RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/12/chanukah_christmas_and_western_civilization.html

excerpt:

That Chanukah and Christmas are closely linked in the calendar is fitting for the message they each bring. The two faiths, Judaism and Christianity, taken together as the Judeo-Christian tradition, is the foundation of Western and American civilization.  Western nations are the greatest in the world because they are informed by Judeo-Christian principles.  It is in the West where human rights, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, music and the arts, science and technology have flourished and where slavery was ended. These are the nations that inhabitants from the rest of the world seek to live.  It is in Western nations where citizens are most free and enjoy the greatest prosperity.  It is not an accident. 

We must dedicate ourselves to preserving America, the West, and Western civilization, by preserving its Judeo-Christian tradition.  The light of Chanukah and Christmas must continue to burn, and illumine the night, pushing away the darkness that is always present, the norm for most of history. They should guide us and our nation and the West for all time.  It is what distinguishes us from the rest, our values, our devotion to truth, knowledge, goodness, beauty, and reason, the belief in the sanctity of the individual made in the image of God, rejecting the moral and cultural relativism of the post-modern left and the totalitarian threat of unreformed Islam.  We must rededicate ourselves in our current battle as the Maccabees did against the Greeks and as Israel did against the Arab armies that sought its destruction in 1948 and has done ever since against its many enemies.

The spirit of Chanukah and Christmas should inspire us.  Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas to all.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/transitioning-american-foreign-policy/

For better or worse, we are returning to the mentality that followed Vietnam until the first Gulf War.

Both officially and unofficially, Trump’s foreign policy has been described as “principled realism.” What does that mean?

Neither nation building nor apologetic isolationism? Hurting Iran by not sending ground troops into the Middle East, but by ratcheting up sanctions and deterrent U.S. naval and air power in the region?

More often, proponents define that term as punishing enemies and helping friends, and thereby persuading observant neutrals to make the right choices. Principled realism is charitably described as an effort to enhance U.S. power, commercially and economically, but to use it sparingly abroad for U.S. interests — and with maximum effect when force is called upon.

Critics, on the other hand, lament that America has now become isolationist, and overly “nationalistic” in diminishing the role of idealism in its foreign policy. The United States is supposedly cynically resigned to the idea that the world is forever a dark and gloomy place and the U.S. can hardly lead a crusade to bring consumer capitalism, democracy, and human rights to 7 billion people.

Yet most would agree that the U.S. is not so much withdrawing from its 75-year postwar role of leadership of the free world as much as radically redefining it.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15331/democrats-impeachment-question

Under Laurence Tribe’s scenario, the House Democrats get to “obstruct” the Senate and “abuse” their power (to borrow terms from the articles of impeachment).

I believe that the Senate need not wait for articles of impeachment to be transmitted. Senators are empowered by the constitution to begin a trial now — with or without further action by the House. Just as the House has the “sole power of impeachment,” so too the Senate has the “sole power to try all impeachments.”

Tribe and the Democratic House majority, led by Speaker Pelosi, want to have their constitutional cake and eat it too: they want Trump impeached but not acquitted. Sorry, but the Constitution does not permit that partisan, result-oriented ploy. Either Trump has been impeached and is entitled to a Senate trial; or he has not been impeached and is entitled to a clean slate.

So there are only two constitutionally viable alternatives: either Pelosi must announce that Trump has not been impeached; or the Senate must initiate a trial. Preserving the status quo indefinitely — Trump remaining impeached without having a trial — is unconstitutional and should not be tolerated by the American people.

Speaker Pelosi’s unconstitutional decision to delay transmission of the articles of impeachment to the Senate in order to gain partisan advantage raises the following question: has President Trump been impeached, or did the House vote merely represent an authorization or intention to impeach — which becomes an actual impeachment only when the articles are transmitted?

This highly technical constitutional issue is being debated by two of my former Harvard Law School colleagues — Professors Laurence Tribe and Noah Feldman — both liberal Democrats who support President Trump’s impeachment.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/23/the-2019-lump-of-coal-awards/

It’s a good thing President Trump is making big, beautiful coal great again because Jolly Old St. Nick is going to need an ample supply this Christmas Eve. (See 2016, 2017, and 2018 for comparable supply-and-demand needs.)

This year’s naughty list is overflowing with bitter Foggy Bottom bureaucrats, silly female soccer players, a globetrotting teenaged climate change propagandist, a “squad” of freshman House Democrats, an anonymous “whistleblower,” sleepy prison guards, a TV celebrity hoaxster, and a native elder.

But since Santa is a busy guy, let’s help guide his coal-packed sleigh to 2019’s most deserving recipients:

Barack Obama’s FBI: Santa should leave the North Pole and head directly to a well-appointed mansion outside of Washington, D.C. to fill a stocking emblazoned with the name, “Chief Comey.” The bad behavior of the former FBI director has done irreparable damage to the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency, all while he enriches himself with lucrative book deals, primo punditry posts, and ego-feeding six-figure speaking gigs.

In the span of just a few years, Comey framed innocent Americans—including a three-star general—lied to a secret court, lied to the president of the United States, lied to the news media, and lied to the American people. Comey kept “memos” of his private conversations with President Trump then stole those documents from his own agency. As FBI director, he concealed from congressional leaders his bogus investigation into the Trump campaign and he told President Obama about it in the summer of 2016 even though he has repeatedly insisted he did not.

Despite his treachery, Comey somehow manages to portray himself as the victim—a victim of the Bad Orange Man, congressional Republicans, Attorney General Bill Barr, and Fox News. Comey’s poisonous conduct infected his top team, including Andrew McCabe, James Baker, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page, among others. Big lumps of coal all around.

Adam Schiff: Santa doesn’t usually stop at the Schiff’s Los Angeles-area home, but this year he should make an exception. The wannabe screenwriter has savored his leading role in the political spotlight; Schiff cried on cue, overdramatized hackneyed monologues, and hogged the camera. Newsweek devoted its front page to #The Resistance star. During a recent Hollywood movie premiere, Schiff received a standing ovation from the B-list crowd. Legendary producer Norman Lear called him an “American hero.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/voters-love-the-trump-economy/

President Trump divides Americans, but the Trump economy unites them. The latest issue of the AEI Political Report, edited by my colleagues Karlyn Bowman and Eleanor O’Neil, is chockablock with positive assessments of the economic scene. More Americans (38 percent) say their personal financial situation is improving than getting worse (20 percent). A two-thirds majority says now is a good time to find a quality job, slightly down from the record 71 percent who said so last May. A similar majority says it’s “not very worried” about losing one’s job.

Seventy-one percent of registered voters say the economy is either “very” or “somewhat” strong. Seventy-three percent say it’s either “excellent” or “good.” And a 72-percent majority says the economy either will “get better” or “stay about the same” in the coming year. As Bowman and O’Neil point out, “Americans are almost always more optimistic about their personal lives than they are about the country.” Current economic conditions give Americans plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Along with President Trump.

http://swtotd.blogspot.com/

Sound investment advice (which I have too often ignored) suggests that one should pay attention to outliers – valuations that are out of the ordinary, either too high or too low, like the extraordinary low level of interest rates today. Good investors (which I am not) find them in stocks, commodities, bonds, real estate, etc., and either purchase or sell the attractive or offending instrument. It strikes me that debt, driven by unusually low interest rates (or, at least, low by post-War measurements) has risen as a percentage of GDP to risky levels. When unfunded pension and health liabilities are included, and when one considers demographics, the picture darkens.

Examples of our unusual situation abound. In the U.S., federal debt as a percent of GDP has exceeded 100% for eight years. By the end of World War II federal debt – understandably – reached 118% of GDP. Subsequently, it declined as a percentage for thirty-five years – during a time that included the Cold War, the construction of the interstate highway system, the birth of the Great Society and the landing of a man on the moon. It reached a nadir in 1981 at 31% of GDP. Since, that ratio has risen.

I would be remiss in not pointing out that Japan and Singapore have government debt as a percentage of their GDP that exceeds ours, along with far worse demographic trends, so perhaps we should not be worried. But I am. Federal debt is $22 trillion. State and local debt are $2 trillion. Unfunded pension and health liabilities are estimated at $46 trillion. (Forbes puts the number at over $200 trillion). Mandatory spending, which includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, student assistance, veterans care and supplemental nutritional assistance programs, accounted for 72% of the 2017 budget. Such “transfer payments” are immune from budget cuts. In 1962, the comparable number for transfer spending was 28%. The effect on investments, in education, highways, R&D, etc., has been substantial – from 35% of the 1965 budget to 13% today. Complaints about roads, bridges and tunnels are understandable. Given trends, conditions are likely to worsen, not get better.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-trump-is-impeached-or-is-he-11577045305?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

Suddenly, impeachment can wait. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she’ll delay transmitting the two House-approved articles to the Senate, in an obvious ploy for partisan advantage. For anti-Trump legal scholars Noah Feldman and Laurence Tribe, that has created a Schrödinger’s Cat scenario. They disagree on whether President Trump has been impeached at all.

Mr. Feldman says no: “If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president.” Mr. Tribe says an affirmative vote on an article of impeachment is sufficient to impeach—but he also claims it’s proper to leave it at that. By declining to transmit the articles of impeachment, he argued in an op-ed that Mrs. Pelosi evidently found persuasive, the Democrats would get a win-win. Mr. Trump would carry the stigma of impeachment and be denied the opportunity to erase it via acquittal.

Messrs. Feldman and Tribe are both wrong. Mr. Tribe errs in asserting that the House can deny an impeached official a trial. Mr. Feldman errs in denying that the approval of articles of impeachment is sufficient to constitute an impeachment. The Senate need not wait for the articles to be “transmitted.” The Constitution grants the House the “sole power of impeachment,” and the Senate the “sole power to try all impeachments.” Now that the House’s job is done, it is up to the Senate to schedule a trial and make the rules for it.

My view—which I suspect much of the public shares—is that Mr. Trump was impeached by a partisan vote and deserves to be acquitted by a partisan vote. The representatives who impeached him along party lines after devising partisan rules of inquiry have no principled argument against a party-line acquittal.

Mr. Dershowitz is a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of “Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/21/the-impeachment-of-donald-trump/

Did we just witness an historic event, the impeachment of only the third president in the entire history of the Republic?

Or was this a case of accusatio interrupta: impeachment interrupted by an untimely withdrawal from Nancy Pelosi?

The speaker of the House, unhappy at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s obvious contempt for the House proceedings, has suggested that she might not file the charges with the Senate.

In which case, the Senate could not hold a trial.

In which case, Donald Trump could neither be exonerated nor convicted.

In which case, he would not have been impeached by the House, but only “impeached.”

It’s amazing what semantic potency can reside in a pair of quotation marks.

Consider the difference between “fresh fish” and “‘fresh’ fish.”

It is the same with the quasi-legal, wholly political process known as impeachment. It is one thing to have been impeached. It is quite another to have been “impeached.”

From one follows a Senate trial, cross examination of witnesses, the presentation of evidence, an opportunity for the accused to defend himself.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/washingtons-seven-layer-fake-11576892157?mod=opinion_lead_pos11

Former FBI Director James Comey is sticking with his story that he was only vaguely aware of the details involving the request for historic political surveillance that he approved and certified. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rush to overturn the results of the 2016 election has come to a sudden halt.

The Journal’s Natalie Andrews reports:

The California Democrat’s next step will be pushing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) for what she considers a fair hearing on the impeachment articles. The House adjourned for the year on Thursday without sending articles to the Senate, which would automatically trigger a trial.
“We just want to see what process they’re going to use so we can determine who and how we put together our managers,” she said in an interview in her Capitol office. She added that Democratic lawmakers are clamoring to act as prosecutors in the trial.
Republicans have criticized the delay, given that Democrats have characterized impeachment as an urgent matter. “The prosecutors appear to have developed cold feet,” Mr. McConnell said.

One legal expert tells this column that since the House has not appointed impeachment managers or sent the charges to the Senate, so far the House has essentially voted merely for “censure on steroids.” But didn’t they tell us they had an urgent mission to save the Republic and the rule of law from Donald Trump ?

Constitutionally, it seems that Speaker Pelosi can choose to do nothing further. And if she ever does transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate, lawmakers in the upper chamber will also have a lot of discretion.