RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/pelosi_defends_schiffs_version_of_trumpzelensky_phone_call_he_did_not_make_it_up.html

Nancy Pelosi appears to have shocked even George Stephanopoulos of ABC news yesterday. The Speaker of the House claimed that Rep. Adam Schiff did not invent his own version of the telephone call between President Trump and the (then) newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, during a September 26th hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, which he chairs.

Schiff himself later in the hearing characterized his version of what he initially called “the essence” of the call as a “parody.” But the purported humor sailed right over the head of the Speaker.

Here is the entire  ABC News transcript.  This is the relevant exchange with emphases added by me:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You talk about the dignity with which you handle this. You’ve seen the president’s tweets. You’ve heard Republican’s– Leader McCarthy wants to censure Adam Schiff. I know you support Chairman Schiff. But– was it– was it right for him to have that dramatic– reading of the president’s– interpretation of the president’s– transcript of the phone call at the hearing last week? Did that follow the kind of process you want?

NANCY PELOSI: I want the American people to know what that phone call was about. I want them to hear it on their– on their iPhone or whatever. I want them to see it visually. Because this was an absolute betrayal of the American people, this phone call. It was a betrayal of our national security, it was a betrayal of the integrity of elections, it was a betrayal of our Constitution. So yeah, it’s fair. It’s sad. But it’s using the president’s own words. So if he’s–

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-10-5-the-bidens-stone-cold-crooked

The phrase “stone cold crooked” was used on October 2 by President Trump to describe Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Watch the YouTube video here.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic-side press, almost all have been standing up for Joe Biden in the face of large profit-making ventures of his son and brother in countries where Biden as Vice President led U.S. diplomacy. Specifically as to Ukraine, the New York Times on October 5 called President Trump’s charges as to Biden’s misconduct “unfounded” and “wild.”

So which is it: Are Biden and his family “stone cold crooked,” or are such charges “unfounded” and “wild”?

This piece will look specifically at the facts regarding then-Vice President Joe Biden and the dealings of Hunter Biden in Ukraine.

My conclusion: the claim of “stone cold crooked” has been proved.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trumps-the-bidens-and-china-11570210513

“With apologies to Captain Obvious, the plain fact is that the Trumps had a big real estate business long before the 2016 election. Is there any Biden history in Ukrainian natural gas or Chinese finance prior to Joe Biden’s vice presidency?”

Even Hunter Biden doesn’t deserve the Chinese judicial system. But there is a silver lining to Donald Trump’s suggestion that foreign governments scrutinize unusual financial arrangements involving relatives of people at the center of American political power. There is value in a U.S. President telling the world that the Clinton Foundation will not be the model for how this country conducts its foreign affairs.

“China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine,” the President told reporters on Thursday at the White House.

Was it really that bad? The Journal’s James Areddy reports:

Hunter Biden, a 49-year-old lawyer and the second son of the former vice president, owns 10% of a private-equity firm called Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co.
Over the past roughly six years, it has channeled $2.5 billion or more on behalf of its financial backers into automotive, energy, mining and technology deals, according to interviews with people familiar with the private-equity firm and a review by The Wall Street Journal of financial filings and other official business records.
Hunter Biden is one of nine directors of the firm, known as BHR Partners, which is controlled and funded primarily by large Chinese government-owned shareholders.

In 2014, the Journal’s Chao Deng reported from Shanghai that this esteemed group was raising a fund to invest outside China, “with the yuan-denominated portion of the fund to be converted to U.S. dollars through Shanghai’s free-trade zone.” Mr. Deng noted:

https://amgreatness.com/2019/10/05/anti-trump-fraternity-and-nevertrump-sorority-collude-in-impeachment-scam/

Donald Trump asked President Zelensky to help with the Justice Department’s investigation of efforts to subvert the 2016 election. Donald Trump is the president of the United States. It is part of his responsibility to see that our elections are open and fair. Bottom line: not much to work with there for the anti-Trump fraternity.

How stupid does the anti-Trump fraternity think the American people are? By “anti-Trump fraternity” I mean not only the increasingly frantic Democrats who, like Belshazzar at that memorable dinner party many years back, can see the writing ever more clearly on the wall for 2020, but also the NeverTrump sorority who just cannot get over the fact that someone was elected president of the United States without their permission, indeed, over their explicit objections. How dare they!

I ask how stupid they think the American people are because it has long seemed to me that they must have a very low opinion of our intelligence given the preposterous anti-Trump narrative they keep trying to foist off on us.

At the same time, it must be said that they have a touching trust in our patience. Fans of P.G. Wodehouse may recall that in the preface to Summer Lightning old Plum adduced the “nasty remark” of one critic who complained that a previous novel contained “all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.” Ever looking on the bright side, Wodehouse mused that that critic had probably by then been eaten by bears “like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha.” But if, he noted, said scribe was still among us he would not have been able to make the same objection to Wodehouse’s new novel because this time he put in all the old Wodehouse characters “under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.”

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%.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/10/the_muslim_educational_cultural_center_of_america_and_extremism.html

The Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America (MECCA) claims that its goals are “to guide young Muslims” and “build bridges of understanding with other cultures and faiths.”  Yet the Chicago-area mosque’s willingness to promote hate preachers and anti-Semitic demagogues reflects the continued influence of its Islamists founders and leaders.  

The Center’s soft talk has duped some politicians into attending the mosque’s events.  Some of them are Burr Ridge mayor Gary Grasso and Dupage County board member Julie Renehan, who attended the Center’s open house last month.  Also, this month, on October 2, U.S. congressman Sean Casten spoke on immigration at MECCA.

But a man is known by the company he keeps.  On September 20, the MECCA Center hosted Imam Zaid Shakir, who delivered the Friday sermon.  Shakir’s writings and speeches show a man prone to conspiracy theories and extremism.  In 2001, Shakir argued that the American Muslim community must consider political options including “guerrilla war.”  Shakir claimed that the United States “inflicted” terrorism on the world and suggested that it would be acceptable for Muslims to attack U.S. military forces.

Shakir also has engaged 9/11 conspiracy theories and blamed “Zionist” forces and the FBI for the February 1993 World Trade Center (WTC) bombing.  Shakir argued that the conspirators were set up as a way of bolstering anti-Islamic sentiment.

On September 29, the MECCA Center hosted Linda Sarsour, who has a well established history of anti-Semitism and promoting extremism.

Sarsour was removed from her position as a leading organizer for the Women’s March out of concerns regarding her public anti-Semitism, including her relationship with the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and support for Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian terrorist deported from the United States for lying about previous terror convictions.  Sarsour is a support of Al-Awda, a pro-Palestinian group that endorses terrorism and calls for the destruction of Israel.  In 2011, Sarsour expressed a desire to “take away the vaginas” of two female activists, Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of whom, Ali, was a victim of female genital mutilation (FGM).