July 13-16, 2017
Jul 13 01:02 Anthony Rendon vs. the violent left Jul 13 10:23 Rep. McCotter & the Pathfinder Jul 13 12:35 Sen. Donnelly's major Mexican mistake Jul 13 15:15 Will Mueller rescue Jim Comey? Jul 13 19:03 DC Echochamber's euphemisms Jul 14 08:45 Fighting Edina's indoctrination Jul 14 10:01 Minnesota's political realignment Jul 16 08:41 Jesus & the ACA, aka Obamacare
Prior Months: Jan Feb ~ May Jun
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Anthony Rendon vs. the violent left
This article makes me question whether Democrats are dividing themselves into self-destructing camps. According to the article, "The rancor, a spillover from the contentious Democratic presidential primary last year, is aggravating divisions in a state regarded nationally as a lodestar for the liberal cause. Establishment Democrats fear the rhetoric and appetite for new spending could go too far, jeopardizing the party's across-the-board dominance of state politics."
That's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. According to the article, "when Rendon announced that he would not allow a single-payer health care bill to advance through California's lower house, tempers boiled over.
The California Nurses Association and other single-payer advocates descended on the Capitol, waving signs with Rendon's name printed on a knife buried in the back of the California bear. Sanders himself admonished Rendon , and the nurses union said it planned to air radio ads targeting the Democratic speaker."
The fight didn't stop there:
'Corporate Dems: Don't underestimate grassroots taking action on #SinglePayer,' RoseAnn DeMoro, head of the nurses union, said on Twitter.
This video highlights how heated the fight between Berniecrats and moderates has become:
RoseAnn DeMoro, the president of the California Nurses' Union, tweeted out this picture of Speaker Anthony Rendon:
Anyone that's paid attention to the news this past month and doesn't think that the left is capable of unspeakable violence isn't thinking things through. There's a significant division between the establishment and the Resistance.
Paul Song, a California physician and former chairman of the progressive Courage Campaign, said of establishment Democrats, "Whether it be single payer, whether it be [campaign finance] : whether it be now moving forward on environmental issues, I think it's a much more energized, aggressive base that I don't think they've ever faced before."
The thing that this article didn't talk much about, though, was whether Democrats would descend into intraparty violence. I'm not ruling it out. The MoveOn activists hate the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) activists.
There's no reason to think that this fight will end anytime soon. Think of the MoveOn activists as representing Obama and the DLC representing the Clintons. There's clearly no love lost between those dynasties.
Posted Thursday, July 13, 2017 1:02 AM
Comment 1 by JerryE9 at 13-Jul-17 08:16 AM
Unfortunately we have seen this scene before, though admittedly less violent and somewhat less unhinged. Democrats squabble fiercely among themselves, until election time comes, then everybody marches together into the polls and votes Democrat. THEY understand that without political power they have nothing.
Comment 2 by LadyLogician at 13-Jul-17 01:38 PM
Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you Jerry. However, given the anger that the grass roots activists have toward the DNC because of how they handled the last election, I can see a major fissure in that support. Sander's supporters would just as soon "Bern" the DNC down and start all over again.
LL
Rep. McCotter & the Pathfinder
It's been too long since I've heard from Rep. Thad McCotter. He was one of my favorite congressmen because he was a thinker with a sense of humor. Thanks to this article , McCotter is back better than ever.
Whenever Rep. Adam Schiff, (D-CA), would get in front of a microphone, which felt like 4-6 times a day, he'd talk about President Trump's collusion with Russia. Each time he'd do that, I thought Rep. Schiff was just attempting to keep that fake story going. I thought that the Agenda Media, aka the MSM, dutifully picked up this BS to maintain their good standing as a member of the Democratic Party. The truth is I'm still certain the MSM willingly provides irresponsible coverage of this nonstory.
Let's be clear about this. The Trump administration and the Trump family haven't handled this well. They haven't made the best decisions. That being said, there's no proof that they've committed any crimes. But I digress. McCotter has an interesting take on what's driving Schiff's media appearances:
My radio colleague John Batchelor has pegged U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-NY) as 'the Pathfinder.' The reason being that, as ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff has been most vocal and visible in trying to divine the truth behind the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia - and, in a fortuitous confluence of circumstances for Schiff, find a path to taking Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat.
Suffice it to say that Rep. McCotter isn't impressed with Rep. Schiff:
Thanks to the tender mercies of his friends in the media elite, Schiff's failure to produce any shred of evidence regarding collusion - let alone a crime - has not proven problematic for the Pathfinder. Obviously, the media elite dislikes the president and will brook no facts - or the absence thereof - from getting in the way of a good smearing. The Pathfinder facilitates this mutually advantageous, tawdry political theater by ascribing the 'appearance' of the most insidious motivations and actions to President Trump and his campaign in relation to Putin's Russia; then artfully dodging his lack of evidence with the limp two-step, 'I'd love to tell you more, but it's classified.'
And how the Left-wing applauds and approves! For the media elite, ratings, circulation and 'clicks' soar; and the Pathfinder treks ever closer to his coveted senate seat. Yes, their off-Broadway/on-Beltway production of 'Trump Done It (Whatever It Was)?' is the smash hit of the post-Obama season.
Whether it's Susan Page, Julie Pace or Mara Liasson, they keep saying that, unfortunately for the Trump administration, this story isn't going away.
What they're really saying is that the liberal media elites, like themselves, aren't willing to let go of this juicy clickbait of a non-scandal. Let's be clear about this. The media wing of the Democratic Party is perfectly content to ignore the lack of proof to further the Democrats' agenda. The bad news for Democrats is that the people don't trust the media because they're convinced that the MSM is dishonest and hyper-partisan.
Ergo, in the real world, the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia or the president's attempts to 'obstruct' justice. Sadly for them, Pathfinder Schiff, the Left and their colluders in the media elite have concocted a kitchen sink thriller with a villain - President Trump - and with no plot to pin on him. Russia-gate isn't a scripted play as much a fundraising dinner theater of the absurd wherein the Democratic Party and the media elite's Trump Derangement Syndrome is passed off as performance art.
Fortunately, for the future of our free republic (and dinner theater everywhere), the nonpartisan public isn't buying tickets.
While some people are buying tickets, those who aren't on the left aren't.
Posted Thursday, July 13, 2017 10:23 AM
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Sen. Donnelly's major Mexican mistake
According to this article , one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the U.S. Senate was caught acting like a corrupt, two-faced politician. According to the AP's article, "An Indiana senator railed against Carrier Corp. for moving manufacturing jobs to Mexico last year, even as he profited from a family business that relies on Mexican labor to produce dye for ink pads, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press."
What's worse is that Peter Hanscom, his campaign manager issued one of the shoddiest statements in recent political history when he said "Joe is proud to support good companies that create quality Hoosier jobs, including Stewart Superior. Throughout his career, Joe Donnelly has always fought for a level playing field for the American worker, including a renegotiation of NAFTA, and he will continue to do so."
Let's rewrite that statement so that it's honest. To be honest, it should say "Throughout his career, Joe Donnelly has frequently fought for a level playing field for the American worker, including a renegotiation of NAFTA, and he will continue to do so."
Sen. Donnelly might have substantial union support but he doesn't have their support on this.
'What you are creating is poverty, because the jobs they are creating are very poor jobs. You have very poor salaries. You have poor quality of life. It's not good for America and it's not good for Mexico,' said Ruelas-Gossi, a critic of these types of policies who has taught at the University of Miami School of Business and has written about Latin trade issues for Harvard Business Review.
Sen. Donnelly's uphill fight just got a little steeper.
Posted Thursday, July 13, 2017 12:35 PM
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Will Mueller rescue Jim Comey?
Gregg Jarrett's op-ed asks an interesting ethical question of former FBI Director Mueller. Jarrett first noted that the Hill reported that "Comey authored seven memorandums reflecting the contents of his conversations with President Trump and that four of the memos 'have been determined to contain classified information.'"
Later, Jarrett made the observation that "If this is true and Comey kept these documents in his personal possession upon leaving government service and conveyed some of them to another individual without authorization, then it would appear that he committed multiple felonies under the Espionage Act." Jarrett didn't say that Comey had "committed multiple felonies under the Espionage Act." Jarrett said Comey might've done that. In other words, he didn't sound like a Democrat asserting that Trump had committed treason.
Another point Jarrett made was that "All of his memos are, unquestionably, government property under the Federal Records Act and the FBI's own Records Management regulations. They were composed by him in the course and scope of his employment as the Director of the FBI. In meeting with President Trump, Comey was not acting as a private citizen. Both Congress and the FBI agree on this obvious point."
What's most interesting, though, is these questions:
How can Mueller discharge his responsibilities in a fair, objective and impartial manner? Will the mentor investigate and, if warranted, prosecute his protege?
This is a charade that only DC insiders would think passes the smell test. Outsiders already think that the fix is in and that Comey will skate.
Let's get serious about something. Comey's documents weren't private documents. They weren't conversations about their grandchildren . They were work product. Comey let the cat out of the bag when he testified that it was important to get the information out. In fact, the fact that Comey took the documents with him after he was fired indicates that he stole government work product. Whether those documents contained classified information or not, they are work product subject to the Federal Records Act.
On the one hand, Comey is in deep dew-dew. On the other hand, he's in serious trouble. That's if Mueller doesn't rescue him.
Posted Thursday, July 13, 2017 3:15 PM
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DC Echochamber's euphemisms
I've literally been saying for years that reporters assigned to DC Echochamber news outlets have mischaracterized people's actions. I've even left open the possibility that these mischaracterizations might've been intentional. This Greg Gutfeld monologue cuts to the heart of the matter. In his monologue, Gutfeld notes that "this last weekend we saw countless reporters in Hamburg and elsewhere refer to thuggish clans in black disguises as protesters. These were people destroying property and harming those trying to protect and serve the community. We watched cars burn, businesses looted, and police injured by disguised fascists. And we listened to them being referred to as 'protesters.'"
When I picture protesters, I picture Martin Luther King staging a peaceful protest. What comes to mind when I see cars burning, I think of the race riots of the late 60s and early 70s. The mask-wearing thugs in Hamburg remind me more of the latter than the former.
It's time we stopped calling the people in Ferguson, Baltimore and Minneapolis protesters. In Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter activists threw concrete blocks at police officers from a bridge spanning I-94. That isn't what protesters do. It's what rioters do. Also in Minneapolis, rioters chanted "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon." Again, that's what rioters do. That isn't what protesters do.
Then there's the riot in NYC where the rioters chanted "What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now."
That's before talking about the "hands up, don't shoot" myth from Ferguson, MO and the riots in Baltimore that were fueled by race hustlers like Al Sharpton. It's time we stopped thinking of these thugs as civil rights demonstrators. They're nothing of the sort. They're low-life street thugs, nothing more.
Gutfeld continued with this:
One CNN headline:
"G20 protesters set street fires, loot stores."
"Protesters." No, they're criminal gangs.
"Street fires." Otherwise known as "Arson."
Then he really nailed the violent lefties:
When historians look back at this era, and the decline of the West, the media's fingerprints will be all over the crime scene. They happily place every act within the identity politic paradigm - paving the road for the lawlessness seen in Hamburg (and elsewhere).
The left still deserves tons of criticism but no more than the media who stoke the tension by ignoring the truth. Then there's this:
Leftism follows the same script. If your ideas cannot survive debate, what do you do? You advocate for force. Progressivism requires chaotic, violent rage to ensure their toxic ideas persist.
The chance that the MSM will stop following this script is virtually nonexistent. The only option thoughtful people have is to gather their information through non-traditional sources. Right now, that's people's best option.
Posted Thursday, July 13, 2017 7:03 PM
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Fighting Edina's indoctrination
John Hinderaker's post about the left's indoctrination of grade school and high school students is frightening. For years, conservatives have heard stories about how Democrats were indoctrinating students. John's posts, both on the Powerline website and the Center for the American Experiment's website, go into frightening detail of how Democrats intimidate and bully conservatives.
In his post on Powerlineblog, Hinderaker quoted a student's email to the Center for the American Experiment. It said "The day after the election I was texting my mom to pick me up from school and she almost had to!! Every teacher was crying in class, one even told the whole class 'Trump winning is worse than 9/11 and the Columbine shooting.' The amount of liberal propaganda that was pushed every single day in class this year was worse than it's ever been-and you're bullied by the teachers and every student if you dare speak against it. Yeah its horrible, the teachers can absolutely do whatever they want. The administration will do nothing about it!! The day of the election every single student was in the commons chanting 'F*** TRUMP' and the teachers never did anything. A LOT of people are starting to complain and my mom has some friends who are leaving the school district."
That's just the first of many emails that John quoted. Here's another:
A parent describes her daughter being abused in class in an email to a school administrator:
In talking with [my daughter], it came out that yesterday in my 10th grader's AP World class, [the teacher] called out any Trump supporters and asked them to assure the class that they weren't racist. Both my husband and I were aghast and we felt strongly that we should say something to you. : Yesterday's incident in her class really surprised us as it is so completely inappropriate and unprofessional. If you talk with [the teacher] about this, please don't mention my daughter. She doesn't want to be identified for fear of retribution.
Talk about paranoid. This teacher had Trump supporters "assure the class that they weren't racist." Where does this teacher's thinking come from? It's downright paranoid. Shouldn't schools eliminate teacher candidates who are this paranoid and ill-informed?
Thanks to the good work of the Center for the American Experiment, we know about Edina's government schools' corruption.
It's certain that we wouldn't have found out through the Pi-Press or the Strib. That isn't surprising since they agree with the Democrats' agenda, especially the Strib. Now that we know that this is what our K-12 funding is going towards, it's time we insist that things change. It's time that we insist that teachers expressing political opinions in classrooms be terminated immediately with cause. They're paid to teach, nothing else. It's time we insist that teachers bullying students based on political beliefs be terminated immediately with cause. There's no justification for bullying based on a student's political beliefs.
Check out John's post at Powerlineblog and his posts at the Center for the American Experiment website. They're definitely worth reading.
Posted Friday, July 14, 2017 8:45 AM
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Minnesota's political realignment
Harold Hamilton has an interesting read in this week's commentary. Each Friday, Hamilton provides a weekly commentary on what's happening politically in Minnesota. This week's commentary is about Minnesota's political alignment.
In the commentary, Hamilton wrote "The first glimmers of realignment began in the 1980s as the DFL became an abortion-on-demand party, causing many lifelong Democrats to migrate to the GOP because of deep seated beliefs regarding the sanctity of life. Next came gun control, as Democrats in the urban core became avowed enemies of law-abiding gun owners. The latest split on social issues has occurred in recent times over the gay marriage issue."
In his abridged version of Minnesota's transformation, Hamilton continued, saying "After Minnesota Democrats (and a handful of Republicans) legalized gay marriage in 2013, many rural Democrats lost their legislative seats in the 2014 election. The GOP held these seats in 2016, despite claims by the DFL that the seats were merely "rented." If those seats are rentals, they are surely long-term leases . After the schism caused by social issues, the DFL suffered a catastrophic breakdown of their coalition over economic the economic issues that have become preeminent in recent elections. Strident DFL objections to mining, pipelines and oil extraction have proven to be the final straw for legions of erstwhile rural DFL voters."
I've written extensively that the DFL has turned into the urban party that's out-of-touch with rural Minnesota. If the truth is told, the DFL isn't pro-farmer or pro-labor. They're pro-hardline environmentalists and pro-government unions. Every 2 years, they make a pitch for the Iron Range but they're losing their grip on that.
Ken Martin is the state DFL state party chair. When I did a search of YouTube's videos with Martin in them over the past month, it came back with nothing. That's understandable since the DFL doesn't have a message and Martin's DFL has been on a sustained losing streak. If I was in Chairman Martin's situation, I'd hide, too.
If the DFL keeps urbanizing, they'll soon be Minnesota's minority party for a generation. That's the trajectory they're on.
Posted Friday, July 14, 2017 10:01 AM
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Jesus & the ACA, aka Obamacare
This LTE is filled with progressive hypocrisy about health care. For instance, the writer highlighted the Bible verse that says "Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.' That verse is found, according to the author, in Chapter 12, verse 33 of Luke's Gospel.
As a Christian, I'm tired of Democrats cherry-picking that verse each time they want to guilt Republicans into expand a government program. That entire section of the Bible says "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
It's pretty clear that Democrats aren't following this verse's directive. When government levies taxes to pay for government programs, that isn't selling one's possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor for their benefit.
That passage finished by saying that "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Isn't it clear that this passage is talking about personal behavior, not public policy? The point is that we shouldn't use Bible verses to push public policy positions. We should use Bible verses to examine our personal behavior.
The next paragraphs illustrate the author's true intent:
Do so by calling those Republican leaders and screaming against the repeal, voting for mercy, compassion, humanity, common sense and morality, to save the health and lives of millions of people who depend on Obamacare.
If not, next will be Medicare and Social Security for this ruthless immoral gang.
It's obvious that the author simple wants to maintain the status quo on 20th Century programs rather than see if there's a better way of helping the least fortunate amongst us. PS- Trusting in government creates its own problems. Isn't it time we stopped thinking that it's the solution to our every problem?
Posted Sunday, July 16, 2017 8:41 AM
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