Aaarggh! A tale of two cities!

Election Deniers have their Nelson Mandela, now that the founder of the Oath Keepers is sentenced to 18 years in the Big House for leading his seditionists in the assault on Congress 01-06-21.

If Donald Tr•mp does win a second, Grover Cleveland-like term in office, we can expect a newly pardoned Stewart Rhodes to sit in the gallery during the State of the Union address, the Medal of Freedom draped around his neck, as he is nominated for Homeland Security secretary. Interesting guy, this Stewart Rhodes. Yale law degree, eye patch, former paratrooper and aide to Ron Paul. Now THERE is diversity for you!

Republican What About-ers decry the double standard they see surrounding the treatment of the Capitol insurrections vis a vis the George Floyd/Jacob Blake rioters. They have a point, small but still visible without recourse to an electron microscope.

Social justice warrior gets his

Here in The Peoples’ Republic of Madison WI, a goofball named Kelsey D. Nelson, age 33, was given 6 months in jail for pulling down a statue of an anti-slavery Civil War hero during the Woke intifada three years ago this month. For good measure, he looted Goodman’s Jewelry store on State Street. Six months in the hoosegow and ordered to pay modest monetary restitution. Pulling down statues occurred in the second of two separate spates of BLM mob violence that included fire-bombing city hall, roughing up a state legislator, and Althea Bernstein pretending to be set ablaze by “typical Wisconsin frat boys.” Lying Althea has never been charged.

Let’s start with the judges in each case. Nelson got his slap on the wrist from Dane County Circuit Judge Chris Taylor who (you may remember) was a Democrat state legislator from downtown Madison WI before she was appointed judge by Democrat(ic) Gov. Tony Evers. Private sector experience: flacking for abortion provider Planned Parenthood. This was not Nelson’s first rodeo. The mope has 61 entries on the state’s on-line criminal blotter, including possession of a stolen, loaded firearm.

The one-eyed Oath Keeper (because he accidentally shot out his own eye) took his medicine from a District of Columbia judge appointed by Barack Obama. We’ll leave it at that.

So much for the similarities, now for the differences. The joint session of Congress was meeting, as required by the Constitution, to verify the electoral college decision in favor of Joe Biden as President. Donald Tr•mp wanted to stop them —he says “peacefully and patriotically.” In which case, why promise to pardon the glass breakers and cop beaters?

In Madison, by contrast, the Wisconsin legislature was not in session, period. Nor exists any evidence that dumb-ass Nelson was an organizer. But the case can be made that the BLM rioters were attempting to subvert government; they also broke windows in the State Capitol. Beating a state senator would appear to be an assault on governance. Ripping down statues — Miss Forward on the other side of Capitol Square also got the hook — and looting businesses (the jewelry store was but one) and smashing store window adds up to violent Intimidation!

The ultimate ‘what about’?

Another similarity: both sides believed in what they were doing. Another difference: the Madison goof apologized, the Oath Keeper defends his violence. At sentencing, the head Oath Keeper delivered a defiant address railing against the “systemic violence from the left” and efforts to “shut down the free speech” of violent Tr•mp Humpers.

“I’d like to start by saying that I’m a political prisoner, and like President Trump, my only crime is opposing those who are destroying our country.”

— Wall Street Journal report

Meaning people like Kelsey D. Nelson. At HIS sentencing the WI State Journal recounts a statement made by the president of a club devoted to the Civil War colonel (who knew?) asking for a maximum sentence and decrying city leaders’ almost blasé attitude toward the BLM violence. Indeed, Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway told the police to stand down (we don’t know about “stand by”) during the riots. Afterward, city government paid for anti-cop murals painted on the plywood covering the shattered store windows. The mayor was re-elected this April.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: The ignorant goof who toppled the state of Col. Hans Christian Heg whined that “there was no instruction manual for how to protest.” Um, yeah there is. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Ghandi wrote it. 

Our verdict: the Oath Keeper got what he deserved. Although his sins were lesser, Madison’s BLM agitator still caught a break.

How would YOU have sentenced each?