RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/pro-palestinian-group-with-alleged-terror-ties-ordered-to-provide-donor-lists-to-virginia-ag/?utm_

A Virginia court ordered the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) organization to produce documents detailing organizational structure, employees, and donors, among other pieces of information, state attorney general Jason Miyares (R.) announced Tuesday.

Miyares and his office opened an investigation into AMP in October 2023. The attorney general hopes to determine whether AMP has solicited contributions without having registered with the necessary state agencies, as well as the veracity of allegations that AMP has offered support to terrorist organizations.

In the civil investigative demand Miyares issued to AMP in October, the attorney general’s office wrote that, based on its investigation, it has reason to believe the organization may have “knowingly used or permitted the use of funds raised by a solicitation of contributions to provide support to terrorists, terrorist organizations, terrorist activities, or family members of terrorists.”

AMP has received attention for its role in supporting the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) organization, which has established chapters on college campuses across the country. Those chapters, in turn, have been behind waves of anti-Israel, pro-terror protests in higher education and on American streets since October 7.

http://www.swtottd.blogspot.com

Identity politics have divided us into warring camps. While it is terrible to accept the fact that we live in a time of such hatred, we do. The attempted assassination of Mr. Trump was the most recent and most violent. The intention of those who promoted identity politics may have been well-intentioned, but the consequences have been disastrous. Where division is sown violence is reaped.

I write as a conservative. I believe in family, tradition, the rule of law, limited government, free markets, a balanced budget in time of peace, and the freedom to follow one’s dreams, so long as one does no harm to others. I believe that government has a responsibility to keep us safe, our borders secure, to educate youth, and to provide for those unable to care for themselves. As well, we live in a global world; we cannot hide in isolation. Mr. Trump has never been my preference, but he served as a good President – at least in my opinion – for four years, and he did so under circumstances that would have undone most politicians. Elected President in 2016, he was deemed illegitimate by mainstream media and by most Democrats. With the help of a weaponized justice department, he was falsely accused of colluding with the Russians, with investigations interrupting his Administration. Four years later the intelligence community deliberately ignored the fact of Hunter Biden’s laptop, accusing Mr. Trump of being a Putin puppet. While never tarred and feathered, he has been investigated, denigrated, penalized, impeached and indicted. And now some nut has tried to kill him. He has been called a liar, fraudster and a threat to democracy – by those who misuse instruments of democracy to destroy him. Hollywood and social media elites have called for his death. The hypocrisy has been breathtaking, especially by those who inflict division, but then claim it is their desire to unite the country. While most politicians go to Washington and see their wealth increase, Mr. Trump saw his net worth decline by over a billion dollars during his four years as President.

https://www.thefp.com/p/yuval-levin-assassination-attempt-america-choice

At first glance, Saturday’s terrifying assassination attempt on Donald Trump seems like an obvious extension of our depressing political drift. 

We have grown more divided in this century, we use more militant rhetoric, and political violence has escalated. In the last 15 years, there have been shootings of members of Congress of both parties, a foiled assassination attempt of a Supreme Court justice and his family, a mob storming the Capitol to disrupt the certification of a presidential election, and rising levels of threats against public officials of all sorts. A near assassination of a once and perhaps future president might seem like all too natural a next step. 

And yet, this moment feels like a sharp break. Maybe because it was by far the highest profile act of domestic political violence in this century, directed at the highest profile figure in our politics, in front of television cameras, that it struck even our cynical culture as a shock. It gave us a terrible glimpse into what it would feel like to live beyond the bounds of our constitutional republic.

We have tested those bounds pretty aggressively in the last few years. Our leading politicians have called each other fascists and enemies of the people, deployed or threatened to deploy the justice system against their opponents, declared that election results were illegitimate, and insisted that our society’s very existence would be imperiled if the other party were in power. Donald Trump himself has been the worst offender on this front, but his opponents and critics have frequently come close. Both sides have seemed incapable of criticizing one another’s violations of essential norms without engaging in their own. All of this has shown contempt for the character of our republic. 

But what Trump’s would-be assassin did on Saturday was different—and not only by degree. 

https://www.racket.news/p/the-surrender

The decision was announced at a White House briefing Monday morning. “In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.,” was the quote from Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas.

It’s difficult to read the line “in light of this weekend’s events” and not see an admission on the part of the White House that Secret Service protection was previously being denied to Kennedy, Jr. for political reasons, or out of spite, if those are even two different things in this era. Whatever the original prerogative was for pushing the envelope with that denial, it seems to have been removed by series of paradigm-shattering news events, leading to a flurry of real and symbolic surrenders.

MSNBC likewise made an extraordinary decision Sunday night to pull Morning Joe, with CNN saying the network wanted to “to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television.” As with the Secret Service decision, MSNBC was making a major admission, essentially telling audiences its lead morning news show is either not really a news show, or that its format only holds up under something less than maximum scrutiny. I can’t recall a similar act of self-sabotage in media.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/america/2024/07/joe-biden-on-the-back-foot/

Within minutes of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, Joe Biden’s handlers suspended all campaign advertising. They had no choice. As demonstrated in the weeks leading up to the shooting, the Democrats’ ads had assailed him as a threat to everything that is good and decent about America. Incendiary rhetoric, as the President intoned on Sunday night in his address to the nation, must be condemned.

Below, excerpts of that Oval Office (in italic) message and, below each, some links and background to what might well be the biggest example of hypocrisy since Captain Renault evinced shock at finding a roulette wheel in Rick’s gin joint.

My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies.  We’re neighbors.  We’re friends, coworkers, citizens.  And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans.  And we must stand together. 

Translation: We must stand together, especially those amongst my fellow Democrats who have been calling on me to stand down. 

Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here. 

How indeed! The day before Thomas Matthew Crooks’ bullet took the tip off Donald Trump’s right ear, the man demanding “a step back” from fighting words variously described Trump as “a rapist”*, “a convicted criminal”, “a business fraud”, “a threat to this nation” who is “unhinged” and, inevitably, an enemy of “our democracy” who would force the public servants he doesn’t sack to pledge their loyalty to him personally.