RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2019/02/05/senate_confirm_neomi_rao_for_dc_circuit_court_of_appeals_111028.html

Among the many victories President Trump has given conservatives, his success in reforming the federal judiciary through judicial appointments will be among the most meaningful and lasting elements of his legacy. One of the President’s top judicial picks, former law professor Neomi Rao, is now awaiting confirmation to replace Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. She should be quickly confirmed.

Ms. Rao was born in Detroit, a child of Indian immigrants. She completed her undergraduate education at Yale, graduating cum laude. After a brief stint as a reporter with the Weekly Standard, Ms. Rao attended University of Chicago Law School, where she was an Editor of the Law Review and graduated in 1999 with high honors and as a member of the Order of the Coif, a legal honor society.

Following law school, Ms. Rao was awarded prestigious clerkships at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit with prominent Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III and at the United States Supreme Court with Justice Clarence Thomas. She later served as Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and from 2005 to 2006 as Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.

In 2006 Ms. Rao joined the faculty at the George Mason University Law School, where she distinguished herself as a legal scholar with a focus on administrative law. She founded and was the first director of the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State and was a driving force behind George Mason’s 2016 decision to name its law school after the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., praised British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn after she spoke with him over the weekend.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

✔ @AOC It was an honor to share such a lovely and wide-reaching conversation with you, @jeremycorbyn! Also honored to share a great hope in the peace, prosperity, + justice that everyday people can create when we uplift one another across class, race, + identity both at home & abroad.

Jeremy Corbyn

✔ @jeremycorbyn Great to speak to @AOC on the phone this evening and hear first hand how she’s challenging the status quo. Let’s build a movement across borders to take on the billionaires, polluters and migrant baiters, and support a happier, freer and cleaner planet.

https://pjmedia.com/video/alveda-king-calls-on-ralph-northam-to-reverse-ku-klux-klanish-abortion-laws/
“You are a pediatrician. You know those are human beings.”
On Monday morning, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece Alveda King stopped short of calling for Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) to resign in the wake of the blackface scandal. Instead, she urged him to “stop doing Ku Klux Klanish things” and rescind his support for abortion laws. The blackface controversy emerged with a yearbook photo seeming to show Northam either in blackface or a Ku Klux Klan robe, but that followed a week of controversy over a radical abortion bill the governor supports.

“When the story initially broke, I said, ‘Well, wow! Thirty-five years ago — we need to forgive him.’ However, forgiveness is one thing but how do we move forward is another thing,” King told “Fox and Friends.”

“And rather than to ask the governor to resign, I would ask him to rescind all of the legislation that he has approved that supports the crime against humanity which is abortion,” she declared.

King said she would deliver this message to Northam: “I would say, ‘Stay there, reverse all those actions, stop agreeing to kill little human beings in the womb. You are a pediatrician. You know those are human beings right there in the womb!'”

Alveda King addressed the ugly racial history of abortion — which arguably continues in the present (billboards in Dallas and Cleveland targeted black women with pro-abortion messages last year, and black women have disproportionately high abortion rates). “Stop working with Planned Parenthood — who Margaret Sanger really did speak to the Ku Klux Klan, she did. And so, [I would tell him to] stop doing Ku Klux Klanish things and reverse and rescind all of those ugly laws that he is still supporting today,” she said.

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/428178-is-the-collusion-theory-dead

“Whom did Donald Trump Jr. speak to on his phone in between calls setting up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians?” That is the question the New York Times asked about “one of the more tantalizing mysteries of the whole Russia affair” in a glossy report on the campaign.

Hundreds of stories referenced the “blocked numbers” and speculated that those belonged to President Trump, who wanted an update on collusion efforts from his son. Last year, when asked by Wolf Blitzer of CNN if he was confirming that Trump Jr. phoned his father, House Intelligence Committee member Andre Carson simply said, “Stay tuned.” So we did, until this week, when it was revealed that Trump Jr. apparently phoned two business associates. The mystery over the blocked calls follows a series of overhyped collusion points that failed to pan out.

With the approaching final report from special counsel Robert Mueller, it may be useful to consider the current state of the collusion case. After dozens of indictments and filings, there is much that has been disclosed by the special counsel on Russian linkages and contacts. Congress and the media also have disclosed a fair degree of evidence from witnesses called before the federal grand jury and committees on Capitol Hill.

However, the publicly known case for collusion remains strikingly incomplete, if not incoherent. What is uniformly missing from the cottage industry of collusion theories is an acknowledgment of the threshold requirements of an actual crime. There is no crime in “colluding” with Russians without some cognizable criminal act or conspiracy to commit such an act. While some have dangerously stretched the criminal code to incriminate Trump, the most obvious and viable crime remains hacking into the email systems of the Democrats.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/02/03/how-to-make

I drove back from San Francisco not long ago to the rural San Joaquin Valley. It is only 200 miles. But in fact, it can feel like Odysseus trying to get back home to Ithaca from Troy.

Walking to the car in San Francisco was an early morning obstacle course dotted with the occasional human feces and lots of trash. The streets looked like Troy after its sacking. Verbal and physical altercations among the homeless offered background. The sidewalks were sort of like the flotsam and jetsam in the caves of the Cyclopes, with who knows what the ingredients really were. Outbreaks of hepatitis and typhus are now common among the refuse of California’s major cities.

The rules of the road in downtown San Francisco can seem pre-civilizational: the more law-abiding driver is considered timid and someone to be taken advantage of—while the more reckless earns respect and right of way. Pedestrians have achieved the weird deterrent effect of so pouring out onto the street in such numbers that drivers not walkers seemed the more terrified.

The 101 freeway southbound was entirely blocked by traffic—sort of like the ancient doldrums where ships don’t move. About 20 percent of the cars in the carpool lane seemed to be cheating—and were determined not to let in any more of like kind. The problem with talking on the phone and texting while driving is not just cars, but also semi-trucks, whose drivers go over the white line and weave as they please on the theory that no one argues with 20 tons of freight.

The trip can take over three hours in theory and often longer than six hours in practice. The rub is not just traffic. Road repair and expansion shuts down lanes (ironically replete with large signs bragging that the construction is proof of your tax dollars at work), often without little warning or guidance. Service stations along the way are usually overcrowded. Some of their restrooms also are premodern. I once stopped in one that had no toilet seat, one handle remaining on the water fixtures, no toilet paper, but plenty of unmentionables on the floor. In California, you sometimes request a key to enjoy the privilege of using such hospitality.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/planned-parenthood-on-ralph-northam-fine-with-infanticide-racist-photo-too-much/

In a matter of days, Planned Parenthood went from vociferously defending Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) to demanding his resignation. Earlier this week, Northam defended infanticide — the killing of an infant who survives a late-term abortion. Planned Parenthood rushed to his defense. Yet mere hours after news of a racist photo broke, the abortion giant turned on one of its stalwart defenders.

“As the nation’s largest provider of reproductive health care, we have a responsibility to advocate for all patients, and to provide compassionate health care to all people who walk through our doors,” Dr. Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood’s president, wrote in a statement. “There is no place for Gov. Ralph Northam’s racist actions or language. He must step down as Governor.”

She concluded with a rousing statement that seems even better fitted to the news of Northam’s endorsement of infanticide. “The people of Virginia need to be able to trust that their leaders will fight for them, and support policies that protect their health, safety and value their communities. Gov. Northam’s actions have put that in doubt.”

On Wednesday, Northam described the process of a third-trimester abortion. “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered,” the governor said. “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and mother.”

In other words, babies who survive an attempted abortion are not considered alive. They would be “resuscitated” if the mother and family say so, and the doctor and the mother would decide whether or not to let the baby live. Under this logic, abortion doctors should give a baby born alive “palliative care” to keep the baby “comfortable” while he or she dies, withholding the life-saving care normally afforded a newborn. CONTINUE AT SITE

https://freebeacon.com/politics/kaine-breaks-with-virginia-dems-on-abortion-i-dont-think-the-existing-law-needs-to-be-changed/

Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) defied Virginia Democrats when commenting Thursday on a state bill that would expand the ability of women to seek abortions up to the moments before birth.

“Delegate Tran has a bill to change the existing Virginia law. I support the existing Virginia law, which has been in place since the mid-70s,” Kaine said during an interview with Daily Caller reporter Kerry Picket. “And it puts conditions on a third trimester abortion. I support the existing law, not the Tran bill. I don’t think the existing law needs to be changed.”

Democratic Del. Kathy Tran introduced a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates earlier this week aimed at scaling back restrictions on abortion in Virginia.

When asked if he would comment on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D.) controversial comments about how after a child was born, the mother and the physician could have a “discussion” about whether the infant lives or dies, Kaine replied he would not “comment on comments.”

“I’ll just tell you the existing Virginia law, I think is the right law,” Kaine said. “And it’s consistent with Roe v. Wade, where the state is able to impose meaningful regulations on a third trimester pregnancy.”

Picket asked if he thought Tran’s proposal was radical, prompting Kaine to repeat that he supported the existing law.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/roger-stone-indictment-proves-no-evidence-of-collusion/

S pecial Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of Roger Stone may be the most peculiar document to emerge from the Trump–Russia “collusion” saga. It is an instant classic in the Mueller genre: lots of heavy breathing, then sputtering anti-climax.

After a 20-page narrative about Russian cyber-ops, WikiLeaks’ role as a witting anti-American accomplice, and Trump supporters enthralled by thousands of hacked Democratic emails and visions of the Clinton campaign’s implosion, Stone, a comically inept hanger-on, ends up charged with seven process crimes. No espionage, no conspiracy, no commission of any crime until the investigations started.

This is not to say that obstruction of congressional investigations is trifling. Nor is it to say the accused has a good chance of beating the case. Some of Stone’s alleged lies were mind-bogglingly stupid. Why deny written communications with people you’ve texted a zillion times? Why deny conversations with interlocutors (such as Trump-campaign CEO Steve Bannon) who have no reason to risk a perjury charge to protect you? And don’t even get me started on the witness-tampering count, which, if I were Mueller, I’d have hesitated to include for fear of suggesting an insanity defense. (Do it for Nixon? Pull a “Frank Pentangeli”?)

That said, the case is overcharged. The tampering count carries a 20-year penalty. Adding an obstruction or false-statements count (five years each) would have given Stone (who is 66 years old) prison exposure of up to 25 years. The most central “colluder” in the Mueller firmament to be bagged so far, George Papadopoulos, was sentenced to a grand total of two weeks’ imprisonment. Surely a quarter-century of “potential” incarceration would have sufficed to give prosecutors the “this is serious stuff” headline they crave while allowing for the more representative sentence Stone will eventually receive — who knows, maybe three weeks? But true to form, Mueller instead included six of these five-year counts — so the press can report that Stone faces up to 50 years in the slammer.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/virginias-moderate-governor-11549063724

This column is trying to understand the current fad among Democratic state officeholders for enabling abortions right up until the moment of birth. Since the abortion market generally has been in historic decline and the demand for such procedures at the end of a pregnancy is extremely small, it’s as if politicos like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are determined to demonstrate a sort of ideological zealotry. Perhaps somewhere there is a misguided Republican seeking to affirm his love for the 2nd Amendment by supporting the purchase of bazookas without a background check, but it would hardly represent a strategy for winning elections.

Perhaps most striking about this new Democratic fad among state officeholders is that it is not confined to people considered on the fringe of the party. Take Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam. When he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2017, he was presented as the bland alternative to the real “progressive” in the race, former Rep. Tom Perriello.

Columnist E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post wrote that then-Lt. Gov. Northam’s “reputation is that of a temperate, well-liked public servant.”

After Dr. Northam, a pediatric neurologist, secured the Democratic nomination, former Al Gore campaign staffer Carter Eskew wrote in a Post op-ed that “Northam is cut from the same moderate Democratic cloth that Virginians have favored recently.”

Shortly before the November 2017 election, James Hohmann wrote in the Post about the concern on the left that Dr. Northam was “too low key and too moderate.”

Dr. Northam’s “moderation’ was on display this week when he was asked in a radio interview about possible legislation to lower the barriers to abortions conducted while the mother is already in labor. His response suggested that he’s open to the adults involved exercising choices even after delivery: CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.city-journal.org/ny-public-disorder-growing-under-de-blasio

Gotham is in the throes of disorder. Law-abiding New Yorkers, no matter their race, ethnicity, sex, or socioeconomic strata, find themselves harassed by growing vagrancy, petty criminality, and social decay. Nowhere is this more evident than in New York City’s public and quasi-public spaces.

I wrote this from a Starbucks on the Upper West Side, where the average price for an apartment is $1.2 million. Just to your right as you enter is an area with five small tables, each with two accompanying seats. On the afternoon I came in, vagrants—not a Starbucks cup or pastry between them—had seized three of these tables. The most assertive of the lot had four paper and plastic bags filled with various items. She was slipping in and out of consciousness. A “crust punk” was harassing some of the paying customers, and was told to leave, apparently for the second time that day.

Starbucks is a private business, of course, and is free to serve as a tacit adjunct to New York’s and other cities’ shelter systems. (And it has set itself up to do so, after facing criticism last year for evicting some non-paying customers.) But in Bill de Blasio’s New York, the air of menace and disorder is palpable, whether one is in a café, on the streets, in a park, or riding the subways. Today’s New York is dramatically different from the New York of Michael Bloomberg or of Rudolph Giuliani’s second term. Under their leadership, public safety and public order were the top priorities. When citizens claimed police officers violated their rights, civil rights attorneys litigated these constitutional claims in federal and state courts. No responsible civil libertarian, though, would advocate surrendering public order wholesale because of individual instances of police misconduct.