RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/30/does-anybody-know-what-books-biden-reads-or-if-he-reads/

Time was when the elite media class obsessed over how many and what books presidents read. But since President Joe Biden took office, they’ve completely lost interest. Do they know something we don’t?

Before Biden, the press loved to ask presidents about their favorite books. What’s on their nightstand? What are they reading on vacation? It has always been treated as a sign of intelligence. A measure of sophistication.

The Daily Beast once compared presidential reading habits to how historians ranked them as presidents. “The results are not surprising—the top-ranked presidents all made our list near the top of presidential readers,” it reported.

The press lavished praise on Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their book-reading habits. When Clinton was running in 1992, for example, the New York Times reported glowingly that he was “an omnivorous reader.” Obama’s summer reading list was treated as front-page news.

This fixation on presidents’ literary habits usually comes out strongest when a Republican is president as a way to prove they’re dumb.

When George W. Bush was running for president, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “just how much Bush hits the books — or doesn’t — has suddenly become a campaign issue.”

Trump was routinely attacked for his lack of interest in books.

The Atlantic ran a lengthy piece — “The President Who Doesn’t Read” — that began: “Trump’s allergy to the written word and his reliance on oral communication have proven liabilities in office.”

https://amgreatness.com/2023/11/28/businesses-begin-abandoning-diversity-initiatives/

Despite a concerted effort by many institutions, government entities, and other left-wing forces to push “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) initiatives on private businesses, 2023 saw a greater decrease in such measures than previous years.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the total number of businesses with a designated DEI budget dropped to 54% in 2023, down four points from 58% in 2022. In the same period of time, the number of organizations with a DEI strategy declined by 9%. Both of these statistics were compiled by the consulting firm Paradigm.

“After two years of unprecedented investment sparked by 2020’s racial justice movement, this year, global momentum around DEI slowed,” the report from Paradigm states in part. “There are a number of headwinds contributing to this shift: the first is economic uncertainty that not only led to reduced spending across the board, it also firmly shifted the power balance back to employers.”

After a slow, behind-the-scenes effort to implement such radical DEI initiatives across the country, there was an explosion in the number of companies pursuing such objectives in the aftermath of the race riots in 2020, where far-left black nationalist and Anarcho-Communist agitators destroyed dozens of cities, killed dozens of civilians, and caused $2 billion worth of damage nationwide. The riots were in response to the death of George Floyd, a career criminal who died of a  fentanyl overdose while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May of 2020

Despite the decline in funding for DEI programs, there was nevertheless an increase in DEI-related hiring in 2023, with the number of companies with a senior DEI leader position increasing by 6%, and an 8% increase in the number of companies that emphasized putting women in leadership roles. From 2022 to 2023, the number of companies dedicated to increasing the number of non-White employees rose by 4%, thus resulting in a new total of 20% of overall companies.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/29/do-we-live-in-the-disunited-states-of-america-most-say-yes-in-latest-ii-tipp-poll/

We live in divisive times, it seems. Bitter rhetoric and open rage over political events, ideologies and culture have become common. As a result, our country’s inhabitants now admit we are no longer unified, as the latest I&I/TIPP data clearly show.

I&I/TIPP asked voters this month (and every month since April 2021), “in general, would you say the United States is” followed by four possible answers: “very united,” “somewhat united,” “somewhat divided,” “very divided,” and “not sure.”

The answers are somewhat dispiriting for those hoping for a whiff of unity during the holiday season: More than 2/3 of respondents (69%) said we were either very divided (40%) or somewhat divided (29%). Just 3% were not sure. Only 28% overall said they believed Americans were either “very” united (14%) or “somewhat” united (14%).

Still, there remain some pockets of unity optimism in the national online poll of 1,400 people, taken from Nov. 1-3. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

Democrats, for instance, split evenly at 49% united versus 49% divided. Republicans are far more glum, with 21% answering united, compared to 77% divided. Independents see even more division, with only 15% responding united and 80% divided.

https://mailchi.mp/2a3e7d26080a/35b-from-us-taxpayers-funded-world-health-organization-59823?e=0c8ccf8e98

Here are just a couple infuriating examples:  

The federal government doled out billions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments during the pandemic.  

New York’s government just funded millions of dollars for planting trees while New York City struggles with a migrant housing crisis.  

From 2020-22, federal agencies spent billions of dollars on office furniture—even though most of their employees worked from home.  

This is only a small sample of the reckless, wasteful government spending that goes on every day.

And the worst part? There are elected officials trying to hide this spending from the very people who elected them.

The American people have a right to know how their money is being spent!  

https://www.thefp.com/p/where-free-speech-ends-and-lawbreaking-begins?utm_campaign=email-post&r=8t06w&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Even antisemites have the right to free speech, as Nadine Strossen and Pamela Paresky correctly wrote in The Free Press. Since the Hamas massacre of October 7, they have been taking full advantage of that right. Especially on college campuses.

Pro-Palestinian groups have harassed and even assaulted Jewish students; protesters have interrupted courses and taken over buildings; Ivy League professors have called Hamas’s attack “exhilarating” and “awesome”; students have torn down posters of missing Israeli children; others have chanted—and even projected onto university buildings—slogans, like “from the river to the sea,” “globalize the intifada,” and “glory to our martyrs.”

In response to such activities, universities have suspended or banned student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine. Alumni have pulled their donations and publicly stated that they won’t hire students who signed letters blaming Israel for the massacre. Republican lawmakers have suggested revoking the student visas of those participating in anti-Israel protests.

Those who care deeply about free speech are asking themselves many questions at this urgent moment: What should we make of the calls to punish Hamas apologists on campus? After all, this is America, where you have the right to say even the vilest things. Yes, many of the same students who on October 6 called for harsh punishment for “microaggressions” are now chanting for the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state. But Americans are entitled to be hypocrites. 

Don’t these students have the same right to chant Hamas slogans as the neo-Nazis did to march in 1977 in Skokie, Illinois—a town then inhabited by many Holocaust survivors?

I would put my free speech bona fides up against anyone. I’m also a lawyer and sometime law professor who recognizes that not all speech-related questions can be resolved by invoking the words First Amendment. 

Much of what we’ve witnessed on campuses over the past few weeks is not, in fact, speech, but conduct designed specifically to harass, intimidate, and terrorize Jews. Other examples involve disruptive speech that can properly be regulated by school rules. Opposing or taking action against such behavior in no way violates the core constitutional principle that the government can’t punish you for expressing your beliefs.

The question, as always, is where to draw the line, and who’s doing the line-drawing. 

Here are some of the most pressing questions those who care about civil liberties and protecting the rights of Jewish students are asking.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/11/pirate_money_a_surprising_constitutional_bulwark_against_the_tyranny_of_the_great_reset.html

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will be a major weapon of the Great Reset, a.k.a., Agenda 2030, the elitist plan to dominate the world. 

They are a threat to individual sovereignty as they will allow governments to track citizens’ spending and control behavior.  By linking them to social-credit systems of the kind China has implemented, they could be used to induce conformity.  Through restrictions, penalties, programming of transactions, or turning off access outright, whole populations could be coerced into buying only what elite-controlled governments want them to.

Is there a way to resist this tyranny?  At least in America, there is, thanks to the perspicacity of our Founding Fathers, says Kevin D. Freeman in his highly readable Pirate Money: Discovering the Founders’ Hidden Plan for Economic Justice and Defeating the Great Reset.  The key, he points out, lies hidden in plain sight in Article I, Section 10, Clause 1.2 of the Constitution, which says: “No state shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debt.”

Therefore, he suggests that states create their own digital currencies – tied to a gold reserve, unlike the dollar, which no longer is – to undercut the Fed’s monopoly on creating money.  Citizens could then buy and use such state-issued digital currency anonymously, forestalling centralized control and the Great Reset, and preserving their financial freedom.  For the foreboding slogan of the Great Reset is: “You will own nothing and you will be happy.”  In the name of revolutionizing the financial system and promoting inclusion, an unelected elite is effecting a global takeover, gradually working towards abolishing private property, curtailing individual freedom, and impoverishing the masses.  

Freeman’s suggestion may seem far-fetched, but he is striving to make it a reality.  Through his efforts with the Texas legislature, bills have been introduced in the state’s House (HB4903) and Senate (SB2334) requiring the comptroller to establish a gold-backed digital currency that citizens may buy.  The Texas government would physically hold the gold in its bullion depository (authorized in TX Gov. Code Sec. 2116) on behalf of buyers, who could transact with the digital currency and redeem it in gold or cash if and when they want to.  Freeman expects some definitive legislative outcome by 2025.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/america-is-under-attack/

“The United States is under attack. The Biden administration’s unwillingness to acknowledge this unsustainable reality won’t make it disappear. Absent a development that changes Iran’s calculations, the Islamic Republic will test American resolve in increasingly reckless ways.”

The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87), one of the many American naval assets tasked with maintaining free navigation of maritime shipping routes, came under attack over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Mason received a distress call from a tanker with links to an Israeli-owned company. The Houthi Islamist militia group in control of much of Yemen had previously warned Israeli-linked vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden that they would come under attack, and the tanker’s distress signal suggested that this was no idle threat. The Mason found an ongoing attempt to hijack the ship, disrupted the attack, and captured the attackers as they made their way back to Yemeni shores. Within hours of this intervention, two ballistic missiles were fired from within Houthi-controlled Yemen “toward the general direction” of the Mason.

“U.S. officials would not say who was responsible for the attack and if the five-person group was acting under the orders of a state or group,” the New York Times reported. Nevertheless, “officials said that they are investigating whether Iran was involved.” We should expect a speedy conclusion to the administration’s investigation. Since the October 7 massacre, American assets and interests in the region have come under sustained attack by Iran-backed elements. The attempted attack on the Mason is almost certainly a part of that campaign.

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/biden-administration-under-fire-after-pentagon-requests-114-million

The Biden administration is under fire after the Pentagon requested $114 million for diversity and equity initiatives, an increasingly controversial topic that critics say is politicizing the armed forces.

The Defense Department’s fiscal year 2024 budget request shows the federal agency’s emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, including “ensuring accountable leadership with continued emphasis and investments in sexual assault and harassment prevention, suicide prevention, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA), and Insider Threat Programs.”

The DOD document shows that DEI is at the forefront of DOD policy.

“The Department will lead with our values – building diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do,” the report said.

From the report:

Leaders at all levels are responsible for fostering a climate of inclusion that supports diversity, is free from problematic behaviors, and does not tolerate retaliation or reprisal against those filing complaints. Ultimately, recruiting and retaining a force with diverse backgrounds, thought, experience, expertise, and education enhances DoD’s global joint warfighter capabilities fundamental to all DoD activities. The DoD has taken a number of actions to strengthen its antidiscrimination posture and advance diversity and inclusion throughout the Department. Notably, DoD expanded endeavors historically known as diversity, equity, and inclusion to include a distinct focus on accessibility to highlight the importance of an accessible workplace and further ensure equal opportunity for all. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA).

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/27/dems-are-getting-mugged-by-reality-often-literally/

Some Democrats are waking up and noticing that the policies they’ve been cheerleading have produced violent crime waves, a massive migrant crisis, and genocidal antisemitism. One would hope the public at large is catching on as well.

Just over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a spate of headlines about lefty, soft-on-crime Democrats attacked on the mean streets they’ve helped create.

A Secret Service agent opened fire on would-be car thieves who tried to break into an unmarked SUV in the ritzy Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Turns out, the agents were assigned to one of President Joe Biden’s granddaughters. As one poster on X noted: “It’s pathetic that the Naomi Biden incident was the catalyst for the MSM to finally acknowledge the severity of the D.C. crime crisis.”
In early October, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked at gunpoint in the Navy Yard area of Capitol Hill. “I was just coming into my place,” he said. “Three guys came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me.”
Later that same month, Jason Williams, a George Soros-backed district attorney in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, and his mother were carjacked by thieves pointing rifles at them. Williams, whose 2020 campaign benefited from $220,000 in Soros contributions had promised to “end the use of Louisiana’s stringent habitual offender laws, never transfer juveniles to adult court, and become much pickier about accepting cases for prosecution.”
In September, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party official Shivanthi Sathanandan – who three years earlier declared “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me.” – suffered a broken leg, lacerations, cuts, and bruises from carjackers who beat her in front of her two young children. She changed her tune after getting mugged by reality. “We need to … catch these young people who are running wild creating chaos across our city, and HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM,” she posted on X.
Earlier this year, Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., residence by a 26-year-old man. One of Craig’s former staffers was hip-deep in the “defund” movement, at one point calling for people to “Burn. It. All. Down” in 2020 in response to police-involved deaths in New York.