RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/andrew-cuomo-resigns-new-york-metoo/

The announcement that Andrew Cuomo will resign in two weeks follows the total collapse of his political support among Democrats in New York State and Washington. His advisers told him impeachment was now certain, and he resigned just ahead of the inevitable, as President Nixon did when he was given the same message by his erstwhile congressional supporters.

The headlight of that oncoming train has been visible in Albany for months. The crash became certain when Attorney General Letitia James of New York issued her damning report on Cuomo’s behavior, buttressed by testimony from 11 accusers. After James’s report and press conference, all the top Democrats in the state and country began calling on Cuomo to resign. The major papers, which always support Democrats, did the same. How could any of them do otherwise in an environment where sexual harassment is, quite rightly, a prominent issue commanding bipartisan agreement?

As Cuomo’s defeat became inevitable, his enablers and enforcers began jumping ship or being thrown overboard. Since Cuomo had always ruled by fear, he was finished as soon as other Democrats no longer feared him.

Cuomo’s announcement leaves cable news with hours of airtime to fill. It’s obvious how they will fill it — and how they won’t. They could tell you about the Senate passage of a pork-laden $1.2 trillion bill, and the progressives’ demand, echoed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that the bill is too small and that she will only move it forward if it is coupled with another tax-and-spend bill that is three times as large.

We all know that won’t be their focus, and we all know why. T-and-A is a much bigger ratings draw than roads-and-bridges. The latest evidence for that eternal truth is that Cuomo was brought down by his grabbing and kissing, not his deadly mistake in sending COVID-positive patients back to nursing homes and then covering up what had happened and what he knew about it. That whole subject was far less interesting to news channels than harassment, and far less damaging to the governor. So, the cable channels will fill hours of air-time with predictable commentary about Cuomo’s fall, his misbehavior in the workplace and the end of a two-generation political dynasty.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/09/the-elite-beltway-pedigree-of-officer-redneck/

Officer Michael Fanone plays the part well.

He speaks with what most Americans would consider a rural drawl. He wears flannel shirts during CNN interviews and photo shoots. Large tattoos bedazzle his neck and arms; he has a beard. In a swooning front-cover profile for Time magazine, Fanone told Molly Ball he considers himself to be one of the “rednecks” who voted for Donald Trump.

But a few overlooked yet eye-popping details in Ball’s piece undermine Fanone’s public persona as the besieged D.C. undercover narcotics officer who donned an official uniform for the first time in 10 years to help rescue his colleagues from bloodthirsty Trump “insurrectionists” on January 6. Fanone has been on a nonstop publicity tour for seven months, stalking Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill and confronting his police union for its lack of support.

It all has a familiar ring; a photo posted last week by Alexander Vindman, now on a nationwide media blitz to promote his book about his role in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, was more than ironic. (Vindman is the national security officer who listened to Trump’s call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky and helped shape the conversation as an impeachable “quid pro quo.”)

The pair illustrates how D.C. partisans will go to any extreme to destroy Trump and now, his supporters.

Fanone, like Vindman, has deep ties to the Beltway establishment. He was born in D.C. in 1980 and raised in the suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, situated in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation and home to much of the capital elite. Far from the rough-and-tumble life he projects on CNN interviews, Fanone grew up a rich kid.

Ball’s article vaguely described Fanone’s father as a lawyer, “a partner in a big firm” in Washington, D.C.. Fanone, Ball claimed, “hated the stuffy status-grubbing of fancy-pants D.C.”

She does not disclose his father’s name—and there’s a reason why.

Fanone’s father appears to be Joseph Fanone, senior counsel for Ballard Spahr, a Democratic Party-connected firm based in Philadelphia. (A search of past residences and other open source information seems to confirm the relationship. News organizations like Time have refused to name Fanone’s father.)

According to a campaign disclosure website, Ballard Spahr donated 88 percent of its total political contributions to Democrats in 2020. One of the firm’s partners served as a legal advisor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign last year. Ed Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, is now a special counsel at Ballard Spahr.

In January 2019, Ballard Spahr opened up a government relations office in Washington, D.C. A few months later, the head of the lobbying shop, Ken Jarin, co-hosted Biden’s first official fundraiser. The event raised more than $6 million.

Lawyers for Ballard Spahr helped defend Pennsylvania’s rogue election rules for the 2020 presidential election. “We defeated more than a half-dozen lawsuits by the Trump campaign—represented by Rudy Giuliani and others—and a handful of Pennsylvania Republican Congressmen against the state and Boards of Elections in various counties, challenging mail-in voting practices and absentee ballot validity,” according to a post on the firm’s website. “In Delaware County, the Ballard Spahr team was successful in both state and federal courts. Our work helped secure the Third Circuit decision that cleared the path to election certification in Pennsylvania.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/08/a_massive_dose_of_common_sense_about_january_6.html

I am a huge fan of Dov Fischer. He’s smart, funny, and very insightful. I shouldn’t be surprised then that Fischer has written what I think is the best article putting the events of January 6 in their proper perspective. The premise is a simple one: “I remain adamant that January 6 was not an insurrection. To say otherwise is a despicable lie.”

This is an important point. By calling events on January 6 an insurrection, the Biden administration is getting away with grossly abusing the rule of law and the Constitution to punish the people who were present at the Capitol on January 6.

Worse, this is happening even as the federal government has consistently given a pass to leftists (whether BLM or Antifa) who, for more than a year, have destroyed public property; looted and terrorized whole communities; set fire to buildings; attempted to kill or maim city, state, and federal law enforcement officers; injured ordinary people, and committed murder. And shame on every Republican in Congress who is silent about this two-tiered justice system and the creation of political prisoners in America.

But it’s not just that the label “insurrection” is allowing the Biden administration to justify fearsome punishments for those who were there on January 6. While I cry shame on the Republicans in Congress, the fact is that they’re cowed by that word “insurrection.” Ordinarily lacking in courage to begin with, these Congress critters have turned into lily-livered, quaking milquetoasts, afraid to stand for their principles on the floor of Congress.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/08/gov-desantiss-counterpunches-put-biden-shame-joseph-klein/

President Joe Biden went after Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis by name on August 3rd (along with Texas Governor Gregg Abbott) over their handling of the COVID-19 Delta variant outbreaks in their states. These governors believe that individuals should be free to make up their own minds about wearing masks and getting vaccinated rather than being dictated to with arbitrary mandates. Biden does not agree.

“I say to these governors, ‘Please, help.’  But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing.  Use your power to save lives,” Biden pontificated.

Governor DeSantis fired back with a put-down that cut right through Biden’s hypocrisy. DeSantis responded to Biden’s call for the governor to get out of the way by saying that he has no intention of doing so if Biden harbors any thoughts of going after the rights of Floridians.

“Joe Biden…believes that vaccinations should be mandated by force of government and that you should have to show vaccination status to be able to participate in society,” DeSantis said at his August 4th news conference. “He wants that, but yet if you want to vote, he thinks it’s too much of a burden to show a picture I.D. when you’re voting. So no voter I.D., but have to show your medical papers just to be able to live an every day life? Give me a break. So I think the question is: we can either have a free society or we can have a bio-medical security state. And I can tell you, Florida, we’re a free state.”

Referring to Biden’s open border policies allowing thousands of COVID-19-positive illegal immigrants to enter and remain in the United States, DeSantis added that Biden has “imported more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border. You have hundreds of thousands of people pouring across every month.”

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/08/the-great-leftist-bully-boy-hope/

The refined and moral Left places itself on a pedestal, above the fray—and as such it has a natural attraction to those in its midst who do not.

By any empirical measure, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proven utterly disingenuous, and far more so than average politicians. 

Unlike other political mediocrities, his inanities have led to roughly 13,000 unnecessary deaths or more, when he did not fully utilize the federal offer of a hospital ship and makeshift care facilities for COVID-19 patients. Instead, Cuomo sought to make rooms in New York hospitals available largely by transferring or redirecting elderly infected  patients into pristine long-term health-care facilities—and then patently lied about that government-ordered disaster.

Cuomo’s serial sexual harassments and narcissistic violations of the privacy of female aides and acquaintances were serially covered up and contextualized by the leftwing media—most prominently and unethically by his own brother and CNN news anchor, Chris Cuomo. 

The only apparent reasons why Cuomo has not resigned under left-wing pressure are the uncertain ensuing political calculus for Democrats and the embarrassment that Joe Biden—similarly accused by at least eight women of improper touching and unwarranted hugging and squeezing—was photographed violating the private spaces of underage girls, and faced a serious charge of crass sexual assault.

In Orwellian fashion, in the midst of this shipwreck of governance, Cuomo received a book advance package of over $5 million to chronicle his advice on effective leadership. Neither Cuomo nor his publisher could have believed the extravagant advance reflected likely book sales. So the investment was either due to New York echo-chamber, celebrity incestuousness or anticipated quid pro quo influence peddling. And, in fact, Cuomo ended up receiving more than $110 per book sold, instead of the usual $2 to $3 per book under standard royalty arrangements. 

How did Cuomo find time to write a memoir in the midst of running New York, during one of the worst COVID-19 fatality records in the nation (2,791 COVID deaths per million in New York, versus 1,853 in Texas,  1,835 in Florida, , and 1,637 in California)? And why would Cuomo wish even to whitewash such an un-washable and disreputable record?

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/oregon-proposal-would-redefine-breeding-as-a-sexual-assault-on-animals/

People wrongly think of the animal-rights movement as a more energetic form of animal-welfare advocacy. It is not. Rather, animal-rights activists intend to eventually outlaw all ownership of animals, a project they recognize as multi-generational.

Often, activists mask their actual intentions. But a proposed Oregon constitutional amendment, currently in the petition-signing stage, illustrates the extent of animal-rights radicalism.

The proposed amendment would essentially criminalize many of the practices required to raise and slaughter food animals. First, it would remove current exemptions in the law for “good animal husbandry” practices that protect ranchers and others from being charged with abuse for injuring an animal. From Initiative Petition 13 (the bracketed sections delete current law, my emphasis):

A person commits the crime of animal abuse in the second degree if, except as [otherwise authorized by law] necessary to defend him or herself against an apparent threat of immediate violence, the person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes physical injury to an animal. [(2) Any practice of good animal husbandry is not a violation of this section.]

The food industry routinely kills animals by mortally injuring them. Other practices such as castration of steers, also would constitute “injury.” By removing the “good animal husbandry” exemptions — and note, “good” practices do not permit abuse — necessary activities of raising animals for food would seem to be criminalized.

And here’s the real kicker. Breeding animals, other than through animal intercourse, would be considered a sexual offense, akin to bestiality:

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/less-than-0-01-percent-of-vaccinated-americans-developed-severe-covid-breakthrough-case-cdc-says/

According to the latest data released by the CDC, less than 0.01 percent of vaccinated individuals have developed COVID breakthrough infections resulting in serious health complications or death.

As of August 2, more than 164 million people have been fully inoculated against the disease, CDC numbers indicate. Less than 0.001 percent of this population have suffered severe or fatal cases of COVID when they contracted it post-vaccination. Since the vaccine’s distribution, the agency has received reports of 7,525 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections who were hospitalized or died.

“Vaccine breakthrough cases are expected. COVID-19 vaccines are effective and are a critical tool to bring the pandemic under control. However, no vaccines are 100% effective at preventing illness in vaccinated people. There will be a small percentage of fully vaccinated people who still get sick, are hospitalized, or die from COVID-19,” the CDC wrote.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-insufferable-hypocrisy-of-john-kerry/

In February, Icelandic reporter Jóhann Bjarni Kolbeinsson asked the United States climate czar, John Kerry, if he thought flying in a private jet to Reykjavik in 2019 to pick up the Arctic Circle award for climate leadership was environmentally responsible. Kerry had a dispensation, noting that flying was “the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.”

This week, the Daily Mail reported that Kerry had flown in a private jet to Martha’s Vineyard — where he owns an $11 million rambler — for Obama’s 60th birthday bash. A State Department spokesperson denied the story, claiming that “Secretary Kerry lives on Martha’s Vineyard, he did not travel there for a party. He took a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, he did not fly commercial or private.” This statement means nothing. No one is accusing Kerry of flying his plane onto a runway at Obama’s compound. Whatever the case, Kerry’s carbon-spewing private jet is busy. He and his family often fly to Sun Valley (where the family has a house), D.C. (ditto), Los Angeles, and sometimes just between Martha’s Vineyard and Boston (another house) — because the Earth isn’t worth the two-and-a-half-hour drive. You can rent a similar plane for around $15,500 per hour.

I’m not much of a classist, but I get why this kind of sanctimony and hypocrisy fuels populist anger. Hundreds of well-heeled, maskless elites get to dance at Barack Obama’s birthday party while schlubs like you are still yelling into your useless masks just to be heard over the din at a supermarket — even though you’re vaccinated.

Marrying into money has its perks, and Kerry is well within his rights to enjoy the remarkable conveniences the modern world affords him. The problem is — as with Obama’s party — that the same people demand you surrender comforts and freedoms for the communal good.

I’m often told this brand of gotcha is irrelevant: Kerry’s flights are trifling in the big picture. Even if Kerry is a hypocrite, it doesn’t change the fact that climate change threatens our lives. Just today, the U.N. released a report starkly warning that climate change is now “code red for humanity,” and it is our last chance to implement policies and wide-ranging reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. (This is the first last chance to save the planet since 2019’s last chance to save the planet.) And Kerry doesn’t seem very nervous about any of it. If the climate technocrats truly believed that climate change was menacing humanity’s existence, they wouldn’t act the way they do, just as if elites truly believed the Delta variant scaremongering they engage in, they wouldn’t be participating in parties with hundreds of their closest friends.