Elections in Colombia....Someone attacks the Mona Lisa...Uvalde and talk of gun control....Biden is frustrated that the staff keeps correcting him...Happy # 92 Clint Eastwood...
and other stories.....click to listen:
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Tuesday's video: Elections in Colombia plus Mona Lisa and more stories
Tuesday's video:
Elections in Colombia plus Mona Lisa and more stories....
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Maybe the voters can save Colombia
(My new American Thinker post)
Down in Colombia, Gustavo Petro, the leftist candidate, came in first place but did not clinch a victory. So he will have to face Rodolfo Hernandez, the populist outsider, who may benefit from key endorsements. This is the story:
The great danger was that Gustavo Petro -- a left-wing extremist who belonged to the M-19 guerrilla group and supported by the FARC terrorist organization -- would win in the first round. However, he obtained 40% of the votes, which is not enough to win in the first round. Rodolfo Hernandez got 28% and Gutierrez, 23%.
It is most likely that in the second round all of Gutierrez’s votes will be absorbed by Hernandez. In fact, Gutierrez already endorsed the outsider, when he gave his speech recognizing his defeat. If the votes obtained by Hernandez and Gutierrez in this first round are combined, Hernandez will be president of Colombia.
Colombia dodged a leftist bullet! It will be a lot more difficult for Petro to win a majority in the second round. The combination of Hernandez and Gutierrez is over 50%, enough to keep Petro from the presidency.
So Colombia will now choose between a leftist and a businessman who is not your classic conservative but will appeal to enough middle class voters to win the June 19th runoff. Some Colombians have told me that Hernandez has a little Trump in him, i.e. the outsider running against the political class.
We will see the candidates in a debate soon. The big issues are inflation and the post-COVID economy. Many of us are relieved that Colombia may avoid turning into Venezuela.
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Monday, May 30, 2022
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Gabe and Steve: Look at your city
(My new American Thinker post)
It's automatic.
Every shooting is followed by a Democrat U.S. senator giving a speech about gun control, or else someone in San Francisco preaching to the rest of us.
The latest is Gabe Kapler, the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Gabe was once a top prospect, played here in Texas with the
and then went into coaching.
This is what Kapler said:
San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler will no longer stand with his team for the national anthem until he "feels better about the direction of our country" in the wake of the Texas school shooting on Tuesday that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Kapler spoke with reporters ahead of Friday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds to explain his choice not to participate in the national anthem, a decision he first revealed in a lengthy blog post earlier in the day.
"I don’t plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country," he told reporters. "That’ll be the step. I don’t expect it to move the needle necessarily. It’s just something I feel strongly enough about to take that step."
Where do we go next? I understand that Kapler is angry about what happened in Uvalde, Texas. Who isn't?
Kapler follows Steve Kerr, the other local coach with Warriors, who once wanted to get police out of Oakland's schools.
Memo to Steve and Gabe: How do you drive to work? Have you checked the state of your city? The decline of civil order? The people on the streets? The crime? The fact that people are leaving your city and state? The attacks on shops?
Maybe Steve and Gabe should listen to Charles Barkley:
"You know the bad thing about this rain, it’s not raining in San Francisco to clean up all the dirty-ass streets they got there."
Maybe Charles is not very diplomatic but Steve and Gabe need to drive around their city and see how bad it is.
Uvalde was horrible. San Francisco is horrible 24/7.
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Saturday, May 28, 2022
Maybe we need to bring back the draft
(My new American Thinker post)
We seem to have a young man problem in the U.S. To be fair, most boys are doing just fine. Unfortunately, too many are not and they are the ones that we read about in Buffalo, Uvalde, and elsewhere.
As the father of three sons, I feel like we need to have more outlets for young men. Many seem lost and without direction these days, as Andrew Yank wrote recently:
Here is one of the biggest problems facing America: Boys and men across all regions and ethnic groups have been failing, both absolutely and relatively, for years. This is catastrophic for our country.
The data are clear. Boys are more than twice as likely as girls to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; are five times as likely to spend time in juvenile detention; and are less likely to finish high school.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t get better when boys become adults.
Men now make up only 40.5 percent of college students.
Male community college enrollment declined by 14.7 percent in 2020 alone, compared with 6.8 percent for women.
Median wages for men have declined since 1990 in real terms. Roughly one-third of men are either unemployed or out of the workforce. More U.S. men ages 18 to 34 are now living with their parents than with romantic partners.
Mr. Yang and I do not agree on most political issues. We do agree on the sorry status of many boys in the US.
For years, I've felt that one of the best things for many of these boys, specially the ones growing up without fathers or positive male role models, is a little military discipline, i.e. the draft or military service. At least, they won't be lost in social media posts or hanging around by themselves. Military service would give these young men a sense of self-esteem and provide them with leadership skills.
I'm not saying that military service is for all but it has to be better than what these boys are experiencing now. As my son can tell you, he learned to respect authority and feel like he was on a mission serving his country. To be honest, my son was not one of those problem young men that we are talking about. Nevertheless, it helped him became a better man, something that these troubled young men could use.
Draft these young men and get them out of the rut that they are living in.
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Friday, May 27, 2022
Happy Memorial Day weekend and Why not bring back the draft and more
Happy Memorial Day weekend.......Why not bring back the draft and put more of these young men in military service?.......Uvalde and the police..............and other stories....
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Friday's video: Happy Memorial Day weekend and Why not bring back the draft and more
Friday's video:
Happy Memorial Day weekend and Why not bring back the draft and more.....
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The moderate goes radical
(My new American Thinker post)
We were told that President Biden wanted to bring the nation together. He was going to do that by listening to both sides and avoiding the extremes. Then the moderate was sworn in and the radicals are here by the dozen.
Check out the latest example of a radical appointment. This is a story from Fox News:
President Biden’s nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has argued that the criminal justice system is rooted in "racial animus" passed down from "apartheid" America.
Biden announced Nusrat Choudhury’s nomination along with seven other federal judicial nominees in January, aiming to fulfill a "promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country," the White House said at the time.
Choudhury, an ACLU lawyer, has routinely talked about systemic racism in the criminal justice system. During a 2018 event at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, she argued the system is "premised on structural inequality."
"A lot of the racial animus that undergirded apartheid in America was shifted into the criminal justice system," she said, citing arguments made by "The New Jim Crow" author Michelle Alexander.
"So the criminal justice system started doing the work of apartheid, which was criminalizing low-income Black and Latino people and keeping them down."
"And I think there’s a lot of evidence to support that thesis," she said at the time. "I see my work as hoping to transform the system."
There you have it. The moderate was a transformer all along. During the campaign, he avoided questions and hid in the basement to avoid the pandemic. Now we know that it was the truth that he was hiding. All of the stuff about being a moderate was just that, a lot of talk by a man who does not believe in anything. Or maybe he only pretends to believe what somebody puts in the teleprompter.
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Thursday, May 26, 2022
South Texas update with George Rodriguez, political analyst
Guest: George Rodriguez, South Texas conservative........We will review the Cuellar-Cisneros Democrat election in South Texas....Beto shows up in Uvalde....The latest from Article 42.......and other stories......
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Thursday's video: Uvalde shooting and the failure of local governments......Beto in Uvalde...
Thursday's video:
Uvalde shooting and the failure of local governments......Beto in Uvalde...
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
A nightmare for Democrats in South Texas
(My new American Thinker post)
As expected, the Texas 28 runoff was going to be close. What I didn't expect was that it'd be 177 votes close. Both sides are tweeting:
Cisneros: Thank you to every single voter that came out to support our campaign for #TX28. This election is still too close to call, and we are still waiting for every ballot and eligible vote to be counted.
Cuellar: The votes are in, the margin will hold. We have won by 177 votes.
The result is not official so this will go on a bit longer. Perhaps a recount is coming. Honestly, recounts don't normally change results.
Assuming he wins, and it looks like he did, Cuellar now faces the mother of all "bringing the party together" campaigns. He is pro-life and gets a good report from the NRA. He will have to convince all those Cisneros voters to give him a chance after a really nasty and personal campaign.
According to Texas Tribune:
Whoever wins will ultimately face off against Republican Cassy Garcia, former U.S. Senate staffer, who won her own primary Tuesday night.
This once Democratic stronghold is now being labeled a “toss up” seat in the November general election, as Republicans turn their efforts toward South Texas domination.
Cuellar won but he is likely to lose in November, another sign that South Texas is changing.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Texas 28 too close to call and Uvalde school shooting plus more
Texas 28 too close to call......Uvalde school shooting.........Babe Ruth his # 714 or his last HR......and other stories......
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Wednesday's video: Texas 28 too close to call and Uvalde school shooting plus more
Wednesday's video:
Texas 28 too close to call and Uvalde school shooting plus more......
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
I don't remember that talk of 'transitioning' during the campaign
(My new American Thinker post)
President Biden is a walking "gaffe machine." You can't put him behind a microphone because God only knows what he is going to say. We understand now why they hid him in his basement in 2020 with infrequent trips to the ice cream shop. It's tough to make a gaffe when you buy ice cream unless you order a pizza.
This is from the current overseas trip:
"When it comes to the gas prices, we're going through an INCREDIBLE transition".
Yes, that gasoline pump that goes from $20 to $30 to $40 to $50 and $60.... it's just a transition to a future where we are using green energy and no more fossil fuels. In other words, this is what we need go through to arrive at the green energy paradise. What happens to your family budget before we make it to paradise? Don't worry, Joe is on it.
So gasoline prices are part of a plan? I thought that it was Putin's fault. What's going on?
We are watching a man imploding on the job. He has no idea of what to say about the # 1 problem in the country -- the price of filling up your tank.
So let me give President Biden a word of advice, courtesy of Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a lady who knows energy:
If Biden really wants to cut inflation, he should begin by reversing his policies on domestic oil and natural gas production. Energy prices have risen by 30 percent over the past year; these prices are set by expectations of future production. That is why oil prices rise when meteorologists predict that a hurricane will turn toward the Gulf of Mexico, before it has destroyed any oil rigs. The United States, the world’s largest oil and gas producer, has demonstrated the ability to influence the price of oil.
The president could lower the price of a barrel of oil by $10 to $20 with new energy policies. Yet on Biden’s first day in office, he reduced oil and gas production by banning offshore drilling, expanding the boundaries of national monuments, placing a moratorium on leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought Canadian oil to U.S. refineries for processing into gasoline and heating oil.
That's right! Drill, Joe, drill! I'm pretty sure that most of the voters would love a transition back to $2 gasoline. Even the environmentalists could use a little relief, unless they ride a bicycle to work. Even Tesla would love cheap gasoline, because people would have more money to buy an electric car.
So drill, Joe. It's the only way out of this mess you've created.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Biden on Taiwan and gasoline prices in transition....Elections today plus more
Biden and Taiwan and now Biden and gasoline prices in transition....Elections across the country...What did Hillary Clinton and the role of the media........Bob Dylan # 81.......
and other stories....click to listen:
Tuesday's video: Biden on Taiwan and gasoline prices in transition....Elections today plu...
Tuesday's video:
Biden on Taiwan and gasoline prices in transition....Elections today plus more.......
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
Thanks for getting us confused again
(My new American Thinker post)
Every single day, we learn two things about the Biden administration. First, they are stubborn and stick to policies that even Democrats can't defend, like dropping Title 42. Second, it's clearer day by day why this administration has the cleanup squad ready to go out and clean up after the commander in chief. My guess is that they travel with him anytime the President has to answer a question in public.
Across the Pacific, President Biden said something a bit shocking about going to war:
President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, saying the burden to protect Taiwan is “even stronger’ after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was one of the most forceful presidential statements in support of self-governing in decades.
Biden, at a news conference in Tokyo, said “yes” when asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China invaded.
"That’s the commitment we made,” he added.
Thanks for the update, Mr. President. I guess that I miss that story about a "commitment we made".
I'm old enough to remember President Nixon going to China in 1972 and then President Carter going on TV in 1978 to tell us about establishing relations with Peking. Then I remember something called "The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act" which did not require the U.S. to defend Taiwan if China invaded but something along the lines of keeping Taiwan well armed to defend itself. Ever since, we've spoken with "strategic ambiguity," another one of those terms used by diplomats when they want to avoid the subject.
This is not the first time that President Biden has referred to a "commitment." He did it back in October 2021 and the cleanup crew had to clean up again.
So President Biden needs to stop talking "tough" or come to the U.S. Congress for a resolution, like President Bush did in Kuwait and the second President Bush did in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can't commit to the defense of other countries without checking it with the American people. After all, it is the sons of the American people who will be fighting this war.
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Happy # 77 Priscilla Presley
Elvis Presley was riding very high but got a draft notice in the US mail in 1957. Elvis ended up in Germany for a couple of years but no one missed him on the radio because of all of the material that RCA had in the tank.
Over there, private Elvis met a young Priscilla and the woman he married in 1967. They had a baby girl the next year but the marriage lasted only until 1972.
Elvis died in 1977 and we remember that Priscilla was born on this day in 1945.
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
P.S. You can listen to my show. If you like our posts, please look for ”Donate” on the right column of the blog page.
Monday, May 23, 2022
The week in review with Bill Katz the editor of Urgent Agenda
Guest: Bill Katz the editor of Urgent Agenda.........Roe v Wade opinion......What did Hillary Clinton know? President in South Korea& the region...Shortages and more inflation......and other stories.....
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