RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/25/here-are-a-bunch-of-charts-that-prove-the-world-is-better-than-ever/

In a recent column, I noted that young people like Greta Thunberg should be thankful for the uniquely peaceful and wealthy world they’ve inherited.

Of course, whenever I write pieces that point out that life has vastly improved for billions of people despite climate change, angry readers inundate me with links about glaciers and coral reefs and heat waves. These events are allegedly apocalyptic proof that we’ve left a rickety planet to our kids. Never once do any of these emailers consider the tradeoffs that accompany the authoritarian system they propose to fix climate change. For many, of course, the authoritarian system is the point.

Now, I can’t disprove forecasts about our impending collapse. But I can point out that Malthusian environmentalists have been consistently and spectacularly wrong going on five decades and that even in a warming planet, nearly every quantifiable measure of human existence is improving. The retreat of socialism — exactly the kind of system environmentalists would like to bring back to fight global warming — has led to extraordinary gains in the most important aspects of human existence over the past 30-40 years.

Here are just a few:

Capitalism is eradicating extreme poverty.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/peter-schweizer-trump-is-right-to-call-for-probe-o

As Congress and the White House wrestle over a whistleblower’s complaint against President Trump, the story took a new turn late Friday when the Wall Street Journal reported that, in a July phone call, Trump “repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine” to investigate the dealings of Joe Biden’s family in Ukraine.

Trump’s call is reportedly the source of a complaint by a whistleblower against the president that has sparked a furor among Democrats in Congress, who are demanding to see the complaint.

If, as multiple news organizations are reporting, the whistleblower’s complaint centers on Ukraine, there is strong evidence that it relates to President Trump’s urging the Ukrainian government to investigate Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son.

The story behind that story is itself worthy of serious scrutiny.

The proposed investigation involves Hunter Biden’s involvement with a controversial Ukrainian natural gas company while then-Vice President Biden was overseeing America’s Ukraine policy.

Critics of the president have accused Trump of attempting to “extort” Ukrainian officials for “dirt” on Biden, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination to run against Trump next year.

But why would Ukraine have dirt on Joe Biden? For answers, one must look at Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company which, until earlier this year, employed Hunter Biden.

http://swtotd.blogspot.com/

The title of this essay is silly. Of course, Connecticut has a future. The question is, will it be one that strengthens economic development and reassures residents, especially the retired, to continue to live within its borders. Will it still have, as Mr. Burghoff asks, “the people I’ve known,” or will my family and friends move to more favorable environs. Connecticut has been in the vanguard of those states marching to the tunes of “woke” progressives, who put identity politics and income and wealth distribution ahead of personal liberty, opportunity and individual responsibility. The consequence has seen an exodus of people and businesses, a slow-growth economy and per-capita state debt that is fourth highest in the nation.

Hatred permeates the political landscape: The ugly language of those in the media who have called for the decapitation of the President; elected Representatives who use their office to pursue personal vendettas against Mr. Trump and their influence to enrich themselves; presidential candidates who call for an end to all fossil fuels; the promise of free college, a basic income and socialized medicine – in short, President Obama’s 2012 “Life of Julia” – all to be paid for with a wealth tax and higher income taxes, which would stifle innovation and hamper economic growth. Is it possible progressives have overplayed their hand?

There have been signs of spring’s renewal against this bleak, wintery landscape. Michael Bloomberg recently penned an op-ed in the New York Post, “Rage is Destroying Us”: “…political rage seems to be crowding out political engagement.” His column concluded: “Restoring the ability to disagree without becoming mortal enemies is a new and urgent civic imperative.” Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a week ago that he felt “marooned” within the Democratic Party, that he was “…stuck with a party that would replace the segregation of the past with the segregation of the present.” He wrote of his ideal: “My political party would embrace the uniqueness of every individual and not consider him or her (or any other pronoun)[1] a member of a group first, an individual second and use the excuse of past prejudices to create a racial or ethnic patronage system.” My sentiments exactly; yet both he and Mr. Bloomberg are liberal Democrats who have soured on the progressive tilt of their Party.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/privileged-scolds-should-lead-by-example-before-lecturing-others/

Let them lead by example before they lecture the country on carbon emissions, gun ownership, and ‘white privilege.’

One theme of the Democratic debates is collective furor — at whom or what is not always clear, other than at Americans who voted for Trump. Or perhaps at America itself for failing the expectations of our moral betters? Yet such rage is so deeply embedded in hypocrisy that it is not merely hard to take; it’s even harder to believe it’s serious.

So upset are our woke progressive candidates that they insist that the rich, the privileged, the white, and the native-born must now pay ever more penance. Amid such acrimony is an inconvenient truth, though one that remains utterly unspoken: Most of those on stage who are so livid at the exploitive “system” have become wealthy and quite privileged through it — especially since they have spent so much of their adult lives gaming supposedly poorly compensated political service.

Multimillionaire, mansion-living, ethnic-identity-stealing, and formerly house-flipping Senator Elizabeth Warren talks nonstop about corporate greed, endemic racism, and the need for executive fiats to deal with right-wing American pathologies. In Warren’s reductionist world, every sin originates with some Snidely Whiplash corporate CEO with a black top hat and handlebar moustache who trumped the success of her own past cynical efforts several hundred times over.

Beto O’Rourke, born into privilege and wealth, and married into greater influence and riches, was so pampered and well connected as a teen that his prior burglary and drunk-driving arrests were either dismissed or white-privileged away. Otherwise, had he been treated as others — including poor working-class whites from southern Ohio or central California — he might now be an ex-felon, and certainly might not be eligible to buy or own a firearm under the regimens that he now blasts as too weak.

Naturally, the multimillionaire Beto lectures the country on its racism, its original and permanent sins of white supremacy, and the need to confiscate some models of guns and to restrict the ownership of most all others. As in the case of erstwhile Native American Elizabeth Warren, Beto is so concerned about the asymmetry between the haves and the have-nots that he pushed a fake ethnic identity to do something about it.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/09/diversity-inc-becoming-even-more-dangerous-bruce-thornton/

Back in the Eighties when “diversity” and “multiculturalism” were starting to invade the universities, critics like me used to ask proponents if they wanted to apply “diversity” to selecting brain surgeons and airline pilots. Seems our common sense was naïve. According to an op-ed by Stanley Goldfarb, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, medical schools are under pressure to include in its curriculum  “social justice” shibboleths like gun-control, climate change, and eliminating racial disparities.

We are reaching new levels of dangerous absurdity when the study of medicine––perhaps our most practical, science-based discipline with concrete outcomes easily visible even to laymen––is being diluted to satisfy progressive ideology and dubious scientism.

Yet we should have expected that this day would come. From the moment that the Supreme Court in the 1978 Bakke case enshrined into federal law a concept the vagueness of which was exceeded only by its complete lack of empirical evidence that it provided any measurable benefits. More important, “diversity” as progressives understand it, is an ideological and political weapon divorced from reality.

To start, true diversity is a fact of human history, one oversimplified and corrupted by our continuing reliance on the modern concept of “race,” which was given scientific pretensions by “scientific racism” starting in the late 19th century. A term like “white” is useless, for example, when it comes to the ancient Mediterranean where Western civilization began. Europe at the time of Roman expansion was fragmented into hundreds of tribes with distinct languages and dialects, cultures and mores, religions and cults, geographical circumstances and available resources. Constant warfare, enslavement, and trade promoted continuous intermingling of these peoples and the creation of hybrid cultures that belie the notion of a unified, distinct “race.” To say all those peoples were “white” is to say nothing meaningful for understanding them.

De Blasio escalates his culture war 

NYC – De Blasio escalates his culture war on city museums and other artistic institutions – “Start judging {and hiring} people on the color of their skin, or else {the City will cut your funding}.” — “It’s hard to think of more outrageous abuse of city funds.”   D.P.S.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s minions are vowing to escalate his culture war — the one on city museums and other artistic institutions.

On Tuesday, Tom Finkelpearl, head of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, admitted that the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and other city treasures aren’t meeting the mayor’s de-facto quotas for their workforces.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/proud-anti-semite-and-israel-hater-invited-to-speak-at-columbia-university/

‘Proud Anti-Semite’ and Israel-Hater Invited to Speak at Columbia University

Why is one of America’s most esteemed universities giving a platform to someone who spews hatred of Jews and discriminates against the State of Israel?

By United With Israel Staff

On September 25, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is scheduled to speak at Columbia University in New York City. A petition by the Columbia Global Leadership Forum has been created to prevent the self-described proud anti-Semite and Israel-hater from addressing students.

In 2012, the prime minister declared, “I am glad to be labeled anti-Semitic.”

The 94-year-old Mohamad is known for his public denial that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust as well as spreading anti-Semitic stereotypes and anti-American sentiments.

 http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/23269/the-humanitarian-hoax-of-disinformation-killing

   http://goudsmit.pundicity.com http://lindagoudsmit.com

The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy.

A friend of mine from high school, a well-intentioned and impassioned gallerist in Washington, DC, sent out the following evite superimposed on an original oil painting depicting a pack of menacing rabid dogs:

We’re inviting America’s artist to help prevent the spread of Trump’s dystopia and the contagious HATE it causes…and needs to survive.

The invitation to participate in the juried show was followed by a red/white/blue poster asking the following question:

When your grandchildren ask you what you did to rid the body politic of Trump’s dystopia in 2019 and 2020 before it was too late What will you tell them?

I like and respect this very kind, intelligent, and considerate man even though our world views are diametrically opposed to one another. I simply could not ignore the radical leftist political assumption of his question. So, I answered my friend:

I will tell them I write to fight.

I will tell them that I fought with every word on every page to insure an informed electorate in 2020.

I will tell them that they and their parents were subjected to a most vile disinformation campaign that began with Jimmy Carter and the establishment of the Department of Education in 1979 run by leftist radicals intent on collapsing America and replacing our free market capitalism with socialism.

https://www.steynonline.com/9746/elites-in-robes

In this edition, Mark talks about judicial activism in America, the plight of Tommy Robinson in the United Kingdom, and the Australian justice system’s mishandling of Cardinal Pell’s prosecution.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/believealllies.html

So much has been written about truth. In the King James Bible one reads: “ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”

George Orwell warned:  ‘The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.’

 Winston Chuchill : The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

Friedrich Nietzsche opined: “All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”

And my favorite is “In vino veritas” …in Chardonnay there is truth.

Lies are now defined by people as inner or personal truths. Even though they are so often wrong, the left is never in doubt. Outright prevarication is “settled fact” and will brook no skepticism, let alone challenge.

Examples of lies that are now “settled” truth for the “woke” generation.

1.Single payer system will improve healthcare and access to early diagnosis and treatment.

2.President Donald Trump is a racist.

3.The present good economy and energy independence was actually jump started by Barack Obama.

4.The Arab Israel conflict started in 1967 when the Jewish state grabbed ancient Palestinian lands and has exercised a brutal and racist occupation of local Arab citizens.

5.No guns no crime.

6.  The planet is headed for destruction by man made ravages of the environment and failure to implement Green policies. # Believe Greta Thunberg.

7.Socialism is an inherently humanitarian and egalitarian policy and form of government.

8.Native Americans were a benign eco-friendly farmer who abjured violence.

9.The end of colonialism brought independence and freedom to Africa.

10.Women never lie about their near rape and sexual harassment by prominent men.

11.Meritocracy is a back to the plantation strategy of racists.

12.Only Whites have privilege.

13.Antifa and #Black Lives Matter always demonstrate peacefully for good causes.

14.The late David Koch merits no gratitude or respect.

15.The not yet late George Soros merits gratitude and respect.

16.Hate crimes and anti-Semitism are almost always from the conservative right.

17. A liberal education guarantees a good job and enlightenment.

18.All illegal immigrants are seeking asylum from war and terror.

19.There are millions of inhibited transgender people of both sexes in America.

20.Gay people are a persecuted minority.

21.Minorities are underrepresented in entertainment and culture.

22.Women are even better than men in just about everything including combat and sports.

23.Jihad is misinterpreted by Islamophobia. It is a spiritual struggle within oneself. Seriously!

24.Capital punishment is evil but late term abortion is a right.

25. Gender pronouns are offensive and biased.

26. In fact there are more than ninety genders.

27. In the New York Times, even the ifs, ands, buts, commas and semicolons are true. 

And here is the unvarnished truth. All the above are lies but they are believed with a religious fervor usually reserved for Commandments and prayer. As Orwell warned:

“The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/20/shamelessness-and-ignorance-unlimited/

The CIA whistleblower “scandal” is nothing of the sort. It’s about the constitutional power of the president to make foreign policy—and obligation of the intelligence community to submit to the president’s authority. No more, no less.

The U.S. intelligence community’s leaders, the Democratic Party, and the media (excuse the redundancy) are trying to convince Americans that President Trump’s conversation with, and perhaps promises to, an unnamed foreign leader amounts to some sort of constitutional crisis. Never mind that the Constitution vests “the executive Power” in the “President of the United States,” a power that includes “by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties . . . appoint ambassadors and other public ministers . . . ” The Constitution also says the president “shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”

But, oh, the scandal! 

Once upon a time, so goes a story made up to ridicule the voting public, an official who had been dean of a college was run out of office after his opponent accused him of having looked at female students’ theses in private, and had invited to campus traveling troops of thespians.

No doubt Trump is equally guilty of negotiating with a foreign leader in ways that involve classified information. The deep state is counting on today’s American voters to be just as ignorant.