Mike Huckabee

Tuesday, Minnesota Rep. and “Squad” member Ilhan Omar condemned the entire American way of life, telling an audience “As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality…We cannot stop at the criminal justice system. We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression wherever we find it.”

Conservatives immediately pointed out that Omar was openly calling for the destruction of the US political and capitalist economic systems, and demanded to know if Joe Biden and fellow Democrats backed those goals. Which is silly…they’d never admit that!

I take a more charitable view of Rep. Omar’s bloviations. Let’s look at the evidence:

She came to America as an immigrant from Somalia, a nation that is under the following travel advisory from the US State Department: “Do not travel to Somalia due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health issues, kidnapping, and piracy.” So at least we can assume she thinks America is slightly better than that or she wouldn't be here.

After having come to America, she got elected to the House, where she currently pulls down a healthy $174,000 a year. That’s about 773 times the average annual income in Somalia ($225 US.) She has parlayed that position into other lucrative areas, including a book deal for a memoir (“This Is What America Looks Like”) with an advance alone that was reported to be in the $100k-$250k range.

I think we can also assume that she will personally benefit from the reported $878,000 paid since 2018 to her latest husband’s political consulting firm out of donations to her Congressional campaign. They’re taking advantage of a loophole in the federal anti-nepotism law that bars Congress members from hiring relatives for government jobs but not from doing campaign work.

So while Rep. Omar might enrage a lot of people by seemingly wanting to turn America into Somalia, a more charitable view might be to take inventory of all the ways she’s turned into a money-grubbing capitalist since escaping Somalia for our oppressive, racist shores. Maybe mouthing a lot of anti-American, anti-capitalist garbage to her deluded leftist followers is just her business model. To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke underestimating the gullibility of rich liberals.

By the way, none of this is to suggest that I think she’s not a dangerous figure who shouldn’t be within 300 miles of government power. If her constituents are having trouble finding someone better to send to the House to replace her, I will happily provide them with a local phone book and a dart free of charge.

And now, a rebuttal to Rep. Omar by a Venezuelan refugee who has seen exactly where all her socialist rhetoric really leads (and it’s not to Rep. Omar’s now-fat bank account):

Mike Huckabee

Of all the Fourth of July celebrations in my lifetime, this was perhaps the strangest --- and also the most important for us to ponder.

The Fourth of July is usually a time to get together and enjoy our freedom as Americans, and we mostly take for granted that we will always have it. But the very fact that this year was so out of kilter should tell us how very much we have to lose. Leftists here in this country –- a trifecta of the power-mad, the indoctrinated and the ignorant –- want to “burn it all down” to set up a fantasy Marxist utopia ruled by identity politics, which is just another form of racism. Look around; they’re in the process of doing it. We can’t take our freedom for granted any longer.

We forget how quickly everything can change. A system of government can fall just like...THAT! (I’m snapping my fingers.) It’s like toppling a statue; no matter how much skill and care and artistry went into creating that unique piece, or how many centuries it has stood, it can be turned into rubble with one hard pull of a rope or a few sticks of dynamite. Even a constitutional republic like ours can be very quickly taken over and altered beyond recognition, with little or no hope of going back. We are at risk of that now.

Look at what China has done to Hong Kong in just a week. All it had to do was pass a law, and now Hong Kong authorities are forced to strengthen regulation of the media and the internet. Beijing also has given itself broad powers to deploy state security agencies and to establish a bureau overseeing “national security” in Hong Kong. As reported in BLOOMBERG NEWS, China may even block citizens of Hong Kong from leaving for the U.K. Thousands took to the streets last week in protest, but it won’t change any of this. The “one country-two systems” framework that has governed the former British colony since it was returned to China in 1997 is essentially over, now that China has chosen to disregard that agreement.

As Mike Pompeo said to Laura Ingraham on Monday, “We can see this is going to end up being just another Communist-run city. It’s unfortunate; Hong Kong was such a special place, where there were all the freedoms that the people of Hong Kong were promised by the Chinese Communist Party. It’s much like the promise they made to tell us the truth about where the coronavirus came from...It’s the same kind of broken promises that’ll lead the United States to take the right response.”

Fine; we should hold them accountable. But the CCP is going to steamroll Hong Kong anyway, just as surely as they rolled their tanks through Tiananmen Square. They are liars and not to be trusted. The rule of law has been eviscerated in Hong Kong; now it’s the rule of the CCP.

Alarm bells have sounded in Taiwan as well, as CCP control of social media also applies to the millions of Taiwanese messages of support for Hong Kong’s democracy movement and Taiwanese independence, as well as criticism of human rights abuses in China. Of course, they’re also worried that their country is next.

Hong Kong is now essentially just another Chinese city, according to Jillian Melchior of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. The people of Hong Kong weren’t even allowed to read the legislation before it was passed. What it does, she says, is criminalize dissent on a sweeping scale. “Basically anything but complete submission to Beijing is illegal,” she says. “It’s bringing the Chinese system of justice to Hong Kong.” She means even in the physical sense; mainland government offices will be coming there as well. In other words, there’s no need to extradite people from Hong Kong to China to exact “justice” –- China will just do it there. How conveeeenient.

Life in prison is now a very real possibility for anyone in Hong Kong who expresses dissent against the CCP. The same law also applies to foreigners, including journalists, who have spoken out against the CCP; they might risk arrest simply by stepping inside Hong Kong or even touching down at the airport there.

"This is the end of legal autonomy,” Melchior says, “and it’s the end of rights for Hong Kong’s people.” She’s talking about the basic rights we as Americans take for granted: freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of speech. And the law as written is so broad, it can be used to target anyone the government doesn’t like.

More details here.

So, since we’re talking about basic rights that Americans enjoy, let’s look again at the threats we as Americans face in the year 2020. In about four months (!), we’ve got an election coming that has the potential to bring about the end of many freedoms we enjoy. In case you didn’t know, leftists don’t like freedom. At least, not for you.

Let me tell you what is going to happen if the Democrats win in November. It doesn’t matter if Biden is at the top of the ticket or not or who is #2. Hard-core leftists run the party, and they will run the government like they’re the CCP and we are Hong Kong.

They will cement their power in numerous ways, with help from a compliant media. If they happen not to take the Senate, it won’t matter; they’ll just govern by executive order. They’ll fire Attorney General Barr and immediately close all investigations except those relating to President Trump. They’ll pack the Supreme Court with far-left judges. They’ll further reward schools for indoctrinating students into hating America. No monuments to America’s past will be left standing. Courts will rule in favor of states going around the Electoral College, effectively destroying it and making sure “flyover country” never gets a say in another presidential election. They’ll open borders, make Washington DC a state and let non-citizens vote, canceling out the votes of many citizens. With help from social media and the political correctness brigade, conservative speech will be shut down. The most reasonable, fact-based observations, even in fields such as science and technology, will be classified as “hate speech” and disallowed. Perhaps even the American flag will become "hate speech." The police will indeed be defunded, property rights will be disrespected, and more infringements will be made on the 2nd Amendment. Individual rights in general will be sacrificed to the god of identity politics, which will rule the day.

We don’t have to live in Hong Kong to experience a loss of personal rights on this level. We can just stay right here in America and let the far left take over our country in November. Think I’m exaggerating? Some of it is already happening. What did leftist-run American cities look like to you this Fourth of July?

Mike Huckabee

Another Trump comment that the Times took issue with was his assertion that Democrat-led cities have allowed violent thugs to run rampant in the streets. Seriously, where does he get these crazy ideas?

Maybe from watching the real news. Even the New York Times was forced to report the tragically bloody holiday weekend in Chicago, where at least 72 people were shot between Friday morning and Sunday night, 15 fatally. They included a 7-year-old girl who was visiting her grandmother when she was killed by drive-by shooters who attacked a family gathering with a number of children. Several other victims as young as 10 were wounded around Chicago.

New York City had 44 shootings with 63 victims, the direct result of Mayor Bill DeBlasio dismantling the effective policing that Rudy Giuliani instituted when he brought the city back from the devastation of the Dinkins years.

And in Atlanta, 8-year-old Secoriea Turner was riding in a car with her mother and another adult when they came too close to where protesters were gathered at the burned-out Wendy’s whose parking lot was the site of the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks. The group opened fire on the car, hitting it multiple times and killing that innocent little girl. She was black, but apparently, her life didn’t matter to them, any more than any of the other victims of the violence that’s raged since the death of George Floyd, something that people of all races and political views condemned. Over the weekend, four people including Secoriea Turner were killed in Atlanta alone.

The heartbreaking murder of Secoriea Turner finally – FINALLY – convinced Atlanta’s Democrat Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to say “enough is enough” and order the area around the former Wendy’s to be cleared out (so now, it’s enough lawlessness and death? And who will clear it out? The police I assume.) I wonder if even this would be enough if the Republican Governor, Brian Kemp, hadn’t declared a state of emergency and ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to Atlanta to protect government buildings that Bottoms would not protect.

Maryland’s Republican Governor may soon have to take the same stand in Baltimore.

Frankly, I'm sick of hearing these Democratic officials say, "Black lives matter," then standing back and allowing people to be killed by rampaging criminals. If any lives matter to them at all, then knock off the fatuous rhetoric and let the police stop the killing!

Mike Huckabee

I hope you had a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July weekend, which means I hope you didn’t turn on the news for the past four days, except to watch President Trump’s speech at Mount Rushmore. Here it is if you missed it, and if so, it’s today’s Must-See. It may be the most important speech of his Administration, and one of the most important of any President.

After weeks of riots, looting, arson, vandalism of national monuments and historic statues, slander of America’s founders, bullying and intimidation of law-abiding citizens and “canceling” of anyone who dares voice an opinion unapproved by the radical left mobs, Trump took to national television to stand up and fight back against leftist fascism and on behalf of America’s great heritage of liberty, justice and government of, by and for the people. In the most memorable line of a stunning speech, he declared that Americans “only bend the knee for God.”

Naturally, the anti-Trump media had a hair-on-fire hissy fit. The New York Times repeated the mischaracterization of his Inaugural speech by claiming that Trump gave a “dark and divisive” speech. The most hilarious bit was their claim that he created a liberal “straw man” by trying to convince us that the left is engaging in violence, rioting and anti-American radicalism. I have to assume that the Times’ reporters haven’t glanced at their own news pages in the past month.

Of course, for the Times, denying reality is par for the course.