RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andy-puzder-trumps-china-trade-deal-brings-us-great-benefits-fulfills-his-campaign-promise

Friday’s announcement by President Trump and China that they have reached a Phase One trade deal that includes canceling the imposition of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese products is good news for the American people. It is a huge deal, fulfilling yet another Trump campaign promise and confirming his strategy of using America’s enormous economic leverage to compel our trading partners to deal with us fairly.

“The China deal covers tremendous manufacturing, farming, a lot of rules, regulations,” the president said Friday.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen confirmed the deal, saying the two sides had made “significant progress” and that the deal will create “better conditions” for U.S.-China trade.

For many years, American politicians stood by and did nothing while other countries took advantage of our generous approach to international trade. During the 2016 campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump said he would change that.

A staunch advocate of reforming America’s trade policy for decades, candidate Trump warned of the dangers of massive trade deficits at a time when politicians from both parties – unable to figure out how to negotiate improved trade relations – chose to ignore the extent of the problem.

In his campaign to become president, Trump promised he would stop our trading partners from continuing to victimize American workers and businesses with abusive and illegal practices.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/12/14/collin-peterson-says-likely-vote-against-impeachment

By Carolyn Lange / West Central Tribune / Forum News Service

Barring new information that could convince him otherwise, Rep. Collin Peterson said Saturday he will vote against impeaching President Trump when the issue comes for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Peterson, a conservative Democrat who has not yet announced whether he’ll seek a 16th term representing western Minnesota’s 7th District, said he expects four or five other Democrats will do the same.

Peterson, who represents Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, made the comments Saturday while attending the annual meeting of the First District Association, a dairy cooperative in Litchfield.

After the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve two articles of impeachment on Friday, the full House is set to vote on the articles in the coming week. Peterson said he normally doesn’t make a decision until an issue — and all the information — is on the floor for a vote but said “unless they come up with something between now and Wednesday,” he will not support the articles of impeachment.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2019/12/nyu-student-thanks-trump-standing-students-justice-daniel-greenfield/

The media lied about President Trump’s executive order against anti-Semitism. It lied about it because it wanted to gaslight American Jews into opposing a measure meant to fight campus anti-Semitism. And here, from NYU, is the reality of what that hatred looks like.

When I first started at NYU, I was excited to go to a school that championed diversity and inclusion — until that diversity and inclusion applied to everyone except my community. After years of overt protests, boycotts, and direct aggression toward Jewish students from NYU’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the university honored the organization with the President’s Service Award for “outstanding contribution to NYU life.”

What did SJP do to “earn” this prize? They organized a 53-group boycott against Realize Israel, a non-political student organization, depicting assault rifles on flyers calling for a revolt. Further, at the 2018 Rave in the Park in which NYU students celebrated Israel Independence Day, one SJP member burned an Israeli flag and another physically assaulted a Jewish student; both students were arrested.

Throughout the year, I spoke with eight administrators from multiple NYU departments — the Office of Student Affairs; Center for Student Life; Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards; and even the Office of Public Safety — about rising hostility against the Jewish community on campus. My concerns were brushed off, and after the arrests, I was asked not to draw attention to the issue.

The presidential award solidified the university’s stance: violent acts against students on the basis of their views are not only tolerated, but celebrated, and the concerns of Jewish students are not to be taken seriously.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/illegal-immigrants-in-ny-to-qualify-for-drivers-license-from-monday-after-legal-challenge-fails_3174599.html

Illegal immigrants in New York will be eligible to apply for a driver’s license next week after a federal judge on Friday dismissed a legal case seeking to block the new law.

Republican county clerk Frank Merola had sought to obtain a preliminary injunction to block the controversial ‘Green Light Law,’ which allows those in New York to apply for a driver’s licence, regardless of their immigration status.

However, in a 17-page decision, District Judge Gary Sharpe ruled that Merola didn’t have legal capacity to sue the state over the law or the personal right to litigate in federal court.

The judge also knocked down Merola’s assertion that the new legislation would oblige him to offer voter registration to undocumented immigrants.

This is the second lawsuit in the last month against the Green Light law to be dismissed. In November, District Judge Elizabeth Wolford similarly dismissed a suit brought forth by Erie County Clerk Michael (Mickey) Kearns to block implementation of the law.

Following Judge Sharpe’s ruling against Merola this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a member of the Democratic Party, hailed the judge’s decision in a statement, noting that it was the second time a judge has dismissed challenges.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/travel-qed/2019/12/dinosaurs-snow-drifts-and-mrs-simpson/

“Greetings from snowbound Utah, where our trans-America trek has been stalled by a blizzard. Like the bleak and parched Dinosaur Monument Park, it’s another reminder that climate change was at work long before SUVs and modern life so upset a certain teenage Swedish truant.”

As my time in Coronado, San Diego, came to an end, my wife and I looked out at our next-door neighbour, the magnificent Hotel del Coronado, and decided we really needed to take the upmarket tour of the place.  This hotel is the second-biggest all-wood structure in the United States.  It was built in 1888 by two entrepreneurs from back east who bought up the land on the isthmus of Coronado (which has such a long and slender neck that most people just think of it as an island).  They sold enough to start building the grand hotel they had always envisaged in the Queen Anne style, with money seemingly no object as it was being built.  Today the hotel is in the midst of a $200 million-plus facelift, about half of which has been completed.    Near on a dozen US presidents have stayed there.  You have to see this place, and if you’ve ever watched Some Like It Hot, you already have. While the movie pretends the last half takes place in Florida, the reality is that those scenes were shot at the Coronado.

The Coronado also played host to all sorts of celebrity types.  Edward VIII, pre-ascent and abdication, was a guest.  The hotel had a huge banquet in his honour.  Our tour guide reported that early in the night the Prince of Wales sneaked away to gamble in Tijuana. It rings true.  And Mrs Simpson has quite a connection with Coronado as well, having lived there for a number of years and whose extended stay is commemorated by The Windsor Cottage, named for the abdicator and his divorcee wife. Her first husband (Edward was number three) was a US admiral in charge of the US Navy’s nearby air base.  This is where naval aviation was born; it’s where Charles Lindbergh learned his craft (meaning flying, not idiotic political views) and from where he started out in the Spirit of St Louis to make his way east before becoming the first man to fly the Atlantic from New York to Paris.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/13/trapped-by-the-ghosts-of-corrupt-administrations-past/

It’s little wonder sane people have taken the Left’s messaging strategy regarding impeachment and the Justice Department inspector general’s new report as mere political inanity and mendacity. Government officials, past and present, who fear potential indictment for abuse of power for personal and partisan gain, their legal “experts” at Lawfare, their collusion media cohorts, and social media’s rabid pack of regressive mouth-breathers who do little more than parrot them are not advancing a typical political argument. They are proffering a preemptive legal defense.

For the Left, preparing briefs for a prospective court of law rather than making good faith arguments in the court of public opinion is a necessary gambit, due to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s probe into the Russia-gate lie. Think of it this way:  These Obama administration officials, both in and out of government, are out on karaoke night croaking out their mashup of Warren Zevon’s classic, “send Lawfare, guns, and money!”

Specifically, the Left is pursuing a legal strategy common in criminal trials: In order to distract from and/or prejudice the trier of fact against the evidence of the accused’s guilt, the defense endeavors to put the government on trial. (In the case of the House Democrats’ sham impeachment, it is doing this quite literally.)

It’s understandable the Left’s ulterior motive might be missed as one merely aimed at gaining votes and, though they do hope that will be a collateral benefit, that’s not all that’s going on here. Still, they are using their shopworn bag of despicable “politricks”: baseless personal attacks; veiled threats to intimidate; and, of course, accusing others of what the Left is doing.

This is routine by now, so it’s easy to miss what’s actually going on.

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/295616/the-real-danger-to-jews

“Jews make up about 2% of the American population, yet were the victims of a whopping 57.8% of all religious bias crimes last year, according to the FBI. Rather than vocally and unequivocally demanding that their Jewish constituents be protected, the politicians representing those targeted—from de Blasio to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer—have been largely silent on this issue, while at the same time loudly and vigorously accusing the right of racism.”

The past 24 hours provided a clear and painful picture of the momentous challenges American Jews face these days.

The day began with news that President Trump had issued an executive order designed, the White House said, to fight anti-Semitism. Reporting on the order, The New York Times stressed that it will “effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion,” and that it “could be used to stifle free speech and legitimate opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the name of fighting anti-Semitism.” Leftist NGOs echoed the same talking point, and a phalanx of pundits took to Twitter to decry the order as anti-Semitic because, allegedly, it somehow paved the road to defining Jews as something less than fully American. From the Hollywood actress who thundered,“You, stupid crook president do not get to decide this so your white nationalist pals get to stick me in a concentration camp,” to the law professor who blasted the order for deeming Jews to be “some nationality other than Americans,” our bien-pensants were whipping everyone into a wild frenzy, portraying the president as an unhinged anti-Semite and a clear and present danger to the Jews.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2019/12/12/californias-accounting-s

California State Controller Betty Yee admits to paying 49 million bills last year. Yet, she won’t produce a single transaction subject to our public records request for line-by-line state spending.

Out of the 50 states, California is the only one that refuses to produce its state checkbook to our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com. Even though it’s home to Silicon Valley, the state government isn’t letting tech drive transparency when it comes to its own records.

It shouldn’t take subpoenas and litigation to force open the books.

Last year, Yee paid 49 million bills for about $320 billion in payments. If you can make the payment, then you can track the payment. The state controller’s office – whose job it is to stop waste, fraud, corruption, and taxpayer abuse – may be in violation of transparency laws.

In 2013, then-California State Controller John Chang rejected our public records request for the state checkbook telling us: stop asking because the records can’t be located. Today, six-years later – Yee is still parroting the same answer.

So, how is the controller even doing her job without access to the records she helped create? We reached out to Yee for comment, and will update the piece if she responds.

She’s charged with tracking “every dollar spent by the state.” Her duties includepaying the bills and all state accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and auditing– including financial and compliance audits and attestations.

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=a9fdc67db9&u=9d011a88d8fe324cae8c084c5&i

As of today, it appears that the House of Representatives is moving toward voting Articles of Impeachment against President Trump as early as next week. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee (under the chairmanship of my very own Congressperson Jerrold Nadler) released draft Articles, in preparation for hearings occurring today, and a committee vote as early as tomorrow.

Although the version of the Articles currently in circulation may change somewhat before the voting, all indications are that what we’re now looking at is substantially what they intend to go with. Really?? It looks like most everything they were previously talking about that sounded remotely serious is gone! Bribery? Gone! Extortion? Gone! Quid pro quo? Gone! In place of these things, we now have only the amorphous phrase “abuse of power.” In a federal code containing thousands of crimes, this isn’t even one of them. Isn’t “abuse of power” something that every politician could be accused of, with justification, several times every day?

The “abuse of power” being referred to here consists entirely of dealings with the country of Ukraine occurring during the summer of 2019:

Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election. He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage. President Trump also sought to pressure the Government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official United States Government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations. President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct for corrupt purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit.