House Dem: Schumer And Pelosi Give ‘A Middle Finger To The American People’

As Some House Democrats Declare Themselves ‘Angry’ And ‘Frustrated,’ Democratic Leaders Still Won’t Negotiate Seriously, Refusing To Back Off Their ‘Absurd Demands,’ While They Throw Numbers Around That Even They Acknowledge Don’t Represent Real Concessions
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “The Senate was supposed to spend this week finalizing another bipartisan rescue package for the American people…. Unfortunately, the Democrats have continued to let working families down. They are still rejecting any more relief for anyone unless they get to run down a wish list of demands with no real relationship to COVID-19…. There was never any question that bipartisan compromise would be needed to get an outcome…. But instead, the country got something else entirely. Instead of working with our serious framework, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Democratic Leader spent weeks insisting on a completely unrealistic, far-left proposal that even their own Democratic members mocked as a go-nowhere messaging stunt the instant it was first released. Instead of letting their committees and their members discuss substantive issues across the aisle, they said nobody could negotiate but them. And instead of staying focused on the real needs of our nation, these two Democratic leaders have held the talks hostage — for weeks now — over non-COVID-related ideological items which the political left has wanted since long before this virus hit our shores.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 8/13/2020)

• SEN. McCONNELL: “The Secretary of the Treasury and the White House Chief of Staff have given ground. They’ve put new issues on the table that Democrats wanted. They’ve worked to find commonality. But the Democrats are barely even pretending to negotiate. Barely even pretending. The Speaker’s latest spin is that it is some heroic sacrifice to lower her demand from a made-up three-and-a-half-trillion-dollar marker that was never going to become law… to an equally made-up two-and-a-half trillion-dollar marker. She calls this meeting in the middle. That’s not negotiating. That’s throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. People who have serious policy proposals that are fitted to actual needs cannot breezily knock off a trillion here, and add a trillion there…. In point of fact, the Speaker and the Leader have not conceded anything. They haven’t budged on their absurd demands. They just moved up the expiration date a few weeks on the exact same crazy wish-list, so the price tag comes down without moving an inch on the merits. And they’ve refused Republicans’ offers to pass everything that we can agree to, right now. Republicans don’t think the disputed issues should hold up the most urgent aid for working families. But Democrats say no. Their partisan games continue. And so the nation’s pain continues, too.” /b> (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 8/13/2020)
• SEN. McCONNELL: “While the press tries its hardest to praise Speaker Pelosi for ‘playing hardball,’ her own House Democrats are rebelling. They say they’re ‘frustrated’ and ‘angry’ that relief is being held up over what they themselves acknowledge is a, quote, ‘political wish-list’. Quote: ‘the HEROES Act went too far.’ These are Democrats’ words. Even the Speaker’s own members are not buying her political spin. They want what Republicans want, what the Administration wants, what American families everywhere want — an outcome.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 8/13/2020)

Speaker Pelosi And Sen. Schumer Keep Emphasizing That Democrats Aren’t Actually Dropping Any Of Their Demands, They’re Just Offering To Shift Dates Around To Change Spending Totals, But Not Policy
HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): “Well, we said we would -- we would come down a trillion. Now, it doesn’t mean that we have things in there that would cut out. It means that we could talk about how long our provisions would be in effect. So we can take things down, instead of the end of September of next year, a shorter period of time and we’ll revisit all of it next year anyway. So, by changing some of the timing, we can come down.” (Fox’s “Fox News Sunday,” 8/09/2020)

• PELOSI: “So we’re far apart, yes. Can we find some common ground? Yes. Can we cut back on our number? Not cut back on the number of children who are fed but for the length--how long the legislation lasts.” (Speaker Pelosi, Press Conference, 8/07/2020)
• PELOSI: “Can we trim back some of the timing that goes for ‘x’ number of – we fully expect to be able to correct all of that in a short period of time anyway.” (Speaker Pelosi, Press Conference, 8/07/2020)
• PELOSI: “[T]his is a different kind of a negotiation.  This isn’t just about dollars…. Now, we can come down in terms of the length of time for our food…. And so, it’s a values debate that we’re proud to have, but understanding we must come to agreement.  So, how do we make those reductions?  My view, one way is we have food going on for a longer time.  We could go for a shorter time and revisit the issue after the first of the year.” (MSNBC’s “Live with Kristen Welker,” 8/07/2020)

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “[A]s we’ve said, we are willing to make compromises. [O]ur bill, the HEROES bill is at 3.4 [trillion dollars]. Theirs is at one [trillion]. So, the Speaker made a very fair offer. Let’s narrow it each. And you should have seen the vehemence. No. I said you mean after she said we’ll go down a trillion, you go up a trillion, we didn’t specify where or when, and it’s mainly in terms of dates but that’s okay, and you should have seen their faces. Absolutely not.” (Sen. Schumer, Press Conference, 8/07/2020)

House Democrats: ‘At This Point, It’s A Middle Finger To The American People,’ ‘The HEROES Act Went Too Far… With A Bunch Of Political Wish List Things
REP. MAX ROSE (D-NY): “I share the concerns that I’m hearing from my constituents: I’m pissed. I’m angry… At this point, it’s a middle finger to the American people.” (“House Democratic Freshmen In Tough Races Growing Agitated About Failure Of Stimulus Talks,” CNN, 8/11/2020)

REP. BEN McADAMS (D-UT): “As it stands now, we’ve already failed… I am frustrated we don’t have an agreement we can vote on already.” (“House Democratic Freshmen In Tough Races Growing Agitated About Failure Of Stimulus Talks,” CNN, 8/11/2020)

• McADAMS: “I think the HEROES act went too far. It got loaded up with a bunch of political wish list things…” (“House Democratic Freshmen In Tough Races Growing Agitated About Failure Of Stimulus Talks,” CNN, 8/11/2020)

REP. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-MN): “To me, no bill is not an option… And that’s not unique to this voice. I would argue that most members feel the same. The need is too great, the time too short and the risk of not doing so too severe.” (“House Democratic Freshmen In Tough Races Growing Agitated About Failure Of Stimulus Talks,” CNN, 8/11/2020)

REP. TOM MALINOWSKI (D-NJ): (“House Democratic Freshmen In Tough Races Growing Agitated About Failure Of Stimulus Talks,” CNN, 8/11/2020)

REP. HALEY STEVENS (D-MI): “Schools and municipalities in my district still need support from their federal government, so I am hoping that a bipartisan deal can come together soon…” (“House Democratic Freshmen In Tough Races Growing Agitated About Failure Of Stimulus Talks,” CNN, 8/11/2020)


FLASHBACK: House Democrats And Reporters Knew From The Very Beginning That Speaker Pelosi’s Bill Was ‘A Wish-List’ Representing ‘Washington Politics At Its Worst’ And ‘Partisan Gamesmanship’ Stuffed With ‘Unrelated Wastes Of Taxpayer Dollars’

Speaker Pelosi’s Own Members Blasted Her Bill For ‘Playing Politics’ And ‘Advanc[Ing] A Partisan Wish List’ That ‘Has No Chance At Becoming Law’
“Privately, several House Democrats concede their latest bill feels like little more than an effort to appease the most liberal members of the caucus, many of whom were chafed that their most important priorities were minimized or ignored entirely in previous coronavirus negotiations.” (“McConnell Brushes Off Pelosi As She Finalizes Relief Package,” Politico, 5/11/2020)

REP. CINDY AXNE (D-IA): “I am deeply troubled by numerous provisions in this bill that could see large amounts of taxpayer dollars allocated to helping those who are not hurting at all. I could not in good conscience vote to accept this Washington gamesmanship, or vote to approve unrelated wastes of taxpayer dollars, while Iowa sees its COVID-19 case rates climbing and parts of my district become a national hotspot.” (Rep. Axne, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. ABBY FINKENAUER (D-IA): “The next federal COVID-19 relief package must be focused on helping families, workers, small businesses and local governments. It needs bipartisan buy-in, and should not be tied up with unrelated provisions. I came to Washington to get things done, and this legislation only serves to push real relief further down the road…. I’m tired of Washington playing politics with issues that demand our attention, solutions, and action. (Rep. Finkenauer, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. SHARICE DAVIDS (D-KS): “Solving these challenges will require members of Congress to work together on targeted relief that can become law and provide real help to those who are suffering. Unfortunately, the HEROES Act does not accomplish that goal … [T]he partisan nature and wide scope of this bill makes it doomed upon arrival in the Senate – only further delaying the aid that Kansans desperately need.” (Rep. Davids, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. XOCHITL TORRES SMALL (D-NM): “COVID-19–and rebuilding our economy in the wake of it—is the greatest challenge our country has faced in over a decade.  We need bipartisan solutions to overcome it. I will continue to fight for direct funding for states, local communities, and tribal governments, as well as hazard pay for our essential workers on the front lines. But over $1 trillion of this bill was spent elsewhere.  Hard times call for strong priorities, and Congress should put aside partisan politics to rebuild through smart infrastructure investments.” (Rep. Torres Small, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. KENDRA HORN (D-OK): “Messaging bills without bipartisan support are a disservice to the American people, especially during a time of crisis. This is not the time for partisan gamesmanship, this is the time to find common ground and deliver help where it is needed most. In response to COVID-19, our relief efforts must be targeted, timely, and transparent. The HEROES Act does not meet those standards.(Rep. Horn, Press Release, 5/14/2020)

REP. CONOR LAMB (D-PA): “People in western Pennsylvania and all over the country have sacrificed a lot during this crisis. They expect us to put politics aside, work together, and focus on defeating the coronavirus. This bill is not focused, it was rushed to a vote too fast, and it doesn’t help us accomplish that core mission…. Partisan fights have never looked smaller. We need to go back to the negotiating table immediately and work on a bill that can actually pass and will actually help the people who desperately need it.” (Rep. Lamb, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. SUSAN WILD (D-PA): “The HEROES Act, however, appears to lack that same expansive bipartisan support of past Coronavirus relief packages. Moreover, I am concerned about supporting a $3 trillion bill that in my view does not do enough to provide direct and immediate assistance to struggling families and that will almost surely not proceed to a vote in the Senate or to any realistic negotiations with our colleagues across the aisle…. Now is the time to bring our nation together around solutions that will improve the lives of Americans who are hurting, not engage in partisan gamesmanship, and that’s why I will vote against this legislation.” (Rep. Wild, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. JOE CUNNINGHAM (D-SC): “This is Washington politics at its worst. While South Carolina families, small business owners, and workers are struggling, now is not the time to advance a partisan wish list or refuse to come to the negotiating table. At a time when our country is in real trouble, we should not be spending precious time on one-sided solutions that aren’t going anywhere…. Now it is time for both sides to go back to the negotiating table and deliver bipartisan results …” (Rep. Cunningham, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. BEN McADAMS (D-UT): “This isn’t a plan, it’s a wish-list. At a time when thousands of people are sick, millions are out of work, and small businesses face bankruptcy, we should be laser-focused on a strategy that opens up business and gets people back to work while also addressing the public health crisis caused by this virus. Republicans and Democrats need to come together on a plan to put this crisis behind us and not waste time with party politics.” (Rep. McAdams, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA): “This $3 trillion package and the previous relief bills would double federal spending for this year and spending of this scale requires careful consideration and input from all members, not just one party…. Unfortunately, there are many elements of the bill that are unrelated to addressing Americans’ most immediate needs associated with COVID-19, which distract from addressing our most urgent priorities during this pandemic.” (Rep. Luria, Press Release, 5/16/2020)

REP. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA): “Unfortunately, many Members of Congress — including some in my own party — have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements and propose a bill that goes far beyond pandemic relief and has no chance at becoming law, further delaying the help so many need. Therefore, I will respectfully vote against this bill…. At this time, we must come together to build a targeted, timely relief package that avoids partisan posturing and instead prioritizes combatting our nationwide public health emergency, addressing catastrophic unemployment rates, and protecting the security of the next generation.” (Rep. Spanberger, Press Release, 5/15/2020)

Reporters Pointed Out Speaker Pelosi Passed ‘A Democratic Wish List Filled Up With All The Party’s Favored Policies,’ ‘More A Messaging Document Than A Viable Piece Of Legislation’
“SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI’S HOUSE is not officially coming back yet. They are waiting for the release of a new coronavirus bill, which will cost trillions of dollars. Neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law -- it’s a Democratic wish list filled up with all the party’s favored policies.” (Politico’s Playbook, 5/11/2020)

• “The more than 1,800-page bill marks a long wish list for Democrats …” (“House Democrats Unveil $3 Trillion Proposal For Coronavirus Relief,” NPR, 5/12/2020)

“A divided House narrowly passed a $3 trillion pandemic relief package … advancing a proposal with no chance of becoming law over near-unanimous Republican opposition…. Even though the bill was more a messaging document than a viable piece of legislation, its fate was in doubt in the final hours before its passage.” (“House Passes $3 Trillion Aid Bill Over Republican Opposition,” The New York Times, 5/15/2020)

• “Unlike the first four coronavirus bills, which were passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, this 1,815-page package was drafted by Democrats alone and earned a veto threat from the White House and condemnation from the GOP as a ‘liberal wish list’ that's dead on arrival in the Senate.”(“House Passes $3T Coronavirus Relief -- The Most Expensive Bill In History,” Fox News, 5/16/2020)

“…House Democratic leadership was engaged in what a few senior aides and lawmakers described as the most difficult arm-twisting of the entire congress: convincing their rank and file to vote for a $3 trillion stimulus bill that will never become law…. The bill was released earlier [the same] week. It’s not been through a single congressional committee. And it’s caught flak from both moderates and liberals in the caucus. It’s a messaging bill.” (Politico Playbook, 5/15/2020)

“It also includes a host of favored liberal provisions which have come under attack by Republicans and have little chance of surviving the coming negotiations.” (“House Passes Massive $3T Coronavirus Relief Package,” The Hill, 5/15/2020)

---

Tags: House Dems, Schumer And Pelosi, Give ‘A Middle Finger, To The American People’ To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

When the Ninth Circuit Court Unanimously Says You’ve Gone Too Far Left….

Seton Motley

by Seton Motley, Contributing Author: In this Age of Idiocy, let us revel in a moment of sanity.

Unanimously delivered to us by – are you sitting down? – the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Appeals Court Throws Out Antitrust Ruling

In the world of judges and Justices – this is exceedingly embarrassing:

“A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a 2019 ruling by a federal judge who found that Qualcomm had abused its monopoly position in wireless chips and overcharged mobile phone makers for its patents….

Not mentioned by the eternally pathetic New York Times? Said ruling was bipartisan and unanimous.

Said ruling also ain’t great for the Barack Obama Administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC):

“The Federal Trade Commission had sued Qualcomm in 2017 over the issue.”

Not mentioned by the eternally pathetic New York Times? Said lawsuit was filed on January 17 – by Obama, Inc…a mere three days before being sworn out of office.

(Due to a 2-2 Commissioner tie at the Donald Trump FTC – this stupid lawsuit has shambled on throughout Trump’s first term. Because Trump’s FTC can’t vote to end it. How excruciatingly pathetic our monstrous bureaucracies be.)

Again – this ain’t good for either Obama’s FTC or his judicial appointee Lucy Koh:

“The District Court judge, Lucy Koh, sided with the F.T.C. in May 2019, issuing a 233-page decision that could have forced Qualcomm to renegotiate its licensing contracts with phone makers and license its technology to rival chip makers.”

Koh’s decision was exceedingly ridiculous. As we repeatedly documented at the time of its making.

The Egregious Damage One Activist Judge Can Do

An Obama Judge Could Singlehandedly Kill US Intellectual Property and National Security

Judicial Activism: It’s Way Past Time to Impeach Fake Judges

The Obama FTC’s lawsuit was exceedingly ridiculous – so of course Koh’s affirmation of it had to be exceedingly ridiculous

“The Constitution and existing law are on Qualcomm’s side. So too is at least one precedent Supreme Court ruling. So too is decades of industry precedent.

“Judge Koh threw ALL of that out the window. And instead – all by her onesies – unilaterally rewrote the entire licensing system for the entirety of the United States patent market.

“That isn’t judicial overreach at all.

“Judge Koh pretended a patent is a ‘monopoly’ – and thus an antitrust violation.

“Ummm…a patent is a grant to ‘exclusive Right to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries…’ – per the Constitution.

“‘Exclusive right’ – means no one but you has that right. You – all by yourself – is a ‘monopoly.’ Per the Constitution.

“Suing Qualcomm’s patents for being a ‘monopoly’ – is like suing Shaquille O’Neal for being tall. You’re suing something – for being exactly what it is supposed to be.

“The Constitution preempts any antitrust law that follows – if antitrust law contradicts the Constitution. Or at least it’s supposed to do so.

“Judge Koh – didn’t care. And instead imposed her personal Leftist policy preference.”

The unanimous Ninth Circuit – just unanimously agreed with us. And completely blew up the Obama FTC’s case – and Judge Koh’s ruling. And they didn’t need 233 pages to do it:

“First, Qualcomm’s practice of licensing its SEPs exclusively at the OEM level does not amount to anticompetitive conduct in violation of § 2, as Qualcomm is under no antitrust duty to license rival chip suppliers.

“To the extent Qualcomm has breached any of its FRAND commitments, a conclusion we need not and do not reach, the remedy for such a breach lies in contract and patent law. Second, Qualcomm’s patent-licensing royalties and ‘no license, no chips’ policy do not impose an anticompetitive surcharge on rivals’ modem chip sales.

“Instead, these aspects of Qualcomm’s business model are ‘chip-supplier neutral’ and do not undermine competition in the relevant antitrust markets.

“Third, Qualcomm’s 2011 and 2013 agreements with Apple have not had the actual or practical effect of substantially foreclosing competition in the CDMA modem chip market.

“Furthermore, because these agreements were terminated years ago by Apple itself, there is nothing to be enjoined.

“We therefore REVERSE the district court’s judgment and VACATE its injunction as well as its partial grant of summary judgment.”

Emphasis theirs. For those not versed in Legalese – this is the Ninth Circuit dropping a nuclear bomb upon the whole nightmare mess Obama and Koh had foisted upon Qualcomm, the courts and all the rest of us.

And if you still bizarrely doubt the Deep State and its very many Swamp Creatures are an actual thing?:

“‘The court’s ruling is disappointing and we will be considering our options,’ FTC Bureau of Competition Director Ian Conner said in a statement.

Trump is currently running for his second term – and he STILL has anti-constitutional freaks like this guy at his FTC.

Please, Mister President – can this guy.

And extend a little further our Ninth Circuit Court-delivered moment of zen.
----------------
Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he contributes articles to ARRA News Service. Please feel free to follow him him on Facebook.

---

Tags: Seton Motley, Less Government, When the Ninth Circuit Court, Unanimously Says, You’ve Gone Too Far Left, a moment of sanity To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Why Trump Should Win & And Why The Stakes Couldn't Be Higher

by Bruce Thornton: Less than three months from election day, Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans keep telling us (and themselves) that President Trump “is in trouble” in his bid for reelection. Trump’s enemies chant poll numbers like incantations, even though that juju failed spectacularly in 2016. They harp on Trump’s media-manufactured “failures” like his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his response to the ongoing riots instigated by Black Lives Matter and its Antifa brown-shirts. And as has been true from the start, the bulk of their criticisms are really about subjective and self-serving standards of “comportment” and “decorum” and “norms” that reflect the bipartisan “cognitive elite” and big-government functionaries.

But a more sober analysis suggests that the president has a faithful and energized base and a record of accomplishment compared to the Dems’ lunge to the lunatic left. Moreover, the spectacle of civic destruction, increasing violent crime, and nakedly partisan and authoritarian excesses on the part of blue-state governors and mayors will give Trump a decided edge with the bulk of ordinary Americans.

First, Trump’s economic success has been stalled not because of any missteps by his administration, but by a pandemic originating in totalitarian China and worsened by its willful obscuring of the virus’s origins and lethality. Voters with common sense and fairness know that the current recession is not Trump’s fault, and that having rescued the economy once, he can do so again. They also can see that blue-state governors have needlessly exacerbated the economic damage by imposing draconian and arbitrary lockdown orders based not on science, but on their increasingly obvious desire to wound the president politically even if it means immiserating their own citizens.

In contrast to Trump’s successful economics, over the last few months the Democrats have abandoned their traditional center-left governing philosophy and embraced a socialist ideology that for over a century has serially failed everywhere it has been tried. Indeed, during this year’s Democrat presidential primaries, the party establishment was trying to neuter Bernie Sanders and his faction just as they did in 2016. They know that socialism and its growth-killing policies like the Green New Deal are not a winning platform for the mass of voters outside the bicoastal blue enclaves.

Yet the Dem standard-bearer Joe Biden has endorsed wacky proposals like eliminating cheap carbon-based energy, restoring punitive taxes, and increasing the redistribution of wealth through handouts like free college tuition and Medicare for all, which more centrist Democrats know are electoral poison. It’s hard to imagine that in just six months the same voters who the Dems thought would be repelled by such policies have suddenly develop affection for them.

So on that score, come November voters will have a choice between returning to the policies that created an economy that reduced unemployment to historic levels, elevated GDP to a level Obama’s court-economist claimed was impossible, increased growth in wages, and brought back manufacturing jobs that Obama sneered would require a “magic wand”; or trying once again failed policies of intrusive job-killing regulations, bloated and overweening federal bureaucracies, tax-rates that punish the productive, and an ever-expanding roster of citizens dependent on government overlords rather than looking to their families, communities, churches, states, and own characters for support in managing their lives.

Next, Donald Trump has fiercely waged war on the political correctness and the toxic “cancel culture” it engenders. He excoriates with brutal wit the preposterous charges of thought-crimes like “racism” or “xenophobia,” exposing their vapidity and hypocrisy. He shrewdly contrasts the Democrats’ neglect of average black citizens whose vote they take for granted, with his own achievements such as sentencing reform, increased aid to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and historic rates of black employment. And he mocks the prissy, pearl-clutching dudgeon of the “woke” left who ransack American history for grievous offenders to condemn, even as the monstrous crimes and genocides of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and their imitators like Castro, Chavez, and Maduro, are ignored or celebrated.

Additionally, Trump has called out the Dems for endorsing the “woke” culture’s totalitarian intolerance and opposition to free speech, not to mention their eagerness to gut the Bill of Rights. On November 3, voters will have a choice between a president who defends their unalienable rights like freedom of speech, assembly, and worship, along with the right “to keep and bear arms”; or a party that wants to limit or eliminate all of them by passing ever-more onerous gun laws, imposing censorship through “hate speech” laws, and privileging casinos and violent riots over churches and temples.

Finally, he has battled the Salemite persecutions of men falsely accused of “sexual assault.” He vigorously supported Bret Kavanaugh in 2018 when the Democrats turned his televised Supreme Court confirmation hearings into a Democrat star-chamber prosecution of the jurist for an alleged 36-year-old sex crime his accuser could not substantiate with a speck of evidence. And he has ended some of the same sort of unjust, unconstitutional practices rife on college campuses for decades––an early and particularly malevolent form of “cancel culture” that has destroyed the lives of hundreds of college students.

All that would be enough to put Donald Trump back in the White House. But that’s not all.

On top of Trump’s record, the Democrats’ candidate is one of the most disastrous since George McGovern in 1972. In nearly fifty years of “public service,” Joe Biden has no record of legislative accomplishments to run on, and the few he used to brag about, such as the 1994 “tough on crime” bill, he has disowned, denounced, and desperately apologized for. The bulk of his time in the Senate has been spent tending to the interests of banks chartered in his home-state of Delaware. It was Biden who made sure government-backed student loan debt cannot be discharged through bankruptcy. Biden’s and his family’s sketchy financial dealings with China are even more troubling given that we clearly are in a cold war with that totalitarian thug-state. No surprise that the intelligence community has determined China prefers Biden in the upcoming election.

And don’t forget Biden’s history of plagiarism, gaffes, lies, and specious fabrications in anecdotes about his past. He serially accused the driver of the truck involved in the car accident that killed his wife and daughter of being drunk, thus ruining the man’s life, when in fact he wasn’t and Biden’s wife was responsible for the crash. And he has lied about his law-school career. As Derek Hunter writes on Townhall:Everything Joe said in that exchange [with a voter in 1987] was untrue. He didn’t have an academic scholarship; he hadn’t won a moot court competition; he wasn’t listed as an outstanding student. Even though his claim of being in the “bottom two-thirds” of his class and finishing in the “top half” makes no sense because there’s enormous overlap between the two, he actually finished 76th in a class of 85 students.From facing down a gang-banger named “Corn Pop,” to attempting to visit Nelson Mandela in prison, Biden has repeatedly told preposterous lies. And don’t forget, there are yards of footage of Joe inappropriately putting his hands on women and girls and sniffing their hair, offenses that if committed by a Republican would have sparked a national spasm of MeToo hysteria.

And if that troubling record of duplicity and unwelcome fondling isn’t enough, it has been clear for months that Biden suffers from the early stages of dementia. FOX News has made a number of video catalogues of Joe’s lapses in memory and bursts of anger of the sort typical of people with dementia. This bodes ill for Biden, as David Catron has pointed out. Reviewing the collapse of Mike Dukakis’ presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush in 1988, Catron writes, “[T]he liabilities of [Biden] in 2020 involve the same issues that dogged [Dukakis] in 1988 — mental fitness to handle the duties of the presidency, difficulty connecting with the minority voters without whose support he can’t win, and the willingness to brand any opponent a racist who dares to bring up ‘law and order.’”

Finally, the “law and order” issue that Catron mentions, one the Republicans have owned since 1968, has been daily advertised in the coverage of killings, injuries, vandalism, and looting springing from “woke” protests and riots, which have led to forced police stand-downs and violent crime rates skyrocketing in blue-state cities­­­––in the first six months of this year, Chicago’s murder rate increased 38%, with 440 deaths including four children under 10 murdered over five weeks. Worse, the Democrats have endorsed and rationalized the violent protests, nor has candidate Biden, the alleged “moderate,” forcefully condemned it. This state of affairs is reminiscent of 1968, when the “silent majority” expressed its anger at the riots and bombings of the Sixties by electing Richard Nixon.

Biden’s handlers know all this, and so have sequestered him in his basement, letting him out only briefly and reducing his opportunities for impromptu speaking. And they’re working mightily to get the presidential debates cancelled, for they know that in an unscripted, personal encounter, the street-fighting orator Donald Trump will beat Biden like a rented mule. It seems highly improbable that anyone can become the leader of the most powerful free country in history by hiding from the voters.

Nor will Biden’s pick for vice-president, California senator Kamala Harris, help him overcome these challenges and deficiencies. Harris is one of the most progressive and aggressively “woke” members of the Senate. She has endorsed the far-left policies of the Sanders-AOC wing like the Green New Deal, Medicare For All, forgiving student-loan debt, free college tuition, and restoring the tax-and-spend excesses of the Obama years that gave us one of the most sluggish recovery from a recession ever. And she is a clumsy, off-putting campaigner, with little appeal for the moderates Biden supposedly attracts.

But Harris will be a problem for leftists as well. Seeking future votes, as a prosecutor and AG Harris took a tough-on-crime tack that saw high incarceration rates for low-level drug offenders, a sore point with the BLM faction of the party. And don’t forget her vicious attacks on Biden during the primary campaign: She clearly implied that he is a racist for saying nice things about segregationist senators like Strom Thurmond, and said that she believed the woman who has accused Biden of sexual assault. Her cringing, treacly acceptance speech graphically highlights her career-long opportunism and hypocrisy, and no doubt will make effective ads for the Trump campaign.

So what will be the saner choice in November: an incumbent president with a style that puts some voters off, but cheers others, who battles against the intolerant and illiberal “cancel culture,” and who has one of the best records of achievement in a president’s first term? Or a mediocre career pol with no record of achievement, a long history of gaffes, corruption, and lies, an economy-killing policy program imposed by the party’s extreme left, and a “woke” ideology that sanctions violence not just against people and property, but America itself and its unique virtues and achievements?

Trump should win on November 3, but as a philosopher once said, “Should ain’t is.” The stakes couldn’t be higher: saving our Constitutional order of unalienable rights, citizen sovereignty, and limited government; or watching it descend further into a technocratic despotism over dependent clients, as our safety and security are increasingly compromised.
--------------------------
Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, a Research Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and a Professor of Classics and Humanities at the California State University. He is the author of nine books and numerous essays on classical culture and its influence on Western Civilization. His most recent book, Democracy’s Dangers and Discontents.

---

Tags: Bruce Thornton, FrontPage Mag, Why Trump Should Win, And Why The Stakes Couldn't Be Higher To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

More Deals, The Left vs. Law Enforcement, Terrorizing Sick Children

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer: More Deals
President Trump's peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, known as the "Abraham Accord," is a big deal. And you can tell it is a big deal because the media largely ignored it or dismissed it. (Here and here.)

Meanwhile, Washington insiders tell me we can expect to see more Arab countries signing similar treaties with Israel in the coming days.

Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for a lot less than what Donald Trump just accomplished. That's why former Obama officials like Ben Rhodes were quick to dismiss the Israel/UAE treaty, saying it was just the status quo "dressed up" by two Middle East leaders who want Trump to win reelection.

Well, why didn't Obama and Biden get this treaty done if it's no big deal? Probably because they were too busy appeasing Iran and throwing Israel and other moderate Arab countries under the bus. They believed that the only way to get peace in the Middle East was for Iran to prevail.

I'm also willing to concede that Israel and moderate Arab nations probably do want Donald Trump reelected. Iran certainly doesn't.

Biden and Harris both support bringing back from the dead Obama's disastrous nuclear deal with the ayatollah. And Iran's enemies remember what it was like the last time Joe Biden was in office, emboldening Iran and allowing radical Islamists to run rampant across the Middle East.

Not surprisingly, Biden, who hasn't had an original thought in his life, tried to take credit for the Abraham Accord, claiming he and Obama set the groundwork for Trump's success. And how exactly did they do that? Certainly not by enriching Iran so Iran could enrich uranium!

The Left vs. Law Enforcement
The left's effort to defund the police is gaining momentum. Yesterday the Austin City Council voted to gut the police budget by more than a third.

Among the police services taking a big hit are the 911 call center, which is losing $17 million. How would you like to be put on hold when you call 911?

Forensic services is losing nearly $13 million. Community partnerships is losing $2.5 million. Three upcoming cadet classes were cancelled. The mounted patrol was defunded, and victims services is losing more than $3 million.

If that doesn't say enough about the left's priorities, get this: The city council approved an amendment redirecting some of these funds to "abortion access."

One left-wing council member said after the vote, "Today I hope that the community feels hope." Somehow, I suspect many residents of Austin just lost hope.

And the radicals aren't done. One social justice advocate exclaimed, "We're just getting started!"

Texas Governor Greg Abbott blasted the city council's action, saying, "Public safety is job one, and Austin has abandoned that duty."

Terrorizing Sick Children
In all the moral depravity that we're seeing the left unleash on the streets of America's cities, few things are so jarring as the picture of the Ronald McDonald House in Chicago. These homes provide families with a place to stay with their sick children as they undergo treatment at nearby hospitals.

So as gangs and thugs were looting Chicago's Miracle Mile for new shoes, iPhones and what one activist considered to be "reparations," they went looking for new targets to sack like barbarians always do. They descended upon the Ronald McDonald House, with families and their critically ill children huddled inside in fear.

Social justice can be a real two-edged sword, apparently. What this has to do with a man killed in Minneapolis no one has yet explained.

When the left started tearing down statues of Robert E. Lee and then moved on to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, who knew Ronald McDonald would be next? I expect we will see lynchings of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny soon.

State Police Pull Out Of Portland
Earlier this week we reported that Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced that he was refusing to prosecute the overwhelming majority of rioters arrested over the last two and a half months of violent protests that have rocked Portland.

More than 500 arrests have been made, and so far, Schmidt has only prosecuted fewer than 50 rioters.

As a result of Schmidt's craven appeasement of the lawless left, the Oregon State Police announced that it was pulling its officers out of Portland and ending the agreement it reached with Governor Kate Brown to help secure the federal courthouse in Portland. In a statement, the Oregon State Police declared:

"The Oregon State Police is continually reassessing our resources and the needs of our partner agencies and at this time we are inclined to move those resources back to counties where prosecution of criminal conduct is still a priority."

The Left's Disrespect For Faith
Minority Americans who are pro-life, favor educational choice for their children and believe in traditional values but are staying in the Democrat Party due to social justice concerns might want to think twice after learning what the Democrat Party did to Reverend John DeBerry.

DeBerry, who is black, has represented a Memphis-based district in the Tennessee legislature for 26 years. But this year, the Tennessee Democrat Central Committee voted 41-18 to kick him off the ballot because he supports voter ID laws, pro-life legislation, school choice and the traditional meaning of marriage.

How's that for diversity? He's now running as an independent candidate because the Democrat Party has zero respect for his values.

The intolerant left and its Democrat allies will force men and women of faith of all races to bow before the alter of abortion on demand, big teacher unions and unrecognizable unions they deem to be marriages, all the while defunding the police and leaving our communities vulnerable to gangs and criminals.

The stakes in this election could not be greater, my friends.

Other News

• U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation of the Russiagate hoax is finally producing results. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith will reportedly plead guilty to making false statements. Clinesmith had been previously accused of falsifying documents to justify the investigation of Carter Page.
• 55% of Americans support President Trump's executive orders deferring the payroll tax and boosting unemployment benefits. Only 27% disapproved, and 18% weren't sure.
• President Trump recently suggested that schools that refuse to reopen should refund parents so they can put those resources to use. 53% of voters who are parents like the idea of using public school funds to provide educational options for their children if their local school refuses to open.
• Retail sales soared to pre-pandemic levels in July, once again beating economists' expectations.
• She's back! Asked this week if she would accept an offer to serve in the Biden/Harris administration, Hillary Clinton responded, "I'm ready to help in any way I can." Maybe if she goes back to the State Department, she can find those 30,000 missing emails! Seriously, the idea of Hillary Clinton back in government should drive every conservative to the polls.

-----------------------
Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

---

Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, More Deals, The Left vs. Law Enforcement, Terrorizing Sick Children To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Biden-Harris/Trump-Pence Race 'Tightening'

Michael Barone

by Michael Barone: Just as Joe Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee, and a week before the Democrats' virtual national convention is scheduled to begin at various sites, the basement strategy he's been pursuing, hailed as the political equivalent of "The Emperor's New Clothes," was starting to look tattered and torn.

The basement strategy during the pandemic was an obvious choice for a 77-year-old candidate who was gaffe-prone even in his prime; particularly gaffe-prone against an incumbent president capable of stepping on his own best lines and tweeting himself into trouble; and perhaps even more so with a ticket mate whose own presidential campaign showed her chronically unprepared and undisciplined.

The New York Times has already run two columns, by Thomas Friedman and Elizabeth Drew, urging Biden to skip the fall debates. Stay in the basement!

But there's one problem with that. In working as a political consultant long ago, I always shied away from a campaign strategy, one essential step of which was "Step 3: The other side screws up." Sometimes they don't, and that's out of your control.

Recently, President Donald Trump doesn't seem to be screwing up as expected. The insightful New York Times poll analyst Nate Cohn spies "a clear Biden lead but consistent with 'tightening' over the last month and heading into the convention." Trump's upward trend is apparent in both national and target state polls.

Throughout his presidency, Trump's job rating has been remarkably steady, never above 50%, never as low as former Presidents Ronald Reagan's or Bill Clinton's. His low points came from June to December 2017 (the Russia-collusion hoax), in January 2019 (the Nancy Pelosi speakership), and in June and July this year (the COVID-19 pandemic). In those last two months, Biden's lead in the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls zoomed up to 10%, a margin too large to be overcome by any Republican Electoral College advantage. At this writing, it's 7.5%.

It's not clear whether San Francisco's Kamala Harris helps. A March Echelon Insights poll that showed a Biden-Amy Klobuchar ticket leading Trump and Vice President Mike Pence by a 49-40 margin showed a Biden-Harris ticket leading by only a 47-42 margin. Those look pretty close to Hillary Clinton's national popular vote plurality.

"For liberals," University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner writes, "a dominant view is that, thanks to Trump's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it unleashed, Republican and Trump-leaning independent voters are coming to their senses."

Throughout his presidency, Trump's job rating has been remarkably steady, never above 50%, never as low as former Presidents Ronald Reagan's or Bill Clinton's. His low points came from June to December 2017 (the Russia-collusion hoax), in January 2019 (the Nancy Pelosi speakership), and in June and July this year (the COVID-19 pandemic). In those last two months, Biden's lead in the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls zoomed up to 10%, a margin too large to be overcome by any Republican Electoral College advantage. At this writing, it's 7.5%.

It's not clear whether San Francisco's Kamala Harris helps. A March Echelon Insights poll that showed a Biden-Amy Klobuchar ticket leading Trump and Vice President Mike Pence by a 49-40 margin showed a Biden-Harris ticket leading by only a 47-42 margin. Those look pretty close to Hillary Clinton's national popular vote plurality.

"For liberals," University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner writes, "a dominant view is that, thanks to Trump's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis it unleashed, Republican and Trump-leaning independent voters are coming to their senses."

Three problems with that analysis. First, it's not obvious that anyone else would have responded to the virus better: U.S. deaths per million are well below those in Belgium, Britain, Spain and Italy.

Second, Trump continues to enjoy an edge on economic issues. Evidently, voters don't believe the COVID-19 shutdowns discredit Trump's previous policies that produced, for the first time in decades, above-average gains for low-wage workers and the lowest black and Hispanic unemployment ever recorded.

Third, that static analysis doesn't account for Trump's executive orders last weekend, with their $300 weekly unemployment payments from disaster relief or the payroll tax suspension. Many critics, including conservatives, argue that these measures, especially the unemployment payments, aren't authorized by legislation and are beyond the president's powers.

But former President Barack Obama's granting of legal standing and employment status to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (illegal immigrants brought here as children) was not authorized by legislation either, though he had previously argued it was. But he got away with it: Last month, the four Democratic-appointed Supreme Court justices and Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that DACA was illegal, but that remains effective because Trump's attempt to overturn it was administratively deficient.

I believe both presidents acted without constitutional warrant and beyond constitutional norms. But Democrats are poorly positioned to complain, especially Kamala Harris, who has promised to act without Congress to ban "assault weapon imports," to institute mandatory gun buybacks and to abrogate drug patents.

Currently, Democrats are charging that Trump's payroll tax suspension means abolishing Social Security. But that's not credible, and they're not going to oppose sending money out to the unemployed. Meanwhile, Trump's initiative may remind modest-income voters why they approved his economic policies until the pandemic hit.

Meanwhile, the intensely partisan division on responses to COVID-19 may help Trump. Democrats, much more likely than Republicans to support lockdowns and teacher union refusals to reopen schools, are not registering to vote as much as Republicans. Their much greater inclination to vote by mail increases the risk that their votes won't be counted in states that have had minimal mail voting in the past.

Biden-Harris remains the ticket to beat. But that's looking more likely than it did a couple weeks ago.
--------------------
Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. H /T Rasmussen Reports.

---

Tags: Michael Barone, Rasmussen Reports, Biden-Harris, Trump-Pence, Race'Tightening' To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Is Biden-Harris on Tom Dewey’s Path?

Sen. Kamala Harris sworn in by former VP Joe Biden
Pictured with Harris' is her husband Douglas Emhoff

by Patrick Buchanan: He chose Harris to run with him. And did so just one day after receiving a letter from 100 prominent Black men led by rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and radio host Charlamagne tha God that read like an ultimatum.

Accused of being a serial harasser in 2019, Joe Biden did what comes naturally. He apologized for perceived past misbehavior, and, to appease his accusers, pledged to choose a woman for a Biden ticket.

Reacting to the racial rage that erupted after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis cop, Biden reacted again. He put out word he would be looking closely for a Black woman to run with.

Thus did Joe paint himself into a corner.

For there was no Black female governor of any state in the Union, and there was only one Black woman in the U.S. Senate — Kamala Harris.

This presented a problem. For in the first debate, Harris had charged Biden with colluding with segregationist senators in the ’70s to block the busing of school children for racial balance.

Harris introduced the toxic charge against Biden with this sweet upfront concession: “I don’t believe you are a racist.”

This Tuesday, Biden made a virtue out of necessity.

He chose Harris to run with him. And did so just one day after receiving a letter from 100 prominent Black men led by rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and radio host Charlamagne tha God that read like an ultimatum.

“For too long Black women have been asked to do everything from rally the troops to risk their lives for the Democratic Party with no acknowledgment, no respect, no visibility, and certainly not enough support.

“Failing to select a Black woman in 2020 means you will lose the election. … We don’t want to choose between the lesser of two evils and we don’t want to vote for the devil we know versus the devil we don’t because we are tired of voting for devils — period.”

Astonishing. Here are prominent Black Democrats describing the candidates they have had to support in recent years — Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Joe Biden — as “devils” and the “lesser of two evils.”

Last Friday, 700 “Concerned Black Women Leaders” delivered a similar letter to Biden demanding he put a Black woman on the ticket.

Wednesday, Biden complied. But after the media ovation for Biden’s selection of Harris dies down, a new reality will emerge.

Before winning her Senate seat in 2016, Harris was a prosecutor and two-term attorney general of California who had established a reputation for being tough on petty criminals.

Biden, as chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, also had taken pride in helping craft the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which dramatically increased incarcerations and disproportionately affected Black men.

However, Black Lives Matter has pulled the Democratic Party sharply to the left on the issue of crime and cops with its battle cry of “defund the police!”

Yet, today, two months after Floyd’s death, mayors and cops in Democratic cities are still bedeviled by rioters, looters, arsonists, anarchists and a criminal class that settles its quarrels with nightly killings and weekend shootouts.

The public is getting fed up. People want their cops back, and leftist politicians and police are coming into increasing conflict.

The Black police chief of Seattle, Carmen Best, has retired rather than carry out the city’s decision to cut 50% of her budget.

Elected officials in New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis have approved plans to reduce police budgets. Meanwhile, shooting and killings are going up in almost every city including D.C. and New York, where more have died of gunshot wounds in 2020 than died all last year.

The president has staked out his position, and it does not lack for clarity. President Donald Trump embraces the phrase “law and order,” denounces the “defund-the-police” movement as promoting anarchy, and offers federal aid and agents to cities that request help. He calls on mayors and governor to demand the National Guard to deal with the crisis and condemns them for their chronic failure to safely secure cities they have run for decades.

Trump has been accused of taking us back to the Nixon era.

But 1968 was the culmination of a decade of soaring crime the likes of which the nation had not known. At its convention in Chicago, the Democratic Party was ripped apart by anarchic violence and the police response. In late September, even Hubert Humphrey was denouncing the “fascists” shouting him down at every appearance.

Undeniably, Trump has his problems.

But it is not certain that Biden’s sheltering in his basement and issuing his milquetoast responses to Portland, Seattle and the shootings, lootings and killings in Chicago, will prevail on Nov. 3 over Trump’s boisterous campaign call to crack down on criminals, go back to school, get back to work and “play ball.”

Biden-Harris looks like a ticket content to sit on its lead and ride to victory in November, the way Governor Dewey did in 1948.
--------------------
Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.

---

Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Is Biden-Harris on Tom Dewey’s Path? To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Biden's High-Water Mark?

. . . The campaign will only get tougher for him, as the pro-socialism message wears thin.

by Thomas Gallatin: Is it all downhill from here for Joe Biden? There's certainly an argument to be made that all the Leftmedia's fawning over Biden's VP choice of Kamala Harris may be the high-water mark of his campaign. One thing's for certain: Running for president won't get any easier for Biden. While he may be seemingly sitting pretty with a comfortable lead over President Donald Trump in the latest polls, he need look no further than Hillary Clinton's failed campaign to know that such a lead today doesn't count for a hill of beans come Election Day. As pollster Nate Silver tellingly observed, Biden's chance of winning currently matches that of Clinton at the same time four years ago.

Going forward, the greatest challenge for Biden may be figuring out ways to keep himself hunkered down in his basement without looking like he's hiding from the American public. His most daunting hurdle will be facing off against Trump on a national debate stage where the state of his declining cognitive acuity risks further exposure. It will be interesting to see if Biden, a notorious gaffe machine for decades, manages to pass off any mental miscues as simply part of his everyman charm.

However, even if Biden is able to successfully avoid the limelight while banking on a groundswell of hatred against Trump to hand him victory, his comfort may not last the year. The reality of a struggling economy coupled with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic are issues for which his campaign had no serious solutions beyond what Trump had already done. As political analyst Jim Geraghty notes, "The downside of trying to make the presidential election a referendum on the incumbent is that the electorate offers a mandate that amounts mostly to 'don't be Donald Trump,' not necessarily to a particular course of action or policy."

This factor could be Biden's undoing. As hated as Trump is by the Left, no one in modern history has ever successfully ousted a sitting president simply by using the argument, "I'm not the incumbent." Trump's advantage is his impressive record of accomplishments in just over three and a half years. Biden's nearly 50-year record in Washington pales in comparison. Socialism is the only policy proposal Biden is offering — in other words, a recipe for disaster.

Biden should enjoy it while he can, well, remember it.
---------------------------
Thomas Gallatin is a Features Editor at The Patriot Post.

---

Tags: Thomas Gallatin, Editor, Biden's High-Water Mark? To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Harris, Omar and the Democrats’ Great March Leftward

by Caroline Glick: On Tuesday, two notable events occurred in the Democratic Party. Joe Biden announced he selected California Senator Kamala Harris to serve as his running mate in November; and Rep. Ilhan Omar won her primary, all-but guaranteeing her return to Congress for a second term.

On the face of things, Harris’s selection seems like the more significant of the two events. But actually, Omar’s primary victory was far more momentous.

Traditionally, presidential candidates have selected their running mates based on electoral considerations. For instance, in 2016, then Indiana governor Mike Pence was an easy choice for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for two reasons that had everything to do with electoral calculations. Indiana, like neighboring Wisconsin and Michigan is a swing state. As vice-presidential candidate, Pence was well-positioned to sell swing voters in those state on the Trump-Pence ticket. Moreover, as a devout Evangelical Christian, Pence was able to assist Trump in securing the support of that critical Republican demographic.

Unlike Pence, Harris hails from California, a progressive deep blue state. As a progressive, wealthy native of northern California, Harris has little ability to mobilize supporters in places like Detroit or Pittsburgh. Moreover, Harris has not distinguished herself as a great vote getter. Last year, when Harris entered the Democratic presidential primaries, she enjoyed enthusiastic support from the media and deep-pocketed progressive donors. But despite these advantages, she failed to win over significant support for her campaign even in her native state. Her campaign she fizzled out very quickly.

While the progressive media refers to Harris as “a moderate,” since her election to the Senate in 2016, Harris has racked up one of the most radical voting records in the upper house. She supports revoking all limitations on abortions. She supports harsh limitations on the right to bear arms. She supports banning oil fracking and ending energy exploration on federal lands.

While popular with the Democrat base in California and other deep blue states, Harris’s extreme positions render her incapable of winning votes in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Indeed, she is likely to be more of a drain than an asset to Biden’s bid to win over these critical states.

So why did Biden choose her for his running mate?

In two words: Identity politics.

While progressives are more likely to be atheists than conservatives, they are religiously political. And one of the things they sanctify is identity politics. Recognizing this, Biden chose Harris not because of the votes she can bring, but for the support she can garner from the Democratic base. In other words, Biden chose her because she is a woman rather than a man and because as the daughter of a father who immigrated to America from Jamaica and a mother who immigrated from India, Harris is not white.

To be sure, Biden himself doesn’t sanctify identity politics. To the contrary. Some of Biden’s statements on the campaign trail have been arguably racist. In the past week alone, Biden committed two racial gaffes. He asked a black journalist if his is a junkie and he said that “with notable exceptions” all black people think the same way.

Biden is probably not a racist and he certainly isn’t an ideologue. The only thing that Biden is most assuredly is a weathervane. For more than forty years Biden has consistently adapted his “convictions” to the prevailing winds in his party. When the party was opposed to abortion, Biden was an anti-abortion Catholic. Now that his party supports unlimited abortion on demand, Biden does too.

Back in the day, Biden opposed illegal immigration. Now that the Democrat party has embraced open borders, Biden supports giving illegal immigrants free healthcare and schooling.

Harris is cut from the same cloth. Her “evolving” views on Israel demonstrate this clearly. Harris was considered the most “pro-Israel” candidate among the women Biden was considering selecting as his running mate. Her pro-Israel credentials derived mainly from the fact that she did not speak at the anti-Israel lobby J-Street’s annual conference and that she agreed to address AIPAC’s policy conference in 2017.

But as the Democrat Party openly adopted an increasingly anti-Israel position over the intervening years, Harris reduced her support. In 2018, as the midterm election raised the profiles of radical Israel hating candidates, Harris only agreed to speak at the AIPAC conference on the condition that her remarks not be made public.

Along with all the other Democrat presidential hopefuls last year save for Mike Bloomberg, Harris refused to speak at the AIPAC conference on any terms.

Not only has Harris refused to condemn Reps. Omar and Tlaib for their repeated anti-Semitic statements. Harris warned the Jewish community against protesting Omar’s anti-Semitism saying “the spotlight being put on Congresswoman Omar may put her at risk.”

The fact that Omar’s unbridled anti-Semitism was putting American Jews at risk apparently made no impression on Harris.

Like Biden and the rest of her party, Harris supports renewing Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran which will put nuclear weapons and billions of dollars in the hands of Iran’s genocidal ayatollahs. Harris doesn’t support the BDS movement but she opposed a Senate bill that would have harmed the campaign to boycott the Jewish state and discriminate against American Jews.

As California’s Attorney General from 2011-2017, Harris received numerous requests to take action against California’s public universities for having allowed their campuses to become hostile environments for Jewish students. Harris ignored their entreaties.

On the other hand, her husband is Jewish.

The slavish devotion that both Biden and Harris have demonstrated to their party’s grassroots is a dangerous omen for Jewish Americans because the organizations that comprise a large part of those grassroots are openly anti-Semitic.

For instance, on Tuesday more than a hundred progressive groups signed a letter calling on the “progressive community” to boycott the Anti-Defamation League. Among the various reasons they gave for their boycott call was the ADL’s criticism of Black Lives Matter for its anti-Semitic charter. The BLM charter accuses Israel of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians and refers to the Middle East’s only liberal democracy as an “apartheid” state. The charter endorses the anti-Semitic BDS movement and firmly places the self-declared black civil rights movement in the camp of the virulent anti-Semites who reject the Jewish state’s very right to exist.

Other crimes the progressive groups accused the ADL of committing included criticizing Omar for her anti-Semitism and opposing the BDS campaign against Israel and American Jews.

The progressive groups’ sudden denouncement of the ADL is as ironic as it is foreboding. In recent years the American Jewish community’s best funded organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism received significant criticism for its unwillingness to seriously confront anti-Semitism emanating from the political left and its exaggeration of the threat that far right anti-Semitism poses to Jewish life in America.

Under the leadership of Obama White House alumni Jonathan Greenblatt, in recent years the ADL has tried to reinvent itself as a progressive group that focuses mainly on criticizing the other side of the political divide.

The ADL’s fervent efforts to ingratiate itself among progressives places in stark relief the “Open Letter to the Progressive Community” signed by more than a hundred groups calling for ostracizing it. It shows that today’s Democrat party is unwilling to accept Jews or politicians who are both progressive and pro-Jewish.

This brings us to Omar’s primary victory. It wasn’t particularly surprising that Omar won the poll. Her national profile has made her a lightning rod in national politics. While as a bigot she is justifiably hated by many, leftist donors and activists adore her and back her as an anti-Semite.

While predictable, three aspects of her win are particularly significant. First the main difference between the Omar and the progressive black opponent she defeated is that unlike Omar, Antone Melton-Meaux isn’t an anti-Semite. Rather than drawing praise from progressives for his lack of bigotry, Melton-Meaux was decried by progressive activists who accused him of being controlled by Jews.

The second significant aspect of Omar’s win is that despite her open anti-Semitism, her reelection bid – and that of her anti-Semitic comrade Rashida Tlaib – was endorse by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi even donated $14,000 to Omar’s campaign from her political PAC. Pelosi was long viewed as a friend to both American Jews and to Israel. The fact that she monetarily supported an out and out anti-Semite speaks volumes about the direction of the party.

The final significant aspect of Omar’s win is that it was a testament to the rapidly growing power of the radical left in the Democrat party. Two years ago, four female radicals with harshly anti-Israel positions were elected as first-time lawmakers. The joined together, called themselves “The Squad” and proceeded to drain all the air out of the policy discourse in their party.

As the Squad members rose in power and prestige, moderate Democrats insisted their voice was out of synch with their actual power. To be sure, the moderates argued, the likes of Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have the loudest microphones, but they represent but a fraction of the party’s Congressional delegation.

So far, Tlaib and Omar handily won their primaries and three new candidates with their same brand of radical, anti-Israel positions just won their primaries replacing moderate lawmakers who either retired or were defeated. These victories point to two things. First, the squad has already nearly doubled its numbers in one Congressional term, and two, they have become, without a doubt, the rising force – and with Pelosi’s backing, the dominant force in the Democrat party.

In light of all of this, it is self-evident Omar’s primary victory was far more significant than Biden’s selection of Harris as his running mate. Biden and Harris, weathervanes both, will not lead their party. They will follow their party’s grassroots and donors as they lead the Democrats every further along on their great march into the anti-Semitic leftist abyss.
---------------------------
Caroline Glick is the Senior Contributing Editor of Israel Hayom and the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project. For more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com.

---

Tags: Caroline Glick, Israel Hayom, Kamala Harris, Ilhan Omar, Democrats’ Great March Leftward To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Huge Triumph for Israel, Bibi — and Trump

NY Post Editorial: President Trump just brokered the most important Middle East deal in years: a peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

The announcement was made Thursday by Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. Dubbed the Abraham Accord, it puts the two nations on the road to full normalization of ties — a first for the Jewish state and a Gulf Arab nation.

They’ll sign agreements on issues, including investment, tourism, technology and culture. And Israel will have to ditch plans to annex certain areas in the West Bank. “Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty” over areas in Trump’s peace plan “to focus on improving its ties with the rest of the Arab world,” reads the agreement.

That key concession would never have been possible unless Trump and Bibi had moved toward annexation in the first place. That is, they created a bargaining chip that they then gave up in the cause of peace — despite the fact that many Israelis see annexing land as the wisest course.

Even Trump’s election-year rival admitted it’s “a historic step,” though Joe Biden’s statement didn’t mention the president who made it happen. Indeed, Biden tried to take credit himself, saying the deal “builds on the efforts of multiple administrations,” including “the Obama-Biden” team.

Well, actually he’s right — in a way: It was his administration’s ill-advised Iran nuclear deal that gave the murderous mullahs billions of dollars to spend on terrorism. The increased threat from Iran brought Israel and most Arab nations closer together in fear of their common enemy, though that isn’t exactly what Team Obama intended.

Thursday’s agreement also makes a mockery of claims by Democrats and the foreign-policy establishment who predicted dire consequences when Trump announced he was moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. What happened instead is that now a third Arab nation has agreed to make peace with the Jewish state, pushing it ever closer to its dream of universal acceptance.

How ironic: President Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize even though he emboldened nuke-seeking terror state Iran and left the Middle East in shambles. Trump isn’t progressive enough for Oslo’s Nobel elitists, but with this deal alone, he’s done more for peace in the Middle East than anything Obama ever did.
-----------------------
NY Post Editorial - Posted via Fair Use Doctrine.

---

Tags: NY York Post, Benjamin Netanyahu, Diplomacy, Donald Trump, Editorial, Foreign Policy, Israel, United Arab Emirates To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!