RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/uncivil-servants-foreign-policy-bureaucrats-target-israel-war-gaza-3bb7ceff?mod=opinion_lead_pos10

The Biden administration faces a wave of internal dissent against its support of Israel. On Nov. 14, more than 500 staff members and political appointees from about 40 government agencies sent a joint letter to President Biden criticizing his administration’s policy on the Gaza war, according to the New York Times.

It was the latest of several protest letters. The Times reported that the administration has received similar messages, including three internal memos addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a letter “signed” by more than 1,000 employees of the Agency for International Development. The State Department requires that employees sign their names to dissent cables, but the other two letters have no signatures. The Times reported that these government employees wrote anonymously out of “concern for our personal safety and risk of potentially losing our jobs.”

The internal memos, two of which were sent during the first week of the war, called on Mr. Biden to press for an immediate cease-fire. One State Department memo, Axios reported, accused the president of “spreading misinformation.” Signed by 100 State Department and Agency for International Development employees, the memo said members of the White House and National Security Council showed a “clear disregard for the lives of Palestinians.”

Mr. Blinken responded to government employees’ protests in an email, according to Reuters. Mr. Blinken said the administration was organizing forums and “candid conversations” to hear employees’ feedback and ideas. “We’re listening,” he wrote. “What you share is informing our policy and our messages.” It would seem that the fear of losing one’s government job, or of angry mobs threatening the safety of the “signers,” was overblown.

The proper reaction would have been to squash the mutiny. Those who called for a cease-fire in week one were essentially saying Israel had no duty or right to protect itself after Hamas’s brutal attack on its civilians. Mr. Blinken should have told these government workers that he and the president reject their views as entirely wrong and contrary to U.S. national interests. Instead of encouraging the dissenters to offer more “feedback and ideas,” he should be wondering if he can count on such people to offer any sound advice on foreign policy—or even to implement a policy that he sets.

This wave of protests is anomalous. Between 2011 and 2021, according to the United Nations, more than 300,000 Syrian civilians died due to the conflict there. The highest death counts were between 2012 and 2015. Frederic Hof, the Obama administration’s special adviser on Syria policy, wrote in 2017 that “during 70 months of chaos in Syria, the United States had protected not one Syrian civilian from the homicidal rampages of Bashar al-Assad and his remorseless regime.” Yet in 2016 only 50 State Department officers protested Barack Obama’s Syria policy in a non-anonymous signed letter.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/11/the-democratic-socialists-of-america-is-a-hate-group/

Many state and federal officials whose names grace its roster seem unvexed by the group’s terrorization of American Jews.

Despite the organization’s efforts to bury the evidence, CNN’s Jake Tapper helpfully reminded his followers on Thursday that the first reaction to the October 7 massacre of the New York chapter of the far-left group Democratic Socialists of America was to affirm the legitimacy of that unspeakable slaughter.

“In solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid,” the group implored its allies to flood Times Square and register their satisfaction with Hamas’s barbarism. That is what is meant by the word “solidarity,” after all — a fellowship formed around shared goals and objectives. It describes a state of commonality and kinship. To judge by DSA’s actions, its organizers chose the right word to describe their outlook.

Well-meaning liberals and progressives who take exception to some Israeli policies are often quick to assure their skeptics that Hamas’s actions are unrepresentative of the Palestinian people writ large or even the Gazans over whom the terrorist organization illegitimately rules. The DSA disagrees. To judge from its reaction to the multiaxial attack on Israeli civilians, culminating in acts of murder, rape, dismemberment, and torture so obscene it would have made the Roman Colosseum blush, the DSA’s members seem incapable of denouncing Hamas’s tactics. Perhaps that’s why we’ve seen so many DSA followers deliberately menace American Jews and supporters of Israel’s right to defend itself against an avowedly genocidal terrorist group.

The October 8 pro-Hamas rally the DSA championed occurred as scheduled. There, protesters “cheered the rocket barrage that devastated Israeli citizens,” the New York Times reported, horrifying the politicians “aligned with New York’s left.” If the DSA’s allies were horrified then, imagine the psychological torment they’re enduring nearly a month into the outfit’s campaign of intimidation against American Jews and their allies.

At least 139 people were arrested, including a DSA-affiliated member of the New York City Council and a state senator, during a menacing nighttime march through Gotham’s streets on October 23 billed as a demonstration calling on Israel to stand down and absorb the murder of its civilians. “I do not condemn Hamas,” read the signs they carried. “There is only one solution,” they droned in unison as they paraded down emptied streets and past lighted windows behind which the targets of their intimidation took shelter. “Intifada. Revolution.” This was another event sponsored by the DSA, which the organization’s social-media account gleefully promoted.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/11/16/over-100-rioters-attempt-to-storm-dnc-hq-forcing-evacuation/

On Wednesday night, a mob of over 100 anti-Semitic rioters suddenly stormed the entrance to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters, leading to clashes with Capitol Police and forcing the evacuation of several members of Congress inside.

As reported by ABC News, the Capitol Police acknowledged in a subsequent statement that officers had to “keep back” the crowd of approximately 150 people due to the manner in which they were “illegally and violently” protesting at the building’s main entrance. Six officers were injured, with injuries “ranging from minor cuts to being pepper sprayed to being punched;” all officers were treated at the scene.

At the time of the riot, seven members of Congress were inside the building, hearing from prospective candidates, when they were ordered to evacuate by Capitol Police. One member of Congress present at the time, Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), said that they were approached by “heavily armed and serious” Capitol Police officers. Others in attendance included House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Congressman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), though Sherman said that Jeffries and Clark had already left by the time the rioters attacked.

From inside the building, Sherman said he could hear chants of “ceasefire now,” referring to the rioters’ opposition to Israel’s retaliation after a series of massive terrorist attacks by the Palestinian terror group Hamas one month ago, during the weekend of October 7th.

Sherman said that he expected the protest to last no more than 10 or 15 minutes, but was then approached by Capitol Police officers and told to evacuate.

“Then the Capitol Police came in big time and said, ‘We’re getting you out of here,’” Sherman recounted.

Another congressman who was in the building at the time was Congressman Sean Casten (D-Ill.), who described his experience in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I was just evacuated from the @dccc office after the building was surrounded by protestors who had blocked all modes of ingress and egress. Grateful to Capitol Police for getting all members and staff out safely. To the protestors: PLEASE don’t do something irresponsible.”

Although the rioters were cleared out at around 10:00 PM, Capitol Police remained at the scene “out of an abundance of caution.”

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/17/two-words-describe-bidens-presidency-reckless-endangerment/

This week we’ve been treated to three government reports that all point in the same direction: Disaster.

Interest payments are through the roof. Real wages continue to fall. And a record number of illegals crossed the border.

That’s just the domestic news. As of this writing, Americans are being held hostage by Iran-supported Hamas terrorists who killed nearly two dozen other Americans when they invaded Israel. Our military forces face increasing Iranian-sponsored attacks in Iraq and Syria. While President Joe Biden lets Iran off the sanctions hook for another four months.

The worry isn’t just whether Biden – the architect of these disasters – will be voted out of office next year. It’s whether the U.S. can survive until then.

Start with the terrible news on the home front. On Monday, the Treasury Department released its monthly financial report, and it was alarming. In October alone, the government made $76 billion in net interest payments – a 77% increase from a year ago and a 153% jump from two years ago.

The Treasury report projects that gross interest payments will top $1 trillion this fiscal year. That will be more than we plan to spend on defense, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or any non-defense domestic discretionary program. And that’s if all goes well, which it rarely does.

https://nypost.com/2023/11/15/opinion/as-he-hosts-chinas-xi-biden-delivers-pitiful-2024-reelection-platitudes-that-republicans-cant-seem-to-beat/

It took the arrival of a Chinese dictator for San Francisco to finally clean the filth off the streets — at least temporarily.

Sure, they had to erect cages around the sidewalks to keep them clear until President Xi Jinping leaves California, but better to be seen as a prison than a pigpen.

It’s all theater, of course.

The Chinese and other Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders know that after the facelift, San Francisco will revert to a feces-encrusted slum, as the zombies are released from wherever they have been hidden.

Everyone has seen the videos of addicts bent double in suspended animation or zonked out on the ground among the used needles and human excrement.

TikTok algorithms make sure those videos are seen.

Ahead of Xi’s visit, Chinese media outlets had great sport trashing San Francisco as “garbage city,” “ruined city,” “fallen city” and a “total failure.”

Apart from being an avoidable tragedy, America’s deadly drug crisis makes us an international laughingstock, the marker of a civilization on the fast track to hell.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/11/the_catastrophic_death_of_fairness.html

Some social psychologists believe that humans are biologically wired to seek “fair” relationships with others.  Some theologians believe that the soul’s capacity for distinguishing right from wrong leads a moral person toward the same result.  Whether genetically or spiritually inclined to prefer fair outcomes, we humans are not comfortable around those who cheat and prosper from duplicity.  Cheating is ugly and therefore despised.

Systemic cheating, however, now dominates Western life.  Elevating “diversity for diversity’s sake” over all other metrics for gauging achievement has reduced merit and hard work to second-class virtues.  Rewarding illegal aliens with amnesty has cheapened the sacrifices of those lawful immigrants who have struggled to integrate into their new home countries.  Allowing delusional men to dominate women’s sports has cheated female athletes of a fair playing field for pursuing excellence.  In ways big and small, “woke” governments, corporations, and academic institutions cheat Western citizens of the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their own labors.

Of course, systemic cheating is disguised in language that sounds noble.  “Woke” Marxists use “fairness” jiujitsu to force disingenuous and unprincipled change. 

Unfairly promoting a less talented person over a more talented person because of his respective skin colors is celebrated as a victory for “diversity” — a reminder that in the twenty-first century, racists are still obsessed with how a person looks at the expense of what thoughts occupy his mind.  Without any public debates or votes, governments have replaced “equal treatment under the law” with “equitable” redistribution — or, in layman’s terms, “special treatment under the law” — so that certain classes of people can benefit at the expense of others.  

In an amazing instance of Orwellian “doublespeak,” the State categorizes those classes that are unfairly rewarded as “underprivileged” and the people against whom it discriminates as “privileged.”  Never in human history have people with “privilege” felt so marginalized.  All this cheating is done for the stated purpose of “including” many different kinds of people, but it depends entirely on “excluding” people to obtain fraudulently manufactured and prejudiced results.  

https://www.frontpagemag.com/still-delusional-after-all-these-years/

Recently Barack Obama opined on Israel’s war with Hamas, and predictably reprised all the received wisdom that our politicians on both sides of the aisles have indulged since 9/11. One comment in particular evoked one of the more dangerous takes on the conflict with modern jihadism––that this venerable doctrine of Islam is some sort of heresy or extremism that doesn’t represent Muslims worldwide.

In the context of the current war with Hamas, according to ABC news, Obama said of Israel’s campaign,  “‘There are people right now who are dying who have nothing to do with what Hamas did,’ Obama said, making the distinction between Palestinians who live in Gaza and the militant group Hamas, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.”

We’ll pass over the mendacious euphemism “the militant group Hamas,” and the implication that the accurate description “terrorist organization” is merely a prejudiced slur by U.S. security agencies. More important is Obama’s variation on the cringing and dishonest phrase “nothing to do with what Islam,” an echo of the Western apologists after 9/11 who regularly chanted this lie.

The use of this duplicitous formula transcends political party. After 9/11, the Bush administration no doubt thought that such rhetorical distortions would pacify Muslims and show them that we’re “not at war with Islam.”  Verbal preemptive cringes abounded in Bush’s speeches, such as the following: “Our enemy [al Qaeda] doesn’t follow the great traditions of Islam. They’ve hijacked a great religion . . . All Americans must recognize that the face of terror is not the true face of Islam . . . It’s a faith based upon love not hate.”

Anybody even vaguely familiar with traditional Islamic doctrine and history knows that this flabby ecumenicalism is at best well-meaning wishful thinking, at worst a talking-point for malignant apologists. Listen to Ibn Khaldun (d.1406), one of Islam’s most significant and revered historians and philosophers: “In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” So too, Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328), another important Muslim theorist of jihad: “Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.” Are these titans of Islamic thought “hijackers” or “heretics”?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-executive-branch-anonymous-letter-joe-biden-israel-ceasefire-gaza-hamas-f22374d0?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

President Biden has been learning lately what life is like for Republican Presidents. Parts of the deep state, to borrow a phrase, are revolting in opposition to his support for Israel against the Hamas terrorists responsible for the Oct. 7 massacre.

News reports say that no fewer than 500 appointees and staff from 40 agencies, including the National Security Council and the Justice Department, have sent Mr. Biden a letter demanding that he call for a cease-fire and “de-escalation” between Israel and Hamas: “Americans do not want the U.S. military to be drawn into another costly and senseless war in the Middle East.” The signatories are bravely anonymous.

The same is true of more than 1,000 employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development, who have reportedly signed a similar letter. “We believe,” it says, “that further catastrophic loss of human life can only be avoided if the United States Government calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.” The letter adds that its backers are withholding their names out of “concern for our personal safety and risk of potentially losing our jobs.”