RUTHFULLY YOURS

Why is everyone surprised by the media’s infatuation with Kim Yo Jung, the sister of North Korea’s tyrant Kim Jong un? Anna Wintour, garmenta and fashionista and editor of Vogue magazine which advertises $20,000 pocket books, and supporter of Hillary Clinton once published a paean to the bride of mass murderer Bashar al Assad, entitled “Rose of the Desert.” The column failed to mention the thorns – mass killings, gassing, torturing of civilians which are standard issue atrocities committed by her hubby.

Here is just a snippet of adulation:

“Asma al-Assad is glamorous, young, and very chic-the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies. Her style is not the couture-and-bling dazzle of Middle Eastern power but a deliberate lack of adornment. She’s a rare combination: a thin, long-limbed beauty with a trained analytic mind who dresses with cunning understatement. Paris Match calls her “the element of light in a country full of shadow zones.” She is the first lady of Syria.

Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East, possibly because, as the State Department’s Web site says, “the Syrian government conducts intense physical and electronic surveillance of both Syrian citizens and foreign visitors.” It’s a secular country where women earn as much as men and the Muslim veil is forbidden in universities, a place without bombings, unrest, or kidnappings, but its shadow zones are deep and dark. ”

A few weeks later, the article and all references to it were removed from Vogue’s website without explanation.

Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other in human history: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. We love our nifty phones and just-a-click-away services, but these behemoths enjoy unfettered economic domination and hoard riches on a scale not seen since the monopolies of the gilded age. The only logical conclusion? We must bust up big tech.

I’ve benefited enormously from big tech. Prophet, the consulting firm I cofounded in 1992, helped companies navigate a new landscape being reshaped by Google. Red Envelope, the upscale e-commerce company I cofounded in 1997, never would have made it out of the crib if Amazon hadn’t ignited the market’s interest in e-commerce. More recently, L2, which I founded in 2010, was born from the mobile and social waves as companies needed a way to benchmark their performance on new platforms.

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The benefits of big tech have accrued for me on another level as well. In my investment portfolio, the appreciation of Amazon and Apple stock restored economic security to my household after being run over in the Great Recession. Finally, Amazon is now the largest recruiter of students from the brand-strategy and digital-marketing courses I teach at NYU Stern School of Business. These firms have been great partners, clients, investments, and recruiters. And the sum of two decades of experience with, and study of, these companies leads me to a singular conclusion: It’s time to break up big tech.

Over the past decade, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—or, as I call them, “the Four”—have aggregated more economic value and influence than nearly any other commercial entity in history. Together, they have a market capitalization of $2.8 trillion (the GDP of France), a staggering 24 percent share of the S&P 500 Top 50, close to the value of every stock traded on the Nasdaq in 2001.

How big are they? Consider that Amazon, with a market cap of $591 billion, is worth more to the stock market than Walmart, Costco, T. J. Maxx, Target, Ross, Best Buy, Ulta, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Saks/Lord & Taylor, Dillard’s, JCPenney, and Sears combined.

The brouhaha regarding Poland’s new law is misunderstood. Poland’s defenders explain that it is all a matter of semantics. What are referred to as the “Polish death camps” were really German/Nazi camps. The correction is fair enough. But correcting a phrase leads so many Polish defenders to air-brush the complicity of Polish anti-Semites in aiding the Nazis. Oh yes…of course there were exceptions…noble people hid and helped Jews at great risk to their lives. But the majority did not and the word “Żyd”- Polish for Jew was an invective and curse.

My parents were Polish, and I speak Polish but I prefer to focus on present antisemitism hounding the Jews throughout Europe and in the entire Arab world, but to call the Polish history of brutal anti-Semitism “revisionist history, plagiarism and slander” is outrageous. My parents left Poland in 1930 because of the anti-Semitism that flourished long before the Nazi invasion. Of my family that remained- grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins – all were herded into the ghetto, and killed along with millions of “Zyds” with the undeniable indifference or outright collusion of the Poles. As usual it is blamed on economics:

Exhibit A: Today on Frontpage it is explained thus:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269267/polands-new-law-criminalizing-speech-about-danusha-v-goska

“It’s undeniable that in interwar Poland, that is, between the end of WW I in 1918 and the onset of WW II in 1939, anti-Semitism flourished. The interwar period, for complicated historical reasons, saw one of the worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism in Poland’s history. Interwar anti-Semitism was largely predicated on economic grievances. Jews had occupied the middleman minority caste. Most Poles were impoverished peasants. They wanted to own shops and study to become doctors and lawyers. For some, not all Poles, these honorable ambitions veered into the dark, twisted path of anti-Semitism.”

What a pathetic explanation and excuse. rsk

I get tons of emails from Trump-friendly sites every day, and am overwhelmed by the voluntary and necessary task of reading the news, until I nod off in exhaustion. I thought the deluge had peaked during the 2016 presidential campaign, but the Niagara Falls of information keeps coming, creating clouds of fake news vapors. Now it’s not whether or not Trump wipes the floor with Hillary, but it’s the latest MSM conniption fit with hair being torn out in angry exasperation and furious foot-stamping, and over Trump’s hair. If it isn’t about whether or not the FISA memo ought to be released, to the style of Trump’s socks, then it’s about what he keeps on his “racist” Oval Office desk.

One thing that worries me about the FBI/State Department/NSA scandal is that one or all of the culprits named in the release of the FISA memo will not be punished; that is arrested, cuffed, charged, and hauled off to detention or put under house arrest with ankle bracelets before being tried for treason, plotting to overthrow a properly elected President, suborning Congress, and a baker’s dozen of other serious crimes.

None of these people should be allowed to live easily and go golfing after being outed as obsessed criminals: James Comey, Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton, Andrew McCabe, John Podesta, Rod Rosenstein, Sally Yates, FBI agents Peter Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page, and a dozen or more others afflicted with Never-Trump brain seizures, including Barack Obama, who, as then President, okayed the wire-tapping of Trump Tower in New York City. This operation was directed against President Trump, who should take it personally, if nothing else, and call for their arrests, but hasn’t (yet). Americans have not seen any indication that he will slap the guilty with iron gloves.

Christopher Steele, the one-time British spy and Trump dossier fabricator, ought to be extradited to the U.S. and made to answer for his contribution to a fraud.

On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, former British MI-6 Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele is going to extremes to avoiding answering questions from the United States Congress, while at the same time avoiding being videotaped and deposed in a multi-million dollar libel case brought against Buzzfeed.

At the very least, the culprits should be sentenced to the mandatory testing of consuming converted human waste as astronaut food, to see if it’s acceptable NASA fare to anyone in the astronaut corps.

“To me “bipartisan foreign policy” means a mutual effort, under our indispensable two-Party system, to unite our official voice at the water’s edge so that America speaks with maximum authority against those who would divide and conquer us and the free world. It does not involve the remotest surrender of free debate in determining our position. On the contrary, frank cooperation and free debate are indispensable to ultimate unity. In a word, it simply seeks national security ahead of partisan advantage. Every foreign policy must be totally debated (and I think the record proves it has been) and the “loyal opposition” is under special obligation to see that this occurs.”

It was Arthur H. Vandenberg Republican from Michigan who served in the Senate from 1928 to 1951. His relationship and collaborations with then Democrat President Harry Truman were legendary. Read more in :

Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World by Lawrence J. Haas

rsk

The latest Trump tweet to have knickers in a knot is due to my president’s use of the word “treasonous” to blast the Dem-wits’ behavior during the State of the Union speech.

Maybe the word is overblown. I was once accused of treason by my sons when I applauded a Boston victory over the New York Knicks…..

Daniel Greenfield has the perfect take on the issue: A Double Standard on Treason,

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/269252/double-standard-treason-daniel-greenfield
Before the memo was released, Senator Cory Booker was quick to throw around accusations of treason.

“I might say tantamount to treasonous in the sense of: when you violate the intelligence community’s mandates around classified documentation and what should be released, you could be betraying or, especially if you’re revealing sources and methods or giving some color to sources and methods, you are actually endangering fellow Americans in the intelligence community and our ability to source intelligence,” Senator Booker had insisted. “So, to me, this is something that could be potentially viewed as treasonous.”

Then once the Nunes memo was released, and not even the biggest CNN or Washington Post hack could find a single piece of classified information there that would endanger a mouse, Booker packed up his tent for the next show, complete with squeezing tears out with an onion.

But as the media once again waxes outraged about accusations of treason, let’s revisit it.

Senator Booker, like so many of his leftist colleagues, was using accusations of treason to suppress a political debate. That’s exactly what the Dems were falsely accusing Bush of. And it’s exactly what they’re guilty of.

Senator Cory Booker has never apologized for his accusations of treason. And that’s a sure bet that he will repeat them. But the double standard on treason says that only leftists can accuse others of treason. They are the experts.

If the #MeToo movement only reduces sexual predation in the workplace, it will have been a force for good. Its most likely result, however, will be to unleash a torrent of new gender and race quotas throughout the economy and culture, on the theory that disparities in representation and employment are due to harassment and bias.

Hollywood and the media are already showing the effect. It’s no coincidence that The Today Show now has two female anchors. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pledged to double its female and minority members by 2020. Actress Natalie Portman’s sneer in presenting the best director prize at the recent Golden Globe movie awards—“And here are the all-male nominees”—will become the standard response to any perceived lack of “diversity” in entertainment. The Wall Street Journal’s pop music critic, Jim Fusilli, for example, groused that females were underrepresented among Grammy award nominees. “No groups led by women are among the nominees in the Best Contemporary Instrumental, Best Jazz Instrumental, Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Contemporary Christian Music album categories. “There is no Grammy category comprised entirely of women,” he complained. Six female music industry executives then complained to the Recording Academy’s board of trustees that the Recording Academy’s leadership suffered from “inclusion issues across all demographics.” In response, management has penitently promised to overcome the “unconscious biases that impede female advancement” in the music industry. The National Hispanic Media Coalition is planning to protest at the Academy Awards because of the paucity of Hispanic Oscar nominations. Even before the Hispanic protest, Hollywood execs were experiencing quota fatigue, given the pressures from feminist, LGBTQ, and disability activists to hire by identity category.

Fake polls have infected politics by disheartening American voters with approval ratings and predictions which are falsely researched and bruited, and out of sync with the American people. In 1948 the Chicago Daily Tribune went to press and public with the now famous headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

Harry Truman, who trounced Thomas Dewey held up the Nov. 3, 1948 edition of the Chicago Tribune with that headline as he celebrated victory over the man who was predicted to win by most national polls.

Ronald Reagan averaged a 53% job approval rating during his presidency, slightly below average for all U.S. presidents for which Gallup has recorded job approval ratings.

After the Democratic National Convention in July, the Mondale-Ferraro ticket actually bested the Reagan-Bush ticket in a nationwide Gallup Poll, 48 percent to 46 percent.

Questions in polls remind one of the old saw about a trial when the prosecutor asks: “When did you stop beating your wife?”

I have been polled twice and it goes something like this exaggerated version:

“Are you a registered Republican voter? Just answer yes or no”

” If it were disclosed that the Republican candidate was guilty of pillage and plunder and rape would you vote for him?”

Of course, the answer is no, and the poll then discloses that only 3% of registered Republicans will vote for the party’s incumbent. rsk

I’ve been boycotting the Grammys since “Feline Groovy” inexplicably failed to garner, as the rock journalists say, a half-dozen awards. So I didn’t discover until this morning that the Grammy producers had booked an actual grammy, Hillary Clinton, to appear in a sketch about the Fire and Fury audio book. I know there are those who think pop culture’s completely lost its sense of danger and rebelliousness, but c’mon, in an age whose very slogan is one of groupthink coercion (#MeToo) what could be edgier, as they say, than to book a serial enabler of serial predators? Cool! #Time’sUp – but, oddly, never for Hillary. Next year maybe Harvey Weinstein and Charlie Rose can appear in bathrobes and play a few cords.

~Meanwhile, in further news of female empowerment, Australia is promoting itself as a hub of the booming “modest fashion” market:

Modest fashion is clothing that conceals rather than accentuating the body – and it is quickly increasing in popularity.

Hmm. Interesting. Why would “modest fashion” be “quickly increasing in popularity”? Particularly for, say, unaccompanied women walking at night in certain neighborhoods of western cities?

Once upon a time Australian fashion was associated with women like Elle Macpherson, who was known as “The Body” because it was very evident that she had one. But from The Body to the body bag is a mere blink of an eye. This new exhibition, funded by Australian taxpayers and promoted by my old friend Julie Bishop’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, celebrates the Australian inventor of the burqini and “the rise of the hijabistas”.

That’s great news! Tie me burqa hood down, sport! Who’ll come a-shroudin’ Matilda with me? Sorry, I’m just working on my Grammy nomination for Best Covered Versions.

Unfortunately, The Australian’s Caroline Overington is none too happy at being fitted for her burqini:

‘Modest Australian fashion.’

In case you don’t know what that is, it’s skirts to the floor, ladies.

It is full body suits at the beach. It’s covering up your hair, and draping yourself in heavy fabric as you go about your day.

When did this become something the Australian government wanted to promote, and celebrate?

There were five seconds left in the playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints. The Saints had a two point lead and a virtual lock on the victory. But in one of the strangest events in National Football, Case Keenum, the Vikings’ quarterback, threw a pass to Stefon Diggs in the flat. He jumped up and dashed to the end zone. What was a virtually assured Saints’ victory became a Vikings visit to the NFC championship game.

When asked about the circumstances surrounding his catch, Diggs said, “it happened so fast, I didn’t know what was happening.” He went on to note that he owes his success to God. “God made it happen.” Since this was a miracle of a kind that defies logic, there may be something to this argument. It is instructive that no one to my knowledge from the American Civil Liberties Union or Atheists of America have challenged Diggs’ judgement.

The reason this matter comes up at all is that football coaches across the country receive the wrath of the ACLU when they have asked their teams to pray to God before and after games. What was once a pre-game ritual has been ridiculed to the point where it is rarely employed. I doubt Mr. Diggs will start a trend–as an NBC official said, “religion and politics don’t mix.” Well they do mix in ways he will never recognize.