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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas last night.  It's here.

JANUARY 11,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

SABOTAGE – FROM FOX:  The U.S. State Department’s official website drew widespread scrutiny Monday after official biographies for President Trump and Vice President Pence were edited to note that their terms in office would end Monday evening.  The edited messages appeared on both pages for a short period before they were taken offline. The messages were visible online as Democrats continued their push to impeach Trump for his role in instigating riots at the U.S. Capitol last week over the results of the 2020 presidential election.  "Donald J. Trump's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:49:00," the message on Trump’s bio page read. Pence’s page displayed a nearly identical message.  State Department officials have yet to comment. However, Buzzfeed News reported that a "disgruntled employee" was responsible for the changes, citing interviews with two active diplomats.  Sec. of State Mike Pompeo ordered an internal investigation to determine how the changes were made, according to the report.  Trump’s and Pence’s terms in office are set to end on Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are formally inaugurated as their successors. However, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed for Trump to leave the White House before Inauguration Day.  Reminding us that Deep State really does exist.

January 11, 2021       Permalink

THIS COULD BE IMPORTANT – AT 11:30 P.M. ET:  The fanatical onslaught against President Trump by tech companies has attracted the attention of a major foreign leader.  From the New York Post: 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers it “problematic” that Twitter would toss President Trump off its social media platform, saying through a spokesmen Monday that the president’s ability to express his opinion is a fundamental right of “elementary significance.”

“This fundamental right can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators — not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms,” Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin.

“Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the U.S. president have now been permanently blocked,” he added.

Twitter permanently banned Trump’s Twitter account last Friday citing “the risk of further incitement of violence” — two days after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol.

But for weeks the social media platform had tagged the president’s tweets about the Nov. 3 presidential election.

COMMENT:  When influential foreign leaders start noticing the erosion of our democratic principles, that's news.  How long will it take for these leaders to start throwing Twitter out of their own countries on grounds that it's a threat to their democracies as well?  Merkel's statement should be seized upon by the pro-free-speech forces here and hurled against the censors.  Maybe they'll wake up and realize what can happen to them all over the world.

January 11, 2021       Permalink

AND NOW THEY COME FOR TEACHERS – AT 6:45 P.M. ET:  Cancel culture is on the march.  No one escapes.  From RedState: 

On Wednesday, a crowd of American citizens estimated to exceed 100,000 gathered in Washington, DC, to peacefully assemble and listen to a speech from the President of the United States. All but a handful of the attendees dispersed peacefully. Nothing done by the people who carried the demonstration into the US Capitol takes away from the legality and propriety of attending a political rally headlined by the president.

But if you were a teacher in Jefferson County, WV, you just found out that it doesn’t matter if the voters in the county voted overwhelmingly to reelect President Trump, all it takes to put your livelihood in jeopardy is to have a school superintendent who is totally unacquainted with the US Constitution, and your job is in jeopardy.

Nearly 30 teachers in Jefferson County, West Virginia who attended the rally at the Capitol in Washington DC on Wednesday are now being threatened with termination.

A letter was sent to the teachers by the Jefferson County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bondy Shay Gibson. In the letter, the teachers are told to report to a meeting on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 where disciplinary action, including termination, will be discussed. The teachers are encouraged to bring a representative with them. The teachers were also told to not enter any Jefferson County School’s property or attend any school activity.

According to another source, this is what the letter said:

“I was made aware that you took part in the Electoral College protest that erupted into deadly violence on January 6, 2021. I have reviewed disturbing videos and photographs posted that tagged you on a public social media page, which included threatening and demeaning statements regarding federal government officials.”

The letters went on to say, “I understand that many community members are upset by these images. Accordingly, I have determined that you are on administrative leave with pay effective immediately pending additional investigation.”

The letter went on to indicate that the employees should schedule a meeting Tuesday with Gibson and bring a representative as disciplinary action including “the termination of your employment” is possible.

This threat is patently illegal. It doesn’t matter who in “the community” had their knickers knotted by images; being upset does not give you a heckler’s veto. Attending a political rally is a constitutionally protected activity. Unless Superintendent Bondy Shay Gibson has evidence that someone was involved in a criminal act, she is clearly carrying out political intimidation.

COMMENT:  There will be more.  Cancel culture also includes intimidation culture.  It isn't only the people who'll be fired during this current terror who count, it's also the people who are frightened into silence.

Civilizations don't die, said a historian.  They commit suicide. 

January 11,   2021      Permalink

JANUARY 10,  2021

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

DANGEROUS TALK – FROM RED STATE:  Well, so much for that whole unity thing. Democrats are out for blood, emboldened by the idiotic alt-right fools who rushed the Capitol last week, and they are seemingly going to play every card they have. Impeachment is already being talked about, perhaps even after Biden’s inauguration, in order to ban Trump from ever holding office again. But if that wasn’t dumb enough, Nancy Pelosi is now looking at the 14th Amendment as a way to expel Republican members of the House for supposedly taking part in an “insurrection.”   Do not ignore this.  The Democratic Party, with the full support of institutions like CNN, is going crazy.  They will make a mockery of any talk of national unity, they will ruin Joe Biden's inauguration, just to satisfy their radical base.  Indeed, they will push Biden aside at the first opportunity. 

I GUESS NO ONE NOTICED – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    A Chicago man who killed three people as he randomly shot eight strangers had posted a series of disturbing videos — in which he vowed to “blow up the whole community.”  Jason Nightengale, 32, appeared to randomly pick out targets Saturday as he shot dead a Chinese exchange student, a female security guard and a 20-year-old customer in a store he robbed, police said at a news briefing.  He also left at least five others critically injured, including elderly women aged 81 and 77 as well as a 15-year-old girl who was shot in the head while with her mother, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said.  His bloodbath lasted almost four hours and stretched over more than 10 miles before he was shot dead in a gun battle with cops after taking a woman hostage at an IHOP in Evanston, police said.  I guess his online posts weren't sufficiently upsetting to attract attention.  After all, we must understand his pain.

January 10, 2021       Permalink 

WILL THE DEMS SELF-DESTRUCT? – AT 1:20 P.M. ET:  The Democrats, symbolically wearing the neck scarves of the Japanese Kamikaze, plan to impeach President Trump this week, several days before he leaves office.   What a brilliant idea.  What a way to "unite" the country.  From the astute Michael Goodwin at the New York Post: 

One of President Trump’s biggest flaws is not knowing when to stop, as his speech before the Capitol invasion demonstrated. But while he thankfully saved his worst mistake for last, Democrats are exhibiting the same flaw at the very start of their term.

Political winds rarely get more favorable for a party than they are now, with Dems winning control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Joe Biden will get the Cabinet and judges he wants and the path is open to tax and regulatory overhauls. Media handmaidens will cheer his every move.

Equally important, the post-Trump Republican Party is in shambles after an absolutely disastrous week. White House and agency officials are jumping ship to distance themselves from the president they served and GOP members of Congress as well as donors and supporters are blasting Trump for the loss of the two Senate seats in Georgia as well as the fatal storming of the Capitol.

In short, Dems have it all — except the good sense to be gracious in victory. Celebrating their golden moment with anger and revenge, they are the definition of sore winners.

With less than two weeks remaining in Trump’s term, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer vow to impeach him if VP Mike Pence doesn’t organize a 25th Amendment posse to force him from office. By Friday, ­Pelosi’s team had drawn up articles accusing the president of “inciting an insurrection” and plan to introduce them to the full House ­Monday.

Pelosi even asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to reject orders from the commander in chief, saying she wants Milley to stop “an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”

Keyboard warriors on the left also flew into action, demanding that Facebook and other Big Tech overlords shame, silence and banish Trump and his “complicit” supporters. Instantly, the cancel-culture goons delivered as numerous platforms suspended or ended Trump accounts, including Twitter, putting the president’s 88.5 million followers in the dark.

Meanwhile, Iran’s mad mullah and other global gangsters continue to be exempt from the same rules.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, the first Republican senator to say he would object to the Electoral College results, had his book canceled by publisher Simon & Schuster just five months before publication. The title is “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” so Hawley might want to add a chapter on the tyranny of “woke” publishers.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s publisher Simon & Schuster caved to the “woke” mob and canceled his book.

In a sign of corporate cravenness, Simon & Schuster said that while “it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints . . . we cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat.”

Ah, yes, a dangerous threat. Hawley didn’t smash windows or break furniture in the Capitol or loot and burn private businesses over the summer. But he did exercise his First Amendment rights and constitutional duty as he saw it as a United States senator, so he is too toxic to publish.

Punishment for speech doesn’t get any more obvious, a sign that a top publishing house’s reverence for the First Amendment is no greater than that of your average college snowflake.

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  It is an excellent example of solid advocacy journalism.  I wonder when they will come for Goodwin.

January 10, 2021       Permalink 

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