By Mike Ford ——Bio and Archives--March 12, 2023
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Back in January 2021, while writing for a different online publication, I published an opinion piece decrying the egregious gaslighting of the American public regarding the events that took place on January 6th of that year. I was specifically referring to the Trump rally on the Capitol Mall and later, the largely peaceful protest at the Capitol Building. Based on personal experience, training and a little bit of history, I pushed back at the terminology being used to describe the events of that day and which unfairly maligned American Citizens; Americans who were quite rightly dismayed about a Presidential election that was stolen right in front of them.
I was concerned that the gaslighting I described had not only infected almost the entire pundit class, but had also infiltrated the pulpit in American Mainline Protestant Churches. So, I attempted to correct the record. Within a very few hours of my article being published, I received a phone call from my Managing Editor. He informed me that under financial threat from the Social Network platform that provided our ad revenue aggregation services, he was forced to retract the article and disavow its content. Below is the retraction.
This, or a version of it happened twice more in a very few days. Then, upper management changed the editorial rules. Instead of the free-wheeling environment where writers picked topics, wrote opinion pieces and directly published them. Certain (and growing number of) topics needed editorial review and approval. Eventually, all articles required such approval. A clear case of the leftists in Big Tech, co-opting conservative management as their enforcers. More on that another time.
Suffice it to say that this wasn’t good for conservative messaging. Fortunately some friends of mine retired out of the defense and intelligence communities and some in the private sector formed a non-profit (American Free News Network) to push back on this type of thing. In a singular act of poor judgement, they named me CEO and Chairman of the Board. But that too is another story.
Moving forward 2 years, Tucker Carlson of Fox News Network, is now releasing unedited security footage withheld by former Speaker of the House. These videos never saw the light of day during the multiple hearings by the House of Representatives or in our vaunted legacy media. Interestingly, yet not surprising to those of us who watched the original event play out, these videos have confirmed what we had been saying all along.
They also, completely and unequivocally contradicted the meme of violent insurrection being touted by the Jan 6 Committee, Impeachment hearings and as usual, the legacy media. But please don’t take my word for it. Read my original article below and decide for yourself. Decide whether or not the videos released by Carlson support my words, or the lies put forth by the left over the past two years.
Begin Original Article
Enough! Enough of the gaslighting by the press. Enough of the gaslighting by the party of slavery, Jim Crow, the KKK, want, deprivation, envy and murder of the unborn in the womb. Most especially, enough of their “Republican,” enablers, who believe they can gain political favor or DC cocktail circuit invites, by promoting blatant lies about President Trump’s rally held in Washington DC..
What is even more egregious, these lies have already become, “common knowledge.” Her Majesty and I attended church yesterday, which we do every Sunday that she manages to pry my fat fundament out of bed. As part of the warmup to the sermon, one of our Associate Pastors offered a few thoughts, along with a prayer sent to the congregations in this district by our District Bishop (abridged to save digital ink with emphasis mine)
Compassionate God, we come before you with heavy hearts. We are grieved by the violence that has, occurred in recent days in Washington, D.C. Forgive us for any ways in which our actions, attitudes and words have contributed to the divisions, polarization and distrust that abound in our country.
God of the nations, we are grateful for the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. We thank you that, though our capitol building was stormed in an unprecedented way on January 6, order was restored, and Congress was able to complete its work. We pray for the peaceful transition of power in coming days.
God of comfort, we pray for the families and friends of persons who died in the chaos. We also lift up to you those who were traumatized and intimidated by what they experienced at our capitol building.
As a prelude to this prayer, our pastor gave a few introductory remarks, referring to ”unprecedented violence in our Nation’s Capital” and ”imagery not seen since 9-1-1.” Her Majesty and I, finally disgusted at this leftist contamination (the message not the messenger) of a place of worship, quietly got up and walked out. I would like to claim maturity points for not saying “Not true” in response to the pastor, but Her Majesty in one of her major roles, once again kept me from showing my large derrière in public, so I remained silent. But that didn’t stop me from sitting down and writing this.
I am beyond disgusted at just how quickly we’ve been gaslighted into a narrative that Just. Is. Not. True. Imagery reminiscent of 9-1-1?! Sorry. I must have failed to notice the two airplanes filled with hundreds of passengers crash into the Capitol Building, demolishing and killing 3,000 people. That reference belittles the loss of those people that day and the thousands of Allied troops who died in order to bring the perpetrator to justice. But that’s just how it is now. False comparisons everywhere.
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Stormed?! Please! Aside from a couple of bozos who broke a window to get in, I clearly saw Capitol Police opening doors for protestors to enter, while appearing to cordially chat with them as they strolled through the building. As I’ve mentioned previously, the concerned Americans strolling through Statuary Hall, were all staying inside the velvet guide ropes, surely not the actions of a rabid mob bent on violence or chaos as promoted by the media and now my own church. Stormed? Tell that to American GIs who actually did storm “bloody Omaha” beach, that is, if you can find one. There aren’t many left.
Violence?! Yep. I saw some pushing and shoving along the barrier line. I also understand that a few officers were treated for injuries. Let me say here–If you touch a cop in the lawful discharge of his duties, your sorry butt should go to jail. However, with the exception of the above, most of what I saw were protestors waving flags and getting along famously with Capitol Police. There was also some minor property damage. Fine. That too should be punished according to law.
But in no way were the events in DC something even close to what ANTIFA/BLM have been inflicting on our cities and neighborhoods (many of them minority) for the past year. The piddly amount of property damage and injuries (yes, standard caveat, even one is too many) that occurred in DC pales when compared to the ANTIFA/BLM riots, arson, looting and outright assassination of police officers and other Americans who had the effrontery to show support for a duly elected President. Some estimates put ANTIFA/BLM property damage/destruction at over 15 billion dollars. The death toll is over 30. Side note: The fence that was rapidly put up around to protect “our betters” from their subjects immediately following the disturbance, likely cost more than the property damage inflicted by the few boneheads I mentioned earlier.
There was one fatality that has been confirmed as directly a result of a possibly unlawful act. That fatality was that of a U.S. Air Force Veteran who was shot by police while she was crawling through a hole in a door on her stomach and as such, absolutely no threat to anyone. My review of the stills taken at the scene, also showed law enforcement officers on her side of the door looking very relaxed as they made no effort to stop her…stop her before she was shot by another officer on the other side of the door.
The point of all of this wasn’t to rehash the events of the day. the objective is to point out just how deep the gaslighting has already gotten. The message from the media has already penetrated deep into our institutions…even to my own Church, where the hierarchy is already spouting the leftist line and asking member churches to do the same.
Starting that day as I watched the press reporting, reporting “facts” totally different than what Her Majesty and I were watching, I could tell that this was going to end up as an alternative history. Now, almost the entire country, including more than a few conservative pundits are using the leftist language, referring to the “chaos,” the “riot” and other nuns that are flat out untrue.
Let me be really clear. There was no riot in DC (especially compared to what ANTIFA/BLM inflicted on American cities). There was no insurrection. There was no “storming” of the Capitol Building. There was a peaceful rally. There was a largely peaceful protest that was marred by some bad acts by a very few people. There was and is, absolutely nothing to be traumatized or intimidated by. It’s time to tell the press, the politicians and even our pastors, stop the gaslighting.
As for the two officers who died, one from suicide and the other from as yet to be determined causes—our heartfelt prayers.* Same goes for Air Force Veteran Ashli Babbitt who was shot under questionable circumstances by Capitol Police.
End of Original Article
For two years we’ve been deliberately and maliciously lied to. Through hearings and a second impeachment, Democrats, ably supported by their media enablers have continued to foist this garbage on the American people. Those intrepid enough to push back were labelled “conspiracy theorists,” or outright censored/cancelled to one degree or another as I was.
One of the most evil memes going from that day, was that a Capitol Police Officer, Brian Sicknick was killed by rioters. The legacy media, promoted a false story about Officer Sicknick having died from being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. Sadly, this falsehood was even pushed by an alleged Republican, then Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
Reminder, Liz Cheney pushed the Sicknick Lie. pic.twitter.com/6cE4BA5rkF
— The Columbia Bugle ???????? (@ColumbiaBugle) July 27, 2021
After almost 3 months of the left disseminating that falsehood far and wide, the DC Coroner finally and quietly announced that Officer Sicknick tragically died of natural causes. RIP. And now, due to the efforts of Tucker Carlson, we can see video showing Officer Sicknick was alive AFTER he was allegedly bludgeoned to death, thus validating the coroner’s belated admission.
Sadly, it has taken until now for even some of the legacy media to admit what many of us were saying all along. Even now, members supposedly on our own team are giving Carlson grief for publishing these heretofore withheld videos. Here is a video of the usual suspects lining up to undermine their own side along with their fellow Americans.
The good news in all of this, is that although it took two years, the folks in my circle have been finally vindicated for telling the truth. The bad news, is that it took so long, the old adage, “A Lie has made it halfway around the World while the Truth is still saddling its horse (or still putting on its boots)” still obtains. Even worse news, is that because of leftist lawfare or in my case, financial coercion, many conservative news and opinion outlets have had to take protective measures. These measures include additional editorial supervision and in some cases, outsourcing comments or restricting them to paid members. Of course, such measures serve only to stifle open and honest discourse. We’ll talk more on that on another day.
For now, those of us who have been been the targets of some pretty harsh language and even taken some financial hits for telling the truth, hope your will forgive us as we exercise a little well deserved schadenfreude as the left is forced to eat its words.
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Mike Ford is a retired Infantry Colonel. He has served in Europe, Central America and in Southwest Asia, commanding at the Detachment, Company, Battalion and Brigade Levels.