RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2018/11/23/the-reboot

Hillary Clinton’s latest software update is a slight improvement on the previous version. Gone is the simpering sachet of Frank’s Red Hot. Remarkably, engineers have patched the many bugs plaguing the two-time presidential malfunction.

In an interview with The Guardian this week, Hillary sacrificed a sacred cow of the modern progressive Left, imploring beleaguered European leaders firmly to grip an issue verboten among the fashionable and open-minded.

“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” she said, before nodding toward Angela Merkel’s disastrous decision to open German borders to 1.5 million Syrian migrants.

“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message—‘we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’—because if we don’t deal with the migration issue it will continue to roil the body politic.”

Her remarks are likely to rock a boat already lapped at by the forces of immigration woe. Europe is riven with political conflict. Most of the tumult, hitherto whispered among the Left, stems from voters’ anger toward lawless and seemingly naïve immigration policies.

After all, Merkel’s immigration whimsy killed her. And it serves as a case study for populist parties vying for the votes of concerned Europeans anxious at being branded “racist” for possessing opinions held by a majority of their peers.

Immigration: The Kingmaker
The interview, part of a series of cursory glances The Guardian is taking toward the hoi polloi, reveals Hillary’s understanding of why Donald Trump is president. Finally.

It is not misogyny. Not self-hating women. Not the electoral college. Not James Comey. Not Bernie Sanders. Not low-information voters. Not Russia. Not the DNC. Not Jill Stein.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/11/20/obama_on_change_we_are_still_confused_blind_shrouded_with_hate_anger_racism_mommy_issues.html

Former President Barack Obama blamed “racism” and “mommy issues,” among other factors, limiting the ability for the U.S. to make “progress” on any important issue under President Donald Trump.

Obama, speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit on Monday night, said the answers already exist to solve many of the problems facing both the U.S. and the world, but that the nation was not making progress “because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism, mommy issues.”

“People call me Spock for a reason,” Obama quipped. “I believe in reason and logic and all these enlightenment values.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271949/identity-politics-shape-dem-fight-house-leadership-daniel-greenfield

Democrats who question Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s leadership are sexist. And Democrats who question Rep. Jim Clyburn’s qualifications for the No. 3 spot in the Democrat leadership are racist.

Even before the midterms, Pelosi was accusing critics of sexism.

“I think some of is it a little bit on the sexist side,” Pelosi had complained about those who suggested that she might want to step back from her leadership position.

“Nobody ever went up to Harry Reid and said that. Nobody ever says that to anybody except a woman.”

Unless they’re saying it to a black man.

Rep. Jim Clyburn made his case for the No. 3 Dem position by accusing fellow Democrats of racism.

“But someone came to me over the weekend and told me that, when I was whip before, I was a figurehead,” he whined, and suggested that they were “the little dog whistles that have been floating around this side for a long time.”

“Pelosi is swiftly moving to ensure that the diversity of voices that make up the majority are empowered on Capitol Hill,” Valerie Jarett gushed in a CNN op-ed.” It is imperative that women not only have a seat at a table but also lead the table.”

Unless it’s more imperative that black people lead the table.

Pick one and you’re sexist. Pick the other and you’re racist.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/11/ocasiocortez_castigate_drooling_republicans_who_chop_up_her_word_slips.html

Ignorance and arrogance are a bad combination, even for a Democrat. Not even yet sworn-into office (“inaugurated,” as she inappropriately put it) as a member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is upset that she gets criticized over her mangling of the proper terminology for discussing the federal government. Over the weekend, she spoke of the “three chambers of Congress” – and quickly (and inaccurately) corrected herself to say “three chambers of government,” not understanding that the executive and judiciary are not “chambers” but branches.

Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress — Uh, rather, all three chambers of government: the presidency, the Senate, and the House.”

The 3 branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial. pic.twitter.com/8rPSpzottE
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 19, 2018

As she tweeted (and subsequently corrected a typo – note: I am in no position to criticize others’ typos):

Maybe instead of Republicans drooling over every minute of footage of me in slow-mo, waiting to chop up word slips that I correct in real-tomd, they actually step up enough to make the argument they want to make:

that they don’t believe people deserve a right to healthcare. https://t.co/fMOijEa7tF
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 19, 2018

It looks to me like she ran for Congress never expecting to win, and has never really prepared herself for office by studying the sort of civic lessons they taught in the ninth grade more than half a century ago when I was a junior high school student.

She also does not seem to grasp the difference between grabbing a bullhorn and sitting in at the House Minority Leader’s office and issuing a political demand on that leader without demonstrators and bullhorns. What is “respectful” about blocking access to a workplace and shouting through a bullhorn? That no injuries resulted?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/11/17/bloomberg_eyes_2020_but_would_dems_warm_to_him_138681.html

The new hero of the Democratic Party is Mike Bloomberg. The former three-term New York City mayor, through his Independence USA PAC, put $110 million into 24 suburban House district races with the goal of flipping the chamber’s majority to the Democrats. The investment apparently paid off: 21 out of the 24 candidates he supported won, in most cases by defeating incumbent Republicans, who were outspent by at least 2-to-1.

One of the most effective parts of his strategy was a $45 million “surprise attack” in television ads over the last two weeks of the midterms in expensive media markets such as Atlanta and Miami. He also spent $5 million the weekend before Election Day airing a two-minute ad of himself talking directly into the camera about the importance of voting for Democrats to send Donald Trump a message.

Those efforts were appreciated. Nancy Pelosi, the once and likely next House speaker, made a special visit to New York City to personally thank him and other donors for their efforts in helping Democrats retake the majority.

What’s Mike Bloomberg’s end game here? His high-profile role has raised speculation that he’s contemplating a 2020 presidential run. At 76, he’s announced he’ll make a decision about 2020 sometime in January or February. It’s no secret that he wanted to run in 2016, but took a pass after realizing it would be impossible to win as an independent.

With his eye still on the Oval Office, he’s switched parties — for the third time in 18 years. Bloomberg’s now gone from being a Democrat to a Republican to an Independent and back to a Democrat. This lack of allegiance to any party will most likely not play well with Democratic base voters, who want to know that candidates are true believers. “Democrats will see him as using their party as his own means to an end, as he did with the Republican Party. It’s all about him,” said Joe Borelli, a Republican City Council member from Staten Island.

https://pjmedia.com/video/rep-elect-dan-crenshaw-r-tx-dismantles-dem-reps-who-claimed-trump-is-literally-attacking-freedoms/
Crenshaw exposed the bankruptcy of wild and never-ending claims that President Trump is a threat to democracy, enemy of the press, fascist dictator, yadda yadda yadda. Incoming members of Congress Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Deb Haaland (D-NM) appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with moderator Margaret Brennan on Sunday. When the roundtable discussion veered into a gripe session about how dastardly President Trump was “undermining our democracy,” particularly the freedom of the press, Crenshaw — outnumbered four to one — nimbly embarrassed the liberal panelists.

https://pjmedia.com/video/rep-elect-dan-crenshaw-r-tx-dismantles-dem-reps-who-claimed-trump-is-literally-attacking-freedoms/

Incoming members of Congress Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Joe Neguse (D-CO), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Deb Haaland (D-NM) appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with moderator Margaret Brennan on Sunday. When the roundtable discussion veered into a gripe session about how dastardly President Trump was “undermining our democracy,” particularly the freedom of the press, Crenshaw — outnumbered four to one — nimbly embarrassed the liberal panelists.

At the beginning of the clip, Neguse, speaking the language of “the Resistance,” declared: “I think some of our freedoms and the principles that we live by have been under attack for the better part of the last two years.”

Asked to respond to Neguse, Crenshaw wanted specifics. “I always ask the question — ‘like what?’ What is he undermining exactly? What democratic freedoms have been undermined? We just had an election where we switched power in the House. Democracy is at work. People are voting in record numbers.”

Crenshaw suggested they cite examples that could be examined “one by one,” rather than make “broad brush” accusations that the president is somehow undermining our democracy.

The liberal members of the panel began talking at once, all of them indicating that the president was undermining the free press, among other things.

Crenshaw was ready for that discussion. “Obama indicted — had many press members under investigation,” he pointed out. “Trump has not. So what is the difference here?”

Neguse replied: “Just last week, one of the largest media publications in the United States had to go to a federal court in order to essentially regain access to the press room.”

Crenshaw corrected the Democrat. “That was one reporter — not the whole organization.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/11/the_totalitarian_democracy_of_stacey_abrams.html

“Democracy has failed in Georgia,” said Stacey Abrams in what hardly could be called a concession speech after a ballot recount confirmed that the Republican candidate, Brian Kemp, had defeated her in Georgia’s gubernatorial contest.

Of course, democracy did not fail in Georgia. The voters made their voices heard at the ballot box, and Ms. Abrams did not like what she heard.

The late Israeli historian J. L. Talmon called such behavior “totalitarian democracy” or “messianic democracy,” which found its origins in the French Revolution when the extremists arrogated to themselves the unfettered right to interpret the will of the people. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about this when he observed that those who made the French Revolution always spoke in the name of the people, without in the least having bothered to consult them.

Talmon’s theme was that in totalitarian democracy there exists a general will, an abstraction that is known to elites who divine what the people really want and assume the right to speak in the name of the people. In totalitarian democracy, the elite are not the people’s representatives but their messiahs.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/floridas-close-election-call-1542579560

The Democratic candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate in Florida finally conceded on the weekend, 11 days or so after the final votes were cast. A machine recount in both races, and then a hand recount in the Senate race, made clear that Andrew Gillum and Senator Bill Nelson lacked a path to victory against Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott.

This spares the country from what would have been a polarizing fight had either Democrat made up tens of thousands of votes to prevail after Election Day. But that possibility was closer than it should have been as Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias tried to have tens of thousands of ballots counted in violation of normal election rules.

Mr. Elias used the counting follies in Democratic Broward and Palm Beach counties to demand that the legal deadlines be extended for vote counting and for mail-in ballots. Broward elections had to be ordered by courts to disclose how many votes they had left to count and what kind of votes they were. Mail-in ballots are valid if they arrive within 10 days of the election as a concession to voters serving in the U.S. military, but Mr. Elias was hoping to extend the election indefinitely as Democrats hunted for more votes somewhere, anywhere.

Federal Judge Mark Walker was right to enforce regular vote-counting order. In the end Mr. DeSantis won by a little more than 33,000 votes and Mr. Scott led by 10,033 after the manual recount on Sunday.

One lesson is that Florida needs to tighten up on its absentee and provisional ballot rules. Democrats like to say “count every vote,” which they use to suggest that black voters are being disenfranchised. But turnout this year was a record for a midterm election.

The far greater opportunity for cheating, and thus a greater threat to democratic legitimacy, is if politicians can change the election rules after votes have been cast.