A former high school principal might’ve pulled a fire alarm in Congress by accident, believing it was a door handle. Meanwhile, no one should be the slightest bit concerned that a judge presiding over a civil case against former President Trump appears to be a radical leftist with a staff that hangs out with Chuck Schumer. Instead, we’ll fact check an obvious joke.
Last Saturday, Democrat Representative and Progressive Squad Member Jamaal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in the Canon Office Building on Capitol Hill in a self-evident attempt to delay a vote on a last minute government funding bill that would avert a much-dreaded government shutdown. Representative Bowman was caught, red handed as it were, on video in a vestibule pulling the alarm in a photo that quickly spread around the internet like fire itself. Given he was formerly a high school principal, it is inconceivable that he had no idea how a fire alarm worked and yet he tried to claim the incident was an accident. To him, the red box marked “pull in case of fire” would somehow open the door instead of triggering the alarm. “I was just trying to get to my vote. The door that’s usually open wasn’t open. I didn’t mean to cause confusion. I didn’t know it was going to trip the whole building. I thought [the alarm] would help me open the door,” Representative Bowman said after the incident, forgetting to mention that the easiest way from the office building to the actual House of Representatives is via an underground tunnel. By Monday, his office had issued a series of talking points haranguing Republicans and then promptly denied them. The talking points began with the honest mistake explanation, claiming the incident was due to “confusing signage” as if there’s any mistaking FIRE in bold letters on a red handle for a door handle because I am sure many have made that same mix up. Fellow Democrats were instructed to respond to the incident by claiming it was actually Republicans who were at fault for Representative Bowman’s actions, apparently the “last minute votes caused by Republican incompetence” prompted him to pull the alarm, in panic and confusion of course. Further, it “is an extreme reach on the part of MAGA Republicans to assert that Rep Bowman intended to harm or destruct anyone or anything. The exact opposite is true: he was trying to do his job.” Democrats were instructed to dismiss the whole thing, claiming “I believe Congressman Bowman when he says this was an accident. Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else,” and it’s “clear my colleague Congressman Bowman was simply rushing to the floor to cast his vote to prevent a shutdown and support working class families.” In some cases, the language was so extreme that even Representative Bowman himself was forced to disavow it, writing on X later, “I condemn the use of the term Nazi out of its precise definition. It is important to specify the term Nazi to refer to members of the Nazi party & neo-Nazis.” Needless to say, at least some Democrats pretended the obviously nonsensical explanation was the truth. Fellow Squad Member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed, Representative Bowman was “in a moment of panic [and] trying to escape a vestibule.”
Republicans, just as needless to say, weren’t buying any of it, instead demanding an immediate investigation, which was promptly mounted by the Capitol Police, while pushing for Representative Bowman’s expulsion from the chamber and wondering what the reaction would have been if one of the more conservative members of Congress had done the same thing. Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy noted, “This is a former principal? He knows what a fire alarm is. This is a man who has gone on and yelled at members. His behavior has been unbecoming. But what’s interesting, if it really was just an accident, when Capitol police came to interview you, why did you lawyer up right away?” Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakas and 12 other Republicans introduced the resolution to expel Representative Bowman, an unlikely occurrence given two thirds of members must support such a resolution. “Mr Bowman’s juvenile actions violated both federal and local law and he must be held accountable,” she said. Conservative-leaning media sources were obviously skeptical as well. As The New York Post put it, “This is an assault on democracy, a grave crime against the Republic. Or so we’d be hearing from the media — if Bowman belonged to the other party. Can you imagine the outcry if Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz had pulled this stunt? Wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-wall coverage. A 24-hour live feed on CNN devoted to the end of America as we know it. Screaming thinkpieces from the Times op-ed page about Trump, Trump, Trump!” Interestingly, Representative Bowman appears to have committed the same crime former President Trump was formally charged with earlier this year, obstructing an official proceeding.
The mainstream media, meanwhile, was almost ridiculously credulous in repeating Mr. Bowman’s obviously bullshit story, completely failing to channel anything resembling Tommy Lee Jones’ famous scene from The Fugitive. They either repeated what he said without comment, refusing to make the obvious parallel to an obstructed vote in Congress, or in some cases, actually seemed to pretend their audience was either too stupid or too committed to the cause to realize it was obviously bullshit. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, for example, claimed the incident was “silly and embarrassing,” comparing it to a Republican Representative who apparently engaged in some inappropriate heavy petting at a theater in Colorado as if what one does on their personal time has anything in common with what happens in Congress, but dismissing it as “not that big deal.” Mr. Hayes is entitled to his opinion – until he went when one step further and outright insulted anyone with even a modicum of common sense. CNN’s Manu Raj had tweeted the media’s standard line on the matter along with a press release from the Capitol Police, claiming “Capitol Police sends out a press release stating the facts of the Jamaal Bowman probe over his pulling of the fire alarm in the Cannon building on Saturday. It says the incident is still under investigation. Bowman says it was an accident.” Mr. Hayes then added his own commentary, “That said, the characterization here, that Bowman tried to open the door before pulling the alarm, lines up with his explanation.” This can only be seen as gaslighting of the highest order, to the point where it is impossible to tell what he even means. If by “lines up with his explanation,” Mr. Hayes is referring to the fact that Representative Bowman admitted pulling the fire alarm, he is telling the obvious truth, but otherwise there is no indication any of this lines up with his ridiculous story.
A comparison to another recent story is perhaps even more instructive. Former President Donald Trump has spent most of the week in a New York City courtroom, defending himself against a civil suit filed by Attorney General Letitia James who claims he defrauded banks and related parties by knowingly increasing the value of his assets, despite that none of these parties were harmed, are participating in the suit, and all were paid what they were owed. While Judge Arthur Engoran was presiding over the trial, an enterprising supporter on Truth Social found a photo of his clerk arm in arm with Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. It is unclear where the photo was taken or whether the two have any kind of working relationship – it could reasonably be the equivalent of a selfie at an event of some kind and the Majority Leader’s office said it was a luncheon – but given that politics are inherently involved in the case, it’s certainly interesting to see a key figure that’s supposed to be impartial arm and arm with a leader in the opposition party and it suggests, however mildly, that the clerk herself might not be capable of remaining impartial in this matter and could well be a radical Democrat activist. Your humble author, for example, would certainly not pose for a picture with Senator Schumer under any circumstances. Whatever the case, the former President apparently saw the original post and reposted it with his own caption, “Schumer’s girlfriend, Allison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!” President Trump offered further comments outside the courtroom, claiming “And this rogue judge, a Trump hater. The only one that hates Trump more is his associate up there,” he said. “The person that works with him. She’s screaming into his ear almost every time we ask a question. A disgrace. It’s a disgrace.” Judge Engoran responded by issuing a gag order that forbids anyone involved in the trial from publicly referencing his staff. As he explained it, “This morning one of the defendants posted on (a) social media account a disparaging untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients. Personal attacks of any member of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them,” he said. “Consider this statement an order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any members of my staff. Failure to abide by this … will result in serious sanctions.”
The media, meanwhile, being completely immune to satire and irony promptly fact-checked the former President’s reference to “Schumer’s girlfriend” while covering the story, as if anyone with an IQ higher than the aging coon hound sitting on the other side of my desk was unaware he was joking and truly believed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has been married since 1980 and has two children, is actually dating the clerk. CNN described it as a “baseless” claim, “The [original[ post, which Trump included as an image in his own Truth Social post, did not allege that the clerk was Schumer’s girlfriend, merely that the two were ‘palling around.’ Trump added the baseless ‘girlfriend’ claim.” Even The New York Post, which is nominally conservative yet no friend of the former President, went out of its way to note the girlfriend reference was “without evidence” to use the ridiculous parlance of our misinformation addled era. “Schumer’s girlfriend, Allison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me,’ Trump wrote without evidence in a caption that linked to her Instagram account,” their coverage read. The paper then went out of its way to defend the judge, as if no one should be the least bit concerned about political affiliation in case against the likely Republican presidential candidate next year, assuring us that all of this was totally normal. They know this, apparently, because another attorney who has “also taken” on the Trump Organization told them. “Engoron is known to involve his law clerks more than the typical judge does, and it’s common for him to huddle with them during a proceeding for a side conference. Sometimes they even participate in oral arguments, asking questions of the attorneys on the judge’s behalf, said real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, who has also taken the Trump Organization to court in the past, to The Post. This means that what Trump has observed at his civil fraud trial is routine practice for Engoron and not targeted treatment.” Left unsaid, Judge Engoran is a registered Democrat, a member of the ACLU, and a former hippie. He has consistently ruled against Trump the entire time, as the Associated Press describe this way, “Engoron, a Democrat, has ruled repeatedly against Trump in the three years he’s been presiding over James’ lawsuit. He’s forced Trump to sit for a deposition, held him in contempt and fined him $110,000.” They continued “Engoron’s rulings are rife with biographical information, part full-disclosure, part nostalgia. He revealed in one decision that he participated in ‘huge, sometimes boisterous, Vietnam War protests.’ He’s also described himself as a free-speech absolutist and said he’s been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union since 1994.”
In other words, both Judge Engoron and his clerk are likely far left activists and outright Trump haters somehow presiding over a trial that could have huge impact on the 2024 race, but the media doesn’t feel this should concern you in the least. Judge Engoran is not alone, either. The federal judge presiding over the January 6th case has openly questioned why President Trump is not in jail already, as if that again was just completely standard operating procedure and nothing to cause any concern whatsoever. In another January 6th related case, Judge Tanya Chutkan noted, “This was nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legally, lawfully, peacefully elected government, by individuals who were mad that their guy lost,” adding, “it’s blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” In yet another case, she claimed, “The people who exhorted you and encouraged you and rallied you to go and take action and to fight have not been charged.” Does anyone with that IQ higher than my aforementioned hound doubt where she stands and what outcome she would prefer in this case? Incredibly, she has refused to recuse herself insisting that a person possessed of an obvious hatred of the defendant can remain impartial. The media, same as ever, prefers to act like this all totally normally – fact checking an obvious joke while giving a pass to a Congressman who illegally pulled a fire alarm and obstructed a vote. At this point, there is no other explanation for this behavior: They think you are dumber than my dog and same as a dog or even worse, they can lie to you with abandon.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 