“New York Times reporter Katie Benner suggested on Tuesday that in order to tackle America’s current national security “dilemma,” Trump supporters should be considered “enemies of the state.”
As the first hearing of the Jan. 6 committee was underway on Capitol Hill, Benner took to Twitter to stress that it “underscores” what she indicated was the ongoing threat within the U.S.
“Today’s #January6thSelectCommittee underscores the America’s current, essential natsec dilemma: Work to combat legitimate national security threats now entails calling a politician’s supporters enemies of the state,” Benner wrote.
Benner explained, “As Americans, we believe that state power should not be used to work against a political figure or a political party. But what happens if a politician seems to threaten the state? If the politician continues to do so out of office and his entire party supports that threat?”
The Times’ DOJ reporter cast doubt that the Pelosi-appointed committee would resolve the “dilemma” since it remained “unresolved” following the Russia investigation and both impeachments of President Trump. ” foxnews
Comment: It will be interesting to see what the NYT does about this.
The Left’s open grab for absolute power acting behind their puppets and figureheads (Biden and Harris) is now quite open.
The political theater of the Jan 6 “insurrection” is now revealed in Pelosi’s stage management of the hearing. She found rabidly ant-Republican capital policemen to put up as martyr figures in what is going to be a simulacrum of the Moscow Show Trials of the ’30s in which the Old Bolsheviks were condemned as a group along with the Trots and either shot in the Cheka’s basements or hunted down like Trotsky himself.
Benner wants us all silenced and “carcelated” as in AOC’s dream of a new prison system re-designed for America’s “real needs.”
If this continues and is generally accepted by the left as their view of reality, then us “enemies of the state” will have no choice but to decide if we want to live on our knees or die on our feet. pl
https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-times-katie-benner-trump-supporters-enemies-of-the-state
“I beg of you, in the bowels of Christ, to consider the possibility you may be mistaken.”
To paraphrase the Marble Man “There is a terrible war coming, and these leftists who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen.”
Federal election laws were not only broken but ignored in the court. Latches and no standing. Civil wars have been spooled up over much less but what most have yet to accept; we are already in one. The masses with their meager businesses, churches and guns against the global crony capitalists machine that has captures the entire Federal Government. And the harder they push, weaker they get. Keep pushing.
These politicians are very strident and insistent in their narrative, but ONLY when they are in DC – most of them judiciously avoid going to their home states without security escorts already. If you demonize and make enemies of the state out of half the populace, then you are going to lose whatever the confrontation may be.
I’m terrible at ‘bending the knee”….
I’ve only ever shot skeet.
Did that standing up, but others shot quite well from bended knee.
Twitter took the ‘couragous’ step of banning accounts related to the AZ election audit, because ‘nothing to see there’.
https://twitter.com/WendyRogersAZ/status/1420072649108205568
“The latest subpoena demands that the county turn over the envelopes from all mail-in ballots or images of them, network routers and traffic logs, detailed voter registration records with change histories, and records related security breaches of election systems.”
Oh, maybe there is something the AZ Senate wants to see.
https://tulsaworld.com/news/national/arizona-senate-issues-new-subpoena-for-2020-election-audit/article_b1fac8e5-36a7-5d14-b14a-1ef739eefadd.html
As to violence in the Capitol: The mostly peaceful assaults on Secret Service officers in 2020:
https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1266851082170331136
“Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn defending the BLM-Antifa burning of Kenosha as just ‘property damage’…” (6-25-21)
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1420176744447885312
Coordinated with this information operation:
Covid safe:
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1392907170702839808
Covid unsafe:
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says “new data” shows “breakthrough cases” of vaccinated individuals can have as much virus to shed and spread as an unvaccinated person.
Whoops, gotta provide cover for new antifa/blm actions, so nationwide mask up for the super-duper Wuhan boogaloo virus 2:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
Apparently CNN has finally learned the code:
“The threat November 2022 poses to Biden”
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/25/opinions/biden-midterms-political-threat-zelizer/index.html
I expect they’ll triple down before summer is over. Sadly Frank Luntz’s roomate, Minority Leader McCarthy, isn’t pulling either Cheney or Kinzinger from any committee assignments after Pelosi assigned them to the one meant to destroy the GOP’s chances in 2022. A true profile in courage. I wonder what sweet nothing Frankie whispered in Kevin’s ear before tucking him in last night?
It’s time for me to become better armed. I have had a 22 long rifle since I was a kid. But I doubt it will do me much good in the worst case scenario.
Colonel Lang and others,
What do you recommend for personal defense. I want a light rifle, accurate over long distance, doesn’t make me go deaf, ammo available and not outrageously expensive, the gun I will spend what I have too but without ammo what good is it?
Harlan Easley
I would look at Keltec’s offerings. https://www.keltecweapons.com/firearms/rifles/
You should look at the AR platform as well. Prices are starting to come down. In no particular order–
–Endless variations, parts, and upgrades available. Easy to keep spare parts on hand.
–Equally endless AR how-to videos on YouTube.
–Much simpler to disassemble and maintain than the Keltec.
–There are drop-in adapter kits for AR’s that allow you to shoot 22 LR.
There are also several brands of affordable electronic ear muffs available.
Harlan,
Probably a good idea for whatever you purchase to fire a round that can penetrate the typical ubiquitous soft body armor. That rules out pistol caliber carbines. Look for something in 5.56mm or 7.62 X 39mm. Light recoil, yet powerful enough to be effective in any self-defense or hunting for food situation.
Eric Newhill
“hunting for food?” Just shoot the intruder in the face a couple of times.
Col Land,
Sure, but in a really hairy situation – meaning like combat with multiple bad guys moving and shooting, we’re aiming center of mass.
sorry – “Col Lang”. Crazy spelling and grammar ap strikes again.
Thanks Colonel Lang, RHT447, and Eric for all the suggestions.
Harlan Easley,
Our Colonel and other pilgrims have given you excellent advice. I would just add that before buying a ” a light rifle, accurate over long distance” for personal defense, you might want to clarify the terms “distance” and “defense”. In an urban setting I would choose a good tactical shotgun over of a rifle. Choose your ammo, rifled slugs to quail shot, to suit your needs. If you might need to reach out and touch adversaries from far away (say 300 yards+) a .308 bolt action or an M1A might come in handy. You might choose iron sights or a scope. Depends on you. Test-shooting a selection before buying might be helpful. Irrespective, you would need to spend quite a bit of time at the range mastering your gear before using it in the field.
Ishmael Zechariah
Thanks Ishmael for the useful advice.
Pravda on the Hudson will do nothing. Their staff and readership are in the same reality bubble as the Party. I’m sure it will continue. A key question is whether they’ll try to go after Trump himself for incitement (Swalwell’s suit). It would be insane to do so, of course, but we are well past rationality and this thing is gathering a momentum all of its own. I can already hear the cries: “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”
First, looking back over the years, decades, we (Pat and his community) disagreed on matters but sometimes seemed to agree on some too.
Which leaves me with matters I may not have understood.
One of those, not really that important, was related to AOC. Thus, if I may ask Pat and the present Turcopolier community or the SST community still around?
Benner wants us all silenced and “carcelated” as in AOC’s dream of a new prison system re-designed for America’s “real needs.”
What precisely is AOC’s dream of a “new” vs the “old” prison system in the US. And what would it change for the average American?
LeAnder
Those who wish to describe the obvious in response to your condescension should do so.
LeaNder,
Are you refering to the AOC who now claims she was apparently about to be raped by Haven Monahan on 1/6 or one of America’s Other Communists?
As in any war, intelligence-gathering will be critical.
For how this is proceeding, this is quite informative:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/07/26/the-intelligence-branch-and-big-tech-say-the-quiet-part-out-loud-facebook-twitter-microsoft-google-and-big-tech-writ-large-will-monitor-platforms-and-report-extremist-content-to-five-eyes-intelli/
As to how the intelligence so gathered will be used, see
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/07/26/paypal-partners-with-anti-defamation-league-to-block-financial-transactions-for-extremists-and-hate-movements/
Today’s Washington Post has an op ed column arguing that the unvaccinated are as much of a threat as the people on Jan. 6.
“The political purpose of the Two Minutes Hate is to allow the citizens of Oceania to vent their existential anguish and personal hatreds towards politically expedient enemies… In re-directing the members’ subconscious feelings away from the Party’s government of Oceania, and towards non-existent external enemies, the Party minimises thoughtcrime and the consequent, subversive behaviours of thoughtcriminals”
Just change “external” to “internal” and you pretty much have WaPo op eds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate
In some sense this is perfectly true! 😀
WSJ op-ed today: cov1d no more than a “low-grade nu1sance”.
The Left’s big mistake is to think they can win a revolution, bloodlessly, via threats of legal action, shaming and brain washing. 1/6, silly as it was, created a crack in their happy bubble. What if it had been for real and the mob had been well armed, organized and serious? Congress would have been wiped out. Gone within an hour. A similar simultaneous attack on the DoJ/FBI and CIA HQs would have left those agencies depleted and compromised. Add to that an embargo of food and other essential goods shipments to the big coastal cities implemented by fly-over farmers and truckers. At the same time key electrical and cell phone hubs taken out. Key media outlets also attacked and destroyed on day 1.
All of that is very simple and very feasible given a couple hundred thousand motivated, well armed and well led patriots who are willing to take some casualties and to kill the despised leftist usurpers and their praetorian guard. There isn’t a damn thing the federal government could do to stop it once it jumped off, Swalwell’s and Biden’s comments about unleashing nuclear weapons on US citizens INCONUS not withstanding.
The Left knows this. It must have them pissing their panties. Who do they think is going to enforce their political purge? The FBI? Capitol Police? How many of those guys are there? They think controlling information and detecting “rebels” via social media is going to break-up militias before they gain momentum? It’s too late. Bundy Ranch has shown them that the serious people have other means of communicating and can and will come to each others’ aid.
IMO, all the left can do is gripe among themselves and burn out over the next two or three years.
Eric
Why do you think the military is a priority for the woke revolutionaries? The result may be hopeless as a force able to counter an external foe, but ideologically pure or brainwashed soldiers are exactly what you need to put down internal dissent.
I do not think this will burn itself out, quite the opposite. The combination of fear and vindictiveness driving these show trials seems to have taken us past the point of no return. The Left’s extreme rhetoric has created a feedback loop of self-induced hysteria. Political opposition is now framed as a national security threat. Trump personifies that threat and has become a kind of Lord of the Flies figure at the center of the frenzy. Throw Trump’s combative personality into the mix and you have an explosive combination.
No, as the Colonel says, this is turning into a naked grab for absolute power. The self fulfilling hyperbole of domestic terror seems likely to drive the country into the abyss. I’d love to hear counter arguments that explain how this ends without tens of millions of Americans at war with a State that hates & fears them.
“I’d love to hear counter arguments that explain how this ends without tens of millions of Americans at war with a State that hates & fears them.”
What you are witnessing is the dying throes of a mortally wounded beast trying anything and everything to prevent facing the inevitable. Remember George Orwell fought with these militant morons’ great grandparents in the Spanish Civil War, so the saying of the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree is apt.
Now domestically you have to take into consideration the actual electoral make up is a three way split of the two parties and independents. In the Democrat party many of the voters voted for the policies while some others were against repugnant behavior of Don. So, you have to ask the question how many will truly fight for them because this time they won’t have the protection in the streets like 2020? Especially seeing after the election, they reneged on the promises (I know nothing new under the sun} though it will cross the younger folks mind since they still have a long time in existence and why sacrifice for cause that will cheat you also?
As for the military you can get some with no scruples to do the dirty deeds but many won’t and the opponents will be with people that have recent or past military training with the motivation to fight for life. Yemen is one case study on what that will look like.
Next we have internationally where the past twenty years the swamp blob has spent all its time spitting in the faces of everyone. All have been biding their time while preparing for the worse so if they try to pick a fight externally, they are going to get their buffed buttocks hand to them as the main adversary has made it clear publicly, so you know it has been conveyed privately, that they don’t want war but if it comes to that those that ordered it will receive priority targeting,
Remember years ago on SST when the conversation about the Seceratary of State’s backup computer was unsecured in someone’s privy chamber and it was said to be no big deal? Well it allowed this adversary to map out all of her followers (several in the current regime) were they live, summer residences, mistress’s residence, etc. So where ever they run to it still won’t be safe.
These have been dark times but sunrise is coming,
I hope this helps ease your soul.
As far as using the military as a leftist army, problems would arise. In a survey some years back they asked enlisted soldiers if they would involve themselves in combat against the American People. The Marines said no = 42%, the Army, slightly less, and then the Navy and Chair Force more behind. I think that the ground forces types would take the armories and ammo, plus the large bunkers on base with ammo up the Ying Yang. Officers who would order the uprising crew to stand down and fight against the people would be shot methinks, or stacked like cordwood in the base prisons. How does that sound? Likely? Unlikely? I report, you decide!
Recipe for a civil war – look no further than our two systems of justice.
Video of a youngerJoe Biden railing about taking crack off the streets, and his own unjailed son brazenly getting high on crack in the background:
https://www.facebook.com/JovanHuttonPulitzer/videos/852044215688382/
NYT reporter Katie Benner (BTW, she was a former freelance reporter for the Beijing Review), has deleted her controversial tweets:
https://nypost.com/2021/07/28/nyt-reporter-katie-benner-deletes-tweets-berating-trump-supporters/
akaPatience
She lived in China for how long?
There’s hardly any biographical data available about her, but she has at least divulged she was a teacher of English in China as well as a journalist there for the Beijing Review after graduation from Bowdoin College in 1999. She returned to the US some time after 2001 when she was initially employed by CNN, which launched her US journalism career.
This is what I’m talking about – some in your face Chinese Chicom stooge comes over here and tries to start some kind of Ching Chong ding dong revolution by declaring half of the country to be enemies of the state and the NYT experiences a backlash, recognizes they’ve gone too far and backs down. There is no support for this madness outside of a few leftist bubbles. The left fears the rest of the country. They do not really want to push too hard because they know what will happen to them. They think they can seize power on the sly. Their blunders, like giving Miss Chicom a voice, defeat them before they can even finish establishing a beach head.
Eric
She deleted the tweets with the marvelously unrepentant statement that they were “unclearly worded”. To my knowledge NYT has taken no action against her publicly or privately or issued any kind of statement distancing themselves from the sentiments expressed.
Barbara Ann,
True that there has been no repudiation from the NYT. That works against them. Benner has revealed herself to be a vicious Chinese idiot and, by extension, so is the NYT (if anyone didn’t know that by now). Benner’s avatar – or whatever it’s called – is her in a cartoon hat. She’s cited as being an award winning journalist. Some jokes just write themselves. That is how people see it; excepting the small crazy cabal. Look at all the criticism she has received for her “unclear” tweet. Some of the critics are liberals and they are criticizing for the right reasons. There is hope.
Here is a bit more information on Katie “The East Is Red” Benner:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/07/28/oh-my-something-about-that-new-york-times-journalist-who-recently-called-trump-supporters-enemies-of-the-state/#more-214603
Sure looks as if she is a CCP intelligence operative, recruited, and subsequently steered through several hops into the heart of Globalist MSM. As remarked in the attached link, she rather curiously left her previous reportorial beat of technology, winding up, but with no evident journalistic expertise in her new area, reporting on the Department of Justice [sic].
JerseyJeffersonian
She looks as much like a Chinese asset as Swalwell.
Barbara Ann,
Yes, our host, the good colonel is correct that this is naked grab for power. However, it is by a small cabal that really has very little support for their agenda. Sure, they are noisy and bold and they have the means of amplifying their noise, but it’s much sound and fury that is the subject of jokes among the majority of the population.
I like to read the opinions from across the political spectrum; far left to far right and everything in between. I see waning support for the cabal among moderate Democrats. I used to be a moderate Democrat. I voted twice for Bill Clinton. I voted for Al Gore and I voted twice for Obama, though, into his second term I realized that he and his ilk truly hate me and this country. I will never vote Democrat again. As I said recently, I find my political views are very typical of white collar professionals and successful blue collar types; you know, the people that actually pay the taxes, that actually want a quality education for their children, that actually want a good economy and prosperity, that believe in hard work= success and all of the other traditional values that made the country great. Observe the falling MSM ratings and viewership. Observe the same with woke professional sports. Go woke go broke. IMO, go woke, suffer in the 2022 mid-terms and in 2024.
As for the military becoming a woke fascist force that would oppress/kill law abiding citizens, I don’t see that coming to fruition in sufficient volume because, IMHO, the mentality that buys into woke ideology and the combat arms mentality are, by large, antithetical. The troops would not be fighting for the motherland, as in the fascist militaries of the past. They’d be hired guns for a bunch of fags and globalists; not exactly the cause(s) that would motivate combat arms. To the contrary, IMHO, combat arms veterans and active duty would fight against the wokies. So what? QM and motor pool v infantry and armor? I don’t think so.Then there are National Guard units under control of conservative governors.The wokies pet generals (e.g. Miley) know all of this. No way they are going to start something they know they can’t finish – again my humble opinion.
The only way the left completes their coup is if they can keep us all isolated/no communications, disarms us and intimidates everyone into compliance. Again, I see no indication among the men and women on the street that even moderates are willing to succumb to any of that, even if only because it interferes with their libertine pursuits.
Eric, have you already forgotten that some of those “wokies”, some of whom are SJWs who were against corporate globalism and elitists long before MAGA became a slogan, managed to burn down a billion dollars worth of property all over the US, destroy businesses, assault law enforcement officers and other people, and even kill with impunity just last summer? And they aren’t even members of our armed services. Yet.
I seem to recall reading of those on the ultimately-losing sides in battle predicting how easily and quickly their victory would be achieved. I may be wrong but IMO it’s not prudent to underestimate the enemy.
akaPatience,
ANTIFA is not a wokie organization. They are anarchists. They don’t like the democrats either, in part, because of globalism and crony capitalism (as you say) and, more importantly, because their philosophy is anti all hierarchies (= government, corporations, etc). Notice how ANTIFA turned on the extremely liberal local governments of PNW. Go read ANTIFA’s manifestos. They are very clear about what they want and why.
So good discussion here, long may it continue.
We have arguments that the revolutionaries are small in number and do not have widespread support. Yet they have seemingly unlimited propaganda capabilities, hold executive power and appear desperate to hold onto it, whatever the cost. My fear is they are actually aiming to provoke a violent reaction at some scale, in order to crack down even harder. Moderates on both sides of the political spectrum will then be forced to take sides, as will service personnel if, God forbid, it goes that far. My fear is not so much that the revolution against the Deplorables will succeed, but that in failing it may precipitate civil war.
Colonel
You have studied revolutionary thinkers and their strategies and have had the opportunity to both fight and interview the Marxist ideologues they have inspired. Is my above characterization of the dynamic at play and an antebellum environment melodramatic?
Barbara Ann
The Marxist revolutionaries cloak their intent of total upset in society behind soothing half-truths. From my own contacts with Americans on the way to serfdom at the hands of the emerging nomenklatura I would say that they are far too trusting.
The people deserve what government they get, if Americans don’t want to stand up and fight for what’s right then they will get and deserve what’s coming to them. Look at the Tunisians earlier this week that sacrificed 10 years of hardship and the destruction of their economy, for nothing. 10 years of toil and suffering with the only fruits a functioning but flawed democracy, in one day they sacrificed it all away for nothing at the whims of some Saudi/UAE paymasters, with nary a peep from the streets. Nay, the streets were applauding the machinations of their royal undoers.. This is because the Tunisians as a people have not evolved enough to deserve democracy. The same goes for modern, devolved Americans. If Modern Americans will not stand up for what is right, they deserve the form of government that is coming to them. They will learn the hard way, or not at all.