RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/trump-special-counsel-jack-smith-involved-lois-lerner-irs-scandal

Newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith was instrumental in the Justice Department’s public integrity unit inserting itself into the Lois Lerner IRS scandal targeting conservative nonprofit groups.

Smith, picked by Attorney General Merrick Garland to helm the DOJ’s investigations of former President Donald Trump, led the Public Integrity Section from 2010 until early 2015.

Lerner, director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Unit, led an IRS effort targeting Tea Party groups and similar conservative nonprofit organizations. Smith’s push for DOJ officials to contact Lerner and the IRS in order to get the DOJ involved seemed to be the impetus behind the IRS sending the FBI reams of nonprofit tax records.

An IRS watchdog and the DOJ later admitted the IRS committed wrongdoing, although not of the criminal variety. Lerner would apologize.

Republicans unsuccessfully sought a special counsel to investigate the IRS scandal at the time, with Smith’s actions cited as one reason.

“Jack Smith was looking for ways to prosecute the innocent Americans that Lois Lerner targeted during the IRS scandal,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee next year, told the Washington Examiner.

Jordan and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who led House Oversight, sought Smith’s testimony in May 2014, saying, “It is apparent that the Department’s leadership, including Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith, was closely involved in engaging with the IRS.”

Smith testified that month that he spoke with the FBI about these nonprofit groups.

https://nypost.com/2022/11/26/convictions-plummet-downgraded-charges-surge-under-manhattan-da-bragg/

Soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has downgraded more than half his felony cases to misdemeanors — while also managing to lose half of the felony cases that do reach court.

Since taking office on Jan. 1, Bragg has downgraded 52% of felony cases to misdemeanors — compared to 39% in all of 2019. Between 2013 and 2020, under District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., the percentage of cases the office downgraded had never exceeded 40%, according to data made public by the DA’s office.

When serious felony charges are brought, Bragg’s office wins a conviction just 51% of the time — down from 68% in 2019, the last year before the pandemic disrupted the court system.He has declined to prosecute 35 percent more felony cases this year than in 2019, with 1,119 so far in 2022 compared to 828 three years ago.

The DA’s office requested bail in only 49% of felony cases this year compared to 69% in 2019. State bail reform measures mean almost no non-violent felonies are eligible for bail now although they were in 2019.

Misdemeanor convictions have also spiraled downward — to 29% so far this year, from 68% in 2019.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/25/highways-to-utopia/

EXCERPTS:

At some point, the West really will decline. Is it finally happening? And what is this “West” that is “declining,” “closing,” facing a momentous crossroads? An incomplete but not inaccurate shorthand is “Christendom.” I know that the term strikes an antique note in America circa 2022. When is the last time you heard someone utter it without invisible scare quotes? (When was the last time you heard someone utter it at all?) But a decaying moral vocabulary—consider the recent career of words like “virtue,” “manliness,” “womanly,” or “respectable”—is part of the ominous cargo we are called upon to bear. As for “Christendom,” it names a dispensation in which the individual possesses intrinsic moral worth, defined not only by the Christian tradition itself but buoyed also by those traditions, predominantly classical and Judaic, which flowed into and helped nurture and define that baggy creation we call “the West.” 

One bleak route on the crossroads we face involves the willful throttling of those mighty currents. Angry at the Gyndes River for sweeping away and drowning one of his sacred white horses, Cyrus decided to punish the river by having his slaves cut 360 channels into it, stanching its flow to a trickle. This we have done to ourselves, applying mental tourniquets to the arteries that fed us from the past in order that we might gambol undisturbed in distracted present-tense ignorance. An illustrative case in point is the Princeton classics department, where woke educationists panting for relevance recently jettisoned the requirement that its students learn Latin or Greek, never mind both. At the same time, they publicly celebrate the 57 varieties of racial-trans-wonderfulness that have become the focus of academic obsession. It is a situation that is as absurd as it is malignant. In The Present Age (1846), Kierkegaard described the jaded spirit that “leaves everything standing but cunningly empties it of significance.” That is where we are today: occupying a husk of decadence assiduously emptied of vitality. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and the rest of the querulous educational establishment are sodden with money but spiritually and intellectually bankrupt. They continue to look like educational institutions: leafy walks, imposing libraries, impressive buildings. But most of the activities they sponsor are inimical to real education, inciting thousands of puny Cyruses to divert and stymie the waters of tradition in order to polish the mirror of their narcissism. 

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/disputed_questions/how-can-we-fix-inflation.html#supply-side-inflation-and-its-cures

The Federal Reserve failed to anticipate the worst inflation since the 1970s and is now administering medicine that will sicken rather than cure the patient. As Fed Chair Jerome Powell said recently: “Restoring price stability will take some time and requires using our tools forcefully to bring demand and supply into better balance. Reducing inflation is likely to require a sustained period of below-trend growth. Moreover, there will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions.”

This is entirely misguided: unlike the 1970s, today’s inflation is the result of too little labor and too little capital investment – in manufacturing as well as energy. To a great extent, it is a supply-side problem. Discouraging employment and investment by raising interest rates will only make things worse. What the United States requires, rather, is incentives for investment and employment in manufacturing and construction.

The impulse from inflation came from a fiscal shock in the form of federal transfer payments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a lag of zero to six quarters, transfer payments show a high correlation with year-on-year changes in the Consumer Price Index, as in the cross-correlogram above. A predictive equation that relates year-on-year changes in CPI with lagged values of transfer payments explains most of the change in CPI.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19157/nation-confidence-in-ruler

“Tsekung asked about government and Confucius replied: ‘People must have sufficient to eat; there must be a sufficient army; and there must be confidence of people in the ruler.’ ‘If you are forced to give up one of these three objectives, what would you go without first,’ asked Tsekung. Confucius said, ‘ I would go without the army first.’ ‘And if you were forced to go without one of the two remaining factors, what would you rather go without,’ asked Tsekung again. ‘I would rather go without sufficient food for the people…. [A] nation cannot exist without confidence in its ruler.'”
— From The Wisdom of China and India by Lin Yutang.

Our election integrity is under assault, as is our Constitution. We have lost confidence in our rulers. We have lost confidence in how we elect our rulers. As of this writing, the US midterm election has been over for more than two weeks; in Arizona, which reported massive voting problems – from voting machines that failed to work to “mixed ballots” — the result still has not been tallied. We have lost confidence in mail-in ballots — a reservation about which the Carter Commission warned in 2005; in ballot-harvesting and “ballot hunting” as opposed to verifiable voting with one-man-one-vote. We have lost confidence in the hundreds of “dirty,” uncleaned voter rolls and the lack of voter identification in many states.

Most of all we have lost confidence in the millions of political dollars such as Mark Zuckerberg’s “Zuckbucks”, provided privately, where $400 million, laundered through supposedly non-governmental organizations, effectively “swung” elections in Georgia. Now, they are available “on steroids.” After 25 states ruled out private political donations such as Zuckbucks, the Biden administration put $370 billion in public funds — nearly a thousand times what Zuckerberg used — in the hands of long-time Democrat political operative John Podesta, to be disbursed at his discretion, ostensibly for climate change. What cannot be said out loud is that the climate change NGOs that hope to receive this bounty,will most likely be asked quietly to agree that a goodly percentage of what they get be used to “educate” voters in districts known through gerrymandering to be sympathetic.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ryanledendecker/2022/11/24/bidens-crushing-inflation-spikes-household-credit-card-debt-to-new-heights-n1648436

The Biden administration has worked overtime to gaslight Americans into believing everything is totally fine when, in fact, everything is not fine. As a matter of fact, it’s getting worse by the day. And by “it’s,” I mean everything is going south.

The latest indication of yet another looming economic crisis — and no, I’m not talking about the developing housing crisis, the diesel fuel crisis, the home heating oil crisis, the inflation crisis, or the illegal immigration crisis — was revealed in a startling report this week regarding total household credit card debt, which has now increased by the most in 20 years, rising a staggering 15% from last year.

The crazy part? The debt has increased at record levels even as interest rates have been pumped higher by the Fed over the past several months.

In other words, under President Joe Biden’s grossly failing economy, many of us are being forced to use available credit — even at record-high interest rates — to buy the things we’ve always bought. Nobody’s buying extra stuff.

This is a direct result of savings accounts being drained because of Bidenflation. We’ve simply run out of cash. And good luck trying to liquidate your fun, expendable assets, like boats, motorcycles, and RVs, because most people can’t afford to buy them.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19153/elizabeth-holmes-sentence

It was a strange mixed verdict because those she was acquitted of defrauding needed more protection from the law than those she was convicted of defrauding.

This is not to deny that even these financial gamblers are entitled to legal protection against fraud, despite the well-known caution of caveat emptor. It is to question the proportionality of a double-digit sentence in the face of the acquittal on the far more serious charge.

A wealthy investor who loses a million dollars, representing one percent of his net worth, has lost less than a middle-class investor who loses $100,000, representing half of his assets. Yet the sentencing guidelines undervalue these realities. The irony is that Holmes might well have gotten a shorter sentence if she had been convicted only of the more serious crimes….

The guidelines give far too much weight to the quantity of financial losses, and too little to the qualitative realities of the risky investment world.

Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley wonderkid who founded and ran Theranos, the blood testing company, was sentenced last week to 11 years in prison. A jury acquitted her of the most serious charges related to defrauding government and military officials regarding the use of the Theranos device by soldiers. But it convicted her of defrauding highly sophisticated, experienced and mega-wealthy investors.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/23/thanksgiving-proclamation-1789/

New York, 3 October 1789

By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

https://www.wsj.com/articles/and-the-fair-land-thanksgiving-11669155343?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-desolate-wilderness-thanksgiving-plymouth-pilgrims-nathaniel-morton-william-bradford-11669155132?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:

So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

When they came to Delfs-Haven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.

The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other’s heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.