The American situation is extraordinary, since it is fast tracking all that has occurred previously at a Fabian pace. As painful as that may be for those in the trenches there, it is at least bringing the boil to a head. Here is more coverage of the madness. At least we can read all of this over a cold beer here in OZ for the moment.
“Conservatives believed that life would get harder for them if Joe Biden managed to win the White House, and they were right.
But many likely did not think that the persecution would come so quickly and be so blatant, to include being placed on a federal ‘no-fly list’ and be thrown in solitary confinement without being offered bail.
America First podcaster Nick Fuentes makes a lot of people uncomfortable with his podcasts, and many Americans think he is a straight-up white supremacist. Rising to influence within the far-right community following the deadly 2018 Charlottesville, Va., incident where white nationalists clashed with far-left Marxist Antifa types, he has been disowned by many of the social media platforms and most ‘mainstream’ Republican and conservative figures.
So his speech makes people uncomfortable; he is still an American, though, and as such should be permitted to say whatever he wants under the protection of the First Amendment (and within the context of First Amendment law) — and without being persecuted for it.
But we don’t live in ‘that’ America anymore. We live in soft, post-constitutional tyranny that is becoming harder by the day.
Earlier this week, Fuentes took to Twitter to report that he has been placed on the no-fly list for some reason he’s not yet sure about.
“So I’m on my way to a press conference to discuss how I’ve been banned from nearly all social media and tech services, and then I find out that I can’t even get there because I’ve been put on a no-fly list. This is overt political persecution. America is not a free country,” he tweeted.
In response to a query from liberal writer and investigative reporter Glenn Greenwald to explain, Fuentes added: “Got notice in the mail from DHS in January that I was removed from TSA Precheck. Was unable to check into my flight online, tried to check in at the counter. After long call with the TSA, AA clerk relayed that I am not cleared to fly. Booked another flight on United, same thing.”
Greenwald suggested reading the ACLU’s assessment of how the government has employed the no-fly list — often against political opponents — since it was devised in legislation following the 9/11 attacks:
Picture this: You arrive at the airport, full of good spirits ahead of a work trip to visit to a client. You wait in line to check in for your flight, but when you reach the counter, you’re told you won’t be able to board. Suddenly you’re surrounded by security guards and hauled off for questioning, with everyone gawking at you. You learn that you’re banned from flying – INDEFINITELY – to, from, or over the United States, even though you’ve never been charged with a crime.
You’re not told why. And there’s very little you can do about it.
Fuentes isn’t the only right-leaning figure to be persecuted under the Biden regime; dozens of protesters arrested immediately following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building are still sitting in jail in Washington, D.C., many spending 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, which is traditionally only reserved for the worst, most dangerous offenders.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson ripped the regime for its treatment of these Trump supporters, and indicated that this is a growing — and disturbing — trend.
“In a just system, you punish people for the crimes they committed equally with everyone else who has committed those crimes. You don’t punish some people extra to send a political point, or to deter future behavior that might inconvenience a political party, or to stop dissent,” Carlson said.
“In a functioning democracy, every member of the Democratic Party would be saying exactly the same thing. Republicans would be saying it too,” he added, noting they would be calling for those people to be released on bail.
“There’d be demands for the immediate release of every nonviolent protester who went to the capitol on January 6,” he said. “But there aren’t. So the White House will likely lock up more.”
“Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday accused the Biden administration of using federal law enforcement to go after political opponents after authorities conducted a pre-dawn raid of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s New York City apartment.
In a lengthy monologue to kick off his show, Carlson noted that federal authorities seized several of Giuliani’s electronic devices, adding that the left-wing Lincoln Project had been tipped off by someone within the Biden administration about the raid beforehand because the group “bragged online that they knew this raid was coming.”
“You may have imagined that the Lincoln Project was done, we told you that, in fact. We believed it was permanently discredited by a child molestation scandal, which they admitted,” Carlson said, suggesting that the group’s members can operate with impunity as they are allies of the White House.
But Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York City who, as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer investigated potential corruption ties between President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, and Ukrainian oligarchs, is not an ally of the White House, Carlson pointed out.
“That was Giuliani’s core offense: being Trump’s lawyer — that, and having the gall to try to learn more about what exactly Joe Biden and his son were doing in Ukraine several years ago. The Justice Department announced today that asking too many questions about the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine is now a crime. They called it something else, but that’s what Giuliani did,” said the host.
Carlson noted that one electronic device in Giuliani’s possession that federal authorities did not seize was a copy of Hunter Biden’s highly controversial laptop hard drive, which seems baffling given that during a debate with Trump, then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden claimed that Giuliani was colluding with Russians.
“That’s very strange if you think about it. The Justice Department is now telling us that Giuliani was somehow involved in foreign tampering with our democracy. Russia, by implication, was involved. So you’d think they’d want to examine Rudy Giuliani’s own copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” said Carlson.
“Why? Because Hunter Biden himself just told us on television that that laptop, that hard drive, could be tied directly to Russian intelligence. You know, the fake Russian laptop, with all the photoshopped pictures of Hunter Biden smoking fake Russian crack with fake Russian hookers. So why wouldn’t the FBI want to see Rudy Giuliani’s own copy of that?” Carlson noted further.
“Well, you’d think they would. Because as Joe Biden told us during the October debate on TV, Joe Biden himself believed Rudy Giuliani was a quote, pawn, of Russian intelligence,” he said, going on to play a clip of the debate in which Biden made his accusation against Giuliani.
“Oh, but they didn’t, that’s not what they wanted. Instead, they told Giuliani they had a search warrant for all communications between him and, among others, a journalist called John Solomon,” he said, a reference to the Fox News contributor and investigative journalist who launched Just The News in January 2o2o.
Solomon, Carlson explained, once broke a story revealing “that a key figure in the [special counsel Robert] Mueller investigation — a Ukrainian businessman called Konstantin Kilimnik — was in fact an informant for the U.S. government.”
“Now, that was an essential fact to know, but Robert Mueller didn’t disclose that in his final report. Instead, he portrayed the Ukrainian as a Russian agent,” Carlson continued. “Now, that was a lie, it was a lie by omission. And that lie helped prop up the collusion hoax. John Solomon exposed that lie. It looks like the Biden people haven’t forgotten about it.”
The host went on to explain the “pretext” for raiding Giuliani, according to federal officials, was for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) — specifically, that the former Big Apple mayor and federal prosecutor improperly lobbied then-President Trump on behalf of Ukrainian oligarchs.
“For 50 years, only seven people faced criminal charges for violating FARA. Only one was convicted. In fact, the U.S. attorney’s manual at the Department of Justice said that you should warn lobbyists who don’t comply with FARA, not prosecute them, warn them. Most violations were ignored — in fact they still are ignored— it’s extremely common in Washington. And it’s not Russia that people are lobbying for. They’re treated as a civil matter,” Carlson explained.
“That changed when Trump was elected. FARA investigations became a tool the DOJ used against mouthy and inconvenient Republicans,” said the host. “There have been more FARA prosecutions in the past three years than we’ve seen over the past half-century. These are process crimes, weaponized against political opponents. Political opponents are prominent in Washington, and particularly the Biden administration.”
Carlson then recounted the pursuit and prosecution of informal Trump adviser and longtime GOP operative Roger Stone for allegedly lying to Congress when other more prominent figures including former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper — both under President Barack Obama’s administration — were accused of doing the same thing on multiple occasions.
“Why did they get off? Because they’re on the right side. Roger Stone, by contrast, advised Donald Trump,” Carlson said, going on to play a CNN clip featuring FBI agents conducting an early-morning raid on Stone’s Florida home before noting that it appears as though the left-leaning network was tipped off ahead of time.
“Imagine a country in which the Department of Justice – men with guns who can shoot you and get away with it – use the American news media for political purposes to hurt you before you’ve even been put on trial. That’s corrupt,” he said. “It was one of the most grotesque displays of corrupted justice in our lifetimes. In the end, Stone got a presidential pardon in the final moments of the Trump administration. But…the harassment continued.”
The Fox News star went on to point out that in recent months, Stone struggled but managed to pay off a sizeable tax obligation and was in the process of negotiating with the IRS to settle late fees and interest that he owed when those negotiations were abruptly ended within days after Biden was inaugurated.
“Roger Stone is broke. They’ve wrecked his life. But guess who’s doing great these days? Hunter Biden,” said Carlson.
“Hunter Biden has tax problems too. We know that from his laptop. It indicated he may have taken millions of dollars from communist party officials in China…Did Hunter Biden pay taxes on that? The Justice Department at one point was ordering that too. They had a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax question. But you haven’t heard much about it lately. That’s weird. Or maybe not so weird. On Inauguration Day, Joe Biden named a new head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division,” he added.
Later, the host noted that dozens of protesters who breached the U.S. Capitol building remain behind bars after playing a clip of federal prosecutor Michael Sherwin explaining that many of them will be charged with as much as possible in order to make examples of them.
“In a just system, you punish people for the crimes they committed equally with everyone else who has committed those crimes. You don’t punish some people extra to send a political point, or to deter future behavior that might inconvenience a political party, or to stop dissent. And that’s exactly what he did. And it’s not legal,” he said, noting that an Obama-appointed federal judge just ordered one of the demonstrators, Richard Barnett, 60, who was famously seen putting a foot up on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, released.
“For that crime…he was locked away in solitary confinement. There, he was allegedly beaten by prison guards, including a guard who told him that he hated all white people,” said Carlson, going on to point out that two Democrats — Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have spoken out against the protesters’ treatment.
“In a functioning democracy, every member of the Democratic Party would be saying exactly the same thing. Republicans would be saying it too,” he said, wrapping up the monologue. “Where are the Republicans, by the way? What does Mitch McConnell do for a living?…They’ve been silent about this egregious abuse of human rights.”
“There’d be demands for the immediate release of every nonviolent protester who went to the capitol on January 6,” he said. “But there aren’t. So the White House will likely lock up more.”
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62193
The Left are itching for a fight. I don’t see the Right delivering it though; too low in T, too much like their leader, Trump. When I hear that name I think of crumpets, cheese burgers, French fries …