Sic Semper Tyrannis

Sam Grant will ride again?

"The white supremacist insurrectionists of the 1870s focused on just one region — the South — while the Trumpian insurrectionists have no geographic restrictions. This explains why, in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, the FBI found it necessary to warn of potential attacks and insurrectionist activity on state capitols and federal buildings across the country. And the Trumpian insurrectionists, at least thus far, don’t yet come with the full-throated, unequivocal support of a major political party (though that may change if non-Trumpian Republicans continue to lose ground).

But if you squint, it’s not too difficult to see how the insurrections of the 1870s and of the 2020s share a clear lineage. In many ways, the “Lost Cause” has now metamorphosed into the “Trump Lost Cause.”

“As I heard someone say, what we saw was that the Red Shirts of South Carolina have been replaced with the Red Hats of MAGA,” Janney said. Both are clearly aimed at upending the outcomes of democratic elections, willing to use violence to cow legislators — or worse. And both aim at thwarting multi-racial coalitions in the pursuit of ethnonationalist rule, a through-line of attempting to restore white rule that connects 1861 and 1876 to 2016 and 2020. As such, Grant’s experience in battling white insurrectionists presents a pair of primary lessons for the new Biden administration.

The first lesson, experts say, is relatively clear. As Trumpian insurrectionists continue popping up across the country — propelled by “the Big Lie” that Trump’s re-election was stolen—and as Republican legislators saber-rattle about potential violence if they don’t get their way, the administration has to use the full range of tools at its disposal. “There are so many more federal laws that can be used now,” Pitcavage said. “Conspiracy laws that didn’t exist [in the 1870s], laws about federal property that didn’t exist back then, laws about paramilitary training designed to foment civil disorder—there are any number of laws on the books now that theoretically could be used.”"  msn.com

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The Left is now speaking clearly about what it, as a collective, has in mind for you Conservatives.

Pelosi, AOC, Jake Tapper, the Washington Post, the academy generally, etc., etc., ad nauseam  are resolved to project a vision of white supremacist insurrection that they believe will convince enough citizens and most importantly the military that Conservative Organizations and Conservative Opinion must be suppressed and proscribed.

They forget that the excesses of the Grant run occupation of the South led directly to a "Bourbon" restoration that ruled the South for a hundred years and which was focused on African-Americans as the supposed cause of the economic and demographic misery of the South's condition.  Do they think that a new Occupation Regime can be imposed on 75 million people?  If so, they are massively and probably irredeemably deluded.

As I have written here before, the US military is a badly flawed instrument for the imposition of a leftist occupation of the US.  Careerist generals and admirals in the Regular forces may be be willing to swear allegiance to wokism but their people, both officers and enlisted, in the main are of the despised Smelly and Deplorable classes.  Would the flag grandees not understand that they probably cannot simply order Regular Amy and USMC units to fight and oppress their own people?

And then there is the National Guard.  These are citizen-soldiers.  Good luck on using them to suppress the citizens of their states.

The FBI, the ATF, federal marshals?  A few hundred policemen.  Good luck to the left.   pl 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-ulysses-grant-can-teach-joe-biden-about-putting-down-violent-insurrections/ar-BB1deGWw?ocid=uxbndlbing

Job Killer Joe

"As the plumbers and pipefitters union noted: “The Biden administration has now put thousands of union workers out of work. For the average American family, it means energy costs will go up and communities will no longer see the local investments that come with pipeline construction.”

Some estimates said the pipeline would employ 11,000 American workers in 2021 and create more than $1.6 billion in wages.

The same day, Biden imposed a 60-day moratorium on oil and gas leases on federal lands. The American Petroleum Institute calculates that, if made permanent, Biden’s ban will cost nearly 1 million jobs over the next two years and cut the nation’s economic output a total of $700 billion by 2030. Oh, and it will make the U.S. more dependent on oil imports.

As ABC News reported, Biden’s “moratorium on new oil and natural gas leases and drilling permits is prompting widespread concerns in New Mexico, where spending on education and other public programs hinges on the industry’s success.”

Carlsbad, New Mexico, Mayor Dale Janway told the Associated Press that “Eliminating drilling on public lands will cost thousands of New Mexicans their jobs and destroy what’s left of our state’s economy.”

Biden also pledged to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, which according to some estimates, could slash another 3.1 million jobs by 2040.

With these moves, Joe “Unity” Biden is not only destroying jobs but has managed to upset our Canadian allies, a major union, as well as officials in reliably blue states such as New Mexico – all to appease “climate crisis” environmental extremists.

But Biden isn’t done destroying jobs. He’s also pushing a job-killing national $15 minimum wage, starting with an executive order that lays the groundwork for a $15 minimum wage for federal workers.

A Congressional Budget Office report found that a federal $15 minimum wage could destroy as many as 3.7 million jobs. It further reported that “Raising the minimum wage would probably reduce employment, capital, and efficiency, in CBO’s assessment” and that, “over time, those reductions would lower the nation’s output and income.”"

---------------

Well, OK.  Someone told Joe about the  "whatsis act."  You know the one.  C'mon man give me a break.  

I would like to know what they are pumping him up with lately.  His speaking performance has markedly improved.  I hope there is nothing deleterious to his long term health in the "cocktail."  pl

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/01/26/meet-joe-biden-the-job-slayer/

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith gets probation after making a false statement in the FISA surveillance warrant process

By Robert Willmann

The pretense and bogus public face that an even-handed application of law exists in the federal legal system showed itself again today as former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith received 12 months probation and a $100 special assessment after pleading guilty to making a false statement during the process for the third renewal of a surveillance warrant on Carter Page, PhD.  The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the most intrusive surveillance of a person and his or her communications, and can also include physical searches and the production of business records and other tangible things.  Clinesmith pleaded guilty on 19 August 2020, and court records and a transcript of the plea hearing were made available here on SST [1]. 

This is the only criminal case filed so far by Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was directed by Attorney General William Barr on 18 May 2019 to conduct a preliminary review, which turned into a criminal investigation, about matters related to the 2016 presidential campaign and governmental conduct.   Part of what Durham is to look into is the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation, which was officially opened in 2016 and which allegedly was about the Trump campaign and the Russian government.  Clinesmith's criminal conduct happened as part of that FBI activity.  Barr made Durham a "special counsel" under Justice Department procedures on 1 December 2020 that would give Durham some degree of independence as the Biden administration moved in.

The written order of conviction and sentencing is not yet in the court clerk's file, with the only notation being on the clerk's docket sheet about the sentencing on 29 January 2021.  One other bit of activity occurred in the case, when Carter Page filed a request under the Crime Victims' Rights Act to be acknowledged as a crime victim under that law, since he was subject to surveillance based on unlawful applications for orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [2].  He also filed a supplement to that request saying that with the current posture of the case, it would not be workable to establish a dollar amount of restitution he should receive [3].  He was the target of four consecutive surveillance warrants, an original one which was then renewed three times.  Each one was for 90 days, which means the surveillance of him went on for an entire year.  

"Kerry admits zero emissions in US wouldn’t make difference in climate change" NY Post

"President Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, admitted Wednesday that the US reducing its emissions to zero wouldn’t make much of a difference in the global climate change fight — before pushing domestic manufacturing of electric cars and solar panels in favor of energy production.

Kerry’s remarks were made ahead of Biden’s signing of a host of executive actions on Wednesday pushing his $2 trillion Green New Deal-inspired climate agenda.

“He knows Paris alone is not enough,” Kerry told reporters at a White House press briefing, referring to Biden re-entering the US in the Paris Climate Agreement in one of his first acts as president.

“Not when almost 90 percent of all of the planet’s global emissions come from outside of US borders. We could go to zero tomorrow and the problem isn’t solved,” Kerry conceded.

The former secretary of state, now Biden’s climate envoy, acknowledged that it would be difficult to bring the world’s top polluters to the table, including China, which produces 30 percent of the world’s carbon emissions."  nypost

-------------

I confess to being in deep spiritual sympathy with the "swift boaters" of yore.  John Kerry is a liar who bought his way out of Vietnam and then came home to lie before the senate about things he never witnessed, things written by another liar.

When Kerry was "heroically" fishing some Vietnamese fisherman out of a river.  I and my comrades were busy burying 400 enemy soldiers at a place called Song Be.  They had died when their valorous effort to overrun the town and kill us and our non-communist Vietnamese allies failed.  Prisoners who survived their attack told me that they had lost even more than that.  So, for me, John Kerry is a POS whose only real accomplishment in life was in seducing and marrying John Heinz' widow Teresa and all that lovely money.

So now we have him in this new role, and guess what, he is still full of crap.  pl

https://nypost.com/2021/01/27/kerry-zero-emissions-wont-make-difference-in-climate-change/

Starlink Launch Alert- January 31, 2021

 

https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/falcon-9-block-5-starlink-17

pl

Larry Johnson: The Democrat Gaslight Express

Yes, the Presidency was stolen from Donald Trump primarily from phony mail-in ballots introduced into a few key urban centers in pivotal swing states and counted with rigged machines. But that was only part of the plan. The people behind this silent coup also embarked on a massive propaganda deception campaign designed to keep Trump supporters chasing ghosts and deadends. Entities such as QANON and THE GREAT AWAKENING are, in my view, only two of the more prominent examples of this information warfare.

Anyone that has ever owned a puppy and taken said puppy for a romp in his or her backyard or the local park, knows what happens when a squirrel or rabbit shows up. The puppy is immediately distracted and runs frantically and futilely to try to nab the furry critters. Squirrels and rabbits usually get away and the only positive outcome of this exercise is the puppy expended a lot of energy and will be ready to nap once back inside the house. Once your pet learns to associate the term "squirrel" with the furry rodent that flees the scene and scampers up the nearest tree, you need only say the word, "squirrel" and your little hound will tear off chasing an imaginary squirrel.

The Allies in World War II, in the months prior to the invasion at Normandy, concocted a brilliant scheme that essentially had the Germans chasing imaginary squirrels. It was called Operation Quicksilver:

Quicksilver was a World War II deception operation conducted by the Allied Nations. It formed part of Operation Bodyguard, a broad strategic military deception intended to support the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in July 1944. Bodyguard was designed to confuse the Axis high command as to Allied intentions during the lead-up to the invasion. . . .

Quicksilver started with the creation of an imaginary Army, the First United States Army Group (FUSAG).^[5] This was accompanied by naming a real general, George S. Patton, as its commander and then employing a vast number of physical deceptions, such as inflatable tanks that, from the air, looked like the real thing, It also included producing radio communications and vehicle movement that normally would support the presence of a real Army. But it was a lie.

I regret being the bearer of bad news to my fellow Trump supporters, but we have been subjected to a similar deception operation--both before and after the election. Unfortunately, President Trump himself and his advisors fell for this deception and refused to take the necessary action that could have saved the election from this highly organized, well-funded, and meticulously planned heist. And that deception operation continues. Full blast.

Vosnesensky's Poem "I am Goya" in Russian and English

 

Note: The following YouTube citation will give you a recording of Vosnesensky reciting the poem in Russian with a picture of Goya.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcGwdfsTDas&feature=emb_rel_end

 

 

Андрей Вознесенский


Я — Гойя!
Глазницы воронок мне выклевал ворог,
слетая на поле нагое.
Я — горе.
 
Я — голос
Войны, городов головни
на снегу сорок первого года.
Я — голод.
 
Я — горло
Повешенной бабы, чье тело, как колокол,
било над площадью голой...
Я — Гойя!
 
О грозди
Возмездия! Взвил залпом на Запад —
я пепел незваного гостя!
И в мемориальное небо вбил крепкие
звезды —
как гвозди.
 
Я — Гойя.

 

Andrei Voznesensky

I am Goya
of the bare field, by the enemy’s beak gouged
till the craters of my eyes gape
I am grief

I am the tongue
of war, the embers of cities
on the snows of the year 1941
I am hunger

I am the gullet
of a woman hanged whose body like a bell
tolled over a blank square
I am Goya

O grapes of wrath!
I have hurled westward
the ashes of the uninvited guest!
and hammered stars into the unforgetting sky – like nails

I am Goya

Translated by Stanley Kunitz in Antiworlds

I am Goya

 

I am Goya

In Memory of Andrei Andreyevich Vosnesensky (1933~2010)

Steven Willett

 

Note: I heard Vosnesensky recite his poetry in 1967 at the University of Oregon and the experience has never left me. The title of my poem is perhaps his most famous and fiercely unforgettable poem.

 

 

His booming voice consumed my sight

that day in Oregon’s summer light

when “I am Goya” struck my ear

with ravage Homer couldn’t write.

We came to hear him without fear

immeasurable death was near,

but in his grating consonants the tide

of blood grew measurably clear.

The gnashing walls of houses pried

across his face and embers sighed

to hunger him now that he’d come

among the snows of genocide.

The poet’s eyes began to strum

the bell whose cleft cannot succumb

unless the voice of Goya pose

to free the woman’s gullet tomb.

I heard the Grapes of Wrath impose

a westward hurl of ashen flows

on dying guests and hammered blows

of star nails heaven can’t oppose.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 28 JANUARY 2021 by Patrick Armstrong

DOOMED. Kasparov, a famous chess player, says Russia's on the way down thanks to Putin. Said the same thing 13 years ago. Why does the Western media keep printing this rubbish? Silly question.

PUTIN PALACE. Here's a palace actually built on his orders. And here's how the richest man in the world spends his time. (But it's gotta be Putin's: here's a photoshop of him in the pool). More rubbish.

COVID. A WHO representative thinks Russia's getting it under control. Moscow is opening up.

VACCINE. It is reported that the EU is considering approving the Sputnik vaccine because of delays in US ones. Merkel says she will help. Only a few months ago, this was out of the question.

INTERESTING. Zakharova: "The most popular comment I receive from Americans on my personal social media accounts is how to get Russian citizenship". I doubt much will come of this – but... Russia, land of the free and home of the brave. Has a ring to it, hasn't it? There are some Americans there.

OPEN SKIES. Moscow is preparing to leave after failing to get assurances that US allies won't share information with Washington. But, if Washington changes its mind, it will too.

NAVALNIY. Navalniy returns on plane filled with Western reporters and supporters, arrested and, after bail hearing, jailed for 30 days. (Broke probation terms on fraud conviction). Great excuse to sanction Nord Stream! Demos around Russia on Sunday – see video of 14-year old. Usual stuff, usual coverage. Meanwhile both Sweden and Germany keep information about his so-called poisoning from Russia.

NAVALNIY, COCKROACHES AND PISTOLS. I'd heard he'd called Muslims cockroaches but I didn't know there was a video. Here it is with English subtitles. Definitely Nobel Prize material. Did Washington really want to suggest that he is an "ally"?

DOESN'T MAKE ANYTHING. This week's "Made in Russia" video: aircraft, vaccine, buses, robot weapons, pigs, medical facilities and a new airport. All very new, shiny and high-tech, too.

PUTIN-BIDEN. They had their first phonecall. Interesting to compare the Kremlin's record with the White House's: but Biden has to talk tough, Putin doesn't. But "interference in the 2020 United States election"? Really? Wasn't it the most secure ever? Does Biden really want to raise that subject?

RUSSIA-EU. This seems to me to be much harder language than we've seen before. More suggestion that Moscow is going to dump the EU qua EU.

SAUCE, GOOSE, GANDER. RFE/RL has been fined for not admitting it's a foreign agent.

SOLARWINDS HACK. Not Russia but Israel? And another so-called Russian hack blows up.

AMERICA-HYSTERICA. While START will likely be extended for another five years which is good, we can otherwise expect more of the same: Clinton and Pelosi suggest Trump was following Putin's orders and Biden mentioned bounties, Solarwinds and Navalniy.

FAKE NEWS. The NYT printed over 3000 items on the bogus Trump/Russia story. That's two a day!

NEW NWO. European poll. Everything has changed: "Most Europeans rejoiced at Joe Biden’s victory in the November US presidential election, but they do not think he can help America make a comeback as the pre-eminent global leader... Majorities in key member states now think the US political system is broken, and that Europe cannot just rely on the US to defend it... look to Berlin rather than Washington as the most important partner... A majority believe that China will be more powerful than the US within a decade and would want their country to stay neutral in a conflict between the two superpowers. Two-thirds of respondents thought the EU should develop its defence capacities... Washington cannot take European alignment against China for granted. Public opinion will have a bigger effect on the relationship than it once did, and needs to be taken into account." Another time when Trump exposed the emptiness behind the curtain. Note the reference to having to pay attention to "public opinion" – the dreaded populism appears.

EUROPEANS ARE REVOLTING. One of the Trump Administration's last actions was to impose more sanctions on Nord Stream 2. The chair of the relevant German parliament committee said the sanctions were "unacceptable" and suggested penal duties on US gas. I doubt Biden will change the policy.

UKRAINE. Only 10% of Ukrainians think things are going in the right direction. In a curious parallel, given the US involvement in destroying Ukraine, only 14% of Americans think their country is.

TURKEY. Erdoğan says Ankara will not ask Washington for permission to buy more S-400 SAMs.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

"The Unitary Executive" is NOW!

From his actions and apparent attitude in the first days of his administration it appears that President Joe (the Union guy) intends to rule by decree (executive orders)  What are we up to now 24 or 25?  The Dems have effective but small majorities in both chambers of Congress, but thus far there have been ample evidences that Joe (and the junta) prefer to rule directly, bypassing the Congress altogether.  

That seems odd.  EOs are really fragile things.  They lose force with the passage of administrations unless they are renewed or modified by new presidents.

The "authority" of vice-presidents is an example.  The vice-president of the United States has no constitutional functions other than to await the incapacitation of the president and to act as the presiding officer of the US Senate.  All else is really froth and the politics of the moment.  There actually is no constitutional reason for the VP to live in Washington.  Perhaps it would be better if the VP did not.

Presidential EOs are subject to contest in the federal courts.  In the shock and awe of the last two weeks that process has only just begun.  The prospect is visible in the action of a federal judge in Texas blocking Señor José's ukase on a "pause" in deportations of illegal aliens for 100 days.  This judge is federal but he is also a Texan, and he acted at the request of the sovereign state of Texas.  Can other suits based on the constitutional  "standing" of the states be far behind?

Statehood for the District of Columbia?  Basic changes in the conduct of elections?  Star Chamber proceedings against dissidents like the man in Florida arrested in a Cheka-like action of the FBI against his political speech?

Uncle Joe should be very, very careful about provoking desperate resistance.  pl

"Joe Biden's call for unity is a sham" The Telegraph

"In his inaugural speech last week, Joe Biden promised to unite his country. But read his words closely, and examine his first actions as president, and you will see confusion, contradiction and dogma that is likely to lead only to further division.

Of course, absolute unity is impossible to achieve in any political system. Autocratic regimes intimidate and bully their citizens into conformity with the ideologies of their leaders, and try to present an image of a united people to the outside world. But the whole point of liberal democracy is that it is supposed to tolerate difference and disagreement.

For liberal democracies are built on the premise that human values and interests are unavoidably and perpetually in conflict with one another. The solution to these conflicts is not to grant total victory to one side or another, but to accept a system of government and civil society that allows pluralism to flourish within a common culture and single legal framework."  Nick Timothy

---------------

No comment is necessary.  pl

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/01/24/left-cannot-overcome-division-remains-obsessed-identity-politics/

Contraband By Walrus.

We are entering an era where “White Supremacist” is the ultimate dirty word, at least according to the Domestic Terrorism bill of 2021. Read the Act. Guilt is determined by a committee of..... the Department of Justice. This is an Orwellian development.

The Walrus law applies: “All governments achieve the reverse of their stated intentions”. This Act, and associated DOJ enforcement, will do more to radicalise white males than the KKK in their wildest fantasies could imagine. It is bad law - bad for America - all of it. It makes us all poorer and less free, everyone, even the left wing will suffer and it will drag down our economy. It will increase stress tension and expense.

As Australia’s pre eminent Rabbi, John Levi,  said yesterday (Australia Day): “plurality (of ideas) strengthens us”. A PC monoculture blaming racist white males for everything that is wrong hides the true causes and hinders problem solving.

Furthermore radicalised white males are going to respond and the result will be further polarisation.

I add a tiny cup of fuel to the fire by adding the link to some soon to be contraband below.  Lynyrd Skynyrd is soon to be proscribed. Count on it. Download this while you can. Teach yourself and your kids the words and to hum it or sing it. It’s your identification code.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zup5Pg98m5U&list=RDGMEMJQXQAmqrnmK1SEjY_rKBGA&start_radio=1

Solar Winds was an Israeli penetration? Not Russia?

"As Russiagate played out, it became apparent that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and a foreign power, but the nation was Israel, not Russia. Indeed, many of the reports that came out of Russiagate revealed collusion with Israel, yet those instances received little coverage and generated little media outrage. This has led some to suggest that Russiagate may have been a cover for what was in fact Israelgate.

Similarly, in the case of the SolarWinds hack, there is the odd case and timing of SolarWinds’ acquisition of a company called Samanage in 2019. As this report will explore, Samanage’s deep ties to Israeli intelligence, venture-capital firms connected to both intelligence and Isabel Maxwell, as well as Samange’s integration with the Orion software at the time of the back door’s insertion warrant investigation every bit as much as SolarWinds’ Czech-based contractor. "   unlimitedhangout

----------------

Pilgrims!  I am suggesting or at least raising the possibility that Israel has massively broken into American government IT systems.  Hmmm.  Does that mean that I am a Rooshan asset?

The sadly funny thing in this is how deaf, dumb and blind the main stream media are with regard to any, any, any possibility that Israel does not think its interests are identical with those of the US.

Natanyahu is quite open about his intention to bully Biden into continuing Israeli policy aimed at a Morgenthau model for Iran.  

People openly say on the TeeVee that not only must Iran give up its nuclear ambitions but it must also accept Israeli hegemony in the region.  Joltin' Jack Keane is one of the foremost proponents of such a vision of the future Middle East.  For him the Syrian military are merely "Iranian surrogate forces."  Perhaps someone should look carefully at the funding for the Institute for the Study of War.  Keane is the chairman thereof.  pl

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/01/investigative-reports/another-mega-group-spy-scandal-samanage-sabotage-and-the-solarwinds-hack/

Betrayal Of Leadership, Failure To Take Care Of Those Serving Under Them. by J.

The Joint Chiefs, including their Senior Enlisted failed in their leadership obligation to take care of those troops serving under them tasked with the Biden Administration's Inauguration. 

Retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West comments pretty much sums it up.

https://twitter.com/newsmax/status/1352881251913371651

 

J.

The Dems want Obedience, not Unity

Watching the behavior of the Democrat/Marxist/Anarchist coalition over the last couple of weeks,  I am drawn to the conclusion that they think their seizure of power through elections and street theater is permanent or at least something as durable as the long, long reign of the Bloody Shirt Republicans after the Civil War.  In that time all you had to do to beat the Democrats was talk about "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion and you were "in."  

The Democrat led alliance is now seeking to proscribe the opposition root and branch, beginning with the man 75 to 80 million citizens voted to re-elect and extending down through the ranks of probable or possible successors to the Orange One.

Banning from social media, actions to eject members from legislatures at the national and state levels, prosecutions for supposed incitement of violence.  These are among the tools contemplated.  People who work for the leftist media like Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post openly advocate pressuring advertisers to threaten Murdoch over commentators like Carlson and Hannity.  The Democrat coalition supports bans on hiring their opponents at universities and in the business world as well.

"Re-education and de-programming" are advocated in the MSM as solutions for re-capturing control of the Smelly masses.  

It is now probable that Kamala Harris will preside over the senate trial of former president Donald Trump.  The US Constitution requires that the Chief Justice of SCOTUS preside over the trial of a SITTING president because of the obvious conflict of interest involved in a trial in which conviction results in the accession to power of the vice-president, but Trump is not a sitting president so she evidently is free to run her possible opponent in 2024 out of public life.

How long will the Smellies endure all this?  Well, pilgrims the tyranny of Communism lasted a long time in the USSR.  pl

Open Thread - 24 January 2021

pl

Solon on Wealth a President Can't Grasp

Solon 13 Stob. 3.9.23

Translated by Steven Willett

 

This is a Roman copy of a Greek statue of Solon c. 630~c. 560BC.

 

Note: According to Clem. Strom. 6.11.1 we have the beginning of the poem, and its climactic ending suggests a complete composition. The very forceful similes and metaphors make this a unique early Greek elegy.

 

Radiant daughters of Memory and Olympian Zeus,

   Pierian Muses, listen to me as I pray:

grant me happiness from the blessed gods and from all

   men to always have a good reputation,

thus being sweet to my friends, bitter to my enemies,

   viewed reverent by these, dreadful by those.

Money I long to have, but to acquire it unjustly

   I don’t wish: judgement surely comes later.

The wealth that the gods give stands with a man

   steadfast from lowest depth to summit,

yet the wealth men honor with violence comes

   in disorder, persuaded by unjust actions

unwilling to attend, and is quickly mixed with ruin,

   whose beginning is small like that of fire,

insignificant at first, but disastrous in the end,

   for mortals’ violent deeds don’t live long.

But Zeus oversees every outcome, and suddenly,

   as wind quickly scatters the clouds

Joe! Joe! Save us Joe. You said you would save us ...

"Biden addressed his administration’s response efforts during a press briefing on two executive orders meant to provide food assistance to low-income families and protect workers’ rights during the pandemic. Days after the US surpassed 400,000 deaths related to COVID-19, the president warned the country had little ability in the near term to prevent spiking case totals.

"If we fail to act, there will be a wave of evictions and foreclosures in the coming months as this pandemic rages on because there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months," Biden said."  foxnews

--------------

Hey!  Wait a minute!   Didn't you run on this?  Weren't you going to halt the pandemic through good government and compassion?  

What?  What?  Trump did it?  He made all those people die through neglect and some as yet undetected crime?

But what about all those millions of doses of vaccines out there in freezers?  Ah, Trump screwed that up.  Poor Cuomo!  Poor Newsom!  What could they do?  pl 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-nothing-we-can-do-to-change-coronavirus-pandemic-trajectory-in-coming-months

Hey, c'mon man. I go to Mass ...

"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described President Biden as a "devout Catholic" after being asked about his stances on taxpayer funding for abortion.

Psaki's comments came during her first press conference Wednesday, where an EWTN Global Catholic Network reporter asked her about "two big concerns for pro-life Americans" -- the Hyde Amendment and Mexico City Policy. The former bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion under most circumstances, while the latter restricts taxpayer funding of abortion abroad. "What is President Biden doing on those two items right now?" reporter Owen Jensen asked.

Psaki responded that the administration would have more to say on the Mexico City Policy, adding: "I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly. He started his day attending church with his family this morning but I don't have anything more for you on that."

The Mexico City Policy, which blocks overseas funding for abortion, has repeatedly been reversed and reinstated by previous administrations. Biden, however, sent shockwaves through the media when he announced that he would reverse his position on the decades-old Hyde Amendment."  foxnews

--------------

Joe is a "cafeteria Catholic," or maybe  a Chinese menu Catholic (columns A and B).  He and Giuliani and all them shifty crew are Catholic when it suits their political goals.

Evidently he doesn't remember what Sister Mary Margaret taught him out of the Baltimore Catechism.  I do. The message I have in mind is that if you want to be a Catholic you follow the teaching of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.  If you don't, then you aren't.

Now, nobody is saying that Joe can't follow whatever policy he chooses.  That is what it means to have religious liberty, but, in my opinion he should stop approaching the sanctuary rail for the purpose of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.  pl 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-psaki-biden-devout-catholic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Leo_Burke

We're Back Baby! Bomb'n Biden says "Come on Man" We're Off to War....... by Fred

Happy Friday America! It's been less than 48 hours and already our brave redacted Commander in Chief has, finished with using 25,000 troops he says he can't trust to ethnicly cleanse the Capital of all Americans, sent troops back to Syria. Come on man, we gotta take on the Roooshans, just like we've been telling you for years. For (check's list) Freedom in the Middle East. 

Starship Launch

https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/starship-sn9-10-km-flight

pl

"Antifa protests Biden ..." Newsmax

"Anti-government and anti-fascist protesters in Portland and Seattle vandalized a Democratic Party office and other buildings and scuffled with police on Wednesday, protesting against President Joe Biden's inauguration.

People dressed in black and with their faces covered broke windows and the glass door at the Democratic Party of Oregon business office in Portland, spray-painting an anarchist symbol over the party sign, video posted on social media showed.

"We don't want Biden. We want revenge for police murders, imperialist wars, and fascist massacres," read a banner they marched under."  Reuters and Newsmax

---------------

Well, there it is.  The Deplorables don't need to mount an opposition, the Marxists and anarchists will do it for them.  pl

https://www.newsmax.com/us/antifa-anti-fascist-protest-portland/2021/01/21/id/1006552/

Larry Johnson: Why Doesn't the Republican Establishment Understand the Meaning of Betrayal

The nice thing about a crisis–you quickly learn who are your enemies and who are your trusted friends. The theft of the 2020 Presidential Election by the Democrats, Big Tech and foreign governments (with China playing a leading role) is a dark cloud with a silver lining. We now know that you cannot and should not trust the Republican Party. Period.

The failure to challenge the election fraud starts, I am sad to say, with Donald Trump. He failed to do what needed to be done to put up a fight. The day after the steal he should have convened a crisis management teams and set up a 24/7 operation. He did not do that. He should have put together a legal team that should have coordinated the collection and presentation of evidence. He did not do that. Instead, there were at least four separate legal efforts (Team Rudy, Team Sidney, Team Phil Klein and Team Lin Wood) working essentially in isolation without a coordinated plan of attack. There should have been one 800 number for whistleblowers and witnesses to call. There was not.

The most glaring omission was the lack of a daily war room brief on the evidence. The President should have been out front every day presenting the evidence and demanding an investigation. He was strangely silent for great periods of time. He ceded the counter propaganda war to his enemies and they beat him bloody.

Let me be clear about my feelings for President Trump. Despite massive disorganization and terrible personnel decisions, he is a man who told the truth, kept most of his promises and genuinely worked for the welfare of the American people rather than scheming to figure out how to enhance his own wealth. History will record President Trump as one of the most consequential, decent Presidents in American history. He did not  start new wars, he brought old wars and lingering conflicts to an end and he improved the economic standing of most Americans.

But he failed on two key points in the aftermath of the election fraud. First, he failed to keep his promise to release the classified information that would prove beyond any doubt the role that the CIA, the FBI and the Brits (not to mention the Democrats) in trying to sabotage his Presidency and conduct a silent coup. Second, he failed to force the hand of Republican leaders in the immediate aftermath of the election to stand up and speak out in his defense. You can count on two hands the number of members of the House and the Senate who demanded answers on the fraud. Here again, deafening silence for many days while the Dems and their media allies hammered away with the fiction that this was a clean election free of foreign interference.

WH Harrison caught cold et voila! John Tyler was president!

 

"The inauguration of William Henry Harrison as the ninth President of the United States was held on Thursday, March 4, 1841, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 14th inauguration and marked the commencement of the only four-year term of both William Henry Harrison as President and John Tyler as Vice President. The presidential oath of office was administered to Harrison by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.^[1] Harrison died 31 days into his term, the first U.S. president to die in office and has the shortest presidential term in American history. Tyler then succeeded to the presidency, creating precedence which would be followed seven more times before it was officially regulated through the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967." wiki

---------------

Ah, the now famous 25th Amendment!  

Harrison, the first president of that name, was a military hero having been the commander at the Battle of Tippecanoe, fought in Indiana against a Shawnee run confederation led by Tecumseh.

According to rumor, legend or perhaps actual history Harrison caught cold during a two hour inaugural speech.  This turned to croup, then pneumonia and off he went, on his way "home."

This took VP Tyler somewhat by surprise, but he rose to the occasion.  He seems to have been a gentlemanly type whose wife entertained well.  He, like John Quincy Adams, held office after his term as president.  Tyler was a senator in the Confederate congress as well as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.  

What I remember best about Harrison is that in his short time in office he ordered that the US cannon factory make four light model field guns for the training of the cadets at VMI, my alma mater.  They are named "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John"  That is cast in the metal.  This was supposedly Harrison's idea.

Today I watched President Biden sit and sign a series of papers in the President's Room at the US Capitol just after his inauguration.   Joe sat there as VP Harris handed him paper after paper as though she were an administrative assistant of some kind.  Never saw the like before.  She clearly is staking out her right to act as president in waiting.  SWMBO watched that and commented on the coming struggle between Jill and Kamala over Joe's person.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inauguration_of_William_Henry_Harrison

Battle of Tippecanoe - Wikipedia

T for Texas - Call them home governor. Call them home ...

(36th Infantry Division - T for Texas)

"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said he finds it "offensive" that the FBI is vetting National Guard members, including those from his own state, ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

"This is the most offensive thing I've ever heard," Abbott, a Republican, wrote on Twitter. "No one should ever question the loyalty or professionalism of the Texas National Guard.""

"Approximately 25,000 National Guard troops have been sent to the capital -- including about 1,000 from Texas.

"I authorized more than 1,000 to go to DC," Abbott wrote. "I'll never do it again if they are disrespected like this.""   foxnews

----------------

Governor Abbott indicates that he "authorized" the deployment of Texas Guardsmen to DC.  That says to me that the Texas National Guard HAS NOT been federalized and is at present under state control.  Given the disrespect shown by the Democrats, the RINO Republicans and the federal cops in distrusting the loyalty and devotion to duty of the Texas National Guard, Governor Abbott should withdraw his troops from the security mission in Washington.

The National Guard is a force with two masters, the state and the federal government when ordered into federal service.

Call them home!  Now!  pl 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-gov-abbott-rips-vetting-of-national-guard-the-most-offensive-thing-ive-ever-heard

United States National Guard - Wikipedia

 

Joe says we have 100 days to make it to America ...

"Guatemalan police and soldiers on Monday broke up a group of hundreds of migrants who had spent two nights stuck at a roadblock on a rural highway.

Some migrants threw rocks while authorities launched tear gas and pushed the migrants with their riot shields back down the highway. Migrants with children were more gently prodded back the way they had come.

The year's first migrant caravan had largely stalled two days before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Biden has promised to take a different approach to immigration and even though immediate changes at the U.S. border are not expected, it has created some hope in Central America."  newsmax

---------------

Quoting President Joe, "There will be no deportations in my first 100 days."

Quoting Honduran migrant at the Guatemalan border.  "The new president says we have 100 days to cross the American border and find refuge."

It is an impeachable offense for the president of the US to not enforce US law.  pl

PS - I take note of the statements by Biden's crew that they have been talking to the Iranian government (denied by the Iranians).  This is what they accused Flynn of doing, i.e., conducting foreign policy before the inauguration of their regime.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/central-america-migrants-guatemela-caravan/2021/01/18/id/1006123/

Falcon 9 Transporter launch

pl

 

https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/falcon-9-block-5-transporter-1-dedicated-sso-rides

Larry Johnson: The CIA Has Become the KGB

My title may appear to be over the top, but hear me out. There was a time when the CIA, despite deep flaws and sloppy tradecraft, could be counted on to tell the President, regardless of political party, the truth. No longer. It is corrupt to the very top and now should be viewed as an enemy of the Republic.

The latest revelations from the Intelligence Community's Analytic Ombudsman described in a memo from DNI John Ratcliffe is beyond shocking. Rather than tell the truth about Chinese interference in the 2020 Presidential election, the CIA opted to quash intelligence that would have proven Donald Trump's claim that the Chinese not only interfered in the 2020 election, but played a hand in throwing the election to Joe Biden.

Here are the salient points of the DNI's memo:

The IC's Analytic Ombudsman issued a report . . . that includes concerning revelations about the politicization of China election influence reporting and of undue pressure being brought to bear on analysts who offered an alternative view based on the intelligence. . . .

Analytic Standard B requires the IC to maintain "independence of political considerations." This is particularly important during times when the country is, as the Ombudsman wrote, "in a hyper partisan state." However, the Ombudsman found that:

"China analysts were hesitant to assess Chinese actions as undue influence or interference. These analysts appeared reluctant to have their analysis on China brought forward because they tend to disagree with the administration's policies, saying in effect, I don't want our intelligence used to support those policies. This behavior would constitute a violation of Analytic Standard B: Independence of Political Considerations (IRTPA Section 1019).". . . .

"There were strong efforts to suppress analysis of alternatives (AOA) in the August [National intelligence Council Assessment on foreign election influence], and associated IC products, which is a violation ofTradecraft Standard 4 and IRTPA Section 1017.

National Intelligence Council (NIC) officials reported that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials rejected NIC coordination comments and tried to downplay alternative analyses in their own production during the drafting of the NICA." . . . .

Additionally, the Ombudsman found that CIA Management took actions "pressuring [analysts] to withdraw their support" from the alternative viewpoint on China "in an attempt to suppress it. This was seen by National Intelligence Officers (NIO) as politicization,"

"There were strong efforts to suppress analysis of alternatives (AOA) in the August [National intelligence Council Assessment on foreign election influence], and associated IC products, which is a violation ofTradecraft Standard 4 and IRTPA Section 1017.

National Intelligence Council (NIC) officials reported that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials rejected NIC coordination comments and tried to downplay alternative analyses in their own production during the drafting of the NICA."

Let me make this very simple--the CIA cooked the books because they did not want to produce the evidence that proved what the President has been saying since the election was true.

This is not a mistake. This is treason of the highest order.

Starlink Launch Alert

 

https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/falcon-9-block-5-starlink-16

Will the non-monoparty majority of the GOP be outlawed?

 

"The Republican Attorneys General Association was involved, as were the activist groups Turning Point Action and Tea Party Patriots. At least six current or former members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an influential group that for decades has served as a hub for conservative and Christian activists, also played roles in promoting the rallies.

The two days of rallies were staged not by white nationalists and other extremists, but by well-funded nonprofit groups and individuals that figure prominently in the machinery of conservative activism in Washington."  washpost

---------------

Be not deceived!  The vast left wing conspiracy intends to destroy all resistance.  It intends to de-legitimize all non-monoparty conservative organizations for the purpose of leaving the Smelly Deplorables a headless mass, unable to communicate and soon to be disarmed.

CNN is attempting to destroy Newsmax TV, which is presently the 4th most watched cable news outlet.

The ridiculously oversized 25,000 National Guard force in DC is being screened and purged to remove any soldier with conservative leanings.  The same process is underway in the Regular military, initiated by people like Secretary of the Army McCarthy, who evidently cannot wait for the inauguration to show his love of the new maximum leader.

Citizens are being urged in the press to observe and report evidence of dissident right-wing political sentiment.

Biden clearly intends to rule from behind the screen of an emerging well-purged praetorian guard and inside well fortified presidential bunkers.

Those officials who had the temerity to question the legitimacy of the election of 2020 will be driven from office by claiming they "incited terrorism."  Will they be charged with insurrection?  We will see.  pl 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/capitol-rally-organizers-before-riots/2021/01/16/c5b40250-552d-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html

https://www.newsmax.com/us/cnn-cancel-culture-big-tech-censorship/2021/01/17/id/1006021/

Grilled Sword with Cajun Blackening

50 degrees backyard 17 January, 2021

The Great Purge Approaches

"A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt, and/or innocence, of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so they will serve as both an impressive example and a warning to other would-be dissidents or transgressors.^[2] Show trials tend to be retributive rather than corrective and they are also conducted for propagandistic purposes.^[3] The term was first recorded in 1928."  wiki on show trial

******

"National Guard troops deployed in Washington, D.C. for the Biden inaugural in the wake of the storming of the Capitol last week have been authorized to use lethal force, according to a report by U.S. News that cited a Defense Department official. The D.C. National Guard had issued a statement Wednesday that troops under its command had been authorized to carry weapons."  gateway pundit

********

"Is there something in the character of politics that makes it illogical, a “blood sport”? Is that why it is called an “arena”? Perhaps a brief look at early American history might give a clue.

From the beginning, Americans were fiercely independent, passionate, but deeply divided. Only about one-third supported the revolution; the majority were either neutral or remained loyal to the British (“Tories”). A fierce internal terrorist campaign raged throughout the war between these two groups of Americans. So intense was the divide that a British Chaplin was moved to write that,

'These Americans, so soft, pacific and benevolent by nature, are here transformed into monsters, implacably bloody and ravenous; party rage has kindled the spirit of hatred between them, they attack and rob each other by turns, destroy dwelling houses, or establish themselves therein by driving out those who had before dispossessed others.' [Note the word “rage.”]  "political hysteria"

------------------

It appears to me that Schumer has in mind to try former President Trump in the senate with John Roberts presiding.  IMO this is unconstitutional.  As Alan Dershowitz said on the TeeVee today, the prospect of such a procedure should be horrifying to all.  Why?  If the congress can try a private citizen and bar him/her from holding federal office, then whichever party controls the congress can simply bar significant opposition figures from office by re-defining the meaning of statutes, imputing motive where there is none and through guilt by association.   This all begins to smell like Stalin's show trials in the 30s in which he killed off his Old Bolshevik comrades and the leadership of the Red Army.  Trump will always remain vulnerable to the civil courts.  The Dems fear that Florida or federal courts in Florida will not extradite him?  They should live with that in the interest of maintaining the Union.

We now have most of downtown Washington, DC transformed into a Green Zone on the Baghdad model.  25,000 federalized National Guard troops plus various kinds of cops occupy that zone.  25,000?  How about 1,000?  How about 2.000?  What do they expect, an attack on the Biden inauguration platform from the other end of the Mall?  The bridges from Virginia are closed by order of his majesty Ralph Northam.   We live here under Ralph's imperial decrees in a vast outdoor prison.  The ability of the imperial authorities to wall us up, each in our own crummy little domain bodes ill for the future.

Not for the first time am I disgusted by the susceptibility of those I thought my countrymen to waves of hysteria.   German and then Communist spying in WW1,  Prohibition, internment of Japanese descended citizens of the US in WW2,  McCarthyism, the 2K fantasy in which people waited for the end of civilized life, 9/11, after which the whole country went into a profound funk and stumbled about terrified of the NEXT ATTACK.   And now, we have the Left's desire to destroy opposition, the opposition of 75 million citizens and to do it through mass mobilization of political hysteria.

This will never be the same country again.  We have lost the talent needed to maintain a federal republic.  pl

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/biden-inaugural-national-guard-troops-authorized-use-lethal-force-d-c-turns-police-state/

https://www.iwp.edu/articles/2019/07/29/political-hysteria-american-as-cherry-pie/

Show trial - Wikipedia

Virgin Galactic Space Launch

https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/launcherone-launch-demo-2

Open Thread - 16 January 2021

pl

Facebook page closed

I have voluntarily closed my FB page.  I do not want to participate in the censorship circus.  pl

Friedrich Hölderlin on Life's Course

Hölderlin's Poem on The Course of Life (Lebenslauf)

Translated by Steven Willett

 

 

Note: Friedrich Hölderlin (1770~1843) has been called "the most German of Germans" by Norbert von Hellingraf. I consider him one of the three greatest European poets of the Romantic Age. This poem is written in the asclepiadic stanza meter developed by Asclepiades of Samos. During the 17th-century German poets began to use it and other Greek metrical forms by substituting stressed or unstressed syllables for quantitative syllables. Hölderlin was the great master of this rhythmical form and nearly all his poems use it. I have reproduced his asclepiadic meter in English.  The meter can, however, produce rather complex syntax to match the three meters in the stanza (lines 1~2, 3 and 4). Only Michael Hamburger translates Hölderlin's poetry with the correct meters (Friedrich Hölderlin Poems and Fragments, 2004).

 

Greater still you desired, but it is love that twists

us all earthward, and grief bends still more forcefully;

   yet it turns without failure

      our arc back to the starting point.

Whether upwards or down!—governs in holy night,

where mute nature reflects over the days to come,

   governs crookedest Orcus,

      yet a standard, still too a law?

This I learned. For not once, as mortal masters do,

did you heavenly ones, you who preserve the world,

   whom I knew, with their foresight

      led me over a level path.

Every man puts to the test, thus say the heavenly,

so he, strongly sustained, shall for all learned give thanks,

   and now knowing his freedom

      move to break out wherever he wants.

Silence the racist conservatives! All of them! All 75 million!

"Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., on Newsmax TV responded Thursday to CNN host Jake Tapper's questioning his commitment to democracy over his comments about the riot at the Capitol last week.

Mast, on the House floor on Wednesday, questioned whether anyone had interviewed the rioters themselves about why they stormed the Capitol. During CNN's coverage Wednesday, Tapper questioned Mast's ''commitment'' to the United States.

''I served this country, I fought for this country,'' Mast, a veteran who lost both his legs while on duty in Afghanistan, told Thursday's ''American Agenda.'' ''I love this place more than anything. And it brings me to tears to think about some of the sacrifices I've seen for this country.''  newsmax

***********

“I said, if you see them anywhere, if you see them in a restaurant, if you see them in a department store, even at a gasoline station, just tell them, you’re not welcome here or anywhere,” she recalled. 

“Of course it frightened a lot of people,” she added. 

But, the exact quote was a bit more in depth: “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents,” Waters said at the Wilshire Federal Building in June."  gregjarrett.com quoting Maxine Waters

*****

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that Congress is looking into media literacy initiatives, including a commission to help "rein in" misinformation in the wake of last week’s deadly breach of the U.S. Capitol – and one critic slammed AOC’s suggestion as "wholly un-American."

During a lengthy live stream on Instagram on Tuesday night, the leader of the so-called "Squad" discussed the aftermath of the Capitol riot, how she feared for her life during the chaos and what needs to be done going forward."  foxnews

*********

"As with the “War on Terror,” short-term victories seem certain, and enticing; Big Tech made it harder for Trump to disrupt the inauguration, which is great. But in the longer term, we may radicalize people who were previously neutral, and thereby empower even worse foes than the ones we vanquished. The other day I heard from a never-Trump friend, a Biden voter, who is convinced that eventually, after we all get comfortable with what Big Tech has done, it will come for conservatives like him. If that happens, he — and others like him — are not going to ally with their censors, public or private.

But those of us who opposed Trump should also be cautious about such alliances. The right-wing fringe is about to discover what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the anti-terror surveillance state it supported so enthusiastically. Perhaps we could learn from their example and ask what sort of society we want to live in before we start authorizing sweeping new powers."  Meghan McCardle

---------------

Pilgrims, students at Harvard University are petitioning to have the degrees of alumni who supported Trump revoked.  Bless their little hearts!   

AOC was afraid?  That poor little thang was afraid?  The obvious response should be to re-educate the press, bloggers, etc.  so that people don't say or write things that make her unhappy or afraid.

And this fellow Mast, how dare he talk back to Jake Tapper?  We all know the depth of the sufferings that Tapper has endured for his country.

Meghan McCardle - She says that she and her friends thought that people who judged the invasion of Iraq to be foolish were "naifs." But now she sees that the big bad wolf of censorship may bite her.  Better late than never.  pl 

https://thegreggjarrett.com/maxine-waters-says-she-threatens-trump-supporters-all-the-time/?utm_source=socialflow

AOC’s suggestion of commission to 'rein in' media slammed as ‘wholly un-American’ | Fox News

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-should-be-frightened-by-tech-companies-censoring-of-conservatives/2021/01/12/e9da7ce2-5512-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/brian-mast-jake-tapper-military-veteran/2021/01/14/id/1005662/

51% of Americans ready to go to Starlink

"A recent survey has determined that over half of Americans are ready to switch to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. This was despite only 5% of internet subscribers in the United States being connected via satellite today. 

The study was conducted by Reviews.org, which asked respondents whether they would consider getting on board with Starlink once the satellite internet service is fully set up. As it turns out, over half of those surveyed stated that they’d be signing up for the Starlink Beta program, despite the $499 cost of the satellite dish and the service’s current $99 per month fee. "

"Interestingly enough, 55% of the study’s respondents who do not use satellite internet today noted that they would stay with Starlink permanently if the system’s connection was faster, even if its price was higher than their current internet service provider. Over 40% of the respondents also stated that they would stay with Starlink if SpaceX would allow subscribers to make payments on the satellite system instead of an upfront $499 fee. "   Teslarati

------------

It seems to me that Musk is going to get richer and richer.  Hell, I can't wait to disconnect from Comcast.  

The amount of revenue available to him is going to fund all his visionary colonial schemes for outer space.  Up! Up! And Away!   (That was the intro on some radio show when I was a kid).

Musk is  a force of nature.  I am glad that he is not a native born American.  I wouldn't want to see his talents wasted on being president of the United States.  pl

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starlink-50-percent-usa-adoption-survey/

Why Was the CIA Spying on American Citizens? by Larry C Johnson

It is illegal, or at least on paper it is, for the CIA to spy on American citizens on American soil. So why was the CIA spying on Mr. Edward Butowsky and/or Matt Couch? If you have read Joe Hoft's excellent piece (see here) on the latest trials and travails of Ty Clevenger, an intrepid attorney battling the Deep State, who has been fighting for more than three years to secure the release of damning documents exposing the Russia hoax and sedition by the Obama Administration, you know he is forcing the FBI to cough it up.

But the latest response also contained this bombshell--the CIA was spying on his clients as well. Ty's latest account of this new info dump from the US Department of Justice is posted at LawFlog. Here are some key snippets:

In The Transparency Project v. Department of Justice, et al., my client asked to see records indicating whether the CIA or its Directorate of Digital Innovation, its contractors, etc. inserted Russian “fingerprints” into the metadata of the emails that were released publicly. (You can review the entire request by clicking here and reading Paragraph 11).

In a joint report filed today, the CIA informed the court that it intends to assert a Glomar response to the request, i.e., that it “cannot confirm or deny” the existence of such records. . . . [In other words], The Central Intelligence Agency will neither confirm nor deny that it fabricated the Russian “fingerprints” in Democratic National Committee emails published in 2016 by Wikileaks and “Guccifer 2.0.”, and the FBI implicitly acknowledged today that it never reviewed the contents of DNC employee Seth Rich’s laptop despite gaining custody of the laptop after his murder.

Full disclosure--Mr. Clevenger is a friend of mine. He writes in his article that he reached out to me and I made some phone calls to retired friends who held senior positions at the CIA. My friends and I agreed that a GLOMAR response to the basic question, Did you spy on Mr. Butowsky and/or Mr. Couch was a tacit admission-yes!

You may not want to know this ...

All those of us who took up military service under the US flag took an oath which most of us have engraved on our souls.  

In the context of last week's attack on the US Capitol, the question of the status of; active duty soldiers, reservists, former military and military retirees has come up in the press.

Many of us think that our oath is sacramental, i.e., spiritual in meaning and that it is indelible and eternal.  You may feel that to be true but that belief is not legally true.

In the course of my 30 year enlisted and officer service and then 8 years as a DoD SES I had occasion to discuss the oath with many JAG officers and General Counsels.  This came up repeatedly because of  a need to determine what the continuing obligations of people were.

In fact, the oath is contractual rather than sacramental.

If you are "discharged" or "dismissed" (officers) from the service you are no longer bound by your oath.  Your service has legally ended.  OTOH if you are "retired" from the military whether officer or enlisted  you remain a member of the military and are still bound by your oath.  pl

RUSSIAN FEDERATION SITREP 14 JANUARY 2021 by Patrick Armstrong

RUSSIA-CHINA. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says: "In developing China-Russia strategic cooperation, we see no limit, no forbidden zone and no ceiling to how far this cooperation can go." The two now settle 25% of their business in their own currencies. I would say that the two lasting achievements of the neo-cons and their New American Century have been the ever-closer Moscow-Beijing alliance and the increased influence of Iran. Who did win the Cold War after all?

RESERVES. The Central Bank of Russia has published its account of Russia reserves as of 30 June 2020. The total was 561.1 billion USD (up $44.3 billion since a year before). Euro holdings accounted for 29.5% . For the first time ever gold (22.9%) was a bigger proportion than USD (22.2%). Renminbi was 12.2%. Russia's economy – failing always failing.

NAVALNIY. The report from the Charité Hospital in Berlin fires another nail gun's worth into the coffin of the Navalniy story. Numerous health problems, lots of drugs in him, but no novichok symptoms.

COVID. Putin has ordered mass use of the Sputnik vaccine (1.5 million inoculated already). No side effects, they say. A scientist is optimistic that COVID will have faded down by the summer.

PUTIN CHRISTMAS. What Putin did on the 6th; what some Americans think he did. Or this.

WESTERN VALUES™. As Western social media apps censor, people are bailing out and Russian ones grow: the founder of Telegram says 25 million new members have joined in past 72 hours. These things are bubbles: Twitter and Facebook are said to have lost fifty billion dollars after banning Trump.

PAVLIK REDEVIVUS. From Vladimir Goldstein. And she wants to be a lawyer, too.

JOKES. Just heard this one: I can make anti-Putin jokes on Russian social media. So, what, I can make anti-Putin jokes on Western social media. (A re-tread of a Soviet-era joke). Or this: Due to travel restrictions abroad, Americans have done a coup at home.

MOON. Moscow considering manned moon mission. Hmmmm. Russian/Chinese base on the Moon in ten years?

SURVEILLANCE. Moscow City has revealed a plan to spend money on a database containing information about every resident, including passport numbers, insurance policies, salaries, car registrations. Much of it appears to already exist. For safety, security and convenience, of course. Mind you, we all volunteered: we all carry smartphones around broadcasting everything we do.

ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN. Putin chaired a meeting of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. They signed a statement on development of Karabakh region. Here are the official statements after the meeting. Its another step in resolving the difficult problem which has deep roots. I note a reference to the OSCE Minsk Group but I don't expect it to get much involved. It's done nothing much in 28 years and who wants the West meddling in the area anyway?

THE EMPTINESS OF FORMER FLAPS. "After months of bashing Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, Western journalists in Moscow line up to be inoculated". A reminder of the job description.

NUGGETS FROM THE STUPIDITY MINE. I am amused that the US Navy has announced that it may start "freedom of navigation" trips in the Russian Arctic (despite not not signing on to the UNCLOS.) But the biggest US icebreaker is rather elderly and can barely handle two-metre ice. So perhaps it will lease icebreakers from Finland. Given that the Arctic is a Russian lake, not least because of the Russian monopoly of gigantic icebreakers, one can easily image some embarrassments for the Americans.

NEW NWO. "We are seeing images that I never imagined we would see in this country-in some other capital yes, but not here. No one in the world is likely to see, respect, fear, or depend on us in the same way again. If the post-American era has a start date, it is almost certainly today." Richard N Haass.

EUROPEANS ARE REVOLTING. After seven years of negotiation, the EU and China have produced a comprehensive trade agreement. Washington is not amused. Meanwhile Nord Stream 2 chugs along.

UKRAINE. Has been left rather high and dry on vaccines with none of its BFFs in the West doing anything for it. But the Foreign Minister insists Kiev will not buy Sputnik vaccine even if it works: "It [Russia] cares about imposing its propaganda cliches and ideology by supplying the vaccine, even if it were effective". Like most things in Ukraine, it's a mess.

© Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Canada Russia Observer

 

The Death of Cleopatra VII in Horace Ode I.37

Cleopatra VII Philopatar in Horace Odes I.37

Translated by Steven Willett

 

Note: The first photo shows the head of Cleopatra VII in a Roman sculpture of the mid-first century BC about the time of her visit to Rome in 46~44BC. The second photo is an early first-century AD fresco from Pompeii that shows her red hair and ornaments.

She and Anthony were defeated at the Battle of Acticum (31BC) off the west coast of Greece and retreated to Alexandria. When Octavian defeated their land forces and entered Alexandria, they committed suicide, Cleopatra by poison (not a snake) and Anthony by a sword to his stomach.

Horace makes a subtle shift in the course of the ode from Roman triumph and Cleopatra's ignominious defeat to her glorious death.

 

 

 

To drinking now, now all to the nimble foot
that beats the earth, now friends, now at last it’s time
to heap the festive couches deep with
   Salian feasts for the gods’ enjoyment.

Before this day, to break out the Caecuban
from our ancestral cellars had been a crime,
while that demented queen was working
   havoc to Capitol, death to Empire

with her polluted mob of retainers whom
disease alone made men-unrestrained in all
her impotence of fancied power and
   drunk on sweet fortune. But seeing scarcely

a single ship come out of the flames intact
subdued her rage, and Caesar impelled a mind
distraught on Mareotic wine to
   tangible terrors, pursuing closely

by oar her flight from Italy, even as
the hawk a gentle dove or the hunter, swift
in chase, a hare across the plains of
   snow-mantled Thessaly, keen to put chains

around a monster laden with doom: one who,
intent to die more nobly, had nothing of
a woman’s fear before the sword nor
   fled by swift fleet to a secret border,

audacious still to gaze on her humbled court
with tranquil face, and valiant enough to take
the scaly asps in hand, that she might
   drink with her body their deadly venom,

ferocious all the more in her studied death;
she was indeed disdaining to let the fierce
Liburnian ships lead her dethroned, no
   humble woman, to glorious triumph.

 

 

 

 

Why the Dems have to ban Trump from federal office ...

"Pollster Frank Luntz released results Monday from a poll of Americans who support President Donald Trump after the lethal rioting at the U.S. Capitol.

Luntz said that he polled 800 Trump voters and found that a great majority of them would vote for the president again if given the opportunity.

“Despite their criticism of his conduct since November 3rd and last week, 𝟵𝟭% of Trump voters say they’d still vote for him if another presidential election were held today,” Luntz said on his official social media account."

"Luntz said that of the Trump voters he polled, 73% said the election system was rigged, “even after being reminded that Trump and his allies lost more than 60 cases in court challenging election results.”

And 61% of the Trump voters polled said they would “never” trust election results again."  politico

------------

I watched Lunz brief on this on the TeeVee.  He looked puzzled.

How many voted for the Orange One?  74 million?  75 million?  Someone here on SST suggested that the actual number of his supporters, as opposed to voters, is probably more like 100 million when you include non-voting supporters too old to go out, too young this time, etc.

The Dems need to keep him penned up on Elba, err, in Florida where he can hold court, brood and play golf.  Could he run for Governor of The Great State of Florida?  Sure.  DeSantis will want to move on to the Senate, the White House, somewhere. 

The era of the great orange manatee may still await us.  pl 

https://politicofire.com/2021/01/12/frank-luntz-polls-trump-voters-to-see-if-their-support-has-changed-since-the-lethal-rioting-at-the-us-capitol/

Theognis On How Evil Men Destroy Cities

Theognis 39~52

Translated by Steven Willett

Note: the word "city" (πόλις) here means a city state. The phrase "corrector" (ἄνδρα εὐθυντῆρα) of hubris probably refers to a tyrant who might reform the city (see the last line).

Cyrnus, this city is pregnant, and I fear she’ll bear a man

   who is the corrector of our evil insolence.

For these townsmen are still of sound mind, but their leaders

   have shifted round to fall into great depravity.

Never yet, Cyrnus, have noble men destroyed a city;

   but when it’s delightful for the base to run riot,

destroy the people and give judgements to the unjust

   for their own domestic profit and power,

don’t hope that city to keep calm for very long,

   even if she now lies in great tranquillity,

whenever these things become dear to base men,

   profits coming along with public harm.

For from these rise civil strife, slaughter of kindred blood

   and tyrants; may they never please the city.

"Finding Your Roots" - The Nancy Pelosi reveal

"Pelosi comes from a strong family tradition of public service. Her late father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served as Mayor of Baltimore for 12 years, after representing the city for five terms in Congress. Her brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, also served as Mayor of Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, have five grown children and nine grandchildren."  pbs

-------------

Being married to a genealogist, I find it obligatory to observe Professor Henry Louis Gates'  weekly TeeVee extravaganza on the subject of the ancestry of various famous, or semi-famous folk.  The show is a classier version of the oldie "This is your life" which ran for many years during my "ute."  ("My Cousin Vinnie" reference).  During the proceedings in that show, one's cousins, 3rd grade teachers and former bosses were brought out from behind the curtain after attempts to guess the identity by remembering their voice.  It was truly fun for the feeble minded.  Gates' show mainly involves construction of a "book of life" on the basis of records research and DNA wizardry.

Last night's principal guest was Nancy d'Alesandro Pelosi.  Wow!  I have never met her and have never paid much attention to her as a personality, but all you had to do was watch her "mug" for the camera and "sculpt" her answers to create her desired narrative to understand that this woman is carrying a lot of psychological baggage and has done so for a very long time.

Her  paternal grandparents were immigrants from a mountain village in Abbruzzo.  Her father, Thomas d'Alesandro, was born in Baltimore (photo above).  He comes across in the Nancy construct as a political version of the De Niro character in "Raging Bull," no beatings but lots of bullying and domination by "the Don."  

This guy was determined to keep his family "in line," especially Nancy and her mother, another Nancy.  Any effort on the part of the mother to establish a separate identity was squelched by the father.  The mother created a cosmetics business that had nation wide custom.  The father made his wife close it.  The mother bought investment real estate.  The father made her sell it.  These women, the two Nancys, were his, his possessions, and they were not allowed to have anything like a life of their own.

Speaker Nancy "excuses" his behavior by saying that Italian American men were like that in that era.  At the same time she extravagantly praises her mother.  Gates takes note of the expression of a greater depth of feeling for the mother.  The excessive praise is a hint of the kind of daughter-mother rivalry for the affection of the "Raging Bull" that characterizes the neo-freudian Electra Complex.  

I am not a psychiatrist but I made a living for many years by perceiving and manipulating the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of others, both men and women.  Pelosi exhibits the characteristics of someone wounded by her father's personality. 

Speaker Nancy escaped the pain of her parental relationships by  marrying a nice Italian-American fellow from San Francisco and migrating to the west coast where after having given life to five daughters she turned to politics.  Her husband is still living but invisible.

Trump seems to be for her an avatar of her father.  He is a domineering man who recalls for her the frustrations of her childhood and adolescence.  The childish, mocking acts of revolt, the tearing up of a copy of his state of the Union Address for all the world to see, the tunnel-vision focus on revenge before all else, these are all symptoms of an irrational obsession.

This is IMO profoundly unfair.  Trump is  a boor.  He is a boastful braggart about women.  He is crude in the mainstream tradition of New York City bullies, but there is no evidence that he ever did anything to hold the women in his family back from personal or business success.  Actually, the women who worked in his corporate headquarters praise him highly.

But, you cannot tell that to anyone suffering the kind of psychological scars that Speaker Nancy bears.  pl

https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/about/meet-our-guests/nancy-pelosi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra_complex

"VMI Test Case for the Country" Abbeville Institute

"In the wake of Floyd’s unfortunate death, a flurry not only of protests but also of writings on race ensued. In time, many of the latter took aim at VMI, a number of which asserted the school’s Confederate heritage had some connection with terms such as “structural” or “systemic” racism. Suddenly, the small but nationally-recognized military college, founded in 1839, was thrust into the limelight. One major problem with the charges – some of which have come from VMI graduates themselves – was that the published allegations fail to meet a traditional, objective definition of structural or systemic racism; in other words, racism that is part of the structure of the institution (school) itself. If such racism exists at VMI, it remains unsubstantiated as of this writing.    

A survey of the articles on VMI and racism in the last six months suggests the allegations of racially-inspired acts – nearly uniformly attributed on the internet or in print to structural or systemic racism – were, in fact, acts of individual poor judgment or an individual’s racism: 1) a second-year cadet’s unserious but equally foolish threat to “lynch” a black cadet during a fevered workout for first-year “Rats” (for which the upperclassman was suspended, a significant discipline given the nature of the event in which the Rats were to undergo intense adversities to prove themselves, an integral part of VMI’s well-known adversarial, successful, model)[1]; 2) a professor’s thoughtless, “wistful” comments in class on the entertaining parties enjoyed years ago by her father, a KKK member; or, 3) some stupid or racially derogatory comments on social media. In fact, those are the three primary anecdotes that have been repeated over and over in news articles since June: none were structural (systemic, institutional) in nature; all took place in an individual or small-group/classroom context with a single protagonist or on social media (highly individualistic by its nature). It is altogether possible that the first two incidents were one-time events that have morphed into different versions in the reporting.       

Certainly, individual acts of stupidity, poor judgment, or outright racism ought to be addressed (some, like the lynching threat, have been). Such incidents, however, are a much different thing than so-called structural (systemic, institutional) racism. Perhaps Virginia’s $1 million investigation of – in the governor’s words – a “clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism” [emphasis added] at VMI, will prove to be unfounded. Time will tell."  Abbeville

-----------------

I have attempted to hold my tongue concerning the rape of my alma mater.  No more.  I fully and completely associate myself with the undying tradition of service, honor and sacrifice that our graduates have embodied since 1839.

That includes the dead New Market cadets buried around the base of Moses Ezekiel's statue pf "Virginia Mourning Her Dead" and the 50% of our alumni who died in Confederate service in the War Between the States.

There are VMI people who do not revere our dead.  I am not among them.  pl

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/vmi-test-case-for-the-country/

 

No floor action yet in Congress on an impeachment (updated)

By Robert Willmann

Four impeachment resolutions were filed on 11 January 2021 in the House of Representatives against President Donald Trump :  H.Res. 34 by Maxine Waters with 8 cosponsors, H.Res. 26 by Sheila Jackson Lee with 33 cosponsors, H.Res. 32 by Ilhan Omar with 84 cosponsors, and H.Res. 24 by David Cicilline with 160 cosponsors.  H.Res. 24 seems to be the one getting the most attention [1]. 

The proposed resolution to ask Vice President Mike Pence to start the 25th Amendment's procedure to declare a president incapable of executing the duties of the office has zero cosponsors, and is H.Res. 21, introduced by Jamie Raskin.  An attempt to get unanimous consent to take the resolution to the floor failed.  I think there will not be any floor debate on that one (See update below).

So far today, 12 January, the House has done nothing on any of the resolutions.  This morning it was in session for almost four minutes about electing members to standing committees, and then recessed subject to the call of the Chair [2].

The "Blue Dog Coalition" of 18 Democrats in the House are not Trump supporters but will probably not be in automatic agreement with everything Speaker Nancy Pelosi might want, which may narrow the Democratic majority on some issues [3].  

Careful investigation of the events of 6 January at and around the White House and Capitol building is essential, along with the public release of all videos and images that can be obtained.

UPDATE, 5:27 p.m. central time:  The House is going ahead with a floor debate about H.Res. 21 to suggest to Vice Pres. Pence that he start the process of the 25th Amendment.  It can be seen at the "live" House website at the link below and at c-span.org.

[1]  House Resolution 24, filed on 11 January 2021.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/24/all-info

https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hres24/BILLS-117hres24ih.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/24/text?format=txt

[2]  https://clerk.house.gov/

https://live.house.gov

[3]  https://bluedogcaucus-costa.house.gov

 

The Great Experiment V.2.0 By Walrus

"The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness." - George Washington, January 9, 1790

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. ” - George Orwell.

We are about to participate in "The Great Experiment V. 2.0" in my opinion. This decides which of the Georges, Washington and Orwell, is right. My money is on Orwell for a reason I will tell you later.

The shape of what is coming to America is already clear; a technology driven tyranny that will make the Chinese leadership green with envy. Siri, Alexa and other unknown AI demons will read, listen and watch everyone, everywhere, always, not just for impure thoughts, let alone acts, but for even the suggestion that an unapproved thought process is occurring.

The initial outcome of such surveillance will be your appearance on lists. The "No fly" list, soon to be followed by the "No train", "No credit card", "No employment", "No drivers license", "No phone", "No internet access", "No Education", "No voice", "No Welfare" and of course the "No firearms" list. I call this process Human deplatforming.

The checks and balances have been replaced with (Bank) checks and (Bank) balances. The richest men in the world are overseeing this experiment which is going global quicker than you can say "Google". They are enabled by the University academics who as Raymond Asquith once observed are always prepared to provide an intellectual justification for vile acts if the price is right and journalists will laud said acts to the heavens as decent, moral doings if they want a paycheck next week from their masters.

The Legislature is bought. The Executive is bought. The Supreme Court are ninnies. The only thing standing in their way is soon to be Ex President Trump. I don't like his chances of becoming a rallying point, they are going to go after his children.

Oh Yes, but you have guns you say. Well those pasty faced, namby, pamby West Coast transgender wokeists, as you call them, may not be able to shoot straight but they have drones, swarming drones, robots and God knows what else in the way of weapons. They have satellite data and  almost perfect intelligence regarding your behaviour. They don't have to shoot accurately, they have machines to do that. They can and will commit unspeakable acts of murder and destruction before they turn off the monitor and jog off for a Latte. After all if you are not with us you are a domestic terrorist aren't you? There is no middle ground.

And you enabled all this yourselves. When you applauded the Patriot Act. When you cheered at the vilification of muslims, "sand niggers", "rag heads". When you justified the use of torture. When you masturbated watching targeting videos of drone strikes on Afghans.  When you credulously watched fantasies on television about "Iran's nuclear threat". When you listened and watched uncritically (or perhaps with secret pleasure) as the media lied to you breathlessly about the President disporting himself on a urine soaked bed with Russian hookers. Where was your sense of outrage then? Every time you deny the humanity and human rights of anyone, no matter how vile they be, you are destroying your own rights.

I have no sympathy with the left wing Liberals because they prove that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and they are about to be dismayed to discover what they have done. The unattractive and socially inept nerds of both sexes  are acting out revenge fantasies against  Alpha males. None of them bothered to read enough to understand what happens to protest "movements" - what they morph into, how they are capture and corrupted. Silly them.

Too late folks. You are about to participate in Great Experiment Version 2.0 - can the American people avoid what is being prepared for them and recover the human happiness that George Washington  envisaged? My money is on Orwell, my reason? Because I figure it's a win/win for me. Either I am consoled by my winnings or if I lose, I can go to my grave happy in the knowledge that the spirit of George Washington is still guiding us.

I hope for the best but suggest that we are not likely to enjoy the next few years and neither will the left wingers when they finally see what they have wrought.

News Updates From Inside The Forbidden City

The heeling is heading our way. Over the last few days I took a little time off from the 'net. Caught a re-run of Rumpole of the Bailey. "The Golden Thread" that runs through English common law. Good stuff, not taught in school nowadays. Too bad, really. Then I tried to catch up on all the goings on, and boy did somebody kick over the chamber pot ant hill. I'm barely keeping up.

"Not since Abraham Lincoln was smuggled into Washington has anyone assumed the presidency of a more divided and angry nation than Joe Biden. He brings with him a satchel full of scandals and an agenda of mumbled promises. His pledge to be the great healer rings hollow. His recent dishonest comments concerning Trump’s advocacy of violence at the Capitol only proves the point." "The elites have no idea how angry millions of Americans are." Quotes from above article in "free Republic" (see the link). Boy, there are  some irritated people out there. 

"Dear idiots, you’re like the wife with her arm in a sling and both eyes blackened telling her husband “Please don’t say anything to Joe. He’ll be mad.” Says woman and immigrant to America, now a citizen.  "The 2020 election was a fraud — and Congress including the Republicans — are cool with that." To quote another blogger.

Meanwhile inside the Nation's Capital ..... it is, to quote Rumpole, a question of rloyalty. 

The Democrat plan for Trump

(Air Pelosi)

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday night that one of the motivating factors for some in the new effort to impeach President Trump and remove him from office is to eliminate any chance he has of being elected again."  foxnews

------------

Well, pilgrims, IMO the elimination of a re-run with Trump is the ONLY motivation for the farce intended by the giddy but still apprehensive Donkeyland crew.

To accomplish this they need to impeach Trump while he is still in office because impeachment in the US is about REMOVAL of incumbents.  The Donkeys claim that they could then wait 90 days to have their captive senate try Trump on the charge of "incitement of insurrection."  IMO such a trial would be unconstitutional but with John Roberts as Chief Justice, who knows whether SCOTUS would allow that?   They would need a few Never Trump Republicans to have enough votes in the senate but with people like Romney on board, who knows?

And then!  Wait for it!  The piece de resistance would be a second vote in the senate to bar Trump from FEDERAL office for life.  Aahhh!  So good!  So good!  An aged marine once said "if it feels really, really good, it is probably a bad idea."  Yes.  

IMO Trump needs to resign NOW to put himself beyond the reach of  congress.  He could still be indicted and tried in a Title 3 court, but the odds are a lot better there.

He is a resident of Florida.  Congress does not have the power to bar him from state office.  Governor might be a good retirement job when DeSantis moves on to a national role.  John Quincy Adams was a congressman for many years AFTER being president.  pl

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-60-minutes-trump-impeachment