Libertarian Leanings

The Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

From Julie Kelly at American Greatness:

But as defendants prepare for trial, the media-crafted façade surrounding the Whitmer plot, just like the immediate designation of January 6 as an “armed insurrection,” is falling apart. Court documents suggest at least 12 FBI agents and informants helped develop the scheme in the spring of 2020; Garbin and his co-defendants were arrested on October 7 after attempting to buy explosives from an undercover FBI agent. One informant, who went by the code name “Thor,” was paid $24,000 and given a new car by the FBI for his services.

A bombshell report by Darren Beattie at Revolver News explained the FBI’s extensive role in orchestrating the most damning aspects of the kidnapping caper. “The plot’s ‘explosives expert,’ who the plotters were accused of planning to buy bombs from, turned out to be an FBI agent. The head of transportation for the militia outfit turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. The head of security for the militia outfit turned out to be an undercover FBI informant. At least two undercover FBI informants were active participants in the initial June 6, 2020 meeting in which the plot to storm Capitol buildings was allegedly hatched—meaning at least three FBI informants infiltrated before the conspiracy even started.”

A screenshot of a text cited in a defense motion shows FBI Special Agent Jayson Chambers, “Thor’s” handler, underscoring that the mission of the ragtag group is to “kill the governor specifically.” An in-depth report by BuzzFeed confirmed an FBI agent had been “assigned” to each suspect. 

How the FBI seemingly concocted the Whitmer kidnapping plot and made it public right before the election raises legitimate questions about the FBI’s potential involvement on January 6, especially considering the same “extremist” groups—the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers—are tied to both.

Read the rest here.

So I have to ask again.  If we didn't have the FBI, would there be a white supremacy movement in America?

Biden Bristles

Crazy that Biden thinks bringing up his son dying from brain cancer gives him any sort of insight into what military parents are going through just days after their children were blown up by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.

A complete lack of empathy. https://t.co/CoOO222f3s pic.twitter.com/Le21y4KRog

— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) August 31, 2021

The State of American News Media

This story by Emerald Robinson is about conservative intellectual media, but it illustrates what's happened to our mainstream media (MSM), as well.  They've been bought off by the progressive left.  For many media publications, it's been a decade or more since they've supported themselves the old fashioned way — through subscriptions and advertising.  

There were rumors in the summer of 2018 that an audiotape was circulating that would send shockwaves through the think tanks of Washington and the conservative intellectual movement in particular. A top Google executive had been recorded telling his fellow employees that Google generously donated to conservative think tanks and magazines to dampen criticism of their anti-conservative bias. In essence, Google was buying off Conservatism Inc. and the GOP establishment to stay silent while Google monitored, harassed, and excluded Trump supporters. If true, the tape sounded like a smoking gun: incontrovertible evidence of the corruption and double-dealing of Conservatism Inc. that would permanently discredit it with Republican voters.

I was told that the tape had been offered as an exclusive to the Wall Street Journal. Months went by, and nothing happened. (There were rumors during that time that Big Tech lobbyists were trying very hard to get the Wall Street Journal to kill the story.) Then I began to get a series of messages from various anonymous sources that the organizations that were guilty of taking Google money to stay silent included: the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the Cato Institute, CPAC, the Weekly Standard and the National Review. (A weak article appeared on September 27th by John McKinnon in the Wall Street Journal but it hardly mentioned the tape or its implications.) This was, needless to say, a huge story: was it possible that the entire conservative intellectual movement was being bought off by Big Tech companies?

Is it possible that any major news outlets have not been bought off by Big Tech companies?

Read the rest here.

Hat tip Neo at JOM.

The Lightning Strike Rule

For the threat of violence to be newsworthy, shouldn't it be more deadly than your chances of getting struck by lightning?

An America is killed by lightning on average once a week. According to the National Weather Service, lightning kills an average of 49 people each year in the United States and injures hundreds more. In a nation of more than 330 million people, this is a very small number, a statistical rarity. Therefore I propose the “Lightning Strike Rule of Journalism” — in order for any dangerous social trend to be considered newsworthy, it must pose a greater risk to the public than being killed by lightning.

The inspiration for this rule was supplied last week by Ben Makuch, a reporter for Vice who has recently specialized in reporting on white supremacist extremism, with headline after headline warning about the neo-Nazi menace: “Neo-Nazi Terrorists Planned Fortified Compound in Michigan” (February 23), “Accused Neo-Nazi Terrorist’s Account Posted Threatening Videos of Him Armed in Public” (March 3), “Former Neo-Nazi Terror Leader Gets Three-Year Prison Term” (May 4), et cetera. Makuch had been plowing this journalistic furrow for months when he published an article Thursday with the blunt headline: “Why Are So Many Marines Neo-Nazis?”

By an unfortunate coincidence, Makuch’s article was published the same day that terrorists in Kabul killed 12 Marines in a suicide bomb attack. The online reaction was furious and, in some cases, obscene (my distant cousin Meghan McCain, for example). Such was the intensity of the backlash that Vice deleted their tweet promoting Makuch’s article. But deleting a tweet won’t correct the fundamental problem with Makuch’s reporting, namely that the phenomenon he has been covering so diligently in recent months is such a statistical rarity as to violate the Lightning Strike Rule.

Read the rest here.

Would There Be a White Supremacy Movement Without the FBI?

According to court documents, the FBI funded a white supremacist publisher to the tune of $144,000 for 16 years.

The FBI allegedly paid a publisher of white supremacist literature more than $144,000 over 16-plus years to serve as a confidential informant, according to recent filings in an ongoing domestic extremism case.

These allegations were made earlier this month by Kaleb Cole, an accused member of the white supremacist group Atomwaffen. Cole was arrested in February 2020 for allegedly participating in an Atomwaffen intimidation campaign against Jewish people and journalists of color.

[...]

The allegations about the Atomwaffen informant follow revelations about the heavy role FBI informants played in the failed plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A Buzzfeed News investigation last month found that the FBI used at least 12 informants involved with the kidnapping—suggesting that the scheme might not have started in the first place without the FBI.

“Working in secret, they [the informants] did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception,” Buzzfeed reported. “The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”

Questions have also been raised about the role FBI informants may have played in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.

Read the rest here. 

Hat tip Janet and CH, JOM2 

Our Commander-In-Chief

This is outrageous, but he’s bored because it’s really just another day at the office for him. He championed every nation building / regime change war since 9/11. Dead troops are just another bureaucratic procedure for him & our ruling class. pic.twitter.com/fbzUGG7Eq5

— Joe Kent for WA-3 (@joekent16jan19) August 29, 2021

The Coming Conservative Counterculture

For the first time ever, Fox News's Gutfeld! won the TV ratings for late-night comedy, beating out CBS's The Late Show and NBC's The Tonight Show.

What must CBS and NBC be feeling to have their mighty networks beaten by Fox News, the frequent butt of their attempts at humor, and a comic right-wing pundit with a staff maybe 20 times smaller than their own?

Gutfeld’s triumph is deserved not because he’s more conservative than the other two, but because he’s much funnier. Colbert and Fallon used to be, before they became embarrassing Democratic shills. They don’t tell jokes, they tell wokes. They don’t earn laughter from the audience, they get clapter — a Pavlovian response signifying audience agreement with their political point. A few genuine chuckles are more rewarding than five full minutes of clapter. And Gutfeld works for every single one.

Read the rest here.

Prague Newspaper Quote Hits the Nail on the Head

Will Brown: Award-winning Africa reporter for @Telegraph & @TelGlobalHealth

And Biden just walked away from all of this equipment. Left it for the Taliban. Your tax dollars at work.

A mind-blowing graphic in today's Times on what $85bn worth of lost equipment means in practice for the Taliban: pic.twitter.com/GDcuNQbb6P

— Will Brown (@_Will_Brown) August 29, 2021

But I'm Not Supposed To...

“I’m not supposed to,” says the alleged leader of the free world. 🙄 #PINO https://t.co/ePUJZhNFuV

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) August 29, 2021