Green New Deal: insane, dangerous, etc.

Image credit: federalobserver.com

Patricia McCarthy at American Thinker considers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "A One-Woman EMP":

An electromagnetic pulse attack, essentially a nuclear device exploded at high altitude above America, would knock out power grids, rendering anything electrical or digital non-functional.  Cars, trucks, computers, etc. would be dead (unless still running vehicles from the 1960s).  The country would come to a full stop.  That is exactly what Miss. O-C is prescribing.  She means to send us back to an age her Millennial friends would not recognize.  Most of them would be unable to function, as so many are seriously lacking in the skills older generations grew up taking for granted.  Most young people would have no idea how to repair anything they own if it broke, least of all their cars.  They would be apoplectic if their smartphones were suddenly mute.  If Miss O-C were ever to implement any aspect of her Green New Deal, her very own friends would be reduced to the snowflakes they've been raised to be, helpless.

Another one of my favorite journalists, James Delingpole, puts the Green New Deal, in historical perspective at Breitbart:

Not everyone who believes in man-made climate change is a full on Commie. Some are merely useful idiots. But whatever reason people may have for supporting the scam – greed, stupidity, virtue-signalling, idiot leftist teachers – the net result is the same: bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation, lower standards of living. Exactly like you’d get under communism, in fact.

So color me completely unshocked by the Green New Deal. It looks like a revamped Communist Manifesto because that’s exactly what it is.

If implemented, the size of government would increase to levels never before seen in a Western economy. The state’s control of everything from wage levels to how businesses are run to your personal freedoms would be total. There’s no mention of gulags or political prisoners or secret police but of course those would inevitably follow because how else would the state have a hope of enforcing measures which freedom loving Americans would naturally resist?

Here’s hoping the Green New Deal and its sponsors will all implode. Soon.

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Solyndra on steroids: how to stifle competition

Lots of us are laughing at AOC’s idiotic Green New Deal “plan.” Tea Party people want smaller, not bigger government. Mr. Instapundit linked to a timely analysis by Chelsea Follett at Human Progress:

“The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” Senator Bernie Sanders first said those words in 1974 and has been repeating them ever since. Senator Sanders is not alone in his belief. Three out of four Americans agree with the statement, “Today it’s really true that the rich just get richer while the poor get poorer.” 

Senator Sanders is half right: the rich are getting richer. However, his assertion that the poor are becoming poorer is incorrect. The poor are becoming richer as well. 

Economist Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institution showed that between 1979 and 2010, the real (inflation-adjusted) after-tax income of the top 1 percent of U.S. income-earners grew by an impressive 202 percent. He also showed that the real after-tax income of the bottom fifth of income-earners grew by 49 percent. All groups made real income gains. While the rich are making gains at a faster pace, both the rich and the poor are in fact becoming richer. 

In addition to these measurable real income gains, decreases in prices have given the poor increased purchasing power, helping to raise living standards for the worst off in society. As a result of falling prices such as for groceries and material goods, along with gains in real income, Americans have more income left after basic expenses.

Technology has also become cheaper, improving our lives in unexpected ways. For example, consider the spread of cell phones. There was a time when only the wealthiest Americans could afford one. Today, over 98 percent of Americans have a cellular subscription, and the rise of smart phones has made these devices more useful than ever.

Unfortunately, progress has been uneven. In those areas of the economy where competition is hobbled, such as education, housing, and healthcare, prices continue to increase. 

. . .

“Competition is hobbled” whenever the government intrudes. Ms. Follett's full article is here. (And Solyndra is now defunct.)

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"a frenzy of primal extremism"

Conrad Black’s take on President Trump and the potential historical impact of his policies is encouraging. Black concludes:  

Donald Trump’s greatest achievement may be the total annihilation of the Democratic Party in its present mutated and degraded form. The Democrats have been allowed to slither to their present state of moral degradation with the witless and spineless collaboration of look-alike Republicans who are easy to defeat, like McCain and Romney, or can be survived, like Reagan and the Bushes, or destroyed, like Nixon.

Faced with a Trump they could not defeat and cannot destroy, Democrats appear to be entering a frenzy of primal extremism. If the Democrats go to the voters next year as the party of infanticide, open borders, a 70 percent top personal income tax rate, and the practical abolition of private health care, they will vanish more quickly, and with less distinction, than the Whigs, who at least had serious leaders like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln before their party imploded. This thronging riff-raff of Democratic presidential aspirants couldn’t lead the country across Washington’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, and won’t get an invitation to try.

The full article at American Greatness is here.

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SOTU and the Women in White

photo credit: Breitbart

Breitbart caption: 

President Donald Trump did the unthinkable Tuesday night during his State of the Union address: he inspired a phalanx of left-wing women members of Congress,

 wearing white in protest, to jump to their feet and applaud.

Lots of commentary on President Trump’s State of the Union speech last night – but here’s part of Don Surber’s posting:

President Trump gave Americans a reason to stand up and cheer their nation.

Even Democrats.

In 2018, they stoically refused to applaud anything in his speech even when he noted Democrats were doing well.

This year, be broke that wall of their resistance like it was Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on Election Day. It happened earlier in the speech.

“So let’s work together, compromise, and reach a deal that will truly make America safe. As we work to defend our people’s safety, we must also ensure our economic resurgence continues at a rapid pace. No one has benefited more from our thriving economy than women, who have filled 58% of the newly created jobs last year,” President Trump said.

The Women In White stood and cheered.

“You weren’t supposed to do that. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All Americans can be proud that we have more women in the workforce than ever before,” President Trump said.

“Don’t sit yet. You are going to like this. And exactly one century after Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in the Congress than at any time before.”

Then they really celebrated and shouted USA! USA! USA!

At that point, the president made it cool to want to Make America Great Again.

That scene told the tale of the night. He made those congresswomen feel good about themselves and about their country.

His full column is here. Full transcript of the SOTU speech is here (Conservative Treehouse).

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UPDATE: Patricia McCarthy at American Thinker had a more critical take:

Trump's SOTU speech was wonderful, factual and optimistic.  It was a celebration of America and the successes of the last two years.  No one would know it by the visible response of the ladies in white (allegedly an homage to women's suffrage), the mostly newly elected Democrat congresswomen.  The only part of the speech they sincerely applauded was themselves – more women in Congress.  For most of the rest of the speech, they sat on their hands, looking mad (Mazie Hirono), glum (all of them), petulant and dismissive (Kamala Harris), bored and studiously disinterested (Nancy Pelosi).  

. . .

It was a pathetic, un-American spectacle, those women.  In the end, they are about one thing, one thing only: rage.  Rage at whom and what?  Who knows?  But it cannot be the country.  Look at where they are, the success they've attained.  Each of them is an example of the opportunity, freedom, and equality that only this nation provides, and still they are angry.  They still want to abort fully formed infants, tax the rich into oblivion, and impose Venezuelan-style socialism on us all.

McCarthy's article is here.

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Rainy afternoon in Cleveland

photo credit: patdooleyphotography

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Super Bowl, competition, and politics

Ira Stoll's "Patriots Ignite Political Debate On Success" at The NY Sun on the Super Bowl:

American politics at the moment can pretty much be explained by what you make of the record sixth Super Bowl victory by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft.

One view of it is to marvel at, and celebrate, the hard work, risk-taking, and skill that produced the achievement. That’s the more conservative view of it.

Another is to complain about it and wish the winning were more evenly distributed. That’s the more left-leaning view of it. . . .

There is more with which to agree and disagree here.

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Illegal aliens and national security

From our friends at Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2019

Is U.S. State Department Burglary suspect a known Mexican Illegal Alien?

Cleveland, Ohio – Steve Salvi, Founder of Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC today is calling for a federal investigation regarding serious breaches of security in January at State Department buildings in Washington, D.C and Arlington, VA. The two State Department buildings were burglarized January 3. A suspect, Joel Enriquez-Bueno was later arrested by the Arlington Police Department. Salvi believes the suspect now in detention at the Arlington County Detention Center may be the same Mexican illegal alien felon he has been recently investigating.

Salvi, who has conducted immigration policy and national security research since 2001, stated that he has federal criminal court documents for a Mexican illegal alien defendant also named Joel Enriquez-Bueno. Salvi says that that Joel Enriquez-Bueno is a convicted felon and has an arrest record dating back to 2003.

“If the two Joel Enriquez-Bueno's are one in the same, an investigation needs to find out how he has been able to remain free in the U.S. For so long. According to court records, he is an illegal alien with no known address, no money, but able to get multiple past arrest charges for assault from 2013 dismissed in New Jersey. In 2016 he was caught in possession with an illegally issued New York State Benefit card and U.S. Social Security card. Any individual, prosecutor, or city found violating the law by providing him sanctuary, should be prosecuted,” said Salvi.

“How is it possible that anyone, especially an illegal alien felon, is able to gain access to two U.S. State Department offices and walk off with dozens of government cell phones and other electronics that may contain sensitive if not classified information? There's more to this story than we currently know and what has reported in the press, “ Said Salvi.

Salvi's investigation of the Department of State burglaries uncovered a January 18, 2016 U.S. District Court Criminal Complaint for the Western District of Texas. That criminal complaint charged a Joel Enriquez-Bueno with violating Section 1326 of Title 8 of the United State's Code.

According to Salvi, Section 1326 offenses generally relates to aliens who have previously attempted illegal entry into the U.S. and or previously removed from the U.S. by the Department of Homelands Security. He said that Enriquez-Bueno had already been removed from the U.S. four times according to federal court records.

“Any breach of security is bad. If State Department security was breached by a foreign national, it doesn't get worse. This breach could have resulted in espionage, a shooting, or bombing in addition to theft of devices that may contain sensitive if not classified information.”

“This should be a wake up call not only for State but those who also oppose border infrastructure, call to abolish ICE, and create sanctuaries for criminal illegal aliens like Joel Enriquez-Bueno. ”

“It's time our public officials stop ignoring the lessons of 9-11 and take homeland security and immigration law enforcement seriously,” said Salvi.

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Ohio Jobs and Justice PAC website: click here.