Month: March 2019

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) over her anti-Semitic rhetoric during a Thursday interview with CBN News, calling her actions “deeply troubling” and “abhorrent.”

“To see this from a member of Congress like Congresswoman Omar is — I talked about this being dark,” Pompeo said. “The rise of anti-Semitism in the United States and in Europe and in, frankly, all across the world is something that is deeply troubling, and to see someone — a duly elected congressman — behave in that way, to speak about anti-Semitism in that way, is of great concern.”

“It’s a great concern to me,” Pompeo continued. “This administration speaks the truth, and anti-Semitism is unacceptable in any form from anyone, but to see it come from one of America’s leaders is just abhorrent.”

Multiple recent reports have shown that Pompeo is correct, anti-Semitism is rising across the United States and Europe.

“Antisemitism is rising sharply across Europe, experts have said, as France reported a 74% increase in the number of offenses against Jews last year and Germany said the number of violent antisemitic attacks had surged by more than 60%,” The Guardian reported. “The figures confirm the results of three recent Europe-wide surveys showing Jewish people feel at greater risk, and are experiencing markedly more aggression, amid a generalized increase in racist hate speech and violence in a significantly coarser, more polarized political environment.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) told the Los Angeles Times that the ADL has seen a significant jump in anti-Semitism in the U.S.

WATCH:

Omar has repeatedly used anti-Semitic tropes and promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that have been repeatedly used by groups targeting Jews, including the Nazis.

In 2012, Omar tweeted: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

In a New York Times column, Bari Weiss slammed Omar for pushing the anti-Semitic conspiracy-theory:

The conspiracy theory of the Jew as the hypnotic conspirator, the duplicitous manipulator, the sinister puppeteer is one with ancient roots and a bloody history. In the New Testament, it is a small band of Jews who get Rome — then the greatest power in the world — to do their bidding by killing Christ. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, speaks to the Jews about Jesus in the book of John: “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your own law.” But the Jews punt the decision back to Pilate: “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” And so Pilate does the deed on their behalf. In the book of Matthew, the implications of this manipulation are spelled out: “His blood is on us and our children,” the Jews say — a line that has been so historically destructive that even Mel Gibson cut it from his “Passion of the Christ.”

In the two millenniums that followed, even after 1965, when the Catholic Church formally disavowed the belief that the Jews killed Jesus, this was the template for the anti-Semitic conspiracy: the ability of this tiny minority to use its wiles and its proximity to power to con others into accomplishing their evil ends. It has led to countless expulsions, murders, massacres and pogroms throughout Europe and elsewhere.

The Jewish power to hypnotize the world, as Ms. Omar put it, is the plot of Jud Süss — the most successful Nazi film ever made. In the film, produced by Joseph Goebbels himself, Josef Süss Oppenheimer, an 18th-century religious Jew, emerges from the ghetto, makes himself over as an assimilated man, and rises to become the treasurer to the Duke of Württemberg. Silly duke: Allowing a single Jew into his city leads to death and destruction.

Omar repeatedly refused to disavow her anti-Semitic remarks in multiple interviews on CNN which led to even more focus on her views of Israel.

Related: WATCH: Ilhan Omar Suggests Israel Should Not Be Allowed To Exist As Jewish State, Suggests Not A ‘Democracy’

Albert Einstein observed, “If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world.  Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”  His words are relevant today because anti-Semitism, briefly dormant, is alive again — in Europe and around the world.  This “new form” of anti-Semitism claims to be different from the traditional racial and religious images.  Its adherents say they are anti-Zionist, not anti-Semites.  But their accusations mirror The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Only recently, a Belgian parade featured a float of grotesquely distorted Orthodox Jews in religious garb, perched on bags of money, à la the art of Nazi Julius Streicher.  What makes this sickening display even more alarming is the official sanction given to it by the Mayor of Aalst, Christoph D’Haese, who stated, “It’s not up to the mayor to forbid such displays” and that the carnival participants had “no sinister intentions.”  No sinister intentions?  Adolf Eichmann also had no sinister intentions when he organized transportation to the death camps.  After all, he himself had no part in the actual killing process; they just did their jobs.

We have our own anti-Semitic scandal with newly elected congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D), a Somalian hijab-wearing Muslim who tweets anti-Semitic tropes “without sinister intentions” or retractions.  Democrat leadership won’t condemn, censure, or remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, leftist Jews have defended her, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi excused her inadvertent offense.  Yes, Congress passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and anti–everything else, without singling out Omar and the Jews.  Thus, the Democratic Party is falling farther left toward Islamic ideology.

Feeding the fire, in January 2019, the Palestinian Authority introduced in the U.N. a motion to reinstate U.N. Resolution 3379, first adopted in 1975, later revoked in 1991, that declared that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”  No other people anywhere has ever been so distinguished.  When South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, after years of bloodshed, no one proposed calling its citizens’ nationalism “racist.”  The Kurds of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey also aspire to their own national homeland, but no one has called them “racist.”  Only Israel and the Jews have that distinction.

Make no mistake: anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.  The two terms have become conflated.  If you agree that Israel is evil, apartheid, fascist, and repugnant, then the only possible resolution is its total destruction, its Jews exiled or exterminated.

Slowly, surely, irrevocably, methodically, step by step, the constraints are removed from the unacceptable — adjusting the population to the various forms of anti-Semitism, from rhetoric to parade floats to refusing to seriously address the issue, defending the perpetrators such as Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan, who called Jews “termites” to leftist media silence.  Anti-Semitism is becoming mainstream.  Jews are fleeing the ever increasing attacks in France, once home to the world’s third largest Jewish population.  Prime Minister Theresa May laments that Jews may have no future in Great Britain as the Labor Party’s overtly anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn seeks increased power.  American Jews seem oblivious to the tsunami of anti-Semitism engulfing Europe and poised to take America with the same intensity.

“We are safe here.”  ”We are a civilized, cultured country with laws that protect us.”  So are Britain and France.  So was Germany during the 1920s and early ’30s, when it was regarded the most advanced scientifically, culturally, and artistically — the home of Beethoven, Bach, Goethe, and Heine.  German Jews were patriots; 100,000-plus served in the German army during WWI, 30,000 decorated for bravery, yet also murdered in gas chambers.  Meanwhile, the uninformed American Jews embrace their ancestral ideology — a combined Progressivism, ultra-liberalism, neo-Marxism, and the Jewish “tikkun olam.”  They ardently believe that the main threat to Jews today comes from the neo-Nazis and the KKK.  While it is true that these groups exist, they constitute only a small percentage of the population.

There are leftist Jewish and non-Jewish groups who would disagree with these statistics.  They choose to lump all Republican conservatives and anyone who disagrees with them into the category of right-wing hate-monger extremists.  They ignore the real threat today that comes from an unholy red-green alliance — the Marxist left and Islam.  

Using identity politics, victimhood, social justice, racism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism, the radical left seeks power and control.  The new doctrine of “intersectionality” allows leftists to affiliate with other groups they perceive as “oppressed.”  This is why you see anti-Israel and anti-Semitic signs displayed by just about every radical-left group at demonstrations throughout the country.  Therefore, Ferguson, Missouri activists’ placards read, “From Ferguson to Gaza, the struggle continues.”  The vast majority of American Jews who accepted these policies are unable or unwilling to comprehend that their Progressive, liberal, neo-Marxist ideology now seeks to destroy the Jewish state and the Jewish people.  

American Jewry is at a crossroads.  The vast majority of American Jews will continue to cling to their familiar ancestral belief system; it’s all they know.  To change now would be to deny everything their family members and they, themselves, have lived for.  But before they bury their heads in the sand once again, they should at least hear these simple truths.  When our enemies came for us during the Holocaust, they did not ask if we were Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or secular Jews.  Neither were they interested in any past service we rendered for the state.  We were Jews.  That was all that mattered.  If history repeats itself, when our enemies come for us once again, they will not ask if we are Israelis or Zionists.  They will not care if we marched in Selma, Alabama; protested against apartheid in South Africa; supported equal rights for women; advocated for the LBGTQ community; and campaigned for Hillary or Bernie.  It will matter that we are Jews.

Today’s anti-Semitism, unleashed by the Left and Islamists, is so visceral, virulent, vile, vicious, and vitriolic that it can no longer be justified under the guise of anti-Zionism.  In form, content, and message, it is exactly what was seen and heard during the heyday of the Third Reich.  It is what made the Holocaust possible.  What begins with a parade float in Belgium inevitably ends in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka.  This is the fate our enemies want for us.  This is why Tehran’s Ayatollah Khamenei rejoices that more Jews are moving to Israel — for one grand target. 

Meanwhile, most of the Jews will continue entrusting their safety to their religious and political leadership.  They will continue to vote for, support, and finance the party and the ideology that will ultimately lead them to their own destruction and that of the state of Israel.

Vladimir Jabotinsky recognized that “[t]he Jew learns not by way of reason, but from catastrophe.  He won’t buy an umbrella merely because he sees clouds in the sky.  He waits until he is drenched and catches pneumonia.”  History may yet prove that when it comes to the Jews, Jabotinsky was an optimist.

Caren Besner is a retired teacher who has written articles published by American Thinker, Sun-Sentinel, Jewish Journal, The Algemeiner, Jerusalem Post, IsraPost, The Jewish Voice, Independent Sentinel, San Diego Jewish World, The Times of Israel, Jewish Press, The Front Page, The Florida Veteran, Jootube, and The Moderate Voice.

Albert Einstein observed, “If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world.  Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”  His words are relevant today because anti-Semitism, briefly dormant, is alive again — in Europe and around the world.  This “new form” of anti-Semitism claims to be different from the traditional racial and religious images.  Its adherents say they are anti-Zionist, not anti-Semites.  But their accusations mirror The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Only recently, a Belgian parade featured a float of grotesquely distorted Orthodox Jews in religious garb, perched on bags of money, à la the art of Nazi Julius Streicher.  What makes this sickening display even more alarming is the official sanction given to it by the Mayor of Aalst, Christoph D’Haese, who stated, “It’s not up to the mayor to forbid such displays” and that the carnival participants had “no sinister intentions.”  No sinister intentions?  Adolf Eichmann also had no sinister intentions when he organized transportation to the death camps.  After all, he himself had no part in the actual killing process; they just did their jobs.

We have our own anti-Semitic scandal with newly elected congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D), a Somalian hijab-wearing Muslim who tweets anti-Semitic tropes “without sinister intentions” or retractions.  Democrat leadership won’t condemn, censure, or remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, leftist Jews have defended her, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi excused her inadvertent offense.  Yes, Congress passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and anti–everything else, without singling out Omar and the Jews.  Thus, the Democratic Party is falling farther left toward Islamic ideology.

Feeding the fire, in January 2019, the Palestinian Authority introduced in the U.N. a motion to reinstate U.N. Resolution 3379, first adopted in 1975, later revoked in 1991, that declared that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”  No other people anywhere has ever been so distinguished.  When South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, after years of bloodshed, no one proposed calling its citizens’ nationalism “racist.”  The Kurds of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey also aspire to their own national homeland, but no one has called them “racist.”  Only Israel and the Jews have that distinction.

Make no mistake: anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.  The two terms have become conflated.  If you agree that Israel is evil, apartheid, fascist, and repugnant, then the only possible resolution is its total destruction, its Jews exiled or exterminated.

Slowly, surely, irrevocably, methodically, step by step, the constraints are removed from the unacceptable — adjusting the population to the various forms of anti-Semitism, from rhetoric to parade floats to refusing to seriously address the issue, defending the perpetrators such as Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan, who called Jews “termites” to leftist media silence.  Anti-Semitism is becoming mainstream.  Jews are fleeing the ever increasing attacks in France, once home to the world’s third largest Jewish population.  Prime Minister Theresa May laments that Jews may have no future in Great Britain as the Labor Party’s overtly anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn seeks increased power.  American Jews seem oblivious to the tsunami of anti-Semitism engulfing Europe and poised to take America with the same intensity.

“We are safe here.”  ”We are a civilized, cultured country with laws that protect us.”  So are Britain and France.  So was Germany during the 1920s and early ’30s, when it was regarded the most advanced scientifically, culturally, and artistically — the home of Beethoven, Bach, Goethe, and Heine.  German Jews were patriots; 100,000-plus served in the German army during WWI, 30,000 decorated for bravery, yet also murdered in gas chambers.  Meanwhile, the uninformed American Jews embrace their ancestral ideology — a combined Progressivism, ultra-liberalism, neo-Marxism, and the Jewish “tikkun olam.”  They ardently believe that the main threat to Jews today comes from the neo-Nazis and the KKK.  While it is true that these groups exist, they constitute only a small percentage of the population.

There are leftist Jewish and non-Jewish groups who would disagree with these statistics.  They choose to lump all Republican conservatives and anyone who disagrees with them into the category of right-wing hate-monger extremists.  They ignore the real threat today that comes from an unholy red-green alliance — the Marxist left and Islam.  

Using identity politics, victimhood, social justice, racism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism, the radical left seeks power and control.  The new doctrine of “intersectionality” allows leftists to affiliate with other groups they perceive as “oppressed.”  This is why you see anti-Israel and anti-Semitic signs displayed by just about every radical-left group at demonstrations throughout the country.  Therefore, Ferguson, Missouri activists’ placards read, “From Ferguson to Gaza, the struggle continues.”  The vast majority of American Jews who accepted these policies are unable or unwilling to comprehend that their Progressive, liberal, neo-Marxist ideology now seeks to destroy the Jewish state and the Jewish people.  

American Jewry is at a crossroads.  The vast majority of American Jews will continue to cling to their familiar ancestral belief system; it’s all they know.  To change now would be to deny everything their family members and they, themselves, have lived for.  But before they bury their heads in the sand once again, they should at least hear these simple truths.  When our enemies came for us during the Holocaust, they did not ask if we were Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or secular Jews.  Neither were they interested in any past service we rendered for the state.  We were Jews.  That was all that mattered.  If history repeats itself, when our enemies come for us once again, they will not ask if we are Israelis or Zionists.  They will not care if we marched in Selma, Alabama; protested against apartheid in South Africa; supported equal rights for women; advocated for the LBGTQ community; and campaigned for Hillary or Bernie.  It will matter that we are Jews.

Today’s anti-Semitism, unleashed by the Left and Islamists, is so visceral, virulent, vile, vicious, and vitriolic that it can no longer be justified under the guise of anti-Zionism.  In form, content, and message, it is exactly what was seen and heard during the heyday of the Third Reich.  It is what made the Holocaust possible.  What begins with a parade float in Belgium inevitably ends in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka.  This is the fate our enemies want for us.  This is why Tehran’s Ayatollah Khamenei rejoices that more Jews are moving to Israel — for one grand target. 

Meanwhile, most of the Jews will continue entrusting their safety to their religious and political leadership.  They will continue to vote for, support, and finance the party and the ideology that will ultimately lead them to their own destruction and that of the state of Israel.

Vladimir Jabotinsky recognized that “[t]he Jew learns not by way of reason, but from catastrophe.  He won’t buy an umbrella merely because he sees clouds in the sky.  He waits until he is drenched and catches pneumonia.”  History may yet prove that when it comes to the Jews, Jabotinsky was an optimist.

Caren Besner is a retired teacher who has written articles published by American Thinker, Sun-Sentinel, Jewish Journal, The Algemeiner, Jerusalem Post, IsraPost, The Jewish Voice, Independent Sentinel, San Diego Jewish World, The Times of Israel, Jewish Press, The Front Page, The Florida Veteran, Jootube, and The Moderate Voice.

Colorado has bought into the popular vote mythology in presidential elections and the need to nationalize the process of electing presidents.  Although wrong-headed, the right of the Colorado Legislature to make these changes is constitutional.  

Republicans ought to use the power of those state governments they control to enact real reform by providing that the electoral votes of the state be cast by the state Legislature directly and not by voters choosing those electors.  I proposed this in November 2016, and nothing has changed since then, except, unfortunately, the overwhelming majority that Republicans had in state governments was eroded somewhat by the 2018 midterm elections.

Control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor is required to pass a law reverting power to the state Legislature to cast the electoral votes of a state, but once that becomes the law, only control of the state Legislature would be required to cast the state’s electoral votes in all future elections.

Republicans control both houses of the state Legislature and the governor in 23 states, counting unicameral Nebraska.  Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and the governorship in 14 states.  Only three of those fourteen would ever conceivably vote for a Republican presidential candidate in the popular vote — Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.  But consider some of the states that would go Republican if state legislatures cast electoral votes:  Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

There is not a single state the Democrat candidate in a presidential election would have won if this change had been implemented in the states in which Republicans held the power.  Prior to the 2016 election, in three states in which Republicans then controlled, but do not now control, the governorship — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan — the Republican candidate would have won every single state that President Trump carried without any popular vote in those states at all.

But the reform would be about much more than simply Republicans winning a presidential election.  This change would make state legislative elections vitally important in national politics, and it would restore to state governments the powers intended for them in the Constitution.  Washington would become much less important, and our political pox, “Capitolism,” would begin a long cure.

Moreover, this could serve as the springboard for re-asserting state power in amending the Constitution by convening and maintaining a Constitutional Convention.  The first amendment passed should be to provide for election of United States senators by the Legislature of the state.  The next amendment, perhaps, should be to take away from all federal courts the power to effectively bully state governments.

The beauty of having state legislatures regularly meet in an official capacity is that each state Legislature gains in power if power is taken from Washington and given back to the states.  State legislative members also must either stand for the rights of their states against an over-grasping Washington or face a crippling political position that would sound to their constituents something like this: “I and the other members of our state legislature know far less about how to solve our problems than distant and arrogant Washington insiders.  After all, we yahoos in the backwaters are not nearly as smart as the sophisticates of the Beltway.”

Finally, this would expose those “conservatives” who profess to care about our values and the preservation of our republic but who are just as much “Capitolists” as the most lickspittle leftist, the “conservatives” who view America as a land in two parts, one of which stretches from Boston to Washington and the other from San Francisco to San Diego, with a vast stretch of colonial territories between these two — those “conservatives” whose  lives are politics or law or some career of prostitution,  who would have nothing to do if states governed themselves without the unwanted “help” of Washington.

Restoring the rights and powers of the sovereign states is the linchpin of everything we need to begin to solve our problems.  The power of state legislatures remains in the language of the Constitution, and those rights ought to be given life again.  If that happens, we can begin the peaceful revolution our nation needs.  It is doable and ought to be done.  Nothing keeps Republican state legislatures from beginning the process but the guts and grit of their own members — and there is no reason for delay at all.

Colorado has bought into the popular vote mythology in presidential elections and the need to nationalize the process of electing presidents.  Although wrong-headed, the right of the Colorado Legislature to make these changes is constitutional.  

Republicans ought to use the power of those state governments they control to enact real reform by providing that the electoral votes of the state be cast by the state Legislature directly and not by voters choosing those electors.  I proposed this in November 2016, and nothing has changed since then, except, unfortunately, the overwhelming majority that Republicans had in state governments was eroded somewhat by the 2018 midterm elections.

Control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor is required to pass a law reverting power to the state Legislature to cast the electoral votes of a state, but once that becomes the law, only control of the state Legislature would be required to cast the state’s electoral votes in all future elections.

Republicans control both houses of the state Legislature and the governor in 23 states, counting unicameral Nebraska.  Democrats control both houses of the state Legislature and the governorship in 14 states.  Only three of those fourteen would ever conceivably vote for a Republican presidential candidate in the popular vote — Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.  But consider some of the states that would go Republican if state legislatures cast electoral votes:  Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

There is not a single state the Democrat candidate in a presidential election would have won if this change had been implemented in the states in which Republicans held the power.  Prior to the 2016 election, in three states in which Republicans then controlled, but do not now control, the governorship — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan — the Republican candidate would have won every single state that President Trump carried without any popular vote in those states at all.

But the reform would be about much more than simply Republicans winning a presidential election.  This change would make state legislative elections vitally important in national politics, and it would restore to state governments the powers intended for them in the Constitution.  Washington would become much less important, and our political pox, “Capitolism,” would begin a long cure.

Moreover, this could serve as the springboard for re-asserting state power in amending the Constitution by convening and maintaining a Constitutional Convention.  The first amendment passed should be to provide for election of United States senators by the Legislature of the state.  The next amendment, perhaps, should be to take away from all federal courts the power to effectively bully state governments.

The beauty of having state legislatures regularly meet in an official capacity is that each state Legislature gains in power if power is taken from Washington and given back to the states.  State legislative members also must either stand for the rights of their states against an over-grasping Washington or face a crippling political position that would sound to their constituents something like this: “I and the other members of our state legislature know far less about how to solve our problems than distant and arrogant Washington insiders.  After all, we yahoos in the backwaters are not nearly as smart as the sophisticates of the Beltway.”

Finally, this would expose those “conservatives” who profess to care about our values and the preservation of our republic but who are just as much “Capitolists” as the most lickspittle leftist, the “conservatives” who view America as a land in two parts, one of which stretches from Boston to Washington and the other from San Francisco to San Diego, with a vast stretch of colonial territories between these two — those “conservatives” whose  lives are politics or law or some career of prostitution,  who would have nothing to do if states governed themselves without the unwanted “help” of Washington.

Restoring the rights and powers of the sovereign states is the linchpin of everything we need to begin to solve our problems.  The power of state legislatures remains in the language of the Constitution, and those rights ought to be given life again.  If that happens, we can begin the peaceful revolution our nation needs.  It is doable and ought to be done.  Nothing keeps Republican state legislatures from beginning the process but the guts and grit of their own members — and there is no reason for delay at all.

There was a superb column at The Federalist on Wednesday by George S. Bardmesser: “Every Time Democrats Talk, I Want to Vote for Trump Twice.”  It is as hilarious as it is frightening.  It is also a courageous confession, especially for a lawyer who lives in D.C.  Let’s hope he has personal security.

I am betting there are millions of us, many more millions than voted for Trump in 2016, who agree with the man.  He was a reluctant Trump-voter but is now completely on board the Trump train.  Why?  Because the current crop of Democrat candidates are moonbats all, with the possible exception of Howard Schultz, who has yet to officially throw his hat in the ring.  Mr. Bardmesser addresses in passing the election of Mlles. Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, and the presidential candidacies of Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden.  Each of them, as that author points out, is a thorough socialist nutjob.  Each of them is trying to out-fanaticalize the others.  Each of them is absolutely clueless about the American people outside the far-left bubbles all of them inhabit.

Mr. Bardmesser neglects to mention the bizarre, phony, and disturbing ”Beto” O’Rourke; Kirsten Gillibrand; and Andrew Yang.

O’Rourke, who has zero accomplishments as a Texas congressman, has captured the hearts of some mindless citizens and millions of Hollywood dollars, to which effect he got close to beating Ted Cruz in 2016.  But he has a creepy history of weird behavior: he was part of a hacking conclave, he eats dirt, he plays vicious pranks even on his wife, and he wrote about running down happy children when he was a teen.  He was arrested for burglary, for a DUI, and for leaving the scene of an accident.  The Democrats don’t care about such things, since the Kennedys were guilty of all that and much more.  But clearly, this man is not presidential material.  His only stated policy is to legalize marijuana and invalidate all arrests for crimes related to use or sale of it. 

Then there is the thoroughly insubstantial Kirsten Gillibrand, who has never held a position longer than politically convenient.  Now she is so pro-illegal immigration that she even wants to reward illegal aliens’ law-breaking with Social Security.  This woman’s character is as ephemeral as a puff of smoke.  She also sounds like a little girl who never developed an adult voice, rather like Ocasio-Cortez.

But even Gillibrand is not as silly as Andrew Yang.  One of his core issues is circumcision!  He is against it!  He is also for giving money away in the form of a “universal basic income.”

Like the rest of the Left, all of these people’s plans require taxing people beyond sanity — the kind of taxation that would destroy the country. 

Pete Buttigeig is the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana.  He is openly gay with a stellar résumé, including the fact that he is a veteran.  His particular issue is “intergenerational justice,” whatever that is.  He is clearly a smart guy but, like all the others, makes catastrophic climate change part and parcel of his agenda.

Curiously, in a recent survey of Millennials that sought to determine the top twenty things that worry them, climate change did not make the list.  And to anyone paying attention, global cooling is very likely a graver danger.

Why are Ocasio-Cortez’s approval ratings falling?  Aside from the fact that she knows nothing about anything, her Green New Deal is a pathetic joke.

Oh, yes, and they all suddenly want to abolish the Electoral College!  Had HRC won, they would be singing its praises.

That anyone thinks Joe Biden has a chance in hell of being elected is mystifying.  The man has so many skeletons in the closet that he can’t remember them all — plagiarism; racism; corruption; and a penchant for fondling young girls, even in public on camera.  Like Bernie Sanders, he is too old.  They both seem decades older than Donald Trump, even though they are just a few years older.  They are without Trump’s energy.

Then there is the forgettable John Hickenlooper, who just the other night needlessly confessed to taking his mother to a porn film years ago.

Kamala Harris has a sketchy record as California’s A.G.  She apparently took bribes to let Herbalife off the hook; Heather Podesta lobbied her on behalf of the company.  She is known for having “slept her way to the top” as the mistress of former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.  Like O’Rourke, Cory Booker, and Gillibrand, she is not ready for prime time.

As Mr. Bardmesser wrote, Bernie Sanders is just an old pretend-socialist ne’er-do-well hypocrite.

Elizabeth Warren?  She is perhaps the most self-unaware candidate of the bunch.  After faking her way onto the Harvard faculty by claiming to be American Indian, when asked if she had sympathy for the parents who bought their way into chi-chi colleges, she replied, “Zero.”  When asked even now about her ancestry, she insists she “learned her family history from her family.”  And while quite wealthy herself, she intends, if elected, to tax wealthy Americans into extinction.  She wrongly thinks that by stealing what others have earned, she can fund her dream of a socialist state.  She needs to read Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics.

Along with their support for open borders, all the declared candidates are vowing their support for reparations, of course.  There are no living persons who were slaves.  It is a ridiculous agenda issue, completely unworkable.  They all know this, but like all the Democrats in D.C., they really do believe that the rest of us are idiots, easily fooled by nonsense claims and promises.  That is why they claim to support Ocasio-Cortez’s plan to rid the nation of planes, cars, and all things fossil-fueled.  As we all know from watching all the climate alarmists in Congress and in Hollywood, they will not, do not intend to ever change the fossil-fueled lifestyle they enjoy.  No.  Their brand of socialist tyranny will apply to only the rest of us.

Chinese-Americans are already seeing the specter of Mao in this crop of candidates.  So, as Mr. Bardmesser advises, do anything and everything you can to convince those less politically aware that if any one of the declared Democrats wins in 2020, America as we know it will be relegated to the ash heap of tragic history along with our precious Constitution.

There was a superb column at The Federalist on Wednesday by George S. Bardmesser: “Every Time Democrats Talk, I Want to Vote for Trump Twice.”  It is as hilarious as it is frightening.  It is also a courageous confession, especially for a lawyer who lives in D.C.  Let’s hope he has personal security.

I am betting there are millions of us, many more millions than voted for Trump in 2016, who agree with the man.  He was a reluctant Trump-voter but is now completely on board the Trump train.  Why?  Because the current crop of Democrat candidates are moonbats all, with the possible exception of Howard Schultz, who has yet to officially throw his hat in the ring.  Mr. Bardmesser addresses in passing the election of Mlles. Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, and the presidential candidacies of Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden.  Each of them, as that author points out, is a thorough socialist nutjob.  Each of them is trying to out-fanaticalize the others.  Each of them is absolutely clueless about the American people outside the far-left bubbles all of them inhabit.

Mr. Bardmesser neglects to mention the bizarre, phony, and disturbing ”Beto” O’Rourke; Kirsten Gillibrand; and Andrew Yang.

O’Rourke, who has zero accomplishments as a Texas congressman, has captured the hearts of some mindless citizens and millions of Hollywood dollars, to which effect he got close to beating Ted Cruz in 2016.  But he has a creepy history of weird behavior: he was part of a hacking conclave, he eats dirt, he plays vicious pranks even on his wife, and he wrote about running down happy children when he was a teen.  He was arrested for burglary, for a DUI, and for leaving the scene of an accident.  The Democrats don’t care about such things, since the Kennedys were guilty of all that and much more.  But clearly, this man is not presidential material.  His only stated policy is to legalize marijuana and invalidate all arrests for crimes related to use or sale of it. 

Then there is the thoroughly insubstantial Kirsten Gillibrand, who has never held a position longer than politically convenient.  Now she is so pro-illegal immigration that she even wants to reward illegal aliens’ law-breaking with Social Security.  This woman’s character is as ephemeral as a puff of smoke.  She also sounds like a little girl who never developed an adult voice, rather like Ocasio-Cortez.

But even Gillibrand is not as silly as Andrew Yang.  One of his core issues is circumcision!  He is against it!  He is also for giving money away in the form of a “universal basic income.”

Like the rest of the Left, all of these people’s plans require taxing people beyond sanity — the kind of taxation that would destroy the country. 

Pete Buttigeig is the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana.  He is openly gay with a stellar résumé, including the fact that he is a veteran.  His particular issue is “intergenerational justice,” whatever that is.  He is clearly a smart guy but, like all the others, makes catastrophic climate change part and parcel of his agenda.

Curiously, in a recent survey of Millennials that sought to determine the top twenty things that worry them, climate change did not make the list.  And to anyone paying attention, global cooling is very likely a graver danger.

Why are Ocasio-Cortez’s approval ratings falling?  Aside from the fact that she knows nothing about anything, her Green New Deal is a pathetic joke.

Oh, yes, and they all suddenly want to abolish the Electoral College!  Had HRC won, they would be singing its praises.

That anyone thinks Joe Biden has a chance in hell of being elected is mystifying.  The man has so many skeletons in the closet that he can’t remember them all — plagiarism; racism; corruption; and a penchant for fondling young girls, even in public on camera.  Like Bernie Sanders, he is too old.  They both seem decades older than Donald Trump, even though they are just a few years older.  They are without Trump’s energy.

Then there is the forgettable John Hickenlooper, who just the other night needlessly confessed to taking his mother to a porn film years ago.

Kamala Harris has a sketchy record as California’s A.G.  She apparently took bribes to let Herbalife off the hook; Heather Podesta lobbied her on behalf of the company.  She is known for having “slept her way to the top” as the mistress of former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.  Like O’Rourke, Cory Booker, and Gillibrand, she is not ready for prime time.

As Mr. Bardmesser wrote, Bernie Sanders is just an old pretend-socialist ne’er-do-well hypocrite.

Elizabeth Warren?  She is perhaps the most self-unaware candidate of the bunch.  After faking her way onto the Harvard faculty by claiming to be American Indian, when asked if she had sympathy for the parents who bought their way into chi-chi colleges, she replied, “Zero.”  When asked even now about her ancestry, she insists she “learned her family history from her family.”  And while quite wealthy herself, she intends, if elected, to tax wealthy Americans into extinction.  She wrongly thinks that by stealing what others have earned, she can fund her dream of a socialist state.  She needs to read Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics.

Along with their support for open borders, all the declared candidates are vowing their support for reparations, of course.  There are no living persons who were slaves.  It is a ridiculous agenda issue, completely unworkable.  They all know this, but like all the Democrats in D.C., they really do believe that the rest of us are idiots, easily fooled by nonsense claims and promises.  That is why they claim to support Ocasio-Cortez’s plan to rid the nation of planes, cars, and all things fossil-fueled.  As we all know from watching all the climate alarmists in Congress and in Hollywood, they will not, do not intend to ever change the fossil-fueled lifestyle they enjoy.  No.  Their brand of socialist tyranny will apply to only the rest of us.

Chinese-Americans are already seeing the specter of Mao in this crop of candidates.  So, as Mr. Bardmesser advises, do anything and everything you can to convince those less politically aware that if any one of the declared Democrats wins in 2020, America as we know it will be relegated to the ash heap of tragic history along with our precious Constitution.

The “American Dream” is the opportunity to achieve success and fulfillment through hard work.  Some definitions, such as here, focus on the pursuit of happiness.  There is an underlying idea that “anyone” can achieve the American Dream, but this is false, and not because of any systemic bigotry.  Nor is income equality relevant to the American Dream, since income is relatively unrelated to level of happiness.  I am happier with income below the national average than I would be had I won the Powerball lottery last night, although I would prefer to be employed.

Nancy Pelosi thinks people with guaranteed medical insurance will quit their jobs and become photographers or writers, or start their own businesses, rather than being locked into a job.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks unemployed people, replaced by robots, will devote themselves to being more creative.  Unfortunately, most people don’t have enough talent to support themselves with freelance jobs or artistic endeavors.  Maybe that’s why a universal basic income sounds like a good idea.

The trouble with being a mediocre artist or freelancer is that we all want approval, affirmation, etc.  If we are unemployed and doing art, and no one buys it, or we are photographers and no one pays us for pictures, or we open businesses but find few or no customers, then we feel terrible.  No matter how tedious the paid job, at least we know that our work has a basic value to someone.  Free money from a UBI will not make us happier, even if it relieves stress somewhat because we can pay some of our bills.  Intrinsically, we all know when we’ve earned our keep rather than having it handed to us.  The UBI is just an expensive participation trophy for breathing.

I have been unemployed and seeking work as a software engineer for the last couple of months.  While I think I am reasonably competent as an opinion writer, I am not paid to do this, nor do I feel as though this is unfair.  If I were really good at writing, my books on Amazon would sell like hotcakes.  I will keep looking for paid work, even though I collect Social Security each month so I can pay my bills.  It, too, is a participation trophy, for past work.

My American Dream is that I should be able to find work instead of wondering why H-1B visa-holders and their spouses have jobs, some of which are in I.T.  If I work, I know I have value, and I don’t have to worry about the government continuing to be able to send me those monthly checks.  A century ago, there were frontier areas where a person could go, clear land, and homestead, where government’s protection and its interference were both absent, and monthly expenses were paid for with hard work rather than dollars.  I’m too old and infirm to do that at this point, so I keep looking for my happiness in doing work within my capabilities.

It isn’t a house or wealth that I dream of.  It’s not upward mobility for family.  It’s not that any of the half-baked inventions in my head take off and make the world a better place.  It’s a job, so I can feel independent in spite of paying taxes, because I wouldn’t be a government dependent anymore.  That feeling of independence is my American Dream.

The “American Dream” is the opportunity to achieve success and fulfillment through hard work.  Some definitions, such as here, focus on the pursuit of happiness.  There is an underlying idea that “anyone” can achieve the American Dream, but this is false, and not because of any systemic bigotry.  Nor is income equality relevant to the American Dream, since income is relatively unrelated to level of happiness.  I am happier with income below the national average than I would be had I won the Powerball lottery last night, although I would prefer to be employed.

Nancy Pelosi thinks people with guaranteed medical insurance will quit their jobs and become photographers or writers, or start their own businesses, rather than being locked into a job.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks unemployed people, replaced by robots, will devote themselves to being more creative.  Unfortunately, most people don’t have enough talent to support themselves with freelance jobs or artistic endeavors.  Maybe that’s why a universal basic income sounds like a good idea.

The trouble with being a mediocre artist or freelancer is that we all want approval, affirmation, etc.  If we are unemployed and doing art, and no one buys it, or we are photographers and no one pays us for pictures, or we open businesses but find few or no customers, then we feel terrible.  No matter how tedious the paid job, at least we know that our work has a basic value to someone.  Free money from a UBI will not make us happier, even if it relieves stress somewhat because we can pay some of our bills.  Intrinsically, we all know when we’ve earned our keep rather than having it handed to us.  The UBI is just an expensive participation trophy for breathing.

I have been unemployed and seeking work as a software engineer for the last couple of months.  While I think I am reasonably competent as an opinion writer, I am not paid to do this, nor do I feel as though this is unfair.  If I were really good at writing, my books on Amazon would sell like hotcakes.  I will keep looking for paid work, even though I collect Social Security each month so I can pay my bills.  It, too, is a participation trophy, for past work.

My American Dream is that I should be able to find work instead of wondering why H-1B visa-holders and their spouses have jobs, some of which are in I.T.  If I work, I know I have value, and I don’t have to worry about the government continuing to be able to send me those monthly checks.  A century ago, there were frontier areas where a person could go, clear land, and homestead, where government’s protection and its interference were both absent, and monthly expenses were paid for with hard work rather than dollars.  I’m too old and infirm to do that at this point, so I keep looking for my happiness in doing work within my capabilities.

It isn’t a house or wealth that I dream of.  It’s not upward mobility for family.  It’s not that any of the half-baked inventions in my head take off and make the world a better place.  It’s a job, so I can feel independent in spite of paying taxes, because I wouldn’t be a government dependent anymore.  That feeling of independence is my American Dream.