In regards to what we actually know right now, he notes that one person died of what appears to have been a heart attack while on the phone with his wife. Another man had a stroke, and there’s no evidence he was even part of the riot that day. Another woman died after passing out, possibly being trampled by the crowd as a result.

In other words, of the five people listed as dying that day due to the riots, three of them were unquestionably accidental. Does that fact make their deaths any less tragic? Of course not, but it does provide context to the idea that a rabid mob, as bad as their behavior was, was simply murdering people without care that day.

The fourth person to die that day was Ashley Babbitt, a woman who had entered the Capitol Building that day. As Tucker notes, she’s the only one whose circumstances of death are essentially confirmed. She was shot by a police officer while attempting to crawl through a broken window. The bullet hit her in the neck and she died shortly after.

That brings us to Sicknick. His death has been heavily politicized, including an apparently false death story spread by mainstream outlets for a month. Yet, the mystery surrounding what actually happened to him remains. What is looking more likely is that his death, like the first three people discussed, was accidental.

A review of the Constitution’s text and the delegates’ deliberations at the 1787 Federal Convention raises significant questions about the case for late impeachment. //

By emphasizing the Constitution’s ambiguity (whether real or imagined), proponents of late impeachment shift the debate over the practice from what the Constitution permits based on concrete evidence to what it must allow based on their own inferences and reasoning. //

The Chief Justice must preside over that trial if the person impeached is the president.

The war that brought unspeakable suffering also contributed to the creation of some of the most beloved and heroic literature of modern times. //

There were not many bright spots in the years 1939-1945 when it seemed that not only Great Britain but Western civilization itself sat on the edge of a knife. Yet these years proved to be among the most creative and meaningful for two of the 20th century’s greatest Christian authors. Indeed, those uncertain times were the crucible for a friendship that helped to ignite their astonishing literary imagination. //

Throughout the war years, Tolkien read each new chapter of “The Lord of the Rings” out loud to Lewis, who sometimes wept over the poignancy of a passage. “But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more,” Tolkien later explained, “I should never have brought the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ to a conclusion.”

Charlie Spiering
@charliespiering
Biden says he spent two hours on the phone with Xi Jinping - “If we don’t get moving, they’re going to eat our lunch”

During the campaign, Biden said, “China's going to eat our lunch? C'mon, man!”

Contemporary megachurch-style worship is a self-worshiping, self-referential, nearly auto-erotic pursuit. //

Reader Heidi, in a comment on my post 8 Reasons the Worship Industry Is Killing Worship, frames the problem exceptionally well:

I think the phrase masturbatory worship is very apropos. There is often a lack of community, of recognition or responsiveness to the others present; and a strong prioritization of my personal experience and preference–indeed, a genuine selfishness– in worship rather than the give-and-take that belongs within the communion of saints, the Body of Christ. Christianity is relational–us with God in Christ; us with others, united in Christ. The minimally interactive, highly sensual nature of modern praise worship is not relational in the same way; and in a way, intentionally so–relationships are hard work.

Obviously when one masturbates, the chief end is the pursuit of ones own pleasure. Likewise, the contemporary worship movement, with its jettisoning of biblical, historic, liturgical elements of worship in favor of commercial pop music, has drawn an understanding of worship that is little more than a personal pursuit of pleasure through emotion and self-actualization. “Worship sets” of jesusy power ballads, aimed at carrying the individual away from the corporate body on waves of emotional euphoria, have replaced true worship, in which God is present with us in Word and Sacrament.

Chaplain Mike of the fabulous Internet Monk blog talks about such masturbatory worship this way:

It is designed to be “an experience” for me, not a thoughtful expression of obeisance to God.

It does not enable me to consider my duty to respond to God in daily life, but rather fools me into thinking this wave of emotion I’m feeling is the proper response to God. //

The masturbatory worship they hold dear is merely a narcissistic journey to nowhere, one in which we are left crowning our own individual selves as lord of all. We’ve already been told that we are like sheep, each one wandering its own way. The church’s historic liturgy presents us corporately with the solution. Masturbatory worship proclaims a subjective gospel, a situational Christian ethic, and a selfish mission.

Chaplain Mike again:

Commercialized, formulaic, self-centered “worship” is as far from what that word is supposed to signify as possible.

Where are the pastors, artists, and wise leaders who will move us toward maturity? Who will get us to stop playing with ourselves and grow up so that we can truly love God and our neighbors?

“I don’t believe in a stimulus check. Because if 600 dollars or 1400 dollars changes your life, you were pretty much screwed already. You’ve got other issues going on. You have a career problem, you have a debt problem, you have a relationship problem, you have a mental health problem, something else is going on if $600 changes your life.

“And that’s not talking down to folks. I’ve been bankrupt, I’ve been broke, and I work with people every day who are hurting. I love people, I want people to be lifted up.

“But this is, again, it’s just political rhetoric, and it’s just throwing dollars out there. It’s peeing on a forest fire, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“So the whole story line that Donald Trump caused this by his speech has fallen apart due to good law enforcement activity,” he said. “And here’s what I want to know: What did Nancy Pelosi know, and when did she know it? If this was widely known by the FBI and Capitol Hill Police that people were planning to come to Washington before the 6th to create violence, I want to know did she know about that?” he asked.

David Harsanyi
@davidharsanyi
You can be pro or anti Trump, but the notion that he suddenly changed is silly. //

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it many more times between now and the next presidential election. Haley is way, way too focus-grouped to be the 2024 nominee in my opinion. She’s just so quintessentially beltway, even though her major experience is as a governor. That doesn’t mean I’d wholly reject her if she made it through the primary (though a lot of Trump voters would), but it does mean the GOP should be aiming higher than someone who mirrors Jeb Bush more than Ron DeSantis.

Stories about computer security tend to go viral when they bridge the vast divide between geeks and luddites, and this week’s news about a hacker who tried to poison a Florida town’s water supply was understandably front-page material. But for security nerds who’ve been warning about this sort of thing for ages, the most surprising aspect of the incident seems to be that we learned about it at all.

On February 5, 2021, unidentified cyber actors obtained unauthorized access to the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system at a U.S. drinking water treatment plant. The unidentified actors used the SCADA system’s software to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, a caustic chemical, as part of the water treatment process. Water treatment plant personnel immediately noticed the change in dosing amounts and corrected the issue before the SCADA system’s software detected the manipulation and alarmed due to the unauthorized change. As a result, the water treatment process remained unaffected and continued to operate as normal. The cyber actors likely accessed the system by exploiting cybersecurity weaknesses, including poor password security, and an outdated operating system. Early information indicates it is possible that a desktop sharing software, such as TeamViewer, may have been used to gain unauthorized access to the system. Onsite response to the incident included Pinellas County Sheriff Office (PCSO), U.S. Secret Service (USSS), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) have observed cyber criminals targeting and exploiting desktop sharing software and computer networks running operating systems with end of life status to gain unauthorized access to systems. Desktop sharing software, which has multiple legitimate uses—such as enabling telework, remote technical support, and file transfers—can also be exploited through malicious actors’ use of social engineering tactics and other illicit measures. Windows 7 will become more susceptible to exploitation due to lack of security updates and the discovery of new vulnerabilities. Microsoft and other industry professionals strongly recommend upgrading computer systems to an actively supported operating system.

perhaps one of the central issues is that there was no hearing in the House, no witnesses or evidence actually presented and so no record of the case from which to work. Which means that the House managers are scrambling all over the place and pulling things out of the hat which aren’t true or are at odds with their stated theory of the case presented in their Article charging “incitement” because of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech. //

according to the Deseret News, what Lee actually said and what was left out from the Democratic presentation was that “Lee said when he later asked Tuberville about the conversation, he got the impression that Trump didn’t know about the chaos going on in the Senate chamber.”

The House managers left out that part, which directly contradicts its narrative that Trump knew about the riot and was relishing it as he was calling to further delay the electoral certification. If true, the House’s timeline argument would lose coherence, if not collapse entirely.

The House repeatedly argued that Trump wanted the riot and then used it to delay the proceedings. Yet, this call occurred “shortly after 2 p.m.” and, according to Lee, Trump did not appear to the senator to be aware of the extent of the chaos. A few minutes later, at 2:38, Trump tweets, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

In her work as Bishop of Indianapolis, the Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows brings her expertise in architecture and historic preservation to bear. For her, the pandemic has forced questions shrinking congregations have long avoided. And that is a good thing. //

The pandemic is an amplifier and accelerator, and it’s going to amplify and accelerate some of the trends that are troubling. But it can also amplify and accelerate some good things, so let’s try to get more in the driver’s seat on this.

Not all of the congregations are going to make it through this pandemic in the way that they were before. And that’s ultimately a hopeful thing for the church.

Because we’re finally asking the questions, “What is this congregation for? What is the building for now that we’re not in it?”

… I’d rather have a small diocese in terms of numbers of congregations that are really clear about who they are, why they exist, what their call to walk with Christ is about and what their building can do to help support that mission than to have 48 churches half of which don’t know why they’re there and their building is just empty most of the week.

https://faithandleadership.com/jennifer-baskerville-burrows-congregations-should-see-their-buildings-assets-not-albatrosses

In another act of Big Tech censorship, YouTube has banned the popular pro-life website LifeSiteNews from its platform and completely removed all of the videos posted on its channel.

“YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a temporary ban; every single one of our videos is completely gone,” LifeSiteNews reported Wednesday.

“Thankfully, we have backups of all our videos, but this means hundreds of thousands of people have lost access to our truth-telling content,” staff writers said in an article describing what happened

As noted at the top, the Summer Olympics of 2024 is set for France. If there is a boycott of the China Winter Games over geopolitical tensions like the Uyghur issue or Chinese aggression towards its neighbors, it is a near certainty that China would respond in kind — maybe even stage an alternative set of Summer Games and lean heavy on countries over whom is has great financial leverage to come to China and skip the Games in Paris.

If that situation comes to pass, the possibility becomes quite real that the Olympics as we have known them for over 100 years will not continue in their present form.

The Senate impeachment trial farce once again reminds us that the political class has elevated itself above regular Americans, and that there are only two classes of people in the US: the “elites” and everybody else. They are also reminding us that blatant hypocrisy, double-standards, fairness, equal justice under the law, and even common decency are irrelevant when the political class is on the warpath against someone like President Trump.

We citizens have allowed the political class to become:

• Unconstrained in their appetites; say anything, do anything without consequences (e.g., a sitting US president and his family thoroughly corrupted by Communist China with zero accountability)
• Protected by DoJ and what passes for law enforcements standards – double-standards, in reality (e.g., Obama-era apparatchiks and Democrat congressmen guilty of perjury and remain unprosecuted)
• Flush with money from the oligarchs on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley (e.g., the US Chamber of Commerce owns Establishment Republicans)
• Unaccountable to their constituents (e.g., election fraud is now the law in many swing states; the grossly misnamed HR 1 – “For the People Act of 2021” – will cement mail-in balloting and other fraud nationwide if/when passed into law)
• Blatant in their corruption, crimes, and hypocrisies (e.g., Marjorie Taylor-Greene removed from her committees, but Eric Swalwell remains on the House Intelligence Committee after sleeping with a ChiCom spy)

It seems reasonable to conclude that hormone treatments—pricey as they are—now contribute materially to Planned Parenthood’s bottom line.

A lengthy report from New York state Attorney General Letitia James also found the Cuomo administration undercounted the COVID-related deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.

Trump isn’t really on trial here, everyone who voted for him is. Democrats are arguing guilt by association, and they’re not stopping with Trump.

Speaking up and speaking out is a scary thing to do for many Americans for fear that doing so will just make them a target. One false move could see you fired from your job, arrested, or in extreme cases, the mob may very well show up at your door.

Social justice is an ideological stance that requires very shallow thinking, hatred of the “others,” and complete compliance with the ever-shifting narrative. Anything less will result in consequences. It feels no sympathy, it makes time for no nuance. It is pure hatred, intolerance, and ignorance wrapped into an easy to digest ideology.

That kind of ideological blue pill is the same kind of attitude we saw in Nazi Germany then, and we’re seeing a lot of that now. Cancelations, calls for lists to be made, political-ideological stances to be wiped out, violence, intimidation, and censorship are running rampant today from the left just like it did from the Nazis then. It’s the same beast, it just carries a different name.

Carano was right. While libertarians and conservatives aren’t being ushered onto trains and taken to concentration camps, we are seeing the beginning stages of what leads to that.

What should worry you is that Carano was silenced for exposing that truth.

Joseph Bottum has proffered the thesis that the decline of the mainline is the central story of the past fifty years in America. Mainline Protestantism had, until recently, played a central role in shaping the moral framework of American society; its decline has left a vacuum which has been filled by religious-like forces. Those forces are not directly related to any branch of Christendom and are not necessarily oriented to a supernatural destiny. Rather, Wokeness seeks religious meaning in immanent realities; it locates the sacred within this world. This constitutes it, according to the recent study by Steven D. Smith, as a form of neopaganism. //

https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Age-Post-Protestant-Spirit-America/dp/0385518811

Wokeness is thus neopagan. Its adherents are not mere disenchanted, logical positivists, but rather passionate believers who have found deep meaning, existential assurance, moral superiority, and self-transcendent purpose by opposing dark, mystical forces which wage war on modern society. The sacred are the innocent victims of pernicious social forces and salvation consists in demonstrating one’s own innocence and purity by awakening to these realities, feeling moral indignation, and opposing them—largely through the mechanisms mentioned above of denouncing, shaming, and scapegoating others who are “complicit” in the various purported systems of oppression. Conciliation is not really in sight and a tenuous unity is secured by shared indignation at transgressors in this Manichaean vision which cleanly identifies good and evil along group lines. Mere humans are envisioned as the source of evil and thus these humans constitute the proper scapegoats to appease societal wrath and bring about social harmony. //

ConclusionIn a world which was shaped by a Protestantism that, up until recently, provided a unifying moral framework for our nation, Wokeness fills a void and has a certain appeal to Protestants themselves and their fellow citizens. As Tom Holland has persuasively argued, we cannot shake Christian categories and conceptions in the West, but their meanings can shift. Wokeness meets a religious need by mimicking a Protestantism that our society has largely left behind. The religious energy and concern is narrowed to this-worldly realities, and thus can be identified as neopagan.

“What is lacking here? All the talk and video, what’s lacking? Evidence.

“Where is the evidence that Trump worked with a single individual or single one of the groups? There is no evidence.

“Where is the evidence that anything he said in that speech resulted in the attack on that capitol? Lindsey Graham has said it. It was in “The New York Times” of all places. This was all preplanned.

“The FBI knew it might be coming. They were tipped off about it. There are many questions. What the hell did the FBI know and when did it know it?

“We know the sergeant of arms of the house was told by the former chief of the capitol police, you better get national guardsmen here and more help. What did he do? Nothing. Did he tell Nancy Pelosi? That would be a good question.

“Not only that, the sergeant of arms of the Senate was told. Who does that person report to? Reported to McConnell. What did McConnell know? What did they do?”