RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-winding-constitutional-path-from-trump-to-pence-to-pompeo-11601677891?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

What if President Trump becomes seriously ill and unable to do his job? Under the 25th Amendment, the president can report to Congress that “he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Vice President Mike Pence would become acting president until Mr. Trump sends a second written declaration that he can perform his duties again.

But suppose he’s unable or unwilling to issue the declaration. The 25th Amendment provides for that too. If the vice president and a majority of “the principal officers of the executive branch”—defined by statute to include the heads of the 15 major executive departments—declare in writing that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” Mr. Pence becomes acting president “immediately.”

Mr. Trump’s opponents have often mused about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office for behavior they regard as erratic. The idea reflects a misunderstanding of how the amendment works. Even in the unlikely event that Mr. Pence and the cabinet backed such a move, the president could challenge it. The disagreement would be resolved in the president’s favor unless two-thirds of both houses of Congress overrode him—and even then, his removal would be temporary. The 25th Amendment deals with cases of genuine debility, such as might arise if the president became seriously ill.

Mr. Pence has tested negative for the coronavirus. But suppose that changes and both he and Mr. Trump are too sick to perform the presidency’s duties. Article II of the Constitution states that in “the case of removal, death, resignation or inability” of both the president and vice president, Congress has the authority to declare “what officer shall then act as president” until the disability ends or a new president is elected. The term “officer” poses a problem for the current law.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/10/02/did-cia-fbi-and-hillary-launch-a-silent-coup-against-trump/

Former FBI Director James Comey plays dumb in testimony before Congress, while CIA Director Gina Haspel blocks further declassification of documents in the Russia scandal. That’s the obstructionist Deep State in action, hiding the truth about a major scandal from the American people.

Listening to Comey testify this week about the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into supposed collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 campaign has been revelatory.

“In the main, it (Crossfire Hurricane) was done by the book, it was appropriate, and it was essential that it be done,” Comey said. Later, under persistent questioning from South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, Comey maintained that “Overall, I’m proud of the work.”

When he wasn’t being proud, Comey played as if he were ignorant of the things going on around him, including the fraudulent application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to spy on the Trump campaign.

Actually, when this is all done, Comey might be lucky to avoid indictment. His stewardship of a corrupt, politically motivated investigation of a presidential candidate financed and pushed by that candidate’s opponent has all the markings of a planned crime.

They are in quarantine….May they have a speedy and uneventful recovery. rsk

https://pjmedia.com/columns/p-david-hornik/2020/10/01/aoc-nixes-ceremony-for-israeli-leader-n991877

On October 20 Americans for Peace Now, a left-wing Jewish group, will be holding a virtual commemoration of Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was an Israeli military and political leader who served two terms as prime minister. On November 4, 1995, during the second term, he was assassinated by a far-right Israeli for his role in the Oslo peace process between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s PLO.

A wave of excitement washed through Americans for Peace Now when it seemed that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had accepted their invitation to take part in the virtual ceremony.

But the congresswoman quickly changed her mind after Twitter critics slammed her decision as “disgusting” and showing “total contempt for Palestinian lives.” Left-wing journalist Alex Kane tweeted that “In the US Rabin is viewed as a liberal peacemaker but Palestinians remember him for his brutal rule suppressing Palestinian protest during the First Intifada, as someone who reportedly ordered the breaking of Palestinian bones.”

Some of the more hopeful left-wing American Jews, however, tweeted their disappointment at AOC’s retraction. In a typical case, a progressive outfit called Zioness told her it was “deeply troubled that you have decided to pull out of the event honoring the life & legacy of former Israeli PM Rabin…who paid the ultimate price for his commitment to peace and justice…. Your decision…will advance the feeling of despair held by so many progressive Jews who feel abandoned by fellow justice seekers….”

https://pjmedia.com/culture/bryan-preston/2020/10/01/former-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-line-up-and-shoot-non-woke-business-leaders-and-hell-happily-do-the-video-n992609

Twitter has handed out lifetime bans for a lot less than this tweet, which former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo shot off Wednesday night:

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo pushes murder for non-woke business leaders.

Costolo tweeted the above during an exchange regarding how business CEOs and leaders should deal with the crises 2020 has thrown at them — the pandemic, the reactions to George Floyd’s death, politics, woke cancel culture, the election, and so forth. Coinbases’s CEO Brian Armstrong had stated he would keep his business staff focused on its business, not woke activism.

That wasn’t good enough for Costolo, who subscribes to the “silence is not an option” rhetoric pushed by the capitalist Marxists at Cook Ross, the woke critical race theory firm making millions dividing society.

Critical race theory mongering for profit may be the most cynical industry in the industrialized world. It foments racial division and offers itself as a remedy — for a very hefty price — that ends up creating even more racial division. It’s commoditizing racial division and unrest.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/scott-atlas-white-house-coronavirus-adviser-critics-ignore-science/

Critics of the distinguished White House coronavirus adviser don’t have a leg to stand on.

The news media until recently had rarely criticized the medical advice of experts — especially those who worked for federal bureaucracies, international organizations, or elite universities.

Yet the much-praised Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has demonstrably weakened the effort to fight COVID-19.

During the critical initial weeks of the virus’s spread, Tedros parroted Chinese propaganda. He falsely assured a complacent world that the virus was probably not transmissible between humans and did not warrant travel bans. The fact that Tedros was the first WHO director not to have a medical degree was seldom cited by the media.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is known to the public for his past advocacy of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. Although he now advises 77-year-old presidential candidate Joe Biden, Emanuel once wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “Why I hope to die at 75,” contending that life after age 75 is, and should be, mostly over — now an eerie idea in a time of a pandemic that targets the elderly.Emanuel has often weighed in on the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes in overly pessimistic fashion by suggesting that some acquired collective immunity and a viable vaccine were not likely to come soon.

Yet Emanuel also has been largely exempt from media criticism. No reporters have questioned his epidemiological expertise despite his background as an oncologist specializing in breast cancer.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/09/30/mapping-los-angeles-homeless-encampment-challenge–nearly-100000-cases-reported-since-2019/#6d635e794dee

Los Angeles represents the glitz and glamour of the California lifestyle. It’s a tourist mecca that boasted 50 million visitors in 2019 – an all-time high.

The greater Los Angeles area can also claim Muscle Beach in Venice; the Hollywood movie studios; the rich and famous in Beverly Hills; and a previously booming economy that trailed only New York City and Tokyo.

But the city itself is in trouble, and tourists should be advised to avoid some neighborhoods and streets entirely.

Today, Los Angeles hosts an estimated homeless population of nearly 40,000 people (the entire states of Texas and Florida have between 25,000 and 28,000 respectively). Affluent sections of the city have become dangerous with open-air drug use, human feces, medieval diseases, and, sadly, homeless encampments.

Since 2019, there have been at least 94,430 reported complaints of homeless encampments in public spaces –an average of 4,500 per month.

First elected in 2013, Mayor Eric Garcetti promised to clean things up. However, conditions are the same or worse. Last year, the number of encampment complaints spiked to 55,569. The same pace has continued in 2020 with 35,241 instances already reported through August.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16561/leila-khaled-terrorists-internet

An interesting legal question or two popped-up… right at the intersection of free speech and technology. Corporate standards for content and how Internet platforms engage in editorial decisions over content material (they supposedly are not responsible for) is increasingly becoming a point of contention.

Policing content and platform liability get more complicated with every passing day. The social media tech giants pretend they are not really responsible, unless they want to be — or they do not like your politics — or they are frightened of being prosecuted and fined for supporting terrorism.

Corporate America, and especially the Internet tech giants, do not see it that way. Consider the multi-billion-dollar Internet pornography industry that exploits and denigrates human beings through exploitation, child abuse and trafficking.

What happens when the giants decide that an election outcome must be decided in one way, and that anyone reporting or asking questions about a different outcome, a different way, must be banned and suppressed?

We have good news: Terrorists were stopped from exploiting the Internet and a state university event to propound their violence-inspiring, hate-filled rhetoric. Ten days ago, several online news and social media fora sounded the alarm over San Francisco State University (SFSU) hosting the terrorist Leila Khaled on September 23, 2020 via an Internet-based open classroom event. The occasion was described as “a historic roundtable conversation with Palestinian feminist, militant, and leader Leila Khaled, followed by Q&A discussion with students, activists, and scholars.”

Billed as “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, & Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled,” the event featured at least three other terrorists from the Weather Underground, Black Panthers and an advisor to Hamas. Today, the good news with which we are following up is that Khaled and the other terrorists did not win.

While Khaled is not a specially designated terrorist, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is a designated organization — and Khaled is a member of the terrorist organization’s politburo. Because the online event was an Internet open classroom, there were no specific issues related to her physical admissibility to the U.S. Khaled has spoken in Europe several times (including at an EU conference in Brussels in 2017) but the same year, was denied entry to Italy.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/09/30/secret-report-how-cias-brennan-overruled-dissenting-analysts-who-concluded-russia-favored-hillary/

Former CIA Director John Brennan personally edited the report that was used to help justify continuing the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation, which had been launched by the FBI in 2016.

Former CIA Director John Brennan personally edited a crucial section of the intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and assigned a political ally to take a lead role in writing it after career analysts disputed Brennan’s take that Russian leader Vladimir Putin intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump clinch the White House, according to two senior U.S. intelligence officials who have seen classified materials detailing Brennan’s role in drafting the document.

The explosive conclusion Brennan inserted into the report was used to help justify continuing the Trump-Russia “collusion” investigation, which had been launched by the FBI in 2016. It was picked up after the election by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who in the end found no proof that Trump or his campaign conspired with Moscow.

The Obama administration publicly released a declassified version of the report — known as the “Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent Elections (ICA)” — just two weeks before Trump took office, casting a cloud of suspicion over his presidency. Democrats and national media have cited the report to suggest Russia influenced the 2016 outcome and warn that Putin is likely meddling again to reelect Trump.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/the-capital-note-surge-in-entrepreneurship-amid-pandemic/

Spike in New Business Formation The wreckage of the Covid pandemic is not enough to stop Americans from opening up new businesses. The Department of Commerce reported a massive spike in new-business applications in the third quarter. While partially a reflection of the backlog in applications that built up during the lockdowns earlier this year, the spike is a surprising sign of the ability of the U.S. economy to weather the storm of the pandemic.

It also shows how unusual this year’s recession is. After the 2008 financial crisis, new-firm formation fell by roughly 25 percent, bringing real per capita GDP growth down by 2.5 percent. Despite a massive decline in real GDP this year, new businesses have increased in quantity and quality, according to Goldman Sachs Research:

[N]ew business applications have surged in Q3, with “high-propensity to succeed” business applications—those with similar characteristics to those that have historically led to firm creation—reaching their highest quarterly level on record, following a sharp virus-driven decline in March and April.

In large part, the surge in business formation reflects the forceful policy response to the pandemic. Near-zero interest rates, as well as an increase in personal income thanks to the CARES Act, have made it relatively easy for entrepreneurs to open new firms. It’s also a response to the changes ushered in by the pandemic, such as remote work and the increasing digitization of services.

Along with good news on payrolls and vaccines, the business formation numbers suggest a relatively swift labor-market recovery: Goldman Sachs researchers expect the unemployment rate to drop to 7 percent by the end of this year and to 5.6 percent by the end of 2021.