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Common sense voter
Austin Bay:
“…This is why, among military historians and military planners, Iwo Jima has become one of the war’s more controversial operations. The island was supposed to serve as a staging area for invading Japan; it didn’t. Some senior officers argued that seizing the island gave B-29 bombers attacking Japan’s home islands a safe landing strip. But at the price of 6,800 dead Marines?
At a dinner party in 1998, a Marine vet told me that in 1968, Iwo Jima was still a touchy subject in the Corps. His comment paraphrased: We paid such a steep price, you just didn’t raise the issue of utility. I said, as a guy still pulling duty on joint planning staffs, the decision to invade Iwo Jima troubled me. And maybe it should. But that’s hindsight. There were several vets at the dinner. We poured another round of drinks and toasted the Marines, every damn brave one of them…”
Thomas Lifson:
“…The Democrats are at their lowest point since the outbreak of the Civil War. Derangement by definition means acting in self-destructive ways, and mass derangement, specifically Trump Derangement Syndrome, is the animating force behind a large share of the thoughts and actions of both leaders and followers of the world’s oldest political party. Put starkly, the crazies have grabbed control and reinforce one another, spinning farther and farer away from the mainstream of American political life…”
I hope it pans out
Conrad Black:
“…The “Gong Show” of a Democratic presidential primary debate Tuesday night just made it clear how desperately this intellectually bankrupt rag-tag team of harpies and hustlers truly is. They are the heirs of the Clinton-Obama place men who mismanaged America, corrupted the Justice Department and the intelligence services, and created such a scarcity of serious candidates for the presidency.
The former mayor of New York City announced he was seeking the nomination because the 20 declared candidates were inadequate. He was correct—but so, on the face of things, is he inadequate. The debate in Charleston on Tuesday was like a scene from Lord of the Flies as a disorderly, screechy group of misbehaving superannuated juveniles spoke and shouted over each other, waving their arms in the air and exchanging epithets. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), her hopes withered by her mendacity, robotic uniforms, and humorless righteousness, is reduced to hurling vitriol at Mike Bloomberg…
…Bloomberg is reduced to claiming that the Russians are assisting Sanders because they want Sanders to be the nominee to assure the success of Trump. The Democrats still routinely refer to the president as “a Russian agent,” and “a Russian operative.” It is all surreal nonsense and only the most rabid Trump-hater or inflexible Democrat can stay the course. Meantime, all polls show Trump steadily advancing among independents and holding and expanding practically all of his traditional base of supporters…
…There is now no exit for the Democrats from the triple conundrum of the inadequacy of their candidates, the consequences of the Obama-Clinton illegalities inflicted on the Trump campaign and early presidency which are now under criminal investigation, and from the ineradicable taint of socialist extremism, Sandersite Communist apologia, and general goofiness, such as billionaire 1 percent vanity candidate Tom Steyer advocating reparations for all African-Americans…
…The Democrats and the United States need a Sanders candidacy, so the existing Democratic Party can be completely defeated and humiliated and most of its most obnoxious officeholders can be flung out of public life head-first; and so the country can administer to itself the emetic necessary to disgorge this socialist idiocy.
An ineluctable process of national political renovation is proceeding apace. While those responsible for the political corruption of the justice department and the intelligence services in 2016 and 2017 are being identified and (one hopes) convicted, the Democratic Party will already slouch off to Milwaukee to consummate temporary suicide, enabling a sensible resurrection worthy of that historically great party…”
https://twitter.com/Squill_whispers/status/1233059138600611840
Brian C. Joondeph:
“…It’s a long way to the summer convention and the nearly 2000 delegates needed to secure the nomination, but as of now, the nomination is Bernie Sanders’s to lose. South Carolina holds it primary February 29, in just a few days. The FiveThirtyEight aggregated polls show Biden at 30 percent, dropping from 40 percent where he was much of last fall. Sanders is close behind at 23 percent, Steyer at 13 percent and the rest of the clown show is in single digits.
This is Joe Biden’s last stand, much like at the Alamo, where Joe remembers fighting bravely with Corn Pop, his son the Attorney General, and Nelson Mandela. He recounts this story to a group of 15 supporters in a near empty high school gym as he asks for their support in his run for the US Senate.
Joking aside, this man was the Democrats’ great hope to defeat President Trump. Instead, on display in an embarrassing manner is Biden’s early dementia. Allowing a former American vice-president and senator to be remembered not for his service to the country, but instead as a sad spectacle, is tragic…”
So a major factor in voting for Bernie would be improved relations with Cuba!
Democrats worst nightmare
https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/1232493999774003200
You can’t make this stuff up!
There is a careful balance that has to maintained between public perception and public safety. Too much focus on perception and the resulting policies can have a negative effect.
Washington Examiner Editorial:
“…addressing more than 100,000 people in a packed Ahmedabad stadium, Trump offered a bright vision of future friendship between the world’s most powerful and its most populous democracies. As the BBC observed, “It was a good speech.”
Addressing democratic values, Trump carefully hinted at concerns over India’s treatment of its Muslim citizens. While praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the president celebrated an India in which “millions upon millions of Hindus and Muslims, Sikhs and Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Jews worship side by side in harmony.” Building on this theme of democracies made strong by diversity, Trump called for “every Indian, north and south, Hindu or Muslim, Jewish and Christian, young and old, take pride in the glories of your past, unite for an even brighter future, and let our two nations always stand together as powerful defenders of peace and liberty.”
Asked at a later press conference whether he had raised the issue of religious liberty in private meetings with Modi, Trump confirmed that he had done so. Describing shared U.S. and Indian efforts against terrorists, Trump threw Modi a line that President Barack Obama would have been highly unlikely to offer. He promised Indians that America would continue “to crack down on the terrorist organizations and militants that operate on the Pakistani border.” Trump’s strong stance here will go down well with an Indian government and people still reeling from a Pakistani terrorist attack last February that killed 40 people. Equally important is the fact that Trump’s robust stance on Pakistani terrorist threats stands in contrast to unhelpful positions of calculated indifference taken by China and Russia.
Trump also promoted the “quad” strategic dialogue among the democracies of the United States, Australia, Japan, and India. He announced India’s purchase of $3 billion in U.S. helicopters, and, in distinctly Trumpian terms, he offered a rationale for why India would gain by abandoning its Sino-Russian flirtations in favor of a U.S. partnership.
“We have spent two and a half trillion dollars on rebuilding our military. It’s the most powerful military anywhere in the world by far. That is why I have come here to India, in the spirit of fondness and goodwill, to expand our cherished partnership of incredible power and potential,” Trump said. “I believe that the United States should be India’s premier defense partner, and that’s the way it’s working out. Together, we will defend our sovereignty, security, and protect a free and open Indo-Pacific region for our children and for many, many generations to come.”
Trump is here linking Chinese efforts to dominate the western Pacific oceans with Beijing’s growing effort to project power at India’s doorstep. It’s a clever step for two reasons. First, New Delhi is increasingly concerned by China’s sponsorship and use of the Pakistani port at Gwadar and related efforts to undermine India’s security on its northern borders. Second, the U.S. needs all the allies it can get to deter Chinese President Xi Jinping’s effort to turn the world’s oceans into his private playground.
Unfortunately, there is still no U.S.-India trade deal, but that could be a good thing if, as the president suggests, this is because the two sides are working on a bigger deal than expected. This is a relationship that is important we get right, so patience is in order.
But, ultimately, this trip hinted at the possibilities of a very bright future. If India and the U.S. can form a common bond built on the rule of law, national sovereignty, and democracy, they will be that much more prosperous and safe. This presidential tale is not defined by tweets but by true statesmanship…”
John Tierney:
“…Why do our political leaders want to take away our plastic bags and straws? This question is even more puzzling than a related one that I’ve been studying for decades: Why do they want us to recycle our garbage?
The two obsessions have some common roots, but the moral panic over plastic is especially perverse. The recycling movement had a superficial logic, at least at the outset. Municipal officials expected to save money by recycling trash instead of burying or burning it. Now that recycling has turned out to be ruinously expensive while achieving little or no environmental benefit, some local officials—the pragmatic ones, anyway—are once again sending trash straight to landfills and incinerators.
The plastic panic has never made any sense, and it’s intensifying even as evidence mounts that it’s not only a waste of money but also harmful to the environment, not to mention humans. It’s been a movement in search of a rationale for half a century. During the 1970s, environmentalists like Barry Commoner wanted the government to restrict the use of plastic because it was made from petroleum, which we needed to hoard because we would soon run out of it. When the “energy crisis” proved a false alarm, environmentalists looked for new reasons to panic.
They denounced plastic for not being biodegradable in landfills. They blamed it for littering the landscape, clogging sewer drains, and contributing to global warming. Plastic from our “throwaway society” was killing vast numbers of sea creatures, according to Blue Planet II, a 2017 BBC documentary series that became an international hit. Its depictions of sea turtles, dolphins, and whales in jeopardy prompted Queen Elizabeth II to ban plastic straws and bottles from the royal estates, and the documentary has galvanized so many other leaders that greens celebrate the “Blue Planet Effect.”
More than 100 countries now restrict single-use plastic bags, and Pope Francis has called for the global regulation of plastic. The European Union parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic straws, plates, and cutlery across the continent next year. In the United States, hundreds of municipalities and eight states have outlawed or regulated single-use plastic bags. New York and other cities have banned plastic-foam food containers, and more sweeping edicts are in the works. Greens in California are pushing a referendum to require all plastic packaging and single-use foodware in the state to be recyclable, and the EU has unveiled a similar plan. Celebrities and politicians photographed with the wrong beverage container or straw now endure online “plastic-shaming.”
Some reformers are well-intentioned, but they’re hurting their own cause. If you want to protect dolphins and sea turtles, you should take special care to place your plastic in the trash, not the recycling bin. And if you’re worried about climate change, you’ll cherish those gossamer grocery bags once you learn the facts about plastic…”
This is the current Democrat frontrunner for president. This is just one of his remarkable positions and statements. Many more will surface as we head into election season.
Biden claims firearms have killed more than half of the U.S. population since 2007 pic.twitter.com/a679hcVbYg
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 26, 2020