RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/25/more-than-a-stalinist-show-trial/

As Thaddeus McCotter contends, the reproduction of a “Stalinist show trial” is now live in Washington. That invites a look at the original production of 1936-1937, from one of the keenest observers at the time. 

“The Moscow trials, and the purges that followed them, were a turning point in the history of American liberalism, for it was irrevocably polarized by the controversies to which the trials gave rise,” explains the late philosopher Sidney Hook in Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the Twentieth Century, published in 1987. As Hook recalled, “news of the trials burst like a bombshell.”

The principal defendants were “all old Bolsheviks, Lenin’s comrades in arms, who had been glorified as heroes of the October Revolution until they fell out of favor with Stalin. Chief among the defendants was Trotsky, acknowledged by Stalin as the architect of the Petrograd insurrection that had placed the Bolsheviks in power.” 

As Hook wondered, “had architects of the great experiment been agents of the Western secret police?” The notion was “inherently incredible,” and the charges against Trotsky, Bukharin, Radek, and others were “mind-boggling.”

The heroes of the October Revolution, Stalin contended, had assassinated Kirov in 1934, planned the assassination of Stalin under the direction of Trotsky, and “conspired with fascist powers Germany and Japan to dismember the Soviet Union, in exchange for services rendered by the Gestapo.” They were also charged with “sabotaging five-year plans, putting nails and glass in butter, inducing erysipelas in pigs, wrecking trains” and so forth.  

All the defendants “confessed with eagerness,” but as Hook recalled, “equally mystifying was the absence of any significant material evidence.” Leon Trotsky, then in exile, “charged that the trials were an elaborate frame-up and defendants had been compelled by torture to play self-incriminating roles.” 

https://amgreatness.com/2022/06/25/dobbs-reveals-the-prospect-of-a-winning-right/

The Left, and the spineless Right, have done everything that could be done to resuscitate the nerveless impotence that prevailed on the Right before Trump.

Ah, the Babylon Bee once again dispenses news masquerading as satire. Or, rather, it is both satire and news at the same time. “Dems Pause January 6 Hearings To Call For Insurrection.” They don’t even bother to exaggerate anymore. Hark:

After closing down their presentation entitled ‘How Trump Undermined Institutional Authority,’ Democrats raced to join the crowd surrounding the Supreme Court building. ‘Rigged! Rigged decision!’ shouted Senator Elizabeth Warren. ‘Judges must no longer be allowed to hold power! We will never abide by an illegitimate decision by an illegitimate court. Fight, fight!’ she screamed as beleaguered police arrived in riot gear.

Now, as far as I know, Elizabeth Warren did not actually say that. But she might have. It would be in keeping with her behavior. And the always-shy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did step into Fauxcahontas’ shoes, beaming in the midst of protestors as she shouted angry epithets through a bull horn, demanding, inter alia, that Joe Biden should erect abortion factories on federal land so that her female supporters could get on with the grisly business of killing their spawn. (Take a look at those creatures: one thing most of them will never have to worry about is arranging for an abortion.)

I don’t have anything to add to the abundant commentary on the Supreme Court’s overdue decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Honest observers, whatever their view of abortion, understood that the 1973 decision was deeply misguided. Even Saint Ruth Bader Ginsburg thought Roe went too far, was poorly argued, and illegitimately usurped state prerogatives. 

But reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision Friday is not about law, primarily: It is about political theater. Again, the Bee hones in on some salient points.

Despite the fact liberal states will still have the most permissive abortion laws in the world outside North Korea, Democrats helpfully painted the Supreme Court’s decision as a matter of life and death. ‘They are literally going to enslave every woman in America and force them to have 17 babies,’ said Representative Ilhan Omar to a group of mentally unstable lunatics. ‘Which is why the Supreme Court cannot stand! To the streets!’ she shouted, then returned to the House for a speech on why Trump’s words were directly responsible for violence.

Did Ilhan Omar really say that? How can you be sure whether she did or didn’t?

https://bda1776.substack.com/p/victims-of-communism?utm_source=email

On a recent trip to Washington, I was able to find the time to detour by the Museum of the Victims of Communism.  It’s a new museum, it’s a small museum, but it’s a worthwhile museum.  It’s also worth a few words.

I suspect that I was among the very first visitors.  I believe it’s been open less than a month.  I booked noon tickets.  When I arrived at 11:30, the receptionist looked at me and said “you must be Bruce.”  I believe that during my hour-long self-tour, we were the only two people in the building.  So it’s fair to say that the crowds have not yet arrived.

Still, it’s an excellent exhibition at a central location—two blocks north of the White House—and it addresses a critical topic.  The stories it relates are chilling, though not as chilling as the death tolls.  The exhibits go around the world and across time, tallying the fall of European, African, Asian, and American countries to the evils of Communism.  The larger downstairs exhibit focused on the Soviet Union, its conquests, and its satellites, sets a somber stage.  An upstairs exhibit dedicated entirely to China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre rounds it out.

One thought struck me as I was studying the sizable portion dedicated to Stalin.  It’s a thought that’s been gelling for the past decade or so, as I’ve gotten to speak to more people familiar (sadly, many intimately so) with Eastern European Communism.  And it’s a thought I find particularly chilling.

/06/entitlement_indignity_irresponsibility_enslavement_tyranny.html

“Progressive Democrats call themselves liberals, but they are in fact the enemies of liberalism.  They reject its fundamental principles such as individual liberty, personal responsibility, the right to choose, and strict limitations on government involvement in daily life.  Today’s liberals encourage victimhood and dependence on government.  They are the antithesis of liberals — they are totalitarians.  We must reject tyranny imposed by a professional political class that promises free entitlements while providing enslavement for all.”

Progressive Democrats try to bribe the public with government handouts — entitlements — such as Obamacare (“All the care that Americans deserve”), free food (“No American should go hungry”), free education (student loan forgiveness), free housing, reparations for past sins, and income redistribution (“the rich must pay their fair share”). Washington promises to deliver all these entitlements to every American, everywhere, equitably, when needed, for free. 

Of course, federal politicians will decide what equitable means, what is fair share, how much is paid in reparations and to whom, what is taught in schools, where you live, what you eat, how much money you have, and who deserves medical care — and when, even if, you get that care.

Americans need to be very clear about what will happen if they accept entitlements. 

Entitlement refers to a right to have something or the belief that one is deserving of privileges or special treatment.  When all promised entitlements are considered together, progressives intend to create a government-controlled cradle-to-grave nanny state.  They make no mention of what Americans must give up to achieve this impossible utopia: the dignity of work, personal responsibility, and freedom. 

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/pro-abortion-rioters-in-arizona-damage-state-senate-building-as-lawmakers-vote/

Police in Arizona used tear gas to disperse a crowd of rioters who gathered outside the Capitol in downtown Phoenix on Friday to protest the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Arizona state senators were in the middle of voting on a series of bills when protesters “threatened to break the AZ Senate entryway glass,” state Senator Wendy Rogers, a Republican, tweeted.

Rioters damaged multiple state Senate doors and memorials in Wesley Bolin Plaza, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves told KTAR News. One person was arrested.

“While working inside we were interrupted by the sound of bangs and smell of tear gas,” Representative Sarah Liguori wrote in a tweet. “Protestors cleared from the Capitol.”

Arizona Senate Republicans called the rioting an attempted “insurrection.”

Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend, a Republican, tweeted that lawmakers were “being held hostage inside the Senate building due to members of the public trying to breach our security.”

“We smell tear gas and the children of one of the members are in the office sobbing with fear,” she added.

Some 8,000 people gathered at the protest, which started at 7 p.m., according to KTAR News. Law enforcement declared the protest an unlawful assembly roughly two hours later, according to the report.