Here’s my best guess. As a practical matter you can roughly divide Dems into two groups: Those who think they can conduct a Watergate Redux, and Movement radicals who are probably inspired more by something along the lines of the Stalin show trials and a mobilization of the masses.
Big picture... Governments act this way when they're in deep shit. I don't question the "why" of all of these stupid narratives such as 1/6, Covid, etc... I just take the face value intent for the anecdotal evidence it is.
From a distance I see it as more of a counter to the culture of government disenchantment. This may be a bad case to use as an example but I'm not awake enough to think of another. They are trying to create a group Randy Weavers to make them look like Timothy McVeigh, only in this case they have no Oklahoma City. Hence we have 400+ Weavers on trial.
People are angry, that's why you saw groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers taking off. It's reminded me a lot of the early 1990s Clinton era where you had legitimate militias taking off only this time it was far less militant firearm and more mainstream torches and pitchforks.
That subculture needs to be demonize and crushed because it was becoming VERY active, loud, mobile mainstream culture.
Conservatives are lazy until they are not, once they start getting off if the sofa and out in the street you have a very different set of individuals on your hands. Unlike the lefts groups that make a lot of noise and burn cities to the ground and run to this basement conservatives seek to actually take the cities over in legitimate legal ways.
DC can't afford to have that on their doorstep so we see the FBI and other government lap dogs attacking the commoners while congress attacks their loudest leaders.
I think one of the reasons I am failing to connect a better example than Weaver is we have not had a good example of this in the US in a very long time. This is a very Soviet type political show.
Trumps populism scared them to death which is why I think the Russian consparicy went from a political dirty trick to an absolutely necessity. This is just Act 2, 3 or 4 in this show.
"Why is there no gop supported effort to get legal representation for Jan 6 political prisoners?"
Ray I've been asking that question for a long long time... My conclusion, it's because there is no real difference between republicans and democrats at the federal level. They are both progressive parties working in lockstep towards the same big picture goal. That goal is the government being the answer to it's self in every expanding situation.
I know many disagree with me on that but it fits EVERY "why" in every situation when asked. The two parties are an appearance of choice in brand / religion and nothing more.
It's a harsh conclusion and most like to avoid it because it's just too ugly, cynical and quiet frankly painful. They need that glass to be half full, I don't, it's just a glass.
It's not exactly that I disagree, it's that I think you need more nuance. Not all republicans are the same, not in every state and not in congress. Too many are. Use a hammer to pound these nails, rather than a sledge hammer.
My guesses is If in Congress and you become a foe of the uniparty, you will get hammered. And every means is used to take you down. Both fair and foul. And there is usually done skeleton in a politicians closet can be used against them.
Democrats don’t dare usually rebel. Look at what is being done to Sinema and Manchin. In the house Pelosi rules with an iron fist. And gop election dollars go to those that play ball.
There is a huge amount of surveillance information that is available. And my gut feeling is this is used against uniparty foes.
The media / press is happy to entrap gop trouble makers, and those going against the narrative. That happened to Rep. Steve King. Recently a media hit job was done against Dave Portnoy. https://voxday.net/2021/11/13/what-is-so-hard-to-understand/
Another example was how they tried to destroy Rep. Devin Nunes in the media. How The gop speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, sidelined him due to an ethics investigation.
I’m still amazed at how Trump survived everything thrown at him. And how only now, 4 years later in fits and starts, is this coming out. The Russia Dossier is a textbook case of how the fbi, doj, Intel agencies, Congress, Democrats, Hollywood, and media tried to cancel a person. It’s just a little bit more over the top, since Trump fought back. Most gop just smile, take it, and apologize after backing off.
Most gop types are terrified of being labeled as racist, or guilty of a thought crime and / or crime think.
Political theater. Not even all that entertaining anymore.
What does it matter now, really? Sure, let's say that the Criminals allow the 2022 elections to go forward (not a given considering what they already perpetrated the last 2 years), and stipulate that oh boy oh boy it will be a real wipeout, a regular hosing out of the Democrat Augean stable. Republicans control House and Senate. Yipee.
Now what?
Can anyone name more than a half dozen Senators who have anything like the courage and honesty to do what's needed to avoid the looming catastrophe (to say nothing of fixing anything)? Stipulate that another handful of senators and Congressmen get voted in. Just what do we think they are going to do? Really think about that? Oh sure, maybe they won't pass outright communist measures like the current majority but that does nothing to avoid calamity, only slows the descent off the cliff (and history shows that Republicans are just keeno groovy w joining Dems in corrupt, profligacy so don't count on anything from a new majority).
Our problems are so dire and so fare gone that we are beyond political solutions. As Michael Yon now says repeatedly on his Locals page, we are in a civil war right now and it's going to get a lot worse real soon. So cheer on the home team if you must--- yes, i voted in Virginia this year as usual-- but don't think for a moment that salvation lies in a Republican majority in 2023.
I read yesterday that Gov. Mike DeWine (RINO - OH), with his henchmen, has drawn a redistricting map that eliminates Jim Jordan's district.
Expect we will see even more of this perfidy in other states now that heretofore only suspected members of the Uniparty of the R persuasion (Ducey - AZ, Kemp - GA, etc.) will decide it's safe to drop the mask completely. McConnell has already shown his cards. McCarthy is close to doing so.
Surprised that Gov. Sununu and Kelly Ayotte have chosen not to run in the extremely winnable NH Senate race? Or that suddenly the execrable Lisa Murkowski is being supported by Rick Scott? Or that Liz Cheney shows no sign of fear of losing her seat? Or that the RNC didn't support Ciattarelli in NJ against "the Constitution is above my pay grade" Murphy? Or that 19 ostensibly R Senators and 13 ostensibly R House members voted in favor of Zhou's "infrastructure" bill, when a united R vote against in either chamber would have doomed the bill? The Progressive blackmail machine must be working overtime.
Expect lots of sudden "retirement" announcements on both sides of the aisle prior to the 2022 elections - either for the incumbents to take their grift and go home (RINOs mostly) - or those deemed to lack sufficient Ideological Purity (mostly Ds).
Don't get too excited by our victory in VA - the main Uniparty goal was to stick a fork in the last of the Clintonistas. (A secondary goal of VA was to lull us rubes into complacency.) Who has the courage to speak up for us, other than President Trump, and to a lesser extent Ron Desantis?
Don't forget the option that the J6 witchhunt is a case of the dog that caught the car (the last dog I knew that did that died) This whole "insurrection" storyline assumed they could drive the narrative through to the public crucifixions and their elevation as 'Heroes of the Democracy'. Now they've had their "insurrection". They're getting their Stalinist show trials...and nobody's buying it. They harder they push, the worse they look, and they simply don't know how to turn it off without alienating their base.
I'm too young for Nixon myself, but I've never heard of there being any political prisoners taken during the Watergate debacle. Like, held for months without being charged? Beaten, refused medical care?
Also, you missed the obvious comparison with the "mostly peaceful" Antifa rioters, a connection I see most commentators making. Anyway, I surmise that your Dem faction 2 is calling most of the shots on this one.
One thing for sure: they will use it as a substitute for the role played by the Clinton Dossier in 2016 -- they will ramp-up testimony as the 2022 election approaches, and probably produce a flurry of criminal referrals to Biden's DOJ to exploit the event to frame the narrative that the GOP are "racist, treasonous white supremacist scoundrels who are bent on overthrowing Democracy," much like the Dossier was used in 2016 to frame a narrative of Trump being Putin's bitch, to keep the voters minds off of Hillary's bogus email server fiasco.
The drive force: the Dems realization that they have no positive campaign issues, because the Biden admin has done such a terrible job on EVERYTHING they touch. Thus, the Dems have to campaign by arguing to voters: "we may suck, but the GOP sucks worse than we do." It's the only campaign narrative Dems will have in 2022.
Thanks for the nice analysis, Mark - and I agree with your points. Isn't it odd how in many ways the most culturally isolated and ignorant people in the country are politicians in DC - and this is even with the Internet. They have never learned that for all practical purposes the public cares little about "inside the beltway" politics and intrigues. Most people just want the government to get out of the way and be left alone. If the implications of their antics stayed "inside the beltway" that would be fine with us.
“Some might argue that the Durham investigation will be cynically discounted as just more politics by most Americans.”
The Dems will of course try to paint him with said brush, however don’t think Durham is seen/comes across as a”political animal”; it takes him 6 months just to use a restroom & hasn’t/doesn’t show up on cable news programs waving a bloody, partisan flag. Rather he’s unseen somewhere in the shadows working out his case(s). This is as it should be I would suspect.
One would think it would give him more credibility.
“We are producing the most historically illiterate generation in world history.”
Yes & wholly by design. I assume all here have read the “45 Stated Goals of the Communist Party”? If you haven’t as yet, drop it in your SE. It’ll blow you away how far down the road they are.
Bannon seems to relish the chance to fight. He’s argued to have Darren Beattie as one of the chair members for their kangaroo court even before it was clear how participants would be chosen. I think he’ll go head first into the whole monkey business with orange hat participants not being charged or the third guy over the police barricade not being investigated.
The legacy media cried wolf far too many times for people to give any concern to analogies of Watergate. We’ve had 3 impeachments between the last 4 presidents. The runner up of the last two Democrat primaries is a Socialist. Scary words and phrases don’t carry much weight like they used to. The only thing the mob did that day was to create an environment where it became politically unpopular for fair minded people to be able to hear the facts of the case.
Big picture... Governments act this way when they're in deep shit. I don't question the "why" of all of these stupid narratives such as 1/6, Covid, etc... I just take the face value intent for the anecdotal evidence it is.
From a distance I see it as more of a counter to the culture of government disenchantment. This may be a bad case to use as an example but I'm not awake enough to think of another. They are trying to create a group Randy Weavers to make them look like Timothy McVeigh, only in this case they have no Oklahoma City. Hence we have 400+ Weavers on trial.
People are angry, that's why you saw groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers taking off. It's reminded me a lot of the early 1990s Clinton era where you had legitimate militias taking off only this time it was far less militant firearm and more mainstream torches and pitchforks.
That subculture needs to be demonize and crushed because it was becoming VERY active, loud, mobile mainstream culture.
Conservatives are lazy until they are not, once they start getting off if the sofa and out in the street you have a very different set of individuals on your hands. Unlike the lefts groups that make a lot of noise and burn cities to the ground and run to this basement conservatives seek to actually take the cities over in legitimate legal ways.
DC can't afford to have that on their doorstep so we see the FBI and other government lap dogs attacking the commoners while congress attacks their loudest leaders.
I think one of the reasons I am failing to connect a better example than Weaver is we have not had a good example of this in the US in a very long time. This is a very Soviet type political show.
Trumps populism scared them to death which is why I think the Russian consparicy went from a political dirty trick to an absolutely necessity. This is just Act 2, 3 or 4 in this show.
Why is there no gop supported effort to get legal representation for Jan 6 political prisoners?
Yet Antifa has legal representation up the yin-yang / wazoo.
These two facts are incredibly disturbing.
Seems Trump supporters are safe for the fbi and doj to treat harshly and differently than Antifa during Jan 6.
Why was a Trump supporter jailed for gas and an empty bottle and has to use a public defender, and Antifa with a gun was allowed to go?
Reference:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/jan-6-mystery-pipe-bombs-trump-supporters-vehicles-searched-occupants-arrested-detained-antifa-operatives-guns-allowed-leave-town/
Another example is the prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse.
"Why is there no gop supported effort to get legal representation for Jan 6 political prisoners?"
Ray I've been asking that question for a long long time... My conclusion, it's because there is no real difference between republicans and democrats at the federal level. They are both progressive parties working in lockstep towards the same big picture goal. That goal is the government being the answer to it's self in every expanding situation.
I know many disagree with me on that but it fits EVERY "why" in every situation when asked. The two parties are an appearance of choice in brand / religion and nothing more.
It's a harsh conclusion and most like to avoid it because it's just too ugly, cynical and quiet frankly painful. They need that glass to be half full, I don't, it's just a glass.
It's not exactly that I disagree, it's that I think you need more nuance. Not all republicans are the same, not in every state and not in congress. Too many are. Use a hammer to pound these nails, rather than a sledge hammer.
My guesses is If in Congress and you become a foe of the uniparty, you will get hammered. And every means is used to take you down. Both fair and foul. And there is usually done skeleton in a politicians closet can be used against them.
Democrats don’t dare usually rebel. Look at what is being done to Sinema and Manchin. In the house Pelosi rules with an iron fist. And gop election dollars go to those that play ball.
There is a huge amount of surveillance information that is available. And my gut feeling is this is used against uniparty foes.
The media / press is happy to entrap gop trouble makers, and those going against the narrative. That happened to Rep. Steve King. Recently a media hit job was done against Dave Portnoy. https://voxday.net/2021/11/13/what-is-so-hard-to-understand/
Another example was how they tried to destroy Rep. Devin Nunes in the media. How The gop speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, sidelined him due to an ethics investigation.
I’m still amazed at how Trump survived everything thrown at him. And how only now, 4 years later in fits and starts, is this coming out. The Russia Dossier is a textbook case of how the fbi, doj, Intel agencies, Congress, Democrats, Hollywood, and media tried to cancel a person. It’s just a little bit more over the top, since Trump fought back. Most gop just smile, take it, and apologize after backing off.
Most gop types are terrified of being labeled as racist, or guilty of a thought crime and / or crime think.
Would that be why the Ohio GOP is trying to construct a district for Jim Jordan that will lead to him losing reelection?
Expect more of those kinds of shenanigans for every member of the Freedom Caucus, even in ostensibly Red states.
Political theater. Not even all that entertaining anymore.
What does it matter now, really? Sure, let's say that the Criminals allow the 2022 elections to go forward (not a given considering what they already perpetrated the last 2 years), and stipulate that oh boy oh boy it will be a real wipeout, a regular hosing out of the Democrat Augean stable. Republicans control House and Senate. Yipee.
Now what?
Can anyone name more than a half dozen Senators who have anything like the courage and honesty to do what's needed to avoid the looming catastrophe (to say nothing of fixing anything)? Stipulate that another handful of senators and Congressmen get voted in. Just what do we think they are going to do? Really think about that? Oh sure, maybe they won't pass outright communist measures like the current majority but that does nothing to avoid calamity, only slows the descent off the cliff (and history shows that Republicans are just keeno groovy w joining Dems in corrupt, profligacy so don't count on anything from a new majority).
Our problems are so dire and so fare gone that we are beyond political solutions. As Michael Yon now says repeatedly on his Locals page, we are in a civil war right now and it's going to get a lot worse real soon. So cheer on the home team if you must--- yes, i voted in Virginia this year as usual-- but don't think for a moment that salvation lies in a Republican majority in 2023.
I read yesterday that Gov. Mike DeWine (RINO - OH), with his henchmen, has drawn a redistricting map that eliminates Jim Jordan's district.
Expect we will see even more of this perfidy in other states now that heretofore only suspected members of the Uniparty of the R persuasion (Ducey - AZ, Kemp - GA, etc.) will decide it's safe to drop the mask completely. McConnell has already shown his cards. McCarthy is close to doing so.
Surprised that Gov. Sununu and Kelly Ayotte have chosen not to run in the extremely winnable NH Senate race? Or that suddenly the execrable Lisa Murkowski is being supported by Rick Scott? Or that Liz Cheney shows no sign of fear of losing her seat? Or that the RNC didn't support Ciattarelli in NJ against "the Constitution is above my pay grade" Murphy? Or that 19 ostensibly R Senators and 13 ostensibly R House members voted in favor of Zhou's "infrastructure" bill, when a united R vote against in either chamber would have doomed the bill? The Progressive blackmail machine must be working overtime.
Expect lots of sudden "retirement" announcements on both sides of the aisle prior to the 2022 elections - either for the incumbents to take their grift and go home (RINOs mostly) - or those deemed to lack sufficient Ideological Purity (mostly Ds).
Don't get too excited by our victory in VA - the main Uniparty goal was to stick a fork in the last of the Clintonistas. (A secondary goal of VA was to lull us rubes into complacency.) Who has the courage to speak up for us, other than President Trump, and to a lesser extent Ron Desantis?
Please, somebody show me that I'm wrong!
Don't forget the option that the J6 witchhunt is a case of the dog that caught the car (the last dog I knew that did that died) This whole "insurrection" storyline assumed they could drive the narrative through to the public crucifixions and their elevation as 'Heroes of the Democracy'. Now they've had their "insurrection". They're getting their Stalinist show trials...and nobody's buying it. They harder they push, the worse they look, and they simply don't know how to turn it off without alienating their base.
I'm too young for Nixon myself, but I've never heard of there being any political prisoners taken during the Watergate debacle. Like, held for months without being charged? Beaten, refused medical care?
Also, you missed the obvious comparison with the "mostly peaceful" Antifa rioters, a connection I see most commentators making. Anyway, I surmise that your Dem faction 2 is calling most of the shots on this one.
One thing for sure: they will use it as a substitute for the role played by the Clinton Dossier in 2016 -- they will ramp-up testimony as the 2022 election approaches, and probably produce a flurry of criminal referrals to Biden's DOJ to exploit the event to frame the narrative that the GOP are "racist, treasonous white supremacist scoundrels who are bent on overthrowing Democracy," much like the Dossier was used in 2016 to frame a narrative of Trump being Putin's bitch, to keep the voters minds off of Hillary's bogus email server fiasco.
The drive force: the Dems realization that they have no positive campaign issues, because the Biden admin has done such a terrible job on EVERYTHING they touch. Thus, the Dems have to campaign by arguing to voters: "we may suck, but the GOP sucks worse than we do." It's the only campaign narrative Dems will have in 2022.
Thanks for the nice analysis, Mark - and I agree with your points. Isn't it odd how in many ways the most culturally isolated and ignorant people in the country are politicians in DC - and this is even with the Internet. They have never learned that for all practical purposes the public cares little about "inside the beltway" politics and intrigues. Most people just want the government to get out of the way and be left alone. If the implications of their antics stayed "inside the beltway" that would be fine with us.
“Some might argue that the Durham investigation will be cynically discounted as just more politics by most Americans.”
The Dems will of course try to paint him with said brush, however don’t think Durham is seen/comes across as a”political animal”; it takes him 6 months just to use a restroom & hasn’t/doesn’t show up on cable news programs waving a bloody, partisan flag. Rather he’s unseen somewhere in the shadows working out his case(s). This is as it should be I would suspect.
One would think it would give him more credibility.
Titan -
“We are producing the most historically illiterate generation in world history.”
Yes & wholly by design. I assume all here have read the “45 Stated Goals of the Communist Party”? If you haven’t as yet, drop it in your SE. It’ll blow you away how far down the road they are.
Bannon seems to relish the chance to fight. He’s argued to have Darren Beattie as one of the chair members for their kangaroo court even before it was clear how participants would be chosen. I think he’ll go head first into the whole monkey business with orange hat participants not being charged or the third guy over the police barricade not being investigated.
The legacy media cried wolf far too many times for people to give any concern to analogies of Watergate. We’ve had 3 impeachments between the last 4 presidents. The runner up of the last two Democrat primaries is a Socialist. Scary words and phrases don’t carry much weight like they used to. The only thing the mob did that day was to create an environment where it became politically unpopular for fair minded people to be able to hear the facts of the case.