Real Enemy, Real Freedom

  Ricochet   "Why is America eroding? Why does it seem like we can’t get “unstuck” from the inevitable cycle of decline? I believe it has to do with what we might not yet identify as the real enemy of our Republic. The truth might be uncomfortable. And what we might fail to remember is real freedom.

"Os Guinness’s 2012 book, A Free People’s Suicide, takes St. Augustine’s basis for politics as the starting point for freedom. Augustine suggested “loved things held in common” are the basis of freedom. Guinness goes one step more with the saint. We may use loved things held in common to diagnose the health of our nation.

"What do we hold in common? Is it enough to sustain our freedom? Or is our freedom eroding because our loved things held in common have been debased—or are vanishing?

"When a free people “love things held in common,” they gain enriched, unified identity." . . .

Kevin McCarthy, January 6, and Willfully Ignorant Republicans -

When Trump surprised the world and won the first election against the inevitable Hillary Clinton, the power structures in the United States and around the world never recovered. The power brokers running these institutions would do anything, did do anything, to get rid of Trump.

Globalist News  . . ."The only purpose a committee such as this serves is to write better legislation for the future. Nancy Pelosi’s select committee is not interested in Capitol security or, apparently, legislating. She’s interested in proving a criminal conspiracy to form an insurrection. The idea itself is absurd. But more than that, it’s unconstitutional for Congress to be used in this way. It’s not their job. Democrats don’t care, though. By any means necessary. They proved their corruption with the Russia-collusion hoax. Hoaxes work and if Democrats and Never Trumpers can create another hoax narrative, they will.

"Hopefully, Leader McCarthy now knows that up close and personal. Maybe he’ll get it in gear and stop the machinations of this political trial in search of witches to burn.

"Sunday, Leader McCarthy wrote a letter to kick off the new year. In it he says this:

On a separate note, this week will mark one year from the riots at the Capitol. As we have said from the start, the actions of that day were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be. Our Capitol should never be compromised and those who broke the law deserve to face legal repercussions and full accountability.

Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again. Instead, they are using it as a partisan political weapon to further divide our country." . . .

. . . 

Biden’s Judicial Nominations to Get Trickier in Second Year

 

Bloomberg Law  . . ."Biden’s first year of judicial nominees were historically diverse in terms of demographics and professional background, making good on priorities White House counsel Dana Remus outlined before Biden even took office.

"“He’s delivered on his diversity promise. The numbers are quite remarkable,” Ed Whelan, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who follows judicial nominations, said. “I think he’s set a bar so high, I’d be surprised if he’s able to maintain it.”

"Of Biden’s nominees, 75% are women, nearly 65% are people of color, and nearly 30% have experience as public defenders, according to the Alliance for Justice.

"Prior to Biden’s appointments, judicial nominees commonly had experience as federal prosecutors or Big Law partners. Just 1% of circuit court judges spent the majority of their careers as public defenders or within a legal aid setting, according to a 2020 Center for American Progress report." . . .

Judicial experience be damned; what matters is how they look! TD

Sotomayer even made the parody sites; Study Finds Supreme Court Has Now Shared More COVID Misinformation Than Your Crazy Facebook Aunt | The Babylon Bee  

. . ."This is very startling," said Dr. Holson Bogtruggles, who conducted the study. "Because your Facebook Aunt is insane. Facebook has an entire department dedicated to monitoring the sheer volume of misinformation she shares, and the Supreme Court topped her in one day." 

"Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor dismissed the study, saying: "With more than 32 trillion people and 12 billion malfunctioning toaster ovens dying of COVID every three seconds, I think we have more important things to worry about here.' ". . . 

Dirty Harry Reid And John Brennan – The Origin Of The Collusion Hoax

  NoisyRoom

What happened after  Brennan’s trip to Moscow is fascinating. Brennan would “brief” Reid and the rest, as they say, is history. Brennan’s briefing of Sen. Harry Reid, which included information from the Steele dossier, certainly is a key indicator of his participation in the campaign to keep and/or kick Donald Trump out of the White House:

"The nickname “Dirty” was well-earned by the late Sen. Harry Reid. He was a masterfully corrupt and manipulative politician who would lie through his devilish smile to achieve his political ends. Case in point was the lie he admitted telling, as the Washington Post reported in 2012 concerning Mitt Romney in an attempt to influence the presidential election results:

"One of the strangest incidents of the 2012 presidential campaign was when then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid accused then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of having not paid any taxes over the past decade. That Reid made that allegation from the floor of the Senate made it even odder.

"The problem with Reid’s allegation? It’s just not true. We know that, at least in 2011 and 2010, Romney did pay taxes. How do we know that? Because Romney released his tax returns for those years. In 2011, Romney paid $1.9 million in taxes; in 2010, he paid slightly more than $3 million in taxes.

"Our own Fact Checker gave Reid Four Pinocchios for his “no taxes” claim. PolitiFact gave the claim a “Pants on Fire” rating.

"Yet Reid (D-Nev.) not only refuse[d] to retract the allegation but also seems to take great pride in it. When pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash last year about continuing to defend a statement that is not true, Reid responded, “Romney didn’t win, did he?”" . . . 

This column was written before the departure of "Dingy Harry"  Our home uses a flag with a black mourning ribbon for the death of honored citizens; this time our flag will not have that black ribbon. TD

Stop Gigi Sohn Now: The Dangerous Radical Trying to Undo Free Speech for All Americans

 Revolver 

Republicans ignore this danger at their peril. Sohn’s nomination should be opposed with all possible force, or they have only themselves to blame when Big Tech sends the rest of their accounts to the ban pile.

"The failure of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda on account of Joe Manchin’s doubts proves that, even though they control neither house of Congress, Republicans can still win victories against President Biden’s agenda. Not every Democratic senator is maximally left-wing, and if Republicans can pick the right battles, they can delay and even prevent the worst excesses of a far-left administration.

"One of those worthy battles should be taking place right now. Very soon, the Senate will vote on whether to confirm Gigi Sohn, Joe Biden’s nominee to fill the decisive fifth spot on the Federal Communications Commission. And with a 50-50 split in the Senate, that confirmation is only a sure thing if Republicans decide to take it easy. They shouldn’t. Gigi Sohn is a dangerous extremist whom Republicans should fight ferociously to keep away from any sort of regulatory power. 

"By tradition, the chairman of the FCC steps down when the presidency switches parties, so that that the new president can choose a replacement. In October, after an unusually-lengthy 10-month delay, Biden elevated sitting commissioner Jennifer Rosenworcel to be FCC chairwoman, and chose Gigi Sohn to fill the vacant fifth seat.

"Sohn, a longtime telecom lawyer and activist, is an alumnus of the far-left Ford Foundation and a fellow with the Open Society Foundations, the grantmaking network funded by George Soros. For those of you living under a rock, Soros is best known as the billionaire paying to make every American city into a criminal disaster area." . . . (All emphases in the original)

Biden's pick of Gigi Sohn to lead the FCC is utterly inappropriate - Washington Times

This new reality makes the Biden administration’s nomination of Gigi Sohn to the FCC all the more troubling given her track record of disregard for our sensitive secrets and outright hostility to intellectual property, which could dangerously empower America’s enemies namely Russia and China, if she is confirmed.  She is an utterly inappropriate choice, and the administration should withdraw her nomination straight away.

Gigi Sohn’s Time At A Shuttered Streaming Service Could Sink Her Nomination | CDN (conservativedailynews.com)

Biden nominates an out LGBTQ person to be a FCC Commissioner - Out In Jersey

Pelosi "wants to go out on top of her game. Nothing more, nothing less" UPDATED

 

Pelosi to Run in 2022? (thepeoplescube.com)

Leftists have a cow over Tucker Carlson's observations about Nancy Pelosi's strange new appearance - American Thinker   "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently has had some plastic surgery.  It didn't go well." . . .

Washington Post: Nancy Pelosi ‘Expected’ to Retire After 2022 Midterms - [your]NEWS (yournews.com)  

“Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) is the early favorite to become the next Democratic leader, but the maneuvering for power has just begun,” the publication reported, also mentioning as potential candidates Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC).

Is there anyone among Democrats who appears contented and loves this nation? 

“She wants to go out on top of her game. Nothing more, nothing less,” Manley said. “She’s not going to be driven out of the House on a note of failure. She only will go out on her own terms, and for her, that’s always winning.”

UPDATE:

Those Who Brutalized Children To Grab Power Aren’t Experts, They’re Evil

The people who brutalized children to grab ‘emergency’ powers are not ‘experts,’ they’re evil - Conservative Review

 

Did any of these people tell the truth back when it could have saved the generation that comprises the world’s future? Nope.

"Americans are starting to feel the increasing collateral damage from our unprecedented, ineffective, and ill-advised Covid lockdowns. It was known before March 2020 that lockdowns would cause lifelong and avoidable damage to billions, yet the world’s ruling classes who claim to have earned their place atop a “meritocracy” strenuously demanded such damage be inflicted especially on children and other vulnerable people.

"This ruling class used all their massive financial, communications, and government powers to ensure these tragic outcomes, even though anyone who was an actual expert—or, like me, just someone who reads and has common sense—predicted this false “cure” would hurt worse than the disease.Now that people are beginning to more deeply feel the foreseeable evil consequences of ruling class responses to a novel virus, that ruling class is pulling what propaganda experts call a “limited hangout.” That’s admitting to bits of the truth in order to re-establish yourself as a credible authority while attempting to keep the whole truth hidden.

"Now that people are beginning to more deeply feel the foreseeable evil consequences of ruling class responses to a novel virus, that ruling class is pulling what propaganda experts call a “limited hangout.” That’s admitting to bits of the truth in order to re-establish yourself as a credible authority while attempting to keep the whole truth hidden." . . . 

The Mandate Madness of King Joe

 Vaccine mandates are not constitutional because they force citizens to do something they do not want to do.  DonSurber

www.terrellaftermath.com

Will SCOTUS stop the vax mandates? What if it doesn't? - American Thinker

. . ."Waiting until the 2022 elections are over in the hopes that Republicans win is not the best solution.  First, we might not win.  If we do, the majority might not be robust enough.  In any case, we can never be sure Republicans in the majority will vote as a unified party.  Even if they present a solid bloc, after their repeated failures in repealing Obamacare and providing alternatives that they had over eight years to prepare for, how can we ever trust Republicans to follow through on any legislation to combat vaccine mandates?". . .

. . ."The people we should model ourselves after are the police officers, health care workers, and members of the military who have stood up to their superiors for what they know is wrong and didn't forget about the little guy. 

"If the Supreme Court lets us down, remember Obama's mantra: "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

"If we don't do our part to stop the madness, government will be unrestrained in doing just about anything in the interest of public health, and free will, as we know it, will cease to exist.  No joke." 

Don Surber: The vax opinion I want  . . ."No. How about just plain no?

"The mandates are so fundamentally wrong that the Court must dispense with the legal niceties and just say no.

"Hell no.

"Nothing in the Constitution gives the president or Congress or this court the power to force a grown-ass man to be vaccinated. The word health does not appear in the Constitution, nor should it because the government was not set up to protect our health. The Constitution created a government to protect our God-given rights.

"The Declaration of Independence set down the foundation on which our Constitution stands." . . .

Pfizer CEO: Our Vaccines Offer ‘Limited, If Any Protection’ (townhall.com)

Pfizer CEO: “Two doses of the vaccine offers very limited protection, if any. 3 doses with a booster offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths. Less protection against infection.”

Why the Left Cannot Let Go of Jan. 6

 Question: If the left is so terrified of Trump it feels it must prevent him from even running again, by imposing a criminal conviction, what does that say about the left's belief in American democracy? What does that tell us about the left's trust in the people?

Why the Left Cannot Let Go of Jan. 6 | Intellectual Takeout   . . ."Why cannot our liberal media let it go? Why does the distortion and hysteria about Jan. 6 seem to grow with each retelling?

"Now, undeniably, as I wrote in a column the next morning, Jan. 6 was "The Worst of Days for Trump & Trumpists."

"The worst of the day's events for Trump came when a segment of a friendly crowd of 50,000 he just addressed concluded its march down the Mall to the U.S. Capitol by smashing its way into the building and invading and occupying the Senate and House chambers.

Members of Congress were forced to flee and hide. A protester, an Air Force veteran, was shot to death by a Capitol cop. Vice President Mike Pence, who was chairing the joint session, was taken into protective custody by his Secret Service detail. Doors were broken open. Windows were smashed, and the building was trashed ...”

"What Americans watched was a mob occupation and desecration of the temple of the American Republic." I added, "And the event will be forever exploited to discredit not only Trump but the movement he led and the achievements of his presidency." That last line understated what an obsession Jan. 6 has become for the nation's establishment and media elite.

"The left cannot let go of Jan. 6. Indeed, it has fixated upon, exploited, and exaggerated the riot to discredit and destroy the Trump presidency in the history books and to prevent Donald Trump from ever running or being elected president again." . . . 

HOURS AGO Kevin McCarthy says he'll strip Ilhan Omar, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of their committee assignments if Republicans take back the House.

 Politico  Here's his plan: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he plans to kick three Democrats off their committee assignments if Republicans win back the majority next year.

"In an interview with Breitbart, the GOP leader said his party would move to strip Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from their posts on the House Intelligence Committee, and remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from her spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee." . . .

. . ."How he sees it: The California Republican has vowed to retaliate against Democrats after Speaker Nancy Pelosi took action against two of his party’s members last year. All three of the lawmakers McCarthy named are lightning-rod figures for the GOP, most notably Schiff, the Intelligence Committee chair who led multiple House investigations focused on Donald Trump.

“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who can be on committees. Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who can be on committee.”  — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to Breitbart.

Woman Tries Cancelling American Airlines Pilot Over Sticker

Louder With Crowder  "Imagine being such a horrible lifeform you would try getting someone fired over a sticker. That's not a code word for something else: literally, just a sticker like you might have on your laptop. If you could imagine that, you might be Dana Finley Morrison, someone who, as per her Twitter bio, prides herself on being passionate about "reality TV, feminism, and doing the right thing." The right thing in this case--at least according to her brain--is whining to American Airlines that one of their pilots has a tiny "Let's Go, Brandon" sticker on his luggage. Which she spotted while the pilot was standing around minding her own business like Dana should have been doing." . . .

I’m so sorry this is happening to you pic.twitter.com/z5jpwyGiOl

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) January 9, 2022

American Airlines issues groveling apology for pilot with Let's Go Brandon sticker on his case | Daily Mail Online but it has created an OFFICIAL BLM badge for staff to wear

This was noticed and commented on:   . . ."Others were also quick to point out the company's hypocrisy concerning its policies on politically charged pieces of flare.

 " 'You guys have no problem with your employees sporting Democratic party, BLM, or rainbow regalia while they're on the job,' one user wrote. 'Why should this be any different?' "

UPDATED: Manhattan's 'hug-a-thug' DA Alvin Bragg surprised by ‘push back’ — defends policies

 Manhattan's 'hug-a-thug' DA Alvin Bragg surprised by ‘push back’ — defends policies (bizpacreview.com)  "New Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has expressed surprise at the push-back from law enforcement and other city officials regarding his January 3 memo outlining the new guidelines he is instituting in the DA’s office in his borough, saying, “This is going to make us safer. It’s intuitive. It’s common sense.”

"Former federal prosecutor Trey Gowdy begs to differ, however, calling his proposed policies “dangerously stupid” during his broadcast of  “Sunday Night in America” on Fox News Channel.

"In a speech given, predictably, at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters on Saturday, Bragg said that no one should be surprised by his actions: “We said we were going to marry fairness and safety and we laid out a specific plan. We put on the website, we put it in print and this week after January 1st we got down to work and we are doing what we said we would do.' ”. . .

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his decision to not prosecute certain crimes is "humane and fair."

"It's going to make us safer because they are not going to keep cycling in and out of the system...we will have more bandwidth to [focus on] guns and sexual assault." pic.twitter.com/KsFqabczRC

— New Day (@NewDay) January 7, 2022

. . . "Bragg’s memo outlined new guidelines to eliminate charges being pressed for the following offenses, among others, “unless as part of an accusatory instrument containing at least one felony count”:

• marijuana misdemeanors
• refusing to pay far for public transportation
• trespassing
• unlicensed operation of a vehicle
• prostitution
• resisting arrest.

AF Branco

Michelle Malkin update:  I dare you to look, with a clear and unfiltered lens, at the bloody nightmare we once called the United States of America.   "Connect the dots. Contemplate the utter chaos in every major city while Black Lives Matter militants, academics and bureaucrats prattle on about “systemic racism” and “two-tiered justice.” It’s about much more than the horrific mass murders and attempted murders in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where the annual Christmas parade will now forever be stained by the wanton acts of alleged killer Darrell Brooks — a convicted sex offender and domestic abuser who sailed through George Soros-funded Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm’s soft-on-black crime revolving door like a Six Flags season pass holder." , , ,

, , ,"We are hectored repeatedly by the Biden administration that “white supremacy” is the root of all this country’s problems. CNN reported as “news” this week that “there’s nothing more frightening in America today than an angry White man.” Systemic racism and two-tiered justice won’t allow black criminals to get a fair shake, we are propagandized over and over — even as a new catch-and-release carousel-riding Darrell Brooks emerges with numbing regularity by the week or day.". . .