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The Morning Report 4/25/23

Good morning, kids. While everyone was rightly shellshocked and preoccupied by the removal of Tucker Carlson from the airwaves, this happened yesterday in, of all places, Montana:

In a scene reminiscent of what happened at the Tennessee state capitol building last month, demonstrators filled the gallery and chanted “Let her speak!” when the GOP-led chamber voted to uphold a gag order on state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D-Missoula), who was in the room and held up a microphone.

After the protesters ignored demands that they come to order, Republican House Speaker Matt Regier asked the sergeant of arms to clear the gallery and directed members to move to the side of the chamber. Police in riot gear forcibly removed the protesters and at least seven individuals were arrested, per Montana Public Radio. . . 

. . . NBC Montana reported the standoff began last week when Zephyr, who identifies as a transgender person, scolded lawmakers who support legislation that would ban transgender surgeries for minors. “I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” Zephyr said, referring to the opening prayer. . . 

. . . Montana House Minority Leader Kim Abbott (D-Helena) released a statement voiced support for Zephyr.

“Today we saw Montanans show up and engage in the democratic process, and some of those Montanans were arrested,” Abbott said.  “To me, it’s an incredible statement in support of the trans, nonbinary, and Two Spirit community — and against the Republican agenda that would strip our neighbors of their basic rights, dignity, and humanity.”

If what these representatives of the “wokes-gemeinschaft” think that what they did is “the democratic process” then this is me in full regalia. Back here on what used to be known as Planet Earth, which day by day is being “terror-formed” into Planet Claire, this would be known as thuggery bordering on an attempted insurrection. Which is funny because that’s exactly what they called what happened in DC on 1/6/21 despite the overwhelming evidence as born out by 44,000 hours of videotape, only a few snippets of which we have seen, that what occurred that day was anything but. 

And look how conveniently that ties into the ouster of the loudest and clearest voice of dissent to counter what in effect has been the coup de grace, if you will, of the Republic such as it was. What happened to Carlson, and indeed the general tone and tenor of both Fox’s punditry and even its news coverage, was bound to happen. Jeez, Paul Ryan getting a seat on the network’s board of directors was clue number 1.

The coming of Trump has forced everyone to take sides. Rupert Murdoch and his progeny, who tolerated Roger Ailes because of what he meant to the balance sheet and stock prices of FNC and NewsCorp, just pulled a Bud Lite. Whether willingly for political reasons or because they feared the wrath of the junta is debatable. Perhaps a bit of both. After all, what good is all your money when you face the prospect of dining with Vince Foster and Jeffrey Epstein on any given day?

We have no media. We have propagandists pushing the junta and leftist lines. Everywhere you turn you have CIA agents, FBI agents and top military brass as “news analysts.” I left out the descriptor prefix “former” for a reason: they are on active duty, still doing what spooks do best: Lying. Case in point is Mike Morrell and the coverup of the Biden laptop story.

It goes beyond the media and reaches into all aspects of our society. Oh there is a first amendment, but woe to anyone who actually thinks they can use it to speak the truth. 

Fox News’s payment of $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit brought against it by Dominion Voting Systems has been cheered by many. In the days after the election in November 2020, the network gave airtime to Donald Trump’s legal aides, Rudy Giuliani and especially Sidney Powell, as they spun a tale of doctored voting machines, Venezuelan skulduggery, and spoiled election tallies. It proved true in none of its particulars. Dominion, which has election contracts in 28 states, will receive the largest defamation payout on record.

Whatever one makes of Fox’s 2020 election coverage, this settlement is a disappointment and a danger.

The present regime of press freedom took shape in the 1960s and ’70s with the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), The Washington Post’s mythic role in breaking open Watergate after 1972, various “sunshine” laws, and a vague set of Boomer ideals. The media were to be protected from any kind of government intimidation. Politicians had to understand they were in a rough business. They would be called names. Journalists had a right to go overboard. They even had a right to be wrong, as long as they didn’t do so with a “reckless disregard for the truth.” The penalty for bad reporting would be paid in the currency of reputation. . . 

. . . The 2020 elections were explosive because of the way three things interacted: the voluble incumbent, an irregular electoral system devised in the wake of [Chinese] Covid, and the shocking closeness of the result. A shift of 80,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin would have given former President Donald Trump a commanding victory. Vote-counting dragged on for days in all of those states. To a Trump supporter who had seen his candidate surveilled by intelligence agencies before the 2016 election, treated as illegitimate in the news media while in office, and impeached (at that point only once), the election results certainly looked fishy. In this age of ideological polarization, it is easy to pass off as a “fringe conspiracy theory” an idea that a 100 million people might be discussing every night over the dinner table. It may be that the suspicions they expressed were misplaced and that the election was on the up-and-up. But in a free society, trust is produced through the robust and unbullied scrutiny of an opposition press. . .

. . . On any matter of serious political controversy, the difference between a fact and an opinion is precisely what is hardest to determine. Is it a fact or an opinion that CO2 contributes to global warming? If you assert it as a scientist, it is a fact. If you assert it as a non-scientist, it is an opinion about the credibility of scientists. From the outside, that looks like the main reason Fox settled. Burrowing underneath the law, the judge laid down a set of courtroom rules that made Fox culpable by definition.

Those disgusted with Fox may thrill to this approach. Celebration is premature. No newspaper is so anti-Trumpian, no network so woke, that its in-house counsel would not shudder to contemplate the implications of the roadmap Dominion has charted for plaintiffs and Davis for judges. 

Participants in Dominion v. Fox suspected it would find its way to the Supreme Court. Some such case eventually will. We have lost the definitions on which freedom of the press has rested for half a century. Until we get new ones, it is to be feared that “reckless disregard for the truth” will mean nothing more than reckless disagreement with prevailing opinion.

It’s an outstanding essay although the author is hostile towards and dismissive of Sydney Powell’s original accusations. Sydney Powell, prior to 2020, was from what I understand no crackpot shyster in the way of a Gloria Allred or Michael Avenatti. Surely, she would know that to make accusations such as she did on national television would invite a lawsuit. So of course it was quite a shock when she backed down and shut up. My gut is that the CIA equivalent of a Luca Brasi held a gun to her head. And I don’t mean metaphorically either.

The salient point here is the compete corruption of not just journalism, but the legal system and government in general that has turned the Constitution on its ear, if not shredded it completely. Oh, you can speak your mind but be prepared to be served with papers. Oh, you welcome the opportunity to have your day in court? Watch your life savings (and life) drained away in legal fees. And if you do go to trial, your judge will be someone in the mold of Emmett Sullivan, Beryl Howell or Amy Berman Jackson with Alvin Bragg as the prosecutor and a jury of your peers. Pardon me, I meant their peers. 

I’ll end with this chuckle-worthy headline and story: 

Chinese Dissidents In The US Detail Transnational Repression, Censorship At The Hands Of Communist China

In the immortal cap-locked words of commenter Ben Roethelisberger:

” It’s funny because our own government is repressing and censoring us right here in our own country!”

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY

  • “The election results certainly looked fishy. . . The judge laid down a set of courtroom rules that made Fox culpable by definition.” Dominion’s Blow to Free Speech
  • Michael Walsh: “It was never in our nature to go quietly. We arrived in those freshly built schools kicking and screaming, went muling and puking and toking through high school and college, dodged the draft as best we could, got laid as often as possible, stayed in graduate school until they kicked us out, infiltrated every organization on earth, found a comfortable, undemanding safe spot in the bosom of governments, where we found we could indulge our taste for the torture of other at no expense to ourselves, and then went about whole-heartedly tearing down every institution, just because we could.” Bust Go the Boomers

FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

* * * * *

* * * * *

CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG “RIOT” & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION 

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS

SHAMPEACHMENT 1.0, 2016 CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION

  • “Georgia’s Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, said Monday in a letter to local law enforcement she’d announce her charging decisions during the state Superior Court’s  term that begins July 11 and ends Sept. 1.” (the county sheriff is also laying the groundwork for FBI/glowie false flag violence – jjs) “Prepare”
  • “As a result, [anti-Trump zealot Mark] Pomerantz will testify before the committee next month on May 12.” DA Bragg Drops Lawsuit Against Rep. Jordan’s Subpoena

RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM

THE ECONOMY, STUPID

AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

  • Welcome.US was originally intended to facilitate the resettlement of some of the 85,000 Afghans who fled to the US in 2021 and 2022 following the Biden administration’s disastrous pullout from the country. The organization (surprise!) has ties to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation through several board members who sit on their “National Welcome Council.”Bush, Clinton and Obama NGO Teams Up With AmEx Global to Fly Migrants Into the US

CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY

AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS

EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

  • “If you watch the videos the most disturbing aspect is the utter glee of the students who were throwing the eggs, and the generally positive response of the crowd. These college students don’t believe in free speech. They believe instead in oppression, censorship, and tyranny.” Pro-life Students Attacked with Eggs at the University of Arizona
  • “School choice is now overwhelmingly popular among nearly all Americans. The data are quite clear and unequivocal. Can the GOP win Democrat votes with this issue?” Shock: Huge Bipartisan Support For School Choice — I&I/TIPP Poll
  • “In Nashville, a fast-growing university combines liberal arts education (including religion) with an emphasis on post-graduate employment—and prizes teaching quality over research.”The Belmont Approach
  • “Stanley K. Ridgley exposes extracurricular brainwashing in higher education.” Academia’s Woke Groomers

THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH

DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY 

POLITICS 

THE UKRAINIAN “FRONT”

  • “Media coverage of the Nord Stream sabotage has been another episode of journalistic misconduct.” Bombing Journalistic Integrity
  • The report noted that Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the military intelligence directorate, the HUR, had told one of his officers “to get ready for mass strikes on 24 February … with everything the HUR had.” This information was apparently communicated through a classified report out of the US National Security Agency.  US Convinced Ukraine to Hold Off Carrying Out Anniversary Attack on Russia

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS

  • “The recruitment and retention failures impact all parts of the military, including its most elite units, multiple news outlets have reported. In an effort to compensate for personnel limitations, the Army is changing its service requirement guidelines for some officers, according to a letter 61 aviation officers submitted to members of Congress. The officers assert that by reinterpreting contract language, the Army is preparing to tack on three years of service to the seven or eight years the airmen were initially promised.” Amid Recruiting Woes, Officers Allege the Army is Preventing Their Scheduled Discharge

WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM 

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY 

  • “Last week’s ill-fated launch is no skin off Elon Musk’s back — lots of other people’s money will see to it that it flies right next time.” Elon’s Excellent Explosion
  • “After three months traversing the geological layer that the scientists have dubbed the Marker Band, Curiosity has now climbed higher, passing what I dubbed the Hill of Pillows on the west so that it is now in a position to return to its planned route up Mount Sharp, as indicated by the red dotted line in the overview map to the right and the panorama above.”The Climb into Gediz Vallis
  • “These results probably put an end to the theory that Mars’ moons came from the asteroid belt.” Al-Amal Snaps First Close-up Images of Martian Moon Deimos

FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

HITHER & YON 

  • “The remarkable Barry Humphries has died.” Goodbye to Dame Edna
  • “Richard Riordan, who died last week, helped turn around Los Angeles at a time of crisis.” (made my time in the city of Angels actually quite tolerable; alas, never more – jjs) Savior of the City of Angels

NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

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