RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/us/politics/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism-vote.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Democratic leaders are planning to put a far-reaching resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry on the House floor for a vote on Thursday, hoping to put to rest the internal uproar that erupted after Representative Ilhan Omar insinuated that backers of Israel exhibit dual loyalty.

“I see everything as an opportunity,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday morning. “This is an opportunity once again to declare as strongly as possible opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim statements,” and “white supremacist attitudes.”

The resolution, released hours after Ms. Pelosi spoke, states that “whether from the political right, center, or left, bigotry, discrimination, oppression, racism, and imputations of dual loyalty threaten American democracy and have no place in American political discourse.” It also evokes white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville, Va., Charleston, S.C., and Pittsburgh as well as numerous attacks on Muslims and mosques.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/07/democrats_troubling_silence_on_omars_anti-semitism_139677.html

When a member of Congress makes bigoted comments, political leaders have a moral duty to condemn them. A special obligation falls on those who lead the member’s party. They should speak out in blunt, clear language and say why the comments are unacceptable. They need to “name and shame,” and demand a forthright apology. No mealy-mouth press release saying “if anyone is offended …” If the violation is egregious or repeated, the punishment should be commensurate.

House Democrats now face that test after Rep. Ilhan Omar’s repeated slurs against Jews. So far, they have failed.

Omar represents a Minnesota district heavily populated by fellow Somali immigrants. It has been characterized by illiberal politics and political representatives who defend it. Omar’s predecessor in Congress was Keith Ellison, whose close ties to Louis Farrakhan raised similar questions of anti-Semitism. He, too, escaped condemnation from his party, probably because he made few statements as raw and offensive as Omar’s, and partly because he claimed to have severed ties to Farrakhan.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/273081/senator-elizabeth-warren-accuses-jews-chilling-daniel-greenfield

Senator Elizabeth Warren has identified her base. Bigots. And she’s pandering to them.

“In a democracy, we can and should have an open, respectful debate about the Middle East that focuses on policy. Branding criticism of Israel as automatically anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on our public discourse and makes it harder to achieve a peaceful solution between Israelis and Palestinians,” Warren claimed. “Threats of violence — like those made against Rep. Omar — are never acceptable.”

Mondoweiss or the 2020 Dem field, is there even a difference anymore?

After an initial condemnation of “anti-Semitism and Islamophobia”, Senator Warren gets down to aggressively defending Rep. Omar, picking up the anti-Israel lobby’s claim that Jews falsely accuse them of anti-Semitism to chill public discourse, and somehow linking that with threats of violence against Rep. Omar.

To recap, Rep. Omar is the victim. Jews have falsely accused her of anti-Semitism and are implicitly linked to threats against her.

So far we’ve got three of the top 2020 Dem candidates competing with each other to defend Rep. Omar and accuse Jews of attacking her. I’m sure they won’t be the last.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/tlaib-to-file-impeachment-articles-against-trump/

Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) has announced that she plans to file articles of impeachment against President Trump.

“Later on this month, I will be joining folks and advocates across the country to file the impeachment resolution to start the impeachment proceedings,” Tlaib said at a press conference Wednedsay. “I think every single colleague of mine agrees there’s impeachable offenses. That’s one thing that we all agree on. We may disagree on the pace.”

The freshman Democrat, who has called Trump a “direct and serious threat to our country,” accused the president of “violations of the United States Constitution” and obstruction of justice in announcing her decision.

“We saw record turnout in an election year, where people wanted to elect a jury that would begin the impeachment proceedings to Donald Trump,” she said.

Tlaib made waves in January when she promised the day she was sworn in that the new Democratic House majority would “impeach the motherfu**er.” She defended herself in the days that followed, saying the president “needs to put a mirror up” and that he “has met his match,” but later apologized for causing a “distraction.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/04/tulsi

Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is the latest victim of the corporate media’s smear machine. Although a liberal Democrat, Gabbard is a retired U.S. Army major who served in a medical unit during the Iraq War. Despite a number of untenable domestic policy positions, her foreign policy instincts reflect a far more conservative predilection than many in her party’s elite appreciate. Gabbard’s skepticism about humanitarian military intervention and regime change have made her a pariah among the elite of both parties. Gabbard in January announced her plans to run for president in 2020. Even though she is an ideological leftist, the fact that she opposes perpetual warfare in places like Syria makes her prospects of winning her party’s nomination very low. What’s more, Gabbard’s track record on foreign policy decision-making since entering Congress in 2012 is far better than that of the permanent bipartisan fusion party. That alone makes her a threat to the democratic globalist elite.

Gabbard served in Iraq in 2005, a year after the American position there became mired in a brutal ethno-religious insurgency, and a year before the David Petraeus-led “surge” put a band-aid on the deep, festering wound that was U.S. war policy at the time. She has seen up-close what the hubris of America’s political elite costs the nation.

After all, the Iraq War was not just about removing (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction from a rogue state. Nor was the conflict only about ridding the world of Saddam Hussein, a tyrant who truly was among the world’s most brutal dictators. No, the war was a social engineering experiment applied by “competent” technocrats in the sterile halls of power and the stuffy Ivory Towers of think tanks in Washington, D.C.

https://spectator.us/jerry-nadler-get-trump/

What does desperation smell like? It smells like House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, who is reprising his ‘Impeach Trump!’ act from 2017, this time with a gavel in his hand.

No one knows when Robert Mueller will deliver his report to Attorney General William Barr, and no one knows what portions, if any, General Barr will make public. But the hissing sound you have heard over the last several weeks is the air going out of Mueller’s Get Trump probe as story after story has been crafted to manage expectations down regarding ‘Individual 1,’ aka Donald J. Trump. Mueller bagged Paul Manafort for tax related issues a decade or more ago, and folks like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn for making the mistake of testifying before Congress (Stone) or talking to the FBI (Flynn).

But no one not named Bill Kristol now thinks that Mueller’s expensive, long-running entertainment will issue in any actionable charges against the President. Hence the ‘insurance policy’ being framed by Congressman Nadler. The headline of a column in Politico yesterday cut to the chase: ‘House Democrats open sweeping corruption probe into Trump’s world.’ They’ve sent letters to 81 people associated with Donald Trump demanding ‘documents.’ Which documents? All the ones that show the President in a bad light or that might be used to frame him for misconduct or ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’Like what? Well, they aren’t quite sure, but it is not stopping them from ‘demanding documents from the White House and Trump’s namesake company, charity, transition team, inauguration and 2016 campaign, as well as several longtime associates and the president’s two adult sons.’ Hoover it all up, boys! There has to be something, somewhere in Trump’s past we can nail him for.

http://q4j-middle-east.com

Former Vice President Joseph Biden is considering a run for the presidency against President Trump in 2020.

On the face of it, when compared to the new crop of hijab-wearing overt anti-Semites, Socialists, and other Democrats making the news, many observers will likely suggest that he is too passe and yesterday’s news…and is also known for a bit too many faux pas involving his mouth.   Yet, as a Florida NPA registered Independent with no particular allegiance to any major political party, I can perhaps more objectively than some others appreciate his better attributes as well. Take our much used and abused friends and allies, for example, the Kurds, who have done most of the fighting and dying for us against assorted jihadis in the Middle East. Unlike most others in the region, these folks actually tend to like America. 

As someone who has done substantial work for almost five decades now involving these 38-40 million truly stateless people, I can say that Biden stands out as a source of relative reason and knowledge among his colleagues on this subject. He’s to be commended for at least his professed continuous concern for these people who, too often, have been betrayed by Washington (and others) big time over and over again.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/chuck-schumers-2020-problem/

Chuck Schumer has a problem: The 2020 presidential election. Not only is 13 percent of his caucus on the campaign trail — so many Democrats are running for commander in chief that Schumer’s dreams of becoming Senate majority leader are in jeopardy.

Look at Colorado. Its Republican senator, Cory Gardner, is endangered thanks to the Rocky Mountain State’s increasingly blue hue. Schumer was hoping that former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper would challenge Gardner. But Hickenlooper announced today that he’s running for president. Not only does the governor’s move deprive Schumer of a top recruit, it also boxes out Colorado’s Democratic senator Michael Bennett, who was contemplating a presidential campaign of his own. Is the 2020 Democratic field large enough to hold two Colorado progressives? It already has a socialist and a Spartacus, so why not?

Then there’s Montana, where Republican senator Steve Daines is up in 2020. Schumer wants another governor, Steve Bullock, to run for Daines’s seat. But Bullock, like Hickenlooper, is also eyeing the presidency. Bullock could tout his record as a Democrat able to win in a state that turns dark red in presidential years. That’s a story the other candidates won’t be able to tell. If he enters the race, another top Senate challenger will be lost.