Democrats Continually Win the Word Game, While Republicans Are Clueless

posted by Jeff Davidson at Townhall 

Democrats are masters of creating new terms and phrases that stick in the minds of the people they wish to influence. Republicans, by contrast, have little or no such capabilities.

Terms that Stick

The all-time stroke of Democrat wordplay genius happened several decades back. Everyone knew that Democrats, by and large, were for abortion and that Republicans, by and large, were not. The terminology for the two sides was pro-abortion and pro-life. Democrats came to realize that pro-abortion didn't sound all that palatable.

Sure enough, when the dust settled, Democrats began calling their view pro-choice, with that new term effectively eliminating the use of pro-abortion forevermore while standing in juxtaposition to the term pro-life. This was a stroke of genius because pro-choice implies that a woman could choose whether or not to have a baby. It seemed quite egalitarian.

Republicans, by contrast, were pro-life. The meaning of that term equated to no other option besides carrying the baby to term. Since then, Democrats have slaughtered Republicans at every turn in terms of terminology.

Voter Suppression By Any Other Name

Consider the Inflation Reduction Act. A more accurate name would be the Inflation Enhancement Act or the Inflation Acceleration Act. Biden and company knew, however, that calling the Act what it actually leads to would never work.

How about the Voting Rights Act? The name sounds great, doesn't it? Ergo, the Act wins the hearts and minds of millions of low-information voters. Such voters do not pay attention to anything more than the name itself. Hence they are easily misled. " 'Voting rights,' that sounds good. Why would anyone want to be against that?”

What was the Republican response to the introduction of this intentionally misnamed piece of legislation? A big, fat nothing. Republicans could have immediately called it the "voter fraud establishment act.” That would have perked up some ears. They could have called it the "citizen disenfranchisement act."

Alas, in their mysterious ways, Republicans, and Conservatives in general, don't seem to have a clue as to why carefully chosen words, specific terminology, and keenly crafted phrases matter in politics. Over many, many years the Right has been blowing grand opportunities to participate in the catchy characterization contest. 

The Reverse Name Game

One has to wonder, how many under-informed voters end up pulling the tab for Democrats only because of terminology that sounds more appealing?

George Soros organizations, among the most leftist on Earth, play the name game expertly. Among the hundreds of organizations that Soros founded or otherwise supports, their names are ALWAYS the direct opposite of what they actually stand for.

His Open Society Foundations and Foundation to Promote Open Society are two multi-billion dollar far-left grant and advocacy foundations bent on restricting freedoms everywhere. His Institute for New Economic Thinking advocates unorthodox, radical, far-left economic policy positions. Review 100 or more Soros organizations and you see the reverse name game employed every single time.

Liberal no More

When the quintessential term liberal began to fall out of favor with legions of voters, Democrats/Leftists migrated to the more palatable-sounding progressive. Notice that Democrats didn’t move from liberal to socialist or Marxist, which would have been completely accurate. Marxist, they knew, carried highly toxic connotations. Socialists were not quite as onerous as Marxists, but still needed to be avoided.

Oddly enough, the few souls who are aware of the history of the American progressive movement know that progressive means socialist. Since most people are unaware of history, have never heard of Eugene Debs, and couldn’t give a hoot about any of it, Democrats felt reasonably safe using progressive. When “Democratic Socialist” Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016, the term socialist re-emerged.

When low-information voters encounter the term progressive, the thought pattern is, “Why wouldn't I want to be progressive? That’s a good thing, right?”

Once Democrats devise a catchy name that will stick, whether or not it has any basis in reality, they blame it all over creation, aided and abetted by the sycophantic mass media which covers for them 24/7.  

Like a Sledgehammer

With the winning terminology in place, Democrats pound it into all of their talking points. Then, in a short period of time, invariably these catchy characterizations become the everyday reality with which we all must deal.

To this day, pro-choice – which means pro-abortion – is the prevailing term for those who want to abort babies. Meanwhile, sadly, Republicans and Conservatives don't merely lose the word game, they simply have no game.

And we Know, On the Fringe, and more- February 4

 

Will 2024 Be the Most Dangerous Election of Our Lifetime?

posted by John Green at American Thinker 

It’s election season and the talking heads are all singing the “this will be the most important election of our lifetime” chorus -- for real this time. While this year’s election will certainly be important, I’d argue that 2008 was the most important election in our lifetime. That’s the year in which we were offered a fork in the road, and we chose the “fundamentally transform America” left turn. We’ve just been looking for the “transform it back” off-ramp ever since. However, I am willing to say that 2024 is likely to be the most dangerous election in our lifetime. The deep state has invested a lot to prevent us from “changing it back,” and appears to have no limits on what it’s willing to do to that end.

We got a glimpse of how our bureaucratic overlords view the voters in 2016 when the DoJ, FBI, and CIA worked to influence the election. When their gal failed to win, they continued their efforts to unseat our electoral choice. But all of that was just a warmup for January 6, when they took things to a whole new level.

When pipe bombs were discovered outside the Democrat and Republican headquarter buildings in Washington D.C., it triggered a nationwide investigation. Thousands of MAGA supporters were intimidated interviewed by FBI agents for the suspicious behavior of being in the same zip code as the bombs on January 6 -- oh, and attending a Trump rally.

Also on January 6^th, an unarmed insurrection nearly took down our government, at the encouragement of undercover federal assets planted in the crowd (snark intended). Our federal criminal justice system has subsequently imprisoned hundreds, for little more than trespassing and taking selfies -- many at the invitation of Capitol police. Now the DoJ has announced plans to prosecute thousands more for daring to cross an unmarked line on the Capitol lawn that their taxes pay for.

After the Republicans took control of the House, the “stop MAGA” operation seems to have moved into the coverup stage. The Swamp’s desperation to keep something hidden reveals just how dangerous our own government has become.

The bomb threat that triggered the nationwide interrogation of MAGA supporters is starting to look fishier than a Wuhan wet market. The device found outside the DNC headquarters was found by a person in civilian clothes (who many believe was a Capitol police officer). He reported the device to a uniformed police officer, who showed no sign of alarm, and even allowed civilians to continue walking within feet of the bomb.

Security video of the location where the DNC bomb was found shows a hooded “person of interest” sitting on a bench while using a phone. The FBI was able to use security video to track this “person of interest” throughout the Metro subway system and back to an automobile in Virginia. Investigators also tied the hooded person to a Metro transit card and license plate owned by a retired Air Force chief master sergeant who was working as a contractor with a security clearance.

Former FBI agent and current whistleblower Kyle Seraphin led a team surveilling the contractor who owned the license plate and transit card. Yet his team was denied permission to interview the contractor, and the matter was handed over to counterintelligence investigators -- the same FBI division in which Peter Strzok (of the stop Trump “insurance policy”) had been the deputy assistant director. Seraphin has since gone public with his concerns about the investigation.

Then head of the FBI’s Washington field office, Steve D’Antuono, was not happy about Seraphin coming forward with his concerns. In his congressional testimony he said:

People like Kyle Seraphin and others that are not a case agent, have no knowledge of the case, have no knowledge of what happened in the case, he also made another accusation too that there was an individual with a Metro card. My understanding is all that was chased down. 

But when asked what the FBI had discovered when it “chased down” the lead, he said he didn’t know the details -- for the most important investigation under his supervision at the time.

If the name “Steve D’Antuono” sounds familiar: he was the special agent in charge of the Governor Gretchin Whitmer kidnapping case. When it became apparent in court that the “kidnapping” was an FBI setup all along, D’Antuono was promoted and moved to the Washington Field office -- just in time for January 6^th. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.

We’ve recently learned that the bomb investigation is being hindered by technical problems. Even though the location of the DNC bomb was under security surveillance, D’Antuono testified that video of the bomb being placed wasn’t helpful because “the cameras weren’t the best.” Apparently identifying bombers requires a higher resolution than identifying MAGA protesters. In addition, even though the hooded person of interest is seen using a cell phone, the cellular metadata was found to be corrupted as well.

The House January 6 committee investigated the bomb incident in parallel with the FBI, but hundreds of documents and hours of taped testimony have since been destroyed -- in violation of federal records retention statutes. Yet nobody has been arrested for this felony. Documents associated with the bomb threat that were not destroyed, were encrypted and the encryption keys have since been “lost.”

Radio host and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino asserts that the Secret Service’s behavior on January 6 is highly suspicious. We’ve learned that Kamala Harris was in the DNC headquarters at the time the DNC bomb was discovered. Bongino reports that there is no way that the VP would be in a building which had not been swept for explosive devices. Yet the “best in the business” failed to spot a pipe bomb in plain view next to a park bench. Was the bomb actually there overnight, or did it “appear” after the bomb sweep?

Bongino also noted two significant things about the bomb. First, it had a one-hour timer, but had not detonated after 17 hours -- raising operability questions about the device. This is corroborated by Kyle Seraphin’s claim that FBI experts had assured him that the “bombs” would not have detonated. Second, Bongino said the bomb looked identical to training devices used at the Secret Service training academy.

If inert “bombs” were planted to cast suspicion on MAGA supporters, who would have been involved?

• Capitol police?
• FBI?
• DoJ?
• Secret Service?

If what we are observing is a massive coverup, how dangerous might our “public servants” become this year as the threat of exposure increases?

To what lengths might our law enforcement agencies go to keep whatever they’re hiding hidden? Will they step up prosecution of Republicans and hide behind a wall of “part of an ongoing investigation.” Will they fight congressional oversight, and dare it to do anything about it? Will they create another electoral “insurance policy” to help Joe win? Will they unleash the Left’s horde of radicals to intimidate voters and burn our cities -- as a distraction from their own actions? Finally, if the Secret Service is involved, how safe will our next President be if he looks for the truth?

Can Unhappy Americans Unite against Their Tormentors?

posted J.B. Shurk at American Thinker 

In a rare campaign appearance that looked more like a “proof of life” hostage video, Dementia Joe Biden awkwardly shuffled across the stage and attempted to tie a few mumbled syllables together into cogent sentences — “attempted” being the key word here.  Paul Joseph Watson at Modernity News chronicled Bumbling Joe’s addled “eloquence” for posterity: “‘We’ll teach Donald Trump un...err...arr valuable lesson,’ said Biden, ‘Don’t mess with uhhiminauhwemerica unless you wanna get a...(the last word is totally undecipherable).’”  Watson added a personal observation: “Despite the embarrassment, Biden’s supporters cheered mindlessly anyway.”

That last part struck me as the Democrats’ ideal 2024 campaign slogan: “Biden and Harris: Embarrassing Candidates for Mindless Voters!”  It has a bit of a “Trikki Nikki!” ring to it, don’t you think?  Usually political parties put together campaign tickets with candidates who balance out each other’s negative qualities.  Instead of finding someone smart enough to mitigate Joe’s low I.Q., however, Democrats just doubled down on stupid.  Now we’re suffering through the costliest two-for-one special of all time: two (special) idiots and one broken America.

We’ve got war, social decay, rising crime, and runaway inflation.  What kind of “mindless voter” could live through this “house on fire” madness and think, “Wow, things in our country have really gotten so much better ever since the Deep State put Dementia Joe into office”?  You’ve got to be “Morning Joe and Mika” mindless or “Meathead Rob Reiner” mindless to believe that everything’s just grand, even as America burns to the ground.  The Marxists in the White House are collapsing the United States with a Molotov cocktail of open borders, “green energy”–induced poverty, regulatory oppression, political harassment, astroturfed racial divisiveness, warrantless mass surveillance, and an “expert” class that does nothing but invent new things for people to fear.  The nation’s executioners have put America in “concrete shoes” and tossed her overboard to sleep with the fishes.  Meanwhile, meatheads Joe, Mika, and Rob mindlessly applaud as she sinks.

Most of the country disagrees, and as many as 90% of Americans believe that the U.S. is “on the wrong track.”  You can’t get 90% of Americans to agree on anything, but Biden’s America is so awful that the most diverse collection of disgruntled citizens have all desperately concluded that the country must imminently change course.  Of course, there are still the “true believers,” the ones who have been so indoctrinated to pull the lever for a Democrat that a Republican could extend an outstretched hand to save them from drowning and they’d peevishly shoo it away.

The truth is that most elected Democrats and Republicans all belong to the same Uniparty that uses manufactured political division as a calculated public distraction, so that a small group of financial oligarchs (who fund both parties) can maintain permanent control over the population.  Right now McConnell and Schumer are pretending to haggle over funding the war in Ukraine and protecting America’s borders — when, in fact, both sides of the Uniparty desire endless war and endless illegal immigration.  Corporate lobbyists pay them to believe the exact same thing.  The difference between Democrat and Republican voters, however, is that Republicans have been “waking up” to the existence of this Machiavellian “Deep State” at least since the rise of the Tea Party Movement.  The election of Donald Trump and his continued support today represent a seismic shift in the way Republicans recognize and oppose D.C.’s entrenched corruption.  On the Democrat side, however, too many voters, rightly distrusting of corporate influence and fed up with bad government, continue to think the answer to existing corruption is even bigger government controlled by even bigger financial interests.  It is an illogical conclusion, but it is difficult to convince Democrats who have spent the last century digesting the false gospel of Big Government that Big Government might just be to blame.  

Ever since Woodrow Wilson constructed an unconstitutional Administrative State filled with unaccountable “experts” and Franklin Roosevelt promised a government-imposed solution for every personal problem, Americans have surrendered their rights and liberties for indentured servitude to a plutocratic kakistocracy (what a mouthful for that thing we appropriately call the swamp!), concerned only with manipulating the public while lining its own pockets.  For Democrats to take the first step toward their own recovery, they must first admit that most of America’s problems have originated with those who control America’s government.  Then they must recognize the folly in trying to solve every problem that the government has created by giving the government more power to create new problems.  

If they can extricate themselves from this self-imposed mental straitjacket, then — as the right track–wrong track polls continue to show — upwards of 90% of the American people could unite to oppose a permanent “ruling class” that prefers them poor, dependent, and silenced.  Given the potential power of the people to reclaim control over their own government from the small cabal of government agents who hoard power in the people’s name, it is no wonder why Uniparty Democrats and Republicans (two private corporations posing as political parties) prefer to turn ordinary Republican and Democrat voters against each other.  If the Uniparty can continue to hypnotize Democrat voters into blaming outsider Donald Trump for all their problems, those voters will continue to give the permanent “ruling class” a pass for the last half-century’s organized American destruction.

For people who are “awake” to what’s going on, it is mystifying to see how effective this divide-and-conquer strategy has been.  Kamala Harris — who once excoriated Biden for being a racial segregationist before Dementia Joe began lying about having founded the civil rights movement — warned Americans last week that they would “lose this democracy” if President Trump is re-elected and given a chance to “go after” his “political enemies.”  Really?!  The administration that has locked up J6 protesters as political hostages, spied on Christian churches, and thrown concerned public school parents onto “domestic terrorism” watch-lists is worried about the weaponization of government?

During the 2020 election, federal government employees conspired to countermand President Trump’s lawful orders, leak to the media, and undermine his campaign for re-election.  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “suppressed” and “censored” legitimate concerns over “inherently less secure” mail-in voting.  Continuing to be a staunch advocate for election integrity, The Gateway Pundit has put together a thoroughly researched and corroborated list of eight different ways in which former attorney general Bill Barr and FBI director Chris Wray enabled widespread election fraud.  Right now government watchdog Judicial Watch is pursuing a Freedom of Information Act case over reports of an “alleged CIA plot to ‘get rid’ of President Trump.”  The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database substantiates “over 1,500 cases of election fraud.”  A declassified intelligence assessment concludes that the Chinese Communist Party “brazenly” interfered in the 2022 midterm elections “because it didn’t fear retaliation from the Biden administration.”  Yet even with all this evidence of election-rigging and vote fraud, the Department of (in)Justice continues to prosecute J6 protesters in D.C. courtrooms (an overwhelmingly Democrat stronghold), where surveys reveal that potential jurors harbor “extreme bias” and roughly half believe that J6 defendants deserve life imprisonment or execution.  On top of everything else, a “well-coordinated, well-funded, and high-powered network of leftist organizations” conspires with Democrat prosecutors and politicians to incarcerate President Trump and remove him from the 2024 ballot.  There has never been a more egregious era of weaponized government!

Democrats who support such government corruption are either incurably obtuse or inherently dangerous.  Yet a small percentage of converts beyond the margin of fraud could change everything.  The Deep State maintains power through division; old adversaries can find strength through unexpected unity against a common foe.

Polish Farmers Plan Solidarity General Strike for Next Friday

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

Things are getting very interesting in the EU, specifically the nations with significant uprisings of farmers and truckers.

What I find interesting in this Reuters story, is the first time one of the MSM publications has been willing to identify the true intent of the protests.

WARSAW, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Polish farmers from the Solidarity trade union plan a general strike starting next Friday with a blockade of border crossings between Poland and Ukraine, it said, joining similar protests, opens new tab all over Europe.

Farmers in France, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and Germany have been protesting against the constraints placed on them by EU measures to tackle climate change, as well as rising costs and unfair competition from abroad. Polish farmers have been particularly vocal about the impact of cheap food imports from neighbouring Ukraine.

“Our patience has run out. Brussels’ position on the last day of January 2024 is unacceptable for our entire agricultural community,” the trade union said in a statement dated Thursday.

“Additionally, the passivity of the Polish authorities… regarding the import of agricultural produce and food products from Ukraine leave us with no other choice but to declare a general strike.”

The European Commission said it was listening closely to the concerns expressed by farmers in protests taking place in several member states. (read more)

I arrive in Poland at noon tomorrow… I’ll let you know what I find, and what comes next…  

Biden Can't Handle Softball Super Bowl Halftime Interview, Chickens Out for Second Year in a Row

Bob Hoge reporting for RedState 

It's a chance to speak to tens of millions of viewers, all while being tossed softball questions by the sycophantic reporters at CBS News—yet President Biden for the second year in a row is choosing to skip the traditional Super Bowl halftime interview.

He couldn't be bothered in 2023 either, but one could argue that it was because it would have been Fox News anchors asking the questions, as the network had the SB that year—but what's the excuse this year? If CBS' Norah O'Donnell got the gig, she would likely spend the segment asking about what ice cream flavors he preferred.

It's not hard to figure out why he won't make the appearance—his handlers know he will make a fool out of himself, just like he did on New Year's Eve.

---

Biden's Brain Turns to Mush During New Year's Eve Appearance With Ryan Seacrest

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The interview had become somewhat of a tradition in recent decades:

In a tradition dating to 2009, presidents have recorded an interview with the network that broadcasts the Super Bowl, although there have been exceptions. Donald J. Trump did not appear on NBC in 2018. Last year, Mr. Biden declined to appear on Fox, home of cable hosts like Sean Hannity who are sharply hostile toward him.

But the White House has been receptive to CBS News in the past. The president was interviewed by the “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell ahead of the 2021 Super Bowl, and he participated in two lengthy “60 Minutes” pieces, in 2022 and 2023, with the correspondent Scott Pelley.

To be fair, then-President Donald Trump refused to appear in 2018 because he didn't want to deal with the bias of NBC News. But two years in a row? That's unimpressive, especially when it's an election year where you're supposed to be getting out your message, and you have the relatively friendly confines of CBS. 

Last year's big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles drew 115 million sets of eyeballs—making it the most-watched program in TV history—and don't be surprised if this year's viewership for the Chiefs against the SF 49ers is even higher given the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift dramatics.

There is only one explanation for the president to ignore such a huge opportunity, especially as many polls show him trailing former President Donald Trump. It's because he's simply not up to it. He can no longer string together a complete sentence, much less hold an entire conversation. 

His people—and especially First Lady Jill—will keep trying to hide his momentous mental decline for as long as they can, but at some point, even the most ardent Biden supporter will see that the emperor wears no clothes.

It should be an easy gig—just say, "Weren't those jets overhead amazing? What a great game." Then look serious as you discuss the Houthis. Then talk about ice cream and boom, you're done. The fact that he can't even handle something as simple as that is terrifying, considering he's the commander-in-chief of our armed forces.

Let's hope he won't be appearing for a half-time interview in 2025 either—because he'll be sitting at home in Delaware.

Conservative Families Whose Kids Fight Our Wars Have A Lot More On The Line This Election

Because military recruits have historically come from conservative states, we need to understand foreign policy now more than ever.

Garrett Hayes reporting for The Federalist

For Americans, the start of 2024 signals the coming election and brings to mind questions of which candidate best represents their values and who can bring back a semblance of sanity to our country. Red-state families, however, should also consider military service and the present foreign policy issues.

2023 brought on a continuation of the first major European war since WWII and saw multiple hot spots around the world ignite into potentially regional conflicts heading into the new year. Closer to home, all three U.S. servicemembers who died in the Iran-backed drone attack over the weekend were residents of the battleground state of Georgia.

Republican voters in particular should consider that based on a report for 2020, almost 48 percent of enlisted recruits across the Department of Defense, excluding the Coast Guard, were from states that voted Republican in 2020. When adding on the purple states of Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, the number jumps to about 56 percent. Prior polling and conventional wisdom have borne this out time and again.

In other words, red-state families are likely to bear the lion’s share of the burden and tragedy of combat casualties, should the U.S. intervene in another conflict around the globe. Statistically, it would be conservative families who would have to stare down at flag-draped coffins. Conservative mothers would be weeping for their fallen children after they defended some far-off land in the name of some U.S. national security interest. Why should conservatives continue to man the military with the best of our young people when the very people who decide to make war have continually spat in the face of conservative values?

Since the Biden administration took over in 2021, Americans’ freedom has been limited concerning their careers, health care, and religion. We witnessed fellow countrymen calling for those who disagreed with Covid mandates not to have equal access to medical care or employment. Biden himself is the one who remarked that the Second Amendment is useless because you’d need an “F-15,” not just a “gun” to go up against the government.

This administration, along with its handpicked Joint Chiefs of Staff, has repeatedly commented on its racial preferences, fear of white supremacy, fear of white rage, and the need for “diversity.” Furthermore, their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan left equipment there worth over $7 billion. This made those weapons and equipment freely available to the Taliban, due to the supposed logistical cost of transporting the equipment back. Even worse was the administration’s extraction effort of Afghan allies and fellow American contractors who fought and went on combat missions with our sons and daughters.

Thousands of Afghans who did fight for their country were left behind, and private nongovernment organizations had to extract many of our allies and countrymen who were contractors. And let us not forget the carnage of the final days, when 13 members of our military lost their lives due to a suicide bomber.

It’s worth asking whether conservatives’ loyalty to military service should continue — especially when so many traditional conservative values are openly mocked, dismissed, and ridiculed by the authorities training and deploying our children.

Reflexively, an America First individual might think that not supporting the military is unpatriotic. However, one can support the individuals serving our country and pray for their safe return while recognizing that this government does not deserve a single person they recruit into the military, particularly when we consider their many failed wars and policies.

It is our duty — to ourselves, our families, and this nation — to understand what we believe is worth dying for, especially since it is historically most likely that our children will be the ones fighting and dying when we become involved in another war. We must watch, read, and try to grasp the current geopolitical landscape. We must establish our lines in the sand proactively so that we don’t again fall prey to more government lies. It’s important to remember the falsehoods used to start wars such as “WMDs” in Iraq or the “Gulf of Tonkin Incident” that resulted in the loss of American lives.

Republicans should be pondering if a war against Russia over Ukraine is worth Americans leaving their families, or if a war against China over Taiwan is worth never seeing our children again. Because military recruits have historically come from conservative states, we need to understand foreign policy now more than ever, as it will be our families helping to fight these wars. To persevere into the future, it is imperative that parents, especially America First parents, learn, listen, and understand in their own ways the conflicts that America could find itself in.

For the 2024 election, let us closely examine candidates and their historical and current stances on foreign policy and what it will mean for the lives of us and our children. The contrasts couldn’t be starker.

Alaska National Guard Gearing Up to Support the Border Effort

Ward Clark reporting for RedState 

The Alaska National Guard is sending a small force - approximately 20 personnel and two helicopters - to the southern border on what is, for now, a routine support mission. The mission is reportedly not related to the ongoing confrontation between Texas Governor Abbott and the Biden Administration, although Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has joined 24 other Republican Governors in signing a statement of support for Texas. 

The deployment of the Alaska Guard is a semi-regular mission to provide support for border operations.

Planned for months and involving several other states, the Alaska National Guard may be once again going to the southern border to assist with border protection.

The action is not in direct response to the current border standoff between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and President Joe Biden, who has demanded that Abbott remove razor wire from land along the border of Mexico.

It is also not a major deployment, as has been characterized by some in social media, but consists of just 20 Guardsmen and two helicopters. The Department of Defense has asked Alaska and other states to train guardsmen for possible help with the border. 

It happens on a semi-regular basis. In 2019, about 10 members of the Alaska National Guard were deployed to the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border to help with border security. 

In a statement, the Alaska National Guard said:

The Alaska Army National Guard has been notified by the National Guard Bureau that it is authorized to begin training in preparation for possible mobilization to support the federal Southwest Border Mission in early FY 2025.

Two helicopters can make a big difference along a high-traffic stretch of the border; although it is unclear yet precisely where the Alaska Guardsmen will be assigned to operate.

Former Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also a signatory to the abovementioned resolution, has offered to send Florida National Guard troops to Texas to help directly with the installation of barricades and razor wire.

While the Alaska Guard deployment is a routine one, it has become apparent that the Biden Administration has no intention of taking any meaningful action to get the southern border under control. Only the application of state forces will resolve this, as each governor has control of not only the National Guard but also, there are state militias that are not subject to being called into federal command.

We are fortunate here in the Great Land, as we are less affected by the mess at the southern border than most locations in the lower 48. Illegal aliens aren't flooding through Canada to get here; walking convoys such as we see in Central America wouldn't enjoy walking the Alaska Highway even in summer, as that route has several stretches of over a hundred miles where it is a ribbon of asphalt running through a howling wilderness. Not many illegals are swarming into the Great Land from the Yukon, and not many are asking for free government transport to Anchorage or Fairbanks. But while we are Alaskans, we are also Americans. Our Governor stands with Texas. My experience, from talking to folks around the Mat-Su, is that plenty of Alaskans stand with Texas as well. 

We must do what it takes. Close the border.

Judicial Watch Files FOIA Suit Against FBI, Claims 'Cover-Up' in Jan. 6 Shooting Death of Ashli Babbitt

Mike Miller reporting for RedState 

As I reported on January 6 of this year, Aaron Babbitt, the husband of deceased Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government. Attorneys with the conservative legal group Judicial Watch filed the suit — which alleges wrongful death, and assault and battery — on behalf of Mr. Babbitt. 

And on Friday, Judicial Watch announced that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Babbitt and Ashli Babbitt’s estate against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for all FBI files related to the shooting death inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd.  

Here's more:

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California to compel production of the FBI files on Ashli Babbitt and Aaron Babbitt after the FBI denied two February 27, 2023, FOIA requests to the FBI and subsequently failed to respond to an appeal of the denial for:

All FBI files for Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt. Additional information: “Subject also used the names” Ashli Elizabeth McEntee and Ashli Elizabeth Pamatian;” and:

All FBI records, including main and cross-referenced files, related to Aaron Raymond Babbitt.

Judicial Watch further said:

Ashli traveled alone from San Diego to Washington, D.C. to attend the Women for America First (aka Save America) rally on January 6, 2021, at the Ellipse. The shooting occurred at the east entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby. 

After demonstrators filled the hallway outside the lobby, two individuals in the crowded, tightly packed hallway struck and dislodged the glass panels in the lobby doors and the right door sidelight. Lt. Byrd, who is a US Capitol Police commander and was the incident commander for the House on January 6, 2021, shot Ashli on sight as she raised herself up into the opening of the right door sidelight. 

Lt. Byrd later confessed that he shot Ashli before seeing her hands or assessing her intentions or even identifying her as female. Ashli was unarmed. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in the lobby.

Judicial Watch charged that not only has the FBI refused its demand for files related to the case but also that the agency has "stiff-armed" the DOJ office that advocates for FOIA compliance. The legal group said in its four-page filing:

The FBI has failed to produce the requested records, demonstrate that the requested records are lawfully exempt from production, or notify plaintiffs of the scope of any responsive records they intend to produce or withhold and the reasons for any withholdings.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said:

Ashli Babbit was the only homicide victim on Jan. 6, yet the FBI has been illicitly hiding its files on Ashli Babbitt from her family for a year. Why the cover-up?

Was there a cover-up? I can't answer the question but I can provide details of Ashli Babbitt's final moments, per the Judicial Watch filing.

Ashli remained conscious for minutes or longer after being shot by Lt. Byrd. Ashli experienced extreme pain, suffering, mental anguish, and intense fear before slipping into pre-terminal unconsciousness. The autopsy report identified the cause of death as a ‘gunshot wound to left anterior shoulder’ with an onset interval of ‘minutes.’ The fact that Ashli was alive and conscious in extreme pain and suffering is documented in videos of the shooting.

Furthermore, nothing about the wound track described in the autopsy report would be expected to result in immediate death or instantaneous loss of consciousness, and Ashli’s lungs contained blood, further confirming that she was alive and breathing after being shot. Ashli was pronounced dead at Washington Hospital Center at 3:15 p.m. The medical examiner determined that the manner of death was homicide.

The Department of Justice closed its case on the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt on April 21, 2021, announcing that it would not pursue charges against then-Lt. Byrd. for Babbitt's death.

Was the decision just — or was it a travesty of justice?