It’s February 1st, 2021…but before beginning, we offer two items related to our Quote of the Day immediately above.  First, as Bronson Stocking records at Townhall.com, when it comes to Progressives, what’s said is far less important than who said it, as…

Democrats Express Outrage at Maxine Waters’ Comments…When They Don’t Know She Said Them

 

Second, FOX informs us the…

White House is facing optics issue with Kamala Harris’ ambitious niece

Meena, 36, flew to the Inauguration on the private plane of a Biden donor and  posted about the trip on her Instagram stories

 

Reports Meena has sisters named Eena, Mina and Moe remain unconfirmed.  Sorry, we couldn’t resist.

But seriously, she flew in on a private jet?  Who does she think she is…

…John Kerry?!?

Which brings us to two observations from an email Balls Cotton forwarded yesterday, as Rich, after initially offering his  definition of an…

“Oligarchy: This term refers to a kind of government we sometimes call ‘crony capitalism’. Public officials and big business collude to get and hold power, and wealth, at the expense of everyone else. It is a step along the way to total Communism, when even big business submits to the government.“

…went on note what we saw during 46*’s illegitimate inauguration was yet another step in the same direction:

“Did you see that they are building a steel and concrete fence all around the capitol building, and other offices? That, along with the thousands of troops stationed there tells us what? For one thing, it tells us that the left is very, very afraid that the public will rise up and throw them out. They must move fast, to secure and consolidate their positions, before everyone else can react.“

Thus the dizzying pace of Groper Joe’s executive orders, which at 25 in 2 weeks exceeds the total issued during the terms of his four predecessors combined.  For those slow on the uptake, that’s 25 in 2 weeks versus 20 in 28 years.

Here’s the juice: if you don’t understand the goal of the Dimocrats is a one-party, Socialist state, you likely also believe voter fraud didn’t influence the outcome of the 2020 election on a massive scale.

Wake up, America, and sense the same impending totalitarian tyranny Germany welcomed in 1933.

P.S. TLJ just mentioned a FOX segment featuring interviews of people who’ve suffered the immediate impact of 46*’s termination of the Keystone XL expansion (Notwithstanding the fact, as the graphic below shows…

…the Keystone XL would merely add to an already-existing pipeline…or the fact…

…!!!), and we responded with one rather salient question the interviewer never asked, the answer to which inquiring minds would want to know: for which candidate did these unfortunates cast their ballot?

Just sayin’, as it kinda, sorta makes a difference as to the level of compassion they’re owed.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

We lead off the month of February with an item from NRO, as Andy McCarthy details how the…

Democrats’ Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act Shields Jihadists

 

“How interesting that the familiar array of Islamist-apologist and left-wing groups, notoriously opposed to U.S. counterterrorism efforts, has lined up in support of congressional Democrats’ latest push for a “Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.” Could it be because the proposed legislation goes out of its way to shield domestic terrorists who are catalyzed by foreign jihadist organizations?

You needn’t read far into the bill to hear the alarm bells.

Section 2 provides a definition for “domestic terrorism.” Sounds sensible…until you remember that federal law already has a definition of domestic terrorism. The term is codified by Section 2331(5) of the criminal code. It’s been there for a long time, and it’s perfectly fine. So why would we need another one?

Obviously, Democrats are not defining but redefining. The point is not to clarify what is already clear about domestic terrorism. It is to carve out an exemption from the definition — specifically, to create a new safe haven for a very specific category of terrorist.

…Here’s a thought experiment: Every time the proposed legislation invokes the term “white supremacism,” ask yourself what Democrats and their supporters would say about a bill that instead said “sharia supremacism” — the animating ideology of jihadist terrorists.

As federal law has recognized for decades, all terrorism in our country poses a threat. None of it should be exempted, and all of it should be aggressively investigated and prosecuted, consistent with the constitutional principle of equal protection under the law. The Democrats’ proposal is not about countering terrorism; it is about weaving a political narrative.

The shielding of jihadists is no surprise. The last time Joe Biden was helping run the government, the word “terrorism” was verboten and “violent extremism” was substituted. Out of this same epistemological haze came such tragi-comic terms as “man-caused disasters,” so determined were Democrats to avoid upsetting their Islamist allies by noticing the not infrequent coincidence of terrorism and Muslims. (Apparently, “white-man-caused disasters” can safely be called terrorism.)

Studiously unmentioned in the Democrats’ proposal, moreover, is the radical left — no Antifa, no Black Lives Matter militants, no communists, anarchists, or enviro-terrorists. Even as Portland, Seattle, and Denver remain under siege, the plan is to pretend that the last seven months of insurrectionist rioting never happened; or if it did, that it was the noble kind of insurrection.

The proposed Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 would prevent terrorism about as much as President Biden’s executive order blitz will meet his inaugural vow to unite the country. Under the guise of addressing a real problem, Democrats would give a pass to jihadists and left-wing militants, appease their interest groups, and intensify the nation’s deep divisions. If that’s your idea of security, consider yourself united!“

It’s life imitating art…

…as Dimocrats and their corporate accomplices sell out their country for personal power and profit.

More important is who will unquestionably come under the specific scrutiny of the numerous special units, departments and committees tasked with rooting out these rebels: White gun owners.  To which we say…

How fitting it would be if the eventual answer to the Dimocrats’ intended despotism is the same proposed by Corporal Hicks…

…in Aliens:

Since we’re on the subject of the true nature of terrorism facing America, Frontpage Mag tells us…

ANOTHER Muslim-American Soldier Turns to Terrorism

Exposing where his true loyalties lie.

 

We’ll defer comment on this one to the input of G. Trevor, which we confess to having subjected to minor editing:

“What upsets me more than anything is the fact The Left went ballistic over the mob’s intrusion into the Capitol, when they didn’t bat an eye at the violence to private businesses all summer. Personally, I think it far more justifiable people angered over the theft of the election stormed the place of business of those instrumental in stealing it than the random ransacking and destruction of private business on Any Street USA by mobs angered over the OD of a career criminal. But then, I must appreciate The Left’s violence is merely a protest, while a significantly lower level of lawlessness from anyone the merest Right of center constitutes insurrection and an attack on civility.“

Or at least, that’s what GTV meant to say!  Wink, wink!

Meanwhile, where’s George Casey when Progressive NEED him:

Hopefully burning in Hell.  But no worries; they now have Lloyd Austin at the helm of the Pentagon, a man dedicated to the proposition national security must take a back seat to diversity.

Turning now from terrorists to traitors…or, as is the case of Lloyd Austin and his CINC, simply the latter…as NRO‘s Brittany Bernstein reports, and you undoubtedly already know…

Ex-FBI Lawyer Clinesmith Given Probation after Admitting He Doctored Email in Trump Probe

 

“…In August, Clinesmith pleaded guilty to “one count of making a false statement within both the jurisdiction of the executive branch and judicial branch of the U.S. government, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.”

…In a court filing last month, Durham asked the judge to sentence Clinesmith to a prison sentence of up to six months — a jail term “between the middle and upper end” of the recommended sentence for the crime of making false statements in writing. Clinesmith’s attorneys argued that probation would be more appropriate.

Clinesmith pleaded guilty on August 19 to changing a June 2017 email which was originally sent to him by the CIA and which he was forwarding to the FISA Court, to make it seem as though the agency did not consider Page an intelligence source, though Page had served as an “operational contact” for the agency from 2008 to 2013. The former FBI lawyer told the court that he had altered the email, but he believed Page was not a source. (Wow: Amazing analysis from a mere lawyer untrained in the identification or classification of intelligence sources!) “At the time I believed the information I was providing in the email was accurate, but I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not already there,” Clinesmith said.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said that Clinesmith’s behavior had undermined the integrity of the FISA Court. “Courts all over the country rely on representations from the government, and expect them to be correct,” Boasberg said. However, the judge said he agreed with an earlier finding by the Justice Department Inspector General that Clinesmith and other FBI officials’ actions were not caused by political bias and that he believes Clinesmith’s claims that he thought that the information he was adding to the email was accurate. (By what reasonable standard or basis?!?)

…The CIA had made the Crossfire Hurricane team aware of Page’s work as an “operational contact” in August 2016, according to the IG report. The agents who knew of Page’s work with the CIA failed to include that information in the initial FISA application against Page. If the FBI had discovered that Page was a source for the CIA it would have “drastically” changed how the bureau handled the FISA applications, Clinesmith told the IG.“

Need we add “Judge” James E. Boasburg sits on the FISA Court?!?

Not to beat a dead lawyer (of which there can never be enough!), but again, the question isn’t how the FBI’s handling of the FISA applications would have changed had they known Carter Page was a CIA source…they most definitely did…but why Clinesmith, a relatively low-level legal bureaucrat, took it upon himself to make the utterly unsupported assumption he wasn’t?!?

In other words, it’s our two-tiered system of justice at work, as a supposedly intelligent and impartial jurist is bamboozled by meaningless arguments more parlous than…

As Jim Freeman offers at Best of the Web… 

“…This is the kind of appalling Beltway abuse of power that inspired voters to elect Mr. Trump in the first place.

…Is Judge Boasberg joking when he suggests the convict has suffered from some kind of media circus? Readers wondering how often Clinesmith has been trailed by a pack of press photographers will note that the rare stories about him are generally illustrated with a years-old official photograph. In the months after his offenses were detailed by the Justice inspector general, there was an almost complete blackout of the story in major media outlets.

The Journal’s Byron Tau offers additional reporting on the judge’s decision to be lenient:

“Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in government service—what has given his life much of its meaning,” said Judge Boasberg.

The judge responsible for punishing an attorney who helped the FBI abuse its powers to target a political campaign and then a presidency with a collusion hoax that poisoned our politics for years is concerned about the criminal’s personal search for meaning? Instead of community service, perhaps Judge Boasberg should have just ordered Clinesmith to live, laugh and love.

On the other hand, if the judge wanted at least to pretend to be concerned about a crime that went straight to the heart of our democratic process, he might have spent a moment exploring the meaning of Clinesmith’s texts about “the crazies” who supported Mr. Trump and “la resistance” within the government…”

No political bias there, Judge Boobsburg, you colossal crook!

Which brings us, inappropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these from Speed…

…one each from Andy Lang…

…the lovely Shannon…

…Carl “The Great One” Polizzi…

…our eldest Major Jon…

…and Balls Cotton, in a meme which would do Stilton Jarlsberg proud…

…and last…and certainly least…this collection of t-shirts we found rather humorous:

Finally, we’ll call it a wrap with another meme forwarded from Major Jon as relates the Game Stop kerfuffle:

Magoo

Video of the Day

Michael Knowles highlights the hopelessness of Conservatives kowtowing to the Cancel Culture; indeed, of even conceding an inch.

Tales of The Darkside

John Stossel calls foul on Wuhan hypocrites or every race, creed, color and political party, the GREAT preponderance ARE Progressives.

On the Lighter Side

The Onion takes us back to when The Dear Misleader’s teleprompter malfunctioned during dinner with Moochie. If a teleprompter was a necessary crutch for The Obamao, for 46* it’s a mandatory motorized wheelchair.