After reading tons of commentary on the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict last week, there is a central aspect that has been largely uncommented on. In fact, it may be THE key aspect. This outcome has NOT vindicated the justice system, which should never have brought this case to trial. I am not convinced that it has served as a fortification of the 2^nd Amendment either: the left is using it as a platform to advocate against that amendment. What is central to me is that this jury knew that they were being doxed; knew that the lawless lynch mob threatened to harm them and their families if they did not issue the “right” (unjust) verdict; knew that the corporate media was egging the mob on, contrary to the evidence; knew that most public officials on the left were doing the same; and knew that the prosecutors were brazenly lying directly contrary even to the evidence they presented and engaging in shockingly open misconduct. . Yet despite all this and the credible, personal threat to their own safety, this jury followed the evidence and the law anyway and found Rittenhouse not guilty. That was an act of intentional resistance – and open defiance of the maliciously false narrative so many institutions had mounted.

I have to think that, at some point, the jury (from Kenosha County) had to contemplate that the mayor of Kenosha and the governor of Wisconsin, with media encouragement, willingly gave their city over to a violent mob, while this mere teenager tried to defend their hometown. Some on the jury may have even thought, with guilt, that they had not stood in the breach as this boy had. And now they were going to right the moral blight that had afflicted all who had abdicated their responsibility to protect ordinary people – and the malicious evil which led so many institutions to actually encourage the evil.

Since the verdict, leftist officials and the corporate media have been shrieking like a brood of vampires confronted with an armada of crucifixes on a sea of Holy Water. Though they may not yet understand it consciously, they understand viscerally that this is a conscious rejection by ordinary people of them, all their works, and all their empty promises. If they cannot check this rebellion, their influence and power is near its end. For the left, including the corporate media, this heralds a genuinely existential crisis.

This crisis was compounded for them by the horrific assault in Waukesha less than a week later when Darrell Brooks, a white-hating black supremacist (at least by his social media history) allegedly plowed through a Christmas parade with his SUV, killing at least six and wounding at least 40. (I say allegedly for legal reasons – the video record speaks for itself). Much of the corporate media, astonishingly, tried to make excuses for him, suggesting this was not an intentional act of terror, but just a tragic accident as he was running from police for a previous crime. Local law enforcement authorities publicly slapped that excuse down as a brazen lie before a full day had passed (notably quicker than public authorities normally publicly correct media lies). So, instead the leftist media tried to downplay the story and its coverage. After publicly showing their evil nature with their lies in the Rittenhouse trial, it was as if they couldn’t wait to confirm it with the way they covered Waukesha.

As for leftist public officials, Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm is now in the hot seat for his efforts to reduce bail requirements almost to the vanishing point for violent felons since he first took office. At the time of the horror, Brooks was out on $1,000 bail while two open serious felonies are pending against him, one in which he is accused of running over his victim with his car. He should not have been out in the first place. This as even lefties in San Francisco are waking up to how out of control crime can become when prosecutors focus on “criminal justice reform” instead of protecting innocent and honest people. Ordinary people are figuring out that continually releasing violent criminals with little bail is actually issuing blank death warrants for innocent people – whose names are filled in after the released criminal commits his next violent felony when he should not even be walking the streets. If the lefties wanted to fool the folksies a little longer, they should have kept their pie holes shut instead of doubling down on what anybody who looks can now see are hideous lies.

Melissa Mackenzie, columnist at and publisher of the American Spectator, sends out a regular email newsletter which prominently displays the slogan, “Courage is Contagious.” She’s right. May these outbreaks of courage by ordinary people become a true pandemic against the malicious lies of the corporate media and actions of leftist public officials. For this, may we have true cause for Thanksgiving. Aslan is on the move.

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Thank you to so many of you who have been praying for me. I had intended this to be a survey column, with several hopeful items, but I can only write by fits and starts – and this was all I could finish right now. There will be more over the next week. Following are excerpts of an update I sent out to the CORAC leadership team earlier today:

“I am doing well in my recovery, but still have a climb. Weird stuff…as I recover (and even as the infection was drilling deeper) it is more like a gauntlet of symptoms I have to pass through than a single disease. Every three days it seems, as one painful or trying symptom passes, a new one settles in for a few days. When a previous one is gone, it stays gone. Other than my gauntlet of transient symptoms, the toughest ongoing one I have to deal with is the fatigue and sudden dropoff of energy. When you let Covid drill into you as deeply as I did before beginning proper therapeutic treatment, it is like three wildcats tearing through the house. I haven’t been infectious for almost two weeks. The wildcats are gone, but boy, there is a lot of damage to be cleaned up.  Basically, I can do almost everything normally and I can think intensely again – but after a couple of hours of sustained effort, everything drops off the table and I can’t do serious work again until I have slept a couple of hours (makes it very hard to write – but at least I know when I am dropping off). I hope to have a piece up tonight. Yesterday, I had the best day since I stabilized. I had an awful weekend, after being transported over two days from Missoula, Montana to central Colorado. But I expected that. When I have a good day, I push myself as much as I reasonably can – knowing that it is going to make for a rough day or two following – and then I do it again. Not to worry, this method is taking me three steps forward and then only one or two steps back. But recovery must be measured week to week rather than day to day. Thanks be to God for Mark and Mary Lapchak, who are taking very good care of me, even though I can often be grumpy. And thanks be to God for Beckita, who took care of me for over three weeks when I was at my very worst. 

Let us continue to stumble forward together in the Lord’s service. May you all have a glorious and joyful Thanksgiving!

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Find me on Gab at Charliej373 or at the CORAC group.