Archive for 2021
January 11, 2021
EVEN EAST GERMANS ARE TROUBLED BY SILICON VALLEY: Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel calls Trump Twitter ban ‘problematic.’
SO IT TURNS OUT THAT EVERYONE KILLED IN THE CAPITOL THAT DAY WAS A TRUMP SUPPORTER: What the left wants to ignore about slain Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described Sicknick’s death as a reminder of the need to “protect our country from all threats, foreign and domestic.” President-elect Joe Biden suggested that whoever backed Trump supports “an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy.” The day’s violence, it seems, has become an all-purpose excuse to denounce and silence anyone not sufficiently anti-Trump.
Yet neither Biden nor Pelosi reckoned with an uncomfortable fact: Sicknick was a Trump supporter himself, as his friend Caroline Behringer announced shortly after his death. Far from sharing the views of the #Resistance, he had written letters to his congressman opposing Trump’s impeachment.
Like many Trump supporters who are now being censored, he believed that the system is fundamentally rigged in favor of a narrow elite. He had used fiery rhetoric, even called for regime change in America.
The people who claim to honor Sicknick have elided these facts. Acknowledging them would undermine their effort to label the 75 million Americans who supported Trump as a domestic threat. Already, unelected Silicon Valley billionaires are using Sicknick’s death to justify censorship of views he expressed. Liberals are cheering the limitation of free speech. Leftists are applauding the exercise of corporate power.
How about that?
KURT SCHLICHTER: The Lib-Fascist Purge.
You know they hate you, right? Really and truly, and they want you silenced, disenfranchised, and dead if necessary. That woman the federal cop shot on video in the Capitol, capped for trespassing, was expendable and so are you. Now, one might be accused of “whataboutism” for this next part, but whataboutism is a moral necessity that highlights the lies that form the foundation of our garbage Establishment, and therefore it must be constantly and loudly practiced. What about all those people killed on video whose deaths sparked riots? Now, the initial read on the shooting seems bad, but being the wacky nonconformist rebel I am, I’ll wait until all the facts are in to make a final judgment and just say at present that the shooting looks questionable. But no one will ask the questions. The cop will be cleared and will never, ever be charged, and even if President Biden’s* U.S. Attorney in the forthcoming State of D.C. were to file charges (LOL, sometimes I even make myself laugh), let’s just say I put the chances of a D.C. jury convicting at about O.J. level.
Standard Status: Double.
Read the whole thing.
GUYS, APPARENTLY THIS IS ALL LARRY CORREIA’S FAULT FOR GETTING AWAY FROM THE INTERNET FOR 48 HOURS: bow before AppGoogleZOn
THESE AREN’T “SECURITY RESEARCHERS,” THEY’RE DOXXERS: 70TB of Parler users’ messages, videos, and posts leaked by security researchers.
SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED: Teacher suspended for ‘election integrity’ video. “A Wisconsin teacher was suspended for telling students to watch a video questioning the integrity of the presidential election.”
SO I’M TAKING LOW-DOSE ASPIRIN POST-COVID, and a friend warned me not to quit cold-turkey. Aspirin: Quitting cold turkey could be dangerous. “Studies have linked aspirin withdrawal to heart attacks.” So I’ll be tapering it down. Just FYI for anyone else in the same boat.
PROFESSOR JACOBSON: The claim that Parler represents some unique risk to public safety is a lie driven by politics. “Democrats and their tech oligopoly friends are drunk with internet power. Whether Parler survives or not, politicized internet repression by tech oligopolies is making the national atmosphere more toxic.”
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: Biden nominates pro-Beijing politician to his cabinet.
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated an open supporter of the Chinese Communist Party to his cabinet.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh flew the Chinese Communist flag at Boston city hall last September in a gesture of support to the regime in Beijing.
Biden wants Walsh to be his secretary of labor.
What could go wrong?
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT: Lawmaker Urges House Leadership to Stop Distributing Communist Propaganda Paper. “Freshman representative Ashley Hinson (R., Iowa) petitioned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to stop distributing a Chinese Communist propaganda paper to House offices on Capitol Hill, according to a letter sent late last week and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.”
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: How Many New Yorkers Will Die of Vaccine Red Tape?
Insanity Wrap needs to know: When is it OK to force the elderly to submit to a 51-item online questionnaire, complete with uploading multiple attachments, just to get a vaccine appointment that might not be available?
Answer: When it happens in Granny Killer Cuomo’s New York, of course.
Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.
- Democrats moving to ban MAGA rallies as domestic terrorism
- Homesteading group gets the Facebook moderation hammer for talk of
“prepping” for canning vegetables- Escape from New York before Antifa Black Bloc takes it over
Bonus Sanity: Nope, couldn’t find any for you despite an entire weekend spent looking.
And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
I’M NO SEAL BUT I LOVE MINE, TOO: Why The U.S. Navy SEALs Love The Glock 19.
MEDICAL ETHICISTS LIKE RATIONING BECAUSE IT MAKES MEDICAL ETHICISTS MORE POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT: Biden appoints healthcare rationing proponent at Penn to policy role; medical ethicists remain quiet.
PRIVATIZING OPERATION CHOKE POINT: Amazon cuts off Parler’s Web hosting following Apple, Google bans.
“You will bend the knee” is the new diversity.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Banning Israeli hummus and more anti-Semitic acts in 2020.
SOUNDS LIKE HE’S MASTERED THE SKILLSET: Jaime Harrison angles for DNC chairman after showing the political world how to waste money.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Democrats Are OK With Billionaires If They Censor You. “This has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with an all-out assault on conservative speech. What’s been most disturbing is seeing half the country cheer this on. The Left is rejoicing over the idea of a one-party information flow. Don’t doubt for a moment that all of the elected Democrats in Washington aren’t gleeful about this as well. “
WHATEVER’S LEFT OF IT AT THIS POINT: Jonathan Turley: Swift new impeachment would damage the Constitution.
The author Franz Kafka once wrote, “My guiding principle is this. Guilt is never to be doubted.” Democrats suddenly appear close to adopting that standard into the Constitution as they prepare for a second impeachment of President Trump. With seeking his removal for incitement, Democrats would gut not only the impeachment standard but also free speech, all in a mad rush to remove Trump just days before his term ends.
Democrats are seeking to remove Trump on the basis of his remarks to supporters before the rioting at the Capitol. Like others, I condemned those remarks as he gave them, calling them reckless and wrong. I also opposed the challenges to electoral votes in Congress. But his address does not meet the definition for incitement under the criminal code. It would be viewed as protected speech by the Supreme Court.
When I testified in the impeachment hearings of Trump and Bill Clinton, I noted that an article of impeachment does not have to be based on any clear crime but that Congress has looked to the criminal code to weigh impeachment offenses. For this controversy now, any such comparison would dispel claims of criminal incitement. Despite broad and justified condemnation of his words, Trump never actually called for violence or riots. But he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to raise their opposition to the certification of electoral votes and to back the recent challenges made by a few members of Congress. Trump told the crowd “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices be heard.”
These kinds of legal challenges have been made by Democrats in the past under the Electoral Count Act, and so Trump was pressing Republicans in Congress to join the effort on his behalf. He ended his remarks by saying a protest at the Capitol was meant to provide Republicans “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” He told the crowd, “Let us walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” Moreover, marches are common across the country to protest actions by the government. . . .
There was no call for lawless action by Trump. Instead, there was a call for a protest at the Capitol. Moreover, violence was not imminent, as the vast majority of the tens of thousands of protesters were not violent before the march, and most did not riot inside the Capitol. Like many violent protests in the last four years, criminal conduct was carried out by a smaller group of instigators. Capitol Police knew of the march but declined an offer from the National Guard since they did not view violence as likely.
So Congress is now seeking an impeachment for remarks covered by the First Amendment. It would create precedent for the impeachment of any president blamed for violent acts of others after using reckless language. What is worse are those few cases that would support this type of action. The most obvious is the 1918 prosecution of socialist Eugene Debs, who spoke against the draft in World War One and led figures like Woodrow Wilson to declare him a “traitor to his country.” Debs was arrested and charged with sedition, a new favorite term for Democrats to denounce Trump and Republicans who doubted the victory of Joe Biden.
Democrats are consistent, you’ve got to give them that.
ARKANSAS IS CONSIDERING A “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAW; OHIO NOW HAS ONE: In truth, it surprises me that these laws create as much controversy as they do.
DOMINIC GREEN: Joe Biden’s Big Tech takeover.
Joe Biden has said he wants to restore amity and work across the aisle — but that was before the Georgia runoffs gave the Democrats the Senate. Even before the elections, he was softer on Silicon Valley than Trump: where Trump threatened to break up the tech monopolies, Biden took Obama’s line, and said he’d ask them to play nice.
Biden also took more money from Big Tech than any candidate in American history. Donations to the Democrats by Bay Area residents rose from $163 million in 2016 to $199 million in 2020. Bay Area residents gave $800,000 to Trump in 2016, and $22 million in 2020. That says all we need to know about who Silicon Valley thought would give it an easy ride.
Joe Biden has always been a friend to anyone with ready money.
QUESTIONS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO ASK: Exactly Where and How Did Trump Incite the Mob?
COME SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Israelis Wonder Why Twitter Silenced Trump But Not Khamenei.