Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   6/18/2019

Hypocrites, phonies, zealots, lunatics

The freak-out over “foreign election interference” –specifically, President Trump allowing in an interview with George Stephanopoulos (ABC, Clinton War Room) that foreign-sourced information on an opponent would be looked at before notifying the FBI—tops the hypocrisy cake. The only actual “meeting” wherein dirt was supposedly offered on Hillary Clinton, to Donald Trump, Jr. 1) never produced a scintilla of Clinton-related dirt, 2) was yet another setup arranged by the FusionGPS guy, Glenn Simpson, to bait Trump’s campaign, and 3) was cancelled in short order when it looked like attempt to secure promises of action on the Magnitsky Act restrictions.

Pretty “tall weeds” stuff but no laws were broken and nothing occurred worth notifying authorities; there were no security threats, bribes or corrupt actions. That really occurred when an actual foreign agent, Christopher Steele, was paid by a law firm cutout, Perkins Coie, on behalf of Hillary Clinton, with DNC and Obama campaign  money, and used actual Russian sources to craft Steele’s “Dossier” of unverified (admitted by Steele) anecdotes and made-up dirt on candidate Trump.

It also actually happened when Sen. Ted Kennedy traveled to the USSR to coordinate with Soviet leaders to offer help with their campaign to undermine President Reagan’s missile program and help defeat his reelection. To this day, no Democrats have condemned either case of Democrat “collusion.” John Kerry had the gall to approach Iran to suggest they wait out any actions by Trump until Dems won again.

If foreign agents contacted a Democrat candidate with dirt on a Republican opponent, they wouldn’t hesitate to use it to beat the GOP. Puh-lease. It still wouldn’t be illegal; the law specifies that “something of value,” or a bribe, would be needed to cross the line.

Likewise, the phony controversy over a Hatch Act non-violation: Kellyanne Conway saying bad things about Democrats. The Hatch Act applies to the administration of federal programs (Conway doesn’t do that), prevents coercion of federal employees in the workplace (Conway doesn’t oversee any employees), and protects the advancement of federal workers from political recrimination (ditto).

The Persian Gulf crisis has shown anyone not cheering for Iran, its terrorist military and Hezbollah branches (even operating in America)—that the accommodating approach under Obama was misguided at best, intentionally favorable to an enemy at worst. That hasn’t slowed down the Trump-Deranged Washington Post and New York Times from engaging in thinly-veiled moral equivalency between Tehran’s murderous mullahs and America’s President Donald J. Trump. It’s “knee-jerk” anti-Trump all the way as Iran’s claims are given the same credibility as Trump’s. Enemies of the people? That’s how I see it.

True words about the discredited “Trump/Russia collusion” narrative came from Attorney General Bill Barr: “One of the ironies today is that people are saying it is President Trump who is shredding our institutions. I really see no evidence of that. From my perspective, the idea of ‘resisting’ a Democratically elected president and basically throwing everything at him, and really changing the norms on the grounds that we have to stop this president. That’s where the shredding of our norms and institutions is occurring.” That’s exactly what the Democrat zealots are doing with impeachment talk.

Take a few minutes to look up “Democrats Accuse AG Barr of Doing Exactly What Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch Did for Obama,” by Matt Margolis, Pjmedia.com, May 4. The title is the absolute truth.

In his interview (actually, more of a debate—not journalism) Stephanopoulos cited “126 contacts” from the Mueller Report as if correcting Trump. The news media/Dem sycophants never, as I recall, engaged in “corrections” of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama during an interview. Nor did they add a voice-over “fact-checking” narrative after the interview, as part of the broadcast. Trump would’ve been factually correct to say to George: “Excuse me, ‘contacts’ are not collusion, coordination or conspiracy. I challenge you to tally how many ‘contacts’ there have been between Democrats and foreigners. Hundreds?”

The Democrat lunatic fringe is strong among the Trump-Deranged zealots in Congress, running for their nomination and their rich, Tom Steyer, George Soros-type benefactors. So obvious and off-putting to normal voters that “Rich Dems [are] Spending $60 Million to Hide the Party’s Far-Left Agenda” (John Merline, Issuesinsights.com, formerly IBD Editorials). “Politico reported that a group of ‘Democratic operatives’ is putting $60 million into a campaign ‘to reclaim values-laden terms like ‘freedom’ and ‘opportunity’ for their party ahead of the 2020 election.

“What it really amounts to is an effort to mask the party’s headfirst plunge into the deep end of left-wing extremism that would push the country in the exact opposite direction from freedom and opportunity.” Future Majority’s Mark Riddle: “If (Democrats) get defined as being about socialism…then I worry.” Could that be due to the Democrat message advocating socialized, single-payer “Medicare for all” ($32 trillion), federal takeover of every energy-related aspect of our lives via the “Green New Deal” ($57 trillion)?

Merline: “That’s just for starters. [They’ve] endorsed guaranteed federal jobs ($7 trillion), universal pre-school ($150 billion), free college ($750 billion, all over 10-years) and forgiveness of the trillion-dollar student loan debt. The mandatory federal $15 minimum wage” will kill millions of jobs for young workers and raise all prices. “A few rich Democrats can spend all the money they want trying to convince people that their party stands for freedom and opportunity. But the party’s actual agenda speaks far more loudly.”

How do you square freedom with Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s comments on the pro-life cause and its advocates, showing the left’s increasing extremism, militancy and disturbingly intolerant and authoritarian mindset? In “Leftists Declare Fundamental Moral Questions Beyond Debate,” David Limbaugh details how the issue of life in the womb is no longer open to question—their indisputable conclusion is that only religious intolerance can explain opposition to aborting living babies any time the mother wishes. Absolute moral superiority is claimed by the left on abortion and every other issue.