We Are at War

War comes in various shapes and sizes, and temperatures. Some are comparatively small, others big. Some are cold, others kinetic. Some are wars of ideas. Maybe all are wars of ideas. Ideas like, what is good and what is evil—and which are we choosing? We’re in one of those right now.

Back in the 60s there was a saying, “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” It never made sense, because if nobody is warring, there is no war. But if one side is warring and the other side isn’t defending itself, you just have a takeover by the warring party. So, if someone is warring against you, you either succumb or fight back.

We’re being warred against. Many of us are fighting back—in non-kinetic, non-violent ways. We spread the message. We campaign. We vote. We work the polls. Some of us fight in the courts. Some of us fight in the legislature—if we’re not in the legislature, we testify and do citizen lobbying. We speak up. We make our voices heard. And meanwhile we live peaceful, productive lives in our communities.

The other side is using less lawful tactics. They censor. They propagandize like crazy. That is, they lie. They falsely accuse—in fact, if they’re accusing us (their opponents), you can assume they’re doing what they’re accusing us of. They harness business, media, unions, schools, NGOs, agencies, and anything else they can finagle to do their bidding.

They thwart free and fair elections. We have an election underway, with early voting running through tomorrow, and election day coming next Tuesday. And all of the thwarting is evident. However, in our war against evil, we have upped our game—more training, more poll watching, more calling them out. And yet, here’s an example of what this war looks like.

Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote
were arrested for not revealing a source
image from True the Vote found here

Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote (which started here in Houston and trained me in poll watching over a decade ago), and Gregg Phillips, a fellow researcher, turned over information to law enforcement identifying the company Konnech as having stored personal data of millions of US election workers on a server in China. CEO Eugene Yu has been arrested on criminal charges in the case; he is a naturalized US citizen, if I understand correctly, but is nevertheless a spy for the CCP.

The fact that charges were made means that verifiable information was provided and corroborated. But Konnech filed a defamation suit against True the Vote and all involved. The thing is, it’s not defamation if the claims are true, and the fact that charges have been filed make it very likely that what was said about them was true. In other words, Engelbrecht and Phillips did not make false claims, so a defamation lawsuit ought to be dismissed. Instead, the judge in the case is insisting that they provide the names of their sources.

And Monday Engelbrecht and Phillips were jailed for contempt of court. Here’s a good metaphor:

“Let’s imagine that a drug dealer facing criminal charges filed a lawsuit in civil court to make the cops provide the name of a source inside his organization. Would anyone think for a moment that would be a reasonable request? Would anyone have any doubt as to the fate of the informant if he was identified?

That’s how ludicrous this is and how obscene.”

                              —Sam Faddis, former CIA operations officer, writing in AND Magazine

Let’s look a little closer at the timeline. I’m getting most of this from a True the Vote email newsletter, as well as some recent news stories.

January 2021     True the Vote learned of the illegal breach of personal information to the CCP by Konnech. Recognizing the seriousness of the breach, they immediately turned over their information to the FBI. It turned out Konnech was already on their radar. They continued to cooperate with the FBI for 15 months.

April 2022           Catherine was told by a Texas-based FBI agent that the Washington, DC, office was now involved in the case. The FBI agent told her it was possible the FBI would now be targeting them, and their best way forward was to go public with their information.

August 2022       Engelbrecht and Phillips held a meeting in Arizona, called “The Pit,” an audience including citizen researchers, journalists, and law enforcement personnel, to whom they divulged their story publicly for the first time.

September 2022              Michigan-based company, Konnech, filed suit against True the Vote for defamation, racism, and xenophobia, based on their making their findings public. The court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO), which required providing the names of all individuals who were involved in the discovery of poll worker data in China.

October 4, 2022               Following a grand jury convened in Los Angeles, Konnech CEO, Eugene Yu, was indicted in California on charges that included fraud, embezzlement, and a data breach that resulted in the theft of the personal information of election workers in LA County. The arrest was announced by LA District Attorney, George Gascon.

October 7, 2022               Attorneys for Engelbrecht and Phillips made an initial appearance in federal court in Houston to answer the civil lawsuit filed by Konnech. It was at this hearing that the judge issued a highly unusual order requiring Engelbrecht and Phillips, through their attorneys, to reveal the name of the individual who originally presented them with the poll worker data on the server in China. Their attorney reluctantly complied and revealed the name of that one individual.

October 27, 2022             Engelbrecht and Phillips appeared in federal court in Houston, at which point they intended to demonstrate that there was a criminal matter in LA County regarding Eugene Yu and Konnech—which would mean the defamation case could be dismissed. The judge refused to consider this essential fact and further directed Engelbrecht and Phillips to reveal publicly the name of yet another individual who had been in the hotel room where Phillips had viewed the poll worker data in January 2021. Engelbrecht and Phillips offered to cooperate with the court and Konnech’s lawyers by providing the name of this individual under seal. The judge refused this offer. At the end of a long day of testimony, the judge found Engelbrecht and Phillips in contempt of court. They were provided an opportunity to “cure” the contempt on Monday, October 31, at 9:00 AM by announcing the name of this individual in open court. If they did not “cure” it, they would be immediately remanded into custody by the US Marshals.

October 31, 2022             Engelbrecht and Phillips refused to name the individual who was in the hotel room in January 2021, because this person was not involved in the sourcing of the poll worker data, and they strongly believe that this individual’s life would be in danger if his name were to be revealed publicly. They were immediately remanded to the custody of the US Marshal’s Service and remain in federal prison.

In any normal case, the defamation suit would have been dismissed. In parallel cases where journalists or researchers have been jailed for not revealing a source, it was at least on the pretext that it was preventing law enforcement from verifying the evidence they needed to proceed with their investigation. That is clearly not true here.

The judge doesn’t even seem concerned with how political it looks to do this false imprisonment a week before the important Midterm Election, for which True the Vote is a clearinghouse of training for poll workers, poll watchers, and any other election observers who see election laws being broken. They couldn’t wait two weeks to avoid the appearance of political shenanigans?

post on Catherine Engelbrecht's Locals.com account November 2, 2022
linking to the updates of election violation reports, of which the leading
problem is ballot drop boxes

The logical conclusion is that this judge, along with Yu and other players, is fighting on the side against truth and freedom.

Engelbrecht’s friend Dinesh D’Souza, who directed the movie 2000 Mules, based on their research, suggested in his Tuesday night podcast, we pray for them of course, but not to worry about them. They will be fine. Some years ago he underwent political persecution that ended up in his spending time in prison for a violation that should have been limited to a fine, if anything. He said he learned a lot, and it actually raised his profile so that he could share his ideas with more people than before. He hopes that will be the case for Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips.

We can’t not fight in the courts, because to not fight is to succumb. But it is definitely not a fair fight. So getting the word out, spreading the message that compares freedom to tyranny, is essential.

In that fight we are shut down at every turn by those warring against us. But truth rises. Truth wins.

Meanwhile there are battle to be fought all around, and not all will be won, as we would hope.

Another such casualty in the fight for truth this week was Dr. Peter McCullough. Not dead. Just another attempt to silence him. He has been one of the most published and outspoken doctors (also here and here) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, who developed an effective protocol early on, shared by millions and found to be effective. He’s a cardiology specialist and was among the first to connect the rise in myocarditis in young people to the so-called vaccine.

Dr. Peter McCullough testifies to the Texas Senate HHS Committee March 11, 2021
screenshot from here

After decades of stellar work and spotless record, all of his credentials have been stripped from him. He was not given due process. He was not given a chance to defend himself, or even to learn the reasons; he was coldly informed in an email. In a message about it, Dr. McCullough said,

I was terminated as the Editor-In-Chief of Cardiorenal Medicine and Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine after years of service and rising impact factors.  There was no phone call, no board meeting, no due process.  Just e-mails or certified letters.  Powerful dark forces are working in academic medicine to expunge any resistance to the vax.

Yesterday I was stripped of my board certifications in Internal Medicine and Cardiology after decades of perfect clinical performance, board scores, and hundreds of peer reviewed publications.  

None of this will stop until there is a “needle in every arm.”

I don’t know what this means for him going forward. He is of an age that retirement is an option—but that would be a tremendous loss for the public. While he might be prevented from seeing patients (it would be hard to get insurance without credentials), he might still be able to do research and publish findings. And he could still continue his online work and speeches and interviews. So we shall see. But I’m sure it’s intended to be a warning signal to any other medical professional who dares to go against the powers of those warring against truth and freedom.

We will win some battles in this war. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter may be a good thing for freedom of speech, although not quite fully realized in time for the Midterm Election.

And speaking of the Midterms, we may have a rare number of victories next Tuesday. Biden’s ominous and odd speech the other night seemed to portend a repeat of the worst—don’t expect the count to be complete for several days (so that they can dump in enough unreal main-in ballots to change outcomes they don’t like); and beware of violence breaking out (is that a threat against us disguised in an accusation toward us, disguised as a call for peace?) Weird.

I don’t know what it means. But I do know in this war between freedom and tyranny, the tyrants will not give up easily. And they have already proven, many times over, that abiding by the law is a limit on us, not them.

In the final end, we win the war. We’d better keep that in mind as they continue their attacks in this war many only recently realized we had to fight.