Author Archives: eehines

Don’t Destabilize the Alliance

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That’s NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s request of Republican Presidential Primary candidate Donald Trump over Trump’s continued, bluntly phrased, pressure on NATO members to meet their spending commitment of 2% of GDP to NATO.

It isn’t Trump’s rhetoric that risks NATO destabilization, though. When Trump was President, he threatened US withdrawal from the alliance if the other member nations didn’t start meeting that commitment. At the time, only a handful aside from the US were meeting the commitment, and after his threat, a few more stepped up and met theirs. This after 50 years of “pretty please” had fallen on deaf freeloading ears.

Now, with renewed pressure from likely Republican Presidential candidate Trump, more are meeting their commitment. According to Stoltenberg, 18 of the 31 members are “on track” to meet their commitment (meaning they still haven’t, but now are saying the right words in their respective legislatures).

That leaves 13 members who are shirking their duty. That leaves 13 members who are betraying their fellow members by rendering themselves incapable of meeting their Article V commitment to those members in any concrete way. That leaves 13 members who are imposing risks on their fellow members by rendering themselves so plainly incapable of resisting an attack on themselves that they tacitly invite one, requiring their fellow members to spend their blood and their treasure to rescue them.

That leaves 13 members who are the ones risking destabilizing the NATO alliance.

A Progressive-Democrat is Offended

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Just before Sunday’s Super Bowl kickoff, Andra Day sang Lift Every Voice and Sing, then Post Malone sang America the Beautiful, and then Reba McEntire sang our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.

A Progressive-Democrat Congressman from Tennessee, Steve Cohen, took umbrage that fans stood only for our national anthem and not for Day’s performance.

Very very few stood for “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The Negro National Anthem. Not a pretty picture of Super Bowl crowd.

It’s entirely appropriate, though, that folks stand only for our national anthem (one exception: it’s traditional for folks to stand for the Hallelujah Chorus from George Frideric Handel’s Messiah). Our anthem, after all, stands for our nation as a whole and symbolizes our national aspirations for unity, our liberty, and our equality of opportunity.

Lift Every Voice and Sing is a very fine song and appropriate in a wide variety of milieus, but its use in this context can only be divisive, singling out one group of Americans as deserving national respect, rather than all of us.

Oh, and no one stood for Malone’s performance, either.

Progressive-Democrats’ faux outrage over every thing that doesn’t suit their veriest whim is getting elderly and tired.

Not All It Can Do

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Progressive-Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ New York City government has a new way to spy on American citizens resident in that city, or even just visiting.

New York City drivers buckle up because Big Brother (aka the MTA) is keeping a watchful eye on you by installing cameras along New York City streets to track you. But why? Well, it all boils down to money, of course. The MTA is rolling out a controversial $15 per day congestion fee for all drivers venturing south of 60th Street. They’ve even given this area of Manhattan a snazzy name: the toll congestion zone.

That’s its publicly stated—look, a squirrel—purpose.

Another purpose, one Adams and his city government don’t want to mention, is to track those drivers to see where they go; where they park and shut down, presumably getting out of their cars; what shops they go to, at least identifying the shops within walking distance; and how long they’re there.

Because inquiring Government minds want to know.

Some Valentine’s Day Remarks

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For the last twenty years, I’ve received a Valentine’s Day card from the same secret admirer.
So, I was upset when I didn’t get one this year.
First my granny dies, now this?

My wife rang me at work on Valentine’s Day.
She said, “Three of the girls in the office have just received bunches of flowers. They’re absolutely gorgeous.”
I said, “That’s probably why they’ve been sent flowers then.”

You are my sweet Valentine. I like you like a fat kid likes cake.

Me: “Honey, on this Valentine’s Day, I want to tell you something… I’m not rich like Jack, I don’t have a mansion like Russell or a Porsche like Martin. But, I do love you and want to marry you.”
My lady: “Oh, dear…I love you too…But, what was that you said about Martin?”

Me: “Honey, on this Valentine’s Day, I want to tell you something… I’m not rich like Jack, I don’t have a mansion like Russell or a Porsche like Martin. But, I do love you and want to marry you.”
My lady: “Oh, dear…I love you too…But, what was that you said about Martin?”

If there’s one thing I hate about Valentine’s Day…it’s my wife.

What is the difference between a calendar and you?
A calendar has a date on Valentine’s Day.

If you’re sad about being alone on Valentine’s Day, just remember… Nobody loves you on any other day either.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Don’t worry if you’re single. You’re going to die alone anyway.

I am not scared of getting dumped on Valentine’s Day. I don’t have a girlfriend.

Do I have a date for Valentine’s Day?
Yes, February 14th.

Me: “I love you.”
You: “Is that you or the wine talking?”
Me: “It’s me talking to the wine.”

Mike walked into a post office just before Valentine’s day, he couldn’t help noticing a middle-aged, balding man standing in a corner sticking “Love” stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them.  Then the man got out a bottle of Channel perfume from his pocket and started spraying scent over the envelopes.
By now Mike’s curiosity had got the better of him, and so I asked the man why he was sending all those cards.  The man replied, “I’m sending out 500 Valentine cards signed, ‘Guess who?'”
“But why?” asked Mike.
“I’m a divorce lawyer,” the man replied.

Denver Isn’t That Furious

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Denver’s Progressive-Democrat Mayor Mike Johnson is upset that the Federal government didn’t solve his biggest civic problem. When the Senate voted down the Federal bill in question, he posted on Instagram,

Today is a day the residents of Denver should be heartbroken. And they should be furious because we know we have a humanitarian crisis in this city[.]

Aside: Caldwell and Hackman had this in their piece at the link:

This city of 713,000 people has absorbed nearly 40,000 migrants in a little over a year, more per capita than any other US city.

Two lies—and I use that term advisedly, given that Caldwell and Hackman are highly talented news writers for whom words are their stock in trade, and so they plainly know better—in that sentence. Denver has had an influx of not a single migrant. It has had an influx of 40,000 illegal aliens in that little over a year. Their second lie is their claim that those 40,000 illegals going into Denver are more than any other city, per capita. That number is what Eagle Pass, El Paso, McAllen, Laredo each get in a month’s or two months’ time.

Back to Johnson’s faux angst. [C]risis in this city.

  • Denver has spent more than $42 million in the past year to house and feed the new arrivals
  • Public schools have ballooned by more than 3,000 students, creating a budget shortfall of roughly $17.5 million
  • The city’s safety-net hospital has seen at least 9,000 migrant patients in the past year, costing at least $10 million in unreimbursed care

Ya ta-ta, ya ta-ta. These problems are of Johnson’s and his city government’s deliberate making. His city is a sanctuary city that happily invites illegal aliens in and thereby at least tacitly supports the Biden administration’s decision to not enforce our border. Johnson would have a beef, maybe, if he’d rescind Denver’s sanctuary city status and stop encouraging folks whose first move in coming into our country is to deliberately break our laws.

But he won’t do that. He’s happy, like the Left generally, to blame others for the problems he’s causing for his city.

On top of that, by maintaining his city as a sanctuary for illegal aliens, he is, along with all the other sanctuary jurisdictions, creating problems for the rest of us. And we’re supposed to sympathize with him.