A man went to the Great Lakes Military Cemetery.He took some pictures while reflecting on what's going on in our country today.Then he wrote this simple poem:
I don't see any color here,The headstones look the same,No black no brown no white skin tone,There's no one here to blame.These soldier's fought and died for you,Their color you can't see,Your rights are still protected
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Here's the place to take a knee.
Young people are enamored with "anti-racist" rhetoric because they think they are fighting racist systems in America. The TRUTH is they are fighting America itself and the very values the country was founded on. Dennis Prager identifies the best thing we can do to help. Click here to watch!
And:
There is something very wrong when scum bags, black or white, are treated as martyrs: (282) The Making of a Martyr (for all the wrong reasons) - YouTube
And:
This martyr is white, Governor of a large state and just can't accept responsibilty for his screw ups but then he is a Democrat.
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The big tech stocks just proved my point that they are well positioned, well run and have massive cash reserves to weather anything. They are not over valued in my view. They are the replacement for telephones, railroads and highways of the past as the underlying infrastructure of commerce and communication.
The dollar has been weakening over the past two months. Various pundits have their own theories as to why the dollar is weaker ranging from too much increase in the deficit, ultra-low rates for the next year or two, to Trump wants it lower, to belief in changes in the geopolitical situation. I am not sure any of one of these are correct. Probably all are to some extent. I have no better explanation other than the Fed keeping rates near zero, and dollar strength does follow rates. Some prominent pundits say the Yuan will replace the dollar as the reserve currency. I cannot recall how many years I have been hearing this, and it is one theory I do not adhere to. Nobody trusts China and so its currency is not going to be the one accepted by the world. In any event, a weaker dollar is good for exports and for investment capital coming here to buy things less expensively unless investors feel the dollar will slip much further. Bottom line, the dollar is not going to collapse as some predict, and being weaker combined with low rates is good for stocks and real estate.
In midtown NYC and other major urban office centers, occupancy is around 10%. It is hard to know yet if so many workers and companies have become adjusted to working from home that it is being ingrained, or it is just fear. Anecdotes indicate some like being at home, but many others miss the social interchange of the office. Some say they need the stimulus of being in the office. Others say collaboration on projects is just not the same when online, and training young people does not work nearly as well as when they sit next to senior people. Reality is probably some of all of these and it depends on the business. People are generally social animals, so missing the social interchange does matter to many. I predict in a year we will see some of everything with most people back in the office, but a substantial number working part time at home, and part time in the office. Relationships are not the same online as in person, and having lunch or dinner together. Negotiations are not as effective unless you can see the body language of the other guy. It will be a long haul until nearly everyone is vaccinated and the legal liability issue is eliminated. There is likely to be a shrinkage of floor space rented in major buildings as companies go to fewer people in the office full time. The other big factor is NYC has been ruined as have other major cities. Couple with young families who have now tried suburban living, or places like the Hamptons are going to be reluctant to return to high taxes, crime, unpleasant commutes, and inefficient corrupt cities. This suggests suburban satellite offices with the main hub still in midtown, for major companies, may become more the norm. Taxes will be a major driver of where companies land. Way too early to rally know what it will look like in 5 years. The flight from NYC is sizable and from CA cities. Major beneficiaries may be Denver, TX, Phoenix, Vegas, Pittsburgh, Boise, and Raleigh plus others. The Hamptons has had a 25% increase in sales over the past several months and the schools are seeing a lot of new kids registering. My neighbor in Longboat has had over 3500 hits on his Zillow page, and he has raised the ask by 8.5%, all in just over four weeks. He has no broker marketing it. And his house is very nice, but nothing special other than it is on a canal with a large dock. Needless to say I am very happy to see his success.
Forbearance is very interesting now. 30% of them are paying current and 30% are paying something to try to maintain their equity, which is now meaningful to them as prices rise. It also means if they make at least 3 payments they can refi to today’s historic low rates and improve their cash flow/debt service ratio, possibly considerably. Any deferred payments get tacked on the new loan so it works well for those who are very pressed right now. Spreads for originators are excellent right now. The residential mortgage market is again working well. That is good for new home sales going forward. If rates stay very low, and if thee is a vaccine and people go back to work, the rental market might suffer as more young people and retirees opt for suburbs or places like FL instead of NYC, Chicago or other unban centers with high taxes and high crime. At the very least, urban landlords will have to offer concessions or just lower rents for quite a while to attract tenants back to the city, especially families who have had it with lousy schools run by the union.
The Fed is considering managing the yield curve. In other words they would buy and sell differing maturities to achieve a yield curve they, not the market determined. This is not good if they do it. It means there is no free market for bond prices. It would be government controlled by the Fed. It would distort asset pricing and lending. It is far from clear if they really will do this, but it is not good they are even discussing it. The Fed has now adopted a policy that it will allow inflation to rise slightly above 2% before acting, vs formerly the policy was to act before it reached 2%. This should help economic growth if done carefully.
Industrial assets are doing very well with around 98% rent collections, vs residential rent collections declining around 8% depending on market and type of residents. Office collections also depend on who is the tenant roster, but major office buildings with retail on the ground are suffering lost rents from the retail, plus some lost rent form office space defaults. Since the retail depends on high occupancy in the offices upstairs, it is doubtful many can survive until that occupancy returns fully. It is going to be very painful for major office building owners for a long time.
The biggest impediment to better jobs numbers is the extra $600. Businesses across the country have job openings, but they can’t get people off the sidelines to come in and work for less. The Dems love that. The press loves to say people won’t be able to pay their bills and buy food without the $600. So by that absurd thought, we should have all these unemployed people on guaranteed incomes and 7 million job openings forever, or companies should increase their costs to make their products uncompetitive by raising wages to uneconomic levels, and furthering the appeal of offshoring production. One more example of how the Dems do not care, or are too stupid to understand the damage they are causing to the economy and to people who own companies. Mnuchin let himself get suckered last time, but that is not happening this time. The Dems will have to give, and I am guessing they will end up at $400 which is still $21,000 annualized, which is too much. The more people need to go back to work, the better the economy will do, the more jobs will increase, which is exactly what the Dems do not want to see happen.
The hotel industry is in really bad shape for the most part. The STR numbers do not include closed hotels which are 12-15% of all of them, so when you see occupancy and rate stats they are inflated. It is worse. Drive to resorts do very well, but mainly on weekends. Select service in some markets is OK, but not everywhere. The higher the quality segment, the worse the Revpar decline. Lower priced hotels are doing relatively better. Manhattan is a total disaster, and will remain so for a long time. Many big hotels may never reopen, and will become apartments maybe, or homeless shelters, as some have already. Other big urban locations not much better. Hotel transactions will be delayed until maybe next year as the lenders do not want to foreclose and be stuck owning a cash drain. There is no price discovery yet. Discounts will be 25%-50% when there are deals, but those may be full prices by then. Big group houses will go off at 40%-50% discounts. Average hotels at 25% or so. Lenders are under water on most hotels at the moment. There is a lot of cash waiting to pounce, but it will be a long wait, and then they will all be chasing the same assets. Hotels is not where you want to put your money unless you really know what you are doing as an operator. Some coastal markets that are drive to, will be fine, but others will be disasters. You really need to do market due dili before you buy one in any market. If you are not in the hotel business, invest in stocks or elsewhere, but wait until the election before pulling the trigger on any non-liquid asset.
The insurance industry is not going to pay business interruption claims.
25% at least of restaurants will not reopen by some estimates. Depends when indoor seating is fully allowed again, and if it is fast food, or true white tablecloth.
I watched about 45 minutes of the Barr hearing. While most Congressional hearings like this are just so members can preen before the cameras, this one was the most disgusting display of grotesque behavior I have ever seen since the Army McCarthy hearings, which I did watch. It was nothing but a disgraceful attempt by the Dems to discredit and destroy Barr before the Durham report is released. I am betting that report comes in late August and blows up the election similar to the late press conference by Comey about Hilary’s emails. It is also clear from the tech hearings that the Congressmen have no clue what to really ask or understand. Nothing is going to happen to the big tech companies for a long time that really matters to their stock prices.
The press and Dems are all over Trump for the resurgence. They love to say Europe, Korea and Japan are doing so much better. Wrong. No longer. They now have surges all across Europe except in where? Sweden. The US just surged first. Even S Korea and Japan are having issues now. So that line will be slapped down soon as TX, AZ and FL see declines and low death ratios. The US is vastly ahead of anywhere else on testing and tracing. So that line about not enough testing will go away. The US has streamlined approval for a vaccine, and one might be available on limited basis in November, or maybe October _October surprise for election. The distribution system is all set to go so Biden’s claim there is no distribution plan is just false. Here are some stats. Hospitalizations now are .1% of the total population, and only 14% of confirmed cases, with only 2% going to ICU. Fear is greater than reality now. What are the Dems going to say then, they would have done it faster??? Biden has nothing to offer on handling the virus now, and Trump in October will be able to say we outperformed the world other than Sweden. In Sweden 67% of deaths were over 80, and 97% never received intensive care due to the socialized system of health care in Sweden. Welcome to what the Dems want for you. In Netherlands, where schools are fully open, the infection rate for teachers is lower than the population average. In Sweden, where schools never closed, the infection rate for teachers is exactly the same as the population at large. I believe it is similar everywhere schools are fully open. The US teachers union is doing permanent damage to US kids, especially poor kids.
I keep reading about the “BLM Movement ”as though it is some wonderful anti-racist, all- encompassing philosophy that only has good race relations as its goal. That is complete crap. They are a Marxist driven organization that is anti-Semitic, anti-capitalist, and in many ways anti-poor blacks. If they really cared about blacks, they would be protesting the slaughter in the big cites now occurring. They instead have conned the press and corporate America into mouthing pandering statements treating BLM as some sort of wonderful charity. It is instead collecting millions and accolades when it is behind much of the disruption and violence. This may be one of the greatest cons in American history which works due to the cancel culture from the left wing campus culture of the past few years, where the guilt ridden rich white kids and diversity admits team up to create the cancel culture we now have across America and in the press. Anyone in public life, a corporation, or academia or the press who speaks out against BLM is immediately attacked as racist, and their lives destroyed, except for those few with the balls to stand up for what they believe like the CEO of Goya and Amy Wax. Beneath the surface is a silent majority seething at what is occurring, and not showing up in the polling. The more the violence and cancel culture go on, and the more the Dems attack police and Barr, the more the silent majority increases. George Floyd is yesterday’s news. I would not want to live in Portland, Oakland, Seattle, Richmond, or Philadelphia now. It is why I stay in the Hamptons and do not go to my coop in Manhattan. We may need a few hundred more young blacks to get murdered, and a bunch of white women to get attacked, before the Dems realize theirs is a losing policy.
Do you know who Bernell Tramell is? He is the black barber in Milwaukee who was a vocal Trump supporter who was gunned down last week for holding up a sign every day saying vote for Trump. Have you heard a peep out of the Dems, the media other than Fox, BLM, or any Dem politician or corporate CEO. No? Funny about that. Black lives matter unless you are a Trump supporter, or a cop, or a very young black kid in the wrong place who got gunned down in her home by some thug shooting up the street. If you are gunned down for your Republican political beliefs, that is OK with the press and Dems, but if a rogue cop does something which causes a drunk career criminal to die, that is an excuse to kneel in the capital, stage riots, loot stores, and attack court houses. On MSNBC black Trump supporters who were interviewed were accused of being paid by Trump to say they are a supporter. The Dems are all about kneeling for a convicted criminal, but not for the little kids, or Tramell. Crickets. Where are the condolences for them. Did any of them attend his funeral? Where is Al Sharpton giving a eulogy. It is not about Floyd or racism, it is all about power and money. The election is several big events away-Durham, a vaccine being approved, the economy resuming strong growth or not, the debates and Biden performance there.
In case you missed it there was a guilty plea by 4 people for paying homeless to fraudulently register to vote in LA in the last two elections. So much for there is no evidence of voter fraud. On the upper east side of Manhattan they still can’t decide who is the winner weeks after the election due to mail in ballots. The truth is absentee ballots are never really counted unless the election is very close. So that tells you that there is a material issue even counting the relatively few absentee ballots which have issues of postmark, validation of voter, and was it filled in properly. So the Dems want to do this with 150 million ballots. Trump is correct. We would not know the true outcome
for weeks, and then the lawsuits begin. You only want mail in so you can do vote harvesting and other shady tactics. Trump did it to get people to pay attention to facts on voter fraud on mail in ballots since the press was just claiming there is no fraud.
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How far left can Biden go before he moves to China?
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https://www.dailywire.com/
And:
There are about 1 million Muslim voters and they were placed by Obama in various states, cities and districts with the specific intent and impact they would have with voting in mind. Subtle and could be very effective as they are exploited by Democrats. There is a video I am technically unable to transfer depicting Biden stating one of his first acts as president will be to lift immigration restrictions on Muslims.
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There was a time when "Big Brother"was another name for Government. Now we have an entire family of brothers that are headquartered in California. These companies have a lot to say about how and what we say. In fact they have begun to spy on the President and unilaterally decide what he can can say and have posted.
In the future I suspect the best investment areas will obviously continue to be technology, ie. (Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Technology, Robots, Biotechnology, Cyber Technology and Entertainment Technology among other technologies etc..) Traditional consumer companies will still be around but they will not command premium multiples unless they offer something very unique.
Our own freedoms will become far more circumscribed than already and this is inevitable. Consequently, I fear governments that are not constitutionally derived will be less appealing places to live and this is why I believe a vote for Biden means a faster pace towards the end of America. So with Biden and the fact that he will be a captive of the left you are actually casting two votes. One for him and one against our republic.
Yes, with two you will get egg rolls because China is the enemy of the world and Biden is beholden to them.
And:
There are about 1 million Muslim voters and they were placed by Obama in various states, cities and districts with the specific intent and impact they would have with voting in mind. Subtle and could be very effective as they are exploited by Democrats. There is a video I am technically unable to transfer depicting Biden stating one of his first acts as president will be to lift immigration restrictions on Muslims.
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There was a time when "Big Brother"was another name for Government. Now we have an entire family of brothers that are headquartered in California. These companies have a lot to say about how and what we say. In fact they have begun to spy on the President and unilaterally decide what he can can say and have posted.
In the future I suspect the best investment areas will obviously continue to be technology, ie. (Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Technology, Robots, Biotechnology, Cyber Technology and Entertainment Technology among other technologies etc..) Traditional consumer companies will still be around but they will not command premium multiples unless they offer something very unique.
Our own freedoms will become far more circumscribed than already and this is inevitable. Consequently, I fear governments that are not constitutionally derived will be less appealing places to live and this is why I believe a vote for Biden means a faster pace towards the end of America. So with Biden and the fact that he will be a captive of the left you are actually casting two votes. One for him and one against our republic.
Yes, with two you will get egg rolls because China is the enemy of the world and Biden is beholden to them.
And:
The Biden-Sanders Manifesto
Voters should examine how far left the former vice president has moved since winning the primaries.
By
When unemployment and poverty rates hit record lows in late 2019, while retirement accounts and average household incomes surged to record highs, Joe Biden understood that general-election voters would never go for Bernie Sanders’s tax-and-spend socialism or Elizabeth Warren’s command-and-control version. Mr. Biden also bet, taking longer odds, that the Democratic establishment and ultimately the Democratic primary voter, desperately wanting to retake power, would reject his primary rivals as well. So Mr. Biden offered a nicer version of the status quo. “Nobody has to be punished,” he told donors in June 2019. “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”
Despite Mr. Biden’s shaky start, he surged in South Carolina once Democrats faced the reality that the alternative was Mr. Sanders, a self-identified socialist who was on record saying positive things about Venezuela, Cuba and the Soviet Union. The establishment swung behind Mr. Biden and the primaries were over.Yet after he won the nomination as the only “moderate” in the race, the new world of the coronavirus shutdown revealed a new candidate who wants “not just to rebuild the economy, but to transform it,” as Mr. Biden said in a May address. In rapid succession he adopted the Sanders platform, the cornerstone of the Warren candidacy, and the most radical racial agenda in recent U.S. history.
Mr. Biden’s dramatic political transformation has exposed what many have always suspected: Moderate Democrats aren’t socialists unless they think they can adopt socialist policies and survive politically.
The Biden-Sanders “Unity” manifesto envisions the socialism of an all-encompassing welfare state, with virtually every need a right, and every right guaranteed by taxpayer funding. Housing becomes a right, and “no one should have to pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.” Public colleges will be “tuition-free” for “roughly 80 percent of the American people.” Student loans are expunged, payments are capped and eventually forgiven. School lunches, along with breakfast and supper, will be universally free.
On health care, Mr. Biden bought Mr. Sanders’s “Medicare for All” scheme—though on an installment plan. First health care becomes a right where “no one pays more than 8.5 percent of their income.” Mr. Biden’s planned public option is heavily subsidized, with no deductibles and low copayments. Like current Medicare, this “Medicare option” would further inflate the cost of private plans by making them pay more to compensate for government’s underpayment to hospitals and doctors. The inevitable result would be that the Medicare option would quickly “compete” private plans out of business. Commercial banking would be similarly threatened by new publicly backed post-office banks along with the Federal Reserve, which Mr. Biden wants to grant permanent authority to lend to businesses.
A President Biden would implement a version of the Sanders Green New Deal, only in 15 years instead of 10. Mr. Biden’s plan uses mandates and subsidies to dictate what kind of energy is produced, remaking the world’s most efficient energy industry in the image of Solyndra.
In all things, the government would direct, regulate and mandate with armies of the “best and brightest,” organized as a caring corps of subsidized health-, child- and elder-care workers, plus a climate corps of environmental regulators. Government employees would enjoy the “highest labor standards” for pay and benefits. A new right to strike for all workers would include secondary strikes like those that recently paralyzed France.
With government for, of and by government, all public servants would benefit, except the police. Police are to be more closely tracked and exposed, and federal law-enforcement would be hampered with a New York-style arrest-and-release program. Disorder awaits. Since Mr. Biden believes “substance use disorders are diseases, not crimes” and “no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs,” American neighborhoods may soon resemble the streets of San Francisco.
After picking up Mr. Sanders’s positions, Mr. Biden has absorbed Ms. Warren’s rhetoric. This month he pledged to end the “era of shareholder capitalism.” That era began with the Great Economic Awakening that followed the Enlightenment. By rejecting shareholder capitalism and making private wealth subject to public demands, the Biden administration would take America back to the medieval world, where labor and capital were forced to pay fealty to the crown, guild, church and village, which leeched the lifeblood out of the incentives to work and save. Today’s critics of shareholder capitalism want to hand business over to “stakeholders” such as government, environmentalists, unions and communities.
As the new stakeholders extract their unearned share, the equity value of businesses would plummet. Since 70% of all U.S. stocks are owned by 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts, private retirement plans or insurance companies to fund annuities and death benefits, Americans would see their nest eggs shattered. Resources would be redistributed not by taxing and spending but simply by forcing private companies and their employees to share the fruits of their labor and thrift. Unlike Mr. Sanders’s socialism, in which government assumes control and therefore the blame when the system fails, Ms. Warren’s style of socialism means it’s always possible to blame business.
The final pillar of the Biden program is racial justice. Ironically, the vice president to the first black president believes that America is systemically racist. His “Unity” program declares that virtually every significant gap—in wealth, health care, housing, policing, education—can be blamed on racism. The cure is a massive transformation of every aspect of American life, using a reparations commission, wealth transfers, subsidies, employment and promotion preferences, quotas, and even a new mandate to the Federal Reserve to seek racial equity. Every action that displaces merit with preference will reduce American efficiency and competitiveness. Tilting the system in the name of correcting old injustices will create new ones.
Four months into the pandemic crisis, with the nation’s cities ablaze, the moderate Mr. Biden seemed likely to run away with the election. But moved by a dual crisis too big to waste, and pushed by the base of his party, he has now adopted Sanders-Warren socialism and a radical plan to remake American society on the basis of race.
Before Mr. Biden’s transformation, the question facing voters was “Do you support Donald Trump?” The question now is, “Are you willing to endanger the economy and your freedom to end the Trump presidency?” For discontented Republicans and independents, and the many Americans who found refuge from socialism in this country, those questions are very different. There is a big difference between being unhappy and being suicidal.
Mr. Gramm is a former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
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Iranian leader's threats to eradicate Israel 'not in violation' of Twitter rules
Twitter's head policy for the Nordic countries and Israel says social media giant considered such posts by world leaders mere "foreign policy saber-rattling."
A Twitter official on Wednesday informed Israeli lawmakers that tweets in which Iranian officials, in particular Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pledge to eradicate the Jewish state are not in violation of the social media giant's rules against hate speech.
Ylwa Pettersson, Twitter's head policy for the Nordic countries and Israel said that such posts are considered mere "foreign policy saber-rattling."
Twitter's rules on terrorism and violent extremism state, "There is no place on Twitter for … individuals who affiliate with and promote [terrorist group's] illicit activities. … Our assessments in this context are informed by national and international terrorism designations."
"We have an approach toward leaders that says that direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on military-economic issues are generally not in violation of our rules," Pettersson was quoted by the Times of Israel as telling the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs, via video-conference.
"Calling for genocide on Twitter is okay, but commenting on the political situation in certain countries is not okay?" asked Blue and White MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh, to which Pettersson reportedly replied, "If a world leader violates our rules but there is a clear interest in keeping that up on the service we may place it behind a notice that provides some more context about the violation and allows people to click through if they wish to see that type of content."
"Wow. Twitter just admitted that tweets calling genocide against Jews by Iranian leaders DON'T violate its policy!", Cotler-Wunsh tweeted after the session ended. "This is a double standard. This is antisemitism."
A spokesperson for Twitter later said that tweets the likes of which are posted by Khamenei "are not in violation of our policies," pointing to the company's policy according to which "foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules."
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My press secretary, Donna Brazile, has prepped me and, like with Hillary, she has given me the answers to the framed questions I will be asked by hand picked reporters. This is why I chose her because I knew she was willing to help me in these stressful sessions. Even though I know the mass media are on my side it is nice to know I am surrounded by friends who will protect me and are serving the nation's best interests at the same time.
Loyalty is critical. I know because in my entire career I was always loyal to the Democrat Party and my family. That means now I must be loyal to Xi.
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Republicans are always behind the eight ball while the Democrats always play hard ball.
The GOP’s ‘D’oh!’ Moment
Republicans have a chance—and a need—to create an election-year contrast.
Senate Republicans experienced their “D’oh!” moment this week, and better late than never. If even Homer Simpson can experience moments of clarity, maybe the GOP can yet do a virus economy—and itself—some good.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
As Congress spent another tortuous week non negotiating a fifth virus-relief bill, it finally dawned on Republicans that they are being played for fools. Democrats don’t want a bill; they want to win an election. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—who may go down as one of Washington’s greatest cynics—knew exactly what she was doing in May, when she cooked up the $3 trillion monstrosity known as the Heroes Act. If the GOP said no to her outlandish demands, Democrats would brand them as uncaring, unable to lead, unworthy of controlling Washington. If instead she bludgeoned them into swallowing her spendathon, Democrats would wave the win as proof they should control Washington. Heads Democrats win; tails Republicans lose.
The GOP did its mightiest to aid this strategy, by having no alternative of its own. By May, Congress had spent nearly $3 trillion on the virus, and Republicans had plenty to pack into a message: The bills provided generous aid to the unemployed, small businesses, families, vital industry, schools, states, renters and health providers. The goals were to stave off economic collapse, provide a lifeline during a national shutdown, lay the groundwork for reopening. All that was accomplished—not that you hear Republicans noting it. The bills, moreover, provided a cushion to deal with lingering needs; as Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson recently noted, more than $1 trillion of those original packages has yet to be spent or obligated.Instead of making these points, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled the GOP was open to tacking Democratic demands on to the Republican priority of liability protection for businesses and organizations. The White House rolled out Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who invited Mrs. Pelosi to dictate the GOP bill. Instead of putting together a plan focused on pro-growth economic policies, the Senate GOP cobbled together a hodgepodge of its own spending demands—money for schools, aid for farmers and, yes, $1.75 billion for a new FBI building. Cue a revolt by fiscal conservatives and party infighting—and two weeks of headlines about Republican “chaos.”
All the while, Democrats have broadcast—in plain English—that they have no intention of letting legislation succeed. Mrs. Pelosi this week described the two bills as a “giraffe” and a “flamingo” and said they were “not mateable.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer won’t even try, refusing to engage in regular order—to bring a bill to the floor, to hold amendments and votes, and to send a rival product to a House-Senate conference. Democrats have a plan—blame Republicans for the bill’s failure and, by laughable extension, the nation’s economic woes.
And so it was encouraging to see Mr. McConnell acknowledge reality and move to put the GOP back on offense. Stepping back from talks on a big bill, the Senate GOP tackled the most pressing deadline—the Friday expiration of federal enhanced unemployment benefits. Sen. Johnson proposed renewing these benefits at about two-thirds of lost wages, or roughly $200 a week. This would allow the federal government to continue providing some aid, though not the current, crazy $600 a week that is discouraging so many from returning to work. Senate Republicans asked for unanimous consent on that plan, and Democrats blocked it. That means Democrats own the expiration.
Not that the press will put it that way, which is why it is also encouraging that Mr. McConnell now intends to put a legislative version of that unemployment extension on the floor next week and put Democrats on record voting it down. The only way to expose Democratic cynicism and intransigence is to beat the public over the head with proof—something the GOP failed to do with policing reform. A GOP vote would force Democrats to explain why two-thirds of regular pay is not enough—especially given prior Democratic proposals that set virus sick leave and family medical leave at two-thirds regular pay. When Democrats vote it down, Mr. McConnell needs to bring it up again. And again.
The GOP meantime also has an opportunity to rethink and put together proposals sharply tailored to economic growth. Then bring them up again, and again. Hammer home that Democrats are blocking economic revival. (You can bet that is what Mr. Schumer would be doing to Republicans right now, were the situation reversed.)
If Republicans allow this election to become a contest over which party can spend more taxpayer dollars, they will lose. Better to treat it as an opportunity to present true competing visions—between a GOP that has a plan for a bigger and better economy, and a Democratic Party that wants a vastly larger entitlement state. Yet making that contrast first requires Republicans to get there themselves. Get a plan, make the case.
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Biden Diary- Day 7
My press secretary, Donna Brazile, has prepped me and, like with Hillary, she has given me the answers to the framed questions I will be asked by hand picked reporters. This is why I chose her because I knew she was willing to help me in these stressful sessions. Even though I know the mass media are on my side it is nice to know I am surrounded by friends who will protect me and are serving the nation's best interests at the same time.
Loyalty is critical. I know because in my entire career I was always loyal to the Democrat Party and my family. That means now I must be loyal to Xi.
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