Sunday, August 18, 2024

Reasons I fear Harris and her Democrats handling the economy

 


‘Squandered The Moment’: Washington Post Editorial Board Blasts Kamala Harris’s Economic Rollout As ‘Disappointment’ (Daily Caller)    
"The editorial board of The Washington Post criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic policy rollout as a “disappointment” Friday.

"Harris delivered a speech Friday seeking to address the economic concerns of American voters, but her approach drew criticism for lacking substantive plans and relying on populist rhetoric, according to The Washington Post. The editorial board stated, amid continuing frustration over high costs of living, Harris chose to focus on corporate malpractices like price-gouging rather than provide a detailed economic strategy. The editorial board also claimed Harris “squandered the moment on populist gimmicks.”

Here's How Americans View Harris And Trump On The Economy (forbes.com)

. . ."Trump’s economic plan has largely focused on deregulation in the energy and financial industries, touting the much-better inflation during his presidency than Biden’s, and instituting significant tariffs on Chinese goods. The U.S. economy performed very well under both Trump and Biden by most metrics, with historically low unemployment, strong stock market performance and steady economic output growth occurring during both administrations, save for a 2020-21 global blip during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic (see here for detailed data on how the economy fared under Biden and Trump). The president often has a less direct impact on the U.S. economy than public perception may suggest, considering the difficulty in implementing policies, the global nature of the economy and the fragile nature of the stock market, which ultimately relies on earnings growth for multinational corporations." ...

Kamala Harris’s Economic Plan Will Be a Disaster for Consumers (townhall.com)  . . ."Harris has misidentified the disease of which inflation is a symptom. She blames corporate greed as the driver of rising prices — not profligate stimulus; not incontinent monetary policy; not the supply-side chaos caused by Covid-19 and the attendant state-imposed lockdowns; not price-ballooning central planning, such as protectionism and barriers to energy abundance; not anti-innovative boondoggles, such as the Farm Bill.

"The strings connecting high food prices to corporate greed are wild-eyed and largely fictious, economists Ryan Bourne and Bryan Cutsinger write. According to NYU data, the grocery industry average a net profit margin of just 1.18 percent. Bourne and Cutsinger note that policies that attempt to tie inflation to corporate greed “are not only economically destructive, but would have failed to address inflation’s underlying cause — namely, a surge in total spending brought on by excessive monetary and fiscal stimulus.”

"Harris’s policy prescriptions are predictably inapt — or worse. Her campaign says that she will seek to impose price controls on food and groceries and dispatch antitrust officials to harass grocery stores that attempt mergers. These kinds of policies — which, under Biden, have proven useless — have attracted economically muddled politicians for time immemorial. Ham-fisted flailing at “corporate greed” is the last refuge of politicians who want desperately to seem to have command of economic issues about which they are wholly baffled. The twin barrels of anti-corporate populism — price fixing and frivolous antitrust — unfailingly worsen the bad economic conditions that cultivate populism in the first place." . . .

Trump Says Jews Haven’t Been in [as] Much Danger as They Are Today Since the Holocaust

  Anthony Gonzalez (resistthemainstream.com)  

“They turned him down for other reasons, but the primary reason is because he’s Jewish,” the former president said, adding, “Any Jewish person that votes for [Harris] or a Democrat has to go out and have their head examined.”

Democrats need the votes of these people.

"As Jews in Israel are being massacred by Iranian-funded terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, former President Donald Trump has declared that Jews are in danger more today in the U.S. since the Holocaust.

"Trump said that Jews across America are being subjected to abuse and are being overlooked because of their religion.

"The former president mentioned that Vice President Kamala Harris did not end up choosing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) as her running mate because he was Jewish.

“ 'They turned him down because he’s Jewish,” Trump said during a packed rally in Bilkes-Warre, North Carolina.". . .

("Shapiro has said that he was not overlooked because of his faith.")

. . .Last week, a Citi Bike rider punched a 70-year-old man in Central Park, calling him a “F***ing Jew pig” while threatening to kill him. The elderly man was walking his daughter’s dog before he was assaulted.

"The Israel-Hamas war has led antisemitism to skyrocket in the U.S., leading many protests to pop up across the country.

"While speaking to the New York Post last month, the Director of Communications for End Jew Hatred, Michelle Ahdoot, said that “the single most significant hatred we see in New York City since Oct. 7th is overwhelmingly Jew-hatred.”

“On an almost daily basis, we see groups of radical Hamas supporters — some even waving the Hamas flag — marching in city streets calling for the genocide of Jews. We do not feel safe,” Ahdoot added." . . .

The liberal press protects Kamala from shots by any serious media

 "In a video posted on social media, Johnson accused the Harris campaign of engaging in what he called “Democrat Plantation tactics,” using black celebrities to pressure and shame the black community into voting for a party that, in his view, offers little in return."

Say what we want and we'll protect you!

This is why Kamala Harris is avoiding the press — and getting away with it  
"Still, it is disturbing that even as Americans and our allies harbor serious concerns about whether the president is up to an increasingly fraught geopolitical and economic moment, his constitutional understudy has done so little to reassure the public."
When will Kamala Harris meet the press? - Poynter   "Eventually, Harris will have to sit down for a one-on-one interview or press conference. But, so far, not doing so hasn’t hurt her." . . .

Jim Hᴏft  "Dr. Umar Johnson, a well-known activist and educator with millions of followers on social media, rejected an interview offer of $10,000 from the Kamala Harris campaign, calling out a manipulative strategy to win over the black vote.

“Black vote ain’t for sale no more,” Johnson said, emphasizing that the days of pandering to black voters with empty promises and financial incentives are over.

"Johnson shared a screenshot of the text from the Kamala campaign offering him money to do the interview.

"The text reads:

“Hello Dr. Umar Johnson. [redacted] from the Harris2024 team. You are a big part of the black community. Can you help us by completing a Zoom meeting with VP Kamala Harris. Paying [redacted] are looking for about an hour of your time. Please advise if you would like to complete the Zoom call. Your help can get us across the finish line. HARRIS2024”

"Johnson responded:

“Peace & PanAfrikanism. I hope that all is well. I’m not interested in your money. However, I am very interested in having the zoom conversation with Vice President Harris to discuss our needs and her plans for the Black community. This zoom must be livecasted to the national Black community and may not be prerecorded.

I promise to be completely respectful of the Vice President but I will ask direct questions about miseducation, mass incarceration, police brutality, economic strangulation, gentrification/ migrant crisis, reparations & and the need for a federal anti-Black Hate Crimes Bill.”

 More...  

What sort of chaos can we expect at the Democrat Convention? 

How would a violent DNC affect Harris’s polling numbers?  Kamala is already seeing her honeymoon begin to tatter; her unforced error promising $1.7 trillion in new entitlements was likely a significant boost for Trump.  Harris is burdened with a considerable handicap: she must woo her left flank while trying to prove she has a different plan from failed Bidenomics.  With luck and a little bit of history, perhaps the nearly twenty million undecided voters will use their minds and not their emotions in deciding who the next president should be.

You Know It’s Bad When Even WaPo Calls Kamala Harris' 'Price Gouging' Plan a 'Gimmick'

RedState

Perhaps this is why Democrats are recommending that the vice president refrain from discussing policy until after the election. They know what a radical she is, and that this will turn voters off.

"Vice President Kamala Harris recently announced her plan to reduce the impact of inflation by imposing price controls, ostensibly to prevent “price gouging.”

"Surprisingly, nobody seems to like the plan – including leftist media outlets, several of whom have published reports criticizing Harris’ plan while they try their darndest to make sure she wins the election in November.

"The vice president's campaign announced on Wednesday that she will enact “the first ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries—setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.”

"Then in a Friday statement, the Harris/Walz campaign said: “Extreme consolidation in the food industry has led to higher prices that account for a large part of higher grocery bills." Economists balked at that:

Several economists have taken issue with Harris’ plan.

Some economists, however, rejected the notion of corporate power as an important cause of inflation, saying a limit on price hikes could result in shortages of goods.

Michael Jones, an economics professor at the University of Cincinnati, said a government-imposed ceiling on prices could cause stores to run out of goods in times of scarcity.

"If there's a restriction on the prices that companies can charge for products, they simply won't supply them," Jones told ABC News.

 Full article here.

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Kamala Harris Would Be Disastrous for the Middle East

National Interest  

Foreign Policy cites what it calls Harris’ “mantra” of favoring “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” In practice, this “mantra” and her public statements show a pronounced indulgence toward Iran and a hostility to Israeli efforts to ensure its own survival.

"With Donald Trump and Kamala Harris functionally tied in the polls, it is high time to ask: What would a Harris foreign policy look like?

First, let’s dismiss the idea that Harris has little foreign policy experience and, therefore, will likely rely heavily on veterans of the Biden, Obama, and Clinton administrations. This view is comforting to the alumni of previous Democratic administrations and suggests continuity. It is also convenient for partisans and pundits on both sides of the Blue-Red divide, allowing them to defend or attack Harris based on the Biden record.

"But this is a false premise. Harris actually has far more executive-branch foreign-policy experience than Trump did in 2016 and more than Republican challengers in 2012 and 2008. Harris has visited twenty-one countries on seventeen foreign trips as a representative of the president and met with more than 150 leaders of allied or independent nations, including the leaders of China and Russia. Significantly, she led the U.S. delegation at three Munich Security Conferences, where NATO leaders gathered to debate and discuss global threats. These meetings include prime ministers, defense ministers, foreign ministers, generals, admirals, and diplomats.

"And Harris sharpened her foreign policy views inside the White House by attending “almost every National Security Council meeting and, more important still, almost every President’s Daily Brief,” according to Fred Kaplan in Slate. The Daily Briefs draw on the most complete information that U.S. intelligence can offer, and the meaning of various developments is dissected by subject-matter experts and the president’s senior staff. It’s far more than a daily graduate-level seminar; it is a real-time laboratory of how information is assimilated and how executive decisions are made.

"Finally, she has had years of regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. In these settings, views were crafted, tested, sharpened, discarded, or re-forged.

"So, the idea Harris has no foreign-policy views of her own is laughable. No one with that level of experience and access is a blank slate to be scribbled on by aides.

"Some point to the “high turnover” among her vice-presidential staff to suggest that her views are erratic or ephemeral. This “evidence” also does not deliver the conclusion it suggests." . . .


The Significance of the ‘Make Women Female Again’ Hat

 Ultimately, the hat is one small part of a much larger message and movement. The point is: Say it loud; say it proud,” Megyn said. “You might think that you’re in the minority, but you’re not – especially on this issue.” Megyn said the reality is simple: “Women are still women… we’re the only ones who are female.” And that understanding “crosses party lines,” she added.


. . ."It didn’t take long for the hat, which is from Kellie-Jay Keen’s (a.k.a. Posie Parker) Adult Human Female collection, to spark a firestorm in the comments section and across the internet. On Monday’s show, Megyn shared why chose to wear the hat and what the fight for women’s rights means to her." . . .


Why She Wore and Posted About the Hat   "Megyn said the main reason she wore the hat is because she is “fed up” with trans activism infiltrating women’s spaces and rights. “I’m sick of all the bullsh–t,” she declared. “I’m sick of denying women’s rights in the name of sparing people’s feelings.” This extends to “women’s bathrooms, and women’s lockers, and women’s swimming lanes, and sports, and places that are supposed to belong to women,” she continued. The reason: “Trans women are not women,” she said. “They’re men.”

"While Megyn expressed empathy for the “difficult situation that the people who genuinely suffer from gender dysphoria are going through,” that does not include “glommers like Dylan Mulvaney” who she believes is looking for attention in that category. “No, zero empathy for somebody like that,” she explained. “I care about women, I care about girls, I care about their feelings – that’s who I’m fighting for.”

"As such, “I’m going to wear the hat,” Megyn reiterated." . . .

The Taliban extends their thanks to Biden and Kamala for arming their military

Taliban shows off US military vehicles 3 years after Afghanistan withdrawal

   

"National security analyst Hal Kempfer joins LiveNOW's Austin Westfall to react to video showing members of the Taliban celebrating the third anniversary of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan by parading through a former U.S. air base with abandoned American weapons and vehicles. Bagram Airfield was once the center of America's war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda militants responsible for 9/11. Uniformed soldiers marched with light and heavy machine guns, and a motorcycle formation carried the Taliban flag. President Biden’s decision to pull troops from Afghanistan faced widespread global backlash after Taliban insurgents retook the country in a matter of days in 2021."

Silence from the White House after Taliban parade abandoned American weapons "US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have yet to acknowledge the footage released by the Taliban this week celebrating three years since America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"The Taliban celebrated with some of the $7 billion in US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan in a military parade to mock America and what they left behind. "The regime paraded US and Soviet-era military weaponry, vehicles and equipment through a former US airbase, Bagram."