RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/30/microsoft-honcho-testifies-that-the-doj-routinely-abuses-secrecy-orders-to-seize-data-from-american-citizens/

A Microsoft executive on Wednesday testified that the Department of Justice routinely abuses “secrecy orders” in order to seize data on thousands of American citizens without letting them know.

Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, made the accusations during a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining leak probes and prosecutorial abuse.

The hearing followed recent revelations that the Justice Department secretly seized the records of several news organizations while investigating leaks under both the Trump and Biden administrations—a practice that became increasingly routine during the Obama administration.

Relatedly, Fox News host Tucker Carlson has for the past couple of nights alleged on his show that the NSA has been monitoring his communications in an attempt to leak information, and get him kicked off the air.

Burt said that the news reports of the government surveilling the media may be shocking to many Americans, but it’s even more shocking that his company is routinely asked to handover “emails, text messages, or other sensitive data” of average citizens.

“This abuse is not new, it is also not unique to one administration, and is not limited to investigations targeting the media, and Congress,” Burt stated.

The executive said that Microsoft receives 2,400 to 3,500 of these requests for data per year, or about seven to 10 a day, and explained that the DOJ’s use of gag orders prevents them from informing users that government operatives have requested their private communications.

Because secrecy orders make it easy for partisans in the Intelligence Community to ignore due process laws while pursuing investigations, such abuses have become shockingly “routine,” according to the executive.

“Secrecy orders are too often used for routine investigations based on a cursory assertion that the government has met a statutory burden,” he testified. “The Justice Department’s own template does not even require facts justifying the need for secrecy. Instead, the template merely asserts that any disclosure would seriously jeopardize the investigation for a variety of boilerplate reasons. Notice to targets is an important safeguard for our constitutional rights.”

https://amgreatness.com/2021/06/30/has-the-military-lost-middle-america/

Traditionalist and conservative America once was the U.S. military’s greatest defender.  

Bipartisan conservatives in Congress ensured generous Pentagon budgets. Statistics of those killed in action, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, reveal that white males, especially those of the rural and middle classes, were demographically “overrepresented” in offering the ultimate sacrifice to their country.  

When generals, active and retired, have become controversial, usually conservative America could be counted on to stick with them.  

Flyover country supported marquee officers such as Gen. Michael Hayden, Gen. James Mattis, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen. David Petraeus, and a host of others, whether on active duty or in retirement, when the media went after them for alleged unethical conduct, or financial improprieties, or spats with the Obama Administration that prompted resignations, or left-wing accusations of using undue force or even hiding “torture.”  

When the Left railed in Congress about the “revolving door” of generals and admirals leaving the Pentagon to use their past expertise to land lucrative board memberships with corporate defense contractors, Middle America, rightly or wrongly, mostly yawned.  

Yet traditional America also assumed their military leaders were largely apolitical and stayed out of hardball politics. Brilliant World War II commanders—Curtis LeMay, Douglas MacArthur, and George S. Patton—did not fare well when they clumsily waded through the minefields of partisan national politics.  

No longer. The Pentagon’s current and past top echelon is seen as politically weaponized—and both careerist and opportunist. Currently, generals and admirals are scanning enlistments for mythical white supremacists, in terror of left-wing pressures following the January 6 Capitol riot. They have no commensurate concern whether there are Antifa and BLM personnel with records of past violence in the military. 

We are learning that much of what was reported about that unfortunate Capitol riot was untrue. There were no “armed” insurrectionists with firearms led by conspiracist kingpins.  

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17517/patriotism-noble-deeds

Many [naturalized citizens] have endured the terror of dictatorships, the fear of the secret police, and the destruction of personal liberties. They know from first-hand experience just how extraordinary our nation is.

America is about to observe yet another Fourth of July holiday. We will do so against a backdrop of rancor and political division. Our history suggests this is not unique and we have, in fact, weathered worse. But what has consistently bound our wounds and allowed us to realize our full potential as a democracy is the recognition that patriotism and noble deeds in a land that cherishes freedom remain among the rare pleasures of life meant to be embraced and enjoyed. Celebrate Independence Day this year in the knowledge that we remain “the last best hope of earth.”

There is something powerful and compelling about the faces of those who stand to recite the pledge of allegiance for the first time as naturalized American citizens. Having legally entered our nation, they have become some of the most ardent patriotic Americans who have earned the right to be called citizens. Yet they find themselves in a country that now too often seems distant and uncomfortable with displays of patriotism.

As a nation of immigrants there have been successive waves of newly naturalized citizens who would be the first to wave American flags along the Fourth of July parade. They would write the songs that celebrated America, the laborers who would build our cities, the scientists who gave us extraordinary inventions and doctors who saved lives. In return, these proud new citizens of America discovered the pleasures of life through their patriotism and by performing noble deeds. In doing so, they acquired the quiet self-respect of an immigrant in an adopted land where freedom, the rule of law, and opportunity remain woven into our national fabric.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/larry-elder/2021/07/01/on-race-can-we-all-lighten-up-n1458730

On a beautiful Sunday morning, I was out of town for a business meeting in the city of Santa Barbara, California, an affluent area where the rich and famous live. Demographically, it isn’t exactly Wakanda. Before getting on the 101 Freeway for the long drive back to Los Angeles, I pulled into a gas station to fill up.

Just as I got out of my car, I heard a booming male voice shout, “Hey, want a banana?” My head jerked up to locate the racist. Turns out the man who bellowed was standing next to his SUV, tailgate open, where I saw a big bag of bananas. The man was talking to a homeless guy picking through trash in a nearby garbage can. Both the SUV driver and the homeless man were white.

Once I put all this together, I smiled and said to the driver: “Hey, I thought you were talking to me! I was about to accuse you of systemic racism.” The driver started laughing. Then I said: “I think I’m still going to accuse you of systemic racism. How come the only person you offered a banana to is white? What about me?” Now the homeless man started laughing. Then I said, “And I don’t even like bananas.” Both were now laughing, and the homeless guy said, “Man, you are so funny.” I responded: “Thanks. I’m here all week. Two drink minimum. Don’t forget to throw something in my tip jar.” At this point, both practically doubled over in laughter. As I drove away, I said to myself: “Did I just ask a homeless man to leave me a tip? Elder, you’re going to burn in hell.”

How wrong my immediate assumption had turned out to be.

This incident reminded me of something that happened years ago. For several years, I ran a small business, based in Cleveland, where we recruited experienced lawyers for big law firms and large corporations. To the best of my knowledge, I was one of the first, if not the first, “headhunting” firms in the Midwest to specialize in recruiting lawyers. Starting in 1980, I ran the company for 14 years before selling it to go into television and talk radio full time. During that time, I could count on one hand the number of Black lawyers I placed with my clients.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/06/donald-rumsfeld-r-i-p/

“History will have much to say about Donald Rumsfeld. The most important thing to say on this day, though, is that the country has lost a fierce, utterly dedicated public servant. R.I.P.’

Donald Rumsfeld has died, at 88. Best remembered as George W. Bush’s secretary of Defense, he had a very long public career characterized by his tremendous drive, energy, work ethic, unswerving patriotism, and cold-eyed understanding of how Washington and the world work.

Born in Chicago in 1932 and raised in Winnetka, Ill., during the Depression and the Second World War, Rumsfeld was old enough to remember Pearl Harbor and his father’s volunteering for the Navy. He came to Washington in the Eisenhower years after his own service as a Navy pilot and was elected to Congress in 1962. Rumsfeld was part of an insurgency that installed Gerald Ford in House Republican leadership in 1966. It speaks volumes of how the Republican caucus has changed that Ford and Bob Dole were then seen as the right wing of the party. As a congressman, Rumsfeld supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was one of the moving forces behind passage of the Freedom of Information Act, and was an early supporter of ending the draft and establishing an all-volunteer military.

After leaving Congress for the Nixon administration, Rumsfeld would hold many posts and be at the center of many storms. Among other jobs, he was a two-time secretary of Defense (the youngest and second-oldest man to hold the job), White House chief of staff, ambassador to NATO, and head of Nixon’s ill-conceived Cost of Living Council. Ronald Reagan entrusted him with a role as a special envoy to the Middle East, with the unenviable task of extricating the United States from Lebanon; Ford leaned on him during the Mayaguez crisis in Vietnam in 1975. He was Dick Cheney’s mentor in the Ford years. He went on to be a pharmaceutical CEO during his time between Republican administrations.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/07/01/faucists-weaponize-the-delta-variant/

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus has been artificially mutated by man. First altered to be a tool to leverage political gain for the left, it’s now becoming a mechanism used to justify the return to lockdowns and mask-wearing mandates. If we don’t emphatically say no this time, we might not ever be able to again.

Earlier this week, we laid out the case that the political left was using the Delta variant to whip up more fear. With infections and deaths sharply down from their winter peaks, and vaccinations up, the scaremongers and political operatives in the Democratic Party found a way to turn up the panic knob and at the same time malign red states and Republicans.

Reports and politicians’ comments were filled with words such as “alarming,” “serious threat,” “greatest threat,” “dangerous for young people.” Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, at one time a right-of-center voice, even went so far as to declare that “red states are dangerous to America’s health.”

But within hours, things became even uglier.

On Tuesday, the Post reported the spread of the Delta variant had prompted “new restrictions worldwide,” explaining that its “rapid spread” had “forced a growing number of countries to reimpose lockdowns and other public health restrictions.”

(Forced? That’s a funny way to describe officials reimposing lockdowns by choice that was theirs alone.)

The Post continued:

The new curbs on travel and daily life stretched from Australia and Bangladesh to South Africa and Germany, where authorities over the weekend set new limits on travelers from ‘virus-variant zones’ such as Portugal and Russia.

Though he hasn’t called for more lockdowns or advised the immunized to go back to masks, the behavior over the last 16 months of Anthony Fauci, who isn’t America’s doctor, just a bureaucrat, as well as his public panic over the Delta variant, is sure to inspire efforts to reinstate lockdowns and mask mandates in Blue states and Blue cities.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-would-we-do-without-experts-11625092784?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

It’s getting harder to believe Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim that his government agency never funded “gain-of-function” research to engineer new viruses at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. Meanwhile, Thursday brings a timely reminder of who ultimately oversees that lab in Wuhan.

It’s the Chinese Communist Party, which this week celebrates its 100th anniversary. Lowlights along the way include the killing of tens of millions of Chinese citizens in the 1950s and ’60s. The party’s current governance is also not without its flaws.

The Journal’s James Areddy writes:

A former Chinese Communist Party academic, now a critic of the regime, is urging the U.S. to abandon “naive” hopes to engage with Beijing, while warning that the country’s leadership is more fragile than it appears.
In a forthcoming paper timed to the party’s centennial Thursday, Cai Xia, a former professor at Beijing’s Central Party School, says that four decades of U.S. bridge-building has merely entrenched a Chinese leadership inherently hostile to the U.S. And under President Xi Jinping, China no longer finds engagement useful, Ms. Cai wrote.
“Wishful thinking about ‘engagement’ must be replaced by hardheaded defensive measures to protect the United States from the CCP’s aggression—while bringing offensive pressures to bear on it, as the Chinese Communist Party is much more fragile than Americans assume,” Ms. Cai wrote. Her 28-page paper is slated for publication this week by the Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning think tank at Stanford University.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-nihs-diversity-obsession-subverts-science-11625090811?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The National Institutes of Health supports a multidisciplinary neuroscience initiative to expand understanding of the brain. Research applications include treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism and depression. On June 10, NIH director Francis Collins announced a new requirement for participating in the brain initiative. Neurologists, molecular biologists and nanophysicists seeking NIH funding must now submit a plan showing how they will “enhance diverse perspectives” throughout their research. Scores on the “plan for enhancing diverse perspectives” will inform funding decisions.

This new requirement is part of Dr. Collins’s continuing effort to atone for what he calls biomedical science’s “stain” of “structural racism.” The NIH already supports more than 60 “diversity and inclusion initiatives,” but those have apparently failed to eradicate NIH’s own “systemic and structural racism.”

Each “plan for enhancing diverse perspectives” must show how the principal investigator will “empower” individuals from groups “traditionally underrepresented” in biomedical research, such as blacks, the disabled, women and the poor. Institutions are also covered by the diversity mandate. Researchers working on an NIH neuroscience grant should be drawn from institutions that are traditionally underrepresented in biomedical research, including “community-based” organizations.

Dr. Collins provided no evidence for “structural racism” other than demographic data on NIH’s grant applicants and recipients. Black applicants are “present in far fewer numbers compared with their representation in the US population, 13.4%,” according to Dr. Collins’s announcement. In 2020 black scientists made up 2.3% of the 30,061 funding applications the NIH received. Less than 2% of NIH grants go to black principal investigators.

To Dr. Collins and his academic peers, such disparities are virtually irrefutable evidence of discrimination, though grant reviewers don’t see an applicant’s race. But the use of population data as a benchmark for assessing institutional racism ignores racial disparities in academic skills, achievement and study practices that the NIH didn’t cause and couldn’t possibly do anything to remedy.

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2021/06/30/is_the_cdc_still_relevant_783507.html

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the premier federal agency in charge of scientific public health research and information dispersal. It is a large, bureaucratic organization with a budget last year of $11.1 billion. For more than a year it has been the leading voice for COVID-19 recommendations and requirements for Americans.

The CDC is supposed to base those recommendations on scientific research, yet over the past 15 months it has been extremely slow in updating those recommendations as the science about COVID-19 advances. As a result, the agency is losing its credibility with the American public.

When the pandemic broke out in the United States, the CDC focused on the potential of surface contact transmission. It said hand sanitizers were the primary weapons to combat the viral spread. In March, 2020, the CDC said masks were not recommended for the general public. One month later, the CDC reversed course completely and virtually required masks for any activity outside the home. It wasn’t until May 2021 that the CDC actually admitted that the virus was spread by aerosolized particles and that surface spread was negligible.

The CDC also forced Americans to eliminate nearly all social and economic activities and quarantine at home. Businesses shut down, schools closed, teaching went virtual, and all “non-essential” interactions were banned. This was in spite of the real science data that showed by the summer of 2020 that there were categories of people who were at high risk for catching the virus and dying and that large segments of society are at very low risk. It became very clear that the elderly and those people with medical conditions such as high blood pressure and obesity were most susceptible to the virus. Yet the CDC did not differentiate between those people at high risk and those who had a very low probability of a serious illness. All Americans were essentially treated the same by the agency.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/06/30/incremental_outrageousness_is_killing_america_146008.html

Critical race theory has exploded into public consciousness. Millions of American parents are just coming to realize that our schools have become woke indoctrination centers preaching divisiveness, bigotry, discrimination, and disdain for American history. Most of them are wondering how we got here.

The answer is simple: Slowly. Incrementally. One step after another, over the course of decades. It’s hardly just K-12 education. An incentive system of “incremental outrageousness” has taken every aspect of American culture dangerously far from reality into the orgy of radical leftist hatred known as progressivism.

How did it happen without anyone noticing?

Turns out, we’ve reached the endgame of a strategy the radical left put in play in the 1960s: the long march through the institutions. The onslaught began in higher education—an institution particularly well suited for a takeover because it functions without external market signals. Success in academia hinges entirely on peer approval. Faculty members make all decisions concerning the hiring, firing, and promotion of junior colleagues, curriculum design, publication in prestigious journals, the appropriate paths for research, and the availability of public and private research funding.

The surest way to succeed as an academic is thus to flatter the senior folks charged with making decisions about your career. The best way to do that (within the bounds of legality and propriety) is to “build upon” their work—that is, by taking it one step further in the recommended direction. Senior academics select the direction. Junior academics bolster the prestige of their seniors whenever they make a new “scientific discovery” along the designated path. In one fell swoop these junior academics show how important past work has been and tie their own egos, prestige, and careers to those of their seniors.

This process calcifies conventional wisdom while divorcing each new “discovery” from everything other than the step that immediately preceded it. Each small step in the approved direction represents a small step away from the reality that originally grounded it.

Incremental outrageousness. Consider, for example, the well-grounded observation that it might be worthwhile to study history from the perspective of the peasants and/or the conquered rather than of royalty and/or the victorious.  Fast-forward a few decades and many incremental steps. Now, perspective implies sympathy; those who study the oppressed are compassionate, while those who study the oppressors are cruel. Fast-forward a few more decades. Critical theory reduces all human interactions into conflicts between oppressors and oppressed.