The Last Hill

     If you haven’t seen the following graphic, ponder it now:

     The lady who said that is smarter than all the talking heads of the Punditocracy put together. She has an understanding of salami tactics that the all-too-comfortable commentators of the pseudo-Right have disregarded in service to their wallets and the agenda of those who fill them. The few who have recognized the nature of the Usurpers’ strategy and have had the courage to speak out about it are being “progressively” marginalized and silenced.

     “The last hill.” What is it? Are we really standing on it? What will it take to defend it, much less to move forward from it?

     It’s not the vote. That’s already been taken from us rather dramatically, even brazenly. And I don’t think it’s our firearms. At least, not the ones we already own, though getting more in the future could be a problem.

     I think it’s our ability to communicate with one another.

     As I wrote recently, we’ve allowed ourselves to be herded into mega-sites by their promise of convenience and zero cost. Now those sites are being closed to anyone who refuses to toe their preferred ideological line. Conservatives and libertarians aren’t just being prevented from expressing their own opinions; they’re being shut out altogether, unable even to talk to one another about mundane, nonpolitical matters.

     Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the principal offenders. But other threats lurk in the wings, awaiting their moment to strike. One of them hosts this very blog, which has moved me to buy hosting elsewhere and to ask a good friend for assistance in relocating Liberty’s Torch to that host. (Further news about the relocation will be posted as matters mature, both here and at Mike Hendrix’s Cold Fury.)

     But merely rehosting this blog isn’t a complete solution to the problem of communication. Broadband ISPs might well be attacked next, forced by political pressure to refuse service to us deplorable types. Broadband ISPs are not numerous. They require a lot of infrastructure, and therefore a lot of capital, which naturally limits the number of providers.

     Should the Usurpers decide to target the big ISPs next, Internet access itself might be closed to us.

     Accordingly, I’ve decided to take Co-Conspirator Linda’s advice. I’m equipping myself with GMRS radios: a base station and a number of handheld units. I’m going to distribute handhelds to my trustworthy neighbors, as well. If you have the means, it’s a course I can recommend to you. (Yes, it will raise some eyebrows, but in a good way.)

     He who cannot communicate with others is locked into a sole-survivor condition. He cannot summon help when he needs it. He cannot invoke resources at a distance – his own or others’. He cannot even be certain that he can reach family members at need – and don’t prattle to me about your BLEEP!ing cell phones. They’re the most easily terminated element in the entire American communications network. Once again: big infrastructure, big capital, few companies.

     Get a GMRS radio or two: handhelds if that’s the best you can do, a base station if you’re willing to spend more and get more deeply involved. The airwaves cannot easily be closed to us.

     Along with that:

1. Fill your pantry all the way to the top. Concerning other supplies, limit the space dedicated to disposables that you could replace with more durable substitutes (e.g., substitute sponges for paper towels and wet-wipes).
2. Make sure you have enough batteries for your radios and other portable devices. If any require chargers, make sure you know where they are – and which ones go with which!
3. Keep all your fuel tanks as full as is practically possible. If you have a fireplace or a woodburning stove, consider laying in an extra cord or two.
4. If repairs to the house have been postponed “for a better time,” that time is now.
5. Give some thought to preparing for a period of 60 to 90 days over which you will have no income and no access to your bank(s) or other professionally managed financial assets. If you have savings, have some of it as cash-in-hand: really in hand, not on deposit at the bank. Precious metals are good, but they’re not as liquid as those damnable Federal Reserve Notes.
6. Know where all your tools are. If they’re not where they’re supposed to be, put them where they’re supposed to be!
7. Weapons are tools. (Cf. Item #6.)
8. Do all of the above as quietly as possible. You don’t want to attract the wrong sort of attention.

     Stay tuned.

“Lawful Resistance”

     A cocky chum stepped forward--one who had to be sent for twice. "You can't do this! It's against the law!"
     "What law, Gospodin? Some law back in your hometown?" I turned. "Finn, show him law."
     Finn stepped forward and placed emission bell of gun at man's belly button.

     [Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress]

     Heinlein’s novel of revolt against unwarranted authority and its excesses is a classic of Twentieth-Century speculative fiction. It’s also one of the most instructive novels of that era – and the passage above is a sterling example of what it has to offer. “What law?” is the question of the hour. Indeed, we should have been asking it a year ago, when “the authorities” refused to act against rampaging mobs that destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of others’ property and rendered a number of American cities near to uninhabitable. The refusal to act implicitly declared that there are two laws: one for those whose actions advance the agenda of the political elite; the other for the rest of us grubby peons.

     But if there are “two laws,” is there law at all? Law in the American sense? More to the point, what’s the point of trying to act “lawfully,” if “the authorities” can suspend, alter, abridge, or dismiss the law when it suits their purposes or the purposes of their backers?

     I must dismiss the myriad calls for “lawful resistance” to the Usurpers. I appreciate the sentiments and the intent, but those who exhort us thus are living in an America that no longer exists.

     The time for prissiness about “the law” is past. It isn’t even visible in the rear-view mirror. Whether we like it or not, what matters today is the ability to impose your will upon your circumstances: in other words, the possession of force majeure in your personal context.

     Every other notion of “law” is someone’s fantasy. Ask Ashli Babbitt.

---

     I didn’t want to write the above. My personal inclination is to get along, rather than to trigger a confrontation. But we’re at the culmination of “a long train of abuses.” We have a Usurper Administration looming ahead of us. And it has already been made quite plain that the Usurpers and their Big Tech allies intend our subjugation.

     You doubt that? Consider this story:

     On Monday, Facebook blocked former presidential candidate Ron Paul from his own page. The move came hours after the longtime congressman and libertarian hero shared an article he wrote criticizing Twitter and Facebook for banning President Donald Trump from their platforms.

     “Last week’s massive social media purges – starting with President Trump’s permanent ban from Twitter and other outlets – was shocking and chilling, particularly to those of us who value free expression and the free exchange of ideas,” Paul wrote. “The justifications given for the silencing of wide swaths of public opinion made no sense and the process was anything but transparent. Nowhere in President Trump’s two ‘offending’ Tweets, for example, was a call for violence expressed explicitly or implicitly. It was a classic example of sentence first, verdict later.”

     Paul shared the article on Facebook sometime around 10 a.m. EST. Hours later, on Twitter, Paul said he had been blocked by Facebook.

     “With no explanation other than ‘repeatedly going against our community standards,’ Facebook has blocked me from managing my page,” Paul announced on Twitter. “Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and nowhere is the offending post identified.”

     Dr. Paul, a widely admired former Congressman, is 85 years old. He’s been a major figure in the liberty movement for nearly fifty years. I worked for his campaign in 1988, when he was a candidate for President. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is his son. To cut off his communications with his many followers achieves...what? For whom?

     The irony of Facebook blocking Dr. Paul’s page because he dared to criticize Big Tech censorship is just a rotted cherry atop the fetid sundae.

     As I’ve written before, the essential requirements for the maintenance of freedom are education, communications, and weaponry. Big Tech is enlisted with the Usurper forces, and is steadily severing our ability to find and communicate with one another. The Usurper Administration has already made it clear that it intends to take our weapons. It’s also proclaimed the “necessity” of renewed “lockdowns,” to smother what remains of our economic and social vitality. Law? What law? Some law from back in the Cleveland Administration?

---

     In one of the less well considered things he wrote in The Law, Frederic Bastiat said that “Law is justice.” No, sorry, dear departed Frederic, law is nothing of the sort. At its best, it’s a statement of intentions we’re supposed to believe will conduce to justice. But the reality is often a good distance from the ideal.

     Many are the laws that go unenforced, or are selectively enforced according to the whim of “the authorities.” Many are the laws written to target particular institutions or individuals, who are thus made “enemies of the state” in fact if not in name. Many are the laws written so obscurely that even those who wrote them cannot explain their intent nor their effect. Many are the laws that have advanced injustice rather than justice.

     When those who claim to represent the law decide, arbitrarily, when it applies and what degree of enforcement it deserves, then there is no law. When they decide, for whatever reason, that the law binds some persons but not others, then there is no law. When the law is written in such a fashion that no one can be certain what it compels or forbids, then there is no law. And when the law is “interpreted” to override the natural rights of individuals to their lives, liberties, and honestly acquired properties, then there is no law.

     The rest is left as an exercise for my Gentle Readers.

Something sublime to lift our spirits.

Anyone Tried to Get into Parler, Gab, or Other Dissident Social Media Today?

I just tried, and it's NOT happening. Long wait times, no answers.

A link you're going to want to follow.

I'm going to treat this like an open thread, and continue updating all day.

I'd not seen this video of Trump supporters being sprayed with a noxious substance. Nor, have you, I imagine, if you depend on the Complacent Media.

Pretty bad when the President of a Narco-Republic thinks you're too repressive.

Legal Insurrection has a good post; you might want to print out copies, and distribute in public places - like libraries, work, fast food joints (if you can dine in). Or, since all of those methods are no longer assured - save that printout to be read at your virtual funeral.

9:30 am - just checked to see if Parler is accessible - it's not. But, I did manage to get on Gab, and I'm putting a link to this post there.

If you, like me, tend to use Chrome for lazy reasons (I have some extensions that I use regularly, and can't get on Brave), stop. Just stop. Use an alternative browser -  or, several. I could only access Gab on Brave.

Twitter allows "Hang Mike Pence" to trend. Which, of course, is not violent, at all.

Update: Twits took it off. Unlike all of the graphic and verbal violence against Trump. Which is STILL on the TwitsPlace.

DC's mayor ordered the police to lock Trump supporters into their hotels - placing bars on the doors to keep them from leaving. Have they not heard that's illegal?

I remember reading those documents; at the time, I thought "What a bunch of loons!"

Little did I realize that this was an open expression of The Plan.

A-a-n-n-d-d, there she goes! Gab is not loading - again. Eh, I'll not panic - likely the traffic is huge today.

Yeah, I think EVERYONE with a working brain is thinking this.

We may be reduced to this; I doubt it, as long as we can send pdfs/docs, either electronically or via flash drive. But - just in case - I'm gonna hold onto mine a little while longer.

Meanwhile, we probably need to start thinking about redundancy - mirror sites, alternative ways to bring in cash (for those blogs that use PayPal or other money processors).

“Social Media”

     What’s that, citizen? You have opinions you’d like to express where others can see them? It’s not that simple anymore. This is the Twenty-First Century. We have procedures today.

     First, you’ll need an expressive-activities permit. You’re in for a long hard slog getting that, my friend. You’ll have to prove you never supported any cause disapproved by our political class, and never opposed any of their institutions. You’ll have to certify that you never, ever voted for a Republican. And of course, you’ll have to swear that you won’t foster any anti-Establishment ideas among your family members, friends, or colleagues.

     But let’s say you get through that set of wickets. Next comes the application phase. That’s right: you must apply for a soap box from which to orate. The three soap-box vendors that currently hold federal licenses are notoriously picky about who they’ll let through their gates. It takes a while for them to reach their verdict, too – and no, you cannot apply to several of them at once.

     And once you’ve acquired a perch from which to opine, that’s not the end of it. Your words will be monitored, to ensure that you remain in compliance with the Terms of Service. They’re quite simple, in comparison to the vague and wordy documents of yesteryear: If we don’t like what you’re saying, we’ll terminate your soap-box privileges. No, there’s no appeal.

     But really, how important to you is the “right” to express yourself? Important enough to jeopardize your employment? Your community relations? The security of your family and property? Give that a long hard ponder, citizen. This is no longer classical Rome, where it was said that “words fly away.” This is the Age of the All-Seeing Eye, whose memory is eternal. Whatever you may say, it will adhere to you forever.

     And We the Watchers only do as we’re told.

---

     The above is not fiction...not really. It’s more of a prognostication. In some ways it’s a bit of a status report.

     We in the Right have passed the story of the wild pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp back and forth for many years. We thought we knew what it meant. We believed we were on guard. Yet all the while we were being herded into a pen designed not for our bodies but for our speech and our minds.

     Remember blogging? At its peak, there were many millions of active blogs, where the proprietor could say whatever he pleased without fear of “deplatforming.” Those blogs have dwindled to a few bitter-enders. You know: old cranks like your humble Curmudgeon.

     The millions who once blogged freely migrated, lemming-like, into the “social media.” Now those media are chokepoints: institutions that can choke off disapproved news and opinions with little effort and no recourse to him who presents them.

     Freedom of expression may still be the case de jure, but it’s been powerfully inhibited by the tech barons who control the big sites. And nothing much can be done about them. They have the protection of the political Establishment. Unless the multimillions they seduced into their parlors should rebel, exit, and go back to blogs, they will continue to exercise de facto powers of censorship over the communications of Americans.

     So here you are, citizen! What next? How do you plan to cope with the Age of the All-Seeing Eye? Will you remain under its lidless gaze, forever subject to its scrutiny, or will you remove yourself from its vista and head toward freer climes?

     Don’t take too long making up your mind if you want to remain at all free.

Cold-blooded murder.

Was Ashli Babbitt shot by the Secret Service detail of Trump's right-hand man? Hold that thought.

Mortal danger to the killer? None. Any kind of danger to him? None whatsoever.

Just in Case Blogger Decides to Join the Get-NLDs Pack

NLD - Non-Leftist Dissident.

We may have to use tiny fugue.

Yet Another Reason to Use Linux - YARUL, for short.

Something to Pass Along to Students

Ace of Spades has a great post on the mechanics of learning.

That's something often not explicitly taught today. There are techniques to use that help students remember information that they will need in the near future - and, that's the sort of thing that is NOT taught in modern schools. Those teachers who DO teach it, have more successful students.

Just that pre-skimming method would go a long way towards improving science course performance.

"The Big Lie?"

That's what Biden compared Josh Hawley's speech to. It's an obvious attempt to smear a dissenter to the Leftist Narrative (NLD - Non-Leftist Dissident) as a quasi-Nazi.

But, Oh NO! We are told that he didn't CALL Hawley a Nazi, so that's completely NOT a Nazi reference. Just a not-so subtle effort to imply it.

In this linked article, Biden's actual words from long ago are quoted:

“They’re part of the big lie, the big lie,” Biden said. “I was being reminded by a friend of mine, and maybe you were with me, I can’t recall, when we told that, you know, Goebbels and the great lie, you keep repeating the law, repeating the lie. Well, there was a print that when Dresden was bombed, firebombed, there were 250 people that were killed — was it 2,500 people that were killed? And Goebbels said no, 25,000 — or 250,000 were killed. And our papers printed that. Our papers printed it. It’s the big lie.”

So, according to Biden, that number was less - MUCH less - than what Goebells had said?

Funny, that. Wikipedia says that 25K WAS the number - more or less - of dead Germans. But, given Biden's rambling, imprecise way of saying this, I'll cut him some slack on the number, and go with that last figure.

But, was the German press completely wrong?

It seems that two different meanings of casualty were conflated. In the first - the 20K to 25K direct victims, Wikipedia and Infopedia agree - that number was confirmed by actual bodies.

That higher number? May have included the huge number of refugees that resulted from the bombings - some estimates were around 200,000 Germans.

Over time, that mangled number may have been the source of many of the reports. It's pretty clear that the number of dead in the attacks was in the tens of thousands, not hundreds. But, given the way that many of the participants on BOTH sides of the war exaggerated their numbers, it's easy to see how people could have become initially confused, then later hardened into their position.

Here is a reference to Russian dead in WWII - and, as you can see, the actual numbers are quite hard to pin down.

The thing is, Nazi references are most often used to smear NLDs with moral equivalence, and silence them. Acknowledging that the history is, at times, not clear, and that truth was bent on all sides, is discouraged.

Is Trump a Nazi?

Don't be ridiculous! Smearing him, and his supporters, is merely a strategic move.

A Test of Censorship

 I was blocked from linking to this story on Facebook (ya' know, the HORRIBLE Violation of Community Standards thingy).

I'm putting the link here to see if FB still catches it.

I'll report the results below.

7:40 am - well, it got past the initial posting block. I'll check again in a few hours to see if it's still available, and if it doesn't result in my getting banned.

It's Scary to Think WE'RE IT!

The only source of honest reporting that stands between the Left and the Public.

Look, I know we get the story wrong (in whole or in part) at times. Unlike a major news bureau, we are quite literally the Guys in Pajamas (at least today). Most of us work at it, unpaid or very poorly compensated. We don't have the pull to get the Elite to talk to us directly.

And, yet, by paying attention to the smaller stories, reading voraciously, and checking current statements from the Left with their prior actions, the Blogs have kept the Pravda from having their way without opposition.

Jim Treacher's latest story on PJ Media is an example - he points out - correctly - that the media deliberately buried the facts on the story about an assassination attempt on Biden.

It wasn't a Trump supporter. It was a Bernie Bro.

Twisting, Lying, Spewing Propaganda - all are in full implementation at present. And, the widespread effort to keep Trump from having a platform is likely to succeed, absent some assistance from every one of us.

Like this story about the source of the 'incitement to enter the Capitol' - NOT Trump, but a Far-Left group. I doubt you will hear it on the televised news (and, given the rapid disappearance of print sources, that's the only news around, other than the internet reporting - which, VERY COINCIDENTALLY, is being blocked by the Tech Giants who JUST HAPPEN to support Biden).

Google those names - John Sullivan and Insurgence USA - and don't let them slide into the Memory Hole.

BTW, download a copy of Orwell's 1984 - don't use the Amazon copy - it's been 'Un-Booked' before.

Do a search for a pdf, and save it on a flash drive. Future USAians may need to know how it happened.

The government cannot outsource the deplatforming and banning of free speech/press. Yet, in effect, that is what the FAANGs, in collusion with the financial industry, have facilitated. I seem to remember a government going after private companies that limited civil rights of American citizens.

What WAS that government?

This is not new. Businesses that fear a government crackdown, will gladly act in ways that the government is forbidden to do. The Tech companies are jumping into action to prevent Trump, or his supporters, from expressing their opinions - all absent a violation of their Terms of Service.

It's based on a twisted interpretation of Hate Speech. Read the Liberty Unyielding post in entirety - it makes the violation clear.

Chronicles Of The Cleansing, 2021-01-10

To all Gentle Readers of Liberty’s Torch:

     Keep an eye on Cold Fury for news about our relocation away from Blogger. Proprietor Mike Hendrix assures me that his host will not terminate him – or us – for our content. It’s become imperative that we move, for a reason you’re about to learn.

     Here it is, just in case you haven’t yet heard:

     Amazon notified Parler that it would be cutting off the social network favored by conservatives and extremists from its cloud hosting service Amazon Web Services, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. The suspension, which will go into effect on Sunday just before midnight, means that Parler will be unable to operate and will go offline unless it can find another hosting service.

     Like that “conservatives and extremists,” don’t you?

     In an email obtained by BuzzFeed News, an AWS Trust and Safety team told Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff that the calls for violence propagating across the social network violated its terms of service. Amazon said it was unconvinced that the service’s plan to use volunteers to moderate calls for violence and hate speech would be effective.

     I’ve been on Parler for more than a year. I haven’t seen any of these “calls for violence and hate speech.” (Just what is “hate speech,” anyway? The definition seems a bit...fluid.)

     Mind you, Facebook and Twitter are chock full of leftists proclaiming their hatred for us in the Right, slandering us in every imaginable way, and wishing us all sorts of harm and death. Outcries against Facebook or Twitter from the other tech barons? None. Yet there are people scoffing at my concerns about Blogger. I must be some sort of crackpot, eh what?

     Why Parler first? Because President Trump just joined it. The Left feels he must be silenced above all things. A man with 74 million supporters could be dangerous. He must be kept from inciting the masses to resistance!

     The tragedy of Amazon is staggering in its breadth and depth. While a multitude of conventional businesses have been forbidden to operate because of the Wuhan Flu, Amazon has allowed ordinary persons access to innumerable goods and services from the security of their homes. It’s been of immense use to millions. (As I reside in the Vampire State, I could hardly have done without it.) Amazon has profited hugely from the pandemic. The pandemic was Amazon’s biggest friend! But its masters cannot allow us to speak freely to one another through its servers. And there’s essentially nothing to be done about it.

     Worse for me personally, Amazon is how I sell my books. I have no other outlet. No other channel to the market means anything much to an indie writer. How much longer that channel will be open to me – or to any other indie who refuses to kowtow to the Left – I cannot say.

     It’s become painfully obvious that no organization of any size can be trusted to remain free and open. The antidote is non-organization: a system that, like TCP/IP itself, requires only that the user conform to its communication protocol. Such an arrangement is usually called a peer-to-peer network. We need such a network, independent of any central control, and we need it now. Something like Kazaa. (Remember Kazaa?)

     Stay tuned.

Pearls of expression. Alternative title: The Voice of the Pond Scum.

Trump could not be permitted to leave office with such a massive showing of support—a terrible embarrassment to the corrupt scum who “speak for the people.” So the support had to be discredited by turning it into an insurrection ordered by Trump against Democracy, a holy word that is observed nowhere in the Western World.^[1]

Mr. Roberts has written a brilliant essay on the pond scum who pass as our political elite. Highly recommended if only for the witness account of agents provocateurs at the back of the Capitol. The lies and cowardice he records are epic.

Notes
^[1] "America’s Color Revolution." By Paul Craig Roberts, The Unz Review, 1/7/21.

Just Shoot Me Department.

As we’ve said consistently, we do not tolerate violent agitators and extremists who use the guise of First Amendment-protected activity to incite violence and wreak havoc,” he continued. “Such behavior betrays the values of our democracy. Make no mistake: With our partners, we will hold accountable those who participated in yesterday’s siege of the Capitol.

FBI Director Christopher Wray quoted in "America’s Color Revolution." By Paul Craig Roberts, The Unz Review, 1/7/21.

Not just media whores.

Everyone who was not at the US Capitol building on January 6, which is the entire world except the Trump supporters, has been brainwashed, by a corrupt, despicable collection of media whores serving an Establishment of Oligarchs, that Donald Trump intended an insurrection, but it was defeated. By Whom?

It was Trump who called out the National Guard and who told his supporters to leave the Capitol and to go home.

What kind of people can present this as an insurrection that requires Trump’s removal from office and prosecution? The answer is totally evil people who have not only the United States but the entire Western World in their clutches.

The Western World is dead.

"America’s Color Revolution." By Paul Craig Roberts, The Unz Review, 1/7/21.

“Freedom Of Expression BUT”

     If you’ve been walking this ball of mud for any length of time, you’ll be aware that a sentence constructed as follows:

“I’m all for X, but...

     ...really means “I’m against X but don’t want to say so out loud.” It’s wise to pay close attention to people who speak in such a fashion. They’re examples of what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote that “one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.” (Hamlet) They could turn on you at any moment.

     And so we come to today’s adventure.

     I’ve been anticipating that Google, which owns Blogger, will sooner or later turn on Liberty’s Torch. We’re small fry as such things are reckoned, but after the big fish have all been filleted we’ll surely have our turn. The megapowers of the Left / Establishment coalition intend that no one shall remain unbowed and unbound.

     So I’ve been looking into freedom-of-expression-guaranteed Web hosts. So far, I have serious qualms about every one I’ve investigated.

     Every Web host has a “Terms of Service / Acceptable Use” document the prospective customer must read before committing himself. And every one of them promises to suspend or delete Websites that violate those terms. But what’s missing in such documents is a description of the procedures involved – and that should get one’s danger flag well up the pole.

     Take that perennial no-no, copyright infringement. I’ll allow that copyright infringement ought to be penalized. I’ve been the victim of such, and I didn’t care for it. But let’s imagine that someone were to allege that Liberty’s Torch had infringed on his copyright. How would the Web host react to such an allegation? Specifically, would the host immediately suspend or delete the site, or would there be an investigation first, allowing us to defend ourselves against our accusers?

     I have yet to come upon a ToS / Acceptable Use document that answers that question in an acceptably specific fashion: i.e., a fashion that guarantees that an unsubstantiated, unverified, or unjust allegation would not be used against a hosted site. They never mention procedures. They make no assurances of protection or indemnification against villains who simply want to destroy a disliked site.

     In this age of all-out, no-holds-barred information warfare, that’s an omission no content originator should accept.

     There are other varieties of harassment that can be used to bring down a Website, of course. An allegation that it has at some time hosted child pornography can be used to destroy any site. The hosting provider will act as reflexively as Dracula to a crucifix...and will seldom offer an apology or make amends, should the accusation be proved false later on. Accusations that a site facilitates commerce in drugs, guns, bombs, or other illegal things are almost equally effective.

     These things can constitute a deadly “but” after a hosting provider’s guarantee of freedom of expression. This is not an argument that the laws concerning such things should not be followed. It’s an observation that the accused site and its management might be denied anything resembling due process.

     Plenty of conservative, patriotically oriented, or otherwise controversial but entirely legal sites have been destroyed by accusations that have proved unfounded. The host was more concerned with not becoming a target itself than with right, wrong, and justice.

     So I’m torn. I don’t know where to find a host that I could trust with Liberty’s Torch Mark II. I welcome suggestions from our Gentle Readers about hosts that have proved trustworthy in the past. I’m also interested in hearing about hosts that have shown no interest in the possibility that an accused might be innocent, his accuser being motivated simply by malice.

     Please post your suggestions in the comments, or email them to morelonhouse – at — optonline – dot — net.

Pearls of expression.

Lying is only useful if you can be convincing, and no one is convinced by this election result.

Trump lacks the support of his political peers and Biden lacks the support of the people.

Neither of them can really govern now. It'll fall apart.^[1]

The two coups Mr. Every mentions are:

1. "financialisation/central-bankification,"
2. the death of free speech.

Notes
^[1]  Comment by NoBigDeal on "Rabo: Amid The Hysteria, Here Are Two U.S. Coups That Already Quietly Happened." By Michael Every, ZeroHedge, 1/8/21.

Enemies of the people.

Who are the main enemies of the American people?

1. Each one of the 535 members of the U.S. Congress who committed high-crimes and misdemeanors.
2. The national three-letter news media.
3. The corporate controlled social media platforms.
4. The Wall-Street banks and their casino games backed up by the U.S. taxpayer when they go bust.
5. The multi-national corporations that sent American manufacturing to China to earn greater profits.
6. Foreign State lobbyists that bribe career congressional representatives for various favors.
7. State governors and their Secretaries of State who committed federal election fraud.
8. The highest echelons of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Military that did nothing to protect the Constitution they swore to uphold.
9. The American Communist Party whose goal is to destroy the U.S. Constitution.
10. All of us; that's right all of us, who continue to support a corrupt system of government.^[1]

Notes
^[1]  Comment by begintowin on "Rabo: Amid The Hysteria, Here Are Two U.S. Coups That Already Quietly Happened." By Michael Every, ZeroHedge, 1/8/21.

They Are Showing Their Weakness

Deplatforming the President?

Depriving him of ability to conduct business?

Imposing even MORE controls on acceptable content of video?

Just how frightened does The White Male Power Structure have to be of independent-minded citizens to come down this hard on dissent?

(I hope you appreciate that swipe at 'Wokeness' in the previous sentence)

Let me state this plainly:

• Trump met with his supporters at a LAWFUL protest.
• He urged them to continue protesting, using their Constitutional Rights.
• They appeared outside of Congress, the same as MANY other citizens have.
• They were largely peaceful and law-abiding.
• When a few of the group surged towards the Capitol, most did not.
• When that group reached the doors, they were LET IN BY THE POLICE. They did NOT break down the doors.
• When they walked the halls, THEY CAREFULLY WALKED BETWEEN THE VELVET-ROPED LINES.
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• You know what I haven't seen? Massive vandalism, shown by staff cleaning up the mess. There is ONE picture I've found, of a guy putting items in the trash. You look, and decide whether this is destruction, or just a person bagging possessions (possibly taken from the protesters).
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• When ONE MAN, so far unidentified in public, although apparently the same man as the one pictured below, sat in the House seat normally occupied by Nancy Pelosi (Oh, the HORROR! She'll need to have it fumigated.)
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• You know what I'm NOT seeing in that picture? Vandalism. It's ONE guy posing, others taking pictures.
• There are also several pictures of one protester in what appears to be a Congressional office, with his feet on the desk.
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• The woman who was shot was SAID to have been climbing through a window. If you look at the window, there is no way that she could be climbing through (it's got small diamond-shaped panes). Now, I can't be sure, but these look to be traditional Tudor-style panes, which are metal strips, held together with solder. Those would be VERY sturdy, and not something you could just climb through.
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• So, apparently, the story of an attacking woman, who HAD to be stopped with a bullet, is bogus. Yes, she HAD to be shot. Because, without a death, they couldn't blow this up into a life-threatening attack on a sitting Congress.
• There are 3 other deaths being attributed to this protest. They have given no names, nor explained any connection. So, until I hear a FULL explanation of the event, I'm also gonna call this bogus.

But, that protest is being called a riot. By the same folks who have been calling riots "peaceful protests".

You Can Unscrew A Lightbulb...

     Can you unscrew a country? A country that’s just been hijacked by a gang of Usurpers who lack all sense of morality and restraint?

     I’ve written many times about the importance to our nation of mutual trust. I keep repeating this powerful quote from the late Benjamin M. Anderson:

     There is no need in human life so great as that men should trust one another and should trust their government, should believe in promises, and should keep promises in order that future promises may be believed in and in order that confident cooperation may be possible. Good faith -- personal, national, and international -- is the first prerequisite of decent living, of the steady going on of industry, of governmental financial strength, and of international peace.

     I mourn when I see the relics, the little reminders of the trust we once had for one another. It was the seldom noticed, never mentioned bedrock on which our forebears built the greatest nation in history. And now we have this, from Larry Correia on Facebook:

     Oh, we are so fucked. Today is nothing. It's probably going to get worse, because we're on a road that I can't see any off ramps.

     Sorry, here comes a rant.

     People are confused and constantly bombarded by conflicting information, some correct, some bullshit, and nobody knows what to believe because nobody trusts the people we are supposed to be able to trust. Then we have a super powerful global media complex that straight up gas lights everyone, and we're shocked the people have lost trust in information sources.

     Then when people have valid concerns, they get mocked, belittled, and insulted. They get gas lighted and told what they've seen with their own eyes didn't happen, and then they're "fact checked" with things that are basically a list of excuses generated by partisans who have zero clue what they're talking about.

     Repeat that daily, for literally every topic, and you get to a point where nobody trusts anybody and we have massive competing groups that can't even agree on basic pieces of relative truth anymore. And social media then rubs that in everyone's face, so we don't feel any commonality with our countrymen.

     But that's basically because we are several different countries crammed into one. As a people we've got two primary philosophies with a bunch of offshoots of those two, except they are mutually exclusive and cannot exist at the same time. So instead we get a muddled mixture of nonsensical bullshit that isn't really either, but is primarily a vehicle that exists to benefit the same people who benefit from our totally untrustworthy information sources.

     Then let's have a global pandemic, make everybody poorer, put them out of work, make everything they would normally do to blow off steam illegal, and once again if they express any concerns about this situation and the conflicting information presented to them, they get insulted, belittled, disparaged, and disrespected.

     Then let's have riots and looting and arson and murder for months on end, where the rule of law appears to be a one way street.

     Oh, and let's have a bunch of scandals with our political betters that tell everybody we have a two tiered justice system, where we're peasants, but our moral betters can do pretty much anything and get away with it.

     All while our information sources obviously lie and conflict with each other and run interference for their powerful friends, but giant soulless mega corporations will straight up destroy regular mundane people if they feel like it.

     And then at the very end of this shitty year, let's have [an] election that is insanely anomalous in a bunch of ways, but let's not actually investigate it in any meaningful manner, and instead let's just insult anybody who is concerned about it.

     Because nothing bad could possibly happen from tens of millions of people believing that their votes will never matter again and the system is irreparably rigged against them in a country with billions of guns and nuclear weapons.

     Whew... And that's just this year, after the last two decades of escalating tensions in a country filled with people who hate each other's fundamental beliefs.

     Which brings us to now... Which is why when buildings start exploding and politicians get beheaded, I won't be in the least bit surprised.

     And I'm usually the optimist. I'm seeing people I would consider boring vanilla normies, not gun culture people, not Trumpkins, not preppers, not even that political, now talking about violence and revolution like those are perfectly normal topics. Twenty years ago that was reserved for us internet gun nuts and taboo crazy talk for everyone else.

     Yeah...we are basically fucked.

     And I say to myself, what more is there to say?

---

     Forget the Constitution. Forget “democracy.” Forget “the rule of law.” These have become “inoperative,” to borrow a word from the Watergate years. They’ve been reduced to passwords: “shibboleths,” if you will, that if deployed skillfully and in the right circumstances, will get a member of the Usurper Class thirty seconds of coverage on CNN. No longer does any vestige of their original meaning inhere in them. There are now only Rulers and Ruled.

     The Rulers have excavated a gulf to separate themselves from the Ruled. It’s intended to be uncrossable. Indeed, there are persons whose sole function is to prevent any of the Ruled from crossing it. Yet a tiny trickle will construct bridges of money and influence that they’ll pull in behind them. The tech barons. The identity-group demagogues. The elite among the talking heads.

     A great and indefinite struggle has begun. Some individuals will maneuver to attain a position within the Rulers: some to slake their power-lust; others merely to secure and expand their personal interests. Meanwhile, the rest of us will strive to remain out from under their crosshairs.

     George Carlin’s analysis will soon reach its ultimate expression in reality:

---

     If there is to be no armed uprising, no military effort to take the country back from the Usurpers, then America is lost...quite likely forever.

     Laws will be passed late at night, sometimes in complete secrecy. Federal agents will be granted ever broader powers to interrogate, imprison, and despoil private citizens. Those of us who want only to be left alone will find any degree of personal privacy difficult to achieve. Those who have a little something to defend will be forced to elaborate, clandestine measures to defend it. Those who are targeted for destruction – a class that includes everyone who has spoken out against the Usurpers – will find it all but impossible to evade or placate their attackers.

     Elections? You can forget about them. The Usurpers have already captured the election mechanisms – the Boards of Election and the Secretaries of State – and they will do whatever it takes to retain iron control of them. There will be no salvation from that front.

     The Usurpers’ campaign to suborn our public institutions, our channels of information and communication, and our educational systems began more than a century ago. It has come to fruition. All that remains are our arms and our willingness to use them...if we’re willing to use them.

     Q: How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb?
     A: Politicians don’t change lightbulbs; they prefer to operate in the dark.

     And so it will be, unless the spirit of resistance that gave birth to this country should rise afresh.