Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy

Posted on 15 July 2019 by eehines

Last Thursday, Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden laid out his foreign policy paradigm. The gist of his policy is this:

[The] overarching purpose of our foreign policy, I believe, must be to defend and advance our security, prosperity, and democratic values that the United States stands for.

And

I would remind the world that we are the United States of America and we do not coddle dictators. The United States of America gives hate no safe harbor.

And he’ll

make it my mission to restore American leadership….

In fine, Biden’s foreign policy is to Make America Great Again.

This is a preview of Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy. Read the full post (133 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

A Thought on Tariffs

Posted on 15 July 2019 by eehines

The tariffs as used by President Donald Trump are viewed by many as having no impact on our overall trade deficit, and much is made of Trump’s disdain for trade deficits.

Thirty months into the Trump Presidency, the US economy continues to import more than it exports. This isn’t a problem, since the trade deficit is of no great consequence as an economic measure. But in President Trump’s telling this is a clear and present danger….

Suppose something else, though.

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Ducking Problems

Posted on 14 July 2019 by eehines

Now the Catholic Church says it’s willing to be held accountable for its history of child abuse—but only if it can control the accountability. The Church has offered cash payoffs to its victims, but the article’s subheadline says all there is about the Church’s cynical offer:

A potential flood of lawsuits has spurred the Catholic Church to offer mediation, only if accusers agree not to sue

That’s reason enough for mediation to be rejected and the lawsuits pushed forward apace. And for many, many more lawsuits to be brought.

This is a preview of Ducking Problems. Read the full post (147 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

Be Like Europe, Progressives Say

Posted on 13 July 2019 by eehines

Here’s another example of the Europe the Left demands we emulate.

Vincent, the 42-year-old man’s name is, had a terrible accident 11 years ago that left him a brain-damaged quadriplegic. He’s been in a French hospital, in Reims, ever since, variously rated as “semi-conscious” and “in a vegetative state.” Yet, he eats, sleeps, and responds to his mother’s conversation.

The French medical system is not the central, government-as-single-payer “medical” system that is the ideal of our own Left, but the French government does decide on euthanasia. That government has made the decision that Vincent is no longer worth the trouble of helping to live. His feeding tube is to be removed, and he’s to be killed by starvation.

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Hypocrisy of the British Left

Posted on 12 July 2019 by eehines

Yes, ex-Prime Minister John Major claims himself a Conservative, but he’s acting more and more Left. Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister wannabe and front-runner to replace the resigned Theresa May, has said that if needs be, he’ll prorogue Parliament to block an anti-no-deal Brexit vote, if a no-deal departure is necessary.

Prorogue: a temporary suspension of Parliament following petition of the Queen by her first minister—the Prime Minister—for permission to suspend Parliament and her granting that permission. This use is unusual; prorogation is normally used for normal terminations of Parliamentary sessions; the term also describes the interval between that termination and the normal opening of the next session.

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“Diverse Community”

Posted on 12 July 2019 by eehines

The City Council of St Louis Park, MN, a Minneapolis suburb and in Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s (D, MN) district, has objected to our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance to the point of voting to stop their practice of reciting it prior to Council meetings.

The mayor objected, and so did 100 protestors present for the vote—when was the last time 100 protestors assembled for a city council meeting? Despite that, the Council’s vote was unanimous: 5-0.

The amendment to the council’s rules was characterized as an effort to serve a more “diverse community….”

This is a preview of “Diverse Community”. Read the full post (186 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Cynicism

Posted on 11 July 2019 by eehines

Hong Kong Chief Executive and People’s Republic of China Senior Employee Carrie Lam claims that her Extradition to the PRC Bill is “dead.”

However, the subheadline says it all:

We hope people will not read a different meaning just because we are using a different word

She continues, after all, to refuse to explicitly withdraw her bill. “Trust me.”

The people of Hong Kong are right to be…skeptical. Lam really does need to go, as do most of her subordinates down through several layers of her hierarchy, but PRC President Xi Jinping is unlikely to permit it.

This is a preview of Cynicism. Read the full post (131 words, estimated 31 secs reading time)

Progressive-Democrats’ Minimum Wage Push

Posted on 11 July 2019 by eehines

Progressive-Democrats want to raise the national minimum wage to $15/hr. Here are some back of the envelope numbers that could result.

The CBO says that the new minimum would cost 1.3 million Americans their jobs (in the optimistic scenario; their more pessimistic scenario had 3.7 million Americans put out of work): their current wage would go from $10.10/hr (CBO’s 2014 minimum wage which formed the core of their that-year outcome analysis) to $0.00/hr. The CBO also says that the $15/hr minimum wage would lift 1.3 million American workers out of poverty.

This is a preview of Progressive-Democrats’ Minimum Wage Push. Read the full post (334 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Forced Busing

Posted on 10 July 2019 by eehines

Lance Morrow wrote about forced busing in a “back to the future” piece in The Wall Street Journal. Here’s the larger, more important thing about that early forced busing, of which Senator and Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate was so proud and about which Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden was so helpless to comment on.

Forced busing, as bandied about today, is all about using children as tools to achieve a political goal. As in other milieus, we see an example of the Left not seeing people, here children, as human beings, but only as machines for achieving the Left’s goal.

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Economic Misunderstanding