By Mike Huckabee

Interesting analysis of the trends in support or opposition to abortion over the past 20 or so years. Even though the nation as a whole is about equally divided on the issue, support for abortion among Democrats has risen to 71%. The party faithful have gone so far into the “pro-choice under all circumstances” tank that a moderate Democrat with views like those of the more pro-life Independents that Dems need to attract could never hope to win a Democratic nomination.

Democrats who wonder why they keep losing, and blame it on everything from sexism to Russia, might want to consider that maybe they’re becoming like the mock rock group, Spinal Tap: they aren’t losing their audience. Their appeal is just becoming “more selective.”

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

Thank God it’s Saturday, so we can tune out the news media’s week-long Russia hysteria and dud “bombshells” and share something fun. The Huffington Post has a well-earned reputation as one of the shining examples of liberal elite bubble media outlets. They were so out-of-touch with most of America that they refused even to report on Trump’s campaign except as entertainment, they put a derisive disclaimer on every story about him, and on Election Day, they gave Hillary a 98.1% chance of winning. Naturally, their “reporters” have spent the past few months either raging against an unjust cosmos or curled up in the fetal position, sucking their thumbs in their safe spaces.

But to their credit, HuffPo’s editors finally realized that maybe – just maybe – it’s not good business to be completely clueless about more than half of America. So in the spirit of Christopher Columbus, Lewis and Clark, and a lot of other racist imperialists they despise, they’ve forced some of their Ivy League hothouse reporters onto a bus and sent them on a scientific expedition to 23 red states, to mingle with the savages and try to figure out what makes them tick. They’re calling it the “Listen To America” tour, although it’s questionable just how much listening they’ll really do.

Of course, they could have saved a lot of time, effort, gas money and embarrassment if they’d just bought my book, “God, Guns, Grits and Gravy,” in which I tried to warn media elites how out of touch with “flyover” country they were, nearly a year before the election. But that would’ve required them to actually listen to a rube from Arkansas, so that’s out of question.

Anyway, the truly fun part of this story is that it turns out Red Staters don’t take too kindly to being examined like bugs on a glass slide. The HuffPo bus expedition has sparked an avalanche of hilarious parody tweets, depicting the mysterious and terrifying sights the liberals are seeing (Note to HuffPo: yes, we actually have Twitter between L.A. and the Hudson River. See, you’ve already learned something!)

Click the link and brace for some gut-bustingly hilarious tweets. One warning: this also includes a screen capture of a genuine HuffPo political opinion piece, so be on notice that the headline contains extreme profanity. That’s another thing the reporters will probably be shocked to discover is not standard practice at the Tuscaloosa News.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

This gives a whole new meaning to the term “crazy cat lady”: a writer at the feminist magazine Medusa is urging people not to give their pets gender-specific names because animals can’t tell you if they are transgendered and might be offended by it. And that just scratches the surface of the insanity. This link goes to a fun commentary and excerpts, but click through to the original article to read the drivel in full, then check out some of the comments if you enjoy laughing like a non-cis-gendered hyena. As one commenter notes, this may be the stupidest thing on the Internet today, and that’s really saying something.

By the way, if you have a cat trapped in a dog’s body, or a bird trapped in a cat’s body, that usually means you need to give those animals the Heimlich maneuver and make them cough up the cat or bird so it can get away.

READ MORE

Contrary to popular belief, this Republican Congress is managing to get some things done before its current session ends. But the strategy of “do something even if it’s wrong” isn’t the best way to govern.

Thanks to the votes of 24 Republicans, the House rejected an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, proposed by Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, which would have stopped the military from funding treatment relating to gender transition, including sex-change surgery, for members of the military and their families. The vote was 214-209. Under the Obama administration, the military began recognizing “gender dysphoria” as a medical diagnosis and approving payment for all related treatments, even though soldiers recovering from gender “reassignment” surgery would typically be non-deployable for up to 267 days afterwards and those needing ongoing hormone treatments might be non-deployable into the far future.

The amendment would have continued to fund psychological treatment for gender dysphoria. And that makes sense.

According to Congressional aides, Hartzler was contacted by Defense Secretary James Mattis and asked to pull the amendment before it came to a vote. Mattis has said he’s postponing the July 1 deadline to start accepting transgender applicants by six more months to allow further study by military leaders. Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter enacted the new policy only last summer; that’s when service members started being forced into training on it, even though no openly transgender recruits have been accepted yet. Female recruits have reportedly had to sit through a PowerPoint presentation on allowing biologically male soldiers into the women’s shower with them.

As long as the amendment did make it to the floor, it seems unbelievable that 24 Republicans voted it down. Six others didn’t vote at all. Of course, one of those was Majority Whip Steve Scalise, but he had a good reason: he’s still recovering from surgery himself, the kind that is definitely not elective.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

So powerful was President Trump’s excellent speech in Poland last week defending Western civilization and American values that leftists are still soaking their Che Guevara T-shirts with mouth foam over it. It’s the usual litany of SJW clichés: promoting American exceptionalism makes him a Nazi, fascist, racist, classist, xenophobe, homophobe, imperialist, you name it. They have been indoctrinated by their teachers, professors and the media with the religion of multiculturalism, the belief that all other cultures are not just equal to ours but superior, and that America is to blame for all the problems of the world (well, America and capitalism – they like to use their iPads to tell people where to drive their cars to protest capitalism...and CO2 emissions).

Well, if you are one of the “Blame America First” group -- if you really think that other cultures are superior to ours, and that people who oppose, say, Sharia law or immigrants who refuse to assimilate are just bigots and haters -- then I have a modest proposal for you:

Go back to where you came from.

Now, before you rush to your iPhone to send me angry, anti-capitalist Twitter tweets, let me make clear what I mean. I’m not saying “love it or leave it” or move out of America permanently, although if you really hate it that much, there are planes and ships leaving all the time. No, what I’m suggesting is that for your next vacation, why not spend some time in whatever country your ancestors called home before they came to America? Except for Native Americans, we’re all immigrants. So if you put your personal identity group ahead of your American identity – if you think that American culture is evil and inferior to the cultures that your ancestors used to be part of – then why not spend a week or two reconnecting with your roots? And I don’t mean in a five-star resort, but in the same places your ancestors lived when they decided it was worth risking their lives to get the heck out and come to America.

Take a vacation from America’s horrific culture of sexism, racism, homophobia and oppression. If you’re a woman, try going for a nice drive in Saudi Arabia. Make a derisive joke about God being a “flying spaghetti monster” in Iran. Ask someone in Cameroon or Uganda to direct you to the nearest gay bar. Call the national leader filthy names in front of a TV camera in China, Cuba, Russia, Sudan, North Korea, or various African nations run by warlords. Even in the UK, try getting your own child life-saving medical treatments if government health bureaucrats disapprove.

If you do take that vacation back to the wonderful culture your ancestors fled to America to escape, and you manage to make it back alive, I have a feeling you’ll have developed a newfound respect for Western culture and values. No, of course America isn’t perfect, but compared to the rest of the world, it’s pretty darn close. That's because America isn’t based on ethnicity, tribalism, ancient geographical borders or the divine right of kings; it’s based on a written set of principles and human rights, like freedom of speech and religion, property rights, individual merit and equality under the law. That’s why it’s such a dynamic and cutting-edge nation: because its people had the guts and ambition to look at what was around them and say, “There’s got to be someplace better than this, and I’m going to find it or die trying.” Americans are those people and their descendants.

There’s nothing wrong with being proud of the American values the Founders bequeathed to us. You should be. It doesn’t mean you have to abandon your roots, you should just think of yourself as an American first. Just like you don’t have to stop loving your mom just because you moved away from her and now you put your wife first.

If you really want to honor your ancestors, then try to understand why they left their native lands to come here. It wasn’t so that someday, their children’s children’s children could be so spoiled that they fail to appreciate the tremendous blessing their immigrant ancestors gave them by becoming US citizens and assimilating into American culture.

LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW. I READ THEM!

By Mike Huckabee

It’s not an easy job to tackle gang violence, particularly when you’re dealing with a gang like MS-13. This brutal Mexican gang has spread across the US border, infiltrated the illegal immigrant community, and embarked on a deadly crime wave. Combating them seemed to be a hopeless mission – especially when your leader would rather not get involved, your Border Patrol and immigration officials have their hands tied, and local officials are refusing to cooperate with federal law.

But all that took an abrupt about-face seven months ago, and we’re already starting to see the results. Click the link to see how many gang members have been arrested and deported so far this fiscal year, and to hear the Dirty Harry-like warning that ICE acting director Thomas Homan has for MS-13 and other gang members. The days of shrugging off their lawlessness as if nothing can be done to stop them are over.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

CNN anchor Poppy Harlow is enduring plenty of horselaughs after the network’s live coverage of the Trump-Macron press conference, when she said we were listening to the French national anthem as “The Star-Spangled Banner” was playing. It’s easy to mock her, but I’ll cut her some slack: having been on TV during live broadcasts myself, I know things might not have been as they appeared. Maybe she couldn’t hear the live music and was fed the wrong information through her ear piece. It’s live TV and mistakes happen. Click the link to the video and decide for yourself.

But while you’re there, also check out the list of other recent embarrassing CNN mistakes for which there’s really no excuse.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

Crank up the liberal media outrage machine! According to a new insider tell-all, the White House staff is rife with sexist, frat “bro” behavior. The President curses and makes crude anatomical jokes while his all-white, all-male speechwriters openly boast about using their powerful positions to target women for sex!

It’s horrifying! It’s outrageous! There should be investigations, firings, impeachment proceedings!...

Oh, wait: you say this was the OBAMA White House staff?

Never mind, then, as you were…

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson put a stopwatch to the media’s feeding frenzy over Donald Trump Jr’s. 10-month old pointless meeting with a Russian lawyer to show that there must not have been any other news anywhere in the world yesterday. He found that 93% of Wednesday’s CNN morning show was devoted to (I feel like a “Brady Bunch” rerun) “Russia! Russia! Russia!” CNN spent 2 hours and 16 minutes on Russia, 8 minutes on health care reform (which genuinely affects every American) and 2 minutes on sports.

In case you tuned it out (and I can’t imagine why you’d do that), here’s everything you really need to know about it, summed up in five short points. And then, back to the real world…

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

Word to the wise: Technology can now create a completely realistic video that shows the subject appearing to speak the words of a totally separate audio track.

The story at the link talks about practical applications without addressing the nefarious purposes to which this new ability can (and will) be applied, but one can well imagine a few. It’s easy to see how a person on video could be made to “speak” a highly edited version of what he or she originally said. The result would be seamless, as if the edits hadn’t been made. See for yourself --- it is stunning.

To extend the possibilities even more, there’s a new AI called “Lyrebird” that can duplicate a person’s voice, creating entirely new sentences as if they’d actually been spoken. That’s right, with this application, we’ll literally be able to put words in someone’s mouth. We’re headed into uncharted waters, folks. If you thought politics was a dirty game before, just wait till this is in common use!

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

Well, it’s Wednesday afternoon. Is it safe to turn the TV back on yet? When I went to bed last night, so many Democratic politicians and cable news talking heads were having a meltdown that I was afraid my television would overheat.

The cause of all this anguished bloviation was, of course, Donald Trump Jr. releasing all his emails and openly admitting to Sean Hannity that, yes, about 10 months ago during the campaign, he agreed to a meeting with a Russian attorney whom he had been told might have incriminating information about Hillary Clinton’s shady dealings with Russia. It turned out she didn’t, it was a ridiculous waste of time, and he cut it short after 20 minutes and forgot about it. I don’t know what shocked these liberals more: that he had the meeting or that someone in politics actually released his emails to the public and openly admitted something.

This shocking revelation caused what passes for today’s Democratic leadership (Schumer, Franken, Kaine, et al) to gather before the cameras with grave faces and suggest in all seriousness that we could be dealing here with Russian collusion, perjury, even treason. Well, at least it’s nice to know that they now oppose all three of those things. They said Trump Jr. had now admitted that someone connected to the Russian government had colluded with the campaign to harm Hillary Clinton -- which might be worrisome if the attorney were connected to the Russian government (she apparently isn’t) and possessed any information on Hillary (she didn’t). Or if any actual crime had been committed, which genuine legal experts seriously doubt.

MORE

I only wish they’d taken things like the ISIS threat to infiltrate the refugee population with terrorists half as seriously as they did Donald Trump Jr.’s farcical time-waster of a meeting. Or cared half as much about collusion with Russia when their own presidential candidate was raking in millions of dollars in donations to her family foundation from dodgy Russian sources while signing off on selling Russian interests a fifth of the US uranium supply. Well, live and learn!

Here’s a round-up of the past 24 hours’ worth of hysteria, in case you had more important things to occupy your time: READ HERE

On the other side of the fence, defenders of Trump Jr. called his agreement to take the meeting a stupid rookie political mistake (I don’t think Russia has had “crown prosecutors” since about 1917), but admitted that all campaigns are willing to listen to damaging information about their opponents; they’d just let a lower-level lackey handle the meetings. What do you think that anti-Trump “Russian dossier” was all about? Byron York in the Washington Examiner put it pretty well in an editorial entitled, “Trump Russia Investigation Takes Sharp Turn Toward The Dumb.”

MORE

In listening to all this hoohah, two things occurred to me that I haven’t heard anyone else mention. First, Trump Jr. admitted taking this meeting in hopes that he would learn something about Hillary Clinton’s alleged shady dealings with Russia. If the New York Times had put a fraction of the journalistic diligence into investigating that subject that they do to examining every syllable ever uttered by anyone within 100 yards of Donald Trump, he wouldn’t have needed to take the meeting. He could have read about Hillary’s shady dealings with Russia in the New York Times.

Secondly, according to the generally agreed-upon description of the meeting, the Russian attorney reportedly spoke nothing but inane nonsense. Paul Manafort just started reading his cell phone, Jared Kushner simply walked out after five minutes, and Trump Jr. listened politely for 20 minutes, then ran out of patience and went back to more important work. I couldn’t help thinking, “Man, how I envy them! I wish that every time someone started pratting on with inane nonsense about Russia, I could look at my cell phone, walk out or just go back to doing something more important.” Sadly, those three are now learning what millions of Americans already know: a major political party and a mass media machine are dead set on making sure we are all stuck listening to inane prattle about Russia to the detriment of everything more important for at least the next three-and-a-half years.

It’s enough to make you seriously consider playing Russian roulette.

Finally, if you missed it, here’s Sean Hannity’s message to the Russia-obsessed media: READ MORE

LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW.  I READ THEM.

By Mike Huckabee

It goes without saying that Nevada is like no other state, but here’s a new wrinkle: the Governor just issued a state of emergency because the supply of marijuana is running low. Just about 10 days after officially legalizing recreational pot, a bureaucratic logjam has prevented distributors from obtaining state licenses (that’s the trouble with drug-dealing, too much paperwork), while demand proved stronger than anticipated (seriously?!) And the state is depending on the 15% tax on legalized pot to fund the public schools (there’s a good lesson when you’re trying to teach kids to stay off of drugs: they pay your teacher’s salary). So the low stash of weed is considered a state crisis. Gee, if only there were some way they could mellow out.

I would comment further on this, but the entire system sounds like something that someone who was on drugs came up with. More details at the link.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

An unbelievable case of the IRS goose-stepping over the constitutional rights of small business owners is unfolding in Garland, Texas.

As first reported in the Dallas Morning News, Mii’s Bridal and Tuxedo, co-owned by husband and wife Tony and Somnuek Thangsongcharoen, who immigrated here from Thailand long ago and opened their store in 1983, was raided by 20 armed IRS agents in March of 2015. With no due process, they were told that if they couldn’t produce a check for $10,000 within two hours, their property would be seized to pay a tax bill of $32,422. They didn’t have the cash, so the IRS immediately took possession and auctioned off essentially everything that wasn’t nailed down --- even, they say, property that didn’t belong to the shop.

Read the full story to see how the IRS used their own bureaucratic standards to justify auctioning beautiful bridal gowns for as little as $4 apiece –- inventory worth $615,000 was unloaded for a grand total of $6,000 –- and how their lawyers argue now that the couple have no standing to sue the IRS for damages. The couple dispute their tax bill, but the big issue here is that the forfeiture of their property took place outside the court system –- no due process of law. It happens all the time, right here in America, and it has to stop.

The couple seem to have an on-the-ball attorney; he filed a FOIA request that turned up an internal IRS document that he claims orders agents to “shut down this failing business.”

It’s too bad that politics didn’t go another way and we weren’t able to get rid of the IRS in favor of the Fair Tax. (That would have been one of my first orders of business, but I digress.) We all know the kinds of things their agents have been up to, even as they plead the Fifth before investigators. We should destroy the IRS just as thoroughly as it has killed the dreams of these and many other people. Put a stake through its cold, cold heart. In the meantime, forcing it to toe the line of constitutionality would be a good start.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

There’s been a dramatic new development in the case of Charlie Gard, the British infant with a rare genetic disorder whose parents are fighting to take him to America for an experimental treatment, while his hospital and European courts have ruled that his life support should be turned off to let him die.

The obvious trampling of the rights of the desperate parents has struck a chord of sympathy worldwide, resulting in support from the Pope, President Trump and major pro-life groups, as well as a petition signed by over 350,000 people. With a worldwide spotlight turned on them, the British hospital administrators suddenly saw the potential in the experimental treatment, but they claim their hands are tied by the court order to turn off his life support. So on Monday, the parents were back in court for a hearing, trying to convince the original judge that the treatment is worth pursuing so he’ll lift the de facto death sentence on Charlie.

Judge Nicolas Francis said he is with the petitioners who want to save Charlie’s life, but he’ll only be swayed by medical evidence, not tweets, and it will take “drastic” new evidence to convince him to overturn his original decision. The experimental treatment reportedly has only about a 10 percent chance of working. But in a heartbreaking mother’s plea, Charlie’s mom Connie Yates told the judge, “Ten percent. You would if it was your son, wouldn’t you?”

Therein lies the real point of this battle: of course, if the judge’s son were facing death and there were only a 10 percent chance of saving him, he would take those odds in a heartbeat. But under the very system he represents – one in which life-and-death health care decisions are made by the government, based on statistics and budgets and cold bureaucracy – fathers and mothers don’t have that option. This innocent child’s life is not in the hands of the parents who love him, but those of a judge who admits he'd like to let the parents try to save the boy, but his first loyalty is to the rules. If that results in their baby’s death, then so be it.

And people really want to import this health care system to America?

By Mike Huckabee

The pro-life group Operation Rescue became suspicious when they noticed a huge drop in the number of visitors to their page on abortion statistics, once the most popular page on their website. So they did some investigating and discovered that Google had started dropping their site to the second page of search returns, well behind pages for several pro-abortion groups.

This alleged censorship comes right on the heels of Twitter being accused of censoring pro-life tweets, using such feeble excuses as claiming that an ultrasound picture of a baby in the womb or criticism of Planned Parenthood were hate speech, or that a message to choose birth over abortion violates their ban on “the promotion of health and pharmaceutical products and services.”

The great promise of the Internet was that it would free up the flow of information to every corner of the world. Not surprisingly, as information about what's actually happening in the womb has become more widespread, support for abortion has dropped. Unfortunately, some of those who’ve grown very rich by relaying that information seem to think they now have the power to decide what does (and doesn’t) get seen. That type of arrogant gatekeeper attitude is what caused so many old-line media outlets to fall before the Internet. It would be ironic if the Internet giants that felled them started displaying the same arrogance and bias, and ended up being replaced themselves. I would note, though, that thanks to the Internet, finding alternatives would be easier than ever.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

The man who shot Rep. Steve Scalise was a well-known Bernie Sanders supporter who filled his social media posts with far-left, anti-capitalist rants. Before he started shooting, he asked if the players on the baseball field were Republicans or Democrats, to make sure he was only assassinating Republicans, like the ones on the “kill list” he was found to be carrying in his pocket.

So, what do you think the motivation for his outburst of violence was? If you guessed that he was inspired to kill Republicans by listening to conservative talk radio, then congratulations: you could qualify for a job at the Washington Post!

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

One thing that made it harder for a while to buy a used car was Obama’s “Cash For Clunkers” program. That was the recession-era attempt to jump-start the economy, shore up the auto industry and help the environment by giving Americans taxpayer money to trade in their older cars on newer, cleaner models. It was the ultimate example of the Keynesian economics beloved by liberals: using government money to stimulate the economy.

Now, a detailed study of the results has been released by researchers at MIT and Texas A&M. It found that “Cash For Clunkers” was a clunker itself, failing on every level. It didn’t stimulate the economy, it was a costly and inefficient way to reduce carbon emissions, and it had no impact on auto sales in the short term and a negative impact longterm. This isn't mentioned, but the older cars were destroyed, which also depleted the inventory of used cars usually purchased by poorer people. So it cost a lot, made matters worse and hurt the people it was supposed to help. It truly was the ultimate liberal government program!

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

Three of the most liberal state leaders in America (from California, New York and Virginia) are refusing to turn over all “publicly-available voter roll data” to President Trump’s bipartisan Election Integrity Commission. They claim they will not help perpetuate the “myth” of widespread voter fraud by showing the commission the records that, if they are correct, would disprove that there’s widespread voter fraud. Ooooookay. Sounds about as convincing as buying a used car from a particular dealer because he calls himself “Honest John.”

More details at the link on why people who care about honest elections should be outraged that anyone wants to see the voter records to verify that.

READ MORE

By Mike Huckabee

We’ve lost another of those familiar TV faces that baby boomers grew up with: Bill Dana passed away last week at his Nashville home at 92. Dana was both a familiar comic character actor and a writer who helped create some of the most beloved comedy bits of the past half-century-plus. He’s best known for a character that became a phenomenon in the ‘60s but could never exist in today’s PC age: Jose Jimenez.

Jose was a nervous Mexican immigrant with a humorously tenuous grasp of English who started every bit by declaring, “My name Jose Jimenez!” While Jose might be considered a dialect humor stereotype now, at the time, Latino groups honored Dana for creating a positive portrayal of a patriotic Mexican immigrant, and he was careful not to do any jokes he thought would seem offensive.

Beginning with his first appearance on the classic Steve Allen show (where Dana was head writer), his catchphrase swept the country. The Mercury 7 astronauts played his records so much that the first words spoken to an American in space came in 1961 when Deke Slayton told Alan Shepherd on blast-off, “Okay, Jose, you’re on your way!” Dana became friends with the astronauts, made a comedy record called “Jose the Astronaut” that was later included in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and he was named the first “honorary astronaut.”

But while Jose Jimenez was his most famous creation, it was only a tiny part of Bill Dana’s career. He played many roles, such as Sophia’s brother Angelo on “Golden Girls,” but stage fright made him prefer writing. He created many classic jokes for “Get Smart” star Don Adams (the “Would you believe?... bit was Dana’s) and wrote the most famous episode ever of “All in the Family,” where Archie Bunker meets Sammy Davis Jr. Surprisingly for someone who made millions laugh for over seven decades, Dana suffered from severe depression, and he wrote a book about the curative powers of laughter.

All this is only scratching the surface of his astonishing career. If you’d like to see an obituary that reads like a crash course in comedy history over the second half of the 20th century, click the link. I guarantee that if you don’t know Bill Dana, after you read about his life and see his face, you’ll say, “Oh, THAT guy! I loved him!”

READ MORE