The Only Real Surprise in the First Jan. 6 Committee Hearing

Hint: It wasn't the brazen lying, or the kangaroo-court nature of the affair...

Note to Readers: A slightly-edited version of this essay was published this morning by American Thinker, and may be viewed here. I’d like to welcome all new subscribers, and I thank AT for including the link that brought many of them here. I’ve been a contributor to AT since 2010, with well over 150 pieces published. ST

The Only Real Surprise in the First Jan. 6 Committee Hearing

OK, I watched it. And if there’s anything about the first of the so-called “hearings” on the alleged “insurrection” of Jan. 6 2021 that surprised me, it wasn’t the predictably kangaroo-court nature of the affair, or the brazen lying and selective omissions.

It certainly didn’t surprise me to see the same video clip that had been played at Pres. Trump’s second impeachment trial, showing Trump urging demonstrators to march to the Capitol, but again conveniently edited to omit his telling them to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

I wasn’t surprised by the complete lack of subtlety in the way the cynical purpose behind this theatrical production was revealed. Rather than even purporting to “let the people watch and draw their own conclusions,” the folks putting on this duplicitous production repeatedly uttered statements that would have raised objections in an actual trial, because they assumed facts not in evidence and certainly not yet proven. Objections would have also been raised for leading the witnesses. But there was no opposing counsel to object or to cross-examine, and so some questions were conspicuous in that they were never asked. I kept waiting, futilely, for a witness to be asked, “Just what manner of weapons did you observe these ‘insurrectionists’ carrying or employing?”

(Despite the repeated characterization of that day’s events as “deadly,” only one person was killed, or even shot, and that was Ashli Babbitt, a veteran of 14 years in the Air Force, who was allegedly entering the Capitol through a broken glass door when she was shot by a Capitol policeman. Neither her name nor her death was mentioned in the hearing.)

I wasn’t surprised at the unity of the Democrats in perpetuating their narrative about the events of Jan. 6, that it was “an attempted violent overthrow of our government” orchestrated by that evil Donald Trump. Nor was I surprised that ostensible Republicans and supposed erstwhile Trump loyalists had been trotted out in an attempt to lend a non-partisan artifice to the proceedings, with Liz Cheney (whose name almost rhymes with “chicanery”) at the forefront.

No, what did surprise me, though, was how thoroughly corrupt, complicit, and in cahoots with Democrats, and how thoroughly on board with this charade, the so-called journalistic establishment has revealed itself to be, with talking heads across all the channels lining up to gleefully parrot the talking points and reinforce the narrative, every one of them having apparently received the same memo and having sworn the same loyalty oath.

Having observed for some time the way in which “news” is managed, this shouldn’t have surprised me, but the sheer seamlessness of the way the Democrats and their committed propagandists coalesced to advance a common agenda was, in its way, rather impressive. Like the Democrats, these so-called journalists have abandoned any subtlety or pretense about their loyalties or their agenda. They are masters of propaganda who would make Dr. Goebbels look like a mere tyro, and they’re past caring who knows it.

Was Jan. 6 a Reichstag moment?

By the way, I remember listening to the way the events of Jan. 6 were reported at the actual time they were happening. And while my own cynical nature had already expected the Democrat regime to stage some sort of Reichstag moment, a false-flag op calculated to discredit Trump and his supporters, one alleged occurrence in particular convinced me that, while genuine Trump supporters had been caught up in the storming of the Capitol, the breaching of the barricades and the breaking and entering had been calculated, provoked, instigated, fomented and enabled by agents provocateurs (possibly even including members of some of those “3-letter” agencies that have traditionally been considered incorruptible and above reproach).

And that alleged occurrence, as I noted it at the time, was this:

5:45 p.m. EST: Juan Williams (that genius and paragon of contemporary journalism!) is reporting that the "mobs breaching the Capitol” (characterized as “Trump supporters”) have entered Mitch McConnell's office and "have taken down the American flag and put up a Trump flag." EXCUSE ME??? Does that sound like something that PATRIOTS and people who revere America and its Constitution would do??? Or does it sound like a Reichstag moment, a (literal) false-flag op perpetrated by Antifa and its ilk?

(For anyone who needs a little historical refresher, the Feb. 27, 1933 Reichstag fire, an arson attack on Germany’s parliament, was blamed by Hitler, the recently-appointed Chancellor, on the Communists; he then used the event to consolidate his power, invoking an act that abolished freedom of speech, assembly and privacy -- it legalized surveillance of telephone calls and mail -- and suspended the autonomy of federated states. He had some 4,000 people arrested by his "SA" -- "Stormtroopers," party members whom Hitler had enrolled as "auxiliary police" to infiltrate existing law enforcement -- all in the name of "Protection of the People and State."

That conveniently-timed act of arson — whether perpetrated by the Nazis or merely exploited by them — enabled Hitler to “fundamentally transform” Germany.)

Juan Williams’s claim, just like the political theater piece to which we were treated Thursday night, pegged the needle on my BS meter right into the red zone.

ST