RUTHFULLY YOURS

Watch the ABC investigation | “Play” the embedded video above

Last night, we helped expose more egregious waste at Veterans Affairs.

Partnering with the COX Media Washington, D.C. News Bureau; ABC affiliate station WSB-TV Atlanta; and investigative reporter Justin Gray, we found millions of dollars in VA spending on luxury art.

It’s millions of dollars on high-end artwork spent by the VA, and that’s just a fraction of the waste…

Now, the VA administrators say they are going to institute new rules to stop the waste on expensive artwork. They promised a new policy over the next 90-days.

Watch the ABC investigation | “Play” the embedded video above

While veterans wait in line to see a doctor, the VA is busy purchasing:

A twenty-seven foot artificial Christmas tree costing: $21,000.
‘Local image’ pics for the San Francisco VA facility costing: $34,000.
Artwork for the new VA medical center in Puerto Rico costing: $500,000.
A landscape rock for the VA Palo Alto, CA center costing: $500,000.
$6.0 million in artwork purchased for new California VA centers.

At OpenTheBooks.com, we are committed to holding the VA accountable.

Last month, we debuted our OpenTheBooks Snapshot Oversight Report – The VA Scandal Two Years Later, with a column at Forbes, Read it here.

We found that the VA created 40,000 new positions, but less than one in eleven of those new positions were doctors. Today, up to 500,000 veterans still wait to see a doctor.

Search by work location our OpenTheBooks interactive map of the 354,000 VA employees with name, position, salary and bonus, click here.

The killing of cops has been the final straw. A spirit of revolt is sweeping the nation – conservatives are sick of being cowed to speak out in public about their political convictions. More and more people see the danger of the unrelenting scapegoating and slander by Democrats, who try to bully everyone, but especially every minority, into submission to their groupthink. If we want to preserve rule of law and our freedoms, each of us has to speak out.

It is for this reason that Jewschoosetrump.org has launched a website hoping to bring Jews who support Trump out of the closet.

There are a lot of conservative Jews out there, and this is a chance for them to sign their names. Once jewschoosetrump has hundreds of names, the group will publish open letters and articles and sponsor advertisements and events.

The website’s headline is “America’s Support for Israel on the Line in this Election.” It is followed by a direct comparison of quotes from Trump and Hilary. Nothing could be more powerful than the candidates’ own words.

Trump: “My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.”

Hillary: “I ultimately supported the agreement that has put a lid on its [Iran’s] nuclear program…I really believe the United States, Israel and the world are safer as a result.”

Trump: ” We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem – and we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel.”

Hillary: As Secretary of State, Clinton filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in which she argued that recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem would ” critically compromise the ability of the United States to work with the Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region to further the peace process.”

I have never been a big fan of Ted Cruz but I would have voted for him without any hesitation, were he the nominee. I liked many of his policy positions, and considered him very bright and knowledgeable. I think he might have made a very good president had he accomplished nothing more than stopping the relentless growth of the super state and changing the direction of our foreign policy to once again backing allies and opposing enemies.

But there is the downside as well. Cruz’ antics during the budget shutdown effort in 2013, managed to drive the Obamacare enrollment fiasco off the front pages and the evening news, so that his completely hopeless shutdown effort could attract attention to him for his supposed commitment to principle and willingness to fight the good fight. Support for the GOP dropped by 1/4 in the month during which Cruz played this game. Cruz knew he could not win in his effort, but he won in the way that mattered to him — making him the darling of the hard right and talk radio for his courage and allegiance to conservative principles, and setting himself up to run in 2016.

The reality is that the part of the conservative movement that was in love with Cruz is a shrinking percentage of the American electorate and will drive the party well beyond where most independents and non-conservatives are comfortable. In other words, purity is the enemy of the good and it has been winning. There is no large missing conservative base that will win national elections for the GOP. Trump attracted support from working class Democrats, many of whom have stopped voting regularly. It is why he has a long shot chance to make states like Pennsylvania competitive.

So what happened Wednesday night? Cruz again made himself the story at the expense of his party.

If Cruz was not endorsing Trump because of ugly Trump comments about his family (what he told the Texas delegation Thursday) that is perfectly understandable, and he should have avoided the convention entirely, especially since Trump never apologized. Thursday, Cruz said he decided he could violate his pledge to endorse the eventual nominee based on Trump’s’ comments about his family. Nice to know that after the fact, if it is the real reason.

If, on the other hand, Cruz were refusing to endorse Trump because Trump is not conservative enough, well he is a giant phony. Cruz danced with Trump for 6 months while Trump was caustically tearing apart Jeb and Carly and others, assuming he would scoop up the remains once Trump collapsed. Trump insulting other candidates and their families was OK for Cruz — just politics as usual, until the worm turned on him.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?412401-101/governor-mike-pence-acceptance-speech
HISTORY TEACHES US THAT WEAKNESS AROUSES EVIL. HILLARY CLINTON AND BARACK OBAMA ‘S FOREIGN POLICY OF LEADING FROM BEHIND, FEIGNING RESETS WITH RUSSIA, AND THE RISE OF ISIS, OUR TESTAMENTS TO THIS TRUTH OF HISTORY. WE CANNOT HAVE FOUR MORE YEARS APOLOGIZING TO OUR ENEMIES AND ABANDONING OUR FRIENDS. [APPLAUSE] AMERICA NEEDS TO BE STRONG FOR THE WORLD TO BE SAFE, AND ON THE WORLD STAGE, DONALD TRUMP WILL LEAD FROM STRENGTH. DONALD TRUMP WILL REBUILD OUR MILITARY AND STAND WITH OUR ALLIES. DONALD TRUMP WILL CONFRONT RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM AT ITS SOURCE AND DESTROY THE ENEMIES OF OUR FREEDOM. AND, IF THE WORLD KNOWS NOTHING ELSE, IT WILL KNOW THIS. AMERICA STANDS WITH ISRAEL. [APPLAUSE]
BRAVO! RSK

These are the last and vicious gasps of the #Never Trump losers….Shame on David French who is usually so thoughtful and brilliant…. This is also an elite slight on patriotic Americans….rsk

Our nation’s Founders understood a singular truth about human nature. No single person — or group of persons — could be fully trusted with power. As John Adams noted, “My opinion is, and always has been, that absolute power intoxicates alike despots, monarchs, aristocrats, and democrats.” Indeed, distrust of democracy helped animate the Founders’ push for a republic. James Madison, writing in Federalist No. 10, stated his concerns bluntly:

Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

In other words, there is nothing magical or inherently virtuous about the “will of the people.” The people are just as capable of error, just as capable of becoming tyrants, as any tin-pot dictator.

Thus, the Founders gave us a republic, if — as Ben Franklin is alleged to have admonished — we can keep it. Every branch of government checks the other. The people check the government. The Constitution is supreme over all, protecting our core civil liberties from the will of the majority and from the abuse of the rulers. At its heart, the entire system depends on the understanding that no person is above the law.

But no government — no matter how wisely constructed — can long survive in the absence of at least some degree of human courage and conviction. People who abuse power can be stopped only by other people who have the authority and responsibility to defend our liberties and our way of life. And, yes, sometimes that means standing in front of democracy to preserve the principles of the republic.

President Obama and his closest advisers need to invest in a new crystal ball.

When Obamacare’s health-insurance exchanges opened in 2014, the administration predicted that the marketplaces would quickly thrive — and offer consumers a wide range of affordable coverage options.

But today, three enrollment periods later, the exchanges are on the brink of collapse. Major insurers are quitting, premiums are skyrocketing, enrollment is below expectations, and the administration is taking increasingly desperate measures to paper over the problems. By this time next year, the exchanges could be out of business.

This month, the Obama administration reported that exchange enrollment had plunged by 1.6 million in the first three months of 2016, to 11.1 million. It could dip below 10 million by December if exchange shoppers quit paying their premiums — or are unable to prove citizenship — over the rest of this year at the same rate they’ve done so in the past.

Those enrollment figures are less than half of what the Congressional Budget Office had been forecasting.

And consumers aren’t the only ones bailing on Obamacare’s exchanges. Insurers are doing the same. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota recently announced that it would pull out of the state’s individual market after losing half a billion dollars. Health Care Services Corporation pulled its Blue Cross affiliate out of New Mexico’s exchange last year after the state denied it a 50 percent premium hike.

The nation’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth, has pulled out of exchanges in all but a handful of states. And 16 of the 23 non-profit, state-chartered co-ops created by Obamacare to sell affordable insurance plans have gone bankrupt.

Outside the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland Wednesday, the 60s reenactors were venting in the usual style. Donald Trump was in the building but again the dominant themes were American security and the Democratic nominee.

“This threat is real and it is here,” said Florida governor Rick Scott. “The next president must destroy this evil.” The current administration had projected weakness on the international stage and radical Islamic terrorism was ascendant. “We need a president who will wipe it off the face of the earth,” and in Scott’s view that was not Hillary Clinton.

Radio host Laura Ingraham lamented that “our allies don’t respect us anymore” and that “The Democrats’ answer is to nominate the woman who helped orchestrate America’s decline.”

For Florida Attorney General Pam Biondi, Hillary Clinton “believes our enemies deserve our respect and empathy.” By contrast, “Donald Trump believes terrorists deserve to die,” and the conventioneers responded with cheers. “Send ISIS a message that we are really coming after them,” Biondi said. “Donald Trump will.”

Ralph Alvarado, a state senator from Kentucky, whose father is from Costa Rica and mother from Argentina, charged that President Obama has “made America more divided than ever.” The administration had also failed on Benghazi, the “Fast and Furious” scandal, and the Iran nuclear deal, “and with Hillary Clinton the nightmare will be worse.”

African American pastor Darrell Scott told the convention that “the Democratic Party has failed us” and that liberals were afraid to use the word “patriot.” Abroad the United States was “no longer respected.” Scott called for a “Greater America” and defense of the Constitution.

“Climate change is not our biggest problem,” said Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, a shale oil company. “It’s Islamic terrorism.” In Hamm’s view, Donald Trump would be the first president to bring about energy independence. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, “would eliminate it.”

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said Trump was willing to name the threat for what it is, “radical Islamic terrorism,” and he called for “absolute victory for our troops.” Hillary Clinton, Walker said, is “the ultimate liberal insider. If any more on the inside, she would be in prison.”

Recalling FBI director James Comey’s recent testimony, Scott said “I wouldn’t give Hillary Clinton the password to my iPhone, let alone to classified information.” And for those security reasons, “Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president.”

CLEVELAND — Ted Cruz did the Republican Party no favors last night when he pointedly refused to endorse GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, breaking a promise he and other rival candidates made at the outset of the primary campaign last year.

Cruz also made what appeared to be some kind of overture to race baiters by mentioning aspiring cop-killer Alton Sterling who was recently shot dead by Baton Rouge police during an altercation. It seemed very odd, but maybe in retrospect it shouldn’t. After all, Cruz went along with leftists and a few other GOPers by baselessly smearing Trump as a racist after he urged the deportation of millions of illegal aliens.

Of course Cruz is not the only contender for the Republican nod to go back on his word but he is the most high-profile and he won the second-highest number of convention delegates after Trump. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who also had intense run-ins with Trump throughout the primary process, swallowed his pride and appeared in a video last night endorsing Trump.

It is true that during the primary campaign Trump launched some nasty, low-blow attacks on Cruz (and others). He retweeted an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife, Heidi, juxtaposed with a photo of Trump’s beauty queen wife, Melania, a move that was interpreted as a dig at Mrs. Cruz’s appearance. He embraced a crazy conspiracy theory that put Cruz’s father at the heart of the John F. Kennedy assassination. He saddled Cruz with the undeserved nickname “Lyin’ Ted.”

But the convention is supposed to be where these matters are settled, the aggrieved individuals and factions reconciled, and the party united to take on the other party in November. As the saying goes, politics ain’t beanbag — and America’s future is too important to jeopardize over one’s own hurt feelings.

It was a huge missed opportunity for Cruz to bring Republicans together and it is dangerous because many hardcore Cruz backers will now feel justified in withholding their support in November for the GOP’s nominee.

Cruz could not swallow his pride. The Texas senator was loudly booed off the stage at the Republican National Convention after he humiliated the GOP’s new standard bearer by urging Americans to “vote your conscience.” The boos and howling by delegates were powerful enough that they could be felt way up in the rafters of the Quicken Loans Arena.

Cruz and his wife Heidi had to be escorted out of the arena after the crowd grew angry.

Any event like the Republican National Convention requires a great deal of security. There are so many high-profile personalities, for one thing. For another, it’s just too high-profile an event to not have a lot of security.

With needs like that, it’s unsurprising that police have been brought in from out of town. Those officers are being housed at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Apparently, the special snowflakes who go to school there got a case of the vapors just thinking about the boys in blue being so near:

The students were incensed that school officials had agreed to allow police officers imported to maintain order during the convention to stay in campus housing. More than 300 [students] signed an online petition demanding that, among other things, the “riot police” store their weapons off-campus between shifts, restrict themselves exclusively to the residence halls, and abide by university rules regarding anti-discrimination and sexual harassment.
Some students even asked to be moved to alternative housing for the week, saying the increased police presence caused them to “fear for their safety” following the shooting deaths of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.

“I am scared and concerned for students of color, queer* and trans* students and all university community members at the mercy of an arbitrarily expanded police force without clear oversight or attachment to the community,” wrote one petitioner, Shannon Groll. “Please, protect CWRU as a safe space for all bodies.”

“I am deeply troubled by the presence — even temporarily — of a militarized police force on the CWRU campus,” wrote Keith Fitch. “The number one priority for an educational institution is to guarantee a safe environment for its students, faculty, and staff.”

Let me be blunt here: These students are not concerned about anyone’s safety.

Two police officers were assaulted during clashes with communist agitators outside the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. Their attempt to burn the American flag devolved into scuffles with the police and others, leading to eighteen arrests.

The officers received minor injuries, Cleveland’s police department said.

Yahoo News reported that it was “unclear what protesters were demonstrating about,” but their screeches about United States genocide, endless wars and Black Lives Matter could be heard during the melee. Their pre-printed signs read, “America was never great! We need to overthrow this system.” The protesters bill themselves as the “voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA.”

Via Yahoo News:

Tensions between police and protesters began to rise after they tried to burn an American flag. Police officers rushed in to put out the flames. Protesters were given an order to disperse, and some refused.Photos of the protest showed a man dressed in black, wearing a black cap, waving the burning flag in the air.

According to Cleveland’s police department, the man accidentally set himself, and others, on fire.