Middle East and Other Musings: Boomerang Effect. Book Report. Op Ed's Some Idea So Stupid Only Liberals Would Embrace The,. Madrid Pat Down.

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The boomerang effect:

Moderate Democrats Get The “Last Laugh” Over Their Radical Counterparts

In 2022, it’s not an exaggeration to state the Democrat Party has collectively lost its mind. In today’s America, the Democrat is the party of defunding law enforcement, opening the jails, ending cash bail, letting the IRS oversee US citizens’ private bank accounts, and more.

Democrats have made tyrannical attempts to get more power despite controlling Congress and the White House. Thus far, these attempts entail abolishing the filibuster back in January and consistently calling to pack the Supreme Court with far-left justices.

Radicals outweigh the fewer remaining Democrats who have some sense. However, in a fascinating twist, moderate Democrats like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are prevailing despite being on progressives’ political hit list, according to RedState.

Progressive Democrats are livid with Sinema and Manchin for refusing to support the abolition of the filibuster, the Build Back Better Act, and the sham “voting rights” bills.

Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have even said the lives of these moderates need to be made harder. However, Sinema and Manchin are better positioned than most people might expect.

During 2021’s closing three months, Sinema managed to bring funds to the tune of $1.6 million. The moderate Democrat of Arizona is seeking significant growth in funds coming in from both corporate donors and different PACs.

Manchin is also doing pretty well for himself. After announcing his rejection of Build Back Better in December 2021, the West Virginia Democrat brought in $300,000 in a matter of days. During the final 12 weeks of 2021, Manchin raked in more than $1.5 million.

During a recent visit to West Virginia, Manchin was also warmly received by his constituents. West Virginia polls have also shown that majorities of state residents support Manchin’s refusal to vote against the filibuster or vote for the Build Back Better Act.

Sinema and Manchin were elected into office to represent their constituents, not vote in lockstep with the Democrat Party, no matter how radical it becomes.

Arizona is not a complex blue state, and West Virginia isn’t. Manchin may be the only Democrat who could prevail and do well in a red state like West Virginia.

When it’s all said and done, DC leftists and Twitter warriors who go after Sinema and Manchin are not the constituents who elected them into office. Therefore, regardless of how vocal it may be, the radical left’s input does not have the final say over whether or not these two moderates remain in office.

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Sent by a dear friend and fellow memo reader: This is called comparison reading book reviewing:

Book Reading

Students at a local school were assigned to read 2 books, 'Titanic' and 'My Life' by Bill Clinton.

One student turned in the following book report, with the proposition that they were nearly identical stories!

His cool professor gave him an A+ for this report.

Titanic: Cost - $29.99

Clinton: Cost - $29.99

Titanic: Over 3 hours to read

Clinton: Over 3 hours to read

Titanic: The story of Jack and Rose, their forbidden love, and subsequent catastrophe.

Clinton: The story of Bill and Monica, their forbidden love, and subsequent catastrophe.

Titanic: Jack is a starving artist.

Clinton: Bill is a bullshit artist.

Titanic: In one scene, Jack enjoys a good cigar.

Clinton: Ditto for Bill

Titanic: During the ordeal, Rose's dress gets ruined.

Clinton: Ditto for Monica.

Titanic: Jack teaches Rose to spit.

Clinton: Let's not go there.

Titanic: Rose gets to keep her jewellery.

Clinton: Monica is forced to return her gifts.

Titanic: Rose remembers Jack for the rest of her life.

Clinton: Clinton doesn't remember anything.

Titanic: Rose goes down on a vessel full of seamen.

Clinton: Monica.. Ooh, let's not go there, either.

Titanic: Jack surrenders to an icy death.

Clinton: Bill goes home to Hillary - basically the same.

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Taken from Hoover Daily Report

Victor Davis Hanson On Leaks, Protests And Party Politics

interview with Victor Davis Hanson via VDH's Blade of Perseus

Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson talks about Hunter Biden’s Burisma ties, the disastrous pull-out from Afghanistan, the Canadian truckers protest, and the Republic party.

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As long as we are free to protest "we the people" have power. This is why the radicals want to deprive us of the right to speak.

This is why billionaires who control social media platforms and want to stop our ability to speak freely are dangerous. For a president of the United States to be banned for tweeting etc. is outrageous. That is why we have voting and that too is why radicals want to destroy our faith in voting procedures and results. Anything that allows American's freedom, free choice, freedom to protect themselves etc. is deemed anathema by radicals and that is why the Democrat Party deserves to be smashed.

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D.C.'s Rapid Decay

By Katie Pavlich

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Destroy, Destroy, Destroy

By Kurt Schlichter

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Some ideas are so stupid only liberals would embrace them:

Decline of San Francisco Proves Leftist Policies Fail

By John Stossel

The mayor of San Francisco recently bemoaned a "reign of criminals who are destroying the city."

John Stossel is the creator of Stossel TV videos, and author of "No They Can't! Why Government Fails—But Individuals Succeed."

San Francisco’s liberal mayor declared a “state of emergency” to try to deal with the city’s “nasty streets.”

How did it get so bad?

Journalist Michael Shellenberger’s new book “San Fransicko” argues that it happened because of progressive ideas.

“The town I love is sick,” says Shellenberger in my new video.

>>> Former Soros activist Michael Shellenberger explains how progressive policies ruined San Francisco.

Read it here.

He came to San Francisco when he was in his 20s to support social justice causes. He still supports those ideas, but “it just went too far.”

In 2014, California politicians decided to end mass incarceration.

It’s a noble goal. America locks up a higher percentage of its people than any other country. Jails are overcrowded. People in jail are more likely to learn to be better criminals than to be rehabilitated.

So California converted many nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. People who steal less than $950 worth of items are no longer jailed. Proponents said this would divert money from prisons that could go to mental health and drug treatment programs.

But not jailing people who break laws had nasty unintended consequences.

Shoplifters steal right in front of security guards. Police look the other way. They know if they make an arrest, they’ll face hours of paperwork and the person arrested will just return to the street. Cars are broken into 74 times a day.

“None of us want mass incarceration,” says Shellenberger, who voted for the law to stop jailing people. “But that was a recipe for disaster.”

Because no one is arrested for camping on the street, San Francisco is now filled with tent cities that supposedly house the “homeless.” But most campers are the mentally ill and drug users who choose life on the street. They shoot up or light up in public, confident no one will interfere.

In my video, one crack addict said she stays in San Francisco because it is “more lenient.” In other cities, she said, she’d be in jail.

Other cities, like Miami, do treat the homeless differently. “They don’t let people use drugs in public, and they built sufficient homeless shelters,” says Shellenberger.

In San Francisco, new homeless shelters are blocked by progressive activists who argue that everyone deserves an apartment. Yet it costs $700,000 to build one apartment in San Francisco.

A few years ago, I made a video suggesting that the high cost of apartments was a major reason for San Francisco’s tent cities. California’s excessive regulation discourages new construction, so there’s a housing shortage. That keeps rental prices high and leads people to live on the street.

“It’s not true,” says Shellenberger. “If it were true that expensive places made for homelessness, why don’t we see large open-air drug scenes in Carmel? Why don’t we see large open drug scenes in many fancy neighborhoods? Homelessness is just a function of whether or not you allow people to camp in public or not.”

But if people are homeless, should the government arrest them? The Constitution gives us the right to peaceably assemble.

“People have a right to be outdoors,” I tell Shellenberger. “We don’t have a right to force them off the street if they aren’t directly threatening anybody.”

“We should defend those rights because that’s part of our freedom,” he replies, “but you don’t have a right to shoot heroin at the public park.” There need to be “consequences for people’s behaviors.”

After researching his city’s problems, Shellenberger decided he could no longer identify as progressive. “Progressivism has become the abdication of personal responsibility.”

I think it’s always meant that.

But now parts of San Francisco have become such a sewer that even liberal politicians have changed their positions. The mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, recently declared it’s time to end the “reign of criminals who are destroying our city!”

Not long ago, when protesters shouted, “Defund the police,” Breed cut San Francisco’s policing budget by $120 million.

Now she says her town will be “more aggressive with law enforcement … and less tolerant of all the bulls—- that has destroyed our city.”

Progressive ideas almost always end badly.

The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

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Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Reverses Course on Crime Policies Amid Backlash

Landon Mion

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Lock down not pat down in Madrid: