Americans

Silverton, CO, mayor, Shane Fuhrman tried to do away with the practice of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at town Trustee meetings. His excuse was his claimed need to duck away from unspecified “direct and indirect threats” and supposedly inappropriate comments he heard “in and out of public meetings” and because of his vague and undefined “general divisiveness and issues created in our community.”

A Trustee demurred, and so did town attendees at the meeting. They stood and recited the Pledge.

These are some of the average Americans for whom the Left and its Progressive-Democratic Party have such contempt.

When Hillary Clinton Sold

…a significant fraction of our uranium reserves to Russia, she was a piker.

Within months of President Joe Biden [D] halting the Keystone Pipeline, pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands, and imposing further restrictions on US oil companies, US oil imports from Russia set a new record in March.

And

Crude oil imports from Russia in March stood at 6.1 million barrels, making Russia the third-largest oil exporter to the United States.

And

Biden’s policies have resulted in US oil production falling by 1.715 million barrels per day from a year ago….

Clinton made us dependent, in large part, on one of our enemies for the resources needed for our deterrence against that enemy’s nuclear attack.

Biden’s policies are making us dependent on that same enemy for the energy to power our economy and so our ability to survive even in peace. And by buying Russian oil, Biden is paying our enemy for the privilege of being dependent on it.

Responsibility

Recall that Texas’ Progressive-Democrats scuttled out of the end of Texas’ last legislative session, and that in response to their misbehavior, Governor Greg Abbott said he’d veto the part of Texas’ budget appropriations that funded the legislature. Last Friday, Abbott did precisely that.

Texans don’t run from a legislative fight, and they don’t walk away from unfinished business. Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early, leaving their state with unfinished business and exposing taxpayers to higher costs for an additional legislative session. I therefore object to and disapprove of these appropriations.

Now hear the squalling by Texas’ Progressive-Democrat legislators.

…the budget article also funds rank-and-file staffers such as clerical and maintenance workers

Fox News cites them as saying. And House Democratic Caucus Chair Chris Turner:

Texas has a governor, not a dictator.

Never mind that it’s the minority Progressive-Democrats who are openly attacking democracy, attempting to impose their own diktats, by refusing to allow our State’s democratically elected legislature carry out its democratic duty by voting on a bill those Progressive-Democrats don’t like. Since they fear (probably accurately), they’d lose the vote, they moved to block the vote altogether. How dictatorial is that?

Regarding the rank-and-file staffers such as clerical and maintenance workers about whom those Progressive-Democrats so piously pretend to care, it’s those Progressive-Democrats’ misbehavior that has put the rank-and-file at risk. If they had allowed democracy to proceed, there would have been no need for Abbott to take such action.

The Progressive-Democrats know this full well.

Texas’ Progressive-Democrats are loudly—and offensively, I say—crying their crocodile tears.

Off Limits

President Joe Biden (D) says he stood tall against Russian President Vladimir Putin and gave him a list of what must be off limits from Russian cyber attacks.

On cyber, the President said he gave the Russian a list of 16 types of “critical infrastructure” that “should be off-limits to attack, period.”

And with that, Biden gave Putin two target lists: a list of targets immediately critical to our national survival, and a list of targets he can attack with near impunity in order to damage and reduce or eliminate through a thousand cuts our ability to survive.

Only Progressive-Democrats are unable to conceive the idea that everything in our economy should be off-limits to attack, period.

On Embassy Flags

In his Letter in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, Peter Chaveas identifies himself as a foreign service  officer [including a couple of ambassadorships]…in Africa and Western Europe between 1970 and 2004. With that credential, he argued in favor of the Biden State Department’s permission for American embassies and consulates to fly BLM and gay-pride flags.

It would be hard for Mr Chaveas to be more wrong.

American embassies and consulates are there to represent America and American interests. The American flag, our stars and stripes, is the symbol of our nation, and it is the only flag appropriately flown at those facilities.

All other flags represent only our individual States and a variety of ideologies espoused by a variety of groups of Americans; they do not represent our nation as a whole. Those other symbols have no place at our embassies and consulates.

Chaveas is correct to point out our capacity for openly acknowledging our failures and shortcomings as well as our efforts to address them. No American was more admired than Martin Luther King Jr. Chaveas neglected to mention, though, that no BLM or gay-pride flag—or any other flag—was necessary “between 1970 and 2004” for embassy/consulate staff to teach that or for the citizens of the host nations to understand that.

Nor are they necessary now.