O'Rourke mulling run for Texas governor

 

The Hill   "Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) said this week he is considering a 2022 gubernatorial run, setting up a potential challenge against incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R). 

"It's something I'm going to think about," O'Rourke told Buzz Adams on Texas radio station KLAQ on Monday.

"O'Rourke went on to hit Abbott's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, accusing him of having a "complete indifference" to steps local leaders are trying to take to save lives amid the public health crisis. 

" 'This state has suffered perhaps more than any other in the midst of this pandemic, in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression. And it is particularly galling to you and to me and everyone who is listening that El Paso in one of the hardest-hit states was, if not is, the hardest-hit city," O'Rourke said. 

" 'I want to make sure that we have someone in the highest office in our state to make sure that all of us are OK," he said. "Whether I'm a candidate for governor or I support someone who's a candidate for governor, I want to make sure that we have excellence in leadership and that excellence goes to every single part of the state, including ours.' " . . . 

So now we're going to tax miles driven?

Democrats: every morning we wake up wondering what they will do to us next. TD

American Thinker  "Last week, Pete Buttigieg began confirmation hearings for his appointment as Transportation secretary.  During the question-and-answer session, we discovered why President Asterisk favors Mayor Pete for this position.  It seems he has a radical new idea for how to fund highway maintenance and development, which the new administration favors.  Funding for our highway infrastructure is currently supported via a fuel tax — 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel.  Mayor Pete's proposal is to move to a tax on miles driven rather than fuel consumed.

It seems that the administration is concerned that drivers of electric cars are not paying their fair share.  Thank God we're past the silliness of the Trump administration.  The adults are back in town, and the Harris/Biden administration is tackling the inequity of highway funding head on.  I'm sure racism is involved somehow.  I haven't figured that angle out yet, but I'm sure that the white privilege of owning an electric car has something to do with it." . . .

..."The next time I'm out in my pickup truck and come upon a slow-moving hybrid with a Biden/Harris bumper sticker, I'll find great comfort in knowing that its driver is paying as much to use the highway as I am." ...

Off to a Bad START: Putin Schools Biden with One Phone Call

The DIANNY Image Vault

 Lynn Corum

Whatever Biden actually said during that phone call, it has inspired Putin to embark on a whole new weapons program. Hail to our Commander-in-Chief!

"According to Russian news service Ria Novosti, on Tuesday, the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, held a telephone conversation.  During the conversation, Biden and Putin agreed to a five-year extension of START-3, until 2026, “100% on Russian terms, without additions, in the form in which it was originally signed.”  As a result of the call, the authorized Duma committees were ordered to urgently take the necessary steps to extend START-3.  On that same day, Putin submitted to the State Duma a bill on the ratification of START-3 through 2026; it immediately passed.  Putin’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov enthused that “START-3 is being extended on Russian terms, for 5 years, without any conditions or additional requirements, without attempts to change the START verification regime, without those, in our view, absurd and unacceptable aspirations of the previous administration to make sure to draw the PRC [China] into this process without fail."

"Biden ran on a platform that was endorsed by the entire American security and foreign policy establishment. The platform stand was to rebuild international multilateralism, taking no actions without coordination with our allies. Trump was routinely condemned by the establishment for insisting on the “America First” approach in foreign policy. Biden’s promise of multilateral cooperation with allies didn’t last a week. Indeed, he showed even more disregard for America’s NATO allies than Trump ever did. Biden’s phone call to Russian President Putin was his first serious test of foreign and security policy; he flunked. In the course of that one phone call, he casually agreed to a five-year extension of the New START Treaty, a treaty that originally took months to negotiate." . . .