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Political correctness

Biden mocked

February 16, 2020

Mike Huckabee

Considering that Joe Biden’s hopes for staying alive in the Presidential race rest on turning out black voters for him in South Carolina, I can’t help thinking that his strategy for appealing to them wasn’t very well thought out. He’s running an ad that’s mostly positive until it suddenly takes a negative turn and tries to paint President Trump as a racist and America as a nation where black people are struggling to survive. He also repeats the same quote from the Rev. James Cleveland (“I ain’t no ways tired”) that Hillary Clinton famously used in 2007 and that caused her to be roundly mocked and accused of racist pandering (as Joe now is, by Deroy Murdock.)

https://www.foxnews.com/media/deroy-murdock-responds-to-bidens

And who thought it was a good idea to include that photo of the so-called “cages” at the border? I know Democrats love to blame Trump for those (actually, they are detention facilities, not “cages”), but did nobody on Joe’s staff think anyone would point out the fact that they were actually built under the Obama/Biden Administration?

If Biden wants to appeal to black voters, I’d think the last thing he’d want to do is ask them to think about how things are going for them now (wages rising, black and black youth unemployment and black poverty rates all at record lows) and vote to go back to the way things were when Obama was President. Here’s a thought: try appealing to black voters by telling them how he’s going to improve things for Americans of all races, instead of trying to frighten them by saying the other guy is a racist and wants to “put y’all back in chains” (one of his previous unfortunately quotes.) Except that would require policies that would actually improve on what’s already working. This is why we get demagoguery, pandering and race-baiting: because that’s easy and actually improving people’s lives is hard.

Trump’s MISTAKE Was Not Firing Colonel Vindman Sooner

February 16, 2020

Mike Huckabee

I’m not sure a lot of Americans pay much attention to the chatter-heads on liberal media who hate President Trump so much that they’ve become irrational and hysterical.

When the President dismissed Lt. Col. Vindman and his twin brother from their positions in the White House National Security Council office, you would have thought that the President personally went to their desks, grabbed them by the collar, and boot-kicked them out in 3 feet of snow on the White House Lawn. It was said to be vindictive, outrageous, unprecedented, unpatriotic, and that was just for starters.

Lt. Col VIndman deserves our respect for his decorated military service. What he does not deserve is to be treated like a martyr yanked from duty because he was just doing too great a job. And both he and his brother didn’t lose their paychecks. They went right back to the Pentagon and never missed one day of pay or benefits. What they lost were their positions at the White House on the staff of the National Security Council. My reaction was not to think it so very cruel, but to wonder why it didn’t happen sooner and why aren’t there more being ushered out the door.

Vindmam was a hold-over from the Obama administration. In sworn testimony before Congress several months ago, his direct supervisor complained of Vindman failing to follow the proper chain of command and seeming to think that the President ought to be taking more policy advice from him.

There are 2 kinds of government employees—there are civil service employees who supposedly are politically neutral and who have jobs from which they can almost never get fired—even when they should be. To fire one of them requires “cause.” And that cause has to be something criminal, aggresiously unethical, or grossly insubordinate. And it’s still VERY hard to get rid of them. Then there are those employees who have jobs defined as “serving at the pleasure of the President.” That’s a broad definition but it means these are political appointees and can be terminated without cause. It’s literally at the “pleasure of the President.” And if he has no pleasure with such a person, they can be frog-marched off the grounds because of what they ordered at Waffle House. No reason has to be given.

When I was governor, I oversaw over 70,000 employees. Most were civil service. It was easier to get Adam Schiff to decline a TV interview than fire one. But there were hundreds of employees that were deemed “at will, “ or who “served at the pleasure of the Governor.” I could fire them at any time for any reason. I fired quite a few, but not nearly enough.

Presidents (and Governors and Mayor for that matter) routinely replace political appointees from a previous administration and no one from the press makes a peep. On his first day in office, President Obama fired every single US attorney and every Ambassador President Bush appointed. Bush got rid of Clinton’s people. Not a scandal. Elections have consequences, and if you win, you get to put your own team on the field. Stop the crocodile tears about Vindman or anyone else who got sacked. If President Trump has made a mistake, it was not cleaning house on day one. He should not be expected to keep people around him who leak to the press, whine about the decisions of the Commander in Chief, or get upset when the person who went through the rigors of a campaign and got elected expect the people getting a paycheck from him to either show some loyalty or get the heck out. If there is one skill Donald Trump brought to the White House, it was one he got really known for on the long-running TV show “The Apprentice.” His signature line was “You’re FIRED!” I think he needs to be saying it a lot more!

Leftist tolerance

February 16, 2020

Mike Huckabee

Ever since I referred to that Internet commenter who insisted that most political violence is perpetrated by people on the right, I’ve been making a little room each day to include one of the many stories I get about leftist thugs using threats and violence to try to silence and intimidate people who disagree with them. It’s not even hard to find them, they come spilling over the news feeds every day. I could easily fill these pages with them, but that might get repetitious, so I’ll just share two more to make it three days in a row and figure I’ve made my point.

This one is about a New Hampshire tough guy who (allegedly) assaulted three Trump supporters, including a 15-year-old boy for wearing a MAGA cap.

https://www.westernjournal.com/new-hampshire-man-slaps-teen-trump-supporter-school-vote-police/

And this one is about some tolerant leftists at the University of Santa Cruz attacking some College Republicans, tearing up their information table and throwing their Betsy Ross American flag on the ground and spitting on it. Here’s a video showing it happening and displaying their faces quite clearly. One of the victims reported it to the campus police, and a name of one of the attackers was discovered via social media. Are they still students there? If so, why? Are they under arrest? If not, why not?

https://www.foxnews.com/us/protesters-wreck-college-republicans-info-table-spit-on-us-flag-at-uc-santa-cruz-video-shows

Nevada Union says no endorsement

February 15, 2020

Mike Huckabee

Interesting turn of events: Nevada’s powerful Culinary Workers’ Union announced that it will not endorse a candidate in the upcoming Democratic Primary. Joe Biden was counting on that endorsement. The union issued some boilerplate comments about how all the candidates are great, but it’s no secret that they don’t like Bernie Sanders’ idea of trading in their high quality, hard-won union worker health care benefits for “Medicare For All.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/powerhouse-nevada-union-declines-to-endorse-democratic-candidate

Since this is from Bloomberg.com, it naturally doesn’t mention that some political analysts wonder if Trump’s success in bringing back blue collar jobs, creating a booming economy (which is the lifeblood of a tourism town like Las Vegas), and presiding over rising wages might be forcing union bosses who reflexively back Democrats to listen to their members, who like what Trump is doing and don’t want to go back to the Democrats’ stagnation and war on free enterprise.

It's a mixed bag at the DOJ: big breaking news

February 15, 2020

Mike Huckabee

As we head into the weekend, the focus is once again on the Department of Justice, with multiple breaking news stories. First, in a dismaying development, they’ve decided after two years not to press charges against former deputy FBI Director Andrew “Andy’s office” McCabe for his “lack of candor” with FBI investigators concerning a media leak he approved.

McCabe was asked about this on CNN, where he now works as a paid contributor (surprise), and he lamented having to wait so long to find out he wouldn’t be charged. Former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman commented on FOX NEWS Friday afternoon, saying to those who see “inconsistency” that we should “appreciate a Justice Department that takes its time to thoroughly investigate, makes the tough decisions. It illustrates that Barr is independent, that the Justice Department is looking at the merits. And...I’m okay with the Justice Department when they decide not to bring a case. And, let’s face it, we’re all hoping that we can de-politicize the Justice Department.”

Well, that’s putting a positive face on it. He seems to be saying that what we see as “inconsistency” is actually a good thing: a sign the DOJ acting objectively, without regard to politics. Okay, but, it still looks like yet another example of the two-tier justice system. Members of Team Trump are investigated to within an inch of their lives, convicted on process crimes and given long prison sentences, while members of Team Hillary skate away to big-money book deals and contracts as contributors for CNN and MSNBC. As that is incongruous with our view of the “new” DOJ as run by Bill Barr, I have to postulate that there’s something more to this that we don’t know. (There better be.) It’s a developing story, having just been announced, and we’ll learn more soon.

In the meantime, the media will run with the headline and paint McCabe as the straight arrow in this story, the intended victim of Trump’s retribution. Never mind that he really did oversee media leaks and mislead investigators and also that he was apparently in on the “insurance policy” scheme with Comey, Strzok and Page --- none of whom have been charged, either.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-wont-pursue-criminal-charges-against-mccabe

This news sparked a rant from Becket Adams at the WASHINGTON EXAMINER that I think you’ll appreciate.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/andrew-mccabe-shows-that-only-an-fbi-man-can-get-away-with-lying-to-the-fbi

Also, it was announced Friday that the DOJ is hiring an outside prosecutor to review former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s case. As you know, Flynn is now mounting a vigorous defense through powerhouse attorney Sidney Powell and is trying to change his “guilty” plea. Tolman commented on this story as well, saying, “The entire Flynn chapter screams of politics. And then you start to see what’s been uncovered during the investigation –- that there was doubt in the investigators’ minds as to whether or not he was actually lying...Then you have the 302 reports, and that there were some mistakes made in there. So I LIKE that he’s doing this. Look [the attorney general’s] been around, he is bright, he is strong, and he works hard, and I hope this starts to squash all the discussion that the attorney general is just going to do what is politically expedient. He is not.”

“It’s a good move to get to the bottom of what happened in that prosecution,” he concluded.

It does seem to be a positive move. A hard look at what was obviously done to railroad Mike Flynn is just what he needs now. Let’s hope that’s what he gets.

Justice Department taps outside prosecutor to review handling of Michael Flynn case

Finger-pointing over the Oscars

February 15, 2020

Mike Huckabee

The Oscars were just seven days ago, and already, the ceremony is fading from memory (quick, who won Best Supporting Actress? Anyone?) But there’s still a lot of finger-pointing over who’s to blame for the record low ratings, and for audiences tuning out awards shows in general. Sure, much of it is changing times: Internet competition, being able to watch highlights on YouTube, etc. But the trend was downward before those things happened, and after years of dismissing complaints about leftwing stars giving condescending political lectures, even liberal media outlets are finally waking up to the realization that it’s a bad business strategy to insult half your audience. (Exception to Renee Zellweger, who thanked US troops during her Best Actress acceptance speech.)

At the link, conservative showbiz writer Christian Toto asks, “Is liberal media finally fed up with woke Hollywood?”

https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/liberal-media-woke-oscars/

Some liberal critics didn’t just pan the Oscar show but actually pointed out the hypocrisy of wealthy liberal celebrities in $10,000 outfits lecturing the rest of us on income inequality and quoting Karl Marx (“Workers of the world unite.”) I’m not certain if they’re upset about the hypocrisy or just about the celebrities being so obvious about it. But Toto asks if this was finally the year when the contrast between the stars’ ostentatious displays of privilege and their sanctimonious virtual signaling became so glaring that it was the last straw.

Bonus points: Toto includes Jane Fonda’s defensive tweet that she was “wearing Pomellato jewelry because it only uses responsible, ethically harvested gold and sustainable diamonds.” I always say that when a wealthy communist sympathizer is lecturing me on the evils of capitalism, it isn’t hypocritical as long as her gold is ethically harvested and her diamonds sustainable.

On that subject, Johnathan Jones at Western Media reveals what was in the gift bags that were given to the celebrity guests at the Oscars.

https://www.westernjournal.com/celebs-rail-income-inequality-collect-225k-swag-bags-oscars/

Each swag bag was worth over $225,000, and included such goodies as a 24-karat-gold bath bomb, a silk kimono robe equipped with a smartphone app, designer sunglasses, vegan meals from PETA, a gold-plated vaping pen, free plastic surgery and matchmaking services, and a luxury cruise to Australia that includes access to a helicopter and a submarine (don’t worry, Greta, I’m sure they all run on hydrogen, not fossil fuels.) Jones points out that since Joaquin Phoenix hates the dairy industry so much, he could have sold his swag bag and bought 40,000 gallons of almond milk to hand out to L.A.’s 58,000 homeless people.

To be fair, it is possible that some of that swag will end up going to poor, underpaid immigrants, if the stars decide to give it to their housekeeping staffs. And you can’t expect everyone to be generous enough to donate their entire salaries to charity. Only President Trump does that.

Cuomo meets with Trump

February 15, 2020

Mike Huckabee

After a few days of public name-calling, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo actually met with President Trump on Thursday to talk about the Administration’s decision to remove New Yorkers from Global Entry and several other Trusted Traveler Programs that let people avoid long lines when returning from abroad.

Cuomo has been railing that it was political retribution and trying to paint it as a personal attack by Trump on New York with nefarious racist intentions. In fact, it was done because the databases to insure travelers are allowed in the US legally and don’t have criminal records are based on state drivers’ license records – and New York recently started giving licenses to undocumented immigrants and blocking the feds from seeing their state motor vehicle database with the necessary background information.

In short, the state expects federal agencies entrusted with guarding national security to have as little regard for who someone is and whether they’re in America legally or not as New York liberal Democrats do.

Not unexpectedly, there were no breakthroughs in the meeting, although Cuomo signaled a willingness to compromise a little by restoring federal access to driving records “on a limited basis.” Which is useless, not just because it’s limited but because having a New York drivers’ licenses will still be no guarantee that someone has the legal right to be in America at all. And he’s still vowing that “If they think they're going to extort New York into giving them a database of undocumented people, they're wrong. I will never do that."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-cuomo-fail-to-reach-agreement-global-entry-suspension-sanctuary-state

It’s a welcome development to see Cuomo at least putting aside the overheated rhetoric for an hour and having a White House meeting with Trump “as if he’s the President.” But if he expects Trump to compromise on national security, I think he’s barking up the wrong tree. Gov. Cuomo needs to realize that as chief executive of his state, it’s his sworn duty to faithfully execute the laws, not to aid and abet people who violate them. His government’s indulgence for lawbreakers is already causing a spike in crime in New York, and President Trump is absolutely correct to hold firm in refusing to allow the contagion to spread to the federal level.

It's too bad all New Yorkers have to pay for the stubbornness and bad policies of their politicians. But if you elect people who refuse to take their jobs seriously and respect federal law, then go stand in the back of the line.

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