tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52431437266845111892024-02-20T10:28:24.104-08:00binder'sblogbinder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.comBlogger1571125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-52216570927638739932023-11-25T14:52:00.000-08:002023-11-25T14:52:14.966-08:00Only 1465 Days Since The Ohio State University Beat MichiganGo Blue!binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-58652564380925240682022-11-07T20:18:00.005-08:002022-11-08T13:35:36.714-08:00Kenosha, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Virginia Point the Way to Tomorrow's Midterm ElectionsKenosha, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Virginia Point the way in the midterm elections
Democrats have a conundrum, caught between a rock and a hard place, Scylla and Charybdis.
Into the valley of political death valiantly and vainly rode the stalwart 250 Democrats. Theirs not to reason why, but to vote the party line. Not the Spartan 300 or the 600 Light Brigade, but 250 Democrats, most of whom preach moderation and independence at home, but vote the hard party line in Washington, D.C.
They have to tow the progressive line or be primaried out of office. Then they veer to the center during the general election. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an unknown waitress, bartender and failed entrepreneur, upset 10 term Joe Crowley, number four in the House Democratic leadership, in the 2018 mid-term elections. The left-wing, mostly far-left wing, of the Democratic Party effectively assumed power in D.C.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is scared of being primaried by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He gives the progressives everything they want.
Even Joe Manchin caved.
A hint of apostasy and be primaried out. Most professional politicians are paranoid about losing elections, usually the primary in a solid blue or red state. The general elections are a formality in these states.
Perhaps not this year. Not in a wave election.
San Francisco and Seattle may be the most progressive cities in America, but the residents are finally fed up with the crime, homeless, riots, and remote earning.
San Francisco voters recalled three woke school board members in February 2022 with each of the three receiving an over 70% recall vote. The George Soros radical District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled in June.
Seattle voters in November 2021 elected a law and order mayor and district attorney. Bruce Harrell defeated Lorenza Gonzalez, the radical City Council President who supported defunding the police. He won the mayor election by a 17% margin. Ann Davison, a Republican (Yes, a Republican), was elected city attorney defeating Nicole Thomsas-Kennedy who supported police and jail abolition.
New York City elected former Police Captain Eric Adams as Mayor, but unfortunately elected a progressive district attorney.
Who ever thought “Defund the Police” would be a winning issue?
Kenosha was wracked by riots in 2020. Kenosha voters elected their first Republican County Chairman in history.
It’s Law and Order, stupid.
School board elections are turning conservative, tossing out woke board members and superintendents of education.
It’s education, stupid, not DEI or critical race theory.
Glenn Youngkin was elected Governor of Virginia in 2021, the first Republican to win statewide election in 12 years. Republicans also won back control of the state legislature.
It’s education, stupid.
I thought for years that the Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade would be a Godsend to the Democratic Party and pro-choice voters.
It’s the inflation, stupid.
The Democrats and media declaim the MGAGA January 6 insurrectionists.
It’s the gas and diesel prices – wait for the home heating bill this winter, stupid.
It's all about Trump
It's about Biden, stupid
The problem for the Democrats and America is not that Americans and the world know President Biden is non compos mentis. Nor is it that he is an insecure blowhard always self-aggrandizing his ego. Nor that he is a pathological liar. Nor even that he has tied himself to the Bernie Sanders political wing of the Democratic Party. He has always been a weathervane for the Democratic Party.
The problem is the clique of his advisors who write his TOTUS and prepared remarks. They are zealot idealogues from the Obama Administration. President Obama was highly progressive, but understood political reality.
They don’t.
Probably a red wave in the House and Senate.
Absent chicanery.
Philadelphia was notorious for walking around money.
California and Seattle for ballot harvesting.
Professor Hugh Hewitt published a classic political Book: If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It (2004).
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-84300915331630585052022-06-28T19:33:00.002-07:002022-06-28T19:33:55.402-07:00The Irony of the Second Amendment and Roe v. WadeI teach a firearms manufacturer case in Torts. The question arises of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 and why Congress cannot enact meaningful gun control.
I tell the students that two single issues control many voters. For example, pro-life or pro-choice – that is the single most important issue for many voters. So too with gun control. Single issue voters.
The irony is that in two days the Supreme Court put abortion and gun control before the voters’ eyes in the November midterm elections.
It’s easy to support gun control in the large, mostly Blue states and cities. However, hunters and others in the less populated states are vehemently opposed to gun control. For example, both Governor Howard Dean of Vermont and Senator Bernie Sanders were late in supporting gun control. Every state has two senators. I remember being in Louisiana once when the powerful Democratic Senator J. Bennett Johnston was running for reelection. His ads emphasized he was a life member of the NRA.
The statistics tell us George W. Bush won the presidency in 2000 by 537 votes in Florida. However, Florida would have been irrelevant if Al Gore carried either Tennessee or West Virginia. West Virginia had been a reliably Blue state, but Gore lost it because of his opposition to coal. Tennessee was Al Gore’s home state, but he lost it because he favored gun control.
John Kerrey was not going to make that mistake in 2004. He distributed photos of him as a duck hunter with a rifle in his hand.
Colorado suffered two horrific mass shootings, the first at Columbine High School and the second in Aurora in a Century 16 movie theater showing The Dark Knight Rises. Senator John Morse, Senate Majority leader, jammed a strict gun control measure through the state senate, holding 7 hearings in one day.
Colorado voters recalled him and Senator Angela Giron, who represented the blue collar, heavily Hispanic, city of Pueblo. They were replaced with conservative Republicans.
Gun control does not sell in Red counties.
Abortion is different, but still single issue.
I remember placards in the University of Michigan Union in 1972:
COEDS
Weekend in New York
Hotel
Airfare
Abortion
$199
I think it was $199 – not $299. I sometimes regret not “liberating” one of the placards.
States, one by one, were dropping their anti-abortion statutes. The body politic was deciding the issue - abortion with restrictions.
The Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade changed everything. My initial impression is that it was just an extension of the Warren Court. Chief Justice Earl Warren had retired, but most of the Roe v. Wade Justices sat on the Warren Court.
Then came the dedication of the new law building at Ohio Northern University, where I taught from 1972-1975. Justice Blackman, who penned Roe v. Wade, was a Methodist, as was ONU. The Methodist connection got him to give the dedication speech of the new building. The Law School Associate Dean, a devout Catholic, led about a dozen protestors, silently and peacefully, demonstrating as the Justice spoke.
Epiphany: Roe v. Wade is different!
Professor Ruth Bader Ginsberg was right. She liked the result, but not the opinion. She felt the Court could have tossed the Texas statute without deciding the broader issue of abortion. She feared the poor reasoning of Roe v. wade opened it to reversal.
Roe v. Wade cut off the public debate and accommodation over abortion. Pro-choicers relied on Roe v. Wade while pro-lifers organized, organized, and organized. Repealing Roe v. Wade became their mantra.
Roe v. Wade provided a false sense of security to pro choice voters. The pro-life voters could organize and protest all they wanted, but the Supreme Court protected the woman’s right to choose.
Elections and Senate confirmation hearings have consequences.
The Democrats tried to protect Roe v. Wade by fighting the nomination of conservative judges to the Supreme Court. The Kavanaugh hearings became a comedy of the absurd. They attacked him over almost non-existent proof of a possible drunken act of misbehavior in high school, of which no actual proof existed.
Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh have no love for the left after the savage confirmation attacks on them.
The pro-choicers should blame the state legislative changes on President Obama whose 2020 midterm election gave Republicans of control of most state legislatures and state houses– control, which they have not lost.
I feared that if Roe v. Wade were reversed, the effect could be catastrophic for Republicans at the ballot box. Presidents Reagan and both President Bush’s shared that fear. They never pushed hard on pro-choice.
I’m not so sure this year. The election of Glenn Younkin as Governor of Virginia showed the “suburban moms,“ previously referred to as “soccer moms,” are concerned about education. They also feel the pain at the pump and inflation.
Democrats plan to run in the November elections on January 6, Roe v. Wade, gun control and ballot harvesting.
Economic issues often trump social issues at the ballot box.
So too with gun control this year. The statute just enacted contains preventative measures, but none of the actual restrictions sought by the Democrats. It undoubtedly passes the constitutional test.
The Supreme Court did not ban abortion; it left the decision to the states and the body politic.
However, the momentum today, unlike five decades ago, is for states to ban or strictly regulate abortion.
We will see extreme statutes, from no abortions under any circumstance to abortions any time prior to birth, live birth abortions. The developing consensus has yet to coalesce.
Justice Thomas felt the Court’s other social legislation decisions should be revisited: 1) Griswold v. Connecticut and the right to privacy, 2) Obergefell v. Hodges and gay marriage and 3) Lawrence v. Texas on gay rights.
He may theoretically be right, but Roe v. Wade is different – it involves the life of a second human.
Both Justice Alito’s majority opinion and Justice Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion refused to go there. Even Judge Robert Bork in his contentious confirmation hearing said he would not overturn Griswold v. Connecticut.
Chief justice Roberts, as expected, tried to split the difference by upholding the Mississippi statute but refusing to overturn Roe v. Wade. He had waffled on ObamaCare, having first decided according to his fellow justices to rule the statute unconstitutional, but then cleverly upheld it under the taxation power of Congress.
President Joe Biden has been, as might be expected, all over the issue during his career. He said after the Roe v. Wade decision was issued in 1973: “I don’t like the decision. I think it went too far. A woman shouldn’t have the sole right to say what should happen to her body.”
He voted in 1992 for a Constitutional Amendment that would allow states to overturn Roe v. Wade, and then voted against it.
He consistently supported the Hyde Amendment which is a ban on using federal funds for abortions.
He has also said that as a devout catholic he personally opposed abortion, but would not impose his religious beliefs on others.
Then we have Senator Biden on tape in 2006. He said: “I do not view abortion as a choice and a right. I think igt’s always a tragedy. , and I think that it should be rare and safe, and I think we should be focusing on how to limit the number of abortions. And there ought to be able to have a common ground and consensus as to do that.”
He is not conflicted for he has few convictions.
Americans are convicted.
They can resolve the issue in state elections.
That’s what the Supreme Court held in overturning Roe v. Wade.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-13555574379636773292022-03-12T09:07:00.006-08:002022-03-12T10:15:46.954-08:00Where Would You Place President Biden on This List of Titanic Historical Failures President Putin may be crazy, and a narcissist, but he is definitely a bully. The proper response to a bully is not appeasement, os which President Biden is an abject success.
This list is not based on mass murderers, evil dictators, disastrous generals and admirals. The entries are those who failed their countries and peoples, through actions and inactions, having run a successful people into the ground, or lost empires.
The list is alphabetical, but if you ranked them, where would you place President Obama after only 14 months in office?
Prime Minister Anthony Eden
President James Buchanan
President Jimmy Carter
Neville Chamberlain
Commodus
Lord Mayor of London During the Great London Fire
Robert Mugabe
Nero
Santa Ana
Tsar Nicholas II
Lord North
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Mehmet Talaat, Ismail Enver and Ahmed Cemal, The Three Pashas
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-40839457374795874072022-03-08T21:29:00.000-08:002022-03-08T21:29:14.361-08:00President Putin is Not WorriedPresident Putin is not worried.
He may have underestimated the Ukrainian resistance, but Russia’s numbers will prevail. Soon they will cut off the escape and reinforcement routes to the west of Ukraine.
He may have a pyrrhic victory, but not in his eyes.
He is sending a message to Moldova, the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and even Poland. They will be obliterated if they resist when he comes calling for them to rejoin Mother Russia.
Poland would resist even harder than Ukraine. The Poles hate the Russians. The Warsaw Museum of the Polish Uprising damns the Russians as much as the Nazis.
Putin could leave the Poles to last.
President Putin is not fazed by NATO, which is sworn under Article V to protect its members. He views NATO as a paper tiger, with its mainstay the United States led by a diffident, ineffectual old man. He’s seen that before with Konstantin Chernenko and Leonid Brezhnev.
He knows President Biden leads from the rear – far to the rear.
He’s not worried. He knows Secretary of State Antony Blinken was the deputy secretary who advised President Obama not to send arms to the Ukrainians during the Russian seizure of Crimea.
He’s not worried. He has the EU and NATO members over a barrel – barrrels of oil and gas. They don’t have a choice in his eyes.
He’s not worried. President Biden is owned by the green faction of the ruling party. He won’t increase U.S. production.
President Putin is waging war on Ukraine, but President Biden is waging war on America’s domestic fossil fuel industry.
President Putin is waging war on Ukraine, but President Biden is waging economic war on his own people.
He’s not worried about NATO. He knows the once formidable German Wehrmacht is but a shadow of its former self. The German Army is down to 62,766 soldiers.
President Biden will go to Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, begging for oil. That’s the President of the United States! Begging!
The EU and NATO have a second option; it’s called coal. Power plants can easily convert from gas to coal, or vice versa. The United States has the coal.
He knows President Biden doesn’t have the will.
President Putin’s not worried.
He knows democracies lack patience and staying power.
The initial blitzkrieg and ground attack in Ukraine may have stalled, but he has a backup. Ask Grozny or Aleppo. Kyiv has a choice: submission or bombing into oblivion. It’s their choice – not his.
He may be destroying the great cities of Ukraine, but that’s their decision.
He may be killing tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children, but that’s the price to pay for restoring a great Russia.
He’s willing to not only crush Ukraine, but break it into pieces.
He’s killing young Russian conscripts in Ukraine, but Russia will never know the extent of the casualties.
The Russian Army can easily replace the casualties. The Ukrainian Army cannot.
The Russian Army is recruiting Syrians and Chechens for the fight.
His top brass may have underperformed in Ukraine. No problem; he will purge them when it’s over.
He’s raining bombs and rockets on Ukraine, but the West is seizing the yachts of his loyal oligarchs; they can afford the loss.
He’s not scared of sanctions. He planned for it.
Economic war against Russia?
No problem; China is Russia’s next door neighbor.
They won’t touch his hidden wealth buried behind multiple tranches (President Biden’s word).
His people have suffered economic privations before. They can handle it.
He’s now inviting Ukrainian refugees to come to Russia. They love him.
He’s delusional or duplicitous. The peoples, especially Poles and Ukrainians, previously brutalized by the tsars and commissars have no love for Mother Russia.
Delusional or not, President Putin is not worried, perhaps frustrated, but not worried.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-35766407744625617742022-03-01T22:00:00.002-08:002022-03-01T22:00:23.512-08:00Thoughts on Ukraine, Putin, Biden,and RussiaKyiv may fall while President Biden helicopters to Delaware to vacation for the weekend.
Kyiv may be too close to the Russian borders to successfully resist a massive attack.
President Biden has well learned the lesson from President Obama of leading from behind.
However, President Biden claims to have supplied Ukraine with some defensive weapons, which is more than President Obama’s giving the Ukrainians MREs (Meals Rady to Eat).
President Obama wasn’t concerned by Russia’s seizure of Crimea because Russia was simply a “regional power.”
How ironic the Ukrainians are using Molotov Cocktails against the Russians!
An overconfident Stalin invaded Finland in November 1939. The Finns whipped the Red Army. The Russians finally forced Finland to the negotiating table months later.
A replay may be happening in Ukraine.
Theories abound to explain President Putin’s seizure of land from Georgia and Ukraine:
Restore Russia’s (USSR) glory and empire
Embarrassment on the fall of the Soviet Union when he was a lowly KGB agent in East
Germany
President Putin is crazy
History (Conquerors and attackers) shows the need to secure Russia’s borders.
How about the Napoleonic Complex?
No one should be surprised by President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Putin and Hitler both told the world what they wanted to do, but the world was not listening, not believing, or not caring.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy published his senior thesis at Harvard in 1940, “Why England Slept.”
Why the E.U. slept while Russia built?
President Putin also told the world his desire to rebuild the security zone around Russia and eliminate NATO as a threat.
President Biden strongly affirmed Article V and the commitment to the defense of every NATO member.
Does President Putin believe President Biden or the rest of NATO?
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s two major priorities for the United States military are 1) wokeness, and 2) climate change. Where does NATO fit into his priorities?
Sanctions, sanctions, sanctions, but no restriction on Russia’s export of oil and gas. Western Europe is dependent on Russia for energy. 41% of the European Union’s gas supply comes from Russia as does the largest amount of its coal and gas. Russia is a low-cost supplier of these fuels.
The Russian oil and gas, as well as coal, continue to flow.
David used a slingshot against Goliath.
Brandon is using sanctions against tanks.
Candidate Biden tweeted two years ago “I’m going to stand up to him, he’s a bully.”
He also said “Imagine what can happen to Ukraine” if President Trump is reelected.
Just imagine!
The media portrayed the summit between Presidents Biden and Putin last June as a meeting of adults.
President Trump warned Western Europe against buying Russian oil and gas.
The best way to destroy Russia’s energy club over Western Europe and crash its rubble is to open America’s energy tap, to return America to the energy independence of 14 months ago.
President Biden had America pay Russia $4.7 billion last year for 69,800,000 barrels of oil.
Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh said earlier in the week that the sanction levied against Russia are not intended to disrupt the Russian energy imports: “Our sanctions are not designed to disrupt in any way in the current flow of energy from Russia to the world.”
Weak sanctions against a “bully’ invading a neighboring country by a befuddled Administration.
President was asked about the effectiveness of his new sanctions. He snarky replied: “Let’s see in a month.”
Ukraine may be history in one month.
President Putin is waging war against Ukraine.
President Biden is waging war against American fossil fuels, but supports Russia’s fossil fuel production.
President Biden said: “I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.”
Everything except increase American production
The United States offered to Fly Ukraine President Zelensky and others out of Ukraine after the second day of the Russian invasion.
President Zelensky replied “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
President Zelensky, a lapsed comedian, is showing leadership to the Ukrainian people and the world.
President Biden, the “adult” in the room, is reaffirming his ineffectual leadership.
Why does President Putin sit at the end of a long table with the others 30-40’ at the other end? Is he paranoid?
John Kerry’s worried the war will set back his campaign against climate change: “I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”
Secretary of State John Kerry did great damage to America. He periodically proves the wisdom of the American people in not electing him President.
He would probably have been worse than Brandon.
The reputation of President Garter rises every day of the Trump Presidency.
The media never misses a chance to slam President Trump or quote him out of context.
He said of President Putin’s recognition of the two eastern provinces and moving troops into them “This is genius.” He also said Putin made “a genius move” by moving troops into them. Note carefully that he also emphasized more than once that Putin never would have attacked Ukraine if he were still President. Vladimir Putin only acted against Ukraine under Presidents Obama and Biden.
President Biden threatened Russia with crippling sanctions before the invasion to deter the invasion.
He repeatedly told the American people and the world that the sanctions would deter Putin from invasion.
He said Thursday: “No-one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening.”
The President warned Saturday that “no sanction that is immediate.”
Vice President Harris is not communicating with President Biden. She said Sunday “The purpose of these sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence.”
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-12916721095348119372022-02-22T23:13:00.002-08:002022-02-22T23:13:43.248-08:00Questions About President Biden, Ukraine and RussiaRobert Gates famously said of Joe Biden: ”I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past forty years.”
Afghanistan validated Secretary Gates’ assessment of President Biden.
Can we realistically believe the current national security team of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and even Susan Rice, will do any better with Ukraine?
Or Taiwan?
Or the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania?
Or Poland?
If you don’t bring a knife to a gun fight, why do you bring sanctions to an army invasion?
What is a sanction anyway?
What is meant by a tier of sanctions?
What is a tranche of sanctions?
Will the United States stop importing oil from Russia?
Will President Biden open up the domestic energy industry?
How much will Americans pay for a gallon of gas? It's up to $5 in California.
Since the Trump Administration has known for months President Putin’s plans, why has the response been so inept?
Is the eastern Ukraine a repeat of the Sudetenland?
What effect, if any, did President Biden’s strong rhetoric have on President Putin?
Is President Putin worried about anything President Biden says?
Will cutting off Russia from Western finance matter to Russia, which can access China?
Will relocating 1,000 troops, F-35’s and Apache helicopters to the Baltic nations reassure them?
Will NATO hang strong together?
Have Joe and Hunter got all their money out of Ukraine?
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-65473166618744318212022-02-20T21:19:00.002-08:002022-02-21T09:54:46.127-08:00President Biden's Use of Ukraine to Divert Attention From His failuresPresident Biden has been outspoken, seemingly indignant, in recent weeks that Russia will invade Ukraine, any day now, perhaps as I write this blog.
The President is running a futile, full court diplomatic press on President Putin and Ukraine
The conquest of Ukraine will be a modern, bloody tragedy – a country conquered by a neighboring bully.
Mr. President: What are you doing to deter Russia?
No American soldiers will be in Ukraine
Mr. President; What are you doing about Inflation?
It’s rising because of Putin and Ukraine
Mr. President: What are you doing about the high price of gas?
As you know, Hunter Biden has connections in Ukraine. That will help us in America.
Mr. President: What are you doing about my $5/gallon gas in California?
Move to Ukraine
Mr. President: What are you doing about the empty shelves in the stores?
It’s the Russian threat to Ukraine.
Mr. President: Why did you leave Americans and American supporters behind in Afghanistan?
We’re telling Americans to leave Ukraine on their own. No Americans soldiers will enter Ukraine to save Americans.
Mr. President: President Trump left you with a vaccine and Operation Fast Track to defeat Covid. Why have more Americans died from Covid during your Administration than President Trump’s
“You stupid son of a bitch.” The question is Putin’s aggression of Ukraine.
Mr. President: Did you have a constructive meeting with President Putin?
“If you don’t understand that, you’re in the wrong business.”
Mr. President: Why are you shutting down American oil, but asking President Putin to increase production?
It’s about Ukraine – not oil
Mr. President: How could you go from Energy Independence under President Trump, but now see oil reaching $100/barrel?
I just told you; it’s Ukraine
Mr. President: What are you doing about the rising crime rate in the United States?
It’s peaceful in the Ukraine.
Mr.President: What about the Durham probe?
What does Durham have to do with Ukraine/
Mr. President: President Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly, but carried a big stick in diplomacy. Why are you yelling about Ukraine?
I left my big sticks behind in Afghanistan. I have no sticks left to spare – only sanctions.
Mr. President: What about Build Back Better?
We’ll going to Build Back Ukraine Better.
Mr.President: What Are You and President Putin Going to Talk About?
We'll meet in Munich and go from there.
Mr. President: Where is Ukraine?
It’s in Russia.
Way to go Brandon.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-2472232468500308062022-01-19T21:19:00.002-08:002022-01-20T07:20:38.187-08:00Memo to President Biden on One Year in Office: It's the Economy, StupidMemo to President Biden After One year in Office: It’s the Economy, Stupid
You have completed one unsuccessful year in office
Inflation is at a 40 year high.
The official inflation rate is 7%, but it’s higher in the supermarkets, not including the empty shelves.
It’s the economy, stupid
The inflation is not transitory inflation
It’s the economy, stupid
Foreign policy should not be based upon an inflated opinion of oneself
It’s not Build Back Better
It’s the economy stupid
You are out-competing President Carter as the worse President in modern American history
His loss was the economy, stupid.
It’s not “Bring Back Better.”
You’re quickly bringing America back to the Carter Days
It’s the economy, stupid
Carter lost Iran. You lost Afghanistan
It’s the economy, stupid
How's that Over the Horizon Policy working out?
It's the economy, stupid
How could a Russian “minor incursion” be OK?
It’s the economy, stupid
Will Ukraine be this generation’s Munich?
It’s the economy, stupid
It’s not the filibuster or Voting Rights
It’s the economy, stupid
It’s not calling a despicable riot an insurrection
It’s the economy, stupid
It’s not Democratic Socialism, an oxymoron
It’s the economy, stupid
President Trump left you with energy independence
You raised the price of gas 50%
Gas is the economy, stupid
The supply chain is broken
It’s the economy, stupid
Energy independence is not based on unsuccessfully asking Russia and OPEC to raise production
It’s the economy, stupid
Cognizant Presidents at this low point throw advisors off the bus, but your puppet masters won’t fire themselves
How has surrounding yourself with progressive zealots worker out?
It’s the economy, stupid
Did you notice the Washington Post awarded your 4 Pinocchios for your latest lie?
It’s the economy, stupid
Does casting blame on others improve the economy?
It’s the economy, stupid
How are Antono Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Susan Rice working out?
It’s the economy, stupidHow's the Southern Border working out?
It's the economy, stupid
You said in your inaugural address that you will unify the country
Calling Americans racist, Bull Conner and Jefferson Davis is divisive
American strength is not based on a woke military
It’s the economy stupid
Have you really overperformed in office?
It’s the economy, stupid
Frequently referring to Vice President Harris as President Harris does not make her President – at least not yet
It’s the economy stupid
Your youthful Secretary of Transportation says rising energy costs will drive Americans to alternative energy
Remember the old joke: The surgeon meets the family after surgery. He says to the family that the operation was a success. The family is relieved. Then he continues: “But the patient died.” The operation was a success, but the patient died.
It’s the economy, stupid
How did your 200 page paper on defeating Covid work out?
It’s the economy, stupid?
You said three weeks ago: “There is no Federal Solution. This get solved at the state level.”
It’s the economy and Covid, stupid.”
Even the mainstream media is no longer covering for you
They know it’s the economy stupid
Americans are hurting
It’s the economy, stupid
Remember President Obama: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up”
Remember President Clinton and James Carville: “It’s the economy stupid.”
Way to Go, Brandon
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-29667195264571612162021-12-30T19:11:00.001-08:002021-12-30T19:11:15.346-08:00In Memory of Senator Harry Reid
I was taught if you can’t say anything nice about the dead, don’t say anything at all.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-45713464993700445962021-09-11T19:58:00.003-07:002021-09-11T19:58:28.657-07:009/11 Is a Day of Remembrance and Solemnity, But Not For President Biden Those who were alive on November 22, 1963 know where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was in the high school locker room entering gym.
Americans know where they were on September 11, 2001.
2,996 Americans perished on 9/11 due to 19 terrorists, Osama Bin-Ladin and Al Qaeda with the connivance of the Taliban, who provided them a safe haven.
The tragedy of 9/11 brought Americans together, a time for unity. The America spirit rosed, no soared to the occasion.
Americans mourned the dead and praised the heroes of United Flight 93. They died in Shanksville, but prevented the plane crashing into the Capitol or White House.
Americans admired and prayed for the first responders, a number of whom have succumbed or suffer from 9/11 illnesses from the toxic air at Ground Zero.
9/11 is a sacred day, a solumn day, a somber day of remembrance - not a festive occasion.
But not for President Biden. He would sully the significance and meaning of 9/11. The vain-glorious President Joe Biden planned to turn 9/11 into a celebratory ceremony to self-glorify himself – not to honor the fallen and those who served.
Leaders can be glorified after a resounding victory – not an epochal defeat.
Not President Biden.
His fancible plan was to declare victory in Afghanistan and bring the troops home on 9/11. It was to be all about Joe, Joe, Joe.
He lost the war that the Taliban could not win on its own. He left Americans and Afghan allies behind. He betrayed the fallen, the Afghans, and our NATO allies and demoralized the military, except for the top brass who went along with his flawed scheme. He emboldened America’s enemies.
He ledt Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban - stronger than ever with American military equipment.
He issued a prerecorded video yesterday calling for unity. He also promised unity in his January 20 Inauguration Address. He has consistently governed by divisiveness and blaming others.
The chastened and taciturn President Biden visited the three sacred sites today: Ground Zero, Shanksville, and the Pentagon.
September 11, 2021 is a day of infamy for Joe Biden.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-24608315139029881732021-09-04T13:04:00.005-07:002021-09-04T15:45:21.149-07:00President Biden in His Mind Successfully Completed His Afghan Mission of Bugging out.President Biden in His Mind Successfully Completed His Afghan Mission of Bugging Out
The law student who graduated in the top half of the bottom ten percent of his law school class had a brilliant idea in his mind: Evacuate Afghanistan with minimal military casualties and declare victory on September 11.
He’s been fixated for over a decade on getting out of Afghanistan and ending the war, totally out.
Vice President Biden during National Security Council meetings said of Afghanistan: “We should get the heck out of there.” The late Richard Holbrooke quoted the Vice President saying he was “not sending my boy back there to risk his life on behalf of (Afghan) women’s rights…. That’s not what they’re there for.”
He was not going to send his deceased son Beau back to Afghanistan or put American sons and daughters at risk. They were coming out quickly and safely.
Reduce risk to the soldiers by bugging out quickly with no warning.
President Trump’s plan was to evacuate the Americans, then the Afghan allies, followed by removing or destroying military equipment, and finally the military.
That wasn’t President Biden’s approach. He started with the military withdrawal. The military pulled out of Bagram Air base on July 1 in the middle of the night, turning off the electricity at 3:00AM.
He didn’t tell the Afghans, or our NATO allies who fought with America in Afghanistan.
He expressed in his braggadocio Tuesday speech: “I was not going to extend this forever war and I was not going to extend a forever exit.” He claimed his withdrawal was “extraordinarily successful.” Left behind in his extraordinary successful bugout was the greatest loss of military equipment in world history:
Blackhawk helicopters
A-20 attack planes
Humvees
Drones
Machine guns
M 4’s and M 16’s
Night vision goggles
Biometric Collection Devices
Left behind in the Fall of Afghanistan were people:
AMERICAN CITIZENS: Men, Women, and Children stranded in Afghanistan
American green card holders
Afghan supporters to whom we pledged evacuation
Afghan journalists
American Pride
The Atlantic Alliance
NATO
Left behind in Afghanistan:
Presidential lies, vows, promises, and misstatements.
Trust
Truth
Reality
He shattered both global respect and fear of America
If that is “extraordinarily successful,” then what would abject failure be?
The people and equipment left behind - not a problem. A small price to pay for President Biden's mission of leaving Afghanistan with minimal casualties.
The people left behind - not the Prresident's problem. Let Secretary Blinkin work it out.
The lies and false statements - necessary to effectuate the pullout.
Ignoring the scores of warnings - President Biden did what he had to do to leave Afghanistan.
Very little of the past five weeks make sense unless you focus on the President's fixation to get out of Afghanistan.
13 fatalities by a suicide bomber – sad, but it could have been worse in his mind if he hadn’t kept the military out of harm’s way.
Extending the perimeter around the airport would have risked the lives of the Marines and soldiers. Better for him that civilians take the risk.
The cold calculation was that the Afghan Army could survive 6-18 months before a Taliban takeover. Biden would be out; Afghanistan’s collapse would not be on his watch. His fingerprints would not be on the Fall of Afghanistan.
He would be celebrated for his political genius, one of the greatest in all history. He might even replace one of the slave owners on Mount Rushmore – no, that would be a stretch even for Biden.
Of course he was checking his watch at Dover with the caskets ceremony. He was bored; he never should have been there; it was damn inconvenient for the 13 Marines, soldiers and sailors to die at Karzai Airport.
Of course President Biden rolled his “f…ing eyes” as he met with family members of the deceased 13. He spoke of his late son Beau; the other sons and daughters were a distraction.
Blame Trump. Blame the Americans who didn’t get out early. Blame the Afghans who stayed behind.
Mission accomplished:” “Extraordinary Success!” in his mind. America is out of Afghanistan with minimal military casualties. Truth and reality will not intrude on his vision.
If history is written by winners, then President Biden will be recognized as a consummate fool.
The vainglory delusions of President Biden will be engraved in history with those of Nero and Chamberlain.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-60074579103731328252021-08-27T16:00:00.004-07:002021-08-28T12:55:48.498-07:00Trying to Explain President Biden Afghanistan's PolicyPresident Biden on Afghanistan
Alternative Universe
Befuddled
Boneheaded
Clueless
Denial
Delusional
Dim Bulb
Diminished Capacity
Dimwitted
Good backside in answering questions
Forgetful
Hapless
Head’s Down
Ignorant
Ill-informed
Instructed
Intransient
Lying
Mendacious
Misinformed
Misrepresentations
No memory of (it)
Only Hears what Wants to Hear
Out-of-Touch
Self-deception
Self-delusion
Self-rightous
Sequestered
Shell-shocked
State of denial
The elevator doesn’t go up all the way
Thoughtless
Tone Deaf
Cognitive decline, but can still read TOTUS
Joe Biden has a history in his adult life of lies, plagiarism, and gaffes, the subject of a future blog.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-7618966175038695342021-08-15T21:43:00.001-07:002021-08-22T19:40:55.412-07:00Afghanistan Fell on July 1, 2021The Fall of Afghanistan
Afghanistan Fell on July 1, 2015.
Let’s start with President Obama’s prophetic statement about Joe Biden: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.”
Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
Biden hunkered down in Camp David while Afghanistan fell.
President Trump announced the desire to pull out of Afghanistan. That was one of his campaign pledges.
President Biden said he trusted the capacity of the “better trained, better equipped and … more competent in terms of conducting war” Afghan forces than the Taliban.
He said on July 8: “The likihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
Secretary of State Blinken said in June: “I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to Monday.”
From Friday to Monday the United States Embassy in Kabul lowered the American Flag.
He added: “So I wouldn’t necessarily equate the departure of our forces in July and August or by early September with some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation?
That’s our Secretary of State Tony Blinkin.
Could the Joint Chiefs of Staff be surprised by the collapse of the Afghanistan Military?
Probably not!
The military advised the President to keep a small force of 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan providing air support in Afghanistan. President Biden refused.
The Fall of Afghanistan is on Biden.
The military didn’t seem to have a contingency plan. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin claimed today that they had prepared all scenarios.
Doesn’t look like it. The Pentagon and State Department are in panic mode. They need passive cooperation from the Taliban to get all the Americans, British and other foreigners out. The Afghan nationals may well be left to the tender mercies of the Taliban.
Secretary Austin also said he was “beyond disappointed,” adding You can’t buy willpower, and you can’t buy leadership.”
What about the lack of leadership currently hunkered down in Camp David?
General Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seemed more concerned with building a Woke military fighting climate change.
Are any going to resign in protest over the debacle?
Probably not!
The backbone of the Afghan military was the United States military, especially air support.
Weather dictates a fighting season in Afghanistan. The Taliban retreat to their bases in Pakistan and lay low in winter. They emerge to fight in the thaw, but were held in check by America’s air support for the Afghans. American air power would stop the Taliban in their track.
The Americans and allies were the backbone of the Afghan defense forces.
Also pulling out by necessity were the foreign contractors who kept the Afghan Air Force flying.
President Biden pulled the plug on Afghanistan as the fighting season began. He promised air support, but he bugged out of Bagram Air Base in the middle of the night on July 1. The departing Americans turned off the electricity at 3:00AM and were under orders not to tell the Afghan they were leaving.
The U.S. Military bugged out in the middle of the night. What message did that send to the Afghan military and the Taliban?
Whose dumb idea was that?
Bagram Air Base was the center of U.S. operatons in Afghanistan. It was also the listening post for America in that part of the world.
Bagram held 5,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners, including some transferred from Gitmo. The Taliban liberated them.
The President promised timely air support. The nearest air support is hours, perhaps eight hours, away in the Persian Gulf.
President Biden was headstrong on leaving Afghanistan at all costs.
America will be paying that cost for decades.
President Biden is right in saying Afghanistan is not Vietnam: “There’s going to be no circumstance where you will see people being lifted off the roof of an Embassy of the United States, from Afghanistan.” The Fall of Saigon witnessed helicopters at the U.S. Embassy taking off with escapees to Navy ships at sea. Afghanistan is landlocked far from the ocean. No helicopters will be taking off from the U.S. Embassy to the ocean.
How out of touch are the Bidenistas?
They profess that the Taliban will lose international support if they resort to brutality. Press Secretary Jan Psaki warned: “If the Taliban claim to want international legitimacy, these actions are not going to get them the legitimacy they desire …”
The Taliban could care less about legitimacy in the global community.
They adjoin Iran, Pakistan, China, and the Stans.
Jan Psaki is on vacation for at least a week not answering questions.
The State Department then promised the Taliban foreign aid if they behaved.
The Bidenistas are clueless.
Yet they proudly proclaim the United States is welcomed back in the global community. President Biden’s foreign policy is “America is back.”
The Chinese, Russians, Cuban dictators and Mullahs are salivating at the feckless Biden foreign policy.
President Jimmy Carter is looking better every day.
The State Department was slow-walking visa applications from the translators and others who supported the United States.
Secretary of State Antony Blinkin obviously had no interest in them.
Pentagon Spokesperson Admiral (Ret.) John Kirby yesterday said he did not believe Kabul was under “imminent threat.”
President Biden: “I do not regret my decision.”
Didn’t he also say: “America is back?”
Back to Saigon.
Secretary Blinkin said today “This is manifestly not Saigon.”
It is manifestly worse than Saigon. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong needed two years to take Saigon.
The Secretary also added “We’ve succeeded in that mission.”
Blinkin, Psaki, Kirby, which one sounds most like Bagdad Bob?
The Taliban needed 46 days to take Afghanistan.
If the cast of characters, Biden, Austen, Milley, Blinkin, Psaki, Kirby, had any sense of responsibility or shame, they would resign.
This cast of characters is clueless and shameless.
Hunkered down at Camp David.
Americans are realizing the President is non compos mente.
Afghanistan validates Defense Secretary Robert Gates statement that Biden has been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy issue for the past 40 years. He even opposed the raid to take down Osama Bin Ladin.
Senator Biden voted to cut off military assistance to the South Vietnamese, which left them unable to resist the North Vietnamese 46 years ago. President Biden either learned nothing from that disaster or has forgotten. Take your pick!
Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up!
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-42271389062035108732021-08-13T22:23:00.001-07:002021-08-13T22:23:28.547-07:00Governor Andrew Cuomo is Just the Tip of Sordid Albany Politicians During the New MillenniumGovernor Cuomo in his farewell said: “The best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to government.”
The Governor is the third of the three past New York Governors to be ethically and morally challenged.
Governor Eliot Spitzer had an expensive penchant for prostitutes. He met on February 3, 2008 in Washington’s Mayflower hotel with Ashley Dupre who arrived in D.C. via Amtrak (no TSA security). $4300 exchanged hands. He resigned in disgrace, but note his moral and marital flaws were not sexual assaults or harassment.
Governor Spitzer’s replacement was Lt. Governor Dave Paterson, who did not seek election when his term expired. He admitted several affairs and was accused of witness tampering. Improper gifts, and false statements.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman abruptly resigned in May 2018 after four women accused him of physical abuse.
New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi in 2006 was engaged in a Pay to Play scheme defrauded the government.
Not quite Albany, but Representative Anthony Weiner committed a federal felony by sexting a teenager.
New York has not caught up to Illinois which has seen four governors imprisoned.
Let’s get to the New York Legislature which has racked up quite a rap sheet over the past 20 years. Most, but not all, are Democrats simply because New York has become a one-party state. Corruption, harassment, and other derelictions of duty are non-partisan and bi-partisan.
2000 Jerry Johnson (R) (Assembly) Livingston County Attempted burglary
2003 Gloria Davis (D) (Assembly) Queens Bribery
2003 Sam Hoyt (D) (Assembly) Brooklyn Improper relationship with 23 year old intern
2004 Roger Green (D) (Assembly) Brooklyn False travel claims
2004 Guy Velella (R) (Senate) Bronx Bribery
2005 Clarence Norman (D) (Assembly) Bronx Corruption
2006 Ryan Karben (D) (Assembly) Rockland County. Improper fraternization with staffers
2006 Efrain Gonzalez (D)(Senate) Bronx Mail fraud
2006 Bryan McLaughlin (D) (Assembly) Queens Embezzlement
2006 Ada Smith (D) (Senate) Queens Harassment – throwing coffee in staff member’s face
2007 Karim Camara (D) (Assembly) Queens DWI
2007 Michael Cole (R) (Assembly) Erie County Night in apartment of student intern
2007 John Sabini (D) (Senate) Queens DWI
2008 Joseph Bruno (R) (Senate) Rensselaer Corruption, mail and wire fraud
2008 Diane Gordon (D) (Assembly) Bronx Bribery
2009 Anthony Seminerio (D) (Assembly) Queens Bribery
2009 Hiram Monserrate (D) (Senate) Queens. Slashed girlfriend in face with broken glass
2010 Adam Clayton Powell IV, (D) (Assembly) Manhattan DWI
2010 Pedro Espada (D) (Senate) Bronx Corruption, embezzlement, tax evasion
2010 Vincent Leibell (R) (Senate) Putnam County Bribery, tax evasion
2010 Kevin Parker (D) (Senator) Brooklyn Criminal mischief – altercation with photographer
2011 Carl Kruger (D) (Senator) Brooklyn Bribery
2013 Shirley Huntley (D) (Assembly) Queens Embezzlement
2012 Nicholas Spano (R) (Senator) Yonkers Tax evasion
2013 Vito Lopez (D) (Assembly) Brooklyn Sexual harassment of a staffer
2013 Steve Katz (R) (Assembly) Westchester County Marijuana possession after traffic stop
2013 Malcolm Smith (D) (Senator) Queens Bribery
2013 Nelson Castro (D) (Assembly) Bronx Perjury
2013 Eric Stevenson (D) (Assembly) Bronx Bribery
2013 John Sampson (D) (Senate) Brooklyn Embezzlement
2013 Micah Kellner (D) (Assembly) Manhattan Harassment of employee
2013 Robert Rodriquez (D) (Assembly) Manhattan DWI
2013 Dennis Gabryszak (D) Assembly Cheektowaga. Sexual harassment
2011-2014 William Boyland (D) Brooklyn Corruption, bribery, mail fraud, and extortion
2014 William Scarborough (D) (Assembly) Queens. Misuse of campaign funds and false claims
2014 Gabriela Rosa (D) (Assembly) Manhattan Lying to Immigration on marital status
2014 Thomas Libous (R) (Senate) Broome County False statements to FBI
2015 Sidney Shelton (D) (Assembly) Manhattan Bribery and kickbacks
2015 Dean Skelos (R) (Senate) Nassau County Corruption
2016 Bill Nojay (R) (Assembly) Monroe, Livingston, Steuben Counties Stealing from client’s escrow account
2016 Diana Richardson (D) (Assembly) Brooklyn Beat son with broomstick
2018 Angela Wozniak (D) (Assembly) Erie County Retaliation against staff member
2017 Robert Ortt (R) (Senate) Niagara, Orleans, Monroe Counties Filing false instrument
2017 Steve McLaughlin (R) (Assembly) Rensselaer County Harassment
2018 George Maziarz (R) (Senate) Niagara, Orleans, Monroe Counties Filing false instruments
2018 Pamela Harris (D) (Assembly) Brooklyn Wire fraud, false statements
2021 Luis Sepulveda (D) (Assembly) Bronx Domestic violence
Governor Andrew Cuomo: “Let government get back to government.”
I Love New York
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-85237460097170341272021-08-12T18:47:00.001-07:002021-08-12T18:47:12.830-07:00(In)Famous Statements of Politicians (Only One Per Politician)President Biden on Governor Cuomo “He’s done a hell of a job.”
Governor Cuomo: “In my mind I never crossed the line with another.”
President Bill Clinton: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
President George W. Bush: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning.”
President Jimmy Carter: “I lusted in my heart several times.”
President George H. W. Bush: “Read my lips; no new taxes.”
President Gerald Ford: “There is no Soviet domination of eastern Europe.”
President Richard Nixon: “I am not a crook.”
Senator Ted Kennedy: “They don’t call me tyrannosaurus sex for nothing,”
Senator Howell Heflin on Senator Ted Kennedy Indelicato photo on a Mediterranean yacht: “I see Senator Kennedy changed his position on offshore drilling.”
Vice President Al Gore: “A Zebra doesn’t change its spots.”
Senator John Kerry: “I voted for it before I voted against it.”
Senator Barack Obama: ”I’ve now been in 57 states. I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii ….”
Senator Mark Pryor: “You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though.”
Senator Chris Dodd during his Presidential campaign: “Eight more days and I can start telling the truth again.”
Speaker Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Representative Hank Johnson on Guam: “My fear is that the whole island will become so overpopulated that it will tip over and capsize.”
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-38803094999719438502021-08-08T22:51:00.002-07:002021-08-08T22:51:30.701-07:00Thursday Night in America: Standing for the Flag and Singing the National AnthemThe Pageant of the Masters is an unique Orange County festival running for two months during summer. The festival recreates famous paintings, sculptures, and music in which actors and actresses dressed appropriately fit into the picture. They assume a still life pose for up to two minutes as the audience is awed by the living pictures. The living art looks like blown up copies of the originals. About 250,000 persons annually see the 90 minutes of living art.
The theme changes every summer. This year’s theme is “Made in America.”
The narrator started this year show differently than in past years. After the usual no photography admonitions, he asked the audience to stand for the Flag and National Anthem. The audience collectively sang the Star-Spangled Banner and then spontaneously applauded.
No kneeing; no turning one’s back on the Flag.
This is America. This is the America we grew up in. This is America today, an America Americans are proud of.
This is the America not represented by the post George Floyds riot, lootings, trashing of America, and erasing cultural monuments and history.
This is not the America of much of our Millennials and Z Gen, who have been educated on Howard Zinn and taught America is racist and oppressive.
A recent survey of 1424 adults between June 30 and July 2 showed 67% are extremely or very proud to be patriotic. However, only 37% between the ages of 18-24 could say the same. 35% said they slightly or not at all proud to be an American.
This is not the America of President Biden who repeatedly says America is systemically racist, but then sometimes adds Americans are not racist – a distinction a brilliant lawyer could craft, but not one President Biden could create on his own.
A study of several Georgetown students found them to be “embarrassed” to be an American, but none could name a better place to live.
This is the America that President Nixon referred to as “The Silent Majority.”
The Pageant’s “Made in America” is a tapestry of American history. It had the famous paintings of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence.
More. Much more. “Made in America” is a tapestry of America.
It featured Edmonia Lewis, a famous sculptress of the Nineteenth Century. Edmonia was of African American and Ojibwe heritage. She spent several years of her youth on the reservation. She loved nature, but art, especially sculpture, was her calling. She overcame all the obstacles a Black woman could face in the post-Civil War 19th Century fulfilling her dream, but she succeeded, eventually settling in Rome. Edmonia became famous and a success. President Grant commissioned Edmonia to paint his portrait.
Her works were featured in Chicago’s famous 1893 Columbian Exhibition. The world fair is best known today for Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmstead and the City Beautiful Movement and for Professor Frederick Jackson Turner presenting his famous paper on the End of the American frontier. The fair also played a significant role in the advancement of women in America. The Woman’s Building was the largest the 200 fair buildings.
The Woman’s Building was run by the Board of Lady Managers. Sophia Hayden with her architecture degree from MIT, designed the Woman’s Building.
The painter Mary Cassatt created a 12’ X 58” mural entitled “Modern Woman” for the Woman’s Building. The mural has been lost in time, but the Pageant of the Masters was able to recreate it for the show.
The Pageant featured the music of Scott Joplin and Duke Ellington and sculptures by Luis Jimenez.
Made in America – a tapestry we can all be proud of.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-83821491446046620472021-08-04T09:57:00.005-07:002021-08-04T21:42:01.708-07:00Governor Mario Cuomo Is Not Going to Get Due Process and the Presumption of InnocenceDoes Governor Andrew Cuomo Get Due Process and the Presumption of Innocence?
Not if he’s impeached and voted out of office by the New York Legislature!
Senator Al Franken of Minnesota didn’t receive due process.
Representative Katie Hill of California didn’t receive due process.
No presumption of innocence for them.
This battle is political battle – not judicial in a court of law.
The Congressional Democrats weren’t giving President Trump due process in their bogus impeachments. The Republicans remember.
Cuomo, Newsom in California, Brown in Oregon, Pritzker in Chicago reflect the weakness of one-party government. The Governor’s party has turned on him.
Governor Cuomo’s problem is quadruple. First, he’s a bully. Second, he has few friends. His staff turned on him eons ago. Three, he’s no longer glorified by the media as the anti-Trump; the media doesn’t need him anymore. Fourth, the nursing home fatalities are on him. Janice Dean of Fox News is on a Jihad against him for killing her father-in-law and mother-in-law.
He never learnt one of the fundamental rules of life: “Be nice to those you pass on the way up; you may see them again on the way down.”
The Governor issued a slide show – a compilation of his greatest kisses or pinchings.
He said as a defense:
“I do it with everyone. Black and White, young and old, straight and LGBTQ, powerful people, friends, strangers, people who I meet on the street.”
How can it be discrimination or harassment if he treats everyone equally?
Not a great defense!
He called his conduct “old-fashioned.”
Not a winning argument!
He’s just an expressive Italian.
It’s still harassment!
He responded to the charge that he grabbed a woman's breast at the Governor's Mansion: "I would have to lose my mind to do such a thing" to a woman he barely knew in front of his staff.
What did his staff say?
How about these defenses?
1) President Clinton got away with rape;
2) President Biden has a touchy-feelie history;
3) What about President Trump?
4) Let’s not forget Governor Schwarzenegger;
5) What about Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh?
6) If President Biden wants him to resign, as do Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the entire New York Delegation, he can’t be that bad;
7) Would you prefer Andrew Cuomo or New York Mayor Bill de Blasio as governor?
Mayor de Blagio has demanded the Governor’s resignation.
Of course he has. The two are like putting two scorpions in a bottle and see who comes out alive. The Governor has triumphed on most issues because the governor has more power than the mayor, but this time Mayor de Blasio smells blood. He says the Governor “is past the point of no return.”
The four governors of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island signed a joint letter claiming to be “appalled” by his conduct.
Remember the classic line from Casablanca: “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here.”
We have the Lieutenant Governor, the governor in waiting, Kathleen C. Hochul stating she believes the accusers. She called the Governor’s conduct “repulsive and unlawful.” She's measuring the drapes in the Governor's office.
Governor Cuomo will try to wait it out and then run for reelection.
That depends on the New York Assembly and Senate.
That really depends on the New York Senate.
Majority vote in the Assembly to impeach; 2/3 vote in the Senate to convict.
The Governor at this point passes bipartisan (an often overused word) opposition.
House Speaker Carl Hastie met with the Democratic caucus earlier today. He said Governor Cuomo “lost the confidence of the Assembly Democratic majority and that he can no longer remain in office.”
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins called for his resignation “for the good of the state.”
Senate Minority Leader Robert G. Ortl echoed her remarks.
165 pages establishing harassment, improper behavior, groping, a climate of fear, and retaliation.
What about CNN and Chris Cuomo?
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-30713542857223335162021-07-26T07:17:00.000-07:002021-07-26T07:17:03.022-07:00Why the Kerfuffle with Ben & Jerry's
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, two itinerant Jews from New York, found themselves in progressive Burlington, Vermont, joining fellow New York progressive expatriate Bernie Sanders, Mayor of Burlington.
Ben and Jerry set up a corner ice cream shop in an abandoned gas station and hit the jackpot. The artery clogging, high butterfat content ice cream was a success. Their appeal as two progressive entrepreneurs helped. Gen Z and Millennials love the ice cream.
Ben and Jerry sold Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream to the multi-national Unilever in 2000 for $325 million.
Ben and Jerry’s is unique with its appealing image. The merger of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream with Unilever had unusual terms and conditions. Ben and Jerry’s would retain an independent board of directors, perhaps in perpetuity. Unilever agreed to the new subsidiary continuing its social policies “in these critical, global economic and social missions.”
Unilever made a Faustian bargain. It could sit back, collect the revenues and profits from Ben and Jerry’s with some occasional blowback.
Ben and Jerry’s is the single highest selling ice cream in the United States in 2020 with sales of $863.1 million. That’s what $6/pint can do compared to $4-6/1½ gallon for most branded ice cream. Breyers, another Unilever brand, is the largest seller by volume.
Ben & Jerry’s is known for its social activism. It called for President Trump’s impeachment after the January 6 Capitol riots. It’s opposed to GMO products. It’s hypocritical low was after the killing of George Floyd. The almost all white company called out to “dismantle white supremacy in all its forms.” It promoted Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street. Up to one fifth of its advertising budget goes to social causes.
Where could go wrong?
Ben and Jerry’s joined the BDS Movement last Tuesday. It announced that it will no longer sell its ice cream in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” i.e. Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Technically it was cancelling its licensing agreement with its Israeli affiliate when the license expires at the end of 2022. It had asked the licensee to stop selling in the occupied territories – an offer the licensee could not accept because Israeli law forbids boycotts of Israeli citizens, Jewish or Arab, based on their location.
Unilever remains “fully committed” to its Israeli business and staying in Israel. CEO Alan Jope said: “Unilever remains fully committed to our business in Israel. This was a decision that was taken by Ben & Jerry’s and its independent board in line with an acquisition agreement that we signed 20 years ago.” He said that, but I assume Unilever’s are flyspecking the purchase agreement looking for a loophole.
Good luck with that. Most consumers will not understand the legal distinction.
Therein lies a problem for Unilever. It cannot in theory control Ben and Jerry’s, but it has to answer companywide for Ben and Jerry’s.
Several Jewish retailers in Jewish neighborhoods have dropped the brand. Several individuals have vowed not to buy Tom and Jerry’s, but who knows? Talk is cheap on social media.
If a boycott of Ben and Jerrys, or of Unilever generally, is effective, the company will have to act. It may or may not be able to control the subsidiary, but it can definitely sell it or spin it off.
Unilever is heavily invested in Israel and is a large exporter of its products from Israel. It invested over $300 million in Israel over the past decade. Naftali Bennett, Israel’s new prime minister, said Ben & Jerry’s ban will have “serious consequences.”
Jews in the U.S. are split on BDS and the settlements, but Israel is overwhelmingly unified on BDS. They view BDS as an existential threat to the country.
Israel and Unilever are too heavily intertwined, but changes will occur.
I am not a fan of boycotts, a favorite tool of the left. The left has unsuccessfully attempted to get Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson fired by pressuring their advertisers to cancel. Their boycotts of Chick fil-A and backfired with increased sales by those companies.
Avi Zinger, CEO of Ben and Jerry’s Israel will survive.
33 American states have enacted anti-BDS statutes that restrict their governments from contracting or investing in companies that boycott Israeli businesses or people.
I will continue my personal avoidance boycott of Ben and Jerry’s because I don’t eat the high fat, high calorie, high price ice cream. I’m happy with Breyers and store brands.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-34617047489534627932021-07-21T19:19:00.003-07:002021-07-22T07:20:13.869-07:00Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Squad and Cuba
Black lives Matter and AOC blame Cuba’s misery on the 60 year “absurdly bad” U.S. Boycott.
They are either besotted with socialism/Marxism or in a state of denial, refusing to believe the facts – not for the first time.
Nikole Hannah-Jones in a 2019 podcast called Cuba “the most equal multiracial country” in the Western hemisphere. She credits socialism for Cuba’s success. She wrote in a 2008 Op-Ed that Cuba has a high literacy rate and a “model” universal health care system. Senator Bernie Sanders, who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, also praises Cuba’s literacy program.
Of course the Cuban people have equality
Equality in trying to escape Cuba. - often by boat
Equality in poverty
Equality in lack of access to food, medical care and medicine even though the trade embargo excludes food and medicines.
Cubans have three classes of medical care. The highest level is reserved for the leaderaship.
The next highest is for foreigners who can pay cash.
The leftovers are for the Cuban masses.
Equality in driving 70-80 year old cars.
Here’s the amazing fact about the U.S. boycott. It only applies to U.S. citizens, U. S. companies, and their subsidiaries. Cuba is free to trade with Canada, Mexico and the rest of the world.
Then we have the dictatorship class, headed by the Castro family, which runs Cuba. They are White as is the Cuban Communist Party Central Committee. Blacks were in leadership positions before the Castro Revolution, but no mas.
Nikole Hannah-Jones praised Cuba for ending “codified racism.”
Now it’s de facto discrimination.
Cubans are literate
They understand Cuba Libre and Libertad.
Thge Cuban protestors are flying both the Cuban Flag and American Flag. American protestors and athlethes are trashing the American Flag. Go figure!
The Biden Administration is welcoming undocumented immigrants, but not the Cubans
Open Borders, but not Open Seas for Cubans and Haitians. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said: “If you take to the sea, you will not come.”
Secretary Mayorkas was born in Cuba in 1959. His parents brought him to America in 1960
So much for Solidarity Forever with Cuban-American Mayorkas!
Why?
Cuban refugees upon acquiring citizenship vote Republican.
Professor Nikole Hannah-Jones, AOL and the rest of the Squad should visit Cuba to see Communism and Socialism in action.
Then they should take a side trip to Venezuela to see the once most prosperous country by Latin American standards with a vibrant middle class descend into Cuban style equality of poverty in less than a decade.
Not many Americans try to deflect to Cuba. On the other hand, Joanne Deborah Chesimard, aka Assata Olugbala Shakur, was found guilty of first degree murder in New Jersey. She and two fellow Black Liberation Army members killed a New Jersey State Patrol Officer in May 1963.
The redistribution of wealth becomes the redistribution of poverty.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-47842221915371286242021-07-19T13:17:00.002-07:002021-07-25T10:01:37.135-07:00Vice President Hamala. Harris May Not Be Ready for Prime Time; But she is Vice PresidentVice President Kamala Harris May Not Be Ready for Prime Time, But She is Vice President of the United States
Vice President Kamala Harris is being attacked from the left and right. The consensus is President Biden made a mistake.
The media is full of report of low morale, staff turmoil, turmoil and communications problems with the Vice President’s staff. Those stories came from inside the Administration.
Do not write her off. The internet chatter cannot force her out of office. President Biden cannot fire here. Her term of office runs to January 20, 2025.
Let me repeat. No matter how dissatisfied the Bidenites may be, they cannot fire Vice President Kamala Harris. She could be impeached or 25th Amendment. She could unexpectedly die or become disabled. Social media can’t remove her. Or she could resign. Politicians with blind ambition for the White House do not voluntarily resign.
The Constitution spells out the Vice President’s office. She is to preside over the Senate, cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate, and succeed the to the Presidency if the President dies in office, resigns or is removed under the 25th Amendment.
That’s it!
FDR’s Vice President John Nance Garner is reported to have said “the Vice Presidency is not worth a bucket of warm spit.”
LBJ was passing into oblivion in the Kennedy Administration until the tragic day in November 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. LBJ instantaneously became a different person, the same forceful person he had been as Senate Majority Leader.
No signs in the Vice President’s past will indicate a LBJ change as President.
President Biden’s Administration was based on undoing everything President Trump did. Thus, Open Borders. President Biden halted construction of the Border Wall and opened the Border to all comers, including rapists, MS-13, drugs, meth, fentanyl, opium and a host of others. He could no longer deny after two months that “problems” exist at the Border. Thus he assigned the Vice President to study the root causes of the migration crisis. She was promptly labeled the Border Tsar.
The Vice President was placed in a lose-lose position. She could not say “Open Borders” was the cause, mush less root cause, because Open Borders was the Administration’s Policy and her campaign plank. She therefore avoided going to the Border, until the heat became too strong. She responded when asked why she hadn’t gone to the border: “I haven’t been to Europe either.”
She proceeded to ignore the Border. Finally, under pressure, she visited Guatemala and Mexico for two days in May. Her solution to the root causes was to offer more billions to them. The Cayman Island and Swiss bankers are salivating.
Pressure continued to build. She had to go to the Border. She therefore took a desultory trip to the Border. She dropped into El Paso on June 25 for a photoshoot on the way to Los Angeles. All was wonderful in El Paso because the problems are 300 miles away.
She said: “We have seen extreme progress over these last few months.” Border encounters (detentions or arrests) were up only 563% in the El Paso. Over 1 million have illegally crossed the Southern Border in a little over half of this year. Most have been released, indeed often flown by the military into the hinterlands of America. The word “extreme” was right. “Progress” was a figment of her imagination.
Vice President Harris uttered these bromides: “Our approach has to be thoughtful and effective” and President Biden is offering a more humane approach.
Her trip was ill- planned and widely panned. Her visits and statements did not calm the crisis.
George W. Bush received the Republican nomination for President in 2000. He selected Dick Chaney as his VEEP, at which point the media commentators pronounced Dick Chaney brought gravitas, yes GRAVITAS, to the Bush Administration. No one claims Kamala Harris brings gravitas to the Biden Administration.
President Biden in June assigned the Vice President to lead the fight to expand voter access.
She joined the elitists who believe flyover country is an empty wasteland full of hicks, hayseeds, and yokels, i.e. Walmart deplorables who cling to their guns and religion.
She supports the Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill and opposes the Republicans state voting bills.
The debate is a fight over the future of the country. The Democrats want Open Borders and Open Voting to stuff the ballot boxes through ballot harvesting, felons and ex-cons, the dead, and non-citizens.
Republicans want eligible voters to vote.
She attacked state voting laws Saturday:
“Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don’t – there’s no Kinkos, there’s no OfficeMax near them.”
There’s probably no OfficeMax near her either. They were subsumed into Office Depot a few years ago.
My first faculty position was at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio, a rural town still with less than 6,000 residents surrounded by wheat, corn, and soybeans.
Memo to the VEEP: These “rubes” have telephones, cell phones, cable or live streaming, the internet, Wi-Fi, computers, printers, copy machines, scanners, cars and driver licenses. I also learnt that the farmers had to smart and technologically savvy to survive.
If she believes that statement of hers, then she is manifestly unfit to be president of the American people. If she was just mouthing talking points provided by her staff, then her ignorance shows. If she didn’t believe it, then she was insulting the American people.
President Biden’s handlers during the election campaign did a wonderful job muzzling the candidate. They continue to limit his public appearances. We see little of the traditional Biden malapropisms.
Vice President Harris is filling the gap.
Kamala Harris’ qualifications are District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General of California, and more years as a United States Senator than President Obama. She served on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. She asked piercing questions, but standing out in that crowd of 10 Democrats pillowing Judge Kavanaugh was difficult. Three of them, Cory Brook of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Kamala Harris of California, sought to use their time in the sun to run for President.
Senator Harris announced her candidacy on January 21, 2019. The initial response shot her high up in the polls. She had a good first debate, but then started fading. To quote Gertrude Stein: “There is no there, there.” The Senator dropped out on December 3, 2019 before the first debate.
The Bush staffers believe they made a mistake adding Senator Harris to the ticket. That wasn’t a mistake; it was a Faustian Bargain.
The good news for President Biden is the Vice President is deflecting flak from him. She also will not outshine him.
The pundits scoffed at Joe Biden a year ago. Look where he is now.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-11806730014347841322021-07-10T18:18:00.001-07:002021-07-10T18:18:14.493-07:00Rank the Following Democratic Governors, Mayors, and District Attorneys from Worse. to Best, Best to Worse, or Worse to Worst
Governors
Gavin Newsom. California
J.B. Pritzker Illinois
Gretchen Whitmer Michigan
Tim Walz. Minnesota
Phil Murphy New Jersey
Andrew Cuomo. New York
Kate Brown Oregon
Tim Wolf Pennsylvania
Ralph Northam Virginia
Jay Inslee Washington
Tony Evers Wisconsin
Mayors
Keisha Lance Bottoms. Atlanta (not seeking reelection)
Lori Lightfoot Chicago
Eric Garcetti. Los Angeles (headed to India)
Jacob Frey Minneapolis
Bill De Blasio New York (termed out)
Jim Kenney Philadelphia
Ted Wheeler Portland
Jenny Durkin Seattle (not seeking reelection)
Muriel Bowser Washington, D.C.
District Attorneys
Marilyn Mosby Baltimore
Kim Foxx Chicago (Cook County)
George Gascon Los Angeles
Mike Schmidt Portland (Multnomah County)
Cyrus Vance, Jr. Manhattan (New York City)
Larry Krasner Philadelphia
Kim Gardner St. Louis
Chesa Boudin San Francisco
Dan Satterberg King County (Seattle)
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-66307050544975714632021-07-06T23:11:00.003-07:002021-07-06T23:11:39.730-07:00Memo to President Biden and the Democratic Party: What Goes Around, Comes AroundMemo to the Democrats: What Goes Around, Comes Around
Remember the success in threatening to impeach President Nixon? They called it Watergate.
He resigned.
Remember President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, and his obstruction of justice?
The Republican House impeached him, but the Senate acquitted him.
President Clinton subsequently settled with Paula Jones, pled guilty to obstruction, and was disbarred.
Payback came from the Democrats twice impeached President Trump with no legal or factual basis.
The Republicans have the memory of elephants.
They could impeach President Biden for cognitive impairment or corruption with Hunter Biden, but probably not. Vice President Kamala Harris is President Biden’s impeachment insurance.
The time will come.
Remember President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid eliminating the Senate filibuster on district court and court of appeals judges?
Republicans responded by eliminating the filibuster on Supreme Court justices. Think Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Comey-Barrett.
President Obama wanted to minimize the chance the D.C. Circuit would overturn his Obamacare. Three appointees to the D.C. Circuit were approved with the lack of a Republican filibuster
Obama used reconciliation to push ObamaCare through.
Republicans passed tax cuts through reconciliation that jumped the economy.
Remember Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats demanding President Trump take a cognitive functions test and the call for the 25th Amendment?
Remember Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, personal physician to Presidents Obama and Trump?
President Trump nominated Admiral Jackson on March 28, 2018 to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Democrats then unleashed a barrage of accusations against Admiral Jackson attacking his character and ability to lead the VA.
Admiral Jackson withdrew his nomination on April 26, 2018 and then retired from the Navy on December 1, 2019.
Remember Ronny Jackson?
He’s baaaack!
Admiral Jackson is now Representative Jackson from Texas’ 13th Congressional District.
Representative Jackson is demanding President Biden take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test, the same test Dr. Jackson administered to President Trump.
Remember Representative Marjorie Taylor Green? Speaker Pelosi on a party line vote had Congress strip her of all appointments in Congress because of her outspoken remarks.
The Republicans will return to House control. The question is which Democrat(s) will the Republicans single out for retribution?
Will it be Representative Ilhan Omar because of her incessant anti-Semitism?
How about Representative Eric Swalwell still on the Intelligence Committee after sleeping with a Chinese spy?
Then there’s Representative Adam Schiff who lied for two years to the American public on the Russian hoax?
Why not all three as a trifecta?
What about eliminating the nation’s magnet academic high schools to do “equity”?
Drive the Asian Americans to the Republican fold.
Want to make the District of Columbia and perhaps Puerto Rico states to get more Democratic senators.
Watch the Republicans create more conservative states out of eastern Washington, Oregon and California, and elsewhere in the country.
Mess too much with the Constitution, watch the Republicans when they control two-thirds of the state legislatures call a Constitutional Convention
Force Justice Breyer with a lifetime appointment off the Supreme Court, pack the Court with four new progressives, watch the Republicans pack the Court with six conservatives.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-46933163070587749832021-07-04T18:44:00.002-07:002021-07-04T21:50:43.097-07:00The 4th of July is a day of national celebration. The day the Declaration of Independence set the American people on the course of becoming the greatest nation and democracy in the history of the world. America - a democracy shining the light of freedom and the Statue of Liberty to the world. America opened its doors to the world.
The 4th of July – a day for the American people to come together and share their common creed. The day for a nation of immigrants and the sons and daughters of immigrants to celebrate their common heritage as Americans.
Most countries are centered on an ethnicity, a religion, or DNA, but not America. The United States is the melting pot of the world adapting its culture from throughout the globe.
The 4th of July – a day for fireworks and parades, the Flag, patriotic music, a day for BBQ’s and hot dogs, hamburgers, steak, soda and beer. Joey Chestnut again won the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Competition, gulping down a record 76 hot dogs.
The 4th of July – celebrating independence and personal freedom, protected by the Bill of Rights.
The 4th of July – not so much this year. The nation is under attack from within from those canceling the heritage of America either out of hatred for America or with the goal of creating a new nation built on utopian fantasy.
America has experienced the rapid rise of cancel culture since the George Floyd killing. The founding fathers, the visionaries of a democracy when none existed in the world, have been cancelled, their monuments trashed and discarded. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln – all defiled and deviled. Anyone associated at any time with slavery, racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism must be erased a la George Orwell’s 1984 from American history.
The cancellation of American history and culture will leave a tabula rasa upon which this new, woke intolerant society can be built.
Our children and college students are being taught America was and is built on oppression enforced through the military and the police.
The oppressors? White (males) The oppressed – everyone else except possibly Asian-Americans.
The National Education Association, the largest teacher’s union, says “critical race theory” is “reasonable and appropriate” for school children.
The NEA then goes farther. It adopted a measure to investigate opponents of critical race theory and the 1609 Project and then target the so-called “anti-racism” opponents.
The NEA’s political power is based on two facts: 1) the unions are among the largest financial backers to the Democrats and President Biden; and 2) the teacher unions elect local school board members because of low turnout in schoolboard elections. Thus, we see a number of school boards pushing critical race theory into the classrooms.
School board members are attempting to cancel the nation’s prestigious academic magnet high schools because they are not racially balanced and thereby lack inclusion and equity. The result is a further discrimination against Asian American children, which goes back to 1850 in San Francisco.
Parents are beginning to fight back. Interesting school board elections and recalls are coming up in the next couple of years.
Conservatives are muzzled on the nation’s campuses; students are scared to express conservative views. Names are being stripped off buildings and programs, but Brown and Stanford will retain theirs.
The National Archives, technically The National Archives and Records Administration, is considering joining the cancel culture movement. The Rotunda contains the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, the foundations of America’s independence and freedoms, for all to see. The Agency’s Task Force on Racism send a report in April. It called the display an example of “structural racism.”
It accuses the display of lauding “wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC (Blacks, indigenous, and other people of color), women and other communities.”
The task force is calling for trigger warnings and dances or performances inviting dialogue on the mythization of the founders.
The Agency then issued a follow-up statement. The documents are the “cornerstone of American democracy,” but they ‘guaranteed liberties for some, but not all, of the people.” It will update the Rotunda to be more inclusive “of all people who contributed to the nation’s history at the time of its founding.”
The American Flag with 50 stars for 50 states is the symbol of the United States of America.
The Flag is now divisive for the cancel culture because it symbolizes America.. Two writers for the New York Times view the flag as divisive. Athletes, who are making large earnings from the American economy, kneel during the flag.
A writer for the Washington Post says the Statue of Liberty is way too tall. It should radically shrink to reflect history.
E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.
Today it’s identity politics leading to tribalism.
Fireworks? Macy's spectacular 4th of July Fireworks, but not Mount Rushmore. President Trump last year in the midst of all the riots and lootings hosted the 4th of July Fireworks at Mount Rushmore as a show of patriotism.
President Biden this year in his anything Trump did, I will do the opposite node of government, refused South Dakota’s request for fireworks at Mount Rushmore.
President Biden, who promised to unify America, keeps calling America a country of “systemic racism.”
Parades? Evanston, Illinois cancelled 4th of July out of fear of Covid-19. Evanston, Illinois held Juneteenth and Gay Pride Parades.
The National Anthem?
PBS is having Vanessa Williams sing the Black National Anthem along with The Star Spangled Banner at the D.C. ceremonies
Happy 4th. The Spirit of America will prevail, hopefully before July 4, 2022.
binder'sbloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07471460819344861623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5243143726684511189.post-75594528419280394482021-06-29T20:37:00.000-07:002021-06-29T20:37:00.766-07:00President Biden's Speech on Rising Crime Rates
President Biden spoke the other day on the rising crime and homicide rates in America’s cities. His advisors have been watching the polls which show the President underperforming on crime and the Border. Thus Vice President Harris also visited the Border, sorta.
The good news about his lackluster crime speech is that he quickly breezed through the usual Obama-Biden pablum of gun control, AR-15’s and semi-automatic weapons. He did that a few weeks ago.
His speech went downhill from the desultory call for gun control. He had two major proposals for attacking the crime problem. His delivery was pretty diffident.
First he wants to go after the gun sellers who illegally sells guns. He calls them “merchants of death.” He warned “We will find you.”
An estimated 100,000 illegal guns are on the streets of New York. The purchasers do not go through background checks.
The sellers are hardly quivering in their shoes.
The second proposal was to allow cities and state receiving the unrestricted Covid funds to use some of the $350 million to hire more police.
He said: “This is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement in our communities.”
Tell that to the police in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and soon Oakland, California.
The New Oakland City budget, which does into effect tomorrow, diverts $18 million from the police budget “to invest in violence prevention and other programs to deter juveniles from turning to crime.” Oakland has seen 65 homicides so far this year, up 90% from last year.
Defunded, defamed, and demonized, Police forces are shrinking thought budget cuts, accelerated retirements and resignations in those cities.
The police also know in cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, Louisville, Philadelphia, and Portland (Multnomah County) that prosecutors are eager to prosecute them, but not looters and rioters, including those who attack police officers.
Let’s look at the statistics.
Atlanta is about 400 officers short of the authorized figure. The city had 157 homicides in 2020, up from 99 in 2019. Only 73, less than 50%, resulted in arrest6s.
Homicides in Chicago rose 53% from 506 in 2019 to 780 in 2020. Chicago witnessed 18 homicides in one night. Homicides were up another 33% and shootings 40% in the first three months of 2021. The Chicago Police Department has shrunk by 3%.
New York City’s homicides jumped 45% from 2019 to 2020, 319 to 464.43% in the same period, an increase of 131 homicides. 299 victims have been shot through late June this year, a 54% increase from last year. Homicides in April 2021 totaled 44, up 6 from the previous year. 132 homicides occurred in the first four months of 2021, up 20 (17.9%) from 2020. Shooting interests though jumped to 149 from 56, 166.1%, the previous year.
Portland during the first five months of 2020 recorded 6 homicides. It recorded 38 in the same period this year. Homicides in 2020 jumped 82% from 2019 to 2020, from 29 to 53. Portland Police tallied 450 shootings this year from January through May, compared to 200 last year.42 homicides so far this year are on pace to surpass the record year of 1987 with 70 homicides. 115 officers resigned or retired in 2021. They know they’re not wanted by the public officials
Los Angeles saw homicides rise 36% from 67 to 91 in the first three months of 2021.
Minneapolis, the pioneer in defunding the police, witnessed homicides jumping 72% in 2020 (46 to 76) as the depleted police department saw 100 officers leaving the force in 2020. The city even let the mob burn down a police station in 2020 during the George Floyd riots.
New York City touted a billion dollar budget cut for the police. New York City disbanded the 600 member plains clothes anti-crime unit, whose Mission was to ferret out guns.
How has that worker out with two shootings in the past month in Times Square during daylight?
Philadelphia under its Soros District Attorney Larry Kraemer saw a 30 year high in homicides in 2020 to 498. Over half remain unsolved. Homicide victims were up 38% in 2020 and shooting victims up 39% to 815. Philadelphia has seen 250 homicides as of mid-June this year. 15 shootings occurred one weekend in Philly.
Seattle recorded 28 murders in 2019. More were shot in the first 6 months of 2020, a 30 year high for the period. Seattle lost 180 officers in 2020 with 66 more so far this year.
The thugs are emboldened -not scared.
One shooting occurred in Atlanta as a police car sat outside the victim’s residence.
Then there’s the prosecutors who don’t prosecute “low level” crimes, such as rioting and looting. 1108 criminal cases were referred to the Multnomah County District Attorney from May 29, 2020 to June 11, 2021. He dropped 891 of those cases. Many of those arrested in the 100+ protests/riots were back rioting the next night.
So too with district attorneys in Manhattan and the Bronx. Manhattan’s DA Cyrus Vance, jr. said his office was overwhelmed by Covid. Yet he is devoting a large number of his staff to preparing a criminal tax fraud against the Trump Organization and perhaps President Trump. It’s all political.
Then we have states with zero bail, such as New York, where arrestees are released almost as soon as they are booked – to commit more crimes.
We also have the prosecutors who prosecute police officers, especially in Philadelphia and Portland.
The victims are mostly in the inner cities, with some gang related. However, the shootings spill out of the poor neighborhoods. Many of the shooting victims are children and teenagers, mothers with their children, a father in Times Square shot on June 27 in from of his family at 5:30PM outsidethe Times Square Marriott Hotel. The city is initiating a $30 million advertising campaign to attract tourists back to the City. They should spend that money on policing.
Police are dispirited. Those remaining on the force in cities that defund the police and don’t prosecute arrestees have backed off from making arrests.
President Biden’s proposals do nothing to stop the carnage in America’s cities. He’s scared of offending the progressive wing of his party. He will not even speak out against the specific cities which have defunded the police – not one mayor – not one council member.
Let us quote Clara Peller on President Biden’s crime proposals: “Where’s the beef?”
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