Here are my observations and opinions from my selected news of the day.
THE GREEN NEW DEAL – Surely, you have heard about the crazy proposal New York’s socialist Democrat Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) introduced to prevent the end of the world in 12 years as she predicted last month.
It seems as though AOC didn’t want others to see the content of her Green New Deal. (Screengrab)
Disturbed by fellow Democrats for failing to act in a sufficiently aggressive manner to combat what she believes is an immediate, existential threat, AOC has decided to take charge.
“People who abdicate that responsibility by calling themselves liberal or a Democrat, or whatever, I feel a need for all of us to breathe fire,” she said.
I don’t intend to repeat here the ridiculous plan she unveiled to de-carbonize the U.S. economy and solve every social problem within ten years. However, I believe you should know that a number of key Democrats, including those who have announced a run for the presidency, have either signed-on to her proposal or have endorsed it publicly.
But first, you should know that her leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who claims to not having read the proposal, calling it the “Green Dream,” simultaneously announced members of her new special committee on climate change that did not include the name of Ocasio-Cortez. (More on this later.)
Partnering with AOC was Massachusetts liberal Sen. Ed Markey, longtime considered the leading representative of “the sky is falling” environmental crowd.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who wants to be the first black woman to be elected president, is a co-sponsor and has stated that climate change is an “existential threat to our country, our planet, and our future.”
Then there’s Sen. Cory Booker, who challenged those who criticized the plan saying, “If we used to govern our dreams away, we would never have gone to the moon. We have to deal with this. Our planet is in peril, and we need to be bold.”
Not to be left out, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who now admits she is not part Cherokee, has endorsed the plan that “ambitiously tackles the climate crisis, economic inequality, and racial injustice.”
“Economic inequality and racial injustice?” you ask. What is that doing in a proposal to end our use of fossil fuels? It’s part of her socialist goals “to promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repair historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth.”
I trust you heard about the government paying people unable or unwilling to work.
Why, you may be asking, are these people supporting this proposal when they certainly know that legislation derived from it would never pass. It’s simple. They know their base loves it, especially those ideological millennials.
With opposition to it coming from the right, it gives Democrats another opportunity to paint Republicans as uncaring people.
Kramerontheright cautions not to dismiss Ocasio-Cortez and the socialist movement out of hand. Consider that most voters get their news from the Trump opposition media that will support her just because President Trump removed the U.S. from the Paris Accord on climate and has resolved that we will not become a socialist nation.
CNN didn’t waste any time in providing its miniscule audience the marvels of this proposal when CNN Newsroom host Brooke Baldwin interviewed far-left climate activist Bill Weir. Cutis Houck of MRC’s NewsBusters called it a “criticism-free lovefest in honor of the Green New Deal.”
NOW, BACK TO PELOSI’S House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis that I referred to above. She has named nine Democrats, who she said “bring great energy and deep expertise to the climate crisis, which jeopardizes our public health, our economy, our national security and the whole of God’s creation.”
One of the members, Rep. Ben Lujan (D-NM), has received more than $522,000 from individuals and PACs linked to energy interests. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), the committee chair, has taken in $72,000 from individuals and PACs from energy and natural resources industry. The other members have averaged energy contributions of $70,000 each, according to Haris Alic of the Washington Free Beacon.
AHH, THOSE WONDERFUL AUTO IMPROVEMENTS – With each new year, auto manufacturers introduce marvelous state-of-the-art features to make our time behind the wheel or as a passenger more comfortable, informational and entertained.
Unfortunately, many car owners still don’t utilize one of the basic features introduced in the 1950s … turn signals. The subject came up while riding in a golf cart yesterday as we drove from the cart path to a fairway. I told my fellow golfer how my Missus often notes how strange it is that the late model car turning ahead of us did not have turn signals.
That evoked a discussion on how we use our directional signals, and continued the next day as he sent me a clever piece from the Internet by rebelmarket.com. It states: “People are excited about the new iPhone but no one has caught up with the awesome technology of using your blinker when you drive.”
Please … use your turn signals when turning and changing lanes.
THE WRATH OF KLOBUCHAR? – I touched on the reputation of Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as one of the worst Congressmen to work for on January 17, 2019, mentioning the high staff turnover in her office.
Two stories surfaced this week that poured additional fuel to controversy. One, written by Jeffrey Cimmino of the Washington Free Beacon relates an incident during which Klobuchar threw a binder at a staffer.
Huff Post carried a story that former Sen. Harry Reid spoke to Klobuchar privately in 2015, and told her to change her behavior, but when contacted for corroboration of the story by John Sexton of Hot Air, a Reid spokesperson said he didn’t recall such a discussion.
I am reminded of the back and forth between Klobuchar and Judge Kavanaugh when she asked him if he had ever lost his memory from drinking: “You’re saying there’s never a been a case where you drank so much that didn’t remember what happened the night before or part of what happened?”
In his response, Kavanaugh asked if she has blacked out after drinking: “If you’re asking about blackout. I don’t know, have you? He later apologized for his glib response, indicating that it wasn’t respectful of him.
Klobuchar was one of 48 minority senators to vote “no” on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. I wondered, under different circumstances, how Klobuchar might have responded if questioned about her temperament. If she decided to enter the presidential race, her temperament, not her drinking, is bound to surface and she will be on the receiving end of the kind of questioning she has become known for.
MORE THAN DISCOURTEOUS – After a week of planning by students at South Carolina State University for an appearance by Democrat presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on February 8, 2019, she cancelled her appearance just 27 minutes before it was to take place, according to Meg Kinnard, writing @MegKinnardAP.
JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS – U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended several illegal immigrants along the Texas border with Mexico where there are no barrier walls to deter illegal crossings, according to Eddie Scarry of the Washington Examiner.
Among those caught were a Mexican man with a previous conviction for child molestation in Georgia, a Honduran man with a record in North Carolina showing a conviction for indecent liberties with a child, and another Honduran man with a Florida record identifying him as a member of the violent MS-13 gang.
May God bless the United States of America.
