RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/20/the-right-outcome-for-rittenhouse-but/

I do not have much to add to the cataract of commentary about Friday’s Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Like all sane people, I applaud the young man’s acquittal on all charges. 

There seem to be essentially three sorts of responses to the decision. One is “Hallelujah, justice was done, let us chalk up the victory, and move on. The System™ works.” 

A second response, about which I’ll say a bit more below, is the standard-issue, angry woke identity politics response. According to this narrative, Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist” who acted as a vigilante when Kenosha, Wisconsin exploded in violence in August 2020, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man. According to this script, Rittenhouse wantonly murdered two people in cold blood—Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26—and grievously injured a third, Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. This charge was the specialité de la maison of the so-called mainstream media and the Democratic establishment up to and including Joe Biden. 

In the aftermath of the verdict, the meme was supercharged by all the usual suspects. Rep. Jerry “the Waddler” Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was among the first to suggest the U.S. Justice Department bring federal charges against Rittenhouse since the state charges didn’t stick. I’m sure the ghoulish Merrick “the Moderate” Garland is considering it if only he can peel off enough agents from harassing parents attending school board meetings for the task. 

For his part, Biden, though acknowledging his disappointment that the 18-year old wasn’t going to be thrown in prison for the rest of his life, did at first say that the trial vindicated the judicial process and that “the jury system works.” Aides soon began walking that back, however, perhaps in preparation for the Nadler gambit of trying the boy twice. 

https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/20/no-more-summits-for-joe-biden/

Joe Biden on Monday finally got the summit he had long sought with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Biden officials and many in the mainstream media credited the three-and-a-half-hour virtual summit with reducing tensions between the two nations by promoting dialogue and diplomacy. 

But in fact, Biden should not have skipped his bedtime. The optics of him again appearing as an extremely weak and indecisive president, contrasted with the strong leader of a U.S. adversary, were so bad that White House officials should avoid any more bilateral meetings like this in the future.

It was clear that Xi came to the summit prepared to intimidate Biden and dominate the discussion. He bullied Biden with accusations against U.S. and Taiwanese officials for stirring up tensions with China over Taiwanese independence. Biden said very little in reply.

For his part, Biden took a much softer approach. He emphasized easing tensions and constructing “guardrails” in U.S.-China “competition,” urging China to act responsibly and sought more cooperation and diplomacy. 

Biden read a laundry list of U.S. grievances prepared by the State Department concerning human rights, arms control, Taiwan, regional security, and other issues. But he showed no urgency about any of them or expressed any serious U.S. policy to address them. 

Biden again failed to demand Chinese cooperation in investigating the origins of the coronavirus in a Chinese biolab, which thus far has killed more than 767,000 Americans. 

Although Biden said the United States “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability,” he endorsed the U.S. “One China” policy. He also didn’t complain about China’s recent provocations against Taiwan, flying large numbers of fighter planes and bombers into its Air Defense Identification Zone, practicing invasion tactics, and erecting mock-ups of U.S. aircraft carriers for Chinese air force pilots to practice attacking American warships.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/11/its_funny_watching_a_kennedy_struggle_with_the_rittenhouse_case.html

I’ve never been a fan of the Kennedy mystique. When I think of John F. Kennedy, aside from the fact that I enjoy reminding Democrats that he would be a Republican now, I think of compulsive womanizing, massive drug cocktails, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs fiasco. My thoughts about Teddy Kennedy are even worse. With him, it’s a fake neck brace and Mary Jo Kopechne slowly suffocating in a car lodged in shallow water. I also think of his waitress sandwiches.

With those images in mind, I had to laugh (along with a lot of other people) when Maria Shriver, Teddy’s niece, announced on Twitter that she had no idea how to explain to her son how someone could commit a crime and not get “charged” for anything.

There’s a lot to unpack in the following tweet:

First, the tweet manages to imply that Shriver is trying to explain this mystery of life to a little boy, someone who is slowly learning his way around the world and struggling to form his own opinions. Maybe he’s ten or thirteen.

Nope. Her older son is 28 and her younger one is 24. Talk about infantilizing one of those boys…er, young men.

Second, Shriver has spent decades as a journalist and was First Lady of California during ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger’s term as a RINO governor in California’s statehouse. With that in mind, her statement that she’s shocked that Kyle Rittenhouse (who is much younger than both her sons) “didn’t get charged for anything” makes her sound like a moron.

What really happened back in September 2020 is that the Kenosha District Attorney charged Kyle with lightning speed. That’s why he was in court for three weeks, watching the allegations against him crumble.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-biden-turns-79-a-panic-over-kamala-harris-11637362818?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

President Biden’s 79th birthday Saturday is the key to understanding the Democratic alarms this week about Vice President Kamala Harris. Is her approval rating as terrible as the surveys say? Is she being unfairly sidelined by the White House? That fretting is really about Joe and 2024.

Democrats are slowly figuring out that Mr. Biden is unlikely to seek a second term, especially as voters conclude by watching him that he’s struggling under the burdens of the job. During the 2020 campaign, questioning his pep was treated as taboo ageism, despite the obvious change in his vigor compared with his 2012 debate against Paul Ryan.

But 58% of voters now say Mr. Biden is “too old to be President,” including 27% of Democrats, according to a recent Harvard-Harris poll. Meantime, 53% of voters “have doubts” about whether he is “mentally fit to serve,” including 16% of Democrats. On Friday Mr. Biden received an annual physical. We hope he passed with flying colors and will go on to enjoy the same longevity as Jimmy Carter, now 97.

Speaking of Mr. Carter, though, here’s what he said in 2019: “If I were just 80 years old, if I was 15 years younger, I don’t believe I could undertake the duties I experienced when I was President.” Mr. Biden will be 82 in 2024. Democrats were content to overlook this when their goal was evicting Donald Trump. But that’s done. Mr. Biden’s utility to Democrats will fall further if his $4 trillion spending bill passes, especially if Republicans retake Congress in 2022.