All posts by rutheg

Politics

The Dems are terrified that AG Sessions will be like AG Eric Holder

It looks like we’ve come to an end to the delay tactics from Democrats in the approval of Senator Jeff Sessions to become the next Attorney General. The only reason his nomination was being held up by Senate committee review was that his vote was needed in the Senate to approve Department of Education Secretary nominee Betsy Devos, who’s nomination vote was just approved with every GOP vote needed. Today the all night delay tactics by Senate Democrats will end and his approval is seen as assured. But it is still worth noting why the Democrats are so scared of Senator Sessions becoming the next Attorney General (AG) of the United States.

Senate Democrats have good reason to be apprehensive about the power of the office of the Attorney General. Both of the Attorney Generals that served during the Obama Administration showed that when someone holds that office who will act above and beyond the law as a shield to the president, then you end up with a president who has very little fear of consequences of misusing their office.

Many Democrat office holders and liberal mainstream media figures spoke during the closing weeks of the Obama administration on how scandal free the Obama administration was during its 8 years. This blatantly false narrative was used to try to cover for the fact that the Obama years were largely a failure for both the country and specifically for their party. But the reality is that there were numerous scandals and none of them were investigated because the Attorney General prevented any investigations. Congress was stymied time and again by an AG who would come to their committee hearings and make it clear that they were not going to do anything to look into any allegations against President Obama.

Examples of this abuse of the AG powers include the Fast and furious gun scandal, the illegal use of the IRS against conservative campaign groups, the DOJ illegally seizing reporter records and the NSA mass surveillance of American citizens without a warrant. Each of these warranted an investigation into the abuse of executive powers and each was shot down by the Attorney General. House and Senate committees were powerless to do anything about the AG obstruction.

Democrat House and Senate members did nothing to stop the actions of the Obama Attorney Generals but they had to know that someday those particular chickens would come home to roost. Now they face that day and are terrified of having a Republican Attorney General who could possibly follow the Holder AG Model and shield President Trump from any perceived excesses. As a minority in both the House and Senate, they are not even in a position to hold committee hearings.

I have previously stated that one of the most damaging things the Obama Administration did to our country was to show future presidents how selecting a loyal-above-all-else AG shifts the balance of government power overwhelming in favor of the executive branch. I sincerely hope Jeff Sessions is not that type of Attorney General.

Ed Ruth

Politics

Liberal Media Gives President Obama False Approval Numbers

As time goes by and it is increasingly recognized that President Obama’s 8 years were utter failures in terms of legislature, economy, international affairs, etc., you can count on the fact that liberal supporters will repeated state some variation of “He left office with high approval numbers”. It is important to remember that the pollsters in the mass media are just as biased as the talking heads we see on TV and that the results of their polling must be taken with truck loads of skepticism. Zerohedge.com does a good job in this article of showing how new agencies are undersampling Republicans and oversampling Democrats to give President Obama these false approval numbers:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-18/new-abc-wapo-poll-uses-oversamples-goal-seek-strong-obama-approval-rating

Politics

Biased Media Gets What it Deserves in Trump White House

I am finding it very amusing to see the various press organizations whining about lack of access to President elect Trump and how his Chief of Staff has indicated that there will be changes in the White House press corps. Organizations like CNN, MSNBC, Reuters, AP and others are freaking out about the idea that they might lose their special access to the White House. I would love the opportunity to have a conversation with the heads of these organizations.

I would ask these organizations very bluntly how they can expect to be treated any differently. They actively worked against Donald Trump to defeat his campaign. They actively colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign to do anything and everything they could to help her win. They derided him and sometimes blatantly lied about him to the public in the hopes of influencing the election. And now they expect him and his ministration to act like none of that happens. Laughable!

I would love to ask the many journalists who were revealed by Wikileaks to be actively working with the Clinton campaign the question “why should you be treated as an objective professional journalist when it has been proven that you are in fact a Democrat operative who uses the access provided by your profession to further your ideology?”

If these journalists ever got into trouble with the law, they would expect to have a professional lawyer who would represent them regardless of their ideological beliefs. They would expect a prosecutor who would prosecute the case with in the confines of the law regardless of his or her ideological beliefs. And they would expect a judge who would ensure the trial was conducted fairly and professionally without any regard to ideological belief. That level of objectivity is expected in every profession. The leadership of our news organizations should demand a similar level of professionalism from their reporters.

The media is currently one of the least trusted professions in our nation. It will continue to be a distrusted profession as long as viewers continue to see biased reporting. We should be able to read a newspaper article or watch a news segment on TV and have no idea as to whether the reporter is more liberal or conservative. If the leadership of the majority of news organizations in our country tried to enforce this basic standard of professionalism, they would be forced to fire a large percentage of their reporters.

History, Politics, Uncategorized

A Few First Thoughts About a Trump Presidency

img_3692-trumpThere are a few things that immediately come to mind about what we can expect to see from President Trump.

First and foremost is the Supreme Court. Kudos to the Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnnel for holding off the nominee of President Obama for replacement of Justice Scalia. We will now see a true conservative majority in the Supreme Court for decades to come.

Second, there will finally be action on illegal immigration. The wall Donald Trump constantly talked about during his campaign will be built. It will be a combination of physical walls in certain areas and sensor walls at others. It can easily be paid for by imposing a tariff on all funds being wired to Mexico, Central and South America.

Third, watch how many executive orders are overturned almost immediately in a Trump presidency. The EPA, the IRS and the Justice Department are going to see some incredible changes in the extremely short period of time. Those that used their positions in these agencies to target conservative groups should probably start packing up their desks.

Fourth, the environmental movement is going to need to make some major adjustments. America has rejected their faulty science. If their projections are correct, then the world is in for some events worthy of a major motion picture. When those events do not happen, the intellectually honest among them are going to have to admit that their beliefs, which bordered on pseudo-religion, were totally wrong.

Fifth, there are going to be some major changes in foreign-policy. You are going to see some major changes in how we deal with Russia, China, ISIS, etc. You’re going to see some cooperation between the Brexit leaders in Great Britain who share many of Trump’s political beliefs. You are going to see NATO members reaffirm their support of the organization and commit to meeting their NATO Funding obligations.

Sixth, you’re going to see some huge changes in health insurance before Donald Trump even takes office. Obamacare is effectively dead. It was dying on its own with the ridiculously large increases in premiums each year. Liberals had hoped to impose a single-payer system but now you will see a total drop in government controlled healthcare. Contrary to what the liberal media have been saying, the Republicans do have a plan ready to replace Obamacare once it’s been repealed.

Also, you’re going to have to see some type of change in the Democrat party. Over the past eight years, they have lost thousands of positions throughout the country. They have become a distinct minority in state legislatures throughout the country. They are a small minority of governors. The Democrat party has depended on demographics carrying the day for so long and it has not happened. They are going to have to make some major changes or they will no longer function as a national party.

Finally, I wonder about what’s going to happen with Hillary Clinton. A regular politician would drop the investigations but I don’t think Trump is going to do that. I think you’re going to see a lot more about the criminality of the Clinton Foundation. I think you’re going to see a trump Justice Department that seals the lid on this corrupt organization. A regular politician would shake the hand of his failed opponent and enjoy the day. But a business person like Donald Trump has no problem kicking his downed opponent repeatedly to ensure they never get back up. Pundits will say this is not the way things are done but they will once again be wrong. I believe Donald Trump will use the Clinton foundation as an example of the “drain the swamp” that he has spoken of repeatedly. It truly is a new day in America.

Politics

Another Obama First: Two Attorney Generals Plead The Fifth

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/attorney-general-lynch-pleads-fifth-secret-iran-ransom-payments/Another first for the “most transparent administration in history” was made this week as Attorney General Loretta Lynch joined her predecessor Eric Holder in pleading the Fifth Amendment so as to not incriminate themselves during sworn testimony.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/attorney-general-lynch-pleads-fifth-secret-iran-ransom-payments/

Politics, Uncategorized

Voting For A Blowhard Or A Crook

Hillary-Laws-Are-For-Little-People

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson recently wrote that Republican leaders should put country before party and not support Donald Trump. I wonder where he gets such audacity. He is about as far left as political commentators go and is clearly going to vote for Hillary Clinton. How does one say we should not vote for a short-tempered blowhard like Trump but instead should vote for a crook like Hillary Clinton?

I have heard some people question whether someone with Donald Trump’s temperament should be president of the United States of America. They typically say something like they don’t want somebody with his temper to have their “finger on the button”, referring to nuclear weapons. I hope those people understand that the president doesn’t really carry around a suitcase that has a red button that will launch all of our nuclear weapons. If they do believe that then they have been watching some really bad B-rated movies. The reality is that there are many checks and balances that keep a president from making rushed or hotheaded decisions.  

Those checks and balances limit what a president can do in the performance of his or her duties. But they do nothing to stop a president who would use their power to do things outside the system. Hillary Clinton has mastered the art of using positions of power in government to achieve personal financial gain. That’s a really nice way of saying she’s a political crook. There can be no doubt that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to put into office a person who has no integrity or honor.  

There is also no doubt that Donald Trump is a blowhard who often speaks off-the-cuff. He is a successful businessman, which in this modern world means you really have to know how to work the system. But he has always worked within the system. He’s done business as the law allows him to do business. There is nothing dishonorable about using legal business practices to achieve personal financial gain. Trump has a big personality and that sometimes grates some as much as it pleases others. But he is at heart a good man and achieved his success honestly. Despite many liberal media efforts, it is well known that he is neither racist nor anti-Semitic. He has the potential to be a honest president that will work within the legal constraints of our government.

There are checks and balances in place that would allow Congress to stop a President Trump from doing pretty much anything outlandish or hotheaded. But there are no checks and balances in place that would prevent a crooked President Hillary Clinton from using the office of the president for personal gain. If America elects a crook to be president, then we cannot be surprised when she acts like a crook when she’s president.

When it comes down to voting for either a blowhard or a crook to be our next president, I will choose a blowhard every time.  An honest blowhard might make the occasional embarrassing comment.  But a crooked president that uses her position for personal financial gain and to reward followers and punish detractors is something our country cannot handle.   Integrity is one of the key requirements for that office. Hillary Clinton has none. So Democrats must put their country before their party and support Donald Trump.

Politics

Trump and the Judge:  Liberal Media Bias At Work

Liberal media doesn’t report judge’s political activism related to his Mexican heritage or his association with the law group that supports illegal immigrants.   

I’ve said it before: you can’t trust the media. They are not on your side. They are on their side. Like many liberals, they think they know best and that it’s their job to control what you know and how you think.  

Take for instance this absurd mess about Donald Trump’s statements about the judge. He said he believed that Gonzalo Curiel, the judge in the Trump University class action lawsuit, was not being fair to him because the judge had a bias against him because of his stance on controlling illegal Mexican immigration. The media made sure you heard his basic comment. But have you heard that the judge is a member of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, a La Raza affiliated law group that advocates for illegal immigrants? And have you heard that that same law group has contributed significantly to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign?

So what is this “La Raza” group?   La Raza means “The Race” in Spanish. Can you imagine if a white judge belonged to an organization called “The Race”? Their group motto is “Everything for The Race. Outside The Race…Nothing!” Labor icon César Chávez was a critic of La Raza, calling it the “Hispanic KKK”. The judge’s group uses their legal experience to fight against immigration control laws, border fences, etc and support drivers licenses and free tuition for illegals. It is not unreasonable for Donald Trump to say that a judge with this kind of affiliation could be biased against him. Reporters should have told us about these connections but that would have destroyed the narrative of Trump as a racist.

Now that Hillary Clinton has secured her nomination as the Democrat Party candidate, the liberal media are uniting in their effort to tear down Donald Trump. They will take his comments out of context or make sure you know only the part of any story that they want you to know. And they will use their self-propelled “controversy” stories about Trump to divert your attention away from the ethical and legal troubles of Hillary Clinton.

If you fell for the liberal media’s efforts to portray Trump as a racist, don’t feel too bad. Republican politicians, who have been themselves attacked for decades by the same liberal media, fell for the story hook, line and sinker. In typical invertebrate style, they all folded like lawn chairs and rushed to any available microphone to bash Trump themselves. They should know better by now. Their weakness is another reason why so many conservative voters want them booted out of their positions.  

With that said, Trump does share some of the blame. He should not be making public comments about an active lawsuit. And he should have a spokesperson (or a full press team for that matter) responsible for handling these kind of issues. Hopefully, he learned an important lesson from this fiasco. It is a lesson that all of us should understand. The liberal media are not our friends and we cannot expect balanced reporting from them.

Politics

Excellent Article on How Trump Will Attack Hillary Clinton

This is a well written and comprehensive look at the main issues Donald Trump will use against Hillary Clinton in the fall election campaign:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/278220-five-ways-trump-will-attack-clinton

It really is an effective list, made even more so because each of the items is already well known to the public so Trump won’t have to work hard to establish any of the narratives. The “Crooked Hillary” will work nicely to inspire the Republican base and to peel off those independents that are already not quite comfortable with her past.

The “woman card” angle must be played carefully so as not to get liberal women fired up or excited about her campaign to become the first woman president. So far that hasn’t really happened. Older women, with the memories of Bill Clinton’s many accusers of unwanted sexual advances and even rape, remember that Hillary was the lead attacker of every one of her husband’s alleged victims. Younger women have been raised to take it as a given that there will be a female president at some point and they don’t seem really inclined to get energized about Hillary Clinton as being that first female president.

I don’t think the Physical Health issue will get much ground unless she either has a public health issue revealed. She’d almost have to pass out on stage for any real traction to gain hold on this issue.

The Foreign Policy issue is very interesting because it’s one of the issues that could cause some switch over from voters that would otherwise automatically vote for her because she’s the liberal democrat in the race. Her vote for the Iraq War is extremely unpopular among the anti-war at any cost faction of the liberal base and Trump is positioning himself as the candidate less likely to engage America in the next war. Trump has a possibility here to bring some liberal voters over to his side and at the very least this issue will likely make some liberals stay home on voting day.

The Trade Issue is the other issue that Trump can potentially use to attract switch over voters. NAFTA and other trade pacts have cost America millions of jobs and Hillary is very vulnerable on this issue. Unions are particularly against these agreements and Hillary Clinton will lose a lot of the get out the vote effort that unions usually devote to the Democrat candidate. Look for trump to use the current TPP pact as a central issue for TV ads and watch him us the Kerry-like “She was for TPP before she was against TPP” line.

Bernie Sanders has helped Trump establish the last two issues in the minds of likely Democrat voters and this will give him a distinct advantage. It is often the candidate that can get through the primaries first to establish the general narrative of the campaign that ends up winning. The fact the Hillary has been in the spotlight for so many years with so many of the above issues already established and then reinforced during the Democrat primary with Bernie Sanders means Trump has the narrative established before he even became the presumptive GOP nominee.

Ed Ruth