Consequences of Government Weaponization

Apparent RFKjr Assassination Attempt: A Requiem for Civil Society

Epoch Times: Armed Man Posing as Federal Agent Arrested at RFK Jr. Event in Los Angeles

By Mimi Nguyen Ly and Rudy Blalock

9/15/2023, updated 9/16/2023

After the incident involving an armed man allegedly claiming to be a U.S. Marshal, Mr. Kennedy Jr. renewed his call for Secret Service protection.

LOS ANGELES—An armed man was arrested by police at an event attended by Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Photos provided to The Epoch Times show the man, who was wearing a shirt with "EMS" on the back, being held in handcuffs by police officers outside the event venue in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. Multiple police vehicles were at the scene.

The Los Angeles Police Department told The Epoch Times it received a call at around 4:30 p.m. reporting that a male was in front of the event venue with "a badge on their lapel, a gun, and a shoulder holster, and claimed to be a U.S. Marshal."

A spokesperson for Mr. Kennedy Jr. confirmed the incident to The Epoch Times. Mr. Kennedy Jr. had not arrived at the venue yet when the incident occurred.

According to the LAPD, the man reportedly claimed to be employed for the event, but he wasn't recognized by the security staff.

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So, it has begun.

One of my first memories as a young child was of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was actually being cared for by a close relative (“Toby”) of my mothers’ at the time of the events. Like the shock of the planes hitting the twin towers and Pentagon on 9-11, it was one of those moments when the world stopped.

I am not an advisor to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or his campaign or affiliated super-PACs, but it seems like a year ago when he told me in private that he was considering running for President of the USA, and then last summer Jill (Dr. Jill Glasspool-Malone) and I were asked to comment on very favorable polling data and what we thought about the hard decision he faced. It would have been a lot easier if the polling was not so encouraging.

One thing I have come to know (based on personal interactions) is that Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is kind, deeply ethical, committed to both truth and his country, and profoundly courageous. Well aware of the danger of personal harm that the decision could bring, my advice was that he had no ethical choice other than to run for the office. Despite the high probability of an eventual assassination attempt. But also knowing that we are in perilous times, and the fate of the nation and its constitution is indeed hanging by a thread. The decision he confronted was to step up and try to run in the Democratic primaries as a Democrat, despite the virtually complete capture of the Democratic National Committee by the Clinton/Obama/Biden machine. As we all know, despite the risks and challenges, Mr. Kennedy stepped up to the challenge. If that is not a “Profile in Courage”, I do not know what is.

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The news broke last night (Friday, Sept 15 2023). Jan Jekielek of the Epoch Times alerted me as we were both walking down a hotel hall. We have both been attending a conservative conference in Arizona over the last two days.

A major current theme in a wide range of conservative circles has been the weaponization of government. The US Department of Justice has mounted legal attacks (“lawfare”) on virtually all political and legal leaders with a history of supporting Donald Trump during his presidency and/or were subsequently involved in challenges to the voting process. Challenges and discussions concerning voting integrity which closely resemble those which took place after the Gore vs Bush election, with partisan political positions and roles which almost perfectly mirror the present situation. With one key difference.

Back then, the administration of George W. Bush did not choose to take retaliatory legal action against those members of the Democrat party who were questioning the outcome and legitimacy of his presidency. To have done so back then would have been an unthinkable political breach. In sharp contrast in today’s political culture reality, where we have an Attorney General (Mr. Merrick Brian Garland) who seems to have weaponized the executive branch office of the Attorney General to extract revenge on the Republican party for refusing to hold a hearing or vote on his Supreme Court nomination during the waning days of the Obama administration.

“If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves”

Japanese Proverb

I mourn how far the standards of civil American society have fallen.

Which brings us to this moment in time, when a credible threat to Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has manifested. An entirely predictable, anticipated threat. A threat for which Secret Service protection has been specifically rejected by the administration of Mr. Kennedy’s political opponent, President Biden, based on spurious technical assertions.

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Many mainstream media outlets have (intentionally or accidentally) provided misinformation about RFK Jr’s request for Secret Service protection.  The erroneous information provided to the public most often is that Secret Service protection is only provided 120 days before the election, and that thus, RFK Jr’s request was too early.  That is not true. Yet another false narrative promoted by the Biden administrations’ corporate media handmaidens.

When it comes to mis/disinformation on this topic, to no-ones surprise CNN led the pack in their “Fact check” article titled “RFK’s misleading viral claim about Secret Service protection”

They claim Kennedy “baselessly” suggested the Biden Administration was “singling him out for rare treatment,” and said that Kennedy’s statement about the denial of protection was “highly misleading.”

Ironically, CNN then misleads its readers by stating: “Kennedy’s suggestion that he is being treated differently than every other presidential candidate since 1968 is baseless.”

By reviewing the facts listed below which CNN chose to ignore, you can decide for your self if RFK Jr is being treated differently than past presidential candidates.

• 1968 election: Just days after Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated at a campaign event, the sitting Administration provided Secret Service protection to five candidates, and by the end of the 1968 campaign, twelve candidates were protected by USSS.

• 1980 election: The Carter Administration provided early Secret Service protection to rivals Ronald Reagan, John B. Connally, George Bush, Illinois Representative Philip M. Crane, and Tennessee Representative Howard H. Baker, 663 days before the election.  The Carter Administration provided early Secret Service protection for Senator Edward M. Kennedy 441 days prior to the election – before Kennedy even announced his candidacy. The Washington Post reported the at the time that Kennedy’s “consideration of a presidential campaign has raised the fear of an assassination attempt such as those that struck down two of his brothers.”
  
  Note: Ted Kennedy had also been provided Secret Service protection twice before: In 1968 after his brother Robert was assassinated while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, and again in 1972 after the shooting of Alabama Governor George C. Wallace at a campaign event – when he wasn’t even running for President.

• 1984 election: The Reagan Administration provided early Secret Service protection for Jesse Jackson 362 days before Election Day, and offered early Secret Service protection to rivals Walter Mondale, John Glenn, Florida Governor Reubin Askew, Senator Gary Hart, Senator Ernest Hollings, and former Senator George McGovern, all 297 days before the election.

• 1988 election: The Reagan Administration provided early Secret Service protection for Pat Robertson 343 days before the election, for Jesse Jackson 351 days before the election, and for Governor Michael Dukakis soon after.

• 1992 election: The Bush Administration provided early Secret Service protection for rival Bill Clinton 249 days before the election.

• 1996 election: The Clinton Administration approved early Secret Service protection for rivals Pat Buchanan, 251 days before the election, and Bob Dole 219 days before the election.

• 2000 election: The Clinton Administration afforded early Secret Service protection to George W. Bus, 221 days before the election.

• 2004 election: The Bush Administration afforded early Secret Service protection to John Kerry, 256 days before the election, and the same for John Edwards soon after.

• 2008 election: The Bush Administration provided early Secret Service protection for Barrack Obama, 551 days before the election, despite not meeting the polling criteria (that RFK Jr has met), and despite not having “any specific, credible threat” against him (unlike RFK Jr).  The Bush Administration also provided early Secret Service protection for rival John McCain, 195 days before the election.

• 2012 election: The Obama Administration provided early Secret Service protection for rivals Herman Cain (355 days before the election), Newt Gingrich (245 days before the election), Mitt Romney (279 days) Rick Santorum (254 days).

• 2016 election: The Obama Administration approved early Secret Service protection for Donald Trump and Ben Carson, 369 days before the 2016 election, and for Bernie Sanders, 279 days before the election.

• 2020 election: The Trump Administration approved early Secret Service protection for rival Joe Biden 231 days before the election.

Among all these past Presidential administrations going back to the Johnson Administration in 1968, only the Biden Administration has ever denied a formal protection request (now two formal requests) from a presidential candidate. No corporate media outlet or story has found even one other instance in which a candidate was turned down.  With regard to the frequent media assertion that candidates don’t receive SS protection until 120 days before the election, the list above tells the whole story: Every candidate listed received Secret Service protection long before 120 days from Election Day.

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Lets stop, listen, and think for a moment. This is not just another moment in the timeline of incredibly corrosive events we have observed over the last three years. Events which have gradually, incrementally shredded the warp and weft of the fabric of our civil society.

If there is anything which defines conservatism, it is belief and commitment to the importance of maintaining civil society while enabling gradual incremental change as needed to adapt to new conditions. The maturity and functionality of a constitutional republic such as ours is completely dependent on a mutually respectful commitment to civil behavior and discourse.

Which includes a commitment to the physical safety of our opponents.

Has the tribal balkanization of American society now reached a point where we no longer respect the very lives of our domestic political opponents?

As I think about the underlying meaning of this current cascade of events involving RFKjr., what troubles me most about this is that the decision by the Biden administration to withhold Secret Service protection from Mr. Kennedy might actually be a good thing. Because I have come to the point where I have very little confidence that the US Secret Service would act in completely good faith to protect Mr. Kennedy from physical threats to life and limb. Little faith that, even if a security detail was to be provided by the Biden administration, it would not be weaponized in some way to benefit the current president.

This lack of faith stems from having watched as federal agency after federal agency has been weaponized to support political and economic agendas of corporations and of the administrative state. To my eyes, our permanent government (ergo the Leviathan) no longer even pretends to be a neutral arbiter of truth, a defender of the US constitution, a neutral enforcer of congressional laws, and a positive force committed to maintaining continuity of a civil society.

Instead, what I see is a downward spiral of tit for tat, ubiquitous psyop propaganda promoted by the Biden administration in close cooperation with social and legacy media, designed to support the goals and objectives of a corporatist state, and an ethic of “anything goes” forever tribal war - against ourselves.

It is hard to overlook the fact that the only winner in this political battlefield will be our offshore enemies and competitors.

So I ask that you join me in taking a moment to stop, listen, think, pray and act to restore comity, to respect the opinions and lives of our political opponents, and to seek to restore a more civil society.

We are surrounded by narcissists, opportunists and cognitively compromised octogenarians posing as leaders. The utilitarian logic of “anything goes” is justified in service to the socialist logic of “greatest good for the greatest number”, and in turn this has been merged with the new “golden rule” - those with the most gold make the rules. These are socially immature positions. Where are the grownups?

Conservatives may or may not agree with many of RFKjr’s positions. He speaks of “Kennedy Democrats”, and often looks backwards to outdated pre-Carter, pre-Reagan political theory. But he has the courage and integrity to take clear stands on important current topics, and to defend his positions clearly and eloquently based on provable facts. He acts and communicates to both supporters and opponents with a fundamental civility which seems like a refreshing anachronism in the current environment. He stands impervious to the bullying, defamation and gaslighting which is constantly deployed against him. His communication and actions are those of one of the few “grownups” on our modern political stage.

He deserves dedicated protection from crazies, chaos agents, and dark actors seeking to silence his voice through violence. Fortunately, he has found competent protection from a leading private sector security firm. How shameful that the republic is not able to provide protection from those trained and funded by taxpayer dollars to ensure the safety of leading national candidates for President.

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