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Hiding Something Is Showing Something
So January 6 was a riot. An insurrection, even. Maybe treason? Perhaps even a coup attempt? Right. Definitely. But, the fools who attempted to replace the USA government with, um, a guy in a moose hat and no gun or something – anyway – those fools had no idea that there were surveillance cameras in the Capitol building. I mean, how could they possibly have suspected such a thing? Ha! We’ve got’em now! Ha ha!
“The Justice Department” has over 14,000 hours of video camera footage from countless cameras all over the Capitol Building on Jan 6. But believe it or not, there are some who still doubt that this was a coup, or an insurrection, or anything other than a protest of people wandering around taking selfies. But “The Justice Department” can disprove that! In only 14,o00 hours! Even less, if they put a sort of “greatest hits” videos on their website, accompanied by the full 14,000 hours for those who want to go through the whole sordid affair on their own. But regardless, that way, there would be no arguing. Nothing to argue about.
But you know what’s weird? “The Justice Department” itself has filed one injunction after another to prevent these videos from being released. Even though these very videos would prove their point, beyond the shadow of a doubt! Why is “The Justice Department” withholding the release of evidence that would support their case? Because they’re so confident! Or something! I think. Right? Um – right – um – ok, this is terrifying. Why on earth would “The Justice Department” withhold these videos? It’s been a year now. Why can’t the American people see what happened? Let’s stop arguing – just let us see what happened. You have the video. Let us see it, too. Then, no more arguing. Simple.
Until “The Justice Department” releases these videos, then I think that I know all that I need to know about January 6. If my government doesn’t want me to see these videos, then I don’t need to actually see these videos to understand what’s going on. Their efforts to hide them from me show me everything that I need to see.
Simple.
Prove me wrong, “Justice Department”.
Please.
Really – please. Please prove me wrong. I want to be wrong. I really do. This is the stuff of totalitarian regimes, right? This is not how the American government does things, right? Right? Prove me wrong. Please. Please prove me wrong.
Please…
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is grimly nodding his head right now. He tried to warn us. He really did. We didn’t listen.
What’s about to happen is not his fault.
For anyone who’s interested, you might take note that the pictures in this post up to this point are in chronological order. Backward. Because we’re going backward. Just in case anyone missed it. I’m trying to be obvious, here. It’s too late to be subtle, right?
Alexander tried, too. Perhaps his message was too subtle.
Perhaps my message is too subtle as well.
The message of “The Justice Department” is not subtle. There is no way that anyone could miss what they’re telling us, here. They’re being very open about their intentions. Who could possibly mistake that for anything other than an open threat? It’s not even a threat at this point. They’re just being honest. We should be appreciative, I suppose. They’re finally being honest about their intentions.
Most of us won’t listen to them, for various reasons. But at least they’re being honest now. We should be appreciative, I suppose.
You know things are bad when the simple act of acknowledging the obvious is an act of moral courage. At that point, you’re way down the rabbit hole.
But perhaps the lies of our government would have less impact if we declined to participate in them. Perhaps. Could be, I guess. I don’t know the answer to that question. And I suspect that I’d be happier if I never discovered the true answer to that question. Maybe I should give this some more thought. Or, maybe not.
I wonder who will win the Alabama – Georgia game?
America is a great country. I’m sure we’ll be fine.
Golly, Woodford Reserve is really good bourbon. One more glass won’t hurt anything…
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”
―
14,000 hours? That’s nearly 1.6 years! They could run it on a loop on cable TV. I can’t imagine why they don’t.
Yes, you can…
“Let’s overthrow the US government with an ‘insurrection!’
“Hay, Guys, stay inside the velvet ropes! We’re not animals.”
Same with censorship and information unavailability and journalistic incuriosity on Covid issues and the election.
I don’t know if what’s up is nothing more than perfectly ordinary human stupidity and venality.
But something’s up.
I’ve had a post formulating in my head about low-trust society and the Anti-intellectual Era in America. You may have just trumped it.
I’d say do it anyway. It’s maybe the biggest issue of the era. It needs more attention. And we’re all just playing catchup to J. S. Mill and Confucius.
It couldn’t happen to them, until it did. The lack of preparation to protect one building, using bike racks as a barrier, an epic fail. No coherent planning in a city that probably has more law enforcement than any other city in the United States. No radio communications between Capitol Hill Police supervisors and the cops on the front line during the riot.
No one on the frontline that stepped up, or had any idea what to do. No Grenadiers to deploy impact munitions, or chemical agents. With a few exceptions elected officials that have led sheltered genteel lives got a taste of the 2020 Summer of Love in any number of cities across the United States. American citizens that lost their businesses, assaulted, and in some cases lost their lives. Police officers in cities across the United States who were injured.
Disgusting.
Very weird. Especially if the defense lawyers, as they are supposed to do, demanded the videos of the areas where the defendants were supposedly being “insurrectionists.” Under the old Brady doctrine the DOJ would have to cough them up. Hopefully tomorrow will be the last Jan. 6 we have to listen to this B.S. And Go DOGS!
The defense lawyers have been demanding to see the videos. Some have been been released but most have not.
I stand by my statement that the Jan 6th goons were less destructive to the US than the Democratic majority in Congress.
Or the disastrously mismanaged and corrupt election that inspired them.
Correct me if I’m misremembering this… but in testimony and questioning before Congress Atty Gen Garland was asked directly if there was any evidence that the riot on Jan 6 was an “insurrection”. His response as I recall was surprising and concise: “No.“
i’ll correct myself. My memory was a bit off.
he was asked if anyone arrested was being charged with insurrection. His reply was “No, I don’t believe so.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/10/21/ag-garland-debunks-democrat-insurrection-claims-about-january-6th-n2597813
They have no problem posting “evidence” when it supports their case, so your point is well-made. My guess is the videos also don’t support detaining these people for a full year with no bail . . .
Yes, it is. One problem is there are several things up, all cooperating. I think of Alexander’s solution, but he had advantages: the problem was presented in a single package, and he had the right tool at hand. Our solution will not be tidy or precise.
I finally got around to watching the Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell movie last month. I was left with a rather uncomfortable feeling about the competence and overall unscrupulous nature of the FBI. So many TV dramas present the FBI as this organization that always gets their man and gets it right (FBI, Law and Order SVU, NCIS, BSU, etc.). That couldn’t be further from the truth. It took all of 5 minutes to recall these series of past ‘failures’ (feel free to add any I missed):
WTC 1st Bombing
9/11 (multiple organizational failure)
Waco
Ft. Hood
Atlanta Olympics bombing
Orlando Nightclub
San Bernardino
Olympic gymnasts
Parkland HS shooter
Las Vegas shooter?
Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot
Jan 6th withholding video and evidence
In many of these cases there were volumes of information known to the FBI prior to the event. Not sure how to interpret such an appalling track record of the ‘elite’ investigative organization in the world. Hanlon’s razor asks of me to lean toward stupidity. With such a pattern of behavior in front of me though, I find it difficult not to start considering motive. As Dr. B so succinctly put it: Please prove me wrong. Please…
Geez, I forgot Ruby Ridge
We haven’t . . .
Yes, if you look at the filings in the actual dockets, the feds have established a database of video footage for defense teams to examine. This has taken a lot of time to set up and get everyone access to it. I’m sure they add footage to it all the time, as they find it. This is likely a big reason why it has taken so long for some of the cases to go through.
It’s not all that unusual in cases with so many co-defendants. I had a case once where I was appointed to represented a guy involved in a really big phone scam, one of dozens of codefendants who had a low level involvement. For discovery, the state AG gave us all a hard drive full of millions of pages of unorganized documents – along with ones specifically about our respective clients. I complained so much about the inability of one lone attorney to go through that hard drive to find things applicable to my client that they finally just agreed to a huge reduction in the charge and probation. That was as much as could be done given the level of evidence against him, but it worked out ok for him.
Are actual charges pending? Or are they locked up without charges pending? If they do have charges pending, have they been given bail hearings? Have those bail hearings resulted in proportionally just bail amounts that can be paid so those charged can await trial at home?
My understanding of criminal justice is that you can not hold someone for longer than x hours without charging them and that holding while preparing for trial is subject to bail release until trial.
Yes, if you’re referring to the 1/6 defendants, I have not seen any reports of anyone held without charges. If anyone is under the impression they are being held without charges I think that is false. This is all a matter of public record and you can access this information at home. I think it does cost something to get a PACER account, and you have to pay 10 cents per page to retrieve specific documents, but the info is available.
Yes, that is true and all of those procedures seem to have been followed in the 1/6 cases. I believe there were some delays in transporting some of them after their arrests, due to Covid problems and other practical issues, but those same issues occurred with many defendants unrelated to 1/6 as well, and the isssues were cleared up fairly quickly.
The vast majority of 1/6 defendants were released on their own recognizance, i.e. without having to pay a cash bond, pending trial. Some did have to pay bonds, most of them have some conditions to follow, and some are being held. There is a federal law which specifies when a defendant can be held without bail. No one being held has been denied the opportunity to request release – some of them have done so repeatedly. At least one even appealed his pretrial detention order to the Court of Appeals, but lost that appeal.
You can also look on the dockets in each case, how the court pretty closely tracks the tolling of the speedy trial time calculation.
So, yes, they have all been charged and all have had multiple court appearances and opportunities to present their concerns. Of the few I’ve happened to look into who are being held, it’s usually because of a combination of a charge involving violence and/or evidence that they were involved in some of these extremist groups planning for violence – stockpiling guns near DC etc. So for them, the courts have rules the statute allows them to be held without bail. I’m not a huge fan of that law, but it’s been around for decades.
You left out Ruby Ridge. One of the FBI’s more outrageous demonstrations of incompetence and overreaction.
Your honor, we can’t possibly comply with FOI requests or discovery demands for the footage because
Probably a lot of truth in those presumptions…
Good post. January 6th was an embarrassment, the hyperbolic response to it a travesty. I read your post, and I probably won’t read any more on the topic this week. It has become, has always been, a convenient club with which to wallop the departed President and anyone who isn’t sufficiently discerning as to despise him. And, anyway, I’m getting over the head cold formerly known as covid.
“So January 6 was a riot. An insurrection, even. Maybe treason? Perhaps even a coup attempt?”
I was going to draw the line at a riot. But then I saw the cast of Hamilton singing at the House Remembrance today. I may have to re-examine my beliefs.
Komrade, you don’t need to see the video, we have told you what happened and you just need to listen to the approved sources and think what we tell you. War is Peace, Ignorance in Strength, and we have
alwaysneveralways been at war with East AsiaLike a magician so confident in the crowds ignorance he doesn’t even bother with the sleight of hand anymore.
This post provides perhaps the only useful backdrop for Paul Simon’s 60’s hit. Hint: the neon god is DC.
Great pose and a great pic of a young Bjorn Borg holding a Wimbledon trophy!