RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/16/the-double-standards-of-

The New York Times recently hired as a writer and board member Sarah Jeong. The Times knew that in recent years Jeong had posted a series of unapologetically racist anti-white tweets. She had offered wisdom such as “#CancelWhitePeople” and expressed hatred for males.

Yet when the Times discovered less graphic versions of such tweets from newly hired technology writer Quinn Norton earlier this year, the newspaper immediately fired Norton.

The message of disparate treatment was that what bothers the Times is not racism per se, but who is the racist and who are her targets.

Over at The Atlantic, there are also no ostensible rules concerning who is and is not fired, and for what reason. Essayist Kevin Williamson was allegedly dropped by The Atlantic for his prior incendiary suggestion that abortion might warrant the death penalty.

Fine, it is a free country, and private companies can fire whomever they chose. But The Atlantic had no problem hiring writer Julia Ioffe. She been let go at Politico for tweeting that President Trump might have engaged in incest with his daughter Ivanka.

Again, the impression conveyed is that The Atlantic is not so concerned with inflammatory speech as with calibrating at whom the venom is directed. If Ioffe had tweeted the same perversities about Barack Obama and his daughters, The Atlantic surely would have fired her immediately.

The American people are losing confidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation not just because after 15 months, he has not charged anyone with Russian collusion—the original reason he was appointed. Instead, the pushback is due to the growing sense that rules are made up ad hoc.

https://pjmedia.com/video/gov-andrew-cuomo-shocks-audience-america-was-never-that-great/

Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) “drew gasps from the crowd” on Wednesday when he belittled America in response to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great,” Cuomo said during a speech in New York. He went on to argue that only when Democrat priorities like women’s rights are realized will this dark, oppressive dystopia known as the U.S.A. ever become great.

“We have not reached greatness, we will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged, we will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution,” he said.

Cuomo, the son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo and older brother of CNN Anchor Chris Cuomo, is widely believed to be a contender for the Democratic nomination for the White House in 2020.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro called on Cuomo to apologize, saying, America “with its imperfections, has always been great.”

“This governor is so determined to distract voters from his failed policies and corrupted administration that he’s willing to dismiss the steady, determined march of the American people, making and remaking the greatness of America. Mr. Cuomo owes the nation an apology,” he said in a statement. “He should be ashamed of himself.” CONTINUE AT SITE

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/john-brennans-security-clearance-revoked-by-trump/

WASHINGTON — A day after the former CIA director fired off a tweet criticizing President Trump for calling Omarosa Manigault Newman a “dog,” the White House said Trump revoked the security clearance for John Brennan.

Former top intelligence and national security officials retain clearances in case an instance arises in which they’re called to consult with their successors in a classified setting. Last month, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he’d encouraged Trump to revoke the clearance of Brennan, who had just tweeted that Trump’s press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki “rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin.”

“John Brennan and others partisans should have their security clearances revoked. Public officials should not use their security clearances to leverage speaking fees or network talking head fees,” Paul tweeted after he met with Trump.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time that Trump was “also looking into the clearances” of other critics: FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe — though Comey and McCabe no longer have clearances to revoke, per exit procedures at the FBI.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/peter-strzok-gofundme-why-are-people-giving-him-money/I thought I was bad with money.

Every now and then, I’ll read some news that makes my eyes bug out and my jaw drop to the floor because I can’t believe how stupid it is.

This week, it was the news that fired FBI agent Peter Strzok has raised over $400,000 for his legal costs and lost income via a GoFundMe campaign.

Let me rephrase: Actual people with actual brains actually decided that the best use of their hard-earned cash was to just give it away to this dude. I really can’t believe it. I mean, I thought I was bad with money until I saw people were giving theirs to Peter f***ing Strzok. I can spend my money much more wisely than that, and I’m saying that as someone who once spent $20 to have a single Slurpee delivered to her apartment so she didn’t have to go outside.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/two-thirds-voters-robert-mueller-should-end-russia-probe-before-midterms/

Sixty-six percent of voters — including 57 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans, and 69 percent of independents — want Special Counsel Robert Mueller to try to wrap up his investigation into Russian election interference before November’s midterms, according to a CNN poll.

The vast majority of those polled, 70 percent, said Trump should sit for an interview with investigators if Mueller requests it. About 30 percent said the investigation will be “extremely” important to their congressional votes this year. Over half, 56 percent, also said they believe the president has attempted to interfere in Mueller’s investigation.

The poll also shows a five-point increase in those saying they approve of Trump’s response to the investigation, up to 34 percent from 29 percent in June. However, 55 percent still say they disapprove of Trump’s response to the probe. The president has frequently called the investigation a “witch hunt” and demanded that it be closed.

The president currently has a 42 percent overall approval rating, narrowly ahead of the standing enjoyed by Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan at the same point in their presidencies. Mueller’s job approval is higher, with 47 percent saying they approve of the way he has handled the investigation, up from 41 percent in June.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/strzoks_firing_reveals_the_scandal_at_the_fbis_office_of_professional_responsibility.html

Because Trump-haters already are donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to Peter Strzok’s GoFundMe begathon, they are likely to fund his lawyers making an issue of his firing. The fact that the deputy director of the FBI overruled the Office of Professional Responsibility’s recommendation for a mild penalty of a 60-day suspension and a demotion will no doubt be a centerpiece of their argument that politics reared its ugly head, and he is a martyr.

Good.

Sara Carter, with many sources within the FBI, lays out the case that the OPR acted with bias and needs reform. I recommend that you read the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

[W]hat could have led FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, to make the decision to overrule OPR? …

Former FBI special agents, some of whom worked with OPR for years, said they agree with Bodwich’s decision. They told SaraACarter.com that the system is broken and Bodwich had no other choice but to step in and fire Strzok. They say political leanings, friendships and dual systems of justice inside OPR have plagued how cases regarding FBI agents are adjudicated and handled.

Some 450 days ago we were treated to melodramatic announcements from the media about the start-up of Robert Mueller’s “dream” and “all-star” team.

Reporters gushed in the general hysteria of the times that Mueller would no doubt soon indict President Trump, some of his family, and almost anyone else in his campaign—and therefore end the Trump aberration.

Press puff pieces highlighted the résumés of his superstars—of Lisa Page (no comment needed), Peter Strzok (less than no comment needed), Jeannie Rhee (a former attorney for the Clinton Foundation, Ben Rhodes, and for a bit Hillary Clinton), Andrew Weissman (Clinton zealot, Obama and DNC donor, and the cheerleader to Sally Yates’s refusal to carry out a presidential order), Aaron Zebley (the former attorney for Clinton staffer Justin Cooper who set up the infamous Clinton home server and smashed to bits her mobile devices), and a host of other pros, who were all shortly to prove Trump-Russian “collusion.”

Although that Mueller mandate of collusion was never formally defined, much less explained as a criminal offense, the media salivated at the idea that Mueller’s whiz kids nonetheless were going to find it and no doubt thereby usher in impeachment.

Now we have gone from melodrama to bathos.

The supposed high drama of election sabotage has descended into leveraging Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and then outsourcing him and his baggage to federal prosecutors. The FBI, having seized from his home and office his stealthily recorded and secret tapes of his own alleged lawyer-client conversations with Trump, now hope to find therein something, anything, untoward with which they can accuse and damage the president.

Paul Manafort is to be exposed for what most already knew he was, a high-flying wheeler-dealer and influence-peddler along the lines of his Clintonite doppelganger, Tony Podesta. Mueller’s team at some point presumably will embarrass Trump concerning his Cohen-arranged hush deals about an alleged fling a decade earlier with a playboy bunny.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/08/deblasio_goons_haul_away_reporter_because_he_asked_a_question.html

Not two hours after New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio gave a ringing defense of freedom of the press, his goons hauled away a reporter for the New York Post who had dared ask him a question in public.

On a national TV show Sunday morning, DeBlasio said “I believe in a free, strong media with diverse views — I’ll defend it with all I’ve got.”

Apparently, he doesn’t have much to defend it with.

Just two hours later, after de Blasio cut a ribbon to kick off the parade and was posing for photos near West 37th Street and Sixth Avenue, the reporter asked him to comment on the “CITY FOR SALE” Page One story.

Instead of answering or even declining to answer the question, the mayor watched as two members of his NYPD security detail approached the reporter — who was wearing a police-issued press pass around his neck — with one grabbing his shoulder and leading him away from the mayor.

“Kevin, you have to leave. You can’t be here,” the plainclothes cop said.

Both bodyguards then escorted the reporter about a half-block away, where a member of the NYPD’s public-information office, Officer Brian Magoolaghan, told him, “Come on, Kevin. No stunts today.”

City Hall had previously declined to discuss records that showed officials held 136 meetings with lobbyists during just three months earlier this year.

The incident was reminiscent of one last month when the White House barred a CNN reporter from a Rose Garden event for shouting “inappropriate” questions at President Trump in the Oval Office earlier in the day.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-fbi-finally-cans-peter-strzok/

FBI official Peter Strzok was finally fired Friday, more than a year after his anti-Trump text messages with his mistress, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, were discovered.

Strzok, who played a lead role in both the Clinton email and the Trump/Russia investigations, displayed extreme bias against then-candidate Trump in the now-infamous text messages.

Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement on Monday that FBI Deputy Director David L. Bowdich ordered the firing on Friday, a departure from the usual disciplinary practice. Bowdich “overruled” the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which had decided Strzok should face only a demotion and 60-day suspension.

Goelman complained that the move belies the FBI’s repeated assurances that Strzok would be afforded “the normal process.”

“This isn’t the normal process in any way more than name,” Goelman said.

He added, “The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters.”

The FBI declined to comment.

President Trump and congressional Republicans have hammered Strzok for months for his role in the FBI’s handling of both the Clinton email investigation and the Trump/Russia investigations.

In a tweet over the weekend, the president blistered Strzok and Page, along with the disgraced former director and deputy director, referring to them as “clowns and losers!”

The president immediately seized on Strzok’s firing, tweeting that the witch hunt he helped start should be dropped: