RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/letitia-james-vs-the-trump-family-donald-trump-lawsuit-new-york-real-estate-11663883532?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Common wisdom says that on a good day state attorneys general do 70% politics and 30% law. That’s on a good day. On Wednesday New York Attorney General Letitia James lived up to that reputation by filing a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump. The suit alleges that the former President and three of his children inflated the asset values and net worth of their properties to get better terms from banks on loans and better deals from insurers.

Ms. James ran for office promising to indict Mr. Trump, which is the opposite of the way justice should be done. You’re supposed to find a crime and then identify the perpetrator. Ms. James declared Mr. Trump could “be indicted for criminal offenses” and has hunted ever since for a crime to charge him with.

Her civil lawsuit requires a mere preponderance of evidence standard to prove guilt, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. She has referred the case to the Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors in Manhattan, though the Manhattan district attorney didn’t file charges after examining the same issues.

This isn’t to dismiss the financial fraud charges. The lawsuit says Mr. Trump used “objectively false numbers to calculate property values,” including counting his Trump Tower apartment at 30,000 sq. ft. when it was 10,996 sq. ft. so that it could be improperly valued at $327 million. His golf course in Scotland was valued at $327 million on the calculation that 2,500 homes could be developed (worth $267 million) when he had zoning approval for only 1,500 homes and apartments.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-stifle-speech-act-of-2022-disclose-act-chuck-schumer-democrats-election-leonard-leo-sheldon-whitehouse-11663774572?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

It wouldn’t be an election cycle without a bill to limit political speech, and Democrats are right on time. On Monday New York Sen. Chuck Schumer brought back the Disclose Act to rid campaigns of the “evil scourge of dark money.”

The bill is sponsored by Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, which gives away that this is about squelching political opponents. It would require groups that talk about political issues to disclose donors who contribute more than $10,000 in a two-year cycle. Any group that does issue advocacy and mentions a candidate would be covered, and that would include any mention of a federal judicial nominee.

In remarks Tuesday supporting the bill, President Biden called out a mysterious “conservative activist who spent . . . decades working to put enough conservative justices on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade” and now has $1.6 billion to “restrict more freedoms.”

Mr. Biden is referring to Leonard Leo, former executive vice president of the Federalist Society who now runs the Marble Freedom Trust, which funds conservative groups. The donation was from Chicago businessman Barre Seid, but neither Mr. Leo nor the donation are secret. Conservative activism on judicial issues is no different than that of George Soros and any number of figures on the left who spend lavishly to influence politics.

The left-wing counterpart to Mr. Leo’s group is Arabella Advisors, which funds among many other groups Demand Justice, which lobbies for Democrats to pack the Supreme Court. Funny, Mr. Biden didn’t mention that.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/21/house-democrats-vote-down-resolution-to-investigate-hunter-biden/

On Tuesday, the Democratic majority on the Oversight Committee of the United States House of Representatives blocked a resolution calling for the Biden Administration to hand over documents related to the shady business deals of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

As Breitbart reports, the “resolution of inquiry” was led by Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), the ranking Republican on the committee. While it was supported by all 19 Republicans on the committee, the 23 Democrats voted against it after only two hours of debate on the measure.

“If the Democrats vote against this resolution, then they are continuing in their coordinated effort to shield a potentially compromised President from necessary congressional oversight,” said Comer before the vote. “We must shed light on the Biden family’s international business schemes to determine if there is a national security threat.”

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is on her way out of Congress after losing her primary earlier this year to fellow incumbent Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), called the measure a “nakedly partisan effort,” while also falsely accusing Republicans of being “obsessed” with Hunter Biden.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/hans-a-von-spakovsky/2022/09/20/this-should-terrify-every-american-doj-harasses-citizens-for-exercising-their-first-amendment-rights-n1630918

The Justice Department has hit the Eagle Forum of Alabama with a voluminous subpoena that violates the organization’s First Amendment rights to speak freely, engage in the political process, and talk to their elected representatives. It’s an intimidation tactic, pure and simple, and shows just how partisan the department has become. This out-of-control behavior should scare every citizen and volunteer organization, no matter where they stand on the political or social spectrum.

Eagle Forum is a very small non-profit in Alabama. It only has one full-time employee and a second, part-time employee. Virtually all of its work on issues of interest to its members is done by volunteers.  It is the quintessential, uniquely American grassroots membership organization that French historian Alexis de Tocqueville lauded in Democracy in America.

As the Eagle Forum’s motion to quash the government subpoena says, one of the issues its members have been concerned over is “gender-altering medical treatment to minors” and the “permanent and adverse effects of such medical procedures on those minors.” Those serious, lifelong effects deeply concern many physicians and parents.

Members of the Eagle Forum made their worries known by doing things every American has an absolute right to do: they spoke out, made speeches, organized meetings, talked to other residents and organizations in the state, and contacted their elected state representatives. In other words, they exercised their constitutional rights to engage in “freedom of speech,” to “peaceably assemble,” and “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” They also exercised their right to associate, recognized by the Supreme Court as implicit under the Fourteenth Amendment.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/21/the-coming-austerity-crisis/

The U.S. government’s debt is 150 percent of the gross domestic product. The current inflation is just the first problem caused by the debt. If deficit spending continues, soon high interest rates and the decline of U.S. debt credit will follow. Instead of incrementally fixing the problem, austerity economics will be the outcome. The Greeks went through it in 2007 and 2008, and they will be the first to tell you it was no fun. Congress, and especially during sessions with Democratic majorities, bears much of the blame for this.

Every time Democrats controlled the Congress during a Republican administration over the past two decades, they appropriated more money than the president requested. These additional expenditures, including the interest paid on them, well exceed $1 trillion in isolation. 

But each budget builds on the previous budgets enacted. For instance, the Trump Administration’s proposed budget for 2021 would have cut the deficit by $850 billion in 10 years. Adding up the money saved annually over those 10 years, it would have been trillions of dollars. If Congress had committed to the budgets submitted by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump, the money saved would have totalled trillions more. 

On top of this, recall how Congress in 2007 rejected President Bush’s Social Security reforms, a program which remains the largest item on the federal budget by far. There is no study to show how much U.S. taxpayers would have saved if Democrats in Congress had not added money to the budget or reformed Social Security, but one can easily estimate that it would have been trillions of dollars.

Why Democrats didn’t do it is twofold. Spending is always popular if nobody has to pay for it, and they thought that the debt would never become a problem, or that, if it did become a problem, they would no longer be around to fix it or suffer the consequences. 

But others had a more ideological reason.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/21/marthas-meltdown-model/

Martha’s Vineyard has been all over the news. 

The tony resort community so loves aiding and comforting the undocumented immigrants who were flown in from Florida that it hugged them—for barely 48 hours. 

Oddly, the Left became unhinged when red-state governors—whose states the last two years were flooded with some 3 million illegal aliens—finally decided to spread welcoming chores among affluent blue-state communities. 

It was a natural fit. 

Most, like Washington, D.C., and New York, were on record as sanctuary city jurisdictions. In the abstract, they endorse open borders and celebrate diversity—from the serenity of thousands of miles away. 

The uproar at Martha’s Vineyard prompted the Democratic hierarchy to do some explaining. Why had it not earlier objected to the federal government night flights of tens of thousands of border crossers to red-state communities that had opposed illegal immigration? 

And why be angry with governors who were only emulating that policy by flying in a mere 50 newcomers—in the light of day—to a far wealthier and liberal-minded sanctuary resort?