A few days ago, two participants in the January 6, 2021, insurrection sobbed in front of a judge as she prepared to sentence them to jail terms for attacking law enforcement officers at the U.S. Capitol. They apologized for what they had done and appealed for the judge’s mercy–they had lost their jobs and missed their families. When I first saw the report, I wondered: Were they faking the tears and expressions of regret in hopes of eliciting the judge’s sympathy, or were they genuinely regretful about participating in America’s first-ever attempted coup d’ tat?
The judge wasn’t convinced, according the news report, she “read from many of the (text) messages, using the same profanity the men had. She noted that even after (Cody) Mattice and (James) Mault were aware of the impact of the riot, ‘they maintained some form of delusional belief that they were the patriots.’ “ And then she sentenced them to nearly four years in prison.
The key word from the judge is ‘delusional.’ While I have no doubt there were serious white supremacists in the Jan. 6 insurrection crowd, I also think a fair number of the insurrectionists were guys like Mattice and Mault. If these guys were serious fascists, they wouldn’t have been crying and pleading for mercy in front of the judge, they would have been proclaiming the justness of their cause and berating the judge as an enemy of the people. They would have understood that a 44-month sentence for treasonous activities signified they were being treated with kid gloves compared with other countries like Turkey, Egypt, Russia, and China, which confront much less dissent with much heavier punishment.
No, I think many of these people were totally naïve about the scale of the fire they were playing with Jan. 6. I don’t doubt they would have strung Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi up on the temporary gallows outside the Capitol, but those murders would have been acts of annoyance, irritation, destruction for destruction’s sake, not in the interests of some all-encompassing political ideology, more some kind of mob statement against the hated ‘elites,’ whomever they might be.
The delusion that drives such intense resentment and violence seems nearly impossible to counter in rational ways. Over the last few years, I’ve been a target of accusations that I somehow abandoned the good guys and became one of the hated elites, because over the last couple years I’ve expressed support for our government’s efforts in several pandemic-related areas—for example, the CDC’s encouragement of masks and efforts to counter the spread of Covid via vaccination, Over the last several months, I’ve written several op-ed type articles questioning our national failure to punish the coup instigators, and to seriously deter mass shootings. I’ve expressed fears we are moving ever more dangerously toward an authoritarian takeover. I’ve gotten lots of pushback, on Facebook, especially, from current and former blog subscribers.
“You used to be such a great journalist. You’ve completely sold out and gone completely with the (Democratic) partly line.”
“You were all for open food rights. I don’t recognize you any more.”
“That ‘coup’ you talk about was a set-up by the FBI. Check out Ray Epps.”
“You’re hopelessly liberal.”
There’s more, some of it more explicitly personal, but you get the idea. I’ve clearly disappointed a good number of people. All I can say is that it seems as if the doubters mis-read and misinterpreted much of my writing on this blog.
Just because I found misguided research and conclusions in reports on raw milk and cheese from the CDC and FDA doesn’t mean I thought the government officials who put the reports together were intentionally corrupt. Just because state and federal judges often ruled against raw dairy farmers doesn’t mean the judges are corrupt or we should blow up the court system. Just because a number of state food inspectors are tripping up small farmers because of an incidental presence of pathogens somewhere on the farm doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy afoot. Certainly these kinds of problems could well indicate that big-food corporations have more influence than they should. And that we have regulators who don’t understand the importance of small regenerative farms.
But even if the food division of the FDA is clueless about many aspects of good nutrition or the CDC is way behind the times on raw milk doesn’t mean the entire system is corrupt beyond saving. Nor does an inconsistent approach by the CDC and FDA on vaccines mean that Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and name your additional villains, are all in cahoots. In other words, I tend not to see the world in black-and-white or in conspiratorial terms.
And I think that’s where I have parted company with many of my bloggers. I’m a big fan of democratic rule, and the rule of law it implies, and I’m fearful, or rather paranoid, about authoritarian rule. My family barely escaped the insanity of a fascist state, and I am haunted by the ever-more-real possibility my country could turn fascist. To me, Winston Churchill summed up the challenges best when he said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.”
I also don’t have much use for conspiracy theories. As a journalist I long ago learned that conspiracy theories can’t explain most things for the simple reason that when big conspiracies are hatched, they nearly always unravel under the glare of investigation. The problem is that like-minded groups of people just can’t keep conspiratorial secrets very easily because they like to talk and brag and confess, it’s their nature….especially if they come to realize that they could go to jail for serious offenses, like sedition or treason. Look at what’s happening with the House January 6 committee—it has coldly, and successfully, unraveled a real conspiracy overseen by the previous president to overthrow our duly elected government, because its primary witnesses are aides and appointees who were involved in various aspects of planning the conspiracy (or trying to head it off). And that guy Ray Epps? Seems he was just a loyal Trump follower who became a convenient fall guy for the right-wing media types who make lots of money fanning the flames of conspiracy.
But explaining all this to people like many of my bloggers is a difficult task. I’ve mainly dealt with my frustration by just not doing much blogging. I’ve come to realize that it’s very difficult to warn people who’ve never experienced authoritarian rule as to its dangers. It seems as if they have to experience it to understand its terrible evil, but at that point, it’s too late to pull society back to rational life. I think many feel that so long as their guy is the authoritarian in charge, things will be fine. Except new wannabe dictators are always lurking in the wings, and sometimes displace your guy, and they do so in bloody and gruesome ways….which is why constitutional government and the peaceful transfer of power via an election is much preferable. As a professional journalist, I don’t have much use for delusion over reality. Unfortunately, I have yet to come up with good ways to snap the deluded out of their collective trances.
Watching from here in Canada, I don’t believe it was either an insurrection or an attempted coup d’etat. You can lump me in with your readers who think you are a dupe of the authoritarians. I think YOU are the one who is delusional – or at the very least, has your head buried deeply in the sand. However, I already knew that you were a socialist years ago. I’m not terribly surprised that you’ve swallowed all the hogwash the state has dished out over the past 2.5 years. Sayonara, David.
Me, “a socialist”? Someone who spent years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and an editor at The Harvard Business Review? Who wrote ten books on various aspects of starting and running a business (“Business Plans That Win $$$”, “How to Really Start Your Own Business,” “How to Really Create a Successful Marketing Plan”, etc., etc.)? I’m not sure how to label you, Karen. I assumed from your legal activities in connection with the Michael Schmidt case some years ago, you were a defender of the Canadian constitution and the rule of law, but from the tone of your comment here, you sound much closer to the guy pictured in the cartoon accompanying this post.
David, Thank You for writing this on your blog. I’m still laughing at the Canadian lady that called you a socialist, kinda obvious you are a capitalist, LOL!! I have been in the state of awe for so long now, in awe of all the bullshit some of these people believe, things that have absolutely “No logic or common sense!!” I am truly hopeful that at some point we can get back to some common sense thinking in this country. I also hope this is not the beginning of the end of the USA.
@Karen
I don’t think David is a socialist. It’s Cultural Marxism, which he would know about if he read Andrew Breitbart’s book, Righteous Indignation. Great chapter on that.
But he probably won’t read it — even though it is an excellent book. Because it’s Breitbart. I remember when I was a liberal. I would immediately discount anything that had the word Breitbart.
Then I decided to read and watch anything and everything. And that was the beginning of my awakening.
Of course David would say I’m radicalized by Fox News. Which is funny because I was a liberal Democrat for 30 years. But David isn’t interested in hearing about what would make me change my mind. I was exactly like him prior to 2016. Back when I steadfastly refused to take in any information unless it was part of the cult-approved sources.
Ann Marie, I am not sure what made you go off the deep end. All I know is that over the last few years, you’ve spent lots of time and energy promoting various QAnon ‘drops’ that never turned into anything. Here’s something I wrote about you a couple years ago as one among a number of former food rights activists who went the conspiracy theory route:
https://www.davidgumpert.com/why-do-denial-and-cult-dominate-the-lives-of-one-time-food-rights-activists
“Yet many of the same people who deny such events and occurrences embrace conspiracy theories for which there is little or no substantive evidence. Many of these people have lately come together into a cult, known as QAnon, which preaches, among other things, that Donald Trump is leading a secret effort to eradicate a worldwide pedophilia ring run by liberals, and that the Covid-19 pandemic is a hoax designed to get government infectious disease scientist Anthony Fauci rich. Curiously, it has attracted support from a number of food-rights activists who used to be active in WAPF and often commented on this blog. One of them is Ann Marie Michaels, best known as Cheese Slave, who does periodic updates on the QAnon cult on YouTube.” [It looks as if those QAnon videos you did have been scrubbed; as you say on YouTube: “Hi, I’m Ann Marie Michaels. Blogger, wife, mother & patriot in Austin, Texas. I am getting shadowbanned on YouTube. Please …”]
Like. Thank you.
Just to be clear, I am liking Karen Selick’s comment. Thank you Karen Selick!..You are absolutely correct. More people need to have the courage to speak up against this despotism. And to put their names out there. I have been Barnrat . No longer.
Would you like to do more than have an accusatory temper tantrum? Perhaps offer your perspective on what’s actually going on in the states?
Thank you for another excellent article David. The mystifying perspective and behavior you describe brings to mind one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: if we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We are no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. —Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Truth… when tptb think that their version of the truth justifies the use of censorship, draconian mandates, strong-arm tactics and disparaging labels then you can be certain that they are not defending truth but rather a programmed belief and/or vested interest… Indeed, the use of such tactics are the attributes of desperate charlatans who crave for power.
Indeed Ken. Carl Sagan couldn’t have said it better. Thank you.
Thank you David! I may not have much to contribute, but I’m still here. 🙂
Thank you
Thank you, David. It must be hard to keep writing and publishing in the face of so much criticism. I for one am grateful for your perseverance! Even if readers disagree with you, they could do so in a respectful way that opens up a dialogue, rather than resorting to personal insults. Democratic backsliding in the U.S. has me dismayed as well. I keep falling back on the quote that goes something like this: “The cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy.” Please keep sharing your thoughts! Thanks again for all your hard, under-appreciated work.
Thank you for writing this, I have been very disappointed in the behavior of so many in the movement, it kinda began for me with Sally Fallon’s obvious greed over honest science with the fermented cod liver oil fiasco at WAPF. Then even Joel Salatin jumping on the anti science, anti mask bs to make $$ during a global.pandemic. Now with the Trump mess and the neo nazis and white supremicists being so very emboldened and it seems that many in our country think they are sooooo suppressed. I live by the northern border and listen to Canadian radio regularly, they are having call in programs and many discussions about what to do when the US goes into a full autocratic dictatorship or a fascist government. The sad part of all of this is that these fools want to literally kill the goose that has laid the golden egg that all Americans enjoy by starting a civil war instead of making our country a better place for all of our citizens. We still are operating on a slave labor food system and it sure was a great way to divide the food movement into an irrelevant faction. I also am quite sure that there is a huge mental health crisis in rural America. I appreciate your small voice of reason.
Great quote, Shana. Thanks.
Cindy, you are absolutely correct to worry about “the goose that laid the golden egg….” Many Americans who have been radicalized by Fox and Qanon have absolutely no idea how central our economic system is–especially our securities and monetary systems. The reason the dollar and our stock exchanges dominate so much is the transparency our system affords, along with the rule of law that underlies it. If a civil war gets going that endangers the confidence the world has in our monetary and securities systems, you’ll see our standard of living deteriorate very quickly….and it won’t be easily recoverable, because the confidence that underlies it has been built up over many years. Let’s hope people don’t have to learn this lesson the hard way.
I listened to my grandarents, they lived through the hardships of 2 world wars, a global pandemic, and the great depression. I was taught to recognise my great fortune. My Dad was a WW2 vet, he told me many times that we do not ever want war here again. He lived through it so I did not have to. I beleive we could end up with our version of Peristroika
Yes, thank you David. What gets my goat is that some very real and justifiable anger has been milked from these followers by leaders whose only plan is to tear everything down. And who will end up with even more power? Big corporations. With the result that, regarding the food movement in particular, we are likely to end up worse off than when we started. A tougher time for the small farmer and a free pass for the big guy.
David,
So glad you wrote about this.
Where do I start?!?!
I just returned from 33 days in Europe. Croatia, Italy, Denmark and Norway.
My wife and I spent very quality time with close friends and foreign exchange students in northern EU.
My take away is this.
America has somehow lost its moral and ethical contract with its people. Europe is looking at America and saying…. We need America for its military strength because of Putin, in the same breath, the EU is scared of our total loss of reality when it comes to moral and ethical leadership.
The word socialist is being used as a riot baton over the heads of good solid socially conscious people in America. The years of poor diet, poor education has led to 20% of our citizens being truly ignorant and in love with cult like leadership. Sick leadership. Trump is sick. Pathologically sick. He sat in the White House watching FOX News as his followers beat the living hell out of Capitol police with American Flags. And did nothing. Instead he watched with glee. He watched just like he watched MMA fights and big time wrestling events he sponsored in Las Vegas.
He made a speech after years of making similar speeches to insight violence and then like a little coward he retreated to the safety of the whitehouse. Trump is a little man. A coward. A sick cult leader that fancies himself a king.
In the EU, there may be kings and queens but none of any power. I stead the act as proxies for morality and ethics that does not change with parliamentary shifts. There is a moral contract with people that assures nutrition, free medical care, free education and jobs. Countries are clean. People are not obese and diabetic, people and children are well educated. Science research is performed for the interests of society. Cops don’t run around beating and killing people.
Why??? Because each of these northern EU countries is led by a concept of true long term truth. It does not shift with the winds of the next vote. These countries must form coalitions in their parliaments. No one gets to run everything.
Yes…. David America is in trouble. But I see this as a time where each of us should probably abandon politics and just reset each other with moral and ethical grace. Just be good to one another.
I have friends on both side of this American fence. I treat them all the same. With a kind voice. With a warm hug, a big smile and grace.
I believe that our institutions however flawed and our military will stay true to our goodness.
That does not mean that I believe in the FDA or the actions of a the few bad cops. I don’t.
But our core is not rotten. The right fringe is lost !!
So many of the bloggers right here are angry at some sort of personal loss they have had. I understand anger.
But we must all follow a greater truth and embrace grace. Embracing Conspiracy will kill our country. We must understand that America is weak because it is zone of exploitation. Money reigns supreme. That means that the “haves exploit the have nots” as a matter of economic policy.
This is not northern EU! With its social compact with its people.
Perhaps America and its grand experiment has found a weakness and it must have a change or two.
Money must not be the true north.
A new social compact with its citizens should be adopted. Taking all the good and add morals and ethics with some sort of long term leadership ethic to the mix.
Perhaps all elected officials should be required to pass a moral and ethical test. Not a religious test. A test of personal responsibility and ethics.
Anytime a country embraces a leader that does not pay his bills and uses 4 or 5 bankruptcies to forge ahead. Cheats in golf, grabs women by their private parts and says that’s ok and cusses in front of millions. That’s a failure of a moral test I my simple book of moral measures.
I could go on and on.
Just be the change you want in America. Be good to others and vote with a moral code and ethics.
Hang in there David…, you have a friend out here in California. We have friends all over. Stay the good course. So many good people just refuse to roll around in the mud. They are out there. America is filled with them.
Mark, what you were seeing in Europe is in large measure the result of its own experiences living with fascism during the 1930s and 1940s. One of the reasons the Europeans united to support Ukraine was because they saw Hitler’s bullying and war mongering being played out by Putin. They learned a hard lesson that you have to stop the fascist dictator in his tracks, because once he gets going, his appetite for conquest is insatiable. And they learned that living under the thumb of the fascist conqueror is hell on earth. So even though the current European populations didn’t directly experience fascism, they have learned about its horrors in their schools and via family stories. They value their freedom and they value democratic political systems. Americans were spared the direct horrors of Hitler’s dictatorships, so can be more easily seduced by the wannabe dictator.
Mark McAfee,
I’m a bit stupified by what you wrote. California is under such draconian rule that perhaps you may be lost as to what a democracy looks like. You clearly pin all problems of the country on Trump as if it all magically disappeared when the current senile president took power. Also, you are a bit rosy in your assessment of Europe. They have been worse in removing the rights of their citizens during this alleged pandemic. “Free medical care, free education” are not really free, are they? Somebody is paying for it. As a CA resident, you should know that your “free” public schools are paid for by exorbitant property taxes. “Free” medical care is taken from your taxes in the EU and does that include mandated covid vaccines or your access to free care is blocked? Their medical system is also captured by big pharma and is just as bad because it relies on the same garbage “drugs for cures” approach of medicine. As the riots and rallies in the EU over mandates, forced lockdowns indicates, they aren’t too happy either with the governments idea of “we know what is best for you”. They have diabetes in Europe just like us. Germany in 2019 had 15% of the population with some type of diabetes. The US in 2022 had a diabetes rate of 11.3%. Both rates are going up. You must not have been in some of the lesser traveled areas of the countries you visited. They have serious clean water problems, air pollution, dirty beaches, dirty streets, just like the good ol’ US of A. Take a gander at the progressive states like Oregon, Washington and your state and see the homeless Hoovervilles. They weren’t the product of D. Trump. The EU and US are both captured by global corporate interests. The EU is just a bit further along on their path to socialism/communism than the US. Science in both continents is also manipulated for the interests of corporate interests and governments. Much of what is now called science is really cultism based on dogma with no possibility for indendent thought if you don’t want your funding (provided by those corporations or governments) cut off. I am no fan of DJT(and don’t want him back in the WH) but to believe that all our ills are from him is naive. The rot goes much deeper and it clearly hasn’t changed with a change in “leadership”. All governmental agencies are now captured and they all ignore the will of the people. They dictate policies and congress has abdicated all power to them. The Biden government wants to sign on to the WHO treaty to turn over all health care authority for future “pandemics”(and you can bet there will be more since they took so much wealth and power from the people with this last one) to them, eliminating our own nation’s, as well as other nation’s, sovereignty. At least Trump wanted us out of the WHO.
?
Bob, I’m wondering when you were last in California, or in Europe. California has some big problems, like drought from climate change, and homelessness. But based on California’s voting record, citizens are pretty accepting of policies in place. Similarly, Europeans seem to be okay with their health care systems–where have you seen a government voted out because people didn’t like the health system? If you’ve been to Europe and experienced the health system, you’d know that in most European countries, the system works pretty well, and there’s much less friction and outrage than in the U.S., because people can’t be thrown into poverty and bankruptcy by medical bills, like in the U.S.
No, my sense is that you’ve been letting Fox News form your political images of Europe, because what Mark saw and experienced was pretty much the real thing.
David, Interesting as I have no cable TV and do not watch Fox news or CNN, which seems to be your guide. There’s no doubt that “free” anything appeals to the populace at large. The problem is that all standard medical care is piss poor in the US and the EU. It is based upon a belief that we lack enough injections and drugs in our bodies. As your own campaign for raw milk has shown, there is a strong push back against anything that can bring about true health, not a body propped up by statins, blood pressure medications, bypass surgeries, stents, chemo therapy drugs, etc. Zero support for REAL food, not the processed products we crank out and are supported by Big Ag. People believe they have great health care when they can get lots of taxpayer(free) funded drugs. Where modern medical care shines is reattaching limbs and repair after trauma to the body like auto accidents but as for real health care, they stink on ice. Examining what a citizen will vote for does not indicate a nation’s health. Make a population fearful enough and they will ask the leadership to take away all their rights in the name of security, and they did. They embraced being locked into their own homes, they embraced forcing everyone to take experimental injections that have been shown to be not only useless but harmful, they embraced the government as their own businesses were destroyed and one of the greatest transfers of wealth took place under their noses. So, when you tell me people are all happy with their systems, I don’t put much stock in that. Here’s a little anecdote about CA. I recently attended a wedding where a couple of the guests were from CA. No one was masked during the entire event until we had to take a shuttle back to the hotel from the venue. At this point, the two people from CA dutifully placed masks on their faces until we arrived at the hotel. This couple spent the last 3 hours in a room with the same people they rode with on the bus with (a bus that had all the windows wide open by the way), without wearing masks, talking to all of us. But CA has so brow-beat these citizens into performing pointless rituals that they no longer even think rationally about what they doing. People will turn over all ability to think for themselves for the false security of a nanny state and they will also turn over all their freedoms. The EU is a far greater nanny state than the US. You place too much trust in owned agencies like the CDC, NIAID and FDA. Remember the FDA wanted to hide the Pfizer documents for 75 years from the public. With just the small release so far, we see they have lied about the deaths and injuries caused by these shots. The government ran and continues to run a campaign of censorship, blocking any information that doesn’t conform to their official narrative to the degree that CA has even passed laws to ban “misinformation” and threaten the licenses of doctors that speak out against the shots. When you prevent information to the citizens, you prevent them from making informed choices. So, again, I place no stock in what the voters want, because they don’t know what the truth is-only what they are told to think and believe.
https://odysee.com/@offguardian:2/covid1911-ep12:d
Bob, I actually agree with you on some of your points about the quality of health care in the U.S., that it’s not geared toward making us healthier. However, you give yourself away with your last sentence, when you argue for something that most of the traitors who tried to overthrow our government seemed to agree with: “So, again, I place no stock in what the voters want, because they don’t know what the truth is-only what they are told to think and believe.” This country’s independence and Constitution rest on the bedrock principle that the people decide, not some king or self-appointed dictator. Once America goes down that path, it’s game over, we might just as well not have fought the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and all the other wars against foreign adversaries that we fought.
“Californians are accepting of policies in place…” — really, David?
How do you explain the “California Exodus”?
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/11/californians-working-from-home-are-moving-to-mexico-amid-inflation.html
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-29/california-exodus-continues-l-a-san-francisco-lead-the-way
Thank you again and thank you for the discourse and dialogue today. We can create spaces where we can discuss, and disagree but also use shared language and concepts. We can craft ideas and thoughts and share values. I know we can…
Words dont work here.
Love all… Serve All… Feed All. I have hope for a better America that thinks better… then it votes better because it eats better.
David,
Those who think that they can deny the public their freedom for safety’s sake are deluded… and it is that delusion that is largely fostering the paranoia and distrust in the world. Indeed, people have just reason to be paranoid when the state pulls stunts such as the one describe in the press release bellow against Pastor Artur Pawlowski, his brother Dawid and Chris Scott from the Whistle Stop Café, including thousands of others in Canada alone… Stunts as you well know occurred and continue to occur worldwide especially during these last two years, most of which have yet to be resolved.
https://www.thedemocracyfund.ca/victory_pastor_artur_pawlowski_exonerated
Hopefully justice, common sense and compassion will prevail and not so much “the law” which tends to be “an ass” when subject to the whims of control freaks with vested interests. Don’t get me wrong the law can be a tool to serve justice but it can also be used as a bludgeoning tool against the public by controlling power hungry individuals… Why can’t these power hungry control freaks learn from history and realize that the “meek shall inherit the earth”…
I think Randy Hartnell has hit the nail on the head, but, I still need to ask the question.
For the people who point out Trump’s failings, do you not think Biden’s fascination with smelling little girl’s hair, and pulling them close to him is not creepy? Or bragging about how, as VP, he threatens to with hold a billion dollars if the Burisma investigation on his son is not stopped? Isn’t that abusing your position to cover up some kind of corruption?How about buying testing supplies from China who is known to be making bioweapons that target Americans? I can’t understand how Biden wasn’t yanked out of office immediately after the Afghanistan nightmare. Maybe, being retired military makes it more egregious. Does it not strike you odd that no one was held accountable? Everything Biden does smacks of sabotage. Do Biden supporters even bother to look at these videos?
I cannot fathom how you can talk about the law when the law/constitution has been thrown out the window for the last couple of years. As a journalist, you don’t question why Ray Epps, on video, admits that what he was trying to get people to do was illegal. He gets a pass, and Dr Simone Gold, a doctor and a lawyer, was allowed into the capital, so she says, goes to jail for 60 days? As a journalist you don’t question why the Jan 6 committee won’t address turning away the National Guard troops Trump authorized, especially knowing this contentious day there would undoubtedly be some Antifa, BLM types stirring up trouble?
There is no end to this new bizzaro world where up is down and censorship (according to the Chief of Staff at Worcester State) is good. I thought I was worried what Trump might do, but, he does not hold a candle to the sleepless nights Joe Biden is causing me. How are you not seeing what I am seeing?
Bobbi, Please show me factual information to support your accusations about Pres. Biden
https://www.theepochtimes.com/live-kash-patel-on-jan-6-timeline-trump-authorized-20000-national-guardsmen-two-days-before_4523407.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-schedules-major-announcement-news-outlets-warn-of-radical-plan-to-drain-the-swamp_4621371.html (Simone Gold interview at 45 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVY0VE9gCWs (Biden bragging)
https://youtu.be/_H5NJZMDumY (hair sniffing)
I hope the links come through.
Cindy asked for factual evidence not the epoch times which is well known for spreading lies and conspiracies. the girls whose hair Biden was smelling was his granddaughter at her father’s funeral. it was a touching moment you QAnon folks have transformed into a pedi grooming incident.
I am not sure what you were looking at, but, in the link I provided , it looked like the senators’ daughters in the U.S.Capital https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVY0VE9gCWs
Well, maybe Bob hasn’t been listening to Fox News, but you sure seem to be. Your diatribe has the strong sense of the “What about….” style that permeates Fox. When you don’t like a particular narrative that is developing, you start asking “What about (name your subject).” Trump has been documented abusing his power, so “what about Biden?”
As Cindy points out, you provide no documentation. Beyond that, most of the things you bring up are political/policy matters. Yes, Biden screwed up the Afghanistan withdrawal, but that was a policy decision he’s allowed to make as Commander in Chief. He’s paid a heavy price in his popularity, but presidents don’t get booted out of office for military decisions, or else lots of presidents would have been gone. The Ray Epps matter is a Justice Department matter. More than 800 people have been charged so far for their participation in the attempted insurrection. There were many more who haven’t been charged. Once again, the issue of whom to charge is something we leave to prosecutors. You don’t provide a link to your Epps evidence; I provided a link to a long profile about how he’s hanging out in a trailer park and wondering why so many people like you want him arrested and jailed. I suggest you read it. Regarding “turning away National Guard troops Trump authorized,” once again, no evidence. All the testimony to the Jan. 6 Committee, by Trump aides, says they begged him to send law enforcement to the Capitol, and he ignored them.
The thing that sets Trump apart from Biden…indeed, from every other president this country has ever had in some 250 years, is that he’s accused of treasonous behavior. We’ve had lots of incompetent presidents, but never one who has so blatantly been a traitor to his own country, in an effort to become the country’s dictator, probably for life.
I am glad to know Fox News sees the same issue I see: People are not looking at both sides and why is that?
Kash Patel, DOD Chief of Staff under Trump, explains and has made documentation public showing Trump authorized the National Guard two days before his 6 Jan speech. He could be lying and he could have forged the documentation.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/live-kash-patel-on-jan-6-timeline-trump-authorized-20000-national-guardsmen-two-days-before_4523407.html
Acting as though the 6 Jan committee was unbiased and performed a thorough investigation is insulting. Even AOC wants to know why the police were inviting the protestors into the building.
As far as my wanting Ray Epps in jail, you are guessing wrong. I want everyone to have been fully investigated and given their due process, which has not happened. Ray Epps gets a pass when others are getting harsh treatment for misdemeanor charges has an astute mind questioning the discrepancy.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-schedules-major-announcement-news-outlets-warn-of-radical-plan-to-drain-the-swamp_4621371.html Simone Gold interview at 445 min
https://www.theepochtimes.com/exclusive-video-used-to-charge-jan-6-defendant-exonerates-him-on-charge-of-assaulting-police-attorney-says_4619418.html?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=mb-cc
Your last paragraph is beyond the pale. Who lied about not leaving Americans in Afghanistan and ignored his generals’ advice. Biden ignored the advice. It was not a mistake, it was deliberate, and, nobody questions his competence. A man who lets hordes of people across our southern border run by cartels, bringing with it sex trafficking, drugs, and dead bodies. Who shut down new oil production, and then goes begging to the Saudis? Whose vaccine mandates have lost us 60,000 guardsman, not to mention military pilots who can no longer pass the flight physical due to injuries from an experimental gene therapy that does not work? Who attempted to mandate it on all us, even if we already recovered? Whose son’s laptop has damning information regarding the family’s financial ties with China? Who has Putin called out and threatened that he is willing to go nuclear? 2000 mules, is that a hoax David? Censorship, another hoax? Please tell me again who the traitor is!
A Chinese news source: The Epoch Times is a far-right international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television. The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.
https://dbpedia.org/page/The_Epoch_Times
Epoch Times is blocked in mainland China. And yet you claim it is propaganda? LOL!
Please read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China
What is it about treason that you don’t understand? One more time, the list of grievances you list are matters of opinion, of policy. Attempting to overthrow the government you lead so as to keep yourself in power is treasonous. It’s called an attempted coup d’etat. In most other countries, it would have meant the immediate execution or a long prison sentence for the offending politician. But because the U.S. is a nation of laws, not of men, the accused gets all kinds of leeway. It looks at long last as if the traitor will be charged and put on trial.
I am not sure why this is clearly treason to you, and not another psyop;, like the Whitmer kidnapping.. When you call video and written documents opinion, it suggests you don’t bother to look at what the other side is presenting. It is pretty important to be thinking critically.
David, I’m just curious. Do you use Twitter? I mean, other than to post your blog links.
Because I just typed “Epps” into the Twitter search bar and I found all the evidence. Took me 2 minutes.
https://twitter.com/DarrenJBeattie/status/1547923463649628161
https://twitter.com/America1Scotty/status/1547815606136606729
https://twitter.com/SicarioScott/status/1547762718391689217
Epps was clearly telling people to go into the Capitol on Jan 6. There is video evidence.
Questions: Why was he not arrested? Why wasn’t he interrogated?
Is this just journalistic laziness on your part? Because that really is not an excuse. Or is it cognitive dissonance?
Will you approve this comment? Let’s watch and see. I’ll screenshot it just in case. If you don’t approve it, why not? You said you wanted facts. These are the facts.
Why wasn’t Epps arrested? Because he was saying the exact same thing the president of the U.S. was saying: march to the Capitol and tell the Reps and Senators what you think. Trump hasn’t been arrested for his agitation for the same reason Epps hasn’t been–asking people to march and demonstrate is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects free speech. Here is Trump:
If Epps had been identified beating cops or busting windows or threatening to hang the VP, he probably would have been charged, just like more than 800 people so far. For some reason you and other Trumpers decided there must have been government agitators present to incite the crowd. So the mob went after this poor slob Epps. You can never accept responsibility yourselves.
If Trump and his close associates are criminally charged, it will likely be in connection with planning they did to put up phony electors, failure to call in the National Guard, efforts to change the vote in various states like GA, and assorted other treasonous actions to take over the government by force.
Unfortunately, you and other hotheads don’t bother to educate yourself about what journalists do and what government investigators and prosecutors do in determining whether to charge someone with a crime. You’re too busy trying to point your fingers in any direction but at the real criminals.
Gordon,
Contact Epoch Times journalist, Joshua Philipps. He interviewed a lawyer who has video of Epps opening a utility closet. He has identified 40 or more of the bad actors.
Dutch Farmer Speaks
Anne Marie Michaels, Falun Gong-aligned media push fake news about Democrats and Chinese communists. The Epoch Times, believed to be linked to the Chinese religious movement, is part of an anti-CCP influence operation tapping into the US right, according to a media watchdog. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/30/falun-gong-media-epoch-times-democrats-chinese-communists
John,
I am confused by your two posts about the fact that the Chinese government does not like the Epoch Times. The Guardian says they are associated with an anti Chinese Communist Party religious group. i don’t understand why the their opinion comes into the picture. Who funds this media watchdog bunch? It reminds me of the quack watch guy who was turning people off from trying alternative, non pharma therapies.
I like the Epoch Times because they present information that contradicts the main stream media. When they show Kash Patel’s written documentation with the DC Mayor’s signature, showing she declined the National Guard troops, authorized by president Trump, two days prior to Jan 6, that gives me a different picture. When I hear former President Trump refused to call in the military on Jan 6, I have to wonder why are they talking about the military? Did they misspeak? (probably) Has the law changed? Then picture it if he had. When I listened to Elizabeth Warren telling CNN he told them to “take up arms”, I think, why are you saying that, Elizabeth, when he said to go “peacefully” to the capital and make your voices heard. (I just pulled up CNN’s transcript of the 6 Jan speech to get the exact quote. It is missing from the transcript. A faux pas, I guess.) But, his tweet telling the protesters to go home had also been pulled down that night. Some of us glued to our seats, do know he was telling protesters to go home, so maybe, just say he was slow to do it, versus he never did it..
I don’t understand why people would not want to hear all sides of the story, ever. The whole truth may never come out. But, the journey of discovery is a thousand times more interesting, and, in this case, the country needs to demand the unadulterated truth. We are on the brink.
I do not understand “What” confused you ??
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/inside-the-epoch-times-a-mysterious-pro-trump-newspaper/617645/ Many, Many more articles from many diiferent websites with very different agendas, but one thing they have in agreement is their opinion of Epoch Times, take your choice of many pages: https://www.google.com/search?q=is+epcoch+times+a+reliable+news+source+%3F&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS799US799&sxsrf=ALiCzsYFQ5PfblTo57Rb2EYo7PcHLLI8Ew%3A1659891052418&ei=bO3vYsKUGbGiptQP_JGRqAc&ved=0ahUKEwjC-q2EmLX5AhUxkYkEHfxIBHUQ4dUDCA4&oq=is+epcoch+times+a+reliable+news+source+%3F&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAwyBQgAEIYDMgUIABCGAzIFCAAQhgNKBAhBGAFKBAhGGABQhQhY-yZgkzloAXAAeACAAagOiAHeOpIBCTUtMi40LjEuMZgBAKABAcABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz
Bobbi
no, I am not really interested in all the foofuraw around what happened on Jan 06 2021 in Washington DC. I posted that statement by the guy sitting in prison – no due process for over a year.
Those of us who’ve been around the block, as political activists in the fray, immediately perceived it was a made-for-media event
I posted it as a test of David Gumpert’s commitment to free discussion on an issue he’d raised
.
you will have noticed = it didn’t last 24 hours.
Quad erat demonstratum
Watson, forget that BS about “test of David Gumpert’s commitment….” I’ve messaged you a number of times telling you I won’t allow your extremist propaganda. So I removed that statement, which was a fund-raising pitch.
Thank You David for not allowing BS to be posted.
Gordon,
I was hoping you would contact Joshua to get the lawyer’s name. I’ve been around the block myself; did a high visibility investigation, and saw what happened when my findings were different than what the JAG expected. I’m scared to death where we are now, with what ‘s left of our country, when the general populace is so willing to throw the constitution out the window. No law, no liberty.
I am not much interested in what happens to those captured in Gitmo DC. Not my problem … ‘way too much information overload from so many directions.
I’ve seen the needle and the damage done…. What we care about in British Columbia, now, is : remedying the harms and sequelae of what people were tricked in to allowing to be injected in their bodies under cover story of “an experiment”
believe it or not > “immune milk” holds more promise than anything else on the scene
many thousands of dead immediately after getting the injection. Millions of reports of adverse effects from the injections. Yet the LugenPress is running interference for the unspeakable corruption within the medical establishment
if ever there was a place for intelligent analysis of the whole thing, from a credible journalist like David Gumpert used to be, the Complete Patient ought to have been it. Very disappointing to see him miss the biggest story of his life.
LOL!!!