RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/columns/hans-a-von-spakovsky/2022/09/20/this-should-terrify-every-american-doj-harasses-citizens-for-exercising-their-first-amendment-rights-n1630918

The Justice Department has hit the Eagle Forum of Alabama with a voluminous subpoena that violates the organization’s First Amendment rights to speak freely, engage in the political process, and talk to their elected representatives. It’s an intimidation tactic, pure and simple, and shows just how partisan the department has become. This out-of-control behavior should scare every citizen and volunteer organization, no matter where they stand on the political or social spectrum.

Eagle Forum is a very small non-profit in Alabama. It only has one full-time employee and a second, part-time employee. Virtually all of its work on issues of interest to its members is done by volunteers.  It is the quintessential, uniquely American grassroots membership organization that French historian Alexis de Tocqueville lauded in Democracy in America.

As the Eagle Forum’s motion to quash the government subpoena says, one of the issues its members have been concerned over is “gender-altering medical treatment to minors” and the “permanent and adverse effects of such medical procedures on those minors.” Those serious, lifelong effects deeply concern many physicians and parents.

Members of the Eagle Forum made their worries known by doing things every American has an absolute right to do: they spoke out, made speeches, organized meetings, talked to other residents and organizations in the state, and contacted their elected state representatives. In other words, they exercised their constitutional rights to engage in “freedom of speech,” to “peaceably assemble,” and “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” They also exercised their right to associate, recognized by the Supreme Court as implicit under the Fourteenth Amendment.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/21/the-coming-austerity-crisis/

The U.S. government’s debt is 150 percent of the gross domestic product. The current inflation is just the first problem caused by the debt. If deficit spending continues, soon high interest rates and the decline of U.S. debt credit will follow. Instead of incrementally fixing the problem, austerity economics will be the outcome. The Greeks went through it in 2007 and 2008, and they will be the first to tell you it was no fun. Congress, and especially during sessions with Democratic majorities, bears much of the blame for this.

Every time Democrats controlled the Congress during a Republican administration over the past two decades, they appropriated more money than the president requested. These additional expenditures, including the interest paid on them, well exceed $1 trillion in isolation. 

But each budget builds on the previous budgets enacted. For instance, the Trump Administration’s proposed budget for 2021 would have cut the deficit by $850 billion in 10 years. Adding up the money saved annually over those 10 years, it would have been trillions of dollars. If Congress had committed to the budgets submitted by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, the money saved would have totalled trillions more. 

On top of this, recall how Congress in 2007 rejected President Bush’s Social Security reforms, a program which remains the largest item on the federal budget by far. There is no study to show how much U.S. taxpayers would have saved if Democrats in Congress had not added money to the budget or reformed Social Security, but one can easily estimate that it would have been trillions of dollars.

Why Democrats didn’t do it is twofold. Spending is always popular if nobody has to pay for it, and they thought that the debt would never become a problem, or that, if it did become a problem, they would no longer be around to fix it or suffer the consequences. 

But others had a more ideological reason.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/21/marthas-meltdown-model/

Martha’s Vineyard has been all over the news. 

The tony resort community so loves aiding and comforting the undocumented immigrants who were flown in from Florida that it hugged them—for barely 48 hours. 

Oddly, the Left became unhinged when red-state governors—whose states the last two years were flooded with some 3 million illegal aliens—finally decided to spread welcoming chores among affluent blue-state communities. 

It was a natural fit. 

Most, like Washington, D.C., and New York, were on record as sanctuary city jurisdictions. In the abstract, they endorse open borders and celebrate diversity—from the serenity of thousands of miles away. 

The uproar at Martha’s Vineyard prompted the Democratic hierarchy to do some explaining. Why had it not earlier objected to the federal government night flights of tens of thousands of border crossers to red-state communities that had opposed illegal immigration? 

And why be angry with governors who were only emulating that policy by flying in a mere 50 newcomers—in the light of day—to a far wealthier and liberal-minded sanctuary resort?

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/09/22/the-medias-desantis-is-worse-than-trump-campaign-begins/

When New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote a love letter of sorts to Donald Trump and his “soft edges and eccentricity,” it didn’t take long for people to see this for what it is: an opening salvo by the press to start demonizing the next Republican.

In his column, Bouie coos about how Trump is “funny, he has stage presence, and he has a kind of natural charisma. He can be a bully in part because he can temper his cruelty and egoism with the performance of a clown or a showman. He can persuade an audience that he’s just kidding — that he doesn’t actually mean it.”

Anyone not blinded by Trump hatred would probably agree with this description. But it is Bouie who doesn’t actually mean what he’s saying.

Bouie is a guy who, when Trump first ran for president, declared definitively that “Trump is a fascist,” and that this was “the political label that best describes what the GOP front-runner has become.” Then he spent four years recoiling at the horror of the Trump presidency.

Bouie’s new-found love of Trump has nothing to do with a change of heart and everything to do with portraying the other leading presidential contender — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — as far worse than Trump.

And the only reason to do so now is because of the fact that DeSantis’ recent actions have raised his profile nationally and increasingly endeared him to conservatives.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/3-ways-biden-makes-inflation-worse

The recent rail worker settlement reminds us that Joe Biden, far from fighting inflation, is actually enabling price increases, in three important ways. 

First, he will not stop spending. After crowing about the dubious deficit cuts contained in his Inflation Reduction Act, the president decided to cancel student debt to the tune of as much as another trillion dollars.  

According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in less than two years Biden has added $4.8 trillion to our long-term debt. That tsunami of government (taxpayer) spending is spurring the highest inflation in 40 years, crushing the well-being of average Americans.

Second, all the benefits being provided by an unpopular president hoping to buy higher approval ratings, like a 21% increase in food stamp outlays and canceling of student debts, are combining to keep people from having to go back to work. 

The single worst impact of the federal gusher of spending has been sidelining workers, driving up the cost of labor. The Atlanta Fed reported that wages rose 6.7% in August, a multi-decade high. The wage-price spiral is now a reality; the rail agreement, which sets a new bar for labor negotiations, just made it worse. 

https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/20/the-day-democrats-felt-personally-attacked-by-having-to-care-for-illegal-immigrants/

Probably the most fascinating part of the “illegal immigrants visit Martha’s Vineyard” saga from last week is how readily white Democrats revealed themselves as viscerally averse to coming in contact with poor brown people. They are in fact deeply put out by the very idea.

A video clip of documentary-maker Ken Burns went semi-viral Thursday showing Burns on CNN expressing that exact sentiment.

“This is coming straight out of the authoritarian playbook,” he said, referring to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis having sent about 50 illegal border-crossers to the pristine town of Martha’s Vineyard. “This is what’s so disturbing about DeSantis … to weaponize human beings for a political purpose. It’s like when somebody disagrees with him in Florida … he punishes them.”

Burns reemphasized that point, saying, “This is about punishing political enemies.”

It’s a shocking admission considering that up until then, leftists had proudly worn their bleeding hearts on their sleeves, typically accompanied by those obnoxious “In this house, we believe…” yard signs.

What changed? Nothing in terms of the actual problem. There are still hundreds of thousands of migrants dumping themselves into the care of American taxpayers every month. Over the past year, there have been upwards of 2 million aliens arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Other than July, every month of 2022 has seen tens of thousands more migrants than last year.

This is the case even though Kamala Harris — yes, the Kamala Harris — told migrants venturing to the U.S., “Don’t come.”

Well, they came. And despite pleas from Democrats in southern border districts pleading for the Biden administration to do something to stop or even just slow the chaos, leftists everywhere else told them to shut up and show some compassion. After all, Latin America’s destitute were only coming here for a better life. Is it too much to ask that the taxpayers of Texas, Arizona, and Florida provide that for them?

Of course not! But remember: We’re all in this together!

There’s no reason places like Martha’s Vineyard — described by CNN as “a summer playground for former US presidents, celebrities and billionaires” — can’t share the burden. It was only 50 migrants.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-moral-case-for-ron-desantis-migrant-transports/

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Wednesday, September 14, facilitated two flights of approximately 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. This is part of DeSantis’ push to draw attention to the border policies of President Biden.

The commentariat from several sides of the political spectrum have questioned the governor’s motives. Many described it as inhumane and cruel – a form of human trafficking, even.

The moral opprobrium visited upon the governor is fatuous. There is a moral upshot to his actions that few, in their sentimental reaction to the plight of displaced peoples, will bear witness to.

And it is this: the plight in Venezuela is not accidental. It was deliberate, planned and orchestrated by the people of Venezuela. As several economists and political theorists including James Piereson have pointed out, for the majority of the twentieth century Venezuela was one of the most prosperous South American countries. It had a very diversified economy replete with plenty oil reserves that permitted the country to acquire export surpluses. As a result, people there enjoyed a higher standard of living. However, the people of Venezuela elected an authoritarian socialist thug, Hugo Chavez, who ran on a socialist platform. When he won the presidency in 1998, he—like all socialist leaders who rush to nationalize industry—nationalized the oil industry. He levied huge taxes on corporations, and he redistributed land and income across the population. Venezuelans allowed him to revise their Constitution which granted him a longer term as president, and which also gave him more power and gifted what they believed were more positive and social rights to the people.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2022/09/20/whistleblower-fbi-manipulating-j6-cases-to-support-biden-narrative-of-a-national-crisis-of-extremism-n1630716

According to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, an FBI whistleblower has come forward with information about how the FBI is manipulating cases related to the Capitol riot to create “the illusion” that domestic violent extremism is a pervasive problem in the United States.

Just The News reports that Jordan wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray stating that “the ‘manipulative case-file practice’ was being conducted by the bureau’s Washington field office, which was instructing local FBI offices to open up cases on their books that were in fact simply related to the Capitol breach.”

Jordan wrote, “The FBI’s case categorization creates the illusion that threats from [domestic violent extremism] are present in jurisdictions across the nation, when in reality they all stem from the same related investigation concerning the actions at the Capitol on January 6.”

“Such an artificial case categorization scheme allows FBI leadership to misleadingly point to ‘significant’ increases in DVE threats nationwide,” Jordan added.

https://www.aol.com/news/californias-dead-burial-option-human-033705405.html

California will begin allowing an alternative burial method known as human composting in 2027, under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday.

Assembly Bill 351 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) will create a state regulatory process for natural organic reduction, a method in which human remains naturally decompose over a 30-to-45-day period after being placed in a steel vessel and buried in wood chips, alfalfa and other biodegradable materials. The nutrient-dense soil created by the process can then be returned to families or donated to conservation land.

Supporters say it’s an eco-friendly alternative to traditional end-of-life options. Cremation, for example, is an energy-intense process that produces carbon dioxide emissions, while traditional burial uses chemicals to embalm bodies and a nonbiodegradable coffin to store them.

California will join Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Vermont in allowing human composting.

“With climate change and sea-level rise as very real threats to our environment, this is an alternative method of final disposition that won’t contribute emissions into our atmosphere,” Garcia said in a statement.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/09/21/biden-student-loan-plan-backfire-most-call-it-a-political-move-and-unfair-ii-tipp-poll/

No doubt, President Joe Biden and his advisers believed student-loan forgiveness would be a big winner in the upcoming midterm elections. If so, it was a political miscalculation, with most Americans rejecting the idea as unfair and a political stunt, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

Under Biden’s plan, unveiled in late August, he will cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for those who had have Pell Grants and up to $10,000 in debt for those earn less than $125,000 per year, $250,000 for married couples.

By a margin of 59% to 32%, Americans agreed that Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan “is unfair to those whose children are not in college or who have already paid for their kid’s education to have to pay for other people’s education.” Another 8% called themselves “unsure.”

Perhaps surprising is that the rejection of the idea is multi-partisan in nature. While Republicans, as might be expected, agreed that it is unfair at the highest rate (67%), Democrats (55%) and independents (56%) weren’t that far behind.

Among all respondents, only one group was below 50%: Those who self-identified as “liberals.” Just 42% of that group agreed student-loan forgiveness was unfair. Among “moderates,” the level of agreement was 60%; for “conservatives,” it was 72%, tied for the highest for any of the other major demographic and political groups that I&I/TIPP polls routinely measure.