Filed under: Capitalism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Election 2016, Environment, Free Markets, Freedom, Immigration, Law, National Security, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Politics, Progressives, Taxes | Tags: Donald J. Trump, The Rage of the Democrats, Victor Davis Hanson
This interview from the Hoover Institution was recorded on April 1, 2019. when Victor Davis Hanson’s book The Case for Trump came out. It holds up remarkably well. I’m a great admirer of Dr. Hanson. How did blue collar voters connect with a millionaire builder from Queens? Possibly because, contrary to Democrat shrieks, Donald Trump is authentic, exactly who he says he is. The people like that.
The February Jobs Report: Payrolls soared by 273,000. Might have something to do with current approval.
Maggie’s Farm blog called my attention to this post.
Matt Margolis at pjmedia points out that “We Can Thank Trump for the United States Having Such a Low Per Capita Infection Rate of Coronavirus.”
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Election 2016, Free Markets, Freedom, History, Immigration, National Security, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Taxes, The Constitution, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Bill Whittle Explains, Donald J. Trump, Right Angle
My favorite pastime is not trying to figure out why Democrats, the Left, are doing whatever it is that they are currently doing. I have better things to do, and more pleasant things to pursue. But clear explanations seem important as they continue to go bat s##t crazy. It would seem that the current antics would drive any sane person into Republican arms permanently, but “sane” seems to be the key word.
The idea of requiring every citizen to vote comes up every once in a while, but is dropped because we really don’t want those who do not pay attention, and have no clue about events, to vote. We believe in an informed citizenry, but for the last eight years we have had a press wallowing in their slobbering devotion to the first black president. Even Barack Obama told them in his last days that they weren’t supposed to be sycophants. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.
Victor Davis Hanson says “Everything is in flux in a way not seen since the election of 1932 in which Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoofer. Mainstream Democrats are infuriated. Even Republicans are vexed over the outsider Trump.”
Polls, political pundits and “wise” people, guilty of past partisan-driven false prognostications, remain discredited. Their new creased-brow prophesies of doom for President Trump are about as credible as their past insistence that a “blue wall” would keep him out of the White House.
There. The first explains why they are doing what they are doing, and the second one explains clearly why Donald Trump is insisting on a wall. You’ll be able to explain to your angry family and friends, but they probably won’t be able to hear you, and that’s explained as well.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Crime, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Election 2016, Environment, Freedom, History, Immigration, Progressivism, Regulation | Tags: Donald J. Trump, Dr. Ben Carson, Housing and Urban Development
President-elect Donald Trump has announced the appointment of Dr, Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Senate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi gravitated to the nearest microphone to announce that the choice of Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development was “a disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice.” In the statement she released she said “there is no evidence that Dr. Carson brings the necessary credentials to hold a position with such immense responsibilities and impact on families and communities across America. ”
I really had to laugh. HUD is especially concerned with poor inner-city neighborhoods, and the problems involved, and under the current administration, an attempt to reach a leftist ideal of proper diversity by moving poor inner-city residents into middle class and upper class neighborhoods, which they attempt to accomplish by threats to cut off federal funding. To quote from Dr. Carson:
I grew up in a neighborhood most Americans were told never to drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny.
But my mother didn’t. She changed all of that.She saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card.
My mother knew what the problems were and she shielded me and my brother from them. I can tell you that she wasn’t worried about Socialist senators from tiny rural states. “Black Lives Matter” could learn from her to focus on the real sources of our hopelessness.
Ben Carson didn’t pontificate about the plight of inner-city blacks, he lived it. Can’t deal with immense responsibility? Try separating conjoined babies joined at the head. Management skills? Try managing a large group of physicians. What a splendid idea to enlist someone who knows the problems from the inside instead of just following the standard party line.
He’ll do fine, and may even accomplish something truly important.
Filed under: Capitalism, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Economy, Education, Election 2016, Energy, Immigration, Law, Media Bias, Military, National Security, Police, Politics, Terrorism, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Donald J. Trump, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Where's the Racial Healing?
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This is going to be a poisonously vicious campaign. We have two candidates with very high negatives, and there are many in each party who are not happy with their party’s choice of candidate. Here’s the Left’s reaction to Donald Trump’s nomination as the Republican candidate for the office of the presidency.
Do you think that the word possibly went out that “dark” was the word of choice to describe Trump’s speech? Some threw in an extra word, like “resentful”, “Angry”, “diabolical.”Does an e-mail just go out to all the major leftist magazines and websites.? I’d love to see that one hacked. I’ve always wondered just how they do it, and how they get everyone to promptly fall in line.
Donald Trump’s speech pointed out the crime rate, the troubled cities dominated by minorities, the numbers of blacks killed, the numbers of policemen killed, black children killed. The reporters on the left rose as one and dashed for the fact checkers. Obviously racist to blame black people for killing other black people. And found to their astonishment that the figures quoted by Mr. Trump were absolutely correct.
Keep an eye out, next up will be assertions that Mr. Trump is fascist, and racist. Rachel Maddow has already compared Mr. Trump to Hitler. (So original!) Here’s Salon:
The final night of the Republican National Convention was as confusing and incoherent as it was disturbing. Before Donald Trump brought forward his chilling imitation of history’s greatest fascists, Ivanka Trump and Peter Thiel made bizarre plays for the votes of women and LGBT people.
Ivanka Trump riffed on issues like equal pay and affordable childcare, which are typically Democratic issues. Thiel announced that he’s “proud to be gay” to wild applause from a roomful of people who are the very base that voted against the rights and dignity of LGBT people, over and over again.
Democrats are deeply worried. Hillary does not have the campaign skills that Bill did, people justifiably do not trust her, and the graft in which the Clintons engaged through the Clinton Foundation is beginning to become public knowledge. The people do not understand why she has not been indicted, and believe that the fix is in. And, frankly, she is just not likeable, and the Democrats know it.
Many Republicans are concerned about Mr. Trumps understanding of trade. He seems to believe that a “trade deficit” means that we are getting cheated. He is opposed to NAFTA which has been a very successful agreement for all three partners. He is correct about the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is not a good deal for the U.S.
He has a large following among a very angry percentage of the population who are sick of illegal immigration, haven’t had a raise in years, are tired of excessive regulation, the faltering economy, and a president who is trying to run the country through executive orders, and ignoring the Constitution. Many black Americans have been disappointed in President Obama. They expected race relations to improve, not to develop into shootings and riots. Union members too, are responding to Trump’s message of hope. He has focused on the top issue of the day, which is the crime rate, and talked about creating jobs. The campaign has become more disciplined.
He said that Hillary has asked her people to chant just three words: “I’m with her!” Mr. Trump said he had a different chant that was also just three words — “I’m with you!”
It was a powerful moment.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Election 2016, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Freedom, Immigration, Law, Media Bias, National Security, Politics, Progressivism, Regulation, Unemployment | Tags: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Donald J. Trump, President Barack Obama
“The rate of real economic growth is the single greatest determinate of America’s strength as a nation and the well being of the American people.” President Obama has not delivered a single year of 3,0% growth. The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy expanded at the slowest pace in two years, rising at an anemic 0.5% rate after a 1.4% fourth quarter advance. Not good, and one of the reasons why so many people are angry.
From Investors Business Daily:
Legacy: The same day the 0.5% GDP growth came out, President Obama is quoted in the New York Times saying the country has done “better” than “any large economy on Earth in modern history.” Delusional doesn’t begin to cut it.
The only real problem with the economy, as far as Obama is concerned, is that he hasn’t been selling his successful policies aggressively enough.
“We were moving so fast early on that we couldn’t take victory laps. We couldn’t explain everything we were doing. I mean, one day we’re saving the banks; the next day we’re saving the auto industry; the next day we’re trying to see whether we can have some impact on the housing market,” he told the Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Investors added that Obama didn’t “save” either industry. His only contribution to the GM and Chrysler bankruptcy process was to protect union interests at taxpayer expense. Dodd-Frank killed many, many community banks. The stimulus was an enormous expense and accomplished nothing at all.
At a townhall meeting in London, Obama was asked about what he wanted his legacy to be after eight years.
There are things I’m proud of. The basic principle that in a country as wealthy as the United States, every person should have access to high-quality health care that they can afford — that’s something I’m proud of, I believe in. (Applause.) Saving the world economy from a Great Depression — that was pretty good. (Laughter and applause.)
Well, laughter indeed, but no applause. In early days, Obama was hailed as a great communicator. He was even awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for merely talking about peace. As Noah Rothman said today at Commentary:
The image of Obama as the left’s Great Communicator was always a fabrication. Given how often Obama himself has admitted his persuasive skills have failed his supporters, you might think this invention of a center-left media would have long ago been buried. Yet, it remains with us even today. Born out of a wish and unresponsive to falsifying evidence, the idea that Obama was somehow a marvelously successful communicator will probably be with us long after the president leaves office.
Mr. Trump’s foreign policy speech was similarly hailed as strong and wide ranging. A lot of people believe what Mr. Trump said, and they’re wrong.
Mr. Trump: “NAFTA, as an example, has been a total disaster for the United States and has emptied our states — literally emptied our states of our manufacturing and our jobs. Not true.
The North American Free Trade Agreement went into force January 1, 1994. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these were the numbers at the end of December in 1993:
- Manufacturing employment: 16.8 million
- Labor force participation rate: 66.4%
- Unemployment rate: 6.5%
These were the numbers at the end of December 2000:
- Manufacturing employment: 17.2 million
- Labor force participation rate: 67.0%
- Unemployment rate: 3.9%
After seven years of NAFTA, unemployment was down, more people were in the labor force, and there were more people who were employed in manufacturing. In year 8 China joined the World Trade Organization, and problems came from that. This is when the drop in trade came. China is not a good economic partner, but the Obama administration is negotiating an investment deal with China. Either they should stop or Congress should stop them. In any case, Mr. Trump is plainly mistaken on his major arguments.
Filed under: Politics | Tags: All About Foreign Policy, Donald J. Trump, WWII Good & Cold War Good
Donald J. Trump, buoyed by his triumph in New York and the surrounding states, decided it was time to put away childish insults and give a real, written down, prepared speech. It was titled “Donald J. Trump Foreign Policy Speech,” or alternatively “See, I am too a serious candidate and can make a real speech.
He did some tough-talking about “how to develop a new foreign policy direction that replaces randomness with purpose, ideology with strategy, and chaos with peace.”
America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration.
But to chart our path forward, we must first briefly look back.
We have a lot to be proud of. In the 1940s we saved the world. The Greatest Generation beat back the Nazis and the Japanese Imperialists.
Then we saved the world again, this time from totalitarian Communism. The Cold War lasted for decades, but we won.
And Mr. Trump hasn’t approved of anything since. “Our resources are overextended, Our allies are not paying their fair share, Our friends are beginning to think they can’t depend on us, and our rivals no longer respect us..”
That’s about it. He doesn’t understand trade, Obama made a mess of things, as did Hillary. We need a new long-term plan to halt the spread of radical Islam, and we must stop importing extremism. We’re going to have to change trade, immigration and economic policy to make our economy strong again. Technical superiority with 3-D printing, artificial intelligence and cyber warfare. Take care of our vets. Make America great again.
Hit the hot spots and tie it all up with a simplistic approach, without saying anything new or innovative. I ‘m very not impressed, but perhaps others will be. Trump is very good at hitting the big worries, and garnering press attention, but if you look at it seriously, he hasn’t said much of anything.
Here’s the full text of his speech. I happened to read it followed by reading a commencement address at the University of Texas by Admiral William H. McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Forces command, at the end of May in 2014. Different speeches, different subjects, different occasions, but the contrast is informative.
