Piling On DeSantis?

The Hill wrote an interesting piece the other day on why the Republican front-runners (or at least those that have already declared their desire to be President), have been piling on Ron DeSantis rather than Donald Trump. They were rather illogical in their conclusions as to why, but I had some thoughts on this.

In fact, I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now.

DeSantis is getting burned by Democrats, burned by the media, burned by people like Nikki Haley, burned by Donald Trump who has been relentless over him for the past several months, calling him “Ron Desanctimonious”. It’s not a very good attempt, but you get the idea.

Here’s what’s really happening.

I think there are a couple of reasons the lower tiered candidates are jumping on the “Crush DeSantis” bandwagon. The first is that if they bring him down to their level, they have a better chance of hanging around longer. I don’t think any of them, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley or Vivek Ramaswammy or even Asa Hutchinson are able to win the nomination. It’s a two horse race right now. By eliminating one of them, it becomes clear, and these folks can then start vying for their post-election jobs in a Trump administration.

Yeah, that’s right. It’s not about those also rans winning the nomination. It’s about them getting a slot in a new Trump administration should be beat Joe Biden. Recent polling, which as I’ve said before, doesn’t mean anything this far out, shows Trump ahead and DeSantis tied with Biden. No one else was even talked about. So, they need to see if they can become Trump’s VP, or grab a cabinet position somewhere.

The media isn’t on DeSantis side, and that should tell you something. They aren’t afraid of Trump. They are afraid of DeSantis. Trump has a slew of problems coming up. He’s already been indicted by Alvin Bragg for those phony charges in paying off Stormy Daniels after a sexcapade. And, seeing how it’s going to be a New York City jury, where 85% of the participants are most likely liberal and Democrat, do you think he has a chance in hell of escaping with a Not Guilty verdict? He’s also been hit with a $5 million suit from E. Jean Carroll. She’s actually filed a second suit against him after he trashed her in his CNN Town Hall. And then there are the other investigations going on like the one in Georgia, where Trump allegedly tried to “find votes” to win the state. That one seems to be heading toward another indictment.

So, the media isn’t really scared of Trump at this point. Democrats feel that Biden beat Trump once, he could certainly do it again, especially with all of the legal troubles The Donald is facing.

And Trump himself is hitting DeSantis hard because that’s what was in his 2016 playbook. He totally dismantled every single one of the 17 people that were running for the nomination by singling them out, and riding them until the weren’t a factor any longer. That’s what he’s doing with DeSantis. The others are like gnats at a picnic. He’s not the least bit concerned about them. And, as I mentioned, they don’t want to attack Trump because it could cost them a job in his administration.

If DeSantis can slide through the next few months unscathed, and actually cut into Trump’s sizable lead in the polls, he has a better than even chance to win the nomination. If not, he’s going to be down at the bottom with the rest of the wannabees.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Was It Smart To Announce On Twitter?

Ron DeSantis is already getting a heap of complaints from all sides over his decision to announce his run for president on Twitter and do it with Elon Musk. It wasn’t necessarily the fact that Musk was involved, it was more of a fact that it was on the Twitter platform that Musk owns.

It really didn’t go very well.

Instead of doing the traditional announcement with balloons, and people of all races and creeds in the background, all cheering and holding DeSantis For President signs, it was an audio-only announcement and a Q&A with Musk. And it didn’t go very well, not because DeSantis or Musk screwed up. The Twitter servers couldn’t handle the business of all of the people wanting to get on to listen to the announcement. It crashed the servers. Oops. Not what you want when you are looking at a novel way to get your message across.

So, why Twitter in the first place? I think it was done for a couple of reasons. First off, it was a slap in the face of Donald Trump, who loved to use Twitter to communicate with his minions throughout his campaign, and his presidency. He hasn’t done a lot there lately, because until Musk came along, he was banned from the site, and because he started Truth Social, and sunk a ton of money into it. So, it makes sense Trump would want to be there. The other reason DeSantis decided to go online rather than have a more traditional announcement was his disdain for the mainstream socialist media. If you’re not taking questions from leftist reporters, you don’t have to answer gotcha questions.

Overall, it was something I think DeSantis thought would be different and having Musk by his side on the announcement showed he had his backing, at least on the surface. But it harkens back to 2015 when Hillary Clinton had how many announcements that she was running for president? I think there were two but there may have been more. She did the rollout online while she and her entourage were enroute to Iowa in a van on I-80/90, stopping at a Maumee, Ohio Chipotle to get one of their “bowls”. It didn’t go over very well. Primarily because they never do. Those things always look over-rehearsed, and ridiculous. Then she decided not enough people clamored to the announcement, so she scheduled a second one. This one was on Roosevelt Island, smack dab in the middle of the East River. Not a lot of people could attend that one either, as the island was shut down to “normal people”. Only Hillary supporters were allowed to show up. It looked super-staged, and awkward…and that was something Hillary never was able to get away from.

DeSantis doesn’t need to do another announcement. I think the whole world probably was well aware that he was running for president months ago. He needs to focus on the future, not try to fix something that went wrong in the past. Politics is all about downplaying the stuff that goes wrong and accentuating the stuff that goes right. DeSantis needs to pivot from how he’s helped the state of Florida, to how he’s going to help the United States. And he needs to be specific. He needs to be friendly. He needs to be approachable. One of the knocks on him is that he isn’t a very nice person because of his treatment of some mouse in Orlando. Frankly, I don’t care if the president is a nice person or not. Donald Trump was successful in a lot of areas, and he’s far from being a “nice guy”. He’s a total ego-maniac.

But for DeSantis to win, he has to stress that he’s got all of Donald Trump’s ideas and none of the excess baggage. He isn’t under indictment anywhere. He hasn’t been sued for $5 million with another lawsuit already filed by the same lady. He doesn’t have any top secret documents hidden anywhere in his home, like Trump, Biden, or Mike Pence. But he’s got the ability to turn the country around. He needs to have another “It’s morning in America” theme, like Ronald Reagan had.

Can he do it? The jury is still out on that one, but we’re going to see if he can muster the campaign muscle to get the job done in the coming weeks. There’s some 64.5 weeks until the election. He’s got time. He just needs to watch his steps because there are a lot of landmines out there!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

DeSantis Is In! Now What?

Ron DeSantis made it official yesterday and threw his hat into the presidential politics ring. I think it was probably the least exciting announcement that could be made. I mean, everybody and their brother KNEW this was going to happen right? The only thing that was a little askew was the fact that he said he wanted to wait until his legislative session was over, which doesn’t end until next month. Apparently, the wait was too much for him!

So, what does that really mean for the political landscape on the GOP side? Does it mean that those that have waited this long to decide to get in (I’m looking at you, Mike Pence!) have decided to sit this one out? If so, that means we have what? six people that are going to run? That’s a far cry from the 17 or so that took it on back in 2016. And really, at this point with DeSantis just getting in, and no polls taken so far since he got in, he trails Donald Trump by 37 points according to Real Clear Politics. No one else is within 50 points of Trump.

Does that make this a two person race? And there are indeed a lot of things that could sway this one way or another. Does New York District Attorney and socialist, Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump have anything to do with the way the Republicans are going to vote in the primaries next year? It could chase some independents away, but it could also steal the will of waffling Trumpers, and get them mad at the left so they back him anyway.

Does it mean that DeSantis probably won’t catch Trump being down that much? Not a bit. If Trump stumbles at all, DeSantis is there, and we haven’t really seen him actively campaign yet. What’s he going to say about the issues that matter most to the GOP? What proposals regarding the terribly weak Biden economy can he bring to the table? How will he differ from Trump in the southern border issue? How far do you go in tackling crime? Do you blow up the FBI and the DOJ and start over? It seems obvious to me that Christopher Wray would be on his way out.

And does DeSantis do with those agencies what he’s doing with Disney? Disney seems like they want to fight, but when you look at it, they can’t be that healthy of a company right now. They have after all slated to can about 7,000 of their employees. They are advertising “new lower rates” at their theme parks, and I’m hearing from several places that Disney World is almost vacant right now. DeSantis certainly has to be having an impact on their company. Their stock is trading near it’s 52 week low at less than $90 a share! That’s the world’s largest media giant we’re talking about here!

So, we know Trump has an impact on society when he wants. He’s proven that, and it seems he thinks the right way a lot of the time. DeSantis also follows in those footsteps. And the media hates him as well, because they are trying to hold them down.

In the end it’s going to come down to whether Trump gets the nod for the nomination or whether DeSantis does. I think either could beat a weakened Biden, especially if the economy continues to stumble along, or if the debt ceiling debate falls apart and we end up defaulting on the debt. Even if the debt payments are made, if Socials Security or Medicare/Medicaid payments don’t go out in time, Biden is going to be the one this time to feel the blame of the American people. After all, 57% of America likes the House plan to cut spending by three times the debt limit increase. Of course, that’s not going to happen, but it’s a good starting point when over half the country wants to see a smaller government!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Race Keeps Getting Hotter!

When you look at the presidential sweepstakes race that’s just getting started, you have to ask yourself if this is going to be the nastiest, most hotly contested race of all time. I mean, I know if you go back throughout our history, you’re going to find some that probably were worse than what we’re in for, but you have to wonder. Take the election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It was as contentious as it could be. The two didn’t speak for years afterward.

And yet, this year’s political battles are just now starting to heat up. You’ve got the media going whole hot against Ron DeSantis, who, as of this writing hasn’t even announced his candidacy yet. But that just shows how much the media is scared of DeSantis going up against Biden. The Florida Governor is young, energetic, on top of the issues, knows where he is at all times, and I’ve never seen him trip going up a set of stairs. Biden on the other hand looks weaker by the day. I really wonder how this guy is going to play defense on what he’s done over the past two years, and how America is better for it, when he spends three days a week in his basement in Wilmington, and the other four days dodging the press.

And then you’ve got Biden’s opponents. It’s kind of like Hillary’s opponents in 2016. No, Bernie Sanders isn’t going to run. He’s finally learned that he’s going to be too old for the job. And he can pull whatever puppet strings he can with Biden. I mean, he’s been pretty successful doing it so far, right? But you’ve got Bobby Kennedy Jr., who has never been elected to any office anywhere. And he gets in and immediately jumps to 20% in the Democrat primary polls just on name recognition (even though most of the “new” Democrats weren’t even alive when his dad ran for the office!)

And then you’ve got the alien being from Venus in the form of Marianne Williamson. I swear, every time I hear this woman speak, I think she’s from another planet. She’s so far left wing, I don’t think AOC or the Whack Job five or six or however many there are these days look at all liberal standing next to her. She’s in it like Martin O’Malley was in 2016. She’s there to round out the ticket and make it look like Joe has some competition.

On the Republican side, you’ve got some quality candidates to be sure. Tim Scott is certainly qualified. He’s young (comparitively at 57), energetic, and an African American. He’s conservative as the day is long. He was appointed to the Senate to fill an unexpired term by yet another candidate, former Governor and former UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley. Then you’ve got Ron DeSantis, who hasn’t even announced as I write this, but will this week. Vivek Ramaswammy is another one that has impressed me. At 37 he’s the youngest in the field and would run circles around Biden. He’s high tech all the way and has been a CEO of a finance company. We did pretty well with business people in 2016, so why not again? Oh, and then there’s Asa Hutchinson, who has as much chance of winning the nomination as I do.

What’s interesting is not necessarily the people in the race, but the ones NOT in the race (yet). Mike Pence hasn’t decided yet. Glenn Youngkin, the Governor of Virginia has bowed out, but word is his top donors are pressuring him to reconsider, and he might. John Bolton, Chris Sununu, Chris Christie, and Kristi Noem, are all sitting on the sidelines waiting. I doubt we are going to get some 17 or 18 candidates like 2016, but there will be a handful to choose from.

And the Democrats say that they don’t want Biden to run again, while the Republicans don’t want Donald Trump to do the same. Yet, when asked that if Biden WERE the candidate, most Democrats say they’d stick with him. I guess that’s also true for Trump seeing how he has the majority of people supporting him in the primary…at least today. That can always change. But how does Biden win reelection if he can’t even get more than 65% of his own party to say they want him?

It’ll be an amazing year and a half to be sure…and yes…I’ve just ordered a 50 pound bag of popcorn from Amazon. It’ll be here in two days.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Random Thoughts For A Tuesday

You’ll have to kinda, sorta forgive me today. We just got back from my eldest grandchild’s high school graduation in the Great State of Texas (with a shout out to MarkOne!), so I’m still a little in “Grandpa mode”. But I tried to stay up on some of the things happening. I collected my thoughts, and in no particular order, here they are.

Hillary Clinton thinks Joe Biden is too old for the job? And she disses him on stage where they were filming so the whole world can see? I guess she’s not bucking to become VP, or even Secretary of State any longer. But Joe should count himself lucky…he’s still breathing, and he didn’t kill himself (yet).

Speaking of Joe Biden, I have a question to ask. What the heck happened to Hunter Biden? Before we left for Texas it was all the media types could talk about. They were speculating that it was going to be very soon that the Durham Report would come out (which I hear it did), and it would be just a short matter of time before the DOJ had to indict Hunter on at least a couple of misdemeanors and at least one felony for tax evasion. Did I miss something here?

So Tim Scott from South Carolina becomes a candidate for President. Frankly, I like what Scott stands for, and I think it would be an absolute hoot to see him run against Biden. Biden professes that blacks love him, but according to all of the polls, his support among the African American community has shrunk significantly. He was at 71% a year ago. Today that figure stands at 46%. And the YouTube videos are out there showing blacks wanting Trump. What’s going to happen if an ACTUAL African American, like Scott actually wins the Republican nomination and runs against him? There goes the whole race card thing!

I saw an interesting thing on TV yesterday. It was that the LGBTQ+ community isn’t a fan of one of their members… namely the “T”. Apparently the transgenders out there are very anti-gay and aren’t afraid to take them on. Now, frankly, I don’t care what you do in the privacy of your home, as long as it doesn’t involve kids, but I have to laugh. We have yet another example of the left eating itself. Oooh. Wait. That was a bad choice of words. Forgive me!

So the NAACP has issued a “travel warning” to blacks not to go to Florida? What do they think they are going to accomplish in that? I have a brother in Florida. He says the folks he knows, black, white, brown, are ALL doing really well under DeSantis and the Republican led legislature. Maybe they’d feel better going to California and paying a huge tax on everything?

So, Alvin Bragg has indicted ex-Marine hero, Daniel Penny for second degree murder in the death of that homeless guy on the subway, Jordan Neely. From everything I’ve seen there were more folks trying to subdue a mad man than just Penny, and I don’t think he looked like he was trying to harm anyone. Seems that’s what most of the folks in the car with Penny said as well. I can’t believe that Bragg would waste more taxpayer money on this. It’s just another liberal ploy. If you’re a criminal in New York, you obviously can’t do any wrong, even when you’ve been arrested forty-four times!

Speaking of the Durham Report, I’ll admit I haven’t read it (yet), but will. And I’m really interested to learn what is going to happen to Hillary Clinton because of it. This has to be one of the more thorough reports issued in recent memory, and it should be…it took long enough. Remember? This was going to stop Biden from winning the White House back in 2020 when it would be released just before the election!

Am I the only one that thinks the whole federal government needs to be blown up and started over again? The FBI, the NSA, the CIA, the DOJ, the EPA, Homeland Security all need to be shut down, retooled and maybe left shut down. I understand the need for us to know what friends and foes around the world are doing, but to use the tactics against American citizens that aren’t doing anything other than belonging to a political party? The left should be ashamed if they had any shame in them!

That’s it for today! Have a great Tuesday, and …

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

T-Minus 10 And Counting…And Who Is To Blame?

If you’re watching anything to do with the debt ceiling debate, you know as well as I do that the negotiations aren’t going very well. Of course, that depends on who you are listening to. But in case you’ve been busy getting ready for Memorial Day weekend coming up, there are 10 days left before the debt ceiling issue causes a default of the government.

And who is to blame?

Well, again, that is going to depend on where you get your information. The White House is still blaming the House Republicans for passing a debt ceiling increase that included going back to the 2022 budget, and cutting $4.5 trillion dollars from the overall spending over the next 10 years. It would raise the debt ceiling $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2023, whichever comes first. Democrats have poo-pooed that and said they want a “clean debt ceiling bill”, without any negotiations on cutting spending. That’s what Democrats do, after all.

So, as I sit here and look at this and figure out who’s to blame for this mess, there are three places to put the blame.

The first is squarely on Joe Biden. For a guy that said initially that he wouldn’t negotiate with Kevin McCarthy on anything that included a reduction in spending to go along with the debt ceiling increase, he once again, apparently has lied. Or changed his mind…or read the polls that said it would be his fault if we defaulted on the debt. Biden hasn’t come out publicly and said that he has negotiated anything, and neither necessarily has his team that’s meeting with the Republicans. We haven’t heard of him budging from his “clean bill” status. McCarthy has moved the needle some, saying that the GOP has come off of the 2022 budget and have increased spending somewhat more than that. He hasn’t said how much.

Most Americans blame the Democrats at this point because they don’t believe that Biden is negotiating in good faith. Usually, negotiations are a give and take. You aren’t going to get everything you want and neither is the other guy. And if Biden is sticking to his guns that there won’t be any spending reductions, he is at fault and there is no question there.

McCarthy is right that he isn’t going to be able to pass a clean bill through the House. And while most Americans will blame the Democrats on this one (until the media slams the GOP), you have to understand that the Republicans are also at fault here.

Yes, the debt ceiling and over-spending is traditionally a Democrat caused problem. After all, it was the Democrats that have increased the spending on the federal budget by 30% just through three programs, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That said, it was their programs that have put us in the position where all three of those programs are going to have to face draconian cuts up the road. But the Republicans have gone along with it. And if you look at who has raised the debt ceiling the most, it’s been the Republicans. Donald Trump raised it twice. George HW Bush raised it four times, George W. Bush raised it seven times for a total of 13 times. Bobo Obama raised it seven times, and Bill Clinton four for a total of 11 times.

The problem here isn’t which party raises it the most, or who wants the “clean bill” passed. It’s that neither party wants to do anything substantive about it. What they need to do is pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would not allow Congress to spend a nickel more than they have taken in from taxes and fees. As it stands now, the American people don’t have a clue how much Congress is really spending. If they saw it in the form of tax increases every time Congress spent more than they took in (kind of like an assessment given to members of clubs at the end of the year), there would be all sorts of hell to pay. A balanced budget amendment is the only way to go. States must balance their budgets. So must cities and municipalities. Why can’t the federal government do the same thing?

And it’s both parties that have balked at this. Neither has issued a strong effort to pass a balanced budget, even though they controlled both Houses of Congress. It needs to be done, and the sooner the better!

T-Minus 10 and counting…

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

CNN Head Defends Trump Town Hall

Oh, there weren’t many employees of CNN that were very happy about Chris Licht’s decision to move forward with a town hall broadcast featuring the GOP leading candidate at this point, Donald Trump. Many of the employees thought that Licht was on some very powerful drugs. Some like Oliver Darcy, the CNN media reporter, got hauled into Licht’s office for a bitch session. He was berated for the way he covered the event, and tried to push back, but Licht failed to back down. People that watched Darcy come out of Licht’s office described him as “visibly shaken”.

Of course, the leftist socialists that comprise CNN’s audience couldn’t believe one of the left’s strongest allies was going to give a Republican time to spout whatever they wanted to on the channel. All sorts of leftist whack jobs came forth to complain. But it didn’t do any good. Chris Licht is trying very hard to make CNN a news channel to rival Fox News, not come in third behind MSNBC on a daily basis. So far, he’s met with a lot of resistance, and has had to fire a lot of personnel.

One that may end up being on the chopping block because of this is Kaitlan Collins, the 31 year-old that tried to fact check Trump in real time with terrible results. It got so bad that at the end of the broadcast, Trump called her “a nasty person”, and commented that she was a very bad host. It was very obvious to anyone that watched, and even those that only saw the highlights, Collins was way out of her league. The fact-checking didn’t go very well. She tried in real time to fact-check the former president, and failed miserably at it. Her style was anything less than professional, often arguing with Trump. That’s not a town hall, Kaitlin. That’s a debate, and you’re not running for anything (other than a job).

I do have to give Chris Licht some credit. He said when he came on board a year ago that he was going to make CNN more mainstream and less of a party platform for the Democrats and the Socialists out there. He has largely succeeded in that. When you look at the people that have left CNN in the past year, either of their own accord or by the boot, it’s pretty astonishing. Brian Stelter, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo (though he left before Licht got there), and the entire CNN+ group except for Chris Wallace, who really isn’t really doing much of anything there are all gone or heading out the door. Now you can soon add Oliver Darcy and possibly Kaitlin Collins to the mix.

It’s all done by design. Chris Licht was hired for one very simple reason. Advertisers weren’t flocking to the news channel because viewers were leaving it in droves. Oh, it happens to every news channel after a major election, and 2020 was no different. But where the audience usually comes back after a couple of months (it took six months in Fox News case), they were flipped to MSNBC when it came to CNN. And the one-time king of cable news not only was dethroned, but was relegated to a daily third place finish. Licht’s job was to correct that. And he’s making strides.

CNN is no longer a bash-Trump, bash-Republicans channel. Oh, they still have their slant, and it’s decidedly liberal. But in the end, it’s a lot better than it had been. I still hate watching the channel because it is still a liberal bastion, just not a socialist liberal bastion.

The key for Licht’s success will be in the numbers. If the audience comes back, the advertisers will come back. And if that happens you can kiss any chance of CNN returning to it’s liberal ways anytime soon. And who know? They may just end up giving Fox News a run for their money!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Would Biden’s Social Security Fix Work?

And before I answer that question, just let me say, this is probably the first time since Joe Biden took office that he’s given out a solution to what our country is facing that I could actually live with. Not that it would ever come to fruition. Not that it’s actually feasible. But Biden has a four-point plan to fix Social Security. And truthfully, except for the fact that it doesn’t “fix” Social Security, it’s not all that bad.

Let’s examine it, shall we?

The first thing Biden wants to do is to increase taxes (NO! REALLY???) on people making $400,000 or more (and actually, it’s COUPLES making $400,000 or more). That much is necessary because Social Security is dying. As to WHY it’s dying, there are really only two reasons. First is the people that are getting Social Security have been expanded to more than just retirees. Second, the federal government has been raiding the Social Security accounts ever since the money started flowing into them. Why? Because they could…and because the account was just one big slush fund of money. Had individual accounts been used where YOUR money was in YOUR account, they never would have touched it. But Biden is right that somebody needs to increase the financial contribution into the Social Security account.

Second thing Biden wants to do is change the cost of living index that’s used. Currently, the government uses a thing called a CPI-W, which is the index for urban workers and clerical workers. There is nothing necessarily either urban or clerical about the retirees. What Biden wants to do (and should have done back in 1975 when they made the change to CPI-W) is change it to CPI-E for elderly cost of living. Those in retirement have a much different cost basis in their lives than someone working. Healthcare costs are usually the number one expense, but that’s not reflected in the current CPI-W model. So, when healthcare costs go up 35%, and inflation overall is 4%, retirees get a 4% raise and see a 35% increase in the amount taken out of the Social Security checks to pay for Medicare. This move would fix that. It would also increase the cost of the Social Security program.

Third thing Biden wants to do is increase the “Primary Insurance Amount” based on age. Starting at age 78 and going to 82, the PIA amount would increase by 1% a year over the five years. Since 80% of the amount you spend on healthcare occurs in the last 20% of your life, it becomes the biggest struggle for retirees. Again, this increases the cost of the Social Security program, and doesn’t necessarily keep it running longer.

And finally, Biden wants to boost the special minimum benefit. If you were a lower paid worker, and never made much for the 30 years or more that you were on the job, you can never make more than $1,033.50 a month (plus cost of living increases). Biden wants to up that because that’s only a little more than $12,000 a year, and the poverty level is $14,580 for a single person. So, he wants to increase the minimum amount you can make through Social Security to 125% of the poverty level. Again, this helps seniors, but doesn’t do a damn thing in keep Social Security solvent.

In fact, the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank has said that Biden’s plan would only extend the life of Social Security an additional five years. Then it’s broke. So it’s not a real solution. There needs to be some other things added to his four-point plan.

First of all, Social Security should be a needs-based program. If you’re net worth is say $1,500,000 or more, you shouldn’t be getting a check for Social Security. You have enough to live on. Yes, you paid into it, but should you really take from someone that needs it and doesn’t have other money? That was after all, the original intent of Social Security. It was to make sure that the widows of those men that were working would be taken care of after the men died off.

Second, it needs to go back to what it was originally intended to be. We need to stop all of the disability payments, and the payments to the kids who’s parent passed away while they were still a minor. While that money is great for the kid, it shortens the life of the program immeasurably.

And, Congress needs to come clean. Democrats have argued for years that they don’t want to see Social Security “privatized”, meaning they don’t want to see it invested in the stock markets. Why? You’ve heard all of the noise about people like Nancy Pelosi making millions in the stock market, right? Why would you deny seniors that ability? And what’s really stupid in that line of thinking is that everyone in the workplace that currently has a 401k is already IN the stock market. That’s where the money, or most of it, is invested. To not allow that to happen is ridiculous!

While I’m on Congress’ case, they need to set up individual accounts for people that are just getting into Social Security. That way, the money will be there for them. And a law needs to be passed that Congress can’t touch that money for any reason, ever! That money belongs to the eventual retiree. If they were to pass away before reaching retirement age, the money is added to their beneficiary’s account. It’s not there for Congress to raid. That has to stop now.

And, there has to be a plan for Congress to pay back the money they’ve stolen from the retirees. I’m sure it’s in the trillions of dollars by now, but it’s something they need to do. They cry about how America pays it’s debts, but yet, they don’t have a problem stealing from the most vulnerable people in their own country. How shameful! Those people should be locked away!

Social Security was a Democrat idea back in the 1940’s (thanks, FDR!), and as such, it has ballooned, like every single Democrat program into a unwieldy monster that has a life of it’s own and still grows each and every day. Fixing it? There is no way to really fix it that is going to cost less than $22 trillion in a lot of estimates. And we have Democrats to thank for that.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

So What’s The Solution?

The Republican controlled House of Representatives passed a fix to the immigration crisis on the southern border last week. The vote was pretty much along party lines, 219-213. And that means that the Republicans have put forth the only bill so far that would tackle the very sticky, very partisan issue of immigration. I have one question for Joe Biden.

Where is YOUR solution?

Wasn’t it Joe Biden that mocked Kevin McCarthy about the budget and the debt ceiling debacle? Didn’t he chide McCarthy for “not having a budget, not having a bill”? And then what happened? McCarthy went out, and wrote and passed a bill regarding the debt ceiling. It basically allowed the debt ceiling to increase $1.5 trillion in exchange for $4.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. It never saw the light of day in the Senate, because Chuckles Schumer was against spending cuts. Biden himself said it was a non-starter and had it made it to his desk, he would have vetoed it. Yet, Biden continues to say that America can’t and never will default on it’s debts. So, following this logic, if given the opportunity to pass legislation, and present a bill to the president, you would assume that avoiding default would be the biggest issue the White House could face. It would seem to a logical person that you’d sign anything, even if you disagreed with it, as long as you avoided default. Wasn’t that what happened back in 2011?

And now, McCarthy has done it again. Democrats have been saying that they want the GOP to stop screaming about the “crisis at the border” and stop harassing Alejandro Mayorkas who still is trying to fool the world that a) our border is shut, and b) there is no crisis at the border. McCarthy’s bill stops all that. It basically keeps those wanting asylum in this country in Mexico until their hearing. It sets guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable as far as asylum is concerned. And it floods the region with a bunch of new Border Patrol agents that can handle the mess without requiring years of psychological appointments to deal with the mental problems Joe Biden has caused.

So, what’s Biden’s solution?

The man has no solution. He says that there is going to be “chaos” at the border “for a while”, but has no idea what he intends to do with all of the illegals breaking through out southern border. He is probably better aware than you or I that these people aren’t going to show up for their immigration hearing, so why does he put it on them to turn themselves in to immigration officials once they are released into the country? Does he really think that any of them are going to keep a court date, or turn themselves in to ICE? If he believes that, there is a bridge a few miles to the northwest of me in Lake Havisu City I’d love to sell the president!

McCarthy’s solution isn’t a long term fix. It fixes what needs to be fixed because Title 42, which wasn’t really working anyway, went away. It is a band-aid, nothing more. What is really needed is a permanent overhaul of the immigration procedure. And it can’t be that you just show up at the border and cross over anywhere you can, and hope you can stay. Based on what I’ve seen, about 92% of the people crossing and claiming asylum, would be denied in a court of law. That’s according to a recent study from Pew.

And yet, we haven’t seen any legislation from Democrats in the Senate. Nancy Pelosi is still in the House, yet we haven’t heard anything from her as far as a solution to the problem. Joe Biden just turns and walks away when asked about it. He’s got his head in the sand. It’s the symbol of a guy that’s in way over his head and doesn’t know what to do about it. K-baby Harris has already demonstrated to the world that she’s nowhere near ready to assume any position of power. She can’t handle simple tasks without cackling like a wet hen.

And so, we have yet another mess on our hands caused by the inability of the sitting president to actually do the job he was elected to do. Work across the aisle to bring America together? I’d be happy for him to show up to work and actually put a good solid day’s worth of work in once in a while!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

If I Were A Democrat…

If I were a Democrat, I’d be very worried about my party’s chances right about now. Oh, I know, we would have those tricks up our sleeves…those mail-in ballots that just seem to be dumped in a closet somewhere and not discovered until the election were really close and it looks like we might lose it. But when I sit back and try very hard with an unbiased eye to look at the state of affairs in our country today, I would be very worried if I were them.

And I don’t think it’s getting any better.

Just look at the polling, and that’s reason enough to be jittery. I know that polling today isn’t that credible because everyone lies to the pollsters. I mean, heck, I do. But when I look at the things America is telling one pollster who sends me their results all of the time, I’m wondering why in the world Democrats have any sort of hold on the country. Here’s just a sample:

Voters fear the US Government almost as much as they do foreign spies.

74% of us remain either very concerned or concerned about gasoline prices as we enter the summer driving season. I don’t know about where you are, but gas here in the desert is right at the $5 a gallon mark. And that 74% say that they support policies to increase US oil and gas production!

73% of us feel that Biden’s age is going to be a serious problem for Democrats in the 2024 election, including 49% that say it’s a “very serious problem”. Only 25% say it’s not a problem.

So, if I were a Democrat, I’d be worried that my party was on the wrong side of the bed with the rest of America. That doesn’t usually bode well for us to win elections.

Then I look at the presidential race. I see an 80-something old man that has no energy, no zip in his step, doesn’t hold news conferences, needs to have cheat sheets to tell him who to call on when he DOES talk to the press, and has, by accounts of major network and polling group surveys, the lowest presidential approval rating since they started taking the polls. And I worry that he’s not going to be able IF elected, to finish his second term, leaving us with a Vice President that is nothing more than a Chatty Cathy doll, with a very irritating laugh track.

I get worried when I see the storm brewing over Hunter Biden, and how it could pull the president into the mix. I wonder how we ever got to the point when the Democrats could be facing the worst scandal in US history, with a sitting president being accused of, and later proven to be involved in a bribery scandal. I wonder how Hunter Biden stays out of jail with over 80% of America feeling that he’s deserving of an orange jumpsuit.

I get worried when I sit and watch other Democrats worry about Biden’s abilities to govern, even today, and then do nothing about jumping in to save the party. I mean, yes, there’s Robert Kennedy Jr. He’s never held an elected office before. He’s an environmental attorney with an aversion to vaccines that failed the bar exam. He is a former heroin addict. He’s a terrible speaker, suffering from spasmodic dysphonia, a rare vocal box disease. And then we’ve got Marianne Williamson, one of the worst candidates next to K-baby Harris on the planet. Why hasn’t anyone else jumped in to save the party?

As a Democrat I worry about the left wing fringe of the party that seems to be taking it for a long ride down a very deep and dark rabbit hole. We’re doing things now that just don’t make any sense, and America knows it. Alvin Bragg indicting the former president for what? Sleeping with some porn star and then paying her off to keep quiet about it? What’s illegal about that? It seems to me that most of Washington would be guilty of that one. Wouldn’t Bragg be better serving his constituency if he cleaned up the rampant crime in New York City?

And those are just SOME of the things I would worry about…IF I were a Demcrat!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!