RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/impeachment-questions-that-need-answering/

Trump’s accusers and defenders need to think some things through.

We have at last reached the impeachment trial phase in which senators are given the opportunity to address questions to each side. Questions by the Republicans and Democrats are to be submitted and vetted by their respective leadership to avoid duplication and irrelevancy. They will then be submitted to Chief Justice John Roberts, who will pose them alternately to the House impeachment managers and President Trump’s defense team.

Each side presumptively has five minutes to answer, with the caveat that, on rare occasions when a question truly demands it, the party’s time to respond may be expanded slightly. This process will go on for no more than 16 hours – eight hours over the next two days.

Everyone who has been observing the Ukraine kerfuffle through the House impeachment inquiry and the Senate trial probably has some questions. I doubt close watchers will have very many, though.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/28/bolton-and-the-consequences-of-the-destruction-of-executive-privilege/

The get-Trump movement is legal nihilism and the antithesis of the rule of law.

Fred Fleitz, a former deputy to John Bolton, the national security advisor President Trump fired in September 2019, over the weekend published an opinion piece explaining the dangers of his former boss’s anticipated tell-all book.

“Given the importance of protecting a president’s confidential discussions with his senior advisers,” Fleitz wrote, “I strongly disagree with Bolton’s decision to release the book before the November presidential election and call on him to withdraw it from the publisher immediately.”

Bolton is just the latest example of former advisors cravenly monetizing the confidential access to a president.

Fleitz represents what seems to be the last gasp of a legal tradition that is vital to our constitutional self-government. The consequences of this ongoing assault on presidential privileges will be catastrophic not only to the security of our Republic but also to self-government.

In 1974, the Supreme Court upheld the necessity of executive privilege, writing:

The expectation of a President to the confidentiality of his conversations and correspondence, like the claim of confidentiality of judicial deliberations, for example, has all the values to which we accord deference for the privacy of all citizens and, added to those values, is the necessity for protection of the public interest in candid, objective, and even blunt or harsh opinions in Presidential decisionmaking. A President and those who assist him must be free to explore alternatives in the process of shaping policies and making decisions, and to do so in a way many would be unwilling to express except privately. These are the considerations justifying a presumptive privilege for Presidential communications. The privilege is fundamental to the operation of Government, and inextricably rooted in the separation of powers under the Constitution.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/john-boltons-testimony-quid-pro-quo-waste-time-joseph-klein/

The New York Times leaked what President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton allegedly claimed in his forthcoming book about an August 2019 meeting he held with President Trump regarding Ukraine. Bolton is said to have written that President Trump “wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.” Senate Democrats and a few Republicans such as Senator Mitt Romney would like to hear Bolton’s first-hand testimony. However, it is much ado about nothing. Bolton’s testimony would prove nothing of relevance to the Senate impeachment trial.

One legitimately can be skeptical about the timing of the leak, which happened contemporaneously with the Amazon product page for the book going live. One can argue, as Robert Spencer has done, that Bolton sold the president out because “Trump represents a strong challenge to the foreign policy establishment views that have failed again and again, and of which Bolton is a foremost exponent.” But it does not really matter. Even if, for the purest of reasons, Bolton wants to tell what he knows at the Senate trial about his direct interactions with President Trump concerning the temporary hold on the release of the security assistance, it would not be worth prolonging the Senate trial to hear him.

John Bolton, a long-time neo-conservative hawk, left office following sharp disagreements with President Trump on a variety of foreign policy issues. Keeping security aid to Ukraine flowing without even a temporary pause was just one of those issues that Bolton felt strongly about. Bolton aired his opinions to the president, as he was obliged to do as the presidentially appointed national security adviser. President Trump rejected Bolton’s advice, as the duly elected president is entitled to do.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/28/ig-report-proves-obama-administration-spied-on-trump-campaign-big-time/

The IG report established that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign, and the spying was much worse than previously thought.

Last week, President Trump triggered the left when he tweeted a Photoshopped picture that portrayed former President Barack Obama perched midair outside Trump Tower, binoculars and listening device in hand.

The liberal outlet Vox condemned the president for his “increasingly bad tweets,” before declaring “there’s no evidence the Obama administration spied on Trump.” Vox then regurgitated the false narrative that, while the FBI did surveil former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page, “that didn’t happen until after Page left the campaign.”

For years, conservatives tried to correct the record, noting that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order gave the government access to Page’s past emails and other electronic communications with members of the Trump campaign, but the mainstream media ignored this reality. That the liberal and legacy press continue to push this narrative now, following the release of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on FISA abuse, is beyond baffling, because the IG report established that the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign, and the spying was much worse than previously thought.

Spying on Carter Page Was Spying on the Trump Campaign

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-line-for-trump-rally-on-jersey-shore-is-insane-100000-seeking-tickets/

Ryan Fournier ✔ @RyanAFournier

There are literally thousands of people waiting in line for a Trump rally that doesn’t start until tomorrow evening…In 30 degree weather…In the state of New Jersey… OUTSTANDING!

RT

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/when-there-is-no-normal-radicals-eventually-need-what-theyve-gleefully-destroyed/

History lesson: Radicals eventually will need the norms and safeguards they’ve gleefully destroyed.

O ne of the ancient and modern critiques of democracy is that radicals destroy norms for short-term political gain, norms that they themselves often later seek as refuge.

Schadenfreude, irony, paradox, and karma are various descriptions of what happens to revolutionaries, and unfortunately the innocent, who suffer their collateral damage when radicals of any stripe use any means necessary to achieve supposedly exalted ends.

Three of the most moving — and terrifying — passages in Greek literature involve such ironic payback. In the third book of Thucydides’ history, the historian relates a murderous civil war (stasis) between oligarchs and democrats on the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu). He laments how morals and laws are destroyed in a cycle of madness, all to achieve short-term gain while depriving both parties of sanctuary when the tide one day turns against them.

When extremism becomes normal, there is no prior normal. In his fifth book, Thucydides describes the destruction of the small island city-state of Melos, in a riveting dialogue between the Athenian invaders and the Melian defenders. After concluding his account with the Athenians’ destruction of Melos, Thucydides immediately, in books six and seven, describes the Athenian catastrophe on Sicily, in which the invading and soon-to-be-trapped Athenians play a similar role to that of the doomed Melians, and the victorious Sicilians are no more magnanimous to the defeated than were the once-victorious Athenians.

http://thejewishvoice.com/after-monsey-attack-jabotinskys-heirs-offer-free-security-guidebook-to-us-synagogues/

In the wake of repeated violent physical attacks on synagogues and Jews in New York and elsewhere, Herut North America, a leading Zionist activist organization, is offering a new, cutting-edge guide to help congregations better organize their security efforts to protect synagogue attendees. The “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©” is being offered free of charge to all members of the Jewish community interested in improving security as well as synagogue leaders.

We have developed this ebook guide as a hands-on tool to aid synagogues with both evaluating their security needs as well as organizing their own security teams. This information packed booklet is specifically designed to give Jews the information they need to feel empowered around security related needs and issues. Included are checklists, assessment worksheets, planning guides, practical advice, and more.

The Herut team responsible for this booklet includes IDF veterans, individuals trained in counter-terrorism, longtime community security volunteers, and legal professionals. Users of the guidebook will find practical, actionable ideas whether their synagogue has a security plan currently in place or is now considering forming a volunteer security team and needs an action plan.

In light of the recent spate of attacks against Jews across multiple states we are offering the “SYNAGOGUE SECURITY TOOL KIT©; A Hands-on Guide to Preventive Safety for Your Congregation” ebook. This free reference to protecting your community will help you develop a security plan that you can implement in your synagogue, kollel, yeshiva, camp, or day school. Our goal is to have this booklet utilized by synagogues in all 50 states so that further anti-Jewish violence and bloodshed can be prevented. Please, help us reach our goal of preparing synagogues all across America to be more secure by ensuring the leaders of your synagogue see this booklet as soon as possible.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/27/alan-dershowitz-john-bolton-impeachment/

https://amgreatness.com/2020/01/27/its-time-to-question-michael-atkinson-on-fisa-abuses/

Now that the Justice Department and the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court have confirmed at least two of the warrants for Carter Page were unlawfully obtained, it is time to ask Atkinson—in the open, for all to hear—what role he had in helping to orchestrate the illicit spying on the Trump campaign.

In a fair world—one with responsible media organizations that didn’t act as propagandists for the Democratic Party—the news that a secret government court admitted it authorized unlawful warrants to spy on an innocent American based on his political activity would be front-page news.

The January 7 order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court revealing that at least two of the four warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page were “not valid”—meaning they were illegally obtained—would be on a nonstop loop at CNN and would dominate the news and opinion pages of the Washington Post.

But alas, the average CNN viewer or Post reader will be hard-pressed to find coverage of such a shocking disclosure; after all, how could either outlet report that bombshell when two signers of the garbage applications—former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe—now work as paid contributors to those same news organizations?