AOC on CPAC Straw Poll

 

Babylon Bee’s headline:

AOC Proposes Nationwide Ban On Straws
 After Learning Trump Won Straw Poll

WASHINGTON, DC — Following former President Donald Trump's overwhelming victory in CPAC's straw poll for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has proposed legislation that would impose a nationwide ban on the use of straws.

"This poll shows straws are a threat to our democracy!" Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement to the media. "If straws are supporting Donald Trump and his dangerous ‘MAGA' movement, then they have no business being in public circulation, let alone voting for President!"

"Plus, they outnumber humans, like, 2 to 1. That's scary!"

The straw poll, conducted at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, showed Trump garnering a commanding 60% of the votes cast. This resulted in immediate calls from Democrats to subject straws to even heavier regulation. . . .

And the closer:

At publishing time, AOC had been seen at a local coffee shop gluing herself to a straw in protest.

Source here. 

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Chuckle of the day

Via Power Line:

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Nancy Pelosi's problem

Ben Garrison cartoon credit: conservativedailynews.com

Newt Gingrich’s take on the chaos in Congress:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi – and the old guard Democrats at large – are in a very difficult position.

The radical young voters the Democrats have been courting for years have finally elected like-minded radical young representatives – and Pelosi and her leadership team has no control over them.

A big reason why, as I mentioned on Hannity this week, is that there is a wide generational gap between Democratic House leadership and freshmen Democrats, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and others.

. . .

The result is, these new Democrats are throwing a party – and the grandparents aren’t invited. Pelosi and members of Democratic leadership are simply trapped in a cycle of responding to headlines. This is how you end up with the so-called Green New Deal, which is a work of complete legislative fantasy that would utterly bankrupt the country. It’s also how the House got to a second forced public condemnation of the new Democrats’ flagrant anti-Semitism. Pelosi simply can’t control the young, radical, progressive wing, which is ardently socialist, anti-Israel, and contemptuous of America and its history. 

. . .

Already, because of Pelosi’s inability to control her caucus, the Democrats can’t do anything positive. It’s making them desperate. The most they can do is focus their efforts on their shared vendetta against President Trump and everyone in his orbit.

. . .

These divides in the Democratic Party are only going to become more pronounced as Pelosi’s grip slips further. The new Democrats’ private party will become increasingly raucous until it has lost all touch with normal Americans. Moderate Democrats will have to continue answering for their colleague’s radicalism. Pelosi and the grandparents will not be invited along, but they will still be left cleaning up the mess.

The rest of Mr. Speaker's column is here.

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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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Thomas Sowell 1 -- AOC 0

This one is making the rounds...

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