RUTHFULLY YOURS

PHILADELPHIA — Democrats put in plenty of good words for Hillary Clinton during their convention yesterday but they focused most of their energy on trying to assassinate the character of Donald Trump.

The Left is now going after the Republican nominee with brass knuckles. The latest Democrat attack line accuses Trump of committing treason for asking Russia or any other governments that may have Clinton’s mountain of missing emails in their possession to return them to the United States.

Meanwhile, the prospect of Democrat unity going into the November election fades with every passing hour. Hatred, discord, and disgust are everywhere. The Bernie Sanders people don’t trust the Hillary Clinton people. The Hillary Clinton people are growing increasingly angry at a good chunk of the Bernie Sanders people for not falling in line and backing the nominee. Just as internal dissent is roiling the Republican Party, a civil war is brewing among Democrats. In the end most Democrats will probably support their nominee. The question is what fraction of the party will sit the election out, defect to Trump, or embrace the Green or Libertarian parties. The burning hatred of Hillary is still palpable in many state delegations.

All the convention talking points about how brilliant, kind, compassionate, visionary, selfless, humble, and tough Clinton is are wearing thin as the delegates keep clapping their hands like trained seals in the Wells Fargo Center. Democrats want to take the focus off Hillary, who is both a terrible candidate and a terrible person and throw the spotlight on the sometimes erratic Donald Trump.

That is the current state of the party that invented the politics of personal destruction and that during the Obama years has been laser-focused on fundamentally transforming, that is, destroying, what’s left of America.

Amidst the continuing heatwave, delegates were still deeply divided, caught up in factional fights during Day Three of the Democratic National Convention here. Disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters were still protesting and booing during speeches Wednesday.

And on the way out the door Sanders stuck it to the party with which he briefly aligned himself. After getting what he wanted from Democrats, the self-described socialist abruptly announced he is leaving the party. Despite his pleas from the convention floor for party unity and an impassioned endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, Sanders said at a Bloomberg News-hosted breakfast that he will return to the U.S. Senate as an Independent.

“I was elected an Independent,” he told reporters.

So that apparently closes the book on Bernie’s adventures in the Democratic Party.

The Trump-bashing fest was long and loud.

Newly minted vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine mocked Trump’s frequent use of the phrase “believe me.”

“You know who I don’t trust? Donald Trump … promises a lot. But you might have noticed, he has a habit of saying the same two words right after he makes his biggest promises … Believe me,” the colorless Kaine said.

Imitating Trump, Kaine said, “It’s gonna be great — believe me! We’re gonna build a wall and make Mexico pay for it — believe me! We’re gonna destroy ISIS so fast — believe me!”

“There’s nothing suspicious in my tax returns — believe me!”

Barack Obama showed up to boost Clinton and say goodbye to the party faithful.

The president mocked Trump for telling the truth about how bad Obama has made things in America. “America is already great,” he said, adding “and our greatness does not depend on Donald Trump.”

Using the “you think you’re so smart, don’t you?” rhetorical device, Obama ridiculed Trump, claiming the GOP standard-bearer is promising that “he alone can restore order.”

A few minutes before Clinton came onstage and gave Obama a lasting full-body hug, the president called Trump a fascist but not in those words. The great homegrown demagogue from Chicagoland talked about how important it is to stop “homegrown demagogues” like Trump.

One of the most vehement attacks on Trump yesterday came from former New York mayor and media magnate Michael Bloomberg, a control freak who wants to confiscate guns and limit how much soda people can drink. Bloomberg had been considering running for the presidency himself but his candidacy never materialized.

Trump has generated “a well-documented record of bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits,” Bloomberg said. If Trump plans to run the presidency like a business, “God help us.”

“I understand the appeal of a businessman president. But Trump’s business plan is a disaster in the making,” Bloomberg said.

“He would make it harder for small businesses to compete, do great damage to our economy, threaten the retirement savings of millions of Americans, lead to greater debt and more unemployment, erode our influence in the world, and make our communities less safe.”

“The bottom line,” he said, “is Trump is a risky, reckless, and radical choice. And we can’t afford to make that choice.” He called Trump “a dangerous demagogue.”

Bloomberg said almost nothing about Clinton except to endorse her because she’s “sane.” He was booed when he scolded Democrats for being anti-business. “Many Democrats wrongly blame the private sector for our problems.”

His Marxist successor as New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, boiled his thoughts on Clinton and Trump to four adjectives for each. Clinton is “smart,” “steady,” “right,” and “ready,” while Trump is “reckless,” “risky,” “wrong,” and “scary.”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada grumbled that Trump and his running-mate Mike Pence “want to put insurance companies back in charge of your health.” Of course Reid wants the government to assume total control over all Americans’ health.

The most disturbing development yesterday was a new meme the Left introduced into the media echo chamber to slime Donald Trump.

CNN promoted a bald-faced untruth in the afternoon claiming that Trump encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails. It was a strange smear given that there are no emails left to hack. Clinton has acknowledged destroying more than 30,000 emails and all her illicit email servers are now presumably offline.

CNN’s assault on the truth offers a window into how the mainstream media lies in order to promote its left-wing agenda. Even though Clinton is the candidate who appears to have violated national security laws with her insecure email servers, the media are now smearing Trump as soft of national security and sympathetic to Russia, or even worse, as a traitor.

In fact Trump belongs to the foreign policy realism school. Just as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher said Mikhail Gorbachev was a man they could deal with, Trump has said that he reckons he can deal with Vladimir Putin. That hardly makes Trump a Russophile.

The lie appears to have originated with the New York Times. The newspaper reported on its website that “Donald J. Trump said Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially encouraging an adversarial foreign power to cyberspy on a secretary of state’s correspondence.”

Trump said no such thing.

What Trump actually told reporters at a presser in Florida was, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

From there the lie spread around the world at lightning speed.

Of course the lie became a talking point on the convention stage in Philadelphia. Intelligence community speakers Leon Panetta and John Hutson ran with it.

Panetta, who used to be CIA director and secretary of defense, upbraided Trump for “once again” siding with Russia.

“He asked the Russians to engage in American politics. Think about that for a moment. Donald Trump is asking one of our adversaries to engage in hacking or intelligence efforts against the United States to affect our election. As someone who was responsible for protecting our nation from cyberattacks, it is inconceivable to me that any presidential candidate would be that irresponsible. Donald Trump cannot become our Commander-in-Chief.”

Panetta said Clinton is “determined to defeat those who threaten us today: ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab,” and take on these terrorists “who pervert the teachings of Islam to kill innocent people going about their daily lives.”

He received only polite applause. As he continued talking about foreign policy, antiwar delegates gave him a hard time, repeatedly interrupting him by chanting “no more war.”

Convention organizers punished the unruly delegates by turning off the lights over their

seating area. The antiwar delegates protested the darkness by holding up smartphone lights.

Retired Rear Admiral John Hutson, one of the few military leaders foolish enough to believe in Hillary Clinton’s leadership abilities, attacked Trump, repeating the lie about Russian hacking.

“Donald Trump calls himself the ‘law and order candidate,’ but he’ll violate international law,” Hutson said. “In his words, he endorses torture ‘at a minimum.’ He’ll order our troops to commit war crimes like killing civilians … This morning, he personally invited Russia to hack us. That’s not law and order. That’s criminal.”

CNN easily wins the award for most slanted, obviously biased cable TV coverage of the convention.

Early Thursday morning, a panel hosted by Don Lemon blasted Trump, repeating the lie over and over again that he asked Russia to hack its way into Clinton’s emails.

The slippery Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a man who lies for a living, said it was “mindboggling” that Trump would invite Russia to get involved in the American electoral process.

Bakari Sellers, identified as a Hillary Clinton supporter, went farther than Sherman, saying Trump is committing “treason.”

But the fact is that Clinton’s behavior more closely approaches the definition of treason.

It wasn’t that long ago that FBI Director James Comey said in essence that Clinton’s email adventures violated the Espionage Act but then refused to recommend the former top U.S. diplomat be prosecuted for her crimes.

With her hacker-friendly private email servers that appear to have been penetrated by foreign intelligence agencies, Clinton is now in the company of Aaron Burr, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden all of whom betrayed the public trust.

The congenitally corrupt Clintons created the clandestine communications system to frustrate Freedom of Information Act requesters, shield Hillary’s correspondence from congressional oversight, and steer money to the international cash-for-future-presidential-favors clearinghouse known as the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which, amazingly enough, still enjoys tax-exempt status.

The offsite email servers Clinton used while at the State Department are at the heart of the scandal over her mishandling of an Islamic terrorist attack in militant-infested Benghazi, Libya on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 that left four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, dead. Even now, four years after the assault, the Obama administration has failed to provide an autopsy report about Stevens who was initially reported to have been ritualistically sodomized before being murdered by Muslim terrorists.

Left-wingers love to yell during speeches because they are ruled by emotion, not reason. Many of their addresses sound like incitements to riot. They turn the volume up to 11 because they think that makes them more persuasive.

A case in point is Vice President Joe Biden, who walked onto the stage to the theme song from Rocky and received a rock star’s welcome from the crowd.

In a speech that mostly consisted of screaming, he called President Obama “the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character” and lauded Clinton, saying she “gets it.”

“Everyone knows she’s smart, everyone knows she’s tough, but I know what she’s passionate about,” he said. “I know Hillary.”

When he slammed Trump he spoke mostly in hushed tones. Biden said “his cynicism is unbounded.”

Like other speakers he attacked Trump for giving what he characterized as pessimistic speeches — speeches that conservatives know are merely realistic assessments of the deep and lasting damage the Obama administration has wrought on the culture, rule of law, economy, and civil society.

“We cannot elect a man who exploits our fears of ISIS and other terrorists who has no plan whatsoever to make us safer, a man who embraces the tactics of our enemies,” said Biden. “Donald Trump, with all his rhetoric, would literally make us less safe.”

The Democratic Party effortlessly attracts Hollywood celebrities. It takes them for granted. Like the first two days of the convention, the stars came out.

Actors Sigourney Weaver and Angela Bassett spoke and Lenny Kravitz performed.

A group of entertainers appeared on the stage to sing “What the world needs now is love.” The song was recorded recently and proceeds from sales will go to the LGBT Center of Central Florida to help people affected by the Islamofascist massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Among the identifiable celebrities belting out the tune on stage were actors Kristen Bell, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Richard Kind, Debra Messing, Rosie Perez, Ben Vereen, B.D. Wong, and Tom Wopat.

Some attendees complained that Chick-fil-A sandwiches were being sold at the convention. The Left, which is nothing if not petty, has smeared that restaurant chain as homophobic because its CEO, a fervent Christian, opposes same-sex marriage.

An “in memoriam” video paid tribute to notable Democrats who died since the last quadrennial convention, along with people the DNC really, really wishes had been Democrats.

Boxer Muhammad Ali, South African head of state Nelson Mandela, and poet Maya Angelou were honored. So were Democrat officeholders Sens. George McGovern and Daniel Inouye, along with New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

But two activists on the most extreme fringes of the Democratic Party were also on this celluloid honor roll, a reminder of just how radical the party has become in recent years.

One was labor organizer Vernon R. Watkins, who rose in the ranks of AFSCME and the ALF-CIO. Watkins also belonged to the small-c communist group Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). He died in 2015.

The other was another DSA member, Georgia state senator Julian Bond, who also died last year. Bond once said the Republican Party “would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side.” Bond was the initial president of the execrable slander shop known as the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Eugene V. Debs Foundation, whose namesake founded the Industrial Workers of the World (a.k.a. the Wobblies) and ran for president on the Socialist Party of America ticket five times, gave him an award in 2002.

Lurking around the convention were trash TV pioneer and former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer, disgraced former journalist Dan Rather, former California Assemblyman and Sixties radical Tom Hayden, Midwest Academy founder and Saul Alinsky devotee Heather Booth, singer Lance Bass, and actor Billy Baldwin.

And as President Obama prepared to address delegates yesterday, Wikileaks published hacked voicemail messages from the Democratic National Committee, the governing body of the Democratic Party.

The Washington Times reports that it listened to the messages but that none “contained anything immediately obvious as embarrassing or incriminating.” But it cautioned that “the very fact the DNC voicemail system has been hacked is embarrassing and could augur the release of far more damaging material later.”

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said there is “a lot more material” related to the election to be released.

Believe him.