RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/12/el-paso-trump-sets-sights-extreme-democrats/

With Beto O’Rourke as a perfect foil, Trump kicked off his 2020 reelection bid by painting Democrats as ‘outside the mainstream.’

EL PASO, Texas — It was altogether fitting that President Trump’s rally Monday night in El Paso was something of a circus. After all, it was the first official campaign event of his 2020 reelection bid.

The rally had all the trappings of any other Trump rally: itinerant Trump vendors hawking their wares outside the venue, supporters decked out in MAGA gear who traveled from several states away, a handful of angry protesters who managed to sneak signs into the stadium and disrupt things for a minute or two.

But it also had something extra. There were the theatrics of being right on the U.S.-Mexico border while another government shutdown looms over funding for Trump’s border wall. There was also the spectacle of a protest march and counter-rally a few hundred yards away featuring none other than Beto O’Rourke, a likely 2020 Democratic contender.

It was a perfect setting for Trump to draw out the contrasts between his GOP and the Democratic Party heading into the 2020 cycle. On everything from the border wall to abortion to the Mueller investigation to the booming economy and the Democrats’ Green New Deal, Trump presented himself as reasonable and Democrats as extreme.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/kirsten-gillibrand-fundraising-ethics-violation-complaint/

A watchdog group filed an ethics complaint on Monday against Democratic 2020 presidential contender Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, saying she violated Senate ethics rules by using improper fundraising methods.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed the complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, noting that the New York Democrat sent out a tweet during President Trump’s State of the Union speech inappropriately asking for campaign donations by using footage of herself on the House floor during the speech.

“Chip in $5 so we can put an end to this,” Gillibrand’s tweet said.

The watchdog requested that the committee “immediately investigate” Gillibrand, who announced her run for president last month and vowed to take on institutional racism, corruption and greed in Washington, and special interests.

“Presumably Senator Gillibrand is aware of her ethics violation because she later removed the tweet after raising funds in violation of ethics rules, all of which should be returned,” FACT wrote in its letter.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-education-of-ilhan-omar-11549930665?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=2&cx_tag=contextual&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

The Democratic Party’s support for Israel has been fraying for years, and some new Members of Congress seem willing to indulge in arguments that border on the anti-Semitic. So kudos to House Democratic leaders who slapped down one of their own, freshman Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, for her ugly comments.

“Legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies is protected by the values of free speech and democratic debate that the United States and Israel share,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders in a joint statement on Monday. “But Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive. We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments.”

The leaders are trying to put out a firestorm that erupted after Ms. Omar claimed on Twitter that her colleagues defend Israel for the money, writing, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.” When asked who she thinks is “paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” Ms. Omar named the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, which doesn’t donate to political candidates, though it does urge U.S. support for Israel.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/rashida-tlaib-once-wrote-op-ed-for-anti-semitic-farrakhan-outlet/

Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) wrote an op-ed in 2006 for Louis Farrakhan’s digital publication Final Call, which routinely publishes anti-Semitic content, according to a new report from freelance journalist Jeryl Bier.

Tlaib argues in the op-ed, which is dated October 4, 2006 and was resurfaced by Bier, that illegal immigrants shouldn’t face criminal charges or be deported for violating immigration law.

Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, has long been known as an outspoken anti-Semite. In February 2006, months before Tlaib’s piece was published, he accused Jews of promoting homosexuality in order to harm the African-American community.

“These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. . . . It’s the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It’s the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic,” he said during his Saviour’s Day speech on February 26, 2006.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/dem-leaders-demand-omar-apologize-for-endorsing-anti-semitic-tropes/

Update 3:04p.m.: Omar apologized for her comments in a Monday afternoon tweet.

House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Monday calling on Representative Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) to apologize for endorsing the “anti-Semitic trope” that Jewish donors leverage their wealth for nefarious political purposes.

“Legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies is protected by the values of free speech and democratic debate that the United States and Israel share,” read the statement, which was signed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and other Democratic leaders. “But Congresswoman Omar’s use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters is deeply offensive. We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments.”

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

Congressman Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism is so virulent that it’s on full display just about every day. The Daily Wire reports:

On Sunday, after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) displayed her blatant anti-Semitism by tweeting that GOP support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins,” and followed by accusing AIPAC of paying American politicians to support Israel, bipartisan condemnation of her remarks erupted, although no leading Democrats said a word about their colleague’s vile rhetoric.

(“All about the Benjamins” refers to Benjamin Franklin’s face on $100 bills.)

GOP voices expressed disgust, including former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Senator Ted Cruz, and the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Democratic voices were few and far between. Chelsea Clinton, whose husband is Jewish, is the exception, though her parents remain silent as of this writing.

Democratic leadership remained silent, as they have for months as rampant anti-Semitism is spreading through the party like cancer.

I get the feeling Omar likes this attention and may feel empowered as a female Muslim member of Congress. That seemingly sweet smile isn’t so sweet.

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

Senator Amy Klobuchar chose an outdoor rally — in Minneapolis in the middle of February — to announce her candidacy for president. Since there are plenty of indoor venues available, almost certainly, she wanted to stand out from the rest of the field and project an image of toughness, albeit leavened by the legendary “Minnesota nice” mode of personality on which she relies for image purposes. It does raise the question of if she knows enough to come inside out of the rain (or snow).

She certainly gets points for resistance to cold and snow — the white stuff visibly accumulated on her head, the podium, and the microphones as she spoke for 11 minutes:

She promises to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord that would impoverish Americans while allowing China and India to build huge numbers of coal-fired electricity generating stations for many years, and she came in for mockery from President Trump for the contrast between warmism and the facts on the ground in Minneapolis in February. In her response, she laid claim to a Minnesotan version of machismo, implying that others lack the strength to endure blizzards.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/the_virginia_train_wreck_has_set_the_stage_for_2020.html

Virginia’s Del. Kathy Tran’s and Governor Ralph Northam’s open and public admission that their bill, H.B. 2491, allowed for the murder of a baby up until the time of birth and afterward was never supposed to happen.

Tran’s and Northam’s partial-birth abortion-funders, Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List, have always encouraged their candidates in Southern states to stay mum on abortion until they get into office.

For example, in the run-up to the 2018 midterms, in blue state Virginia, where there are still plenty of conservative voters and where congressional races were tight, Democratic candidates focused on health care, fair wages, and security issues. Abortion, if mentioned at all, was couched in the more moderate-sounding “reproductive rights.”

Consequently, Tran’s and Northam’s startling and unpredictable honesty about H.B. 2491 had the Democratic Party and its pro-abortion benefactors trying to stifle any reporting suggesting that Democrats are the party of infanticide.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/02/10/the

The first contest of the 2020 primary season is one year away and the Democratic Party’s agenda now is coming into sharp focus: An income tax rate upwards of 70 percent, a Green New Deal that would send America back to the Stone Age, postpartum baby-killing, and the elimination of federal control over our southern border are just a few of the lowlights.

Sprinkle that message with a heavy dose of anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-white, anti-male rhetoric and voila!—Democratic presidential contenders are ready to swarm Iowa and New Hampshire.

But another destructive sideshow now animates the Democrats ahead of next year’s elections: The multi-pronged, unprecedented and possibly unconstitutional investigation into President Trump.

To satisfy the bloodlust of the party’s rank-and-file, still bitter about losing the 2016 presidential election and gobsmacked that Trump somehow remains in office, congressional leaders are seeking vengeance in the hearing rooms of Capitol Hill. Since taking the helm of powerful House committees last month, Democratic chairmen are wasting no time in probing every crevice of Trump World; no one, including the president’s family members, will be spared.

Hundreds of New Investigations
The government’s formal investigation into Donald Trump began in July 2016, when Barack Obama’s FBI launched a counterintelligence probe into four Trump campaign aides, allegedly suspected of conspiring with Russians to influence the election. In May 2017, Trump’s own FBI—led temporarily by the disgraced Andrew McCabe after James Comey was fired—opened both a counterintelligence and a criminal case into the president. Days later, the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller as a special counsel to further investigate any supposed ties between the Kremlin and Donald Trump.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-identity-meltdown-11549836657

Democrats need an identity-politics intervention. Having unleashed race, gender, sexual orientation and class as the defining issues of American politics, these furies are now consuming their authors. Where’s Barack Obama when Democrats need him?

Every national Democrat of note is demanding that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam resign for appearing in blackface in 1984 and for offering different explanations for an offensive photo on his medical college yearbook page. But Mr. Northam is refusing to go.

A second woman has now accused Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of rape, this time at Duke University in 2000. Another woman has accused Mr. Fairfax of raping her at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Mr. Fairfax denies both allegations and is demanding an FBI investigation, but many Democrats are also calling on him to resign.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mark Herring, next in line for Governor if both Messrs. Northam and Fairfax resign, also appeared in blackface in the 1980s. Democrats are more forgiving of Mr. Herring, perhaps because next in line for Governor would be the Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates.

Imagine the cognitive Democratic dissonance if Mr. Fairfax, who is black, is forced to resign because of unproved accusations of sexual assault that he denies, while the two white men survive despite racial offenses that they admit.