Smoke and Mirrors

” I know, and I think many of the people on your panel know, that prosecutors do not have evidence in hand linking the effort of Enrique Tarrio, Stewart Rhodes, and other lieutenants of theirs, to Donald Trump. They do not have the smoking-gun evidence that shows that Donald Trump was directing an effort to violently overthrow the government. ” [More]

Considering the charges and the punishment, it doesn’t even look like they “have the smoking-gun evidence that shows that[Stewart Rhodes] was directing an effort to violently overthrow the government.”

[Via bondmen]

Shock and Awe Lawfare

The recommendation for Rhodes is the longest thus far for any person charged in connection with the Capitol attack, reflecting what prosecutors see as his role in a key organizing figure for members of the far-right militia — even as Rhodes was never alleged to have entered the Capitol building itself on Jan. 6. [More]

So he not only never went in, they have no direct orders he issued to any specific person. The seditious conspiracy here is by the persecutors.

This is an act of judicial terrorism with a chilling, wider goal in mind. What else would you call “the deliberate creation of a sense of fear, usually by the use or threat of use of symbolic acts of physical violence, to influence the political behavior of a given target group”?

I guess the jurors were impressionable and manipulable enough to embrace the hysteria. It also raises a question I’ve had for some time for those whose liberty advocacy efforts center on Fully Informed Juries: Even though “text, history, and tradition” known to the Founders is on your side, your message is limited by those who control the media, and by prevailing legal establishment interests, to the echo chambers of the political fringes.

The arrogant f*** (from Portland, OR) who wrote that actually cites a law review article that compares telling free citizens about their nullification rights to telling children not to stick beans up their noses (“most of them would not have thought about it had it not been suggested”) and wrings his hands over how difficult the First Amendment makes full suppression.

And potentially sympathetic politicians, mindful of what the Swamp and the media would do to them, have little incentive to touch it.

So why not force wider discussion and open the eyes of more by creating ballot measures in states that allow it? Just the act of collecting signatures will raise awareness “outside the choir” (and I qualify the use of that term), and the fact that something is gaining steam, and maybe even getting on the ballot, will call attention to a freedom safeguard the would-be rulers desperately want to keep citizens from learning about.

We might stick beans up our noses.

The Big Chill

Independent journalist Steve Baker says he was recently warned that his aggressive reporting and commentary about Jan. 6 have created growing ire at the U.S. Department of Justice that could lead to his prosecution for being at the Capitol on that fateful Wednesday in 2021. [More]

Well, if he’s an “independent,” he’s not an “Authorized Journalist” then, is he?

And scary official threats of retaliation for reporting the truth… where have we seen that before?

[Via bondmen]

The Way Things Are

“I wish more people had shown up,” Trump supporter Philippe Lejeune told the outlet. [More]

Well of course MAGA was outnumbered. It’s New York. And some of us have learned to avoid crowds. Especially after we see what happened the last time and worry that low-hanging fruit morons in buffalo hats with no sense of effective personal conduct are going to give the feds all the cover they needed to provoke, entrap, and record us for pickup and prosecution 6 months later while the guy whose words galvanized us into action is fully occupied with taking care of Number One.

We also see the Antifa types get away with a whole lot more and realize it’s all part of the controlled media plan.

And there’s another reality I’ve never been able to crack.

Speaking of Seditious Conspiracies…

Thread: FBI agent lied under oath yesterday in federal prosecution trial. Admission of FBI fabrication of evidence, following orders to destroy hundreds of items of evidence, deleting exculpatory evidence from FBI’s Lync internal messaging system, and more. Judge excuses jury. [More]

This is how CNN is spinning it, and since they have the much larger audience, they win.

[Via WiscoDave]

To Infinity and Beyond!

Schiff: “The power of repetition is such that people like Tucker Carlson who know they’re lying to the public can convince millions of people of those lies. It’s illuminating to me about other periods in history where liars use a powerful megaphone.” [More]

Pee-wee shows us the way.

[Via Michael G]