Here’s today’s big headline, as explained in Rolling Stone:
In a text exchange from Dec. 23, 2020, mere days before a riotous mob attempted to sabotage the Electoral College certification of President Joe Biden’s win, conspiracy theorist and former Army colonel Phil Waldron updated Meadows on his efforts to have voting machines in Maricopa County, Arizona, seized and examined.
Complaining that a judge had dismissed a lawsuit brought by MAGA legislators demanding the machines be turned over, Waldron texted Meadows that the decision removed “our lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade,” of rulings in other states. “Pathetic,” Meadows replied.
Waldron was deeply involved in the scheme to seize voting machines in states with close electoral margins. He allegedly drafted an executive order for the White House instructing the seizure of voting machines but the order never came to fruition, as it was very clearly illegal. Waldron additionally communicated to Meadows that he had allegedly reviewed troves of suspect electoral data constituting what he described as a “southern steal.”
That’s kind of a big deal, seems to me. The other phone news is that on January 6 there was a 9-second call from the White House to one of the insurrectionists, a 26-year-old Trump supporter from Brooklyn named Anton Lunyk. Lunyk was in the Capitol building and was sentenced to a few months of home confinement, probation, and a small fine. He appears to be a minor player in that event. This may come to nothing.
Yesterday there were several stories in the right-wing press that claimed FBI SWAT teams with drawn assault weapons had raided the home of a nice Catholic man in Pennsylvania named Mark Houck. Several different accounts (example) claimed he was arrested in front of his seven traumatized children and this is OVERREACH by BIDEN. This article claims “A pro-life leader is calling for a Congressional investigation of a bogus FBI raid that resulted in the arrest of a peaceful pro-life advocate of a minor incident outside an abortion center and a federal charge that could put him in prison for up to 11 years.”
So I looked it up. Houck is a long-time abortion clinic terrorist, one of those thugs who gets off on intimidating and harassing women seeking medical care. In the “minor incident” he twice assaulted a 72-year-old man acting as a patient escort, knocking him to the ground. Houck has been charged with two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which makes it a federal crime to use force with the intent to “injure, intimidate, and interfere with anyone because that person is a provider of reproductive health care.”
The FBI said no SWAT teams were involved in the raid. They did send armed agents to make the arrest, but said “FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck’s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an indictment.”
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. I hope Houck gets the eleven years, but he probably won’t.
Meadows has been acting the way a dumbass, good-ol'-boy does when he realizes how much he's screwed himself by buying his own bullshit.
Mentally, he's gone.
Fried.
Regarding Meadows – I understand (maybe true, maybe not) that Trump plans to blame Meadows for any link between the WH and any of the bad actors who breached the Capitol. The logical thing to do, if Trump plans to make you the fall guy is tell the truth. (That's where Michael Cohen is.) Problem: Meadows is a founder of the Freedom Caucus and those guys are fully in the tank for Trump as king. SO if Meadows uses the truth as a shield, he's got no future anywhere. But he has no future anywhere if Trump levels the blame on Meadows alone.
The incident with Houck is significant relative to the underlying message. "You can't arrest one of ours." Trump's pardons of his henchmen are the prime example of this mentality. (Even Nixon didn't do it.) Teasing that Trump will pardon the J6 crowd is part of it. "It's not illegal when we do it." The counterpoint is the assumption that the arsonists of BLM who burned down cities all got a free pass.
MARK HOUCK
Mark Houck, Co-Founder & President of The King’s Men is an author, lecturer, radio host, activist and passionate Catholic.
Since 2006, he has been speaking to thousands of men about a variety of topics related to the development of authentic masculinity. Mark has written numerous articles, brochures and publications on the topics of pornography, homosexuality, abortion, teen sexuality, parenting and masculine spirituality.
In 2008, the USCCB asked him to author a publication on the issue of pornography, which has since been circulated within every diocese in the US.
The mission of The King’s Men has enabled Mark to minister to men and women all across North America and Europe.
Prior to launching The King’s Men, he was a full-time chastity educator and pro-life activist with Generation Life. Mark has a BA in Human Resource Management from The Catholic University of America and a Master’s in Education from Holy Family University.
Mark is married with seven children, and lives in outside Philadelphia, PA.
_________________________________________________________________
Does anybody know what authentic masculinity is? Is it a biological condition or does it have to do with what brand of cigarettes you smoke?
Not to criticize, but this guy seems a little too tightly wound. I mean like being a chastity educator? "Mothers tell your children not to do what I have done."
"Authentic Masculinity" is kind of a weasel word in that it means whatever the speaker wants it to mean.
It stems from the rise of the power of women over the last century or more, calling into question the traditional male and female roles. This has led to a lot of confused or resentful men, some turning to conservative figures like Houck to help them figure it out. There is also a more liberal version of this, so it's a variety of responses to the rebalancing between the genders that calls forward "experts" from various viewpoints.
I thought Meadows was co-operating with either the J6 committee or the Justice Dept, but I could be wrong.
I am in misery. One more day. The last episode of the Liz Cheney show. I am on pins and needles.
I never felt this way about Benghazi. I quit that long before the last episode. I am not sure how that turned out and I really don't care to know.
Democrats must hold the House. Republicans are just too poor at holding hearings. If they take over, we may be forced to watch Benghazi reruns. No one should have to live like that. It's unamerican.
Medows should have joined the Navy. At least there the captain has to go down with the ship. You know Ginni Thomas is not going to take the rap.
Meadows is more the career Executive Officer type who would be passed over for promotion to Captain until he was forced to retire.
Bennie Thompson has done an admirable job chairing the J6 Committee. Aren't the Mississippi rePukes due to gerrymander his district into a white majority?
Is Gini smart enough not to lie?