Apparently Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a former Goldman Sachs investment banking executive, must have missed those classes in macroeconomics in business school, or he must have not been paying attention. Murphy operates in his own world, filled recently with his newfound power to control the lives of people. And he uses that power indiscriminately and seemingly without thought

Posted on August 14, 2020 by abyssum
THE DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE IN THE MIDDLE OF PANDEMIC: A HARBINGER FOR THE NATIONby E.P.UNUMAugust 14, 2020
         It is a cardinal rule of economics that in a period of inflation, the proper economic fiscal and monetary response of the government is to increase taxes, interest and borrowing rates and constrict the availability of money to offset the impact of ‘too many dollars chasing too few goods”, the very definition of inflation. 
In a period of recession, such as the one we find ourselves in now due wholly to the onslaught of COVID-19 and the shutdown of our economy, the proper economic and fiscal response of government is to reduce taxes, increase stimulus and free up the availability of money e.g. reduce interest rates and use the power of the Federal Reserve System to pump money into circulation to help businesses and consumers. 
This has been the steadfast policy of the Trump Administration and the results thus far have been working as evidenced by the reduction in unemployment and key indices such as housing, home-building, and the recovery of the stock market.
         But apparently Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a former Goldman Sachs investment banking executive, must have missed those classes in macroeconomics in business school, or he must have not been paying attention. Murphy operates in his own world, filled recently with his newfound power to control the lives of people. And he uses that power indiscriminately and seemingly without thought.
         New Jerseyans (not this writer) voted for Murphy because they were angry at President Trump or they were angry at Chris Christie, the former governor and so felt there was a need to place their bets once again on democrats for leadership. The result has been a continued decline in the New Jersey economy that is $10+ billions in the red and heading south further into the abyss. 
Governor Murphy’s response has been baffling to anyone with a functioning brain. In a period of recession due to COVID-19, when there is significant unemployment, where businesses and schools have remained closed, when people are concerned about putting food on their tables, paying the rent or mortgage and other bills and taking care of their families, Murphy has raised taxes and more taxes are coming down the road. What are the taxes he has implemented in the teeth of this health crisis? Consider the following:
1.       Property Taxes: Residential and commercial property taxes have increased annually since Murphy became governor and he has blocked all efforts to reduce property taxes. Indeed, New Jersey is the first to implement an “exit tax” to homeowners. If a New Jersey homeowner sells their home in 2020 and relocates to another state, hey must pay a tax on the profit from that sale to New Jersey at the time the sale closes! Astounding.
2.       Property Taxes-First Surcharge: Murphy has unilaterally (not subject to the vote of the people) approved the borrowing of $10.0 billion to be used by the state for its general fund (to repay shortfalls from COVID-19 and the past sins of mismanagement). This borrowing will have to be repaid with annual surcharges on homeowner property taxes for the next 35 years and by an increase in sales taxes
3.       Property Taxes-Second Surcharge: Murphy already approved a law allowing towns to borrow even more than the $10.0 billion. This money would have to be paid back with a second surcharge on property taxes.
4.       State Sales Tax Rates: This has already gone up from 6% to 7% and will likely go to 8 % in the months ahead to help pay back the $10.0 billion the state can borrow.
5.       Gasoline and Heating Oil Taxes: This has already gone up in January and will increase again shortly as the State has approved that increase as well. But, in the vernacular of the times, “it’s only pennies on the gallon”. Sure it is. Just like a one cent transaction tax on stock trades is only a “penny”. Have you thought about what that one cent transaction tax means to billions of transactions a day?
6.        Tolls: This is a favorite of those in power in New Jersey. In September 2020, tolls on the Garden State Parkway will increase by 37% while tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike will increase 27%. The effect simply stated is that a GSP toll which previously was $0.75 will increase to $1.00 while a toll on the NJTPKE which was $2.25 will cost $2.85. The increase will be greater for trucks and commercial vehicles. The Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike are the most frequently traveled roads in N.J.
7.        N.J.Payroll Taxes: These have gone up since January 2020. Anyone making $34,000 a year is paying up to $600 more in payroll taxes each year.
8.        Tax on Health Insurance Premiums: To add insult to injury, Murphy just approved a 2.5% tax on individual health insurance premiums. Hard to believe, but it is true.
The lesson that Murphy and his cohorts are going to learn is that the people of New Jersey will not sit still for this kind of nonsense. Murphy will be a one and done governor, if he is not impeached. Already there has been an exodus of people and businesses from New Jersey to points south, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.
         But the lesson to be learned from all of this is far greater for the nation. New Jersey is a democratic state and it is in real financial trouble. The same can be said for states like California, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and a few others, all led by democrats. How long do you think it will be before the so-called leaders of these states implement widespread increases in taxes on their populations and businesses? And what will be the response of the citizens and business owners who reside in these states?
         Already we have seen an exodus of individuals and businesses from states like California to states in the Midwest and Southwest to escape the ridiculous tax increases and gross mismanagement of mayors and governors. The exodus is already in full swing in New York where that city’s tax base is rapidly eroding due to the poor performance of Mayor DiBlasio who has abdicated control of the city to mobs and criminal behavior. Ditto for cities like Newark NJ,, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, etc. 
Governor Cuomo, the darling of the New York Media is also in way over his head. His handling of the COVID-19 crisis was abysmal when you consider that instead of sending sick COVID-19 patients to the hospitals built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Javits Center, Central Park or the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort, he sent them to Nursing Homes which led to unnecessary deaths in the thousands.
         But here in New Jersey we are faced with the continued ineptness of a governor who lacks practical hands-on business sense and private sector expertise.
         Now, think for a moment. What exactly is the hands on practical business expertise of the presumptive candidates for President and Vice President, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? What business and economic experience do they have to lead our nation?
         The answer is none. But they have already announced that if elected, they intend to levy $4.0 trillion in tax increases, reverse all of Trump’s policies of eliminating regulations on businesses, cut military spending and tax transactions in the stock market. Is this the kind of economic climate you want for our country?
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Thursday’s announcement was more about a public acknowledgement of cold, hard, geopolitical reality: the issue isn’t an Israel-Arab divide being healed, much less one of Jewish-Islamic ecumenical healing. The difference hasn’t been that broad is decades. Rather, it is about an American security dependent heeding the writing on the wall.

Posted on August 14, 2020 by abyssum
Waking Up to Reality in the Middle East by Peter Zeihan August 13, 2020
Thursday, August 13 the Trump administration released a series of breathless communiques proclaiming the onset of formal peace and diplomatic recognition between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Shortly thereafter the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the American releases in both substance and theme. The Emirati leader, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, was far less…gushy in his own announcement, but critically contradicted nothing stated by Trump or Netanyahu. Waitaminute! Don’t the Arabs hate Israel? Why in the world would a rich Arab statelet on the far side of the Arabian Peninsula want to exchange ambassadors with the Zionists?? It isn’t so much that the Emiratis don’t care about the Palestinians any longer (although they really, really don’t), and instead it is bound up with the rapidly simplifying American position in the Middle East. The Americans have nearly completed their pullout from the overall region, and the Emiratis are hoping to get ahead of their rapidly disintegrating geopolitical environment. In the aftermath of World War II, the Americans crafted the global Order to bribe up an alliance to fight the Soviets. Part of that was funding rebuilding, financing the construction of industrial plant, and enabling the Europeans and East Asians to access the American consumer market. All that required oil, and that oil for the most part came from the Middle East. And so, the Americans went to the Middle East. We are now thirty years after the Soviet collapse. Americans are done managing the world, and the Americans are especially done managing the Middle East. They’re going home. Troop rotations have outnumbered permanent deployments in-region for years. The Iraqi deployment is quickly approaching zero. The Syrian deployment is no longer more than a rounding error. Only Afghanistan remains as a meaningful deployment, and it is a deployment few Americans want to continue. The naval base in Bahrain and CENTCOM’s operations center in Qatar only continue existing to service the Afghan deployment. And that’s…all of it. From the United Arab Emirates’ point of view this is an unmitigated disaster. The UAE (and their fellow Gulf states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar) don’t care what US troops do in the Middle East or how many locals they kill or how many US troops die at the locals’ hands. They simply want the Americans present – both regionally and around the world. So long as the global superpower is active, the Gulfies don’t have to worry about guarding the production, processing, and exporting infrastructure for their oil and natural gas. So long as the Americans are globally engaged and guaranteeing freedom of the seas for all, the Gulfies know their hydrocarbon exports will safely arrive at their customers’ ports. National safety and national bank. For them, it’s that simple. Those heady days are over. America’s withdrawal from the wider world has been a longer running development than its Middle Eastern wrap-ups. It, too, is now multiple presidential administrations underway. Total US force deployments globally are at the lowest level since before the Great Depression, and still trending down. For the Emiratis in specific and the Gulfies in general, the Americans’ past-the-point-of-no-return departure conjures up multiple, reinforcing disasters. 1: Iran Unlike many who have a finger in the world of national security, I’ve never found Iran to be strategically threatening. Iran’s army is designed to oppress its own population, not march on its neighbors. Its air force hasn’t been updated since the fall of the shah in 1979, and the Iranians are running out of jets to fall out of the sky. It’s navy…well, it doesn’t have a navy. It has a bunch of speedboats. Should Iran march on the Gulf states, it would face four challenges: First, its army would have to march. It isn’t motorized. Second, it would have to first march through its own region of Khuzestan – a region populated by restive minorities. Third, it would have to cross a pontoon bridge into Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city. A high-school science experiment could take out the bridge, while needing to pacify Basra’s two-million-strong population at the beginning of an invasion’s supply line would about as much fun for the Iranians as it was for the Americans when they conquered/liberated Iraq in 2003. Finally, there’s a blistering six hundred miles of completely empty desert between the Kuwaiti border and any meaningful infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. That’s a loooooong walk. Yet as unimpressed as I am by the Iranian military, it is the freakin’ Roman Legion compared to the militaries of the Gulf states. The Gulfies are beyond military incompetent because they’ve never had to be competent. Sure, the Emiratis and Saudis are getting some good target practice for their air forces in Yemen, but their armies are largely paperweights and none of them have a navy that’s more than a coast guard. Not only have all depended upon the Americans to do their fighting for them, most consider a functional domestic military a potential threat to the ruling dynasties. 2: Their own populations All the Gulfies ship in vast swathes of workers, to the point that over 70% of the “populations” of Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are imported labor. This isn’t like Western Europe or the United States where the migrants do jobs the locals don’t want. In the Gulf states, the migrants do everything. The migrants are not allowed to bring their families or own property, and as soon as the migrant men lose the ability to carry their own weight or the women lose their looks, they are rooted out and sent packing. They are regularly the target of every assault imaginable, including sexual assault. In the United states, we have a word for that: slavery. Treat this many people this badly, and only the existence of a wildly intrusive and brutal and unfettered internal security service can maintain domestic control for the ruling dynasties. As much of a threat as Iran is, the day-to-day internal pressures of the Gulf states are far more likely to end them. Many make light of the fact that the actual citizens of the Gulf states could be a risk as well. After all, they are used to cradle-to-grave support for everything from food to rent to hookah bars. The idea being, that should social spending falter, the locals might rise up against their rulers. While I don’t quite dismiss this concern out of hand, I’m not all that worried. The Gulf states in general – and the UAE in particular – have addressed this problem by helping their peoples consume as many saturated fats as possible to make them as unhealthy as possible. The idea being that overweight people laden with heart disease who can only get around on scooters aren’t the type to leave their air-conditioned compounds to riot in the desert sun. Pampered corpulence as a national security strategy might sound odd, but it works for the most part. Therefore, I am – and the local governments are – more watchful of the larger, younger, healthier, angrier and institutionally abused slave class. The only way this system is sustainable is if the money from hydrocarbon sales keeps flowing in and whoever guarantees Gulf state security turns a blind eye. The Americans are leaving, endangering both the income flows and the political cover. 3: Outside expeditionary powers Key thing to keep in mind when considering the United States in the Middle East: the US was primarily interested in Middle East oil for its alliance network, not for itself. Historically, the United States has gotten nearly all its crude from its own territories or its North American neighbors, plus Venezuela. With America’s shale revolution now mid-way through its second decade, technically, it is already independent. Its need for Middle Eastern oil has gone from minor to nearly nonexistent. Not so for…pretty much anyone else. Despite all the Green rhetoric on wind, solar and the like, combined they still generate only about 2% of the world’s total energy needs. Oil and natural gas clock in at more than half. And for most of the world, it must be imported. From the Persian Gulf. Outside powers who have been dependent upon the Americans to maintain energy flows can do the math. Outside powers who have navies can do it faster. The first time there’s a real energy crisis anywhere in the world after the Americans have left the Middle East, we’re going to see some records broken for sailing times from the United Kingdom, France, India and Japan to the Persian Gulf. Note: China can only play in the Persian Gulf if the United States makes the Pacific and Indian Oceans safe operating zones for the Chinese navy. The Chinese navy only has a handful of ships that can sail beyond the First Island Chain. The operative word is “sail”. It is almost certain they cannot fight their way much past the Chain, much less operate five thousand miles beyond it in the Middle East. China simply is not an expeditionary power, and is a non-power in the Persian Gulf. The Gulfies might not like the Americans very much, but the Americans have had a vested interest in the Gulf states remaining independent and making boatloads of money by selling their hydrocarbons. For the locals it was a sweet deal. Any post-American power that comes to the Gulf is unlikely to be nearly as…understanding.  So, what does this all have to do with a normalization of relations deal between the UAE and Israel. Simply put, the Emiratis (really, all the Gulfies) know the Americans are leaving and they are massively – hysterically – unable to look out for their own interests in the world that’s coming. Between the threats of Iran, their own populations and extra-regional powers, none of them are long for this world. Unless they can get some help. They need someone who can help them resist Iran. They need someone who can help them infiltrate and purge undesirable elements from their own populations. They need someone who can help them stand up to far outsiders. Banding together is off the table. As much as the Gulf states dislike Iran, they like one another even less. These are not countries. They are dynasties. It is as if each of the Kardashian sisters ran her own kingdom. (The GCC – for those of you who follow the region enough to know what that is – is nothing more than the Saudi attempt to force everyone to do things their way.). The Gulfies trust – they all trust – Israel more than one another. To call Thursday’s agreement a peace deal is a rhetorical flourish. A bit of PR flim-flamery. The UAE and Israel were not at war. Israeli military planners didn’t lose much sleep thinking about Emirati-backed militant cells in Palestine or Syria or Lebanon targeting their populations, much less a conventional Emirati military attack. Thursday’s announcement was more about a public acknowledgement of cold, hard, geopolitical reality: the issue isn’t an Israel-Arab divide being healed, much less one of Jewish-Islamic ecumenical healing. The difference hasn’t been that broad is decades.
Rather, it is about an American security dependent heeding the writing on the wall. Of wanting to (of having to) protect their interests (their existence) without the promise (or hope) of American intervention. The Emiratis are worried about Tehran. About Tokyo. About Paris. About New Delhi. About London. (About Riyadh.) They should be. The real kicker? This diplomatic normalization is only the first step. In time the UAE – indeed, each of the Gulf states – will need to partner with an outside power if they are to survive the predations of the others. Kudos to the Emiratis for the first-mover advantage. They’ve not only gained themselves a diplomatic, political, intelligence and military partner, they’ve broken the ice and made it a bit easier to stomach partnering with a true infidel. Time will tell if it is enough.
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Joe Biden wants you to be miserable when you vote. This is not an unusual wish for out-of-office politicians. Miserable people tend to vote against the incumbent. Earlier this year, Joe Biden faced daunting odds. The economy was stronger than it had ever been, ISIS had been defeated, North Korea had been silenced, Iran had been cowed, bad trade deals had been renegotiated, and the border wall was being built. People were happy. Then the China virus hit.

Posted on August 14, 2020 by abyssum
Democrats Dance with the DevilBy Daniel G. JonesAmerican ThinkerAugust 14, 2020
Joe Biden wants you to be miserable when you vote. This is not an unusual wish for out-of-office politicians. Miserable people tend to vote against the incumbent.
Earlier this year, Joe Biden faced daunting odds. The economy was stronger than it had ever been, ISIS had been defeated, North Korea had been silenced, Iran had been cowed, bad trade deals had been renegotiated, and the border wall was being built. People were happy.
Then the China virus hit. It was a godsend to Democrats. It’s real. It can kill you. And best of all, it has stopped Trump’s huge rallies.
Naturally, Democrats want the virus to appear as deadly as possible for as long as possible. They’ve done a terrific job of it. They (including their supporters in the press and the bureaucracy) have kept the China virus in the headlines for the past five months by exaggerating its effects (overstating the numbers of infections and deaths), maximizing its inconvenience (shutting down businesses, schools, and sports), and mandating a constant visual reminder of the ever-present danger (masks for everybody all the time).
Things were going well for them, politically speaking, until the unruly wing of the Democrat Party saw an opportunity in the death of George Floyd and decided to flex their muscles. No one realized how weak the mainstream Democrat Party had become, or how powerful Black Lives Matter and Antifa had become, until they destroyed downtown Minneapolis.
Until then, they had done little more than make nuisances of themselves. Antifa had pulled down statues, broken windows, and disrupted traffic. Black Lives Matter had marched through cities shouting: “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want them? Now!” and “Pigs in a blanket. Fry ‘em like bacon!” Small stuff with little lasting damage, so far as Democrats were concerned. They decided to countenance the violence and threats with silence. And that was when they missed their best chance to distance themselves from all the mayhem that would follow.
The riots that started in Minneapolis quickly spread to Seattle, Chicago, New York, Portland, and dozens of other Democrat-run cities. Local authorities didn’t know how to react. After all, the rioters were presumptive Democrat voters.
Democrat mayors and governors decided to dance with the devil. They would side with the rioters and try to minimize all the damage they did — political, not physical damage — with words. They declared the riots to be “mostly peaceful protests.” They described the anarchy as an expression of “love.” And they announced that any intervention by the Feds would itself be an unprovoked act of aggression. (I am reminded of a story Abraham Lincoln related in his Cooper Union speech: “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’“) 
In this third month of the siege of American cities, nary a word of criticism has passed Democrat lips. Liberal media continue to characterize the riots as righteous exercises of our First Amendment if they mention them at all. In a conversation with Joe Biden, President Obama described the mayhem as “…an extraordinary mobilization across the country.”
Black Lives Matter and Antifa seem to have thoroughly cowed the Democrat Party. Whatever they wish, Democrats shall do. You want us to defund the police? Sure. Paint BLM “murals” on city streets? Hand me a roller. Don’t want us to prosecute rioters? Wouldn’t think of it. Looting is payback for long-overdue reparations? Well, yeah. Okay.
Democrats must surely worry about the optics of bowing to the rioters’ will. But they worry even more about what might happen if they should refuse to do as BLM and Antifa demand. War might break out between the unruly and ruling wings of the Democrat Party, and that could cause them to lose not just the presidency, but possibly both houses of Congress as well. They calculate that their better option is to pay lip service to the gangs and keep the chaos out of the news. Make the pandemic the big story. That’ll keep the voters terrified.
Mark Twain once observed: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Some of us will recall familiar strains from a half century ago. In 1968 we were beset by a pandemic (the Hong Kong flu), saw riots engulf the nation (incited by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and held a presidential election between Vice President Hubert Humphrey and former Vice President Richard Nixon. Nixon campaigned on the theme of “law and order,” and he won. 
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Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Joe Biden wants you to be miserable when you vote. This is not an unusual wish for out-of-office politicians. Miserable people tend to vote against the incumbent. Earlier this year, Joe Biden faced daunting odds. The economy was stronger than it had ever been, ISIS had been defeated, North Korea had been silenced, Iran had been cowed, bad trade deals had been renegotiated, and the border wall was being built. People were happy. Then the China virus hit.

The public needs to know that Kamala’s quest, as in baseball, has already struck out. She has three strikes against her that are a death knell for her prospects. There is no way, after these strikes, she should be anywhere near a heartbeat or a brain flare away from the presidency of America. 1. Opportunistic Career Path — We are not supposed to have noticed (or it’s not supposed to make a difference or matter), but Kamala Harris came into politics as a mistress under the patronage of the notoriously unethical speaker of the House in California, Willie Brown. Numerous public servants in government in California at the time noted that Kamala was a pretty twenty-something young woman that Brown, a married man in his 60s, regularly showed off as his mistress at political events. She received prestigious, powerful, and profitable political appointments in state government and moved on from there. Anyone who brings up this opportunism is against her. 2. Radical Woke Ideologies and Policies — Many analysts believe that Kamala Harris will be America’s most radical left political candidate ever. She’s consistently among the top two “most progressive” members of the Senate. She has been called one of the most radical-left politicians today; pick any pet woke cause, and Kamala will be farthest left! These policy positions are not only constitutionally problematic; they are also prohibitively expensive, with a price tag in the multiple billions of dollars! Guns? Kamala supports extremist laws to restrict our 2nd Amendment rights. She advocates a wide array of increased gun control measures, including executive orders to implement problematic regulations. Health care? Kamala co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” health insurance proposal. She wants to abolish all private health insurance, saying, “Let’s eliminate all of that!” She strongly supports a single-payer system. Observers note that both her position and Biden’s on the issue have solidified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Education? Kamala attended all-white schools until she chose to attend Howard University. She passed the bar in 1990 and progressed as a prosecutor to become district attorney of San Francisco thanks to political muscle from her benefactor, Willie Brown. She advocates for free college and university education for all — especially for free tuition at historically black colleges and universities. Immigration? Even as the daughter of (legal) immigrants from India and Jamaica, Kamala has repeatedly shown that she makes no distinction between the rights and privileges of a citizen and an illegal alien. Benefits, she claims, belong to citizens and non-citizens alike.Environment? She joined forces with the socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to require additional regulations on environmental policies. 3. Kavanaugh Hearings Debacle — The final strike is the most disgraceful. The way Kamala Harris treated Brett Kavanaugh at the 2018 confirmation hearings was the most disrespectful and vicious of the senators. She stood out at the hearings for her deceitful questioning and the revolting tone of her accusations. She accepted the flimsiest of evidence in attacking Kavanaugh – for instance, the implausible and unsubstantiated accusation of gang rape — and praised an obviously “deceptively edited video” claiming that Kavanaugh opposed birth control, claiming that it was all about “punishing women.” Her extreme positions were so bad that she was actually called out by the left. Her attacks — called fear-invoking lies and possibly attempts at a presidential audition — were acknowledged as false and criticized by left-wing PolitiFact and her liberal hometown newspapers, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.

Posted on August 14, 2020 by abyssum

Kamala Has Already Struck OutBy Janice Shaw CrouseAmerican ThinkerAugust 14, 2020
Even before the Democrat presidential candidate, Joe Biden, named his choice for vice president, a group of Democrat Party activists released an unprecedented document outlining their “rules” for how the media could address issues surrounding the woman Biden ultimately chose.  
These guidelines made it abundantly clear that the media were “required” to handle Biden’s choice with kid gloves.  Questions were not to be probing; instead, this veep candidate, unlike the vicious coverage Sarah Palin endured years ago, was to be above questioning.  With astounding hubris, the Democrats actually warned the media that they would “monitor coverage” of the female veep candidate and that anything even slightly critical would be condemned as “racist and sexist.”  Hollywood celebrities and the usual line-up of leftist women’s groups (NARAL, Planned Parenthood, etc.) have promised Kamala, “We’ve got your back.”
Bottom line: Biden is in hiding; Kamala is untouchable.
This mafia-style intimidation cannot be allowed to stand.  The public needs to know that Kamala’s quest, as in baseball, has already struck out.  She has three strikes against her that are a death knell for her prospects. There is no way, after these strikes, she should be anywhere near a heartbeat or a brain flare away from the presidency of America.
1. Opportunistic Career Path — We are not supposed to have noticed (or it’s not supposed to make a difference or matter), but Kamala Harris came into politics as a mistress under the patronage of the notoriously unethical speaker of the House in California, Willie Brown.  Numerous public servants in government in California at the time noted that Kamala was a pretty twenty-something young woman that Brown, a married man in his 60s, regularly showed off as his mistress at political events.  She received prestigious, powerful, and profitable political appointments in state government and moved on from there.  Anyone who brings up this opportunism is against her “ambition” and is trying to keep her “in her place.”  In short, anyone raising these well documented facts is both misogynistic and racist.
Kamala is known as being “pragmatic, rather than principled.”  Some Democrat strategists claim to be happy with Kamala as a “messenger” (meaning she is good TV) but cringe at her inconsistent and problematic “messages” (meaning she is all over the map on any given issue).
Harris has flip-flopped on issue after issue, depending on what’s politically expedient.  She excuses this inconsistency by saying being a prosecutor is, by its very nature, “controversial.”  As a prosecutor, she defended capital punishment, but she ran for office on an “anti–death penalty” platform.  Her truancy policies were a problem; also her drug programs.  She opposed police body cameras, claiming they disadvantaged blacks and minorities.  She was criticized for siding with police too often; now she is vocal about police “brutality.”  She is now very pro-LGBT and transgender issues and blames her previous inconsistency on staffers who disregarded her personal views.  She was against decriminalization of “sex work” before she suddenly advocated for criminalization.  Same with marijuana; she was against it before flippantly claiming that marijuana brings joy and “we need more joy in the world.”  She’s taken both sides on whether a convicted terrorist should be able to vote from prison!
2. Radical Woke Ideologies and Policies — Many analysts believe that Kamala Harris will be America’s most radical left political candidate ever.  She’s consistently among the top two “most progressive” members of the Senate.  She has been called one of the most radical-left politicians today; pick any pet woke cause, and Kamala will be farthest left!  These policy positions are not only constitutionally problematic; they are also prohibitively expensive, with a price tag in the multiple billions of dollars!
Guns?  Kamala supports extremist laws to restrict our 2nd Amendment rights.  She advocates a wide array of increased gun control measures, including executive orders to implement problematic regulations.
Health care?  Kamala co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” health insurance proposal.  She wants to abolish all private health insurance, saying, “Let’s eliminate all of that!”  She strongly supports a single-payer system.  Observers note that both her position and Biden’s on the issue have solidified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Education?  Kamala attended all-white schools until she chose to attend Howard University.  She passed the bar in 1990 and progressed as a prosecutor to become district attorney of San Francisco thanks to political muscle from her benefactor, Willie Brown.  She advocates for free college and university education for all — especially for free tuition at historically black colleges and universities.
Immigration?  Even as the daughter of (legal) immigrants from India and Jamaica, Kamala has repeatedly shown that she makes no distinction between the rights and privileges of a citizen and an illegal alien.  Benefits, she claims, belong to citizens and non-citizens alike.Environment?  She joined forces with the socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to require additional regulations on environmental policies.
3. Kavanaugh Hearings Debacle — The final strike is the most disgraceful.  The way Kamala Harris treated Brett Kavanaugh at the 2018 confirmation hearings was the most disrespectful and vicious of the senators.  She stood out at the hearings for her deceitful questioning and the revolting tone of her accusations.  She accepted the flimsiest of evidence in attacking Kavanaugh – for instance, the implausible and unsubstantiated accusation of gang rape — and praised an obviously “deceptively edited video” claiming that Kavanaugh opposed birth control, claiming that it was all about “punishing women.”
Her extreme positions were so bad that she was actually called out by the left. Her attacks — called fear-invoking lies and possibly attempts at a presidential audition — were acknowledged as false and criticized by left-wing PolitiFact and her liberal hometown newspapers, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.  As President Trump said, she was, indeed, “extraordinarily nasty” to Brett Kavanaugh.
Guy Benson, Townhall political editor, described her Kavanaugh performance as “particularly demagogic, cynical and abysmal.”  In their excellent book, Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino detailed all the egregious procedural maneuvers Harris tried in her efforts to get Kavanaugh to commit perjury, as well as the fawning media coverage.
In a normal election, the veep choice would be relatively irrelevant, but Joe Biden is not a normal presidential candidate.  At 77, “Gaffe-Prone Joe” Biden has said he’d be a “transitional” president, and it is generally acknowledged that he is more likely than other previous candidates to become (sooner rather than later) incapacitated or unable to serve more than one term.  Thus, Kamala must be viewed as a possible presidential contender.  She fails on every measure — significantly!  Leadership?  She is obviously, much like Hillary, a ruthless opportunist willing to do or say whatever it takes to get ahead.  Ideas/Policies?  She can be swayed however the political winds are blowing at the time.  Even her friends explain that she is “not ideological,” meaning she doesn’t take principled stances on important issues.  Experience?  She has dramatically failed upward!  The media have frequently acknowledged her “history of flip flopping and deceit.”
What Kamala Harris offers in the veepstakes is a promise to promote a grab bag of assorted radical goals of every oddball progressive from Bernie to AOC to Obama and be an advocate for special constituencies — pro-abortion voters, instigators of the BLM movement’s racism, gun control activists, and illegal aliens.
Janice Shaw Crouse was executive director of the World Congress of Families IX. She is Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America. Email Link  https://conta.cc/30Uu8Ui
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The public needs to know that Kamala’s quest, as in baseball, has already struck out. She has three strikes against her that are a death knell for her prospects. There is no way, after these strikes, she should be anywhere near a heartbeat or a brain flare away from the presidency of America. 1. Opportunistic Career Path — We are not supposed to have noticed (or it’s not supposed to make a difference or matter), but Kamala Harris came into politics as a mistress under the patronage of the notoriously unethical speaker of the House in California, Willie Brown. Numerous public servants in government in California at the time noted that Kamala was a pretty twenty-something young woman that Brown, a married man in his 60s, regularly showed off as his mistress at political events. She received prestigious, powerful, and profitable political appointments in state government and moved on from there. Anyone who brings up this opportunism is against her. 2. Radical Woke Ideologies and Policies — Many analysts believe that Kamala Harris will be America’s most radical left political candidate ever. She’s consistently among the top two “most progressive” members of the Senate. She has been called one of the most radical-left politicians today; pick any pet woke cause, and Kamala will be farthest left! These policy positions are not only constitutionally problematic; they are also prohibitively expensive, with a price tag in the multiple billions of dollars! Guns? Kamala supports extremist laws to restrict our 2nd Amendment rights. She advocates a wide array of increased gun control measures, including executive orders to implement problematic regulations. Health care? Kamala co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” health insurance proposal. She wants to abolish all private health insurance, saying, “Let’s eliminate all of that!” She strongly supports a single-payer system. Observers note that both her position and Biden’s on the issue have solidified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Education? Kamala attended all-white schools until she chose to attend Howard University. She passed the bar in 1990 and progressed as a prosecutor to become district attorney of San Francisco thanks to political muscle from her benefactor, Willie Brown. She advocates for free college and university education for all — especially for free tuition at historically black colleges and universities. Immigration? Even as the daughter of (legal) immigrants from India and Jamaica, Kamala has repeatedly shown that she makes no distinction between the rights and privileges of a citizen and an illegal alien. Benefits, she claims, belong to citizens and non-citizens alike.Environment? She joined forces with the socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to require additional regulations on environmental policies. 3. Kavanaugh Hearings Debacle — The final strike is the most disgraceful. The way Kamala Harris treated Brett Kavanaugh at the 2018 confirmation hearings was the most disrespectful and vicious of the senators. She stood out at the hearings for her deceitful questioning and the revolting tone of her accusations. She accepted the flimsiest of evidence in attacking Kavanaugh – for instance, the implausible and unsubstantiated accusation of gang rape — and praised an obviously “deceptively edited video” claiming that Kavanaugh opposed birth control, claiming that it was all about “punishing women.” Her extreme positions were so bad that she was actually called out by the left. Her attacks — called fear-invoking lies and possibly attempts at a presidential audition — were acknowledged as false and criticized by left-wing PolitiFact and her liberal hometown newspapers, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, between magazine photo shoots and throwing the first pitch at baseball games, seems to have forgotten the cardinal rule of medicine – first, do no harm. By downplaying the effectiveness and highlighting the alleged dangers of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), it can be argued he has cost American lives, and will cost more, coming as he has between real doctors and real patients and real world experience with a drug that has been safely used to treat conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for six decades without any serious side effects.

Posted on August 11, 2020 by abyssum
How Fauci’s Stubborness Costs LivesBy Daniel John SobieskiAugust 11, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, between magazine photo shoots and throwing the first pitch at baseball games, seems to have forgotten the cardinal rule of medicine – first, do no harm. By downplaying the effectiveness and highlighting the alleged dangers of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), it can be argued he has cost American lives, and will cost more, coming as he has between real doctors and real patients and real world experience with a drug that has been safely used to treat conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for six decades without any serious side effects.
Fauci is in love with clinical studies, which are fine to determine effectiveness and risk of vaccines, but pale in comparison to the results of actual use.
One can understand the opposition of Big Pharma and Democrats in Congress to HCQ use against the Wuhan Chinese virus. There’s no money in a commonly available drug that costs something like 50 cents a pill. And if its widespread use were as effective here as it has been worldwide, it destroys a key rationale for the lockdowns which give liberals unconstitutional power to control every aspect of our lives Worse yet, for some people, it might indeed save a great many American lives and that would improve public perception of President Donald J. Trump’s handling of the crisis and boost Trump’s reelection chances. Can’t have that, even if it costs American lives.
Dr. Fauci, who has not wasted this crisis and parlayed it into a media career, recently opined on one of the main HCQ opponents, telling the doctors at MSNBC:White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that all the “valid” scientific data shows malaria drug hydroxychloroquine isn’t effective in treating the coronavirus, contradicting President Donald Trump’s opinion of the drug.
“You look at the scientific data and the evidence. And the scientific data… on trials that are valid, that were randomized and controlled in the proper way, all of those trials show consistently that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in the treatment of coronavirus disease or Covid-19,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said during an interview on MSNBC.
Notice the weasel word “valid.” President Trump has taken HCQ, as has the entire subcontinent of India and much of the Third World that uses it widely against malaria. If Fauci wants an empirical study, the mother of all empirical studies is an analysis of Third-World COVID-19 mortality rates prepared by Bruce E Dale, PhD, University Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University and Mark A Howard, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine:
The average death rate in the five countries (India, Costa Rica, Australia, South Korea and Brazil) that have made early and prophylactic use of HCQ is about 6.0 per million inhabitants. In contrast, the US death rate is 167.0 per million inhabitants, almost 30 times as many deaths per million citizens. 
The US has almost exclusively used HCQ on hospitalized patients, late in the course of infection. These late-stage treatments have largely failed. We (the authors) have the strong impression that acceptance of HCQ has become politicized. We cite below some of the evidence that, in our minds, HCQ has become closely associated with Trump. This unfortunate association has made an objective, scientific evaluation of the risk/benefit ratio for this medication much more difficult…and we believe this has cost and will cost lives.
…If the US does not make better use of this safe, cheap and effective drug HCQ to treat COVID-19, we can expect to suffer tens of thousands more deaths than would otherwise occur. What a (completely preventable) tragedy!…
If we used HCQ the way the rest of the world does, tens of thousands of lives could be saved. As Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit opines:
Thelatest international testing of hydroxychloroquine treatment of coronavirus shows countries that had early use of the drug had a 79% lower mortality rate than countries that banned the use of the safe malaria drug.
This means that Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, the CDC, the liberal fake news media and the tech giants have been pushing a lie that has had deadly consequences!Even developing nations Ukraine, Greece, Cuba, Morocco, Indonesia and Algeria fared better than the US under Dr. Fauci! Over 100,000 US deaths could have been prevented!

A has been table prepared by the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons to compare the deaths per million citizens for countries that have taken different approaches to using HCQ in the treatment of COVID-19. The truth it presents is staggering and damning to Dr. Fauci’s opposition. The AAPS states:
AAPS concludes that: “the safety of Hydroxychloroquine is well documented. When the safe use of this drug is projected against its apparent effect of decreasing the progression of early cases to ventilator use, it is difficult to understand the reluctance of the authorities in charge of U.S. pandemic management to recommend its use in early COVID-19 cases.”  
In a Newsweek piece, Dr. Harvey A. Risch of Yale’s School of Public Health asserts that HCQ “has shown to be highly effective” and speaks to the war of hostility against hydroxychloroquine. Risch notes he is not alone in his conclusions about hydroxychloroquine:
On May 27, I published an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology (AJE) entitled, “Early Outpatient Treatment of Symptomatic, High-Risk COVID-19 Patients that Should be Ramped-Up Immediately as Key to the Pandemic Crisis.” That article… analyzed five studies, demonstrating clear-cut and significant benefits to treated patients, plus other very large studies that showed the medication safety.
Physicians who have been using these medications in the face of widespread skepticism have been truly heroic. They have done what the science shows is best for their patients, often at great personal risk…
Since publication of my May 27 article, seven more studies have demonstrated similar benefit. In a lengthy follow-up letter, also published by AJE, I discuss these seven studies and renew my call for the immediate early use of hydroxychloroquine in high-risk patients.
These seven studies include: an additional 400 high-risk patients treated by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, with zero deaths; four studies totaling almost 500 high-risk patients treated in nursing homes and clinics across the U.S., with no deaths; a controlled trial of more than 700 high-risk patients in Brazil, with significantly reduced risk of hospitalization and two deaths among 334 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine; and another study of 398 matched patients in France, also with significantly reduced hospitalization risk.
Hydroxychloroquine is not a cure nor a vaccine, and Dr. Ritsch and the social media censored “Frontline Doctors” do not claim it to be, but the drug which has been safely used over more than five decades has proven in the real world to be safe and useful in lessening the spread and impact of COVID-19. As Fox News reports:
Dr. Harvey Risch, an epidemiology professor at Yale School of Public Health, said on Tuesday that he thinks hydroxychloroquine could save 75,000 to 100,000 lives if the drug is widely used to treat coronavirus.
“There are many doctors that I’ve gotten hostile remarks about saying that all the evidence is bad for it and, in fact, that is not true at all,” Risch told “Ingraham Angle,” adding that he believes the drug can be used as a “prophylactic” for front-line workers, as other countries like India have done.
Risch lamented that a “propaganda war” is being waged against the use of the drug for political purposes, not based on “medical facts.”
Researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan have found that early administration of hydroxychloroquine makes hospitalized patients substantially less likely to die.
The study, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, determined that hydroxychloroquine provided a “66 percent hazard ratio reduction,” and hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin a 71 percent reduction, compared with neither treatment.
Hydroxychloroquine can save lives — lots of lives. The question then is how many lives have been lost and will be lost due the words and actions of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times 
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THINGS THAT MATTER

Posted on August 11, 2020 by abyssum
THINGS THAT MATTER By E.P. UnumAugust 10, 2020
Well, it’s Monday, August 10th and it is a cloudy humid day here in the Garden State. I’ve been reflecting on what is happening around our country and started to jot down some things that seem important. Copying from Charles Krauthammer, one of the finest writers of my generation, I have called these “Things that Matter”.
Here are a few of them in no particular order, but all worthy of remembering and thinking about:
1.    I do seem to recall that President Barack Hussein Obama, in a moment of gracious generosity sent pallets of cash totaling $176 billion to the single greatest sponsor if terrorism in the world, Iran while he was in office. He didn’t seek approval of anyone, he just did it in the middle of the night, packed into pallets on an Air Force Transport Plane. Today, Democrat Senators and Congressmen are calling President Trump’s decision to issue Executive Orders to send much needed aid to hard working Americans, unconstitutional and illegal. So, on the one hand, President Obama sends cold, hard cash to the tune of $176 billion and that is deemed OK by democrats but President Trumps’ decision to break a deadlock in Congress to give financial assistance to Americans is deemed illegal. Fascinating!
2.   Just curious, but why is Paul Manafort facing some 75-80 years in prison for tax fraud, but Al Sharpton, who owes the IRS over $4.8 million in back taxes is walking around free? Could it be that Paul Manafort has a relationship with President Trump?
3.   You know, I have heard TV talking heads on Fox News and other channels say “We are all in this together”. Let me state unequivocally and without reservation that this phrase is all horse dung. Politicians, state and local government officials, governors, mayors…all of them…have not given up a single paycheck since the coronavirus crisis began. They have not had to plow under their fields or slaughter their livestock or dumped their milk. They are not faced with losing their homes or businesses nor do they stay up late at night worrying about how they are going to feed their families or pay the rent or mortgage. As they continue to initiate and enforce their insane restrictions and regulations, not one of them is suffering from their decisions. They threaten to shut off electricity and water to churches if they hold services; fine worshipers who dare to sing hymns at mass and threaten to arrest grandparents walking with their four or five year old grandchildren because they are not wearing a mask. These politicians are not now, nor will they ever be part of the “WE” in “We’re all in this together!” 
4.   For those of you anxiously awaiting the “Coronavirus Vaccine” remember this: the Flu has a vaccine and it kills on average 45,000 to 65,000 people per year. And in this ‘year of Coivid-19’ deaths from the flu have been merged with those due to Covid. 
5.   Anyone check out Oprah Winfrey lately? Oprah is “pleasingly plump”, single and super rich. You can easily find her hob-nobbing with all of the elite Hollywood entertainers and sports figures pontificating on “weight loss programs; marriage advice and income inequality!” 
6.   I have listened to and read the phrase “systemic racism” ad nauseum. It seems every speech given by Joe Biden or any democrat has that phrase in it. Well, forgive me, but if America has systemic racism, why didn’t Joe Biden and Barack Hussein Obama do something about it when they were in power. Hell, they were in office for eight years and Obama was half black, so why didn’t they fix it? Just askin’ because it puzzles me….
7.   California is one state that has rigidly enforced the wearing of masks and social distancing. Yet the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths seem to be rising in California. It does beg the question of whether or not masks are helping. Now, that might sound like heresy to the uneducated but the Coronavirus contains very tiny particles that tend to find a home on surfaces like masks. Could it be that once the masks are taken off, the virus can spread easily? In that regard, why are their no bio-hazard bins where masks and gloves can be discarded? If this virus is as contagious as it is made out to be, shouldn’t this be something our medical experts insist upon? Doesn’t this make more sense than shutting down religious services or threatening to turn off power and water?
8.   I may be wrong, but I think the media plays a major role in creating undue fear in our population in addition to fostering a climate of hatred for President Trump. And hate is a wasted emotion. It clouds judgement and unnecessary worry and anxiety. The media would do well to adhere to the age old principles of journalism: (1) Tell the truth, unvarnished and without opinion; (2) maintain independence in fact and appearance and (3) always present both sides of an issue to insure that the information is fair and balanced and does not purport to do harm. These principles are for the most part ignored by journalists today and that does not bode well for Freedom of the Press.
9.   I am reasonably certain that most Americans have witnessed with their own eyes the rioting, looting, destruction of businesses, desecration of churches and memorials; tearing down of statues and monuments and killing of police officers that has been going on in cities across the nation. So, here is a thought for all the BLM Protesters; Antifa Groups and other entities seeking to tear down rather than build: Why don’t you join the Police Academy and become the change you say you are seeking to make? Wouldn’t that be preferable to the terror you seek to impart to innocent citizens?
10.   Here is a bit of history for all of the millennials and college aged individuals who are a part of BLM and Antifa and other groups. You are by no means special. Black people have owned and sold slaves for centuries, and they are still doing it! Asian people, Middle Eastern People, Europeans, Native people all owned and sold slaves. Muslims were among the first group to bring slaves to the shores of the Americas. Everyone’s ancestors participated in slavery; it was not something exclusive to white people. So, please stop trying to make people feel guilty for things they did not do.
11.   Try to follow this simple logic with me:
*  If Hydroxychloriquine+Zinc+AZ is found to be an effective treatment for COVID-19 then the panic created by the media goes away;
*  If the panic goes away, Americans can go back to work, schools can open, gyms can open, people can go on airplanes and travel and our economy, all $22 trillion of it would not close;
*  If Americans can go back to work and lead normal lives, then there is no need for voting by mail;
*  If there is no need for voting by mail, then there is one less chance for democrats to rig the election…again like they did in 2016;
*  If democrats can’t rig the election, they will get crushed by Trump in November.
Democrats Reject These              Democrats Accept These                       Aunt Jemima                                                 Rioting, LootingEskimo Pie                                                Burning Cities & ChurchesUncle Ben’s Cream of Wheat                       Tearing Down StatuesGone with the Wind                                      Rewriting HistoryTo Kill a Mockingbird                                   Killing PolicePaw Patrol                                                       Confiscating gunsMary Poppins                                                 Abortion thru and including birthChristopher Columbus                                 SegregationFather Junipero Serra                              Reparations for SlaveryThe National Anthem                                   Defunding PoliceRobert E. Lee                                                  ChaosThomas Jefferson                                          Free healthcare, collegeGeorge Washington                                      Hundreds of $billions to help  mismanagedAmericans owning guns                                 cities recoverAmerican Exceptionalism
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IS IT TIME TO ABANDON THE DECREES OF THE Second Vatican Council

Posted on August 11, 2020 by abyssum
Two Churchmen who are thinking about the meaning and impact of the Second Vatican Council on the life of the Church. Left, Dominican Father Thomas Weinandy and, right, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.     Again, the Council    In the issue of Inside the Vatican magazine currently going to press, we are publishing a Dossier in which several Catholic thinkers reflect on the meaning and impact of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), some 55 years after the Council ended.    Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò touched off the discussion with an essay he published two months ago with a letter on June 9 (link) in which he suggested that, because of the many ambiguities in the Vatican II texts, and the negative effects those ambiguities have since had on the Church — widespread confusion about doctrine, abandonment of religious life by thousands, neglect of the sacraments by millions — it might be prudent for the Church to simply set aside all of the texts of that Council.     [Here are links to other texts in the Dossier: Letter #15 (Cavadini), Letter #14 (Weinandy), and Letter #13 (Esolen). I also encourage to subscribe to the magazine and receive the print version of this Dossier.    Viganò’s suggestion sparked an uproar.     Viganò had said that which cannot be said in the Church today. For in the post-Conciliar Catholic Church, and especially in the Vatican, the affirmation that the Council brought a positive “new era” for the Catholic Church, a “new springtime,” has become a dogma that cannot be questioned.    Viganò did not claim that he himself was without blame.     In fact, he openly confessed that he had for many years accepted the ambiguities of the conciliar texts without any real hesitation.     He wrote: “Just as I honestly and serenely obeyed questionable orders sixty years ago, believing that they represented the loving voice of the Church, so today with equal serenity and honesty I recognize that I have been deceived. Being coherent today by persevering in error would represent a wretched choice and would make me an accomplice in this fraud.”     And he added: “Claiming a clarity of judgment from the beginning would not be honest: we all knew that the Council would be more or less a revolution, but we could not have imagined that it would prove to be so devastating.”    Today Viganò emailed me an “open letter” that he has written to one of the authors of the essays in the dossier, Father Thomas Weinandy, O.P.    The letter is one of the strongest Viganò has yet written. Here below is the complete text of his letter.Letter #21, Monday, August 10, 2020: Again, the Council August 10, 2020Saint Laurence, MartyrReverend Father Thomas,    I read attentively your essay Vatican II and the Work of the Spirit which was published at Inside the Vatican on July 27, 2020 (here). It seems to me that your thoughts may be summarized in these two sentences:    ”I sympathize with many of the concerns expressed and acknowledge some of the stated problematic theological and doctrinal issues enumerated. I am, however, uncomfortable with the conclusion that Vatican II is, in some way, the direct source and cause of the present disheartening state of the Church.”    Permit me, Reverend Father, to respond to you by using as an auctoritasone of your interesting writings, Pope Francis and Schism, published at The Catholic Thing on October 8, 2019 (here).    Your observations allow me to highlight an analogy that I hope may contribute to clarifying my thought and demonstrate to our readers that certain apparent differences may find resolution thanks to a profitable disputatio that has as its primary purpose the glory of God, the honor of the Church, and the salvation of souls. In your essay Pope Francis and Schism, you observe, very appropriately and with the acumen that distinguishes your interventions, that there is a sort of dissociation between the persona Papae and Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a dichotomy in which the Vicar of Christ is silent and lets things drop, while the exuberant Argentine man who today lives at Santa Marta speaks and acts. Referring to the very grave situation of the Church in Germany, you write:    ”First, many within the German hierarchy know that by becoming schismatic they would lose their Catholic voice and identity. This they cannot afford. They need to be in fellowship with Pope Francis, for he is the very one who has fostered a notion of synodality that they are now attempting to implement. He, therefore, is their ultimate protector.    ”Second, while Pope Francis may stop them from doing something egregiously contrary to the Church’s teaching, he will allow them to do things that are ambiguously contrary, for such ambiguous teaching and pastoral practice would be in accord with Francis’ own. It is in this that the Church finds herself in a situation that she never expected.”    You continue:    ”It’s important to bear in mind that the German situation must be viewed within a broader context: the theological ambiguity within Amoris Laetitia; the not so subtle advancing of the homosexual agenda; the “re-foundation” of the (Roman) John Paul II Institute on Marriage and Family, i.e., the undermining of the Church’s consistent teaching on moral and sacramental absolutes, especially with regard to the indissolubility of marriage, homosexuality, contraception, and abortion.    ”Similarly, there is the Abu Dhabi statement, which directly contradicts the will of the Father and so undermines the primacy of Jesus Christ his Son as the definitive Lord and universal Savior.“Moreover, the present Amazon Synod is teeming with participants sympathetic to and supportive of all of the above. One must likewise take into account the many theologically dubious cardinals, bishops, priests, and theologians whom Francis supports and promotes to high ecclesial positions.    And you conclude:“    With all of this in mind, we perceive a situation, ever-growing in intensity, in which on the one hand, a majority of the world’s faithful – clergy and laity alike – are loyal and faithful to the pope, for he is their pontiff, while critical of his pontificate, and, on the other hand, a large contingent of the world’s faithful – clergy and laity alike – enthusiastically support Francis precisely because he allows and fosters their ambiguous teaching and ecclesial practice.    ”What the Church will end up with, then, is a pope who is the pope of the Catholic Church and, simultaneously, the de facto leader, for all practical purposes, of a schismatic church. Because he is the head of both, the appearance of one church remains, while in fact there are two.”    Let’s try to replace the Pope with the Council, and Bergoglio with Vatican II: I think that you will find the almost literal parallel that results quite interesting.     In fact, Catholics nourish veneration and respect for both the papacy and for an ecumenical council that the Church asks of them: on the one hand towards the Vicar of Christ, and on the other hand towards an act of the Magisterium in which the voice of Our Lord speaks through the Roman Pontiff and the bishops united to him.     If we think of Saint Pius V and the Council of Trent, or of Pius IX and Vatican I, it will not be difficult to see the perfect correspondence between those popes and the papacy, and between those councils and the infallible Magisterium of the Church. Indeed, even thinking of a possible dichotomywould rightly fall under canonical sanctions and offend the pious ears of the faithful.    And yet, as you yourself point out, with Jorge Mario Bergoglio wearing the surreal garments of the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, “The only phrase that I can find to describe this situation is ‘internal papal schism,’ for the pope, even as pope, will effectively be the leader of a segment of the Church that through its doctrine, moral teaching, and ecclesial structure, is for all practical purposes schismatic.”    I ask then: if you admit, dear Father Thomas – as a painful trial to which Providence is subjecting the Church in order to punish her for the faults of her most unworthy members and especially of her leaders – that the Pope himself is in a state of schism with the Church, to the point of being able to speak of an “internal papal schism,” why can you not accept that the same has happened for a solemn act like a Council, and that Vatican II was a case of “internal Magisterial schism”? If it is possible for this Pope to be “for all practical purposes schismatic” – and I would say also heretical – why could not that Council also have been so, despite the fact that both one and the other were instituted by Our Lord to confirm the brethren in Faith and Morals?     I ask you, what prevents the Acts of Vatican II from deviating from the path of Tradition, when the Supreme Pastor himself can deny the teaching of his Predecessors?     And if the persona Papae is in schism with the papacy, why could a council that wanted to be pastoral and abstained from promulgating dogmas not be able to contradict the other canonical councils, entering into a de facto schism with the Catholic Magisterium?    It’s true that this situation is a hapax, a case that in itself has never been seen in the history of the Church; but if this applies to the papacy – in a crescendo from Roncalli to Bergoglio – I do not see why it could not apply for Vatican II, which precisely thanks to the recent popes has set itself as an event in itself, and as such has been used by its proponents?    To use your words, “What the Church will end up with” is a Council that is a Council of the Catholic Church and, simultaneously, the de factofirst council, for all practical purposes, of a schismatic church, or the “conciliar church” that considers itself to have been born at Vatican II.     Since Vatican II is both an ecumenical council and a “devil council” [conciliabolo], it retains the appearance of being a single Council, when in reality there are two.     And I would add: one council was legitimate and orthodox and was aborted from birth with the subversion of the preparatory schemes, and one council was illegitimate and heretical (or at least favens haeresim) and is the one to which all of the Innovators refer, including Bergoglio, in order to legitimize their doctrinal, moral and liturgical deviations.     Exactly as “many theologically dubious cardinals, bishops, priests, and theologians whom Francis supports and promotes to high ecclesial positions” maintain that the authority of the Vicar of Christ should be recognized in the acts of governance and magisterium performed by Jorge Mario, right at the moment in which with those acts he demonstrates himself “for all practical purposes schismatic.”    And if on the one hand it is very true that “while Pope Francis may stop them from doing something egregiously contrary to the Church’s teaching, he will allow them to do things that are ambiguously contrary, for such ambiguous teaching and pastoral practice would be in accord with Francis’ own,” it is equally true – paraphrasing your words – that “while John XXIII and Paul VI may have stopped the modernists from doing things egregiously contrary to the Church’s teaching, they allowed them to do things that were ambiguously contrary, for such ambiguous teaching and pastoral practice were in accord with that of Roncalli and Montini.”    So it seems to me, Reverend Father, that you may find confirmation of what I affirmed in my essay at the origin of the disputatio on the Council, namely that the “container-council” was used to give apparent authority to a deliberately subversive event, exactly as today, right before our eyes, the Vicar of Christ is used to give apparent authoritativeness to a deliberately subversive operation.     In both cases, the innate sense of respect towards the Church of Christ on the part of the faithful and the clergy is being used as an infernal stratagem – a Trojan horse introduced into the Sacred Citadel – in order to dissuade every form of dutiful dissent, every criticism, every legitimate denunciation.    It is painful to observe that this observation, far from rehabilitating Vatican II, confirms a profound crisis of the entire ecclesiastical institution, effected by the work of renegades who have abused their own authority against the Authority itself, of papal power against the papacy itself, and of the authority of the Conciliar Fathers against the Church herself.     A devious and cowardly betrayal operated from within the Church herself, as Saint Pius X had already predicted and condemned in the Pascendi encyclical, indicating the modernists as the most harmful enemies of the Church.    Let’s not forget that Dante places the fraudulent in the Ninth Circle of Hell.        Receive, Reverend and dear Father Thomas, my blessing.        + Carlo Maria Viganò, ArchbishopOfficial translation by Giuseppe Pellegrino    
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WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD OF THE ELECTION OF 20202

Posted on August 11, 2020 by abyssum

The Real World Reasserts Itself

By Patrick J. Buchanan


Tuesday – August 11, 2020

“If black lives matter, where is Black Lives Matter?  Rarely in these stories of shootings and killings does one read that the dead were the victims of rogue cops or white supremacists.”



Since the death of George Floyd beneath the knee of a cop in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, the nation has been instructed by its cultural elites that this is the daily reality that a racist America has too long ignored

Our nation, it was shouted in our faces, is a place where white cops harass, brutalize, assault and kill Black Americans regularly and with impunity.

“Defund the police!” the Black Lives Matter demand went out, to be echoed and re-echoed by BLM’s amen corner of progressive elites.

The pendulum may be swinging back, for this weekend reintroduced us to the old familiar world.

In Washington, D.C., about midnight Saturday, at a block party in the Southeast sector of the city, three shooters fired 100 rounds, wounded 20, killed a teenager and left a female police officer in critical condition.
  

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It appears to have been an attempted massacre, a slaughter.

“More than 115 people have been slain in the District this year, a 17 percent increase over this time in 2019, which ended the year with a decade high,” reports The Washington Post.

D.C.’s numbers, however, pale by comparison to Chicago, where this weekend recorded 32 more people shot, with three dead.

According to the Sun-Times, there were 106 homicides in the city in July, a single-month body count almost equal to the toll D.C. has piled up in all of the first seven months of 2020.

A disproportionate number of the dead and wounded are Black Americans, and a disproportionate number of the shooters and killers are Black men.

If black lives matter, where is Black Lives Matter?

Rarely in these stories of shootings and killings does one read that the dead were the victims of rogue cops or white supremacists.
  Indeed, the front page of Monday’s New York Times gave voice to the city’s Black and Hispanic leaders who are objecting to a proposed $1 billion cut in the police budget. The people in high-crime precincts, for whom these leaders speak, want more, not fewer, cops on the beat.

Even Portland, Oregon, which has been indulging nightly protests since the killing of George Floyd, seems to be awakening to the real world.

When the Department of Homeland Security pulled its agents out of Portland and handed the defense of the Mark Hatfield federal courthouse to the state police, the “peaceful protesters” shifted their attention to the city’s buildings and Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct.
  

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With police personnel corralled inside, the East Precinct was barricaded with cars and wooden planks, and an attempt was made to set it afire by throwing flaming objects into the building.

Mugged by reality, Mayor Ted Wheeler seems to have belatedly awakened to the character of the protesters he has been coddling:

“When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people whom you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder.”

Equally problematic: “You will be creating the B-roll film that will be used in ads nationally to help Donald Trump during his campaign.”

Portland police union president Daryl Turner was enraged at what he had seen. “I am disgusted that our City has come to this,” said Turner. “If it is acceptable for rioters to… try and burn down occupied buildings, and if this conduct is allowed to continue, then Portland is lost.”

Wheeler, having gotten the message the rioters have been trying to deliver, finally ordered his city’s police to do “what is necessary” to quell the rioting, even if it means using tear gas.

What has happened in Portland, and across much of America, was predictable, and predicted.

First, the progressives tolerate and even celebrate civil disobedience, because the cause is just and noble. Then, to hold onto public attention, the protesters march and block traffic. Next comes the cursing of cops, the throwing of trash, water bottles and rocks. Then there’s the smashing of store windows, looting and arson, and Molotov cocktails. Finally, there’s instigating violence with cops to get footage of police fighting back so the law enforcement officers can be painted by the progressive press as stormtroopers and the Gestapo.

In Portland, we reached the point where “peaceful protesters” tried to set a building ablaze with cops barricaded inside.

This, as the mayor said, is attempted murder.

Today, people watch their leaders in city after city fail to keep the peace and restore order as protesters riot at will, and they make plans to move out. In the suburbs and country, they quietly observe the inability of cops to quell the violence, and they buy guns.

While the right backs Trump’s stand for law and order, the ultimate battle here may be between liberal Democrats elected to, and failing to, run the cities, and the radical left and Marxists who welcome their failure as they intend to kick the liberals down the stairs.
 

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THE NUMBER OF PRIESTS WHO ARE WILLING TO RISK CENSURE FOR DECLARING THE VALIDITY OF THE PONTIFICATE OF Pope Benedict XVI AND THE INVALIDITY OF A PONTIFICATE OF JORGE BERGOLIO CONTINUES TO GROW

Posted on August 11, 2020 by abyssum

NEWS

MORE THAN 20 PRIESTS WORLD WIDE DECLARE FOR POPE BENEDICT XVI

FROM ROME EDITORLEAVE A COMMENT

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

The clergy in communion with Pope Benedict XVI, who are publicly known, comprise Archbishop Lenga (Poland), Bishop Gracida (Texas, USA), Don Alessandro Minutella (Palermo), Don Enrico Roncaglia (Treviso), Don Enrico Bernasconi (Puglia), Don Francesco D’Erasmus (Civitavecchia), Father Walter Covens (Carribean), and two priests from Colombia and Equador, and most recently Father Leatherby(California, USA). Those with names in bold face, have had the merit and honor before God and men to be “excommunicated” by their Bergoglian Bishop for preaching the truth of the fraud perpetrated by Bergoglio in 2013.

But now there has been brought to my attention more than 20 other priests throughout the world who have declared for Pope Benedict XVI. They recognize that Pope Benedict never renounced the papacy, because what he did on Feb. 11, 2013 did not fulfill the requirements of canon law — requirements which cannot be changed by interpreting them away.

But this is just the number of priests who are known by others than myself. I personally know of that there are entire religious communities of priests who all offer their masses in communion with Pope Benedict XVI and who reject Bergoglio as the pope.

And those numbers will continue to grow, as the absurdity of Bergoglio as pope becomes more and more impossible to ignore.

If I know some 100+ priests who have declared for Pope Benedict XVI, then surely there are 1000s, because my sources of information are small.

Let us pray for all these priests. May God give them the courage to speak in public.  The very salvation of the Church requires it.

+ + +

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IF ONE LOOKS AT JOE BIDEN’S BACKGROUND AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE, NOTHING STANDS OUT. IF ANYTHING EMERGES IT IS HIS FAILURE TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING OF SIGNIFICANCE

Posted on August 10, 2020 by abyssum

SOMETIMES I WONDERBY: Hal MorrisAugust 8, 2020
Have you ever wondered why a voter would be attracted to Joe Biden?
I did. When you look at his background and accomplishments to date, nothing stands out. If anything emerges, it is his failure to accomplish anything of significance. The one achievement touted is the Biden/ Hatch Crime bill he co-sponsored, which he now disavows. This bill later became the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, passed in 1994. 
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the incarceration of Blacks and Brown people occurs at a much higher rate. If senators Biden and Hatch had a goal of incarcerating more Black per 100,000 residents, they succeeded gloriously. In 2018 the number State and Federal Inmates per 100,000 were approximately Black 1200, Hispanic 600, White 300. The current incarceration rate increased budgets and crowding in all our prison systems and obliterated any chance of felons’ genuine rehabilitation.
Since the bill’s passage, politicians on both sides of the aisle, together with various civil rights groups, agreed that the results of the legislation were too severe, were prejudicial, and should be changed. During Vice-President Biden’s eight years in office, under President Barack Obama, the first elected Black President, no effort was initiated by Biden or Obama to lead a response to modify the law or reform the bill. 
Yet today, Biden and his supporters profess fears over the harsh racially prejudicial sentences meted out by the act he co-sponsored. Responding to the many concerns expressed, President Trump led the recent movement to correct the law’s inequities. It didn’t take him eight years to act. He accomplished the passage of a reform bill during his first three years in office. The reform act passed with bipartisan support and immediately signed into law by President Trump. Yet the former VP Joe Biden dares to state in public that President Trump is “the first racist President” of the United States. Biden is a hypocrite.
While a senator from Deleware, Joe Biden joined forces with the other senate segregationists to oppose busing and the integration of schools. Senator Biden closely associated himself with Senator Byrd of West Virginia, who joined the KKK in 1946 and was a high official in the Klan. Biden, upon Senator Byrd’s death, eulogized the senator upon his death. Biden never renounced Byrd’s segregationist views or membership in the Klan. President Trump repeatedly denies segregation, supports school choice, two significant issues that Biden opposes. Yet, to many in the media and Democratic/Socialists, President Trump is considered a racist.
As a Senator, Biden was the chairperson of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During his chairmanship, he was accused of a troubling tendency to embellish his contributions to American Foreign Policy and plagiarize speeches and articles. Robert Gates, a respected secretary of defense under George W. Bush and Barack Obama, wrote in his memoir that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” For example, he opposed the raid against Osama bin Laden and insisted that the “Taliban per se is not our enemy.” He voted against the gulf war in 1991 and for the Iraq war in 2003. He then stated his opposition to both yes votes. 
In retrospect, as a Senator and Vice President, Joe Biden was seldom a major factor in the development of America’s foreign policy during his years as chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or Vice-President under Obama. Who can ever forget his contributions and support for the revolution in Libya and his support of the lies over the killing of our ambassador in the consulate’s disaster in Benghazi? 
His involvement, with an incredible Iran deal, sending pallets of cash to Iran clandestinely during the middle of the night, is a classic example of diplomatic bribery. Joe Biden supported that venture, which accomplished absolutely nothing towards ending Iran’s investment into becoming a nuclear power. The agreement enhanced Iran’s support for aggression towards Israel and other mid-east allies and threatened United States troops in the region.
A better example of his ineptitude is his work and constant support for China as a senator and vice president. The former vice president has been a strong advocate for China, especially its entrance into global commerce via his lobbying for China’s gaining “Most Favored Nation” trade status and World Trade Organization membership. Whenever opposition arose over China’s failure on human rights, or fair trade practices or labor conditions, Biden as Chairperson, a senior member, or vice president managed to block any censorship. As a result, many workers in the United States suffered from job losses while human rights issues floundered in China. 
What Biden accomplished as Obama’s point man on China, was to ignore the many waves of abuse China commits daily. He was instrumental in advising the Obama administration’s development of an appeasement strategy to cover China’s cyber aggression, cyber hacking, and construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea. In contrast, Trump immediately recognized the danger and threat that China’s posed to the world. 
Their incursion into international waters, threatening free shipping lanes, and reducing access to international shipping lanes violates many years of open international shipping lanes free to the world. By extending its coastline through the construction of artificial islands, China claims control over established shipping lanes. Much of the global commerce that takes place travels through these waters. 
While the Obama administration sat and pontificated, Trump took immediate action. He imposed sanctions and brought the situation to the United Nations. He quickly took efforts to renegotiate trade agreements with China. Biden and the Obama administration did nothing to stop or discipline China’s actions. In fact, during the 2020 campaign Biden called out Trump for being too severe on China.
During the Obama administration, the media was aware that vice president Biden and his son Hunter were involved in “backroom” negotiations with Chinese businesses. Recently released bank records revealed that vice president Biden assisted Hunter in funneling over 1.5 billion dollars in foreign money through his sons’ companies.
While today, candidate Biden disavows human rights abuses and international abuses of treaties and agreements, while operating in the highest positions of power, he did nothing to counter China’s violation of rules and regulations designed to prevent China’s subversion of treaties and agreements. 
Today, as a result of the previous administration’s malaise, the United States government and American businesses face China’s increased, ongoing efforts to steal research and security data and subvert our electoral processes.
Interestingly, while Biden’s policy of warmer ties with China hurt American workers, the Biden family did quite well. Hunter Biden, the vice president’s son, accompanied him during his 2013 trip to China. Hunter traveled with him on Air Force One even though he wasn’t a member of the American delegation. After the visit, Hunter suddenly became a member of the executive board of a large Shanghai company earning a large salary. Later after his father left office, Hunter also became an investor in the company. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
When President Trump exposed the dangers to the world’s security systems due to China’s penetration via the telecommunications industry, Joe Biden criticized Trump as being excessive. When President Trump imposed travel restrictions on China, as a consequence of their duplicity, in the coronavirus spread, Biden called Trump’s action as “hysterical xenophobia.” However, President Trump’s quick response brought us time to prepare and deal with the epidemic’s spread. Something Candidate Biden, given his track record, could not have done. 
Biden’s supportive stance on China, today, comes when China faces worldwide condemnation for stealing intellectual property from private and governmental sources in the United States and abroad. One of the salient factors contributing to China’s surge as a mega economic power was the intervention of Senator/VP Joe Biden in the granting of China’s Most Favored Nation status. Many speculate that Biden’s family financial benefits, derived from Hunter Biden’s involvement, are questionable in the least. Despite his son utilizing their relationship, which Biden forwarded well over a billion dollars through his son’s businesses, Biden defends his decisions that enable China to become a geopolitical power. 
Today Candidate Biden says, “A rising China is a positive development for China and the United States.” Really? Tell that to the Tibetians, Uighurs, and Hong Kong citizens who face China’s duplicity every day. Tell that to the untold United States workers on unemployment because they lost jobs to cheap labor in Chinese factories. The bottom line is that China and the United States will be competing strategically and economically during the rest of our century. Success in this competition will determine the future of our country. As candidate Biden reportedly said, “Come on, man, I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks…they’re not competition for us.” Can we afford to elect a man who is so naive to the presidency of the United States?
We need to be led by a president who understands the dangers that China portends for the United States and the world. A President that is not afraid to make the right decisions. Making decisions is relatively easy; it’s making the right decisions that count. Joe Biden has a record of “never being right.” He has repeatedly stood on the wrong side of most foreign policy decisions. 
As Vice President, Biden represented the president in overseeing the task of assisting Ukraine in their defense of the Russian incursion into Crimea. At the same time, Biden involved himself in an ongoing Ukraine’s investigation of an energy company (Burisma) that his son Hunter was on the executive board of directors. Hunter also parlayed his father’s involvement in Ukraine by suddenly becoming a director of the company’s board, at a monthly salary of $50,000. Biden proclaims that he did nothing wrong.
Hunter is probably doing quite well, in contrast to workers laid off in the United States and the fired Ukrainian Prosecutor. His firing came because of vice president Biden, who was tape-recorded, bragging to reporters, that he would withhold aid monies from Ukraine unless the Prosecutor got fired. Prosecutor did get fired, which slowed the investigation to a snail’s crawl. Of course, the friendly media did not exploit the relationships or Hunter’s involvement in Ukraine. When President Trump moved to expose the mess, Democratic/Socialists in Congress investigated Trump, accused of financial improprieties. The impeachment articles, sent to the Senate, were defeated.
Joe Biden’s candidacy is a fraud. It is as much a fraud as his papers, articles, and speeches were when he got caught plagiarizing. Thanks to technology, we see first hand his strong support on issues that he now disavows. He’ll promise anything to be elected.
After trying five times, Biden winning the nomination of the Democratic/Socialist Party was a cakewalk when one reviews the lack of decent available candidates competing for the appointment. Now we await the choice of his Vice-President. The excitement builds because the only qualification he announced is that it must be a Black female. That declaration is just plain identity politics, pure and simple.
Why only a Black female? He needs to hold the Black population’s votes if he is to win the election. Since the 2016 election, President Trump made significant inroads in reducing the Democrats/Socialist party pluralities across the country. 
His immediate announcement before he received the formal endorsement or nomination is the basic political pandering of identity politics. Potential Black female VP candidates, so far, haven’t demonstrated any experience in governing a large organization private or public. At this date, their main attraction is that they are Black. Remember Biden’s famous line when running against Barack Obama about Obama being a nice looking, clean Black man who spoke “nice.”
Joe Biden hides in his basement, rarely speaking to a hostile press. If he speaks to a news outlet, he scripts his answers and limits the questions asked. Listening to his rare comments, one becomes as confused as he seems to be. The shame of a compliant press, covering up his confusing responses and inconsistencies, isn’t only alarming but also embarrassing. He makes few public appearances, probably at the urging of his party. His gaffs and misspoken statements are great for late-night talk show entertainment. You can bet that China and Russia and Iran will salivate over his winning the presidency.
On the other hand, whether on the way to a meeting, helicopter, or a cabinet meeting, Despite the press’ hostility, he stands tall, speaking without a script with a command of the subject and facts to support his positions. A Comparison of leadership styles gives Trump a distinct advantage in all respects. Why, after fifty years of trying, should anyone believe Joe Biden is finally ready to assume the presidency. What has he accomplished to deserve the highest office in the world? His record is clear, nothing.
One conclusion reached in a Quora article entitled “What Are Joe Biden’s Major Accomplishments,” says that Biden and his son Hunter expected that with Hillary’s win, the gravy train would continue. With her loss to a populist President Trump, the gravy train stopped. When that occurred, the ex VP realized that his finances plummeted. Given the attention that his son Hunter was now receiving, Biden opted to run and win to stop the bleeding. It’s all about the money.
Since his son can no longer leverage foreign entities, it becomes easy to see that Biden is eager to obtain the kind of wealth that the Clintons, Obama’s, Bushes, and other prominent political families enjoy. Joe Biden is an opportunist; he is in it for the money. The Democrat/Socialist Party has no one else with any credibility or name recognition. Outside of far-left Warren and very far-left Sanders, they now try to portray Biden as a moderate candidate even though he has adopted the far-left Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren platform on which he will have to campaign during his bid for the presidency. But that’ll be easy for Joe Biden to do since he has no real beliefs.
Biden isn’t a moderate. He stands for whatever anyone wants him to be. Contrary to Biden, President Trump stands for what he believes and tells you so. In an op-ed in the WSJ, former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said, “Mr. Biden abandoned his decade long support for the Hyde Amendment, restricting federal funding for abortion.” He goes on to state…” and promises to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide employees with insurance for contraception and abortifacients.” (WSJ 8/20).
After receiving an inheritance from his father, President Donald Trump built a business that expanded into a multi-million dollar corporation. He is wealthy on his own and became president without being beholden to large money PACs or corporate donors. He works for the grand sum of $1.00 per year, donating his $400,000 salary to charitable causes. The opposition continuously criticizes him for using the presidency to gain wealth. It ignores the facts that his businesses have suffered because he is not actively operating them. In contrast, Biden is beholden to PAC money and large donations from hidden donors.
Donald Trump is his own man, beholden to no one, but the American Dream. He believes in this country’s strengths, supports law and order, revers our military, its veterans, and committed to abolishing the entrenchment of civil servants and career politicians who cohabit “The Political Swamp.” President Trump doesn’t apologize for our past; he works to correct injustices and believes in the Greatness of our country. 
Under the most difficult of times, President Trump has delivered to the American People what he has promised. His opposition, as a result of their losing an election they were “supposed” to win, started a campaign to unseat the president before he was even inaugurated. They work day and night tirelessly to obstruct his efforts. With a cooperative media, at their disposal, no longer a free, unbiased press, they spread untruths, distort, and vigorously attempt to smear him. 
Investigation after investigation consistently reveals nothing but their hoax upon America. Because the Democrat/Socialists control the House of Representatives, they can spend millions of wasted taxpayer dollars that could have been better used to improve our infrastructure, health care, or provide jobs. But no, they decided to try and scandalize a sitting president they could not defeat in a free election. Their approach to the coming presidential election grounded on identity politics and a smear campaign they are so comfortable in utilizing.
President Trump believes in this country, its values, and its freedoms. He is anything but a fraud; if anything, he is direct and to the point – the real thing. His strength is that he is a businessman, astute in world affairs, and is not apologetic for America’s success. He deserves reelection so he can continue to “clean the swamp.“
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on IF ONE LOOKS AT JOE BIDEN’S BACKGROUND AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE, NOTHING STANDS OUT. IF ANYTHING EMERGES IT IS HIS FAILURE TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING OF SIGNIFICANCE