RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17857/garland-memo-parent-protests

The memo acknowledges that “spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution.” …. Nothing wrong with that. But no similar memo was directed against Black Lives Matter and other far-left groups that not only threaten violence against public officials and private citizens, but also engage in a considerable amount of criminal conduct, such as arson and destruction of property.

As a result of this timing, context and apparent lack of concern for the Black Lives Matter type of protests, many parents are understandably worried that the Justice Department may be engaged in selective investigations and ultimately selective prosecutions.

The most distressing aspect of this memorandum is its apparent focus on right-wing activities, as distinguished from equally dangerous left-wing activities. The rule of law must always pass the “shoe on the other foot test.”

In the past, the ACLU vigorously protected the rights of Klansmen, Nazis and other right-wing thugs with whom they fundamentally disagreed. They worried about the chilling effect that government threats could have…. These concerns seem to have been subordinated to partisan and ideological considerations.

I like Merrick Garland. I supported his nomination to the Supreme Court. And I think he was a good choice for Attorney General. It is in this spirit that I call on him to clarify his memorandum in two respects: (1) by making it clear that law enforcement will not investigate or prosecute raucous protests that fall on the protected side of the Constitutional line; and (2) that whatever standards law enforcement does apply must be applied equally to protests by left-wing agitators.

I disapprove of teaching captive student from the “critical legal studies” playbook, precisely because it is not critical or objective. It tends to be propaganda rather than education. But I will defend protests against both views with equal vigor, because the First Amendment does not distinguish between protected and unprotected protests based on content, and neither should the Justice Department.

Attorney General Merrick Garland recently released a memorandum addressing “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff….” The actual words of the memorandum – the lyrics – seem appropriate on their face, but the music is discordant with the First Amendment.

The memo acknowledges that “spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution.” It then goes on to direct the FBI to come up with strategies for addressing illegal threats against these public officials. Nothing wrong with that. But no similar memo was directed against Black Lives Matter and other far-left groups that not only threaten violence against public officials and private citizens, but also engage in a considerable amount of criminal conduct, such as arson and destruction of property. Some protesters have intimidated and threatened people who disagree with them. Although no specific mention was made of parents’ protests against teaching critical race theory and comparable ideological content to school children, or against mandatory masking requirements, it is clear from the context and timing that these are the protests that generated this memo.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/suicide-bomber-who-murdered-13-americans-had-just-robert-spencer/

More of the wonderful effects of having Joe Biden pretend to be president of the United States were revealed Wednesday, when it came to light that the Islamic State jihadi who murdered 13 American service members and numerous Afghans as well in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in August had just been released from prison at Bagram Air Base, the center of American operations in Afghanistan until the U.S. precipitously and irresponsibly abandoned it in July.

CNN reported that the bomber, Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri, was part of “ISIS-K,” that is, the Islamic State’s Khorasan group in central Asia, and that he had “been released from a prison near Kabul just days earlier when the Taliban took control of the area, according to three US officials.”

Al-Loghri held been held in the Parwan prison at Bagram Air Base, along with around 5,000 other prisoners, including several hundred members of ISIS, as well as Taliban and al-Qaeda jihadis. Back in July, according to the Associated Press, “the U.S. left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left.”

When the Taliban rolled into Kabul, they entered Bagram without encountering any significant opposition and opened the gates of the Parwan prison. Al-Loghri and many other jihadis walked free. Then on August 26, al-Loghri blew himself up at the Kabul airport, murdering eleven Marines, as well as one member of the Army and one of the Navy.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/11/our-representatives-not-j6-protesters-defile-the-sacred-u-s-capitol/

When politics is your religion and government is your God, a public building is your church.

The four-hour disturbance at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, according to Beltway aristocracy and the media, wasn’t a legitimate protest that turned violent in some areas—it was a sacrilege. Never mind that the building itself sustained minimal damage—early reports estimated $30 million for repairs but the actual figure is around $1 million—the real vandalism occurred when thousands of Americans wearing MAGA hats invaded the cathedral of government power occupied by America’s political deity.

And the alleged apostates are paying a dear price.

Since January 6, lawmakers, judges, and federal prosecutors have routinely described the Capitol building as holy ground. “To those who engaged in the gleeful desecration of this, our temple of democracy, American democracy, justice will be done,” Pelosi said after the breach. Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) tweeted on January 6 that “the Capitol building is the center and sacred symbol of democracy.”

After the joint session reconvened later that evening, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) mourned how “this sacred place was desecrated by a mob today, on our watch. This temple to democracy was defiled by thugs who roamed the halls.” Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) thanked the first responders who protected “this sacred Chamber.”

Here is how Joe Biden’s Justice Department recently described the actions of Robert Reeder, a Maryland man whose life has been ruined since he was charged with four misdemeanors related to his participation in the January 6 protest: “The attack on the U.S. Capitol . . . was one of the only times in our history when the building was literally occupied by hostile participants,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein wrote in an August filing. “The Defendant chose to be a part of the desecration of the Capitol rotunda. The Defendant stood in the center of the rotunda, where Ruther (sic) Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln, among others, lied in state. What the Defendant chose to record and celebrate at that place, at that time, was antithetical to the events that most Americans associate with the Capitol rotunda.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/woes-bidenomics-joseph-klein/

Bidenomics consists of President Joe Biden’s radical progressive prescriptions for transforming the American economy, including massive wealth redistribution, focus on “equity” and “social justice” rather than merit and economic opportunity, disincentives for work, and cradle-to-grave entitlements. It’s not working.

President Biden tried his best to put a positive spin on last Friday’s dismal September jobs report. Biden said that “when you take a step back and look at what’s happening, we’re actually making real progress.”

That’s right up there with Biden’s claim that his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan – leaving Americans, Afghan allies, and many billions of dollars of advanced weaponry behind under Taliban control – was an “extraordinary success.”

The total nonfarm payroll employment rose by the paltry amount of 194,000 this September – about 300,000 short of consensus estimates. To put this pitiful number in perspective, the total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 661,000 in September 2020 – while the coronavirus was still raging, and no vaccines were available yet.

Biden focused on the decline of the unemployment rate to 4.8 percent. But that decline occurred largely because the labor force itself diminished by nearly 200,000 people. In other words, more and more people of prime working age have given up looking for a job and dropped out of the labor force altogether. They are not counted in calculating the nation’s unemployment rate.

There are plenty of job openings today that remain unfilled. After all, why work if you can sit back and be taken care of by the entitlement state that Biden and the Democrat-controlled Congress are creating, which bestows generous welfare benefits with no work requirements?

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/10/why_are_so_many_people_still_dying_from_covid.html
“This pandemic is new territory, and the public would be quite understanding of “I don’t know” from the medical community rather than insisting it is their way or the highway, even in the face of seemingly contradictory information.”

COVID has been with us for more than a year and a half, along with masks and distancing, since last year, and vaccine mandates, passports, and booster shots have been added. How many of us thought life would be back to normal by now? Or if not back to normal, on an improving trajectory?

President Trump told us numerous times last year that it would soon be over. President Biden, as a candidate, promised an end to COVID. Promises, promises. From Biden’s campaign website: “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have a seven-point plan to beat COVID-19 and get our country back on track.” Whether Biden had a 7- or 17-point plan, America is not back on track.

Biden promised to fix every ill that he blamed on Trump: “Joe Biden has been laser-focused on the threat that COVID-19 has posed to our nation.”

How is that going? Has Biden vanquished COVID? Or is it just like Afghanistan, the border and illegal immigration, inflation, unemployment, energy dependency, and everything else touched by the Scranton Kid with hairy legs quickly turning into a flaming bag of dog excrement?

This news story, barely covered by Democrat propagandists, also known as the media, revealed the harsh reality that Biden has certainly not beaten COVID: “U.S. deaths from virus in 2021 surpass 2020 total.” This is based on Johns Hopkins data.

Why are things getting worse?

https://pjmedia.com/columns/kevindowneyjr/2021/10/11/the-rebellion-against-woke-has-begun-n1523078

Say no to woke.

The left just hit a new level of “woke.” In California, of course.

Califonia law now requires stores to have a gender-free toy section. Is this for all of those kids who haven’t “decided” their gender yet? Is it another kiss on the ring of the holy, powerful, and yet painfully sensitive transgender crowd? Or is it the latest attack from the “woke”? I’m going with ring kissing and woke attack.

Pronouns

Remember when the left decided “misgendering” or “deadnaming” (referring to someone by their actual gender and given name) was offensive and potentially oppressive? We all needed to post our pronouns in our emails and on our Facebook pages. Do it or you’re a BIGOT.

“I have been saying for years that misgendering a trans person is an act of violence. When I say that I am referring to cultural and structural violence. The police misgendering and deadnaming trans murder victims as a matter of policy feels like a really good example of that cultural and structural violence.”  – Laverne Cox, trans actress

I never added my pronouns. Chances are you didn’t either. When leftists ask me what my pronouns are, I say: “Aunt Jemima and Master bedroom.” Then they leave me alone.

https://issuesinsights.com/2021/10/11/the-dire-implications-of-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy/

The seven-day moving average for COVID-19 deaths in the United States is around 1,800, the same as in early December 2020, before any vaccines were authorized for emergency use. How is that possible, 10 months after safe and effective vaccines began to be administered? 

It’s due to a combination of three interrelated factors: the Delta variant’s increased transmissibility and virulence; the degree of immunity in the population, which is a function of both the efficacy and durability of the vaccines; and the decisions of individuals and policymakers. Peoples’ reluctance to get the COVID-19 vaccine – what’s known as “vaccine hesitancy” – has played a large role in the nation’s failure to reach herd immunity. As of Oct. 6 the U.S. population is only 56.4% fully vaccinated, which makes us 41st most vaccinated in the world, despite being the headquarters of vaccine development for all three FDA-approved vaccines.

Over the course of the pandemic, the goal of COVID-19 vaccine has evolved; originally it was intended to prevent symptomatic infections (the criterion for efficacy in the clinical trials). With widespread vaccination, we are now seeing so-called “breakthrough” infections (mostly mild) in vaccinees, but the vaccines have been highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

Misinformation is rife and has its roots both in domestic political activism and insidious foreign propaganda. Much of the anti-vaccine sentiment is the product of what can only be described as an industry, the principal protagonists of which are an organized group of professional propagandists. As reported in the science journal Nature, they are people “running multi-million-dollar organizations, incorporated mainly in the United States, with as many as 60 staff each.”  Some of the most prolific were identified by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that a small number of people, the “Disinformation Dozen,” produce 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms.