RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/former-cia-analyst-on-cnn-this-freedom-of-speech-is-just-nonsense/

Former CIA analyst and current CNN intelligence and security analyst Robert Baer appeared on CNN on Friday in order to explain to us all how very terrible it is that Elon Musk is beginning to restore the freedom of speech on Twitter. As it turns out, rolling back Twitter’s usefulness as a tool for the Leftist establishment’s propaganda and allowing dissident voices once again to be heard is just playing into the hands of the Left’s all-purpose bogeyman, Vladimir Putin. That’s right: if the Left loses its hegemony over the American public discourse, Ukrainians will die. That’s what passes for analysis today on CNN, and apparently in the CIA as well.

Maintaining a straight face, Baer declared: “Putin is going to be all over Twitter if there’s no regulations on this, fake accounts, spoofed accounts, the rest of it. This is a great opportunity for him. And so when he’s talking about the popular voice, Musk, he’s really talking about Russian intelligence. Um, you know, the Russians are waiting for something like this. They need a propaganda campaign against the United States and against our support for Ukraine, and they’re gonna be all over Twitter. I guarantee this. Supporting the far right, plans, demands to stop arming Ukraine. Just wait.”

Asked about how to discern truth from “disinformation,” Baer answered: “Well, that’s why the pre-Musk Twitter had 7,000 people going through these accounts. You can pick ‘em out with algorithms, you can pick ‘em out by looking at ‘em, uh, you can check IP’s and the rest of it. And you simply block ‘em. And it’s, it’s, it’s not right. And you know, this freedom of speech is just nonsense ‘cause you can’t go into a movie theater and yell ‘fire.’ It’s against the law. And what Putin’s gonna to do and the Russians, is they’re going to use this as a vehicle to, to save himself in Ukraine. And, y’know, whether it’s gonna work or not, I don’t know, but we’re gonna see, as soon as these restrictions come off, we’re gonna see the Russians all over, as I just said.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-trump-special-counsel-is-another-clinton-payback/

When Bruce Wasserstein, a billionaire backer of the Clintons, provided a $25 million donation to Harvard Law, future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, then serving as dean, welcomed it. The gift built on the Wasserstein Fellows Program already established at Harvard Law which brought “outstanding public interest lawyers” to Harvard and provided them stipends of up to $24,000 to meet with and influence students toward social justice at the prestigious law school.

When Jack Smith became a Wasserstein Fellow, even while, unironically, serving as head of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, seemingly soliciting and accepting a

grant funded by a leftist billionaire (but who watches the integrity of the head of the Public Integrity Section) he joined a list of leftist activist lawyers working for the ACLU, Earthjustice, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Soros’ Open Society, Catholic Charities and the UN.

The mission of the Wasserstein Fellows was to gather “a diverse group of accomplished public interest lawyers who are enthusiastic about sharing their passions with law students on how to utilize their legal education to promote social justice.” Those passions included illegal migration, letting criminals get away with committing crimes and dismantling America.

How the DOJ’s Jack Smith would go about promoting social justice was a question that was answered twice. At least twice in public view where everyone could see and hear it.

The latest came when Attorney General Garland picked Smith as the Special Counsel to go after Trump. But before that anyone wondering what Jack Smith did to be chosen as a social justice lawyer would have had to be paying close attention to the IRS scandal that took place a year before he was made a Wasserstein Fellow.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/28/after-getting-in-bed-with-tiktok-will-biden-ignore-its-national-security-threat/

‘I think Donald Trump was right, I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat.”

That was Sen. Mark Warner — a Democrat — talking about the popular Chinese-owned social media app. Warner, along with an increasing number of national security experts, says that the innocuous-seeming video-sharing service poses the dangers to national security that Trump warned about years ago.

“The ability for China to have undue influence is, I think, a much greater challenge and a much more immediate threat than any kind of actual, armed conflict,” Warner said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress earlier this month that he’s “extremely concerned” about TikTok’s threat.

“Under Chinese law, Chinese companies are required to essentially — and I’m going to shorthand here — basically do whatever the Chinese government wants them to do in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government,” Wray said.

Last week, the FCC banned China’s Huawei and ZTE Gear because those could spy on military sites. Before that, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called for a ban on TikTok.

Even the reliably liberal NPR is suddenly starting to sound Trumpian on this issue, noting that “there are concerns about China’s ruling Communist Party using this broad authority to gather sensitive intellectual property, proprietary commercial secrets and personal data.”

https://goudsmit.pundicity.com/26581/gaslighting-is-no-small-matter

lindagoudsmit.com http://goudsmit.pundicity.com

When politicized medical absurdities are accepted as medical science, atrocities are committed in the name of science. Changing the names of things does not change the objective reality of that thing, it changes the minds and hearts of individuals responding to that thing. So, when parents surrender their authority and common sense to the “experts,” and are convinced that biological sex is fluid and gender is a choice (absurdities), the parents commit atrocities against their children with the help of their doctors and therapists who are ideologues, not doctors or therapists.

If parents understood that this is psychological warfare, they would be empowered to hold onto their common sense, their authority, and protect their precious children. They would reject any ideology that denies objective reality, because its purpose is destruction. Bertrand Russell articulated the plan in 1952 in his book The Impact of Science on Society:

Education should aim at destroying free will so that pupils thus schooled, will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished. . . . Influences of the home are obstructive; and in order to condition students, verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. . . . It is for a future scientist to make these maxims precise and to discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen. – Bertrand Russell

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/23/nhl-boasts-of-trans-non-binary-hockey-tournament/

On Tuesday, the National Hockey League (NHL) boasted on Twitter about its first-ever “Team Trans Draft Announcement” tournament over the weekend, pushing back on criticism that such a league would present clear disadvantages to certain players.

Fox News reports that the tournament, which took place in Middleton, Wisconsin, consisted entirely of so-called “transgender” and “non-binary” players; the league claims that up to 80 players were part of the tournament. The tweet included the hashtags #HockeyIsForEveryone and #NHLPride.

The original tweet received widespread backlash, some of which prompted responses from the official NHL account. When one user criticized the concept by pointing out that “men [are] playing on [the] women’s team,” the NHL responded by falsely declaring that “trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary identity is real.”

After further criticism of both the original tweet and the response tweet, the administrators of the NHL account changed the settings so that no one else could reply to the tweets.

“We support any teammate, coach or fan who brings heart, energy and passion to the rink,” the league said in a statement announcing its “Hockey is for Everyone” initiative. “We believe all hockey programs – from professionals to youth organizations – should provide a safe, positive and inclusive environment for players and families regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, disability, sexual orientation and socio-economic status.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/11/a_new_long_train_of_abuses.html

The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, is a catalogue of grievances by the Americans toward the dictatorial policies of the British Crown, which was aloof, arbitrary, arrogant, and despotic.  Much of the document deals with how laws were either ignored or abused to the constant detriment of the Americans.  These abuses eventually became intolerable, resulting in revolution. 

Today, slowly, our nation, in fighting terrorism, is using more and more laws to restrict the American people and their constitutional rights.  Our elected representatives have created secret courts and special laws, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, from which there is no or minimal appeal, giving the government the widest possible latitude in the guise of fighting terrorism foreign and domestic.

Laws upon laws are being drafted and passed that provide government with dictatorial powers.  In addition, there is little or no accountability for abuse by government officials.

Is this our future democracy?  There are examples of President Obama abusing his power with administrative changes affecting Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.  In the case of Medicare, changes include increasing out-of pocket-costs and lowering payments to doctors while increasing subsidies to insurance companies for the Affordable Care Act.  President Obama had unlawful immigration policies according to the Supreme Court and unlawful payments by for the Affordable Care Act, according to the Government Accountability Office.  Joe Biden has twisted immigration policy into a pretzel, making a mockery of the immigration system by allowing nearly five million people into the country in over two years. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote of King George III of England in the Declaration of Independence: 

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice,

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people,

Abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments … 

The circle of laws used and abused slowly began to cut into the life of the colonists.  The Declaration of Independence is about the lack of justice “in the long train of abuses and usurpations” by the distant monarchy.  Are there similarities today with our own government?  

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/11/james_clyburn_people_love_bidens_approachwhen_they_look_at_their_bank_accounts.html

The House Majority Leader knows the media will not call out his obvious lie.

House Majority Leader James Clyburn was the kingmaker whose endorsement of Joe Biden in the 2020 South Carolina primary pushed him into the nomination despite his obvious infirmities. Perhaps the experience of denying Biden’s dementia has rubben off into other ares of reality denial. Via Breitbart:

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” House Majority Leader Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said that “people love Joe Biden’s approach and they are in love with his agenda.” But his ratings are low because even though people are “very pleased” “when they look at their bank accounts, they look at what’s happening with their families and in their communities,” that doesn’t show up in polls, and Biden will be like President Truman who did things that “were unpopular at the time, but over time, have proven to be exactly what the country needed.”

Clyburn stated, “I want to see him run again. I told him that. But that decision is up to him and his family. I think that if he learned anything in this election this November, it is this, that people love Joe Biden’s approach and they are in love with his agenda. That’s why we were able to defy all odds and do what we were able to do in defying conventional wisdom.”

Either the Majority Leader is delusional or he is gaslighting the public, stating an obvious falsehood in hopes that people would follow his narrative rather than the facts.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/trump-special-counsel-jack-smith-involved-lois-lerner-irs-scandal

Newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith was instrumental in the Justice Department’s public integrity unit inserting itself into the Lois Lerner IRS scandal targeting conservative nonprofit groups.

Smith, picked by Attorney General Merrick Garland to helm the DOJ’s investigations of former President Donald Trump, led the Public Integrity Section from 2010 until early 2015.

Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Unit, led an IRS effort targeting Tea Party groups and similar conservative nonprofit organizations. Smith’s push for DOJ officials to contact Lerner and the IRS in order to get the DOJ involved seemed to be the impetus behind the IRS sending the FBI reams of nonprofit tax records.

An IRS watchdog and the DOJ later admitted the IRS committed wrongdoing, although not of the criminal variety. Lerner would apologize.

Republicans unsuccessfully sought a special counsel to investigate the IRS scandal at the time, with Smith’s actions cited as one reason.

“Jack Smith was looking for ways to prosecute the innocent Americans that Lois Lerner targeted during the IRS scandal,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee next year, told the Washington Examiner.

Jordan and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who led House Oversight, sought Smith’s testimony in May 2014, saying, “It is apparent that the Department’s leadership, including Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith, was closely involved in engaging with the IRS.”

Smith testified that month that he spoke with the FBI about these nonprofit groups.

https://nypost.com/2022/11/26/convictions-plummet-downgraded-charges-surge-under-manhattan-da-bragg/

Soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has downgraded more than half his felony cases to misdemeanors — while also managing to lose half of the felony cases that do reach court.

Since taking office on Jan. 1, Bragg has downgraded 52% of felony cases to misdemeanors — compared to 39% in all of 2019. Between 2013 and 2020, under District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., the percentage of cases the office downgraded had never exceeded 40%, according to data made public by the DA’s office.

When serious felony charges are brought, Bragg’s office wins a conviction just 51% of the time — down from 68% in 2019, the last year before the pandemic disrupted the court system.He has declined to prosecute 35 percent more felony cases this year than in 2019, with 1,119 so far in 2022 compared to 828 three years ago.

The DA’s office requested bail in only 49% of felony cases this year compared to 69% in 2019. State bail reform measures mean almost no non-violent felonies are eligible for bail now although they were in 2019.

Misdemeanor convictions have also spiraled downward — to 29% so far this year, from 68% in 2019.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/25/highways-to-utopia/

EXCERPTS:

At some point, the West really will decline. Is it finally happening? And what is this “West” that is “declining,” “closing,” facing a momentous crossroads? An incomplete but not inaccurate shorthand is “Christendom.” I know that the term strikes an antique note in America circa 2022. When is the last time you heard someone utter it without invisible scare quotes? (When was the last time you heard someone utter it at all?) But a decaying moral vocabulary—consider the recent career of words like “virtue,” “manliness,” “womanly,” or “respectable”—is part of the ominous cargo we are called upon to bear. As for “Christendom,” it names a dispensation in which the individual possesses intrinsic moral worth, defined not only by the Christian tradition itself but buoyed also by those traditions, predominantly classical and Judaic, which flowed into and helped nurture and define that baggy creation we call “the West.” 

One bleak route on the crossroads we face involves the willful throttling of those mighty currents. Angry at the Gyndes River for sweeping away and drowning one of his sacred white horses, Cyrus decided to punish the river by having his slaves cut 360 channels into it, stanching its flow to a trickle. This we have done to ourselves, applying mental tourniquets to the arteries that fed us from the past in order that we might gambol undisturbed in distracted present-tense ignorance. An illustrative case in point is the Princeton classics department, where woke educationists panting for relevance recently jettisoned the requirement that its students learn Latin or Greek, never mind both. At the same time, they publicly celebrate the 57 varieties of racial-trans-wonderfulness that have become the focus of academic obsession. It is a situation that is as absurd as it is malignant. In The Present Age (1846), Kierkegaard described the jaded spirit that “leaves everything standing but cunningly empties it of significance.” That is where we are today: occupying a husk of decadence assiduously emptied of vitality. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and the rest of the querulous educational establishment are sodden with money but spiritually and intellectually bankrupt. They continue to look like educational institutions: leafy walks, imposing libraries, impressive buildings. But most of the activities they sponsor are inimical to real education, inciting thousands of puny Cyruses to divert and stymie the waters of tradition in order to polish the mirror of their narcissism.