RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-marx-brother-11560363050

Having parted ways with some non-Marxists who managed to infiltrate his 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders will attempt to clarify this afternoon that he is not like other candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in 2020. Edward-Isaac Dovere notes in the Atlantic that Mr. Sanders will be speaking in Washington this afternoon on “How Democratic Socialism Is the Only Way to Defeat Oligarchy and Authoritarianism.” Mr. Dovere reports that the speech topic is sparking laughter among Democratic rivals as Mr. Sanders “leans into socialism.” Adds Mr. Dovere:

Aides say the D.C. setting is an attempt to convey his seriousness on the subject. They want this to be a major signpost in his 2020 campaign, an opportunity for Sanders to lay out why he’s running with an argument no one else can or would make as forcefully, and to dare the rest of the field to oppose him. They believe this speech has the potential to re-center the dynamics of the race around him, and that the other candidates will regret any of their laughter and questioning…

Many readers may find it laughable that Mr. Sanders would attempt to position himself even further to the left than he did in 2016. But as a Journal editorial noted in April, there’s nothing funny about the extreme commentary from people who are now members of the Sanders 2020 operation. For example, current Sanders speechwriter David Sirota once wrote an op-ed titled “Hugo Chávez’s Economic Miracle”. And Mr. Sirota isn’t the only Sandernista who has lauded the Chavistas. Assessing the current Sanders team, the Journal observed:

Voters need to understand that they don’t merely admire Venezuela. By their own words, they want America to emulate it.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/marcia-fudge-reads-constituent-le

Representative Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio) took to the House floor on Tuesday to share a constituent’s opinion that supporters of President Trump are “racist” and “just plain dumb.”

Addressing her colleagues during the House’s “Morning Hour,” in which lawmakers can speak for five minutes about a topic of their own choosing, Fudge read a letter written by Reverend Ronald Williams, the pastor of Mount Zion Fellowship in Highland Hills, Ohio, which cites a single political debate Williams recently had to disparage Trump supporters as a collective.

“It is glaringly apparent that many who support the present administration are either racist, steeped in religious beliefs, ignorant, or as my mother used to say just plain dumb,” Williams wrote. “They have chosen to support a president who has a proven record of being sexually condescending to women, will not oppose the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate organizations, is indecisive, condescending to anyone who challenges him, and hides behind his Twitter account rather than dealing with the real issues in our country and around the world. To put icing on this cake, he’s a proven liar.”

Williams goes on to argue that Trump’s election proves American democracy no longer exists, before questioning the religious convictions of “so-called Evangelicals” and chastising congressional Republicans for becoming a “Trump cult.”

After Fudge read Williams’s missive aloud, fellow Democrat Marc Veasey scolded her for relying on someone else’s words to impugn the character of the president.

http://www.startribune.com/ilhan-omar-s-credibility-takes-another-hit/511152612/

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is back in the news again, and not in a good way. The former state representative who won a seat in Congress last fall continues to be dogged by past missteps, this time eight violations of Minnesota campaign-finance law that will cost her nearly $3,500 in reimbursements and civil penalties.

So complex were the allegations that the state Campaign Finance Board spent nearly a year assessing the case, deposing staff people and former staff people, along with Omar herself. The investigation was broadened in October — just a month before her election to Congress — to look more deeply into the allegations. Board Executive Director Jeff Sigurdson said that between six and eight people were deposed separately.

In an October 2018 editorial, we called on Omar to more fully explain her travel and other expenses. We noted that the allegations “suggest a pattern of carelessness and/or self-dealing with legally restricted funds. Neither conclusion inspires the confidence voters deserve to have in someone they send to the U.S. House to represent them.”

It is even more disturbing, therefore, to learn that among the board’s latest findings was a troubling discovery that is far beyond its jurisdiction, but worthy of greater scrutiny nevertheless. Omar, for two years running, filed joint tax returns with a man she was living with but not legally married to. Complicating matters further, she was legally married to another man at the time.

https://thefederalist.com/2019/06/11/watch-corrupt-watergate-fossil-john-dean-get-obliterated-anti-trump-hearing/ 

“Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

….No Obstruction. The Dems were devastated – after all this time and money spent ($40,000,000), the Mueller Report was a disaster for them. But they want a Redo, or Do Over. They are even bringing in @CNN sleazebag attorney John Dean. Sorry, no Do Overs – Go back to work!”

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday, Democrats hauled in a former White House counsel to Richard Nixon, John Dean, to testify on obstruction of justice as they pursue impeachment of Donald Trump. Republican members of Congress criticized Dean, a CNN contributor and author, who is often called on to compare the Russia investigation (or anything Democrats don’t like) to Watergate.

Just as Democrats had hoped, Dean testified on the “remarkable parallels” between Watergate and the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. In fact, Dean, a convicted felon, has repeatedly charged that past Republican presidencies, including Reagan, Bush, and now Trump, are “worse than Watergate.” Dean argued that “events in both 1972 and 2016 resulted in obstruction of the investigations.”

During Monday’s hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz called out Dean’s unoriginal claims, and noted his appearance as a “prop.”

“Mr. Dean has made a cottage industry out of accusing presidents of acting like Richard Nixon. I would like to know how much money he makes based on making these accusations and exploiting them for his own economic benefit,” Gaetz said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kirsten-gillibrand-compares-pro-life-beliefs-to-racism-not-acceptable

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., compared pro-life beliefs to racism and suggested the pro-life viewpoint is “not acceptable” during an interview with the Des Moines Register.

Gillibrand’s comments came in response to a question about if having a litmus test for judicial nominees would threaten judicial independence. The senator has promised to only appoint justices who would uphold Roe v. Wade.

“I think there’s some issues that have such moral clarity that we have as a society decided that the other side is not acceptable. Imagine saying that it’s okay to appoint a judge who’s racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic. Asking someone to appoint someone who takes away basic human rights of any group of people in America—I don’t think that those are political issues anymore,” Gillibrand said.”And we believe in this country in the separation of church and state, and I respect the rights of every American to hold their religious beliefs true to themselves, but our country and our Constitution has always demanded that we have a separation of church and state,” Gillibrand continued

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jim-jordan-john-dean-hearing-donald-trump

The House Judiciary Committee hearing that featured witness John Dean may not have accomplished anything substantive but was likely meant to hurt the president.

House Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan made the claim Monday on “The Ingraham Angle,” telling host Laura Ingraham the hearing was part of a “pattern.”

“I don’t know if they accomplished anything, but this is their pattern,” Rep. Jordan, R-Ohio, claimed.

He pointed back to January, noting one of the first witnesses on Capitol Hill was former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

“Their first announced witness was Michael Cohen. The guy went to prison for lying to Congress,” Jordan said. “Then they bring in John Dean to talk about obstruction of justice, and of course John Dean pled guilty to obstruction of justice.

“This is just their pattern and it’s all about them trying to get the president.”

https://amgreatness.com/2019/06/10/2020-has-echoes-of-1996-for-the-opposition-party/

The Democrats have assembled a field of candidates for 2020 as large as it is unimpressive. From the slick Robert “Beto” O’Rourke and the media creation Kamala Harris to the Woodie Guthrie wannabe Bernie Sanders, to the fake folksy chameleon Joe Biden, it’s amazing such a large group of candidates is collectively so devoid of charisma, intellect, or interesting ideas.

I’ve loathed the Democratic Party since junior high school, but even I could recognize the common touch of Bill Clinton and the cool, disciplined demeanor of Barack Obama. Hell, even Hillary Clinton was obviously bright, though so haughty and mechanical that she lost an election she was supposed to win.

It is telling that the best the Democrats of 2020 can come up with is the slippery retread Biden, whose 1987 run for the presidency ended in disgrace news broke of his plagiarism. He and the rest of the bunch are not exactly the stuff dreams are made of, even with the demographic tail winds that spell disaster for the Republican Party and the republic before long.

The Electorate Is Similar to Past Elections
In spite of the changes to the country’s population, the electorate is a lagging indicator. While the country has been rearranged with a mass influx of foreigners, their ability to vote takes some time, as mere presence and even legal residence does not equate to citizenship.

Indeed, misunderstanding the persistence and importance of legacy America had much to do with the Democrats’ failures in 2016. They thought the coalition of the ascendant would take them over the finish line. They learned instead that lots of Americans were sick of being force-fed nonsense about transgenderism and being bullied about “white privilege,” as they struggled to maintain a middle-class existence.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/06/eric_swalwell_mounts_a_strong_effort_to_take_the_crown_as_the_most_pathetic_entrant_in_the_democrats_presidential_field.html

The expression “clown car” is frequently used to describe the crowded field of Democrats running for the presidency. But it is appropriate not just to denote the crowding, but also the behavior of some of the members of the field.  Yesterday, it looked to me as though it would be hard to top the efforts of Kirsten Gillibrand to ingratiate herself with the patrons of a gay bar in Des Moines by chugging shots and getting jiggy.

But Eric Swalwell, the Bay Area congressman who unsuccessfully tried to ride charges of “treason” against President Trump to fame and fortune, is making a strong effort to surpass her. The weekend before last, he tried changing an unnamed but presumably his baby’s diapers on video, only to see that it was inadequate to rocket him up the rankings of presidential contenders beyond too-low-to-round-upward-to-one-percent.

So, in the last few days, he managed to beclown himself not once, but twice.

Watch as he gives such an inane answer to a serious question by S. E. Cupp on CNN on his signature issue – why, if he’s serious about gun violence, is he focused on assault weapons that only account for a tiny percentage of deaths:

“I’ll just say assault weapons are a small percentage of gn violence deaths, but when you talk to a child in a classroom today, 100% of their fear is an assault weapon coming into their classroom…”  (hat tip: The Right Scoop)