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About theartfuldilettante

The Artful Dilettante is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, and a graduate of Penn State University. He is a lover of liberty and a lifelong and passionate student of the same. He is voracious reader of books on the Enlightenment and the American colonial and revolutionary periods. He is a student of libertarian and Objectivist philosophies. He collects revolutionary war and period currency, books, and newspapers. He is married and the father of one teenage son. He is kind, witty, generous to a fault, and unjustifiably proud of himself. He is the life of the party and an unparalleled raconteur.

The Butcher is Gone; What’s Next for Iran ?

In the 24 hours after the unexpected death of the Islamic Republic’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, the following things happened: the BBC published a headline about his “mixed legacy,” the UN flew its flag at half-staff to honor him, and the U.S. Senate chaplain offered a prayer for him on the Senate floor.

Such morally bankrupt responses would shock Iranians who launched fireworks in cities across the country after his death, took to social media to celebrate it, and handed out candy in the street.

The question is whether the people celebrating on social media, and the ones keeping their disgust for the regime out of the limelight, can convulse the theocracy’s political system. In 50 days, according to Iranian law, the government must hold a presidential election. Will Iranians take to the streets in great numbers?

Never underestimate the Iranian people, who have consistently risen up over the last decade. The last regime-shaking protests were sparked by a young Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, 22, who died while she was in the custody of the morality police in 2022 for not wearing a headscarf.

Given Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s success last year in violently suppressing those protests—at least 516 people were killed, almost 900 injured, and 20,000 jailed—the 85-year-old won’t be squeamish in crushing rallies that again challenge the theocracy’s legitimacy.

But Khamenei must be wary because beneath the surface, Iran is essentially a volcano—a large magma pool of discontent always pressing against the security services, hunting for a weak point, a provocation, that will crack the fear that keeps back an eruption. Raisi’s death won’t likely produce a tremor, but whenever the regime’s security services confront the Iranian people, a fissure might happen.

One thing that won’t change is the Biden administration’s approach to Iran.

Although Raisi wasn’t the worst mullah that Khamenei could have advanced to the presidency in 2021 (there were a few even more brutal and religiously twisted), he was among those whose evil was clearly documented. Raisi earned the sobriquet “The Butcher of Tehran” when he served as the prosecutor general of the city between 1989 and 1994. He participated in a so-called death commission that ordered the executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. And yet, after his “election,” the Biden administration didn’t hesitate to try to reestablish another nuclear deal and some kind of peaceful regional modus vivendi with the Islamic Republic.

Our strategic reality is this: Iran could have Jack the Ripper as president and Joe Biden and his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, would still choose to continue Barack Obama’s policy of engagement.

The Free Press

Look at What Leftists DO to Israel; Not What They Say

Today’s left in America–the ones who run and dominate everything–are, in practice, committed to Palestine, militant Islam, Iran and antisemitism. Verbally, they try to have it both ways. But look at what they do, not at what they say. What they DO: give money to Iran, tie Israel’s hands in trying to defend itself, and continue to fund and support open advocates of Israeli and Jewish genocide at America’s shockingly undeserving, prestigious colleges. Not Muslim genocide; with the left in charge, Muslims are just fine.

Biden regime # 2 Kamala Harris even implied support for the use of military force by America against Israel, a few weeks back. I think she’d be just fine with concentration camps, and not just for Jews.

If you support leftists (which means any Democrat or a growing number of RINOs), then you are actively supporting the destruction of Jews, the advancement of Muslim militancy and just one more means of destroying civilization. If you are Jewish and support leftists, then I cannot help you, and do not wish to try.

Michael J. Hurd

A Word About Nationalism

Do you love America more than the Constitution? Or do you love America BECAUSE of the Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights?

Speaking for myself, it’s the latter. I love America because individual rights flourished here, both in principle and practice, for a very long time. America was, and always will be, the first country that explicitly based itself on the rights of the individual. This led to innovation, prosperity, meritocracy, a work ethic, the independent American spirit, the elimination of slavery (the first society in human history to fight a civil war over ending slavery), and all the rest we now take for granted as millions of us embrace the glowering despair of Communism, fascism and collectivism instead (thinking we’re being virtuous by doing so).

You don’t fight for freedom because it’s the American way. You fight for America because freedom is what it stands for — or at least did, at its peak. Where it goes from here is largely up to the good guys left in this society. And we are at a turning point, I promise you.

A nationalist loves his country because it’s his country. By that definition, nationalism is a terrible mistake. Nationalism leads to Nazi Germany. It puts the state — the collective — above the individual, and for that reason nationalism is the polar opposite of what made America great. What made America great was its emphasis on individual rights, including the right to free speech, the right to private property, the right to bear arms and — at the root of it all — the sovereignty of the individual over his own life. The end.

Two things sum up the spirit of America, to me. One, the phrase, “Don’t tread on me.” Two, the phrase, “My body — my mind — my choice.” If nationalism means upholding these two things in the spirit of our original Bill of Rights, then I’m all for it; though I wouldn’t call it nationalism. I’d simply call it freedom.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

Inflation Isn’t Caused by Capitalism. It’s Caused by Elite Socialism.

We’re always told that under capitalism–i.e., economic freedom–the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It was never true. Under economic freedom, everyone gets richer, so long as they make rational decisions and are willing to think and work. But it IS true now. Under elite Communism (America’s present system), the connected get richer and the middle class shrinks into varying degrees of relative poverty.

The Bidens and other politically connected criminals get richer while the disconnected get poor, or at least fail to grow. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the world’s first libertarian president is breaking hyperinflation. It’s a transformative development, and the best news in many years.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial.

Today’s Mainstream Left: Unbridled, Unhinged, Unaccountable Hatred

Reading the headlines and the first few lines of MSN, MSNBC or CNN articles is revealing and astonishing. If you don’t ever view corporate-state media, I am here to tell you that it’s FAR worse than you assume. One headline, for example, expressed outrage that Trump is “attacking” Biden in all caps on his social media tweets. Democrats everywhere are outraged! Outraged, I tell you! From the tone and content of the article, you’d think that posting in all caps is the equivalent of homicide. I even know RINOs who would say, “Well, that’s just not presidential.” And yet these same RINOs seem to have no problem with abridging due process, obliterating the First and Second Amendments, ruining the military, outlawing civilization by banning fossil fuels, spying on law-abiding, private citizens and raising taxes to 40 percent rates and higher. Anything to avoid those ALL-CAP tweets.

“Election deniers” and “climate deniers” are routinely disparaged and written about the same way serial killers are discussed. We’re all told that it’s a sin and a felony to “hate”; but hatred is the defining essence of literally everything I find in the media that presumably most Americans are seeing, and whose headlines they are routinely reading. They hate, loathe, despise all things that ARE NOT THEMSELVES.

We’re told, over and over, that we have a “democracy,” which means that people who read and are influenced by this trash get to decide everything about our lives — at least if they’re in the majority, and even if they’re not. If we’re really a democracy, and the majority rules over the individual, then what’s to stop a majority from having their government, egged on by their media, from rounding up people who say and think things the government does not wish them to say?

I don’t know how long it will take for this inevitable disaster to play itself out. But I am certain it will, unless mass numbers of people reject everything they’re taught and reverse course culturally, politically and economically with urgent immediacy. This would mean boycotting all things statist, totalitarian and particularly leftist, since leftism rules and leftism is unblinkingly totalitarian: Starbucks, Nike, Disney, Facebook, Google, the NFL, ABC, CBS, NBC, Neflix, on and on, just to name a few.

To those of us 60 and above, if we’re lucky, we’ll escape the worst of it. But on our present course, those under 30 will not be living in anything remotely like the America many of us have known and loved, not 10 or 20 years down the line. I wonder if they’ll know what they’re missing.

“Based on recent events, we have to conclude that today’s college students are the commandants of tomorrow’s concentration camps.”
— David Harriman, a philosopher of science, writing on Facebook.

ABSOLUTELY correct. Or something else just as horrible. These leftists, with their unlimited power, unlimited authority and absolutely ZERO accountability for anything they say or do are capable of unlimited evil. Until the infuriated come together, all at the same time, and stop them.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

The Constituional Guillotine: The End of the Deep State

Stephen K Bannon's War Room

The Constitutional Guillotine: The End of the Deep State Kash Patel, Former National Security Prosecutor and Deputy Director of National Intelligence

By: Kash Patel

Kash Patel

byKash Patel

 May 17, 2024

in Newsroom

Reading Time: 3 mins read

Home  Newsroom

Where have all the due process constitutionalists gone? You may be pondering this very thing: groups like the ACLU, or fervent public defenders, or even those liberals who vigorously defend the rights of individuals accused of damaging public property under the banner of terrorism. I question their actual commitment to due process, as they are the cheerleaders of its unlawful application by the Deep State to prosecute President Trump.

Consider the allegations of evidence destruction, prosecutorial bastardization of due process, and judicial misconduct. You might ask yourself, which option is the most corrupt? While District Attorney Alvin Bragg has admitted to deleting pages of evidence; the infamous pair, Willis and Wade, not only monetarily benefited from their prosecutorial misconduct but also lied to the court about it and their clandestine affair. Meanwhile, Judge Chutkan steam rolls over the  constitution, improperly presiding over a case that demands her recusal, just like when she self-recused from all things Donald Trump and Russia Gate circa 2017. Despite these examples, they are not the most corrupt.

In 2021, under Merrick Garland, the DOJ, buttressed by President Biden and his White House, lied about the independence of their investigation into Donald Trump and certain ‘classified’ documents. President Biden rescinded presidential privileges to allow for Trump’s prosecution. Direct communications between National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), DOJ, and Biden’s white house counsel ensued, discussing the handling of these documents post-presidency. Their own communications (recently disclosed) revealed instructions from the Biden administration and DOJ to NARA, directing them not to comply with inquiries regarding the documents, followed by a subsequent request from NARA to DOJ to investigate Trump.

Recent legal pleadings, disclosed by Judge Cannon in Trump’s Florida case show a total abdication of due process. These records reveal that the boxes in question were actually in the custody of Biden’s Government Services Administration (GSA) in Washington D.C., stored in unsecure locations. The GSA even contacted Trump’s representatives to determine the destination for these documents before shipping them to Mar-a-Lago. This revelation raises serious questions about the basis of the unlawful raid on the president’s home, via a “What’sApp Warrant.”  NARA previously conceded to NBC in February 2022 that they found classified documents in the boxes at Mar-a-Lago and subsequently notified the DOJ. Were these documents, the one’s NARA/GSA had shipped down to south Florida, deemed illegal during transit? This critical information recently came to light because Judge Cannon revealed Jack Smith and his team of constitutional jackals’ concealment and redactions in legal filings to hide misconduct.

After being exposed, Jack Smith and his incinerators of due process committed the ultimate legal sin: they lied to the judge. Their primary aim was to hide their unconstitutional actions, crucially from President Trump, who was the most significantly affected as the defendant. When their misconduct was uncovered, in storied swamp fashion, they used corruption as a shield.

More unredacted pleadings released by Judge Cannon have revealed that Jay Bratt and Jack Smith tampered with the documents found at Mar-a-Lago, creating confusion over their origins, and they subsequently admitted to misleading the court about these actions. This severe mishandling of evidence and the subsequent lies point to a deliberate attempt by the DOJ to manipulate legal proceedings. Such actions are what prosecutors like myself classify as incontrovertible evidence of corruption. With Smith’s rig team scrambling to fabricate warrants and stage bogus displays of ‘classified documents,’ one must ask: How much more corruption must be unveiled before justice is served and the DOJ is held accountable?

For those quick to dismiss these assertions as mere political rhetoric, remember that I led the Russia Gate investigation and authored the Nunes Memo, which has since been thoroughly validated. Drawing on my background as a public defender, I understand that true criminals often know the best evidence against them and excel in concealing it. The real government gangsters this time are deeply embedded within the DOJ and FBI.

As the details continue to unravel, it is becoming increasingly clear that Judge Cannon may soon wield what could be metaphorically called a ‘constitutional guillotine.’ This decisive action has the potential to end entrenched corruption within these agencies and restore the integrity of our justice system. The demand to eradicate ‘unconstitutional’ practices resonates powerfully with those who seek genuine constitutional due process. It’s time for a bold stand to reclaim justice and ensure that our constitutional values are upheld for all.