RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/opinion/israel-ben-and-jerry.html

Ben & Jerry’s last month announced to controversy and fanfare that it would no longer sell its ice cream in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, though it says it will continue selling it elsewhere in Israel. “Ending the sales of ice cream in the occupied territories is one of the most important decisions the company has made in its 43-year history,” Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the company’s founders and former owners, explained in a guest essay in this newspaper. “It was especially brave.”

To which my reaction, based on 21 years of reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was: Who the hell eats Peace Pops in Hebron? And just how big a hit to the global bottom line of Unilever, the consumer-goods giant that is Ben & Jerry’s corporate parent, will be the loss of sales in Jerusalem’s Old City?

We live in the era of “Woke, Inc.,” to borrow the title of Vivek Ramaswamy’s delightful new book on what he calls “corporate America’s social justice scam” — an era in which corporations adopt trendy causes to help shield them from criticism while pumping up their stock prices. There’s Gillette, trying to peddle razors by decrying toxic masculinity. There’s Nike, minting money off Colin Kaepernick’s protests. There’s BP, rebranding itself as “Beyond Petroleum” — and then spilling 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

But Cohen and Greenfield are the godfathers of Woke Inc., pioneers of a unique marketing magic that seeks to get people to believe that buying a high-fat, high-sugar product that contributes to diabetes and obesity also makes us more virtuous. I don’t want to overstate things here, since I’m as guilty as the next guy of scarfing down a half pint (OK, sometimes more) of New York Super Fudge Chunk. But at least I don’t pretend that I’m making the world a better place in the bargain.

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/cori-bush-wants-to-defund-the-police?token=

The congresswoman can afford private security. Those who live in Oakland, California, don’t have that luxury.

Leighton Akira Woodhouse is a documentary filmmaker and journalist whose work spans factory farming, animal rights, immigration, the alt-right, and pompous European social theory.

I first came across his work in The Intercept, but he’s written for Newsweek, The Nation, The New Republic and Gawker. (I try not to hold that last one against him.) Leighton also lives in East Oakland, where he’s been reporting on the movement to defund the police — and its passionate opposition.

So when Cori Bush, the Democratic congresswoman from Missouri, was roundly criticized for defending her private security detail and defunding the police in the span of a single minute, I was keen to find out what Leighton had to say about the matter. — BW

…..”In February, a mile and a half from my house, at a park featuring an “I Can Do Anything” mural, a 38-year-old basketball coach named Reuben Lewis was gunned down in front of dozens of children. Two of his three sons, who he was picking up from football practice, watched him die.

In March, about four miles from that park, a 58-year-old man named Andre Weston got into an argument with a homeless man named William Vann. He doused Vann with an accelerant and lit him on fire.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-nsas-inspector-general-opens?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDc5M

The NSA’s independent investigator, Robert Storch, is a long-time D.C. bureaucrat, making it unlikely he’d formally investigate frivolous allegations of “unmasking.”

The independent watchdog agency which investigates potential wrongdoing by the National Security Agency (NSA) announced on Tuesday morning that it has opened an investigation into “recent allegations that the NSA improperly targeted the communications of a member of the U.S. news media.” Though the oversight unit, the NSA’s Office of the Inspector General, did not specify the journalist in question, the statement leaves no doubt that the investigation pertains to news reports that the identity of Fox News host Tucker Carlson had been improperly “unmasked” and illegally revealed within the intelligence community.

The full statement from the Inspector General reads:

The NSA’s Inspector General, Robert P. Storch, is a long-time Executive Branch functionary. He was first appointed to this position by President Obama in 2016 but failed to receive Senate confirmation. He was then re-appointed by President Trump in 2018 and the Senate then confirmed him. A widely respected bureaucrat in Washington, he also previously served as deputy Inspector General in Obama’s Justice Department, and, prior to that, was a federal prosecutor. It is, to put it mildly, difficult to imagine him opening an investigation into frivolous allegations.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/10/appellate-court-overturns-pre-trial-detention-for-j6-detainee/

In a stunning but well-deserved rebuke, the D.C. Court of Appeals on Monday ordered that the pre-trial detention of George Tanios, one of two men accused of spraying Officer Sicknick and others on January 6, be reversed.

The brief ruling, which did not include the usual opinion explaining the court’s decision, bluntly stated:

“ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the district court’s May 12, 2021 order be reversed and the case remanded for the district court to order appellant’s pretrial release subject to appropriate conditions, including home detention and electronic monitoring. On this record, we conclude that the district court clearly erred in determining that no condition or combination of conditions of release would reasonably assure the safety of the community.”

Tanios and his friend, Julian Khater, were arrested in March. A grand jury indicted the men with numerous felonies including conspiracy and assaulting an officer with a “dangerous or deadly weapon.” Tanios and Khater brought chemical irritants, including bear spray, to the capital in anticipation of scuffles with leftist agitators. Tanios, however, is not accused of spraying his key chain pepper spray container. Their arrest and indictment are aimed at keeping alive the lie that Sicknick was killed in the line of duty by Trump “insurrectionists,” a falsehood repeated in the news media and by Joe Biden as late as Thursday at the White House.

Biden’s Justice Department asked the court to keep Khater and Tanios behind bars awaiting trial. They have been incarcerated in the harsh D.C. Deplorable jail since March; Tanios has no criminal record, operated a college campus sandwich shop (which is now shuttered) in West Virginia, and is the father of three young children.

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.”