RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ocasio-cortez-is-an-all-american-socialist-11551225829

As much as conservatives are aghast at the over-the-top collectivist ideas of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we cannot ignore the oversize intrigue with this young woman, who has gained instant influence and celebrity. Perhaps it is because people see her as so all-American.

We are fascinated by her personal success—the way she transformed herself almost instantly from a bartender to an international political star. Yes, this self-identified Democratic Socialist is ignorant of the ways of government. She thought she would be headed to Washington in January to get “inaugurated” and that she’d “start signing” bills immediately, in a Congress with three chambers. And her policy proposals are outrageously unrealistic and expensive—$100 trillion at least—and would destroy our economy.

Yet many people see the 29-year-old Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and think: If she can do this, so could I. She doesn’t come from a rich and powerful family. Her degree is from Boston University, not the Ivy League. Her Puerto Rican heritage and Bronx constituency convey cultural diversity.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/democratic-primary-reparations-discussion/

There is a strange political conversation under way as the 2020 Democratic presidential primary gets under way, and it goes like this: One group of Democrats proposes something daffy, vague, and impractical, and another group of Democrats says, “Of course that’s daffy, vague, and impractical — but at least they started a conversation!” This is said in the tone kindergarten teachers use with toddlers who test the maxim that there is no such thing as a dumb question. It’s something to see: a political party condescending to itself.

None of the Democratic 2020 contenders currently talking up reparations for slavery is serious about the project. Those of them who are serious about anything are serious only about winning the party’s nomination and the role that flattering a small but influential congregation of left-wing intellectuals might play in that.

Call it the Ta-Nehisi Coates primary.

It’s an unserious proposal, but we’ll do its authors the courtesy of offering a serious answer, anyway.

Paying reparations for slavery is a terrible idea because there is no one to pay reparations and no one to pay them to. There are not any slave-owners left among us and haven’t been for some time. There aren’t any liberated slaves, either. Slavery was a terrible crime and, like all such enormities, it was carried out by real people who inflicted unconscionable suffering on real people — specific people, individuals.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2020-democrats-voted-against-the-born-alive-abortion-survivors-protection-act/

On Monday, Democratic senators running for president in 2020 voted against the Born Again Abortion Survivors Protection Act, effectively declaring their support for infanticide. The bill failed to gain the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, as most — but not all — Democrats voted against it.

Sen.s Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) all voted “no.”

During the debate over the legislation, Democrats argued that it was a smokescreen to attack a woman’s right to an abortion.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-lies-controversies-and-allegations/

Making the click-through worthwhile: I relent and drink from the firehose of statements, lies, stories, controversies, allegations, and accusations of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — from her Malthusian impulses to her strangely delayed district office to what her stance on Congressional staffer salaries actually means for her office.

Ocasio-Cortez: ‘A Legitimate Question, You Know, Is It Okay to Still Have Children?’

“There’s scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question, you know, is it okay to still have children?” — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, discussing climate change in a livestream Sunday night, while chopping vegetables in her kitchen.

There is ample evidence that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is over-covered by both the mainstream media and conservative media. She’s been in office about two months. She is near the very bottom of House Democrats in terms of seniority. There is considerable evidence that Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t take her or “the green dream, whatever they call it” seriously.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/ocasiocortez_probably_time_to_stop_having_kids_because_theres_scientific_consensus_that_the_lives_of_children_will_be_very_difficult.html

In a stream-of-consciousness livestream video yesterday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed a lot more than she intended about her life in the shallow end of the gene pool.

It’s pretty clear that she regards herself as a fount of insight and wisdom, apparently because her education at Boston University and 29 years of life experience have provided discernment superior to that available to the rest of us — so much so that her random thoughts while cooking are worthy of mass dissemination via livestream video.

She came up with some primo idiocy on the livestream, delivered while she endangered herself with careless knifework (see below) in her kitchen.

The most egregious pseudo-wisdom was her cogitation that maybe we shouldn’t be having kids because “there’s scientific consensus that the lives of children will be very difficult.”

I particularly appreciated the low battery warning that popped up near the end. For someone who is telling us to prepare for the doom that awaits, she doesn’t seem to prepare for running out of electricity, something that will affect the entire nation if her Green New Deal ever becomes law.

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/25/uk-labor-partys-defections-anti-semitism-toll-warning-bell-u-s-democrats/

The United Kingdom’s Labour Party is bleeding, and seem to have little idea of how to cauterize the wound. This past week, nine members of British Parliament resigned from the party in protest, eight citing anti-Semitism as one of their chief concerns. Given the recent incidents of anti-Semitism on the American left, the UK Labour Party’s plodding collapse invites examination—and offers perhaps a grim warning to the American Democrat Party, which faces its own recent accusations of anti-Semitism.

Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, disclosed that the party had received more than 650 complaints of anti-Semitism by its members since last April. Almost 100 members were suspended, and a dozen expelled.

Luciana Berger, one of the Labour Party’s most prominent Jewish MPs, stated in her resignation, “I cannot remain in a party that I have today come to the sickening conclusion is institutionally anti-Semitic…The leadership has willfully and repeatedly failed to address hatred against Jewish people within its ranks.” Berger’s resignation sent ripples within the national Labour contingency, given her small constituency in Liverpool had voted unwaveringly for the Labour Party for the entirety of its two-decade existence.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amy-klobuchar-sexism_n_5c705bd3e4b00eed08341067

Since launching her presidential campaign, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has faced questions about her mistreatment of her staff, as reported by HuffPost and other outlets. Former aides said she berated them, physically threw objects at them, made them do her personal chores, undermined their advancement to other jobs and created an anxiety-ridden workplace that led to high staff turnover and trouble hiring new talent.The political world has largely received these stories as sexist criticism, dismaying and infuriating former aides who experienced Klobuchar’s fury firsthand.

From tweets by prominent Democratic strategists Hilary Rosen and Patti Solis Doyle.Several staffers HuffPost spoke to forcefully rejected such criticism.“None of what we are saying has anything to do with Amy being ‘likable’ or ‘emotional’ or whatever other nonsense people throw out at women,” said a former female staffer. “It’s that she is a terrible manager and abusive to her staff. I can’t emphasize enough that there is a big difference between being demanding and being abusive.”On Friday, The New York Times also published a new report with additional details on Klobuchar’s conduct, including her tendency to blame her aides for all of her problems, such as stymied political ambitions and the state of her marriage.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/431250-warren-native-americans-should-be-part-of-the-conversation-on-reparations

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Friday that Native Americans should be “part of the conversation” on reparations, The Washington Post reported.Warren, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, made the remarks to about 900 supporters at New Hampshire’s annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner.

Warren is so far the only 2020 candidate to float the notion of reparations for Native Americans.“I think it’s a part of the conversation,” she said when asked whether they should receive some kind of relief. “I think it’s an important part of the conversation,” she added, according to the Post.Asked to explain her position on reparations, Warren offered few details but pointed to America’s “ugly history” of racism and pointed to her bill to address housing discrimination against black Americans, the paper reported.“America has an ugly history of racism,” Warren told attendees, according to the paper. “We need to confront it head-on. And we need to talk about the right way to address it and make change.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/kamala-harris-presidential-campaign-style-own-worst-enemy/

Why Kamala Harris may be her own worst enemyNo Democrat running for president has had a better 2019 than Kamala Harris. The numbers tell the tale. The California senator was in the low single digits in polls conducted before her official launch on January 28. She is now in the low double digits, running third behind Joe Biden, who enjoys cosmic name recognition, and Bernie Sanders, whose devoted supporters brought him a second-place finish last time. But polls do not tell the whole story.

Harris raised $1.5 million in the day after declaring her candidacy. That number, impressive for a senator not even a third of the way through her first term, has been bested only by Sanders, a socialist who has a venture capitalist’s talent for raising money. He brought in $5.9 million in the first 24 hours of his campaign. Harris, however, has something Sanders does not.

She is a fresh face of middle age (54 years) and of diverse background (her father is Jamaican, her mother Indian) whose chief rivals at the moment are two geriatric white men. As Democrats search for someone new to lead them against President Trump, Harris has distinguished herself from the field. Her CNN town hall drew record ratings, while Amy Klobuchar’s flopped. And Harris leads the 2020 Democrats in social-media interactions, according to an Axios/Newswhip study. She’s had a good launch. But there’s a caveat.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/warren-backs-government-reparations-for-african-americans/

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) on Thursday followed fellow Democratic presidential contender Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) in calling for the government to pay reparations to African Americans to atone for slavery and subsequent discrimination.Warren’s campaign told the New York Times that she does support some form of government reparations for the descendants of slaves, but did not specify what policy she we would pursue if elected in 2020.Warren’s support for reparations came after Harris came out in support of the idea during a radio interview last week.

“We have to be honest that people in this country do not start from the same place or have access to the same opportunities,” she said. “I’m serious about taking an approach that would change policies and structures and make real investments in black communities.”