D-Day 1944 : 77th Anniversary tribute

Here’s my annual tribute to our troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy 77 years ago, (photos taken by my late father who skippered one of the LCTs onto Utah Beach):

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Vacancy: Marcia Fudge's former seat

 

Collin Anderson at Washington Free Beacon reports on the House seat left vacant by Marcia Fudge:

President Joe Biden's decision to appoint former Ohio congresswoman Marcia Fudge to his cabinet has Democrats poised to send another self-described socialist to Congress.

Liberal firebrand Nina Turner holds a sizable polling and fundraising lead in the crowded primary race to succeed Fudge. The former state senator is backed by a who's who of congressional progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.).

Should Turner maintain her advantage and win the August primary, she would fit right in with the so-called Squad members. The former national co-chair of Sanders's presidential campaign, Turner has pledged to pass the Green New Deal, eliminate private health insurance through a government-run Medicare for All system, cancel student debt, and "completely reimagine" law enforcement—in part by defunding police.

Turner's frontrunner status reflects the growing influence of the Democratic Party's progressive wing. Just months ago, Ocasio-Cortez and company welcomed two new Squad members after Reps. Cori Bush (D., Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) ousted longstanding Democratic incumbents in 2020. Bush and Bowman's freshman class also includes fellow liberal representatives Mondaire Jones (D., N.Y.), Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), and Marie Newman (D., Ill.), all of whom replaced veteran party members in January.

Turner's campaign on Tuesday used a Tulchin Research poll to declare the progressive "the favorite to serve as OH-11's next Congressperson." According to the poll, Turner enjoys a 35-point lead over her closest competitor, with 21 percent undecided. Ohio State University political scientist Paul Beck said that while the poll's accuracy is difficult to assess, Turner is the "most visible candidate" and has "emerged as the frontrunner in the campaign."

"My bet would be right now that [Turner is] the person who is going to get the nomination—and win the contest in November," he said.

. . .

Read the full report here.

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Book: the Unmaking of the American Military

 

Bruce Bawer at FrontPageMag is nominating Matthew Lohmeier's book about the Unmaking of the American Military as

The Most Important Book You Will Read This Year

Rarely has an author been proven correct so quickly. Last month, Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, the commander of a Colorado-based Space Force squadron, published a book entitled Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military. On May 7, podcaster L. Todd Wood (“Information Operation”) posted an interview with Lohmeier about the book.

In their 34-minute exchange, Lohmeier – a former Air Force fighter pilot and flight instructor who, at Space Force, was in charge of detecting ballistic missile launches – exuded decency, rectitude, and a deep respect for the uniformed services. He didn’t criticize anybody by name; he only made frankly undeniable statements about the Marxist nature of some of the ideas that are now being taught to U.S. servicepeople. It was crystal clear that in speaking out, he was convinced he was doing his patriotic duty.

A week to the day after the interview was posted, Lohmeier’s superiors abruptly relieved him of his command. A Space Force spokesperson announced that an investigation had been initiated into whether Lohmeier’s comments on the podcast “constituted prohibited partisan political activity." In fact, the entire point of Lohmeier’s commentary was that members of the American military are today being brainwashed with hard-core Marxist ideas that not only constitute partisan political activity but seek to demonize the country the military is supposed to be defending. As for Lohmeier’s own comments, there was nothing remotely partisan or political about them – unless you consider it partisan or political to be a patriot.

On the one hand, Lohmeier’s dismissal is a disgrace. On the other hand, what better way to draw attention to the supremely urgent message of his book – a truly sensational exposé that should be read by everyone who cares about America’s fate in this perilous era of woke insanity.

. . .

Mr. Bawer’s column is here. 

Lohmeier’s book will have to compete with David Horowitz’s The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America for the Most Important Book.

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Announcement from Look Ahead America: Political Persecution

 From Matt Braynard of "Look Ahead America":

Patriotic Americans became targets of the Biden Administration as the Department of Justice and the FBI have targeted, imprisoned, and persecuted non-violent American patriots.

Months have passed and our fellow citizens remain separated from their loved ones, isolated in solitary confinement, have been denied medical care, denied access to faith and worship services, and have faced financial ruin due to court costs and legal fees. This wrongful and unjust persecution must end.

Join us on Saturday, June 19th, at noon, in Washington, DC, as we Rally Against Political Persecution outside the Department of Justice, 10th Street NW, between Constitution Ave NW and Pennsylvania Ave NW.

This event is a peaceful demonstration of our First Amendment Rights.

Link:  <https://lookaheadamerica.org/rally/>   (includes RSVP option)

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Nigel Farage: Every state is now a border state

Since my husband is a naturalized US citizen – and he played by all the rules to earn his American citizenship -- this article by Nigel Farage caught my attention.  Forget that it’s Newsweek;  the full article is here.  Here’s the start:

On my tour of America over the last few weeks, I have inevitably spent a certain amount of time watching cable TV in hotel rooms. A recurring story that has cropped up on the news is the border crisis. Many of the images I've seen showed large groups of immigrants being rounded up. Others, which were even more distressing, depicted young children who have simply been abandoned.

The total number of people who have come into the U.S. illegally so far this year is unknown. Some estimates claim it is as high as 700,000. Many—perhaps most—voters agree that it is at an unsustainable level. Yet given the Biden administration's reluctance to return any of these people to their home nation, the upshot is that every state is now a border state.

It is fascinating to compare Joe Biden's handling of this situation with the approach of one of his Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton. When Clinton delivered his State of the Union address in 1995, he received a standing ovation from Congress for his comments on illegal immigration, in which he repeatedly referred to those who were in the country illegally as "illegal aliens" or "criminal aliens." Clinton would not get away with uttering these words today, in the "new" America.

Although every commentator continues to describe this situation as a "crisis," I would suggest the time has come to call it an emergency. And yet as a political issue, doing so could prove to be electoral dynamite in the midterm elections of 2022. For those people who have done the right thing and entered America legally, the idea that those who came illegally—or those who have been trafficked—will soon have to have the same rights as them is an insult. It is for this reason that I believe this situation offers much hope to Republican candidates, especially when it comes to appealing to Latino voters.

. . .

I decided that I would visit the border following a speaking event in Phoenix. What I discovered there is far more sinister and dangerous than anything that I could find on cable TV.

. . .

There is no getting away from the fact that this is a criminal enterprise from start to finish, and all American voters need to be told this truth. 

FTA: “For those people who have done the right thing and entered America legally, the idea that those who came illegally—or those who have been trafficked—will soon have to have the same rights as them is an insult.”  Yup.

Full article is here.

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Fun poll from National Pulse

The National Pulse just published a fun poll:

A massive National Pulse reader poll has revealed an overwhelming majority of the America First base want a return to the White House for President Donald Trump in 2024, while the MAGA faithful appear to have completely out of love with former Vice President Mike Pence.

Asked, “Who Is Your Preferred Republican for 2024?”, a whopping 67 percent chose President Trump. In second place is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on 17 percent. In third on just three percent is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The rest of the field was as follows:

1. President Trump (67%)
2. Governor DeSantis (17%)
3. Mike Pompeo (3%)
4. Nikki Haley (3%)
5. Senator Rand Paul (2%)
6. Other (2%)
7. Senator Ted Cruz (2%)
8. Senator Tim Scott (1%)
9. Governor Kristi Noem (1%)
10. Senator Tom Cotton (1%)
11. Senator Josh Hawley (1%)
12. Vice President Mike Pence (0%)

A total of 31,152 individuals voted in the poll over the course of three weeks.

I would have thought that Nikki Haley would be tied with Mike Pence.

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Remembering on Memorial Day

 

Scott Johnson at PowerLine:

In observance of Memorial Day 2007 the Wall Street Journal published a brilliant column by the late Peter Collier to mark the occasion. The column remains timely and is accessible online here. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. 

The entire column is worth reading; it begins:

Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, for our todays. But in a world saturated with selfhood, where every death is by definition a death in vain, the notion of sacrifice today provokes puzzlement more often than admiration. We support the troops, of course, but we also believe that war, being hell, can easily touch them with an evil no cause for engagement can wash away. And in any case we are more comfortable supporting them as victims than as warriors.

. . .

Not long ago I was asked to write the biographical sketches for a book featuring formal photographs of all our living Medal of Honor recipients. As I talked with them, I was, of course, chilled by the primal power of their stories. But I also felt pathos: They had become strangers–honored strangers, but strangers nonetheless–in our midst.

***

In my own boyhood, figures such as Jimmy Doolittle, Audie Murphy and John Basilone were household names. And it was assumed that what they had done defined us as well as them, telling us what kind of nation we were. But the 110 Medal recipients alive today are virtually unknown except for a niche audience of warfare buffs. Their heroism has become the military equivalent of genre painting. There’s something wrong with that.

Mr. Collier vividly describes actions taken by Medal of Honor recipients, and then closes his column:

We impoverish ourselves by shunting these heroes and their experiences to the back pages of our national consciousness. Their stories are not just boys’ adventure tales writ large. They are a kind of moral instruction. They remind of something we’ve heard many times before but is worth repeating on a wartime Memorial Day when we’re uncertain about what we celebrate. We’re the land of the free for one reason only: We’re also the home of the brave.

The full column is here.

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