RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/07/barr-calls-for-special-counsel-in-probe-of-bidens/

It’s time.

Former Trump attorney general Bill Barr is publicly urging incumbent Biden attorney general Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel in the ongoing Biden investigation, which is said to focus on the president’s son Hunter.

The investigation has been ongoing since 2018 and has scrutinized shady foreign financial transactions that stretch back to at least 2014 (when Joe Biden was vice president and steering Obama administration policy in Ukraine, where Burisma, a corrupt energy company tied to the corrupt government, suddenly decided it was a fine idea to put Biden’s drug-addled son with no relevant experience on its board of directors and pay him a king’s ransom). As we observed in a recent NR editorial, Hunter is the least important Biden in the investigation, the central question of which must be “whether Hunter is a vehicle by which his father . . . indirectly cashed in on his political influence.”

Although I despise the pernicious institution of special counsel, I argued back in early December 2020, when it was clear that Biden had won the election and would be the next president, that the Biden investigation was primed for the appointment of one. That’s because there is no getting around two problems: (1) The Justice Department has a profound conflict of interest if it is in the position of having to investigate the president and/or his close family members, and (2) federal regulations instruct the attorney general that when the department is conflicted in this way, a special counsel (i.e., a scrupulous, experienced attorney from outside the government) is to be appointed.

Barr elected not to appoint a special counsel before leaving office right before Christmas 2020. In his position at that time, it was the right call and a prudent one.

It was right because there was no conflict in the Trump Justice Department’s conducting of the Biden investigation. Clearly, if Barr had made the appointment in anticipation of Biden appointees taking over the Justice Department, the move would have been seen as political — exactly the opposite of what Barr was trying to do in depoliticizing the DOJ.

It was prudently deferential of Barr to trust his successor, who turned out to be Merrick Garland, to make the call on whether there should be a special counsel. The case appeared to be in capable hands, led by David Weiss, the highly regarded U.S. attorney in Delaware (although, as I’ve warily pointed out, there are other cooks in the kitchen, principally including Tax Division at Main Justice). Garland did not displace Weiss, and that no doubt has a lot to do with Barr’s having handled things the right way.

But as Barr now points out, things have changed.

https://justthenews.com/world/asia/rep-austin-scott-sounds-alarm-china-buying-us-farmland

Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott on Thursday warned about Chinese state-backed efforts to purchase farmland in the United States amid rising tensions with the oriental superpower over its economic practices and territorial claims in in the Pacific Rim.

Speaking on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast, Scott warned of the dangers of foreign ownership of the nation’s food supply and predicted bipartisan efforts to curb China’s purchases.

“[I[f you control the land, you control the food supply. And if you look at what China has done since the invasion of Ukraine, China, it says they’re not going to allow exports of rice and other products that they grow in their country,” he said. “And now, you know, they’re buying farmland inside the United States. This is something that we should have acted sooner than we have on this.”

“But we certainly don’t need our adversaries, buying up the cropland inside the United States and, outside of cropland, they do try to buy land close to our military bases,” he noted. “That’s, you know, obviously, for spying and for no purpose that is in the best interest of the United States. But we’re gonna have to reassess what is happening with these countries like Communist China buying land inside the United States.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-if-they-gave-a-war-and-everybody-was-woke-military-recruitment-crt-training-obesity-reading-labor-market-11659108526?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Is the U.S. prepared for battle? By one measure, military recruitment, the answer appears to be no. Nearly every branch has struggled to meet its recruitment goals for 2022, with some falling as short as 40%. Worse yet, only about a quarter of America’s youth meet current eligibility standards—and recent surveys show only 9% are even interested.

Military leadership primarily blames this slump on two causes: teen obesity rates and the tight labor market. But data for both claims can’t paint the full picture. Teen obesity did increase during the pandemic, to 22% from 19%. But that jump likely can’t account for the sudden and widespread collapse in recruitment. Neither can the labor market. The unemployment rate today sits at 3.6%—roughly the same as in 2019. Yet in 2019 the Army exceeded its recruiting goals. It’s falling perilously short today and will be understrength by 28,000 troops by the end of 2023. The military’s benefits—including child care, housing allowances, medical coverage and large bonuses, up to $50,000—should also help insulate it from the pitfalls of hiring young recruits in a tight labor market.

What, then, explains the shift? Perhaps one answer lies in the Pentagon’s wholesale embrace of woke politics.

On his first day in office, President Biden rescinded a Trump-era executive order banning critical-race-theory training in the military. The changes made by senior commanders were nearly immediate. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated that every military unit conduct a “stand-down” to confront “extremism in the ranks.” The chief of naval operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, added Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist” to his professional reading list for sailors—never mind the book’s endorsement of racial discrimination and its charges that the institutions troops swear to protect are systemically racist.

Added to the mix has been divisive gender activism. The Navy has mandated gender-sensitivity training, and released a video encouraging sailors to closely police the use of pronouns as well as everyday language, declaring that those who fail to comply aren’t “allies” of their fellow sailors.

http://henrymarkholzer.blogspot.com/2022/07/saudi-arabias-american-hostages.html

Since September 11, 2001, much information has come to light about our so-called ally, the family business called Saudi Arabia: its quaint customs, like decapitation; its degradation of women; its subservience to Wahhabism; its being an incubator for terrorists; its financing terror attacks. What has not received enough attention, however, despite the efforts of a few politicians and journalist, is the Saudi kidnapping of American citizens.

The House of Representatives’ Government Reform Committee of Rep. Dan Burton (R. Indiana) has established beyond any doubt that nearly a hundred American citizens are being held against their will in Saudi Arabia – most of them girls or, by now, women. Many, some of whom are boys, were abducted from their American mothers decades ago by Saudi fathers. In Saudi Arabia, many have been physically abused (e.g., rapes, beatings,) psychologically deprived (e.g. no contact with mothers and siblings), forced to convert to Islam, and, if female, dumped into arranged marriages even at the age of twelve.

Despite heroic efforts by the captives’ American parents, lawmakers, journalists, and others – the bureaucrats in our Saudi-coddling State Department have, once again, proved to be willingly impotent – United States citizens cannot leave Saudi Arabia. Indeed, probably alone among nations of the world, Saudi Arabia prohibits all females from leaving the country without the written consent of their husbands or fathers.

Is there no way to help our countrymen, de facto imprisoned by a primitive regime that has not the slightest conception of human rights? Perhaps.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/davidhasanyi/2022/07/29/the-dems-new-proposal-does-nothing-to-lower-inflation-n1616689

The first thing to remember about the reconciliation bill Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer agreed to Wednesday is that, despite its utterly preposterous name, it has absolutely zero to do with inflation. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is crammed with the very same spending, corporate welfare, price fixing and tax hikes that were part of Build Back Better — long-desired progressive wish-list agenda items. Pumping hundreds of billions into the economy will do nothing to alleviate inflation. The opposite.

Let’s also remember the Democrats’ deflection on inflation last year — claiming it was “transitory” and “no serious economist” is “suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way,” and so on — was all part of a concerted political effort to ignore the problem long enough to cram through a $5.5 trillion iteration of their agenda. And when inflation suddenly became non-transitory, and politically problematic, the Biden administration argued that more spending would relieve inflation. They don’t care about the economy, as long as dependency is being expanded. 

The bill is far more likely to spike consumer prices than not. You can hate corporations with the heat of a thousand suns and grouse about the lack of fairness in the world, but it won’t change the fact that businesses don’t pay taxes, they collect them. The Dems’ bill claims it raises $313 billion with a minimum 15% corporate tax rate. Democrats seem to be under the impression that corporations that pay less than 15% are evading taxes rather than using completely legal tools like accelerated depreciation or taking advantage of tax credits. Whatever the case, raising corporate taxes means fewer jobs or higher prices. Maybe both. What it won’t do is lower inflation.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/u-k-transgender-clinic-to-close-after-damning-report-not-safe-for-children/

As the Biden administration continues to try to use its regulatory powers to force a “gender-affirming” approach to children who question their sex, in other countries the rubber-stamping of a gender-dysphoric child’s belief and the prescribing of puberty-blocking drugs are under serious reconsideration. The U.K., Sweden, Finland, and France — not exactly Bible Belt countries — are all pulling back from the rush to transition children.

Now, in the U.K., the Tavistock Gender Clinic — run by the National Health Service — is being shut down because it is not safe for children. From the Daily Mail story:

The NHS‘s controversial child transgender clinic will shut its doors after a damning report found it was ‘not safe’ for children.

The gender identity service at Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust will be replaced by regional centres at existing children’s hospitals, which will provide more holistic care with ‘strong links to mental health services’.

It comes in response to an ongoing review led by senior paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, who warned the gender clinic was ‘not a safe or viable long-term option’. She found other mental health issues were ‘overshadowed’ in favour of gender identity issues when children were referred to Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).

In other words, children will not be pushed toward transitioning — as the Biden administration wants done here — but their mental and emotional issues will be more thoroughly explored.