RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/19/the-family-law-castle/

In the late 19th century, bureaucracy was heralded as the ultimate progressive reform. After millennia of coveted government positions split between friends and relatives of the powerful and the highest bidder, dedicated civil servants with specialized training would take their place. Meritocratic expert governance would replace corruption with integrity, pettiness with professionalism, bias with compassion.

That progressive vision never worked. Franz Kafka was soon writing poignant novels about the inhuman mills the bureaucracies had become. The Trial and The Castle told chilling tales of innocents at the mercy of faceless, heartless systems oblivious to the human lives they were grinding to dust.

Things have hardly improved over the past century. On March 5, 2015, Hollywood actor Greg Ellis found himself cast in the leading role of a nightmare that would have made Kafka proud. That day, the police descended upon Ellis’s home and pulled him away from his two young sons. 

As Ellis soon learned, he stood accused of having said: “I’m sick of this shit. I’m gonna harm the children.” The allegation alone was enough to destroy his life. The police confined him to a mental health ward “for observation” and ushered him into the system. Six years later, he remains trapped, alone, and separated from his sons.

The naked allegation turned out to be his wife’s subtle way of telling him that she wanted a divorce, she wanted him out of their children’s lives, and she was willing to scorch the earth to get her way. A trained professional might have sought at least a modicum of corroborating evidence. An objective investigator might have wondered about the accuser’s motive. After all, while there are indeed fathers who hurt their children, there are also spouses who lie to secure advantage in the midst of a divorce. 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/military-diversity-officer-who-compared-trump-to-hitler-reinstated-after-pentagon-probe_3865993.html

A diversity officer in a U.S. military branch has been reinstated after an investigation into his social media posts, which included one missive comparing former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, uncovered no violations of Department of Defense policies.

In March, the U.S. Special Operations Command announced the hiring of Richard Torres-Estrada as its chief of diversity and inclusion. Shortly afterwards, he was reassigned as officials investigated posts he’d made during the Trump administration, including the comparison of Trump to Hitler.

That investigation recently wrapped up after finding no policy violation.

“Mr. Torres-Estrada has resumed the duties of the Chief of Diversity & Inclusion for United States Special Operations Command after a USSOCOM commander-directed investigation into the circumstances surrounding his hiring concluded and found no violations of law or DoD regulation,” a USSOCOM spokesman told news outlets.

“USSOCOM is confident in the hiring process and Mr. Torres-Estrada’s potential to fill this important position.”

Facebook posts reviewed by The Epoch Times show Torres-Estrada compared Trump to Hitler, who perpetrated the Holocaust. He also denigrated Trump on at least one other occasion.

In addition, Torres-Estrada posted an image expressing support for the radical theory of equity, which posits that an equal outcome among people is favorable to certain persons getting ahead of others.

USSOCOM told The Epoch Times in March that officials were not aware of the posts before hiring Torres-Estrada.

The official was not terminated immediately after the posts were discovered because actions involving civilian personnel are governed by federal law and other regulations, a spokesman said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/antifa-harasses-attendees-at-conservative-summit-in-denver_3866025.html

Members of the extremist group Antifa targeted an annual conservative summit in Denver on June 19, with videos posted on social media showing Antifa protesters shoving and scuffling with what appeared to be summit attendees.

Two videos posted by Washington Examiner reporter Emily Brooks show a shouting match between a bearded man and the Antifa crowd. A member of the crowd is seen knocking a phone from the man’s hand. The man then attempts to chase the assailant, only to be pushed, shoved, and brought to the ground by people from the Antifa crowd.

Brooks also shared a photo of a “Denver Communists” flyer distributed by the Antifa crowd, which reads “Nazi scum off our streets.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who attended the summit, told Brooks that the Antifa protesters should “get a job.”

“Maybe this is their job. Maybe they’re paid to do it,” Boebert said on June 19. “You see this from extreme leftist progressives because either this is their job, either they are paid to do it, or they have nothing better to do, they’re sitting at home collecting a check, and this is their life.

“I mean, I don’t have time for that. You don’t see conservatives doing things like this because we have families to take care of. We have jobs to work at. We have communities to grow. And that’s our focus—not to destroy, but to build.”

The Antifa group harassed people entering and leaving the hotel venue and blocked traffic. A video recorded by The Blaze reporter Elijah Schaffer showed a woman confronting the crowd for throwing a bottle at her car because she honked when the crowd blocked traffic. In another video by Schaffer, Antifa protesters are seen shouting profanities at police officers guarding the entrance to the hotel.

Andy Ngo, a prominent chronicler of Antifa violence, also attended the conference. Schaffer captured a video of the Antifa crowd’s reaction to spotting Ngo, wearing a leg brace due to injuries he suffered in an Antifa attack. He later posted a video showing the Antifa crowd blocking a street outside the venue.

“Antifa view events like this and even just this speech as extremely threatening to them, which is why they’ve organized the so-called protests outside,” Ngo said at the summit.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/19/our-new-american-renaissance/

My favorite headline from the last week or so came from our new paper of record: “People Who Ruined World’s Economies Gather To Discuss How To Fix World’s Economies.” That’s what’s so great about the Babylon Bee, what makes it so painful-funny. You generally can’t tell where the satire ends and the documentary begins. It was just that which infuriated our former paper of record, the New York Times, which actually threatened to sue the satirical paper for being “a far-right misinformation site.” That didn’t go so well, and the pathetic excuse for a newspaper had to walk back its attacks. 

Never mind. Everything is going great. I know this because David Brooks just told us so from his shiny pulpit at the Times. “The American Renaissance has Begun,” his headline declares. COVID-19 is over and prosperity and comity are breaking out all over. Item: “[A]s more and more immigrants settle in rural areas and small towns, their presence might reduce nativism and increase economic competitiveness.” 

I rubbed my eyes, too. Was this the Times or the Babylon Bee? Can we tell the difference anymore? What about the story that points out that “as more and more immigrants settle in rural areas and small towns, crime rates and disease skyrocket.” I couldn’t find that one in the New York Times so I wrote it myself. As I did so, I wondered whether David Brooks had bothered to take a gander at what is happening at our Southern border. That’s where most of those “more and more immigrants” come from, you know. 

Never mind. It’s all wistful soap bubbles and unicorns. “People are shifting their personal lives to address common problems—loneliness and loss of community. Nobody knows where this national journey of discovery will take us, but the voyage has begun.”

Prize essay topic: What do those sentences mean? Be specific. 

Meanwhile, as we get set to enjoy the new American Renaissance, can there be any more cheerful propaedeutic than Joe Biden, our first Alzheimer’s president. Back when Biden was campaigning against he-who-shall-not-be-named—back in the bad old times before the new American Renaissance—I used to refer to Biden’s campaign appearances, such as they were, as a form of elder abuse. 

I misspoke. I didn’t understand that having a mentally incompetent president was actually a sign of what great shape the country was in. “America is back.” That has been the mantra of the administration since the beginning. In Anchorage in March, our snickerdoodle Secretary of State Anthony Blinken assured his Chinese counterpart of that interesting fact just before the Chinese rolled over him as the tanks rolled over protestors at Tiananmen Square. News reports on the G7 meeting, when they weren’t celebrating the new American Renaissance or commenting on Biden’s London fog, kept telling us that “America is back” now that what’s his name is gone and normality has reasserted itself. 

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/bill_maher_continues_to_give_voice_to_rational_leftists.html

It’s doubtful that Bill Maher will ever change his politics. He believes absolutely in fundamental leftist principles about how government should operate (and, of course, abortion). However, he’s not a fool and he realizes that leftists, drunk with power, have become their own worst enemies. Most recently, he went after Lin-Manuel Miranda, the talented composing of Hamilton, because Miranda groveled after the leftist mob attacked him for having the wrong colored people in the film adaption of his musical, In the Heights.

Most of you are probably familiar with Hamilton, even if you haven’t seen the show or heard the music. Miranda was so inspired after reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, that he sat right down and composed what I call a “popra” – that is, like an opera, the whole thing is sung (or chanted or rapped) only with modern, rather than classical, music.

What made Hamilton stand out was the choice to exclude White people from the cast. In theory, that was a brilliant idea because it’s a reminder that the principles of America’s founding are applicable to all people of all races. The ideas of individual liberty and limited government are colorblind. They were the best ideas that brilliant men could come up with. America’s shame came from withholding this government from Blacks. Now, thankfully, these ideas are available to all in America – and again, the casting suggested that.

However, thanks to the death last year of a drug-addled ex-con, the left has dragged America with incredible force away from those ideas. Instead of being a colorblind nation bound together by a brilliant political philosophy, Critical Race Theory demands that America become a racially segregated nation with non-White victims engaged in a permanent vendetta against evil White oppressors. It doesn’t matter that there’s no factual for this narrative. Because racial schism is the vehicle by which leftists believe they can finally impose Marxism on America, reality must step aside.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/illinois-governor-signs-bill-to-make-official-titles-gender-neutral/

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker (D.) signed a bill this week to change the titles for elected officials in the state from “alderman” and “congressman” to “alderperson” and “congressperson” to be more gender-inclusive.

“We see a lot of ‘hes’ and ‘hims’” in state statute, said the bill’s co-sponsor, State Representative Maurice West (D).

“And now we have, you know, not just women in office, but we have people who may not identify with any gender,” he added. “We want to make sure that our voting and our election cycle process is inclusive for everyone.”

The change was included in Democratic legislation, first introduced in February, that amends Illinois’s state election code to postpone the 2022 Illinois primary until June. 

It comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) introduced new congressional rules in January to remove all mention of gender-specific pronouns and terms like “man,” “woman,” “mother” and “son.”

Pelosi’s new rule sparked backlash from Republicans, including House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy who wrote in a tweet, “This is stupid. Signed, – A father, son, and brother.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-admin-takes-steps-to-offer-gender-transition-surgery-through-va-health-care-report/

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough is taking steps toward making gender transition surgery available to veterans through Veterans Affairs health-care coverage, according to a new report.

A VA department spokesperson reportedly told CNN that McDonough plans to announce the move at a Pride event at the Orlando Vet Center in Florida on Saturday.

“We are taking the first necessary steps to expand VA’s care to include gender confirmation surgery — thus allowing transgender vets to go through the full gender confirmation process with VA by their side,” McDonough is expected to say.

The VA Health Benefits package currently covers mental-health services and sex-change hormones, but does not cover gender-transition surgery. 

McDonough’s prepared remarks note that “there are several steps to take, which will take time.” Policy changes will need to be made and the process of creating a new federal regulation can take years.

A VA spokesperson told CNN the department plans to start the federal rulemaking process to make the change this summer.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/why-has-ivermectin-become-a-dirty

On December 8, 2020, when most of America was consumed with what The Guardian called Donald Trump’s “desperate, mendacious, frenzied and sometimes farcical” attempt to remain president, the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the “Medical Response to Covid-19.” One of the witnesses, a pulmonologist named Dr. Pierre Kory, insisted he had great news.

“We have a solution to this crisis,” he said unequivocally. “There is a drug that is proving to have a miraculous impact.”

Kory was referring to an FDA-approved medicine called ivermectin. A genuine wonder drug in other realms, ivermectin has all but eliminated parasitic diseases like river blindness and elephantiasis, helping discoverer Satoshi Ōmura win the Nobel Prize in 2015. As far as its uses in the pandemic went, however, research was still scant. Could it really be a magic Covid-19 bullet?

Kory had been trying to make such a case, but complained to the Senate that public efforts had been stifled, because “every time we mention ivermectin, we get put in Facebook jail.” A Catch-22 seemed to be ensnaring science. With the world desperate for news about an unprecedented disaster, Silicon Valley had essentially decided to disallow discussion of a potential solution — disallow calls for more research and more study — because not enough research and study had been done. Once, people weren’t allowed to take drugs before they got FDA approval. Now, they can’t talk about them.

“I want to try to be respectful because I think the intention is correct,” Kory told the committee. “They want to cut down on misinformation, and many doctors are claiming X, Y, and Z work in this disease. The challenge is, you’re also silencing those of us who are expert, reasoned, researched, and extremely knowledgeable.”

Eight million people watched Kory say that on the C-SPAN video of the hearing posted to YouTube, but YouTube, in what appears to be a first, removed video of the hearing, as even Senate testimony was now deemed too dangerous for public consumption. YouTube later suspended the Wisconsin Senator who’d invited Kory to the hearing, and when Kory went on podcasts to tell his story, YouTube took down those videos, too. Kory was like a ghost who floated through the Internet, leaving suspensions and blackened warning screens everywhere he went.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-for-progressive-conformity-11624055333?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

The American Medical Association is a lobby of doctors that’s supposed to promote policies that improve public health and medicine. But it seems to be evolving into another arm of progressive politics, like the teachers unions. See the AMA’s policy-making meeting this week.

Delegates spent much of the time discussing systemic racism in health care and adopted guidelines for workplaces to establish training requirements for explicit and implicit bias and microaggressions. AMA trustee Willarda Edwards called systemic racism “the most serious barrier to the advancement of health equity and appropriate medical care.”

Many doctors would disagree with that statement. But the AMA seems to want to enforce ideological conformity in its ranks, including on social media. Delegates also voted to encourage social-media platforms to “crack down on medical misinformation,” including by “altering underlying network dynamics or redesigning platform algorithms.”

Social-media platforms have been removing content by doctors who disagree with the progressive lockdown consensus or who suggest that the virus may have leaked from a Chinese lab. Many doctors say their videos recommending early treatment with repurposed antiviral drugs have been censored, including one from a Senate hearing.

Social-media censorship suppressed debate on important issues during the pandemic, and the AMA wants to extend the information control to other health subjects. The new AMA policy would ostensibly encourage Facebook, YouTube and others to remove posts by doctors who question progressive orthodoxy on race and identity politics.

AMA delegates also voted to endorse an intellectual property waiver that progressives have been pushing for Covid vaccines at the World Trade Organization. President Biden endorsed it last month. But even European leaders say it won’t increase global vaccine supply and will set a dangerous precedent that will retard innovation in new medicines.

None of these new AMA policy positions will help patients or physicians, and they risk eroding public trust in the medical profession. Whatever happened to “first, do no harm”?