RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/impeachment-inquiry-house-must-vote-or-its-just-democratic-stunt/

It is not for the Speaker and her adjutants to decree that there is an inquiry.

‘The House of Representatives . . . shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”

It’s right there in black-and-white: In article I, section 2, clause 5, our Constitution vests the entirety of the power to call for removal of the president of the United States in a single body — the House.

Not in the Speaker of the House. In the House of Representatives. The institution, not one of its members.

To be sure, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a very powerful government official: second in the line of succession to the presidency; arguably, the most powerful member of Congress. She wields decisive influence on the business of her chamber. She even has the power to induce the House to vote on whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry.

But she does not have the power to impeach on her own.

In the end, Speaker Pelosi is just one member, a representative elected biannually by one district (in her case, the 12th district of California, centered in San Francisco and not particularly representative of the nation at large). Sure, she enjoys primus inter pares status because she is chosen by a majority of the House’s 435 members. But like each of those other members, her vote counts as just one — in a body that generally requires 218 votes to get the important things done.

She is the Speaker. She is not the House. She does not have the authority to call for the president’s removal. She can argue for it, like the other members. She can vote on it, like the other members. But she cannot do it by herself. Only the House, acting as an institution, can do that.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/off-her-meds-aoc-says-trumps-attacks-on-schiff-are-targeted-anti-semitism/

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) probably says and tweets more remarkably ignorant things than anyone in Congress — perhaps more than anyone in the United States. Her latest attack on President Trump regarding his attacks on California Democrat Adam Schiff may be her dumbest hot-take yet.

Yes, the Democrats work from an identity politics-based playbook all of the time, but this is a stretch even when applying their ever-changing rules.

The post she’s tweeting here as a source for her charge is from The Intercept, and was written by Mehdi Hasan, a noted Iran and Ilhan Omar apologist.

Speaking of Omar, the most outrageously laughable aspect of this concern-trolling by AOC is the fact that half of her “Squad” are openly raging anti-Semites. Omar is so awful that she inspired a condemnation resolution by her own party after she had been in office only a month.

This is Barack Obama’s legacy. White males who are Catholic, Protestant, or atheist are the only people subject to public criticism. Democrats hide their lunacy behind identity shields.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/04/report-anti-trump-whistleblower-concealed-contacts-with-house-democrats-from-inspector-general/

The anti-Trump whistleblower whose allegations against President Donald Trump sent Congress into an impeachment frenzy concealed his interactions with House Democrats from the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) and failed to disclose them as required, Fox News reported on Friday.

According to Fox News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, ICIG Michael Atkinson testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) that the anti-Trump complainant, whose identity has not been made public, did not inform the ICIG in his complaint that he or his team had already contacted Democratic staff working for Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House intelligence committee.

The complainant’s failure to disclose his interactions with Schiff or his staff could put him in legal hot water, as the whistleblower form he submitted requires individuals to disclose “other actions you are taking on your disclosure” under penalty of perjury. An entire page of the whistleblower form is dedicated to collecting information about previous disclosures so the ICIG can take appropriate action in response to the complaint.

“I have previously disclosed (or am disclosing) the violations alleged here to (complete all that apply),” the form requires the complainant to attest. The form includes checkboxes for disclosures to other inspectors general, other agencies, the Department of Justice, the Government Accountability Office, the Office of Special Counsel, other executive branch departments, Congress and its respective committees, and media. It also includes a separate question asking the complainant to detail those previous disclosures to the ICIG.

“Before going to Congress, the C.I.A. officer had a colleague convey his accusations to the agency’s top lawyer,” The New York Times reported earlier this week. “Concerned about how that avenue for airing his allegations was unfolding, the officer then approached a House Intelligence Committee aide, alerting him to the accusation against Mr. Trump.”

The New York Times noted that the anti-Trump complainant only notified the committee’s Democrats of his allegations.

amgreatness.com/2019/10/03/gop-volker-testimony-blows-massive-hole-in-dems-ukraine-gate-allegations/

A House Democrat-led closed door interview with former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker Thursday did not go as well as Democrats had hoped, according to reports.

Volker appeared before the Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs committees to testify on a deep state “whistleblower’s” allegation that President Trump tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

According to Rep Lee Zeldin (R.-N.Y.), Volker’s testimony was “blowing a massive hole in that allegation.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, also told reporters that Volker did not tell House members anything that supports the Democrats’ premise for their impeachment investigation against the president.

“Not one thing he has said comports with any of the Democrats’ impeachment narrative,” Rep. Jordan told reporters during a break in the questioning, Thursday afternoon.

Democrats had high hopes that Volker’s testimony would be “damaging to the President and his allies.”

At one point during the deposition, however, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.)had to take over questioning from his own side’s counsel because it wasn’t going well, according to Republican sources.

Volker resigned from his position as the special envoy on September 27, after being mentioned in the whistleblower complaint alleging wrongdoing by Trump in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president.  The president had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyto to look into corruption allegations surrounding Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 Russia hoax and also Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden’s allegedly corrupt dealings in the country.

Jordan blasted what he called “the process Mr. Schiff has set up” to interview witnesses in the impeachment probe. Schiff initially was going to try to limit GOP members from asking questions, Jordan complained to reporters during the break.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-sigh-of-jobs-relief-11570228132

Imagine how well the U.S. economy would be doing with better trade policy. That’s our reaction to Friday’s jobs report for September that showed remarkable resilience despite the headwinds of tariffs, declining business investment and a manufacturing downturn.

The economy created 136,000 new jobs in the month, plus 45,000 more in upward revisions for July and August. That adds up to a monthly average so far this year of 161,000, which is healthy for an expansion that is now into its tenth year though it’s below the 223,000 average in 2018.

Even more surprising, the jobless rate fell to 3.5%, the lowest in half a century. The number of employed Americans surged by 391,000, which drove the overall employment ratio up to 61%, the highest since December 2008. The rising employment ratio shows that Americans who have been on the sidelines since the Great Recession are continuing to stream into the labor market long after economists on Wall Street and at the Federal Reserve concluded the U.S. was at full employment.

The new job seekers include in particular those who are often the hardest to employ. The jobless rate for those without a high-school degree fell by 0.6 percentage point to 4.8%, the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking this in 1992. The rate for Hispanic Americans fell 0.3 percentage point to 3.9%.