{"id":1989056,"date":"2023-08-02T18:12:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T22:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/our-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues\/"},"modified":"2023-08-02T18:15:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T22:15:00","slug":"our-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/our-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re still descending into a banana republic."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Four-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1989056&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Our Descent into a Banana Republic Continues<\/h2>\n<p>See if this story\u2063 sounds familiar. A charismatic populist runs for president. He\u200b promises \u2062to end corruption, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bernie-sanders-sen-manchin-doesnt-represent-democrats\/\" title=\"Bernie Sanders: Sen. Manchin doesn\u2019t represent Democrats\">close tax loopholes<\/a> for the rich, and prioritize his own people over foreign interests. Contrary to all expectations, \u2064this insurgent \u2062candidate \u2063performs well in the election. That terrifies the \u200destablishment, so they pursue a series of criminal \u200ccharges against him. \u200cFirst, they accuse him of\u200b rape. \u2062Then, when \u2062he\u2019s\u2064 acquitted, they charge\u2062 him again \u2014 this time, with the crime of \u201cfomenting an insurrection.\u201d They say he led\u2063 an illegal \u201cfreedom caravan\u201d to\u2064 a protest in the capital. Mass demonstrations break out because people \u2062recognize what\u2019s happening: The government prosecutors who are claiming to fight \u201celection interference\u201d are in fact the ones engaging in it. It\u2019s what banana republics\u200c do. They jail their opponents when they can\u2019t beat them.<\/p>\n<h3>The Situation in Senegal<\/h3>\n<p>The situation \u200dI just described is unfolding right now in the West African nation\u200b of Senegal. \u2064The government in that country is eager to \u200dthrow an opposition leader, someone named Ousmane Sonko,\u2063 in prison.\u2064 He \u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/5\/30\/protests-erupt-after-allegations-of-senegalese-leaders-detention\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">organized<\/a> a mass protest\u2063 in Senegal\u2019s capital of Dakar,\u200d but\u200b it was quickly shut down,\u2062 and now the government is seeking to disqualify him from office by bombarding him with criminal \u2062charges. If you read press reports, you\u2019ll \u200cfind that most of the Western media claims to be\u200b disturbed by all \u200dthis. \u201cSenegal\u2064 authorities arrest opposition frontrunner,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/aug\/01\/senegal-authorities-arrest-opposition-frontrunner-ban-his-party-and-cut-internet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> the Guardian. Human Rights Watch\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2023\/08\/01\/senegalese-government-dissolves-opposition-party-cuts-internet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called<\/a> the developments an \u201cassault on democracy ahead of\u2063 elections.\u201d\u2062 NPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/03\/26\/1166114329\/in-senegal-the-government-is-cracking-down-on-human-rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">complained<\/a>, \u201cIn\u200c Senegal, the government\u2062 is cracking \u2062down on human rights.\u201d They\u2019re doing that, NPR explained, by criminalizing political dissent, which NPR insists is a very bad thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>Do \u2063they really believe that? Does anyone in the media or any of these NGO\u2019s really believe that?<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s see. As you\u2019ve heard by now, yesterday, \u200bthe DOJ again indicted the leading political opponent of the\u200d conspicuously wealthy career politician \u2063who \u200cruns the \u200cDOJ, Joe Biden. This \u200bis the third indictment\u200c that\u2019s been brought against Donald Trump this year, and the second that\u2019s \u200dbeen brought\u200b by Joe \u2062Biden\u2019s DOJ. \u200dAnd yet, curiously enough,\u200d of the human rights defenders in\u200c the media \u2014 none of those reporters who wept for Senegal \u2014 were concerned by this latest development. In fact, they celebrated it. \u201cTrump charged with 4 felony counts \u2063for attempt \u2064to overturn the 2020 election,\u201d \u2062wrote NPR. You can imagine \u2063the gloating \u2063on at MSNBC. We\u2019ll spare\u2063 you.<\/p>\n<p>So, Senegal can\u2019t arrest its \u200bopposition leaders, but \u200cJoe Biden can. Why is that? That\u2019s an important question. In fact, it may be the \u2062only question that matters. The media\u2019s justification for these indictments is that Donald Trump is just\u2062 a really bad guy.\u200c He\u2019s so evil, \u200cso dangerous, and \u200cso \u2064orange that he must be kept out of office at all costs \u2014\u200c even if it means\u200d the total destruction of those \u201cdemocratic norms\u201d that\u2063 the Left once pretended to care about.<\/p>\n<p>If all those claims about Trump were true, you\u2019d think the indictment against Donald Trump would be convincing, thorough, \u2063and unimpeachable. You\u2019d expect that the indictment would be premised \u200don a reasonable application of a law, with airtight \u2064precedent backing it up. But that\u2019s not what \u200dwe have here. What we have is somehow \u2062even \u2063flimsier \u200cthan the indictment out of New York \u2062\u2014 the one that\u200d accused Trump of \u200bcommitting multiple felonies because his accountants made a bookkeeping error \u2064seven years \u2064ago.<\/p>\n<p>Essentially, the latest indictment from Joe Biden\u2019s \u2063DOJ\u2062 accuses Donald Trump of lying about election fraud \u2014 which isn\u2019t illegal, as the indictment itself admits.\u2064 The document goes\u2062 on to say that \u2064Donald Trump didn\u2019t really believe \u2063the election\u2063 was stolen,\u200c because other officials told him it wasn\u2019t stolen, so therefore he must be lying.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment then suggests that Trump somehow broke the law by using various\u2064 levers of government power to contest the election results, \u2062on the advice \u200dof his attorneys. This \u200d\u201clegal theory\u201d \u200c\u2014 \u200dif you can call it that \u2063\u2014 criminalizes political speech. There\u2019s \u2063no \u200dway around that. \u200cIt justifies locking \u200bup Adam\u2064 Schiff and Nancy Pelosi for lying about Russian \u2063collusion \u200bfor four\u2063 years, and pursuing investigations and impeachments based on \u200btheir fraud. It \u2064justifies imprisoning every Democratic \u2063Party lawmaker \u2014\u200d and\u200d there have \u2064been a lot of them \u2014 who ever\u2063 objected to the certification of \u2062election\u2063 results. It justifies\u2063 throwing all those Democrats in\u200c jail who tried to seat alternative \u2062slates of electors both \u200btimes George W. Bush took office. It justifies imprisoning Stacey \u200dAbrams, who still pretends to the rightful governor of Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>But the really incredible\u2063 thing about \u2064this indictment\u200d is\u2063 that it justifies \u2062jailing Trump \u2014\u200b even if you \u200cconcede he was \u200dright about election fraud in the 2020 \u2063election. The premise of all of the charges against Trump is that it\u2019s illegal for \u2064the president\u200b to\u200d reject the electors that\u200d are submitted \u2062to Congress, under any circumstances. So the \u2064DOJ isn\u2019t just objecting to Donald Trump\u2019s claims about the voting machines. They\u2019re not just denying\u2063 his argument that, with COVID as \u200ca pretense, Democrats perverted the entire system of elections \u2064in this country, to such a degree that Joe Biden \u2014 a senile\u2063 old man who campaigned \u2063from his basement\u2063 \u2014 somehow received 10 million more votes than Barack Obama. The DOJ is saying\u200c that, even if Donald Trump was right about everything, and the 2020\u200c election was rigged, \u2064then he still has no right, as president, to do anything about it. Which is pretty shocking,\u200d or at\u200c least it would be if we \u2062weren\u2019t already so used to this level of corruption.<\/p>\n<p>That \u200bmight be why, in announcing the charges, the special counsel, Jack Smith, didn\u2019t talk about the specifics of his indictment\u200b at all. Instead he talked about all the brave officers at the Capitol on January 6th, even though\u2062 Trump isn\u2019t accused, in any way, of causing those officers harm, or of inciting violence against them:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jack Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheJusticeDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheJusticeDept<\/a> press conference announcing the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/indictment?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#indictment<\/a> of \u2063Donald\u2062 Trump for \u20632020 Election \u2064Fraud claims.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TruthMatters?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TruthMatters<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Accountability?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Accountability<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/2020Election?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#2020Election<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DemocracyDefender?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DemocracyDefender<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6G5xEIbACF\">pic.twitter.com\/6G5xEIbACF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Union California\u2064 (@JoinTheUnionCA)\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoinTheUnionCA\/status\/1686517476472078337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 1, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What are we watching here? Three things.\u2062 First, we have once again the grotesque \u2064charade of\u200b Democrats\u200c pretending \u200cto care about the\u2062 well being\u200d of police officers. \u2062These \u2063are the same people who cheered as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/our-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues\/\" title=\"We're still descending into a banana republic.\">rabid mobs bashed cops<\/a> over the head with bricks and set\u200b police stations on\u200b fire. For another thing, \u200cthis is\u200b an\u200c awfully convenient political\u200d distraction for the government. Just \u2063a day before Trump was indicted, a business partner of Hunter Biden testified that Joe Biden was on the phone with Hunter while his son was peddling\u2062 his \u200bfather\u2019s influence, while he was vice president. And the defense from the\u2064 Biden team and the Democratic Party is that Joe Biden was just on the\u2064 calls to talk about\u200c the weather. Which, as we \u200cdiscussed\u2064 yesterday, wouldn\u2019t absolve Joe Biden of the influence-peddling accusation even if it were true that he only \u2064talked about\u200b the weather. \u200cThis is how influence-peddling works. It doesn\u2019t\u2063 matter what Joe Biden says to Hunter Biden\u2019s business associates. The point is to make the connection.<\/p>\n<p>The major networks and newspapers\u200c barely covered that story. And they didn\u2019t need to, because the very next day, it was all\u2064 out of the news\u200d cycle entirely because of this\u200b new indictment.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/episode\/ep-1196-our-descent-into-a-banana-republic-continues-member-exclusive\">WATCH: The\u200c Matt Walsh Show<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve seen \u2063this pattern play out \u200cbefore. Earlier \u200bthis summer, Congress received whistleblower documents from the \u2064FBI alleging that the Bidens took\u200c a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/highlights-from-the-house-judiciary-hearing-with-christopher-wray\/\" title=\"Key Moments from House Judiciary Hearing with Christopher Wray\">multi-million-dollar bribe<\/a> from that Ukrainian oil company that was paying Hunter Biden. Shortly afterwards, Jack\u2062 Smith\u200c indicted Trump for storing \u201cclassified documents\u201d in his home \u2014 the same thing that Mike Pence and\u200b Joe Biden\u200d have admitted \u2064to doing.<\/p>\n<p>Then, on July 26th, Hunter Biden\u2019s\u200c plea deal blew up in court, after the judge noticed \u200cthat no plea deal of its kind had ever been agreed \u200cto in the history of the \u2064United States. That was \u200cembarrassing to the \u2062DOJ and to the Bidens. The very \u200cnext day, on July 27th, Jack Smith \u2063charged Donald \u2063Trump with\u2062 more crimes. He \u2062even charged \u200cTrump\u2019s maintenance guy\u2063 at \u200bMar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n<p>You can choose to believe these are all coincidences. What you can\u2019t deny is that \u200cwhat we\u2019re seeing has implications that will long \u2062outlive Donald Trump and his political career. We are\u200b witnessing the criminalization of all political dissent, for all Americans, no\u200c matter how powerful or\u2063 well-off they may be \u2014 or may \u2064not\u200b be.<\/p>\n<p>Consider that one of the federal statutes that the\u200d DOJ now accuses Donald Trump of violating, 18 U.S.C. 241, is the \u200cvery same law that was used to throw Douglass Mackey in prison. 18 U.S.C. 241 is the law that prohibits people from engaging in a conspiracy against the rights of\u200b Americans. Specifically, the statute makes it illegal \u200cfor, \u201ctwo or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any \u200dperson\u201d \u2062so that they can\u2019t exercise their constitutional rights. The point of that law, when\u2062 it was originally passed in the 19th century, was to prevent the KKK (and state\u200b officials) \u200dfrom interfering with the\u200b right of \u200dblack Americans to vote.<\/p>\n<p>What did Douglass Mackey do\u200d to violate 18 U.S.C. 241, all these years later? He posted some\u200c memes\u200d on \u2063social media that made fun of Hillary Clinton voters. One of his memes\u2063 told his followers\u200d to\u200b text a fake\u200b number to vote, instead of\u2064 showing up to the polls. It was an obvious \u2062joke. At least one major Left-wing\u2063 account, run by a woman\u2062 named Kristina Wong, created\u200c a similar meme\u200c mocking Trump supporters.\u200d \u201cHey, Trump supporters,\u201d she wrote. \u201cSkip poll lines and text in\u200c your vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kristina Wong was never charged because she has the right politics. Douglass Mackey was charged, though and unlike\u2063 Donald \u2064Trump, \u200bDouglass Mackey is\u2062 not wealthy.\u2062 He wasn\u2019t \u2062famous. \u200cHe had just 58,000 Twitter followers when the FBI decided to arrest him. He\u2019s facing 10 years in prison, after\u200c a scam prosecution. The prosecution <a href=\"https:\/\/www.karlstack.com\/p\/twitter-poster-railroaded-for-free\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">withheld<\/a> evidence to make sure the jury convicted Mackey,\u200d including information \u2064about the key witness in \u2064the case. In \u2064the end they got what they wanted, which was a conviction that\u2064 sent a message to every conservative in this country. And\u200c that message is simple: Cause enough of a problem \u200cfor\u2063 us,\u200b and you go to prison, whether \u2064you\u2019re Donald Trump or a guy with \u206258,000 Twitter followers.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s also \u2062why\u2062 Mark Houck faced a decade in jail, after Joe Biden\u2019s \u2062DOJ raided his home with a\u200b 25-member SWAT team. What was Mark\u2063 Houck\u2019s \u2063crime? Why did he deserve to have rifles pointed in his face, in front of his kids? He pushed a worker outside an abortion clinic who was harassing and\u200d endangering his 12-year-old son. No state or local\u200c prosecutor \u200cwould take the\u2062 case. But \u200dJoe\u200d Biden\u2019s DOJ pursued \u2062it, as though\u200c Mark Houck had personally set the abortion clinic on \u200bfire. Meanwhile, some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/post-roe-pro-life-activists-vow-to-protect-mothers-and-babies-while-planned-parenthood-touts-more-at-home-abortions\/\" title=\"Post-Roe: Pro-Life Activists Vow to Protect Mothers and Babies While Planned Parenthood Touts More At-Home Abortions\">pro-life pregnancy centers<\/a>\u200b actually\u2064 did get firebombed. But Joe\u200b Biden\u2019s DOJ did nothing\u200d about that. In one case, last summer, the CompassCare Pregnancy Services \u2062Center in Buffalo was \u2062torched. \u200dThe FBI responded to that blaze by seizing surveillance footage from the center, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/compasscare-lawsuit-surveillance-footage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">refusing to return it<\/a> for \u200csix \u2062months.<\/p>\n<p>This\u200d was all happening, right out in the open, a long time before \u2063Donald Trump\u2019s third \u200bindictment yesterday. And there \u2063were many more \u200dexamples. Republicans watched as Joe Biden purged the military\u2063 of wrong-think. They did nothing as he sent grandmothers with cancer to prison for the crime\u200d of walking around the\u2062 Capitol building. They went on TV for meaningless 3-minute hits as the FBI rounded\u200b up Donald Trump\u2019s aides, one \u2062by one, in parking lots and fast food drive-thrus.<\/p>\n<p>Try asking someone from Senegal\u2062 when, precisely, their democracy \u200cfailed. Ask them when exactly\u200d their system of \u201crepresentative government\u201d became a global\u2063 laughingstock. You could pose the same question to someone from say, Venezuela, or\u200c any number of countries that have devolved into tinpot dictatorships in just a few years. Odds are you\u2019ll never\u200d get a precise answer. There will be no singular prosecution that they\u2019ll point to. Instead they\u2019ll point to systemic \u200bfailures like complacency, corruption, and incompetence from people who were supposed to \u2064keep their\u200b system of government \u200bintact.<\/p>\n<p>Where have we \u2063seen that lately? Just a few days ago, the 81-year-old leader of the Republican Party in the \u200bSenate was incapable of finishing \u2063a press conference. He\u2064 just began\u2064 staring blankly\u200d ahead, for\u2063 reasons that remain unexplained. That\u2019s the state of the opposition that Joe Biden faces right now. Biden, who is practically catatonic. His opposition, somehow,\u2062 is \u2064even more useless. He and his\u2063 handlers know it. And\u2064 they\u2019re taking\u200d full advantage \u200dof the opportunity. If all they get in return are more harshly worded letters \u200cfrom Republican lawmakers, then pretty soon, we won\u2019t have to \u200cask Venezuelans, or people from\u2062 Senegal, how it\u2019s possible for a democracy to fail so quickly. We\u2019ll know the answer firsthand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A familiar tale unfolds: a charismatic populist vies for presidency, pledging to combat corruption, address tax loopholes, and prioritize citizens over foreign concerns. Surprisingly, this candidate defies expectations, performing strongly in the election. Alarmed, the establishment responds by pursuing criminal charges, fearing the implications of this insurgent&#8217;s success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":1989057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1989056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1989057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}