Ruminations – 16oct19 (updated 18oct19)

George Rebane

Your choice always depends on the available alternatives, and available alternatives change.  That’s the realworld.

Fake news from the lamestream is a torrent and promises to become a tsunami as the election season swings into high gear.  CNN gives another egregious example of reporting exactly the opposite state of US military’s munitions stockpile (as stated by Trump), claiming its depleted state as they ignore their own solicited facts which contradict their TDS narrative (more here).  I would like our leftwingers to provide some balance here and show how a flagship conservative outlet reciprocates such reporting.

The Biden scandal pot is boiling over to include a slate of Democrat senators who have benefited from the Ukrainian deal which the then VP Biden was material in setting up.  The progressives keep piping that there was no corruption under Obama as the list of sins keeps growing.  Trump’s alleged wrongdoings are a trifle to the kind of foreign interference Ukraine bought and paid for during 2009-16.  Here is a snootful of the dirt as reported by FN’s Steve Hilton.

Biden’s kid gets rich on his dad’s name and job – that is the incontrovertible evidence.  Trump’s kids don’t get paid a dime and made their money in the family business before dad got to be president.  The most butt stupid arguments that Democrats are laying on their light thinkers is that Trump is willing to take political risks just for the sake of making some chump change.  And by God, it’s working; out there and in these pages they’re dumb enough to believe that tripe.

[18oct19 update]  Sens Sanders and Warren are the leading proponents of two new progressive economy busting programs.  First, Sanders' single payer Medicare for All (M4A) is a bill in Congress to establish that national healthcare program.  That there is no economically feasible way to pay for M4A was demonstrated in the 2018 study by Dr Charles Blahous of the Mercatus Center.  This analysis and finding has not been refuted, but it has been suppressed by the lamestream.  Then there’s the hokum from Sen ‘I got a plan’ Warren on her redo of Social Security which is another disaster for America that is again spelled out by Blahous in his recent ‘The Fallacies Underlying the Warren Social Security Plan’. 

‘San Francisco values’ are toxic to all who are subjected to them – now also encroaching on Nevada County.  SF’s progressive regulatory environment has now begun annihilating its restaurants which formerly did much to give the city its charm before the days of needles and feces.  “Labor costs and regulation are ruining a once-thriving industry. Congress should take it as a cautionary tale.”  The evidence just piles on that whatever progressives touch, eventually turns to shit (more here).

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to be journalists.

The "make Elizabeth warren say she would raise taxes on the middle class" question should be a credibility killer. For the journalists who keep asking it.——James Rosen

https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/17/whatever-you-do-dont-send-your-kids-to-j-school/

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/pj-gladnick/2019/10/16/journalists-upset-warren-asked-about-medicare-all-taxes

[Don Bessee]

Schiff for brains hoax narrative is unraveling and fast -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/17/ex-ukraine-envoy-testifies-i-was-never-asked-to-do-anything-wrong/

What Mulvaney actually said was that the Trump administration had initially withheld funding from Ukraine for a variety of reasons, including the fact that Europe was not providing enough funding for military aid. Another reason, he said, was suspicion of past corruption in Ukraine — which included Ukraine’s possible role in interfering in the 2016 presidential election, including its possible possession of a Democratic National Committee server.

Mulvaney said: “The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the things [President Trump] was worried about in corruption with that nation. That is absolutely appropriate.”

When a reporter said that was a “quid pro quo,” Mulvaney objected that it was routine for the U.S. to withhold funding from foreign nations all the time. He gave an example from this week: the U.S. had withheld aid from the “Northern Triangle” nations — El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala — until they agreed to help stop migration.

Mulvaney later added: “The money held up had absolutely nothing to do with Biden.”
When another reporter used the term “quid pro quo,” Mulvaney objected:

Those are the terms you use. Go look at what [U.S. Ambassador to the European Union] Gordon Sondland said today in his testimony — was that, I think, in his opening statement — he said something along the lines of, they were trying to get the “deliverable,” and the deliverable was a statement by the Ukraine about how they were going to deal with corruption. Okay? Go read his testimony, if you haven’t already. And what he says, and he’s right, that’s absolutely ordinary course of business. This is what you do. When you have someone come to the White House — when you either arrange a visit for the president, you have a phone call with the president — a lot of times we use that as the opportunity to get them to make a statement of their policy, or to announce something that they are going to do. It’s one of the reasons you can sort of announce that on the phone call or at the meeting. This is the ordinary course of foreign policy.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/10/17/cnn-claims-white-house-admits-to-quid-pro-quo/

Itinerary for a trip to Ukraine in August organized by the Atlantic Council think tank reveals that a staffer on Rep. Adam Schiff’s House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a meeting during the trip with acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor, now a key witness for Democrats pursuing impeachment.

The Atlantic Council is funded by and works in partnership with Burisma, the natural gas company at the center of allegations regarding Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/17/document-adam-schiff-staffer-met-impeachment-witness-ukraine-trip/

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/17/ex-ukraine-envoy-testifies-i-was-never-asked-to-do-anything-wrong/

;-)

[Robert Cross]

In the "rats deserting the ship" category: Sec. of Energy Rick "three amigos' Perry who, along with little Rudy G in deep into the Ukraine scandal in some way or another will resign. He faces a deadline Friday to comply with a congressional subpoena as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry.

[Todd Juvinall]

No formal impeachment vote then no legal responsibility to honor a fake subpoena.

[Don Bessee]

That's pretty schiffty trying to demand a false answer even after being told it was not that way -

In a secret interview, Rep. Adam Schiff, leader of the House Democratic effort to impeach President Trump, pressed former United States special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker to testify that Ukrainian officials felt pressured to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter as a result of Trump withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Volker denied that was the case, noting that Ukrainian leaders did not even know the aid was being withheld and that they believed their relationship with the U.S. was moving along satisfactorily, without them having done anything Trump mentioned in his notorious July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

When Volker repeatedly declined to agree to Schiff’s characterization of events, Schiff said, “Ambassador, you’re making this much more complicated than it has to be.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/17/report-adam-schiff-pressured-diplomat-to-back-whistleblower-narrative-in-impeachment-testimony/

;-)

[George Rebane]

DonB - Bless you my son. You are among the leaders in these comment streams who consistently deliver thoughtful in-depth responses to the Left's unsupported allegations. And the Left has no better reply than maintaining that RR readers just post radical opinions that have no evidence or support to back them. I challenge this cadre of light thinkers to point to ANY other blog hereabouts that takes our national issues as seriously and discusses/dissects in depth in the presence of a constant and withstanding progressive prattle. Keep up the good work, our readers appreciate your contributions.

[Bill Tozer]

Don, have you seen this??

The House and Senate both passed a bill that required the DNI to look into the origins of the 2016 Russian interference in our elections before sanctions are lifted. That is exactly what Trump is doing with our DOJ, Barr, and point man Durham looking into any criminal activity and foreign influence. It is most appropriate for the President to ask for the cooperation of the Italians, the Australians, the British, the Ukrainians, and whomever as our Justice Department seeks to get at the root of the 2016 election interference in our sacred elections.

We know that the Ukrainian government and associates did interfere in our 2016 election at the behest of the Obama Administration, the previous State Department, the DNC, Democrats, and in particular, one Hillary Rodham Clinton, aka, The Wicked Witch of the West.
The investigation into election interference by enemies of our Constitution (both foreign and domestic) has been publicly announced by our DOJ for many months now. Let the chips fall where they may.

O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive......

“Democrat-Controlled House Passed Bill with ‘Quid Pro Quo’ on Election Interference”

“Democrats and the media cried foul Thursday when acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney argued that it was “appropriate” for the president to withhold funds from Ukraine until it investigated possible interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“But the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in September that imposes restrictions on transactions with Russia until it had been cleared of election interference.

“The House bill amended an earlier Senate bill — S. 1790, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020” — that required the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to investigate possible Russian interference in elections.“

“In the House version, all “United States persons” are prohibited “from engaging in transactions with, providing financing for, or in any other way dealing in Russian sovereign debt” after a certain date. That prohibition is lifted after the DNI can certify, within a certain timeframe, that “neither the Government of Russia, nor any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of that government, has knowingly engaged in interference in the most recent election for Federal office”; and after “Congress has passed a joint resolution certifying the determination” of the DNI.

“In other words, the Democrat-controlled House would suspend transactions — both public and private — with Russia’s government until the U.S. can be satisfied that Russia had not interfered with the most recent federal election.

“That is exactly what Mulvaney said Trump had wanted Ukraine to show, as part of its commitment to fighting corruption — namely, that it was not involved in documented efforts by the Democratic National Committee to use Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

“Mulvaney said: “The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the things [President Trump] was worried about in corruption with that nation. That is absolutely appropriate.”

“To Democrats and the media, it was a “quid pro quo” — and grounds for impeachment.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/17/democrat-controlled-house-passed-bill-with-quid-pro-quo-on-election-interference/

BOTTOMLINE: No way, no how do the Dems and the media organs want ANY investigation into Ukraine or Barrack Hussein Obama. Big no-no. Do not go there, must not go there, you are not allowed to go there!
LOOK over there at the Bad Orange Man, aka, the Traitor, aka, Putin’s Puppet! Traitor! Look at Trump, not us!!
It’s a race against time. Barr vs the Democrat Deep State Swamp. Clock is ticking.

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Fakenews opening up the floodgates.

“Thanks to the lack of daylight between journalists and Democrats, most cable news broadcasts have begun to sound like de facto DNC press conferences. It’s anybody’s guess why Pelosi hasn’t just hired somebody at CNN or MSNBC to do her public speaking for her.”

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2019/10/17/no-more-pretense-journalists-dems-use-identical-talking-points

[Bill Tozer]

Trump at his best when schooling the Industrial Democrat Media Complex. Good video.

TRUMP HITS ABC: ‘YOU SHOULDN’T BE SHOWING BUILDINGS BLOWING UP IN KY. AND SAYING IT’S IN SYRIA’
‘That is fake news’‘

https://news.grabien.com/story-trump-hits-abc-news-you-should-not-be-showing-buildings-show

[Biguns]

,,,Gosh!!! I read the CNN article on "ammunition shortages" and it sounds reasonable. Daily Signal goes into the weeds over PGMs. The CNN article talks in more general terms. Daily Signal bias at work?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/politics/trump-munitions-shortage-fact-check/index.html

[Biguns]

,,,Gosh!!! Are they the dastardly deeds Biden's son was involved with???

"Directs the Secretary and the Secretary of Energy (DOE) to work with Ukrainian officials to develop an emergency energy assistance plan to help Ukraine address the potentially severe heating fuel and electricity shortages facing Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

Directs the Secretary to work with Ukrainian officials to increase energy security by helping Ukraine reduce its dependence on natural gas imported from the Russian Federation. Authorizes FY2016-FY2018 appropriations for such activities."

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2828

[Biguns]

,,,Gosh!!! Good to know that no Trump family member will benefit in any way now, or in the future, from Trump's Doral G7 meeting, or any other Trump related businesses here or in Turkey or elsewhere,,,like Ireland or Scotland.

And, of course, no Trump owns stock or ownership in any Trump related businesses.

[Don Bessee]

More narrative fail -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/18/donald-trump-state-department-official-excoriated-hunter-bidens-position-in-ukraine/

;-)

[Don Bessee]

Despite the whole deep swamp the people are starting to get it, bad news for the socialist dem clown car in 2020 -

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/18/rasmussen-51-voters-suspect-high-level-crimes-stop-trump-presidency/

;-)

[Walt]

Same game, different target.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/18/tulsi-gabbard-rips-hillary-clinton-queen-of-warmongers/

So now there is a new Russian agent on the block.

That old bat Clinton sees Russians everywhere.

[Bill Tozer]

“Same game, different target”... Politico, 1/2017

“Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

“A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

“At the time, Leshchenko suggested that his motivation was partly to undermine Trump. “For me, it was important to show not only the corruption aspect, but that he is [a] pro-Russian candidate who can break the geopolitical balance in the world,” Leshchenko told the Financial Times about two weeks after his news conference. The newspaper noted that Trump’s candidacy had spurred “Kiev’s wider political leadership to do something they would never have attempted before: intervene, however indirectly, in a U.S. election,” and the story quoted Leshchenko asserting that the majority of Ukraine’s politicians are “on Hillary Clinton’s side.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446

[Walt]

Utah has given us a couple of real "winners". Take India over U.S. workers? He can kiss my hairy a**.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/18/sen-mike-lee-indias-visa-workers-keep-pushing-senators-approve-green-card-giveaway/
"A GOP Senator met with more than 100 Indian contract workers in Congress and publicly urged them to lobby U.S. Senators for passage of his legislation to give citizenship to more Indian workers who push middle-class Americans out of college-graduate jobs."

[Walt]

Hillary runs for the hills. Gabby is bitch pissed, and rightly so.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/18/hillary-clinton-ditches-event-featuring-tulsi-gabbard-kirstjen-nielsen/

[Barry Pruett]

Maybe I should trademark the phrase “San Francisco values.” 😉

[George Rebane]

BarryP 825am - And here I thought all along that the FUE in his blog was the first to use 'SF values' to brag about progressive progress in that city. Did he get that from you?

[Barry Pruett]

Oh yes. I talked about the San Francisco values of Greg Diaz during the KNCO debate in 2010. Pelline loves that line. SFV definitely has some great and fond memories. 😂

[Bill Tozer]

About that phone call.....Readers Digest version.

“There is a certain irony here: for three years, we have been told that investigating foreign interference in the 2016 election is of paramount importance. Now, it apparently is an impeachable offense.”

The Politico article goes on to identify a highly-paid consultant to the Democratic National Committee who is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, who apparently played a key role in propagating the Russia collusion hoax.

Along with the general topic of Ukrainian election meddling, President Trump mentioned Crowdstrike, the firm that investigated the intrusion into the DNC’s email server, and the report that that server somehow came to rest in Ukraine after the Democrats refused to turn it over to the FBI. Is this true? I have no idea. Recent news reports have described this as a “debunked” theory, but nowadays “debunked” often just means denied by a Democrat. (This is the sense in which the assertion that Ilhan Omar married her brother is often referred to in the press as “debunked.”)

All of this is a good reminder of how appropriate President Trump’s request for a favor from President Zelensky was.“

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/10/what-trump-asked-ukraine-to-investigate.php

[Bill Tozer]

SFVs are like an elephant with diarrhea. It’s all over town.

https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPost/photos/a.82108390913/10156678619135914/?

[Bill Tozer]

“So there it is: money and power.

“As George Orwell once wrote, “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

“These days, Orwell’s adage seems the very definition of progressive education.

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/public-schools-tearing-human-minds-pieces

[Bill Tozer]

Hate to waste this fine article here, but what the hay.

“Then there’s the role of culture. To be clear, culture not only includes customs, values, and attitudes, but also skills and talents that more directly affect economic outcomes. Those with a unique culture often take it with them wherever they live. However, critics of cultural influences have long downplayed the role of culture in the enrichment of once-impoverished immigrant groups. Take Lebanese and Chinese Americans, for example.......

“Geographic determinism, personal responsibility, family structure, and culture work in tandem to explain differences in outcomes. Recall Raj Chetty, whose research found a correlation between neighbourhoods and economic mobility. His study turned up only one other local characteristic that rivalled social capital in boosting social mobility: two-parent households. However, it isn’t enough just to live in a two-parent household. If you grow up amid intact families, the American Dream is alive and well. Indeed, the proliferation of intact families in a neighbourhood serves to increase social capital.

Furthermore, the social capital which underpins geographic determinism is ultimately a consequence of the culture of a neighbourhood. These values influence the decisions made by those living in the neighbourhood. These decisions then feed into family structure, ultimately reinforcing the neighbourhood’s culture while preserving social capital.

All of this is to say, each of these factors are connected. On their own, they can only explain part of why group outcomes differ. But together, they paint a clearer picture than the one drawn by the adherents of white privilege.

These factors are less thrilling than blaming a specific racial group. If we want to feel the satisfaction of directing blame while enhancing in-group solidarity, then invoking white privilege is not a bad strategy. “White privilege” gives you a simple answer and a clear enemy. But if we truly want to understand and mitigate group differences, then taking a closer look at the data is a far better approach.

https://quillette.com/2019/10/16/why-white-privilege-is-wrong-part-2/

[Bill Tozer]

Opps. My apologies to Dr. Rebane. The above comment should have been under the post “From Racism to Culturalism”

[Bill Tozer]

Re: San Fransisco values are toxic to All? Not the law breakers!

The good thing about Frisco Values is they do not have any R’s finger prints on it. Not one. The SFV crowd owns it all. It’s all theirs-lock, stock, and barrel.

“Simply put, the latest effort to grant noncitizens representative power in our country is a war on democracy – a word that many on the left have watered down to stand for little more than “good things I like.”

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/californias-war-citizenship

[Don Bessee]

While schiff for brains is flailing in the capitol basement in the real world the jig is up on team 0's attempted coup and it involves those trips by the AG and his pit bull investigator -

U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's 2016 Russia probe has expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.

The sources said Durham was "very interested" to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea.

The two Obama administration officials were at the helm when the unverified and largely discredited Steele dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page.

In Italy, Barr reportedly told embassy officials he "needed a conference room to meet high-level Italian security agents where he could be sure no one was listening in."

A source in the Italian Ministry of Justice told The Daily Beast that Barr and Durham were played a taped deposition made by Joseph Mifsud, the professor who allegedly told ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. Mifsud reportedly was explaining to authorities in the deposition why people would want to harm him, and why he needed police protection.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/john-durham-investigation-possible-fbi-misconduct-expanded-new-evidence-sources

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Re: Fakenews I from the lamestream is a torrent of...of crickets. H/T to Brother Walt.

“A Congressional GOP source told The Daily Wire: “The mainstream media has a blackout on this story, which is amusing.”

“The press typically loves politicians embroiled in sex scandals,” the source added. “But the perpetrator is a Democrat in a swing district, so the press will pretend like there’s nothing to see here.”

In RedState’s initial report, the publication reported on allegations that Hill was having an affair with her legislative director, Graham Kelly.

Roll Call reported in February 2018 that the then-Republican House majority passed new rules prohibiting sexual relationships between members of Congress and their congressional offices.

Roll Call reported:

In the wake of high-profile resignations over sexual harassment claims, the House on Tuesday approved sweeping changes to its internal rules intended to protect staffers, including a prohibition on sexual relationships between members and their aides.
“If Congresswoman Hill is engaged in a romantic relationship with one of her paid staffers, that is a clear-cut ethics violation,” a senior congressional staffer told Breitbart News. “These rules are in place to ensure Congress is a workplace free from abuse and sexual misconduct. The reports paint a troubling pattern that deserve a full investigation.”

“Hill’s only response to this scandal came today in a Politico article where she portrayed herself as being the victim of the entire ordeal.“

https://www.redstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Brushing-Hair-Blur-Watermark-1.jpg

[Walt]

Emery should have PLENTY to say about the Bill,, you know,, how he gets all steamed about Trump's supposed one night stand.
Here ,, it was a staffer, and "friends"!
Or is it back to "it's just sex" like with Bubba.
We know how the LIBs get when it's their own busted in bedroom gymnastics.

[Bill Tozer]

R/e: Fake news picking up steam

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/10/you-cant-mock-the-post-enough.php