RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2019/02/16/the-lefts-c

As we bemusedly observe U.S. Representative Adam “Pathfinder” Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, continue to twist in his idiot wind—he now claims Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s general-warrant counterintelligence investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in the 2016 campaign may not prove adequate—we should recall that in the earlier, heady days of the Russiagate weaponized lie, there was this suitably dismissive bit of snark charitably comparing Schiff’s quest for proof of this conspiracy theory with cryptozoologists hunting for the chimeric chupacabra.

In a perspicacious passage, reference was made to Werner Herzog’s “Incident at Loch Ness” where, desperately hoping the creature proves real, a character denounces the skeptics: “Show me one piece of evidence that proves this thing does not exist. They’re saying, ‘show us the evidence.’ I’m saying, ‘Show us the non-evidence.’”

Stumbling ahead to 2019, enter stage Left, Mr. Ken Dilanian, NBC’s national security reporter, for proof life imitates snark. Promoting his February 12 article, he repeatedly tweeted out the story’s headline: “Exclusive: Senate has found no direct proof of conspiracy between Trump campaign, Russia . . . .”

Note the cute use of “direct proof,” which preserves collusion conspiracy theorists’ hope (if not sanity and dignity). There must have been other types of proof uncovered; and, yes, that could lead—no, will lead!—to direct evidence being unearthed by Mueller and others, like the Pathfinder and his pals, to impeach and imprison the treasonous Trump.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/patrick-caddell-1950-2019/

Very sad news just in:

Patrick Caddell, the political pollster who helped send an obscure peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter to the White House, later became disillusioned with fellow Democrats and finally veered to advise supporters of Donald J. Trump, died on Saturday in Charleston, S.C. He was 68. His death, from complications of a stroke, was confirmed by a colleague, Prof. Kendra Stewart of the College of Charleston.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/trump-russia-collusion-investigation-criminalization-policy-disputes/

The word covers every contact between anyone connected to Trump and anyone connected to Russia, with no need to show that a crime was committed.

What a weasel word “collusion” is.

In Washington, Senator Richard Burr (R., N.C.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has now seen fit to pronounce that, after two years of investigation, the panel has found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian regime. Meanwhile, in a nearby courtroom, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s senior staffer, Andrew Weissmann, told a federal judge that an August 2016 meeting between the then-chairman of the Trump campaign and a suspected Russian intelligence officer “goes . . . very much to the heart of what the special counsel is investigating” — which sure sounds like Mueller’s collusion hunt is alive and well.

What gives?

Readers of these columns know that the “collusion” label has been a pet peeve of your humble correspondent since the media-Democratic “Putin hacked the election” narrative followed hard on the declaration of Donald Trump’s victory in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, November 9, 2016.

The reason for the collusion label is obvious. Those peddling the “Putin hacked the election” story have always lacked credible evidence that Trump was complicit in the Kremlin’s “cyber-espionage.” They could not show a criminal conspiracy. Connections between denizens of Trump World and Putin’s circle might be very intriguing, and perhaps even politically scandalous. But only a conspiracy — an agreement by two or more people to commit an actual criminal offense, such as hacking — would be a reasonable basis for prosecution or impeachment.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-mccarthy-mccabe-rosenstein-and-the-real-truth-about-the-25th-amendment-coup-attempt

Ever wonder why people hate lawyers? Consider Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s non-denial denial of his participation in discussions of an attempted coup against the duly elected president of the United States.

The story is being given a second life thanks to the hype surrounding the rollout of a new book by Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI.

McCabe, of course, was fired after an inspector general investigation found that he leaked investigative information and then lied about it. He has been referred to the Justice Department for consideration of a false-statements prosecution.

There is no doubt that, when he was acting FBI director after President Trump’s May 2017 firing of Director James Comey, McCabe huddled with Rosenstein to mull over options for removing the president from office.

But we have known this for six months – ever since The New York Times published its bombshell report. Indeed, at the time, I wrote a column about it for National Review titled “Rod Rosenstein’s Resistance – weasel words, weasel moves from an emotionally overwrought deputy AG eager to ingratiate himself with Democrats.”

In “Jihadist Psychopath,” a vital recently published book the author Dr. Jamie Glazov, reveals the steps by which, “Islamic Supremacists are duplicating the sinister methodology of psychopaths who routinely charm, seduce, capture, and devour their prey.”

Indeed, Islamists now openly admit that a group of Malaysian Islamic scholars have long planned to build a modern-day global Islamic state ruled by Sharia. Once a closely guarded secret, the Islamists have grown emboldened and are hard at work, plotting societal devastation.

Read on, to learn of the instance in which I personally confronted their methodology:

Sharia-supremacist Muslims use innocent-sounding standard interfaith dialogues as a key strategy to destroy Western civilization and install a Caliphate–a global Islamic state ruled by Shari’a law. They openly declare their intent, as they did at New York’s Chautauqua Institution last summer in a seminar I attended with approximately 40 other people.

The Chautauqua “Islam and Sharia” seminar was one of many daily Islamic programs led last summer by Khaled and Sabeeha Rehman. Who are they?

Conn Carrol
Communications Director for Sen Mike Lee (R-UT)

The WH did not make one executive action today. In reality they made three, only one of which involved an emergency declaration.

First, the WH announced they would be funding $601 million in wall construction from the Treasury Forfeiture Fund, relying on 31 U.S.C. § 9705. This does not require an emergency declaration.

Second, the WH announced they would be funding $2.5 billion in wall construction under 10 U.S.C. § 284 (this is MilCon $ for combating drug trafficking). This does not require an emergency declaration.

Finally, the WH announced they would be funding $3.6 billion under 10 U.S.C. § 2808. This money doesrequire an emergency declaration.

According to the WH this money will be spent sequentially so the § 9705 money will be spent first then the § 284 money then the § 2808 money.

So depending on how fast they can begin construction, they will have to spend over $5 billion (including the $1.3 billion in fencing appropriations) before any of the emergency money is ever tapped.

“The “emergency” funds may not be tapped till the other, less controversial funds are depleted. Plaintiffs may not have standing to challenge the diversion of “emergency” funds till those funds are in fact allocated.”

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/02/11/washington_is_missing_a_chance_to_cut_the_federal_workforce_139431.html

Both parties have adopted a mantra of protecting federal employees during the recent government shutdown and ongoing showdown over immigration. Last month, all House Democrats and 29 Republicans voted to increase federal pay by 2.6 percent. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the effort was about “treating federal employees with the respect they deserve and compensating them for the financial stress the Trump-McConnell shutdown has inflicted on them.”

But the reality is federal employees are hardly victims. While it’s true that many are hard-working patriots who could earn significantly more in the private sector, many are not. Still, politicians reflexively defend the status quo out of fear of a political backlash. Their goal is not to protect federal employees or taxpayers, but themselves.

Setting priorities and making smart cuts to lower-priority positions, particularly during a shutdown or crisis, is far more compassionate and responsible than collectively punishing not only all federal employees, but the country and generations that follow.

At OpenTheBooks.com, we’ve documented the bloat in the federal workforce.

Today, there are more than 1.3 million federal employees in administrative agencies who cost taxpayers $114 billion in cash compensation alone. There are more than 91,000 federal employees who out-earn the governor of the state in which they are based. Compensation is so out-of-control that painters, mechanics, electricians, and welders employed by federal agencies now out-earn governors.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/jama-pushes-health-care-rationing/

I believe our would-be technocratic overlords had a two-step plan: First, pass Obamacare to centralize federal control over the health-care system. After that, use the cost-cutting mechanisms embedded into the law to institute health-care rationing, or as Sarah Palin famously called it, to establish “death panels.”

Step one succeeded, but has been blunted by subsequent events, such as removing the individual mandate penalty and the destruction of the Independent Payment Advisory Board.

But that has not impeded the overarching plan. Despite Obamacare’s troubles and in anticipation of “Medicare [really, Medicaid] for All,” rationing is now being brought to the fore in an editorial just published by the highly influential Journal of the American Medical Association. Claiming that rationing is “an inevitable consequence of increasing health care costs,” the JAMA editorial concludes:

Greater rationing of care is inevitable if health care costs continue to increase. Controlling health care costs is the only way to ensure appropriate investment in other areas, such as education, the environment, and infrastructure, and to provide a more equitable, just, and fair distribution of the remarkable health care advances that have been achieved with even more on the horizon.

It has been said many times that in the richest country in the world, in which many of the greatest scientific and medical advances are developed, it is a blight on the US soul that each of its residents does not fully benefit from available health care.

That sounds like forced redistribution of medical resources to me.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/health_care_for_all__affordability_for_none.html

First, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “issued a bold guarantee of affordable health care for every resident,” including the “undocumented,” according to excited news reports. From the Birkenstock Left (Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt.) to the Latte Left, (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez D-Neverland) et. al. came applause. Then, most early Democratic presidential candidates began clamoring for “Medicare for All!”

Why stop there? What about food stamps for all, redeemable not just at Shop-Rite, but Whole Foods, too? Affordable transportation — by bus, subway, Uber or Southwest Airlines (new slogan: “It’s now free to roam around the country”). And housing, rent-controlled from the Bronx to Beverly Hills. All covered by the unalienable right to equality with those who have more.

De Blasio epitomizes today’s reactionary progressives. A Democrat who supported Nicaragua’s repressive Sandinistas and honeymooned in Castro’s repressive Cuba, he more recently has proposed repressing Asians’ access to his city’s best public schools.

De Blasio’s a statist social engineer, like virtually every big-name Democrat. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand and the rest run for president by worshipping at the altar of invasive government. They can because the Left confiscated the vocabulary of humanitarianism as early as the French Revolution’s “liberte, eqalite, fraternite.” Which, of course, delivered anything but.

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2019/02/15/despite_contrary_claims

Is the American Dream attainable for everyone? Conclusions in recent debates in academic and policy circles have been rather pessimistic, and a recent high profile newspaper piece went as far as saying that the American Dream is not for black millennials because so much of it is dependent on owning a house and reaching career milestones. An achievement not really possible for younger blacks in this country according to the author, who based her findings on discussions with a selection of her peers. Her conclusion that the American Dream is unattainable for black millennials Is a most disturbing finding if true.

However, data from a new survey on the American Dream (the American Enterprise Institute’s Social Capital survey) reveal that claims of its demise, especially among black millennials, are overblown.

In the survey, I asked thousands of Americans around the country what factors were essential to the American Dream. While homeownership was important, Americans replied that other factors such as freedom to live as one chooses, and meaningful family relationships were far more important — despite being elements that are not regularly discussed when people think about the American Dream.

The most significant factor in pursuing the Dream according to the survey results is to have the freedom to choose how to live one’s life. This is the case for the population as a whole, of which 86% believes that freedom of choice is essential for the realization of the American Dream. It is also the case for 83% of millennials — those born between 1981 and 1996. Breaking the findings down along racial lines, 86% of whites favor freedom of choice, while other groups are in the high-seventieth percentile range. Additionally, 83% of millennials (79% of black and 80% of white millennials) believe that a good family life is essential to the Dream. These minor percentage differences call into serious question the popular racial disparity stories.