RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/01/enough-with-the-outrage.php

Like pretty much all conservatives, I have consistently criticized riots and other forms of political violence for many years. That includes yesterday’s Washington, D.C. riot. You can’t say the same about liberals, however. Until yesterday, one might have thought that liberals consider rioting and other forms of political violence to be as American as apple pie.

You could write a book in support of that proposition, but for now let’s cite just a few examples. Do you remember when President Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017? Leftist Democrats rioted in Washington that day. That riot was arguably worse, more violent and more destructive, than what happened in D.C. yesterday. The liberal rioters destroyed stores, set vehicles on fire and battled with the police. Six police officers were wounded. Here is a video reminder:

I don’t recall a single Democratic office-holder denouncing the Democrats’ Inauguration Day riot, and the Associated Press came perilously close to praising the rioters.

Over the ensuing four years, Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioted countless times, bringing devastation to cities like Portland, Seattle, Kenosha and Minneapolis. Did any Democrats denounce these riots? Not that I remember. Many Democrats endorsed them, or seemed to do so. Kamala Harris, for example, said about the riots in June:

They’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop. And everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And everyone should take note of that. They’re not gonna let up and they should not.

https://canadafreepress.com/article/pearl-clutchers-on-parade

In all those eight months––220 days, over 5,000 hours––what was the reaction of Democrats, both elected and civilian?

Time to get out the ledger.

On the left––literally––we have had nearly eight months of rampaging criminality and violence in the many Democrat-controlled cities in our country, all conducted by thugs belonging to groups called Black Lives Matter and Antifa. This is the short list of what they have done:

Committed widespread arson, including burning down hundreds of minority-owned businesses in the Latino, Asian and black communities (the black owners clearly didn’t matter);
Incinerated cars and burned down buildings, court houses, police stations, et al;
Shot laser beams in the eyes of policemen;
Assaulted civilians, resulting in 30 deaths and thousands of hospitalizations;

Smashed plate-glass windows of numerous businesses, both large and small and then engaged in looting, stealing and grand theft;
Terrorized and then dragged people out of restaurants;
Tore down historic statues, including those of black icons (duh);
Defaced streets and avenues with BLM’s block-long, block-lettered, yellow-painted name. 
Terrorized the citizenry of entire neighborhoods and towns for months on end;
Attacked people in locked cars;

In all those eight months––220 days, over 5,000 hours––what was the reaction of Democrats, both elected and civilian?

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/bryan-preston/2021/01/08/leader-of-far-left-insurgence-usa-group-encouraged-rioters-to-enter-the-capitol-n1325304

Thursday we posted some details about some of the people who entered the Capitol during the riot on Wednesday. One of those individuals is John Sullivan.

According to the video Sullivan captured of the events, he encouraged protesters to enter the Capitol.

Deseret News reports:

Sullivan said he also intended to “support the Black community” with his attendance, but also feels it was “important to understand” those who were protesting in support of President Donald Trump.

But some of the 40-minute video he posted to his social media sites contradicts his assertion that he and another woman were “only filming” the actions and not participating as he can be heard in the video encouraging people to join them as they push their way through police barricades.

Just after people broke into the building, Sullivan — wearing a gas mask and wielding an iPhone on a stabilizing stick — and a woman who said Wednesday that she was making a documentary on Sullivan, are on the first porch area outside the entrance looking back over the throngs of people around the Capitol. They can be heard encouraging people to climb the wall, saying, “Come on. Let’s go!”

Sullivan claims he was just “blending in.”

Many, probably most, of the people who entered and damaged the Capitol are Trump supporters. Several have lost jobs as a result, and many will face charges. One, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by Capitol Police, right next to Sullivan.

There has been some question of who instigated the crowd to enter. Sullivan, by the evidence of his own video, did. He is anti-Trump and aligns with BLM.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/the_breach_of_the_capitol_was_an_obvious_setup.html

What happened at the Capitol building on Wednesday obviously was a stratagem to destroy the President’s popularity and support and overshadow the challenges to the Electoral College vote, to my eyes.  The building was breached at the beginning of that process and, of course, riveted the media news feeds.  Members of Congress were evacuated with hoods over their heads as if they were in grave danger.

As a group of protesters approached the building, a policeman removed the barricade and appeared to invite them in.

That group entered the rotunda peacefully and stayed behind the rope line.  Those who observed this noted that there were several instigators embedded among the crowd.  They were using bullhorns to agitate and move people.  A couple of them set off flash bangs.   

We now know that several known Antifa activists were among the agitators.  As they broke windows, Trump supporters tried to stop them.  But the distraction worked, frightened the pathetically spineless Republicans who were set to challenge the stolen election.  They quickly capitulated and Biden was certified.  The Republicans, even the ones we thought had grit, got rolled.  

There were tragic deaths, about which the leftists who planned this could not care less, any more than they cared about all those who died in the riots they so embraced over the summer.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/08/political-theater-wont-work-for-the-right/

EXCERPT

A sizable cohort of the American Right believes the recent election was stolen, that the government has become loosened from democratic accountability in the form of the deep state, and that the courts have denied millions of Trump voters a proper forum in which to make their case for election fraud. These procedural irregularities have happened amid a long year of hostility to American norms in the name of fighting the coronavirus. 

In theory, if ever there was a possible justification for political violence, the combination of bad and hostile governance and a stolen election would loom large. 

Looking abroad, this was the basis of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Stolen elections have led to extended protests and violence in Venezuela and Iran. After many years of supporting a decrepit aristocracy, the French Revolution ushered in a long and bloody era of instability and violence, which was only arrested by the rise of Napoleon as emperor. 

On Good and Bad Tactics

Is the brief occupation of the U.S. Capitol “bad optics?” Certainly in the short term. But there is no reason to believe any right-wing political activity that accomplishes anything will ever be given a fair shake in the “optics” department. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/01/michelle-obama-again-falsely-claims-blm-rioters-daniel-greenfield/

Michelle Obama once again falsely claimed that the Black Lives Matter race riots which wounded hundreds of police officers, killed multiple people, including a black 8-year-old girl in Atlanta, and caused over $2 billion in damage, were “peaceful”.

Twitter and social media did not slap a disputed tag on Obama’s blatant lie which she has repeated many times.

First, Michelle Obama celebrated Warnock, a racist pal of her husband’s violently racist mentor Jeremiah Wright, followed by the false claim that the Capitol rioters had been let off easy.

“And once authorities finally gained control of the situation, these rioters and gang members were led out of the building not in handcuffs, but free to carry on with their days,” Michelle Obama falsely claimed.

Last time I checked, four people are dead. One of them, Ashley Babbitt, a QAnon supporter, was shot and killed despite being unarmed. Had the races and politics in that encounter been reversed, there would be mass riots and looting in her name. And Michelle knows it.

Federal and D.C. authorities are also tracking down and arresting the people who got inside.

Meanwhile the vast majority of BLM rioters and gang members are free and immune from consequences even when they’ve committed assault and murder. 

https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2021/01/07/portland-activists-harass-punch-mayor-ted-wheeler-restaurant/

Ted Wheeler may be the 2nd worst mayor in America (after Bill de Blasio) but he still shouldn’t be assaulted in public by Portland’s far left activists. That’s what happened last night as the mayor was dining outdoors on a date.

Wheeler and a dinner companion had just arrived at Café Nell in the Nob Hill neighborhood about 8:30 p.m. when a group of people confronted the pair, who were seated in an outdoor dining area, according to a City Hall official who asked not to be named.

Wheeler took out his phone to snap a photo of the hecklers, the official said. That’s when, according to Wheeler, a woman in the crowd “swatted” at him and struck his shoulder, the official said.

Again, I’m not a fan of Wheeler but having these goons show up and scream that he’s a “war criminal” in a restaurant is over the line. I didn’t like it when the mob did this to diners in DC and I don’t like it here either.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/01/06/2020-election-mistrust-commission-prove-or-disprove-fraud-column/4132191001/

EXCERPTS:

I hate federal commissions. I have always hated federal commissions. Federal commissions are Washington’s way of managing scandals. They work like placebos for political fevers, convincing voters that answers and change are on the way. That is why it is so difficult for me to utter these words: We need a federal election commission. Not the one proposed by some Senate Republicans. And not like past placebo commissions. An honest-to-God, no-holds-barred federal commission to look into the 2020 presidential election.

That is not what we need. There are three reasons why the need for a real commission is needed: 

►First, and most important, this was an unprecedented election in the reliance of mail-in voting and the use of new voting systems and procedures. We need to review how that worked down to the smallest precincts and hamlets.

►Second, possibly tens of millions of voters believe that this election was rigged and stolen. I am not one of them. However, the integrity of our elections depends on the faith of the electorate.

Roughly 40% of that electorate have lingering doubts about whether their votes actually matter. Most of the cases challenging the election were not decided on the merits. Indeed, it seems they haven’t even been allowed for discovery. Instead, they were largely dismissed on jurisdictional or standing groups or under the “laches” doctrine that they were brought too late. Those allegations need to be conclusively proven or disproven in the interests of the country.

►Third, there were problems. There was not proof of systemic fraud or irregularities, but there were problems of uncounted votes, loss of key custodial information and key differences in the rules governing voting and tabulations. 

Nothing has changed. The stakes are too high to allow even a dust particle to tip the difference on the ultimate findings. The dust-free option requires a dependent, not independent, commission. Otherwise, the public will be the loser.

So, let’s have a commission, but let’s make it a real one.