RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-1-21-whos-attacking-our-democracy

The breach of the Capitol on January 6 by pro-Trump demonstrators took Americans by surprise. There have been many reactions in the aftermath, but responses by the mainstream media completely miss — or intentionally misrepresent — the underlying issues. The Capitol breach felt like a turning point, but not because Trump supporters are particularly dangerous or violent as the media would like us to believe. If their demonstration attacked our democracy, it’s because we are living in a democracy so divided we no longer share any goals in common. As long as the party in power seizes opportunities to silence or oppress its opposition, that divide can only widen. 

Even while the January 6 events were still unfolding, the mainstream media started talking about the breach of the Capitol as a “violent siege,” conducted by a far-right mob. During the time that protestors were in the building, my iPhone was flooded with breaking news alerts from CNN, NBC, NPR all letting me know first that the Capitol had been breached, that Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi had been moved to a “secure location,” while those on the House floor were told to “shelter in place.” Rioters “vandalized” “occupied” and “ransacked” the building, and attempted to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College votes.

It took a few days for any counter-perspective to come out. Matt Keener, an opinion columnist who was in DC as a peaceful demonstrator, had a different experience. He wrote for American Spectator that: “the atmosphere outside [the Capitol] resembled an open air concert or festival more than a ‘riot.’” He also linked to a video of protestors being let into the building by police.  He believes “the true story [of the demonstration] is getting lost in the propaganda.” 

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/pelosis-office-wont-say-if-she-was-briefed-potential-violence-ahead-jan-6

The offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell won’t say whether the congressional leaders were briefed on potential violence ahead of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol — or whether they weighed in on requesting help from the National Guard to bolster Capitol security.

Just the News reached out to representatives for Pelosi and asked if the speaker was briefed about threats of violence in advance of the rally. Her office was also asked if the speaker favored or opposed having National Guard troops help Capitol Police to protect the Capitol Building before the rally. Her office didn’t provide a response.

McConnell’s press office was asked the same questions, but they did not return a request for comment. 

Security sources told Just the News that Pelosi’s staff was briefed on threats of violence, but it is unclear if Pelosi herself was briefed directly or indirectly on the situation.

In a timeline of events from the Pentagon, defense officials wrote that U.S. Capitol Police twice said that they did not need help from the military. According to the timeline, Capitol Police confirmed that stance to Defense Department officials and to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. 

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund reportedly asked House and Senate security officials if they wanted National Guard troops to assist the Capitol Police in protecting the Capitol complex in advance of the Jan. 6 rally. According to The Washington Post, House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he was not in support of declaring an emergency ahead of the rally. Sund and Irving have since resigned. 

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/01/21/republican-files-articles-of-impeachment-against-joe-biden-on-his-second-day-in-office-n1403692

A House Republican officially filed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden on his second day in office. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — infamous for supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory on a blog before running for Congress — launched a Quixotic attempt to impeach Biden over the Hunter Biden-Burisma scandal.

“President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the Presidency. His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama’s Vice President is lengthy and disturbing. President Biden has demonstrated that he will do whatever it takes to bail out his son, Hunter, and line his family’s pockets with cash from corrupt foreign energy companies,” Greene said in a statement on Thursday after filing the articles.

“President Biden is even on tape admitting to a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian government threatening to withhold $1,000,000,000 in foreign aid if they did not do his bidding. President Biden residing in the White House is a threat to national security and he must be immediately impeached,” the congresswoman insisted.

Greene’s impeachment effort is unlikely to gain any traction, but it does once again point out the notorious Burisma scandal.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/21/freedoms-funeral/

In Norwegian, the word for inauguration, innsettelse, shares a root with bisettelse, the word for funeral. On the day after Joe Biden was sworn in, my friend Roger in Oslo joked that he’d watched the whole bisettelse on TV.

At a time like this, the only options for a sane freedom-lover are revolution, drugs, and gallows humor.

I watched the bisettelse, too. I thought Lady Gaga did a spectacular job with the National Anthem. She was a terrible choice, though. Her vivacity served only to underscore, by contrast, the fact that the new occupant of the White House is a walking corpse.

While he was delivering his address, I was so focused on the question of the day—would he get through it without zoning out?—that I barely noticed how vapid and mendacious the speech itself was.

But it was both of those things, in spades—vapid and mendacious.

It was ironic to find oneself listening to such a piece of drivel after four years during which the media told us, repeatedly, that Donald Trump spoke at the level of a middle schooler—and spoke too roughly and bluntly, in a style that was scandalously “unpresidential.”

True enough. He shot from the hip. He didn’t waste his audiences’ time with platitudes, with pap. Unlike Barack Obama, Trump didn’t fancy himself an orator come down from Olympus to turn mere words into glorious music.

Truth, Lies, and “Unity”

The media also said that Trump lied. Well, he exaggerated. But lies? Not really. Not about the big stuff, anyway. Biden’s speech, by contrast, in addition to being a string of clichés written on a grade-school level, was one big fat lie. And at its climax, he professed a profound love for the truth.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/21/let-the-senates-show-trial-begin/

So much for unity.

During her first softball briefing, Jen Psaki, Joe Biden’s press secretary, assured America that the U.S. Senate can “multi-task” by conducting its routine business and proceeding with a trial against former President Donald Trump at the same time. “[Biden’s] gonna leave the mechanics, the timing, the specifics of how Congress moves forward on impeachment to them,” the ex-Obama staffer told a Fox News reporter Wednesday.

The House of Representatives hastily impeached Trump a second time on January 13, one week after the so-called insurrection at the Capitol. The former president was charged with “willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States” for allegedly provoking the mob with his speech prior to Congress’ formal certification of the 2020 election.

Ten Republican House members, including U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), voted for the resolution; Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), bitter after losing control of the Senate, suggested on the Senate floor last week that Trump did in fact fuel the mob.

To which I say—let the trial begin.

Republican lawmakers and Trump supporters should welcome this opportunity to expose the truth. After all, the former president has been tried in an ex parte court of public outrage and convicted of sedition by the news media, Democrats, and a sizable swath of the American public.

A Proper Defense

Trump and his supporters are denied any defense in the virtual courtroom of social media; tens of thousands of Twitter users, including the former president, were permanently purged from the site following the January 6 melee.

Not only is there a bounty on the heads of people who were involved in the Capitol violence or who even just attended Trump’s speech that day, 74.2 million Americans now are considered “terrorists” for the simple act of voting to reelect the president. Comparisons to Iraqi insurgents or al-Qaeda terrorists easily slip from the tongues of ex-military leaders and alleged “conservative” pundits. Joe Biden mentioned “domestic terrorists” in his inauguration speech. 

“Two weeks ago, when an angry violent mob staged an insurrection and desecrated this temple of our democracy, it awakened us,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said in the inauguration’s opening remarks Wednesday.

But more than two weeks later, many questions remain unanswered about exactly what happened on January 6. And just like every other overblown crisis intended to inflict mortal damage to Donald Trump, key parts of the narrative are falling apart while others are swept under the rug.

A Senate trial allows for the only public opportunity to vet the various charges now levied against Trump and his voters.