Posted on 01/29/2021 9:40:25 AM PST by Kaslin
There is a scene in Peter Jackson's film "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" when Bilbo Baggins and his dwarf companions stand at the entrance to Mirkwood Forest, through which they must travel to reach their destination. Once lush, green and verdant, Mirkwood has become infested with evil. Bilbo hesitates to enter, saying, "This forest feels ... sick."
This country feels ... sick.
Even the briefest foray into social media, editorial commentary or what passes for "news" makes it abundantly clear: America is sick. She is sick because her people have been fed a steady diet of propaganda, political theater and lies. This has become so extreme and so widespread of late that it is literally infecting every aspect of American society and turning ordinary Americans against one another.
I wrote about this two weeks ago, and -- as difficult as that seems -- conditions have worsened considerably since.
We'll start with the most recent: What happened on Jan. 6 was not an "insurrection." There was no serious attempt to "overthrow" the United States government. Was there a riot? Yes. Was it deliberately disruptive of government business? Definitely. But an attempted coup? Ridiculous on its face.
We've seen plenty of riots in state capitols in recent years. Have these been called "insurrections" or attempts to overthrow state governments? No. To the contrary, they have been lauded as examples of "democracy in action," as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Washington, D.C. -- including the Capitol itself -- has endured no small amount of violence in the past year and earlier (including massive unrest four years ago when Donald Trump was inaugurated). And the Capitol violence three weeks ago was caused by a small number relative to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who converged on Washington to make their voices heard peacefully.
But it has become necessary to call it an "insurrection" to justify the political theater taking place now.
First and foremost, of course, is the attempt by Democrats in Congress to impeach Trump for "inciting insurrection." Most people won't read the full text of Trump's speech that day. It was vintage Trump, confrontational and full of braggadocio, but in it, he explicitly told his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically" make their voices heard.
But no "insurrection" means no "incitement," and that would mean no impeachment.
The articles of impeachment are themselves a charade. As Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul stated on the Senate floor -- and to which 44 other Republican senators agreed -- the Constitution simply does not authorize Congress to take the action contemplated by an impeachment trial against a private citizen. Only a sitting president can be "removed," and Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States. Further, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that Chief Justice John Roberts will not preside over an impeachment trial in the Senate -- another blow to those who claim that such a "trial" on the House's single impeachment charge is legitimate. Finally, the 44 GOP senators who voted in favor of Paul's procedural motion prove that the 50 Democratic senators will not get the additional 17 Republicans they need for a two-thirds majority to convict.
So, the impeachment shtick isn't about removing a man who is already gone, and it isn't really about getting a conviction either. It's more -- and more extreme -- political theater. If that's not bad enough, the country is also struggling to recover from months of COVID lockdowns. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio described the impeachment charge as "stupid" and a waste of time.
And it gets much worse. The target of the "insurrection" propaganda campaign is not so much Donald Trump as it is the 74 million-plus people who voted for him.
Americans were stunned when Hillary Clinton referred to only half of Donald Trump's supporters as a "basket of deplorables" in 2016. But Trump had millions more supporters in 2020, and now all of them are being demonized by Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media as threats, as "seditionists" and "white supremacists" who need to be "deprogrammed," "reprogrammed," imprisoned in "reeducation camps" or subjected to "Nuremburg trials."
These are not isolated remarks by fringe elements; they are comments made by "mainstream" Democratic voices: Washington Post correspondent Eugene Robinson, media darling Katie Couric, MSNBC anchor Don Lemon, actor Jon Cryer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Comments on these articles and tweets -- made by non-famous, left-leaning Americans -- are even worse.
This is beyond political difference. It is a sickness.
Conservative commentators Dennis Prager and Tucker Carlson have warned that the reckless hyperbole risks spilling over into reality. Prager opined this week that a population deceived into thinking that a political candidate is a murderous dictator will turn a blind eye to, and even support, election fraud, which only benefits those inclined to commit it. Carlson took the left to task in his opening monologue last Tuesday evening for relentlessly smearing innocent Americans, like bullies baiting their victims to -- finally -- throw a punch. The point Carlson made, emphatically, is that eventually, even the most peaceable and law-abiding person will retaliate in the face of baseless accusations and unfair treatment, contributing to a destructive cycle that threatens the fabric of society.
The political and cultural elites in this country consider themselves uniquely qualified to lead. But true leaders behave in ways that demonstrate their concern for the health of the organizations and people under their charge. They do not exploit differences and foment discord for their own personal aggrandizement.
I'm not seeing much true leadership now.
Only those that want to believe in that; as for others it’s entertainment.
Yes, but it’s an addict’s sickness. The public knows they are being propagandized. The public knows that our politicians are corrupt whores, playing a role for the audience.
But, the public can’t get enough, and won’t demand change.
And that is one of the reasons this country is in grave danger.
I’m not seeing much true leadership now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That’s because both parties cooperated to cheat out of office the one man who was providing the leadership we need.
Too many Neros are fiddling while Rome is burning.
There has at least been more acknowledgement of public anger at what went on this election since the inauguration. I don’t think anyone has a game plan (yet) but once the results of at least a semi legitimate investigation are released there won’t be any turning back.
Panic Porn
I only look at Free Republic a couple times a day. I am feeling much better.
Yep
Look, the enemy told us what they were planning in plain English.
“Black neighborhoods are over-policed, and white neighborhoods are under-policed” means what it says: “Robbery, burglary, vandalism and other similar “crimes” will be ignored and will not be prosecuted. But previously legal activities, like voting for an anti-establishment candidate, or owning firearms, or previously lawful self defense will be criminalized, and the full weight of the state will be brought to bear.”
Even if we had a political party to try and fight this – and we do not - there is nothing that party can do to prevent or even slow down any of this. At least since 1965 system has always been rigged, but in 2016 Donald J. Trump came along and showed that it was possible to “beat the house.”
For four years, he singlehandedly exposed the corrupt cabal who are now back in power now as the frauds and incompetents they are, and he did that merely by enacting policies that made Americans more prosperous, more secure and more free than at any time since the end of the Second World War. That is why he, and we,must be destroyed, and driven from the public sphere: it is now plain that our elites have not merely capitulated to the malignant cancer of Globalism, but have enthusiastically embraced it, and all it implies. They are bought off, corrupt, and seek the destruction of the American republic as founded, to be replaced with am enslaved and immiserated people, who will beg for the scraps from their table.
I’m totally bored with it. I wish Trump and the military would just hurry it up. No person with a functioning brain really believes this clown is the president or is running the country.
The "insurrection" wasn't much of a punch, actually, and the hysteria that followed was tinctured with comedy - half of Congress, we were informed, was about to be lynched by a "mob" that carefully stayed between the velvet ropes whilst "storming" the place. Watching the media dutifully echoing this pathetic screeching was nearly as amusing as watching the hysterics themselves.
A word of caution, however: the calls for concentration camps are obviously meant as the sort of provocation the author is talking about, nonentities such as Eugene Robinson making an attempt to be edgy, but they're no joking matter given the catastrophic implementations during the 20th century. That sort of thing isn't just goading, it's an unwary foot about to step on a land mine. You can warn them but they're flushed with victory and they're not listening.
Sure he’s a lefty but these lyrics seem apropos now:
The The - The Beaten Generation
When you cast your eyes upon the skylines
Of this once proud nation
Can you sense the fear and the hatred
Growing in the hearts of its population
And youth, oh youth, are being seduced
By the greedy hands of politics and half truths
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination
We’re being sedated by the gasoline fumes
And hypnotised by the satellites
Into believing what is good and what is right
You may be worshipping the temples of mammon
Or lost in the prisons of religion
But can you still walk back to happiness
When you’ve nowhere left to run?
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination
And if they send in the special police
To deliver us from liberty and keep us from peace
Then won’t the words sit ill upon their tongues
When they tell us justice is being done
And that freedom lives in the barrels of a warm gun
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Reared on a diet of prejudice and mis-information
The beaten generation
The beaten generation
Open your eyes, open your imagination
Political Theater is too nice a term. Politicians are screwing 6 ways to Sunday.
No, the country isn’t sick, it’s already dead.
Yep - with you there sister.
“Black neighborhoods are over-policed, and white neighborhoods are under-policed” means what it says: “Robbery, burglary, vandalism and other similar “crimes” will be ignored and will not be prosecuted. But previously legal activities, like voting for an anti-establishment candidate, or owning firearms, or previously lawful self defense will be criminalized, and the full weight of the state will be brought to bear.”
Even if we had a political party to try and fight this – and we do not - there is nothing that party can do to prevent or even slow down any of this. At least since 1965 system has always been rigged, but in 2016 Donald J. Trump came along and showed that it was possible to “beat the house.”
For four years, he singlehandedly exposed the corrupt cabal who are now back in power now as the frauds and incompetents they are, and he did that merely by enacting policies that made Americans more prosperous, more secure and more free than at any time since the end of the Second World War. That is why he, and we,must be destroyed, and driven from the public sphere: it is now plain that our elites have not merely capitulated to the malignant cancer of Globalism, but have enthusiastically embraced it, and all it implies. They are bought off, corrupt, and seek the destruction of the American republic as founded, to be replaced with am enslaved and immiserated people, who will beg for the scraps from their table.
This. Everyone should read this twice and realize the truth. We are past the point of winning anything politically and the radical left are the real Nazis here and are destined to repeat history if not stopped. No one other than the "people" can stop them now.
And both use dominion voting machines and like the results.
It would appear unity to a prog means total surrender, and living under the progs' authority and "Ministry of Truth."
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