Month: March 2019

It’s early, but it could be that 2019 gets remembered as the year when the Democrats finally got rid of the myth that they want abortion to be “safe, legal and rare.”

The year began with New York’s Orwellian-named Reproductive Health Act. The Democratic-dominated Vermont House followed suit with a similar bill that’s now in the state Senate.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam seemed to take things a bit further with comments that could be interpreted as infanticidal in regards to “nonviable” babies delivered alive. And then there were the Senate Democrats, who blocked a bill that would have necessitated medical care for infants born alive during botched abortions.

This risks a backlash, of course, but for the moment, the Democrats seem determined to push the pro-abortion agenda as far as it can possibly go. After all, the motto that’ll end up replacing “safe, legal and rare” will likely be some permutation of “expedient and at whatever point during a pregnancy we please.”

Mike Huckabee, at least, has had enough of it — and with a poignant meme, he skewered the current atmosphere on the left over abortion.

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Let’s hope more Dems will have the courage to openly break with their party’s obsession with baby-killing and their cult-like support of the murder machine Planned Parenthood founded by unapologetic racist Margaret Sanger. pic.twitter.com/E73XVhNDBn

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) March 4, 2019

“Let’s hope more Dems will have the courage to openly break with their party’s obsession with baby-killing and their cult-like support of the murder machine Planned Parenthood founded by unapologetic racist Margaret Sanger,” Huckabee tweeted, along with a picture of a baby in a “Make America Great Again” hat, with hands raised in victory.

“I made it!” the picture is captioned. “Democrats didn’t get me!”

It’s harsh, but it almost feels like that’s what the left is encouraging nowadays.

Huckabee, a two-time presidential contender, former governor of Arkansas and an ordained Southern Baptist minister, has been vocal about his pro-life views throughout his career.

“(Abortion) is a stain on a country that ought to be protecting innocent life, not taking it,” Huckabee said at a “National Sanctity of Human Life Day” event Jan. 21 in Oregon, according to the Salem Statesman Journal.

“What kind of civilization do we want to have?”

During the event, Huckabee also said that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, was unconstitutional and an example of judicial activism.

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“One branch is not over the other two. If that were so, you don’t have equal branches of government,” Huckabee said.

“Since the 1940s, we’ve allowed something to happen in this country called judicial supremacy, which essentially says that we believe that if the Supreme Court says it … then we just let them make a law.”

“What is happening to the unborn children is unconstitutional,” he added. “There is no due process, there is no equal protection under the law.”

“In every abortion, there are two victims: the obvious victim is the unborn child and the birth mother,” Huckabee said. “No one should be condemned … grace is necessary.”

Compare this to the words of Andrew Cuomo or Ralph Northam on abortion or the rhetoric of Planned Parenthood and ask yourself what vision of our country you would rather have when it comes to the unborn. Huckabee is right: Abortion is a stain on our country, no matter how politicians want to spin it.

Thankfully, there is hope.

Mississippi just passed a bill banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, abortions have hit an all-time low in the post-Roe era for the last year for which statistics are available, and there are plenty of abortion cases that could go before the Supreme Court that could reshape abortion rights in a dramatic way.

The Democrats may be shedding of that whole “safe, legal and rare” myth and scoring some legislative victories on abortion, but they could very well end up winning a few battles and start losing the war.

Maybe then we’ll see some Democrats muster “the courage to openly break with their party’s obsession with baby-killing.” One can only hope.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

If this post in Watts Up With That? is correct, an inadvertent, serendipitous scientific discovery is responsible for reshaping the modern world of geopolitics to America’s advantage – and nobody noticed.

Fracking is usually credited with being the critical technology for the reshaping to which I refer: the rather sudden conversion of the United Sates from a huge net energy importer to (currently) self-sufficient, and clearly heading toward a major net energy exporter. This is far more than a simple balance-of-trade issue, through that is very important. It even transcends the millions of jobs and economic prosperity that has blessed the United States. We and our allies are now almost free of the economic extortion of oil exporters, that started in 1973 with the first oil boycott, gas lines, and soaring prices. Russia, which depends on hydrocarbon exports (oil and gas) for nearly all of its hard currency, no longer will be able to bully its European neighbors with threats of cutting off natural gas exports during winter, as it has done in the past, once the logistical supply lines now planned for sending American natural gas to Europe by tanker are in place.

Saudi Arabia is cozying up to societal reform and even to Israel because it no longer can throw its weight around in world energy markets as it formerly could. Venezuela’s declining oil exports no longer can cause lines at gasoline stations.

But according to Ronald Voisin writing in WUWT, fracking was only half of the technology revolution that has remade the modern world. It was satellite sensors orbited to provide data on volcanoes that accidentally and unexpectedly revealed where the oil deposits are found, enabling not just fracking but the discovery of vast new oil field globally. Best of all: This new satellite data reveals that North America is where most of the world’s hydrocarbon resources are located.  Read the whole thing, but this is the essence:

A couple decades ago an international team of volcanologists arranged for the tag-on launch of [a satellite with] a first generation orbiting gravimeter in order to study volcanism (the legitimate auspicious being pure scientific endeavor). While that intended function was successful, a much more important capability unexpectantly came to pass. Subsequent generations of these devices showed exactly where and to what extent natural gas, oil and coal were located as they have revealed progressively higher resolution images of Earth’s deep interior. Several more generations of these devices are possible and this explains the recent substantial increases in estimated recoverable oil and gas and coal for that matter. Meanwhile, fracking and horizontal drilling have enormously reduced the costs and surface-area-impact of fossil fuel recovery. (snip)

…the USA was not just lifting-the-kilt on North American fossil fuels. We came to understand the global distribution of them. We came to know who had what, just what fossil fuel reserves existed in the Middle East, Russia, China, as well as with Friendlies, such as Europe, Australia, Canada, and Mexico. This information has enormous geopolitical significance…possibly the greatest geopolitical significance of any human discovery ever.

Despite the fantasies of greenies, oil and gas are the lifeblood of world power and of most economic activity. With this knlwedge and the abiity to epxloit it, the United States carries far more weight than it did ten years ago. 

If this post in Watts Up With That? is correct, an inadvertent, serendipitous scientific discovery is responsible for reshaping the modern world of geopolitics to America’s advantage – and nobody noticed.

Fracking is usually credited with being the critical technology for the reshaping to which I refer: the rather sudden conversion of the United Sates from a huge net energy importer to (currently) self-sufficient, and clearly heading toward a major net energy exporter. This is far more than a simple balance-of-trade issue, through that is very important. It even transcends the millions of jobs and economic prosperity that has blessed the United States. We and our allies are now almost free of the economic extortion of oil exporters, that started in 1973 with the first oil boycott, gas lines, and soaring prices. Russia, which depends on hydrocarbon exports (oil and gas) for nearly all of its hard currency, no longer will be able to bully its European neighbors with threats of cutting off natural gas exports during winter, as it has done in the past, once the logistical supply lines now planned for sending American natural gas to Europe by tanker are in place.

Saudi Arabia is cozying up to societal reform and even to Israel because it no longer can throw its weight around in world energy markets as it formerly could. Venezuela’s declining oil exports no longer can cause lines at gasoline stations.

But according to Ronald Voisin writing in WUWT, fracking was only half of the technology revolution that has remade the modern world. It was satellite sensors orbited to provide data on volcanoes that accidentally and unexpectedly revealed where the oil deposits are found, enabling not just fracking but the discovery of vast new oil field globally. Best of all: This new satellite data reveals that North America is where most of the world’s hydrocarbon resources are located.  Read the whole thing, but this is the essence:

A couple decades ago an international team of volcanologists arranged for the tag-on launch of [a satellite with] a first generation orbiting gravimeter in order to study volcanism (the legitimate auspicious being pure scientific endeavor). While that intended function was successful, a much more important capability unexpectantly came to pass. Subsequent generations of these devices showed exactly where and to what extent natural gas, oil and coal were located as they have revealed progressively higher resolution images of Earth’s deep interior. Several more generations of these devices are possible and this explains the recent substantial increases in estimated recoverable oil and gas and coal for that matter. Meanwhile, fracking and horizontal drilling have enormously reduced the costs and surface-area-impact of fossil fuel recovery. (snip)

…the USA was not just lifting-the-kilt on North American fossil fuels. We came to understand the global distribution of them. We came to know who had what, just what fossil fuel reserves existed in the Middle East, Russia, China, as well as with Friendlies, such as Europe, Australia, Canada, and Mexico. This information has enormous geopolitical significance…possibly the greatest geopolitical significance of any human discovery ever.

Despite the fantasies of greenies, oil and gas are the lifeblood of world power and of most economic activity. With this knlwedge and the abiity to epxloit it, the United States carries far more weight than it did ten years ago. 

Hill legislators are pushing a bill that would put roughly 70,000 Chinese visa workers on a fast track to green cards, even as White House officials are trying to slow the theft of U.S. technology by Chinese employees and researchers.

White House officials are using trade talks to change Chinese “behaviors so they don’t steal our technology by infiltrating people into companies and into even national laboratory,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said May 1. A leading goal is “changing the practice so they don’t force technology transfer,” when U.S. companies invest in China, he said in a talk at the annual CPAC meeting.

Ross’s push is backed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is the new chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. “How many are worried about Chinese espionage?” Graham asked conservatives attending the CPAC conference on February 28. “How many are worried about Chinese students and professors coming to American to basically steal our stuff?”

“Because I’m chairman, we’re going to take that up,” he said.

The pressure from President Donald Trump seems to be forcing the Chinese government to make concessions in a new law, according to a March 3 report by the Associated Press:

“I think the (American and European) complaints have been reflected in the revision of the law,” said Citigroup economist Li-Gang Liu.

Under the proposed law, officials would be barred from using “administrative methods to force technology transfers.”

The chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Tim Stratford, called the measure a “step forward.” But business groups say they need to see how it will be enforced.

But any diplomatic progress, however, may be dissipated by the many U.S. companies who want to make deals with the Chinese government and who also want to hire Chinese students and researchers for work in the United States.

In February, legislators in the House and Senate announced legislation that would help Chinese students get jobs in the nation’s research laboratories and high-tech companies.

Almost 200 House legislators and 13 Senators introduced legislation that would push roughly 70,000 Chinese visa workers onto a fast track to green cards and citizenship. The boost for Chinese researchers is a side effect of the legislators’ primary goal — helping roughly 300,000 cheap Indian visa workers get on a fast track to green cards, residency, and citizenship.

Most of the Indian workers work in the information technology business, often as software testers or as operators of corporate computer networks.

Many of the Chinese visa workers already hold jobs in U.S software and telecommunications firms, in banks, and in government-funded laboratories that are developing novel technologies, medicines, and materials. Many thousands of Chinese researchers have already obtained green cards or citizenship from their employers in universities, in Silicon Valley, and in the financial sector.

This inflow of Chinese workers denies good jobs to American college graduates, many of whom must pay off college debts as they try to buy homes and raise families.

US college grads lose jobs, careers & salaries b/c companies’ have imported 1.5 million+ low-wage, indentured, non-immigrant, perma-temporary visa-workers. Media ignores their peers’ losses but displays noble concern for migrants. Wall St. laughs #HR1044 https://t.co/4TIUFzhC9b

— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) March 2, 2019

Even when asked about technology theft, U.S. companies and universities defend the inflow of Chinese students, researchers, and cheap H-1B visa workers. In May 2018, for example, the Washington Post reported:

Dean Garfield, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and other companies, said its members are alarmed at reports the White House is considering a ban on Chinese citizens conducting high-tech research at American universities and businesses.

The firms rely on skilled foreign labor to develop new products, Garfield said.

“We’ve heard from many, if not all, of our members,” he said, “that steps to limit access to talent have a direct negative impact on their ability to run their businesses.”

Chinese companies in the United States also use the H-1B visa program and the green card system to import Chinese employees instead of hiring American college graduates.

The danger of national security espionage and commercial technology theft has been repeatedly highlighted by numerous media reports.

In May 2018, the New York Times reported:

WASHINGTON — It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie: In April, China is said to have tested an invisibility cloak that would allow ordinary fighter jets to suddenly vanish from radar screens.

This advancement, which could prove to be a critical intelligence breakthrough, is one that American officials fear China may have gained in part from a Chinese researcher who roused suspicions while working on a similar technology at a Duke University laboratory in 2008. The researcher, who was investigated by the F.B.I. but never charged with a crime, ultimately returned to China, became a billionaire and opened a thriving research institute that worked on some projects related to those he studied at Duke.

In 2016, according to the Free Beacon website:

Su Bin, also known as Stephen Su and Stephen Subin, reached a plea deal in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday, following a 2014 criminal complaint and later indictment for illegal computer hacking and theft and transfer of export-controlled data.

The plea deal includes an admission by Su of conspiring with two people in China from October 2008 to March 2014 who broke into U.S. computer networks at Boeing and other defense companies.

The hackers stole large amounts of military information that was supplied to China, according to court documents and a statement by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.

The fast-track green card bill for the Chinese workers is being pushed by Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris.

Their February 7 statement says, “the bill has also been endorsed by Immigration Voice, Compete America Coalition, the Information Technology Industry Council, Google, Microsoft, The Heritage Foundation, La Raza, and many others.” The bill is numbered S. 386.

The Senate co-sponsors of the green card giveaway bill include Republicans and Democrats:

• Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
• Sen. Jim Moran (R-KS)
• Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)
• Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)
• Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
• Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO)
• Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)
• Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
• Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
• Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO)
• Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
• Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ)

The House bill is being pushed by GOP Rep. Ken Buck and Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren. Their matching House bill is numbered H.R. 1044.

Breitbart News reported the details of the bipartisan push to provide the fast-track green cards to Chinese and Indian college graduates.

Legislators and U.S. executives claim the foreign workers are needed because too few Americans are trained for technology jobs.

But in 2015, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics debunked the claimed shortage of Americans in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. It said:

Michael S. Teitelbaum, vice president of the Sloan Foundation, opined that there are no general shortages of scientists and engineers.⁹ He went even further, to state that there is evidence suggesting surpluses: there are significantly more science and engineering graduates in the United States than attractive positions available in the workforce. Similarly, B. Lindsay Lowell and Harold Salzman have pointed to the disproportionate percentage of bachelor’s degree STEM holders not employed in STEM occupations.¹⁰

Looking at the STEM labor market, Salzman and colleagues concluded that, for every two students graduating with a U.S. STEM degree, only one is employed in STEM and that 32 percent of computer science graduates not employed in information technology attributed their situation to a lack of available jobs.¹¹ In 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 74 percent of those who have a bachelor’s degree in a STEM major are not employed in STEM occupations.¹²

New study shows foreign college-grads are far less skilled than American graduates. But investors & CEOs prefer to import 1.5 million+ cheap foreign visa-workers – H-1Bs etc – instead of hiring US grads. So Congress sides with biz and US grads lose careers https://t.co/BSRfdQT1Im

— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) February 26, 2019

The Metropolitan Police have issued a description of the killer who stabbed a 17-year-old girl to death in Romford, London.

Victim Jodie Chesney, reported to have been a Ranger Guide in the Explorer Scouts, was listening to music at a park near St Neot’s Road in Harold Hill with other teenagers on Friday evening.

She and her group became aware of two males who left the area around 9 p.m., according to a police statement.

The pair returned not long afterwards and made directly for Jodie’s group, and on reaching them one of the two —  “described as a black male aged in his late teens”, according to the Met — stabbed her in the back and fatally wounded her.

The suspects had reportedly not interacted with Jodie, who joins an increasingly long list of knife murder victims in the British capital as violent crime continues to rise. They are said to have carried out their attack and made their escape without saying a word.

Khan’s London: 14-Year-Old ‘Butchered’ in Knife Murder, Teen Girl Slashed in Face https://t.co/kNVBlaKIBq

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 11, 2019

“This was our youngest granddaughter. How have we come to this point where kids can’t have a walk in a park without suffering an unprovoked attack?” said grandmother Debbie Chesney in an emotional tribute.

“I want to express my deepest sympathies to [Jodie’s] family and friends,” said Acting Detective Chief Superintendent John Ross, of the Met’s East Area Command Unit.

“Her death is a tragedy. I can reassure them and the whole community that we are doing everything possible to identify and bring to justice the person or persons responsible.”

“I am appealing for any witnesses who have yet to speak with police to call me,” added Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams, who is leading the investigation into the slaying.

“Although the description of the suspect is limited, I am certain that people will have seen the two males hanging around the park or running away from the scene — or will otherwise have noticed something suspicious. I need those people to call me [on 020 8345 3775],” he pleaded.

 

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery

Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London

Making herself Louis Farrakhan’s “sweetheart” as he put it, Rep. Ilhan Omar isn’t going anywhere with the apologies on her third incident of anti-semitism. Farrakhan, you recall, didn’t want Omar, whom he called “sweetheart” to apologize for those, and sure enough, she’s not apologizing.

What I see instead in the miasma of tweets on Twitter, is a bid to deflect attention, with she and her supporters attempting to present the “narrative” of Omar as the “real victim,” calling attention to a few bad actors, some anonymous, who’ve made threats against her and drawn a negative reaction and lawmen looking for them. Omar’s anti-Semitism, however, is being permitted to stand. Here’s her completely inadequate response to criticism from a reported mentor of the new class of far-leftists in Congress, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York:

Omar responded to the criticism in a series of tweets Sunday. 

There’s no doubt about it, she wants that latest round of anti-Semitic remarks to stand.

And that raises questions about the Democratic leadership, whose House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has said nothing, and done nothing to get this repeat-shill for Jew-hate off the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Why is this woman still on it? She’s made three violations now, and has stopped with the half-hearted apologies. She’s not backing down, and Jewish groups are noticing. The GOP’s Rep. Steve King, who made clumsy statements about white supremacy he says he never meant, got thrown off his committee assignments for a lot less. 

Jewish Press is reporting that 11 Israel-friendly groups have written this letter to the Speaker (and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel):

“Speaker Pelosi, you demonstrated wisdom and leadership in rebuking Rep. Omar on February 11 following her use of anti-Semitic stereotypes, and Chairman Engel, your reaction to the classic anti-Semitic trope of the charge of “dual loyalty” about American Jews, that Rep. Omar uttered this weekend at a Washington establishment, was highly appropriate, and we applaud you both for that.

“We hope you will continue to demonstrate your commitment to the high moral standards of your office by removing Rep. Omar, a woman who has repeatedly exhibited strong biases against the State of Israel and the Jewish people, from this critically important and sensitive committee.

They point out that Omar not only has continued with her Jew-hating trope over the course of her mere two months in congressional office, she’s also made herself a figurehead for a Muslim Brotherhood front group, Islamic Relief USA, which both Israel and the United Arab Emirates have designated an actual terrorist group. The Muslim Brotherhood, recall, was the vicious group that spawned al-Qaida and took much of its early leadership from it. She wants to be associated with that?

This says something.

Yet Pelosi has said nothing, and keeps allowing Omar to remain on the House Foreign Affairs seat, while Engel’s demand for an apology from her is going unanswered. 

How did she get that committee seat at all? Apparently the same way Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got her committee seats – by threatening to withold support from Pelosi as speaker of the House. Both socialists mysteriously changed their minds and came to support Pelosi once they had the seats in hand. One hand washes the other. But in Omar’s case, there’s a real problem for Pelosi, because Omar’s singularly unfit to be in it, given that her repeated expressions of anti-Semitism are indistinguishable from those of a streetcorner ‘Jews rule the world’ conspiracy theorist, or for that matter, Farrakhan himself.

Pelosi’s response That of a wimp. One can only hope this baggage travels with her as she seeks to win another stretch as Speaker of the House in 2020.

Image credit: Quinn Dombrowski, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0

Making herself Louis Farrakhan’s “sweetheart” as he put it, Rep. Ilhan Omar isn’t going anywhere with the apologies on her third incident of anti-semitism. Farrakhan, you recall, didn’t want Omar, whom he called “sweetheart” to apologize for those, and sure enough, she’s not apologizing.

What I see instead in the miasma of tweets on Twitter, is a bid to deflect attention, with she and her supporters attempting to present the “narrative” of Omar as the “real victim,” calling attention to a few bad actors, some anonymous, who’ve made threats against her and drawn a negative reaction and lawmen looking for them. Omar’s anti-Semitism, however, is being permitted to stand. Here’s her completely inadequate response to criticism from a reported mentor of the new class of far-leftists in Congress, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York:

Omar responded to the criticism in a series of tweets Sunday. 

First, she replied to a tweet from Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who wrote that “lawmakers must be able to debate” without “prejudice or bigotry.” 

“Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress,” Omar tweeted. 

There’s no doubt about it, she wants that latest round of anti-Semitic remarks to stand.

And that raises questions about the Democratic leadership, whose House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has said nothing, and done nothing to get this repeat-shill for Jew-hate off the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Why is this woman still on it? She’s made three violations now, and has stopped with the half-hearted apologies. She’s not backing down, and Jewish groups are noticing. The GOP’s Rep. Steve King, who made clumsy statements about white supremacy he says he never meant, got thrown off his committee assignments for a lot less. 

Jewish Press is reporting that 11 Israel-friendly groups have written this letter to the Speaker (and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel):

“Speaker Pelosi, you demonstrated wisdom and leadership in rebuking Rep. Omar on February 11 following her use of anti-Semitic stereotypes, and Chairman Engel, your reaction to the classic anti-Semitic trope of the charge of “dual loyalty” about American Jews, that Rep. Omar uttered this weekend at a Washington establishment, was highly appropriate, and we applaud you both for that.

“We hope you will continue to demonstrate your commitment to the high moral standards of your office by removing Rep. Omar, a woman who has repeatedly exhibited strong biases against the State of Israel and the Jewish people, from this critically important and sensitive committee.

They point out that Omar not only has continued with her Jew-hating trope over the course of her mere two months in congressional office, she’s also made herself a figurehead for a Muslim Brotherhood front group, Islamic Relief USA, which both Israel and the United Arab Emirates have designated an actual terrorist group. The Muslim Brotherhood, recall, was the vicious group that spawned al-Qaida and took much of its early leadership from it. She wants to be associated with that?

This says something.

Yet Pelosi has said nothing, and keeps allowing Omar to remain on the House Foreign Affairs seat, while Engel’s demand for an apology from her is going unanswered. 

How did she get that committee seat at all? Apparently the same way Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got her committee seats – by threatening to withold support from Pelosi as speaker of the House. Both socialists mysteriously changed their minds and came to support Pelosi once they had the seats in hand. One hand washes the other. But in Omar’s case, there’s a real problem for Pelosi, because Omar’s singularly unfit to be in it, given that her repeated expressions of anti-Semitism are indistinguishable from those of a streetcorner ‘Jews rule the world’ conspiracy theorist, or for that matter, Farrakhan himself.

Pelosi’s response That of a wimp. One can only hope this baggage travels with her as she seeks to win another stretch as Speaker of the House in 2020.

Image credit: Quinn Dombrowski, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0

Sure looks like Ilhan Omar isn’t the only problem Democrats have as they seek to halt the Trump revolution in 2020.

Former Starbucks CEO Howie Schultz is still around, and based on what’s in his Twitter feed, he’s indeed running for president. In fact, based on what he’s got up, his campaign train has taken off from the station without telling the Democrats or its mainstream media allies. Look at his last five tweets:

 

See you soon Texas! Excited to talk to Texans about the vital importance of the political center to American democracy. More to come from the people we meet across the state. pic.twitter.com/hbohOBRDhS

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 3, 2019

 

 

The failed political class of Washington, D.C., has broken America’s political system. And out of that are rising political extremes on both sides. President Trump is one extreme and on the other side is a vitriolic undermining of the American free enterprise system.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 2, 2019

 

 

Shouting down political opponents, inflexible dogma, and the making of lists of the politically impure, unfavored classes, and offending businesses, has always been integral to socialism. History is utterly clear on this point. The list is always acted on.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 2, 2019

 

 

From the sad spectacle of the Cohen hearing and the craven defense of the president by Republicans, to the reports of fights inside the Democratic Caucus between the ascendant left wing and a more moderate wing of the party, this was another sad week in American politics.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 2, 2019

 

 

Be one of the 11 million to watch  #UnbreakingAmerica. Incredible film, @representus https://t.co/yBp3FP31PP

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) February 28, 2019

 

Actually, there’s about 20 of those kinds of tweets, geared precisely in statements and appearances to someone running for president. Note the criticism of both parties, which is what a candidate running as a centrist would do. Note the campaign-style appearances, as well as advance notice of them. Look at the attacks on socialism and the swamp – two things that served President Trump very well in his own campaign efforts, past and present.

Schultz knows what he is doing. What’s fascinating is that not only have the Democrats not noticed (at least publicly), the mainstream media hasn’t noticed (and that has to be public or they haven’t noticed). Schultz has apparently decided he does want to run and is just chugging along and drawing in potential voters to see him up close and try to win them over. It’s a very interesting kind of retail politics, untethered to the press.

Yes, he could be a problem for President Trump, too. But with the Democrats swinging over to the McGovern-cubed socialist model, he’s really going to be a problem for them – and from what I can tell, they’re caught flatfooted.

Run, Howie, run!

Sure looks like Ilhan Omar isn’t the only problem Democrats have as they seek to halt the Trump revolution in 2020.

Former Starbucks CEO Howie Schultz is still around, and based on what’s in his Twitter feed, he’s indeed running for president. In fact, based on what he’s got up, his campaign train has taken off from the station without telling the Democrats or its mainstream media allies. Look at his last five tweets:

 

See you soon Texas! Excited to talk to Texans about the vital importance of the political center to American democracy. More to come from the people we meet across the state. pic.twitter.com/hbohOBRDhS

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 3, 2019

 

 

The failed political class of Washington, D.C., has broken America’s political system. And out of that are rising political extremes on both sides. President Trump is one extreme and on the other side is a vitriolic undermining of the American free enterprise system.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 2, 2019

 

 

Shouting down political opponents, inflexible dogma, and the making of lists of the politically impure, unfavored classes, and offending businesses, has always been integral to socialism. History is utterly clear on this point. The list is always acted on.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 2, 2019

 

 

From the sad spectacle of the Cohen hearing and the craven defense of the president by Republicans, to the reports of fights inside the Democratic Caucus between the ascendant left wing and a more moderate wing of the party, this was another sad week in American politics.

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) March 2, 2019

 

 

Be one of the 11 million to watch  #UnbreakingAmerica. Incredible film, @representus https://t.co/yBp3FP31PP

— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) February 28, 2019

 

Actually, there’s about 20 of those kinds of tweets, geared precisely in statements and appearances to someone running for president. Note the criticism of both parties, which is what a candidate running as a centrist would do. Note the campaign-style appearances, as well as advance notice of them. Look at the attacks on socialism and the swamp – two things that served President Trump very well in his own campaign efforts, past and present.

Schultz knows what he is doing. What’s fascinating is that not only have the Democrats not noticed (at least publicly), the mainstream media hasn’t noticed (and that has to be public or they haven’t noticed). Schultz has apparently decided he does want to run and is just chugging along and drawing in potential voters to see him up close and try to win them over. It’s a very interesting kind of retail politics, untethered to the press.

Yes, he could be a problem for President Trump, too. But with the Democrats swinging over to the McGovern-cubed socialist model, he’s really going to be a problem for them – and from what I can tell, they’re caught flatfooted.

Run, Howie, run!

The Green New Deal will cost the US taxpayer tens of trillions of dollars, add trillions to the deficit, and ruin the economy in the process.

But it’s OK. It doesn’t matter how much it costs because unless we spend the money, the human race is doomed. Plus, all the other issues attached to the Green New Deal – “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, clean air and water, married to traditional bread-and-butter progressive issues, such as a job guarantee and universal health care” – will cost more trillions.

How in the name of all that is good and holy do we pay for it?

The answer, according to the emerging narrative on the left, appears to be; we don’t.

Slate:

Shorn of ideological rhetoric, the answer to the second question is actually quite simple. We “pay” for these specific proposals much as we do with any government initiative: Congress appropriates the funds, and the government literally spends the money into existence. The key point here is that when a government issues a currency that is not backed by any metal or pegged to another currency (i.e., the currency is created via government order, or “fiat,” hence the term, “fiat currency”), then there is no reason why it should be constrained in its ability to finance its spending by issuing currency in the way it was, say, under a gold standard (in which the supply of gold held by each nation literally controlled its capacity to spend). By extension, taxes don’t actually “fund” the government, so much as they constrain overall expenditures in the economy. In essence, government spending adds new money to the economy, whereas the imposition of taxes takes some of that money out again. The constant addition and subtraction of these spending and taxing activities is how “fiscal policy” actually works (and the sequencing is actually the opposite of what is traditionally taught in most economics textbooks). 

To paraphase my favorite home state Senator of all-time, Everett Dirksen talking about federal spending: “A trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there and pretty soon, we’re talking about real money.” 

See? It’s not “real” money, it’s government money. There are no consequences to printing tens of trillions of dollars because nothing bad could ever happen. “There is no reason why it should be constrained in its ability to finance its spending by issuing currency” because we’ll make Pollyanna our Secretary of the Treasury. 

And economics textbooks are wrong! Just add a little, and subtract a little, and presto! Socialist paradise.

I’d like to think that the left can come up with a better narrative than “it doesn’t matter.” Surely, the master propagandists on the left can try something a little more creative.

But the bottom line appears to be the tsunami of cash that Washington will flood the economy with won’t cause inflation to rise, won’t lead to catastrophically high interest rates because the Fed governors, at heart, are socialists and understand perfectly that economics textbooks are wrong, loony lefty economists are right.

Climate hysterics are not all on board the Green New Deal bandwagon – not because it isn’t necessary but because it’s politically impossible. Some of them worry it’s far too ambitious and would like to see a scaled back version implemented.

When faced with imminent destruction, any amount of money becomes “necessary.”  That looks like how the left will manage the PR effort to adopt the Green New Deal and go easy on details like no meat, no airplanes – and no economy.

 

The Green New Deal will cost the US taxpayer tens of trillions of dollars, add trillions to the deficit, and ruin the economy in the process.

But it’s OK. It doesn’t matter how much it costs because unless we spend the money, the human race is doomed. Plus, all the other issues attached to the Green New Deal – “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, clean air and water, married to traditional bread-and-butter progressive issues, such as a job guarantee and universal health care” – will cost more trillions.

How in the name of all that is good and holy do we pay for it?

The answer, according to the emerging narrative on the left, appears to be; we don’t.

Slate:

Shorn of ideological rhetoric, the answer to the second question is actually quite simple. We “pay” for these specific proposals much as we do with any government initiative: Congress appropriates the funds, and the government literally spends the money into existence. The key point here is that when a government issues a currency that is not backed by any metal or pegged to another currency (i.e., the currency is created via government order, or “fiat,” hence the term, “fiat currency”), then there is no reason why it should be constrained in its ability to finance its spending by issuing currency in the way it was, say, under a gold standard (in which the supply of gold held by each nation literally controlled its capacity to spend). By extension, taxes don’t actually “fund” the government, so much as they constrain overall expenditures in the economy. In essence, government spending adds new money to the economy, whereas the imposition of taxes takes some of that money out again. The constant addition and subtraction of these spending and taxing activities is how “fiscal policy” actually works (and the sequencing is actually the opposite of what is traditionally taught in most economics textbooks). 

To paraphase my favorite home state Senator of all-time, Everett Dirksen talking about federal spending: “A trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there and pretty soon, we’re talking about real money.” 

See? It’s not “real” money, it’s government money. There are no consequences to printing tens of trillions of dollars because nothing bad could ever happen. “There is no reason why it should be constrained in its ability to finance its spending by issuing currency” because we’ll make Pollyanna our Secretary of the Treasury. 

And economics textbooks are wrong! Just add a little, and subtract a little, and presto! Socialist paradise.

I’d like to think that the left can come up with a better narrative than “it doesn’t matter.” Surely, the master propagandists on the left can try something a little more creative.

But the bottom line appears to be the tsunami of cash that Washington will flood the economy with won’t cause inflation to rise, won’t lead to catastrophically high interest rates because the Fed governors, at heart, are socialists and understand perfectly that economics textbooks are wrong, loony lefty economists are right.

Climate hysterics are not all on board the Green New Deal bandwagon – not because it isn’t necessary but because it’s politically impossible. Some of them worry it’s far too ambitious and would like to see a scaled back version implemented.

When faced with imminent destruction, any amount of money becomes “necessary.”  That looks like how the left will manage the PR effort to adopt the Green New Deal and go easy on details like no meat, no airplanes – and no economy.