RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

As we near our nation’s 245th birthday, celebrants could do worse than consider the consequences of an increase in government dependency and a decline in personal responsibility.

Among truths that underly my beliefs are two relevant to this essay: One, life is not fair. We are born into different circumstances, with different attributes and abilities. A brother was born with Prader-Willi Syndrome, a condition that adversely affected his physical, emotional and mental development. While he and I were born of the same parents, his life, in the challenges he faced, was far more difficult than mine. And two, we are not equal (and never can be) in looks, physical prowess, emotional and social skills, or mental acuity. It is unlikely Michael Jordan could have developed the theory of relativity, and it is equally unimaginable that Albert Einstein could have played shooting guard for the Chicago Bulls.  The attempt to mandate equity, a dream of Progressives, is a Utopian nightmare. In his novel He Knew He was Right, Anthony Trollope put it like this: “Each created animal must live and get its food by the gifts which the Creator has given it…” No amount of government coercion will make life completely fair and make us equal. We must each work with who and what we are. In his 1901 autobiography, Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington wrote: “Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know you trust him.”

Politicians love to compartmentalize the electorate. It is easier to serve up government offerings to a group than to argue the benefits of a particular political philosophy. Thus, we drift toward the comfort of government dependency and away from the more difficult adherence of personal responsibility. A Washington Post article from September 18, 2012, reported: “In 2011, about 49% of the population lived in a household where at least one member received a direct benefit from the federal government.” According to an op-ed in last Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal by John Cogan and Daniel Bell of the Hoover Institute, the American Families Plan, if it were adopted, would add another 21 million Americans to the roles of government assistance programs. Forget what it does to our debt; think of the effect on our national character.

EXCERPTS

Indeed, media outlets don’t have to lie in order to cast aspersions on or present a figure in a less-than-flattering light. All they have to do is shift emphasis by highlighting one set of facts at the expense of another.

But even the most blatant cases of this practice in the Hebrew press never reached the low level displayed in the latest issue of Vogue, America’s top fashion magazine. As if the title of its cover story – “A First Lady for All of Us: On the Road with Dr. Jill Biden” – wasn’t sufficiently sycophantic, its accompanying content reads like a parody of a totalitarian regime’s propaganda sheet.

Those observing the current Orwellian climate in the United States no longer gasp at each new move by “progressives” to control society’s collective mind, but some take occasional breaks from tearing their hair out to laugh at the more egregious examples. Vogue’s Jonathan Van Meter, who penned the lengthy tribute, is an apt target for ridicule in this regard.

Not that he was trying to be funny. On the contrary, he was clearly proud of praising Jill Biden, in all seriousness, for the “several degrees” that earned her the “title [of doctor] that she has every right to.”

Nor did he have trouble mentioning that during a visit to Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, “there were pink and white flowers set out everywhere, befitting her visit; they even matched her white dress and pink jacket.”

To stress that she’s not just a teacher in girlie garb, he said that during her many trips around the country, “the role she’s fulfilling is, in many ways, neither first lady nor professor but a key player in her husband’s administration, a West Wing surrogate and policy advocate.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/07/01/bidens-white-house-payroll-is-most-expensive-in-american-history/?sh=35c8d591f7f1

If the White House payroll is a leading indicator of the president’s commitment to expand government then taxpayers have a reason for concern.

Projected four-year costs of Biden’s White House payroll could top $200 million. For comparison, inflation adjusted, the Trump administration spent $164.3 million (2017-2020) and the Obama administration spent $188.5 million (2009-2012).

Today, on July 1st, the Biden administration released the annual Report to Congress on White House Office Personnel. President Biden hired czars, expensive “fellows,” “assistants,” and spent on a much larger First Lady (FLOTUS) staff.

The payroll report included the name, status, salary and position title of all 567 White House employees costing taxpayers $49.6 million. (Search Biden’s White House payroll and Trump’s four years posted at OpenTheBooks.com.)

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.