RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/a_mustsee_video_to_understand_how_bad_the_deep_state_really_is.html

The real power in America lies with the permanent, Democrat- and union-controlled, and very unconstitutional administrative state. Vivek Ramaswamy spoke about this problem with Philip Howard, who has been writing for decades about the problems with America’s overwhelming bureaucracy. If we are to change America’s destiny, a conservative president must break the Deep State.

1. The Deep State is unconstitutional. The Constitution does not authorize a permanent bureaucracy as a fourth branch of government. It says only that the Article II executive is responsible for certain tasks and implies that he may hire the people he needs to execute them. Congress has a say in the matter depending on its willingness to fund the people hired. This means that, under the Constitution, the president of the United States is the big boss.

Today, America has an all-powerful bureaucracy that exists separate from the president and acts as a legislature to create binding rules and as the police, judge, jury, and executioner to enforce the rules. This is patently extra-constitutional and, therefore, unconstitutional.

Image: Vivek and Philip Howard. YouTube screen grab.

2. Government unions are a huge part of the problem. When private sector unions began, there were no government protections for workers, and those workers on the lowest end of the economic scale had no negotiating power, making them vulnerable to abuse. Unions gave them the representation they needed to make demands about wages and humane working conditions.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/presidential-election-2024-biden-trump-2c1e9bcc?mod=hp_lead_pos1

As Donald Trump entered a Miami courtroom earlier this week to face federal charges, drawing a raucous crowd and a crush of news media, John Newman felt fatigued by the thought that 16 months of a presidential campaign were yet to come.

“I wish I had a fast-forward button,” said Newman, a political independent in Chicago who is looking for a moderate Republican to support but fears Trump will crowd out his rivals.

Welcome to the election of dread.

Trump’s legal troubles are a sign of the country’s divisions, says John Newman of Chicago. 

If there’s one thing that voters of both parties—and independents—agree on, it’s that few are looking forward to the run-up to November 2024. The two leading candidates, Trump and President Biden, look to be heading for a repeat of 2020, and few see much to relish in that.

The two men are universally known, robbing the electorate of the potential to fall in love with someone new. “We know based on past performance what you’re going to bring to the table. There is nothing more to learn,” said Patrick Gray, a Democrat in Bay City, Mich. “I’m tired of it already.”

Within their own parties, Biden and Trump stoke plenty of anxiety to match whatever enthusiasm they can generate from the faithful. Polling suggests a substantial majority of Democrats don’t want Biden to run for office again. Trump remains the dominant force within the Republican Party, but many say they are open to someone new who doesn’t bring the former president’s combative divisiveness—or the distraction of a grueling court battle.

And no one can claim with a straight face that Biden, at 80 years old—or Trump, 77—represents the youthful vigor or embodiment of America’s bright future that many have found appealing in past presidential candidates.

Neither Biden nor Trump can even claim that a majority of Americans approve of his job performance in office, and so the potential rematch is shaping up to be a battle of who is less unpopular.

‘There is nothing more to learn’ from a Biden-Trump rematch, says Patrick Gray of Michigan. 

If 2020 is any guide, and if the two ultimately top their tickets come Election Day, it will be a razor-thin contest: Biden’s margin of victory in 2020 in the states that decided the election was less than 77,000 votes across four states, although he won the popular vote by seven million.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantis-gavin-newsom-debate-sean-hannity-florida-california-donald-trump-joe-biden-a746e8f7?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The two shouty debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020 were not exactly the stuff of Lincoln and Douglas, and if next year brings a rerun, many TV viewers would probably flip the channel in favor of something else, anything else, “Fast & Furious 17” or women’s air hockey finals. Yet serious public arguments can matter.

So kudos to Fox News’s Sean Hannity, who floated a series of “great debates” in an interview this week with Gavin Newsom. “Love it,” the California Governor said.

Mr. Hannity: “You would do a two-hour debate with Ron DeSantis?”

Mr. Newsom: “I’d make it three.”

The Florida Governor responded at a news conference Thursday, without addressing Mr. Newsom’s hurled gauntlet. “What I would tell him is, you know what, stop pussyfooting around,” Mr. DeSantis said. “Are you going to throw your hat in the ring and challenge Joe [Biden]? Are you going to get in and do it? Or are you just going to sit on the sidelines and chirp?”

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/06/12/can-anyone-beat-biden-and-trump-for-nomination-ii-tipp-poll/

Yes, it’s still very early in the nominating process, and both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump face daunting legal questions. Even so, both front-runners for the two major parties maintain comfortable, double-digit leads over their potential challengers. But what happens when the number of possible choices inevitably narrows? Then, the race for each party’s nomination changes considerably, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

As in past months, we asked Democratic voters who among a list of 18 (which includes a choice of “someone else”) they would support for the nomination of their party. The online nationwide poll of 1,230 voters was conducted from May 31-June 2, with the Democratic primary question having a +/-4 percentage point margin of error, vs. +/-4.6 percentage points for the Republican primary question.

Despite all his recent troubles over bribery allegations, shrinking favorability ratings, and accelerating signs of age-related mental difficulties, Biden still receives 37% of Democrats’ support. That’s 27 points greater than the next favorite, former First Lady Michelle Obama, at 10%.

After Obama, no candidate even gets into double figures, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 9%, Vice President Kamala Harris at 6%, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 5%, former Secretary of State and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom both at 4%, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, environmentalist and author Robert Kennedy Jr. and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg all at 3%.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/07/house-republicans-shine-a-light-on-foreign-interference-in-d-c-elections/

Republicans on the House Oversight and Administration Committees held a joint hearing on Wednesday highlighting foreign interference in Washington, D.C.’s elections.

“Our nation’s capital should be a beacon of democracy and a national model for excellence in election administration. This isn’t about who wins or loses elections, but rather ensuring voters have confidence in our elections,” said House Admin Chair and Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis.

In his opening remarks, Steil emphasized numerous problems threatening the integrity of D.C. elections, including the district’s allowance of voters to cast a ballot without an ID and ballot harvesting. Among the most notable issues raised, however, is the city’s recent decision permitting non-citizens to vote in local elections.

Passed by the D.C. Council late last year, D.C. Bill 24.300 expands the definition of “qualified elector” for municipal elections to include “otherwise eligible non-citizen residents.” This means that non-citizens residing in the nation’s capital for 30 days, including foreign diplomats from countries such as China and Russia, could vote in mayoral, city council, and other local elections. According to The Washington Post, there are an estimated 50,000 non-citizens residing in D.C.

In February, House Republicans utilized their constitutional authority to pass a measure blocking the law’s implementation. Despite 42 House Democrats joining their Republican colleagues in supporting the bill’s passage (260-173), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-team-responds-christies-imminent-presidential-run-will-waste-no-time-eating-desantis-lunch

The Trump team responded to the presidential candidacy of former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie, announced today, with a message warning that it will mean bad news for his current top challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

“Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened a mad rush to seize the mantle for runner-up,” Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the PAC Make America Great Again Inc. said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis’ lunch.” 

The DeSantis campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a statement DeSantis made in an interview with KCCI-TV in Iowa last week where he said, “Regardless of who decides to run or not run, for us, it’s really just background noise.”

“We believe we have a message that will win. We believe we have the plan to be able to get that done and it’s basically just about execution for us.”

Christie, who served as governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018, previously ran for president in 2016 and lost the GOP primary to Trump.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/desantis-gains-on-trump-in-iowa-after-campaign-kickoff-new-polls-show/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=fifth

Governor Ron DeSantis is gaining on former president Trump in Iowa since he launched his 2024 campaign, new polls indicate.

Despite Trump’s Super PAC shelling out $18 million in ads targeting DeSantis, the former president’s lead in Iowa has shrunk significantly, Axios reported, based on two internal polls provided by Never Back Down, the governor’s Super PAC.

One poll taken in mid May showed DeSantis polling at 24 percent compared to Trump’s 48 percent — a 24-point deficit for the governor. However, a subsequent poll of 655 respondents taken from May 30 to June 1, right after DeSantis’s swing through the state, showed that margin has narrowed to ten points, with Trump garnering 39 percent to DeSantis’ 29 percent.

Nationally, DeSantis is still coming up short by 27 points, with Trump generating 53 percent support to his rival’s 26 percent, according to a CNN survey conducted on May 24.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/02/leading-gop-election-officials-feds-treasonous-interference-is-a-direct-attack-on-u-s-elections/

‘These agencies are supposed to protect us, and [yet] they are the ones who are perpetrating this fraud on the American people.’

Several leading Republican election officials are sounding the alarm about the federal government’s persistent interference in U.S. elections.

Jay Ashcroft and Mac Warner, the secretaries of state of Missouri and West Virginia, respectively, recently told The Federalist they are increasingly worried about the mounting evidence documenting federal agencies’ interference in prior elections to the benefit of the Democrat Party.

Ashcroft pointed to the long-awaited report from U.S. Attorney John Durham that confirmed what The Federalist has been reporting for years: The FBI possessed no real evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump colluded with Russian government officials when it launched its investigation into the Trump campaign leading up to the 2016 election.

The political investigation — which was “based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” — would continue throughout the 2016 election and well into Trump’s presidency.

This type of behavior from government agencies “is what you expect out of a banana republic,” Ashcroft said. “It is a direct attack on a foundational aspect of our country, that being fair, free elections.” As it turns out, he noted, “the largest purveyor of misinformation and disinformation with regard to elections [over the course of] the last several years has been the federal government.”

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2023/06/02/pence-and-christie-to-team-up-and-help-trump-secure-gop-nomination-n1699523

“The consensus among Republicans who would prefer that Trump not be the nominee is that he can’t win the general election. I don’t believe that, although the more erratic he becomes, the more my doubts grow. If those who are running against him truly believe that, however, then they shouldn’t run against him. Again, Ron DeSantis is the only Republican alive on planet Earth right now who has even a prayer of beating Trump for the nomination. Their presence in the race divides the non-Trump primary votes and all but guarantees a Trump nomination.”

The field for the race to derail Donald Trump and win the Republican nomination is about to get a couple of familiar — some would say worn out — names added to it. Over at Townhall, my colleague Leah Barkoukis writes that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is going to jump in the race next week in New Hampshire. Also at Townhall, Spencer Brown has the story about former Vice President Mike Pence making his announcement in Iowa next Wednesday.

Politically, both Christie and Pence are so far beyond their expiration dates that their campaigns will be accompanied by the smell of sour milk.

And I’m sure that the internet is already flooded with variations on “Christie will really make the field crowded.” I apologize for nothing.