RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19538/axis-vs-allies-then-and-now

In their summit meeting, Chinese and Russian leadership have done democracy a service of sorts. They have made their intentions clear and unmistakable. We need to have the strength, wisdom, insight, and courage to confront an alliance whose intent is to reduce America to a historic afterthought.

World War II was already a year old when Germany, Japan and Italy formally signed the Tripartite Pact in 1940, creating a military alliance among three nations intent on world domination. History would subsequently call them the Axis powers. It would be another year before America entered the conflict, but this Axis alliance of power sent a sharp and chilling message to Washington. There was no mistaking now that our nation, and our very civilization, was now in serious jeopardy.

In its wake, America accelerated its defense planning and just prior to the Axis pact being signed, the United States reintroduced the draft in recognition that, pact or no pact, democracy was at risk.

Today’s “Axis” alliance membership is different — China and Russia, along with North Korea and Iran — but the goals are the same. For Chinese and Russian leadership to meet over the bodies of Ukrainian freedom fighters sends a message to free nations around the world. This 21st Century Axis has the same goals of its historic predecessor: global domination. While China is clearly the more powerful of those two nations, its intent to achieve global dominance is obvious to even the most casual observer.

Consider the data that is available as public information. Analysts report China spends $300 billion a year on its military, up from $22 billion some 23 years ago. The Chinese Communist Party intends to own the Pacific. Their navy is now larger than ours and they have created artificial islands upon which they have built military bases capable of firing missiles at American aircraft carriers patrolling international waters. Analysts also report they are gaining on nuclear warheads and with more land based missiles than the U.S.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/29/no-going-back/

Like most polls, Gallup polls are usually paid advertisements for whomever commissions them and therefore deserving of as little attention. However, the indefatigable Sharyl Attkisson recently reported on the results of one such survey and that did draw my attention. Evidently, 47 percent of Americans say life will never go back to pre-pandemic normal. I was somewhat stunned! How could 53 percent be thinking we could go back? 

This led me to darker thoughts on the collateral damage of our recent foolishness. At least 53 percent of Americans will be woefully unprepared for what is coming. Due to their own unwillingness to bear witness to the reality around them, much less recognize the consequences, the unprepared will be the first to panic, and their panic will result in more bad behavior at a time when strength of character will be needed. 

But there is worse yet: 33 percent of Americans say their lives are completely back to normal. I had no idea that 33 percent of Americans lived in caves! But then, my own ignorance never fails to astound me. What could be considered normal to these citizens? Even in peaceful and civilized New Hampshire, we can see the damage done. 

How could this be? Well, perhaps it is tied to the fact that more than half of all Americans are on some level of government welfare, from Social Security to child care assistance, and those payments have not been diminished. Nevertheless, the inflationary costs of food and fuel have dramatically risen in the last three years due to federal monetary policies as well as profligate spending, so that doesn’t explain everything. 

Anyone reasonably sentient must be aware of the problems caused by the COVID lockdown and the misdirection of tax revenues, allegedly to “soften” that blow, but actually and cynically proffered in order to gain votes. From drug use to family decomposition, the rise in crime and the disintegration of our physical infrastructure, there is a lot of visible devastation out there. Is this poll indicating 33 percent of Americans are comatose? 

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/03/30/youll-live-like-peasants-and-youll-like-it/

Every day it gets more difficult to ignore just how odious the political left in this country is. In case we needed a reminder – we didn’t – another instance of the progressives’ deranged minds landed last week: The Biden administration is, in effect, coming after air conditioners.

No, it doesn’t appear that the White House is planning to outright ban air conditioning. But a recent round of rule making at the Energy Department will make new window units less efficient at cooling and more expensive to buy, which will create hardships for the millions of poor Americans who use them to counter summer heat, and in some cases survive it.

It’s part of a pattern.

In a little more than two years, the loathsome Biden administration has targeted not only air conditioners, but automobiles with internal-combustion engines, gas stoves, dishwashers, freight-hauling trucks, washers and dryers, and showerheads through a regulatory regime that will either eventually ban them altogether or make them so expensive and inefficient that they become a luxury item.

None of these rules dreamed up by the Democrats, including many that were set before Joe Biden stumbled into the Oval Office, will improve the lives of the middle and lower economic classes. They will, however, make them harder.

And isn’t that the point? University of Tennessee law professor and Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds suggests the war is not on appliances, but rather on those who use them.

“The Biden administration,” he wrote earlier this week in the New York Post, “certainly has an appetite for regulating household appliances in a way that seems calculated to make your life worse.”

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2023/03/29/the-morning-briefing-american-left-has-grown-more-violent-while-fbi-was-hunting-soccer-moms-n1682229

Ever since Joe Biden and his handlers decided to turn the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the American Stasi, we’ve been hearing that the real threat to America is coming from “right-wing radicals” or some such nonsense. The FBI has been targeting soccer moms at school board meetings and pro-lifers who pray outside of abortion clinics.

You know, the scariest people among us.

Every time I write about the rogue FBI and its goon-squad priorities, I conclude by worrying about what the Bureau might be missing in the way of people who might actually commit violence. Thus far in the Biden era, it’s been a fairly steady stream of leftists who are snapping and killing.

The parents at school board meetings have yet to amass a body count.

The tragedy in Nashville this week has shed even more light on the continued violent radicalization of the American left. Matt reports that, prior to the shooting at The Covenant School, a trans activist group coordinated something that seems like it might be worth some investigation by law enforcement:

The primary Day of Vengeance event is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Supreme Court in D.C., with additional events planned for March 31. LGBTQ activists specifically targeted Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was previously the target of an assassination attempt by a far-left activist last year.

The group purports to seek revenge for what they term “trans genocide,” a conspiracy theory that claims that transgender people are systemically targeted with violence. However, an examination of FBI statistics by the Daily Wire shows no proof to corroborate this claim. In 2021, only two of the 271 recorded hate crimes against transgender individuals resulted in murder. These figures are substantially lower than those of other groups and insufficient to substantiate allegations of “trans genocide.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2023/03/29/the-restrict-act-is-exactly-what-it-sounds-like-n1682533

The RESTRICT Act is the very definition of a Trojan horse: innocuous on the outside, lethal on the inside. And it is being wheeled toward the gates, with the help of Republicans in Congress.  (In case you missed the story of the Trojan Horse — the actual one, not the virus — you can find it here.)

Ostensibly, the RESTRICT Act is designed to protect Americans from TikTok — you know, that nifty piece of Chinese spyware masquerading as a fun way to showcase dance videos, asinine behavior, and other things people can live without. And Congress is interested in protecting the country from bad international actors. That is because it can be done via the RESTRICT Act, which will do far more than keep TikTok off of your phone or tablet. How much more? More than you want or even thought possible, even under this administration.

The RESTRICT Act goes after anyone whom the powers that be deem a threat. That determination is made by the secretary of commerce. A threat can include people abroad and U.S. citizens:

In General.—The Secretary, in consultation with the relevant executive department and agency heads, is authorized to and shall take action to identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate, including by negotiating, entering into, or imposing, and enforcing any mitigation measure to address any risk arising from any covered transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States that the Secretary determines—

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&id=8cab9ac5f9

For years, conservatives have complained of apparent censorship of their voices on the principal social media platforms, like Facebook, Google and Twitter. Posts or tweets get taken down, or de-boosted, or de-monetized, or degraded in search results, or “shadow-banned,” or slapped with content warnings, or otherwise suppressed. But the response from Big Tech has always been, hey, we’re private companies, and we’re not subject to the First Amendment. We can do as we please.

Then Elon Musk took over Twitter, and followed by giving several journalists access to Twitter’s electronic archives to investigate any untoward government manipulation. The result has been the Twitter Files, an ongoing series of Twitter threads laying bare the coordination between pre-Musk Twitter and dozens of government actors to suppress disfavored speech. The most recent nineteenth segment of the Twitter Files series was published on March 20 by Matt Taibbi.

Now that it is clear that the systematic censorship of conservative voices is very real and has been largely directed and coordinated by the government itself behind the scenes, is there anything that can be done about that through litigation? There actually are some significant efforts under way in that regard. Probably the most important is the case titled Missouri v. Biden, pending in the Western District of Louisiana. The case seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against the government under the First Amendment to stop it from continuing to pressure social media platforms to suppress speech that the current government does not like. On March 20, the court issued a major opinion denying the government’s motion to dismiss. That opinion is available here. With the motion to dismiss denied, the case will proceed through full discovery and, presumably, trial.

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

The Left has the annoying habit of blaming the right for transgressions of which they are guilty, from weaponizing government to tabling stories that put them in a bad light, like Hunter Biden’s laptop. Cloaked in bogus virtue, with mainstream media in their corner, they leave no doubt as to the righteousness of their positions. They profess concern for the aged yet are unwilling to address the impending financial collapse of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – virtually a certainty in the next ten to fifteen years, unless action is taken. They claim to represent the poor yet propose and implement inflationary policies whose victims are the lowest income families.

The Left complains about censorship from the right, while they intimidate conservative college speakers, like commentator Charlie Kirk at the University of California Davis, Judge Kyle Duncan at Stanford Law School and causing Mary Eberstadt, author of Primal Screams, to cancel this week’s talk at Furman University. In 2016, public figures as diverse as Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, and Michael Bloomberg warned about political correctness gone awry. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) agreed: “One worrisome trend undermining open discourse in the academy is the increased push by some students and faculty to ‘disinvite’ speakers with whom they disagree from campus appearances.” Seven years later, the situation has worsened. People have the right to protest, but school and college administrators should promote diversity in speakers and in books, not cling to a partisan political ideology.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/guide-understanding-hoax-century-thirteen-ways-looking-disinformation

PROLOGUE: THE INFORMATION WAR

In 1950, Sen. Joseph McCarthy claimed that he had proof of a communist spy ring operating inside the government. Overnight, the explosive accusations blew up in the national press, but the details kept changing. Initially, McCarthy said he had a list with the names of 205 communists in the State Department; the next day he revised it to 57. Since he kept the list a secret, the inconsistencies were beside the point. The point was the power of the accusation, which made McCarthy’s name synonymous with the politics of the era.

For more than half a century, McCarthyism stood as a defining chapter in the worldview of American liberals: a warning about the dangerous allure of blacklists, witch hunts, and demagogues.

Until 2017, that is, when another list of alleged Russian agents roiled the American press and political class. A new outfit called Hamilton 68 claimed to have discovered hundreds of Russian-affiliated accounts that had infiltrated Twitter to sow chaos and help Donald Trump win the election. Russia stood accused of hacking social media platforms, the new centers of power, and using them to covertly direct events inside the United States.

None of it was true. After reviewing Hamilton 68’s secret list, Twitter’s safety officer, Yoel Roth, privately admitted that his company was allowing “real people” to be “unilaterally labeled Russian stooges without evidence or recourse.”

The Hamilton 68 episode played out as a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the McCarthy affair, with one important difference: McCarthy faced some resistance from leading journalists as well as from the U.S. intelligence agencies and his fellow members of Congress. In our time, those same groups lined up to support the new secret lists and attack anyone who questioned them.

When proof emerged earlier this year that Hamilton 68 was a high-level hoax perpetrated against the American people, it was met with a great wall of silence in the national press. The disinterest was so profound, it suggested a matter of principle rather than convenience for the standard-bearers of American liberalism who had lost faith in the promise of freedom and embraced a new ideal.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/28/time-to-end-the-veil-of-secrecy-inside-d-c-kangaroo-court/

Judge Beryl Howell did not get the gushing send off from her colleagues she undoubtedly expected.

Howell, appointed to the D.C. District Court by Barack Obama in 2010 and elevated to the court’s highest post in 2016—just in time to oversee numerous criminal investigations into Donald Trump—finished up her seven-year stint as chief judge earlier this month. Colleagues and staff assembled in her courtroom as the proverbial torch was passed to Judge James Boasberg, another Obama appointee.

But according to Politico, the retirement celebration turned into a “roast” of sorts as one judge after another chided Howell for her closed-doors dealings. 

“Howell seemed to freeze in her seat as the most senior jurist on the court, Judge Paul Friedman, publicly described her still-secret rulings in grand jury-related matters,” reporters Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney wrote on March 17. “[Her] fellow judges made clear they were as tantalized as the rest of the political world by Howell’s secret work presiding over grand juries that could lead to charges against former President Donald Trump.”

Howell sat “stone-faced” when Friedman teased how, “we’d all love to read her opinions, but we can’t.” Friedman also noted that Howell issued “100 secret grand jury opinions” as chief judge.

Tanya Chutkan, another Obama appointee, also chimed in. “There’s so much work Chief Judge Howell has done that we may never know about,” she joked.

Although she will remain on the bench as an associate judge, her farewell as chief ended on a sour note. Nevertheless, Howell got the last laugh, once again, at Trump’s expense.

In yet another sealed ruling, Howell rejected claims of privilege and ordered Evan Corcoran, one of Trump’s attorneys, to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into Team Trump’s handling of alleged classified documents. 

Howell’s penchant for secrecy, of course, doesn’t extend to the news media; details related to the sealed order were leaked a few days later. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/tiktok-ceo-testimony-falls-totally-flat/

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew ran into a bipartisan buzzsaw during his grueling five hours of testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23rd. The main take-away is that Tik Tok’s clock is winding down in the United States so long as it remains tied to its Chinese owner, ByteDance, which in turn is under the direct influence of the Chinese Communist regime.

Mr. Chew described TikTok’s efforts to create a more secure video sharing app platform intended to satisfy U.S. officials’ concerns about the Chinese regime’s access to American users’ personal information for surveillance purposes. He also claimed that TikTok is taking seriously and addressing the harmful content posted on the video sharing app that endangers children’s lives and mental health. But Mr. Chew failed miserably, dodging question after question posed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. Chew also raised eyebrows when he claimed that “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It is a private company.” Before the congressional hearing had even begun, the Chinese regime put the lie to Chew’s assertion. China’s commerce ministry ruled out a sale of TikTok’s so-called “private” U.S. business to an American company.

Chew would not even admit that TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, is a “Chinese company.” ByteDance, while incorporated in the Cayman Islands, is indeed a Chinese company headquartered in Beijing and fully subject to all of China’s laws.

“TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned,” said Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee’s chair who set the bipartisan confrontational tone of the hearing.

Frank Pallone, the committee’s ranking Democrat from New Jersey, was equally critical of TikTok. “The combination of TikTok’s Beijing communist-based China ownership and its popularity exacerbates its danger to our country and to our privacy,” he said.