RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/obamacares-red-state-trap-1540853774

Many readers no doubt take comfort in living thousands of miles away from the tax and spending misadventures of Illinois or Connecticut. But fair warning: One of the worst deals in state spending is coming to a red state near you, and that’s expanding Medicaid to adult men above the poverty line.

With the polls closed and new players in the House and Senate elected, join Paul Gigot, Kimberley Strassel, and Opinion columnists and contributors for our marquee Opinion Live event on Thursday, November 8, in New York. Space is limited, sign up here.

On Nov. 6 four states will consider ballot initiatives on expanding Medicaid: Nebraska, Utah, Idaho and Montana, the last of which would extend an expansion that is set to expire. More than 30 states have expanded the entitlement as part of the Affordable Care Act. The Republican failure to repeal the law ensured that this number would grow, and Governors of both parties are always eager to draw more money from Washington.

Proponents are working to make sure voters don’t know, but this is not about poor mothers and babies, who are covered by traditional Medicaid. Same for the disabled. Expansion extends the benefit to prime-age adults without children up to 138% of the poverty line. The feds pay more than 90% of the cost for the new beneficiaries, versus about half the tab in Nebraska for the truly vulnerable (closer to 70% in Idaho, Montana and Utah).

The perversity of spending more on childless men than pregnant women is reason enough to reject expansion, but there are others. Every state that has expanded Medicaid has blown the budget by spending more money on more people. The cost overruns are more than double on average.

https://www.steynonline.com/8954/finding-wisdom-as-the-branches-shrivel

Yesterday I was in Newton, Massachusetts, to speak to Christians and Jews United for Israel. At the end of the speech I was presented with a shofar, although, after all the yakking, my embouchure was too tuckered to make much noise with it. I’m happy to report that it made it back to New Hampshire in better shape than the didgeridoo did from Perth.

It was, obviously, a somewhat somber gathering, held in the wake of the worst slaughter of Jews in American history – at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. If your grip on scripture is a little wobbly, that name is from Proverbs. In the King James version:

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom… She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

As I said to the audience in Newton, we live in a time when man can find wisdom – almost the entirety of human knowledge – on a pocket-sized device he carries around with him all day. In theory, the tree of life should be spreading its branches broad and embracing over ever more of humanity. Instead, in the Age of Digital Wisdom, too many retreat into dark corners sealed off from any wider enlightenment.

In a world of hermetically sealed ideological ghettos, it is a melancholy fact that Islam, the secular polytechnic left and the subterranean skinhead right all meet at what Laura Rosen Cohen calls Jew-Hate Junction. Granted that, it was still disturbing to see American Jews rationalize mass murder by a fellow American on the following grounds:

And a word to my fellow American Jews: This president makes this possible. Here. Where you live. I hope the embassy move over there, where you don’t live was worth it.

So the “root cause” was “the embassy move”. That’s Julia Ioffe of GQ magazine. I was asked a question about it in Newton yesterday, and replied that this kind of thinking reminded me of a passage by Anthony Hope – one I quoted in my introduction to The Mark Steyn Club’s serialization of The Prisoner of Zenda, from a more obscure fancy of his on earlier events in Ruritania:

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/armed-father-stops-shooter-at-birmingham-mcdonalds/

An armed man stopped a potential mass shooting at a Birmingham, Ala. McDonalds Saturday afternoon.

The unidentified man was leaving the restaurant with his two sons as a masked gunman entered and began firing. The father drew his pistol and returned fire, killing the gunman, but not before he and one of his teenage sons were shot.

The father and son sustained non-life threatening injuries in the shoot out, according to police.

Markus Washington, a McDonald’s employee on duty Saturday, told WBRC-TV that he locked himself in a freezer when the shooting began and was unaware one of his customers had engaged the shooter.

“I’m feeling grateful,” he told the station. “Wrapping my head around it all, I was just wishing someone would come wake me up from this nightmare.”

“All we hear is like different gunfire, so in my mind, I’m imagining everybody is dead. He’s looking for us,” he added.

Washington said he was thankful the man who confronted the gunman was armed.

“He’s my hero. Because I can only imagine how it would’ve went if he wasn’t armed. We might not be here having this interview,” Washington said.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/shots-fired-into-gop-campaign-office-in-florida/

At least four shots were fired into a Republican campaign satellite office in Volusia County, Fla. on Sunday, police announced after a campaign volunteer reported the shooting Monday morning.

No one was injured in the shooting, which broke the front windows and displaced drywall inside the office, South Daytona police captain Mark Cheatham told the Orlando Sentinel. There were no eyewitnesses, but police are seeking surveillance footage to try and determine who is responsible.

The incident comes after a gunman murdered eleven congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday morning. The assailant, who eventually surrendered to police, reportedly yelled “all Jews must die” during the attack. A number of prominent Democratic lawmakers and wealthy liberal donors were also targeted by mail bombs last week. Police have identified a middle-aged Florida man and outspoken Trump supporter as the attacker.

President Trump — whose rhetoric has been blamed for the attacks by many in the media, as well as Democratic lawmakers — called the spate of violence “despicable” in a statement last Wednesday.

“In these times we have to unify,” he said. “We have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America.”

https://www.spiked-online.com/

And still people are downplaying the seriousness of anti-Semitism. Even now. Even following the worst attack on Jews in American history. Even after the slaughter of 11 mostly elderly Jews at a bris, the celebration of the birth of a child, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

This time they are diminishing the scale and depth of anti-Semitism by pointing the finger of blame for the Pittsburgh massacre at President Donald Trump. No sooner had Robert Bowers allegedly executed his act of racist mass murder than anti-Trump commentators were describing it as the bloody offspring of Trump’s supposedly white-nationalist worldview and his divisive rhetoric.

This slaughter was the ‘inevitable result’ of ‘Trump’s vile nationalism’, said the Nation. Inevitable. ‘Trump didn’t pull the trigger on Jews in Pittsburgh, but he certainly prepped the shooter’, says a writer for Haaretz. Hateful violence like this is a consequence of Trump’s rhetoric, says British columnist Mehdi Hasan: ‘He preaches hate. He incites violence. He inspires attacks.’

This rush to blame Trump for a massacre of Jews is not only profoundly cynical, where the militarisation of anti-Semitism is pounced upon to the cheap, low end of scoring points against a politician people don’t like.

It also has the effect of whitewashing the true horror of anti-Semitism in the 21st-century West. It is in itself a form of apologism for the new anti-Semitism to the extent that it dehistoricises and depoliticises it by presenting it as little more than a function of the new right-wing populism.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001803.html

GQ writer Julia Ioffe was one of several prominent left-wing journalists to blame Donald Trump and/or Benjamin Netanyahu for the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre within minutes of it happening on Saturday.

In a tweet dismissed by others as “repulsive,” Ioffe appeared to claimed that the fault for the actions of the neo-Nazi in Pittsburgh lay with Jews (a majority) who supported the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

BLAMING TRUMP

[Note by Tom Gross]

Predictably, many journalists rushed to blame Donald Trump for the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

“Trump didn’t pull the trigger on Jews in Pittsburgh, but he certainly prepped the shooter,” ran the Haaretz headline of a piece by the former editor of the American magazine Foreign Policy.

Similar accusations were made in publications including The Atlantic, The Forward, The New Republic and The Washington Post – and they were made before the bodies of the murdered Jews, which included a 97-year-old woman, had even been removed from the floor of the synagogue where they were executed.

I attach two pieces below from writers that beg to differ (both are subscribers to this list).

Brendan O’Neill, the editor in chief of Spiked, writes:

Bowers’ own social-media output suggests he was more influenced by the shared left / right / Islamist conspiracy theory about Jewish power than he was by Trump’s divisive commentary. He was critical of Trump, on the basis that the president was granting Jews too much influence and presence in the US. This, worryingly, is now a mainstream view. You see it in Guardian cartoons showing Israeli leaders puppeteering Western politicians. You hear it in leftish panic about an all-powerful Israel Lobby. You see it in Press TV headlines about the US being ‘completely under the thumb’ of Zionists. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK Labour Party, worked for Press TV. For years.

Jonathan S. Tobin, the editor on chief of the Jewish News Syndicate writes:

For some, the only real culprit here is US President Donald Trump. … but Bowers was a critic of Trump, specifically because of his sympathy with Jews, the presence of many Jews in key administration posts and his support for Israel, which exceeds that of all of his recent predecessors. He viewed Trump as an ally of Jews – not someone who had encouraged him to attack them…

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271765/pittsburgh-fort-hood-trump-versus-obama-lloyd-billingsley

“This wicked act of mass murder is pure evil,” Trump said on Saturday. “This was an anti-Semitic act. You wouldn’t think this would be possible in this day and age.”

That was President Trump, responding to the murder of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

“Our minds cannot comprehend the cruel hate and twisted malice that could cause a person to unleash such terrible violence,” the president said, “during a baby naming ceremony at a sacred house of worship on the holy day of Sabbath.” The president said “anti-Semitism and the widespread persecution of Jews represents one of the ugliest and darkest features in human history. Anti-Semitism must be condemned and confronted everywhere and anywhere it appears.”

Suspect Robert Bowers, 48, yelled “all Jews must die” as he fired, killing 11 and injuring six, including four police officers. FBI special agent Bob Jones said it was the “most horrific crime scene” he’s witnessed in 22 years. Swift action by police prevented many more casualties and police took Bowers into custody.

President Trump told reporters “people who do this should get the death penalty. I think they should stiffen up laws and I think they should very much bring the death penalty to anybody who does a thing like this to innocent people.” Agent Jones said that prior to the synagogue attack, Bowers was unknown to law enforcement.

That was not exactly the case with U.S. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan. Major Hasan had been emailing terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki about the prospect of killing infidel Americans, and the “Soldier of Allah,” as he called himself, did everything but take out an ad on the Super Bowl to announce his jihadist intentions. The U.S. security establishment was well aware of the communications but did nothing to stop Hasan.

Anti-Semitism should always be condemned. But it is somewhat ironic that a man who is Jewish by birth, yet proud for growing up in an “anti-Semitic home,” who demeans Jews and gives millions to anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian and BDS groups, claims to be a victim of anti-Semitism. That man is George Soros.

In the run-up to the midterm election the demonization of President Trump, Republicans and anyone opposing the invasion of undocumented illegal aliens into the U.S., which Soros’s Open Society Foundations has been inderctly supporting, is reaching new heights in the pro-Soros, progressive Left media. Trump’s opposition even claims “Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric may have contributed to an increase in pre-term births among Latina women.” So it is not surprising that Soros’s son alleges “Trump’s anti-Semitic and anti-Democratic Rhetoric Led to Bomb Scare.” And it took no time for the Washington Post and Trump hating Democrat politicians to also blame the President, who supports Israel, and whose daughter is an observant Jewess whose Jewish husband is his trusted adviser, for the tragic anti-Semitic attack that killed 11 American Jews praying at their synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Jewish by birth, Soros has been known to shun his Jewish heritage for decades, bringing it up only when he felt he could exploit it one way or another. And the more he seems to indulge in his alleged victimhood, the more he prompts anti-Semitism.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/10/28/the-

As a public service, here are some things that are in no way responsible for creating a “climate of political violence” in the United States:

Public performances of plays that depict the execution of Trump-like figures.
Publishing a Trump assassination fantasy in the New York Times.
The constant, deliberate misrepresentation and denigration of mainstream conservative policy positions by the corporate legacy news outlets and elected representatives on the left—and their incessant refusal to be accountable for it. There are too many examples to link. Start with the steadfast equivocation by media outlets between conservative perspectives on immigration in general and their criticisms of illegal immigration in particular.
The recent use of violent rhetoric by presidents on the left: for example, when Barack Obama advises supporters to oppose opponents by saying if “they bring a knife, we bring a gun.”
The media’s valorization of virtue-signaling celebrities who make threats against the president’s family, disparage his supporters, encourage public violence, or create violent images like the mock-decapitation of the president.
Antifa’s (and associated groups’) violent responses to peaceful exercises of conservative speech in public spaces.
Leftists running high-profile conservatives out of restaurants.
Maxine Waters’ encouragements of those who would use violent methods to signify their opposition to the Trump Administration.
Hillary Clinton’s call for a hiatus on civility until Democrats regain control of the government.
The widespread, false, and cynical equivocation between conservative speech and hate speech.
The would-be assassin who almost killed Rep. Scalise.
Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder saying, “when [conservatives] go low, we kick them.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-oldest-hatred-1540760984

The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh is an awful reminder that there are human hatreds far more virulent and ancient than those that animate our current political divisions. The killer of 11 human beings on the Sabbath Saturday morning was an anti-Semite who was out to kill Jews.

“All Jews must die,” alleged killer Robert Bowers yelled as he burst into a religious service and opened fire. As our friends at the New York Sun note, anti-Semitism is not aimed at Jewish behavior, or support for Jewish immigration, or support for Israel. Robert Bowers simply hated Jews.

This irrational hatred is one of humanity’s oldest and manifests itself in murder almost daily in the Middle East. Jews are killed simply because they are Jews, as they have been throughout history. This is why millions have sought refuge in a Jewish state, Israel, and also in the religious protections embedded in the Constitution of the United States.

The outpouring of support and grief for the victims of the Pittsburgh massacre is a reminder of America’s unique role as a refuge for the world’s religious. Muslim states often persecute non-Muslims as well as Muslims who do not share their brand of Islam. China persecutes people of all faiths. America protects them.

The U.S. has seen an increase in anti-Semitic acts in recent years, according to the Anti-Defamation League. But there are still fewer in America than in most of the rest of world, and the sources of anti-Semitism range across the political spectrum, including some on the right like Robert Bowers but also from the pro-Palestinian left, especially on university campuses.