Can democracy be saved? -Fear the quality of the voters.

  American Thinker  "Elections matter.  But just as important is the quality of the electorate.  One of my long-time and wise colleagues who has passed on, Professor Bertram Levin, some years ago pointed out to me the irony that a democracy can destroy itself by voting itself into communism.  Chicago, a beautiful and once vibrant city, has proven the point.  Brandon Johnson, the new mayor, is an avowed communist.  His recent characterization of businesses as evil profit-mongers is sure to accelerate Chicago's death spiral as businesses flee the city.  Johnson should not be blamed; the electorate should.

"The quality of the electorate can have profound effects on society.  Argentina, one of the highest-income countries in the world in 1900, changed its voting rules early in the 20th century.  The new voters had grandiose progressive ideas to redistribute wealth.  Argentina became a third-world country and continues to suffer today. 

"Many democracies in the 20th century extended the franchise to women, making their societies more inclusive and kinder, gentler nations.  So changes in voting can have good as well as bad effects on a nation's well-being.

"The latest attempts to expand the electorate, both here and abroad, are proposals to lower the voting age.  This raises the question concerning the optimal age.  Recently, youths have received negative press from looting and shooting in major cities.  Mass shootings are now commonplace among people 21 or younger.  Most recently, on April 15, 2023, in Dadeville, Alabama, a 16- and a 17-year-old shot up a "sweet sixteen" party, leaving four dead and 32 others injured.". . .

Victor Davis Hanson: The Left has pushed the envelope (msn.com)

"The Left is waging a full-fledged cultural revolution against traditional America. And the Maoist results are often as absurd as they are terrifying.

"Special-counsel John Durham just issued his final report on wrongdoing within the FBI, CIA, and the Department of Justice.

"The summary confirms that our premier investigatory and intelligence agencies interfered in the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

"Directors and high-ranking FBI officials lied under oath. They misled Congress. They altered court documents and deceived federal judges.

"The FBI hired a foreign national to gather dirt on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign – while he was being paid by the rival Hillary Clinton campaign.

"The FBI contracted Twitter to suppress news stories. It kept the Hunter Biden laptop under wraps, even as former intelligence officials flat out lied it was likely “Russian disinformation.” That was a blatant effort to aid the 2020 Biden campaign.". . .

New York Mayor Unveils Plan to Fight Retail Theft — with ‘Kiosks’

AfterMath - Home (terrellaftermath.com)

New York Mayor Unveils Plan to Fight Retail Theft — with ‘Kiosks’ (msn.com)

"Mayor Eric Adams recently unveiled a plan to combat rising retail theft in New York City that will include “diversion programs” for non-violent offenders, training retail workers in de-escalation, and “resource kiosks” in stores.

"His administration will also create a repeat offender program to keep track of recidivism and facilitate stronger prosecutions by the five district attorneys’ offices, establish a retail watch for businesses neighboring each other, and establish a retail theft task force, according to a press release." . . .

New York Mayor Unveils Plan to Fight Retail Theft — with ‘Kiosks’ (msn.com)  "Mayor Eric Adams recently unveiled a plan to combat rising retail theft in New York City that will include “diversion programs” for non-violent offenders, training retail workers in de-escalation, and “resource kiosks” in stores.

"His administration will also create a repeat offender program to keep track of recidivism and facilitate stronger prosecutions by the five district attorneys’ offices, establish a retail watch for businesses neighboring each other, and establish a retail theft task force, according to a press release.

“Shoplifters and organized crime rings prey on businesses that have already taken a hit due to COVID-19, but, with this comprehensive plan, we’re going to beat back on retail theft through a combination of law enforcement, prevention, and intervention,” Adams said. “Last year alone, 327 repeat offenders were responsible for 30 percent of the more than 22,000 retail thefts across our city. This hurt our businesses, our workers, our customers, and our city.”. . .

NYC’s Plan To Combat Rampant Theft Includes Food Stamp ‘Kiosks,’ ‘De-Escalation’ Training For Employees | The Daily Caller

Biden’s Drag Queen Navy - Say goodbye to patriotism, tradition, and pride inside our armed forces.

Biden is carrying through the destruction of our military’s pride in itself and its culture. That would not be of great concern except that the military’s culture is what makes it effective in war and a deterrent to our enemies in peacetime.

 The American Spectator | USA News and Politics   Anheuser-Busch, the beer manufacturer, has suffered a huge self-inflicted wound by employing transgender “woman” Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador for Bud Lite.

"Anheuser-Busch has put the female vice president of marketing who thought up the Mulvaney campaign on a presumably permanent leave of absence and fired the ad agency that helped her do it. Anheuser-Busch has reportedly lost about $6 billion in market value and as much as 20 percent of its market share.

"That loss of market share and the reduced revenue that accompany it have been enough to bring Anheuser-Busch back to reality and make the company remember that its primary mission is to brew good beer. Unfortunately for our national security, there are no market protections against President Joe Biden’s political agenda, which is destroying the readiness and lethality of our military.

"Anheuser-Busch’s transgender mess came late to the party. From October 2022 to March 2023, the U.S. Navy made an active-duty drag queen one of its “digital ambassadors” to help recruit new sailors, which we’ll get back to in a moment.

"Back in the olden days of the 1990s, the military had a culture unto itself, defined by patriotism, tradition, and pride. Young men and women join the military for any number of reasons. Some do it to satisfy family tradition. Some join simply out of patriotism. Some join to get a job or to get away from their family and friends. Some join to earn GI Bill benefits, which is the only way they can go to college.

"Two vignettes: My late great friend, former U.S. Navy SEAL Al Clark, once told me that he wanted to become a SEAL because it was the toughest group with the toughest training regimen. About 20 years ago, I was privileged to visit the John F. Kennedy Army Special Forces school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for its Special Forces Robin Sage graduation exercise. When I talked to the Green Beret applicants, their most common refrain was that, after the 9/11 attacks, all they wanted to do was get a piece of the bad guys.

"When people serve in the military, they have great pride in what they do. It may be something like what the special forces do, which nobody else can. It may take enormous skill like flying — or repairing — a fighter aircraft. The pride may simply be from being a part of something bigger than yourself.". . .

How Not to Be President

  Ann Coulter

How does a Republican president get buffaloed like this by a Republican Congress? Reagan enacted his entire radical agenda (and won the Cold War) without ever, not once, having a Republican House and Senate.

"Now that we know Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is running for president (along with several others whose names I can't remember), I have a helpful primer on what NOT to do as president.

"I base this advice on the conduct of the most inconsequential president in U.S. history, Donald Trump. With the exception of the judiciary -- something neither he nor Jared saw a way of monetizing, thank God -- Trump's entire presidency can be summarized as: obnoxious tweets, followed by immediate and complete capitulation.

"The problem with the Trump diehards is that they'd read the bad-ass tweets, pump their fists, but then wander off, never bothering to find out what happened next. Here's what happened: Trump surrendered. Over and over and over again.

"There were so many surrenders that The New York Times had to keep coming up with new synonyms for "loser": "Trump Gives Ground," "Trump Backs Off," "Trump Drops," How Not to Be President (townhall.com)". . .

If Elected, I Will Outlaw All Virtue Signaling

 "In their never-ending push to remove God from American society, Democrats have been . . ."They may be so shallow that when you scratch the surface there’s more surface underneath, but give them a Pride pin, a mask, and a Prius and they think they’re St. Teresa of Ávila." 

 PJ Media "Of all the hideous by-products of America’s Soviet turn during the pandemic, the empowerment of virtue-signaling leftists who are completely devoid of virtue is the most wearisome. For me, anyway. Sure, leftists have been crafting false narratives about being good people while behaving in a thoroughly awful manner since prehistoric times, but that bad habit was supersized by the Wuhan Chinese Bat Flu.

Virtue signaling has always been about doing the bare minimum to make it seem as if one is a truly good human being. During the pandemic, it became easier than ever. All anyone had to do was wear a mask.

At first, the wearing of masks was all part of a general state of confusion and descent into madness that the world was experiencing. As time wore on, however, people were clinging to their masks in the blue parts of the United States. They were more like binkies than masks by 2022. By the time 2023 hit, the People of the Mask were, for the most part, doing it to virtue signal.

I’ll admit that I posted a couple of pictures of myself wearing a masks during the pandemic. I did it when I was volunteering at the Community Food Bank, so I actually was being a good person at the time.

My attitude has deteriorated since then.

The masks are just one glaring example. We’re a week away from Pride Month, which is the most tedious long-term virtue signal we’re regularly subjected to. For thirty days, some of the most intolerant people in America will convince themselves that mere proximity to anything resembling a rainbow means that they’re on their way to progressive canonization.

Numerous Democrats Join Rep. Cori Bush in Demanding $14 Trillion Reparations

We'd hate to see more rioting and burning in your streets, y'know?

  (legalinsurrection.com)

“When a Fox News Digital reporter asked where the federal money would come from for the massive proposal, Bush said they were still hashing out the details.”

"The reparations panel in California is now recommending up to $1.2 million per resident, but Democrat Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri clearly thinks that’s not nearly enough.

"She wants a cool $14 trillion in reparations payments. That’s more than half of the U.S. GDP.

"Rep. Cori Bush says $14 trillion reparations bill will ‘eliminate the racial wealth gap’

"For the first time, the extensive history of the enslavement of Africans, post-Jim Crow discrimination and other racially charged subjects has been entered into the congressional record — and repairing the lasting damage these institutions caused will have a hefty price tag, according to one Democratic lawmaker.

"In 23-page legislation introduced Thursday, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., called on Congress to adopt several measures aimed at righting historic wrongs, including urging the federal government to issue federal reparations to Black Americans and other reparatory justice efforts. A minimum of $14 trillion would be needed “to eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans,” the resolution argues.

“ 'The United States has a moral and legal obligation to provide reparations for the enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm on the lives of millions of Black people in the United States,” H.R. 414 declares.". . .

Hillary Gives Us Another Hint That Her Pointy Black Hat Is In the Ring for 2024

 As the stand-in for Old Joe, Hillary could face significant competition. Kamala, for all her obvious unsuitability, is not going to go away without a fight. Gavin Newsom clearly wants to do to the whole country what he has done to California. 

 

Hillary Gives Us Another Hint About 2024 – PJ Media   "Hillary Clinton has said that she is not going to be a candidate for president in 2024, but with Hillary Clinton, you never know. She has been dropping hints along the way that she has the perfect person in mind to step in and be the Democrats’ 2024 nominee if Old Joe’s incoherence and Kamala Harris’ incapacity become too obvious: a certain former First Lady, secretary of state, senator, and twice-failed presidential candidate. Hey, the third time could be a charm.

"Hillary gave us her latest hint that she may end up throwing her broomstick into the ring when she appeared at the Financial Times Weekend Festival in Washington. Clinton insisted that Old Joe had amassed a “good record” while pretending to be president of the United States. And if you like open borders, the mass entry of unvetted migrants, cities beset by skyrocketing crime rates, rising inflation, prohibitive gas prices, and the endless exacerbation of racial tensions, then yeah, Biden has been doing great.

"Hillary wants us to think he has. She stated, “And I am of the camp that I think he’s determined to run. He has a good record that three years ago people would not have predicted would have gotten done.” Yes. Few people three years ago would have predicted that Biden and his handlers could have done this much damage in so short a time.

"She continued, “He doesn’t get the credit yet that he deserves for what is happening out in the country.” That’s true also: people don’t realize how much of the deterioration and growing chaos that they see all around them is the direct result of choices Old Joe and his handlers have made.". . .

7 years after Obama commuted his life sentence, Alton Mills shot, killed woman on Chicago expressway: prosecutors

Weasel Zippers "In 2015, Obama commuted the sentence of a cocaine dealer who was serving a life sentence. Democrats promoted him as the reason we need criminal justice reform. "He was just arrested for shooting a woman in the head after a car passed him in traffic. "

 7 years after Obama commuted his life sentence, Alton Mills shot, killed woman on Chicago expressway: prosecutors - CWB Chicago

Have California’s Democrats made a couple of serious errors?

  Two news stories suggest that California Democrats have alienated major constituencies in that once lovely and now benighted state. Bookworm Room

The state’s bait-and-switch will not go over well with blacks. It doesn’t matter that the reparations task force got greedy. Having seen their “worth,” they will feel cheated. That may be reflected in their votes (assuming, of course, that any legal votes are ever counted in California).

. . ."First, there was the reparations fiasco. When the state authorized a task force to consider reparations, I’m sure Democrats thought the demands would be reasonable: free education at state colleges and universities, tax refunds, nominal cash demands, etc. Instead, the reparations committee claimed blacks are entitled $1.2 million per person plus other types of reparations (no taxes, free college, even free homes, etc.). Given that California has been busy sowing the wind, it should have known that it would reap the whirlwind.

"Gavin Newsom, whose values are all wrong but who is no fool, realized that the $800 billion bill for reparations (2.5 times California’s annual budget) was unsustainable, so he did the only thing possible: He said no. However, blacks who are paying attention have noticed that the state is always able to direct huge sums of money to the illegal aliens who are decreasing housing stock, taking jobs, and diluting blacks’ political power:". . .

Regarding reparations, they should make it clear that Dems don’t keep their promises. And when it comes to pork, they should trumpet the fact that Democrats, given the chance, will starve their citizens and that they value animal lives over human lives.

Obama torpedoed U.S. relations with Russia -- to perpetuate lies about Trump, Durham report found

 Obama torpedoed U.S. relations with Russia -- to perpetuate lies about Trump, Durham report found - American Thinker

That's the old Obama we know however, and now he's disgraced us on the world stage as a dishonest sleazeball country, not a nation founded on fairness and democracy. His act and the acts of the Deep State were not only detrimental to democracy here, they were very detrimental to foreign policy abroad. . . 

. . ."So Obama's wrath was nothing but a fiction to protect the partisan Democrat narrative that they had been promoting about Trump and the Russians, which originated from the embittered political camp of losing Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

"How would you feel about that if you were a Russian, especially now, reading that it was all a political hoax with you the one chosen to be the whipping boy? You got sanctioned, you got kicked out, you got travel bans, you incurred costs, and some "name and shame" all based on lies.

"Might you start thinking of the U.S. as kind of a sleazy, dishonest player on the world scene? Would you have problems trusting them? Might you step up your activities against it? It would seem natural.

"The Russians, remember, had already calculated by their own devices that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election and the Kremlin was planning for that, so they were as surprised as anyone that the American voters thought otherwise when the election results came in in November 2016.

"That they were blamed for the result and sanctioned for hacking and colluding they didn't do, and knew they didn't do, and knew that Obama knew they didn't do, surely must have made them angry.". . .

Ending the lies -

  Don Surber (substack.com)

"Brandon Straka, a gay man and former liberal, heads his Walk Away campaign to get others to quit the Democrat Party. He tweeted the other day:

They lied to you about Donald Trump.

They lied about Brett Kavanaugh.

They lied about children in cages.

They lied about #WalkAway.

They lied about the election outcome.

They lied about the Covington Kids.

They lied about Jussie Smollett.

And yes, oh yes…

They lied about Russian Collusion.

Scrolling down the responses, I saw where Kari Lake tweeted, “They lied about Covid origins and vaccines” and she tweeted, “They lied to you about elections.”

A less famous person tweeted:

They lied about mandates.

They lied about ivermectin.

They are still lying about vaccine injuries.

They lied about CRT.

They lied about Kyle Rittenhouse.

American Conservative tweeted, “Barack Obama didn’t sit in Jeremiah Wright's church because he was a good guy, wasn't racist, and loved America.

“He sat in that church because he was the opposite of those things.

“Never a day goes by that we don’t feel the repercussions of his disastrous presidency.

“The Durham Report revealed last week that Obama is guilty of orchestrating a government coup against his successor, setting up everything in place to ensure Hell was unleashed on Trump by the FBI using false allegations and fake evidence dreamed up by Team Hillary but put to use in the Deep State by Obama." . . .

Los Angeles Dodgers Apologize, Re-Invite Anti-Catholic 'Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence' Trans Nuns to Pride Night - Fans Respond

  The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila

. . ."After backlash from the group, the Dodgers decided to re-invite them back on the field June 16 for pride night.

“After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the Dodgers said Monday night.

“We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th. We are pleased to share that they have agreed to receive the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades,” the organization said.

“In the weeks ahead, we will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family,” they said.". . .

Comments from fans:  You are cowards to cave to anti-Catholic neo-Marxist drag queens. You are thumbing your nose at all your Christian fans. Did you learn nothing from the Bud Light boycott?

When the Dodgers come to Tampa they might be playing in front of an empty stadium. Florida is not California and that is very much cowardice on their part. They pick their side