RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20518/eighth-amendment-violations

It is high time to call on all judges and patriots to put a stop to crimes committed by those who have been elected or appointed to uphold the laws of the nation and the US Constitution, but who instead have been violating the law and assaulting the Constitution – sadly with impunity. We have seen former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton allegedly obstruct justice by reportedly ordering her staff to destroy 33,000 subpoenaed emails with BleachBit and smash two of her 13 BlackBerry mobile devices. We have seen President Joe Biden violate a ruling by the Supreme Court that blocked him from using taxpayer funds, some from people who, for whatever reason, did not participate higher education, to pay off the student loans amounting to $138 billion of other people who did.

We have seen governmental violations of the First Amendment — from Soviet-style whispers to Facebook to quash the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop by declaring falsely – knowingly so, it turned out – that the material in it supposedly had “all the earmarks of Russian disinformation,” to calling true medical information false during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first maneuver was election interference – probably decisive in undermining the integrity of the 2020 election. The false medical information disseminated by the government, depriving the ill of alternative medicine – may have cost countless lives.

Sadly, as of late, we have been witnessing even more governmental abuse of power, astronomically out of control, by individuals elected or appointed to safeguard our laws and our Constitution, but who have been disregarding them at best and upending them at worst, specifically in the treatment individuals who supposedly walked through “the people’s house” on January 6, 2021, and most recently in disfiguring the Eighth Amendment to our Constitution to prosecute not a crime, but a person. The Eighth Amendment, in its entirety, states:

“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

To the severe detriment of our global reputation, the entire planet has just been witnessing staggering violations of those protections, through which District Attorneys and at least one judge have been permitted to skate.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/03/bragg-falsifies-business-records-charges-against-trump/

Oh, the irony.

Donald Trump is facing a state criminal trial for violating federal election laws that Alvin Bragg has no jurisdiction to enforce.

This is not apparent from last spring’s 34-count indictment, which Bragg couched as a state falsification-of-records prosecution. In the statement of facts he issued in connection with the indictment, the Manhattan district attorney also camouflaged his intentions, knowing a plainspoken admission that he was trying to enforce federal law — congressional statutes under which the responsible federal enforcement agencies had opted not to charge Trump — would ignite a firestorm. The statement of facts makes only a fleeting allusion to Trump’s involvement in a “scheme” in which participants “violated election laws” (not otherwise specified); and it conclusively alleges that the payment of hush money by Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, was “illegal” because Cohen has “since pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution.”

We should think of Bragg as falsifying his prosecution — just as he accuses Trump of falsifying business records.

Tellingly, Bragg avoided specifying the statute to which Cohen had pled guilty — a federal statute that the state prosecutor has no authority to enforce. And as an experienced prosecutor, Bragg must know that there is zero evidentiary value in what he touts as Cohen’s admission of guilt to federal campaign-finance felonies — made while Cohen was trying to sell himself to the Justice Department as a cooperator, hoping for leniency in an unrelated federal fraud case. Given Cohen’s lack of experience in the esoterica of federal election law, his admission does not establish even that he committed federal campaign-finance felonies, much less that Trump did.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/24/bobulinskis-testimony-unraveling-allegations-of-biden-family-influence-peddling/

The entertainment committee never sleeps.  Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski came to Congress a few days ago to testify before the House Oversight Committee about Hunter, his uncle Jim Biden, and the “Big Guy,” Mr. 10 percent, Joseph R. Biden himself.  It was an extraordinary performance. Calm. Deliberate. Detailed. Deadly. Mr. Bobulinski’s written statement shows what care he took in marshaling facts and evidence.

But it was his in-person testimony that made popping the corn worthwhile.  Tony Bobulinski and Congressman Jay Raskin. Tony Bobulinski and Congressman Dan Goldman.  He called both liars to their faces. It was delicious. It was also true.  Representative Raskin spluttered, stalled, and looked like he might burst into tears. He later, out of the line of fire, pouted about Mr. Bobulinski’s “outlandish and baseless accusations,” but that was just a feckless face-saving gambit.

Maybe the most entertaining moment of the afternoon came when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did her best Minnie Mouse impersonation and demanded to know what crimes, if any, Mr. Bobulinski was accusing Joe Biden of having committed. “RICO is not a crime!” she squeaked.  It was priceless.  The “greatest deliberative body in the world” in action, ladies and gentlemen. The country’s in the very best of hands.

But, as the old song said, “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” In any normal polity, Mr. Bobulinski’s testimony would have been devastating to its targets. But in our polity, it was just entertainment.  If Congressmen Raskin and Goldman were capable of embarrassment, they would be squirming with shame.  But they are not so endowed, which means that they will emerge unscathed by any pangs of conscience. After all, they are still in office. Perhaps they will even be reelected and continue suckling at the public teat for the rest of their adult lives.

There will be a lot of tongue-clucking. You’ll see many columns rehearsing the details of Mr. Bobulinski’s testimony. At the end of the day, though, it won’t matter what evidence Mr. Bobulinski adduced.  The Justice Department is run by the State Party, aka the Democrats, and the DOJ is going to do exactly nothing about what Rudy Giuliani colorfully baptized the Biden Crime Family.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/america/2024/03/shredding-the-law-to-get-donald-trump/

Nothing has shocked me as much recently as the result of New York Attorney-General Letitia James’ prosecution of Donald Trump, following closely, as it did, on the absurd award of $83 million in damages for defamation to memory-challenged alleged sexual assault victim, E. Jean Carroll. 

If you’re not reporting for  the mainstream media, you know this is a politically motivated hit-job. In other words, an attack on the very essence of American democracy.  You know, the ultimate sin of which Trump stands accused.  The one for which he must be defeated later this year. James told us exactly that when she campaigned for election on a platform of getting Trump:

I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president,” James said in a video during the campaign. “I believe that this president is incompetent. I believe that this president is ill-equipped to serve in the highest office of this land. And I believe that he is an embarrassment to all that we stand for.” She went on to say Trump should be indicted on criminal charges and charged with obstruction of justice.

So, even before she had any case, she was determined to pursue him, not because of any crime she may have suspected he committed but because in her eyes he was both an illegitimate president and incompetent. But, no doubt under the influence of Trump Derangement Syndrome, James would have been confident a fishing expedition would yield some dirt.  

There are many troubling aspects to this case.  The first is the staggering amount of the fine – US464 million.  And the second is that this matter was prosecuted as a civil fraud case.

New York, which reputedly has some of the toughest fraud legislation in the country, recognises two types of fraud – civil and criminal.  Here, from the website of East Coast Laws, is a short summary:

Fraud can be both a civil and criminal offense in New York. Civil fraud involves a breach of contract or a violation of a legal duty, resulting in harm to another party. The victim of civil fraud can sue the perpetrator and seek damages in court. Criminal fraud, on the other hand, involves intentionally deceiving someone for personal gain, which is a violation of the law. Criminal fraud is prosecuted by the government, and the penalties can include fines, imprisonment, and other criminal sanctions.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/03/the-shameful-success-of-letitia-james/

Her lawfare has worked brilliantly.

While other prongs of the lawfare campaign against Donald Trump are flailing or encountering timing issues, Letitia James has delivered.

The New York attorney general sought to use the power of the state to target Donald Trump, smash his business, and personally embarrass him.

So far, it’s promises made, promises kept.

While Fani Willis has disgraced herself and is hanging on by her fingernails, Jack Smith is beset by various delays that may keep him from achieving his goal of politically damaging trials before the election, and Alvin Bragg is stuck with a dog of a case, James has gone from strength to strength, gloating all the while.

All it takes, it turns out, to achieve lawfare success is a willingness to make abusive use of a broadly written statute, a pliant judge, and some moxie and determination.

Take note, America — this is how it’s done.

Even if her case somehow goes away tomorrow (and it won’t), she still will have gotten a fraud judgment against Trump and forced him to admit that he’s not liquid enough to produce the more than $450 million bond he needs to prevent her from beginning to collect the judgment. There’s speculation that Trump might resort to declaring Chapter 11 or simply let James take Trump Tower, both of which would be humiliations (and don’t seem likely).

There’s no doubt that in financial terms in this case, the walls really are closing in.

This is a great success for James and a great shame for our system. She has proven that it’s possible to stretch the law to make a dubious case against a political enemy in a major jurisdiction of the United States and impose a punishment with no connection to the underlying offense but with ruinous personal consequences.

We should all hope that this model is never repeated, whether the intended victim is a Republican or a Democrat, someone running for president or for alderman.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/22/speaker-johnson-counters-dem-attacks-against-netanyahu-by-inviting-him-to-address-congress/

Kudos to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who yesterday extended an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the U.S. House of Representatives. This was an important and much-needed gesture to reassure the Israeli people that the vast majority of Americans stand with Israel in its war against the Hamas terrorists and do not agree with the surge in hostility toward the Israeli government by the Biden administration and some Congressional Democrats.

Johnson’s invitation was in response to the backlash over shocking comments made last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, describing Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace and calling for new elections in Israel. Schumer also condemned how the Netanyahu government has conducted the war against Hamas and for its opposition to a two-state solution peace plan, which Schumer said will make Israel a “pariah.”

Schumer’s comments were condemned by Republicans and many Jewish groups. His criticism was so over the top that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s chief political rival, criticized Schumer for meddling in Israeli politics when he said, “Israel is a strong democracy, and only its citizens will determine its leadership and future. Any external intervention in the matter is incorrect and unacceptable.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu, who usually avoids criticizing U.S. officials, lambasted Schumer in an April 17 CNN interview:

“It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public, does on its own, and we’re not a banana republic.”

“The majority of Israelis support the policies of my government. It’s not a fringe government. It represents the policies supported by the majority of the people. If Senator Schumer opposes these policies, he’s not opposing me. He’s opposing the people of Israel.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/19/pro-israel-performer-matisyahu-concerts-canceled/?

There is no one quite like Matisyahu. The international reggae-hip-hop-rock artist burst on the scene 20 years ago, rapping his hit single “King Without a Crown,” while sporting the beard, sidelocks and black coat of Hasidic Judaism. NBC picked “One Day,” his stirring antiwar anthem, as theme music for its 2010 Winter Olympics coverage.

Matisyahu left Hasidism, but his music still reflects his strong Jewish identity, religiosity and affinity for Israel. Since Hamas’s massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, the singer has spoken out against rising antisemitism and in support of Israel. He has draped himself in an Israeli flag at concerts and placed an empty chair onstage to represent Israeli hostages in Gaza. He has called for Hamas to be “destroyed.” He has visited Israeli troops and sent a supportive video message to their families.

For all of that, he is paying a price: When Matisyahu arrived in Chicago earlier this month, he learned his March 8 show at the 1,400-capacity House of Blues — owned by Live Nation — would be canceled. The reason: the potential for unruly protests against him outside the venue.

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network, one of several groups calling for demonstrations against Matisyahu, cried victory: “Through our relentless pressure on [the House of Blues and] Live Nation, the concert of the racist, zionist Matisyahu was canceled!” the group said in a statement on X. “Chicago has made it clear that it stands with Palestine and supporters of the #GazaGenocide are not welcome here!”

https://www.catholicleague.org/cant-erase-our-judeo-christian-past/

Militant secularists would like to erase our religious heritage, but they are clearly in over their heads. Our nation’s Capitol abounds with Judeo-Christian iconography, so much so that it overwhelms attempts to cancel it.

The dome of the U.S. Capitol was inspired by the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, as well as St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
The Supreme Court building is modeled after a Roman temple.
St. Joseph’s church on Capitol Hill was built in 1868.
The Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress features The Court of Neptune Fountain; it resembles a grotto.
The west end of the Mall—from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial—has a statue of Lincoln surrounded by comments he made about his respect for God. At the far end of the Mall, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and the Capitol building have inscriptions honoring our Judaic heritage.
Within the Capitol there are statues of Catholic priests and nuns and medallions of Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX.
On the first floor of the Main Reading Room in the Library of Congress there is a statue of St. Paul.
In the Library there is a quote from the Book of Proverbs and a reference to God from Shakespeare.
There is a chapel in the U.S. Capitol. Moreover, prayer meetings for Senators and Congressmen are commonplace throughout.
Crucifixes abound in the Capitol.
On the front doors of the Capitol are pictures of Franciscans with rosaries, symbolizing the history of Columbus.
In the Rotunda, there is a painting of Hernando De Soto and his armies standing on the banks of the river rejoicing, as well as a depiction of priests planting a cross.

https://victorhanson.com/when-and-how-did-we-get-here-gradually-then-suddenly-part-four/

The final catalyst that led to our collective implosion was the election year 2020 and the accelerating Trump Derangement Syndrome. As the cities burned, unbelievable madness followed in efforts to ensure the incumbent president would not be reelected.

Suddenly, congressional officials, mayors, and governors all refused to keep the peace by requesting federal troops to stop the summer riots. The more the cities went up in flames, the more the blue states blamed Trump. It was almost as if they would fault Trump for the ongoing violence and blame him even more if he sent in the military to quell it.

Had they forgotten the Rodney King LA riots of 1992, when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Colin Powell, called up President George H. W. Bush to encourage him to deploy the 5,000 Marines then ready to go into South Central and Watts to quell the violence? And so, Bush did just that and stopped the mass looting and rioting.

No matter. The nation was now a Luche Libre of open anti-Trump craziness. Mark Zuckerberg poured in a historic $419 million to absorb the work of the registrars in key election precincts. Social media suppressed news unfavorable to Biden.

Street riots and protests were modulated to aid the Biden campaign. Liberal Time essayist Molly Ball described the “conspiracy”:

There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain–inspired by the summer’s massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests–in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.

https://twitter.com/vdhanson/status/1770445530646421937?t=-_2GpG8wfUWSVFbOLEmVNQ

From Russian Collusion to “Bloodbath”—A Decade of Toxic Hysteria Ever since late June 2015—following Donald Trump’s announcement that he was running for president, and his voicing of controversial agendas (on tariffs, China, illegal immigration, foreign policy, NATO, etc.)—leftwing toxic hysteria has been the norm.

In the last ten years, we’ve witnessed the Russian collusion hoax, calls from military officers and analysts for extra-legal interventions and coups, the Alfa ping hoax, the drink bleach hoax, the “suckers” D-Day hoax, the celebrities’ contest about the best way to decapitate, stab, blow up, shoot, or incinerate Trump, the 2016 leftwing postelection effort to turn state electors into “faithless” apostates to elect Hillary, the nutty Mark Milley call to his Chinese counterpart, the Antifa/BLM riotous months of 2020 and effort to storm the White House grounds, the two first-term impeachments, the laptop “Russian disinformation” hoax, the pee accusation, the “51 intelligence authorities” ruse, the FBI hiring of Twitter censors to suppress unwanted news, the Senate trial of a private citizen, the January 6 “insurrection” where “five police officers were killed” lie, the farcical two Republican members of the Jan 6 committee, the attempt to remove Trump from state ballots, the insane E. Jean Carroll suit, the Letitia James “find me the man, and I’ll find you the crime” writ, the monstrous $355 million fine growing daily to $450, the Alvin Bragg bootstrapping of an inert federal suit, the Fani Willis/Nathan Wade circus, the Jack Smith antithesis to Robert Hur’s twin investigation, the effort to bankrupt the Republican nominee, and of course the constant calls to pack the court (when the Left lost the majority), to end the filibuster (when Democrats control the Senate), to add two new states and four new senators (provided they are DC and Puerto Rico) and to end the Electoral College (once the Left lost the surety of the reliable blue wall).

What is the effect of all this decade-long civil strife on the 2024 voter?