RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/if-the-china-story-is-true-milley-has-to-go/

At the very least, we must stop the corrosive politicization of institutions that we need to keep nonpolitical — including the military.

I agree with our editorial that General Mark Milley should be aggressively investigated and, if the Washington Post reporting is verified, removed from office. In fact, I think he ought to be pressed, as a preliminary matter, about whether the reporting is substantially accurate; if he concedes that it is, he should be suspended immediately pending an investigation.

But we need a real investigation. I carry no brief for Milley, who personifies the politicization of institutions that must be apolitical in a properly functioning republic. Nevertheless, conclusions about his alleged behavior have gotten way out in front of the evidence.

As our editorial notes, Bob Woodward has a dubious history. As a foundation for admissible evidence, his reporting methods — particularly, encouraging sources to speak without attribution — would be laughed out of a courtroom.

To be sure, the Woodward MO of portraying the most voluble leakers as his story’s most valuable players would strongly suggest that Milley is one of his main sources. On this occasion, that would add credibility to Woodward’s account, on the legal theory of declarations against interest. That is, in touting himself as the commander who bravely reined in an unhinged commander in chief, Milley would have (however inadvertently) admitted misconduct that could subject him to discipline. (Statements against interest, though hearsay, are generally admissible in court because they are presumptively reliable: When people acknowledge actions that put them at risk, they are usually not lying.)

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/16/afghan-tragedy-border-blunders-vaccine-disaster-now-biden-co-want-to-spend-us-into-socialist-oblivion/

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin had it partly right when he called for a “strategic pause”. But now it is clear that the $3.5 trillion price tag seriously understates the Bernie Sanders/AOC/progressive reconciliation bill through which they will try to remake America into their socialist image.

Early on, Sens. Rick Scott, R-Florida, and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., both recognized that the price tag was artificially low for all these socialist goodies revealed in the initial budget resolution. And that’s just the start. They and many others are pegging the actual price tag at $5 or even $7 trillion. The reason for the discrepancy is found in the entitlements, the actual details of which are still embargoed in the massive 10,000-page bill.

What we do know comes from the budget resolution that outlines the Bernie Sanders/AOC “leftist wish list” and seeks a complete remaking of the American economy. It is key to remember that congressional budgets are blueprints for the actual spending – advanced ultimately in this case in a reconciliation bill – which will take place later this month.

Reconciliation was originally adopted as a provision of law to cut overall government spending to fit into the federal budget. But today it is a chance for another bite at the apple for tax increases and for new entitlement spending that cannot be cut since entitlement spending is automatic as provided by law. Today reconciliation serves another purpose: adoption of new regulatory policies that effectively operate as taxes by imposing new costs on businesses.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/15/california-you-blew-it-again/

Not only did California Gov. Gavin Newsom survive the recall election, the vote margin was tilted so far in his favor by Wednesday morning that he’s likely to see the results as a mandate to issue another round of harsh pandemic rules. What is certain is that he will consider it a signal to press the Blue State agenda that’s made California a miserable experience for so many.

Recalling a Democratic governor in a state where roughly twice as many Democrats are registered to vote as Republicans was always going to be a nearly impossible task. At one time, polls indicated Newsom could be ousted. It appeared a chance to climb out of the wreckage had arrived. But in the final poll that matters, voters changed the narrative. On the morning after, results were showing 64% said no to the recall, only 36% said yes.

It wouldn’t be loco to think that Newsom is now going to seek revenge on those who voted to remove him. A likely place to start is to put California back under a tight and unforgiving pandemic lockdown regime even though it had never fully escaped Newsom’s iron fist over the summer. If not for the heat he felt from the recall polls, the life-has-been-handed-to-him governor would have surely reinstated the freedom-robbing policies he had ordered in 2020 after the Delta variant arrived in June.

There are exceptions, of course, but generally speaking, Newsom’s constituents are supportive of lockdowns, mask mandates, and government-required coronavirus vaccinations, while those who voted to rid themselves of this meddlesome prince of privilege were hungry for the liberties he’d so cruelly taken. Now he’s free to punish those who dared challenge him, and will do so with the gushing approval of the affluent progressives of California who are his most ardent supporters.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/16/another-covid-fact-turns-out-to-be-a-wild-exaggeration/

We keep hearing how hospitals are being overrun with COVID patients because of those dastardly unvaccinated. This has certainly made the Delta variant look highly dangerous, helped keep people in a state of panic, and ginned up support for draconian vaccine mandates. But is it as bad as we’re being told?

Two studies suggest that all the talk of mass hospitalization from the COVID outbreak is a huge exaggeration. Researchers found that a substantial number of those admitted to hospitals – adults and children – either have minor symptoms or were checked in for something else but happened to test positive for COVID after being admitted.

Of course, that’s not the message the public is getting. Instead, we are being treated daily to headlines such as:

“Child Covid-19 hospitalizations soar, filling pediatric wings, data show”

“COVID-19 Hospitals: overrun with COVID patients”

“As Idaho hospitals ration care, doctors fear a COVID peak may still be weeks away”

When the death rate from COVID plunged, the media started focusing on the number of people hospitalized as the “better” indicator of how serious the current COVID outbreak is.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/waiting-for-general-mark-milley-china-bob-woodward-report-11631744398?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

Donald Trump’s behavior as a candidate and President unhinged some of America’s vital institutions, including the press and the FBI. It would be disturbing to find out that military leaders also responded to the President’s norm-breaking by betraying their institutional obligations.

That’s the implication of a report of national-security freelancing by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley at the end of Mr. Trump’s term. Congress needs to find out how much is true—not because of partisan demands for retribution against the general, but because even the appearance of attenuating civilian control of the military is damaging to democracy.

A forthcoming book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa alleges that Gen. Milley called China’s top military commander shortly before the November election and said, “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.” After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gen. Milley tried to increase his control over nuclear launch procedures out of fear of what Mr. Trump might do.

Mr. Woodward’s opaque method makes it impossible to judge the accuracy of his reporting. He relates conversations he didn’t hear based on sources whose motives aren’t explained. Those on the right now demanding Gen. Milley’s head based on Mr. Woodward’s book were rightly cautious of the journalist’s insider accounts of GOP presidencies.

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/elected-mark-milley-china-military/

A coup by any other name and maybe even a little light treason. Those are the accusations flying over revelations in a new Bob Woodward book about what Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley did after the January 6 Capitol riots.

Milley reportedly held several phone calls shortly after January 6, with both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with his counterpart in China. According to Woodward, the general gave assurances to Gen. Li Zuocheng that he would alert the Chinese to any possible coming attack, nuclear or otherwise.

There is no evidence President Trump was planning any kind of strike against China, or Iran, or Florida. No battle plans were being drawn. Miller supposedly took these actions after Trump signed an executive order removing US forces from Afghanistan. Woodward and Robert Costa write that Milley was concerned that Trump would ‘go rogue’ post election loss. Milley held meeting and phone calls without Trump’s knowledge and directed staff, ‘No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure.’ Milley then went around the room to each general and demanded what the book is calling ‘an oath’.

The trouble is, Milley wasn’t legally granted any of these extraordinary powers. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff essentially usurped the chain of command and attempted to take civilian control of the United States military away from a duly elected president, simply because of his own gut feelings tinged with a bit of paranoia.

https://www.hoover.org/research/simple-economics-behind-californias-governor-recall-election

For the last three years, my Hoover colleague Bill Whalen and I have been writing weekly in this space about California policies and politics. During this time, I have become painfully aware of how life is quickly deteriorating for many California families, including those running small and medium-sized businesses, and this deterioration reflects a decline in the quality and accountability of state and local governance.

Just how bad is it? California ranks 49th for the cost and ease of doing business, its unemployment rate is only surpassed by Nevada (California is 49th in the country) it ranks 40th in taxes and in K–12 public school quality, it ranks 49th in housing affordability, it ranks 48th in economic freedom, and it ranks 49th in road quality, which costs California drivers an extra $2,500 annually in higher insurance premiums and car repairs.

Need more stats about California’s devolution?

Drought occurs every three years, yet there have been no major water infrastructure investments since the 1970s.
Businesses are leaving the state at twice the rate as recent years.
Crime rates have increased by one-third.
More than one out of three Californians lives in poverty or near poverty.
An “affordable” apartment unit can cost over $1 million to build.
Despite high salaries, only one in five Silicon Valley households can afford the median-priced home.
Nearly 30 percent of American’s homeless are in California.
The unemployment department paid over $30 billion in fraudulent benefits while delaying legitimate payments for months.
Failure to manage forests has led to wildfires that create carbon emissions equivalent to that of an extra 10 million cars on the road annually over the last decade.
Just three categories—Health and Human Services, K­–12 public schools, and the prison system—eat up two-thirds of the state’s budget.
In public schools, 80 percent or more of Hispanic and Black students are not proficient in mathematics.
State and local government workers earn more than twice as much (including retirement contributions) as private-sector workers.
San Francisco, where 2 million hypodermic needles are left each year on city sidewalks, has 50 percent more drug addicts than high school students.

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/as-united-nations-gather-in-new-york-covid-may/91657/

As heads of state, foreign ministers, ambassadors and members of their entourage gather on the banks of Turtle Bay, let’s pray next week’s opening of the United Nations General Assembly doesn’t become a Covid super spreader.

After last year, when the annual gabfest, known as UNGA for short, was conducted virtually due to pandemic fears, next week’s event will be attended in person by luminaries from most of the world’s countries.

Last month the American mission to the world body sent a letter urging all countries to send a pre-recorded message rather than come to New York. Most, possibly including President Biden, ignored that request. Although the White House is yet to publish Mr. Biden’s schedule for next week, most at Turtle bay believe he’ll attend UNGA in person.

Meanwhile, your local New York watering hole, where the barkeep is required by the city to card all patrons for proof of vaccination but, in what Assemblyman Mark Levine says could “expose them, and NYC, to serious risk,” next week’s visiting dignitaries and their posse are not required to show such documentation. Instead, according to UN officials, they’re encouraged to be vaccinated before arrival.

Oops. As is traditional, next week’s first scheduled national speaker is Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonero — the world’s most outspoken opponent of Covid vaccination. He already contracted the virus and remains adamant that no one, including him, receives the shot.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/14/milleys-alleged-secret-calls-to-china-are-just-another-reason-americans-believe-the-system-is-rigged/

The Washington Post published extremely serious allegations against Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley yesterday, although of course the paper tried to make the centerpiece of the story former President Donald Trump’s erratic behavior.

From WaPo:

Fearful of Donald Trump’s actions in his final weeks as president, the United States’ top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not go to war, a senior defense official said Tuesday after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book ‘Peril,’ written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The story here, however, is not Trump, no matter how much the corrupt corporate media would have it be so. The story is that a military leader defied civilian control over the direction of America’s foreign policy, and did so through secret talks with our chief adversary on the global stage.

Under every president, we hear about “[name] derangement syndrome”; there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, and Obama Derangement Syndrome. But only Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to have led the ostensible upholders of “norms” and “democracy” to treat as no big deal actual violations of democracy’s most sacred norms in the service of thwarting Donald Trump.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/09/14/the-foul-stench-of-george-w-bush-and-americas-ruling-class/

As with so many other aspects of our time, we seem destined to suffer the most trite and underwhelming imitations of things that once were great or at least impressive. Exhibit A would be the great war advocate, George W. Bush. Can there be a more perfect synthesis of the last 20 years of disappointing American politics than this man? He exemplifies everything—unaware, unashamed, unapologetic—that the American ruling class has become. NeverTrumpers and neocons yearn for a return to the days of measured, steady Bush leadership. We are told constantly now that he is kind, polite, well-bred: a politician from a more dignified tradition of public servants than those of late. But of course, in reality he is none of these things.

The everlasting incompetence and mesmerizing self-delusion on display at his recent 9/11 remarks make that clear.

What kind of a person stands on the very spot where heroic, valiant Americans perished in a tragic last-ditch effort to save a symbol of their ruling class—either the Capitol or the White House, no one knows for certain—and dares to offer criticism of the American people? What kind of cretin could possibly stir himself to lecture the public while standing on the very spot where common, average, everyday people sacrificed themselves to save members of the elite? 

Does any thinking person for a moment believe, were the shoe on the other foot, that a plane load of Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas, highjacked and heading straight for Dollywood with the intention of killing as many ordinary Americans as possible, would rise up and sacrifice themselves to save us?

This historic blunder would be enough for an average underperforming president, but George W. Bush is no average underperformer. These words were delivered not only on the occasion of the common man’s selfless sacrifice par excellence, but also hot on the heels of our ruling class’ greatest military blunder and most embarrassing episode in perhaps our entire national history. The idea that George W. Bush would have the audacity to do anything other than demur the opportunity to speak on 9/11, just weeks after the total failure of our entire engagement in the Middle East, is astonishing.

Instead of heaping praise on this small group of valiant Flight 93 Americans, and humbly asking their forgiveness for his errant and misguided attempts to avenge them, including the embarrassing foreign adventurism undertaken in their name, Bush instead searched the American landscape for a recent, festering wound to scratch . . . and broke it wide open. Why? Why did he feel the need to do this? 

Alluding to the events on January 6, 2021, Bush lectured ordinary Americans—some of them the very people who felt compelled to answer his call to defend America 20 years ago at Ground Zero—on what he considers to be their latent propensity to act like the terrorists he and his fellow negligent elites allowed to murder nearly 3,000 of us. One can believe that the misguided and foolish rioting of January 6 was profoundly wrong, and still feel in one’s bones how inappropriate and small Bush was to profane the remembrance of our heroes with his tedious little lecture.

That extra step to insult is truly breathtaking. This great failure of a wartime president alluded to the chaotic milling about and general parading through the Capitol by a bunch of nincompoops (who neither brought weapons nor used them) and compared it to heinous crimes of murderous zealots. He likened people who essentially walked into the Capitol building and then back out again while harboring incorrect political sentiments to those who slaughtered as many innocents as they possibly could using hijacked commercial jets which they transformed into great flying bombs of incinerating fuel. American citizens behaving badly should not be compared, under any circumstances, to the people who pulverized, at terrific speed, airplanes full of innocents into some of our most iconic and important buildings, instantly killing themselves and everyone onboard in a final nihilistic act of rage and impotent fury. 

The sheer violence to common decency, statesmanship, and self-awareness that George W. Bush, a man I voted for twice, achieved with his 9/11 speech is, I confess, difficult to comprehend.