Now That's Pathetic

 
House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi is the gift that keeps on giving.  As we reported yesterday, Pelosi decried the Republican tax cut law as "Armageddon" and suggested that it was going to "adversely affect" the American people.  But as we noted, millions of American workers are getting pay raises and bonuses as a result of that law.   
 
A reporter from The Daily Caller asked Pelosi to reconcile her claim of "Armageddon" versus the reality of bigger paychecks and bonuses.  Incredibly, she suggested that the bonuses were "pathetic," that the pay raises and other benefit increases were "crumbs" and "insignificant."
 
For the record, Nancy Pelosi is one of the wealthiest members of Congress.  Perhaps a few extra dollars per hour is "insignificant" to her.  But to the millions of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, it is anything but "insignificant."
 
No doubt a $1,000 bonus seems like "crumbs" to Ms. Pelosi.  That's probably just a nice dinner at a fancy San Francisco restaurant for her and a few friends.  But to millions of Americans who would struggle to pay for a $400 emergency, that $1,000 bonus is anything but "crumbs."
 
Pelosi spends so much time flying back and forth from the D.C. Swamp to the San Francisco zoo that she has no idea how the typical family lives in "flyover country" or the American heartland.  Now that's pathetic!
 
 
 
Focus, Please
 
The left-wing media became completely unhinged last night (again) over something Donald Trump allegedly said.  I don't know what the president's exact words were.  I wasn't in the room when this gang of senators presented their immigration deal. 
 
What I do know is that the president denies using that language but does admit to being angry over the deal they were offering him, which he blasted as "a big step backward."   He also suggested that he might have to record future meetings so his remarks cannot be distorted.
 
This episode is just another Rorschach test for the media and the progressive left.  If you hate Donald Trump and Mike Pence and have convinced yourself that they are bigots and neo-Nazis, then that is exactly how you will interpret accounts of the story. 
 
If you think Trump is a fundamentally decent man, while perhaps a bit rough around the edges, you will probably be inclined to overlook it given all the other important things happening right now, such as:
 

• Another North Korean missile test.
• Multiple police officers being shot.  (Here and here.)
• The latest report on Christian persecution paints a very bleak picture.
• A new inspector general's report suggesting the Obama Administration failed to fully vet dozens of immigrants with suspected ties to terrorism.  (See last item.)
• Or mounting evidence that key government agencies were weaponized to influence the election.

 
The president's language pales in importance compared to these issues, but the left is trying to distract you from the issues.
 
Don't miss the substantive point, my friends:  There are multiple countries in the world that frankly fit the definition of what the president allegedly said.  They are places where wages are a dollar a day, places without the rule of law, where corruption is the norm, where the concept of human rights is unheard of.
 
Yesterday, President Trump was presented with a deal that represented more of the same, business as usual.  And he got mad.  He confronted the politicians in the Oval Office and demanded to know when they were going to put the American taxpayer first. 
 
There are 7 billion people in the world.  Many of them live in what we used to call "Third world nations."  The debate in the Oval Office yesterday was over how many of these people are we supposed to take in before it becomes a burden on our society.
 
 
 
Durbin's Double Standard
 
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is making headlines today for disputing the president's denial and insisting that he used "vile and vulgar comments."  Of course, the media will never give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, but why should we believe Dick Durbin?
 
After all, he once compared our military personnel guarding the Islamofascist thugs at Gitmo to "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others." 
 
As usual, there is a double standard at work here.
 
When we temporarily bring in people from Haiti and El Salvador, we do so because everyone agrees that these are terrible places because of corruption, civil war, natural disasters, etc.  When it is time to send them back, we are told, "We can't send them back to these horrible, corrupt countries."
 
So when Trump asked the liberal politicians in the Oval Office yesterday, "Why do you only want to bring in people from these terrible countries," he is accused of racism, but the progressives are the ones arguing that these countries are "hellholes" in order to justify bringing them here in the first place.
 
 
 
No Justice
 
We have reported before on the shocking news that Barack Obama shut down a major investigation into Hezbollah's drug-running activities.  Incredibly, it seems Obama also allowed one of the worst Iranian terror leaders to escape justice.
 
According to Middle East media reports, Israel was prepared to assassinate Qassem Soleimani three years ago.  Soleimani is an Iranian general and commander of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, which is responsible for carrying out foreign terrorist attacks.
 
Incredibly, however, the Obama Administration, hoping to secure a nuclear deal with the ayatollah, reportedly told Tehran about the Israeli operation to take out Soleimani.  This seems hard to believe, but it wouldn't be the first time that the Obama Administration betrayed Israel.  (Here, here and here.)
 
Moreover, former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor almost seemed to confirm the report when he defended Soleimani as an "Iranian political leader."  Soleimani is anything but a political leader.  He is the ayatollah's hitman, a terrorist, whose hands are soaked with the blood of innocents.