RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/11/debate_booker_gets_a_softball_question_on_hong_kong_and_weasels_out_of_answering.html
Debate: Booker gets a softball question on Hong Kong, weasels out of answering By Monica Showalter

Sen. Cory Booker got the easiest question of the evening at last night’s Democratic debate in Atlanta, a whiff, a puff ball, an easy opportunity to sound grand in the invitation to say a nice thing about Hong Kong.  He blew it.

Here’s the NBC transcript:

MADDOW: On the issue of China, Senator Booker, China is now using force against demonstrators in Hong Kong where millions have taken to the streets advocating for democratic reforms. Many of the demonstrators are asking the United States for help. If you were president, would the U.S. help their movement, and how?

BOOKER: Well, first of all, this is president who seems to want to go up against China in a trade war by pulling away from our allies and, in fact, attacking them, as well. We used a national security waiver to put tariffs on Canada. And so at the very time that China is breaking international rules, is practicing unfair practices, stealing technology, forcing technology transfer, and violating human rights, this nation is pulling away from critical allies we would need to show strength against China.

There’s a larger battle going on, on the planet Earth right now between totalitarian, dictatorial countries and free democracies. And we see the scorecard under this president not looking so good, with China actually shifting more towards an authoritarian government, with its leader now getting rid of even his — getting rid of term limits.

And so I believe we need a much stronger policy, one that’s not led, as President Trump seems to want to do, in a transactional way, but one that’s led by American values. So, yes, we will call China out for its human rights violations.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pete-buttigieg-experience-11574104327

Pete Buttigieg is surging again in presidential campaign polls, and media observers are once again asking whether the mayor of South Bend, Indiana has enough experience to run the U.S. government. Meanwhile, the latest depressing story out of South Bend suggests that what Mr. Buttigieg lacks most of all is achievement.

He has certainly achieved a large measure of popularity among Iowa Democrats. Brianne Pfannenstiel reports in the Des Moines Register:

Pete Buttigieg has rocketed to the top of the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll in the latest reshuffling of the top tier of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.
Since September, Buttigieg has risen 16 percentage points among Iowa’s likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25% now saying he is their first choice for president. For the first time in the Register’s Iowa Poll, he bests rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place and about 10 percentage points behind the South Bend, Indiana, mayor.

But back home in Indiana, one of the mayor’s most distinguished employees has decided he’s had enough. Marek Mazurek reports in the South Bend Tribune today:

Last year, Elijah Arias was recognized as the South Bend Police Department’s Officer of the Year.
Earlier this month, Arias and two other former South Bend officers were sworn in at the Mishawaka Police Department, leaving South Bend with a shortfall of officers after two recent recruiting cycles yielded no new hires.

Doesn’t anybody want to work for Mayor Pete? Mr. Mazurek reports:

The South Bend Police Department has come under increased national scrutiny in connection with Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign following the fatal shooting of Eric Logan, who is black, by a white officer in June…
Sgt. Harvey Mills, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in South Bend, believes Buttigieg’s actions following the incident drove some away from the force.
“There were a lot of officers that left as a result of Mayor Buttigieg’s comments and lack of support,” Mills said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-deval-patrick-daydream-11573777283

There’s fashionably late, and then there’s showing up to a soiree as the dishes are being cleared. Which one is Deval Patrick ? On Thursday the former two-term Governor of Massachusetts joined the Democratic campaign for President. Nothing against the 17 other hopefuls, he said, but they’re selling either “nostalgia” or polarization: “It’s our way—our big idea—or no way.”

There’s something to this analysis. The Democratic war horse in the lead, Joe Biden, looks unsteady. Close behind are a proud socialist, Bernie Sanders, and a furtive one, Elizabeth Warren, both of whom pledge to eliminate private insurance used by some 170 million people. Far back lag the rest: a 30-something mayor, floundering Senators, Andrew Yang.

At least a few Democrats are now wondering if they can order off menu. Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire ex-Mayor of New York, is weighing a 2020 bid. Hillary Clinton, no introduction required, says she is “under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it.” But those late entries are plausible in that Mr. Bloomberg is a billionaire and Mrs. Clinton is universally known.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/66740-the-blexodus-2019-11-13

This past weekend in Atlanta, I got the opportunity to experience my first BLEXIT event. In case you have been under a rock, BLEXIT is a movement of political renaissance as millions of Americans, primarily black, are exiting the Democrat Party. Candace Owens, founder of BLEXIT, is the modern-day version of Harriet Tubman as she brazenly has become the trailblazer for freedom. Freedom of thought. Freedom of voice. Freedom of vote. Freedom of common sense.

For so many years within the black community, the only political voice you could have without any “blacklash” was liberal. Our parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts have made the Democrat Party a matter of birthright. It’s so deep that it’s an unspoken or unwritten rule. It’s just as engrained as the melanin within our skin. It’s like a Thanksgiving holiday tradition that only certain people make the macaroni and cheese, turkey and dressing, or the lemon, pecan, and sweet potato pies. You don’t have to say it, it’s just understood. This “vote or die” liberal mentality has been passed down from generation to generation like grandma’s recipes.

For many black Americans, you grow up, go to church, graduate high school, go to college, vote Democrat, get married, and have some grandchildren to start the whole process over again. Did I mention vote Democrat?

Said differently, a black family person has a better chance of being accepted as a homosexual by his family, church, and community than of being a Republican believing in Christian conservative ideas. Yes, it’s that serious. The saddest part is nobody can tell you why. It’s all emotionalism.

At BLEXIT, however, something was different. I felt comfortable being in my own skin. Not because of the color of my skin, but because I was not being judged intellectually or politically based on my skin. I declared my political independence before the entire world.

Standing in a long line waiting to enter the Buckhead Theatre, I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone. We all had like minds and it was refreshing. It was good to see two teenage black males being able to articulate why they believe what they believe, instead of getting emotional and calling others names. It was amazing to hear their 55-year-old mentor say, “People think these young guys don’t have a clue. I just stand back and fold my arms and watch them handle interview questions from the media. They know their stuff!” He was smiling from ear to ear. It was good to meet an older white couple in line that overheard me say I was from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The man said, “Hey, I’m from Rossville, Georgia, right next door to you.”

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/11/12/bloomberg_will_hit_an_iceberg

Michael Bloomberg is so wealthy he couldn’t fritter away his fortune, even if he tried. But he’ll make a good start if he spends $100 million or more to win the Democratic presidential nomination. It’s a fruitless quest.

He must be smart enough to know it. That’s why he is merely “exploring a run” and hasn’t jumped in yet. Still, the glittering prize of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. dazzles even the shrewdest eyes, and it may have dazzled Bloomberg’s.

Running would be a rare mistake in a career that led him to vast riches and the mayoralty of America’s largest city. (It’s no South Bend, but there are those who love it.) Bloomberg made his money by recognizing a lucrative gap in the market for economic information. To trade stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities, market participants need real-time information, bundled with sophisticated software to make sense of it. Bloomberg saw the need, thought he could fill it better than anyone, and could charge steep fees to do it. He was right, and he executed his design perfectly. He is still tops in the field, still making a mint from it.

Now, Bloomberg sees another gap, this one in the Democratic presidential field, where no center-left candidate dominates. Both Joe Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg have obvious weaknesses and Amy Klobuchar has all but disappeared. Bloomberg is right in saying the whole field is weak, most candidates are too far left to win in November, and the center lane is not too crowded. He’s also right in saying that President Trump is vulnerable despite the strong economy. And he’s right in thinking that his age is no barrier. At 77, he is still energetic and sharp enough to do the job.

Where Bloomberg is wrong is thinking he can captivate a Democratic base that has moved sharply left since Barack Obama left office. He’s wrong, too, if he thinks policies that worked in New York City will appeal to contemporary Democrats.

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/11/12/bloomberg-is-no-better-choice-than-the-rest-of-the-democratic-candidates/

With former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg possibly entering the presidential race, some Never Trumpers nervous about the Democrats’ leftward shift might feel like they have a candidate they can now support. They shouldn’t. Bloomberg was a Republican-in-name-only mayor who governed as a freedom-suppressing authoritarian.

Bloomberg has done nothing more than file for the Alabama Democratic primary election and he’s already six points ahead of President Donald Trump, 43-37, in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to Morning Consult/Politico poll. But some Democratic candidates have expressed their opposition to his candidacy. He’s too rich. He’s too late. He will let the party down.

We’re also have problems with him. But not the same ones.

Bloomberg governed the five boroughs for a dozen years as if he were making household rules for his pre-teen children. There would be no Big Gulp-sized sugary soft drinks, no trans fats, and every calorie had to be counted. A “Complete List of Everything Banned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg” compiled by Gizmodo includes: cars in Times Square, high sodium levels in processed foods, Styrofoam for single-use food packaging, cabs that aren’t fuel efficient, loud headphones, and cell phones in schools.

Some of the bans were proposed or merely suggested. But they still indicate a prohibitionist mind-set.

The “Republican” mayor is also an enemy of Second Amendment rights. Under his watch, a Manhattan store was even fined $60,000 by the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs  for selling lighters that looked like small pistols.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/11/10/warren-promises-to-divide-jerusalem-fund-terrorists/

Democrat presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were the star speakers at the national conference of J Street, a woke anti-Israel (verging on anti-Semitic) group, which met last week in Washington, D.C. Our two socialist candidates, sharing the podium with terrorists, are competing to see who can top the other in betraying our ally, Israel, and promoting Palestinian terrorism.

Warren addressed the audience by a video, in which she promised to divide Jerusalem. “Both parties should be able to have their capitals in Jerusalem,” she declared. 

For Warren to promise that as president she would carve out part of Israel’s capital city and hand it over to Israel’s mortal enemies is an ugly and dangerous plan. It wouldn’t be within her power or legal authority in any event. 

But bullying Israel plays well with her woke audience, stewed in campus anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda for decades. It suits Warren’s Marxist anti-colonial voters to believe that as Caucasians, Israelis have no rights to their indigenous homeland, nor to its Jewish capital founded long before Christianity and Islam were born. 

Warren should know that dividing Jerusalem is terrible for American interests. She would create a terrorist enclave in the heart of Israel’s capital and destabilize our strongest ally in the fragile Middle East.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/11/10/the-looming-1984-election/

For a variety of reasons, the 2020 election is going to be a referendum beyond Donald Trump’s record and his Democratic opposition.

The furor that Trump has incurred, and the radical antithesis to his agenda and first term, have redefined the looming election. It is becoming a stark choice between a revolutionary future versus American traditionalism.

The choice in reductionist terms will be one between a growing, statist Panopticon, fueled by social media, a media-progressive nexus, and an electronic posse. Online trolls and government bureaucrats seek to know everything about us, in Big Brother fashion to monitor our very thoughts to ferret out incorrect ideas, and then to regiment and indoctrinate us to ensure elite visions of mandated equality and correct behavior—or else!

In other words, the personality quirks of a Trump or an Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Sanders will become mostly irrelevant given the existential choice between two quite antithetical ideas of future America. In 2020 we will witness the penultimate manifestation of what radical progressivism has in store for us all—and the furious, often desperate, and unfettered pushback against it.

Targeting Traditional America

We are also well beyond even the stark choices of 1972 and 1984 that remained within the parameters of the two parties. In contrast, the Democratic Party as we have known it, is extinct for now. It has been replaced since 2016 by a radical progressive revolutionary movement that serves as a touchstone for a variety of auxiliary extremist causes, agendas, and cliques—almost all of them radically leftwing and nihilistic, and largely without majority popular support.