RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/tourist-terror-turns-ten/

April 15 will mark ten years since Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev targeted the Boston Marathon with explosive devices that killed Lingzi Lu, 23, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Martin Richard, only eight years old.  The powerful pressure-cooker bombs also wounded more than 250 at the crowded annual event.

Police killed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a shootout and captured younger brother Dzhokhar. His death sentence was overturned in 2020 and reinstated in 2022. This January, Tsarnaev made another bid to have his death sentence overturned, and Dzhokhar, 29, has to like his chances.  That invites a review of how the bombers got to Boston in the first place.

In April of 2002, Anzor Tsarnaev arrived in the USA on a tourist visa with sons Tamerlan, 15, and Dzhokhar, only eight at the time. The family gained asylum and Dzhokhar became a U.S. citizen on September 11, 2012, despite security concerns. In 2011, the Russian government warned the FBI that the Tsarnaevs had ties to Chechen terrorists.

More than a year before the bombing, Tamerlan traveled back and forth from Dagestan for terror training. He should have been stopped at JFK airport but his name had been misspelled in a security database. The FBI did conduct an investigation of Tamerlan but closed the probe in June of 2011, after finding “no links to terrorism.” As Bostonians and people across the country may recall, the FBI committed a similar lapse in 2009.

The bureau knew that U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan was communicating with al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki about killing Americans. The FBI dropped the probe and on November 5, 2009, Hasan murdered 13 Americans and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas, yelling “Allahu akbar” as he fired. Pvt. Francheska Velez was pregnant, so the death count should be 14. Despite the carnage, the lessons of Fort Hood went unlearned.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/04/the_west_declares_war_on_itself.html

For Americans who cherish self-government, free speech, and personal liberty, the reality of today’s America is jolting.  How can Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Barack Obama’s FBI, and an assortment of sordid Intelligence Community actors conspire to frame Donald Trump as a Russian spy in a veritable coup d’état without suffering any legal consequences?  How can the IRS target Americans for their political viewpoints and be rewarded with bigger budgets and more armed agents?  How can the FBI illegally spy on a presidential campaign, target parents concerned over the content of their children’s public education, and label half of America “extremists,” and not be disbanded?  

How can the Department of (in)Justice seek to punish Americans’ speech and religious faith as impermissible expressions of “hate” and deprive Americans of their Second Amendment protections without being immediately defunded as a threat to the Bill of Rights?  How can the State Department lecture regimes around the world about violently quelling political dissent and violating human rights when thousands of Americans who protested for fair elections have been persecuted as “insurrectionists,” denied impartial justice, and imprisoned for having “incorrect” beliefs?  These are not the actions of any “free” nation and are shockingly antithetical to America’s foundations in liberty.

From this perspective, it seems apparent that the American government has not so quietly declared war on the American people.  Why?  Because it has abandoned any effort at preserving the qualities of its charter that once distinguished the American system as “exceptional” from all others — chiefly its constitutional framework empowering individual citizens and states while severely limiting centralized authority from ever infringing Americans’ inalienable rights and liberties.  This idea — that legitimate political power can arise only from the people — had been an invaluable guardrail for keeping governing excesses, if not outright tyranny, in check.  The steady erosion of this principle over the last century and its replacement with the age-old fallacy that “might makes right” have squandered American exceptionalism and invited tyranny to return through the front door.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2023/04/13/the-biden-crime-family-was-all-in-on-gain-of-function-research-n1686944

Remember when Hunter Biden tagged along on Joe’s trip to China in 2013? Photographers captured the moment when Hunter followed his dad and daughter Finnegan down the stairs of Air Force Two. The Obama White House produced a fawning video about it (watch it below). It was a trip that would pay millions in dividends for what some people call “The Biden Crime Family.”

On that Asian tour, Vice President Biden held a four-and-a-half hour-long meeting with Chinese President Xi that was mostly off the record. He also visited Japan and South Korea. The trip was in December 2013.

Hunter’s visage wasn’t featured in the vast majority of the coverage. But they needed only one look to ask, “What was Hunter doing on this trip?” It turns out, he was off doing deals, trading on his dad’s name, and making millions for the family.

Eleven months after that trip, the big deals started happening. In October 2014, Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) became an investor in a Silicon Valley company called Metabiota, which does business with China, the Pentagon, and Ukraine. The company, which predicts pandemics and tries to “prevent proactively the spread of diseases” for “companies, governments, and livestock producers,” has ties to the World Economic Forum (Davos) through its founder, virologist Nathan Wolfe, who has been selected by WEF as an up-and-coming leader. Eventually, Biden’s RSTP would own a 13.4% stake in Metabiota.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/04/14/will-latest-revelations-of-corruption-get-biden-impeached/

With each day, it seems, we hear something new about how President Joe Biden and his ever-eager son, Hunter, used the power of Biden’s various political offices to make money for the Biden family. If even half of the allegations are true, Biden’s in big trouble. Will that make him think twice about running for a second term in 2024?

American voters are a thick-skinned lot, and know pretty much that many politicians are scoundrels. But Biden is a different breed.

His family has, for years, received mysterious piles of money — we’re talking millions of dollars here — from questionable overseas sources, including Chinese Communist-linked executives, Russians with ties to Vladimir Putin and huge sums from Ukraine and its giant Burisma energy company.

The latest revelation is just stunning.

Turns out that Hunter, with no real experience at all in the energy business, was asked to join Ukraine-based Burisma’s board of directors on April 18, 2014 — the same month that President Barack Obama made Biden his “point man” on Ukraine, then in the midst of a growing conflict with Russia.

A mere three days after Hunter joined Burisma’s board, Vice President Biden high-tailed it to Ukraine on an “official” trip to push ”medium- and long-term strategies to boost conventional gas production, and also to begin to take advantage of the unconventional gas reserves that are in Ukraine.”

Did it work? You bet. “According to Burisma’s website, it ramped up production from 100 million cubic meters in 2010 to 1.3 billion cubic meters in 2018 – when it generated revenues of at least $400 million,” the Daily Mail reports.

For sitting on Burisma’s board, Hunter Biden and his business partner and former Yale classmate, Devon Archer, each scored $83,333 a month for “consulting services” paid to their consulting firm, Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, from April 2014 to November 2015.

This wasn’t the only payment they received from questionable Eastern European sources. While the media later spun its wheels with unproved and outright bogus claims of Donald Trump’s “collusion” with Russia, a Senate investigation noted Biden’s hands were in Russia’s pockets for real.

“On Feb. 14, 2014, (Elena) Baturina wired $3.5 million to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC (Rosemont Seneca Thornton) bank account for a ‘Consultancy Agreement,’ ” a Senate report said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-health-warning-feinstein-khanna-newsom-biden-competency-age-reelection-f8242e0c?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

Nothing is certain but death and taxes, save perhaps Democrats’ recent ability to ignore the relevance of old age to that saying. Will their Dianne Feinstein problem provoke a rethink of the wisdom of renominating Joe Biden?

Ms. Feinstein, California’s 89-year-old senior senator, announced this week that her return to Washington would be delayed by “continued complications” of shingles. She has already missed nearly three-quarters of Senate votes this year because of her illness, though Democrats’ more immediate frustration is that her absence leaves the Judiciary Committee deadlocked, unable to greenlight Mr. Biden’s nominees. With the House in GOP hands, that’s about all the Senate is currently good for.

And don’t progressives know it. Plenty of senators have faced injury and illness before, some absent for long periods. But with a 51-49 Senate margin—and the potential for a judicial pileup or the loss of a crucial floor vote—Democrats have suddenly decided octogenarians pose a problem. California Rep. Ro Khanna unloosed the hordes on Wednesday with a tweet demanding Ms. Feinstein resign, citing the need to put “country ahead of personal loyalty.” He was joined by Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who called it a “dereliction of duty” for Ms. Feinstein to remain in office and for Democrats to “remain quiet.”

Don’t think Mr. Khanna is motivated entirely by civic-mindedness. Gov. Gavin Newsom has vowed to appoint a black woman to Ms. Feinstein’s seat should she step down before her term ends in 2025. Mr. Khanna happens to be a co-chairman of House Rep. Barbara Lee’s campaign for the seat. Ms. Lee is an obvious top contender for a placeholder pick, which would give her a huge leg up over rivals in 2024. It’s convenient when “country” holds a political upside.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/leak-documents-likely-came-from-air-national-guardsman-at-fort-bragg-official-says-dbf48c0a

“President Biden, when asked for an update on the leak investigation Thursday during a trip to Dublin, said he was concerned that the leak happened, but “there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that’s of great consequence.”

The FBI arrested a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman in connection with a leak of what appear to be highly classified intelligence documents, a security breach that posed a threat to U.S. ties to some allies and efforts to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Federal agents took Jack Douglas Teixeira into custody in Dighton, Mass., on Thursday afternoon. Television footage showed armed agents leading a male wearing red shorts and an olive green T-shirt with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed Mr. Teixeira’s arrest in connection with the “investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.” Mr. Garland declined to elaborate, citing the probe.

Mr. Teixeira was expected to appear Friday in federal court in Massachusetts. An attorney for Mr. Teixeira couldn’t be immediately identified, and members of his family couldn’t be reached for comment.

The arrest caps a fast-moving probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pentagon and others to pinpoint the source of a leak of documents that appear to have exposed details of U.S. surveillance of adversaries and allies, touching off multiple diplomatic storms and raising worries about undermining Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/if-they-are-not-calling-you-a-fascist-youre-too-damn-soft/

Look, they are always going to call you a fascist, but if they are not screaming about what you are doing as loud as their high-pitched voices can go, you are not going against the left anywhere near hard enough. They will insist that any use of conservative power – whether by a Florida governor elected with a 20-point margin or a Tennessee 3-1 supermajority – is illegitimate authoritarianism in their Marxist narrative. This is why we conservatives, instead of caring about the lies that we are “fascist” or “authoritarian” or – of course – “racist,” should use the volume of their howling solely as a metric of our success.

They scream loudest when it hurts the most.

When we take away their ability to groom kids in schools.

When we cut off the power of their corporate co-conspirators.

When we use the judicial system to stop their (actual) fascist power grabs.

When we buy guns and ammunition to protect our lives and liberty.

When we hold them to their own rules and toss out insurrectionist representatives who obstruct legislative proceedings.

That last one, from Tennessee last week, is instructive. A trio of Marxist mutants marched into the well of the legislature straight from commie central casting with a bullhorn to co-opt the session and demand disarmament of normal people in the wake of some trans weirdo murdering six Christians.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/04/death_to_the_suburbs.html

The indomitable Betsy McCaughey has called out the latest ugly manifestation of “diversity, inclusion, and equity” the drive to destroy the suburbs.  The Biden administration and Democrat-controlled legislatures in several states have taken the lead in this effort.  In New York State, Governor Kathy Hochul, as part of the state budget, has advanced a so-called Housing Compact that would eliminate local control and single family zoning. 

Hochul’s plan would require that high-rise “affordable” (read: low-income, taxpayer-subsidized) housing be constructed close to each sleepy village train station — mostly a few miles apart — on Metro North and the Long Island Railroad.  If the affected communities fail to do so “voluntarily,” the state will have the power to override local zoning.  Those who fail to applaud this combined coup by warriors for social justice and real estate interests are, you guessed it, racist.

Suburban homeowners, Democrats as well as Republicans, are beginning to awaken to the deadly threat these proposals pose to their way of life.  What is largely overlooked is that this is a repeat of a similar effort in 1972 about which I wrote at the time (“Housing Controversy in Westchester,” Congress Biweekly, November 10, 1972 and December 22, 1972).  Believe it or not, the effort to overthrow zoning was then spearheaded by Republicans — with New York’s Westchester County selected to pioneer the program.

On June 20, 1972, the New York State Urban Development Corporation announced that it was overriding local zoning to create a variety of low- and moderate-income housing developments in nine, for the most part rural, Westchester communities.  Reminiscent of the emotional reaction to the death of George Floyd, the UDC had been given zoning override power by a hitherto balky state Legislature the day after the murder of Martin Luther King.  Republican governor Nelson Rockefeller, in a burst of virtue-signaling, argued that this was the best tribute the Legislature could give the slain civil rights leader.  When rationality returned, efforts by the state Legislature to take away the override power were vetoed by Rockefeller.

https://lidblog.com/biggest-population-loss-in-us/

Democrat residents are fleeing two of the nation’s largest counties — Cook County, home to Chicago, Illinois, and L.A. County, home to Los Angeles, California — in record numbers. Last year, those locals led the nation in population shrinkage.

Of the two, Los Angeles County led the nation by losing the most citizens to outbound migration by losing a whopping 90,704 citizens, according to U.S. Census Bureau records.

Right behind LA  was Cook County, the home of the Windy City, which lost 68,314 people from July 2021 to July of last year.

Despite the loss, the two counties were still the most populous in America, according to Just the News:

Los Angeles County was still the most populous county in the U.S. That was followed by Cook County in Illinois at 5,109,292, which declined by 68,314 from the prior year. Rounding out the top five were Harris County, Texas (4,780,913); Maricopa County, Arizona (4,551,524); and San Diego County, California (3,276,208).

Eight of the top 10 most populous counties in the U.S. were located in the South and West. The two exceptions were Cook County in Illinois and Kings County [Brooklyn] in New York.

“Reflecting longstanding regional population shifts, the nation’s most populous counties are increasingly located in the South and West,” the bureau reported. “In 2022, 63 of the country’s 100 most populous counties were located in the South and West, up from 61 in the prior year.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/04/13/millions-have-voted-for-trump-since-2020-with-their-feet/

Over the past two years, vast numbers of Americans picked up and moved. In a mobile society like ours, that’s not news. What is news is where they are moving from, and where they are going to.

Turns out, there’s a mass exodus underway, with people leaving Biden strongholds and heading to MAGA country.

New Census data show that, from 2021 to 2022, more than 2 million people moved out of urban areas that are largely controlled by Democrats and relocated to exurbs and more rural areas that largely voted for Donald Trump.

Los Angeles County, for example, had a net ex-migration of more than 363,000 over the past two years. Cook County, Illinois, lost 200,000. In New York, New York County lost 109,000, Queens County, 158,000, and Kings County, 187,000. Philadelphia County sank 52,000.

In Texas, a state where Trump beat Joe Biden 52%-46%, the two counties that saw the largest ex-migration – Dallas and Harris – both went heavily for Biden. Combined they had a net loss of 130,000 people.

The two biggest gainers in Texas – Collin and Denton counties – went for Trump. They had a net gain of 120,000. Another big gainer – Montgomery County – voted 71% for Trump.

Salt Lake County, Utah, (which went for Biden 58%-39% in a state Trump carried 58%-38%), lost 20,000 people.

The counties in Virginia that saw the biggest outflow of people are all ones that went heavily for Biden.

Still not convinced? Take a look at these two maps in the gallery below. One, produced by the Census Department, shows net migration from 2021 to 2022. The other (click on the arrow) shows the 2020 election results by county. Notice how, across the country, the places losing population almost all voted for Biden, and the ones gaining are almost all Trump counties.