. 52 percent is mind-boggling.” — Then there’s The Real Differences Between the Biden and Trump Document Troves (Victor Davis Hanson, RealClearPolitics) which provides a ten point list to consider. One should also not forget the committee selection brouhaha, which centers on dishonesty and rationalization and has the Santos epic for a distraction.

At American Thinker, integrity is the theme. The Judge Goes Awry Analyzing Gov. DeSantis’s Firing Of A Rogue Prosecutor gets into a proper decision but a wrong basis. — “It’s important to understand why “prosecutorial discretion” in the hands of leftists gravely threatens our federal and state constitutions, with the latter tracking on the former in relevant part. … When a prosecutor (who works for the Executive branch of government) refuses to enforce a law on ideological grounds—an act that defines every prosecutor who has entered office with George Soros’s support—he is effectively nullifying those laws with which he disagrees … Hinkle’s opinion evinces a level of bias and gaslighting one should never see coming from a federal judge. In a sane world, Hinkle should be impeached on the ground that he has failed to uphold and defend the Constitution.”

This one hits Nevada. Do You Trust the Integrity of Our Elections? If Not, Here Are the Steps We Must Take. The issue is about the idea of national standards for elections. — “Achieving election integrity in states like Nevada (or California, Oregon, Washington State, Colorado, etc.) will be exceedingly difficult, but some actions may be possible” — but there are some things you can do. Removing Phantoms With Technology and ‘Gentle’ Persuasion has some ideas, too. — “Before November 4, 2020, almost nobody in America looked at voter rolls — at least not anyone normal.  Now voter rolls in every state are being evaluated, line by line, by tens of thousands of concerned citizens.” — It’s about holding the state accountable. On this, Nevada Ends Qualified Immunity in Landmark Decision. — “In a landmark decision, possibly one of the most impactful in Nevada’s history, the justices upheld the long-standing legal principle that a right does not, as a practical matter, exist without any remedy for its enforcement.” — this has been a big issue in those seeking redress for election fraud as qualified immunity and no defined remedy are rationales used by judges to dismiss cases on procedural grounds.  

“It’s time we accepted a hard truth: we’re in this mess because we let it happen. the left would like us to continue denying that truth and accept the victimhood that they’ve been promoting. … Embracing such an illusion signals that we have ceded power to the state” — We Are Not Victims unless We Choose to Be (John Green, American Thinker). Ideas are listed to identify and address the situation.

“Our founders believed freedom to be our birthright — a gift from God.  But they understood that evil forces would always try to take it from us.  They knew that keeping our freedom requires stewardship and, at times, even sacrifice.  Our founders pledged their lives, fortunes, and their sacred honor to that duty.  Will we make such a commitment — or just feel sorry for ourselves?

1/6 will not go away. The Real January 6 (David Horowitz, Power Line) — “The January 6th protest was milder than any of the hundreds of Black Lives Matter riots the summer before, and led to no serious destruction of Capitol artifacts. But the Democrats en masse pretended to be horrified. … This is what one expects from a fascist state, not a constitutional democracy. It is a lesson ignored at our peril in revealing the criminal determination of the Democrat Party to establish a one-party state at whatever the cost, and to demonize, intimidate and suppress any opposition that stands in their way, by any means necessary.”

An example of the ‘any means’ is as Antifa tries to turn Atlanta into Minneapolis or Kenosha (Andrea Widburg, American Thinker) — “In typical leftist fashion, having started the fight, Antifa members announced that they were the victims and, because the police had gone to war against them, they would attack the police in Atlanta. The anarchists, leftists, and loonies were not shy about announcing their intentions … in another déjà vu moment, some in the media have denied that the rioting is violent … Antifa is the military arm of today’s hard-left Democrat party, just as the KKK was once the military arm of yesterday’s hard-racist Democrat party. … All you need for totalitarianism to win is violence, a complicit or cowardly political class, and a passive population.”

For an exposure of the depth of the depravity, consider Biden Lawyer Has History of Finding and Releasing Elusive Documents (Jack Cashill, American Thinker) — “Bauer, of course, has a history of blocking the release of certain documents and then strategically releasing them.” — this one goes back to the Obama birther conspiracy handling.

Murray and Herrenstein, where are you? The War on Competence (Clarice Feldman, American Thinker) — “A Massachusetts congresswoman,  Ayanna Pressley (who represents, inter alia, most of Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts), plainly revealed what is the basis for the war on intellectual achievement: “IQ is a measure of whiteness.” It isn’t, of course. It’s a combination of genetics (dare we say this?), home environment, including familial respect for achievement, personal interests and motivation, and to a certain extent, the caliber of the education received. This is not just a K-12 excrescence. For some years now it has metastasized to higher education.” — The Bell Curve (1994) was about defining intelligence and the fact that people are different individually and by many of the criteria used to identify groups in the aggregate. It is aggregate differences in groups such as defined by race or sex that stimulate some to covetousness or dissonance or greed for power. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a story about where society is going on this chimera of equity. 

On the media front Familiarity breeds contempt (Johnson, Power Line) — “Kerr’s story is based on photos and other information extracted from Hunter Biden’s laptop. … The story is highly reliable. By contrast, the Washington Post relies on “person[s] familiar with the matter” … The story is highly unreliable.” …  “How familiar can you get? This familiar: “Biden’s top aides were determined that the legal process would override any political moves or public messaging, not the other way around. They did not want to be seen as trying to shape the investigation’s outcome, according to people familiar with their approach.”

The Bergeron handicap is expressed in other ways as well. How the ‘vaccine lies’ will play out (Susan D. Harris, American Thinker) — “The rise of adverse reaction concern is a good and bad thing.  It’s good for obvious reasons.  It’s bad because the powers-that-be are doubling down on their push to keep the universal vaccination agenda going for as long as possible. … Ultimately, Rucker says, they can’t be allowed to perpetuate their lies.  The truth must come out now in order to stave off whatever they have planned for us next.” — The concern is blame shifting, which has been so successful. A budget battle is on the agenda so Republicans are pushing granny over the cliff and destroying Medicare. Covid shots are turning sour so it’s time to go after the ‘anti-vaccers’ and then to blame Trump. This is quite a contrast to the Lab Leak theory of the pandemic or the recent national election malfeasance where evidence actually supported what was blamed as conspiracy theories.

What’s the ruckus is often not as important as why the ruckus these days. The Media’s Embarrassing George Santos Fixation — Explained – Issues & Insights — “Unlike Santos, Biden is a person of some importance. The scandal he’s currently embroiled in doesn’t involve lying about his background – although Biden has done that repeatedly – it involves the mishandling of highly classified documents, which Biden kept in his possession for six years. … every once in a while the legacy media depraves itself in an entirely new way. The comparative way they are treating scandals involving a congressman of no importance and the leader of the free world is one such example.” — Here’s a novel idea: maybe the media should be honest and its journalists investigative (Jack Hellner, American Thinker) — “Most people pretending to be journalists are just appendages of the Democrat party, pushing the radical leftist agenda.  Facts haven’t mattered for a long time. … What a tragedy that expecting Democrats to represent their constituents (the American people) and members of the media to objectively report facts is a lot to ask of these two institutions.  But their agenda succeeds only in an emotional environment, so it’s really no surprise they’re defined by a unique aversion to truth and reality.” — Un-Scientific Un-American (A.J. Rice, BPR) — “We live in a craven time of opportunism, in which facts no longer matter and principles and truth don’t exist.” 

As for conspiracy theories that turn out to be conspiracies, period: January 6 Was an Inside Job (Albin Sadar, The Stream) — “what’s critical about the forthcoming deep-dive into the unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional jailing of hundreds of January 6 “trespassers” at the Capitol, is a look into how that event ties explicitly into what transpired in the presidential election of 2020. … in the weeks, months, and now years, of intense and thorough investigations by teams of true journalists and computer-hacking experts, and with affidavits by eye-witnesses to massive fraud, the proof of the obvious backs up the truth of the steal. … America must get to the bottom of the misdirection created by the Left about January 6, 2021.” — More revelations about Biden’s mishandling of classified and top-secret documents (Rajan Laad, American Thinker) — “the Washington Post reported on how Biden’s lawyers, the White House, and the Department of Justice colluded to hide vital information from the public. – Since the WaPo is a Democrat mouthpiece, there was abundant spin. … Despite a potential national security threat, all involved were more concerned about managing public perception. … The House Oversight Committee must investigate the mishandling, and the subsequent coverup and monitor the progress of the special counsel.”

Then there’s the behavior. Good-Faith Reading vs. Adversarial Reading – Cafe Hayek – “When someone who has engaged in a thorough good faith reading of author A encounters someone who has engaged in an adversarial reading of author A, it can be quite disorienting. What’s more, to a debate audience the adversarial reader can often sound better informed about A’s views than the good faith reader (hence why so many people choose adversarial reading). But in the end, adversarial reading is just a shallow word game and is the antithesis of genuine scholarship. It mistakes cleverness for knowledge and wit for wisdom.” — To see this, read A Critical Examination of the Six Pillars of Climate Change Despair (Doug R Rogers, Watts Up With That?) — “Why does CC have such deeply negative connotations and harmful effects on people’s mental well being? Because we are constantly reminded of the six dark and destructive consequences of CC:” … ” The activists do it because they think they are saving the planet; the media do it because bad news gets more clicks than good news. Plus, they both do it to appear virtuous. They both keep ramping up the rhetoric so that with each passing year the predictions about each of these consequences become even more frightening and apocalyptic.” … “But is it in any way justified?  What is the truth (if any) behind these catastrophic predictions? That’s what I want to examine here. The fact is, every one of these pillars is made of sand, and crumbles apart when subjected to the slightest critical scrutiny.”

It’s Home Cooking (Doomberg) — “This “research” is little more than flimsy propaganda. The entire episode – from how the research was conducted, where it was published, and how the media’s fear machine was kicked into overdrive – is a quintessential example of all that is wrong with the modern academia-media-government complex, a behemoth where actual science is rarely practiced but the word itself is cynically abused in the name of raw politics.” — that’a about the rationale for banning gas stoves. It is a part of a larger phenomenon. Why Deception Is Essential to the Left (Steven Hayward, Power Line) — “the language police and the gas stove-grabbers will be back, you can be assured. The left never accepts defeat. But it also knows it must conceal and deceive to get what it wants, because it knows it does not have the support of the American people. ” — Ateven likes pictures! Another of the questionable research efforts is described as Good data showing why the mRNA shots may seem to work even if they don’t (Alex Berenson) — “Just a reminder that the only truly bias-free data comes from large, properly run randomized clinical trials matching a control group and a treatment group. We had those for Covid, but the vaccine companies ruined them in early 2021 (with government approval). Now we have lots of questions – and death rates that remain far above normal.” — but back to Stanford and what they do when the ‘research’ doesn’t fit in the comfort zone. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Blasts Stanford University’s Shameful Attempts to Silence Him on COVID (RedState may not like you to see this)

Same thing, different theater: A classified document found in a garage is no accident, it is a crime (Mark Hewitt, American Thinker) — “People are missing the point and the media are purposely distorting the facts about the discovery of classified documents in Joe Biden’s possession. The unsecured classified documents found in Biden’s garage is not only a crime scene, it is evidence of espionage.” — The FBI Pulls Out the Hillary Clinton Playbook in Dealing With Joe Biden’s Classified Documents Scandal (RedState may not like you to see this, either) which is condoned as Most of the media don’t mind a president who rules like a dictator, so long as he is a leftist (Jack Hellner, American Thinker) — “We didn’t see the media call him a dictator or talk about abuse of power, and separation of duties, so Joe got away with it. … The American media is far more guilty in interfering in our elections than Russia, China, or any other country.” — Others are raising questions the media should be after. The Unclassified Docs Biden’s Lawyers Were Searching May Be The Key To The Real Scandal (William A. Jacobson, Legal Insurrection) — “The classified documents may be a distraction, stumbled upon inadvertently as part of a search to grab unclassified evidence of Biden scandals before Republican-led House committees issued subpoenas to the Biden Center.” – Then there’s Turley on Fox: Hunter Biden laptop-denier now admits emails are real. Don’t let him get away with it but you might need to wait untill he re-posts it on substack to read it.

Strange behavior is being noted. The Manic Methods of Mad Democrats (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness) — “it is the Democratic Party that has far more radically changed. It is descended into a woke, neo-socialist, radically green party.” — election warping, projection, suppression, rules changes, asymmetries, — “Conservatives should be aware that they are not dealing with the party of JFK and LBJ. The Democratic Party has nothing in common with the agendas of a slick Bill Clinton and is well beyond the “fundamental transformations” of arch-narcissist Barack Obama.” — Besides this catalog of behaviors, here are observations of one recent leader. The Dignity of the House of Representatives (Robert Merz, American Thinker) — “There is so much material to work with here that it’s hard to know where to start.” — “First, of course the fight for the speakership wouldn’t have happened under Pelosi.  It wouldn’t have happened under Stalin, Hitler, or Mao, either.  As my dad said about the Democrat party, the Bolsheviks never break ranks (or they’re never allowed to).  For instance, a recent report says that less than 40 percent of Democrats approve of the Democrats’ new House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries — but ordinary Democrats are never asked for their opinions.”

The tie in with the deep state illustrates that the behavior is knowing and willful. Fmr. intel chief admits they all knew key parts of Hunter laptop were ‘real’, but signed ‘disinfo’ letter anyway (Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, Business & Politics) — “Wise told The Australian, “All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible.”- The intel officer also claimed that he was “not surprised” that the laptop was authenticated. … Intelligence officials coming out more than two years after the letter was signed and claiming that they knew all along that a significant portion of the laptop information was real, reeks of damage control on their part.” — And also Elon Highlights ‘Concerning’ Process to Destroy Secret Instructions from FBI to Twitter (Nick Arama, RedState) — “first of all, it was a violation of the First Amendment if they were pushing censorship, but on top of that, they weren’t even being transparent about it … it’s almost like the cover-up part of this crime.”

The Biden lawyers role raises questions. All The President’s Men: Biden’s Use of Lawyers Raises Additional Concerns Over Handling Classified Material – JONATHAN TURLEY — “Not only did President Joe Biden enlist lawyers to clear out his private Washington office; he then used them — rather than security officers or the FBI — to search for additional classified documents. … why was a legal team sent in six years after Biden took the documents on leaving as vice president? Were the lawyers specifically selected because they had clearances, an acknowledgment there might be classified material unlawfully housed in the office? … It remains unclear which lawyers were involved in which discoveries, whether they had clearances and (if so) at what level. In fact, it seems to suggest Biden continued to use uncleared lawyers after his team found highly classified documents … That itself could be viewed as gross mishandling of classified information … The answer appears the same as in the case of Hillary Clinton’s emails: control.”

Then there is Trump. Was the Mar-a-Lago Raid a Biden Insurance Policy? (David Catron,The American Spectator) — “it is difficult to believe that the timing was apolitical. There is another question about the timing, however, that no one seems to have asked: Why were classified documents that had been in Biden’s possession since 2017 suddenly found less than 90 days after the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound? … it’s probable that the Mar-a-Lago raid was just a preemptive exercise in damage control designed to make “Car-a-Lago” appear more innocuous than it really is. … As to the special counsels assigned to each case, it couldn’t be more obvious that Jack Smith and Robert Hur are insurance agents.” — BUT — Nolte: Unlike Trump’s, Biden’s Classified Document Scandal Is Real. So Donald Trump Bashes Special Counsel Jack Smith as ‘Trump Hating THUG’ supplying a lot of background resume to support his claim. That gets into Republicans Are Investigating Corruption, Not Hunter Biden (Margot Cleveland, Federalist) — “While the media frame the planned investigations as Republicans targeting Hunter Biden to taint his father, this burgeoning narrative ignores the reality of the situation — and the evidence. … The matters meriting investigation are many and complicated”

For similar insanity on other issues, see SF Reparations Committee proposal demonstrates the greed and unreality behind demands for slavery reparations (Thomas Lifson, American Thinker) or About those overcounted COVID-19 deaths… (Jack Hellner, American Thinker) — “The media, especially the social media, say they are very strict about reporting misinformation but that is a lie. -They willingly repeat talking points to push agenda, whether it is about Russian collusion, climate change, or COVID without asking questions when they are pushing an agenda. They are essentially propagandists. … Now they’ve changed their story.” — next is Too Wet? Too Dry? It’s All Climate Change! (Brian C. Joondeph, American Thinker) — “It is amazing that before humans burned fossil fuels two centuries ago, it was only natural cycles that changed the climate, not backyard barbecues, gas stoves, and SUVs. … Democrats, the left, and the media have an uncanny ability to balance two contradictory propositions in their minds, believing both can occur simultaneously due to the same cause … Is this really about “saving the planet” or is the climate movement about money and control, similar to the COVID pandemic, the new homes of communism and tyranny?”

so much.

There are consequences when we do not heed the caution signals. Wind, Wolves, and Wrath (Deanna Chadwell, American Thinker) — “Many of us don’t even seem to realize that we’re heading toward a bridge that collapsed ages ago. We have taken ten wrong turns…” – “We are, in fact, lost on a vast plain of wind, wolves, and wrath. Circumstances — i.e. flood, and storm, and economic disaster will go a long ways in correcting our confusions. But each of these silly assumptions will have to be corrected before we are once again America the Beautiful.”

Sundance was curious. UPDATE – So, You Did Not Take the COVID-19 Shot, Why Not? – The Last Refuge — “the responses have reasserted my belief in the scale of our national assembly.  There are far more of us, ordinary, hardworking, commonsense, pragmatic and smart people, than the self-described intellectual elites would ever admit.” — for this one, scan the comments with answers to the question. For many, the numbers just didn’t add up. 

 Then there’s the lies. Some focus on Trump as a liar but the need is to focus on lies of consequence and that leads to the current collection. Start with Gaslighting the Republicans (Greg Irwin, American Thinker) — “Denver Riggleman, who most recently worked for the January 6 select committee analyzing the message traffic that led up to the rush into the Capitol, has written a book treating the matter as an attempted coup.” — it’s a catalog of deceit, dishonesty, and dellusion that has consequence — “Our country is increasingly insane, and we on the right can’t afford the sloppy thinking that characterizes the left.   The problems we face are serious enough.”

From here, there is For Biden Supporters, No Lie Is Too Much To Break The Faith (Jeff M. Lewis, American Thinker). Who is getting gas-lit? –“Through it all, media members and other Biden supporters keep getting played for fools, but they always come back for more.” … “dumbfounding is that these people can be relied upon to rush to any Democrat party official’s or politician’s defense, no matter the charge, without fail. It can be scientifically established as consistent, predictable, repeatable behavior.” — There is a strain. The Corvette Files (Clarice Feldman, American Thinker) — “For Merrick Garland, who oversees the FBI, the discoveries were not a joke. He’s now in the crosshairs of those who, like me, think we are once again seeing a double standard of justice on his watch.” … “Garland, Wray, and the national archivist are not the only ones squirming right now. Don Surber masterfully establishes on the record the two-step the major media is dancing right now, comparing how they viewed the many fruitless investigations and charges against Trump and how they are reporting the planned investigations of Biden”

Those who think the numbers didn’t add up are now finding better numbers that tend to confirm their skepticism. Riggleman may never figure things out but he now has a book that is demonstrably fiction. The top secrets document fiasco is telling the truth about a politically corrupt DOJ. Other issues like election integrity and climate alarmism continue to reveal the difference between many claims and reality. People are suffering the consequences, the wind, the wolves, and the wrath, and becoming aware that sitting passive is no longer a viable option.

Things are popping. In Arizona, the appeals court is looking to expedite the election fraud appeal. The latest classified documents scandal is registering. The pandemic panic is being revealed.

And now there is What The January 6 Videos Will Show (Julie Kelly via AmGreatness at ZeroHedge) — “one of the government’s own witnesses confirmed under defense cross-examination that “agents provocateur” were heavily involved in instigating the events of January 6. ,,,It was a stunning admission, representing the first time a top law enforcement official stated under oath (to my knowledge) that a coordinated, experienced group of agitators engaged in much of the mischief early that day.” … “The recordings, Gaetz said in an interview this week, “would give more full context to that day rather than the cherry-picked moments that the January 6 committee tried to use to inflame and further divide our country.” … “More importantly, the footage will indicate which cameras were disabled before the protest.”

“Not only is it necessary to expose the truth of January 6 but to exonerate innocent Americans whose lives have been destroyed in the aftermath.

The reason given for withholding the video is security. –“Thomas DiBiase, general counsel for Capitol police, the technical owner of the video trove, signed an affidavit in March 2021 objecting to the widespread dissemination of footage “related to the attempted insurrection.” DiBiase claimed the agency wanted to prevent “those who might wish to attack the Capitol again” from accessing interior views of the building. – The Department of Justice subsequently labeled the footage as “highly sensitive government material” subject to strict protective orders in court proceedings.”

Security is a ‘go to’ excuse for avoidance of transparency. This is seen from boarding up windows at election centers to censoring video. The Freedom of Information Act requests have been one avenue to find out what is being swept under the rug as well as revelations such as the Biden laptop and the current Twitter document release. It is one of several tools being used to avoid culpability. The Arizona case provides an example of another: denial. The problem with trying to deny reality is that when it catches up with you it can be merciless.

Dazed and confused when words mean things except when they don’t. ‘Equity’ Is Not The Same As Fairness (Andrew I. Fillat and Henry I. Miller, Issues & Insights) — “It hides behind high-minded platitudes but is at its core a tool for corruptly accruing and wielding economic and political power.” … “Never mind that these policies and equity itself contravene the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal treatment under the law – not results – and various civil rights acts that bar all discrimination based on race, color, or creed – not just “bad” discrimination.” … “The Golden Calf of Equity is an idol and fraud that must be melted down, never to be resurrected.”

Whither science? The ‘Final’ Short-Term Word on COVID (Deane Waldman, American Thinker) — “When one applies the scientific method to data about COVID, vaccines, and Washington mandates, one conclusion is inescapable.  Everything Washington said and did was wrong and unscientific.” … “There are dozens of embedded URL references provided herein to verify the assertions made.  Readers: Decide for yourself what is fact versus propaganda.  Based on evidence, decide who spoke truly and who did not.  Most important, decide what to do with that knowledge.”

Then we have the latest Biden scandal. Some are trying to figure out how to make sense of what is being revealed. Others are trying to figure out how to make it fit with their world view. The Latest Attempt to Sanitize the Hunter Biden Scandal Will Turn Your Brain to Mush (Bonchie, RedState) — “The New York Times just delivered the surest sign yet that something is going to eventually cook off.” … “even putting aside any disagreements I have with the conclusions asserted by the Times, would a Republican have ever gotten this type of treatment? The answer is obviously no. The nation’s largest newspaper put multiple reporters on a story to produce thousands of words largely meant to excuse the most powerful family in the country, even as they are forced to admit in the same story that crimes likely were committed. I mean, come on. That’s a level of privilege that is only given to the most connected Democrats.” — There is much twisting and turning as new details emerge. Third Find of Biden Classified Documents Shows How Bad the Problem Is (Nick Arama, RedState) — “I wanted to clarify the alleged timing of the various finds.” … “Prof. Turley raises a great point at this juncture, given what a mess this is: why are Biden’s private attorneys still allowed to root through everything? … Turley also notes that not only were they kept in unsecured locations, but they have probably moved around to more than one place. … Not to mention, all the people who may have had access to them in the house, the garage, and at the Penn Biden Center, and wherever else the documents may have been since Biden wrongly removed them years ago.”

Normality seems lost. What Caused the Political Hysteria? (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness) — “the Republicans retaking control of  the House of Representatives once again raises the question whether they should reply in kind.” — “Somehow supposedly worldly and sophisticated partisans in their self-righteousness ignored ancient laws of what goes around comes around, of Karma, of Nemesis, of payback’s a bit—h, and all that stuff.” — First They Came For My Showerhead And I Did Nothing, Then They Came For My Light Bulbs And I Did Nothing, Now They Want My Gas Stove And …. (I & I Editorial Board) — “In recent decades, regulators have wormed their way into every corner of our lives – banning some products, ruining others, and pricing others out of reach of working families – all allegedly for our benefit. The only thing that’s surprising is that they hadn’t targeted gas stoves earlier.” — “this is junk science, pure and simple. Yet, instead of attacking this flagrant display of misinformation, the ignoramuses in the mainstream press are all too happy to amplify it.” Other stories report that 9 states have now passed firearms restrictions in a knee-jerk ‘up yours’ to SCOTUS and the U.S. Constitution. The Left seems to be hung up on bans for the common man.

“f you don’t like the idea of the government banning something incredibly useful, efficient, and safe when used properly, hoping for the best isn’t enough.

Taking back control over our lives and regaining the ability to make choices about the products and services we buy will require taking an ax to the regulatory state. It will require the public putting unrelenting pressure on Congress to take back the unlimited power it’s been handing unelected bureaucrats.

Until that happens, nothing in your home will be safe from the regulatory Leviathan.

Then there’s the latest where the reporting is on a par with the scandal at issue. Shameless media immediately make excuses for Biden’s mishandled classified documents (Richard McDonough, American Thinker) — “Quite surprisingly (or maybe not), the reaction to this from just about everybody in what passes for our “news” media was completely different from the reaction to Trump’s classified and top-secret documents at his guarded compound in Mar-a-Lago” — a catalog of excuses is presented and debunked. Is this really the strategy Biden wants to use to explain the ‘classified documents’ fiasco? (Maker S. Mark, American Thinker) — “The focus and framing, the talking points, has been that Biden did not know that the documents were there, the lawyers did the right thing in calling the national records group to retrieve the records, and he is not asking what’s there on advice from his lawyers. – IMO, this framing is being done to mask the real issues here.  Let me summarize” — “The spin makes it seem as though Biden does not take possessing, handling, or storing classified documents seriously.” 

The smell from the election lingers: ¡No Pasarán!: 2020: an almost totalitarian effort by the national political and social media to suppress and ridicule any doubt of the accuracy of the election result — this one goes after Peggy Noonan expressing TDS at the WSJ. — “he real problem for Noonan is that she begins to realize Trump’s support is not fading; the Republican Party is his party now, and she and the other NeverTrumpers have lost everything: they were useful idiots for the Democrats and must now wear their responsibility for the probably dishonest election of the most incompetent administration in American history.”

Another issue, same old story: Climate change: What’s in a word? (Harold A. Elkins, American Thinker) — “First and foremost, words, written or spoken, are symbols with meanings.  Sometimes that meaning is skillfully or nefariously crafted.” — ozone holes and warming provide examples. A contrast is provided by explaining why It’s absurd to think carbon dioxide and methane are our enemies (Douglas J. Cotton, American Thinker) — “It is truly a sad reflection on education in the last few decades that so many politicians, academics, and even research scientists have been utterly fooled by what is nothing but fictitious, fiddled physics supposedly proving that water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane can, because of their radiating properties, raise the global mean surface temperature.” But it’s what they want and what thehy don’t want it to be called to think about it. 

Nevada voted for it. It sounds so nice! Ranked-Choice Voting Keeps Rigging Elections (Victoria Marshall, Federalist) — “t’s become obvious this mind-boggling election system deserves a new name: rigged-choice voting. … If Americans desire democracy and election integrity, rigged-choice voting is clearly not the way to go.” Nice platitudes but very little consideration of examples in practice or the implications can lead to unintended consequences.

In the ad hominem TDS version files there is  Getting “Personal”: Chuck Todd Dismisses Investigation into Possible Biden Foreign Influence Peddling – JONATHAN TURLEY – “Now the details of one of the largest and most lucrative influence-peddling operations in history could be made public — along with their effort to conceal it. … This obstruction was only possible with an enabling and protective media downplaying the scandal. … Such denials, however, are getting more difficult. … That’s what made Chuck Todd’s interview with incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer so revealing.” — “it’s not working. The public is not going to dismiss this influence-peddling scandal with a smirk and a shrug. There will be a public accounting, and it will not be confined to the Biden family.”

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is feeling out substack as an adjunct or compliment to the Instapundit blog. See Fighting Campus Bigotry with Prof. Mark J. Perry — “How he’s pushing back against Institutional sexism and racism, and how you can help.” — “I asked him a to talk about what he’s doing and why, and at the end he has some advice on how you can help, and an offer of assistance.  I chime in with some other things you can do.” — “It takes very little pushback to make a difference, because the campus orthodoxy is such that many people who engage in fashionably approved racial or sexual misconduct don’t even think they’re doing anything wrong. The prospect of consequences for this misbehavior is likely to be sobering, and the point that such behavior is illegal and improper will stick.”

There is an era of exploration going on as independents are trying to find out how to garner and audience and how to turn that into an income to support their reporting and publication expenses. The adjustments from print and mail to the I’net are not simple nor are they easy. 

There’s 2 kinds of people: those who seek to construct and build and those who seek to destruct and destroy. Steve Almond’s Failed Ambush of Laura Ingraham (A.J. Rice, American Thinker) highlights an example. — “The media want to reward Almond for this because they don’t like Laura Ingraham. But he shouldn’t be rewarded. Opportunists like him should face the music they want to force on others. Cynically attempting to tear down someone else’s success should never be rewarded.” — Another example, perhaps not as explicit, is CNN’s Gangel: Biden’s Classified Docs ‘Looks Terrible,’ ‘Political Gift to Trump’ (Pam Key, Breitbart) — “CNN reporter Jamie Gangel said Monday on “The Situation Room” that reports that President Joe Biden had classified documents from his time as vice president in his personal office was a political gift to former president Donald Trump.” — All Jamie sees is Trump and reality is disappointing because it doesn’t support the desire to destroy Trump. 

Yet another approach to the media’s ‘gotcha’ destroy those they don’t like approach is described in the report Liberal media is trying to protect the FBI from hard questions about illegal surveillance (Andrew C. McCarthy, New York Post) —

“Besides addressing the crisis at the southern border, there is no more urgent matter for the new Republican House majority to direct its attention to than the conversion of the federal government into a progressive cudgel against civil rights. And there is nothing less surprising than the media-Democrat complex’s determination to strangle the probe in its cradle.

In the left’s playbook, everything is either about race or Donald Trump — if not both. So as night follows day, with House Republicans poised to establish a much needed Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Democrats and their press accomplices are framing the panel as an adjunct of the 2024 Trump presidential campaign.

They can’t be allowed to get away with that. … 

The media-Democrat complex would like you to believe the corruption of the government’s law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus is just Trump propaganda. … 

These are not problems that need addressing for the benefit of Trump. They need addressing for the survival of our constitutional order. … 

Of course Republicans must go about this in the right way. This should not be Jan. 6 committee-style theater. These should be real bipartisan probes, with cross-examination and robust debate. But the weaponization panel is essential, and Republicans must not be cowed by those who want to stifle an investigation and our rights along with it.

Of course! That illustrates McCarthy’s bias. Since when have the Republicans put up a show trial based on false premises like the just terminated 1/6 committee? Is Jourdan as dishonest as Cheney or Shiff? Is the new Speaker of the House and majority as tyrannical as the previous?

The question is what the House can do about it. 

Denier is diversion. Conspiracy Fact: Something Was Seriously Wrong With the 2020 Election (Tom Gilson, The Stream) — “Was it stolen? I don’t know. Is there room to wonder about it? Absolutely yes. Is there something seriously wrong about the lack of any serious investigation? Definitely. There’s corruption going on so plainly and out in the open, you can ask your brother-in-law across the table to pull it up on his cell phone, and he’ll have the proof right there in his own hands. – You must aim for the right objective in this discussion, though.” — “Remember: You don’t need to prove the election was stolen. You only need to show them there’s something wrong with anyone who doesn’t see the problems. Or doesn’t think it matters. Or doesn’t care.”

1. If they call you an “election-denier,” show them it’s an empty label, a self-serving rhetorical trick.
2. If they say it was crazy to question the election in the first place, you can show it was more sensible than not questioning.
3. You can show that the whole business of telling “election-deniers” to shut up is corrupt and a threat to democracy.

It seems the grandmothers have an outsized role in the 1/6 outrage. Ashli Babbitt murdered, mother arrested, U.S. now a police state (Eric Utter, American Thinker) — “Witthoeft was part of a small group peacefully protesting Ashli’s death while walking down the side of a street. Police claim they were blocking traffic.” — “This is beyond disgusting, beyond repulsive, beyond sickening. It is sheer in-your-face evil, the state bludgeoning those it rules over because it can—and desires to intimidate anyone thinking of disobeying it in the future. Killing a petite, unarmed, female veteran? That’s okay if she was a Trump supporter and you are protecting the establishment. Guilty of “wrong-think?” Then you must pay the price.”

That “threat to Democracy” meme is misdirection – i.e. gaslighting. Start with Truth and the Foundations of a Free Republic (Paul E. Scates, American Thinker) this is about the philosophy of relativism — “if relativism is true, then based on its own principle it can be dismissed as merely “relative truth,” and is therefore meaningless.  If, however, it’s posited as an absolute truth that applies to all things, people, time and places… then it’s an absolute truth, and gives the lie to the idea that truth is relative!” — “Before political correctness infected all modes of communication, we’d have said that people who hold to such a view are simply crazy.” — “Why is it important to acknowledge that objective truth exists?  Because in this life there are real-world consequences to being wrong.  You may believe that gravity is not “your truth,” but step out of a seventh-floor window and you’ll quickly learn how wrong your belief was!” — 

Then there are examples. George Santos and the political lies of others (David Kahn, American Thinker) — “like the rest of the main stream media, the Times doesn’t cover the promotion of lies that it and the rest of the main stream media have participated in for the last six years” — “Those lies had the support of the Democrat party, the mainstream media, the intelligence services including the FBI, and the big tech companies. And those lies were not used to elect a single congressman but to elect a president and to try to drive an elected president from office.” — “The Democrat Party tells us that it has been focused on “threats to our democracy.” But democracy requires free and fair elections. And you can’t have a free and fair election when the mainstream media, one of the two principal parties, the tech giants, and the intelligence services conspire to suppress the truth and to win elections by fraud.” — There’s not only making a lie but also how it is promulgated and upheld. Buried News: Obama muscled Zuckerberg to censor Trump — and made an example of him (Monica Showalter, – American Thinker) — “Has Barack Obama gone from ex-president to Democrat party crime boss?”

Next comes indicative behaviors. Ex-GOP Lawmaker Says House Investigations of FBI, CIA Will ‘Shred the Integrity of the Federal Govt’ (Mike Miller, RedState) — “The federal government under Joe Biden and Democrat control has already shredded itself, Mr. Jolly, including Attorney General Merrick Garland’s, Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service. – Next time, let’s do the U.S. military.” — Democrats’ latest attack on Trump is a giant nothingburger (Brad Polumbo, Washington Examiner) — “House Democrats just set a precedent that will surely come back to haunt them.” — “It’s ironic, too, because the members of Congress complaining about Trump using tax loopholes are responsible for the tax code.” — “Democrats broke precedent to release Trump’s taxes and came up with nothing except a few revelations that undercut their arguments. – And now Republicans are already talking about using this power to go after Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s tax returns.” 

There’s more on the 1/6 outrage and the election front that fits this narrative. Tucker destroys the Democrats’ January 6 narrative (Andrea Widburg, American Thinker) — “if you need more evidence about how the narrative is being perverted, a new media reporter named Tayler Hansen tells about what really happened on that day because he was there—and standing next to Ashli Babbit when she was murdered.” — “Tucker’s pointed monologue focuses on the lies that Democrats have been telling about January 6 since January 6 itself. He even acknowledges what many of us have been thinking: The speed with which the media and political class coalesced around the insurrection narrative suggests that the narrative may have been in place before January 6.” — “Unlike conservatives, who are all over the place, the left always stays on message. And in this case, the Borg-like collectivist message”

This brings up another telling behavior. Kevin McCarthy wins the speakership after 15 rounds of voting (Rajan Laad, American Thinker) You need to scroll down the pessimists and the humorists to find this: — “The only group that has a total consensus is a flock of sheep.  Human beings, even identical twins, have a diversity of opinions on any given issue.  This is real diversity. – The diversity on the Democrat side, which they love to boast about, is superficial.  It is based on race, sexuality, and ethnicity, which are related to genes, but when it comes to opinions on key issues, they have a total consensus.- There are strict rules in this echo chamber, and even the slightest hint of dissent is severely punished.” — “Despite being called Democrats, the party operates like a totalitarian state, and this is what they intend to implement across America.” — Consequences are beginning to be seen. The Long Fight for the House Speakership (Clarice Feldman, American Thinker) — “One of the most interesting of the reported concessions is the long-deserved disciplining of the sociopathic liar, Congressman Adam Schiff” — “it’s time there were some consequences imposed for such outrageous conduct, and the battle for the speakership seems to have resulted in a promise to do the maximum in the speaker’s power to impose sanctions for such behavior.” —  

What’s happening? If You Live In a Western Democracy, This is How You Have Been Disenfranchised. (Elizabeth Nickson, substack) — “You could see it operating yesterday. The once hopeful, now useless Dan Crenshaw, used it against his own party, “terrorists”, “seditionists”. It’s so basic as to be nauseating, insulting to your intelligence.” — “They all use the process I am about to describe. Invented in some behaviourist hell-hole at a multinational and consecrated by Klaus and Justin and all the evil little Ivy League demons in government, it is used against their bosses, their employers, the people.” — “America’s relative freedom, small government, responsible citizenry and self-determination led to unending wealth and creativity. – Which, while we were indulging, was being stolen.” — “I illustrate these steps with excerpts from a SCOTUS case before the court now, regarding the theft of the 2020 election “

Realizing costs can sometimes be painful. Trump Hatred Is Not Cheap (John Green, American Thinker) illustrates the hazards of being sold a bill of goods. — “Pat has her reasons — which make perfect sense to her. But that level of Trump hatred does come with a price tag. It didn’t take long to realize that the Trump alternative — Joe Biden — came with some hidden costs of his own, that Pat didn’t know about. Now that we’re two years into his presidency, we can actually quantify some of those costs.” — “It’s none of my business what Pat spends her money on, and avoiding Trump’s quirks clearly has some value to her. But almost $69K — to avoid mean tweets. Wow, she must have more disposable income than I do!” — A specific example is that the Biden Admin Quietly Admits Canceling Keystone Pipeline Killed Thousands Of Jobs And Billions Of Dollars. (Mike LaChance, Gateway Pundit) — this comes from a “Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement”

On the election front, the pot still simmers. A Mulligan for the Supreme Court (Bill Markin, American Thinker) points out that SCOTUS has several cases to consider to try again:

“The Court refused to consider the case, not on the merits of its argument, but on a technicality, claiming that Texas had not demonstrated a “judicially cognizable interest” in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.

“As a result, we have seen nearly two years of the rapid destruction of our nation, including fiscal irresponsibility that has led to staggering inflation, a steady decline in the stock market, enactment of policies that have reduced us from energy independence to a nation that must look to countries such as Venezuela and Iran to meet our basic needs and, perhaps most frightening, the politicization of the Department of Justice (including the FBI) into organizations resembling a third-world police state.

This doesn’t yet touch the 1/6 delusions and rights violations. January 6: A Day That Will Live in Alchemy (Julie Kelly, American Greatness) — “In a feat of political sorcery—fueled by lies, cover-ups, and careerism—the Biden regime has transformed an unruly, four-hour protest into an act of domestic terror.” 

“So, what exactly did these alleged “domestic terrorists” do? They entered the Capitol through open doors as police officers stood by. Carrying no weapons, the couple took photos inside the Rotunda and wandered through some hallways; surveillance video shows Holly Christensen talking to a Capitol police officer. At another point, Scott Christensen chatted with a D.C. Metro police officer, a conversation captured on a body-worn camera. Police led the pair toward an exit door about 45 minutes later without arresting them. … 

More than 950 people have been arrested and charged so far, a figure expected to at least double by the time the dust settles.

Some of the detachment from reality is exposed — “Biden, who has difficulty telling the truth about the circumstances of his own son’s death, shamelessly perpetuates the falsehood that Sicknick and several other police officers died as a result of January 6. (In his statement, Garland claimed five police officers died.)” — Perhaps those who face trial should argue for a change of venue so they can get trial by a jury of their peers. The Washington D.C. jury pool has not demonstrated that it can provide such a jury.