RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/new_gallup_poll_shows_nearly_40_of_americans_identify_as_socially_conservativeand_that_number_is_climbing.html

We all know the proverbial “give them enough rope” aphorism but in this age of apathy, I wondered if the precept was obsolete. In a world where political power rightfully belongs to the people but requires vigilance, I didn’t have high expectations of a stuporous public deluded by television, streaming services, and social media — of course, the “bread and circuses” maxim also comes to mind.

However, it looks as though I may have been letting my pessimism get the best of me….

A Gallup poll released today revealed something I didn’t expect: right around 40% of Americans say they identify as “conservative” on “social issues” — and, a deeper look at the numbers paints a rather bright picture. From Gallup:

More Americans this year (38%) say they are very conservative or conservative on social issues than said so in 2022 (33%) and 2021 (30%). At the same time, the percentage saying their social views are very liberal or liberal has dipped to 29% from 34% in each of the past two years, while the portion identifying as moderate (31%) remains near a third.

Furthermore:

Since 2021, there have been double-digit increases in conservative social ideology among middle-aged adults — those between the ages of 30 and 64. At the same time, older Americans’ ideology on social issues has been stable, while there has been a modest increase in conservative social ideology among young adults.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/hate-group-smears-parental-rights-groups-as-hate-groups/

Apart from pro-lifers, the anti-family Left hates nothing quite so fervently as parents who believe they should have more authority over their own children than the government does. And so the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – a fear-mongering, corrupt, discredited but influential smear organization that demonizes mainstream conservatives as “hate groups” – has placed a dozen parental rights organizations on its “hate map” as “antigovernment extremist groups.”

According to the SPCA’s annual 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism report, the burgeoning, Florida-based Moms for Liberty organization was added to the Center’s hate list along with 11 other parental rights groups. These purportedly dangerous mothers now join 701 other “antigovernment” entities – as if “antigovernment” is an unreasonable stance to take in the wake of the totalitarian pandemic lockdowns, the weaponization of the FBI and the Department of Justice against the Obama and Biden administrations’ political enemies, the Department of Homeland Security’s abandonment of border security, and on and on. In light of the havoc the current regime is intentionally waging against the American people, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could be pro-government.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is the same organization, by the way, that does not list the domestic terrorists of Antifa or Black Lives Matter among its so-called “hate groups.” It does, however, name Freedom Center founder David Horowitz among its “extremists” – indeed, the SPLC rather melodramatically calls him “the godfather of the modern anti-Muslim movement.” (As Horowitz himself has stated many times, neither he nor the Freedom Center is “anti-Muslim” but pro-freedom, which does put the Center proudly at odds not with all Muslims but with anti-democratic sharia law and with anti-Western jihadists. The “godfather” label is an amusing touch, painting Horowitz as some kind of Vito Corleone-style crime family patriarch).

Back to the demonization of parental rights groups. Categorized under “Locally driven right-wing mobilization” (because grass-roots community organizing is only acceptable when the Left does it, don’t ya know) the SPLC report reads, “Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s report claims. “Hard right,” by the way, is the SPLC’s favorite scare label for anyone to the Right of Lenin.

ttps://www.frontpagemag.com/trump-indicted-for-crime-every-admin-in-last-40-years-was-guilty-of/

Selective criminalization is unequal justice. Selective criminalization aimed at political opponents is political repression.

Every administration since President Ronald Reagan’s has mismanaged classified documents, according to National Archives and Records Administration officials who spoke to a congressional committee behind closed doors in March.

Mark Bradley, who directs the agency’s Information Security Oversight Office, said that since 2010, his office has gotten more than 80 calls from libraries that have found classified information in papers belonging to members of Congress.

For example, Sen. Edmund Muskie, D-Maine — who left Congress in 1980 and was secretary of state in the last year of President Jimmy Carter’s administration — included 98 classified documents when his papers were given to Bates College.

Biden seemed to have dumped classified documents just about everywhere he set foot. Never mind Hillary and her server. Or the other manifold examples.

Since old dogs never learn any new tricks, this is once again a process crime created by the Dems investigating Trump. Indicting presidential associates on process crimes is one thing, but going after Trump on a process crime is unrealistic. But then this isn’t about actually winning the case, but winning an election.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/davidhasanyi/2023/06/09/nothing-to-see-here-but-a-credible-whistleblower-accusing-the-president-of-bribery-n1701816

President Joe Biden has been accused by a credible informant of allegedly taking $5 million in “a bribery scheme with a foreign national” while he was the sitting vice president. That seems like a pretty big story, but what do I know?

Apparently, there’s a document laying out the accusation in some detail, and not one cooked up by an oppo-research firm for the Republican National Committee and then disseminated to saps in the media to try and delegitimize a presidential election. No, it’s in an unclassified FD-1023 form, used by law enforcement to record credible tips. Granted, it’s not in the possession of BuzzFeed, but rather the vaunted FBI, which refuses to hand it to Congress for some reason. And there is no curiosity on the part of establishment media to find out what it says.

I know, I know, it’s getting tedious asking people to imagine the thermonuclear media blast they’d be swept up in if a Republican president had been accused of bribery by an FBI informant. This is the way of the world. To this point, the debate over the proper pronunciation of Ron DeSantis’ last name has gotten more coverage than the president possibly pocketing millions of dollars through shell corporations.

Though, I suppose that’s not exactly right. Biden’s Praetorian Guard have begun to preemptively frame chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, as some devious nut for demanding the FBI hand over documents. This is what they did to Devin Nunes, who turned out to be correct in his assessment of the Russia collusion investigation.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/06/08/biden-melts-down-during-presser-when-asked-about-bribery-allegation-gives-unbelievable-answer-n758118

As we reported earlier, Joe Biden held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom on Thursday. He needed note cards to just do his greetings with Sunak, and he got confused about what the prime minister’s position was. That raised fresh concerns about his mental ability to do the job.

Then the White House decided to throw caution to the wind and had him answer a few questions. Of course, he had a pre-approved list as he usually does, so he may also have the questions and answers in front of him as well.

But even that didn’t stop Joe from being Joe (that is, putting his foot in his mouth). Biden completely blanked out on part of what the question was that a reporter just asked him.

This, even though he appeared to have cards and at various points during the press conference, looked to be reading off them/referencing them.

He also seemed to have no idea how many people there are in Africa.

The staff was trying to get the reporters out of the room, but they were able to get in a couple more questions before he left the room. That’s where it truly went off the rails.

That’s when Biden started getting disturbed and testy when he was questioned about corruption—specifically what Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said about evidence that he sold out the country. A reporter asked, “Bribery allegations. Congresswoman Nancy Mace says there’s damning evidence in an FBI file that you sold out the country. Do you have a response?” Biden’s response was unbelievable.

Biden smirked, and said, “Where’s the money?” He then called it “a bunch of malarkey.” His smirk shows he thinks he’s untouchable, that he won’t be held accountable for anything.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/06/09/how-do-we-get-back-the-lockdown-time-stolen-from-us/

Our sense of incarceration from the pandemic lockdowns was caused by more than being unable to live as freely as we had before the diktats were issued. Like inmates locked in a prison, we lost track of time. It was stolen from us by “leaders” who willingly traded our liberty for a perception of safety, and in too many cases in exchange for satisfying their authoritarian urges.

A study published late last month by Scottish researchers “found a large error for estimating the timing of events that occurred in 2021” when they questioned participants about the past events.

“The findings show that participants were less able to recall the timeline of very recent events coinciding with COVID lockdowns” and “are consistent with poor perception of event timeline reported previously in prison inmates.”

Though the authors, from the University of Aberdeen, acknowledged that “​​drawing a comparison between the prison environment and pandemic related restriction might be seen as an extreme case,” they were still confident “that there are similarities in the extent of social isolation in both situations.”

This isn’t the first research paper to reach this conclusion. A University of California, Irvine, study posted last August in an online science journal concluded that “the passage of time was altered for many people during the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from difficulty in keeping track of days of the week to feeling that the hours themselves rushed by or slowed down.”

Previous studies had found that “these distortions have been associated with persistent negative mental outcomes such as depression and anxiety following trauma.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/racial-gerrymandering-supreme-court-allen-v-milligan-john-roberts-clarence-thomas-gingles-alabama-7b595b78?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Chief Justice John Roberts has wisely led the Supreme Court away from the political thicket of partisan gerrymandering, writing in Rucho v. Common Cause that he sees no “judicially discernible and manageable” standards to police it. But with an opportunity to clarify the law on racial gerrymandering, the Chief passed.

This is unfortunate, given the muddled status quo. The upshot of Thursday’s 5-4 split in Allen v. Milligan is to send Alabama back to the drawing board to create a second black-majority U.S. House district. Yet other states have tried that approach, only to be admonished by the Court that their maps were drawn with too much emphasis on race.

Alabama has seven House seats, with a black majority in one. That divides out to 14%. Yet the state’s voting-age population is 26% black. Alabama argued that when it redrew its House map after the 2020 census, it enacted only “race-neutral adjustments for small shifts in population.” But a federal district court ruled that the Voting Rights Act (VRA) requires a second majority-black district, for 29% representation.

Section 2 of the VRA says voting practices must be “equally open” and can’t give racial minorities “less opportunity” to “elect representatives of their choice.” The precedent for vote dilution is Gingles (1986), which set up a multipart test. The minority group must be “sufficiently large and compact” and “politically cohesive.” The “totality of circumstances” must suggest the political process isn’t equally open.

The trick is that Section 2 also explicitly says it creates no right for any group to have its members “elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population.” Other High Court rulings have called racial gerrymandering “odious,” applying strict scrutiny if it’s a “predominant” factor for mapmakers. Alabama said its critics could draw two black-majority districts “only by starting with a ‘nonnegotiable’ racial target and backfilling with other redistricting criteria.” Sure sounds “predominant.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/a_government_at_war_with_its_people.html

Warfare requires deception.  The federal government habitually lies to the American people.  Consider that an admission that it sees itself at war with those it claims to serve.

You might have noticed that the word “propaganda” has been somewhat retired from polite conversation.  Occasionally, some State-allied news corporation will apply the term to a public statement coming from inside Russia, but otherwise, the idea that governments promote falsehoods cloaked as official truths has quietly disappeared.  

Instead, ordinary information enjoyed and shared among regular people is now targeted for classification.  An alliance of national governments, international institutions, and propaganda engines disguised as disinterested nonprofits has sprung up to toss “unacceptable” thoughts into garbage piles for “mis-,” “mal-,” and “dis-” information trash bins.  As with everything else in modern society, the cult of expertise has even given us “disinformation experts” to decide what knowledge belongs where.  

The small coterie of “disinformation experts” recognized and promoted by governments then monitor what the common people are saying among themselves, cast their nets around anything “unacceptable,” and stigmatize those words and thoughts as deserving of censorship.  Perhaps one day soon there will be academic degrees in “disinformation” or special licenses distinguishing State-approved professionals as qualified to tell the rest of us what is real.  As a rule of thumb, if you want to know what kinds of knowledge governments fear their citizens possessing, look to the subjects that require numerous layers of authority validation before access is granted or titles are conferred.  Now the knowledge that governments fear their citizens possessing is simply information outside their control.  

In this way, officials have flipped the script on propaganda.  Rather than the people calling out governments for their lies, governments pre-emptively defame their citizens as liars.  How do governments know when their citizens are “lying”?  Easy.  They just isolate anybody who contradicts publicly announced official truths.  Like a puff of smoke vanishing in the wind, government propaganda disappears because anyone who recognizes it as such is guilty of spreading “mis-,” “mal-,” or “dis-” information.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/07/remembering-the-horrors-of-d-day/

Seventy-nine years ago this week, the Allies assaulted the Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944. 

Their invasion marked the largest amphibious landing since the Persians under Xerxes invaded the Greek mainland in 480 B.C. 

Nearly 160,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers stormed five beaches of Nazi-occupied France. The plan was to liberate Western Europe after four years of occupation, push into Germany, and end the Nazi regime.

Less than a year later, the Allies from the West, and the Soviet Russians from the East, did just that, utterly destroying Hitler’s Third Reich. 

Ostensibly, the assault seemed impossible even to attempt. 

Germany had repulsed with heavy Canadian losses an earlier Normandy raid at Dieppe in August 1942. 

The Germans also knew roughly when the Allies were coming. They placed their best general, Erwin Rommel, in charge of the Normandy defenses. 

The huge D-Day force required enormous supplies of arms and provisions just to get off the beaches. Yet the Allies had no means of capturing even one port on the nearby heavily fortified French coast. 

To land so many troops so quickly, the Allies would have to ensure complete naval and air supremacy. 

They would have to tow over from Britain their own ports, lay their own gasoline pipeline across the English Channel, and invent novel ships and armored vehicles just to get onto and over the beaches. 

More dangerous still, the invaders would ensure armor and tactical air dominance to avoid being cut off, surrounded, and annihilated once they went inland. 

German Panzer units—battle-hardened troops in frightening Panther and Tiger tanks, with over three hard years of fighting experience on the Eastern Front—were confident they could annihilate in a matter of days the outnumbered lightly armed invaders. 

Such a huge force required 50 miles of landing space on the beaches. That vast expanse ensured that some landing sites were less than ideal—Omaha Beach in particular. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/our-dangerous-contempt-for-work/

Large numbers of younger American workers, especially Gen Z’ers, those born between 1997 and 2012, are demonstrating some dangerous attitudes about work and employment. The problem isn’t a lack of jobs. Nearly half of small businesses recently reported having unfilled job openings, nearly twice the half-century historical average. And 41% say they have raised compensation. Overall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 10 million unfilled jobs at the end of April, followed by 399,000 new jobs in May.

A more likely explanation is changes in mores and attitudes towards work. “Funemployment,” for example, according to Investopedia describes “those who lost their jobs and choose to use their newfound freedom to pursue leisure activities such as traveling, going to the beach, and being physically active until they find a new job.”

Taking one’s time to find a new job while drawing unemployment benefits is nothing new, but usually those who do so are working for cash to increase their income. The “funemployed” are spending money on “leisure activities,” and many live with their parents.

Then there are those who still work but practice “quiet quitting,” basically goldbricking on the job by doing only the bare minimum. Gallup estimates that half of the workforce practices “quiet quitting,” especially Gen Z’ers and younger Millennials. This attitude was facilitated during the Covid years, when the trillions of dollars in federal and state money sloshing through the economy made it affordable to blow off employment or risk one’s job. And don’t forget, during the lockdowns many employees got hooked on working from home, where supervision is lax and goofing off on the company’s dime is easy.

But again, changing attitudes toward work are more pertinent than money when it comes to a lack of respect for honest labor. According to 74% of managers in a Resume Builder survey, Gen Z’ers are “difficult to work with. . . . About half (49%) of [managers] find it difficult to work with Gen Z’ers all (11%) or most of the time (39%). Additionally, 16% say they find it difficult a lot of the time, while 20% say some of the time and 10% say not much of the time. Only 4% said they almost never find it to be difficult.