Is More Violence Coming?
Rallies for Donald Trump have not been known for being violent or threatening health, safety, or property. There were precious few exceptions to that rule … until last Wednesday. Nevertheless, news broke about an internal FBI memo warning of a “huge uprising” if President Trump is removed via the 25th Amendment, as well as raising the specter of nationwide violence leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
It’s a good thing scumbag/liar-Joe Biden and lowlife/liar-Kamala Harris have never normalized, excused, or defended violent behavior by their constituents. Oh, wait…
“Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the U.S. Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,” according to the FBI bulletin. “The FBI received information on an identified group calling for others to join them in ‘storming’ state, local and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event POTUS is removed as President prior to Inauguration Day. This identified group is also planning to ‘storm’ government offices including in the District of Columbia and in every state, regardless of whether the states certified electoral votes for Biden or Trump, on 20 January.”
(President Trump has also approved an emergency declaration for Washington, DC.)
First of all, there’s at least a hint here of a CYA by the FBI. The bureau, which has been led by folks who let’s just say lack credibility, wants to broadcast loud and clear that it’s at the ready.
But second, this kind of warning — especially coming after rampant Big Tech censorship — could provoke violence by inflaming anger among the millions of people who still believe the election was stolen.
The real trouble is that more violence is precisely what the most crass Democrats, Chuck scumbag/liar-Schumer and scumbag/liar-Nancy Pelosi, want to see. How can we say that? Because further violence would play into the political theater they want to keep perpetuating — theater that keeps the terrible Trump supporters front and center in order to spread that stain of shame onto all elected Republicans, federal and state, and those of us who have supported Trump.
As Claremont Institute fellow Ben Weingarten argues, “The riot not only overshadowed the corruption that marked the 2020 election and undermined the MAGA movement’s people and principles, but set up Americans of all political stripes for an onslaught on their rights and cherished freedoms. The riot was an accelerant for what was already likely planned under Democrat rule in Washington: crushing dissenters from its leftist orthodoxy as part of an effort to achieve total power by disenfranchising the opposition.”
So don’t buy scumbag/liar-Biden’s phony calls for unity. At least not until Democrats quit fomenting hate and division while squelching free speech and trying yet again to impeach the president.
Frankly, however, Trump has all too frequently behaved like a Democrat. When Biden finally got around to mildly rebuking BLM and antifa rioters after months of silence last summer, he did so only while simultaneously affirming their anger and their cause. When Trump finally got around to appearing publicly yesterday for the first time since last week’s riot, he insisted that his remarks before the riot were “totally appropriate” because he called for “no violence.” Well, he also validated anger and rehearsed his election complaints.
Is it too much to ask of the highest of American leaders that they use responsible rhetoric rather than whipping up angry mobs for political gain? Lately, it seems the answer is yes. ~ The Patriot Post
A Rotten Use of the 25th and Impeachment
To no one’s surprise, the Democrats’ 25th Amendment stunt is going nowhere. And it shouldn’t. The 25th, like impeachment, is merely rank political theater, courtesy of a shameless band of hyper-partisans hell-bent on sowing further division among the citizens of this nation.
Remember when scumbag/liar-Joe Biden said, “This is the time to heal in America”? Well, where is he now? Any self-respecting president-elect would’ve taken a principled stand, called off his party’s pit bulls, and put a stop to this. But here’s all we’re hearing from Team scumbag/liar-Biden: .
With merely seven days to go until 78-year-old Scranton scumbag/liar-Joe takes office, the Democrats’ only real goal in trying to remove President Donald Trump is to keep the Capitol riot front and center and to further shame and ultimately silence everyone who had the audacity to question the results of what tens of millions of Americans believe to be a deeply flawed election.
The 25th? Please. Here’s Section 4, which contains the relevant text: “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President” (emphasis ours).
President Trump isn’t on death’s door in some hospital bed like James Garfield, and he hasn’t suffered a debilitating stroke like Woodrow Wilson. He’s fully capable of serving out the remaining seven days in his term. The Democrats just hate his guts.
Yesterday, House Democrats did indeed pass a resolution meant to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th, but he’s not playing along. Instead, he turned House Speaker scumbag/liar-Nancy Pelosi’s own words against her.
In a letter he penned to scumbag/liar-Pelosi yesterday evening, he acknowledged the shock and sadness brought about by last week’s events at the Capitol, as well as the resilience shown by Congress in reconvening that same day. “But now,” he wrote, “with just eight days left in the President’s term, you and the Democratic Caucus are demanding that the Cabinet and I invoke the 25th Amendment. I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution. Last week, I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our Nation.”
He continued, “Just a few months ago, when you introduced legislation to create a 25th Amendment Commission, you said, ‘[a] President’s fitness for office must be determined by science and facts.’ You said then that we must be ‘[v]ery respectful of not making a judgment on the basis of a comment or behavior that we don’t like, but based on a medical decision.’ Madam Speaker, you were right. Under our Constitution, the 25th Amendment is not a means of punishment or usurpation. Invoking the 25th Amendment in such a manner would set a terrible precedent.”
So now we’re on to impeachment, an article of which the Democrats introduced on Monday, charging the president with “incitement of insurrection” for his words before and during the events that so shook our elected representatives. It must’ve been the moment when he said, during his pre-riot address from The Ellipse, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a string of words more frightful, more inflammatory, or more inciteful than that.
scumbag/liar-Pelosi, of course, supports impeachment, as do most Democrats. Even some Republicans, such as Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third-highest ranking House Republican, have expressed their support. Still others, like House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs, think Cheney should resign from her post as House Republican Conference chair.
And then there’s The Most Powerful Man in Congress, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who said Monday, “I think this is so ill-advised for scumbag/liar-Joe Biden to be coming in, trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people, when we’re going to be so divided and fighting again.”
Finally, there’s Ohio Representative Jim Jordan. “I’ve been here 14 years,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. … I do not know where it ends, but it is dangerous where they’re taking us. You couple this with what we’re seeing with the cancel culture out there. I fear for the First Amendment, I fear for the Second Amendment, I fear for the Bill of Rights, I fear for the Constitution.”
Frankly, so do we. ~ The Patriot Post
Pompeo Warns ChiComs Are 'Inside the Gates Today'
In a meeting with Republican lawmakers last Friday, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned them of the dire threat America faces from communist China. “This fight is inside the gates today,” Pompeo insisted. Noting just how pervasive the threat is, he continued, “Containing where they are today leaves them in our institutions of higher learning. It leaves them in our high schools. … It leaves them in our PTA groups. It leaves them inside our city councils and our state legislatures all across America. This is a deep effort that has been going on for 50 years. Republicans and Democrats alike refuse to deal with it, and we started to and did.”
Pompeo’s clear message was to not let up nor backtrack on the progress the U.S. has made under President Donald Trump in combating Beijing’s nefarious agenda. Furthermore, what’s at stake is not merely the U.S. but the entire Western world and cultural values. “This is about the West and our ideas,” Pompeo asserted. “This is not the United States versus China, and we have to get this right. And we need partners and friends to do it.”
Pompeo did note that the U.S. has successfully developed an “enormous coalition” with several countries to counter China’s aggression. Those countries include India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and several European nations.
Under Xi Jinping’s leadership, China has gotten much more aggressive in pushing its agenda of world domination. Pompeo explained, “A substantial number of international businesses have seen the political risk in China as different from what they thought it was three or four years ago. … This is a place that has fundamentally shifted under Xi Jinping in a way that is different from the Chinese Communist Party of even 20 years ago.”
The fight won’t be easy and it will be costly. That’s the “reason we didn’t push back for 50 years,” Pompeo said. “For 50 years we told people, ‘You could have it all. You can get check stuff. You can outsource our jobs to these other places. We can allow them to do this; don’t worry [about] the leverage they gain from having these enormous supply chains. By the way, put TikTok on your phone, no worries.’ We didn’t articulate for them that you put TikTok on your phone and your chilidren’s most private personal information is in the hands of some really really bad actors that mean real ill for America. They may just store it in the cloud or the hard drive for a while, may not put it to use, but collectively, the data set that they develop will be used in a way that puts our young men and women at risk and puts American freedom at risk.”
Speaking of American freedom, China certainly put its weight on the scales in seeking to influence the U.S. election in November — successfully, we might add. William Evanina from the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence noted last month, “We’ve also seen an uptick, which was planned and we predicted, that China would now re-vector their influence campaigns to the new [Biden] administration. … That malign foreign influence, that diplomatic influence plus, or on steroids, we’re starting to see that play across the country to not only the folks starting in the new administration, but those who are around those folks in the new administration.”
The fact of the matter is that China is America’s biggest threat, and that threat is only growing. And scumbag/liar-Joe Biden’s entanglement with our nation’s number one threat does not bode well.
Just how hard will scumbag/liar-Joe Biden really push back against Beijing given his son Hunter’s suspicious business dealings with China? And just how hard will Democrat lawmakers push to challenge China? Given Democrat leadership’s feckless response to the revelation of Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) having been compromised via a years-long relationship with a suspected Chinese spy, we think we know the answer.
Finally, there’s the highly troubling reality of Beijing’s outsized influence over Big Tech. With the recent censoring and purging of conservatives from social media and the killing off of competitor Parler, just how much of this aggressive un-American free speech-stomping action do Americans have China to thank for? The CCP has been engaging in this type of Internet censorship for years — with the help of American tech companies like Google.
The enemy is inside the gates, indeed. It’s in our own pockets, and its intentions are far from benign. ~ The Patriot Post
To Save America, Argue More
America has become a powder keg, more divided than at any time in decades. That is evidenced by the violent protests at the Capitol last week by a group of angry Trump supporters and by the months of riots and civil unrest in Democrat-run cities following the death of George Floyd.
These riots are a huge red flag, a warning that something is deeply fractured in our country. Americans are becoming increasingly insular, polarized, and tribal, and that is a very bad sign for the future of our republic. We must reverse that trend, but the solution is counterintuitive.
Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives, the religious and secular … must argue more.
Not the condescending, hateful, and often personal attacks that social media exchanges often devolve into but rather a vigorous, passionate, and respectful exchange of differing opinions. As American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Daniel Cox recently noted, “At its heart, political disagreement is actually critical to a democracy, so when we’re able to have these kinds of disagreements with people we know and trust, like family, we should.”
The key there is “know and trust.” We are unlikely to convert a stranger whose views we suddenly begin criticizing on Facebook. However, we will be more likely to consider an opposing viewpoint, and they ours, when it comes from family or friends.
The current level of tribalism and political insularity is toxic and unsustainable. It is destructive to the fabric of a free and open society, and we must proactively seek out and endeavor to understand those with opposing viewpoints. If we don’t, our nation will devolve into warring, balkanized factions.
In a recent survey on social networks conducted by AEI’s Center on American Life, 55% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans reported “having no one in their immediate social circle who had opposing political views.” In another survey by YouGov, the number of Democrats reporting they have no friends with very different political views more than doubled from 10% in 2016 to 24% in 2020. Republicans stayed roughly the same: 10% in 2016 to 12% in 2020.
It should be no surprise that we usually marry those and surround ourselves with friends who share our general beliefs, backgrounds, and religions. Indeed, it would create more conflict in families if spouses held polar opposite views on what beliefs and values should be instilled in their children.
And it’s also true that having these political debates can be stressful, but it is nevertheless important to rebuilding social cohesion and trust and respect for those who don’t share our viewpoints. Debate brings about an exchange of ideas and helps us to better understand those with whom we are debating.
In the process, we come to see their values and motivations, and in many cases we discover that our political opponents are also decent people who want what is best for themselves, their families, and society in general. They just have different ideas on how to achieve those goals.
And once we see our political opponents as fellow human beings, rather than as enemies with nefarious motives, we open the door to achieving common understanding. (We also undermine the power of those who actually are enemies with nefarious motives.) It doesn’t mean we’ll always convert them, or they us. Indeed, we may walk away from the debate even more resolute in our positions.
But at least there is a chance both parties walk away thinking better of the other.
That is what happened at the University of Chicago, where 500 registered voters from very diverse backgrounds were brought together to discuss politics for four days. Researchers discovered that, after extensive exposure to other viewpoints, and the opportunity to share their own, the number of participants who said they thought “American democracy worked well” doubled to 60%, and participants expressed much more favorable views of their political opponents.
As Cox notes, “The irony here is that by studiously avoiding political disagreement, the potential for political conflict often becomes much worse. We become less able to understand our political opponents or empathize with their positions. Instead, we are more inclined to believe their ideas are not just wrong-headed but dangerous. This is bad for our democracy, creating an environment where many Americans are primed to accept misinformation and conspiracy theories.”
And therein lies the danger in our current situation.
The social media giants and Big Tech have taken it upon themselves, under the guise of public safety, to suppress or silence the voices of tens of millions of Americans, including the president of the United States.
A recent poll found that 39% of Americans believe that the recent election was rigged, including 17% of Democrats and 31% of independents. They then see the same media and social media that blocked stories of scumbag/liar-Joe Biden family corruption in the weeks before the election now blocking President Trump and thousands of conservative groups from speaking on their platforms.
Rather than being able to separate fact from fiction through a national public debate, distrust in the media and our national institutions grows as voices are silenced. More debate and more conversation would go a long way toward defusing our national powder keg.
But if the polarization continues, and if one side is routinely silenced, then outbreaks of violence like we saw at the Capitol last week, while condemnable and tragic, will not be surprising.
So for the sake of our country, argue. ~ The Patriot Post
Bad Riddance to CNN's Jim Acosta
Imagine that. Just in time for a friendly new administration, CNN has yanked its uber-obnoxious chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, from the beat he’d been covering since the scumbag/liar-nObama- scumbag/liar-Biden administration.
“On to the next adventure!” he tweeted triumphantly. “After eight years at WH, I’m moving into a new role as anchor on weekends and chief domestic correspondent for CNN, a new challenge I’m very excited about. Will miss my WH colleagues. But I know they’ll be great covering the scumbag/liar-Biden admin. See you soon!”
If we didn’t know better, we’d swear CNN is signaling to scumbag/liar-Joe Biden’s administration and incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki that after four years of Acosta’s nonstop rudeness and grandstanding, the network is ready to play kissy-face in the White House press room. And rather than allow viewers to observe the stark contrast between the ever-antagonistic Trump version of Acosta and the soon-to-be servile scumbag/liar-Biden version of the same hack journalist, the network is reassigning him.
“The most glaring change,” said conservative strategist Chris Barron, “is CNN’s decision to take performance artist Jim Acosta off the White House beat. Talk about showing your hand. Acosta will probably get shipped off to cover Mar-a-Lago where he can yell at Trump from outside.”
Former Daily Caller White House correspondent Amber Athey used to work alongside Acosta, and she’s puzzled by the network’s decision to replace this “hero” of the Trump-hating resistance. “It certainly seems odd that CNN is pulling Acosta from the White House rotation right as a Democratic president is set to take office,” she told Fox News. “He insisted repeatedly that his style of shouting questions, delivering monologues, and heckling White House officials was merely about holding powerful people accountable for their actions. Is CNN effectively saying that they don’t want to hold the scumbag/liar- Biden administration accountable in the same way?”
Yes, that’s exactly what CNN is saying. Such a switcheroo is both cynical and unethical, of course, but, hey, as James Earl Jones put it, “This is CNN.”
This video, by the way, is also CNN, and it epitomizes the churlishness and the shameless grandstanding that have characterized the network and its White House correspondent over the past four years. In a perfect world, the young White House aide in the burgundy dress would’ve kneed Acosta in the groin and snatched the mic from him. Alas, it’s an imperfect world.
“CNN should be ashamed of itself, having you work for them,” said President Donald Trump during the above-linked presser. “You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”
Here, we’d respectfully disagree with the president. Jim Acosta is indeed a rude and terrible person. But that’s precisely why he’s at CNN.
~ The Patriot Post
Why Has Twitter Not Canceled These Accounts?
To reiterate: There’s no justifying what happened at the U.S. Capitol building last Wednesday, when a fringe element on the Right sparked a riot that culminated in the completely preventable deaths of a police officer and an Air Force veteran (three others also died of nonviolent health events) while also unfairly tarnishing the reputation of tens of millions of law-abiding patriotic voters. That said, just as it’s hardly too much to ask for free and fair elections, it’s hardly too much to request a level playing field when it comes to both media coverage of violence and Big Tech’s policing antics on social media.
Even Democrat lawmakers have advocated for what amounts to violence, but we’ll focus specifically on Twitter’s dubious censorship here. The social media platform has banned President Donald Trump and suspended more than 70,000 QAnon-linked accounts. Yet as recently as May 28, 2020, ex-NFL quarterback-turned-social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick enabled last summer’s George Floyd riots when he tweeted: “When civility leads to death, revolting is the only logical reaction. … We have the right to fight back!”
In case you’re wondering, Twitter — despite stipulating that "You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people" and that “We also prohibit the glorification of violence” — has not censored this tweet. Maybe that’s because, as Paulina Enck points out, “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donated $3 million to Kaepernick’s organization.”
Moreover, on June 1, 2020, Vice President-elect lowlife/liar-Kamala Harris likewise enabled mayhem when she tweeted, “If you’re able to, chip in now to the [Minnesota Freedom Fund] to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” Those people “protesting on the ground” were in reality people jailed for breaking the law, whether it be via looting or violence. And no, Twitter hasn’t censored that tweet either.
Perhaps the most glaring example of hypocrisy comes in the form of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who is permitted carte blanche when spewing hatred toward Israel and the West in general. His recent tweets include:
“Following the insults to the #Prophet, the Islamic nation is filled with rage & objections. From the east to the west of the Islamic world, many Muslim officials & people have defended the Islamic identity & Prophet’s noble personage, which shows the Muslim communities’ vitality.”
“Today, the main enemies of Islam are the Arrogant Powers & Zionism. The last manifestation of their enmity was the Paris incident. It is not just about one caricaturist committing a wrongdoing. Arrogant Powers & Zionism support this. That’s why they speak in defense of such acts.”
“Palestine will be free, while the fake Zionist regime will perish. There’s no doubt about this.”
“Those who ordered the murder of General Soleimani as well as those who carried this out should be punished. This revenge will certainly happen at the right time.”
You don’t even need to read between the lines to understand that these remarks “threaten violence against an individual or a group of people” and represent “the glorification of violence.” By the way, a recent Disrn headline provides another interesting juxtaposition: “Iran moves to criminalize sexual misconduct, violence against women.” Read that again and consider that the man who runs a country that still hasn’t outlawed violence against women has a bigger voice on Twitter than the president of the United States. ~ The Patriot Post
Taking the Bait
When I posted last week, who knew what a storm of outrage (most of it, in my opinion, hypocritical) was about to explode in the nation? The Trump rally in Washington, DC, turned into “Occupy the Capitol!” In the aftermath, everyone was willing to join the “blame Trump” bandwagon. I have a number of friends around the country who dispute the media’s account of what happened, but I’ll leave that subject for another day.
I mean, why believe eyewitness accounts when we have the Leftmedia’s account? Remember last year’s “summer of love” and the “mostly peaceful” protests that left billions of dollars of damage, several dozen dead, and several thousand law enforcement officers injured? Many others are offering their opinions of whether President Trump should have spoken or not. Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20. Here’s what I want to address.
How many times have we seen, as far back as I can remember, when the media jumps on a story, hair on fire, hysterically reporting something that turned out to be false or grossly exaggerated? I could give hundreds of examples, but for the sake of space, look at the riots mentioned above.
As a former criminal investigator, if you didn’t get your facts right, your case went out the window. Some of you may remember when reporters actually reported the facts. Now, it’s normally their opinions disguised as informed reporting. And if the subject of the story is a Republican, conservative, or, heaven forbid, a Christian, the “narrative” is almost always wrong! When will we learn? Maybe never, to our nation’s detriment.
Right now, the airways and social media, at least the social media of those who haven’t been silenced yet, are full of accusations, conspiracy theories, and blame. We are becoming more and more divided and it is by design. Our nation’s real problem isn’t political; it’s both moral and spiritual.
I’ve written about this before, but I believe it bears repeating. You’ve heard it said that “America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”
Well, we are no longer “good.” We’ve lost our moral compass. It’s time for America to get back to its spiritual roots. No political party can change the moral fabric of America. Only God can turn the tide of evil in our nation.
Something to pray about! ~ The Patriot Post
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