Riots Are Not "Insurrections"

The Supreme Court is About to Hear the 14th Amendment Case

From Brittanica:

The federal Anti-Riot Act (1968) defines the term riot in part as “a public disturbance involving…an act or acts of violence by one or more persons part of an assemblage of three or more persons, which act or acts shall constitute a clear and present danger of, or shall result in, damage or injury to the property of any other person or to the person of any other individual” (Title 18, Chapter 102, §2102). The Act prohibits interstate travel or the use of any “facility” of interstate commerce, including “the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, or television,” to incite or participate in a riot or to abet another person in doing so (§2101). Many states and municipalities have their own laws against rioting and incitement to riot based on similar definitions, while others prohibit the criminal elements of rioting (e.g., destruction of property, arson, looting, assault, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, unlawful assembly) under separate laws against those crimes.

The right to engage in peaceful protest is, of course, protected by the First Amendment. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has established that governments may limit protests through what are called “time, place, and manner” restrictions, provided that the restrictions are content- or viewpoint-neutral, narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest (such as public safety), and so formulated as to allow demonstrators ample alternative channels by which to communicate their messages.

Donald Trump broke the Left. He broke the Democratic Party. He broke the Department of Justice, the FBI, and a once-trustworthy legal system. We’ll find out today whether their fanaticism, their deep pockets, and their mass hysteria will destroy our democracy more than it already has.

We have the right to vote for any candidate we choose, even if - especially if - that candidate offends the self-appointed monarchy now in power. That these spoiled brats have decided their caterwauling should override the vote of the American people is far beyond anything I could have imagined a couple of years ago when I left the Democratic Party. I knew they were crazy. I didn’t think they were this crazy.

It isn’t Trump they want to keep off the ballot. It’s his voters they want to disenfranchise. They’ve convinced themselves that their utopia belongs to them. They still believe they’re the good guys, so they haven’t built gulags outright, nor have they built a Collesium for public executions — but are they not entertained?

Up until this very moment, the Democrats were the side that believed in violent protests and riots. They still do. But only for them, the chosen people. They’ve concocted a fantasy wherein they’re protecting “Black and Brown” people from the evils of “white supremacy” in the MAGA movement, and once you’ve dehumanized an entire group, what can’t you do to them?

In the 1970s, the Weatherman threatened to blow up government buildings and said out loud they were seeking to overthrow the United States government. Even they weren’t called “insurrectionists.”

The “Resistance” violently protested Trump’s inaugural, disrupting the “peaceful transfer of power.” In the Summer of 2020, Trump and his family had to be evacuated after they attempted to breach the White House fence.

We’ve seen plenty of breaches of the Capitol since then as pro-Palestinian protesters attempt to breach the fence at the White House, among other shocking incidents.

They are not called “insurrectionists.” These videos circulate on the Right but are ignored by the Left. Again and again, the double standard is waved in our faces to show who has power and who doesn’t.

When you put together the well-funded riots in the Summer of 2020, with the “well-funded cabal” that rigged the 2020 election, it’s easier to see why Trump and his supporters believed their only resort was a “stop the steal” protest, which was their right as American citizens. At least it used to be.

They used COVID as the excuse AFTER they trotted out experts to say the protests in the Summer, where millions of people all over the world smashed their bodies together, co-mingling all manner of bodily fluids, spreading COVID hither and thither.

We missed funerals, birthdays, graduations, deathbed farewells, and weddings…and then, they flipped a switch just like that, and it didn’t matter anymore because they needed the violent protests to help them oust Trump. Are they really that corrupt? Yes, they are really that corrupt.

They had to change the laws to win the election because they had a candidate who couldn’t win. Trump was doing five rallies a day or more. He was doing what you should do to win an election - speak to the people and rally them to vote. And it was working. He would not have won Flordia, Ohio, and Iowa if he hadn’t.

But they knew they couldn’t risk another Trump presidency, so they rigged the election. They did it above board; at least some of them did. You can do anything if you have enough money and enough lawyers. But it was unethical, especially after what they’d put us through months before.

Trump himself had every right to protest after the Obama administration used the FBI to attempt a sting operation to spy on Trump’s campaign to expose him as a “Russian asset” to stop him from winning in 2016. He won anyway. Then they, along with their propaganda press, attacked him throughout his presidency, impeaching him just two years into his term, the ongoing Russiagate lie that they’re still lying about. What option did Trump have but to protest — peacefully, he said. Peacefully.

That violence broke out at the Capitol is a longer story, a sadder story. They’ve never told us the truth about any of it. But violence was not Trump’s intent. He most certainly did not attempt to “overthrow” the government of the United States. That we’ve arrived at this moment of peak mass hysteria is astonishing.

A protest, even a violent one, isn’t an insurrection. If they’re going to charge Trump based on the Proud Boys scheme, then they’d better come clean about what the FBI knew and when they knew it. Why was the Capitol left unprotected?

They used January 6th like they used the protests in the Summer of 2020 - to scare Americans and bring them into compliance. But notice how one series of riots changed America almost overnight, and one put a lot of Americans in jail.

The real truth is that they’re attempting to preserve and protect UTOPIA, the one we all built under Barack Obama. Once they’ve convicted Trump and his supporters of being “racists,” they felt justified in convicting them as the second Confederacy. That’s how we get to the 14th amendment, their last desperate attempt to override American democracy to prevent American citizens from voting for Trump.

Today is the hearing in the Supreme Court at 7 am. If you want to watch, here is live stream: