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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

What Now? Terrifying times lie ahead. Bruce Bawer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/what-now-bruce-bawer/

I’ve been ranting for years about the perfidy of the left. At times I’ve been accused of exaggerating. On rare occasions I feared – or hoped? – that perhaps I was exaggerating. In fact I can now see that these people are worse than I ever imagined. Worse than most of us ever imagined.

Worse, even, than Donald Trump, with all his insight, imagined.

He went into office determined to clean up the swamp. He was tireless. But not tireless enough. No mere mortal could have been tireless enough. Trump had denounced the swamp in apocalyptic terms, but it proved to be even deeper and more extensive than he knew. It reached into the upper echelons of the intelligence community and the military, into cabinet departments and the judiciary.

Not only did the Democrats try to derail his campaign and then his presidency. Even people whom he appointed to White House jobs proved unreliable. Far from being too suspicious, he’d been too trusting. He’d appointed two-faced D.C. insiders. He’d trusted people who turned out to be snakes in the grass.

The news media, with very few exceptions, made it their task to thwart his progress and poison his name with a constant flow of disinformation. They said Trump had told people to drink bleach. They said he’d called neo-Nazis “good people.” They said many other outrageous things that they knew were outright lies. They relentlessly repeated the charge that he did nothing but lie, lie, lie, when in fact it was they, the media, who were constantly feeding us lies.

Driving Out the Scapegoat Why, with only a week left in his term, expend all this hatred on a lame-duck president? Bruce Thornton ******

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/driving-out-scapegoat-bruce-thornton/

After last Wednesday’s Trump rally at the Ellipse in D.C., some of the up to 100,000 present walked over to the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to ratify the Electoral College vote. While there an even smaller number, a few hundred at the most, broke into the Capitol lobby, with some proceeding into a few Congressional offices.

So, a rally attended peacefully by the majority of people, was taken over by a small mob of knuckleheads and day-trippers who invaded the Capitol. Sadly, a woman and a police officer were killed, and three other protestors died from “medical emergencies.” Scores more including police officers were injured.

The police authorities in D.C. had bungled badly their security preparations, and bear a large share of the responsibility for this fiasco. But as always, the guilt lies with those who broke the law and should be punished. “The doer suffers,” as Aeschylus says.

But after five months of incessant rioting, vandalizing, and looting tolerated, ignored, rationalized, excused, encouraged, or even celebrated by the progressive Democrat leadership, media, commentators, mayors, and governors, this half-day-long violent episode is pretty far down on the list of civic mayhem––and the only one of hundreds of protests this year that was fomented by supporters of the President. Indeed, maybe security was light because Trump has conducted massive rallies for four years without any significant violence.

Reaction, however, to the Capitol riot has elicited even more-intense hysterical attacks on the President. Worse, now Republican and conservative lawmakers and commentators have indulged the bathetic rhetorical excesses that mechanically issue from Dems and NeverTrump Republicans skulking in digital hovels like The Lincoln Project and the Bulwark. They are demanding the President’s resignation, impeachment, or removal from office via the 25th Amendment, some preposterously professing anxiety that Trump will launch a Parthian nuclear strike as he leaves office.

Defense Officials Confirm Trump Is Still Commander in Chief, Refuse to Participate in Military Coup to Oust Him Kipp Jones

https://www.westernjournal.com/defense-officials-confirm-trump-still-commander-chief-refuse-participate-military-coup-oust/

Despite a campaign by Democrats and the establishment media to delegitimize President Donald Trump after Wednesday’s Capitol incursion, Department of Defense officials intend to avoid outside pressure and continue to recognize him as the commander in chief while avoiding taking part in “a military coup,” according to a report.

It was widely reported Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to limit the president’s access to the country’s so-called nuclear football, which contains launch codes for America’s vast arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Pelosi called Milley to ask him to ignore orders from Trump to use those codes. It’s unclear what initiated the call to Milley. No specific threat from Trump seems to exist, suggesting the call was made for political purposes.

The California Democrat reportedly told Milley she wants to limit the president from responding to international threats during the final days of his term.

NPR reported Pelosi told her Democratic colleagues she spoke to Milley about “available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”

Trump’s approval ratings on the rise, poll shows Despite many in the media and on the Left accusing the US president of incitement that led to the storming of Capitol Hill, a Rasmussen poll finds Trump’s approval rating holding steady at 48%. By Boaz Bismuth

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/01/10/trumps-approval-ratings-on-the-rise-poll-shows/

The difficult images from the storming of Capitol Hill, Wednesday, and the lives that were lost have led many in the media and on the Left to accuse US President Donald Trump of inciting his supporters to violence, with the aim of disrupting the elector count and even carrying out a coup.

According to at least one of the most important polling companies in the US, however, the general public has not reacted with significant shock to Trump’s conduct during the storming, and his standing has even improved.

According to Rasmussen’s daily presidential approval poll, Trump’s approval ratings have in fact improved in the days since the chaos in Washington, which took place as Congress convened to certify the electors and US President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.

The president’s approval ratings went from 47% to 49% overnight on Tuesday, and as of Thursday, were at 48%. A more in-depth analysis found those who said they “strongly disapproved” of the president went from 43% to 42% and has since remained stable.

What’s Happening to a Public School Teacher Who Attended the D.C. Protest Should Worry Us All Bronson Stocking Bronson Stocking

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2021/01/10/school-suspends-teacher-for-attending-dc-protest-n2582896

Hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to protest an election many consider to be unfair. One of those attendees, a public school teacher in Allentown, Pennsylvania, has been relieved of duty pending a formal investigation into his attendance at Wednesday’s protest. 

“Because of the emotion and controversy stirred by the events of January 6, 2021, the teacher has been temporarily relieved of his teaching duties until the School District can complete a formal investigation of his involvement,” reads a statement from Allentown School District Superintendent Thomas Parker. 

You can now be relieved of duty because people are emotional. 

“Yesterday’s events have added to the confusion and uncertainty our students are experiencing during this unprecedented time,” Thomas continued. “To that end, we are reminding our staff to think carefully about what they share online and how it could affect their students and fellow community members. While we all have the right to express ourselves, it is important to do so respectfully. We ask the same of our students and families.”

The superintendent said the district remains committed to meeting “the academic, social, and emotional needs” of students.

“Thank you for your support in creating a safe, equitable, and inclusive environment for students to raise questions and develop a diversity of perspectives about our community, our nation, and the world in which we live,” Thomas added. 

The statement was also provided in Spanish.

Jaques Barzun and the Tragedy of ‘Race Thinking’ Rafe Champion

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2021/01/jaques-barzun-and-the-tragedy-of-race-thinking/

“This anxious wrangling which goes on about books and plays seems at times trivial but it is in fact fundamental. If democratic culture yields on this point no prospect lies ahead but that of increased animosity among pressure groups…”

The 1965 quote above is from Jacques Barzun (1907-2012), who made a very important contribution to the debate about racism and affirmative action. He issued a warning that went unheeded, and the explosive emergence of Black Lives Matter underlines the value of his advice.

Barzun grew up in a French household, where his parents conducted a modernist salon, and he completed high school in the US. He entered Columbia College in 1923, graduating four years later at the top of his class, then he taught at Columbia University and became a full professor in 1945, Dean of the Graduate Faculties in 1955, and the inaugural Dean of Faculties and Provost of the University in 1958. In his long career as a teacher, scholar and administrator he wrote, edited or translated some 40 books.

His first serious research was a dissertation on class and race in pre-revolutionary France, published some years later as Race, A Study in Modern Superstition (1937).  This was not written as a tract for the times because it grew out of research on cultural history that started long before Hitler became a significant figure. Barzun claimed the protracted dispute in France over the “race” of the nobility versus the bourgeoisie became one of the divisive factors that contributed to the French Revolution. Moreover “race-thinking” persisted after the Revolution as a component of the struggles between nations, political parties, religious faiths and social groups. For Barzun, “race-thinking” is one of the ways to justify collective hostility and it is most dangerous and powerful when it  operates in partnership with other motives such as the nationalism of the Nazis, the  socialism of the communists and, nowadays, the radicalism of Black Lives Matter.

Condemning Mob Violence By Jonah Gottschalk

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/10/flashback-just-months-ago-democrats-blocked-a-resolution-condemning-mob-violence/

When a mob of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Thursday, leaders from both political parties universally condemned the historic act of political violence.

“To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today- you did not win,” Vice-President Mike Pence stated to the chamber shortly after the rioters were expelled from the building by police using tear gas and percussion grenades. “Violence never wins.” He was joined by the Republican senators across the board, including those who had backed plans to object to the election’s certification.

After months ignoring and justifying Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots, Democrats also condemned the Capitol violence. “This assault is just that. It shows the weakness of those who’ve had to show through violence what their message was,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.

Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed the sentiment, arguing those who using political violence should face the harshest penalties available. “Those who performed these reprehensible acts cannot be called protesters – no, these were rioters and insurrectionists, goons and thugs, domestic terrorists… they must and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

The cross-party condemnations came as a welcomed move. But that very the same Congress was anything but united on the issue of mob violence remarkably recently.

This July, those same congressional Democrats killed a resolution aimed at curbing mob violence. The bill, which was spearheaded by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, came about after an unarmed Utah man was murdered by a mob of left-wing activists. At least 30 people, ranging in age from 14-77, were killed in largely left-wing riots in summer 2020.

Trump speech before Capitol riot not enough for impeachment charges: Jonathan Turley

https://foxbangor.com/national-news/trump-speech-before-capitol-riot-not-enough-for-impeachment-charges-turley/

Democrats are moving to remove President Trump from office after Wednesday’s U.S. Capitol riot, but George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he doesn’t believe Trump committed an impeachable offense.

‘He does not call for riots. He does not call for violence,’ law professor points out

Democrats are moving to remove President Trump from office after Wednesday’s U.S. Capitol riot, but George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he doesn’t believe Trump committed an impeachable offense.

Turley explained to “Fox & Friends Weekend” that the president’s call to protest does not constitute insurrection and that Congress must deliberate carefully on the charges to carry out the process constitutionally. Trump invited supporters to rally in Washington Jan. 6, saying it would be “wild,” and gave a speech where he said ralliers would march “peacefully” to the Capitol. During the speech, he repeated the unproven claim that the election was stolen from him.

Turley: Swift new impeachment would damage the Constitution By Jonathan Turley

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/533469-swift-second-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.

HEADLINES NATIONAL NEWS

FNC’s Kurtz: Many in Media Aren’t Considering ‘Free Speech Implications’ of Trump Twitter Ban https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/01/09/fncs-kurtz-many-in-media-arent-considering-free-speech-implications-of-trump-twitter-ban/
Nancy Pelosi, in ‘60 Minutes’ interview, slams Trump as ‘deranged,’ calls for ‘prosecution’ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nancy-pelosi-in-60-minutes-interview-slams-trump-as-deranged-calls-for-prosecution
Patrice Onwuka: Twitter, Facebook banning of Trump continues crackdown on conservatives — censorship dangerous https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-twitter-facebook-patrice-onwuka
Tucker Carlson: From Twitter to CNN, the left is coming for your speech https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-on-twitter-and-cnn
9 Big Tech Platforms that Have Blacklisted President Donald Trump https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/01/09/9-big-tech-platforms-that-have-blacklisted-president-donald-trump/
Why ban of @realDonaldTrump proves Twitter not ‘just a platform’ https://nypost.com/2021/01/08/why-ban-of-realdonaldtrump-proves-twitter-not-just-a-platform/
Ignoring the concerns of Trump supporters will destroy America
https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/whitlock-ignoring-the-concerns-of-trump-supporters-will-destroy-america
WATCH: Armed Antifa Attack Trump Supporters, Cops in San Diego https://www.breitbart.com/law-and-order/2021/01/09/watch-armed-antifa-attack-trump-supporters-cops-in-san-diego/
 Liberal Reporter: ‘The New…Authoritarian Liberal-left…Is Going to be Absolutely Ruthless’ https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2021/01/09/liberal-reporter-sees-right-through-big-techs-reason-to-ban-trump-n2582855?
Thought Control by Controlling the News https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffdavidson/2021/01/09/thought-control-by-controlling-the-news-n2582854?

Rush Limbaugh Deactivates His Twitter Account After President Trump Banned https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/01/08/rush-limbaugh-deactivates-his-twitter-account-after-president-trump-banned/
Apple Joins Google in Blacklisting Parler https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/01/09/apple-joins-google-in-blacklisting-parler/