An Eyewitness Account

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The Federalist has posted an eyewitness account by J. Michael Waller of what he saw at the Capitol on the 6th.

A small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack. Before it began, I saw from my vantage point on the West Front of the Capitol what appeared to be four separate cells or units:

  1. Plainclothes militants. Militant, aggressive men in Donald Trump and MAGA gear at a front police line at the base of the temporary presidential inaugural platform;
  2. Agents-provocateurs. Scattered groups of men exhorting the marchers to gather closely and tightly toward the center of the outside of the Capitol building and prevent them from leaving;
  3. Fake Trump protesters. A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backwards and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators; and
  4. Disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. A column of organized, disciplined men, wearing similar but not identical camouflage uniforms and black gear, some with helmets and GoPro cameras or wearing subdued Punisher skull patches.

All of these cells or groups stood out from the very large crowd by their behavior and overall demeanor. However, they did not all appear at the same time. Not until the very end did it appear there was a prearranged plan to storm the Capitol building, and to manipulate the unsuspecting crowd as cover and as a follow-on force.

Read the whole thing.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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I’ve mentioned more than once that Brett Kimberlin is a liar. The TKPOTD from six years ago today looked at one of the times he got caught.

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Brett Kimberlin is a liar, and a surprisingly bad one, especially considering the amount of practice he’s had. He has made claims in his various court filings in his lawsuits against me and offered exhibits in those filings that refute his own allegations.

When he was on trial for the Speedway Bombings, his lawyers had him take a series of lie detector tests as part of their preparation. Leonard Harrelson was the examiner, and he was interviewed by Mark Singer for Kimberlin’s authorized biography Citizen K. The following begins at the bottom of page 324.

“We talked, I formulated the questions, and I ran two or three different tests. His tests indicated that he failed every relevant question. He bragged to me about flying drugs and outrunning government planes and dumping drugs when they were chasing him. And that was the truth.

“He made a lot of admissions about a lot of things. … He flunked the test every way in the word with regard to why I was testing him. …

“I think Kimberlin’s the type of person that if you talked to him face-to-face you wouldn’t even need a polygraph. But he was a good subject for the polygraph because he reacted  much better when he lied than some people do. There are certain types of individuals that do not react to a large extent, and he did; he reacted to a very large extent.”

I’ve had several face-to-face exchanges with Brett Kimberlin, mostly when he has been foolish enough to call me as a witness for his side of a court case. Mr. Harrelson was right. You can see the mendacity in Kimberlin’s eyes.

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Falsus in unum falsus in omnibus. That Latin can loosely be translated as “lying liars gotta lie.”

But I Was Told There Was No Fraud

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced the arrest of Rachel Rodriguez for election fraud, illegal voting, unlawfully assisting people voting by mail, and unlawfully possessing an official ballot. Those are all felonies in Texas. Rodriguez was caught on video by Project Veritas engaging in ballot harvesting. She admits in the video that what she was doing was illegal and that she could go to jail for it.

BTW, this story broke before noon today, but as of 9:45 pm ET this evening, none of the major nation media are on it.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Brett Kimberlin is a clumsy and incompetent liar as is demonstrated in the TKPOTD from four years ago today.

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The Kimberlins have asked Judge Hecker to sanction me because I informed someone on their list of witnesses that they might call him to testify. I’ve opposed their motion.

My opposition speaks for itself, so I don’t intend to make any further substantive comment on the matter until after the court has ruled on the Kimberlins’ motion.

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Of course, the court ruled in my favor and denied Kimberlin’s motion.

1956 v. 2021

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I have a friend who received his engineering degree from Tuskegee Institute. He’s occasionally told me stories of how his father made use of a shotgun to protect his family. My friend is also a veteran, and he says he’s noticed a significant tactical change in the thugs who support the Democrats—they’ve figured out that black is a better color than white to be wearing at night. But otherwise, he doesn’t see a whole lot of difference in their character.

A Speck in the Corner

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Saturn & TethysAt 116,500 km across, Saturn is roughly 10 times the diameter of Earth. The planet is much larger in relation to its moons than our Earth to its Moon. Saturn’s moon Tethys (which is a bit more than 1,000 km in diameter and could be counted as a dwarf planet it orbited the Sun by itself) can be seen as a speck in the lower right of the picture.

Image Credit: NASA

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Many of my favorite posts are titled Qapla’. This one is from four years ago today.

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The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted my motion for sanctions against Brett Kimberlin.

The Gentle Reader should note that the three-judge panel found that Kimberlin’s appeal was frivolous.

Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.

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Heh.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Brett Kimberlin is a perjurer. He was convicted of perjury before he turned 20, and he has continued to make false statements under oath. In January, 2013, I ran a series of post dealing with the lies he told in court during the the early days of his lawfare campaign. The post from eight years ago today was Dread Pirate #BrettKimberlin and Perjury 10.

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On 29 June, 2012, there was a hearing in Montgomery County District Court for a peace order petition that TDPK had filed against one John Norton. Brett Kimberlin was in his usual form. While I don’t have an official transcript of the hearing, Aaron Walker has transcribed portions from audio that he obtained from the court.

TDPK claimed that Mr. Norton had been lurking in the bushes in front of the Kimberlin residence. In the transcript below K is Brett Kimberlin and J is the judge. TDPK said that he was going to pick up his 8 year old daughter from a neighbor’s house—

K: And so I walked out of my door, to go pick her up, and I see a man lurking behind the bushes in the corner of my property and I was kind of taken aback by it. But I kept walking toward my car because I had to pick my daughter up.

J: Now was that in the general direction of where the man was in the bushes or in the opposite?

K: The man was facing the road, the— to the left of the— on the left side of my house there’s some bushes towards the road and my car was right in front of my house.

Lurking in the bushes? As I type this, I’m looking at the Google Street View image of the Kimberlin residence. Looking from the street, there’s a small shrub that appears to actually be on the property next door by the neighbor’s driveway. It’s “on the left” as seen from that point of view. There’s also a even smaller shrub at the opposite front corner of the Kimberlin lot. It appears to be about as tall as the fire hydrant in front of it. I’m not sure how one would lurk in those bushes.

K: And so I turn around, obviously I was concerned about my daughter. You know, I didn’t know if anything had happened to her, I was scared, so I turned around and I went to the neighbor’s house. She was right there in front of the house. I put her in the car and Mr. Norton is driving away, and so I—

J: Have you ever seen this man before?

K: Never seen him before in my life.

J: Every seen the car before?

K: Never seen the car before.

J: Alright.

K: So I followed the car, and went around the corner, and there was a stop light. I pull up behind him and he’s… again it’s a convertible, and he reaches around with a camera, again, and takes more pictures of me. I gave him the finger, I admit it, you know, I don’t like a guy coming out in front of my house taking pictures of me and my kid.

He’s concerned that this lurker might be dangerous, so he puts his daughter in the car and chases after the guy.

Uh, huh.

So what was Mr. Norton’s side of the story? In the transcript below N is John Norton and L is his lawyer.

L: Did there come a time when you ended up coming into contact with Mr. Kimberlin?

N: Not any physical contact, but he did chase me down in his car, the picture he showed, shows him behind me, flipping me off. I don’t know why he chose to chase me down. I was not on his property, I have stopped my car on [Kimberlin’s street name omitted].

L: What brings you on [Kimberlin’s street]?

N: It is a bail out route on my commute.

L: And where is your commute?

N: I commute between Bethesda, Maryland, and Fairfax, Virginia.

Chased him down?

L: And on June… what’s the date here? June 15, is it? June 15, you said, what brought your attention— what caused you to take out your phone and take a picture of the car behind you?

N: When I was on River Road, I saw what turned out to be Mr. Kimberlin’s car driving erratically, cutting in and out of lanes, trying to catch up to me, tailgating me. We reached the stoplight at River and Burdette, he pulled up… you can see how close in the picture, how close it was. He… he pulled out a pen and [unintelligible] furiously scribbingly as if he wanted me to know he was writing something down, he was revving the engine in his car, and for me, I thought, “some crazy person is chasing me down, I need some evidence, I need some protection.” So I picked up my phone and shot about seven seconds of video, from which the picture of him flipping me off was taken as a framegrab.

TDPK claimed that he was freaked out when Seth Allen reposted the picture of him flipping off Mr. Norton.

K: The picture of my car, that was posted on the internet by the client of the man that I had the peace order against. So I get kind of freaked out that, you know, this guy is somehow related to the guy who I had a peace order against, Mr. Walker.

Note that Mr. Allen could not have posted the photo before or during TDPK’s chase of Mr. Norton. In any case, Mr. Norton had no association with either Mr. Allen or Mr. Walker.

L: Now, are you associated with Aaron Walker, any [sic]?

N: I am not.

L: Okay. And, did you go to his house on June 15, to take pictures, get out of your car and take pictures?

N: I did not go to Mr. Kimberlin’s house. I did not get out of my car. I did not take pictures at his house.

L: Alright. And what caused you to post the picture of Mr. Kimberlin flipping you off on the internet?

N: Well, first of all, for protection to make sure that it was publicized, that someone had chased me down and was flipping me off. And also, honestly, I thought it was kind of funny.

We have two different stories. One is told by a reputable citizen with nothing more that traffic tickets on his record, and that story is corroborated, at least in part, by other evidence. The other is told by a convicted felon, one of who’s crimes is perjury, and that story is contradicted by other evidence. Who would you believe?

So we have the records of nine appearances before judges in Montgomery County, and each appearance has something hinky about TDPK’s testimony. Some of his tales are, perhaps, merely flakey. Some are clearly false, but the State’s Attorney has given TDPK a free pass.

John McCarthy has not yet answered the letter I sent him asking about his decisions to refrain from prosecuting Brett Kimberlin for perjury. Fine. I’m not one of his constituents. Maybe he will have to explain his decision in 2014 when he’s up for reelection.

UPDATE–Spelling error corrected. @&#$ing autocorrect.

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Lying liars gotta lie.

BTW, in 2016, a District Court Commission found probable cause to charge Kimberlin with perjury for statements made in the Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. lawsuit, but once again, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped the charge.

Minding Our Own Business

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I’m a Christian, and I base my beliefs solely on my understanding of the teachings I find in the Bible. I try to steer clear of extra-biblical doctrines and traditions. The Apostles’ Creed is a brief summary of my core beliefs, and I see myself in fellowship with any baptized follower of Jesus who can say, “Amen,” to that statement of faith. This post is about an extra-biblical doctrine that has led to a heresy which has had unfortunate consequences in America. That doctrine is an eschatological view called Postmillennialism. The heresy is a belief that ties the Church too closely to the State.

Postmillennialism holds that eventually the vast majority of people living will be saved through evangelism and that the success of the gospel will produce a time in history when faith, righteous, and peace will prevail on Earth. After the Church has cleaned up Humanity’s act, Jesus will then return to a world fit to be ruled by Him. Postmillennialism was a dominate belief among various reform movements that did much good during the 19th Century, abolitionism, for example. On the other hand, it was also behind movements such a prohibitionism. Jesus told us that we will know people doing His work by the fruit of their labor. Given the enabling of criminal networks that resulted as unintended (I hope) consequences of the Eighteenth Amendment and the War on Drugs, I feel safe in suggesting that it may not have been God’s hand behind those uses of the State’s power.

My point doesn’t rely on whether Postmillennialism is a correct interpretation of Revelation 20. It may be, but I don’t think so. The problem is rather that too many of its adherents have become willing to use the power of the State to affect change in areas that are not the State’s business. The Bible is clear that God empowers the State to maintain order in secular affairs, and even the most corrupt modern governments do that to some extent. The Soviet Union, for instance, maintained a civil police force and courts to apprehend and punish thieves and other common criminals. However, it is the Church that is empowered to call men and women into relationship with God and to nourish God’s people spiritually. While the State may have a reasonable concern with behavior that affects public order, such as theft, it’s the Church that should deal with the moral and spiritual aspects of our behavior. We’re supposed to remember that some things are Caesar’s, and some thing’s aren’t—they’re God’s alone.

My reading of Daniel and Revelation lead me to believe that the State exists to maintain the secular order, but it isn’t always trustworthy. Indeed, it is often led by evil people.

If Postmillennialism is correct, we Christians should be evangelizing our neighbors and nurturing one another in order to bring about that world of righteousness. We don’t need to worry about the State because it will follow as a matter of course. However, if Postmillennialism is wrong, then we still need to be evangelizing our neighbors and nurturing each other, but perhaps in opposition to the State. In either case, the State is not the Church. It’s a part of the fallen world that God is in the process of redeeming through the work of Christ in His Church.

So what?

I’m seeing too many of my fellow Christians engaging in a circular firing squad over politics. May I suggest that probably isn’t what God is calling us to do as part the work of the Church?

Because we are called to be a light to the world, I believe Christians have a place in politics, if for no other reason than to encourage the State to do good rather than evil. However, we shouldn’t conflate our understanding of good politics with the Gospel. There are fellow Christians who I admire and respect who I believe are mistaken in their politics. We can agree on Who is ultimately in charge without supporting the same candidate for President. We can agree on the truth of the Gospel without drawing the same conclusions about public policy. We can love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and still have honest disagreements.

We need to focus on what’s really important. As the song says, “And they’ll know that we are Christians by our love.”

M9

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Hubble image of Messier 9M9 is one of the globular clusters closest to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, only around 5,500 light-years from the galactic core. It’s about 25,800 light-years from Earth.

M9 has an apparent magnitude of 7.9, an angular size of 9.3′, and can be viewed with a small telescope. It is one of the nearer globular clusters to the center of the galaxy as is around 5,500 light-years from the Galactic Core. Its distance from Earth is 25,800 light-years.

The total luminosity of this cluster is around 120,000 times that of the Sun. It has an apparent magnitude of 7.9, so it can be viewed with a small telescope.

Image Credit: NASA