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             Illegal immigration: dummycrats-Democrats advocate open borders and sanctuary cities. Clearly, they stand with illegal aliens over and against American citizens by rejecting the enforcement of America’s borders and our nation’s laws.
               Tax cuts and the economy: House Minority Leader Nancy Pulosi infamously described Republican tax reform as both “Armageddon” and “crumbs.” Yet the GOP significantly cut taxes for the vast majority of Americans, and it’s proving to jump-start an eight-year-long stagnant economy. Yet Pulosi promises to roll back the tax legislation, which not a single dummycrats-Democrat voted for, once again reinforcing the fact that dummycrats-Democrats simply don’t trust Americans to spend their own money as they best see fit. Evidently, dummycrats-Democrats see record-low unemployment levels, especially within minority communities, as a problem “for the people” rather than a benefit. That’s why commie-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth dinky-Warren are running around telling lies about the unemployment rate to talk down a good economy. dummycrats-Democrats can’t win if the economy is good.
               Abortion: dummycrats-Democrats advocate for the “right” to end lives before birth, under the dubious notion of supporting women. They’re hyperventilating over the possibility of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick overturning Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, a millionairedummycrats-Democrat candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania has spent millions supporting groups that advocate population control; groups that have called for taxing parents who have more than two children “to the hilt” and see abortion as “a highly effective weapon” to combat overpopulation. That rhetoric sounds like the policies of communist China. For the people, indeed. More like for the people’s republic.
               Speaking of the people’s republic, dummycrats-Democrats are fast embracing the anti-capitalist ethic of Karl Marx. Look no further than the dummycrats-Democrats’ latest star, commie-Ocasio-Cortez, an avowed socialist who seeks to sell her ideology by advocating free college and free health care, while blaming capitalism for our problems. She recently opined, “Capitalism has not always existed in the world and it will not always exist in the world.”
               When it comes down to it, dummycrats-Democrats love to talk about how much they are for the people, but their policies are clearly opposed to the American ideals of individual freedom, limited government, and Rule of Law. When stacked up against the policies and accomplishments of President Donald Trump and Republicans, it becomes quite clear which party is truly for the American people and which party isn’t.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57246?mailing_id=3642&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3642&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

          Some “conservative” candidates are, at best, moderates. A case study of how such pretenders operate is the primary campaign between those seeking to become Tennessee’s 50th governor. One candidate, Randy Boyd, hails from a well-heeled family and is a likable candidate. He is a husband and father, and he has supported some initiatives that have helped his community of Knoxville, Tennessee.
               But he is not a “conservative Republican,” despite the facade that he and his handlers have erected for their campaign to defeat an unpretentious and unapologetic conservative, Rep. Diane Black.
               Let me be clear: My objection is not that Boyd is a moderate. I am a pragmatist and sometimes a moderate is the best a primary has to offer. But not this primary, and others like it.
               My objection is that Boyd is a pretender who is endeavoring to dupe millions of conservative Tennessee voters into believing he’s one of them. He self-identified as a “moderate” when he was exploring his candidacy, but he now insists he’s a “lifelong conservative” and his brand is “Conservative for Governor.” The political campaign deceptions he condones demonstrate a serious underlying character flaw.
               This example of re-fabrication is being repeated in other Republican primaries across the nation. Perhaps this opinion/ analysis of one such campaign will inspire the exposure of other pretenders.
               Attempting to ride the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Boyd, a quintessential “Never Trumper,” claims, “I’m not a professional politician. I’m a businessman.” He portrays himself as a “political outsider,” but in fact he’s the most insidious variety of political insiders — those who are not elected but use their wealth to buy into political circles and influence government policies.
               In fact, Boyd has spent much of his career hobnobbing around with rich politicos like Tennessee’s current governor, Bill Haslam — another establishment Republican. Boyd was appointed to a couple of administrative roles by Haslam, grooming his own run for governor. Like Haslam, he’s a wealthy jet-setter who is disconnected from grassroots Americans, and he uses his affluence to live as if recreation were his occupation, spending extravagantly on himself and his family. Of his personal pursuits, he says, “I’ve been a little selfish in that I pick the things I’m most passionate about and go for those things.” Like his estate in Argentina…
               Boyd amassed most of his estimated $800 million fortune by marketing products made in China and other countries, while sheltering some of his wealth overseas. As for the jobs he claims to have created, many have not been in the U.S. and others have been outsourced to foreign producers.
               In 2016, Boyd supported the establishment Republican presidential primary candidate, Jeb Bush, and refused to raise money for Trump after he won the primary. Bush has, in turn, endorsed Boyd.
               Boyd is a strong supporter of Barack liar-nObama’s  statist Common Core “education initiative.”
               He claims ubiquitously that “freedom should carry forward to social issues.” Like abortion and so-called “gay marriage,” which is supported by Boyd and his liberal church. His companies support LGBT activist groups. His campaign is also supported by wealthy donors who back Planned Parenthood.
               He says he supports the Second Amendment and claims to be an avid hunter, and he recently purchased an NRA membership to support that pretense. In fact, he supports “animal rights” groups that oppose hunters, and Boyd has organizational ties to anti-2A leftist billionaires Michael Bloomberg and scumbag-George Soros. His largest single donation was $5 million to the Knoxville zoo.
               He supports “corporate welfare” and is a strong supporter of liar-nObama’s unratified Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty, which was opposed by both Donald Trump and  liar-Hillary Clinton, but would boost Boyd’s net worth.
               Boyd is a member of the Partnership for a New American Economy, backed by leftist Michael Bloomberg, and which advocates for illegal immigrants. Boyd’s group partnered with Welcoming America to support sanctuary cities. Welcoming America is backed by leftist scumbag-George Soros, the godfather of the archenemies of Liberty.
               Boyd supported and donated to the campaign of Knoxville’s dummycrats-Democrat Mayor Madeline Rogero, who promotes open borders, opposes cooperation with immigration officials, and has turned Knoxville into a sanctuary city — the only one in Tennessee. Rogero was aliar-Clinton delegate.
               He supports free tax-funded tuition for illegal immigrants, and he remains on the board of liar-nObama’s College Promise Campaign, a project of the leftist Civic Nation started by liar-nObama activists. Among other things, CPC promises education for “undocumented students.”
               He donated $250,000 to La Raza affiliate Conexion Americas, a leftist dummycrats-Democrat Party front group that supports sanctuary cities and open borders and opposes President Trump’s border security and immigration reform policies.
               Are you beginning to see a pattern here? It’s a pattern repeated by pretenders in other Republican primaries.
               All of this notwithstanding, Boyd is flooding the media markets with campaign ads insisting that he and Donald Trump are “a lot alike.” But seasoned political commentator Jackson Baker offered this assessment of the stark contrast between Boyd’s campaign facade and reality:
               If all you saw of Boyd were his TV ads, which are loaded with hard-edged innuendo about the Second Amendment, potential welfare cheats, illegal immigrants, and dummycrats-Democrats’ alleged indifference to the porousness of our southern border, you would think: This guy is the right-winger of the race, more Trumpian than arch-conservative gubernatorial rival Diane Black. … But listen to [Boyd’s] ideas in forums and at stump speeches and fundraisers, and all of that is turned on its head. What Boyd talks about instead is the kind of ameliorist, problem-solving approach you would expect to hear from a centrist dummycrats-Democrat.
               Regarding the disconnect between the facade he has created — pretending to be a “principled conservative” — and his record, Boyd said, “If I’m running to be the Republican nominee in Tennessee, I want Republican voters to see that I’m one of them.”
               Or at least to think he’s one of them…To protect that facade, Boyd abruptly dropped out of the last gubernatorial debate, claiming, “We just have a scheduling conflict. I don’t do the schedule so I can’t tell you when it came up. But we’ve had a scheduling conflict.”
               Fact is, Boyd has been polling behind Tennessee’s genuine conservative Republican candidate, Diane Black. Consequently, he and his campaign CEO, Chip Saltsman, a onetime RNC chair wannabe and 2008 Mike Huckabee campaign operative, have unleashed a torrent of fallacious negative ads against Black. (Saltsman’s RNC bid was canned after news of his promotion and distribution of a racially-derogatory parody, “Barack the Magic Negro” to his political Christmas card list.)
               Saltsman has perfected the art of violating what Ronald Reagan’s California Republican chairman labeled “The Eleventh Commandment” — that Republicans in primaries should not engage in fratricidal infighting. His modus operandi is to sandbag Republican primary candidates in the final weeks of campaigns, when there is no time to counter mendacious accusations. Negative campaigning leads to a downward spiral as opposing campaigns then have to engage in a negatives poll number game.
               So duplicitous and hypocritical is Boyd’s campaign, that they are now targeting negative attacks against a third candidate, Bill Lee, insisting (get this) that he “was state president of a group that lobbied for amnesty for illegals.” Saltsman’s trademark is attacking from his client’s weak points, in this case suggesting his opponents are weak on defending American jobs from cheap illegal immigrant labor which is in fact Boyd’s “Achilles’ heel.”
               A lesson for anyone in a primary where there is a pretender – they target opponents with negative advertising which, most often, is an attempt to cover up their own record.
               Boyd and Saltsman are now attempting to defeat Rep. Black with what can only be charitably described as abject lies – the most recent of these declaring that “DC Diane” (asserting falsely that she’s a career politician) was a “Never Trumper.” They are using multimillion-dollar PACs to advance racist and sexist deceits about Black’s conservative legislative record. They shrewdly enlisted Saltsman’s old boss, Mike Huckabee, to endorse Boyd, knowing that would then create a Sarah Huckabee Sanders gauntlet against President Trump endorsing Diane Black. If not for these sleazy Saltsman/Boyd tactics, I would not have written this this column.
               Why would Trump endorse Rep. Black? For the same reasons I endorse and support her candidacy. (In fact, attesting to their conservative pedigree, Diane’s husband, a decorated USMC Vietnam veteran, was a Patriot Post reader and supporter long before she first went to Congress.)
               Black is the authentic conservative, who was swept into congressional office in the Republican Wave of 2010, and her gubernatorial candidacy has the endorsement of Tennessee’s most conservative constituent groups.
               Those of you who follow national legislation and policy would know Black’s name in connection with the House Budget Committee. She was the first woman to chair that powerful committee and last year she shepherded Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 through her committee and through Congress. That legislation has since unleashed incredible economic growth to Make America Great Again.
               It was the fist time in almost a decade that the House and Senate passed a budget. As Donald Trump noted, “Diane Black, the highly respected House Budget Committee Chairwoman, did a GREAT job in passing [the] Budget, setting up big Tax Cuts.”
               In fact, Rep. Black was at Trump’s side yesterday, leading the discussion on the next phase of Trump’s economic plans.
               Notably, one of Black’s most recent legislative bills would make illegal entry into the U.S. a felony, which would most assuredly put a damper on Boyd’s advocacy for illegal immigration.
               Bottom line: Conservatives across the country should take a close look at the background of those primary candidates marketing themselves as “conservatives,” because the pretenders are propagating. Caveat emptor!
               (P.S. No doubt that in response to this opinion/analysis, Boyd and Saltsman will turn their guns on The Patriot Post. That’s their black-bag MO.)   

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/alexander/57199?mailing_id=3640&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3640&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             House Minority Leader Nancy Pulosi’s response was more muted: “They made a choice in one district. So let’s not get yourself carried away as an expert on demographics and the rest of that within the caucus or outside the caucus.” Evidently, Pulosi saw that this shocking victory would be more problematic than beneficial to dummycrats-Democrats broadly speaking. Aside from the fact that commie-Ocasia-Cortez is an avid socialist, she’s also a young social justice warrior who clearly thinks she knows more than she understands. And it didn’t take long for her to expose this fact.
               commie-Ocasio-Cortez sat for an interview last Friday with Margaret Hoover on PBS’s “Firing Line,” in which she was asked to explain her position on Israel after having called Israel’s killing of 60 terrorist “protesters” in May a “massacre.” As she stumbled through trying to answer Hoover’s question, commie-Ocasio-Cortez referenced the “occupation of Palestine” in relation to housing settlements. This comment clearly surprised Hoover, who sought clarity from commie-Ocasio-Cortez on what she meant. After hemming and hawing for a bit longer, utterly exposing her ignorance of the issue, commie-Ocasio-Cortez eventually admitted, “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.”
               You don’t say. Nevertheless, she said, “I am a firm believer in finding a two-state solution on this issue, and I’m happy to sit down with leaders on both of these [sides].”
               Erin Dunne of the Washington Examiner sarcastically notes, “This exchange does not inspire confidence in commie-Ocasio-Cortez or the young progressives she claims to represent. Even with her degree in international relations, the lack of knowledge beyond buzzwords should not be surprising.”
               Not only has commie-Ocasio-Cortez expressed her ignorance of geopolitics, she appears ignorant of the election laws within her own state as well. Last week, she accused her defeated primary opponent Crowley of seeking a third-party bid, an accusation he quickly put down by explaining New York’s election laws. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) blasted her for the accusation stating, “She’s carrying on and she ain’t gonna make friends that way. Joe conceded, wished her well, said he would support her … so she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about.” That seems to be a categorical statement with her.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57170?mailing_id=3637&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3637&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Rep. Pocan asserted, “President Trump’s blanket directive to round up and target all undocumented immigrants underscores the unchecked power which ICE has used to terrorize our communities. From conducting raids at garden centers and meatpacking plants to targeting families outside churches and schools, the president is using ICE as a mass-deportation force to rip apart the moral fabric of our nation.”
               On the contrary, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) opined, “ dummycrats-Democrats have been trying to make July 4th about abolishing ICE, which is a radical, extreme position that would lead to open borders and undermine America’s national security. I think it’s the wrong approach. I think everyone ought to be on record about where they stand on that issue.”
               However, “House GOP leaders have scrapped a floor vote on a dummycrats-Democratic measure calling for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” The Hill now reports. “Instead, the House will vote Wednesday on a resolution — authored by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) — to support ICE, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Monday.”
               McCarthy stated, “What I found so interesting is the dummycrats-Democrats introduced a bill to abolish ICE… [W]e give them an opportunity, and they say they don’t want to vote for it.” Which is exactly why Republicans should have forced a vote. AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Speaker Ryan, declared: “After being called on their bluff, dummycrats-Democrats ran scared from their own bill. dummycrats-Democrats will now have the chance to stand with the majority of Americans who support ICE and vote for this resolution, or follow the extreme voices on the far left calling for abolishment of an agency that protects us.”
               We’ve seen this about-face too many times before. Republicans — both during Barack liar-nObama’s tenure and now — have been given numerous opportunities to put dummycrats- Democrats on record, yet they’ve balked almost every time citing political fallout.dummycrats-Democrat leaders did not want to be forced to defend their party members who voted to abolish ICE — an idea that voters oppose — and now they won’t have to. The Republicans’ list of political blunders just got a little longer.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57168?mailing_id=3637&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3637&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Apparently, Comey is in need of some reminders. It was Barack liar-nObama, his former boss, who was infamously caught on a hot mic in March 2012 promising “more flexibility” after his reelection in working deals with Vladimir Putin’s yes-man Dmitri Medvedev. And let’s not forget it was Comey’s favored candidate liar-Hillary Clinton whose illegal home-brew server, which contained classified information, was most certainly hacked by Russian agents, compromising U.S. security. Speaking of liar-Clinton and Russia, what of liar-Hillary’s shady Uranium One deal with Russia in 2010 while she was secretary of state? So shady was the deal that the Justice Department investigated it for four years, and yet inexplicably no fault was found with the liar-Clinton Foundation even though the FBI uncovered evidence of Russian bribery.
               The fact is that Comey’s latest tweets serve to further expose just how much of a partisan hack he is. As Mark Alexander noted, “Comey was, and remains, a ‘Trump hater,’ much as his fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and senior investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, all of whom colluded in an effort to ensure liar-Clinton would win in 2016.”
               Finally, Comey’s insinuation of Trump being treasonous for “refusing to back his own country” must be called out for the partisan cheap shot that it is. First, the refusal to fully back the U.S. intelligence community, whose leadership has repeatedly demonstrated animus toward Trump both before and after his election, is not the equivalent of refusing to back his own country. Trump has done more to back the country he clearly loves than have those intelligence officials. Second, Comey’s claim to know how “history” will judge Americans in his mind justifies his partisan commitment over and against upholding the Rule of Law. What hubris. Comey has now made more clear than ever that his politics trump all other considerations.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57189?mailing_id=3637&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3637&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             Breed added, “About 70% of the people estimated to be homeless in San Francisco were actually housed in San Francisco before they became homeless. We have to make sure people who live here, [and] sadly, people who are homeless here, that they are also held accountable for taking care of our streets.” So how does the mayor propose to hold these homeless folks accountable?
               Throwing money at the problem hasn’t helped. Last year alone San Francisco spent$275 million on supportive housing for the homeless. That was up from $241 million the year before, and this year the city is projected to spend upwards of $280 million.
               Well, being the dummycrat-Democrat that she is, it appears that Breed’s instinct is to shift responsibility away from the homeless and onto those working with the homeless. Breed said, “I work hard to make sure your programs are funded for the purposes of trying to get these individuals help, and what I am asking you to do is work with your clients and ask them to at least have respect for the community — at least clean up after themselves and show respect to one another and people in the neighborhood.”
               The root of San Francisco’s mess can be tied directly to decades of dummycrat-Democrats enacting their leftist policies. San Francisco has the highest rent in the world, coming in at an average of $3,500 a month. The median home price is a whopping $1.5 million, an amount that only 12% of residents can afford.
               And the biggest contributor to this obscenely high cost of living is onerous laws. Columnist Rachel Alexander reports, “Zoning regulations and building codes have increased the cost of housing. Height restrictions waste valuable space. In much of the city, it is illegal to build anything taller than 40 feet. One resident built a ‘pod’ in his friend’s living room in order to obtain affordable rent, but the city found out and made him move out. Due to the high cost of living, a family making $117,400 annually is considered 'low income.‘ A family making $73,300 is 'very low income.’ The minimum wage is $15 an hour, but it’s not enough to rent a two-bedroom apartment. In order to live comfortably in San Francisco, an annual salary must be at least $110,000.”
               Exorbitantly high cost of living and yet the city is increasingly becoming a slum. No wonder residents are leaving the city in droves. No U.S. city lost more residents in the last quarter of 2017 than did San Francisco. Here is yet another sad example of a long-time dummycrat-Democrat-controlled city whose residents are suffering — and smelling — the consequences.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57162?mailing_id=3635&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3635&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             It’s far from common for the Supreme Court to overturn one of its own decisions. Precedent is generally revered in the American legal system, and justices usually follow the principle of stare decisis, a Latin phrase meaning “let the decision stand.” The most likely scenario, and one that especially concerns leftists, would be the Court allowing abortion rights to be decided state by state rather than nationally. More conservative states would likely make many abortions illegal, whereas more leftist coastal states would house the remaining bastions of Planned Parenthood. A nationwide ban on abortion, while a great leftist scare tactic, is nigh unimaginable.
               “Whether or not a new social consensus is developing on [abortion], its divisiveness is no less today than in 1973, and pressure to overrule the decision, like pressure to retain it, has grown only more intense,” Justices Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, and David Souter wrote in their collective opinion on Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 case in which the Court squandered an opportunity to overturn Roe. “A decision to overrule Roe’s essential holding under the existing circumstances would address error, if error there was, at the cost of both profound and unnecessary damage to the Court’s legitimacy, and to the Nation’s commitment to the rule of law.”
               That was exactly backwards. There was great legal error in the litigations of Roe. For one thing, the motivation behind the case was less about women’s rights and more about eugenics, the racist pseudoscience that seeks to control populations deemed by leftists as undesirable and inferior. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed in a 2009 New York Times interview, she and others believed “at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”
               Roe also contains some stunningly poor argumentation. The state of Texas argued that, because life begins at conception, the unborn are entitled to legal protection under the law. The Court responded, “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.”
               This incoherent line of reasoning is twofold. First, it is an established scientific fact that life begins at conception; this simple biological reality is not a “difficult question” and was known even in 1973. Second, the Court concluded that, because one may not know when life begins, abortion should be legal. However, if one is not convinced as to whether or not the unborn is a human person, that itself stands as a good reason to refrain from the destruction of a possible human life. To borrow an analogy from Peter Kreeft, if a hunter sees something moving in the thicket but isn’t sure if it is a deer or his fellow hunter, wouldn’t that be sufficient reason not to shoot?
               Edward Lazarus, the clerk for Justice Blackmun, remarked, “As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible. … Justice Blackmun’s opinion provides essentially no reasoning in support of its holding.”
               Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of the infamous case, was a drug addict, an alcoholic, and homeless at the time her case was taken up by Linda Coffee of Women’s Equity Action League and Sarah Weddington, both of whom were looking for pregnant women they could exploit for challenging existing abortion laws. McCorvey initially claimed that she was pregnant as a result of rape but later admitted that the claim had been fabricated to make her case more sensational. McCorvey never actually had the abortion. The case took three years to reach the Supreme Court, during which time McCorvey gave birth to her baby and put her up for adoption.
               McCorvey later converted to Roman Catholicism and  became a tireless advocate for the pro-life cause.
               If Roe is overturned, then abortion law merely returns to the states, where it constitutionally belongs. And if that happens, it’s possible that an interesting pattern would develop nationwide. Communities that support pregnant women will flourish, while other cities haunted with abortion mills will continue to perpetuate the same destructive patterns of death, abuse, and deception. Abortion will never be completely outlawed in the United States, but it may very well become unthinkable and unnecessary across much of our great nation.

~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57154?mailing_id=3635&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3635&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body

             The media buys and sells sound bites because that’s all most Americans can handle. Trump gave them a terrible sound bite yesterday, and that’s entirely his fault. But it’s the result of him refusing to concede an inch on the dummycrats-Democrat/ Leftmedia narrative about collusion. They deliberately conflate two things: the phony idea that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election and actual Russian election interference to undermine voter confidence.
               But rather than explain that nuance, Trump did as he typically does — he let his ego obscure the issue as he blundered through a bad answer on the Russia investigation.
               During a joint post-summit press conference, Trump first correctly insisted, “The [Russia] probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.”
               Too bad he didn’t leave it at that. In the sound bite that has people on both sides rankled, Trump went on to imply that he believed Putin’s denial about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election over his own intelligence agencies. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people,” Trump said of their assessment of Russian interference, “but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” He also said, “[Putin] just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
               Oh really? The Soviets have only been interfering in Western elections for a century — sometimes at the invitation of dummycrats-Democrats (see 1984).
               Notably, dummycrats-Democrats have, by way of the Trump/Putin collusion charade, done more to undermine election confidence than Putin ever could — which has been precisely their objective.
               Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized Trump for his careless wording, saying, “President Trump must clarify his statements in Helsinki on our intelligence system and Putin. It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected — immediately.”
               The current speaker, Paul Ryan, was equally forceful: “There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world.”
               Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats defended U.S. intelligence, saying, “We have been clear in our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy, and we will continue to provide unvarnished and objective intelligence in support of our national security.”
               Trump’s other assertion receiving a lot of attention was, as we argued yesterday, directed at the previous administration. “I hold both countries responsible [for bad relations]. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish.” Unfortunately, Trump’s wording was sloppy and left him harshly criticizing his own country on foreign soil, which presidents should not do.
               Again, Ryan correctly responded, “There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals. The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy.”
               The real problem is that Trump’s statements breathe new life into the collusion story by his appearing to side with the lying, murderous tyrant Putin over his own government. Trump has thrown the American intelligence community under the bus before, but to do it in so public a forum and while standing next to Vladimir Putin is unlikely to do him or the country any favors.
               Trump is famous for working a long game that the media and his opponents don’t see, but it’s hard to fathom how his “Art of the Deal” strategy is working here. Perhaps he doesn’t want to upset negotiations with Russia, but the optics of Trump placating Putin are going to be hard to overcome. Either way, the fact remains that there is still no evidence of any collusion between Trump and Putin, and Trump seems uninterested in trumpeting anything else.
               That said, if we want to see what Putin manhandling a U.S. president looks like, and if we want to investigate Russian collusion with a U.S. administration, then we should focus on Barack liar-nObama and liar-Hillary Clinton. From the silly “reset” button to liar-nObama’s famous hot-mic admission to former Russian President (and Putin placeholder) Dmitri Medvedev to liar-Clinton’s shady uranium deal and her family’s foundation hanky-panky, there is plenty of evidence that can prove collusion. But this isn’t the collusion the media or Mueller want to prove.
               Trump has correctly placed much of the blame on his predecessor for the sad state of affairs between the two nations. liar-nObama and liar-Clinton, in her capacity as secretary of state, presidential candidate, and liar-Clinton Foundation gadfly, did a fine job of mucking things up with their arrogance and shortsighted worldview. If they had not proved so anti-American, Putin would not have been emboldened to run roughshod internationally.
               Mitt Romney famously pointed out in the 2012 presidential campaign that Russia was a problem that was only going to get worse. He was ridiculed only to be proven right over the next four years. dummycrats-Democrats are only coming around to this idea now because Trump is seeking better relations. In their Never-Trump worldview, whatever Trump seeks, they must seek the opposite.
               It’s difficult to know at this point if any substantive ground was covered between Trump and Putin because the press conference overshadowed any other details from their meeting. There were a host of issues on the table beyond Russian interference in the American election, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Putin’s stranglehold on the press and political opponents at home and abroad, assassinations and attempted assassinations of political opponents in Russia and in Europe, what to do about Syria, and Russia’s breaking of the 1987 INF Treaty.
               The two men met in private for over two hours before speaking with reporters, and there has been little indication that any progress was made in any of these areas.
               It’s worth noting, as CBS’s Michael Graham does, that Trump’s record is key: “Despite all the pillow talk with Putin, Trump has kept liar-nObama-era sanctions in place, added new sanctions of his own, reversed liar-nObama policies by giving offensive weapons to Ukraine and missile-defense systems to Poland, and allowed our military to wipe out a large group of Russian mercenaries fighting for Syria’s Assad regime.” That’s in addition to economic pressure he’s applied via oil and gas in particular.
               Trump went to Helsinki with hopes of improving relations with Russia, and both he and Putin said afterward that they made progress toward that goal. If Trump truly wants better relations, then he should follow Ronald Reagan’s model of peace through strength. Reagan never backed down from the Soviet Union and he never missed an opportunity to call out the Soviets on their bad behavior, even while maintaining a cordial relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev. Trump has shown some backbone in his dealings with Russia, but he needs to be more consistent. Monday’s Helsinki press conference was a missed opportunity for him to put Putin in his place.
               But there will be others. On a final note, we’ll conclude with Trump’s strongest remarks: “As president, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media, or dummycrats-Democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct. Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia affords the opportunity to open new pathways toward peace and stability in our world. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics. As president, I will always put [first] what is best for America and what is best for the American people.”

~The Patriot Post
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