RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/16/are-the-years-of-madness-ending/

Never in U.S. history has a president-elect been welcomed as the real president before his January 20 inauguration. And never has the incumbent president so willingly surrendered his last two months in office and all but abdicated—to the relief of his nation and the rest of the world.

One reason so many are welcoming Trump’s return is the universally desperate hope that his election spelled an end to a collective madness at home and its ripples abroad during the last four years. And why not?

Nations overseas had never quite witnessed anything like the lethal August 2021 American flight from Afghanistan. That utter humiliation and impotence of the U.S. military likely signaled to Russia there would be no consequences if it invaded Ukraine—and it did; to Iran that it could now unleash Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel—and it did; and to China that it could daily threaten Taiwan and send a spy balloon across the United States with impunity—and it did.

The result was the current global chaos perhaps not seen since the late 1930s when a confused United States was similarly a bystander to the rise of bellicose regimes and wars. The Biden administration shrugged that the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the South China Sea, the Straits of Hormuz, and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea all became dangerous to the U.S. Navy and unsafe to world shipping.

A disparate group of nuclear and near-nuclear powers—Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran—are either at war with Western allies or threatening war with them. Their confidence was predicated on the assumption that the U.S. after 2020 was engaged in a Maoist-like cultural revolution that warred on its own security, energy, military, universities, and social unity—and would continue with a second Biden term.

The Biden-era cultural revolution has done great damage to the United States. The U.S. border was systematically and deliberately destroyed to allow some 10-12 million illegal entrants to pour into the U.S. without legality or background checks. Never has an outgoing administration spitefully sold taxpayer-purchased border wall material for pennies on the dollar—rather than see it used for the purposes for which it was purchased.

https://www.thepostemail.com/2024/12/15/yep-still-the-smartest-guy-in-the-room/

How did President-elect Trump become a billionaire?

How did Donald J. Trump, billionaire businessman, bestselling author, mega-successful TV star, become President of the United States in 2016?

How did President-elect Trump defy, confront, and prevail over a malevolent Deep State cabal, an American government steeped in collusion, a craven leftwing media, and a mountain of lawfare attacks to win––overwhelmingly––his second bid for POTUS?

I always called him the smartest guy in the room. And I suspect that most people would answer those questions––either proudly or grudgingly––by agreeing that his intelligence and also his drive, instincts, charisma, and sheer bravado are the magic ingredients of his blazing success.

BUT…UH-OH!

So, why are some sophisticated, knowledgeable and longtime devoted Trump supporters, including seasoned conservative journalists, now suspecting that Mr. Trump is either:

A closet Democrat.
Controlled Opposition, essentially playing on the same team as his globalist opponents.
A guy who values loyalty to a fault… overlooking clear conflicts-of-interest and potential moles and saboteurs in his midst.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5039827-democratic-party-trump-resistance/

Democrats are not planning an all-hands resistance to President-elect Trump.

At least not in 2016 style, when lawmakers, activists, volunteers and millions of angry voters mounted a party-wide effort to curb his newfound influence in Washington.

Where so much was once unprecedented, Trump is now familiar. Ahead of January 2025, the lack of a unified Democratic rebuttal to his second term is the latest sign that the party’s just beginning to soul search, trying to figure out what went wrong before banding together to bash the GOP.

“The one thing we seem to know is the strategy of being an anti-Trump party didn’t work any better than when we became a primarily anti-Bush party,” said Max Burns, a Democratic commentator. “In that transformation, we seem to have become unclear about what our actual pro-Democrat message is.”

“It’s more like Republicans post-1960 than anything,” he said, “where the loss led to a real round of questioning about what our values are and what our strategy is.”

On the one hand, the month-and-a-half postelection period can seem like decades, as D.C.’s political class awaits the unpredictable transition of power. On the other, it’s just a blip in what many expect to be a long undertaking to redefine the Democratic Party beyond Trump’s shadow. 

https://issuesinsights.com/2024/12/16/americans-unhappy-with-woke-dei-world-in-business-academia-and-military-ii-tipp-poll/

Responding to a powerful backlash from the public, big companies and universities are having second thoughts about their adoption of sweeping “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” programs. Many Americans complain such programs make America more divided, not less, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

A noticeable rise in the number of companies and educational institutions throttling back their DEI programs suggests that public pressure is having an impact, the national online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,411 adults taken from Nov. 27-29 found. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

I&I/TIPP asked this question: “A number of universities and major corporations have announced plans to cut their ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ programs in the coming years. To what degree do you support or oppose doing this?”

Possible responses were “support strongly,” “support somewhat,” “oppose strongly,” “oppose somewhat,” and “not sure.”

Overall, a plurality of 44% of those who answered the poll said they either supported it strongly (21%) or somewhat (23%), while 40% opposed it either strongly (22%) or somewhat (18%). A significant 15% said they weren’t sure.

The question shows some interesting schisms over DEI within the American electorate.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/12/an_arab_american_zionist_congressman_to_watch.html

Among the many new elected officials coming to Washington, D.C. is a cadre of exciting new pro-Israel representatives.

Along with the Jewish community, the United States is facing a challenge from the jihadis and those devoted to destroying the American way of life. Jews and non-Jews must rise up and fight back.

Among the many new elected officials coming to Washington, D.C. is a cadre of exciting new pro-Israel representatives. Abe Hamadeh is a 33-year-old incoming Arizona Arab American Republican congressman known for his advocacy of conservative values and his strong stance on issues, including law enforcement and border security. Hamadeh won Donald Trump’s endorsement and calls himself a common-sense politician. 

He is the youngest son of Syrian immigrants, and he grew up in a mixed-faith Arab-Druze household. As he has grown up, he started to “understand how the world actually works.” The first “inflection point” on Israel was the “Arab Spring” that began in 2010. Syria, where both his parents immigrated from, erupted in civil war, and Israel emerged as the “good neighbor.”

As he said, “My family is Syrian, and I remember that during the Syrian civil war, that Israel was actually having people who were injured come into the hospitals in Israel. So all this humanitarian aid was actually being done by the Israelis, and not the others in the Arab World… That was the first instance of me looking at the truth, and having my eyes opened. It just dismantles that whole narrative of Israel being this problem in the Middle East, when they’re actually being good neighbors.” Hamadeh says that Israel has “no bigger ally” than himself, and calls for the annihilation of terrorist groups that aim to harm it.

https://jihadwatch.org/2024/12/biden-harris-regime-releases-national-strategy-to-counter-islamophobia?

If this is implemented, as it very well could be, it will have a chilling effect upon any remaining honest discussion of the motivating ideology behind jihad terrorism.

Today, the White House is releasing the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate. The Strategy was developed through a whole-of-government collaboration with a broad range of civil society partners to describe and address the bias, discrimination, and threats Muslim and Arab Americans have long faced. Over the past year, this initiative has become even more important as threats against American Muslim and Arab communities have spiked. In October 2023, six-year old Wadee Alfayoumi, an American Muslim boy of Palestinian descent, was viciously killed in his home in Illinois and over the last year there have been other grievous attacks on Muslim and Arab Americans.

The Strategy contains more than 100 Executive Branch Actions and more than 100 Calls to Action to every sector of society to prevent and address such violent attacks and to ensure that Muslim and Arab Americans enjoy the liberties and opportunities that are the bedrock of our country. With this initiative, we are creating a path for progress, in partnership with all levels of government, civil society, and the private sector, both now and over the long term.

In December 2022, when President Biden established an interagency group to increase and better coordinate efforts to counter Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and related forms of bias and discrimination, work began on this Strategy. In 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration released the first-ever National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism and announced the development of the first-ever National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate. This latest strategy has four priorities:

Increase awareness of hatred against Muslims and Arabs and broaden recognition of these communities’ heritages. Muslims and Arab Americans have helped build our country since its founding, but they have also routinely experienced hate, discrimination, and bias due to baseless stereotypes, fearmongering, and prejudice. While individuals have sometimes been targeted because they are thought to be Muslim, it is also crucial to recognize that Arabs are routinely targeted simply for being who they are. Through new data collection and innovative educational efforts, the Administration is increasing awareness of these forms of hate as well of the proud heritages of Muslim and Arab Americans.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/whatever-happened-at-west-point-its-not-good/

As I see it, there are only two explanations for West Point’s having falsely informed a journalist that Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, not only didn’t get in to West Point but never “even applied there.” Those options are that West Point lied or that West Point is incompetent. Neither is good.

I find it hard to believe that West Point would deliberately lie about such a thing. I also find it hard to believe that its staff would be so lazy or inept as to screw something like this up by mistake. This was not some random inquiry; it was connected to an extremely consequential political decision, and related to the reputation of a high-profile figure who, if he is accepted by the Senate, will soon occupy one of the most important jobs in the United States. That being so, how is it possible that West Point did not make one hundred percent sure that it was correct in its denial? Frankly, I’d be somewhat surprised if at least someone at West Point hadn’t preemptively looked into this after the nomination was made public. If I worked there, I think I would have. At the very least, a higher-up ought to have instructed all staff to make absolutely sure they were correct when dealing with inquiries of this sort.

In all likelihood, we’ll never know what happened. What we can say, however, is that this incident has probably helped Hegseth’s chances of being confirmed. One of the main criticisms that Hegseth — and Donald Trump — have advanced in recent years is that the military bureaucracy is both out of control and resistant to civilian oversight. And here we have a golden example of one of those bureaucrats appearing to lie to a journalist about a critic. Whether that lie was inadvertent or not is unclear, but, either way, it does a lot to bolster Hegseth’s case for change.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/12/the_cult_of_credentialism.html

I once saw a celebrated American author give a class of literature majors one of the best lessons they could learn.  He was speaking about the English language when he noticed that all of the students were busy taking notes rather than listening.  He paused and asked how many planned on being writers.  All hands went up.  He asked how many expected to be successful in their pursuit.  Most hands went up.  Then he looked them in the eye and told them that majoring in literature is not the way to do so.  The students were shocked (as were some of their professors), but the famous novelist continued.  He listed his favorite writers of the last century and noted that most had spotty educations and work experiences that had nothing to do with writing.  Prestigious college degrees and straight As, he told the students, are no substitute for creativity and life experience.  

It was interesting watching some of the reactions in that auditorium.  Surely literature majors had noticed that for every Ralph Waldo Emerson, T.S. Eliot, or John Updike with a Harvard degree, there were ten Mark Twains, Ernest Hemingways, Hunter S. Thompsons, or William Faulkners whose academic achievements were rather modest.  Still, many of the young students had gotten it in their heads that if they attended the fanciest schools and read the great works of literature with enough enthusiasm, they would one day be recognized for their own literary genius.  

Watching this episode affixed in my mind a realization that our society has forgotten how to appraise genius.  For far too many decades, we have been steadily replacing the celebration of intellectual achievement with the celebration of academic credentials.  The more esteem we have accorded to the mere obtainment of a degree, the less willing we have become to recognize worthy contributions from people without the “right” curriculum vitae.  

https://dianebederman.com/the-dilemma-over-human-behavior/

A friend of mine suggested I read the book Tyranny and Revolution: Rousseau to Heidegger by Waller R Newell. I was flattered he thought I was so well educated.

So many books have been written about human behavior. Dichotomy – Nature/Nurture? Combination? Something else? Add a little Marx and some Nietzsche, Hobbes and Locke, and Heidegger and Rousseau and: Voilà

Except I don’t know the Voilà, any more now than I did before I opened the book. I have to admit that I got lost within the first few pages of what seemed to me to be bafflegab: truth is – it’s way above my pay grade. But the topic is fascinating: The Philosophy of Freedom. It seems to be a push-pull through time.

For me, I believe the Philosophy of Freedom comes from the Bible. If we could just all follow the Ten commandments!

But, let’s carry on.

Try this:

“In order to rescue ourselves from the dreary commercial materialism of the modern age, we must try to recollect and re-energize those latent traces of ancients in ourselves. But one apparently insurmountable obstacle stood in the way of this attempt to recapture the nobility and harmony of the ancient polis – the seemingly irrefutable triumph of the modern physics of matter in motion over the metaphysical cosmologies of the ancients.”(page 1 and 2)

Got that? Well, I get the premise.

Why do we do what we do? Have we evolved or devolved? Or is it a continuum?

While I was trying to read this missive, I remembered something I had learned years ago. Biblical in its origin.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/six-weeks-until-our-long-national-nightmare-is-over/

Americans, our long national nightmare, the Biden presidency, is almost over. First, we must endure six more weeks of damage that President Joe Biden will inflict on the American people.Biden just gave Hunter, his son who was convicted on gun and tax evasion charges, an expansive 11-year pardon, after repeatedly promising he would not engage in such familial favoritism. Biden’s lies were so egregious that at a recent White House press briefing, CNN reporter MJ Lee asked a very pertinent question, “The next time that the president says he will or won’t do something, why should the American people believe him?”

Of course, the American people should never believe Biden, for he has been lying and plagiarizing his entire political career. For example, in the 1988 presidential race, Biden was forced to withdraw his candidacy after it was discovered he repeatedly plagiarized from the speeches of British political leader Neil Kinnock, among others.

Sadly, Hunter’s pardon will be just the beginning, for over the next six weeks, Biden will undoubtedly issue more controversial pardons. Some political observers speculate Biden could pardon other family members, such as his brother James.

He could also issue preemptive pardons for people who might face an investigation from the Trump Justice Department. This list includes Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA) and former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney.

These pardons will only make the unpopular Biden more hated by the American people. According to a new poll by J.L. Partners, 52% of American voters believed it was “wrong” for Biden to pardon his son, while only 29% believed it was the “right” decision.

No wonder, another J.L. Partners poll, commissioned for The Daily Mail, ranked Biden as the worst American President in the last 47 years. Respondents ranked Biden worse than Jimmy Carter, a President who failed spectacularly, and Richard Nixon, a President embroiled in the Watergate scandal who was forced to resign.