Durham Lambastes Corrupt FBI
This week, Special Counsel John Durham told the House Judiciary Committee that "the FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research from the Clinton campaign. The FBI abetted this dirty trick to try to help Clinton win the 2016 election. When Trump won that election the FBI continued its efforts to undermine his presidency."
Durham went on to contrast "the falsely premised assault on Trump with the failure to pursue the known crimes of Hillary Clinton's illegal transmission of classified material over unencrypted media and her destruction of evidence that had been subpoenaed. It was a worst case scenario where an innocent man was harassed on bogus grounds, while a guilty woman was never held to answer for real crimes."
"Clearly, then President Obama, Vice-President Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey knew that justice had been inverted," Durham asserted. "Sadly, the opportunity to right these wrongs was missed during the term that Trump was president. Now that Biden is president there is no viable path by which the injustices can be rectified. The guilty parties have complete control over the Department of Justice and are still persecuting Trump while allowing President Biden's son to evade serious consequences for his tax evasion, bribery, illegal drugs, and perjury on his application for a gun permit."
"The only way out of this mess would be for Biden to lose the 2024 election and a new administration to oust the perpetrators of the injustice from office," Durham said. "However, given the FBI's suppression of evidence on Hunter Biden's laptop, which was in their possession a year before the 2020 election, rescuing the nation from the control of these malefactors is a daunting enterprise."
Biden Calls Xi "Dictator"
In remarks at a fundraiser in California where he was boasting of his valor in the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon, President Biden called China's President Xi Jinping a "dictator for being upset that I thwarted his espionage gambit. Given the economic difficulties his country is having he should not be provoking me."
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called Biden's remarks "extremely absurd and irresponsible. All nations collect intelligence on their adversaries. The United States is no respecter of the privacy of other nations. The scope of their spying is global. It even includes spying on its own citizens. As for economic difficulties, the United States is the world's biggest debtor. China is one of the nations that has lent the US government trillions of dollars."
Self-declared "historic figure" Presidential Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended her boss, saying "the whole world knows that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. This truth is confirmed before every sporting event across the country on a daily basis. In China the people aren't free. The government punishes dissent, impedes free movement of its citizens both inside and outside of the country, and its people can lose their jobs for disobeying government directives. There should be no doubt about who are the bad guys and who are the good guys when comparing our two countries."
In related news, President Biden made another pitch for infringing the right to bear arms by claiming to be an expert on the Second Amendment, saying "I taught it for four years, six years in law school. And guess what? It doesn't say that you can own any weapon you want. It says there are certain weapons that you just can't own." He went on to ridicule the idea that the Second Amendment is vital for keeping a tyrannical government in check, "because today our government has nuclear weapons, missiles, supersonic aircraft, and tanks at its disposal. If we want to tyrannize the people we can. Owning a rifle or pistol can't do anything to stop us. Your best chance for keeping your freedom is to obey our laws and have faith that we will treat you fairly."
Vaccination Mandate Flouted Evidence
Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, and Dr. Anthony Fauci knew as early as January of 2021 that many of those getting the covid vaccines were still getting infected and dying from the disease. Yet for months afterward, Walensky publicly insisted that "vaccinated people don't carry the virus and don't get sick."
In September of 2021--nine months after the CDC knew the vaccines didn't prevent infection or illness--President Biden ordered all companies employing 100 or more workers to require vaccination as a condition for keeping their jobs. He petulantly asserted that "our patience is wearing thin. The unvaccinated are endangering us all. If they won't voluntarily get vaccinated we have to remove them from locations where they could infect others." Biden called his ban on employing the unvaccinated "less severe than the vaccine passports that totally ostracize those who refuse to meet government requirements to get the jab in other countries."
In January of 2022, the US Supreme Court mercifully struck down Biden's attempt to coerce employees to get vaccinated. Still, those who were fired for not getting the jab have not been reinstated. Military personnel who received less-than-honorable discharges for refusing the jab are not eligible for reinstatement and have to sue to try to retrieve the educational benefits, reemployment rights, and civil service retirement credit they lost.
Not all governments have been as harsh or impervious to trying to undo the damage they have done. Danielle Smith, the current premier of Alberta in Canada, apologized to unvaccinated Canadians who have faced unfair treatment from the government throughout the pandemic and promised that anyone terminated from their job because of their choice to be unvaxxed will be reinstated.
Biden characterized Smith as "wimpy. Regardless of whether the jab may or may not have fallen short of its promise, the fact remains that those who refused to take it were disobeying a direct order from their country's Commander-in-Chief. In my view, no one who defies such an order should be entrusted with a job in any agency under my jurisdiction. We don't need malcontents on the inside where they can inspire more defiance within the ranks."
Judge Explains Limits of Free Speech
In Massachusetts, acting principal Heather Tucker and Middleborough Public Schools Superintendent Carolyn Lyons barred 12-year-old Liam Morrison from wearing a T-shirt with the words "there are only two genders." Since other T-shirts saying "celebrate gay pride" are permitted at the school, Morrison sought attorneys to help him defend his right to freedom of speech.
Lyons defended suppressing the shirt, saying "it targeted students of a protected class; namely in the area of gender identity. This is hate speech that cannot be permitted. Liam's return to school wearing a shirt saying 'there are censored genders' mocked our authority and also had to be banned."
In court, US District Judge Indira Talwani sided with the school and affirmed its right to censor any message that "collides with the rights of others to be secure and be let alone. For some students the belief that there are many genders is a vital component of their perception of self. It is the school's obligation to protect this perception from assault."
Tyson Langhofer, director of the Center for Academic Freedom at Alliance Defending Freedom who is helping with Morrison's case, called the ruling "a gross violation of the First Amendment. What about Liam's right to be secure and be let alone? His shirts stated two facts--that there are only two genders and that the school was censoring him. If we allow government officials like school administrators to censor facts we are allowing tyranny and idiocy to pollute our culture."
Judge Talwani asserted that "it is the factual claim that deprives the shirt's words from First Amendment protection. Because there are people who would disagree that there are only two genders that proves it cannot truly be a 'fact.' If the shirt had said 'celebrate two genders' it would be a permissible expression of an opinion."
In related news, a 13-year-old girl was called "despicable" by her teacher at a Church of England school in the United Kingdom for asking a fellow student "How can you identify as a cat when you're a girl?"
Garland Says No Double Standard
Attorney General Merrick Garland rebuffed suggestions that his Department of Justice has a "double standard" when it assesses how to treat persons suspected of wrongdoing. "We weigh each and every situation to determine how to proceed," he maintained. "Sometimes circumstances call for aggressive prosecution. Sometimes a more lenient approach is warranted."
"Take the recent decision to go easy on Hunter Biden," Garland suggested. "Here we had an individual with no previous criminal record--a first time offender, so to speak. It was our determination that no useful public purpose would be served by putting this individual behind bars. Additionally, it would be hugely embarrassing for the son of a sitting president to be thrown into prison with hardened criminals and have to face the threat to life and limb that exists in such an environment."
"On the other hand, take the decision to bring the full weight of the law down on Donald Trump," Garland continued. "Trump has already been found guilty and fined $5 million for defaming E. Jean Carroll for refusing to admit that he raped her. Rather than learning his lesson, he continues in his denials, thus forcing Ms. Carroll to sue him again. This kind of recidivism is very concerning. Trump has also been indicted by New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election. Trump is also under investigation for his attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. I think he pretty much fits the profile of a career criminal who should be put in jail for the good of society."
"On top of this there is the matter of Trump's threat to our democracy," Garland added. "Despite being soundly rejected by the voters in 2020, Trump is still seeking to usurp the presidency of Joe Biden. He attacks the reputation and the actions of President Biden on a daily basis. This is extremely disunifying. For the sake of the country I have advised President Biden to pardon Mr. Trump on the condition that he admit guilt and withdraw from public life. So, Trump's fate is now in his own hands. I hope he will choose wisely."
In related news, in an appearance on MSNBC this week, Democrat Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett expressed trepidation about "having Trump not only having the codes but now having the classified information for Americans and being able to put that out and share it in his resort with anyone and everything who comes through should be terrifying to all Americans" and suggested "he needs to be shot."
Another Threat to Democracy Spotted
This week an editorial by Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times proclaimed Robert F. Kennedy, jr. "a threat to democracy." The son of former US Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, sr. earned this fearful emotion from the left-wing newspaper by daring to challenge President Biden for the Democrat nomination for president in the 2024 election. "We already have a Democrat in the oval office," he said. "There is no need for this disunifying intrusion."
Despite Kennedy's impeccable lineage as a liberal Democrat, Hiltzik doesn't think he deserves an opportunity to run. "If you listen to some of the issues he wants to raise I question whether he is even a Democrat," Hiltzik said. "First off, he is extremely critical of Biden's pandemic policies. He thinks the vaccines are dangerous and should be taken off the market. He opposes the censorship of dissenting opinions that Biden's Administration demanded of the media. On environmental issues he favors using a market-based approach to fighting pollution and mitigating climate change. These are dangerous deviations from the progressive transformation that is currently underway in this country."
A poll of Democrats found that 77% favor debates between Biden and Kennedy--an event that Hiltzik feels "could do irreparable damage to the Democratic brand. The hard won unity we have achieved under Biden is inherently fragmented by debate. This is why no high-profile Democrats have endorsed Kennedy and none attended his speech in New Hampshire this week. The fact that his speech was hosted by the libertarian-leaning Ethan Allen Institute showed that Kennedy is not on the same page as the rest of the Party. This Institute promotes free markets, individual liberty, and constitutional integrity. None of these issues is in the mainstream of the Democratic Party."
In related news, former President Obama dismissed Republican Sen. Tim Scott's presidential candidacy "as inauthentic" because "no genuine black person could ever be a Republican. Those who know American history also know that it is the Democratic Party that has championed the rights and welfare of black people."
