RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/2024_do_we_hit_the_iceberg_or_finally_change_course.html

It is difficult for any American who loves this country to watch its political, economic, and military “leaders” destroy it.  Part of the political theater propping up the illusion of electoral choice in this Kabuki dance that the State-controlled press calls “democracy” is the lie that officeholders from different parties are at each other’s throats.  More Americans than ever finally see through this convenient fiction and understand that a single Uniparty acts as a guild of political thespians who are the face of a permanently entrenched national security Deep State that runs the show.  

Furthermore, more Americans than ever finally recognize that the United States is not a country that supports free markets but rather a central bank-directed financial cartel that regulates labor, commodities, and transactions so stringently that there is nothing outside of the government’s (or Wall Street’s) economic control.  Taxing Americans’ labor, forcing them to use an inflation-driven paper currency, and encumbering their ownership of real property are not policies for encouraging middle class prosperity; they are chains meant to create debt-anchored, government-dependent slaves.

For many decades, it seemed as if a vanguard of American communists were pushing these destructive policies and operating as a kind of fifth column from within an otherwise pro-America governing class.  Whether that fifth column was always much larger than it appeared or whether it simply succeeded, through strategic patience, in conquering America’s political and economic institutions and converting them to its advantage, there is no question that America’s internal demolition is now an all-of-government operation.

You do not hand a private central bank the power to print dollar bills, unless you expect those dollars to become untethered from any gold standard.  You do not print and spend money without budgetary constraints, unless you never intend to pay down those debts.  You do not engage in such a monetary Ponzi scheme that artificially raises the prices of stocks and real properties while depreciating the common person’s meager savings, unless you plan on precipitating the mother of all economic crashes in the future.  You do not start seeding the idea of a new central bank digital currency, unless you intend to take advantage of that economic crash and transition the whole population onto a mandatory system of government welfare.  

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-vs-the-woke-let-the-people-decide-if-he-is-on-the-ballot-maine-colorado-dcaf41ce?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

EXCERPTS:

In America in 2024, who, or what, is the real threat? Mr. Trump? Or the left? It’s a harder question than either side will admit.

It’s Mr. Trump who lies, the left will say. It’s undeniable he does. But, the Trumpian right replies, progressive America has become an entire culture of lies: Nothing is true except “my truth”—and the party line. Men aren’t necessarily men and women aren’t necessarily women. Doctors or midwives merely “assign a sex” to a newborn. Mediocrity gets an upgrade; a student worthy of a C-plus under the old regime may now graduate summa cum laude. One must never hurt the feelings of mediocrities. An appeal to excellence is racist oppression. Western Civ has got to go.

The Trumpian threat emanates from one egregious man and his massive following, citizens who, however, don’t consider themselves or their leader to be a threat at all but, rather, the better bet under these dreary circumstances. The faithful of the progressive left, every bit as cultish as Trumpians are alleged to be, consider themselves and their doctrines as the path to righteousness.

There’s the problem: The case for disqualifying both the flawed and tainted Mr. Trump and his flawed and tainted opponents on the left (including Mr. Biden) is strong.

https://johnhabelesmd.substack.com/p/an-essay-on-scientist?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=413102&post_id=140309584&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=8t06w&utm_medium=email

One of the greatest challenges each society faces is deciding what constitutes “truth.” Whoever holds that power wields enormous influence and steers the direction of the society for better or for worse.

For centuries, “truth” was delegated to the ruling institutions of the time, and hence truth was simply the narrative which conformed to their interests. Then, during the enlightenment period a new idea emerged—that truth could be determined empirically through experimentation and data.

This in turn gave birth to the scientific revolution, and while not perfect (as vested interests would still try to make their “narrative” be truth irrespective of what the scientific data showed), scientific inquiry began shaping the direction of Western Culture, and in a rocky fashion gradually moved society forward, giving us many of the benefits we take for granted today.

Sadly however, the tendency of ruling interests to want to monopolize the truth never went away and we’ve watched a curious phenomenon emerge where science, riding on the social credit earned by the success of its revolutionary discoveries, has gradually transformed into something not that different from a state religion. Given that science was originally meant to be a way to move beyond truth being monopolized by the dogmatic institutions which ran society, it is quite tragic that science has become one as well.

As a result, science has more and more become the practice of “trusting scientific experts” and not being allowed to question their interpretations of the data—or even see it. This is very different from what science was originally intended to be—the collective endeavor of scientists around the world to put forth ideas and have the ones that stand up to scrutiny become the generally accepted standard.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/education/claudine-gay-personal-attacks-racial-animus-harvard

Claudine Gay, the embattled now-former president of Harvard University, blamed “personal attacks” and “racial animus” in her resignation letter to the university community.

Gay resigned her position Tuesday after facing mounting accusations of plagiarism, but in her resignation letter, she turned the focus to race in a move critics highlighted as an example of her commitment to controversial diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology.

“It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor — two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am — and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus,” Gay, whose tenure atop the university is now the shortest in Harvard history, wrote in her letter.

Gay, who saw a last-ditch effort from former President Barack Obama to save her job, added that the future of Harvard will require a commitment to “combat bias and hate in all its forms” and to “create a learning environment in which we respect each other’s dignity and treat one another with compassion.”

“When my brief presidency is remembered, I hope it will be seen as a moment of reawakening to the importance of striving to find our common humanity — and of not allowing rancor and vituperation to undermine the vital process of education,” she concluded.

Calls for Gay’s resignation have been growing as more allegations of plagiarism in her past published works have surfaced. The latest plagiarism claims emerged Monday in a report from the Washington Free Beacon, bringing the total number of allegations close to 50.

Gay was also one of several university presidents accused of allowing antisemitism on campus following their recent congressional testimonies, during which Gay and others refused to specify whether calls for genocide against Jews would violate their universities’ codes of conduct.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/01/02/aclu-nra-supreme-court-free-speech-case/72047487007/

Biden administration tries to censor free speech

Under the Biden administration, there has been a consistent attack on free speech through the censorship and blacklisting of opposing groups. Even facts are now deemed dangerous “malinformation,” if used in a way that the administration deems misleading or harmful. 

For example, according to an investigation by the Washington Examiner, the federal government helped to fund the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which discourages advertisers from supporting sites accused of promoting disinformation.

All 10 of the sites that GDI claimed were the riskiest are popular with conservatives, libertarians and independents. GDI warned advertisers that they were accepting “reputational and brand risk” by “financially supporting disinformation online.”

The “risky” sites included Reason, a libertarian-oriented source of news and commentary about the government. Conversely, HuffPost, a far left media outlet, was included among the 10 sites at lowest risk of spreading disinformation. (GDI included USA TODAY in this group.)

A triumvirate of government, corporate and academic institutions are involved in efforts to control free speech by throttling the funding for its exercise. If you want to be heard in a large context, you either stay within the lines set by these groups or face pariah status.