RUTHFULLY YOURS

Hillary Clinton’s decision to wipe clean her email server has already done enormous damage to US intelligence efforts. The logic is so clear and compelling that it is amazing to me that only now, and only via an email to the blog Powerline, has the extent of her reckless (at best) action become clear. Scott Johnson passes along this, from reader he terms “knowledgable”:

I saw your note on Clinton emails. You and everyone else are missing the real problem and scandal. It is not the emails she saved and turned over to the State Department. It is the erased server, but not for the reasons most people are talking about.

A Secretary of State has broad SCI clearances which means she has access to sources and methods. We know now that HC had classified information on her email server because of what she turned over. What we don’t know is what she didn’t turn over. This creates a massive Counter-Intelligence (CI) problem.

The CI community knows she managed to jump the “air gap” on some information but because she erased the server they do not know the full extend of the jump. If she had turned over the server to the proper authorities the CI community could calibrate the extent of the potential damage. Now, barring a recovery of server data, they cannot. This means that CI has to treat all sources and methods to which the Secretary of State (and others potentially) was exposed as compromised.

Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America’s Postwar Political Order by James Pierson may be one of the best books ever written on American political history. It traces the evolution of both political parties from the aftermath of World War I to the present. What is especially interesting is how, following the death of John F. Kennedy, the Democratic Party turned away from traditional liberalism, when Democrats still believed in American exceptionalism. JFK would have been considered a raging conservative today, as he believed in lower taxes, a strong national defense, and the pre-eminence of the United States’ place in the world as a force for good.

Liberalism is no longer merely a philosophy of government, as it was during the Progressive Era, but rather an integral part of modern government itself, which is why it cannot be killed by its policy failures, lost arguments, or even lost elections.

Democrats believed back then that progress (“the Progressive Era”) was meant for everyone to get ahead in life through hard work within the American capitalistic system. They also believed, as did the Republicans, in social safety nets just for the very poor. Kennedy, however, was initially ambivalent about Civil Rights legislation (that actually began being promoted by his predecessor Eisenhower, a Republican). Kennedy opened up to it out of political pressure and expediency.

President Obama’s legacy to America: a Middle East in chaos, radical Islam ascendant, a nuclear Iran with a $150 billion dollar terror fund, Israel demonized as a warmonger, Europe flooded with Muslims. This Iran Deal is so bad, so dangerous, so traitorous, it is hard to believe. That is one reason the Democrats can get away with it. Their loyal voters assume their party leaders and beloved first black President would not do something this traitorous.

Have no doubt this “deal” is a national security disaster. In an unprecedented move, motived by alarm and a sense of their responsibility, 245 (and the number is growing daily) retired generals and admirals, including the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Clinton and the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO during the Gulf War, have written a stiff letter that was hand delivered to every member of Congress.

Their message to Congress: kill the Iran Deal.

Western nations are not merely ignoring Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East, they are actively supporting it by sponsoring “moderate” rebels who in reality are as “radical” and anti-Western as the Islamic State.

“Why the federal government has failed to take steps to expedite such reunification in cases where family and religious leaders are willing to vouch for and help those seeking asylum here… remains an unfathomable mystery.” — East County Magazine, San Diego.

Such “unfathomable mysteries” are reminiscent of the U.S. State Department’s habit of inviting Muslim representatives but denying visas to Christian representatives. Since the start of 2015, 4,205 Muslims have been admitted into the U.S. from Iraq, but only 727 Christians. For every Christian granted asylum, the U.S. grants asylum to five or six Muslims — even though Christians, as persecuted “infidel” minorities, are in much greater need of sanctuary.

“Most European governments, especially those that are Christian explicitly or implicitly, are failing in their duty to look after their fellow Christians in their hour of need.” — Lord Weidenfeld.

When persecuted Christian minorities manage to flee the Islamic State and come to the West for asylum, they are imprisoned again. All the while, Muslims — in the Mideast and in the West — are being empowered and welcomed in the West with open arms.

Egypt is increasingly unnerved by overt Turkish activity to support the Muslim Brotherhood politically, and covert Turkish activity to support alleged subversion.

Erdogan’s obsessive shadow-fighting with the Egyptian regime in the hope of rebuilding a Muslim Brotherhood regime in the former Ottoman “Khedivate” is bad news: it undermines any Western effort to stabilize — relatively — the turbulent Middle East.

In August, possibly the first cheerful news containing the words “Turkey” and “Egypt” hit the headlines in the Turkish press since July 2013, when Egypt’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spearheaded a coalition to remove Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Turkish chargé d’affaires in Cairo (Turkey and Egypt withdrew their ambassadors after a row) married an Egyptian actress and former beauty queen on August 2. Their wedding was by attended by Turkish, Egyptian and foreign diplomats at a Turkish embassy residence in Giza.

At the wedding ceremony, the Turkish groom, Alper Bosuter, said that Turkey’s relations with Egypt have been tense but would eventually return to their normal course. The Egyptian bride, Inci Abdullah, said she wished their marriage to have a positive effect on the two countries’ relations.

Best wishes. But not so fast, given Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s obsession about building a Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo.

Though jazz was never dead, it has definitely been seeing a resurgence within the past few years. Not only has it been regaining popularity, but it has also evolved, keeping its same technical sensibilities but adding new elements that are keeping the genre fresh and very much alive. Hailing from the legendary music town of New York City are jazz/rock fusion visionaries, Gideon King & City Blog, musical masterminds of instrumental sorcery.

Boasting a large scale band that includes guitar, two bass players (electric and upright), piano, two drummers, saxophone, flute, trumpet, several vocalists and even a member of Steely Dan, Gideon King & City Blog is not just an ensemble but an experience. An aurally rich group filled with sophisticated musicality, their newest self-titled album is full of vibrant arrangements, edgy lyrics, and chilled-out vibes.

Gideon King, the musical genius behind this legendary studio project, is a talented and ambitious composer who spent his entire upbringing surrounded by a highly musical family. Playing guitar since he was ten years old, he is also a talented producer known for his varying degrees of styles that span across pop, funk, rock, jazz and fusion. Throughout his life, he has found musical inspiration from Steely Dan, John Coltrane, Neil Young, Earth, Wind & Fire, Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Seal, Pat Metheny and many more in the worlds of classical, jazz and pop.

With the Iranian nuclear negotiations progressing rapidly toward a deal earlier this summer, Hillary Clinton sought out nervous Jewish Democratic mega-donors to assure them that — regardless of the deal’s final outcome — she would always have Israel’s back.

The State Department’s latest tranche of Clinton’s e-mails, however, may undercut that assertion.

As journalists pored over the 7,000 pages released Monday night, many noticed a slew of messages between Clinton and longtime family friend Sidney Blumenthal about Israel. Though barred from government work by the Obama White House, Blumenthal was nevertheless sending Clinton detailed policy memos on the Jewish state — memos pushing left-wing critiques of its government’s security and settlement policies and urging Clinton to wield “tough love” against its leaders.

He was also sending articles written by his son Max Blumenthal, a leader of the “boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel” movement whose thuggish push for anti-Israeli policies earned him a lifetime ban from the premises of the German parliament. One journalist wondered on Twitter whether Max Blumenthal, like his father, was directly advising Clinton on Israeli relations. “I warned her about the dangers of #JSIL,” the younger Blumenthal tweeted back. “She didn’t listen.”

Dear Reader (if there are any of you left),

Well, if this is the conservative movement now, I guess you’re going to have to count me out.

No, I’m not making some mad dash to the center. No, I’m not hoping to be the first alternate to Steve Schmidt on Morning Joe, nor am I vying to become my generation’s Kevin Phillips. I will never be a HillaryCon. And I have no plan to earn “strange new respect” from the Georgetown cocktail-party set I’m always hearing about but never meeting. But even if I have no desire to “grow” in my beliefs, I have no intention to shrink, either.

The late Bill Rusher, longtime publisher of National Review, often counseled young writers to remember, “Politicians will always disappoint you.” As I’ve often said around here, this isn’t because politicians are evil. It’s because politicians are politicians. Their interests too often lie in votes, not in principles. That’s why the conservative movement has always recognized that victory lies not simply in electing conservative politicians, but in shaping a conservative electorate that lines up the incentives so that politicians define their self-interest in a conservative way.

But if it’s true that politicians can disappoint, I think one has to say that the people can, too.

And when I say “the people” I don’t mean “those people.” I mean my people. I mean many of you, Dear Readers. Normally, when conservatives talk about how the public can be wrong, we mean that public. You know the one. The “low-information voters” Rush Limbaugh is always talking about. The folks we laughed at when Jay Leno interviewed them on the street. But we don’t just mean the unwashed and the ill-informed. We sometimes mean Jews, blacks, college kids, Lena Dunham fans, and countless other partisan slices of the electorate who reflexively vote on strict party lines for emotional or irrational reasons. We laugh at liberals who let know-nothing celebrities do their thinking for them.

Well, many of the same people we laughed at are now laughing at us because we are going ga-ga over our own celebrity.

Behold the Trumpen Proletariat

To undermine President Obama’s atrocious Iran deal despite the Republican-controlled Congress’s irresponsible Corker legislation, it will be necessary to follow, of all things, the Corker legislation.

On Wednesday, Barbara Mikulski became the 34th Senate Democrat to announce support for the deal, which lends aid and comfort to a regime that continues to call for “Death to America.” Under the Corker Roadmap to Catastrophe, Mikulski’s assent ostensibly puts President Obama over the top. After all, the legislation sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R., Ky.) and other Beltway GOP leaders reverses the Constitution’s presumptions against international agreements that harm national security. In essence, Corker requires dissenters from the Iran pact to round up a two-thirds supermajority opposition in both congressional chambers (67 senators and 290 House members). If the Constitution were followed, the burden would be on the president to convince either 67 senators to support a treaty, or majorities of both chambers to make the pact legally binding through ordinary legislation.

Mikulski’s announcement meant that dissenters would now be able to muster no more than 66 Senate votes against the deal. In fact, they won’t get that many. Additional Democrats, such as Cory Booker (N.J.) and Mark Warner (Va.), have dutifully trudged into Obama’s camp.

See the movie “Gifted Hands- The Ben Carson Story”- the remarkable biography of a remarkable and decent man……rsk

Republican voters have been expressing in every way they can that they’re fed up with Washington and the political class. But as angry as they are about the Obama era of governance, that doesn’t mean they’ll want an angry presidential nominee—or accept brashness as a substitute for conservative reform. Witness the rise of Ben Carson.

While the media have been recording every utterance from Donald Trump, the soft-spoken Mr. Carson has been surging in Iowa and across the country. A recent Monmouth poll in Iowa has him in a dead heat with Mr. Trump atop the Republican field and he’s only five points back in a Des Moines Register poll.

The website FiveThirtyEight uses data from Google and finds that over a recent three-week period Mr. Trump received 60 times more media coverage than Mr. Carson. Yet voters have still moved toward the retired pediatric neurosurgeon.