The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same in the C.I.A.

THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY erected a dozen spy bases in Ukraine to wage a shadow war against Russia, according to a report published by The New York Times on Sunday. The project began in or around 2014, and evidently, C.I.A. Director John Brennan was caught in the middle of it. This wasn’t so much great investigative reporting on the part of The Times, it was an admission by the U.S.—something that rarely happens. Naturally, The Times or The Washington Post would be the government’s first and second choice to publish it. Another primary source was a top intelligence commander, Gen. Serhii Dvoretskiy.

This means U.S. intelligence has been surreptitiously involved, and even instrumental,  in Ukraine’s decision-making vis-a-vis Russia by having financing and establishing high-tech command-and-control spy centers. That fact isn’t particularly surprising, but the fact it was happening, not only prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago, but back before the Trump administration.

In interpreting the story, Zero Hedge said the decade-long “closely guarded secret” has effectively made the world a major step closer to WWIII because the C.I.A. can be credited with the effectiveness of the recent spate of attacks, including direct drone strikes in vital oil refineries and other energy infrastructure. The former head of the SBU (Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency), Ivan Bakanov, “Without [the CIA and elite commandoes it’s trained], there would have been no way for us to resist the Russians, or to beat them.”  (Brackets added.)

It seems that after a U.S.-sponsored coup took out Ukraine’s then democratically elected government, Brennan made a visit to Kyiv in April of 2014. Shortly after his visit, the new Ukrainian government began an ‘anti-terror operation’ against its Russian-peaking citizen in Eastern Ukraine. For the following eight years, Ukraine, with the help of the C.I.A., bombed Eastern Ukraine relentlessly and millions of innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire. 

It’s also true the U.S. had biolabs in Ukraine, too. In fact, they’ve been there until quite recently, but then-Sen. Mitt Romney (RINO-Utah) kept accusing former Rep. Tulso Gabbard (D-Ha.) of “treasonous lies” for suggesting the U.S. funded them. Gabbard told Fox News, based on testimony of Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs in Eurasia, Victoria Nuland, back then:

“There are 25⁺ U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine which if breached would release and spread deadly pathogens to U.S./world. We must take action now to prevent disaster. U.S./Russia/Ukraine/NATO/U.N./E.U. must implement a ceasefire now around these labs until they’re secured and pathogens destroyed.”

Nuland had admitted the biolabs’ existence to the U.S. Senate. It was no surprise the White House denied it within 24 hours, calling it fake news propagated by Russia! The Pentagon later had to publicly admit there were 46! More details here. 

The National Science Foundation Files

ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE that happened on Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury confirmed to Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) that it has used political watchwords in searches throughout its surveillance of Americans’ financial transactions. The admission was made in a letter to Scott, who is ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee. Examples of the watchwords used by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, include “MAGA,” “Antifa,” Trump,” “Biden,” “Kamala,” “Schumer,” or “Pelosi.” Banks were to surveil private financial transactions after Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the Capitol, according to a letter Fox News Digital received. 

The terms weren’t used in isolation, but instead, used alongside other data that banks regularly use as part of their anti-money laundering (AML) programs to detect and report suspicious activity. That such surveillance has been ongoing isn’t new, but what the search terms are is. It is clear they were based on political ideology alone, which is what makes it particularly pernicious and offensive. That such acts by the government violate Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights under the Constitution was ignored, perhaps because it wasn’t expected to ever be discovered. 

Only days before, on Tuesday, we learned more about just how far-reaching the government has become in our collective lives. It’s not only surveillance (such as with Homeland Security or FinCEN), it’s also censorship (such as with Twitter or Amazon) and propaganda (as with Ukraine or Russia.) Under Joe Biden’s regime, we now know the National Science Foundation expended vast millions into artificial intelligence-powered censorship and propaganda ‘tools’ in order to suppress online speech ‘at scale.’ The NSF further went to serious efforts to conceal its censorship from the media. We only learned this from a report issued by the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. 

The report states the NSF granted multi-millions of dollars to university and non-profit research groups, ostensibly to quell alleged ‘misinformation’ regarding Covid-19 and the 2020 election. In a press release, the Judiciary Committee said: “The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop A.I.-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.” 

The Judiciary Committee reached its conclusion through non-public documents it, and the Select Subcommittee in the Weaponization of the Federal Government, obtained. These documents also indicate the researchers and non-profit organizations knew very well that their acts constituted ‘content moderation’ and ‘censorship,’ but continued the work anyway. They have also stonewalled efforts by the House committees to obtain further information for literally years. At this point, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has subpoenaed the NSF to obtain communications it had with the private companies and non-profit groups. 

Lee Fang is an investigative journalist who has reported extensively in surveillance and censorship. He also presented his views in the Weaponization committee on Tuesday, which he called, ‘Examining the threat to the First Amendment posed by artificial intelligence and the federal government.’ In his presentation, he said a British A.I. firm named ‘Logically’ came to the U.S. market looking for “contracts to monitor and remove alleged social media misinformation in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.” The company reportedly conducted censorship for Great Britain during the pandemic, and wanted to expand its market. It bragged about its relationship with Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and how it could automatically suppress ‘misinformation.’ 

In other words, the government was contracting out its desired censorship to private concerns in order to try to evade detection and culpability. This is expressly unconstitutional, however. After reports surfaced on what the NSF was doing, it strategized means to obfuscate its actions and developed a media strategy to blacklist media outlets reporting on it. 

The Daily Caller’s Supreme Court reporter, Katelynn Richardson, testified about this, and  something it has cryptically named ‘Convergence Accelerator:’

“After I reported on Convergence Accelerator grants shortly after their announcement, the NSF devised an official media strategy instructing research teams to highlight the ‘pro-democracy’ nature of their projects. I only know this thanks to emails unveiled in a report this committee put out today.”

Greg Lukianoff, President an C.E.O. of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), believes leftist bias is inherent in existing A.I. and generates a “massive body of official facts that we can’t actually trust.” He, too, testified:

“[T]he most chilling threat that the government poses in the context of emerging A.I. is regulatory overreach that limits its potential as a tool for contributing to human knowledge. A regulatory panic could result in a small number of Americans deciding for everyone else what speech, ideas, and even questions are permitted in the name of ‘safety’ or ‘alignment.’” 

He did a show-and-tell to illustrate his point. He asked Chat GPT to write a poem about why certain members of the Weaponization committee were the best politicians in the country. Chat GPT did so for Democrats, but not for Republicans. (Lukianoff self-describes as left-leaning.) FIRE, he added, is filing a brief with SCOTUS warning of the perils of ‘jawboning,’ or using government pressure to coerce social media platforms to censor speech.

The report by the Weaponization committee, called ‘The Weaponization of the National Science Foundation: How NSF is Funding the Development of Automated Tools to Censor Online Speech ‘At Scale’ and Trying to Cover Up its Actions,’ can be read here.

In Which Abbott Asserts Himself, DeSantis Redeems Himself, and Biden Makes an Ass of Himself (Again)

THERE HAS BEEN AN ONGOING figurative sniping between the feds and the Lone Star State for many months over the unnecessarily contentious issue of an invasion of illegal aliens over our southern border. It now seriously threatens to graduate to literal sniping. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) finally declared an invasion at the border and took steps to halt it pursuant to, inter alia, Art. 1, §10, Cl. 3 and Art. IV, §4, of the United States Constitution. He understandably claimed Texas has a right to self-defense given the federal government is failing to do so, and in fact, is endangering the state by failing to enforce the fed’s own laws as duly enacted. It should’ve happened many months ago, but whatever…

Illicit occupant of the White House, Joey Biden, and his wholly incompetent minion, Alejandro Mayorkas, tried to circumvent the State of Texas in its attempts at border restraints, including razor wire installation, meant to discourage aliens from entering illegally. Of particular concern was the razor wire at Shelby Park in an invasion hotspot known as Eagle Pass, Texas, which had been taken over by the state in a further attempt to control illegal immigration. Since Jan. 10th, Border Patrol was blocked from accessing the park in the tiny town.

There was a basis for the federal lawsuit, inasmuch as federal law preempts state law on matters of immigration. But the Biden regime just went in and cut the wire installed by the Texas National Guard, fueling the fire into what may become a raging inferno.The Biden regime ultimately won this round on Monday after the matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled, 5-4, without elaboration, that Border Patrol agents under Biden could cut through the razor wire and remove it ‘if necessary,’ while also remanding the case to the lower court for adjudication. (It isn’t a ‘Biden victory’ as some reporters have described it. The legal argument for a stay was probably deficient as drafted. The merits have yet to be heard.)

The ‘if necessary’ part of the deal is allegedly in response to three migrants drowning in the Rio Grande as they tried to enter the country illegally (as opposed to being a mere pretext for the invasion). In other words, it’s to allow the federal government to rush to give free emergency medical care to the illegals that American citizens wouldn’t be entitled to receive. The illegal aliens who drowned were later beatified by N.P.R., P.B.S. and other mainstream media complicit in the Biden regime’s propaganda efforts.(See any links herein, for example.)

 However, what was blatantly wrong with the outcome at the Supreme Court, as Abbott has made clear, is that the federal government isn’t enforcing it own federal immigration laws and, in fact, has refused to—to Texas’ indisputable detriment. 

Meanwhile, the p!ssing contest between the feds and Lone Star State has been somewhat successful in limiting migrants from Eagle Pass, but now, instead, they are entering the country at crossings north of the park and onto private ranches. Illegal aliens don’t distinguish, or care to, between public and private lands. Neither, it seems, does the illicit Biden regime. In response to outcries from affected ranchers, Texas offered to install free razor wire on their lands. It’s a very small concession, but some $10 billion in state money has been used since March of 2021 to try to curb the crisis affecting 1,200 miles of the border in Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. A lot!

Very few illegal aliens entering the country in this way are ever detained. Since Oct. 1st, there have been at least 96,000 ‘gotaways’ at the southern border, a Customs and Border Protection source told Fox News. The futility of the situation isn’t lost on some ranchers, who, despite razor- and concertina wire, have been unable to keep the illegals off their property. What can you really do when Border Patrol is relegated to making illegal aliens sandwiches for their northbound journeys? What can you do when the federal government only manages to post a bilingual sign reading, “No migrant processing at this location. Please proceed to nearest port of entry for processing with U.S. Border Patrol?”

Abbott isn’t done enforcing the laws the feds refuse to enforce. Late in 2023, the state legislature passed a bill scheduled to go into effect in March which will permit state police to arrest those they suspect are illegally crossing the border into Texas and charge them with state crimes. The A.C.L.U., inexplicably mute on the Biden regime’s many transgressions of Americans’ civil liberties, has suddenly mustered the cahones to challenge Abbott’s treatment of lawbreakers.

On Wednesday after the SCOTUS ruling, Abbott released his statement (here) declaring an invasion,Texas’ right to self defense, and “lawless [putative] president [Biden].” (Brackets added.). Abbott’s statement actually reads as a good start to articles of impeachment for both Biden and Mayorkas. On Thursday, the Biden regime issued a Friday deadline for Abbott to order the Texas National Guard to allow Border Patrol back to cut down the razor wire. (When similar demands were made to abandon illegal ‘sanctuary city or state’ statuses, though, nothing was done then, so why should anythings be done here and now?) Also on Thursday, after Abbott’s statement, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) immediately announced Florida’s support, in personnel and supplies, for Texas. It was a moment of fast thinking that he didn’t miss. Some 24 other governors nationwide added theirs, too, and issued a joint statement on X (here.)

Meanwhile, in Washington, which isn’t as impacted by the folly of their own failed policies, Congress continues stalling tactics at solving the crisis by extended recesses, demands for pay raises, and per diems. As if World War III isn’t a big enough challenge for the Big Guy, add a Civil War. However this all plays out, it will become a pretty compelling docudrama someday.

Some commentators like to point out the unprecedented nature of the state’s response, as if that, ipso facto, makes it unacceptable, but such people, when pressed, have to admit the scale, scope, and effects of the illegal alien invasion are also unprecedented. The Fifth Circuit will hear the merits in February.

Look Who Is Obstructing Justice Now!

THE JAN. 6th COMMITTEE is now under investigation for allegedly deleting over 100 encrypted files prior to the G.O.P. gaining control over the House of Representatives, according to the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee Chairman, Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). He told Fox News that he has begun an investigation into the matter. He said:

“It’s obvious that Pelosi’s Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules. The American people deserve to know the full truth, and Speaker Johnson has empowered me to use all tools necessary to recover these documents to get the truth, and I will.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has committed additional resources for this investigation. Pursuant to House rules, the prior select committee was required to relinquish the documents from its investigation to the new one led by the new G.O.P. majority after the 2022 midterms. That prior select subcommittee had been chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) who assured Loudermilk he would hand over “four terabytes of archived footage.” He got only two.

Apparently, a digital forensics team found that “117 files were both deleted and encrypted” on Jan. 1, 2023, immediately prior to new committee receiving the data it was promised. Apparently, the digital forensics team also recovered the 117 files. Loudermilk is now demanding answers—and passwords. Loudermilk further explained:

“One recovered file disclosed the identity of an individual whose testimony was not archived by the Select Committee,” Loudermilk wrote. “Further, we found that most of the recovered files are password-protected, preventing us from determining what they contain.”

This has become a bit of a pissing contest. Loudermilk had been accused by the original subcommittee of participating in the orchestration of events on Jan. 6, 2021 with a tour he gave the day before. Tours are routinely given by House members to constituents or other guests, though.  Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger doesn’t think Loudermilk was in any way involved.

Pissing contest aside, the crucial point is that it appears Thompson and others obstructed justice, and perhaps conspired to do so, in an attempt to hide evidence that may be exculpatory, not just to Loudermilk, but any of a number of others in the orbit of Jan. 6th. Thompson et al. may have also amplified inculpatory evidence against certain other partisans inappropriately. I guess we may find out—someday. 

Top Brass Acquire Brass Balls in U.S. House of Representatives—For Now.

WEDNESDAY MARKS the first House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his reckless and IMO traitorous immigration and border security disaster he has overseen during the Biden regime. 

Committee Chairman Mark Green commented:

“For almost a year the House Committee on Homeland Security has conducted a comprehensive investigation into the causes, costs and consequences of the unprecedented crisis at our southwest border. Our evidence makes it clear, Secretary Mayorkas is the architect of the devastation that we have witnessed for nearly three years.”

On the Committee’s calendar is testimony from four witnesses: three state attorneys general and a law professor at the Missouri School of Law Frank O. Bowman III, the latter being a Democrat. The AGs are Austin Knudsen (MO), Genter Drummond (OK), and Andrew Bailey (MI) who know firsthand what the devastating effects of illegal migration to citizens and aliens alike.

For his part, Mayorkas has admitted to Fox News’ Bret Baier that over 85% of illegal aliens are simply released into the U.S. with no vetting and instructions to appear at a hearing somewhere sometime in the distant future. Since Oct. 1, 2023, border patrol has encountered over 785,000 illegal aliens.

Yet Mayorkas’ fans who wrote an open letter (here), à la the 51 intelligence ’experts’ who penned a knowingly false missive that Hunter’s laptop was ‘Russian disinformation.’

Government spending is being stalled due to a razor-thin G.O.P. majority holding out for concessions (for now, at least) over the disastrous consequences from the Biden regime’s sheer negligence, corruption, or treason that set this migration crisis into motion three years ago. Even some Dems now think ‘something ought to be done to fix the problem.’

The problem is the Biden regime is so feckless and disrespected, Mexico knows it can walk all over the illegitimate occupant of the White House. In order to get back to anything remotely like the Trump era when a ‘Remain in Mexico policy’ was followed, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has issued a list of demands that are galling and appalling, including, $20 billion for Latin America and Caribbean countries; work visas for 10 million Hispanics who have worked in America for at least 10 years; end Venezuela sanctions; and stop the blockade to Cuba.

Astonishingly, Biden doesn’t seem to understand anything is wrong.

Meanwhile, New York City is so burdened by the illegal aliens that they themselves encouraged by declaring themselves a sanctuary city in a sanctuary state, they have had to force Brooklyn students to take classes remotely because the City is moving 2,000 illegal aliens into James Madison High School given it is cold where they are residing–in a tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field– and it is winter.

Adding insult to injury, the Brooklyn students won’t even have a teacher available for live learning unless they request one be available in advance by email!

The Un-Friendly Skies: Stalking and Surveilling the American Way

FOR QUITE SOME TIME, the mission of the U.S. government has been to divide and conquer Americans: to have about half paying taxes and redistribute that money to the other half who pay nothing and receive refundable credits. Align the two party system to the halves: the G.O.P. goes to the taxpayers; Dems, to the takers. These halves will probably self-segregate on their own, but if they don’t, have ‘red’ states and ‘blue’ states’ that are merely microcosms of what’s happening at the national level. Likewise, with cities: they’re either ‘sanctuaries’ or not.

With this in place, there isn’t a chance there will be a meeting of the collective mind with people, and therefore, they will cause no trouble. But just in case…

Of all organizations, the Air Marshals have been co-opted by government to surveil innocent Americans. Fox News interviewed Sonya Labosco, the Director of the Air Marshals National Council, who stated the marshals are no longer targeting potential terrorists or troublemakers because they have been recruited to stalk and surveil every single person who flew into the Capitol area around Jan. of 2021—even if they went no where near the Capitol building itself. It mattered not that they may have simply been in town to visit family, go on a job interview, or attend a conference. Labosco said:

“We’re not flying right now. The only missions that we are doing are ‘Quiet Skies’ missions and those are missions that are following the January 2021 people. So we’re either on the border for illegal immigrants or we’re following folks from January 2021. We’re not doing our regular missions where we’re out there looking for the bad guys so for now most flights you’re not gonna have Air Marshalls.”

According to Labosco, that broad swath of people was put on a specific TSA list to be followed even though they haven’t been charged with any crime. And here we are—three years after the fact. 

“Quiet Skies?” The Fox News host was a tad perplexed. Air Marshals aren’t tracking terrorists in the skies? Nope.

The Fox News segment was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, here. As for their work on the border? Seriously, they’re handing out bottles of water to thirsty illegals. That’s all.

When will Americans on either side wake up and understand what their government is doing?

Rubber Bullets, Flashbangs, and Tear Gas Likely Provocation of J6

THE NEW HOUSE SPEAKER, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), released the January 6th, 2021 videotape that the former speaker, ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), failed to provide the public despite his promise to do so. There’s a lot of it, over 40,000 hours of it to be precise, and it will take time for reporters and others to wade through it all, but already, as suspected, there seems to be good (and growing) evidence for the belief that the Capitol Police may have incited the events of the day by firing munitions into a peaceful crowd. 

New video shows what appears to be Capitol Police firing rubber bullets, tear gas grenades, and stun grenades into the crowds of peaceful protesters before anyone ever tried to enter the Capitol on Jan. 6th, which had presumably instigated the violence afterwards that was played repeatedly on mainstream media in an attempt to prove there was an ‘insurrection’ that day. The protesters do not seem to have been given any warning, despite then-Deputy Chief Eric Waldow’s statement that they were. (A new chief, Tom Manger, was named in July of 2021 after the resignation after Jan. 6th of Steven Sund, and over 75 officers. Waldow retired from the Capitol Police sometime thereafter.) 

The fact the videos weren’t released much sooner is most unfortunate. There are still Jan. 6th defendants in jail awaiting trial, and others who pleaded guilty who probably shouldn’t have. The Capitol Police and/or D.O.J. should’ve released the footage promptly, especially since they were trying to convince a public, some who didn’t believe the government’s narrative, that there was an ‘insurrection.’ They should’ve released the footage in fairness to the defendants charged. 

Since the police or D.O.J. failed to release the footage, Kevin McCarthy and others should have done so once they obtained it. McCarthy did provide it to Tucker Carlson at Fox News, who proceeded to air some footage on his show one night, but never returned to the story before he was shitcanned by management. Some have speculated that Fox was either pressured by law enforcement agencies or anti-Trump power players to do so to coverup the scheme to instigate a riot, or to promote the official government narrative, or both.  

As Between a Fascist and a Neocon, I’ll Pick Evil Every Time.

IT’S HARD TO DECIDE which G.O.P. woman I abhor more: former U.N. Ambassador and RINO presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, or former U.S. rep (Wy.) and wannabe future presidential candidate, Liz Cheney. IMO, both are reviling human beings. Yesterday, I would’ve said Cheney, but after Haley’s fascist musings Tuesday on Fox News’ Voters’ Voices, I’m left truly betwixt.

A voter in the Fox audience, understandably concerned about rising antisemitism and ‘disinformation’ being promulgated in schools around the country, asked Haley if she believed there was any limiting principle on free speech. Indeed there is in Haley’s dark world from outer space. She blamed the problem in the first instance on use of social media by young people. All of society’s ills have been blamed by many on young peoples’ use of something, whether it be comic books, weed, rock music, cell phones, or something else, so Haley sounded like a cranky old woman even though she is only the former, not the latter. So what does Haley propose?

First, Haley says that as president, she would make media platforms disclose their algorithms. She doesn’t seem to realize that would be unconstitutional. After all, if money is speech, which is the case under current case law thanks to Citizens United (2010) and, if code is speech, which is also current case law precedent from Bernstein (1996), she’d be violating the First Amendment in any such an initiative. Furthermore, requiring such a disclosure would be an unconstitutional government ‘taking’ without due process because these algorithms hold extrinsic and intrinsic value as intellectual property that companies have invested not insignificant sums of money and human resources on developing. I guess Haley’s notion is, all the brilliant ‘young people’ who cannot even pass basic general knowledge or math tests in school, would suddenly be intellectually adept at analyzing the algorithms and recognizing their untoward effects on their ability to reason or think, thereby thwarting ‘hate speech’ and ‘disinformation.’ That’s absurd, of course.

Secondarily, Haley proposes outlawing anonymous social media accounts, proposing official I.D.s be required to open them. That clearly violates the First Amendment, and also could constrain things we value as a society, such as news gathering or whistleblowing. Perhaps she should apply for janitorial work at Meta’s One Hacker Way instead of a government post at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Read FB BS here. Haley’s answer at Fox, now being backpedaled, is here.

Disorderly Prosecution

LAST WEEK, RAY EPPS, 61, was actually charged by the D.O.J. in connection to his actions on Jan. 6th, 2021. It’s just a misdemeanor, though: one count of disorderly conduct. This is like something a young man might get charged with after a drink too many at a bachelor party or something: something he’d apologize in court for and get continued without a finding by a judge who’s seen it a million times before. 

The count was confirmed by the Associated Press on 9/19/23.

Epps, a former Marine (if you believe there is such a thing), claimed in a lawsuit he recently filed against deep-pockets Fox News, that it made him a scapegoat for the disruption wrongly. Specifically, then-Fox commentator Tucker Carlson accused Epps of being a “federal agent who helped stage-manage the insurrection [sic].”

Many believe, correctly I believe, that Epps was not charged because he was/is a government operative who infiltrated the crowd and instigated the events of the day so as to blame President Donald Trump and his supporters.  

There is ample video evidence that can support that belief. It is noteworthy that not all the videos have been publicly released despite the fact they are available and could be used as exculpatory evidence in the trials of the many defendants still waiting in jail. One video that has been widely replayed shows Epps egging on others in the crowd to join him in entering the Capitol, but there are others. 

What is strange is that Epps wasn’t charged earlier given his presence and identity were well known to authorities. It is also odd that others who did far less were charged with so much more. And it’s inexplicable why the D.O.J. would even bother with this charge at all if it was as trivial as it was pleaded. 

Just as they did with Hunter Biden and his recent ‘gun charge,’ prosecutors charged Epps with the absolute minimum it could muster so as to be able to claim they followed through as prosecutors, but make sure he gets off at the end of the day. 

Too bad neither pass the snicker test. 

In Which the Government Gets It Half-Ass Backwards…

PROMISES WERE MADE by the G.O.P. about publicly releasing the over 40,000 hours of video relating to the so-called ‘insurrection’ on Jan. 6th, 2021. It was stifled from public view in large part because of then-Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is believed by some in the G.O.P. of having allowing the events to happen and thereafter, carefully editing and curating selected clips for the public’s political consumption. Dems, in general, have fought to keep the Jan. 6th record under wraps. Republican’s promises therefore never really materialized. On Friday, that changed…sort of. 

Back in May, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced that three news media outlets had been given the footage from the Capitol on that historic day. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had given “unfettered access” of the footage to investigative journalist and Just the news founder John Solomon’ senior writer for American Greatness Julie Kelly; and then-Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson. (Carlson aired some of it, but after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called his reporting “the worst security risk since 9/11,” and for Fox News founder Rupert Murdock to fire Carlson over the airing, further broadcast of the videos ceased. And eventually, Carlson was fired.) Rather than any of it being a bombshell, it was, at best, a whimper, and at worst, a dud.

The Committee on House Administration has since published guidelines for allowing some media, non-profits, and counsel for Jan. 6th defendants to make requests to view it. “House Republicans are continuing to deliver on our promise to bring transparency and accountability to the People’s House by increasing access to security footage of the U.S. Capitol from January 5th and 6th, 2021,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) stated, with somewhat less hyperbole than Schumer’s 9/11 idiotic comment.

A broader swath of people may now see the footage, or some of it, but the rules require spectators to set up an appointment that limits them to three hours, once a week. They may not record the tapes from the secured terminals inside the Capitol building. Portions of the footage may only be given at the discretion of the Committee. Civilized Yawn…

It’s bad enough the American public has had to wait for the release of tapes of what Dinesh D’Souza so aptly called America’s collective primal scream. The event occurred 32 months ago, an interminable period for Jan. 6th defendants remanded to jail awaiting trial without benefit of exculpatory evidence, if any, against them, and for counsel to defend them with. Primal Scream!