Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Servers Down: UK Government, Amazon, CNN, Newspaper Websites Impacted (Topic Repost)





(I know this is a double dip on this topic
today, but I promised it out. Apologies.)


Servers Down: UK Government, Amazon, CNN, Newspaper Websites Impacted




Oliver JJ Lane8 • Jun 2021


Several of the world’s most trafficked websites were inaccessible or running unreliably Tuesday morning, with many impacted sites showing 503 errors.

The outage of the websites, which included the UK Government’s own website, a host of newspapers and newsgroups, and online culture sites began a little before 1100 BST (0600 EST) and saw many sites return a 503 Service Unavailable message. Mozilla Web Developer documentation defines a 503 error as indicating “the server is not ready to handle the request. Common causes are a server that is down for maintenance or that is overloaded.”

(Note from Rata: the original tweet has been removed. Luckily I took this screenshot.)




What has caused the mass outage is not presently known, but Australia’s 9News reports a data network called Fastly may be partly involved. Matt Taylor of the Financial Times, one of the newspapers impacted by the outage, also cites Fastly as having a “massive outage”.

Fastly provides a content delivery network (CDN), which uses server caches in different locations to allow large websites to operate globally at very high speeds. One of the theoretical benefits of a CDN is protection for websites from Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks, which attempt to overload servers with a flood of requests or traffic.

Fastly is one of only a handful of companies to offer this service, which may go some way to explain why so many websites are impacted. Fastly said on their own status page at 1058 BST that “We’re currently investigating potential impact to performance with our CDN services”, and have posted further updates that the investigation into a “Global CDN Disruption” is continuing regularly since.

Among those large websites impacted are the British government, CNN, the Guardian newspaper, the Financial Times newspaper, the New York Times, and Reddit. Other websites including Amazon and Spotify appear to be accessible but with limited functionality.

Update 1210 BST: Fastly says “global network is coming back”

Fastly, the CDN provider thought to be at the centre of the global outage say they have identified the issue and have resolved it.











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A Serious Country Would Jail Anthony Fauci

A false narrative was carefully crafted by the press 
to humanize a man who was, at the time,
 committing crimes against humanity 
for the apparent purpose of helping 
Democrats win an election. 


 As the indispensable Julie Kelly already observed, nobody will be held accountable for America’s intentionally politicized response to COVID-19.

 Anthony Fauci certainly won’t be punished, even though we now know what we suspected all along: he knew masks were largely ineffective; that lockdowns were unscientific; that asymptomatic spread, the impetus for those lockdowns, did not exist; that the virus was not bat-borne in a Wuhan wet market; and that it was instead quite possibly manufactured in a Chinese lab. 

 But you wouldn’t know any of those things if you’ve been following The Science™ as broadcasted by Fauci across swooning cable news networks for 15 months. In fact, you would believe the exact opposite, because the exact opposite is what the smarmy old man has been preaching to his Branch Covidian disciples, whom he ruled over with impunity for the duration of the pandemic. 

 Other than those minor details, Fauci told the truth about everything. 

 A serious country would jail Anthony Fauci. It wouldn’t even be a question. A majority of the population would find it inexcusable to lie to the public so brazenly, and he would be expelled from polite society. 

 In order to make sure nothing nearly as catastrophic ever happened again, a serious country’s top law enforcement entity would bust through his front door in a pre-dawn raid, shackle him, and transport him to a solitary confinement cell where he would await trial. In other words, a serious country would give Fauci the same treatment it’s currently giving the Americans who took a self-guided tour of the Capitol Building on January 6. 

 As for practicing medicine ever again? That wouldn’t even be a consideration. 

 After his conviction, a serious country would sentence him to spend the rest of his miserable life in a maximum-security prison. 

 Not to worry, though. He could have an hour a day to play basketball in the prison yard, a sport which we all know Fauci loves because while America’s nonserious state media were intentionally spreading the nonserious state’s lies, they also found time to sprinkle in some feel-good propaganda about how the COVID czar, despite his slight frame and small stature, was the captain of his high school basketball team a hundred years ago. 

 It was all part of the Fauci mythology. He was the underdog hero back then, and he was an underdog hero during the pandemic, facing down the Bad Orange Man and h ignorant, science-denying Republicans. This narrative was carefully crafted by the left-wing press to humanize a man who was, at the time, committing crimes against humanity for the purpose of helping Democrats win an election. 

 That is not an exaggeration. Lockdowns took a real-world toll on the mental health of those who were, against their will, forced to partake in them. Our children were among those who struggled the most with lockdowns. Overdose deaths skyrocketed during the pandemic, while vulnerable Americans struggled with never-before-experienced isolation. 

 Lockdowns did not “stop the spread” of the virus, and Fauci knew that. But lockdowns worked fantastically for the purpose of implementing vote-by-mail and “no-excuse” absentee voting, which helped Joe Biden rake in an incredible 81 million votes—and I’m using “incredible” in the true sense of the word. Not. Credible. 

After all, you can’t go pull a lever at a crowded polling place if you’ve been placed on an arbitrary house arrest, or if you’re so scared out of your wits by Fauci’s propaganda that you’ve decided to self-isolate in fear that a deadly COVID droplet might be lurking just on the other side of your apartment door. 

 But even if we ignore Fauci’s motives for lying, or the results of his lies, the simple fact is this: in a sane and serious country, betraying the public trust would be considered the ultimate crime. It would be considered worse than murder, assault, or any other violent crimes. 

Serious countries understand that if a significant portion of the population loses faith in the people in charge, disaster is a probable, if not certain ramification. Our leaders would make it clear that a bad actor, or several bad actors within its ranks, failed to serve the public. It would correct the record, instead of attempting to sweep its own misdeeds under the rug. It would recognize that lying about its lies only serves to further divide the population, and kills its own credibility. 

 But we don’t live in a serious country. 

 In fact, about half the population has fallen so deeply for the propaganda that Anthony Fauci is infallible, that it will completely ignore these new revelations, and unquestioningly continue to push pro-mask, pro-lockdown lies until every last human being on earth is hunted down and stabbed in the arm with Pfizer’s mystery juice. 

 If liberals had any shame, they wouldn’t be liberals. So, no matter how many people like me laugh in their faces when they turn out to be the moronic, gullible, anti-scientific signalers of virtue that we suspected they were, they still won’t give up the jig. Like drones, they’ll repeat the state-approved damage control talking points that Fauci is right now spewing across the same cable news airwaves he used to spread his lies in the first place, rather than simply admitting that they were duped. 

 Democrats would lose power if they admitted Fauci is the liar that we all know him to be. And in our unserious country, the worst thing that could happen is Democrats losing power, so we’ll have to continue to live with the lies.


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America’s Coming War with China

 

Article by Douglas MacGregor, Colonel (Ret.) U.S. Army, for The American Conservative
 

America’s Coming War with China

Conflict is both undesirable and imprudent, but appears inevitable given our current leadership.

Given the rise in anti-Chinese sentiment spawned by the off-shoring of America’s production base to China, the impact of COVID-19, and hyperbolic rhetoric in Washington regarding China’s alleged malevolent aspirations, any number of observers of American politics might easily conclude that Washington is on the precipice of blundering into another war—this time with China. After all, a similar climate of deep-seated paranoia and military hysteria steered the world’s great powers blindly into war in 1914.

The problem with assuming the inevitability of conflict is that many Washington politicians live by the axiom “out of sight, out of mind,” and seek constant media attention. Thus, public statements made by Washington’s publicity seekers in and out of uniform are seldom informative. They never bother to acknowledge that no one should start a war without first establishing the politically beneficial end state a war with China would achieve or how the latest Pacific war would be fought and won. But these are the questions that must be considered.

If the political purpose of a new Pacific war is to change Chinese behavior externally or internally—to render China incapable of resisting American political demands—it is worth noting that China is not Imperial Japan in 1941. Japan’s economy was roughly one-tenth the size of the U.S. economy, and it still required three years of hard fighting by U.S. forces to redeem America’s ignominious defeat at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. In addition, when Tokyo decided to attack U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, Japan was already at war with a number of states including China, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

Beijing, meanwhile, will not confront a two front war. Neither Moscow nor its Indian ally will risk war with China. However, in the event of war with China, Washington must take seriously the danger of fighting China and Russia, two major regional powers, simultaneously, because Washington is actively hostile to both.

China’s economy is also nearly the size of the American economy and, in contrast to Imperial Japan, Beijing has generally avoided armed conflict with its neighbors despite a number of disputes. In fact, the dramatic success of the regional comprehensive economic partnership—which creates a free trade agreement between China and the Asia-Pacific nations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam—has made Washington’s notion of building an anti-Chinese alliance very difficult, if not impossible. As American diplomats are rapidly discovering, none of these states really wants to be caught in the middle of a conflict between China and the United States.

Left unstated in most discussions about potential conflict with China is what greater strategic purpose U.S. air and naval attacks on the Chinese mainland might actually serve. If a ground war is ruled out—and it would seem rational to do so—it is easy to imagine the destruction of Chinese infrastructure with long-range strikes rapidly becoming an end in itself, as was the case in the Kosovo Air Campaign, Syria and, more recently, Iraq.

In view of the size and depth of Chinese defenses, however, even if the strikes inflict significant losses, a strategic victory with tangible impact on Beijing’s national leadership seems unlikely. Since large concentrations of U.S. air and naval forces in proximity to China’s coasts are difficult, if not impossible, to conceal in the age of space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, the potential for the U.S. Navy’s Surface Fleet and America’s island bases to take serious losses is extremely high.

Put more succinctly, China can absorb the damage. In fact, the most likely outcome is a long series of offensive strikes with diminishing returns over time. The logistical foundation in the Pacific to sustain the required strikes on China is weak to nonexistent. Moreover, China is a nuclear power. An American resort to nuclear weapons would be suicidal. Nuclear weapons are useful to deter nuclear attacks on U.S. territory, but they are otherwise devoid of military utility. A nuclear exchange with China would have grim consequences for humanity and the climate.

All of these points notwithstanding, the potential for war with China will persist. Why?

Between 1960 and 1968, two American presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson—men who lived through World War II and experienced the exhilaration of victory in the Pacific—decided that the enormous resources and striking power of the U.S. Armed Forces made failure in Vietnam impossible. It is not unreasonable to assume that similar attitudes prevail in the White House and the current Pentagon.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who remembered the serious human and material losses in the war with Germany, saw warfare through a different lens. He understood the American electorate’s acute intolerance for high casualties and he knew from personal experience the limits of America’s resources.

The personal experience of Kennedy and Johnson during WWII was irrelevant. When the two men were compelled to think on a strategic level during the Vietnam War, they were unable to distinguish the strategically vital from the merely desirable U.S. national interests.

Eisenhower understood the distinction. Were Eisenhower alive today, he would likely ask, “Why should the United States commit to war with China over Taiwan? Would the Chinese attack the United States over Cuba?” Eisenhower would also be right.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/americas-coming-war-with-china/ 







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The Depravity of the Democrat Party, the American Left, and the Media

 


Article by Steve McCann in The American Thinker


The Depravity of the Democrat Party, the American Left, and the Media

After nearly 17 months, the Chinese laboratory manipulation of coronaviruses as the origin of Covid-19, the Federal science bureaucracy’s complicity and cover-up, and the motivation behind the overwrought government- and media-sponsored solutions to the pandemic are finally being exposed and can no longer be suppressed by the Democrat party (i.e., mainstream) media.  

It is difficult for the average American to fathom the depth of dishonesty and potential treason of those motivated by self-preservation to keep hidden their incestuous relationships with the Communist Chinese and the part they played in the Chinese development of highly infectious viruses as potential military weapons.  And with the Democrat party and their allies in the media abetting the Chinese Communist hierarchy in denying that the Covid-19 virus almost certainly escaped from the laboratory in Wuhan and was maliciously allowed to spread throughout the planet.

But far worse is the absolute depravity of many of these same bureaucrats and Democrat politicians who demanded, without any reliable data, unwarranted economic lockdowns and mandatory quarantines with the primary intent of so undermining the economy and self-confidence of the American people that their nemesis, President Trump, would be unable to win re-election in November of 2020. 

For the first time in human history, a nation effectively quarantined the healthy instead of only the sick.  For the first time in American history, elected officials on the state and local levels illegally and unilaterally suspended rights guaranteed in the Constitution. 

For the first time ever, millions of medical patients in need of preventive medical care were told they could not be served, thus condemning tens of thousands of them to a premature death.  Never before on such a massive scale have residents of nursing homes been denied visitations by friends and relatives and left to die alone and uncared for.  Under no prior circumstances have those with a contagious disease been deliberately sent to nursing or medical facilities to potentially infect a highly susceptible population.

At no time before have the oversight agencies of the medical profession denigrated and effectively outlawed proven medicines (e.g., Ivermectin and the hydroxychloroquine regimen) because a president mentioned them.  To further exploit national anxiety, the reporting of fatalities due to the virus was deliberately overstated to include those who actually died of other causes but had been perhaps exposed to Covid-19. 

Thus, the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, the permanent closure of millions of small businesses, the loss of a year’s worth of education and development of America’s children, the unfathomable rise in suicides, the six-plus trillion dollar increase in the national debt and inflation running amok.  All to ostensibly mitigate a pandemic that has essentially the same survival rate as a severe flu outbreak.

Yet, this cost to the American people and the nation was immaterial to the Democrats, the American left and their media allies so long as Donald Trump was defeated and his voters fully marginalized.

Further, while the nation was focused on the pandemic, the Democrats moved to overturn the nation’s voting system by introducing fraud on a massive scale via mail-in voting.  And the left attempted to precipitate, via riots and intimidation, radical cultural and societal changes using “systemic racism” as a cudgel.   

While this cabal was motivated by their irrational hatred of Donald Trump and determination to seize power in perpetuity, they were also convinced that the bulk of the American people, in their ignorance and naiveté, would not see through their tactics.  Considering how the vast majority of Americans so meekly and unquestionably acquiesced to their illicit and draconian methods, and a majority are still doing so even though the pandemic is essentially over and 200 million have been vaccinated, perhaps they were right.

What is happening in the United Sates today with the rapid and unbridled ascendance of this autocratic oligarchy is not unique in the annals of mankind as it is the near inescapable end-product of basic human nature unleashed.  Over the 200,000 years that the human race has been on earth, it has been inevitable that once a tribe or society achieves a semblance of stability and the underlying human need of survival essentially met, a few members of that tribe, with an insatiable need to dominate, come to the fore with the acquiescence of the rest of the tribe.

 Over many millennia, it has been that small segment of humanity with insatiable megalomaniacal tendencies that has precipitated conquest of other nations as well as manipulating, exploiting and enslaving their fellow human beings.  The founders of the United States were well aware of this base aspect of man and attempted through the drafting of the Constitution to mitigate as much as possible those possessed with these traits from assuming dictatorial hegemony by disbursing political power as much as possible.  But they also knew that it was ultimately the citizenry and not the governmental structure that would decide the nation’s fate.

In Philadelphia, on a clear unseasonably cool September 17, 1787, forty-one delegates to the Constitutional Convention met to finalize and sign the newly drafted United States Constitution.  Ben Franklin wrote a short speech in support of the newly minted Constitution and asked for unanimity among the signers.  Among Franklin’s remarks were:

…Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such, because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. 

…Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of Government, as well as the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. [italics added]

In light of their complicity in abetting the barbaric actions of a declared adversary of the United States and their heinous willingness to sacrifice the lives and fortunes of their fellow Americans to achieve their ends, the current government (i.e., the Ruling Class) is irretrievably devoid of any goodness, wisdom and integrity.  What is in question is having seen and experienced the depravity of the current government have the people have become so corrupted as to overlook their deeds and acquiesce to their despotic governance?

That question will be answered within the next three and a half years.  The key to defeating the current government is embedded in the Constitution and the disbursement of political power.  Every election for a school board member, a sheriff, a mayor, a city or town councilman, a state representative, a state governor, a member of House of Representatives and the Senate exemplifies that disbursement.

The turnout and the results of all of these elections over the next three and a half years plus the willingness of the populace to boycott those private institutions that unabashedly promote anti-Americanism will determine the fate of the nation.  And whether it will be the current iteration of the American citizenry that will bring to pass Ben Franklin’s bleak prophecy.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/the_depravity_of_the_democrat_party_the_american_left_and_the_media.html





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France President Emmanuel Macron slapped in the face

 

French President Emmanuel Macron has been slapped in the face by a man on an official visit.

In a video circulating on social media, Mr Macron is seen walking up to a barrier on a trip in the south-eastern department of Drôme.

A man slaps Mr Macron in the face before being swarmed by officers. The president meanwhile is rushed away.

Two men have reportedly been arrested in the wake of the incident, according to French media.

As the president is slapped, the words "Down with Macron-ism" are shouted.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57402753?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&at_medium=custom7&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom4=D3000A0E-C859-11EB-AD25-ABB34744363C&at_custom2=twitter&at_campaign=64&at_custom3=%40BBCWorld 

 

 


 

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An Invented Insurrection

How the left is trying to criminalize conservatism


The Biden Administration is abusing state power to create the appearance of a conspiracy to commit an insurrection on January 6th, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol. The problem is the indictment they just filed with the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia—it proves there was no conspiracy.

America is not supposed to have indefinite detention based on political beliefs, and yet here we are.

The malfeasance of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the judges involved with the arrest and incarceration without bail of many of those who participated in the riot at the Capitol have been covered brilliantly in a series of pieces by Julie Kelly. These events are abhorrent to anyone who believes in the rule of law and better suited to a totalitarian police state removing political enemies. America is not supposed to have indefinite detention based on political beliefs, and yet here we are.

This treatment is all the more heinous when compared with the near-total lack of interest in prosecuting the year plus-long violence and destruction perpetrated by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa, some of which involved the seizure and continued occupation for weeks of government buildings. This is a far step from equal treatment under the law and should bring a concerted response from all those on the right who oppose tyranny.

Many of the acts described in the indictment are Constitutionally protected, but it seems that fades away when the left doesn’t like the reason they are being exercised. They attached the term “Big Lie,” a Nazi reference, to any disputes over the 2020 elections. Now they act empowered to treat any related activities as outside the law by that fictional connection.

A RALLY GONE WRONG

The government had to present their case to prove there was an insurrection planned for January 6th. Once this indictment saw the light of day, however, it was immediately apparent there was no insurrection and no conspiracy to commit illegal acts of any kind. In fact, the indictment has numerous instances of the so-called conspirators, members of a group known and the Oath Keepers and their associates, discussing the legality of certain actions, then specifically choosing to avoid violating the laws.

The only conspiracy here is by the left to deprive their political opponents of their Constitutional rights.

Essentially, the government case uncovers a conspiracy to petition the government for redress of grievances where citizens who believed an investigation into the election was needed gathered to say so. Perfectly legal and specifically outlined in the First Amendment. This remained the entirety of the government’s case against the January 6th protesters until, in the heat of the moment, some of those involved got swept up in a mob mentality and forced their way into the Capitol.

By the end of the three-hour riot at the Capitol, a number of actual crimes were committed, and those deserve punishment:such as destruction of government property and assaulting or impeding officers. But absent a conspiracy to commit an insurrection, and given a large amount of evidence that the intentions and most of the actions were entirely legal, what’s happening now is a massive injustice. Many of these people are being held without bail based more on their usefulness as pawns in this political play, than any actual ongoing threat. Even Members of Congress who according to DOJ, were the supposed targets of this have warned of prosecutorial overreach.

That is the extent of the government’s case. They caught this group of Oath Keepers and associates planning a trip to DC for a political rally, and used the actions of a few who on the spur of the moment broke into the Capitol to dub the whole thing a conspiracy.

The only conspiracy here is by the left to deprive their political opponents of their Constitutional rights.

THE CONSPIRACY THAT WASN’T

There are thirteen separate charges in the government’s indictment; the cri de Coeur from the Democrats and their media propaganda team has been that this was an insurrection per the indictment “to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding.”

In my recent book Winning the Second Civil War: Without Firing a Shot (May 2021), I examined the definitions and actions that constitute insurrection, sedition, and domestic terrorism and how they apply to the actions of BLM, Antifa, and those involved in the Capitol Riot.

Here are the legal definitions:

18 U.S. Code § 2383 defines someone guilty of the crime of insurrection

or rebellion as: Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or

insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws

thereof.

18 U.S. Code § 2384 defines seditious conspiracy as:

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject

to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put

down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or

to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof,

or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of

the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property

of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.

Per the FBI:

Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals

and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic

influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or

environmental nature.

The government must prove that the individuals charged in the indictment planned and intended to conduct one or more of these acts. All of the evidence referenced in the indictment, however, shows that contrary to planning an attack on the Capitol, these individuals made certain to avoid breaking laws. In fact, the only conflict they contemplated was defensive in nature if Antifa attacked the rally.

Of the thirteen charges, the main one related to talk of an insurrection is “Charge One: Conspiracy.”

The indictment claims, “The purpose of the conspiracy was to stop, delay, and hinder the Certification of the Electoral College vote.” Yet it offers no evidence that this was the purpose of the Oath Keepers and actually presents evidence that shows their purpose was to join the rally and be prepared if any violence was begun by others.

The Stop the Steal rally on January 6th was a protest against the certification of the 2020 election. It was designed to influence lawmakers to vote against certifying the results of the Electoral College until investigations of abnormalities in the voting had been conducted. This vote takes place after every election and is a normal function of government. It has resulted in Democrat lawmakers voting against certifying the results previously on multiple occasions: “Democrats launched small-scale and short-lived objections to electoral vote counts in 2001, 2005 and 2017,” writes Voice of America’s Patsy Widakuswara.

There is nothing unlawful about planning and conducting a rally to attempt to influence lawmakers to vote against certification. It is the very definition of petitioning the government for redress of grievances. So it is incumbent on the government to prove the Oath Keepers intended to do this using unlawful means and conspired for that purpose.


The indictment cites the manner and means by which this conspiracy is alleged to have been planned, but nothing showing the purpose which the indictment claims. It presents numerous examples of captured communications from these individuals that one would assume support this assertion. But they don’t. Not a single piece of evidence from prior to January 6th shows any intention to conduct any type of assault on the Capitol or the proceedings inside.


One of the claims is that there was tactical training conducted which, if the purpose was to practice or prepare for a seizure of the Capitol, would be direct proof of this alleged conspiracy “to stop, delay, and hinder the Certification of the Electoral College vote.” However, instead of being aimed at stopping the certification, the training was specifically for the likely possibility that Antifa would attack the rally as they had on numerous other occasions. Captured communications from Oath Keepers show they were planning for the possibility of a confrontation with Antifa not to somehow storm the Capitol and disrupt the Electoral College certification. Oath Keepers leaders mentioned an alliance with a group called the Proud Boys for this purpose.

“The Proud Boys “always have a big group” and could act as a “force multiplier,” he added, according to the memo from prosecutors.

The discussion centered not on invading the Capitol but on attacking left-wing “Antifa” supporters.”


It is perfectly legal to train for a potential attack by a hostile group—which Antifa has proven themselves regularly capable of committing. They have attacked numerous protests by organizations on the right over the past several years. And the very statement used in the indictment shows this was contemplated as a reaction to a “kinetic,” i.e. violent action, not a plan for the Oath Keepers to initiate any type of attack.


The indictment lists multiple references to an armed Quick Reaction Force (QRF), which is a military term for groups staged and ready to respond if a situation escalates, to be staged in Virginia. As it turns out this was an exaggeration as the lawyer for one of the accused says this was just one guy with serious medical issues that kept him from marching at a hotel with some guns.


While the idea of a group of citizens gathering and staging weapons near the nation’s capital may cause trepidation and concern for some, it’s important to note that there is still nothing inherently illegal in such acts. Here, it’s plain that the QRF was intended for a potential reaction to a Presidential order. The Oath Keeper’s leader says two things which show clearly this was not part of a plan to conduct an attack or offensive January 6th.


First, he says, “As we have done on all our recent DC Ops.” This shows the presence of this QRF was a normal activity and in the past had resulted in no unlawful actions. Second, he discusses the possibility the President may call up “the militia,” but he specifically says, “We don’t expect a need for him to call on us.” This shows that there was no plan to initiate an attack, and if any action happened, it would be in response to a Presidential directive.


Again, the idea of a group of citizens prepared to act in response to a call for assistance from the President may disturb some people. But it is expressly contemplated in the Second Amendment as the well-regulated militia. I explain this in Chapter 5 of the book:


“The term “The Militia” used here should be differentiated from the many groups in this country that have adopted the mantle of militia. The well regulated militia in the Second Amendment refers to the collection of all able-bodied citizens available to be called into service to secure the country if circumstances require it.”


Well regulated at the time of the Bill of Rights meant well-trained, so the idea of the Oath Keepers conducting training for the likely possibility of Antifa attacking or the much less likely instance of a Presidential call for militia support falls well within both legal and constitutionally sound principles.


The fact the Oath Keepers subordinated any possibility of the QRF being used to a Presidential directive is further proof they were not planning an insurrection. They were preparing to help the legal authority deal with an ongoing assault conducted by Antifa and others.


This is precisely what the drafters of the Bill of Rights intended. They knew there could arise circumstances where political division or other dangers, like police being told to stand down by local authorities, could require citizens to act for the common defense.


Another statement introduced in the indictment is hyperbolic and contains language that has been used to characterize this group as “planning” violence.


He specifically mentions a civil war and an insurrection. Not as the actions being planned, but as the potential result if the planned rally fails in its purpose. The goal was to stop those things, not to enact them, to show the President “the people are behind him.”


There is a huge difference between preparing for a Constitutionally contemplated call up of the well regulated militia, and a rogue group of citizens conspiring to stop the election process using force. The government’s own evidence shows the Oath Keepers were well inside the legal lines and doing the first of those.


The claim of a conspiracy “to stop, delay, and hinder the Certification of the Electoral College vote” falls completely flat. Ironically, the indictment is better suited for use by the defense.

January 6th Capitol riot.


A WITCH HUNT


When we get to January 6th, the actions of the Oath Keepers and their associates and a relatively small group of others left them open to charges of violence and one has already pled guilty to obstructing an official proceeding and entering restricted grounds with a dangerous weapon (bear spray) . Those charges and any others supported by evidence, should be dealt with as common criminal charges unrelated to this non-existent conspiracy.


The storming of the Capitol seems to have been the result of a frustrated collection of rally participants—not a pre-planned conspiracy to stop the Constitutional process underway in the building. That makes the attempt to both brand the actions as an insurrection and to abuse state power to make charges unsupported by any evidence so egregious.


It serves a political purpose for the Biden Administration and its allies on the left. If they can criminalize the legal pursuit of protest by their political enemies, they can marginalize dissent and sideline opposition. This is an intolerable state which all those who still believe in a Constitutional process should oppose.


Where is the mass of lawyers from the institutions of the right filing lawsuits and writs and standing up in opposition to this grave injustice? If they can do this to the Oath Keepers, they can do it to any of us. This is why the Republicans in the Senate were absolutely correct to oppose empaneling a witch hunt masquerading as the January 6th Commission.


The left’s bad faith efforts to politicize this by labeling it a conspiracy, although evidence clearly shows it wasn’t, have already been shown. Let the real criminal charges be dealt with and let the invented insurrection be tossed onto the ash heap of history.


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