RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2019/02/04/why

Last month’s attack on the Covington Catholic High School boys should be one of those electrifying moments of correction, as when Senator Joseph McCarthy was asked, “have you no shame?”

Instead, it is electrifying only in its illumination: the Democrats have no shame.

Liberals watch their politicians, celebrities, and media leaders attack individuals, even children, and our precious civil liberties. Instead of recoiling, they immediately parrot the vicious talking point of the day. The few exceptions of public protest, the exemplary Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School, and last week, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), makes the ominous acquiescence of other Democrats all the more noticeable.

The mobbing of the Covington boys, and the feeble excuse-apologies—and continued attacks—that followed, join what is now a long series of hate-filled words and acts by leftists that cause regular Democrats no shame, no dark night of the soul, no revulsion towards what they are becoming as people and as a party.

Everything America has ever stood for must go. Being colorblind is attacked as racist. Equality before the law is attacked as sexist. The list of Democrat doublespeak becomes a tedious rant, and what’s the point? Democrats are not listening and if forced to listen, plug their ears and scream at the top of the lungs that it is Trump, Trump, Trump who is ruining everything.

Meanwhile, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom to bear arms, freedom to organize politically (for conservatives), the right to life for a baby about to be born—have all been redefined as violence against blacks, women or gays. A religious teenager standing still in a MAGA hat is an attempt to “erase” minorities that justifies violence to wipe the smile off his face.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13684/henry-ford-historical-revisionism

Henry Ford devoted his life to two passions: making cars and demonizing Jews. When Hitler said, “I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration,” he wasn’t referring to his car manufacturing. He was referring to Ford’s anti-Semitic ideology that eventuated in the genocide of six million Jews.

Henry Ford does not deserve to be honored. The question the good people of Dearborn should ask themselves is: What would you do if the Performance Center were named after Jefferson Davis? If the answer is that you would remove Davis’s name, then you should remove Ford’s.

There cannot be differences between how anti-Black, anti-gay, anti-women and anti-Jewish practitioners of bigotry are treated. There must be a single standard for historical revisionism.

Imagine if an American city continued to celebrate a prominent businessman who had published newspapers and books advocating overt racism and racial discrimination against Black people. Imagine if the Grand Wizard of the KKK had a picture of this man in his office and credited him with inspiring him to kill African Americans. Imagine statues and photographs commemorating the life of such a bigot. Imagine if a preforming arts center was named after him and African American performers who wanted to appear in the city had to walk into a building bearing the name of this racist. The reaction would be immediate and uncompromising: all glorification of this racist must stop; statues and pictures must be removed; history must treat him as a pariah despite his positive accomplishments as a businessman.

Well, the city Dearborn, Michigan is celebrating such a racist bigot today. But no one is demanding that his images must be removed or his despicable history and ideology publicized. His name is Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company.

Articles abound denouncing the hypocrites and cretins who organize to bash Israel throughout academia. Sometimes, two short paragraphs say it all. Today on Gatestone Institute Bassam Tawil nails it:
The Palestinians: Who Really Cares? by Bassam Tawil
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13655/palestinians-lebanon

“The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those who are willing to raise their voices against the mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of their Arab brothers. The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those who are prepared to defend the rights of women and gays living under Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those that are prepared to advocate for democracy and free speech for Palestinians living under the repressive regimes of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real “pro-Palestinian” groups are those who are prepared to condemn Lebanon for its racist and discriminatory measures against Palestinians, living and dead.

“Hiding at a university campus and spewing hatred against Israel does not make one “pro-Palestinian.” Rather, it makes one just an Israel-hater. Will the “pro-Palestinian” groups listen to the urgent messages coming from the people in Lebanon they claim to represent?…”

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/opinion-

Put aside the natural aversion to the Davos billionaires. Capitalism is the only system which can continually reduce poverty and increase overall prosperity. Yes, capitalism creates very rich people, but capitalism won’t work its wonders without very rich people.

The new star of the (increasingly radical) Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends a symposium on 21 January where she is asked if it is moral to have “a world that allows for billionaires.” She replies it is not, adding that “a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong.” By the way, before I look at the morality of having billionaires, ringworm is a common fungal infection that can strike anyone and is easily treated with antifungal creams obtainable inexpensively from any local pharmacy. The clunky machinery of public health is not required.

In the blink of an eye Ms Ocasio-Cortez has become sufficiently celebrated to be referred to as “AOC”; like, say, FDR, LBJ or JFK. Fortunately for America she is only twenty-nine years old and therefore can’t run for the presidency. A recent poll found that 74% of Democrats would consider voting for her were she to run. The rational mind boggles.

The lady is on the extreme end of the callow scale. This is an excuse of sorts for her saying that the world will end in twelve years unless something is done about climate change and for espousing naive socialist nostrums through her Green New Deal, GND to those in the know. But what about the supposed adults who support her?

Surely there is now no doubt. There has been a secular decline in the intelligence and common sense of those who identify as progressives; and, to boot, in their common decency. Witness the Kavanaugh ordeal and the despicable attack on the Covington kids, as just two examples of many. But I digress. Back to billionaires.

swtotd.blogspot.com

Mainstream media has gone from a trusted source of unbiased news to proselytizing for the political Left or Right, but mostly the Left. Opinions, which were once relegated to the editorial page, have migrated to the front page and became “news”. The reader is left unsure as to what is fact, what is fake and what is opinion. It is a trend that has accelerated as social media has gone mainstream. We have become two camps, divided by a hatred that grows ever bitter. Like the Biblical Joshua, we warily approach those we don’t know: “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?”

Compounding the problem has been an abundance of data. In 1982, Buckminster Fuller introduced the Knowledge Doubling Curve. He noted that knowledge doubled every hundred years until 1900, when a linear growth in knowledge transitioned to exponential growth. By 1945 knowledge was doubling every twenty-five years. Today, estimates are that it doubles every twelve months. The curve will steepen. But wisdom does not stay pace with knowledge. We no longer question assumptions or listen to contrary opinions. We read and hear what supports our views. Thus, we grow apart. Political correctness and identity politics have hardened positions. A tsunami of information is not all that inundates our lives. As we grow older, we are encouraged to stay active, to fill every hour – play tennis, golf, learn to paint, travel abroad, attend an aerobics class, and check Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for ephemeral messages. We are told health and longevity depend on it. But that leaves too little time to think, to read, or to take a solitary walk and quietly ponder issues that have perplexed man for centuries. Idleness need not be idle.

The above serves as a prelude to a month that did not take time to smell the roses – except for those furloughed by a shut-down government. It was that, with all its consequences – intended and unintended – which monopolized domestic news, while a hesitant and bumbled Brexit dominated international news. The vagaries, inefficiencies and pitfalls of democracies served to delight schadenfreude-infected autocracies, like Russia and China? But what person who has ever tasted the sweetness of liberty would not prefer the imperfections of a Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi or Theresa May to the efficient but brutal Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping? Would those in Turkestan, Somalia or Guatemala prefer to live in socialist Russia, China and Venezuela, or in capitalist Japan, Switzerland and the United States? When we complain and demonstrate against our democratic institutions, we should be reminded of Martin Luther King, whose January 15th birth we celebrated on the 21st. He was a man who battled oppression and fought for love and understanding. In 1967, a year before he was assassinated, King spoke: “Let us be dissatisfied, until that day when nobody will shout ‘White Power!’ – when nobody will shout ‘Black Power!’ – but everyone will talk about God’s power and human power.” His wish of fifty years ago remains just that, a wish.

https://spectator.us/jim-acostas-book/

Exclusive! * Exclusive! * Exclusive!

An advance excerpt of the forthcoming tell-all memoir from the battle lines of America under siege by the world’s bravest investigative journalist, Jim Acosta.

‘Will the president tell the truth?’ I generally like to start with questions like that because, at a time when American is occupied by the spirit of Donald Trump, it always throws his spokesmen off base.

It’s asking questions like that that made me Chief White House Correspondent for CNN. It’s a big job. But it’s the job I was born for.

Some people have a sense of destiny. I guess I am one. I have always been known for my courageous truth-telling. It’s one reason my colleagues in the press corps idolize me. You can tell that because they always fall silent and look at me with a mixture of awe and envy when I enter the press room at the White House.

I have been going to White House press conferences for many years. I get to sit near the front because of my seniority and reputation for asking brave, hard-hitting questions, and because I am Chief White House Correspondent for CNN. One of my most famous performances — it will probably make the Oxford Book of Quotations — was when I reminded Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s chief speech writer that the Statute of Liberty says ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.’ That was early in Donald Trump’s reign when he was first trying to close America’s borders to brown and black people, whom he does not like.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/28/against-trump-

Three years ago this month, National Review published its controversial and now infamous entreaty, “Against Trump.” The issue was singularly devoted to making a case against Donald Trump’s then surging primary candidacy; it featured a roster of notable conservative influencers explaining why the brash Manhattan billionaire posed a dire threat to conservatism.

Exactly three years later, the magazine’s online version issued an apology for its early condemnation of Covington Catholic High School students, who, while attending the March for Life in Washington D.C., became the innocent victims of a social media ambush orchestrated and executed by the Left. Some conservative commentators who had contributed to the “Against Trump” issue quietly deleted their tweets criticizing the teens, without apology.

The irony surrounding the coincidence of the dates of those two circumstances might be considered either karma, comeuppance, or both. And it once again highlighted why Donald Trump is in the White House and Jeb Bush isn’t, and why Trump—and none of the self-proclaimed conservatives who opined in the pages of National Review three years ago—now is considered the standard bearer of American conservatism. When the Left attacks, the Right caves.

When Christian teenagers attending an event to support a cause that represents the heart of the conservative movement needed immediate and unflinching protection from a leftist mob, the self-appointed guardians of conservatism failed. Their mockery of “He Fights!” only exposes how they will not—or when they do fight they often pick the wrong battles, and how they find the whole business of political warfare beneath them—unless, of course, they can punch down at a target on their own side.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is a direct quote from that “Against Trump” issue: “[Trump’s] obsession is with ‘winning,’ regardless of the means—a spirit that is anathema to the ordered liberty that conservatives hold dear and that depends for its preservation on limits on government power.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/the_potomac_twostep_will_no_one_stand_up_to_the_corruption_in_the_fbi_doj_and_cia.html

For nearly ten years now, Americans who have been paying attention have known that our government has become corrupt, that its premier institutions were weaponized by the Obama administration to the point that we have become something of a police state or banana republic. This is not to say there was no corruption previous to Obama. As Sidney Powell addresses in her book License to Lie, the current special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his amoral, ruthless right-hand man, Andrew Weismann, had already been practicing their prosecutions of personal destruction for decades. In the 1980s, Mueller sent four men to prison who he knew were innocent. He did it to protect a confidential informant. Two of them died in prison. The lawsuits filed cost taxpayers $100M. That trial was connected to the murderous mafia hit man Whitey Bulger, who was finally caught after sixteen years. He died in prison in 2018. Was he murdered to protect Mueller?

There was the total destruction of Enron, and then came the obliteration of Enron’s accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Those prosecutions were run much as Mueller and Weismann are running their current job assignment. Mueller successfully ruined both companies, costing thousands of people their jobs and sending nonviolent people to prison, sometimes to solitary confinement like what he did with Paul Manafort. Fortunately, but too little, too late, nearly all of the guilty verdicts they managed to elicit from juries were overturned by the Supreme Court in both cases.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/james-madison-mob-rule/568351/
overturning unpopular Supreme Court decisions.

These are dangerous times: The percentage of people who say it is “essential” to live in a liberal democracy is plummeting, everywhere from the United States to the Netherlands. Support for autocratic alternatives to democracy is especially high among young people. In 1788, Madison wrote that the best argument for adopting a Bill of Rights would be its influence on public opinion. As “the political truths” declared in the Bill of Rights “become incorporated with the national sentiment,” he concluded, they would “counteract the impulses of interest and passion.” Today, passion has gotten the better of us. The preservation of the republic urgently requires imparting constitutional principles to a new generation and reviving Madisonian reason in an impetuous world.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series that attempts to answer the question: Is democracy dying?

James Madison traveled to Philadelphia in 1787 with Athens on his mind. He had spent the year before the Constitutional Convention reading two trunkfuls of books on the history of failed democracies, sent to him from Paris by Thomas Jefferson. Madison was determined, in drafting the Constitution, to avoid the fate of those “ancient and modern confederacies,” which he believed had succumbed to rule by demagogues and mobs.

Madison’s reading convinced him that direct democracies—such as the assembly in Athens, where 6,000 citizens were required for a quorum—unleashed populist passions that overcame the cool, deliberative reason prized above all by Enlightenment thinkers. “In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason,” he argued in The Federalist Papers, the essays he wrote (along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay) to build support for the ratification of the Constitution. “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”

Madison and Hamilton believed that Athenian citizens had been swayed by crude and ambitious politicians who had played on their emotions. The demagogue Cleon was said to have seduced the assembly into being more hawkish toward Athens’s opponents in the Peloponnesian War, and even the reformer Solon canceled debts and debased the currency. In Madison’s view, history seemed to be repeating itself in America. After the Revolutionary War, he had observed in Massachusetts “a rage for paper money, for abolition of debts, for an equal division of property.” That populist rage had led to Shays’s Rebellion, which pitted a band of debtors against their creditors.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/government-shutdown-reveals-much-of-federal-government-irrelevant/

So much of government in Washington is nonessential.

One of the lessons of the Trump–Pelosi standoff on border security is that government shutdowns are a foolish way to resolve partisan disputes.

But the other lesson may be far more important. The partial shutdown, with agencies such as the Transportation, Agriculture, and State Departments, as well as other independent agencies, closed for business, demonstrated how irrelevant so much of our $4 trillion government is to the everyday lives of Americans.

As I traveled over the last several weeks to Florida, California, and many states in between, and asked people what they thought of the shutdown, many said they didn’t even know the government was shut down for more than a month. Their everyday lives were disrupted or inconvenienced only, if at all, in a trivial way. It turns out there are countless Americans who don’t watch CNN or MSNBC and so didn’t learn about the supposed horrors of agency closures.

This was a particularly painless shutdown for the average taxpayer because the essential activities of government were mostly unaffected. Seniors got their social-security checks. The military was protecting us. We got through the airports with minimal delays — until the last week when some TSA officials and air-traffic controllers weren’t on the job.