RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://spectator.org/biden-moderation-progressivism/

The dominant media is an unreliable arbiter of political labels. While it is quick to cast even the most prosaic Republicans as “hardline conservatives,” it is far more circumspect in its description of Democrats. To enhance the appeal of figures like Joe Biden, the media will often confer upon them the label “moderate.” This is a lever by which the media moves the ideological spectrum steadily leftward, to the advantage of liberals. A biased media would like the public to see liberalism and “moderation” as interchangeable. Hence, even though Biden ran a campaign to the left of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, many in the media still described it as moderate.

This media flattery continues as Biden rolls out his personnel picks. He hasn’t selected a veritable moderate yet. All his picks come from the ranks of liberal Democrats, and some of the most important posts have gone to the most ideological of them, from Neera Tanden at the Office of Management and Budget to Xavier Becerra at Health and Human Services. This week Biden named Jennifer Granholm, an opponent of traditional sources of energy, to head up the Energy Department, which is a bit like making a pacifist the head of the Defense Department.

It is clear that no serious dissenters from liberal orthodoxy will receive any positions in a Biden administration. Yet some in the media are still playing up “tensions” between Biden and “progressives” so that the mythology of Biden as a moderate can continue. “Progressives frustrated with representation as Biden Cabinet takes shape,” says the Hill. But the carping doesn’t amount to much. It appears more personal than ideological: Bernie Sanders and company would like to see more of their friends getting jobs. To the extent that it is ideological, it represents little more than an intramural dispute not between moderates and liberals but between leftists of varying degrees. (Neera Tanden is described in the article as “establishment,” though she is as liberal as they come.)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-end-lockdowns-next-month-11608230214?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

The approval of several Covid-19 vaccines is an impressive technological development that should rapidly end the lockdowns and allow normal life to resume. But authorities like Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates argue that lockdown restrictions may have to continue through the fall and even into 2022, notwithstanding the catastrophic harms the lockdowns have caused, especially to young people, the poor and the working classes.

The imminent dissemination of vaccines can help end lockdowns by the end of January. The Great Barrington Declaration, which we wrote with Martin Kulldorff of Harvard Medical School, provides the key idea: focused protection of people who face a high risk of mortality should they become infected.

The risk of mortality from Covid-19 infection is now well established by seroprevalence studies conducted world-wide. Seroprevalence studies measure a lower bound on the number of people who have been infected. There is a sharp age gradient in the survival rate after infection. At least 99.95% of people under 70 survive infection; that figure is only 95% for 70 and older.

Covid-19 is thus especially deadly for the old and others with chronic conditions. But the lockdowns are deadly as well. The harms include plummeting childhood vaccination, worse cardiovascular disease outcomes, and less cancer screening, to name a few. It’s impossible to quantify the total deaths they have caused and will cause, but it’s safe to conclude that for people under 70 without chronic conditions—especially children and young adults—Covid-19 is far less deadly than a lockdown. For children, the cessation of in-person schooling has led to severe learning losses, which are predicted to shorten the lifespans of affected students. Among 25- to 44-year-olds, the CDC reports a 26% increase in excess all-cause mortality relative to past years, though less than 5% of 2020 deaths have been due to Covid-19.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/12/18/want-real-economic-stimulus-end-economy-killing-lockdowns-now/

Congressional negotiators, we’re told, are inching ever closer to a deal for what’s being called a “second round of stimulus spending.” Sorry, but what’s planned has nothing to do with supercharging the economy. Want to really “stimulate” growth? End the foolish COVID-19 lockdowns that have decimated small businesses and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The sound you’ll no doubt soon be hearing is hundreds of Washington, D.C., politicians and policymakers clapping themselves on the back for the pending stimulus package.

As it now stands, the $900 billion-plus deal is likely to include “direct payments to all Americans, funding for vaccine rollout and delivery, and an extension of unemployment benefits as well as much-needed aid to small businesses,” according to The Week.

But this is not “stimulus” by any means. It is the economic equivalent of putting a dying patient on life support.

So call this bill what it is. Government relief for a problem the government itself caused through mandated lockdowns.

BREAKING: Why Los Angeles Is In Trouble — Average Pay For 20,000 Highly Compensated City Employees Nears $150,000

LA is asking for a $3.9 billion coronavirus bailout from American taxpayers. So, our auditors dug into how LA spent their budget in 2019. 

You are not going to believe the pay in LA city agencies!

Here is just a small sampling of our findings:

The police chief raked in $590,764 last year — double dipping a $350,764 salary and a $240,000 pension. Read this to learn about the “30-day official retirement” strategy used to pocket a $1.3 million lump sum payout, a pension, and a new salary!
Twelve “port pilots” made between $400,000 and $515,000 steering cargo ships to the dock. 
Two firefighters made $486,674 and $481,020 respectively because of massive overtime hours. 
Mayor Eric Garcetti made $269,375 in pay – topping CA Gov. Gavin Newsom by $67,000.  
Tree trimmers in LA are called “tree surgeons” and made up to $207,058 last year!

Read our piece at Forbes where you’ll find more jaw-dropping compensation.

https://patriotpost.us/alexander/76545-michael-flynn-american-patriot-2020-12-17

Former White House National Security Advisor and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (USA, Ret) has been under siege for the last four years. He was the earliest target of the deep-state co-conspirators in their effort to take down President Donald Trump.

Michael Flynn served our nation with great honor and dignity as a career defender of American Liberty, which is precisely why he was chosen to join the Trump administration as national security advisor. But that didn’t stop the cabal who set him up in order that he wouldn’t be an obstacle to what amounted to a coordinated subversive coup d’état against the Trump administration. Beyond Flynn’s indictment, and the long-overdue dismissal of the contrived case against him by leftist Judge Emmitt Sullivan, it is the principal coup orchestrators, John Brennan and James Comey, who should be indicted.

Of course, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will form a gauntlet against any such indictments.

In a recent interview, General Flynn’s statements provide great insight into the depth of this Patriot’s faith both in our Creator and our people: “The American people saved me. They saved my family. If there’s something I get emotional about, it’s that. I mean, I don’t know why. Prayer. Faith. The American people have been buddy breathing with me for four years. Another way to describe it is the deep state buried me six feet under ground, wanted me to die. Somehow, somebody stuck a straw up through that, a straw was allowed to be stuck up to the air, and I laid down there for four years breathing through that straw, but that straw became wider and wider and wider over the years because the American people came to my family’s aid. That’s an amazing story about people that had nothing, and they were willing to give me everything they have because they believed in something, they believed in me, they believed in my family, they believed in something that was bigger than what it is we are about, and thank God they did. I’ve been buddy breathing for four years down under, and the American people were giving me that oxygen to survive, to get through this.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/ex-fbi-agent-strzok-acknowledged-steele-dossier-was-intended-to-influence-media/

In newly declassified messages, ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok, who oversaw the bureau’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia, touted the Steele dossier’s ability to “influence” media.

Senate Republicans on Thursday released a number of internal FBI messages from Strzok that provide insight into Crossfire Hurricane, the investigation into the Trump campaign. The Justice Department declassified the records on December 1 after Senators Ron Johnson (R., Wisc.) and Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) asked Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray to declassify the documents in October as part of their investigation into Crossfire Hurricane.

Strzok’s messages suggest that he was aware that former British spy Christopher Steele, whose dossier was used by the FBI to obtain surveillance warrants against Carter Page, was a source for a Yahoo! News story alleging that Page had a secret meeting in Moscow with two Kremlin insiders.

“Looking at the Yahoo article, I would definitely say at a minimum Steele’s reports should be viewed as intended to influence as well as to inform,” Strzok, who was fired from the FBI in August 2018, wrote on Sept. 23, 2016.

It was later uncovered that Steele was a source for the article and he had met with a number of journalists in Washington, D.C. as part of an opposition research campaign commissioned by the DNC and Clinton campaign.

Though Strzok expressed his suspicion that Steele was the source for the article, the Bureau continued working with the ex-spy and did not disclose Steele’s contact with journalists to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/530342-joe-bidens-looming-disaster

Pity Joe Biden. He is the dog that finally caught the bus and he is soon to be political roadkill. While he celebrates his victory in the Electoral College, powerful forces already are engaged to doom him and his presidency. His two central problems are that he has set the wrong expectations and that his policies will not work in the current domestic and international political, economic and military environment.

The only message in his “I’m-not-Trump” political campaign was that President Trump made a mess of domestic and foreign policy and that Biden would fix all of that. The deadly trap is that Trump did very well on many key measures and Biden inevitably will do much worse, creating a failed Biden presidency. 

His Day One issue of COVID-19 already is a loser. Researchers developed vaccines in record time, under Trump’s direction, and are rolling them out. The complex issue of distribution now goes to Biden. Any significant number of deaths among the vulnerable communities of nursing homes, the elderly in general, minorities, and those with pre-existing conditions will fall solely on Biden’s team. Similarly, sustained economic damage resulting from lockdowns will fall on Biden and Democratic officials.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/16/what-is-to-be-done/

Over the course of several decades, the managerial ruling class has taken over. Republicans and Democrats each had their share of formal power, but the Left proceeded apace, regardless of who was technically in command, slowly capturing universities, large corporations, the media, and government bureaucracies. It now has power that is largely immune from elections.

My last essay explained why there has been so little resistance to a ruling class that has cruelly tightened the screws during the coronavirus pandemic and likely stolen a national election. As explained in that piece, economic insecurity and social isolation are the key structural foundations of the managerial class’ power. Insecurity and isolation are obstacles to an effective resistance by what is left of Middle America. 

In the comments section, some said, roughly, “OK, you explain why. But what should we do?” This is a reasonable question. Much of what follows is personal and economic, as the power of the system is personal and economic. 

To the extent political activity can succeed, it must be intertwined with these economic and personal reforms. Any purely political efforts should be local and issue-specific, rather than channeling our energies into a doomed bid for national power. 

Economic Independence

As so much of the system depends upon individuals’ embeddedness within it, separating oneself from that system is a large part of the answer. This requires a radical program of individual self-improvement. 

Various habits render one fragile and insecure, not least debt. Thus, avoiding debt and getting out of debt has to be one of the bedrock habits of any dissident. This is particularly true for young people, who are sold a siren song of credentials funded by student loans, when state colleges, learning a trade, or investing money in a business would earn a larger return.