RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/01/banana-time-for-the-rule-of-law/

The Czech novelist Milan Kundera published The Joke, his first novel, in 1967. It traces the fortunes of Ludvik, a young student, after his politically correct girlfriend shows the Communist authorities a postcard he had written to her as a joke: “Optimism is the opium of the people! A healthy atmosphere stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky! Ludvik.” As a result of this whimsy, Ludvik finds himself expelled from the Communist Party, the university, and is eventually conscripted to work in the mines. 

That’s the way things are in totalitarian societies. No jokes allowed, especially not jokes told at the expense of the regime. 

Thus it is that North Korea banned sarcasm and irony. 

Poor Ludvik suffered for his joke. But he got off easy compared to Douglass Mackey, a social media “influencer” who wrote under the pen name “Ricky Vaughn.” 

During the 2016 election cycle, Mackey/Vaughn posted a funny meme urging Hillary voters to “avoid the line and vote from home” by texting “Hillary” to a certain number. 

Who would be stupid enough to fall for such a joke? No one. But his satire was effective enough to get him banned from the pre-Elon Musk era Twitter. And the feds thought—or said they thought—that it was part of a “plot to disenfranchise black and women voters.” I guess that shows you what they think of black and women voters. 

It sounds stupid. It is stupid. But Mackey was charged with a felony and on Friday was convicted in the Eastern District of New York. He faces up to 10 years in jail for (as an official announcement crows) “his scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.”

https://pjmedia.com/culture/chris-queen/2023/04/01/winsome-sears-gives-real-time-some-real-talk-about-parenting-and-gender-n1683630

Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R-Va.) is a national treasure. She’s the first woman to serve as Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the first black woman to hold a statewide office in that state. She’s a veteran and has an inspiring story as an immigrant from Jamaica to the U.S. She’s also a compelling speaker and gives delightful interviews — so much so that she lives up to her first name.

Sears’ appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher on Friday night demonstrates how wonderful of a voice she is when it comes to conservatism and traditional values. Appearing on a panel with Tablet columnist James Kirchick and Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.), she gave Maher’s audience a dose of perspective about the recent Nashville shooting and tied it in with the rights of parents to protect their children from the state.

The video clip begins in the middle of Kirchick talking about how the media has treated the Nashville shooter’s gender identity mess differently than it usually treats transgender people.

“They are referring to the murderer by their given name, not their chosen name, and by their referring to her as a woman, as opposed to what her identity apparently was, was a man, which is not the way the media usually does these things,” Kirchick says. “They’re usually very particular about the subjective sense of gender identity and respecting that if someone says they’re a man, then they’re a man, but in this case, they’re not doing that.”

But then Sears jumps in with some unvarnished truth.

“Hang on,” she begins. “You know what? This person murdered six people. I don’t really care who you say you are. You murdered six people, and three of them were children. You don’t get a say — well, she’s dead now, so, you know — but you don’t get a say in telling us who you are and what you’re about. You killed six people.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/04/01/bill-maher-and-j-k-rowling-are-asking-questions-about-transgenderism-that-many-on-the-left-wont-n1683725

A Gallup poll from last year found that the percentage of Americans identifying as LGBT increases with each generation, with less than 1% of those born before 1946, 2.6% of Baby Boomers, 4.2% of Generation X, 10.5% of millennials, and 20.8% of Gen Z. Does that look organic? Of course, it doesn’t; it’s a social contagion. Even left-wing comedian Bill Maher recognizes what’s happening: that being LGBT, particularly transgender, is trendy.

Transgenderism was once extremely rare and limited to middle-aged men. However, it has become increasingly prevalent among children in recent years, with a surge in young girls expressing a desire to transition.

“I think most who do it, you know I’ve talked to parents about this, a lot of times you just know that kid is not gay, you know, there was just, the factory installed equipment didn’t match, ok, that’s a real thing, it happens, it’s rare but it happens. But, and you’re talking about, there are other ones now because it is also somewhat trendy, I know people hate to hear that but it’s obviously true, there is an element of social contagion, or else it wouldn’t be so prevalent in here [California] and not in Indiana, it wouldn’t be regional,” Maher said.

This is not the first time that Maher acknowledged the transgender social contagion.

“If we can’t admit that, in certain enclaves, there is some level of trendiness to the idea of being anything other than straight, then this is not a serious, science-based discussion. It’s a blow being struck in the culture wars using children as cannon fodder,” he said last year.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/31/from-stanford-to-israel-mobocracy-triumphs-over-deliberation/

The very notion of republican self-governance, which has been a core tenet of Western Civilization since the demise of the great monarchs of Europe, depends upon the willingness of citizens to debate and deliberate the most pressing issues of society. Sadly, high-profile recent examples, from the tony terrain of Stanford University all the way to the raucous streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, underscore the extent to which Western societies have given up on reasoned deliberation and capitulated to mobocracy. Where this civilizational decline ultimately ends is anyone’s guess.

Earlier this month, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan was relentlessly heckled and successfully shouted down by a frothing mob of mini-Robespierre jackals who call themselves Stanford Law School students. The mob was simultaneously juvenile and outright vile, with one student unconscionably yelling to the esteemed jurist, “We hope your daughters get raped!” Even more galling, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” Associate Dean Tirien Steinbach finally rose up upon the judge’s plea to restore order . . . and, in prepared remarks, sided with the protesters and ludicrously asked whether the “juice” (of Judge Duncan’s planned remarks) was worth the “squeeze” of the alleged “harm” to the pampered brat students that Duncan’s mere presence caused. (Steinbach has since been placed on administrative leave by Dean Jenny Martinez, although the culpable students have tragically escaped thus far with impunity.)

Earlier this week in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose conservative governing coalition has for months been pushing a set of anodyne, sorely needed and long-overdue reforms to the unaccountable and almighty Israeli Supreme Court, agreed to pause his legislative push amidst unprecedented pushback and widespread societal meltdown. The at-times hundreds of thousands of rioters in the streets, who blocked highways and tracked down and physically intimidated leading pro-reform legislators and even Netanyahu’s wife, had reached a debilitating fever pitch. A disturbing number of Israel Defense Forces reservists had reneged upon their military duties. Powerful unions had successfully temporarily grounded all departing flights from Ben Gurion International Airport. Venture capitalists had pulled billions of U.S. dollars’ worth of investment out of Israel’s thriving high-tech sector. All this, despite the left-wing opposition categorically refusing to sit down and negotiate in good faith on the judicial reform legislation.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/31/after-years-of-j6-fearmongering-left-wing-activists-storm-tennessee-capitol-while-doj-stays-silent/

A mob of anti-Second Amendment activists stormed the Tennessee Capitol on Thursday, demanding restrictions on Americans’ right to bear arms following the Nashville killing of six Christians, three of whom were children, at the hands of a transgender-identifying shooter. 

Video footage shows the leftist assailants shoving state troopers, taking over the floor of the Tennessee General Assembly, and screaming at state lawmakers through a bullhorn. 

By left-wing standards, the riot in the Tennessee Capitol is an insurrection and a dangerous affront to democracy. Oddly enough, however, Democrats and the corporate media have dubbed the attack “peaceful” and labeled the insurrectionists as “protestors.” Meanwhile, the Department of Justice, which for over two years has been persecuting those who demonstrated at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has so far said nothing about the Tennessee insurrection. 

Will the Tennessee insurrectionists be thrown in jail for two years and denied due process? Will the FBI begin labeling “mainstream” liberals as terrorists, as former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe did to conservatives following Jan. 6? Will there be a months-long show trial where political opportunists smear the protesters while hiding exculpatory surveillance footage from the public and defendants’ lawyers? Will March 30 go down as one of the worst days in American history — comparable to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and the Civil War? It’s doubtful. 

The Democrats, corporate press, and DOJ’s wildly disparate reactions to the U.S. Capitol and Tennessee Capitol “insurrections” are emblematic of our nation’s two-tier justice system. In 2020, Black Lives Matter rioters torched American cities. The property damage and lives lost were far greater during the summer of 2020 than on Jan. 6. Yet BLM rioters were lionized, and some even received bail from funds raised by Vice President Kamala Harris herself.  

https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/31/left-smears-ron-desantis-for-pointing-out-the-truth-about-george-soros/

For Democrats, ‘antisemitism’ is just another cynical political tool.

After the indictment of Donald Trump finally fell, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked the transparently partisan and “un-American” nature of a D.A. going after a presidential candidate with rickety 7-year-old campaign finance charges, noting that Alvin Bragg is a “Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney.”

That last bit is indisputably true. DeSantis didn’t contend that Bragg was “bought” or “under the thumb” of Soros — even though either would be completely within the norms of modern political rhetoric. He simply asserted that Bragg was “Soros-backed.”

“They’re attacking Jewish international bankers,” Joe Scarborough explained to his guests this morning, including best buddy Al Sharpton, a man who led a pogrom against Jews in New York. “It’s what antisemites have been doing for hundreds of years. … That’s what they do. They try to blame everything on Jewish international bankers. It’s Germany 1933.”

The first question any reasonable person would ask is why? In the partisan-riddled, hyperactive imagination of “Morning Joe,” every Republican is a budding member of the Volksgemeinschaft; but why, in the real world, would the governor of Florida, a state with a sizable Jewish population, send antisemitic dog whistles? DeSantis, according to Morning Joe an “antisemite,” is headed to Israel in a few weeks and has never engaged in any rhetoric or supported any issue that could remotely be construed as anti-Jewish. Indeed, DeSantis is constantly praising the Jewish community.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/the_personal_tragedy_of_the_recent_poll_about_american_values.html

The Wall Street Journal/NORC conducted a survey about American values. For anyone watching the news, it wasn’t a surprise to learn that, in the 24 years since similar questions were put to Americans, our citizens have lost faith in God and country. That’s what leftists have been teaching for a long time. But the real kicker is that Americans no longer want to have children. That’s not just bad for the country; that’s bad for the people in the country.

Here are the basic, sad facts of the poll:

Long-held values like patriotism, religion and community involvement are in retreat across America, according to a stunning poll released Monday.

The Wall Street Journal/NORC survey found that just 38% of Americans say patriotism is “very important” to them, down from 70% who said the same in 1998.

Slightly more Americans (39%) placed the same importance on religion, down from 62% who said faith was “very important” to them 25 years ago.

​The percentage of Americans who said raising children was “very important” fell to 30% in the new poll, down from 59% in 1998.

Meanwhile, the share of Americans who valued involvement in their community as “very important” fell to 27% — down from a high of 62% in 2019, the last time the question was polled.

One virtue long associated with liberals, a belief in tolerance for others, is now deemed very important by 58% of Americans — down from 80% four years ago.

Every one of those changes is the result of the rise of leftism in America. It isn’t any great feat to understand this: Leftism has always held that America is a bad country and that God is an unnecessary, censorious throwback to a backward, premodern time before leftism brought true light to the world.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/03/31/federal-bureau-of-inanity-fbi-plans-coloring-event-for-agents-n1683539

Besides stepping us their attacks on Democrats’ political opponents in the last year, the increasingly woke FBI is reportedly descending to the level of the infantile for work events. According to several former FBI agents and whistleblowers, the agency is planning fun events for on-duty employees including office yoga (you don’t have to leave your chair!), painting, and coloring with crayons. Thank goodness adults are in charge of the country, right?

FBI whistleblower Steve Friend went on fellow FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin’s podcast March 31 to discuss the ridiculous FBI events for which he provided a screenshot on Twitter. Seraphin said FBI Human Resources and Security executive Jennifer Moore, who suspended both Seraphin and Friend, is like a crazy kindergarten teacher. She certainly appears to be under the impression that FBI agents are kindergartners.

Planned events for the FBI Security Division for April and May to enhance “health and wellness” reportedly include “National Walking Day,” which involves a “short walk” so you can “get to know your colleagues” and return with “a renewed sense of productivity.” Next is “Office Yoga,” which involves “a series of simple movements to strengthen and stretch the whole body while seated in a chair.” A desk jockey’s dream! Then there’s “Lunch and Coloring,” a “fun series of coloring sessions” to showcase “your colleagues’ artistic sides,” with supplies provided. Finally, there’s “National Creativity Day,” also an opportunity to “unleash your creativity” in a “painting class.” Makes you feel good your taxes pay these people’s salaries, doesn’t it?

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/03/31/trump-supporter-found-guilty-faces-ten-years-in-prison-for-2016-anti-hillary-meme-n1683566

Donald Trump has been indicted, essentially for the crime of being Donald Trump and opposing the Left’s total hegemony over everything. But as Trump himself has often warned, they’re not really after him, they’re after us, and he is just in the way. A 33-year-old Trump supporter named Douglass Mackey discovered the truth of that adage in the worst possible way on Friday, the first day of America as a Leftist banana republic in which foes of the regime are targeted solely for their opposition to that regime. Mackey was convicted of election interference and faces up to ten years in prison, all because of a meme he tweeted during the 2016 election. Yes, you read that right: a meme.

Back during the wild and woolly days of that campaign, according to a Friday press release from the “Justice” Department, Mackey, under the name Ricky Vaughn, “established an audience on Twitter with approximately 58,000 followers. A February 2016 analysis by the MIT Media Lab ranked Mackey as the 107th most important influencer of the then-upcoming Presidential Election.” The Justice for Democrats Department didn’t bother to explain exactly what it means to have held a position so illustrious as that of the 107th most important influencer of the 2016 presidential election. How did the DOJ go about determining this? Did it somehow discover that Mackey/Vaughn had induced a certain number of people to change their votes, but that 106 other people had gotten people to change more votes?

These are actually important questions because on Friday, Mackey was convicted “by a federal jury in Brooklyn of the charge of Conspiracy Against Rights stemming from his scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.” That’s what he faces ten years in prison for doing. Mackey’s “conspiracy” was really quite simple. While the language the Department Formerly Associated with Justice used sounds quite weighty and conjures up images of Mackey meeting in dark rooms with other sinister figures to plot ways to sabotage voting machines or prevent people from being able to enter polling places, what they’re really talking about is a meme.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/04/01/trump-isnt-a-special-case-hes-a-test-case/

Liberals might be scratching their heads over why potential Donald Trump rivals are rushing to denounce his indictment. The reason is simple. Conservative Republicans know that if this assault is allowed to stand, they will be next.

The left, as well as the rabble of never-Trump Republicans, like to tell everybody that the unprecedented measures taken against Trump – culminating with this week’s indictment – are justified because he poses a unique threat to our precious democracy.

Just to review, we’re talking about measures like Democrats impeaching him twice on the flimsiest of grounds. Like federal law enforcement engaging in a coordinated campaign to smear him as a Russian stooge. Like journalists dropping any shred of objectivity and professionalism to attack Trump, up to and including peddling obvious falsehoods.

Measures like Big Tech companies signing on as paid censors of the federal government to stamp out “misinformation.” Like national security “experts” selling lies about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Like raiding Trump’s home.

But the lie at the center of all this is that Trump is a special case that justifies such previously unimaginable antics.

He’s not.

Trump is a test case.