RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.city-journal.org/pennsylvania-democratic-divide

For generations, Pennsylvania’s blue-collar voters found political refuge in the Democratic Party. Even when the national party moved leftward on social issues, this voting bloc—largely Catholic, with multigenerational roots in coal and steel towns—elected Democrats to defend their economic interests. But the party’s environmental activists are jeopardizing this allegiance. A clash is taking place between progressives, who want a carbon-free future, and organized labor, which sees fossil-fuel industries and the jobs they create as essential for many communities. This opposition, reflective of a national trend, could fracture the party statewide and help ensure another victory for Donald Trump.

From Pennsylvania’s big-city wards to its rural townships, union members feel disenfranchised within a party that once championed their interests. In South Philadelphia, for example, the closure of Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the East Coast’s largest and oldest oil refinery, has exposed divisions between the city’s powerful building-trades unions and a newer liberal constituency. Located in the 26th ward—one of only three wards citywide that supported Trump in 2016—the refinery symbolizes the cultural tensions of a changing neighborhood. Near the city’s sports stadiums, older Italian residents, who revere the late mayor Frank Rizzo, live side-by-side with young, secular, and progressive professionals on blocks lined with row homes.

The refinery, shuttered after a massive fire last year that resulted in bankruptcy, prompted discussions about how to redevelop a parcel of land larger than the Center City district. Labor leaders, with support from the Trump administration, called for restoring a facility that supplied 335,000 barrels per day—principally to New York’s market. In January, the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council rallied at City Hall, where the organization’s leaders ripped “elitists” and “rich kids” for prioritizing environmental concerns over saving jobs. It would take years, after all, to clean up a complex in operation since 1870, not long after the first oil well was drilled in northwestern Pennsylvania. Legal restrictions inhibit the contaminated property’s reuse, the leaders pointed out, whereas reopening the site would restore more than 1,000 jobs—many unionized, well-paying, and highly skilled—lost after the fire.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/02/20/why-bloomberg-cant-stop-bernie/

Newly radicalized liberals provide the foot-soldiers and useful idiots backing Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, and the Squad. Bloomberg thinks he can win simply by out-organizing and out-spending them. He is wrong.

Michael Bloomberg is selling the Democratic Party establishment on the idea he can solve the party’s problem with money. He is doing well so far in terms of buying ad time and endorsements, having the leadership bend rules for him, and hiring every Democrat campaign staffer across the country. But his lackluster performance in the Nevada primary debate did nothing to slow Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) momentum. Sanders is already showing that the leadership no longer calls the shots.

Millennial Democrats have turned socialist in the 21st century. They are identity-politics Marxists with a digital twist—the “woke.” Marxist promises to destroy the rich, followed by free everything for the masses are all there, relabeled as “social justice.” The ugly totalitarian underpinnings are given a virtue-signaling makeover and said to be fighting bigotry and saving the planet from global warming.

The future is theirs unless conservatives stop the progressive perversion of our educational system. We have made little discernible progress in the past three years. With the power of social media and the corruption of the old media, progressives have moved beyond our schools to mainstream their ideas among Democratic voters of all demographics.

Marxists such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who pressured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to impeach the president with disastrous political results, are not the self-destructive fools they seem. They have the unified discipline, the energy, the numbers, and the money to dominate the Democratic Party.

They are succeeding with their long-term strategy, which is to discredit our republican institutions among Democrats. They have pushed mainstream liberals to the left. Not one single politician has dared confront them.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/02/20/bloomberg_survives_his_first_debate_but_falls_off_a_tractor_142448.html

On the Nevada debate stage, Mike Bloomberg emerged from the warm cocoon of paid commercials and spoke for himself. He didn’t say a lot, but what he did say didn’t help. He stood silent and stony-faced as the other candidates, led by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, painted him as the sordid emblem of plutocratic capitalism and income inequality. His responses were brief, unadorned, and dry as the Las Vegas air. If you want revolutionary fantasies, he said, vote for Bernie. If you want a skilled, no-nonsense manager, vote for me. I have an extraordinary record of success in business and urban politics and my views are not too extreme to win in November. That’s it.

Bloomberg’s flat performance looked more like he was running a board meeting than a political campaign. And it revealed one of his three major vulnerabilities: he’s a dull Establishment figure, dreadful on the stump, hoping to lead a party that needs a large, enthusiastic turnout to defeat Donald Trump. The other candidates were eager to display their angry passion, which they aimed at Trump and each other.

The debate revealed a second of Bloomberg’s vulnerabilities: the lingering troubles associated with his anti-crime policies as New York mayor (particularly stop-and-frisk policing now labeled racist) and his corporate management (particularly complaints about sexual harassment at his eponymous company). Bloomberg apologized for racially-biased policing but firmly rejected any calls to release former employees from non-disclosure agreements so they could speak freely about their experiences. His rivals will continue to exploit both problems.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/scurrilous-bernie-trashes-racist-israel/

At a CNN town hall event in Las Vegas, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was asked: “How do U.S.-Israel relations look under your administration?”

He replied:

“To be for the Israeli people and to be for peace in the Middle East does not mean that we have to support right-wing, racist governments that currently exist in Israel….”

In April 2019, at another CNN town hall event, [Sanders] described Netanyahu’s approach toward the Palestinians as “oppressive” and said Israel is “now run by a right-wing—dare I say—racist government.”

At the fifth Democratic debate…, held in December, Sanders said, “We must understand that right now in Israel we have leadership under Netanyahu… who, in my view, is a racist.”

Strong words; to my knowledge Bernie hasn’t called any other U.S. democratic ally’s government or leader “racist.” Although he says that he’s “very proud to be Jewish and I look forward to becoming the first Jewish president in the history of this country,” he seems to single Israel out. But are his words true?

Since 2009 the purportedly “racist” Netanyahu has led three purportedly “racist” governments. Let’s look at the record.

In December 2015 the Israeli government (the third of the three, the same as the current one) launched an unprecedented five-year development plan for the Israeli Arab community. It called for allocating “up to NIS 15 billion (around $4.2b) for the development of Arab towns and cities in various fields, such as education, transportation, welfare services, health, employment, housing, infrastructure, culture and public security.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/bloomberg-picks-up-3-new-congressional-endorsements-after-debate_3244660.html

Three members of the House of Representatives announced their support for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg the morning after a fiery primary debate in Nevada.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said she’s endorsing Bloomberg, 78, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Mike and I have worked together for years in New York, and whether it’s homeland security or gun safety, there’s no one you can depend on more to get important initiatives over the finish line,” Lowey said in a statement released by Bloomberg’s campaign.

“We need someone in the White House who will help secure a bright future for our children and families, free of gun violence, with opportunity for educational success and good jobs, and with access to affordable health care and prescription drugs. That person is Mike Bloomberg, and there’s no doubt about it, no matter how big the challenge, Mike will get it done.”

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) speaks onstage during Global Citizen: Movement Makers at NYU Skirball Center in New York City on Sept. 19, 2017. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen)

Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) also announced endorsements for the billionaire.

Aguilar, who Bloomberg said would serve as a co-chair for his campaign, cited Bloomberg’s efforts to restrict gun ownership and combat climate change in his statement of support. Gottheimer, co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, called the former mayor “an experienced, proven leader who has big ideas, will fight to get things done, and knows how to work with—and get votes from—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/02/dems-duke-it-out-vegas-lloyd-billingsley/

Before Wednesday’s MSNBC Democrat debate, some group calling itself Pigeons United To Interfere Now (PUTIN) released pigeons wearing MAGA hats and at least one with a wig resembling the hair of President Trump. For a town like Las Vegas, it was a rather pathetic intro for what shaped up as a championship fight. As the late Howard Cosell might have called it:

“In this corner, Michael ‘Mini’ Bloomberg, weighing in at more than 60 billion dollars, in the biggest fight of his career.” Bloomberg trained for the bout by running New York City and showing people how to be farmers in five minutes. In this bout, he would be the primary punching bag.

Bloomberg billed himself as the candidate who could beat Trump, “the worst president we’ve ever had,” and run the country. “I’m a manager, I’m a philanthropist,” Bloomberg said. He had made a lot of money but “I’m spending that money to beat Trump.” Democrats weren’t buying it, and went after Bloomberg on his record with stop-and-frisk.

Bloomberg acknowledged that he was sorry and had asked for forgiveness. He touted the “right to live” and said he cut murders in New York from 650 a year to 300. The Democrats pivoted to his record with women.

“He calls women sap broads and horse-faced lesbians,” said a breathless Elizabeth Warren, like a character in a ’40s gangster movie.

Bloomberg said he had “no tolerance for the behavior the MeToo movement has exposed,” but others wondered about the non-disclosure agreements. Joe Biden said people had been paid to keep quiet. Bloomberg said the agreements had been made consensually and the parties, “wanted to keep it quiet.” On other fronts, the New York billionaire got in some shots of his own.

The surest way to get Trump reelected, he said, was “the ideas on this stage.” They had been tried before, and, Bloomberg said, “Communism just doesn’t work.” That drew gasps from the audience, which cheered the ideas Bloomberg rejected.