RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/qasem-soleimani-strike-enemy-combatant-terror-commanders-fair-game/

Last week, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a targeted strike by U.S. forces authorized by President Trump. This preemptive attack has spawned a curious debate over whether Soleimani posed an imminent threat at the time he was taken out. The suggestion, mainly by partisan Democrats, is that it was illegitimate for the president to use lethal force without congressional authorization absent proof that Soleimani was on the cusp of killing Americans — or, better, killing even more Americans.

The debate puts me in mind of the early-to-mid 1990s, when our counterterrorism laws were dangerously flawed. Back then, sensible Democrats — as most of them were — knew that these defects had to be addressed. Rather than sound like apologists for anti-American jihadists, they took admirably expeditious action.

The problem emerged in the investigation of the proto-Qaeda terror network guided by the so-called Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman. I was then a federal prosecutor and took over that investigation in Spring 1993. At the time, having just bombed the World Trade Center, the jihadists were actively plotting something even more monstrous: simultaneous attacks on the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the United Nations complex on Manhattan’s east side. The jihadists were also scouting additional landmarks in the city, including U.S. military facilities and the FBI’s downtown headquarters.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/06/reasons-to-be-wary-of-war-rhetoric/

It’s imperative that the president knows his leash is short. The neoconservatives that have compounded the mess in the Middle East have torched their credibility and their usefulness. We won’t be fooled again.

Before we address the killing of Qasem Soleimani and the controversial monologue from Tucker Carlson that followed, let’s recap 2019 as a backdrop.

A series published in the Washington Post just before Christmas detailed how our top military, national security, and political leaders have lied about the war in Afghanistan for nearly two decades. The exposé, based on thousands of documents and hundreds of interviews, is an infuriating account of the failed conflict, which killed 2,300 servicemen, wounded more than 20,000, and cost $1 trillion.

“Several of those interviewed described explicit and sustained efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public,” the Post reported. “They said it was common at military headquarters in Kabul—and at the White House—to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case.”

More lies: A report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller confirmed that despite the political class’s two-year crusade to convince the American people that the president won with coordinated help from a foreign foe, Mueller could not find evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to steal the 2016 presidential election.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hawley-introduces-resolution-to-dismiss-impeachment-charges-against-trump/

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Monday introduced a resolution to update Senate rules and dismiss the “bogus impeachment” against President Trump if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to delay in sending impeachment articles to the Senate for a trial.

“Speaker Pelosi started this bogus impeachment by claiming President Trump was an urgent ‘threat to democracy’ who had to be removed now,” Hawley said in a press release. “But after a bipartisan vote against the articles in the House, and with the public opposed to the Democrats’ partisan games, Pelosi has changed her tune.”

“ . . . If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress should get back to doing the people’s business,” he added.

Hawley, who last month called the impeachment process a “kangaroo court” and said “it’s time to get the president exonerated,” was joined by ten other Republican senators in sponsoring the resolution, which allows the Senate to vote on dismissing articles of impeachment if they are delayed for 25 days or more by the House.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/with_rising_antisemitism_new_yorkers_rally_to_hate_trump_while_hating_hate.html

Thanks to conservative Jewish friends in New York, I knew that there was going to be a rally on Sunday to speak out against the rising number of anti-Semitic attacks in the New York City region, both in New York State and in New Jersey. I also knew that they were concerned that the rally, rather than bringing black and Jewish communities together, would end up as a Leftist fest.They were correct.

We’ve already written here about a very malignant mindset affecting a small, but growing subset, of urban blacks, which manifests itself in violent, or demeaning, anti-Semitic attacks. The problem, happily, is not black culture at large. It’s limited to the effect that (a) Islam and (b) Progressivism are having on New York area urban black culture.

Progressives, from Mayor DeBlasio on down, ignore the evidence about the perpetrators of these anti-Semitic attacks and instead choose (1) to blame Trump, although none of the perpetrators in the New York region have appeared to be Trump supporters, and (2) to blame Jews, just for being, which is apparently more than enough to cause offense.

So it was that, according to non-progressive Jewish attendees, the rally against anti-Semitism quickly become an intersectionality gathering, complete with Trump Derangement Syndrome and Israel bashing, along with promises to fight some sort of generic “hate.” It was, in its way, reminiscent of when the House was going to censure Ilhan Omar’s open anti-Semitism but eventually resolved that House members were against all types of -isms, including but not limited to anti-Semitism.

I don’t have to take my friends’ words for it. Many attendees posted pictures on Twitter. One gal, Simone Zimmerman, was good enough to take a lot of photos.  Because she’s a Leftist herself, she was completely on board with the “blame it on Trump” attitude – never mind that there has never been an American president with warmer feelings toward Jews (including his beloved daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren) or towards Israel:

Simone Zimmerman @simonerzim
Replying to @simonerzim

Stating simple fact- that trump bears responsibility – has already inspired multiple ppl to come up to us, call us Kapos, question our Jewishness & our legitimacy and tell us to go home. Fighting antisemitism is political and there is no such thing as Jewish unity. #NoHateNoFear

Conservative students and speakers have had a tough time at UCLA. And when Donald Trump Jr. came out to speak about his new book, Triggered, at a Turning Point USA event, everyone knew there would be trouble. President Trump’s son had appeared at multiple campuses with TPUSA with no problems.

But UCLA had a bad reputation to live up to. And it lived up to it.

Except instead of the expected alt-left Never Trumpers, alt-right Never Trumpers shut down the event.

While alt-lefties waved orange signs reading “Trump/Pence Out”, their Trump-hating counterparts had infiltrated the Triggered event. And what the Commies outside couldn’t do, the Nazis on the inside did.

Loud boos met the president’s son. As Donald Trump Jr. tried to speak, a small group of haters repeatedly interrupted his remarks. Planting hecklers at conservative events who use rolling disruptions to shut down a speaker was a familiar lefty tactic. But it was coming from an unexpected direction.

“You have people spreading nonsense, you have people spreading hate to try to take over that room,” a frustrated Donald Trump Jr. said.

The hate was being spread by the ‘Groypers’, one of a number of feuding alt-right splinter groups, who had realized that they could make headlines and gain influence by disrupting conservative student events. And when the Triggered event was shut down early, the Groypers celebrated their big win.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-senate-knows-enough-to-acquit-trump-11578262402?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

Give Nancy Pelosi this: She has chutzpah. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded Friday on the Senate floor to the House’s refusal to appoint managers and transmit its articles of impeachment against President Trump to the upper chamber. “For now,” Mr. McConnell said, “we are content to continue the ordinary business of the Senate while House Democrats continue to flounder. For now.”

Mrs. Pelosi’s response: “The GOP Senate must immediately proceed in a manner worthy of the Constitution.” Never mind that the hold-up is at her end.

Yet now that Mr. Trump has been impeached, the Senate is constitutionally obliged to address the matter. Neither Mrs. Pelosi’s intransigence nor Senate rules, dating from 1868, that peg the commencement of an impeachment trial to the House’s appointment of impeachment “managers” justify an indefinite delay.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/01/05/at-massive-solidarity-march-new-york-governor-pledges-millions-to-secure-jewish-sites-fight-antisemitism/

The “No Hate, No Fear” march against antisemitism in New York City, January 5, 2020. Photo: screenshot.

Thousands of demonstrators crossed the Brooklyn Bridge from lower Manhattan on Sunday to express solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of a wave of antisemitic violence.

The march, titled “No Hate, No Fear,” attracted members of all faith communities and some of the state’s most prominent officials and politicians.

Governor Andrew Cuomo told the crowd, “Discrimination, racism, antisemitism, is repugnant to every value that New Yorkers hold dear, and repugnant to every value that this country represents,” the Associated Press reported.

He pledged $45 million in state funding for security around Jewish sites and institutions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted in solidarity, saying, “We stand with the many thousands of our brothers, sisters and friends in NYC marching against the rising Antisemitism. We will not waver in our battle against Antisemitism and hate.”

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement, “While antisemitism continues to rear its head in the United States and throughout the world, we must move from defense to offense. We will not be silenced when Jews are murdered in synagogues and will not be ignored when those who wear kippahs are being killed in the street. We must join hands and stand as a wall against the wave of hatred.”

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/04/an-antidote-to-the-iran-hysterics/

Trump has always shown that he prefers diplomacy to military action. At the same time, he understands, as did Ronald Reagan, that diplomacy only works when it is backed up by military strength and a willingness to exercise it.

In the great contest now underway to determine the most fatuous responses to the elimination of the Iranian terrorist, Major General Qasem Soleimani, on January 3, Matthew 22:14 has the last word: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

We lack instruments of sufficient vigor and precision to cut through the ambient static that this stupendous event has occasioned; we cannot at this early juncture award the palm to any one emetic effusion. Nevertheless, we can with confidence say that, as usual, both the Washington Post and the New York Times are in the running for that unwholesome distinction. 

The Post, running with one of its traditional favorites, captured the judges’ attention with a headline. Remember the splash the paper made when President Trump eliminated the murderous ISIS thug Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last October? The Post was on it with a headline (probably the most ridiculed of 2019) announcing that “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.” 

“Austere religious scholar” really does deserve some sort of award. 

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15377/donald-trump-caricatures

Far from retreating in the face of alleged Russian expansionism, the US has increased the number of its troops in Europe and released military aid to Ukraine, frozen under President Barack Obama.

The same caricature is used to censure President Donald Trump for his refusal to enact he so-called Paris Climate Agreement. However, the fact is that none of those who signed the accord, including is main promoters have fulfilled their promises.

Trump has forced China to engage in trade talks designed to persuade Beijing’s leadership to comply with rules and norms of fair trade that could ultimately benefit Europe as well.

Relations may have cooled somewhat with Germany, France and Canada where US protection was taken for granted and America-bashing had become a popular sport. Instead, Trump has warmed up relations with countries that regard of the US as an ally and not as a mere partner in a loose coalition, among them Brazil, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Israel and Great Britain.

If US President Donald Trump has his way, his impeachment trial should begin soon after the new year gets under way. Trump wants this hurdle removed as soon as possible so that he could devote his energies to his re-election campaign. And this may be precisely why his Democratic opponents are now dragging their feet trying to delay the so-called trial until sometime closer to the beginning of the formal campaign in summer.

Whichever way this byzantine contest between the president and his opponents turns out, one thing is already certain. Trump’s many opponents and detractors have failed to find a lever which they could use to dislocate him. The reason for that failure is that Trump’s opponents both on the right and the left have been dealing with a caricature of him, ignoring the more complex reality of his idiosyncratic presidency.

There are, in fact, four caricatures of Trump.

The first is portrayed by traditional Republican grandees who started by dismissing him as an annoying intruder and ended up perceiving him a naive novice to politics who could be manipulated in every way.