RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/11/time-to-apologize-to-georgia/

Major League Baseball moved its 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta because the Legislature passed an election law that the Democrats and media claimed was designed to suppress the vote, especially that of minorities. Yet somehow Georgia voters turned out in higher numbers earlier this week than they did in the two previous midterm elections. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred owes Atlanta, the entire state of Georgia, the Braves, and, in fact, the entire nation an apology.

On April 2, the day after the 2021 baseball season began, Manfred announced that he had “decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.” Major League Baseball, Manfred explained, “fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”

Making Manfred’s cowardly capitulation to social justice bullies even more infuriating was the fact that the game was moved to Colorado, where voting laws are similar to Georgia’s new rules. Unlike Georgia though, Colorado has a Democratic governor and practices blue state electoral habits. So it was judged differently.

Republican communicator Brian Robinson reminds us that Manfred’s naked exhibition of wokeness carried a financial as well as reputational cost. Businesses, many of them minority-owned, were counting on the game to generate revenue but were shut out by his cold-blooded decision. As much as $100 million was robbed from them by the commissioner.

https://swtotd.blogspot.com/

No “red wave” appeared on election day. While my immediate response was one of dismay, on reflection I think it may have been a “blessing in disguise.” Our nation has been divided – and still is – but it has not been the division that has been harmful, but the lack of respect for differing opinions. Mr. Trump, repudiated in this election, has been one cause. His ego-centric self-promotion engulfed what good his administration had accomplished. And he has become more disagreeable in his post-presidency. But also responsible for the division are the “goody two-shoes” who hypocritically call for diversity, equity, and inclusion. They see differences only in race and gender. Their calls have never considered diversity of opinions, inclusion of those who do not think as do they, or that both liberals and conservatives should be treated equitably.

As well, the election highlighted changing demographics of our two political parties. On October 20, at a campaign event for John Fetterman, President Biden spoke a truth: “This is not your father’s Republican Party.” He spoke correctly; it is not, but neither is the Democrat Party the same one Mr. Biden joined almost sixty years ago. Mr. Biden’s words were intended as a slap at “MAGA” Republicans, who he claims are a “threat to democracy.” But is that fair? Our democracy is protected by our Constitution: separation of powers, an independent judiciary, states’ rights, due process, personal freedom, and rule of law. When those principles are threatened, democracy is threatened. When government is seen as the answer to all problems, democracy is at risk. When citizens are complacent, democracy is in danger. Agencies in Washington, when manned by men and women who forget they are servants to the people, become threats to democracy.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/09/a-tale-of-two-americas/

Yesterday’s Midterms were not a victory for conservative or progressive ideology, but an assertion of the growing power of geography in American politics. It was less a national election than a clash of civilisations.

Virtually nowhere in blue areas did Republicans make gains. Both the north-east and California – the central players in Democratic Party politics – stayed solidly blue. Even the most well-regarded GOP candidates, such as Lanhee Chen who ran for California state controller, struggled to make inroads in Democratic territory.

Meanwhile, the senators and governors of the leading red states – Texas’s Greg Abbott, Georgia’s Brian Kemp, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Ohio’s Mike DeWine – all won handily. Almost all blue-state governors remained the same as well, although the Democratic incumbents often won by smaller margins.

So, what is happening in this increasingly inexplicable country? Essentially, there are now two prevailing realities in the US. One is primarily urban, single and, despite some GOP gains in this demographic, still largely non-white. It functions on the backs of finance, tech and the service industries. The other is largely suburban or exurban, family centric and more likely involved in basic industries like manufacturing, logistics, agriculture and energy.

Usually, the media assume these two Americas represent equally viable political economies. But this is increasingly not the case. In population terms at least, red America is now growing far more rapidly than blue America. And this makes it more important politically. Since 1990, Texas has gained eight congressional seats, Florida five and Arizona three. In contrast, New York has lost five, Pennsylvania four and Illinois three. California, which now suffers higher net outbound-migration rates than most Rustbelt states, lost a congressional seat in 2020 for the first time in its history.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/since-dobbs-decision-leak-violence-against-pro-lifers-was-over-22-times-that-against-pro-choicers/

After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked on May 3rd, news reports blamed abortion-related violence over the summer on pro-life supporters.

“[W]e have seen a steady rise in violence and harassment against providers from anti-abortion extremists who continue to be emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision,” claimed Melissa Fowler, Chief Program Officer of the National Abortion Federation (NAF).

“People want me dead’: abortion providers fear violence after Roe overturned,” a headline in The Guardian read. Other news outlets, such as NBC News, also focused on the increased threat of violence against abortion providers. But national news sources don’t mention violence against people on the pro-life side of the debate.

It never made much sense, anyway. Why would a major win in the Supreme Court cause pro-life people to suddenly resort to more violence? The pro-choice people would be more upset and, presumably, more likely to lash out.

Using news searches and pre-existing data, the Crime Prevention Research Center, which I head, identified 135 attacks on pro-life entities and people between May 3 and September 24, 2022. By contrast, only six cases involve attacks on pro-choice people. That is a ratio of 22-to-1. And that may be an underestimate of the difference if the media is less likely to cover violence against pro-lifers.

All of the cases and links to the underlying news stories are available here.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/11/the_establishment_is_trying_to_divide_and_conquer_maga.html

There are videos making the rounds showing President Trump standing on stage in Miami’s pouring rain while imploring Americans to get out and vote.  The metaphor is striking.  There’s Trump, battling the elements, lively as ever, refusing to give up, insisting on finishing what he’s started.  Citizen Free Press appropriately notes that “President Trump is truly a force of nature.”

I know that the months ahead will make for some spirited political debate among friends, but I encourage you to cement in your minds this quintessential image of Trump unbroken and unbowed.  Whatever else can be said about the man (and there is plenty), he remains the only leader in our times unafraid to stand alone.  When other self-proclaimed allies run the other way or look for somewhere safe to weather the approaching storm, Trump stands inside the tempest, demanding that it give up and surrender.  That’s something that will forever separate him from those who pretend to be him.

It has become normal to deconstruct Trump’s public appeal to something as basic as he fights!  Yet it is not just that Trump fights; it is why he fights that has attracted such a diverse voting coalition unlike any other political movement today.

Consider the Republican Party’s consensus issues before Donald Trump descended the golden escalator and changed everything.  By and large, Republican politicians defended the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without question. They ignored the harms of illegal immigration as a taboo issue equated with racism.  And they dismissed discussion of revitalizing American industry and manufacturing as unrealistic in a globalist system where cheap slave labor is plentiful overseas.  

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/09/airbus-still-does-business-with-putins-russia-but-also-wants-u-s-defense-contracts/

One thing made clear by Vladmir Putin’s war against Ukraine is how out of touch his calculations were regarding Ukraine’s ability to fight, the strength of his forces, and the willingness of the international community to push back against his unhinged brutality.

That last point might be the most surprising of all given the lack of a similar response to Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea and other aggressions in recent times.  Countries — including famously neutral Switzerland — and an impressive number of private companies joined in sanctions and/or took similar steps that have hurt Putin’s ability to impose more pain on the Ukrainian people.

French aerospace giant Airbus is one of the more notable exceptions to the laudable private-sector efforts.

Instead, Airbus is ignoring sanctions on Russia and has gone as far as to successfully pressure the European Union to exempt it from sanctions.  Interestingly, their position comes at a time when they are simultaneously attempting to expand their contracting work with the U.S. Defense Department.

Airbus needs titanium to manufacture planes.  Titanium and titanium alloys are widely used for aircraft.  Titanium’s density is 60% that of steel, so it is lightweight but also strong and resists corrosion.  Airbus gets about half of the titanium it uses from Russia.

After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Airbus continued dealing with Moscow, even going so far as to stockpile more Russian titanium while other plane makers balked at the same chance.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-the-left-obliterates-morality/

Daniel Patrick Moynihan could never have imagined how far down America might define deviancy when he penned his seminal essay Defining Deviancy Down.

The diplomat, scholar and four-term Democratic Party senator from New York theorized that deviant behavior had become so pervasive, we must redefine it simply to cope as a nation.

“I wrote that there is always a certain amount of deviancy in a society,” Moynihan said of his 1993 essay. “But when you get too much, you begin to think that it’s not really that bad. Pretty soon you become accustomed to very destructive behavior.”

Millions of Americans are now accustomed to some of the most destructive behaviors imaginable, and recent examples of this demonstrate a breathtaking repudiation of human morality.

An American president publicly expressed support for the surgical mutilation of children. Taxpayers are funding drag queen story hours for three year olds.  High school girls are banned from their own locker room because they are uncomfortable sharing it with a boy. A teacher badgers her students not to “judge people just because they wanna have sex with a 5-year-old.”

What used to be defined as medical malpractice, criminal molestation, voyeurism and rape is not only acceptable, it’s encouraged and, in some cases, required. It is deviancy defined so downward, it’s positively subterranean.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/veterans-day-and-whats-at-stake-in-the-mid-term-elections/

When Washington politicians decided to change the dates of holidays to give federal government employees predictable three-day weekends through the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act—which moved the dates of celebration of Presidents Day (formerly Washington’s Birthday), Memorial Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day—they met such opposition from Veterans about changing the date of their holiday, Veterans Day, that they gave up. Apparently, the politicians had forgotten that Veterans Day was first known as Armistice Day, and was celebrated on November 11th because that was the day agreed upon by the Allied nations and Germany to begin a total cessation of hostilities in World War I. In fact, the guns and artillery went silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, after some 20 million people from both sides had given their lives in the war effort.

Veterans Day would not be diminished as another commercially oriented “floating” holiday but remain a sacred and fixed day tied to history and to celebrate valor and sacrifice embodied in veterans of foreign wars.

While Veterans remain one of the most patriotic groups in America, there is great concern—even alarm—that the politization of America’s armed forces that started in the Obama years, has now again accelerated, and metastasized into nothing short of betrayal of the military by the powers behind the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden is directly responsible for the worst, most humiliating and damaging defeat in the history of American warfare—the shocking and disgraceful U.S. departure from Afghanistan starting on August 15, 2021. The botched U.S. retreat resulted in the death of thirteen Marines, with more injured, and it left behind to enemy hands several hundred Americans and some $80 billion of military hardware (much of it state of the art) that included Black Hawk helicopters, thousands of Humvees and armored vehicles, and countless numbers of assault rifles—enough to arm dozens of terrorist groups all over the world, whose primary target is the U.S and its allies. Because these results were completely avoidable, many see Biden’s decisions that brought about this disaster calculated and deliberate—as if to help our enemies.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/now-what/

It looks like the Republicans come January will control both houses of Congress. The government will still be divided, so neither party will make any big legislative changes in the next two years. The president will no doubt use executive orders to get around Congress to push the Dems’ agenda, but such tinkering is hostage to the next president. So what should the Republicans do for the next two years?

We know what they shouldn’t do, and that’s indulge in happy talk about “bipartisanship” or “reaching across the aisle” or trying “to get things done.” The Democrats have swung so far to the left that there’s very little common ground, outside a national emergency, on which to base cooperation. The moderate Democrat is a near-extinct species, and the radical ideologues have cowed them into compliance. Most Dems who have some common sense and respect for the Constitution’s checks and balances against tyranny have been silenced.

So first, the Republicans must ignore charges of “obstructionism” and “partisanship.” The first principle of the Constitution is “first do no harm,” and one way to do that is for our Senators and Representatives to “set ambition against ambition,” and use their Constitutional powers to stymie the Dems’ tyrannical ambitions. These days that means, as Florida Senator Marco Rubio put it, that the Senate’s “most important job” in a divided government is “to stop bad things from happening,” like confirming the president’s nominees for the courts, his cabinet, and other federal officials.

So no more talk like “the president deserves to have his nominees ratified.” That, and the Republican preemptive cringe when it comes to race and sex, is how we get Supreme Court justices whose only recommendation is their race and/or sex. Like Orwell’s saints, all Biden’s picks should be presumed guilty until proven innocent.

In other words, the next two years should see a concerted effort to start holding accountable the bipartisan, big-government guild that too many Republicans have joined, accepting many progressive assumptions about, for example, the role of the federal government in creating, managing, and expanding federal agencies.

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/11/08/your-children-belong-to-the-state/

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” — George Orwell

The incidents of schools indoctrinating children, along with school boards scorning the wishes and objections of their parents may seem puzzling, to say the least. Let me shed some light.

Unlike the hundreds of films that have been made on the Nazis, to my knowledge only two have been made on the genocidal Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, “First They Killed My Father” and “The Killing Fields.” There was a brief scene in the latter of which I think most people did not catch the significance. The Communists had taken over the country and had begun indoctrinating the children. The teacher had drawn on the blackboard stick figures representing a family holding hands. A child was asked to come up to the blackboard whereupon he erased the child figure’s hand holding the mother, thereby separating the child from the family. The teacher smiled with approval.

In all the versions of Marxist regimes, one goal was to separate the children from the parents and own them by the state. Children were encouraged to spy and report them to the authorities for any anti-Communist remarks parents made. And this, indeed, occurred often in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and Cuba (even Stalin was disgusted when this took place).

Recently, we saw an instance of a son snitching to the FBI on Christmas Eve over his father’s political views and participation in the January 6 protest. There have been other instances of children turning on their parents. The FBI has started to encourage friends and family to spy on each other and report any dissidents.

This phenomenon rarely occurred in the National Socialist regime, the reason being that its ideology was not anti-family, whereas Marxism is (so was Spartan society, another totalitarian state). Engels and Marx considered the family unit to be a miniature version of capitalism, wherein the man sees the wife and children as property to be exploited, a view echoed by modern feminists since many had a Marxist background. Engels, incidentally, was the first of what is now commonplace, an oxymoron capitalist, that is, a capitalist who promotes Communism.