RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/24/as-trust-in-elites-collapses-its-time-to-weave-a-new-social-fabric/

How optimistic are you about America’s future? How much do you trust the institutions that hold society together? Do you think that now is an ideal time to build wealth and set your family up for success?

If your answers were “not very, not much, and no,” then you are not alone.

Earlier this month, the global communications firm Edelman released its annual barometer of trust survey, which found that trust in societal institutions is plummeting around the world. At the same time, economic anxiety is rising in the world’s top economies, including Japan, France, Germany, Singapore, and the U.S., resulting in record-setting levels of global pessimism.

In short, people in the developed world believe the social fabric of their countries is unraveling before their very eyes.

While this may seem grim, the survey also provides some clues as to how we can weave a new, more resilient social fabric.

Let’s take a look at some of the findings: In the 28 countries surveyed by Edelman, only 40% of people agree with the statement “My family and I will be better off in five years.” This is a staggering 10-point drop from last year, with 24 of the 28 countries registering all-time lows. Economic optimism is lower than the average in the United States, with only 36% who agree. This represents a one-point drop from 2022.

This economic anxiety is so intense that people fear job loss and inflation more than they fear nuclear war, food shortages, and energy shortages.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2023/01/23/fbi-agent-investigating-trump-for-russia-ties-gets-arrested-for-russia-ties-n1664212

Charles McGonigal — the former FBI agent who led the Trump-Russia investigation — has been arrested for “agreeing to provide services” to the billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

FACT-O-RAMA! It seems everything the left accuses Trump of doing – like hoarding classified documents and collusing with Russians- they are guilty of doing themselves.

Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet, then Russian diplomat, now an American citizen, was arrested as well.

The two men are charged with trying to have Deripaska removed from the U.S. sanctions list.

“Both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,” Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, claimed in a statement. “This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.”

Charges against both men include:

A single count of violating the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act)
One count of conspiring to commit money laundering
An additional count of money laundering

Each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in a federal hoosegow. Shestakov was also charged with one count of lying to the FBI, which could snag him a maximum of five additional years.

In short, the high-ranking FBI agent sent to investigate Trump for colluding with Russia was busted for colluding with a Russian oligarch.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/01/23/leading-democrats-abandon-bidens-sinking-ship-n1664342

As each new day brings fresh revelations of more classified documents discovered in Old Joe Biden’s garage and luxury beach home, the import of it all is clear: the people who are running this administration have tired of their dementia-ridden front man, and have determined to get rid of him. Another indication of this comes from the fact that the rats are abandoning the sinking ship in ever-increasing numbers. Or, as the Associated Press put it more politely on Sunday, “senior Democrats, dismayed by a steady stream of startling disclosures, expressed criticism Sunday of how President Joe Biden handled classified material after leaving office as vice president and disappointment that the White House has not been more forthcoming with the public.” Whether they want Joe to resign in disgrace or simply to bow out of contention for the 2024 Marxist party nomination is as yet unclear, but there’s no doubt that they want Old Joe to start packing sooner than January 2029.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the Chou En-Lai of Senate Democrats — that is, their second-ranking member — declared that Old Joe should be “embarrassed by the situation,” as if the corrupt, venal, mendacious pretend president were capable of embarrassment. “Well, of course,” Durbin insisted. “Let’s be honest about it. When that information is found, it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it because it’s not supposed to happen. … The elected official bears ultimate responsibility.”

https://amgreatness.com/2023/01/22/reckless-reparations-reckoning/

The last time racial reparations made the major news was on the eve of September 11, 2001 attacks. The loss of 3,000 Americans, which for a time fueled a new national unity, quickly dispelled the absurdities of the reparation movement, and turned our attention toward more existential issues. 

Now the idea is back in vogue again. Here are 10 reasons why the nation’s—and especially California’s—discussions of reparatory payouts are dangerous in a multiracial state, and why reparations are not viable either in an insolvent state or a bankrupt nation at large.

1) Identity Politics Absurdities

We live in an absurd woke age of retribalization. It has witnessed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), for mutual advantage, advertised as Harvard’s first Native-American law professor. 

Fellow Montecito mansion denizens Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and multibillionaire Oprah Winfrey swap ridiculous televised stories of their own racial victimization. 

“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett initially was canonized by our top elected leaders and exempted for months by Chicago legal authorities after claiming the following absurdity: two white, MAGA-hatted racists, on their apparently routine nightly racist patrols in a liberal Chicago neighborhood and equipped both with special bleach that does not freeze in subzero temperatures and an ever-ready, just-in-case noose, assaulted Jussie. They put a rope around his neck and libeled his predominately black “Empire” soap-opera show—only to be repulsed single-footedly by a courageous Smollett, while retaining in one hand his cell phone and in the other his late night Subway sandwich. 

Note that in these nutty cases and thousands like them, there is the cynical assumption that current American society, and the government as well, reward claims of racial victimization. That is why a Ward Churchill or Rachel Dolezal constructed new racial identities to game the system for profit. 

One of the racialist universities’ current admissions challenges is their checkbox of “mixed race.” Whites and Asians often feign mixed parentages in hopes of being assumed either part black, Latino, or Native American. Any such partial lineage is seen as preferable to their own race. In our old racist society, one used to attempt to pass for white; in our new racist society, one attempts to pass for non-white. 

Current racial tribalization obsessions have descended into a nadir that makes Al Sharpton’s 1990s Tawana Brawley/Crown-Heights career start (“If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”/ “We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”) look amateurish in comparison. In this context, new calls arise for ludicrous reparations simply because we have become a ludicrous society.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/01/biden_lawyer_has_history_of_finding_and_releasing_elusive_documents.html

In his own discreet way, President Joe Biden’s “personal” attorney Bob Bauer is back in the news again. On Saturday, Bauer released a statement about a new discovery of documents chez Biden.

According to Bauer, the Justice Department “took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President.”

This same CBS News report notes that this new find comes after 10 or so classified documents “were discovered by Mr. Biden’s personal lawyers at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2.” Others were found at his home on December 20.

Bauer goes unmentioned in those earlier finds, but he almost surely had to be one of those “personal lawyers.” Six days before the midterms, these attorneys made the strategic decision not to go public with their find. In Bauer’s case, I suspect the decision to go public after the election was strategic as well—but not necessarily on Biden’s behalf.

Bauer, of course, has a history of blocking the release of certain documents and then strategically releasing them. In the way of background, on August 21, 2008, a week prior to the Democratic National Convention, Democratic attorney Philip Berg filed a federal suit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania challenging Barack Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be president.

A former deputy attorney general for the State of Pennsylvania and a credible pro-choice gubernatorial candidate in a Democratic primary against sitting governor Robert Casey, Berg expected to be taken seriously. He wasn’t. The media expressed zero interest in his suit.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/01/22/after-georgia-police-kill-antifa-comrade-leftist-brethren-riot-in-atlanta-n2618590

Julio had this story first. A left-wing agitator encamped near Atlanta’s future training facility for law enforcement, dubbed “cop city,” was killed this week as police executed a raid. The forested location is the new ground zero for leftists hoping to impede the construction of the new building. The city is looking to complete the center later this year. Left-wingers have flocked to the area, setting up barricades and occupying the location in a situation reminiscent of the CHAZ zone in Seattle during the 2020 election.

When police arrived, a confrontation ensued as the protester refused to leave his tent. He ignored repeated orders to vacate and then opened fire on officers, wounding one. Police returned fire, killing the suspect, which has infuriated leftists, calling for a night of rage to avenge their fallen “comrade.” Manuel Teran was identified as the protester killed in the officer-involved shooting. At least four others were also arrested: 

“An individual, without warning, shot a Georgia State Patrol trooper,” Register said. “Other law enforcement personnel returned fire in self-defense and evacuated the trooper to a safe area. The individual who fired upon law enforcement and shot the trooper was killed in the exchange of gunfire.” 

The injured state trooper is in stable condition in ICU after completing surgery. He was shot in the “pelvic-area” and he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. 

Last December, Police rounded up five others who were later charged with domestic terrorism (via Axios):

Five activists arrested during … [a] clash with law enforcement at the proposed site of Atlanta’s new public safety academy have been charged with domestic terrorism, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday.

Why it matters: The domestic terrorism charges are the most serious to date since activists started building camps and living among the trees more than a year ago in the dense city-owned forest in DeKalb County.

Details: Tuesday, according to the GBI, a task force of local, state and federal law enforcement attempted to remove barricades installed by activists to block access to the property.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/20/a-disaster-for-every-month-the-worst-scandals-abuses-and-embarrassments-of-joe-bidens-second-year-in-office/

At the end of last year’s roundup, I expressed hope that 2022 would see fewer Biden disasters. Unfortunately for the country, year No. 2 was just as grim.

he first year of Joe Biden’s presidency prolifically delivered examples of corruption and incompetence, and his second year in office — which drew to a close on Thursday — has been no different.

Last year, The Federalist collected “A Scandal For Every Month: The Biggest Botches, Failures, And Mess-Ups Of Joe Biden’s First 12 Months In Office.” At the end of that piece, I expressed hope that 2022 would see fewer disasters flow from the White House. Unfortunately for the country, the roundup from year No. 2 is just as grim.

January: Biden Compared Filibuster Defenders to Historical Racists

Last year’s list concluded with a bonus item for January 2022: Biden comparing his agenda’s critics — which include Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.

In a Jan. 11 speech urging the U.S. Senate to ditch filibuster rules in order to pass his radical and unconstitutional federalization of election laws, Biden asked, “Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”

February: Incompetent Response to Russia-Ukraine War

Before, during, and since Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine in February, the Biden administration’s response has been marked by incompetence. Biden waived sanctions on the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline before the war in 2021, crippled American energy production, and turned to Russian ally Venezuela for oil after the conflict erupted. In January 2022, right before Russia’s invasion, Biden signaled a green light to Russian President Vladimir Putin, responding to a question about potential plans to impose sanctions on Russia with the comments, “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion [into Ukraine],” and “My guess is [Putin] will move in. He has to do something.”

“Are you effectively giving Putin permission to make a small incursion into the country?” a reporter asked. Biden’s answer: “That’s how it did sound like, didn’t it?”

A month into the Russia-Ukraine war, Biden recklessly called for regime change in Russia, before reversing course and insisting he did no such thing. By November 2022, the United States had shipped out a whopping $68 billion in aid to Ukraine, with Biden requesting another $37.7 billion to put total aid in the 12-figure range.

March: Hunter Biden Corruption Scandal Resurfaces as NYT Admits Laptop’s Legitimacy

https://www.frontpagemag.com/paul-johnsons-america/

“What is America? It is not a race but a cohesion of all the races of the world. It will soon be a nation of 300 million, 10 per cent of whom were not even born there. Its creation from Europe, Africa and Asia is a continuing process, as countless immigrants arrive each year and are quietly absorbed and prosper. Moreover, these citizens, whose parents, grandparents or ancestors came from all over the world, are given the chance to participate in democracy at all levels, which exists nowhere else on earth. More than 600,000 offices in the US are elected. The entire public ethos of America is fashioned to finding out what the voters want and constructing policy on their wishes. America is successful precisely because it is a working multiracial democracy. To be anti-American, therefore, is to be anti-humanity. For no other country represents so clearly the current wishes and long-term aspirations of the human race.”

That is from “To hate America is to hate humanity,” an April 6, 2002 Spectator piece by historian Paul Johnson, who recently passed away at the age of 94. Five years earlier, Johnson published A History of the American People, a magisterial account that speaks to conditions at the time of the great author’s passing.

It’s hard to find any author, left or right, who devotes more attention to the issue of slavery, at the time of the American founding and leading up to the Civil War. In an 1855 election in Kansas, Johnson writes:

“Missourians crossed the border in thousands and swamped the polls. At all events the slavers swept the polls, expelled from the legislature the few anti-slavers who were elected, adopted a drastic slave-code, and made it a capital offense to help a slave escape or aid a fugitive. They even made orally questioning the legality of slavery a felony.” (emphasis added)

The demand for thought control and censorship derives from the people who kept human beings in subjugation and opposed all efforts to free them. This early version of the totalitarian mentality finds a counterpart in America under the Biden Junta.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/01/22/it-looks-like-bidens-classified-documents-scandal-is-about-to-explode-n1663975

Joe Biden takes classified documents very seriously, so he says, but even after the search for classified documents has allegedly ended a couple of times now, it’s not yet over.

In the wake of more documents being discovered at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del., the Department of Justice is now considering expanding its search for classified documents Biden may have absconded with, according to a report from CBS News.

“Justice Department officials are also considering the possibility of conducting other consensual searches at locations linked to Mr. Biden, said the source familiar with the investigation,” the report says.

So far, somewhere between 25 and 30 classified documents, some of which are marked top secret, have been discovered in Biden’s possession—either at his home in Wilmington or at his private office at the Penn Biden Center.

The decision to search more places for documents is a troubling development for Joe Biden and the White House team, who have clearly been caught off-guard by a scandal they had hoped to keep under wraps before it was leaked to the media a couple of weeks ago.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/23/joe-bidens-souvenirs/

The Clinton’s were accused of stealing silverware on their way out, but that’s minor league compared to what Joe Biden might have done.

President Joe Biden of course adopted a sanctimonious stance when it was reported that classified documents were found at Donald Trump’s Florida estate. “Totally irresponsible,” said the man who has been keeping classified documents going back to his years in the Senate.

As infuriating as his comment was, Biden might be guilty of more than hypocrisy.

Biden has left a growing trail of classified documents behind him, including papers from his Senate “service” as well as his terms as vice president. They’ve been turned up at Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington – the “think tank” where Biden kept an office and which helped the University of Pennsylvania rake in ​​$30 million from Chinese interests – and the president’s Delaware residence. The more Justice Department agents look, the more they find. Despite his Gertrude Stein protest, there is a there there.

So, is Biden a kleptomaniac (the American people deserve to know if their president is a crook)? Were the documents misplaced by careless staffers? If so, why didn’t Biden choose more trustworthy aides, administration hands who knew which documents were hot and needed to be stored in a secure space?

Or, is it possible that Biden been covering the tracks of his decades of corruption?