Rittenhouse, Bannon et al.
Trolling the first amendment.
Kyle Rittenhouse is the Emmett Till of the right wing, white, self-armed mob. The difference is that Rittenhouse is alive, so he doesn’t qualify as a martyr. Nonetheless, Rittenhouse, who killed and maimed street protestors, performed “heroic acts,” according to some.
November 15
Rittenhouse’s kind is policing women’s health providers in another ‘rogue North American state,’ Texas. The intimidation does not stop in Kenosha and Texas: Steve Bannon, intimidator-in-chief, surrendered today to the FBI for contempt charges in withholding information in an ongoing criminal investigation. Its hard to deliberate if laws were broken January 6 when the law breaker(s) — here Bannon — refuse(s) to cooperate and to turnover evidence.
A grand jury, not Biden/Garland, delivered the arrest warrant. Nonetheless, Bannon, deprived of a second Presidential pardon, is like Rittenhouse, deprived of a dismissal: both are ‘saving’ America from herself — a failed Constitution, a divided nation, a conspiracy obsessed populace.
Waving an assault rifle in front of an angry crowd does not qualify as self-defense; no more than plotting and funding a violent assault on the USCapitol qualifies, as Bannon’s lawyers proclaim, “freedom of speech.”
Welcome to the world of ‘Rittenhouse, Bannon et al.’ One (Rittenhouse) claims intent to defend private property; the other (Bannon) claims intent to defend an election conspiracy.
We’ve been here before: antecedents aplenty there are to the current political crisis. What’s different in today’s political climate is the threat of violence, the threat of repression.
We are experiencing a ‘born-again conspiracy,’ which America can’t seem to vote itself out of — witness two failed impeachment attempts — and we may soon learn — can’t adjudicate itself out of either.
Congress passed hate crimes legislation during the fortnight following the Atlanta nail parlor murders. And “insurrection?” Well-documented arguments during the second Senate 45 Impeachment Trial point to a planned and executed insurrection. Do we see any coequal insurrection crimes legislation?
Repression is the name of the game. Not speech. Not freedom.
“Born-again terrorist” cries “Freedom,” during the violent insurrection of January 6. Courtesy Politico, November 16
November 15–17
