Three videos from January 6…
What’s going on here? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?
The three videos are conclusive proof that there was no “insurrection” in the Capitol on January 6, 2021. You remember reading all of those French Revolution history accounts about how some of the peasants attacking the Bastille just peacefully wandered around the place, not bothering anyone, as the guards stood by, don’t you? You don’t? That’s because it didn’t happen. In an insurrection, everyone is attacking from the beginning. The January 6 incident was an ugly riot that grew spontaneously out of a demonstration.
This is why Liz Cheney’s video and the other cherry-picked videos showing the worst of the rioting are deceitful, like the entire corrupt hearings her committee inflicted on a gullible public. Republican cherry-picked videos showing peaceful demonstrators do not disprove the existence of the riot, but they do make the repeated mantra that this was an “insurrection” look like the partisan misinformation it was and continues to be.
In truth, the public isn’t that gullible; polling indicates that most view the Capitol chaos as a protest that became a riot, because that’s what it was. One CBS News poll showed that 76 % viewed it for what it was, as a “protest gone too far.” The Trump-Deranged call it an “insurrection,” a definition that is unsupportable. Despite the group effort by multiple Democrat prosecutors to take Trump out of the 2024 election by any means necessary (even if the means involves launching the nation into an era of using the criminal law as a political weapon), not one has tried to make the legal case that this mess met the definition of an insurrection. For almost three years, I have noted which publications, reporters and pundits continue to use that false description (I just added Forbes to the list). It is signature significance: they are all biased, partisan, and untrustworthy.
Also biased, partisan, and untrustworthy is Colorado Judge Sarah Wallace, who last week refused to play her assigned part in the whole “Get Trump” fake insurrection narrative by rejecting the ridiculous and legally untenable theory that the 14th Amendment’s provision specifically aimed at members of the Confederacy in the Civil War should apply to Donald Trump. She knew holding that Trump should be barred from the ballot would inevitably lead to her ruling being overturned and a professional embarrassment, so instead, like the good Democrat she is, Wallace thrilled Trump-hating partisans by holding that he indeed did engage in an “insurrection”—you remember all of the video footage showing him fighting with Capitol police, right?—but that the 14th’s insurrection provision doesn’t apply to Presidents. She’s a shameless hack.
In his typically moderated style, Prof. Turley shows why:
She states as a fact that Trump was guilty of incitement, a charge that no prosecutor has ever brought against him. That includes the D.C. Attorney General who announced his intention to pursue such charges. It also includes Special Counsel Jack Smith who threw every other possible criminal charge against Trump. Nevertheless, Judge Wallace concludes that Trump “incited imminent lawless violence.” She further found that “[i]n addition to his consistent endorsement of political violence, Trump undertook efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election well in advance of the election, making accusations of widespread corruption, voter fraud, and election rigging.”
As such, she finds that his speech was not protected by the First Amendment. While I am a critic of Trump’s speech and actions on that day, I still believe that the the court is completely wrong on the First Amendment.
In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that even calling for violence is protected under the First Amendment unless there is a threat of “imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”
It is common for political leaders to call for protests at the federal or state capitols when controversial legislation or actions are being taken. Indeed, in past elections, Democratic members also protested elections and challenged electoral votes in Congress.
The fact is that Trump never actually called for violence or a riot. Rather, he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to express opposition to the certification of electoral votes and to support the challenges being made by some members of Congress. He expressly told his followers “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Trump also stated: “Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy…And after this, we’re going to walk down – and I’ll be there with you – we’re going to walk down … to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
He ended his speech by saying a protest at the Capitol was meant to “try and give our Republicans, the weak ones … the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” Such marches are common — on both federal and state capitols — to protest or to support actions occurring inside.
But Facts Don’t Matter to the Trump-Deranged, of which either the judge is a card-carrying member or is just trying to please them. The evidence of that is her citing as evidence for the “insurrection” smear that “Trump undertook efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election well in advance of the election, making accusations of widespread corruption, voter fraud, and election rigging.” The Wuhan panic-fueled effort by Democrats to remove multiple safeguards against voter fraud and other threats to a fair election were suspicious well before November 8, 2020. Trump’s warnings were fair and justified, if not phrased with the precision and moderation some might have wished.
Wallace’s 102-page ruling was both cowardly and incompetent. She didn’t have the guts to go ahead and hold Trump legally accountable for an insurrection, so she libeled him with dicta, giving the Axis of Unethical Conduct (the “resistance,” Democrats and the mainstream media) a chance to shout, “See? We told you so!” Now watch Biden nominate her to be a Federal judge.
Such linguistic deceits now seem to be part of the Left’s strategy in almost every controversy. Illegal immigrants are “migrants,” “undocumented” or just “immigrants.” Ending a nascent human life in the womb is just a “choice” or “reproductive care.” Discriminating against whites is “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Allowing children to be sexually mutilated befor puberty is “gender-affirming care.” Letting convicted criminals go free is “restorative justice.” Hamas terrorists are “freedom fighters,” and the Capitol riot was an “insurrection.”
It’s about time the American public recognized this pattern.
Ethics Alarms 
Here I go again with another Monday morning dark rants…
The dark abyss of totalitarianism has wrapped it ugly arms around the USA and has been choking the life out of Liberty one drop at a time until those drips have become a steady stream bleeding us dry.
The extreme left is intentionally bastardizing everything that has been the foundational status quo of our culture for nearly 250 years.
What’s happening in our society, culture and politics are all absurdly crazy these days and it’s all on a slippery slope into the abyss, it’s truly become, Situation Normal All Fucked Up, aka SNAFU.
Based on observed cultural, societal and political patterns, I see the 2024 election as being a societal and cultural disaster for the United States of America. No matter who is elected the reactions are going to be bad, likely really bad.
The government/media bureaucracy, which seem to be intrinsically linked now, is in charge and that bureaucracy is rapidly approaching being 100% dominated by the extreme faction of the political left with an activist Pravda-USA like “progressive” (read regressive) media monopoly completely onboard with in-your-face propaganda. The dominate bureaucracy no longer cares one bit about the United States Constitution, many of them hate that it stops them from achieving what they want and therefore it should be ignored to the point of obscurity.
We are rapidly reaching the precipice of hate inspired political violence & outright political persecution in the USA and that will slide us down a greased up slippery slope directly into totalitarianism as the dominate political force across the USA and they will either destroy our Constitution or completely ignoring that it exists. Remember, laws are only good if they are supported and enforced.
My hope for a common sense solution to what ails the USA is all but gone, I think we’re way too deep in the murk of a bureaucracy dominated society & culture that leans very heavily towards totalitarianism.
Dark rant complete.
Apt, Steve. The news informed me this morning that this is National Absurdity Day.
Cameras everywhere, but still no footage (or open investigation) of screwup guard Michael Byrd murdering a petit unarmed woman. Too many Republicans previously praised him for “protecting” them?
I mean, it’s pretty obvious at this point that what we’ll discover once there’s no threat that the truth might harm Democrat politics – is that the incidents of violence, were probably 100% instigated by antifa-style agitators or other left-wing subversives.
This guy is nuts:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/colorado-ruling-is-the-very-worst-decision-trump-could-get-former-solicitor-general/ar-AA1kcHmo?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=91473f7f85e5499ebaa5e4e30e581646&ei=38
A former Solicitor General thinks this judge made a factual finding that Trump engaged in an insurrection! Which finding all appellate courts will be loath to mess with. Ridiculous. Wishful thinking of the first degree.