The Weaponization of Justice

 

Frank Miele at RealClearPolitics takes another look at the FBI: 

Nothing symbolizes the decline of the American republic better than the weaponization of justice that we saw last week when the FBI raided the home of former President Trump.

. . .

Don’t believe a word from either the Washington Post or the FBI. Trump had been cooperating with the National Archive and had already turned over 15 boxes of documents, all of which he could have made a claim to legally possess. If they wanted papers turned over, they could have gone through Trump’s lawyers. No, they wanted the spectacle. They wanted the sizzle. They wanted the headlines.

This wasn’t about the rule of law; it was about the rule of the schoolyard. Bullies get what they want through force and intimidation, and there is no reason for any of us to believe that the raid had any purpose other than to intimidate Donald Trump into backing down from his plans to run for president in 2024.

Essentially what the FBI was saying is “We know where you live, and we aren’t afraid to come for you.” They even rifled through Melania Trump’s closet, as if she might have been hiding top-secret documents in her hat box. When do we find out they also spent an hour sorting through her lingerie?

This is sickening, no matter how much MSNBC and the Washington Post want you to think you can still trust the FBI. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over and over and over again, and I must be a Democrat.

Read the full column here.

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Censorship on steroids at YouTube

 

This blog has linked many times to JD Rucker at NOQ and at Liberty Daily.  We’ve included commentary by Dr Joseph Mercola on controversial claims concerning vaccines.  Now Mr. Rucker reports that “YouTube Goes Full Vaxx-Nanny, Bans Huge Accounts that Posted the Truth About the Jabs,” and Dr Mercola is one of the censored accounts:

YouTube, the video site owned by Google parent company Alphabet, changed their terms of service this morning to go after “disinformation” regarding the Covid-19 injections. They removed countless videos and banned several prominent accounts.

Dr. Joseph Mercola and Robert F. Kennedy Jr were among the account owners who learned this morning that they are no longer welcome on the “platform.” Their accounts are gone.

After an extract from the corrupt Washington Post deploring medical sources of “misinformation,"

Dr. Mercola responded to the move:

The world is becoming increasingly aware of the rampant corruption in the media, and are rising up against tyrannical government and the pharmaceutical industry that are coordinating this assault on our freedom and civil rights. Anyone who asks question or challenges the hard sell is immediately censored on social media. State government and employees, health care workers and emergency responders, face loss of their jobs for refusing the vaccine.

In other words, here we are in the Police States of America. Mr. Rucker has more to say here. 

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What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?

 

Image via NOQ

This blog has linked to previous articles by or citing Dr Joseph Mercola.  The other day at NOQ, Dr Mercola asks

What Will Segregated Society Look Like for the Unvaxxed?

His summary points are:

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• High-profile restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Union Square Hospitality will require staff and indoor diners in New York City and Washington D.C. to show proof of COVID “vaccination,” starting September 7, 2021
• Vaccinated-only bars and restaurants have also popped up in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Boulder, St. Louis and New Orleans
• A growing number of private companies are also requiring workers to participate in human medical experimentation or forfeit their job. High profile examples include Facebook, Google, Twitter, Lyft, Uber, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Washington Post, BlackRock, Ascension Health, Netflix, Walmart, the Walt Disney Corporation and Morgan Stanley
• PayPal is vowing to block transactions and cancel accounts held by “extremists” and anyone endangering “at-risk communities,” which could include just about anything, including anti-vaccine rhetoric
• CNN anchor Don Lemon has suggested unvaccinated people ought to be barred from buying food in grocery stores and have their driver’s license taken away

In 2020, the proposition that COVID-19 countermeasures would come to include forced vaccination and vaccine passports, resulting in a segregated society where only those participating in the COVID injection experiment have human rights, was labeled a wild conspiracy theory unworthy of discussion.

Fast-forward to August 2, 2021, and Forbes announces, “No Vax, No Service: Here’s Where Bars and Restaurants Across U.S. Are Requiring Proof of Vaccination.”1

The full article is here.  Previously:  Sen. Rand Paul says NO to all this.  Note: There was no point calling Sen Portman's office to ask that he oppose the bazillion dollar and misnamed "Infrastructure" bill -- Portman had a major role in negotiating that monstrosity, and of course he voted for it.  So instead, this blog is encouraging Tea Partiers to act on Rand Paul's call-to-arms.

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Media losing power?

 

Glenn Reynolds, a/k/a Mr. Instapundit, makes a good case:

Media’s censorious gatekeepers are mad —
because they’re losing power

With Donald Trump out of office and de-platformed, you’d think mainstream media gatekeepers would be happy. You’d think wrong.

Though the media-Big Tech regime is doing its best to silence opponents and seize control of the high ground, the news from within is grim. They aren’t happy with how things are going. 

That’s because they know they’re losing. Some are losing audiences and revenues. But more important, they’re losing control of the narrative.

And since control of the narrative, and the power and self-importance that accompany that control, is the most important thing in their lives, they can’t be happy.

Consider the cri de coeur of Washington Post public editor Hamilton Nolan, inspired by Tesla’s decision to scrap its media-relations department. How could that happen?

Nolan knows how, and that’s what bothers him: Tesla scrapped its media-relations department because the media don’t much matter to it. Tesla has plenty of ways to get its story out without relying on the media, and that makes the media much less important — and much less powerful. And it’s the power part that hurts the most.

. . .

I hope it’s true.  Read the rest here.

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Facts vs propaganda

image credit: legalzoom.com

New York Times, Washington Post, 

Wikipedia, Facebook, etc., etc.

I’m linking to this report by Monica Showalter at American Thinker – not because it’s about the Jeff Epstein-Bill Clinton scandal, but because it shows the blatant corruption in media and information platforms:

With the bust of longtime Democratic donor and Bill Clinton buddy Jeffrey Epstein on sex-trafficking charges, it's pretty amazing, the scope of the Left's effort to pin the whole thing on President Trump.

It's going on all over, as if directed by some Mighty Integral from far above, to borrow a phrase from Tom Wolfe from The Right Stuff.  It's orchestrated.  It's universal.  It's big.  And it's about as honest and fact-filled as the Russian collusion narrative.

Here are the top three areas, and these aren't the only ones:

One, the press. 

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other media outlets have attempted to pin the matter on President Trump as a matter of his knowing Epstein in the past and saying nice things about him, and the bum deal cut with Epstein earlier in Miami, which involved Trump's now–labor secretary, Alexander Acosta.

. . .

Meanwhile, over at the Wikipedia desk, item two, the second front on pinning-Trump has leftists are beavering away, eliminating all evidence of Democrats involved in the Epstein case, too.

And, three, at Facebook, posts are being censored for references to Democrats, particularly Bill Clinton, regarding the Epstein case.

The effort is strikingly global. Anything to protect Democrats, just as the original bad plea deal in Miami was a deal to protect Democrats (and their campaign money supply) by letting Epstein off.

One can only suppose that it's going to get worse as all the names of the Democrat "faves" start to roll out.

Full article with chapter-and-verse plus links is here.

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Kasich and Romney?

Hannah Bleau is one of the Chicks on The Right, and she is laughing out loud over Mitt Romney’s New Year’s Day hit piece on President Trump in the WaPo. Her headline:

Mitt Romney Gets The Ultimate Kiss Of Death

 The Tweet:

John Kasich

✔@JohnKasich

Welcome to the fray, @MittRomney https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romney-the-president-shapes-the-public-character-of-the-nation-trumps-character-falls-short/2019/01/01/37a3c8c2-0d1a-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html …

2,78311:43 AM - Jan 2, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy 

More here.

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Antifa and liberty rallies

image credit: patriotpost.us

The headline: “Violent Communist Antifa Thugs Swarm 

‘We The People’ Rally In Philadelphia.” 

This weekend, a rally in support of law enforcement was overrun and co-opted by the “Antifa” thugs in Philadelphia. I probably participated in a few dozen rallies in the early Tea Party days, and the worst was when a table of ultra-left Lyndon LaRouche supporters popped up, protesting that President Obama’s policies were not sufficiently liberal. That was nothing compared to yesterday’s rally in Philly, as reported by NoisyRoom blog: 

A ‘"We The People" rally was held in Philadelphia yesterday. There were not that many patriots there, but hundreds of violent communist Antifa thugs swarmed the rally. They were there for a fight and they got one.

Conservative groups had planned the rally in support of ICE and police officers. Hundreds of black-clad, masked Antifa radicals descended upon them near the Independence Visitor Center on 5th and 6th Streets. There were approximately 80 conservatives in the mix and they were vastly outnumbered. The media is calling the Antifa goons counter-protesters. 

That’s not what they are. They are vicious communists who intend to beat conservatives into cowering and staying silent.

The police commissioner stated that only four were arrested. One of them punched a police captain if you can believe it (and I do). One injured person was put in a van for their safety as well. After violence broke out the crowd soon dispersed.

There were crazed hippy liberals in attendance too. One guy with fluorescent pink hair and pepperoni pizza leggings showed up to ‘protest Nazis’. There were other leftist nut cases there as well.

The police arrested the Antifa communists and put them in a police van while their supporters shouted: “We got your back, man!” The Antifa thugs were shouting profanities at the police while they were being arrested. No one ever accused communists of being classy.

This could easily have broken into a major clash and with the Antifa terrorists outnumbering the conservatives the way they did, it would have ended very badly. There was blood splattered on the sidewalks as the two groups were separated. The Washington Post is reporting only 30 conservatives were there versus 300 Antifa goons. Take that for what it’s worth – WaPo has a credibility problem, to say the least.

. . .

The report closes:

Everywhere that conservatives meet, Antifa is showing up to get their violence on. It’s getting worse, not better and the gathering in Philly shows that. Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed and incensed over all of this.

As others have pointed out, "Antifa" [anti-fascist] really should identify as "Pro-fa," which is why I put the term in scare quotes. Anyway, the rest of the report is here, and it is as much an indictment of media bias and propaganda as it is about "Antifa" and the event itself.  

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Did Trump even say that bad word?

image credit: uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com

Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post reports on Trump's offensive, obscene, racist remarks in a meeting with some Senators:

. . . according to several people briefed on the meeting.

“Why are we having all these people from $#!+hole countries come here?” Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers.

Cue: media freak out. But did Trump actually say that? According to Jim Treacher’s brief analysis at PJ Media:

Take a closer look at Dawsey's construction there. He got this from "several people briefed on the meeting." Oh, okay. So these people, whose names we do not know, were told that Trump said this bad word by somebody who was actually in the room at the time. We're getting it third-hand.

So, who are these unnamed people? Any hints? MSNBC's Kyle Griffin gives us one.

NBC News has confirmed Trump's "$#!+hole countries" remark with a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting.

So it's been confirmed by... a Democrat. Who wasn't even in the room.

Hey, what more proof do you need?

As Treacher agrees, maybe Trump said it. Or maybe it’s Fake News, in compliance with the new standard: “If it rings true, it is true.”  

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IRS “apologizes” for targeting Tea Party and liberty groups

cartoon credit: Christopher Weyant [The Hill] via Pinterest

  

The media is reporting that the lawsuits filed against the IRS by various Tea Party and liberty organizations have been settled. This extract is from the report in The Washington Post: 

The Justice Department has reached settlement agreements with groups that alleged their constitutional rights were violated when their applications for tax-exempt status received extra scrutiny because their names contained words such as “tea party” or “patriots,” court filings show.

In one agreement, which still must be approved by a judge, the Internal Revenue Service admitted that its treatment of the organizations was “wrong” and expressed a “sincere apology” for what happened.

. . .

The targeting of tea party organizations that applied for tax-exempt status was a major controversy of the Obama administration, as hundreds of conservative-leaning groups received scrutiny. In some cases, it delayed the processing of applications for years.

Many felt the conduct was an example of the president punishing his political enemies.

. . .

The Justice Department, too, conducted a criminal investigation but ultimately decided not to bring charges, including against Lois Lerner, the IRS official who oversaw tax-exempt groups.

“Our investigation uncovered substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia, leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints,” Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Peter J. Kadzik wrote in 2015.

“But poor management is not a crime,” Kadzik wrote. “We found no evidence that any IRS official acted on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution.”

"Poor management"? Weaponizing the IRS is “poor management”? And of course, nobody is going to jail, losing their job, or losing their pension. Read the rest of the WaPo story here. There’s also a report at cleveland.com.

UPDATE at 6:21pm from Rick Moran at American Thinker blog:

The settlement, as unsatisfactory to many as it is, at least closes the book on this sordid chapter in the history of the IRS.  Will it curtail the IRS from using politics to enforce tax law again?  Since no one was punished after this blatant example of political use of the tax agency, I doubt it.

Full blog post is here.

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Minimum wage updates: paging Mayor Jackson!

 art credit: The Tunnel Wall

The Washington Post reports that the state of Maine’s House voted on a bill to reduce the minimum wage for tipped restaurant workers. An earlier Cleveland Tea Party blog reported on Mayor Frank Jackson’s hopes of increasing the minimum wage for City of Cleveland employees.

Today, Thomas Lifson at American Thinker has more on the minimum wage debate:

Minimum wage laws are a perfect example of feel-good statism, in which the professed goal is noble, but the execution inevitably fails and makes things worse.  The state can no more repeal the law of supply and demand than it can the law of gravity.

But don't tell that to the Seattle City Council, which just commissioned a new study intended to get the answer it wants, from a scholar who has contended, in effect, that supply and demand don't really work at the bottom of the wage scale.  The wonderful thing about working with numbers is that by choosing baselines, time periods, and sample bias, you can find almost whatever you want.  As a graduate student who got a Ph.D. in sociology, I saw this clearly and was sickened by people openly proud of the ways in which they got to the conclusions they wanted for ideological reasons.  Nobel laureate Ronald Coase famously summed it up: "If you torture the data long enough, it will confess."

Will somebody tell Mayor Frank Jackson?

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A local union is cutting pension benefits

image credit: aarp

Yesterday, Jazz Shaw at the blog Hot Air reported (via the WaPo) on a development in Ohio:

In Cleveland, the Iron Workers Local 17 union has approved cuts to their pension plan to avoid having it become insolvent. The cuts will affect different workers by varying amounts depending on their individual circumstances, but everyone will be feeling the pinch.

. . .

The first thing to remember is that we’re talking about a private sector labor union, not one for government workers. The effects on retirees are going to be serious to be sure, but what are the other options? The union made promises to the workers which it wasn’t able to keep. This is a system which is much like any sort of general entitlement program in that it always requires growth, or at least stability. You have to have more people paying into the system than drawing out of it and if the numbers contract, the math immediately ceases working. (It’s the old question of how many people can ride in the cart as opposed to the number who are pulling it.)

[Shaw] pointed out the private sector aspect of this because the premise of the government guaranteeing these pension funds was always dubious at best. How is it that the taxpayers are on the hook for these shortfalls when the system becomes insolvent? I realize that’s not a solution, but the problem wasn’t created by the government in the first place and the taxpayers had no seat at the table when the deals were originally negotiated. But that’s not stopping Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who is still pushing for a federal bailout of the plan.

The problem gets even more complex when we look at state pension plans which are hung around the necks of taxpayers.

Read the rest of the report here. 

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If they don’t report, how do you decide?

art credit: bradhoffmann.com

Another black mark for Fox News. In a long line of black marks. 

Last year, Megyn Kelly disgraced herself at the first GOP primary debate, with assists from Bret Baier and Chris Wallace. Gretchen Carlson sued Fox for sexual harassment and won. Roger Ailes resigned under a cloud. Then Greta Van Susteren resigned abruptly. Last month, Andrea Tantaros sued Fox for sexual harassment. Some critics are fed up with Sean Hannity for his blatant bias and support of Donald Trump.

So yesterday evening, the 10pm Hannity show was scheduled to broadcast the town hall taped earlier in the day in Cleveland Heights. Donald Trump was speaking as the guest of Pastor Darrell Scott, who is a Trump surrogate; Scott is especially eloquent on minorities, inner cities, the media, and related issues. (This blog has posted some of Scott's interview via YouTubes here and here.)

Fox News bumped the Hannity town hall last night. Instead, they went wall-to-wall with “Fox News Alert” coverage of Charlotte, North Carolina, with shots of earlier rioting interspersed with current shots of not much going on (the Governor declared a state of emergency at 12:30 am and the violence continued into the night; I don't know if Fox was still bumping regularly scheduled programming). 

Is Fox planning to run the Hannity town hall with Trump tonight or over the weekend? The Fox website states only that “The Hannity town hall event, originally scheduled for Wednesday, did not air due to breaking news coverage of the protests in Charlotte.” No announcement of re-scheduling. 

Sundance recently predicted that as Election Day approaches, and since Hillary’s campaign seems to be cratering, that we will see the media and the Uniparty political class fan the flames of race warfare like we’ve never seen. Maybe Fox’s decision to bump the Trump town hall and spend the entire hour with footage of Charlotte streets, evidently anticipating more rioting, is a beginning of the final ugly phase of the presidential campaign season. I don't know, but I can say that I don't see much difference these days between Fox, other cable news, or the networks.

The Washington Post, no fan of Mr. Trump, published an annotated transcript of the Hannity/Trump town hall here. 

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Hillary: fashion icon? Who knew?

Time out for a little humor. Doug Powers (on Michelle Malkin's website) reports the following:

The Post put a question mark after “style icon” because they didn’t want to be total sycophantic sellouts.

Maybe they’re on to something, because I was dressed like this earlier when fixing an electrical problem (it’s the only jacket with pockets that can hold all my tools, and the wearable black tape really comes in handy for wire wrapping):

This outfit –and Doug Powers’s editorial comments above – crack me up. But have you taken note of the stunning matching pants? Meow.

REMINDER: Tune in to Fox News tonight at 10pm for Hannity's Town Hall "Trump Talks Minority Outreach." It was recorded this morning in Cleveland Hts. at Pastor Darrell Scott's church.

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