Dueling Headlines

art credit: super coloring

Side-by-side headlines today at Cleveland.com:

Cleveland among 'worst-run' cities in the country, according to WalletHub study

  

Cuyahoga Democrats endorse Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's re-election

# # #

Healthcare & the GOP : Pathetic Fail or Corrupt?

Michael Ramirez cartoon via U.S. News and World Report

The headline:  Pat Toomey says GOP wasn't ready with healthcare ...because they didn't think Trump would win. That’s the conclusion in this Jul-07 report by Robert Laurie at the Canada Free Press:

For some time, I’ve been arguing that the GOP should have had a plan to repeal ObamaCare ready - and on the President’s desk - the week that Donald Trump took office. The ACA’s elimination should have been a day one priority, then you could rest of the year working on healthcare fixes and tax reform.  I’ve heard a whole pile of excuses about why that didn’t happen and I’ve never really bought any of them.

There were only two answers that made sense: Either the GOP didn’t really want to repeal ObamaCare, or they simply dropped the ball and we’re witnessing one of history’s worst cases of political shortsightedness.

While I still suspect there are a lot of Republicans who’d love nothing more than to leave the ACA in place and have the whole issue go away, it sounds more like the GOP just ...failed.  According to [Senator] Pat Toomey (R-PA), no one bothered to ready an ObamaCare repeal bill, because they all thought Hillary was going to be your next President.

He made the remarks during a town hall, hosted by ABC27 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation.

And given how difficult it is to get to a consensus, it was hard to force that until there was a need to.”

In other words; “We could vote to repeal ObamaCare 40 times when we knew Obama wouldn’t sign the bill, but we never wasted our time preparing for the eventuality that we might actually win the next election.”  That’s just pathetic, and it validates a lot of criticisms that Democrats were lobbing at Republicans back during the Obama years.

It’s an admission that their healthcare votes during the Obama administration really were just obstructionist political theater and it suggests that they spent more time preparing for a Hillary presidency than they spent trying to secure a victory.

Remember, they had eight years to ready a repeal, replacement, or fix.  Instead, they put on a big show, yakked about their alleged principles, smiled at their constituents, and kicked the can.

They squandered their time, your money, and our collective efforts because it was easier than getting together on a solution.

No wonder they’re so despised.

My own take: When Senator Toomey admits that the GOP did not seriously prepare for the repeal of Obamacare because they did not expect to win the House, Senate, and White House, he makes the GOP look like fools, but that’s probably better than admitting the truth. I suspect that Laurie’s alternative is correct: the GOP does not want to repeal Obamacare. Nearly all of the GOP, including the so-called Freedom Caucus, are members of The UniParty, and they have already been bought.

# # #

The CNN Two-Step

Image is from the PJ Media comments section

From "Doin' the CNN Two-Step" by Andrew Klavan at PJ Media: 

“The CNN Two-Step is a simple dance. Step One: Put your foot in your mouth. Step Two: Shoot yourself in the foot.” 

# # #

Happy Independence Day

Fourth of July Cleveland fireworks

photo credits: Pat J Dooley Photography

Independence Day thoughts

image credit: The History Place

Scott Powell at the American Thinker blog reminds us:

July 4th, also known as Independence Day, is a much more lighthearted and festive American holiday -- with cookouts, parades, beach and boating parties and fireworks -- than other patriotic holidays such Memorial Day or Veterans Day. Most people forget that when the 56 members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they were in fact signing their death warrants. At the time, Great Britain was the most powerful nation on earth, while the thirteen American colonies were poor and disunited. The British Crown deemed the issuance of a declaration of independence an act of treason, which meant that all signatories would be punishable by death.

. . .

As it turns out, the Declaration of Independence, which we celebrate on July 4th, is not just what gave political birth to the United States, with its unique emphasis on limited government and the freedom for its citizens. It was these simple ideas put into practice that also enabled the nation’s ascendance from colonial poverty to global superpower in a little more than 200 years.

However, during the last 50 years, America has increasingly been on a course of surrender and retreat from the principles that made her the envy of the world for generations. May this July 4th be a special time, perhaps a turning point, in renewing those ideas and convictions that brought the Founders together, which embodied a certainty that the rights of the people come from God, and not the state. It’s not about being reactionary or turning the clock back, but rather it’s about aligning our thinking and action with the inclusive ideas, principles, courage, and faith that enabled prior generations of Americans to overcome, advance and prosper more than any other people in human history.

Read the rest here.

# # #

Captain Luis Avila salutes his Commander-in-Chief

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OVjYRha8a0 

Many Tea Party people watched President Trump’s tribute to our veterans on the weekend run-up to Independence Day. There was one moment during his speech that I had to re-watch, and it was the part when President Trump paid tribute to US Army Captain Luis Avila and his wife Claudia.

Captain Avila served several tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and lost his leg in an IED attack. This man was not expected to survive. He remains largely paralyzed, he is in a wheelchair, but just watch this short video. He can barely move his body, and yet he struggles mightily to salute, to literally salute, his Commander-in-Chief, President Trump (at about 1:40) and to bow in acknowledgement. It brought tears to my eyes. He is one of many Americans who knows that we have a CiC who loves our country and honors our veterans who defend our way of life.

God Bless US Army Captain Luis Avila, his wife Claudia, and President Donald J. Trump.

And Happy Independence Day.

# # #

Fake News Works

art credit: zero hedge

Dave Merrick published a piece yesterday in the Canada Free Press on why “Fake News Works,” and it hits the nail on the head. The entire essay is here. Below are some extracts:

I have watched many lawyers imitate the following scenario when addressing a witness on the stand ... “Isn’t it true that you saw Mr. So-and-so get into his car and drive away after he committed the murder?” To which the opposing attorney will, if he is earning his wage, instantly respond, “OBJECTION! Counsel is leading the witness, your Honor! We don’t know that Mr. So-and-so committed any murder!” To which the examining attorney will just as instantly return with: “I withdraw the question, your Honor.” But the seed was planted, nonetheless. And that was all the attorney wanted to do. Jurors are impressionable - because they are people. He planted his seed to shape an opinion.

. . .

Professional politicians and their allies the liberal media . . . fully anticipate the naïveté, short attention spans and impressionability of their audiences, who no longer put forth any effort to make sure of anything (beyond perhaps doing an occasional appeal to an obviously left-leaning Snopes). (I encourage my readers to verify the accuracy of Snopes, especially “fact checker” Kim Lacapria).

YouTube is overflowing with video examples documenting liberal liars, starting with our former chief executive and including ‘news’ journalists, lying their heads off. Most people will never take the time to go looking for these mini-documentaries that only take a few minutes to review. [click here and scroll down for those videos] 

. . .

And lies distract us from the really important things that can destroy us as a nation.

The time that is wasted in a nation fumbling around with ‘scandals’ that don’t even exist is more time for the cancer of simple division and its festering rancor to continue in disintegrating what’s left of our unity and strength. As I have said many times, Donald Trump has got to be the single most slandered and berated president in all of American history. Everybody, from an outraged liberal media/ entertainment industry trying to regain its control - to nearly every second rate, has-been actor or musician pursuing a mother lode of free press - has of late climbed aboard the “I Hate Trump” train like sucker fishes hanging on a great white shark.

. . .

Now, finally, the authors of fake news are beginning to be exposed for what they are: sheep in wolves’ clothing who lie for a luxurious living.

# # #