Archive for the ‘Bernie Sanders’ Category

When Bernie Sanders told CNN that terrorists serving a life sentence and rapists should have the right to vote, Jesse Watters said that it was essentially the equivalent of Willie Horton 2.0. For those who are too young to know who Willie Horton is and what role he played in presidential politics, check out the 1988 election between George H.W. Bush and Democratic Gov. Michael Dukakis. Hint: it didn’t end well for Democrats.

This pandering (don’t kid yourself; that’s what this was) isn’t helping Sanders win the Democratic nomination. When you’re a Democrat and you’ve lost Cher, you’re in a difficult position. That’s where Sanders finds himself.

According to the article, “Cher took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to sound off on Sanders’ position in a since-deleted tweet. The Hollywood icon defended her stance, telling one of her critics that any convicted child molesters, rapists, or murderers of any race should not ‘keep [their] right to vote.'” I wholeheartedly agree.

Sanders’ explanation is timid at best:

“This is what I believe. Do you believe in democracy? Do you believe that every single American 18 years of age or older who is an American citizen has the right to vote?” Sanders later said. “This is a democracy. We’ve got to expand that democracy and I believe that every single person does have the right to vote.”

Actually, low voter turnout in a election is often a positive thing. When turnout is high, it’s often because people are mad as hell at the politicians. Occasionally, turnout is high because one side or the other finds a charismatic candidate. That doesn’t happen that often.

In 1994, Republicans turned out in huge numbers because they supported Newt’s Contract With America. In 2010, Republicans turned out in big numbers because Democrat politicians ignored them while shoving the ACA down our throats.

The point is that turnout often drops when people are satisfied. When I led the Vote No movement against the first Tech High School bonding referendum, turnout was high. The school board didn’t notice that their referendum was in trouble until the returns started coming in. By then, it was too late. The referendum was doomed because I helped expose the school board’s agenda.

Watch Bernie make a fool of himself:

If Bernie Sanders is the Democrats’ nominee, it’ll be a fantastic night for the GOP. During a Monday night townhall in New Hampshire, Crazy Bernie said something totally crazy. He said that the Boston Marathon bomber should have the right to vote.

Specifically, Sen. Sanders, right now the leader in the Democrat primary in New Hampshire, said “What we’re seeing is more young people getting involved in the political process, but not enough. In my view, if young people voted at the same percentage that older people voted in this country, we would transform this nation.

Then Sen. Sanders continued, saying “I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy, yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away … you’re running down a slippery slope. I believe that people commit crimes, they pay the price, but when they get out of jail they certainly should have the right to vote. But I do believe that even if they are in jail paying their price to society, that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.”

That’s breathtakingly stupid. Tonight on Fox News @ Night, Charlie Hurt said that good reporters look for early signs of a landslide in each election cycle. In Hurt’s estimation, this is one of the signs that Democrats are too crazy for America. I totally agree with that. Hurt then said that Sen. Sanders isn’t some freshman bomb-thrower in the House, an obvious jab at AOC. Sen. Sanders is the leader in New Hampshire.

What type of lunatic makes that types of statement? The Democrat mouthpieces on TV keep ‘reminding’ us that they took back the House with moderate candidates. Then they remind us that the lunatics are a small percentage of Democrats. That might be true but the so-called moderates running sure haven’t stood their ground against AOC and Ilhan Omar.

The early signs are there for an historic election night in 2020. There’s a long time until then but there’s reason for optimism for the GOP.

This year, it’s been fashionable for the Democrats’ presidential candidates to talk about paying reparations. This was especially true when they paid homage to Al Sharpton last week:

At the end of many of their speeches, Sharpton asked them point-blank if they supported Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee’s legislation in the House that, according to its press release, “seeks to establish a commission to also examine the moral and social implications of slavery.”

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who began with a longer response to Sharpton’s question about the bill, offered a playfully curt “yes, I’m gonna pass it!” when pushed by a shout from the audience to simply tell the crowd: “Yes or no?”

While these Democrats willingly worshipped at Al Sharpton’s altar, their inactions speak louder than their words.

This article highlights the Democrats’ collective depravity on the issue of modern day slavery:

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said the sheer number of people crossing the southwest border illegally—most of whom are families and children hoping to seek asylum—constitute a humanitarian crisis. In fiscal 2018, almost 400,000 people were apprehended by Border Patrol after illegally crossing the border. “So it [asylum] has created a draw. And so when that happens, you have dead bodies all throughout the southern border. It’s really sad to see this. Not only that, but you have a third of the women being sexually assaulted,” Crenshaw told The Epoch Times.

Two-thirds of migrants traveling through Mexico report experiencing violence during their journey, including abduction, theft, extortion, torture, and rape, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has been providing medical and mental health care for migrants and refugees in Mexico since 2012.

The article continues:

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin Mcaleenan said last year that his agency’s intelligence and interviews put the numbers even higher. “That scale represents a humanitarian crisis, in my humble opinion,” Crenshaw said. “But whether you call it humanitarian crisis or not … it’s just completely unsustainable.”

Democrats that have time to grandstand on the issue of reparations but wouldn’t co-sponsor legislation that would shut down modern-day slavery happening at our southern border.

These Democrats’ priorities are totally screwed up. They’ll pander to a former con artist for a handful of votes but they won’t lift a finger to stop modern-day slavery. The next time Democrats start lecturing Republicans, Republicans should simply question why they haven’t lifted a finger to stop modern-day slavery. I’m betting that’ll shut Democrats up.

Nostradamus isn’t required to find out what will happen in 2019 if the Democrats get control of the House and/or the Senate. The policies that Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other Democrat Socialists will destroy the positives that President Trump and the GOP have put in place.

I’ll stipulate that Republicans like John McCain, Jeff Flake and Susan Collins haven’t been a great help to President Trump’s agenda. With that said, there’s no disputing that replacing McCain with Jon Kyl, Flake with Martha McSally, Bob Corker with Marsha Blackburn, then replacing Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly, Jon Tester, Heidi Heitkamp and Claire McCaskill with solid conservatives would be a major step in the right direction.

We’ve seen what happens when environmental activists and socialists get their way. You get a lost decade like we had under Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, then Barack Obama. Companies left the US. Income inequality increased. Economic growth stagnated. Is that the future you want?

Fast forward to January, 2017. President Trump took over. With the help of the Republican Congress, President Trump rolled back billions of dollars of anti-coal and anti-mining regulations that the Democrats had installed. Though Sen. McCain sunk our attempt to repeal and replace the ACA, President Trump and the Republicans revamped the tax code, unleashing the animal spirits of an economy stalled for too long.

The result? Small business and consumer confidence soaring. Capital investment increasing for the first time in years. In other non-economic areas, we’re confirming solid judges that think it’s a sin to act like legislators but who see interpreting the Constitution as their primary function.

This past week, Democrats showed that they’re only interested in obstructing everything that President Trump stands for. Will Republicans fight with President Trump? Or will we let evil triumph? As for myself, I plan on fighting until I drop.

Republicans, it’s time to get fired up and kick some electoral ass.

What’s fascinating about President Obama’s list of 8 candidates running for election across the United States isn’t who’s on the list. It’s who’s omitted from the list. What’s fascinating is that the article starts by saying former “President Barack Obama weighed in on behalf of 81 candidates for federal and state offices on Wednesday, his first major batch of endorsements for the 2018 midterm elections.” Then the article states “I’m proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates – leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America they’re running to represent. I’m confident that, together, they’ll strengthen this country we love by restoring opportunity that’s broadly shared, repairing our alliances and standing in the world, and upholding our fundamental commitment to justice, fairness, responsibility, and the rule of law. But first, they need our votes — and I’m eager to make the case for why Democratic candidates deserve our votes this fall.”

What’s noteworthy about President Obama’s statement is that he didn’t mention anything about creating jobs or strengthening the economy. That isn’t surprising. It’s just noteworthy. President Obama didn’t put a priority on creating jobs while he was president. Why think that he cares about building a strong economy now? Here’s the tweet with President Obama’s endorsements:

Today I’m proud to endorse such a wide and impressive array of Democratic candidates – leaders as diverse, patriotic, and big-hearted as the America they’re running to represent: pic.twitter.com/gWzalQhFas

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 1, 2018

Attached to the tweet are the candidates he’s endorsing. It’s rather fascinating that he didn’t endorse any Democrats in Minnesota. It’s fascinating that he didn’t endorse Dianne Feinstein or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This was a fun interview to watch:

Here’s something that I just thought of that’s worth considering. President Obama didn’t endorse a single DFL candidate in Minnesota. He didn’t endorse Keith Ellison. He didn’t endorse Tina Smith. Question: Is that because they’re both Bernie followers? Also, as I said earlier, President Obama didn’t endorse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s a Bernie candidate, too. Question: Is this the start of a fight between the establishment and the Bernie wings of the Democratic Party? Only time will tell but I can’t rule it out.

RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel made a great point in her interview with Harris Faulkner when she asked if Democrats would highlight the fact that President Obama had endorsed them. I’m betting they won’t highlight it.

Karin Housley’s optimism is infectious. Reading through this article, it’s obvious that she sees her campaign as the right elixir at the right time. It’s equally obvious that she thinks that Tina Smith is Sen. Schumer’s shill. She’s right about that, BTW. Sen. Smith has opposed everything that President Trump is for. New York already has 2 senators. They don’t need another one.

In an interview with the Brainerd Dispatch Editorial Board, Sen. Housley said “I had been in the Minnesota Senate for the last six years and seen the failures of the Dayton-Smith administration and I thought, ‘There’s no way that woman represents everyone in Minnesota or what we really stand for in Minnesota.’ I decided to jump into the race and fight for Minnesotans.”

Sen. Housley is right. Sen. Smith doesn’t represent Minnesota’s priorities. Contrary to Smith’s beliefs, there’s much more to Minnesota than the Twin Cities. In her brief time in the US Senate, Tina Smith has traveled often outside the Twin Cities. Unfortunately, she’s brought her Twin Cities beliefs with her. Rather than listening to Minnesotans’ worries, Smith has tried selling the Twin Cities’ priorities. That’s disrespectful.

By comparison, Sen. Housley has met with (and listened to) lots of groups from Owatonna to Bemidji to Walker. As she says in this interview, she and her husband have had a cabin in the Walker area for several decades:

That means they understand rural Minnesota. That isn’t all. They know that Washington’s policies have made life difficult for rural residents. Then there’s this:

By replacing Smith, Housley said she hopes to help break the deadlock in the nation’s upper house—750 bills left on the debate floor, undebated and not voted upon because of rigid partisan lines. Sen. John McCain’s absence leaves the Senate in a state of limbo, a razor-thin 50-49 Republican majority.

In doing so, Housley said, she’ll look to restore a kind of representation that actually represents the interests of everyday Minnesotans—not blind dogmatism, not run-of-the-mill Capitol Hill and not an out-of-touch Democrat who favors big government and the big problems that brings.

Smith is a not-so-bright radical. Don’t forget, she’s a Berniecrat:

People can’t seriously think that Tina Smith isn’t a Twin Cities-centric socialist. Further, let’s ask this simple question: Are you better off today than the day before President Obama left office? Honest people would emphatically say they’re better off today. Business investment is improving quickly. Consumer confidence is sky-high. Unemployment for blacks and Hispanics are at all-time lows. Unemployment for women is at a 65-year low. The energy sector, which President Obama tried to intentionally kill, has turned around so dramatically that we’ve gone from importing oil to being a net exporter of energy. We’re so strong with energy that President Trump struck a deal with the EU to export Liquefied Natural Gas to them.

Tina Smith is a closet environmentalist who hates fossil fuels. She’s also (quietly) anti-mining. She has to pretend that she’s pro-mining because she needs lots of Iron Range votes but she isn’t a big fan of mining. By comparison, Karin Housley is enthusiastically pro-mining. This is the type of straight talk that Minnesotans insist on:

Since 2003, Housley has been a small business owner and is also a real estate agent by trade—though, she admitted, she almost closed up shop in 2010 because of restrictive policies by the state at that time. “It got to a point where you’re working so hard and everything you’ve earned is going to the government, but the government is spending your hard-earned money not on things you want it spent on,” Housley said. “That’s the reason I ran. We’re just starting to reverse that. People are keeping more money in their pockets, and so are our business owners, so we just have to continue that trend.”

Tina better buckle up for a tough campaign. Thanks to her mistake-riddled campaign, she’s earned a tough campaign.

Yesterday morning, Tina Smith was interviewed by KSTP’s Tom Hauser. On another network, Bernie Sanders, aka Sen. Smith’s mentor, appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrats’ latest rising star.

During her interview with Hauser, Smith confirmed that she supported single-payer health care and that she wouldn’t vote for any judges on President Trump’s list because “far right special interests” compiled the list. (I’m wondering if that means that she wouldn’t vote to confirm any judges approved by far left special interest organizations like NARAL Pro-Choice, PFAW, the Center for American Progress, NOW or Planned Parenthood.) These aren’t mainstream organizations based on their lobbyists’ wish list.

Smith thinks that single payer is the cure for rising health care costs, which were created by the ACA, which was created by Democrats. Now we’re supposed to trust Democrats to fix the problem that … Democrats created? When Marty Seifert first ran for governor, one of the punch lines in his stump speech was “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free.”

He’s right. Costs have skyrocketed since the ACA was passed. In October of 2016, I wrote this post to highlight this information:

Speaker Daudt spoke of a farming family he met during a MNsure listening session in Red Wing, MN, who told Speaker Daudt that their premiums this year were $2,300/mo. Then Speaker Daudt said that this family’s deductible for this year was an additional $13,000 this year. This family’s out-of-pocket expenses, which they’d pay before the insurance would pay a penny, was over $40,000.

As shocking as that was, the next part was frightening. Speaker Daudt said that that was this family’s premiums before this year’s open enrollment premium increases of between 50% and 67%.

That means, at minimum, this family’s premiums for 2017 would exceed $41,000. If their premium increased by 67%, this family’s premiums for 2017 would jump to $46,000. That’s one year’s premiums for a family of 3 healthy people. Let’s remember that Tina Smith was the Lieutenant Governor at the time. Why should I trust someone who presided over the highest health insurance premium increases in Minnesota history? That’s as foolish as trusting an arsonist to put out a building fire.

The more we learn about Tina Smith, the more we learn that she’s a radical lefty. Check out what she said on health care:

Tina believes every Minnesota family deserves access to high-quality health care that they can afford.

In other words, Tina Smith knows that she’s responsible for failing Minnesotans. She was part of the administration that implemented the plan that caused the 59% to 67% premium increases. Now she wants to return to Washington to screw up the system even further than she’s already screwed it up?

I think not. I’m voting for someone who will fix problems, not create them. I won’t be voting for Bernie’s ally, aka Tina Smith.

I wouldn’t characterize Ocasio-Cortez as being too bright after reading this:

“Bold” is a characterization that has been used for Ocasio-Cortez’s own campaign. She told Face The Nation host Margaret Brennan that her agenda included policy positions like Medicare for all. “I think that the factors that ultimately created our win was the fact that we had bold commitments and I campaigned on hard commitments of Medicare for all, tuition free public college, ensuring a Green New Deal for our future and championing those issues were the reason that we won,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Mostly, she won because Joe Crowley didn’t take her seriously enough. It wasn’t because people in that district thought that they were voting for a policy wonk.

After reading Bernie Sanders’ op-ed, it’s impossible to take him seriously. The op-ed starts by saying “Over and over again, President Donald Trump tells us the U.S. economy is ‘absolutely booming,’ the ‘strongest we’ve ever had’ and ‘the greatest in the history of America’ thanks to his leadership and his leadership alone. Unfortunately, like virtually everything that comes out of his mouth, Trump is not being truthful with the American people.”

Actually, it’s Bernie who isn’t being truthful. If the middle class is doing so awful, why is consumer confidence as high as it’s ever been? If things are so bad for the middle class, why is black unemployment and Hispanic unemployment the lowest in history? If things are so tough on the middle class, why is the unemployment rate for women the lowest it’s been in 60+ years? Either Bernie things that there’s tons of African-American, Hispanic and female millionaires or the middle class is doing exceptionally well right now.

There’s no other explanation. Period.

The low unemployment rate is the good news. The bad news is that poverty in our country remains unacceptably high and tens of millions of Americans are struggling to keep their heads above water. Despite Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthy and large corporations, wages for average workers have actually gone down, not up, by five cents an hour since June of last year after adjusting for inflation.

The good news about Bernie’s bad news is that poverty has dropped since President Trump took office. That’s an indisputable fact.

I wrote this post in March, 2016. According to the Minnesota State Demographer’s office, the poverty rate for Hibbing then was 20.6%. Today, the poverty rate for Hibbing is 18.2%. Further, the Median Household Income in 2016 was $38,112. Today, the MHI in Hibbing is $42,004. That’s a 10% increase in MHI in that city.

In addition, as the American middle class continues to collapse, the Federal Reserve reported that 40 percent of Americans lack $400 in disposable income to pay for an unexpected expense like a medical emergency or a car repair. The truth is that in America today, 43 percent of households live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to pay for their housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and their cell phone without going into debt.

What an idiot. The socialist policies of the Obama administration have led to a huge increase in the income gap. It always does wherever it’s tried. During the Obama administration, wages were stagnant. Under the Trump economic policies, wages are finally rising. They aren’t rising as much as we’d like to see but they are heading in the right direction.

Bernie Sanders’ op-ed is based on political ambition, not economic statistics. He can’t stand to admit that he’s just wrong. That’d destroy his (perceived) shot at the presidency. The truth is that he’s never had a legitimate shot at that office because he’s a whack job. In this rambling rant, Bernie Sanders displays just how ignorant he is:

This is embarrassing. I don’t want the Supreme Court involved in writing policy. I want them determining whether legislation conforms to the Constitution.

The Constitution, in its separation of powers clause, essentially said that the federal government can’t tell states what they have to spend money on. The principle is called commandeering. Sovereign states get to determine what things they want to spend their money on and how much money they want to spend on each line item.

In Bernie’s mind, the federal government should have the authority to tell states how the states should spend their money. In other words, Bernie thinks that the federal government should be able to tell independently elected individuals how to best represent people Bernie’s never met.

When Karin Housley visited St. Cloud Thursday, she brought a bold prediction with her.

During a visit to the Whitney Senior Center, Housley predicted “This is the year Minnesota’s turning red.” She then explained, saying that she “expects two U.S. House districts to flip in the state with incumbent DFLers Rep. Rick Nolan and Rep. Tim Walz retiring from Congress and running in gubernatorial races.”

I agree with both predictions. President Trump’s visit to Duluth to rally for Pete Stauber filled the arena with people. The ramp wasn’t just filled with cars. It was filled with people too. With a 4-way DFL primary set to determine who will face Stauber, expect that primary to beat each other up. I’m not sure if the DFL will be able to unite after that fight. I’d rate that race as leans GOP. As for Minnesota’s First District, the DFL doesn’t have a bench. Tim Walz was it. There’s a primary on the GOP side in MN-01 but there’s no signs of it getting bloody.

As for Sen. Housley, momentum keeps building, much of it due to the booming Trump/GOP economy. Liz Peek’s article highlights this beautifully:

President Trump wants you to quit your job! Well, not really; but the White House’s tax cuts and rollback of onerous regulations have encouraged millions of Americans to do just that. The economy is booming, opportunities are opening up all over the place, and workers are responding, by quitting in record numbers.

This may be bad news for Democrats hoping to take over Congress in November. They have no economic agenda that can compete with a buoyant jobs market that is making the American Dream come true.

Then comes the dagger:

But it is great news for American workers.

Tina Smith’s message is obstruction, resistance and socialism:

“The political revolution that Keith and I and others have talked about is not just a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of working families, it is the need to create a national grassroots movement where ordinary people stand up to the billionaire class and take back this country,” Sanders said. “By electing Keith, and reelecting Tina and Amy [Klobuchar], you guys can help lead this country in that direction.”

Tina Smith’s socialist smile will turn upside-down when it’s revealed that she’s just another socialist who will do whatever Chuck Schumer wants her to do. Tina Smith wants to pretend to be a moderate. She isn’t:

Tina Smith rallied with Bernie Sanders and Keith Ellison this week. If that’s her definition of moderation, I’m betting most Minnesotans will reject that definition. By rallying with Sanders and Ellison, Smith proved that she’s trying to appeal to everyone. Normally, that’s ok. This isn’t normally, though. She rallied with radicals from the #Resistance.

Meanwhile, Karin Housley can claim that she’d fight for Iron Rangers, the elderly and economic growth. Housley is smart, reasonable and has an overabundance of energy. She’s exactly the type of candidate that can defeat a check off the boxes candidate like Tina Smith.

The polls don’t show it yet but what’s likely going to help Republicans like Karin Housley and Pete Stauber are the Republicans’ closing arguments. The DFL doesn’t have a closing argument. All they have is #Resist and #AbolishICE.

Make no mistake about this. Bernie Sanders’ socialism isn’t mainstream like he claims. It’s more widely accepted amongst Democrats but it’s hardly mainstream. That’s why it’s difficult to imagine why Keith Ellison invited Bernie Sanders to campaign with him. Does Ellison still think that he’s running for election only in Minnesota’s Fifth District?

According to news reports, “U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is coming to Minnesota this week, bringing his firebrand progressive style, and some level of grassroots star power, to bear on the statewide race for attorney general. In events in Duluth and Minneapolis Friday, Sanders will stump for fellow liberal U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who’s running in the Democratic primary for attorney general instead of re-election to his Minneapolis-based seat in the U.S. House.”

In ‘honor’ of the event, Doug Wardlow has put together a video that’s sure to get people’s attention. Check it out:

As nutty as that is, that isn’t the nuttiest thing Ellison has said recently. Check this out:

In other words, Democrats will consider impeaching Supreme Court justices if they retake control of the House. It doesn’t get much ‘fringier’ than that.