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50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

The House Select Committee to Criminalize and Obstruct by Chris Farrell

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17543/house-select-committee-criminalize-obstruct

Pelosi’s committee has absolutely nothing to do with the investigation of facts concerning what happened on January 6. It is a transparent political ploy to sensationalize and criminalize all things and persons related to President Donald Trump and political conservatism.

Pressure from a March 2021 Judicial Watch lawsuit helped lead to the disclosure that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes. For weeks, Sicknick’s death had been falsely characterized as a cynical lie by members of Congress and their lapdog reporter buddies for political advantage.

If the government were truly interested in the full disclosure of all the facts and circumstances around the Capitol breach, why would they stonewall Judicial Watch requests? Why force the matter into slow and lengthy litigation? Slow and lengthy? Oh, that’s why!

Speaking of a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice — there’s Pelosi’s phone call to General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff…. You’ll remember that call was purportedly when Pelosi told Milley not to obey President Trump’s orders. We can all look forward to reading the transcript of that call.

There is a lot to question concerning law enforcement involvement on January 6. The official narrative keeps changing. For example, claims concerning the number of people that died were wrong. Only Babbitt, an unarmed protestor, died that day by Capitol Police gunshot from a still unidentified officer. Protestors supposedly caused $30 million in damage — they did not. There are several other points to question.

The government is fighting tooth-and-nail not to make the information public. The release of all these records and videos is discretionary — some of the same people calling for investigation are actively blocking release…. Read stories about some of the protestors — how they are being treated and prosecuted — some are still in solitary confinement, others are being “reprogrammed,” and it seems that most are being specifically targeted for their political beliefs.

The House of Representatives just voted to create a select committee to investigate the unrest on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. And — surprise, surprise — Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed over to vote with the Democrats in support of their select committee. Cheney found herself appointed to the select committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She says she is “honored to serve.” Cheney’s Republican primary opponent(s) must be overjoyed.

Who Are the ‘Extremists’ on Facebook? By Gwendolyn Sims

https://pjmedia.com/columns/gwendolynsims/2021/07/08/who-are-the-extremists-on-facebook-n1459316

Have you noticed? Lately, Facebook is more confused and more creepy than usual. In that oh-so-tolerant way that today’s Left has, our Facebook Redirect Initiative Overlords continue to work hard flagging people and posts they don’t agree with as “extremists” and “extremist content.”

Early this week, Facebook flagged a post that I viewed as potentially exposing me to “harmful extremist content.” The post (full text below) simply asked a question and mentioned a MAGA hat in the context of the Gwen Berry anthem incident:

Facebook screenshot.

FULL POST TEXT:  “How would the Left respond if an Olympian wore a MAGA hat on the podium during the medal ceremony?”

FULL FACEBOOK NOTICE TEXT:  “Gwendolyn, you may have been exposed to harmful extremist content recently

Violent groups try to manipulate your anger and disappointment. You can take action now to protect yourself and others.

Get support from experts

Spot the signs, understand the dangers of extremism and hear from people who have escaped violent groups.”

Notice that the supposedly offending post didn’t mention President Donald Trump nor imply or encourage violence of any sort and yet, it’s still deemed “harmful extremist content” from “violent groups” from which I might need protection and “support from experts” to cope with such exposure.

That’s right, the very thought of the acronym for “Make America Great Again” has become such a boogeyman in the leftists’ hivemind, they see it as harmful and extremist.

If you’re anything like me, you’re simultaneously unsurprised at this while also thinking, “What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is going on here?!” Does Facebook actually believe that all posts and all people who simply view “MAGA” in a post would need to seek support? Really? Does Facebook actually believe every single one of the over 74 million Americans who voted for President Trump in 2020 is a potential “violent extremist” just because he or she might post “MAGA,” wear a red hat, or believe America is great? Sadly as we already suspected, this is what it’s come to and the answer appears to be an unequivocal “yes.”

With that in mind, it’s well past time we remind Facebook and the rest of the leftists who think they speak for America just who the actual online and real-life extremists really are. Let’s look at where the Left stands on three key issues:

Racism

We know because the Left has told us ad nauseam that it sees everything through the lens of racism, whether real or perceived. It believes one’s skin color bestows both disadvantages to non-whites and ambiguous privileges to whites. Ironically, it also believes being born in America–the most prosperous and free nation on earth–doesn’t provide significant opportunities for non-whites.

No Relief for Lego Man or Other January 6 Detainees Prospects look dim for those caught up in Merrick Garland’s Capitol protest witch hunt.  By Julie Kelly

https://amgreatness.com/2021/07/08/no-relief-for-lego-man-or-other-january-6-detainees/

Joe Biden’s Justice Department wants the Lego Man kept behind bars—indefinitely.

Federal agents seized a plastic replica of the Capitol building from the Pennsylvania home of Robert Morss during his arrest on June 11. Justice Department officials are citing the Lego model as evidence in the criminal case against Morss for his involvement in the January 6 protest: “During his arrest, law enforcement recovered some clothing and other items that appear to match those he carried with him on the 6th—including a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag, a neck gaiter, a military utility bag, a black tourniquet, and military fatigues. (Law enforcement also recoverd [sic] a fully constructed U.S. Capitol Lego set.)”

So wrote government prosecutors in a July 2 filing asking the D.C. District Court to deny Morss’ release while he awaits trial on nine counts, including assaulting police officers and disorderly conduct. 

While dangerous criminals daily threaten the safety of innocent people in cities across the country—and many are released on bail—the FBI continues its nationwide manhunt for Capitol protesters while the Justice Department repeatedly petitions the court to keep the accused incarcerated for months on end.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who despicably compares January 6 to the Oklahoma City bombing, recently bragged his office reached a “benchmark” of 500 arrests. (Who knew criminal investigations had quotas?). In more than 100 cases and counting, Garland’s prosecutors have sought and often received pretrial detention for first-time offenders, including defendants not accused of committing any violent crimes.

The government’s justification for keeping Capitol defendants in jail until either a plea agreement or trial is that the events of January 6 were uniquely horrific and anyone who participated poses a threat to the country. 

“Morss’s dangerousness is not limited to his past actions, but presents a future threat,” assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Jackson warned in the July 2 detention motion. “It is difficult to fathom a more serious danger to the community—to the District of Columbia, to the country, or to the fabric of American Democracy—than the one posed by someone who knowingly and eagerly engaged in a violent insurrection to occupy the United States Capitol and abort the certification of a lawful and fair election.”

Will the Democrats have broad smiles on their faces at the end of their Jan. 6 kangaroo inquisition? By David Zukerman

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/07/will_the_democrats_have_broad_smiles_on_their_faces_at_the_end_of_their_jan_6_kangaroo_inquisition.html

For reasons not yet explained, the media refers to the date of the demonstration at the Capitol six months ago as “Jan. 6,” not as “January 6.”    The forthcoming kangaroo inquisition on the event, under the aegis of Speaker Pelosi, will likely, then, be called “The Jan. 6 Hearing” — if not  the “Trump-provoked Insurrection Hearing.

If the reason for the abbreviated use of first month of the year, in the context of the Capitol demonstration is unclear, the purpose of the Pelosi-directed kangaroo inquisition is perfectly clear:  to smear the Republican Party as the party of insurrection, racism and authoritarianism.    Will the GOP house leadership hand Pelosi the sword to decapitate them — figuratively.

This writer covered the January 27, 2007 anti-Bush protest of leftists in the vicinity of the Capitol.  The images obtained included those of Hollywood celebrities, including Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, and Sean Penn, as well as members of Congress including a dour John Conyers and a smiling Jerrold Nadler.   

Will the performance, indeed participation of congressional Republicans during this kangaroo inquisition be such as to have Rep. Nadler smile even more broadly than the smile this writer captured via a Canon camera using film, some 14 and a half years ago? 

Biden’s cognitive decline continues to be swift and obvious By Andrea Widburg

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/07/bidens_cognitive_decline_continues_to_be_swift_and_obvious.html

More video emerged on Thursday showing that Joe Biden’s cognitive decline has neither slowed nor stopped. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t feel sorry for him because his long history of corruption, nastiness, racism, and pervy behavior disqualifies him from getting my compassion. And while I’d like to feel Schadenfreude as to the Democrats – that is, I’d like to enjoy watching Democrats struggle with a mentally decompensating president – the fact that Biden is theoretically the leader of the free world makes the situation too scary for Schadenfreude.

The latest evidence of Biden’s swift mental decomposition occurred when he appeared before the press to take questions about Afghanistan. This video is admittedly a compilation of select bad moments over a more extended time, but you’re seeing repeated examples of a man struggling to hunt down the elusive thoughts in his head so that he can verbalize them:

I don’t have to visit leftist websites to know the defense Democrats will offer to Biden’s stumbling speech and long pauses: Biden stuttered as a child. I’m sure that’s true. The part that Democrats leave out, though, is that Biden overcame his stuttering. We have hours of boring video footage covering decades, all showing Biden in his adult life speaking without stuttering. Even during the 2012 campaign, Biden was a smooth and fluent, if stupid and mean, speaker.

“Hide Your Grandparents”: Cuomo Vows To Handle Gun Violence Like He Did COVID-19!!by Tyler Durden

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hide-your-grandparents-cuomo-vows-handle-gun-violence-he-did-covid-19

Elderly New Yorkers beware; Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) vowed on Thursday to tackle the state’s skyrocketing gun violence in the same manner as he administration dealt with COVID – in which he notably ordered COVID patients to be housed in elder care facilities – where the most vulnerable live, leading to countless unnecessary deaths.

“We know how to deal with an epidemic,” he said during a briefing. “We wanna do with gun violence, what we just did with COVID,” he said.

The Nation That Wouldn’t Get Out Of Bed And Go To Work

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/07/09/the-nation-that-wouldnt-get-out-of-bed-and-go-to-work/

A country of roughly 330 million has more than 9 million job openings, and 9.5 million unemployed. This is a disgrace, a clear indication that our American character and work ethic are slipping, a rolling tragedy that’s been authored by the Democrats.

Three years ago, before Democrat Joe Biden was the president, while the Republicans still held a majority in the Senate, The Saturday Evening Post wondered if “the American work ethic (has) gotten worse.”

“Have Americans lost their willingness to apply their noses to the grindstone, or to work hard for anything they get in life?”

The venerable publication concluded “that’s not what statistics show.”

Today’s data, however, tell a different story.

According to the Labor Department, there was a record high of 9.2 million job openings in May, and 9.5 million jobless in June. ZipRecruiter reckons as many as 15 million jobs need to be filled. Either way, millions are ignoring what MarketWatch describes “an insatiable demand for labor as the economy fully reopens and businesses scramble to keep up with soaring sales for their goods and services.”

We have arrived at this point in history because the Democrats have made sitting at home collecting a government check a better financial decision than working. We covered this in May, when we said “as part of Biden’s ‘American Rescue Plan,’ the Democrats included a $300 weekly bonus to those on unemployment that runs until September. The plan included various other handouts that are letting the jobless live comfortable lives at the moment.”

In some cases, taxpayer-funded benefits are higher than the wages recipients would receive in return for their labor.

When we discussed this in May, the most recent data showed 7.4 million job openings. So the problem has become worse.

Who Shot Ashli Babbitt? And Why Is This A State Secret?

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/07/08/who-shot-ashli-babbitt-and-why-is-this-a-state-secret/

More than six months after the events at the U.S. Capitol that led to the shooting death of protester Ashli Babbitt, the officer who killed her remains a secret as carefully guarded as any in Washington, D.C. Why?

Real Clear Investigations reporter Paul Sperry – who has been trying for months to learn the name of the U.S. Capitol Police officer who pulled the trigger – reported that a name surfaced, inadvertently, at a February House hearing.

Sperry uncovered a transcript and reviewed the C-SPAN video from the hearing. During that inquiry, the House sergeant at arms appears to name the shooter – at least he mentions the officer’s last name in the context of that shooting. Sperry deduced, based on other available information, that he was referring to USCP Lt. Michael L. Byrd.

Sperry said the department hasn’t denied that Byrd was the cop who killed Babbitt, although it did so when another officer’s name started getting bandied about.

Weirdly, Byrd’s name is deleted from the C-SPAN and CNN transcripts of that hearing, but was contained in Congressional Quarterly transcripts, and can be heard on the C-SPAN video.

Why does this matter? The family understandably wants to know, and the public deserves the details about the shooting. Babbitt was not armed at the time, nor was she threatening anyone with physical harm. (She was trying to climb through a broken window.) Despite all the claims of an “armed incursion” into the Capitol building by Trump supporters, there was only one gun fired on that date – the one that killed Babbitt. There’s also the question of whether the officer involved has any history of misconduct.

The identity of Babbitt’s killer matters for reasons even beyond a family’s grief.

The Keystone XL Goes to Court The pipeline’s owner wants $15 billion to redress Biden’s arbitrary permit withdrawal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-keystone-xl-goes-to-court-11625784485?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The climate lobby cheered in January when President Biden revoked the State Department’s 2017 presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Now the bill is coming due, and U.S. taxpayers may have to pay.

Keystone owner TC Energy last week filed a Notice of Intent to take legal action against the U.S. government for withdrawing the permit. In a press release the company called the decision a “breach” of North American free-trade obligations. In June TC Energy officially canceled the Keystone XL and took a $1.81 billion writedown. It wants $15 billion in damages as part of a Nafta legacy claim under the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The U.S. has never lost before a Nafta arbitration panel. But TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) has a good case. To prevail, TC Energy will have to show that it had good reason in March 2020 to believe that its $9 billion investment was protected by the U.S. permit when it announced that it would “proceed with construction.” In other words, that it had a logical expectation it would be allowed to complete the pipeline and operate it. After years of environmental and other reviews, that was a reasonable conclusion.

Mr. Biden’s reversal on his first day in office was also irregular. Normally a company would have a chance to make its case, and the Administration would engage in a review. But Mr. Biden wanted theater for the environmental lobby, which trumped respect for an investor’s right to be treated fairly.

TC Energy isn’t challenging the Administration’s climate views, and its suit isn’t about reviving a project that promised to carry 830,000 barrels of Canadian crude a day to the Gulf Coast. The same oil will now be carried on trains, trucks and ships, albeit with greater risks of a spill and greater use of carbon energy. The company merely wants compensation for lost investment that is tantamount to expropriation under international law.

Donald J. Trump: Why I’m Suing Big Tech If Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can censor me, they can censor you—and believe me, they are. By Donald J. Trump

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-j-trump-why-im-suing-big-tech-11625761897?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

One of the gravest threats to our democracy today is a powerful group of Big Tech corporations that have teamed up with government to censor the free speech of the American people. This is not only wrong—it is unconstitutional. To restore free speech for myself and for every American, I am suing Big Tech to stop it.

Social media has become as central to free speech as town meeting halls, newspapers and television networks were in prior generations. The internet is the new public square. In recent years, however, Big Tech platforms have become increasingly brazen and shameless in censoring and discriminating against ideas, information and people on social media—banning users, deplatforming organizations, and aggressively blocking the free flow of information on which our democracy depends.

No longer are Big Tech giants simply removing specific threats of violence. They are manipulating and controlling the political debate itself. Consider content that was censored in the past year. Big Tech companies banned users from their platforms for publishing evidence that showed the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, which even the corporate media now admits may be true. In the middle of a pandemic, Big Tech censored physicians from discussing potential treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, which studies have now shown does work to relieve symptoms of Covid-19. In the weeks before a presidential election, the platforms banned the New York Post—America’s oldest newspaper—for publishing a story critical of Joe Biden’s family, a story the Biden campaign did not even dispute.

Perhaps most egregious, in the weeks after the election, Big Tech blocked the social-media accounts of the sitting president. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you—and believe me, they are.