RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/05/10/congress-central-
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to use the police power of the federal government to ban a legitimate business activity because the socialist senator from Vermont finds “it is really disgusting.” To the callow representative from New York, it’s “economic brutality.”

This is the deep thinking that goes into the Democrats’ legislating process. Outlaw something because some subjectively find it repulsive. Or something seems scary. Or appears to be unfair. Or because someone decides for the rest of us “this isn’t who we are.” It’s the sort of lawmaking that should frighten us all.

The menacing scourge that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez want to save the country from? Credit card interest rates that exceed 15 percent.

“Every major religion on Earth,” says Sanders, “has condemned usury.”

Usury is defined by Investopedia as “the act of lending money at an interest rate that is considered unreasonably high or that is higher than the rate permitted by law.” Merriam-Webster says it is “the lending of money at exorbitant interest rates” or “an unconscionable or exorbitant rate or amount of interest.”

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2019/05/islam-and-tweedledems.html

I present a guest column by a fierce and eloquent campaigner against Islam and its creeping conquest of America, Amil Imani. This is appropriate on the occasion of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi allowing the opening prayer in the House of Representatives to be read by an anti-Semetic Muslim, Imam Omar Suleiman. . This is a “soft” victory of Islam’s goal of Islamizing America. CAIR must be doing victory laps to celebrate this coup. See this startling news item.  Edward Cline

“Marxist Democrats is commonly described as a marriage of convenience, where Muslims will ally with leftist politicians, who will joyfully yield some of their authority to this group of enforcers so principled conservative politicians and Christians who advocate sane social policies are kept out of office. To acquire power has always been the goal of the Democrat party.While America is in hibernation, Muslim organizations with the help of Democrats have been busy, working “stealthily” to change America into what is called “soft jihad.”  

Soft jihad is practiced where Muslims are not strong enough to unsheathe the sword of jihad, where the true nature of Islam is exposed and when the public would likely stamp them out.  A critical tool of soft jihad involves penetration of the American educational system, such as Da’wa, the religious duty of each Muslim to convert non-Muslims and strengthen the Islamic Ummah.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/09/progressives_face_a_bleak_post-mueller_landscape_140279.html

Democrats have grown infuriated by Attorney General William Barr’s indifference to their hysteria over the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

Barr recently released a brief summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusions that Donald Trump did not collude with the Russians to warp the 2016 election. Barr added that Mueller had not found enough evidence to recommend that Trump be indicted for obstruction of justice for the non-crime of collusion.

Progressives, who for 22 months had insisted that Trump was a Russian asset, were stunned. But only for a few hours.

Almost immediately, they redirected their fury toward Barr’s summation of the Mueller report. Yet few rational people contested Barr’s synopses about collusion and obstruction.

Both the Mueller report and Barr’s summation can be found on the internet. Anyone can read them to see whether Barr misrepresented Mueller’s conclusions.

Again, there have been few criticisms that Barr was wrong on his interpretation that there was no collusion and not enough evidence to indict on obstruction of justice.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/08/democrats-collapse-could-happen-quickly/

There are signs of Democrats’ coming electoral collapse, some anecdotal, some by the numbers. Most Democrats are staying loyal to their party, no matter how far how left their party shifts. But President Trump doesn’t need most Democrats; he only needs a few to get turned off by the Democrats’ radical proposals and identity politics.

Immediately after the 2018 midterms, it looked as if the strategy of dirtying President Trump in the eyes of low-information voters was working well for them. The collapse of the Russian collusion hoax has changed the equation.

Congress continues to dominate the media with ginned-up hysteria, but many voters are ready to move on to more substantial issues that affect their lives. Real life is a weaker arena for Democrats. They seem to be avoiding it as much as possible, focusing instead on claims that Republicans are white supremacists.

The Democrats’ 2020 presidential candidates are competing with their own congressmen for air time and the never-ending Russian collusion hoax. Each one is pursuing their slice of the limited identity politics pie. All of them, including former Vice President Joe Biden, are committed to the social justice agenda. This is a losing strategy because identity politics divides its own constituents as much as it divides the country.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/08/democrats_plan_to_destroy_the_jobs_boom_140272.html
If you’re looking for work, this is the best job market in 50 years. The economy is soaring.

But Democrats running for president are pitching plans that will destroy millions of jobs, doubling the number of people out of work.

Consider “Medicare for All.” It could wipe out a staggering 2.5 million health insurance and health care jobs nationwide, causing the number of unemployed people in this country to jump by almost half.

New research by Stanford University doctors in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that Medicare for All will cause hospitals to lose a whopping $151 billion in payments the first year. Hospitals will be forced to eliminate as many as 1.5 million jobs overnight.

Meanwhile, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who’s sponsoring Medicare for All legislation in the House, admits it will cause 1 million insurance employees to get canned. She cavalierly suggests they can retire or get job retraining. Tell heartless Jayapal to do that herself.

Presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders brags Medicare for All will prevent Americans from having to choose between food on the table and medicine. Sorry, Bernie, but if your job is eliminated, putting food on your table will be impossible.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/08/dems_dark_money_disconnect_groups_mum_on_disclosure__140274.html

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has spent years railing against so-called “dark money” conservative groups for what he regards as their outsized, improper political influence, now grudgingly concedes that it’s a problem on both sides.

The Rhode Island Democrat has had little choice as recent reports from groups calling for less money in politics, such as the Washington-based Issue One, have found that left-wing nonprofits far outspent conservative ones in the 2018 midterms and are gearing up to expand their activity this cycle.

Conservatives have adamantly – and consistently – said their side’s spending is lawful and protected free speech that shouldn’t require disclosure of wealthy donors by the nonprofits engaged in it. But the left is far more divided on the transparency question as it gears up to try to deny President Trump a second term.

Not surprisingly, most of these liberal groups aren’t part of Whitehouse’s outspoken quest for immediate disclosure. Nor do they want to discuss some of their more questionable practices that are attracting new scrutiny.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has spent years railing against so-called “dark money” conservative groups for what he regards as their outsized, improper political influence, now grudgingly concedes that it’s a problem on both sides.

The Rhode Island Democrat has had little choice as recent reports from groups calling for less money in politics, such as the Washington-based Issue One, have found that left-wing nonprofits far outspent conservative ones in the 2018 midterms and are gearing up to expand their activity this cycle.

Conservatives have adamantly – and consistently – said their side’s spending is lawful and protected free speech that shouldn’t require disclosure of wealthy donors by the nonprofits engaged in it. But the left is far more divided on the transparency question as it gears up to try to deny President Trump a second term.

Not surprisingly, most of these liberal groups aren’t part of Whitehouse’s outspoken quest for immediate disclosure. Nor do they want to discuss some of their more questionable practices that are attracting new scrutiny.

That reticence hasn’t stopped Whitehouse from continuing to lambaste “shadowy” conservative groups in speech after speech while pressing his Senate colleagues to pass a bill that would require super PACs and certain nonprofits to disclose their donors.“There is a rot in our American democracy, and there is a shadow over the halls of Congress,” the three-term senator said in a speech on the chamber floor late last year. “The rot is dark money, and the shadow is special-interest influence empowered by that dark money.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/273707/senator-dick-durbin-compared-us-soldiers-nazis-daniel-greenfield

Senator Dick Durbin is always finding new lows. Here’s a low that the Democrat political lifer found back in 2005 when he compared American soldiers to Nazis.

Durbin claimed that Americans who interrogated Al Qaeda terrorists in Gitmo had committed atrocities similar to those that “have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others.”

When Karl Rove noted that, “Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger”, Dems began shrieking that Durbin was being accused of treason.

Now here’s Dick Durbin accusing the GOP of treason.

Sen. Dick Durbin suggested Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t putting election security legislation up for a vote because Republicans benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“There are two possibilities,” Durbin said. “He really doesn’t believe it, he doesn’t think the Russians were involved in 2016. He ignores the Mueller report and our intelligence agencies or in the alternative feels the Russians were on the side of the Republicans in 2016 and just might be again in 2020.”

This is a despicable accusation based on a discredited conspiracy theory. It’s an accusation of treason by a man arguably guilty of it.

And Durbin will never be fact-checked on this or held accountable for this false accusation and false claim.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pseudo-impeachment-11557271242

House Democrats are escalating their campaign against the Trump Administration with complaints that its resistance to Congressional requests for documents is a threat to democracy. It’s more accurate to say that Democrats are performing what amounts to a pseudo-impeachment so they don’t have to undertake a real one.

Democrats are agonizing over impeachment because while they’re itching to do it, special counsel Robert Mueller’s report blew up their Russian collusion hopes. He also took no position on obstruction of justice while reporting a highly critical “analysis” of President Trump’s actions. Democrats now find themselves caught between a left-wing base that says they’ll abdicate their duty if they don’t impeach and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cold-blooded calculation that it could cost their majority in 2020.
***

What to do? Democrats have decided to act out a pseudo-impeachment that claims Mr. Trump and his Administration are committing offenses against the Constitution without daring to open a formal impeachment inquiry. The split-level goal is to appease the left while sparing the swing-district Democrats who delivered the 2018 majority from ever having to vote on articles of impeachment.

ttps://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/07/why_biden_leads_the_democratic_field_140259.html

Why does Joe Biden, with all his obvious weaknesses, currently lead the Democratic presidential field?

A big part of the answer is that his party knows him, likes him, and respects his years of fighting for their side. They also know his manifold shortcomings. He is not the brightest bulb on the chandelier. He is prone to gaffes—often big ones—and makes inexplicable policy errors, like his statement last week that China is hardly a U.S. adversary. His years of Washington experience leave him with a vulnerable record of votes and statements, many of them out-of-step with today’s electorate, especially Democratic activists. He is a consummate Washington insider in an era when everybody wants an outsider. Even worse, some of his insider connections apparently benefited his family, especially his son Hunter, who flew with the vice president on official trips and then forged profitable business ties in those countries.

With all those negatives, why is Joe Biden leading the 2020 Democratic field?

One reason cannot be stressed enough: He loves campaigning—old-fashioned, “retail” stops where pols slap backs, kiss babies, shake hands, and toss red meat to the crowd. (Smelling hair is less welcome.) Americans are attracted to candidates who project upbeat, positive images, candidates who enjoy being with them and asking for their support. What they don’t like are finger-wagging school principals who tell them to eat their broccoli. That’s why Elizabeth Warren does not wear well. Most of the other candidates don’t seem to connect at all. The only exceptions are South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and possibly New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Biden is a happy contrast to this glum crowd. Like President Trump, he has fun at his rallies and is energized by the cheers. The downside is that Biden’s improvisations often end with his foot wedged in his mouth.