By BERNADETTE WILSON
For better or for worse, history has been made this week.
Lost in all the commotion is a most critical question that deserves a thoroughly contemplated answer.
Millions of Americans watched as our house, “the People’s House“ was breached and security fences torn down. Windows were bashed in and lives were lost, one of them being inside the U.S. Capitol Building itself, at the hands of an officer.
Social media erupted in debate as to who was to blame, as photos surfaced suggesting that a few of the rioters that spoiled it for the protesters, were actually Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists.
It was heartbreaking. It was infuriating. And it was embarrassing, all at the same time.
Condemnation of the heinous acts was so prevalent, it makes one question how the Antifa riots continued in the fashion that they did in 2020 for as long as they did. Their riots lasted months. Admonishment was entirely warranted back then.
I read statements and social media comments stating that Republicans are the “party of law“ and that this was not the way to get real change. And I found myself agreeing.
Yet a question burned in my heart: What action does justify the American people storming their Capitol? What warrants a civil war?
I know what warranted a Civil War in the 1860s. I know how we justified the Revolutionary War.
But for Americans today, in the year 2021, what act is so egregious that it would justify a civil war? At what point is it acceptable to throw the tea into the harbor?
Alaska’s congressional delegation and Gov. Mike Dunleavy all issued statements admonishing the behavior of the rioters in Washington D.C. I can’t say I disagree with any of them.
But there is a burden on our elected officials to tell us, through their eyes, when is it OK for Americans to rebel?
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Dan Sullivan, Congressman Don Young, and Gov. Dunleavy: What action could be so bad? Do the people ever have the right to overthrow their government? If so, when?
As elected officials, time and time again, you have told upset Americans to take their grief to the ballot box, but when the ballot box is broken, what do they do?
When the only vehicle that guarantees a say in all of their other freedoms is wiped away from them, what do they do?
Republicans are not the party of law and peace, as too many have stated. We are the ones that led the Civil War. And thank God we did.
And for my fellow Alaskans, and Americans, most importantly this question should be asked of you. History shows the decision is yours.
No government entity, no citizen, wants to go to war with their neighbor. Yet the crusades took place, Joan of Arc went before us, a Revolutionary War and a Civil War were fought and every day, average Americans became heroes.
What we do know is the answer to the question of “when” is surely not “never.”
For the last 60+ years, Americans have subscribed to a mantra of “peace not war.” Was this the beginning of our conditioning by our government to give the government free rein?
Let me be very clear, I am not condoning a civil war. Nor is this “when” a question for which I have an answer.
What I am asking all of us is what I believe we owe each other: a considered conversation about what could be so egregious that a civil war or a government takeover by the people would be warranted?
We know it’s not the killing of millions of innocent babies. No civil war erupted after abortion became legal.
We know it’s not the stripping of our religious rights. Our churches were shut down in March of last year. Again, no war.
Even our freedom of speech has been chipped away at dramatically. Yes, Facebook and Twitter are private companies and can do as they please. However the fact that they do not appreciate our American values of free speech, even to the extent that they silence our president, has sparked no nationwide violence.
Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools has been largely removed.
Even the very heart of our republic – transparency and fair elections – are not egregious enough to constitute a civil war, society says.
So what does?
When a woman asked Benjamin Franklin as he left the Constitutional Convention, “What have you given us, Mr. Franklin?” he replied, “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”
And so a most critical question that deserves a thoroughly contemplated answer must be addressed : How will we keep it?
Bernadette Wilson is a business owner, mom, and civic leader in Anchorage.
Just the question I ask the citizens of Anchorage, who helplessly stand by watching the tyrannical assembly trample rights into the dirt. The Capitol is far away; they cannot protect their rights in their own neighborhoods.
Ms. Wilson,
You do not know how good you have it compared to the conditions that brought about the civil war in America. This act of sedition by Trump loyalists was nothing more than a small percent of MAGA wannabies lashing out in public. Four people died yesterday and Congress is working to invoke the 25th amendment. When the dust clears in a few weeks, we will see that Trump was the worst president in U.S. history. The republican party will take a full decade to rebuild if there is any chance that the GOP will ever be looked upon for leadership again in this great nation.
See Stine, you use the condescending “MAGA wannabes” ( Deplorables, , Chumps ) I have two words for you…..maybe a few words. I think I have a right to vote and support whom I wish.. Biden ended the primaries with 15% , Harris 2% in the primaries. Biden has cognitive issues.. DIMOCRATS allow violence, destruction for 2 years all over the country. Businesses, court houses, , police stations burned down. Harris was fundraising to get the perpetrators out of jail. Biden advocated to defund the police, even though he can’t remember saying it. It’s on film. Now all of a sudden everyone is “woe is me” . I do not condone what happened yesterday in the Capitol but I also don’t condone what happened in Minneapolis, Portland ,Seattle. Where were all the appalled then?
Indications are Antifa infiltrated the otherwise peaceful protest.. MAGA
Your comment and use of the word sedition:
“When the dust clears in a few weeks, we will see that Trump was the worst president in U.S. history. The republican party will take a full decade to rebuild if there is any chance that the GOP will ever be looked upon for leadership again in this great nation”
History says genocide happens when at least two things happen: a population are disarmed and they, or their party, are dehumanized.
That disarmament process will begin soon. The dehumanization of one group of Americans has already begun. By your ‘side’ I might add. Comments like yours and those of other (presumably) Democrats today signal that the Conservative right have reason, have always had reason, to be concerned about their future and their beliefs. .
No one justifies what happened January 6. But those same people watched marxist, racist, privileged, uneducated mobs destroy inner cities in 2020 that red areas pay taxes for. One political party lauded their destruction Another sat by and watched. Corporations nervously donated billions in to the riotors’ cause. National and civic heroes were anointed. Statues were destroyed. New political parties formed. And the ultimately ignorance of all, there was an attempt to change history. It appears when you riot and loot for increased government control and intrusion into your life, you are rewarded. When you riot for independence and freedom of your own speech or thoughts, no matter how misguided, you are denounced by all. Including by your own party.
The fact the cultural left are not right now wondering if perhaps they have gone too far…that there is in fact a history of goodness in this country that precedes them…is more worrisome than what happened yesterday.
Sorry Steve, you are snowflake and need to stay in your safe space until this blows over.
It depends on what version of history gets written the truth, or the ones written by Pelosi and Biden. You don’t seem to remember all the good stuff that Trump did, rather, you always tend to want to look at the negative. That’s how it is with comrades like you. You want your cake and eat it too, and then you complain to the baker that it wasn’t sweet enough. Poor spoiled saps. On the other hand, I’m so glad that Biden is going to raise your taxes. I hope he taxes the hell out of you. That’s what you wanted right, you wanted to actually start paying for all the free stuff you get instead of just taking advantage of the situation?
When the elected lawmakers of our country, Nancy Pelosi for example, have proven they are corrupt and hold themselves above the law, that is the time for protest. When elections are rigged so that the corrupt can maintain their positions of power (again the example of Nancy Pelosi), that is the time. When lawmakers, (such as Nancy Pelosi et al), pass a pandemic relief bill, and vote to send money to FOREIGN COUNTRIES, and support things that have NOTHING to do with pandemic relief, THAT is the time for absolute protest!
Bernadette,
Your views are valid in a normal world. For now, address the leftists who committed the biggest theft, fraud and betrayal of American citizens in the history of our country and beyond. American patriots have the ‘right’, and the duty, to defend America, this very minute. America is in the process of being turned into a socialist third world ghetto. Thanks to the democrat leftists, America, without authentic Americans taking up the ‘call to arms’ is finished. The revolution was painful, the civil war was painful, conceding America to the left is extremely painful. Let it happen and suffer the consequences. We, the people, are in charge of America. Ignore that and America is no more.
With this fraudulent election it is entirely permissible and rational to be in Rebellion against an illegitimate government. Don’t cooperate, don’t make anything easy for them.
Civil war? That may come, too.
This lady needs to run for Don Young’s House seat in 2022, as a Republican. She so much more attractive than Alyse Galvin.
When the mainstream media has never once questioned the failures of Obamacare, Hunter Biden, voter irregularities, or the effect of over-regulation on small business, you become frustrated.
Well written. Our do nothing legislators are the real cause and what do they do-nothing!
Your profundity leaves me speechless.
You willfully delude yourself when saying that the ballot box is broken. It wasn’t when the GOP won, and it isn’t now (and you know it).. You’re simply parroting the excuse for losing the election so skillfully laid out months in advance by Trump so that you don’t need to admit to yourself that your candidate was deficient in every way, the American people saw that, and they voted him out. Simple as that.
Next time the GOP wins, which they will, let’s see how loud you scream about election fraud.
Your reply absolutely epitomizes the problem today. Instead of even attempting to understand a perspective, you simply point your finger and place blame and say get over it. How can you discount 70 million voters? Do they have a voice? According to you, those 70 million people are simply pawns of a well laid out plan that you were smart enough to see through. Maybe you should run for office as it appears you are way smarter than 70 million of us.
Well, the simple truth is that 80 million people voted for Biden and he won the election. Now you can piss and moan about that, as many of us did when, in 2016, Trump won the election but lost the popular vote by 3 million. Did they have a voice? Yes, but it wasn’t enough because of the electoral college.
The problem is that Trump lost and refuses to accept the outcome. He has attempted to usurp the Presidency through lies and obfuscation (look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls), and, finally, by sending a mob into the Capitol of the United States to attempt to steal the election from the citizens of this country.
No offense but this was a rigged election, plain and simple. “Next time the GOP wins” ain’t likely to happen. Now that the dems have achieved their dream of full control of our government with a figurehead president, their next step will be to take steps to make their party the dominant party much like the PRI in Mexico, a party that never loses an election. Rigged elections are now SOP. In short, our democratic way of life is in serious jeopardy.
I’ve never been able to decide whether you’re simply deluded or are a troll parroting the communist, excuse me, Democrat Party line. What was skillfully laid out months in advance was a scheme to overcome the defects in the vote fraud scheme used by HRC in ’16, which was skillfully defeated by Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytics. That is why the communists, excuse me, Democrats went after Bannon so rabidly and chased him out of the Country and to a monastery in Italy where he lived under heavy guard for awhile.
That senile old windbag that hardly left his basement and then only when hyped up on Adderal didn’t get 80 million votes; Dominion computers gave him 80 million votes. Some of us know the root of that word and one may wonder what they intended to dominate with those machines. Even so, they almost failed once again by underestimating President Trump’s support, so they had to take the brazen step of shutting down the vote counts in six key states and expelling all observers so they could haul out the counterfeit ballots and reprogram the tabulators by dark of night. There is plenty of evidence and the scheme is so obvious that anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see it. What nobody can come up with a good explanation for is what person or entity is so powerful that they can control six US state governments and the US federal government, but then we’re no more likely to ever have an authoritative accounting of the events of the night of 3-4 Nov. 2020 than we are of having an accounting of the events of 22 Nov. 1963.
So much evidence indeed that the courts would barely hear the cases before laughing them out of court.
I am hoping for your eventual enlightenment, sir.
Spoken like an ignorant a** who has never taken a case to court.
Whidbey – the Courts never heard the evidence. All the cases were thrown out on procedural grounds. The last thing those judges wanted to see was the evidence!
In reality, the last thing the left and those cowardly or complicit judges wanted was for anyone to see the evidence. That’s why they gaslighted a riot at the Capitol and kept the objectors from presenting their case meaningfully, and thus the coup d’etat was complete.
The discovery process can take years before a case even gets assigned a true trial date. Art is correct, though. And the truth will eventually unfold. A smoking gun document needs to be found, such as the computer software programs for the Dominion optical scanners, which shows actual evidence of vote switching. Affidavits provided by lay observers will not move the courts. Affidavits by “experts” who are statutorially defined as experts will probably give credence to these theories.
Eh, no.
I didn’t decry the election in 1992, 1996, 2008 or 2012, when the Democrats won the election. I didn’t vote for any of those candidates, but all evidence suggested that was the will of the people, so I accepted the results. Actually, in point of fact, “my” candidate didn’t win in 2016, either; I voted for Gary Johnson.
However, given the thousands of affidavits alleging election fraud (sworn under penalty of perjury, I might add), after watching video of Pennsylvania election workers obscuring windows to prevent observers from seeing what was taking place inside, after seeing the video of election workers in Georgia process hidden ballots after poll watchers had left for the night, and after watching election laws ignored — not changed by the Legislature, but simply *IGNORED*, like AK judges ruling that no witness signature was required for mail-in ballots, despite the law saying otherwise — at the very least, we have reason to question the results of the 2020 election.
So yes, the soapbox (FB, Twitter, etc.) is broken. It appears that the ballot box is broken, if half the country, including 33% of Independents and even 18% of Liberals don’t believe this was a free and fair election. Given that the judges have ignored election laws and legislated from the bench, if they even deigned to hear the cases, it would seem that the jury box is broken, too. That only leaves one box, so I can’t be surprised if people are starting to consider it, instead.
I think the ones the DNC has to fear is the Democrat voters or hard left supporters themselves, when they start to feel the hard effects affecting their personal life coming thru Democrat policies, when their eyes are open they were lied to by their very democrat and rhino elect they trusted. The democrat voter anger will be uncontrollable, chaos and lawlessness in the streets, they be madder than disturbed bees. Trump supporters already saw the vision, they know what is coming. This world is slipping away as we know it, there is no place for the ‘Mayflower Christians’ to run and start a new community. THIS IS IT! We are living the final era for how shorter is time, and the only hope is bringing the hope of Jesus into grieving Americans lives. Now, Everyone knows who are the GOP and who are the DNC, the idols are knocked over, and many people are looking for Hope that can never Die. If we are only living for ourselves, our nationalism, our family, our retirement, we aren’t living at all if we go up into the air without bring at least one person we shared the Hope we have in Jesus Christ.
Abraham Lincoln had Jesus Christ, most of the army were Christ followers, that Civil War had God going out before them. They were repentant of their sins. We don’t have a lot of time to continue screwing around. You keep your government as the Isrealites were told over and over when they Love God with their whole heart and keep God’s laws and commands. You raise up idols and bow down to them practicing detestable sins and immorality you will be given over as slaves to your enemies.
Jen, sorry to disagree with you, but your religion is pure fantasy. It is not the cure for what ails society – in fact, Evangelical support of the current Administration is poisoning society even further. I am hoping for your eventual enlightenment. Cast off your religion, and be set free!
“War is peace. Lies are truth. Freedom is slavery.”
You are so enlightened you can’t even see your chains. Well done, sir.
When billionaires are required to pay income taxes it will be time for a civil war.
You hit it right on the head. While no sane or normal person wishes or hopes for violence, at what point do you think “what other options are there”? I’ve never wholly trusted our election tallies to begin with but this one has a stink on it that Ajax can’t get out. My hackles went up as soon as they stopped counting and I told my wife “this is it… this is how they’re gonna take it from us”. Then all the reports and first hand videos of the all of the count watchers being kicked out and barred from being close enough to actually watch. Then you have all of the videos of the counters applauding said watchers being escorted out of the building, counters blinding the windows so they can’t even be watched from the next room… I mean, what are we SUPPOSE to think?
What blows my mind is that the left doesn’t even argue those accounts. How can any person with even a shred of integrity and common sense think this was a “free and fair” election?
“Nothing to see here. Move along.”
smh
Anytime the American voters feel cheated and democracy has broken down is a time to act. Without that we are not America which is about what we’ve turned into…. a nation ran by thugs.
Well, I can go out on the street and find any number of people who feel cheated and that democracy has broken down because it isn’t working for them, but the basis of democracy is that you work together as a group for the betterment of all. If that’s not the plan, then what is? What works for me and my kind? Then we’re back to living in hovels and waging war on the other tribes.
I think you’re partially right. What we’ve turned into these last four years is a nation that has had to confront the fact that we are being run by the master thug, and on Wednesday he turned his minions into a mob in an effort to take back what he thought he was cheated out of despite all evidence to the contrary.
Biden won. Trump lost. It has been audited and recounted and certified over and over. It is an established fact. Feeling cheated because your guy didn’t win is, by definition, Unamerican, .
As you know I was talking about the rigged and stolen election casting doubts on democracy. Also I was casting doubts on democracy when the department of Justice takes up the steel dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton for a bogus impeachment trial and investigation. That sort of thing. There, fixed it for you.
I not only witnessed it first hand, as an ignorant youth I participated in it. You don’t magically get a simultaneous jump with just enough votes going over the top in several states without nefarious coordination. I was part of the machine, I saw it. I don’t know if this election was honest or not, but Stacy Abrams brags about not having to match signatures; Joe Biden, before the election, bragged about the ‘greatest voter fraud organization ever created’. One person, one legal vote is all I want. And after the things I DID, it must be one verified vote IN PERSON to assure honesty.
Prove it.
Righhhhttttt! We were good, very good. We visited nursing homes with stacks of absentee ballots and ‘helped’ old people fill them out. It was all legit and I helped ‘the party’. Fortunately Bill Daley also helped ‘the party’ manage those pesky rioters that year too. One person, one legal verified vote IN PERSON.
The only reason you have to believe that this election was stolen is that Trump told you so as part of his orchestrated plan to falsely discredit it. Anyone who believes him is a sucker, indeed.
You have been played.
Well said Bernadette! ??
Thank you for posing a most important question. For an answer, let us re-read the Declaration of Independence.
It’s an easy question: people have the right, the responsibility, to rebel when their government becomes adversarial to their Constitutional rights and freedoms.
Peacefully if at all possible. But all options must be open dealing with a fascist government.
Good questions raised.
“No government entity, no citizen, wants to go to war with their neighbor.”
You sure about that? I can think of several people that would happily shoot as many Walmart looters as bag limits might allow.
And a question for you. I see you are a political animal of sorts and enjoy the politician’s perspective when it comes to decrying past behavior. Do you have a solution to propose or is a scolding rant all this is about? You know Art Chance already does that here, right?
Oh, I can propose solutions, but stupid lefty punks wouldn’t like them.
It’s not hard to point out problems – for anyone. “How do we get from where we are to where we should be?” is a lot harder to answer. The left is never going to allow us the same freedom to commit illegal acts in support of our desired goals like BLM and Antifa were allowed – and now those cities that burned are using CARES Act $ to help rebuild – in violation of the spirit of that law if not the letter. I do not want my tax $ going to pay for their stupidity – but starting a retaliatory rebellion is not the answer to that. Writing and enforcing just laws is the best answer. War is the last resort, an admittance that we have already lost since we would be willing to destroy what’s left of what we love. That’s what the left doesn’t understand. The left would have zero effectiveness if it weren’t for the foreign actors and a few traitors with lots of money supporting them.
I think Walmart looters should actually have a consequence instead of getting away Scott free. If their armed, then match fire with fire. I believe in the rule of law and I detest lawbreakers.
Well, in all honesty I have to admit that, despite many disagreements with you, you got the last part right. Well, maybe the first part too, although I refuse to participate in bagging Walmart looters unless they grab that last bag of toilet paper from me.
There has to be a consequence when looters go in carrying out big screen TVs and burning down businesses and barricading police in a police precinct building and setting it on fire attempting murder. There has to be a reckoning and accounting for that sort of action.
Amen
I had a History professor at UAS who was a Canadian Marxist, and that notwithstanding one of the better professors I had, who gave me the best explanation of the Declaration of Independence I’ve ever heard. The colonies of British North America were not independent nations so formal governmental declarations of war were not fitting. My professor described the Declaration as a gentlemanly complaint for divorce; if you were going to sever your relations with someone, you had an obligation to tell them why.
We are not in the same place with today’s left as were our forefathers with the British Government. Fundamentally, our forefathers viewed themselves as British citizens entitled to the rights and privileges thereof and who felt that they were unfairly being deprived of those rights by various abuses and usurpations.
We’re not really even in the same place as were the North and South in 1860. It is telling that the only differences between the Constitutions of the United States and the Confederate States are that the CS set a six year term for the President with no right of succession, a ban on Confederate government funding of internal improvements in the several states, and, the big one, a Constitutional guarantee of keeping slaves in involuntary servitude. The reality was that the 85% of Southerners who didn’t own slaves didn’t like slaves and liked the people who owned them even less, but they disliked meddling Yankees even more. From the bottom to the top of the Southern social order, they hated the meddlesome, arrogant, and condescending Yankees. All you have to do is read Olmstead’s stories of his travels in The South to understand why. When Lincoln first met Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” his first words were, “so you’re the little lady that brought on this great war.”
That is where we are today. The self-anointed elites view us the way the Nazis viewed Jews; we are subhuman and not entitled to the civil rights of humans. The soapbox has failed because we’re subhuman and the arrogant, condescending left can’t stoop to listen to us. The jury box has failed because most of the judicial system are the arrogant, condescending left. The ballot box has failed because the arrogant, condescending left has arrogated to itself the right and power to steal elections. That only leaves one box, and fortunately we untermenchen have more of those.
Good question:
“But for Americans today, in the year 2021, what act is so egregious that it would justify a civil war?”
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The Declaration of Independence does a pretty decent job of answering that question.
“…Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security….”
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It is evident from that passage alone the Founders of this nation saw armed conflict as a last resort.
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There are four boxes available to a patriot to inspire and enact change in government. The first of these has been closed to conservative voices for a while now. The few “soap boxes” that will allow conservative voices are derided and ridiculed by the myriad of more liberal outlets. Social media has clearly demonstrated their disdain for respectful discourse with those on the right side of the political aisle.
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Which leads us to the second box, the ballot box. IF the events of the 2020 election did not demonstrate that box is a non starter, nothing will. Even if there was zero fraud whatsoever, the last election told anyone who would cheat that it would be ignored.
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Leading to the next box, the jury box. That one is well on its way to being closed to a conservative case. The antifa/blm rioters who were not charged and released, the cases brought about the election that were dismissed without a hearing, even the SCOTUS which chose not to take up the TX v PA case because (rumored) of the riots.
Add to that the call to pack the court with additional justices, solely to ensure a liberal bias.
No, the third box is closed as well.
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Which leaves the fourth box, the ammo box.
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When this nation sets itself on a path where only voices from the left side of the political aisle can be heard, and only candidates from the same side of the aisle can be elected, and challenges to that election will not be heard, it may be time to consider civil war.
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And, that thought terrifies me.
We’ve been in the midst of a mostly non-kinetic civil war for some time now. This asymmetric war on our constitutional republic and its citizens has featured information operations, psychological warfare, economic terrorism, lawfare, cyber warfare, infiltration, subversion & endless other means carried out by foreign and domestic enemies. The latter are the most insidious.
When We The People shed the divisions imposed upon us, unite and act upon defending our God-given freedoms & liberties, then there will be righteous change.
The republican party is not the party of law and order, they have become the party of weakness and cowards. They have allowed the democrats lawlessness to grow and they will throw their president, voters and republic under the bus in a heartbeat. They are dead to this voter.
All three branches of our government simply brushing off the allegations of voter fraud, and having the gall to claim that it doesn’t matter if there was any, once the votes are certified, is so wrong in so many ways.
If there was a military coup tomorrow, I wouldn’t feel any worse off than I do today. After this election, anything else will be so Oh-Hum, just one damned thing after another.
70+ million voters are content with the end justifying the means. Another 70+ million voters strongly disagree. Immovable object meet irresistible force.
Whatever happens from here on out won’t care about legalities, nor damages. Inertia. Things have inertia. 70 million vs. 70 million has inertia. Totally unpredictable, but predictably dangerous.
Trump supporters, specifically the Insurectionists,arent a bright lot.Quick to be led by there nose.Quick to show there faces, quick to post on social media.Of course now, since its all over the news,FBI/local enforcement services are very good at scanning social media and utilizing facial recognition software.
FISA Court search warrants will probably cause a momentary spike in printer paper price.Theyll be able to access DMV data base, probably the best facial pic data base in the country.
Its quite possible the soon to be ex president and even a few senators may find themselves knee deep in lawyer fees.At the very least, out of a job….
“His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice,” Mattis said. “Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country.” -James Mattis 1/6/20
The Declaration of Independence tells us the answer to your questions.
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When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Most specifically this section…
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Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Personally I think we are closer to the former rather than the latter, but I understand how some people feel we are closer to the latter in some respects.
Bernadette of the Bernadette and Berkowitz show once again flatters with a minimal understanding of civics and history. Joan of Arc? Republicans starting the civil war?
Sorry, low IQ.
Apparently only those on the left are given a free pass to riot, take whole city blocks without repercussions, they can riot for days, and they get a free pass. I’m not in any way condoning the actions of angry citizens on the White House but I can’t help but see how differently this was portrayed in the media. Didn’t the Liberals pull this same crap a few years ago? I was ashamed and as a Conservative I expected more out of a Republican gathering, like a peaceful protest and a show of support for President Trump. I expect Liberal/Socialists to act this way because they seldom have control over their emotions, but I have to say I’m dismayed by this temper tantrum. Maybe it’s just months of fake news, a stolen election, and fear for our America and the deep distrust of government on all levels that fostered the breaking point. The country is under control of the Socialists now, the best we can do is learn how to survive their agenda. Good luck comrades.
Thank you, Bernadette, for your thought-provoking article. We are a federation of states that have worked more or less together since the formation of our country; except of course, when we had our horrible civil war. Our system has not been perfect but despite regional and ethnic differences, residents of all states worked together to create a representative republic that has given us good government for a long time. The hallmark of our republic has been free and fair elections. The 2020 election destroyed that hallmark. Democrats have vowed to “remake America” and they now have the tools to do it. Not since our civil war era has there been the raw, open divide that currently exists in our country. The sad fact is that many of the changes that the democrats have in mind will be irreparable once put in place. Statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico; adding justices to the supreme court, throwing our southern borders wide open will result in changes that will not be feasible to reverse. Of course, rigged elections are here to stay. It may be time for states with a general commonality of thought, a commitment to rational, transparent government and free and fair elections to consider secession and the formation of a new republic.
This was Reaction actions on all accounts.
Especially witnessed in the House afterwards as the faux reading and debates so quickly returned, freshly lit with a goal of confirmation spurned on by indignation about hate filled Trump violent protesters (how dare they) storming the bastion of democracy…”the people’s house”.
It was planned, Set up
Wait 24 hours before forming an opinion.
When State Judges refuse to hear evidence of election fraud & dismiss election lawsuits on process technicalities & when the US Supreme Court rejects to hear election cases brought by States – one would have to be willfully ignorant to believe that as a country we can continue on our happy way.
You raise some excellent points here, Bernadette.
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So at risk of reading too much between the lines, would you suggest that it’s time to breathe new life into the Alaskan Independence Party and that we should encourage Alaska’s truly conservative leaders at all levels to change their party registrations to AKIP, Nonpartisan, or Undeclared?
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And given Biden’s declaration that he’ll be shutting down the country for a minimum of 100 days immediately after taking office, that he’ll be shutting down oil and gas development, and that he’ll be coming after privately owned firearms, accessories, and ammo as well as commerce in same, would you also say that Dunleavy should be loudly and publicly put on notice that we expect him to aggressively sue the Feds citing the Second, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments, the Alaska Constitution, and the Alaska Firearms Freedom Act in response to any and all related Executive Orders and/or federal legislation which seem likely to come down the pike? And what would you say he should expect if he demonstrates the same appalling lack of backbone that he’s shown us so many times in the relatively short period of time that he’s held his office?
The Alaskan Independence Party has shown desperation to raise their numbers, and has apparently let in all the psychos, conspiracy theorists, and other misfits.
Until they get real, and start seriously vetting their membership, they’re going nowhere.
Oh, I forgot, IMO: Some of their leadership are among the ones in need of vetting.
Politicians tend to do what’s best for their reelection and not what’s best for the people and republic. The republican party is not the party it started out to be. They have sold their souls to the DC devil. We can’t keep voting for them and expecting different results. We need to create a new party or revolution will be the answer
Maybe the real question to be asked is what rights have been taken away from us? What socialist agenda has been undertaken? What fraud actually took place? Where is ANY EVIDENCE of voter fraud and a stolen election? When do we hold a a lying elected leader accountable for selling his base on the idea that the election was stolen without any proof? The question is not when should there be a civil uprising, it should be why people are believing all the lies being sold to them and this giving the idea that America is somehow in danger. This article is irresponsible at best. It is fanning the flames of delusion!!
I guess you haven’t looked at the news lately and all the lawsuits and evidence presented only to have liberal judges and rhino judges dismiss them. But since you asked, what do you think about Pennsylvania election officials that change the rules in the middle of an election and then it goes to court and the judge says well the law doesn’t exactly say they can’t do that so I guess they can when Carmen sends tells you it was rigged? Where’s the Justice in our justice system? This isn’t the first time and you know it. Kennedy stole the election from Nixon in Chicago and in Texas. 50 to 75 people voting from vacant lots as their residents. Trump knew it last time that he beat Hillary when dead people were voting this is all been proven. Open your eyes and you shall see.
Did you vote in Alaska? If so, are you aware of the lawsuits that forced changes to election procedures here, without the Legislature passing the laws necessary to authorize those changes?
If not, what rock have you been living under? If so, how can you honestly ask, “What evidence?”
Anyone claiming this last election is fair is either dishonest or woefully ignorant.
Do any of the things you both have listen point to votes being changed. Again I ask, where is the fraud? A change to election laws making it easier for people to vote does not automatically mean fraudulent votes were cast. No one has presented any evidence of actual fraudulent votes. NONE!!! The courts dismissed the cases for a reason, no one had actual evidence of fraud. This is all a huge lie perpetrated by the president and his followers because will never admit and has not ever admitted defeat. His ego will it allow it.
I voted by mail to answer your question. I would do it again and hope it is widely available in the future. More voter access makes for a government more representative of its people.
And for those with closed eyes they will see only what they want to see. Where are the investigations? Squelched. Case in point: a fraudster in Texas was arrested today and facing 20 years for her crimes. Others? No, the ballots were shredded despite the law to maintain them. Just as in 2008 all charges immediately dropped against Black Panthers standing outside polling place intimidating people. You on the left will obfuscate and push, then react surprised when people are finally fed up and push back. We’re all in this together, we need to learn to get along, and too many are out there sadly acting dishonestly in mail-in elections.
^^This. ALL of this.
“Where is the evidence?” You mean the thousands of affidavits sworn under oath? The videos that even mainstream news showed of election officials covering windows so poll observers couldn’t actually observe anything? How about counts from midnight AK time (when counting had been halted in most, if not all polls), showing Trump in the lead in several swing states, yet when counting resumed Wednesday, Nov. 4, suddenly Biden was in the lead? Or the graph of votes for Biden vs. time, where at there’s a *VERTICAL* line where Biden, all at once, miraculously received enough votes to put him in the lead?
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. This was the most secure election this nation has ever had!
No evidence, indeed…
I think this pretty much covers it……Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools has been largely removed.
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