RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/supreme-court-unlikely-to-overturn-roe-v-wade/Roe probably won’t be overturned because it probably won’t come up; Casey is the center of abortion law nowadays.

It was my honor to befriend Judge Robert Bork in the last years of his life. Not surprisingly, I don’t find much amusement in the cesspool that judicial-confirmation politics has become since his name became a synonym for slander in 1987 — a debacle that changed history for the worse in more ways than the woodenly whimsical Anthony Kennedy’s assumption of what should have been the Bork seat.

Still, I admit to chuckling over the musings of Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a “moderate” Republican in the Kennedy mold. With the justice announcing his retirement after 30 years on the Court, a confirmation battle royale is shaping up over his successor, whom President Trump is expected to nominate on Monday. On cue, Senator Collins has let it be known that she would look askance at any nominee who has “demonstrated hostility [towards] and an eagerness to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

Go ahead and Roe, Roe, Roe your boat, Senator. Thanks to Justice Kennedy, we’ve actually been living in a Casey world — as in Planned Parenthood v. Casey — for the past quarter century. For good and for ill. “Don’t you dare touch Roe” is the political hyperbole of Democrats and their fellow travelers. It is not a serious legal position — as if serious legal positions had anything to do with confirmation politics.

Here is reality: Casey’s refinement of the right judicially manufactured in Roe granted expansive and expanding room to regulate abortion. The validity of those regulations, not the core holding of Roe, is what dominates abortion litigation nowadays. It is unlikely that cases will present a need to grapple with Roe, it is even less likely that Roe will be overturned, and even if this highly unlikely event were to come to pass, it would not render abortion illegal. Instead, abortion would once again be a question for the states, the vast majority of which would guarantee some degree of access to abortion. We are not going to move into a post-Roe era, but even if we did, no woman who could obtain an abortion today would be unable to get one post-Roe.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-the-fbi-come-clean-1530833315

In the trench war between congressional Republicans and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we have arrived at a crucial battle. A House resolution sets Friday as the deadline for the Justice Department to come clean on the beginning of its investigation into the Trump campaign. We’ll find out if the FBI has been lying to the public.

That is, if the department complies. It has flouted so many subpoenas, and played so many games with redactions and deadlines, that the entire House GOP united last week to vote for the resolution demanding submission to Congress’s requests for documents. The vote was an order but also a warning—that this is the last chance to comply, and the next step will be to hold officials in contempt. It is a measure of the stakes that even that threat doesn’t guarantee cooperation.

At issue is the FBI’s “origin story,” in which it claims its full-fledged investigation into a presidential campaign was conducted, as it were, by the book. According to this narrative, the FBI did not launch its probe until July 31, 2016, only after Australia tipped it to a conversation junior Trump aide George Papadopoulos had with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer in the spring of 2016 in London. Only after this formal commencement of a counterintelligence probe—Crossfire Hurricane—did the FBI begin to target U.S. citizens with spying, wiretapping and other tools usually reserved for foreign infiltrators. Or so the story goes.

This account, relayed by the New York Times in December 2017, has proved highly convenient for the FBI. The Australian “government” connection allowed the bureau to infuse the meaningless Papadopoulos conversation with significance, justifying the probe. The origin story suggested the FBI had followed procedure. Mostly, it countered the growing suspicion that the bureau had been snooping on a presidential campaign on the basis of truly disreputable info—a dossier of salacious information compiled by an opposition research firm working for the rival campaign. CONTINUE AT SITE

http://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3757/Terror-Excitement-It-Goes-with-the

A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal published a short interview dating back to 2011 with convicted Communist agent Morton Sobell, now 101 years old. As a member of the Rosenberg spy ring in the 1940s, Sobell passed US ballistic missile secrets to the USSR — secrets, the paper reminds readers fleetingly, that were “used against America in both Korea and Vietnam.”

Just to de-antisepticize things, “America” translates into grandfathers, fathers, husbands, brothers and sons who were sent to fight communists on the brutal battlefields of Asia in the 1950s and 1960s, after other communists had “occupied” our own government in the 1930s — the early Deep State — and managed to help Stalin seize massive territories in Europe and Asia in the 1940s. Unbelievably, we still believe that the free world, and not just another totalitarian death machine (USSR), really won World War II.

This long-hidden history couldn’t be more relevant today. Without seeing the continuity of subversion over the previous century, it’s hard to appreciate what is unfolding as the Deep State today, triggered by Trump, panics and exposes itself. This is why “court historian” efforts to enage in Soviet-style disinformation against fuller accountings are so darn incriminating.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270657/epas-scott-pruitt-fallen-american-hero-matthew-vadum

Radical environmentalists claimed a Trump cabinet member’s scalp yesterday as they forced out a great American patriot, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, under a cloud of largely invented ethics scandals.

Nothing Pruitt did in office was unforgivable. Nothing he did was even particularly bad.

Pruitt, previously attorney general of Oklahoma from January 2011 to February 2017, was the victim of a sustained, well-funded leftist assault aimed at crippling him and removing him from office. It succeeded. The Left, emboldened by its success, will now use this blueprint again and again against Trump administration officials. Pruitt’s expected successor, EPA’s second-in-command, former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, will feel the Left’s wrath soon enough.

President Trump had reportedly grown weary of the unending stream of bad publicity Pruitt brought with him.

“I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency[,]” the president tweeted perfunctorily Thursday at 3:37 p.m. “Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this.”

The official line is that Pruitt didn’t want to be a distraction. This may be true but it doesn’t excuse the lack of resources put into defending him.

Consistently the voice of reason, Fox News contributor and Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway, said the massively funded “Boot Pruitt” campaign by green groups was “very effective.”

Hemingway is right.

Boot Pruitt was apparently created by admitted communist and 9/11 truther Van Jones, a so-called social entrepreneur who is extremely adept at generating the illusion of grassroots activity in furtherance of his radical goals. The campaign was slick leftist astroturf manufactured by pressure groups beholden to George Soros and Tom Steyer.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270656/mueller-expands-witch-hunt

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is planning to expand his witch hunt. According to a Bloomberg News report, he is “tapping additional Justice Department resources for help with new legal battles as his year-old investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 election continues to expand.” He already has 17 prosecutors on his staff, many of whom have clear anti-Trump biases. From the investigation’s start in May 2017 through March of this year, Mr. Mueller’s own office has spent $7.7 million, on top of the $9 million spent by permanent Department of Justice units involved in the investigation.

Mr. Mueller evidently wants to absorb some of the career prosecutors from the offices of U.S. attorneys and from Justice Department headquarters into his own operation or to outsource some of his work to them. Either way, instead of finishing his investigation “the hell up because this country is being torn apart,” as Republican Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein during a June 28 hearing, Mr. Mueller is busy growing his empire. The Justice Department has “reportedly budgeted $10 million for Mueller’s team to spend in the next fiscal year, which begins in October,” Time Magazine reported.

The Mueller probe is over a year old. The Special Counsel’s office has shown nothing to the taxpayers funding its operation that it has made any real progress in fulfilling its original mandate to uncover evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. The most significant indictment to date, the one against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, is a ridiculous sideshow involving accusations that have nothing to do with the Trump campaign. While Judge T.S. Ellis III, of the Eastern District of Virginia, denied Mr. Manafort’s motion to dismiss an indictment against him on the grounds that Special Counsel Mueller had exceeded his authority, the judge questioned the objectivity of the whole Mueller enterprise. Judge Ellis expressed concern about “the danger unleashed when political disagreements are transformed into partisan prosecutions.” The judge further warned, “To provide a special counsel with a large budget and to tell him or her to find crimes allows a special counsel to pursue his or her targets without the usual time and budget constraints facing ordinary prosecutors, encouraging substantial elements of the public to conclude that the special counsel is being deployed as a political weapon.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/report-robert-mueller-asks-doj-fbi-for-assistance-in-russia-probe/

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly calling for more manpower to assist him with the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Mueller is asking veteran prosecutors from the Justice Department and U.S. attorneys’s offices, as well as FBI agents, for help with new legal battles that have cropped up as a result of his investigation. Though he is not adding to his team of 17 federal prosecutors, he has called on investigators in New York, Alexandria, Va., Pittsburgh, and other cities to help him.

Permanent Justice Department units have actually spent more money ($9 million) on the Russia probe than Mueller’s team ($2.3 million). Mueller was tasked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election, and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”

Other such matters have indeed arisen, including financial crimes by former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mueller is also reportedly looking at Trump’s personal financial records from well before the campaign began. He has so far handed down 20 indictments, and five of those charged have pled guilty, including former national-security adviser Michael Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/07/05/trump-announces-scott-pruitts-resignation/

Pruitt advocated for dismantling many of the Obama-era environmental rules during his short tenure, including managing the exit from the Paris climate accord and proposing solutions to the Flint water crisis. He also recommended higher standards of scientific research for the agency.

The EPA under Pruitt has come under intense media scrutiny for accusations of ethics violations, including private jet travel, contacts with energy executives, and trying to find his wife a job. Information requests to the agency spiked to as many as 60 a day last year, “many so broadly worded that it will take years to answer,” reported the Washington Examiner. Many on the Right noted that Pruitt’s behavior was either similar or better than that of previous EPA administrators.

Pruitt also worked to cut the agency’s budget and bought out hundreds of staff. According to CNN, the president spoke highly of Pruitt just a month ago, telling reporters that he was “doing a great job within the walls of the EPA,” and that “we’re setting records.” Trump noted that Pruitt was under attack from the media but just said “We’ll see what happens.”

Pruitt’s replacement will be his deputy, Andrew Wheeler. The Senate confirmed Wheeler as deputy in April in a 53-45 vote, with the support of three Democratic senators.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/breaking-scott-pruitt-out-at-epa-trump-tweets/
President Donald Trump has just confirmed via Twitter that he has “accepted the resignation” of scandal-ridden EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

Pruitt’s time at the EPA has been marred by one self-enrichment scheme after another, including misuse of government funds, abusing his authority, and more.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will…

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump 2h2 hours ago

…on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!

https://pjmedia.com/trending/al-sharpton-donna-brazile-push-dems-to-double-down-on-harassing-trump-officials/

On Tuesday, nearly 200 black leaders — mostly women, but including the Rev. Al Sharpton — signed a letter attacking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for refusing to support Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in her call for supporters to constantly harass officials in the Trump administration.

“We, the undersigned, write to express our full support for Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who has recently been unjustly attacked by Republicans and Democratic Party leadership for speaking truth to power,” the signatories wrote.

They declared that Waters is an inspiration. “For Black women, who are the most loyal base of the Democratic Party and the Progressive Movement, Congresswoman waters is our shero [sic],” they wrote.

How did Waters inspire them? Late last month, she called for protesters to constantly harass members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet. “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, at a department store, at a gasoline station, you get you and you create a crowd,” Waters declared. “And you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

Waters championed reports of “members of this cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants, who have protesters taking up at their house.” She praised protesters for chanting, “No peace! No sleep!”

When President Trump accused her of calling for “harm to my supporters,” Waters shot back, insisting she only supported “peaceful protest.”

“I did not call for harm for anybody. The president lied again,” the congresswoman told MSNBC. While Waters did not advocate for violence against Trump cabinet members, she did urge protesters to harass them and deny them of sleep and peace — which certainly constitutes harm, as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders can tell you.

This call for harm has turned Waters into a celebrity among liberals, according to the black leaders who signed the letter this week. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://amgreatness.com/2018/07/05/the-heck-with-civility

At least since the appearance of my book, Rules for Radical Conservatives—originally written under the name and in the voice of my radical leftist character created for National Review, “David Kahane”—I’ve been asked whether I advocate using the same tactics against the Left as they use on us. And my answer is always the same: of course I do.

Treat us with the same contempt with which we treat you. Or, to put it in language you might actually understand: treat us with same respect we give you, which is none.

After all, you don’t see us being nice to you, do you? You don’t see us ever reaching across the aisle, extending the olive branch, blah blah blah. Laurel wreaths are for winners, but olive branches can go pound sand. If a tie, to use the old sports cliché, is like kissing your sister, losing is like… well, don’t make me go there. Remember that poor schmuck Sully in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1985 movie, Commando? You know, the part where Arnold quips: “Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last”?

Like Arnold: we lied.

So calls to maintain “civility” in engaging with people who manufacture fake crises and then feed them to the public via their control of the mainstream media, sucker-punch conservatives on street corners, attack patriotic events with Antifa thugs, and otherwise engage in Brownshirt tactics that would do Ernst Röhm proud, are not only asking the impossible, they’re suicidal. There’s no reasoning with them, no reaching across the aisle, no finding common ground with a large political movement—both increasingly emboldened and increasingly desperate—that wishes to destroy every meaningful aspect of the United States of America. In fact, the Democrats, under their new party chairman, Tom Perez, have become a frankly Socialist party, equally in thrall to an aged Soviet red-diaper baby and a fresh-faced imitation of la Passionara named after a city in Egypt.

So it’s them or us—and I’d much rather it’d be them.

We’ve tried civility, and we know from bitter experience it doesn’t work. There is no pacifying the Left, no accommodating it, no buying it off with a bit of appeasement here and there.