RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/moderate-michael-bloomberg-is-an-authoritarian-nightmare/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=second

Throughout his career, he has repeatedly shown blatant disrespect for individual rights and civil liberties.

While discussing the Texas church shooting last week, Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg said that we “just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

“It may be true — I wasn’t there; I don’t know the facts — that somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people, but it’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot,” Bloomberg said in Montgomery, Ala., on December 30, as reported by Conservative Review. “You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

Bloomberg is, of course, correct. Although the shooting at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement tragically took two lives, it could have been much worse had an armed, trained volunteer security guard not been there to shoot the gunman dead before he could do even greater damage.

This incident was about as clear an example as you could get for how maintaining our Second Amendment rights can save lives — and, therefore, it might seem like a pretty odd thing to reference when you’re arguing against gun rights. The Second Amendment, after all, worked in this case; people are alive because of it, and Bloomberg is going to say that he wished the situation had been different?

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-1-12-what-a-moderate-democratic-

A new (January 10) Des Moines Register poll shows Bernie Sanders starting to pull away from the field at 20%, with Elizabeth Warren second (17%), and Pete Buttagieg suddenly down 9 points to 16%. Is the Democratic nomination battle really going to come down to just crazy versus crazier?

But, you say, there’s Joe Biden. He’s stuck at 15% in the Register poll, although perhaps will do better in subsequent states like South Carolina. But is he really a moderate? Among other things, Biden has endorsed the total socialist restructuring of the U.S. economy known as the Green New Deal; the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of blue collar jobs for the green dream; and the jailing of fossil fuel executives. Not a lot of moderation there.

So today, let’s take a look at Mike Bloomberg. He’s not running in Iowa, but is putting big money into the race in California that follows a few weeks later. He was a fairly decent Mayor of New York for twelve years, despite some totalitarian urges like cracking down on sodas and salt. But then, in the Mayor job he didn’t have access to the seemingly infinite pile of federal loot that somehow causes politicians to let loose with their most destructive instincts. What is he proposing now?

Here’s my favorite of Mike’s crop of proposals: A War on Poverty! I’m not making this up. Bloomberg gave his first California speech in Stockton on December 11. The AP’s account of his talk contained this nugget:

“As president, my job will be to move all Americans ahead, and that includes committing our country to new and innovative ways to combat poverty. There has to be a war on poverty,” the New York billionaire said while campaigning in Stockton.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/13/in-wake-of-iran-strike-cong
In Wake Of Iran Strike, Congress Needs To Debate Overseas Deployments By Chip Roy

Rep. Chip Roy is running for reelection. To help and learn about him go to:https://chiproy.com/

Missed amid the partisan fervor following the death of terrorist leader Qassem Suleimani was the unique opportunity it presented Congress to come to a national consensus about the U.S. presence in the Middle East. After 18 years at war without so much as a debate in Congress about the extent to which our men and women in uniform are deployed overseas, President Trump’s decision to take out the Iranian general last week catalyzed a national conversation between Republicans and Democrats.

Setting aside opinions about whether the president was correct in his decision to take out Suleimani, I and colleagues on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about our mission, strategic objectives, and presence in the dozen countries we now operate in under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF).

As you may recall, the 2001 AUMF was passed in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The men and women who have deployed under the AUMF have bled around the globe to protect liberty and the national security of the United States and our allies. They’ve accomplished a great deal, too.

GOP Congressman: House Dems’ War Powers Resolution ‘Unserious’ and ‘Purely Political Document’ By Nicholas Ballasy

https://pjmedia.com/trending/gop-congressman-house-dems-war-powers-resolution-unserious-and-purely-political-document/

TO HELP THIS OUTSTANDING CONGRESSMAN VISIT:

http://www.mikeforwisconsin.com/

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the War Powers Resolution that passed the House is an “unserious” and “purely political document.”

Gallagher was asked why he thinks the Trump administration would need authorization from Congress for the airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani given that the Obama administration didn’t receive authorization for the war in Libya in 2011.

“It obviously wouldn’t be required because this was fundamentally a defensive action. The president has inherent authority under Article II to do what’s necessary to defend our troops against imminent threats. Furthermore, our troops are in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government and pursuant to congressional authorization that Congress has never taken time to repeal,” Gallagher said during an exclusive interview.

“So I think it gets to a basic question of whether you want us to be in Iraq and believe in the mission and I view this War Powers Resolution, if you read the document, as an unserious document; as a purely political document; as an attempt to criticize the president without asking the harder questions about what we need to be doing in the region to push back Iran,” he added.

Gallagher, who served in the Marines, shared his reaction to the Iraqi parliament voting to expel U.S. troops from the country following the airstrike.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/01/obama-vs-bernie-daniel-greenfield/

In November, Barack Obama paid a call on George Soros. After maintaining a low profile since leaving office, the former chosen one showed up at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Washington D.C. where the Democracy Alliance was having its annual conclave to decide how to destroy the United States.

After a long Friday afternoon of hearing from assorted minions, members of the Democracy Alliance, who had contributed at least $200,000 to be part of Soros’ real-life SPECTRE alliance, minus the white cat, trooped into the Grand Ballroom for a “fireside chat” before a private dinner with Valerie Jarrett.

And Obama had a simple message for the mandarins in the Mandarin Oriental who had spent fortunes to elect lefties and transform the country. “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it,” he told his radical audience. And warned that the Democrat agenda should not be driven by “certain left-leaning Twitter feeds or the activist wing of our party.”

Soros and the Democracy Alliance’s activist wing elected Obama to implement a radical agenda. Now he was warning his old backers that they were in danger of backing agendas that were just too radical.

The outreach was striking because Obama had tried to keep his distance from George Soros. In an interview, Soros had complained about being frozen out by Obama. “He made one phone call thanking me for my support, which was meant to last for five minutes,” the leftist billionaire whined.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/democrats-no-longer-dismiss-bernie-sanderss-odds/

If he won Iowa, the party might unite behind an Anybody But Bernie candidate.

In 2016, insurgent candidates roiled the nomination process of both major parties. Donald Trump, running as a populist, won 44 percent of the primary vote against a divided field and won the GOP nomination. Bernie Sanders, running as an unabashed socialist, also won 44 percent in the Democratic race against Hillary Clinton, despite her success in using the Democratic National Committee to kneecap Sanders. But because Sanders faced only one opponent, he lost.

This year, Sanders is back, and the old saw that one way to win your party’s nomination is to have run for it before may apply. (See Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Hillary Clinton).

In 2019, Sanders raised an eye-popping $100 million. The grassroots he cultivated in Iowa and New Hampshire four years ago have vaulted him into first place in both states in the RealClearPolitics average of all polls.

Sanders also has the backing of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and is the only candidate offering a full-throated defense of Medicare for All, now that Elizabeth Warren has admitted she wouldn’t push for it during the first two years of her presidency. For a 78-year-old who suffered a heart attack last fall and has always insisted on serving in Congress as an independent, he displays an astounding resilience that rivals that of Trump.

Sanders supporters insist that the only way to beat someone like Trump is with someone who shares with him his authenticity, his disdain for protocol, and, like him, offers a radical break from past policies. Only that will energize a disillusioned, nonvoting army of left-wingers that mirrors the blue-collar voters in the Midwest who turned out for Trump and delivered him the presidency.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/bernie_sanders_soars_over_iowa__and_democrats_cringe_below.html

Democrats are shuddering at a new poll showing that Bernie Sanders is soaring over Iowa.

According to the Des Moines Register:

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads the Democratic field three weeks ahead of Caucus Day in Iowa — narrowly overtaking his closest competitors, who remain locked in a tight contest just behind him.

A new Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows 20% of likely Democratic caucusgoers name Sanders as their first choice for president.

After a surge of enthusiasm that pushed Pete Buttigieg to the top of the field in November, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has faded, falling 9 percentage points to land behind both Sanders and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Warren is at 17%; Buttigieg, 16%; and former Vice President Joe Biden, 15%.

 After all that hard slogging over the last 12 months, from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro and the rest of the Democrat clown car to win the state, it looks like Bernie of all people, is going to walk away with it.

Which is bad news for Democrats.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/01/leading_democrat_presidential_contenders_struggle_with_being_white_and_boring.html

With another Democrat debate coming next week, it’s impossible for a conservative not to enjoy watching Democrats agonize over their candidates’ whiteness, ignore their affluence, and pretend that there’s a groundswell of support for any of them. The excitement surrounding Trump is completely absent.

At the Washington Post, Annie Linskey, shares Democrat worries that their primary debate next week will have only white faces on the stage:

Only white candidates have qualified for next week’s Democratic presidential debate, the first time in this election cycle that no minority contender will make the stage. It’s a dynamic that critics say threatens to undercut the party’s rhetoric of inclusivity.

The race for the 2020 Democratic nomination kicked off last year with a historically diverse pool of candidates, including two black senators, a black mayor, a Hispanic former Cabinet secretary and an Asian businessman. Since then, all have either dropped out or failed to qualify for a spot on the stage, determined by poll numbers and donations.

Now the specter of an all-white debate in the mostly white state of Iowa is prompting concern among party activists.

 Live by identity politics, die by identity politics. The irony, of course, is that the politically incorrect people who refuse to give their votes to minority candidates are Democrats.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-deterrence-policy-stop-trump-11578528412?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

Aside from the stunning photograph of Qasem Soleimani’s mangled car outside Baghdad airport, the most astonishing sight after the attack was the universal ambivalence, at best, from Democrats.

Not long ago—before Donald Trump—any president’s use of force against an overseas enemy would get at least 24 hours of partisan restraint. No more. The Democrats’ jack-in-the-box talking point was that Mr. Trump had brought us to “the brink of war.

Startled by this reaction, former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman wrote in these pages: “It may be that today’s Democratic Party simply doesn’t believe in the use of force against America’s enemies in the world. I don’t believe that is true, but episodes like this one may lead many Americans to wonder.”

If the party’s presidential front-runner is any barometer, the use of credible force is off the table. In a foreign-policy speech Tuesday, Joe Biden said, “The only way out of this crisis is through diplomacy—clear-eyed, hard-nosed diplomacy grounded in strategy.”

There you have it: In the mind of Joe Biden—former vice president, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his party’s most notable “moderate”—the only two policy paths available are “war with Iran” (his words) and diplomacy. When did national strategy get so simple, or simplistic?

A byproduct of Mr. Trump’s maddening persona is that it causes his opponents to lose their ability to think straight—about anything. Mr. Trump has been president for more than 1,000 days, but you would think from the commentary and coverage that every moment has been an exercise in moronic idiocy, without exception—including killing the head of Iran’s Quds Force.