Tags
European fellow travelers, execrable Chuck Schumer, feckless politicians, Government shutdown, Lindsay Graham, Nancy Pelosi, NATO, President Trump, Second Civil War
The 73rdAmendment to the United States Constitution reads:
The necessity of avoiding doing the people’s business being necessary to the egos of feckless politicians, the right of the Congress to commandeer military aircraft for wasteful, preening junkets shall not be infringed.
What’s that you say? There is no 73rdAmendment?! Congressional Democrats would like to kindly explain “shut up!”
By now, gentle readers, I’m sure you’re aware of this letter:
Because Nancy Pelosi withdrew President Trump’s invitation to deliver the State of the Union address on January 29, and because of the government shutdown, the President, unlike virtually all Republican presidents before him, decided to play hardball Democrat politics, and the Democrats and the media (same thing) don’t like it at all.
What’s that? Trump is scheduled to go to Davos a hob nob with the rich and famous? Not so much:
He’s already rich and famous; Davos crawlers want to hobnob with him. President Trump’s cancelation of free military transport–not just for Pelosi but for pretty much everyone–has provoked the usual excrement storm of media outrage. He’s been called childish and juvenile. One authoritative talking head said “nanny nanny boo boo,” with which no adult can possibly argue, and those are the kindest things that have been said. How dare Trump postpone this trip! These brave Democrats were going to Afghanistan to honor our troops, to show them their deep devotion to their cause and to love them up one side and down the other, and then they were doing to Brussels to assure our NATO allies they would never let that nasty Trump pull out of NATO!
Senator Lindsay Graham, who since the death of John McCain and the Kavanaugh hearing has appeared to actually have a backbone, once again revealed he is—via The Hill–in fact, an invertebrate:
Trump’s decision also drew criticism from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who called it ‘inappropriate’ to deny Pelosi military travel ‘to visit our troops in Afghanistan, our allies in Egypt and NATO.’
‘One sophomoric response does not deserve another,’ Graham, a Trump ally, said in a statement.
Odd. Obviously, any hope Graham has become an actual conservative, particularly one willing to really fight the Democrats and support President Trump, seems premature at best.
May, I gentle readers, offer a bit of reality? Thank you.
When Democrat congresscritters visit our troops in the field, they behave with the dignity and deference expected of them—the troops, not the Democrats. Our troops, constantly maligned by Democrats know who cares about and supports them, and it is not, by and large, congressional Democrats. On the other hand, Mr. Trump has allowed them to do their jobs and destroy America’s enemies—they really like that–and he has restored their funding so Marines don’t have to scrounge about airplane graveyards, scavenging parts to keep their combat aircraft flying.
Democrat congresstwerps can say anything they like to European fellow travelers, but it is the President and the Senate, both thankfully in Republican hands, that make and approve foreign policy, including that relating to NATO. It is a good thing indeed for our NATO allies to believe Mr. Trump might pull out of NATO if they don’t, for the first time in decades, pay their fair share of the financial and military burden of NATO. That’s right; Mr. Trump is actually suggesting America is no longer going to enable their welfare states by providing most of their military defense. This is a good thing. Democrats consider it horrifying, despite the fact we are the brokest nation in history.
Democrats have recently staged a photo op telling the sad, sad stories of federal employees who have suffered the delay of one paycheck, and may be delayed in receiving more, displaying their sad photos. So naturally, Nancy Pelosi wanted to leave the country for a week or so to ensure they would miss a second paycheck. That’s how much she cares about those poor people. Democrats have also demonstrated the depth of their caring and character by refusing to so much as meet with the survivors of people killed by illegal immigrants. Sarah Sanders acknowledged this situation, as The Hill reports:
If she had gone on this trip, she would have guaranteed that 800,000 federal workers would not receive their second paycheck because she would not have been here to negotiate any kind of deal,’ White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an email explaining the decision.
When Democrats flew to Puerto Rico for a “retreat” during the early days of the shutdown during the Christmas holidays, and Mr. Trump cancelled his holiday plans to stay in Washington to negotiate an end to the shutdown, he didn’t prevent their taxpayer-funded travel. Democrats didn’t seem terribly concerned about the plight of federal workers as they soaked up the rays and booze.
But now, when Mr. Trump, exercising his prerogative as Commander In Chief, grounds the Democrats so they can negotiate for the federal workers about who they claim to care so very much, he’s childish. To rational people, he’s the only adult in the room. The Hill again:
The president used a speech at the Pentagon earlier Thursday to rail against Democrats for refusing his demand for $5.7 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
‘The party has been hijacked by the open-borders fringe within the party,’ Trump said. ‘The radical left becoming the radical Democrats. Hopefully, Democrat lawmakers will step forward to do what is right for our country.’
Pelosi pushed back against GOP accusations she was simply trying to deny Trump a national platform to make his case for a wall and said her letter was meant to reinforce her demand that the government reopen.
‘I’m not denying the platform at all,’ she said at a press conference earlier Thursday. ‘We’re saying let’s get a date when government is open. Let’s pay the employees.’
Pelosi is a liar, and an obvious one. Her assertion that it would be too dangerous to stage the State Of The Union address because there was insufficient security was blatantly false and quickly proved so by the Secret Service who essentially said: “she said WHAT?!”. She doesn’t want President Trump to have a national platform to present his case to the American people, because when he does, she loses.
Many pundits are noting this, and calling on the Democrats—and mostly Mr. Trump–for compromise. This is rather difficult when Pelosi refuses to meet with Trump, and when to Democrats, “compromise” means: “you give me everything I want, and you get nothing, nanny nanny boo boo!”
Republicans, who every day earn the appellation “the stupid party,” have long gladly accepted this sort of “compromise.” Donald Trump doesn’t, and in this case, he can’t. Pundits observe the impasse is occurring because Pelosi “doesn’t want to give Trump a win.” This is true as far as it goes, but Democrats want open borders because they don’t like the American electorate. Those deplorables can’t be trusted to vote for the right—Left—people, so Democrats are determined to replace them with people that will. It doesn’t matter that many of them are criminals, some are terrorists, most have no skills and they cost mountains of taxpayer cash each year, most will vote for Democrats. That’s all that really matters, at least until they can once again own the White House and the Congress, and then they’ll do whatever is necessary to ensure deplorables never again get the opportunity to make the wrong electoral choices.
The choice here is analogous to that facing the Israelis. Their enemies, including the Democrats in Congress, demand they compromise with Islamists who have declared their very reason for existing the extermination of every Jew. The compromise proposition is simple: Islamists want to kill every Jew; Jews don’t want to be killed. Why won’t they compromise? What would such a compromise look like? Murder half of all Jews and Islamists promise not to kill the rest, for now?
This is not a matter for compromise. What’s at stake is American sovereignty, the rule of law, and national security. That, and the lives of Americans, is what Democrats offer in compromise.
Donald Trump is not a standard issue Republican. Many have observed Democrats, including Pelosi and the equally execrable Chuck Schumer, have repeatedly voted for border walls and related measures. This does amount to rank hypocrisy, but not in the obvious sense. They voted for these measures because they knew the security they promised would never come to pass, and so did many Republicans who went along to get along. Republicans owned the House and Senate for the first two years of the Trump Administration, but did nothing about border security, nor about a great many other supposed conservative priorities. Yeah, we had majorities, but not super duper majorities, so what could we do?
This is a battle between establishment politicians of both parties, and Donald Trump, who has upset the usual political apple cart. He actually keeps his campaign promises, and he expects to accomplish things. Worst of all, he expects to accomplish things for the good of America. He knows who America’s friends and enemies are, and treats them appropriately. He is not business and politics as usual, so he must be destroyed, by Democrats, and not a few Republicans. Deplorables are getting all too close to expecting to live under the rule of law and actual representative government. Why, they actually think the law should apply to everyone! That’s dangerous to the interests of those that despise all three.
Pundits want to portray this as a matter of two politicians stubbornly refusing to give an inch. Pelosi has refused to so much as talk, but not so President Trump. The longer this goes on, the more normal Americans appreciate Mr. Trump, because they know the stakes are American security and the lives of Americans. Even an NPR poll revealed that this stand off has raised Mr. Trump’s popularity 19 points—among Hispanics. Perhaps they’re Americans rather than tribes, as Democrats would prefer? Leftists? Their deranged hatred of Mr. Trump—and normal Americans—leaves little room for real compromise.
Establishment politicians have been avoiding dealing with our insane immigration system for decades. Mr. Trump is determined to build a wall, and all that goes with it. But first he must cut off the flow of illegal immigrants–that’s the wall. Then he intends to change the law to benefit not Democrats and criminals,–as Mark Twain said, they’re one in the same–but law-abiding Americans.
That’s what scares the hell out of Democrats. That’s why Mr. Trump must win—for normal Americans, and for the preservation of America. What may be going on here is part of the process of ending America under the Constitution and the rule of law. If that’s so, the “compromise” will be made after a brief and bloody second civil war, when the nation splits into Venezuela and America. Democrats seem, more and more, anxious to make that happen. They just expect to be on the winning side and get all of America’s resources.
They’ll be dead wrong.
“I can’t spare this man. He fights.”
— Lady Liberty
Private employee unions have funds which they can use to pay their members some amount during furloughs. They accumulate those funds from dues paid by the employees.
Public employee unions – a plague on the people – somehow can’t have funds like this to help their members when, predictably, once every couple of years, there’s a 3 or 4 week furlough due to politics.
That’s because the massive amounts of dues they collect go straight to Democrat party politicians (except for a small amount that goes into the pockets of union executives).
This even though the US taxpayer pays the salaries of nearly all the union “stewards” – i.e., US government “employees” who spend 100% of their time (or close to it) on union business and no time at all on taxpayer business. And the taxpayer is paying for salaries that are higher for government employees than they are for private company employees in similar jobs, and employee benefits that are much better than they themselves have. And the taxpayer is paying for useless layabouts that cannot be fired for any reason, and even worse, the taxpayer is paying for horrible incompetence by people who cannot be fired for any reason, and larceny and fraud and embezzlement by people who cannot be fired for any reason, including their criminal activities.
And of course the taxpayer is _going_ to pay all the employees who are having an enforced vacation right now – their pay is just going to be late.
So forgive me if I’m not too sorry for “nonessential” government employees who have to go without a paycheck or two. Maybe, if they had the energy, brains, or gumption, they could go find a private sector job (record low unemployment levels mean there are lots of jobs available) and take a burden off the taxpayers while improving themselves.
I have as much sympathy for the government workers as they had for me when their champion lied and cost my family our health insurance.
I have as much sympathy for the TSA bullies as they had for me in 2007 when I had to fly from Atlanta to Wisconsin because my wife had a medical emergency. They had one lane open – at Hartsfield at 6 am! – while many agents could be seen off to the side having a discussion of some sort. Anyone who complained was detained long enough to ensure a missed flight. If I hadn’t have had trouble sleeping that night I would have missed my flight. I’ve made a lot of long distance drives since then, and no one has ever grabbed my genitals during any of them.
Attn: Republican party: The well-known right wing site NBC News reports our hard working friendly TSA goons miss 95% of weapons during tests. This is a fact that could be used to defend Trump. Ooops, forgot. The Republicans are not interested in doing that.
I wonder what the actual itenary of the 7 day trip was. I suspect that total airtime was between 40 and 48 hours. So, 5 days on the ground. Lets see, 2 days for shopping/dining in Brussels, 2 days sightseeing in Egypt (Can’t visit and not see the pyramids-special VIP tour) and if time permits, maybe 6 hours on the ground in Afghanistan. Ask the soldiers “Where are you from son/miss?” Maybe a trip to the Difac (Dining facility) for a meal that the troops never get. No Mr.E’s chili for them-MRE chili. and then hopping aboard a USAF 757 for the flight home with maybe a fueling stop in Shannon and first class food for everyone on board-except for the crew.
To my life long rule to never bet against a guy who carries a 1-iron in his bag I have added a rule against playing poker with DJT.
Dear roylofquist:
Thus far, he’s been so many steps ahead of his adversaries they have had no idea what hit them.
Lee Trevino said (after being struck by lightning during a tournament) to hold a 1 iron above your head in a thunderstorm because not even God can hit a 1 iron.
Dear bill Cook:
Heh.
Here’s a radical idea. If the Democrat’s want to show the Republican’s they are serious about the out of work government employees then let the Congressional Democrat’s (and there staffs) give up there paychecks in solidarity with the plight of the workers.