KAMALA'S COMMUNISM MEANS WELFARE TO ALL ILLEGALS AND 49 MORE MEXIFORNIA DUMPSTER STATES
Despite a lifetime of radical associations, Obama never had to undergo any form of a security background check to serve in the Illinois State Senate, U.S. Senate, or the White House. It’s highly unlikely he could have passed a security check to drive a school bus, let alone serve as the leader of the Free World.
Willie Brown's Ex-Girlfriend Opposes School Choice
The well-rehearsed attack by Sen. Kamala Harris on Joe Biden that destroyed his candidacy during the clown-car Democratic presidential debates should have come as no surprise to those who have watched her rise to political prominence. Never mind its relevance or accuracy -- for Harris the ends have always justified the means.
We saw during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh that Kamala Harris is an ambitious politician with a chain-saw-prosecutorial style designed to bludgeon her targets with attacks and arguments that are more bluster than brilliant. She revealed herself to be a political opportunist who, as Sen. Cory Booker’s “Spartacus moment” fizzled, knows an “Elmer Gantry moment” when she sees one. As Jonathan S. Tobin noted inNational Review:
She first earned notoriety in the Senate last year by demonstrating open incivility bordering on bullying when she interrogated Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the national-intelligence chiefs. Bullying witnesses and cutting them off before they have a chance to answer is her modus operandi during hearings…The same qualities were on display during her questioning of Kavanaugh. But while, like the other Democrats, she never succeeding in outsmarting the judge, she was the only one to momentarily flummox him by bringing up the Mueller investigation.She started with an impossibly general and specious query about whether he had ever discussed the Mueller probe with “anyone.”…by asserting, even by implication, that Kavanaugh might somehow be part of the Russia-collusion discussion, Harris gave liberal Democrats exactly the kind of red meat they crave.Along with her snide and disrespectful prosecutorial tone, that made her the winner of the first day of the Kavanaugh primary.
But Harris did more than badger, mislead, and imply in her attempt to slander Kavanaugh. Harris circulated a deceptively edited video designed to further her narrative that, far from being an originalist that would apply the law fairly on any case, including those involving abortion, Kavanaugh was an active participant in the campaign to repeal Roe V. Wade. As Ashe Schow noted in the Daily Wire:
Harris’ Twitter account put out a clip that appeared to show Kavanaugh referring to birth control blanketly as “abortion-inducing drugs.”This is clearly deceptive, as it’s obvious this was not the beginning of one of Kavanaugh’s answers. Kavanaugh’s full sentence, which would have only required one or two extra seconds had Harris’ team started at the beginning, made it clear he was summarizing what a party in a Supreme Court case said.Kavanaugh said, "In that case, they said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to." (Emphasis added.)
Harris was willing to, uh, falsify evidence to slander Kavanaugh and push the false narrative that Kavanaugh was just another pro-lifer waging a war on women. As she tweeted:
Kavanaugh chooses his words very carefully, and this is a dog whistle for going after birth control. He was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions. Make no mistake - this is about punishing women.
Make no mistake -- her abuse of Kavanaugh and Biden is about advancing the career of Kamala Harris. While portraying herself as a victim of segregation Biden supported, she neglected to point out her vehement opposition to school vouchers and school choice, things that would really free minorities from being trapped in failing schools and give a real and equal shot at getting a quality education. She’s all for busing children from and to the schools the government chooses, but not letting parents send their kids to the schools they choose. Harris in 2017 joined fellow Senate Democrats in a 24-hour floor session trying to sink the nomination of pro-school choice nomine Betsy DeVos to be Education Secretary. As Joy Resmovits reported in the Los Angeles Times:
Harris' remarks came amid a 24-hour marathon session that Democrats mounted to debate DeVos' nomination on the Senate floor -- a last-ditch effort to secure the one additional Republican vote needed to torpedo her confirmation.DeVos, a Republican fundraiser from Michigan, former state party chair and school choice activist, has faced intense opposition since her confirmation hearing in January -- the most of any of President Trump's Cabinet picks. DeVos spent her career advancing school vouchers, which would allow students to use public dollars to attend private schools, both secular and religious.
It would seem it is Kamala Harris who continues to stand in the schoolhouse door. During a visit with DeVos to Saint Andrew Catholic School in Orlando Florida in 2017, President Trump rightly called education “the civil rights issue of our time”. As the New York Post reported:
Trump’s visit capped off a week in which he addressed the nation in a Joint Session of Congress, pledging to fix the education system in America, invoking civil rights and claiming it could be fixed using school choice -- using public funds to enroll students in alternative charter schools and private schools as traditional public schools.“We want millions more to have the same chance to achieve the great success that you’re achieving,” said Trump during his visit to St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando, which receives a state funded benefit to operate as a religious school.“St. Andrew’s Catholic School represents one of the many parochial schools dedicated to the education of some of our nation’s most disadvantaged children, but they’re becoming just the opposite very rapidly through education and with the help of the school choice programs,” Trump said in very brief remarks…“As I’ve often said -- in my address to Congress and just about anyplace else I can speak -- education is the civil rights issue of our time. And it’s why I’ve asked Congress to support a school choice bill,’ he said.
Don’t ask Kamala Harris who, while thanking school busing for helping to launch her career, owes much more for her advancement for her association with former Democratic Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown. As the Washington Examiner noted:
Kamala Harris’ first significant political role was an appointment by her powerful then-boyfriend Willie Brown, three decades her senior, to a California medical board that has been criticized as a landing spot for patronage jobs and kickbacks.Then 30, Harris was dating 60-year-old Willie Brown, at the time the Democratic speaker of the California State Assembly, when he placed her on the California Medical Assistance Commission in 1994. The position paid over $70,000 per year, $120,700 in current money, and Harris served on the board until 1998.The medical commission met twice a month, and Harris, a United States senator for California since 2017 and now a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, missed about 20% of the meetings each year, according to commission records obtained by the Washington Examiner.Harris, now 54, and Brown, now 85, started dating in the spring of 1994, showing up arm-in-arm at numerous high-profile functions, including Brown’s lavish parties and celebrity galas. He has been separated but not divorced from his wife Blanche Vitero since the 1980s and has maintained a string of girlfriends over the years.
Maybe, Kamala Harris, it’s not what you know but who you know.
Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared inInvestor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the ChicagoSun-Times among other publications.
Kamala Harris’s Socialist Ties
Part 1: Red diaper baby
Democratic presidential primary front-runner Sen. Kamala
Harris (D-Calif.) recently told reporters at a campaign stop in New Hampshire that
she is “not a democratic socialist.”
The next question should have been obvious: “Well, then, what kind
of socialist are you?”
Harris has been surrounded by socialists and communists her entire
life—beginning with her staunchly Marxist father. Harris
is the older child of two 1960s Berkeley radicals: Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer
researcher from the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, and Donald J.
Harris, an economist from Jamaica.
Gopalan and Donald Harris were very active during the civil rights
and anti-Vietnam War protests of the era, often taking baby Kamala to protests
in a stroller, according to a recent article in San Jose daily newspaper
The Mercury News on the Harris family.
The couple separated after Donald Harris took a
professorship at the University of Madison–Wisconsin. Gopalan filed for
divorce in 1971 and won custody of her two daughters in 1973.
Kamala and her younger sister, Maya—now her presidential
campaign chair—regularly visited their father during school holidays.
In 1972, Donald Harris left the University of Madison–Wisconsin to
begin a visiting professorship of economics at Stanford University.
On Nov. 3, 1976, an article published in the Stanford Daily newspaper claimed that
more than 250 students were clamoring for more Marxist perspectives.
Shortly thereafter, a letter was published in the Stanford
Daily on Nov. 12, 1976, signed by the Stanford branch of the Union
for Radical Political Economics (URPE), with signatures from members Bill Dittenhofer,
Ari Cohen, Eric Berg, David O’Connor, Arthur Slepian, Sandy Thompson, and Tracy
Mott:
“The program in Marxian
economics would be much weaker than it is today if had it not been for massive
student efforts in the form of petitions, open meetings …
“[It] was only after a divisive
one and a one-half year struggle that the opposing elements in the department
gave into student pressure and conceded to ‘the appointment of
Prof. Donald Harris. Thus the presence of Marxian economists here simply
indicates the success of the student struggle. … The recent addition of course
offerings in Marxian economics is again a direct result of student pressure,
not departmental benevolence.”
After an 18-month campaign by the union, Harris was offered
and accepted a permanent professorship.
The URPE (which last year celebrated its
50th anniversary) began in 1968 as a spinoff of the radical Students for a
Democratic Society (SDS). URPE has overlapped considerably with America’s
largest Marxist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), since
its founding in 1982. One of professor Donald Harris’s Stanford supporters and
URPE letter signatories, Mott, is now a professor at the University of Denver, where he works
with local DSA activists.
During the summer and fall of 2006, the DSA’s Political
Action Committee helped DSA activists around the country host house parties to
raise funds that helped Bernie Sanders become the “sole socialist in the
U.S. Senate.”
According to DSA magazine Democratic Left: “Boulder,
Colorado, guests braved a downpour to attend the party at the home
of Leslie Lomas and hear a talk about giving money by economics
professor and socialist Tracy Mott.”
According to The Mercury News: “Several of his former
students said it wasn’t accurate to describe him [Donald Harris] as Marxist,
although ‘he might have been a lot more sympathetic to Marx than a lot of other
economists were at the time,’ said Tracy Mott.”
Mott was being disingenuous. Several Stanford Daily articles at
the time described Donald Harris as “Marxist,” and Mott and his friends made it
very clear that Harris was hired specifically for his radical ideology.
Donald Harris wrote papers such as “The Black Ghetto as Colony: A
Theoretical Critique” (1972) and “Capitalist Exploitation and Black Labor:
Some Conceptual Issues” (1978).
Harris’s Marxism was never questioned or denied at any stage of
his career.
URPE also was very close to the Institute for Policy Studies
(IPS), once the largest and most influential of the far-left think tanks
in Washington. Since its founding in 1963, the IPS has consistently followed a
pro-Marxist line on foreign policy, defense, and economic issues.
To put its policy recommendations into action, the IPS “built networks
of contacts among congressional legislators and their staffs, academics,
government officials, and the national media,” according to the book “The War
Called Peace: The Soviet Peace Offensive.”
The IPS also was on very close terms with representatives of
communist Cuba and the former Soviet Union.
In 1978, in an article in National Review, Brian Crozier, director
of the London-based Institute for the Study of Conflict, described IPS as the
“perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted if
they were to originate openly from the KGB.”
In the 1988 book “Winning America: Ideas and Leadership for the
1990s,” edited by IPS leaders Marcus Raskin and Chester Hartman, the IPS and
DSA affiliate Sean Gervasi recommended a slate of radical colleagues as
potential appointees in a hoped-for new Democratic administration after the
1988 election.
Gervasi’s wish list including the following:
• Barry Bluestone—SDS founder, DSA affiliate, URPE member. Served
as a member of the senior policy staff of former Rep. Richard Gephardt
(D-Mo.).
• Gar Alperovitz—IPS, DSA, Brookings Institute.
• Robert Browne—SDS, IPS.
• Jeff Faux—DSA affiliate. Faux has worked as an economist with
the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity and the U.S. Departments of State,
Commerce, and Labor.
• Carol O’Cleireacain—DSA member, Brookings
Institute. In 2014, she became Detroit deputy mayor for economic policy,
planning, and strategy.
• Howard Wachtel—IPS, URPE member.
And, of course, Donald Harris, Marxist professor and Kamala
Harris’s father.
Republican George H.W. Bush won the 1988 election, so professor
Harris stayed on at Stanford until his retirement.
Ironically, Kamala Harris’s most formidable opponent in the
Democratic primary so far is Bernie Sanders, a favorite of professor Harris’s
old URPE and DSA colleagues.
When Sanders drops out of a very crowded Democratic primary, will
his supporters cross over to support Kamala Harris?
I believe they will. In fact, I believe it has already been
decided.
Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New
Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and
terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.
///
Former president Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Detroit,
Michigan, on Oct. 26, 2018. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Barack Obama: A Lifelong
Story of Russian Collusion
Commentary
Several U.S. presidents have genuinely
colluded with Russia or the former Soviet Union, but none
more so the 44th president of the United States, Barack
Obama. It’s no exaggeration to say that Obama
owes his entire career to Russian collusion.
In March 2012, President Obama made his famous
“off mic” remarks to then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: “This is my last
election. After my election, I have more flexibility.” Medvedev replied, “I
understand. I transmit this information to Vladimir.”
Was this some innocent remark, or was it just
as it seems: a friend passing a message to a friend?
Obama has surrounded himself with
pro-Moscow “friends” all his life. Why should he desert his friends just
because he was president of the United States?
Just after Obama’s election to the
presidency on Nov. 15, 2008, Sam Webb, then-chairman of the still pro-Moscow
Communist Party USA, told his party comrades: “The
left can and should advance its own views and disagree with the Obama
administration without being disagreeable. Its tone should be respectful. We
are speaking to a friend.”
A lifelong friend.
Frank Marshall Davis
The young Obama, when he was 10 or 11
years old, was introduced to the Hawaii-based poet Frank
Marshall Davis by his maternal grandfather. Obama
maintained a relationship with the septuagenarian Davis until he left Hawaii
for Occidental College in Los Angeles at the age of 18.
Davis had joined the Communist Party USA in
Chicago by 1943, at the latest. He was militantly pro-Soviet, writing poems in
praise of both Stalin and the Red Army.
In 1948, Davis and his communist wife moved to Hawaii. According to Davis’s autobiography, he was
recommended to the Hawaiian comrades by secret Communist Party USA
members Paul Robeson and Harry Bridges of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union.
Before going underground in 1950, the
Hawaiian Communist Party was one of the most dynamic in the United States at
the time. The mainland put huge resources into the Hawaiian Communist Party
because the Soviets wanted the U.S. military presence on the islands shut down.
The Hawaiian communists were charged with agitating against the U.S. military
bases at every opportunity.
FBI documents refer to information that
Davis “was observed photographing large sections of the [Hawaii] coastline with
a camera containing a telescopic lens.” The FBI information states: “Informant
stated that DAVIS spent much of his time in this activity. He said this was the
third different occasion DAVIS had been observed photographing shorelines and
beachfronts. Informant advised that it did not appear he was photographing any
particular objects.”
The FBI clearly suspected military
espionage. Davis was placed on the “Security Index,” which meant he was marked
for immediate arrest should war break out between the United States and the
Soviet Union.
Alice Palmer
Long-serving Illinois state Sen. Alice Palmer provided Obama’s entrée into electoral politics. Obama was
Palmer’s chief of staff when she ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1994, then
he took over her state Senate seat in 1996.
Palmer was a pro-Soviet propagandist.
In 1983, Palmer traveled to Czechoslovakia
to the Soviet-controlled World Peace Council’s Prague Assembly. At the time,
she served on the executive board of the Communist Party USA-dominated U.S.
Peace Council.
In 1985, Palmer was part of a delegation of
16 African-American journalists to the Soviet Union, East Germany, and
Czechoslovakia. Palmer represented her own Chicago-based “Black Press
Institute,” which was essentially a vehicle for disseminating Soviet propaganda
to America’s black population.
The trip was organized by Don Rojas, then executive of the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ),
in conjunction with the Black Press Institute, the National Alliance of Black
Journalists, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association—the United
States’ largest organization of owners of black newspapers.
American-educated Rojas was the former
press secretary to Grenada’s late communist leader, Maurice Bishop.
Palmer told the Communist Party USA’s
People’s Daily World:
“The trip was extraordinary because we were
able to sit down with our counterparts and with the seats of power in three
major capitals—Prague, Berlin and Moscow. We visited with foreign ministers, we
talked with the editors of the major newspapers in these three cities. …
“It was a very unusual trip because we were
given access. … Every effort was made to give us as much as we asked for. … We
came back feeling that we could speak very well about the interest of the
socialist countries in promoting peace.”
In March 1986, Palmer covered the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Congress in Moscow for the Black Press
Institute.
In June 1986, the People’s Daily World
published a Black Press Institute article by Palmer on the CPSU conference,
entitled “An Afro-American Journalist in the USSR.” The article praised Soviet
“central planning” and included such statements as:
“We Americans can be misled by the major
media. We’re being told the Soviets are striving to achieve a comparatively low
standard of living compared with ours, but actually they have reached a basic
stability in meeting their needs and are now planning to double their
production.”
Palmer was elected IOJ vice president for
North America at the organization’s 10th Congress, held from Oct. 20–23, 1986,
in Prague. She also traveled to the Soviet Union and Bulgaria during the same
trip. Palmer’s duties were to include coordinating the activities of IOJ
chapters in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
The IOJ was a Soviet front operation based
in Prague, until its expulsion by the Czech government in 1995.
David Axelrod
A longtime friend of Obama, David Axelrod, led Obama’s 2008 and 2012 election campaigns and served as a senior
adviser to the president.
In the 1940s, Axelrod’s mother, Myril Axelrod, wrote for the left-leaning New York magazine “PM.” Though not
officially a communist publication, several Communist Party USA members worked
on the paper.
PM’s Washington correspondent, I.F. Stone, was later identified as a Communist Party USA member and a Soviet
intelligence agent.
One of PM’s writers, Earl Conrad, also
wrote for the leftist magazine Negro Story, as did Obama’s mentor, Frank
Marshall Davis.
While studying in Chicago, Axelrod was
mentored by longtime Chicago journalist and activist David Canter.
Canter spent his childhood in the Soviet
Union where his father, Harry Canter, former secretary of the Boston Communist
Party, translated Lenin’s works from Russian into English. This work earned
Harry Canter an audience with Stalin in 1932. After World War II, Harry Canter
settled his family in Chicago, where he took over a radical paper called the
Chicago Star—for sale because its owner, Frank Marshall Davis, was moving to
Hawaii.
David Canter joined the Communist Party USA
and would later become an associate of Obama.
By 1960, David Canter had teamed up with
well-known Chicago Communist Party USA member LeRoy Wolins. The duo owned a company called Translation World Publishers, which
specialized in publications from and about the Soviet Union. The company soon
attracted the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which
suspected Canter and Wolins of being conduits for Soviet propaganda.
In a report prepared by the House Committee
on Un-American Activities in May and July 1962, entitled “Communist Outlets for
the Distribution of Soviet Propaganda in the United States,” David Canter was
heavily quizzed about payments his company received from the Soviet Union.
After the U.S. government demanded that
Translation World Publishers register as the agent of a foreign power, Canter de-registered
the company.
The committee went on to find that:
“Translation World Publishers was an outlet
for the distribution of Soviet propaganda … this publishing house was
subsidized by Soviet funds and was created by known Communists to serve the
propaganda interests of the U.S.S.R.”
In 1963/64, the Soviet Union actively tried
to undermine Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, in favor of
Democrat Lyndon Johnson.
In their 1989 book, “The KGB Against the
Main Enemy—How the Soviet Intelligence Service Operates Against the United
States,” the United States’ premier communist researcher, Herbert Romerstein,
and former KGB officer Stanislav Levchenko examined Soviet attempts to blacken
Goldwater’s name and other Soviet campaigns of the time:
“The false charge that Goldwater was a
racist was only one of the smear campaigns used against his candidacy by the
Soviets and their surrogates. The American Communists covertly assisted in this
‘active measures’ campaign.
“A 1963 booklet claimed that Goldwater was
conspiring with the John Birch Society to organize a ‘putsch,’ or violent
insurrection, to take over the United States in 1964. The booklet, ‘Birch
Putsch Plans for 1964,’ contained no address for the publisher, Domino
Publications. The author used the not-very imaginative pseudonym, ‘John Smith,
as told to Stanhope T. McReady.’ There was nothing to tie this publication to
the communists until an ad for the book appeared in the pro-communist National
Guardian for April 25, 1963, listing the publisher as ‘Domino Publications,
Suite 900, 22 West Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois.’
“This was in fact the address of
Translation World Publishers, which was registered under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act as an agent of the Soviet Union. The co-owners, LeRoy Wolins
and David S. Canter, were identified by the House Committee on Un-American
Activities as members of the Communist Party USA.”
Axelrod’s mentor was a Soviet-funded
professional “black propagandist.” Axelrod used similar smear tactics to help
Obama win a U.S. Senate seat in 2006 and the presidency in 2008 and 2012.
Valerie Jarrett
The “other half of Obama’s brain,” Valerie Jarrett was a longtime Obama family friend and the president’s closest
adviser through his entire eight years in the White House.
FBI documents show that Jarrett’s
maternal grandfather, Chicago businessman and Housing Authority Chairman Robert Taylor, was “in contact” with alleged Soviet spy Alfred Stern “on a number of occasions.” At one point, the pair were actually
in business together. Under investigation by the FBI, Stern fled the country in
the late 1950s through Mexico to the Soviet Union before settling in
Czechoslovakia.
FBI files also reveal, “Bowman was also a
member of a Communist-sympathizing group called the Association of Internes and
Medical Students,” according to Judicial Watch.
Another document in the files was a note
from J. Edgar Hoover to FBI officials in Denver instructing them to investigate
“James Edward Bowman” for his connections to other suspects.
The Judicial Watch report explained,
“According to Bowman’s government file, the Association of Internes and Medical
Students is an organization that ‘has long been a faithful follower of the
Communist Party line’ and engages in un-American activities. Bowman was born in
Washington, D.C., and had deep ties to Chicago, where he often collaborated
with fellow Communists.”
Jarrett’s father-in-law, prominent Chicago
journalist Vernon Jarrett, was a leader of the
Communist Party USA youth wing, American Youth for Democracy, in 1946.
In early 1948, the communist-controlled
Packinghouse Workers went on strike in Chicago. Vernon Jarrett served on the
publicity committee of the communist-run “Citizens’ Committee to Aid
Packing-House Workers,” alongside none other than fellow journalist and comrade
Frank Marshall Davis.
Vernon Jarrett was also a fan of Obama. He
watched his career from its early stages and became an influential supporter.
In 1992, Obama worked for the ACORN
offshoot Project Vote to register black voters in aid of the Senate campaign
of Carol Moseley Braun, who also had
strong Communist Party USA ties.
Obama helped Moseley Braun win her Senate
seat, then took it over himself in 2004, backed by the same communist/socialist
alliance that had backed Moseley Braun.
Commenting on the 1992 race, Vernon Jarrett
wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on Aug. 11, 1992:
“Good news! Good news! Project Vote, a
collectivity of 10 church-based community organizations dedicated to black
voter registration, is off and running. Project Vote is increasing its rolls at
a 7,000-per-week clip. … If Project Vote is to reach its goal of registering
150,000 out of an estimated 400,000 unregistered blacks statewide, ‘it must
average 10,000 rather than 7,000 every week,’ says Barack Obama, the program’s
executive director.”
Council for a Livable
World
Established in 1962 by former Hungarian
communist sympathizer and alleged Soviet spy Leo Szilard, the Washington-based Council
for a Livable World (CLW) has done huge damage to the
U.S. military—all to the benefit of Moscow.
The CLW’s modus operandi is to fund leftist
senators and congressmembers, then lobby them hard for defense cuts and
disadvantageous arms reduction treaties with the Soviet Union/Russia.
The CLW claims to have had an early
influence on both Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden.
“Council for a Liveable World has a history
of helping to elect new candidates who can make a difference in the Senate,
such as a little-known state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama and a
29-year-old Joe Biden in his first statewide contest,” the CLW wrote in 2012.
The CLW helped fund Obama’s 2004 U.S.
Senate race. Obama has also been pictured (circa mid-1990s) alongside longtime
CLW leader Massachusetts-based socialist Jerome Grossman.
CLW Executive Director John Isaacs wrote in Grossman’s eulogy: “Now, as
an aside, we have a dictum at Council for a Livable World. If we support a
candidate in his or her first major political contest, he or she will always
remember who was with them at the beginning. That has been true with such
political figures—(he says modestly)—as President Barack Obama and Vice
President Joseph Biden.”
In October 2007, the CLW praised Sen. Obama “for his pledge to pursue
a world without nuclear weapons and to improve U.S.–Russian relations.”
At a speech at DePaul University,
Obama stated: “Here’s what I’ll say as president:
America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons. … We’ll work with
Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair-trigger alert, and
to dramatically reduce the stockpiles of our nuclear weapons and material.”
As the Soviet Union/Russia has cheated on
every single arms-reduction treaty with the United States, Obama was
effectively proposing unilateral U.S. disarmament.
Former Sen. Gary Hart, then chairman of the
CLW, applauded Obama’s pledge.
“By placing the issue of the elimination of
nuclear arsenals at the center of his foreign policy, Sen. Barack Obama has
performed a great public service and deserves attention and respect from all
those who see this issue as crucial to our times and who have been watching and
waiting for strong leadership and courage,” Hart said in a statement.
In June 2013, President Obama used a speech
in Berlin to outline plans for further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal
“if Russia agrees to pare back its weapons at the same time.”
“Resuming a drive toward disarmament that
he had largely shunted aside over the past two years, Mr. Obama will propose
trimming the number of strategic warheads that each of the two big nuclear
powers still maintains by up to a third, taking them below the 1,550 permitted
in the treaty he signed with Russia in his first term, a senior administration
official said. That would leave each country with just over 1,000 weapons.
“Mr. Obama will also declare that he will
work with NATO allies to develop proposals for major cuts in tactical nuclear
weapons, which are not covered by the existing treaty. Russia, which has far
more tactical nuclear weapons deployed than the United States and Europe do,
has firmly resisted such cuts. There are fears that its tactical weapons are in
parts of Russia where they risk being seized by terrorist groups.
“Mr. Obama will also announce that he will
host a final nuclear security summit meeting in the United States just before
he leaves office. …
“’The most important thing he could do is
lay out the broad agenda for the next three and a half years,’ said John
Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World, an advocacy
group.
“In addition to further reductions, Mr.
Isaacs said, there are several policy changes Mr. Obama could take that would
move the country further away from cold war-style national security. He said
the president could take nuclear weapons off high alert and change nuclear
doctrine to say that the only purpose of such weapons would be as a deterrent.”
Under the Obama administration, while
America disarmed, Moscow pulled well ahead of the United States in virtually
every realm of nuclear and conventional weaponry.
The situation has gotten so bad that
President Donald Trump had to unilaterally withdraw from the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty (which Russia has continually cheated on) in order to
give the U.S. military some chance of catching up to Moscow.
How Many Russian Agents Do
You Know?
Most Americans don’t personally know any
Russian agents. Most Americans aren’t surrounded by friends and advisers who
know Russian agents.
Obama has been surrounded by pro-Moscow
communists and probable Soviet agents his entire life. Several of his political
enablers also have Soviet/Russian connections.
How unlucky can one guy get?
Obama’s economic, social, and military
policies damaged the United States in a myriad of ways. Many of his military
and foreign policies also directly or indirectly benefited Moscow.
Despite a lifetime of radical associations,
Obama never had to undergo any form of a security background check to serve in
the Illinois State Senate, U.S. Senate, or the White House. It’s highly
unlikely he could have passed a security check to drive a school bus, let alone
serve as the leader of the Free World.
Imagine what a two-year,
multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded investigation into Obama’s Russian ties
might uncover.
If Obama was a fully recruited agent of
Moscow, tasked with giving Russia a significant military advantage over the
United States, and economically weakening and socially dividing the nation, how
would he have conducted his presidency (or his post-presidency) any
differently?
Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and
public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched
radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on
mainstream politics.
Kamala Harris
leads Senate Democrats' push to offer paid congressional jobs and internships
to DACA recipients even though they're not citizens
·
Democratic presidential contender Kamala
Harris is leading the charge to lift the ban that keeps Dreamers from working
on Capitol Hill
·
Harris has been courting the Latino vote as
part of her strategy of weaving together various Democratic constituencies to
win the nomination
·
She is the daughter of immigrants from
Jamaica and India
·
She has campaigned in the Latino-heavy states
of Nevada and Texas
·
Democratic
presidential contender Kamala Harris is leading the charge to lift the ban that
keeps Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients from working on
Capitol Hill.
'The
giant sign outside my office says 'DREAMers Welcome Here' because we know and
value the contributions that these young people have made to their communities.
But right now, those same young people are banned from giving back to their
country by working for Congress. That has to change,' she said in a statement
Wednesday.
'Government
works best when it reflects the people it represents. Our nation's DREAMers are
some of our best and brightest, and it's time they had the opportunity to get a
job or paid internship on Capitol Hill,' the California Democrat
said.
Under
current law, paid employment in the House and Senate is limited to those who
are either U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - more commonly referred
to as 'green card holders' - who have started the naturalization
process.
+3
·
Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris is leading the charge to
lift the ban that keeps Dreamers from working on Capitol Hill
+3
·
Under U.S. law, only citizens or those in the naturalization process can
work on Capitol Hill
Harris
has been courting the Latino vote as part of her strategy of weaving together
various Democratic constituencies to win the 2020 presidential
nomination.
Harris,
the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, has campaigned in the
Latino-heavy states of Nevada and Texas.
At her
events, she also encourages questions in Spanish as she has a translator
present - all of which are seen as moves to combat fluent Spanish-speaker
Beto O'Rourke in his bid to become the Democratic nominee.
Other
contenders are also courting Latinos.
On
Tuesday, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro became
the first candidate in the Democratic field to unveil a detailed immigration
plan. His proposal would offer a pathway to citizenship for
Dreamers.
Harris,
along with Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Dick Durbin of
Illinois, introduced on Wednesday The American Dream Employment Act that would
make the so-called Dreamers eligible for congressional employment.
The
bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Democratic Rep. Ann
Kirkpatrick of Arizona, where it has 57 bipartisan co-sponsors.
The
status of Dreamers in the United States is in limbo, as President Donald Trump
ended the President Obama-era DACA policy and Congress has not acted to
permanently protect DACA recipients.
Court
decisions have kept the program in place.
Trump's
threat to close the border and harsh rhetoric toward immigrants has caused many
Latino voters to feel vilified by the president.
WHO ARE ALL
THE 16 DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR THE PRESIDENCY IN 2020?
CORY BOOKER
Age on
Inauguration Day: 51
Entered
race: February 1, 2019
Career:
High school football star who went to Stanford or undergraduate and masters
degrees before studying in Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and Yale Law School.
Worked for advocacy and youth projects and successfully ran for Newark, New
Jersey, city council in 1998. Narrowly lost mayoral election in 2002 facing
claims he was 'suburban' and 'not black enough.' Ran again in 2006 and won
landslide on radical reform platform for troubled city, including being tough
on crime, cutting budget deficit, increasing affordable housing and tackling
failing schools - controversially taking a huge donation from Mark Zuckerberg
for the city. Ran for New Jersey senate seat in 2013 special election and won;
won full term in 2014
Family:
Single. Parents Cary and Carolyn were among IBM's first black executives.
Brother Cary Jr. is education adviser to New Jersey's Democratic governor.
Would be first bachelor president since James Buchanan, who was in the White
House from 1857 to 1861
Religion:
Baptist
Views
on key issues: Self-proclaimed liberal. Endorses abortion rights; affirmative
action; single-payer health care; criminal justice reform; path to citizenship
for 'dreamers; federal marijuana decriminalization; $15 minimum wage; but has
also spoken against tech regulation and for long-term deficit reduction
Slogan:
To be announced
PETE BUTTIGIEG
Age on
Inauguration Day: 39
Entered
race: Announced formation of exploratory committee January 23, 2019
Career:
Harvard grad and Rhodes scholar who got a second degree from Oxford before
working as a McKinsey management consultant and being commissioned as a Navy
Reserve intelligence officer. Elected South Ben mayor in 2011 and served in
combat in 2013, won re-election in 2015
Family:
Came out as gay during second mayoral run and married husband Chasten Glezman,
a middle school teacher in 2018. Parents were University of Notre Dame
academics. Surname is pronounced BOOT-edge-edge. Would be first openly gay
president, youngest-ever president and first combat veteran since George H.W.
Bush
Religion:
Episcopalian
Views
on key issues: Has said Democratic party needs a 'fresh start'; wrote an essay
in praise of Bernie Sanders aged 17; backed paid parental leave for city
employees; other policies unknown
Slogan:
To be announced
JULIAN CASTRO
Age on
Inauguration Day: 46
Entered
race: January 12, 2018, at rally in his native San Antonio, TX. Had formed
exploratory committee two months previously
Career:
Stanford and Harvard graduate who was a San Antonio councilman at 26 and became
mayor in 2009. Was Obama's Housing and Urban Development secretary from 2014 to
2016
Family:
Married with nine-year-old daughter, Carina, and four-year-old son, Cristian.
His identical twin Joaquin, who is a minute younger, is Democratic congressman.
Mother Maria del Rosario Castro was part of 'radical' third party for
Mexican-Americans; father left his wife and five children for her but they
never married. Would be first Hispanic-American president - announced his run
in English and Spanish - and first-ever U.S. president with a twin
Religion:
Catholic
Views
on key issues: Wants medicare for all; universal pre-K; action on affordable
housing; will not take money from political action committees (PACs) tied to
corporations or unions. Other views still to be announced
Slogan:
One Nation. One Destiny
JOHN DELANEY
Age on
Inauguration Day: 57
Entered
race: Filed papers July 28, 2017
Career:
Three-time Maryland congressman, first winning election in 2012. Previously set
up publicly-traded companies lending capital to healthcare and mid-size
businesses and was youngest CEO at the time of a New York Stock Exchange-listed
firm
Family:
Married father of four; wife April works for children's issues nonprofit
Religion:
Catholic
Views
on key issues: Social liberal in favor of legalized pot and gun control but not
single-payer healthcare; fiscally conservative
Slogan:
Focus on the Future
TULSI GABBARD
Age on
Inauguration Day: 39
Entered
race: Still to formally file any papers but said she would run on January 11
2019
Career:
Born on American Samoa, a territory, and therefore may be subject to questions
over whether she is natural-born. Raised largely in Hawaii, she co-founded an
environmental non-profit with her father as a teenager and was elected to the
State Legislature aged 21, its youngest member in history. Enlisted in the
National Guard and served two tours, one in Iraq 2004-2006, then as an officer
in Kuwait in 2009. Ran for Honolulu City Council in 2011, and House of
Representatives in 2012
Family:
Married to her second husband, Abraham Williams, a cinematographer since 2015.
First marriage to childhood sweetheart Eduardo Tamayo in 2002 ended in 2006.
Father Mike Gabbard is a Democratic Hawaii state senator, mother Carol Porter
runs a non-profit. Would be first Samoan-American, first Hindu, first female
and youngest-ever president
Religion:
Hindu
Views
on key issues: Has apologized for anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage views;
wants marijuana federally legalized; opposed to most U.S. foreign
interventions; backs $15 minimum wage and universal health care; was the second
elected Democrat to meet Trump after his 2016 victory
Slogan:
To be announced
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Age on
Inauguration Day: 54
Entered
race: Announced exploratory committee on Stephen Colbert's CBS show on
January 16, 2019. Formal launch in front of Trump International Hotel and
Tower, New York, March 24, 2019
Career:
Dartmouth and UCLA law grad who was a high-flying Manhattan attorney
representing big businesses. Says she was inspired to enter politics by hearing
Hillary Clinton speak, although she is also scion of a prominent New York
Democratic political family. Won New York's 20th district, centered on Albany
in 2004; appointed to Hillary Clinton's senate seat in 2008 and won it in 2010
special election 63-35; won first full term 2012 and re-elected 67-33 in 2018
Family:
Married to British venture capitalist Jonathan Gillibrand with two sons,
Theodore, 15, and Henry, ten. Father Douglas Lutnik was Democratic lobbyist;
grandmother Polly Noonan was at center of Albany Democratic politics. Would be
first female president
Religion:
Catholic
Views
on key issues: Initially pro-gun as Congresswoman, has since reversed herself
to be pro-gun control and also pro-immigration; said Bill Clinton should have
resigned over Monica Lewinsky and helped force Al Franken out of Senate over
groping allegations; in favor of single-payer healthcare and Medicare for all
Slogan:
Brave wins
KAMALA HARRIS
Age on
Inauguration Day: 56
Entered
race: Announced she was running January 21, 2018 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day -
on Good Morning America. Formally entered race January 27
Career:
Howard and U.C. Hunter law school grad who worked as assistant district
attorney in Alameda County, CA, then in San Francisco's DA's office before
being elected San Francisco DA in 2003 and used it as springboard to run
successfully for California attorney general in 2010. Won again in 2014 and was
at center of U.S. attorney general and Supreme Court speculation but also
endured a series of controversies, including over police brutality allegations.
Ran for Senate in 2016 and established herself on liberal wing of party
Family:
Born in Berkeley, CA, to immigrant Indian Tamil mother and Jamaican father who
were both academics and brought up from seven to 18 in Montreal, Canada.
Dated married San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, when he was 60 and she was 29.
Married attorney Douglas Emhoff in 2014 and has two stepchildren; Cole, an
aspiring actor, and Ella, an art and design student. Sister Maya was a Hillary
Clinton adviser and brother-in-law Tony West is Uber's chief legal counsel.
Would be first female, first Indian-American, first Jamaican-America and first
female black president
Views
on key issues: Social ultra-liberal who has rejected criticisms of 'identity
politics' and is running without a political action committee, which will make
her reliant on small donors. Has shifted left on criminal justice reform;
supports Medicare for all; pro-gun control and anti-death penalty; says
illegal immigration is a civil not a criminal offense
Religion:
Has said she was brought up in both Baptist and Hindu tradition
Slogan:
Kamala Harris: For The People
JOHN HICKENLOOPER
Age on
Inauguration Day: 68
Entered
race: March 4, 2019 with Good Morning America interview
Career:
Wesleyan University-educated geologist who moved to Colorado to work in
petroleum industry but was laid off and started Wynkoop Brewing Company, the
first craft brewpub in 1988 in Denver's LoDo (lower downtown) area. Ran for
mayor of Denver as an outsider in 2003 and won, then won a second term in 2007.
Ran for Colorado governor in 2010 and won 51 per cent of the vote; his nearest
rival took 36.5 per cent. Won re-election 49.3 to 46 in 2014, but was term
limited and ended his second term in January 2019
Family:
Married to second wife Robin Pringle, 40, a vice president at LibertyMedia
Corp., owners of Sirius XM. Divorced first wife Helen Thorpe in 2012 after 10
years of marriage; ex-couple have son Teddy, a high school student. Born and
brought up in Narbeth, in the Main Line of Philadelphia, his father's ancestors
include Civil War Union general Andrew Hickenlooper
Religion:
Quaker
Views
on key issues: Voiced support for Green New Deal but has also been in favor of
fracking; has not embraced single-payer healthcare but expanded Medicaid in
Colorado; long record of being pro-gun control; pro-choice but has gone out of
his way to talk about reducing unplanned teenage pregnancies ; opposed to the
death penalty; advocated for gay marriage
Slogan:
To be announced
JAY INSLEE
Age on
Inauguration Day: 69
Entered
race: March 1, 2019
Career:
Stanford drop-out who graduated from University of Washington and Williamette
University School of Law before working as a city prosecutor in Selah, WA.
First elected to Washington House of Representatives in 1989 and again in 1990;
won Congressional seat in 1992 elections but lost in 1994 and then had failed
1996 gubernatorial run. Returned to Congress in 1998 elections and stayed until
2012 to run for governor. Won first term 51.5 to 48.5; re-elected in 2016 by
54.4 to 45.6
Family:
Born in Seattle to late parents Frank, a Navy veteran and high school teacher
and coach, and Adele, a Sears sales clerk. Married high school and college
sweetheart Trudi since 1972. Three adult sons Jack, a radio producer in
Washington D.C.; Connor, director of a Washington state non-profit for the
disabled; and Joe, who works for King County, WA's department of natural
resources and parks. Grandfather of three
Religion:
Non-denominational Protestant
Views
on key issues: Running to combat climate change with praise for
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal - his record in Washington D.C.
including aspiring to 'zero emissions' buildings and largely eliminate fossil
fuel use; vocal gun control advocate; fought Trump's ban on entry to people
from seven Muslim-majority countries; called moratorium on death penalty in
Washington; supported marijuana legalization in Washington and expected to do
so federally; will not take money from political action committees; healthcare
position still unclear
Slogan:
Our moment
·
AMY KLOBUCHAR
Age on
Inauguration Day: 60
Entered
race: Announced candidacy February 10, 2019 at snow-drenched rally in her
native Minneapolis
Career:
Yale and University of Chicago law graduate who became a corporate lawyer.
First ran unsuccessfully for office in 1994 as Hennepin, MI, county
attorney, and won same race in 1998, then in 2002, without opposition. Ran for
Senate in 2006 and won 58-38; re-elected in 2012 and 2018
Family:
Married to John Bessler, law professor at University of Baltimore and expert on
capital punishment. Daughter Abigail Bessler, 23, works fora Democratic member
of New York City council. Father Jim, 90, was a veteran newspaper columnist who
has written a memoir of how his alcoholism hurt his family; mom Rose is a
retired grade school teacher. Would be first female president
Religion:
Congregationalist (United Church of Christ)
Views
on key issues: Seen as a mainstream liberal: says she wants 'universal health
care' but has not spelled out how; pro-gun control; pro-choice; backs $15
minimum wage; no public statements on federal marijuana legalization; has
backed pro-Israel law banning the 'boycott, divestment and sanctions' movement;
spoke out against abolishing ICE
Slogan:
To be announced
·
WAYNE MESSAM
Age on
Inauguration day: 46
Entered
race: Announced March 28, 2019, formal launch March 30, 2019
Career:
Florida State University football star who played starting wide receiver, and
graduated in 1997. Worked in construction industry as contractor and started
his own company in 2007. Ran for City of Miramar Commission in 2011 and mayor
in 2015, defeating 16-year Democratic incumbent and becoming first black mayor
of the city. Won second term March 2019, days before announcing presidential
bid
Family:
Married to college sweetheart Angela Sands, 44, who is also his business
partner. Three college-age children: son Wayne Jr. and twin daughters Kayla and
Kyla. Fourth child and first American-born child of Jamaican immigrants Hubert
, a sugar-cane cutter, and his wife Delsey, who are both deceased. Was
president of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials in 2018.
Would be first Jamaican-American president
Religion:
Worships at the Fountain of New Life Church in Miami Gardens where he is a
deacon
Views
on key issues: Says he is staunch advocate of gun control. Wants action on
climate change and is opposed to off-shore oil drilling. Opposes Trump
immigration policies and proposed forcing immigration officials to get a
warrant before entering city property. Yet to state position on health care and
foreign policy
Slogan:
Your Champion
BETO O'ROURKE
Age on
Inauguration Day: 47
Entered
race: March 14, 2019
Career:
Born Robert Francis O'Rourke. Boarding-school educated Columbia grad who lived
in a New York loft, playing in a punk band and doing desultory jobs and setting
up an internet firm. Ran for El Paso city council in 2005, winning re-election
and serving until 2012. Ran for Congress in 2012, defeating eight-term
Democratic incumbent in primary. Gave up seat to run for Senate against Ted
Cruz in 2018, losing 51-48
Family:
Married to wife Amy Sanders, nine years his junior, with sons Ulysses and
Henry, and daughter Molly. Father Pat was long-time El Paso politician who
switched from Democrat to Republican; mom Melissa ran family-owned store in
city until selling it after IRS probe. Melissa's stepfather Fred Korth was one
of JFK's secretaries of the Navy. Father-in-law William Saunders is real estate
developer estimated to be worth $500 million
Religion:
Catholic
Views
on key issues: Wants comprehensive immigration reform to give citizenship to
'dreamers' and a path to it for their parents, and vehemently opposes Trump's
wall. Supports federal marijuana legalization. Pro-gun control including an
assault rifle ban and universal background checks. Supports single-payer health
care but with co-pays and has backed Medicaid expansion. Strongly pro-choice.
Has hinted at backing breaking up tech giants. Said he would have voted for
impeachment in Congress if he had had the chance
Slogan:
To be announced
BERNIE SANDERS
Age on
Inauguration Day: 79
Entered
race: Sources said on January 25, 2019, that he would form exploratory
committee. Officially announced February 19
Career:
Student civil rights and anti-Vietnam activist who moved to Vermont and worked
as a carpenter and radical film-maker. Serial failed political candidate in the
1970s, he ran as a socialist for mayor of Burlington in 1980 and served two
terms ending in 1989, and win a seat in Congress as an independent in 1990. Ran
for Senate in 2006 elections as an independent with Democratic endorsement and
won third term in 2018. Challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic
nomination in 2016 but lost. Campaign has since been hit by allegations of
sexual harassment - for which he has apologized - and criticized for its
'Bernie bro' culture
Family:
Born to a Jewish immigrant father and the daughter of Jewish immigrant parents
in Brooklyn, New York. First marriage to college sweetheart Deboarah Shiling
Messing in 1964 ended in divorce in 1966; had son Levi in 1969 with then
girlfriend Susan Cambell Mott. Married Jone O'Meara in 1988 and considers her
three children, all adults, his own. The couple have seven grandchildren. His
older brother Larry is a former Green Party councilor in Oxfordshire, England.
Would be first Jewish president
Religion:
Secular Jewish
Views
on key issues: Openly socialist and standard bearer for the Democratic party's
left-turn. Wants federal $15 minimum wage; banks broken up; union membership
encouraged; free college tuition; universal health care; re-distributive
taxation; he opposed Iraq War and also U.S. leading the fight against ISIS and
wants troops largely out of Afghanistan and the Middle East
Slogan:
Not me. Us.
ELIZABETH WARREN
Age on
Inauguration Day: 71
Entered
race: Set up exploratory committee December 31, 2018
Career:
Law lecturer and academic who became an expert on bankruptcy law and tenured
Harvard professor. Ran for Senate and won in 2012, defeating sitting Republican
Scott Brown, held it in 2018 60% to 36%. Was short-listed to be Hillary's
running mate and campaigned hard for her in 2016
Family:
Twice-married mother of two and grandmother of three. First husband and father
of her children was her high-school sweetheart. Second husband Bruce Mann is
Harvard law professor. Daughter Amelia Tyagi and son Alex Warren have both been
involved in her campaigns. Has controversially claimed Native American roots;
DNA test suggested she is as little as 1,064th Native American. Would be first
female president
Religion:
Raised Methodist, now described as Christian with no fixed church
Views
on key issues: Voted Republican until 1995 but has tacked left since. Pro:
higher taxes on rich; banking regulation; Dream Act path to citizenship for
'dreamers'; abortion and gay rights; campaign finance restrictions; and
expansion of public provision of healthcare - although still to spell out
exactly how that would happen. Against: U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Syria;
liberalization of gambling
Slogan:
To be announced
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
Age on
Inauguration Day: 68
Entered
race: Announced exploratory committee November 15, 2018. Formally entered
January 28, 2019
Career:
Dropped out of Pomona College, California, became part of the counter culture
and anti-war movement and ran a 'metaphysical bookstore' before publishing
spiritual guide A Return to Love and being praised by Oprah, sending it to
number one. Published series of follow-ups and founded AIDS charity and
subsequently more non-profits including a peace movement. Ran for Congress in
2014 and lost
Family:
Born to immigration attorney father Sam and housewife mother Sophie in Houston,
Texas. Married for 'a minute and a half' to unnamed man; daughter India was
born in 1990 but Williamson declines to name her father. Would be first female
president
Religion:
Jewish
Views
on key issues: Wants vast expansion of physical and mental healthcare; and
nutrition and lifestyle reforms including ban on marketing processed and sugary
foods to children; universal pre-K; much of the Green New Deal's proposals
including a de-carbonized economy, electric cars and rebuilding mass transit;
gun control through licensing; wants more vacation time; pro decriminalizing
all drugs
Slogan:
Join the Evolution
ANDREW YANG
Age on
Inauguration Day: 46
Entered
race: Filed papers November 6, 2018
Career:
Started a dotcom flop then become healthcare and education tech executive who
set up nonprofit Venture for America
Family:
Married father of two. His parents were both immigrants from Taiwan who met at
the University of California, Berkeley, as grad students. Would be first
Asian-American president
Religion:
Reformed Church
Views
on key issues: Warns of rise of robots and artificial intelligence, wants
$1,000 a month universal basic income and social media regulated. Spoke out
against male circumcision
Slogan:
Humanity First
Watch: Kamala Harris Shakes Head After Trump Calls for Stopping
Drug Cartels, Human Trafficking
5 Feb 20193,046
1:36
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) shook her head after President Donald
Trump called for putting illegal drug cartels and human traffickers out of
business at his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night.
President
Trump had specifically called for the United States to commit to ending illegal
immigration, as well as put coyotes, drug cartels, and human smugglers “out of
business.” While others responded by standing and giving applause, Sen. Kamala
Harris pursed her lips and shook her head in response to the president’s call
to action.
Watch Below:
President Donald Trump calls on Congress to put "the
ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers, and human traffickers out of
business"
Democrats refuse to stand or clap
2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris shakes her head
in disagreement
“Now,
Republicans and Democrats must join forces again to confront an urgent national
crisis,” said President Trump, “Congress has ten days left to pass a bill that
will fund our government, protect our homeland, and secure are very dangerous
southern border.”
“Now is the
time for Congress to show the world that America is committed to ending illegal
immigration and putting the ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers, and human
traffickers out of business,” continued the president.
Sen. Harris
had recently announced her 2020 presidential bid, which was then followed up
with a call to eliminate private health
insurance, an issue that appears to be Sen. Harris’ more
immediate priority, rather than securing the United States’ border.
MOST CALIFORNIANS CAN'T SAY KAMALA
HARRIS WOULD MAKE A GOOD PRESIDENT
"Democracy Dies in California"
February 6,
2019
"Democracy
Dies in California" is the usual saying for the socialist one-party state
with the most rigged election and single party rule outside Cuba or Venezuela.
And so
that meant Kamala Harris couldn't have lost her Senate race. She barely had to
run.
But
California voters may have passively elected her, but no
one is all that certain that she has what it takes to run the
country into the ground.
On the heels of a high-profile White House campaign launch that
cemented Kamala Harris‘ position as a top-tier 2020 contender, a new poll shows
voters in her home state are divided on whether she would make a good
president.
Forty percent of voters in overwhelmingly Democratic California
say the first-term senator would make a good president, and 38 percent say she
would not, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
That's
quite an endorsement.
A
majority of Californians polled can't even say Harris would make a good
president. And that's in her own state.
The Moral Inconsistency of Progressive Presidential Contender Kamala Harris
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)
has already declared herself to be a presidential aspirant in the upcoming 2020
elections, among the dozens of other Democrats who are mulling over whether or
not to run.
Many readers will know that
Harris wants to be a progressive darling of the party, and has gone on record
as being morally opposed to the border wall, comparing Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to the KKK, and expressing her dismay at the separation of alien
parents from their children when they cross the border illegally.
She went so far as to declare
that the Trump administration's actions constitute a "crime
against humanity" — a declaration that grates in the
ears when one thinks of real crimes against humanity, such as the killing fields
of the Khmer Rouge, the Rwandan genocide, the mass murder in Srebrenica, and
even the wanton, murderous barbarity of ISIS in every area which it has held.
But having announced her
candidacy, Harris now finds she is subject to the same kind of close scrutiny
that she is so fond of according others, and her star is perhaps not shining
quite so brightly.
Jim Geraghty at National
Review Online, among others, has discussed a Twitter feed including a video of
Harris discussing a policy she adopted as a chief prosecutor in California
that jailed
the parents of truant children. Yes, that's right, the
parents. (Interestingly, when you click the hotlink inside Geraghty's article
to the Twitter feed showing the video, it now says "Account
suspended." One wonders why. Is Twitter helping Harris squelch the
unexpected and unwanted focus?)
So, to recap: Harris endorsed
a policy of locking up the parents of truant children — many of whom were
undoubtedly difficult-to-manage rebellious teens that neither the parents nor
the school district could manage — but somehow finds no fault in an alien
parent who drags his or her infant or toddler, or eight or 10 year old, 1,700
miles across difficult terrain of jungle and then desert, exposes them to
poisonous insects and reptiles, as well as predatory animals and humans,
including smugglers who are as likely to physically or sexually assault as to
help, just so that the parent has a "get out of jail free" card when
they arrive at and illegally cross the U.S. southern border.
Does anyone else see a
problem with moral consistency and a whiff of hypocrisy here?
Harris 'Stands
With' DACA Kids/Parents, But No Wall 'Under Any Circumstances'
Sen. Kamala
Harris (D-Calif.), a newly minted presidential candidate, participates in a CNN
town hall on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2019. (Photo: Screen capture/CNN)
(CNSNews.com)
- Following a rousing defense of legal status for DACA recipients and their
parents, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) told CNN Monday night that she would not
be willing to give them permanent legal status if it means giving President
Donald Trump money for his border wall.
Jake
Tapper asked Harris, "Would you be willing to vote for some border
security money, wall money, barrier money to give permanent protection to DACA
children, DACA young people like Cecilia? Would you be willing to make that
exchange?"
Let
me be very clear," Harris said.
I'm
not going to vote for a wall under any circumstances, and I do support border
security, and if we want to talk about that, let's do that. And let's talk
about what really accomplishes border security, which is let's upgrade the
technology. Let's look at the fact that the folks who are working on border
security on the ground know that they need upgraded infrastructure, around
things like drones, and they need cameras. So, yes, I'm all for increased
border security where we need it.
I
am not for a wall. And let me just tell you something. So here's the thing. I
have worked on this issue on both sides. I have worked on this issue including
being a prosecutor, who went after transnational criminal organizations. And
let me tell you something. I'm talking about organizations that, for profit,
engaged in the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings. That wall ain't
going to stop them. Let's be clear about that.
Let's
be clear about the fact that --let me tell you. I have been to the border. I
have seen the tunnels. I have seen photographs of tunnels that had already been
demolished with walls as smooth as the walls here, tunnels lined with
air-conditioning and lighting because this is the level of sophistication that
is going on with people who are trafficking in guns, drugs, and human beings
for profit.
They're going underground,
through tunnels. They've got boats. They've got drones. They're not jumping
over walls. So the idea that we're going to sell this thing to the American
public and require the taxpayers of our country to pay $5 billion for something
that will not deliver what he is suggesting we need is ridiculous, and I will
not support it.
Moments
earlier, a DACA recipient named Cecilia told Harris she's tired of being used
as a "bargaining chip." She said she's worried about the future of
herself and other DACA recipients, as well as the possible deportation of the
parents who brought them to the U.S. as young children.
"What
solutions do you see to help protect the parents of DACA recipients or those
for which there is no clear path to citizenship?" Cecilia asked Harris.
Harris
used her response to Cecilia to criticize the Trump administration for breaking
a promise made to them "in writing."
(President
Barack Obama's Homeland Security Department -- not Congress -- established
DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, with a memorandum. Yet the
courts have blocked the Trump Administration from overturning Obama's executive
action with an order of its own.)
"I
have had serious concerns about the fact that they are refusing to keep
America's promise to you and everyone who went through that process. And it is
wrong, and it also is contrary to who we said we were," Harris told
Cecilia.
The
senator noted that all DACA recipients have been vetted to see if they are
living a "productive life" and are worthy of deferred deportation:
And
we promised them. And it is in writing. If you give us this information about
who you are, we will not share it with I.C.E., and we will not use that as a
basis for deporting you. We promised you that.
Then
this administration came in and broke that promise. Broke that promise. And so
what we have is bad role modeling, not to mention the fact that we have
hundreds and thousands of young people like you who are presenting us with the
promise of America and have to live in fear every day that you might be
deported because an administration came in and broke America's promise to you.
And it is wrong.
And
on your point about parents, it is wrong, and you are exactly right, for this
administration to then trade the idea that, okay, well, maybe we'll let the
kids stay but not their parents. So yet again we have an example of this
administration willing to separate children from their parents, which is
inhumane and contrary to who we are and the values we hold as Americans.
And so I will say to you that I
stand with you. There are so many who do, and we should not be trading on your
life for the sake of the political games that this president is playing in
trying to vilify young people like you, who are doing nothing except being
productive and believing in and living the American dream.
The
audience applauded enthusiastically, even though Harris never once mentioned
that Congress could solve the problem legislatively.
Exclusive–Angel
Mom: Kamala Harris’ Staff Threatened to Call Capitol Police When Angel Families
Visited Her Office
Angel Mom Maureen Maloney, the vice president
of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime (AVIAC), says Sen. Kamala
Harris (D-CA)’s staff threatened to call Capitol Police when Angel Families
visited her Senate office in Washington, DC, this month.
Maloney — whose 23 years-old son,
Matthew Denice, was killed in August 2011 by an illegal alien who ran over him while
drunk driving without a license — told SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight that
the staff of Democrat 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris threatened
to call Capitol Police when Angel Families visited the offices of prominent
House and Senate Democrats to discuss illegal alien crime.
Meanwhile, Maloney told Breitbart
News Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak that Harris makes
it known that illegal aliens are welcome in her office.
“So we went past her office about
two weeks ago, we were in D.C. to see … Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, and
Kamala Harris, in front of her office, has a big welcome sign in Spanish that
says ‘Dreamers Are Welcome,'” Maloney said.
MANSOUR: Were you welcome?
MALONEY: No, in fact two of the people I was with, they threatened to
call Capitol Police on them if they didn’t leave.
MANSOUR: Kamala Harris’ staff threatened to call the police on you?
MALONEY: Yes.
Listen
to Maloney’s full interview here:
In her 2020 presidential campaign
kickoff speech in Oakland, California, Harris portrayedherself as an
advocate for crime victims and thanked illegal aliens for visiting lawmakers in
Washington, D.C.
You see, in our system of justice,
we believe that harm against any one of us is harm against all of us. That’s
why when we file a case, it’s not filed in the name of the victim. It reads,
“The People.” This is a point I have often explained to console and counsel survivors of crime,
people who faced great harm. Often at the hands of someone they trust – be it a
relative or a bank or a big corporation. I would remind them. You are not
invisible. We all stand together. [Emphasis added]
…
During the health care fight, I saw
parents and children with grave illnesses walk the halls of the United States
Congress, families who had traveled across the country at incredible
sacrifice. They came to our nation’s capital
believing that if their stories were heard, and if they were seen, their
leaders would do the right thing. I saw the same thing with our Dreamers. They
came by the thousands. By plane, train, and automobile.
I’m sure they were sleeping ten-deep on someone’s living room floor. [Emphasis
added]
Maloney said it is illegal aliens
who have the upper hand against their American victims, not only when it comes
to trying to speak with lawmakers, but also in the court system.
“Illegal aliens are treated with
such leniency compared to American citizens. It’s really sickening what
goes on in the courts,” Maloney said.
Harris and other elected Democrat
lawmakers are “absolutely not” working on behalf of illegal alien crime
victims, Maloney said, noting that she and other Angel Families have been
unable to meet with Democrats about the immigration issue for years.
“My senators up here, Sen. Markey
and Sen. Warren, I’ve tried for years to get an appointment to meet with them.
They’re unable to meet with people here in Massachusetts and down in
Washington,” Maloney said. “When I’ve been down in Washington to meet with
Democrat leaders, they’re not available. Members of AVIAC have been trying to
meet with Nancy Pelosi as long as we’ve been in existence and they’ve made
public pleas to meet with her and she won’t meet with any of us.”
“No, I don’t feel that the Democrats
are representing my family at all,” Maloney said.
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 weeknights
from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.
Willie
Brown: My Extramarital Affair With
Kamala
Harris Benefited Her Politically
https://www.redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2019/01/28/willie-brown-kamala-harris-affair-benefited/
Senator Kamala Harris announced last week her
intentions to run for president, and on Sunday she officially kicked off her
bid with a rally in Oakland.
While she’ll talk about a wide array of issues on the campaign
trail and how she believes her qualifications make her the best Democrat to
take on President Trump in 2020, one thing the first-time Senator won’t mention
is her past relationship with former San Francisco mayor and California State
Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.
Brown, on the other hand, opened up about their time together
in a short piece posted at the San Francisco Chronicle on
Saturday:
I’ve been peppered with calls from the national media about my
“relationship” with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became obvious that
she was going to run for president. Most of them, I have not returned.
Yes, we
dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by
appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.
Brown went on to talk about other Democrats he’s helped in the
past:
And I
certainly helped with [Harris’s] first race for district attorney in San
Francisco. I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov.
Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians.
Well, he went there,
so we’ll go there, too.
Brown did indeed date Harris – who is 30 years younger than
him – for a period of time between 1995 and early 1996, and yes – he
“influenced” her career in a big way:
In 1995, she began dating Brown, then Assembly speaker and one
of the most powerful men in California politics. Brown put Harris on the state
Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance
Commission, part-time posts that supplemented her prosecutor’s salary with
nearly $100,000 in extra annual pay.
The
December night Brown was elected mayor, Harris joined him at center stage in a
longshoremen’s union hall and gave him a blue cap that said, “Da Mayor.”
One thing not mentioned in most pieces you’ll read on Brown’s
dating relationship with Harris is that Brown was (and is still) married at the
time (and has been since 1958, to Blanche Vitero, though they are have reportedly been estranged since 1981).
And Harris and Brown remained political allies even after they split up shortly
after his 1996 mayoral inauguration, according to the LA Times.
It’s interesting to see Brown downplay their history, as if to
suggest it was no big deal to give his mistress at the time two cushy appointmentsand
a 1994 BMW, and introductions to
valuable political players. And his mention of how he also helped Pelosi,
Newsom, and Feinstein was peculiar when you consider that, unlike Harris, none
of them had had an affair with him.
Harris, for what it’s worth, detests when the subject is
brought up, as she made clear in this 2003 interview with SF Weekly:
She
acknowledges that Brown is an “albatross hanging around my neck” and fears that
voters who dislike him will ignore her candidacy — even as she dismisses such
an act as irrational. “Would it make sense if you are a Martian coming to Earth
that the litmus test for public office is where a candidate is in their
relationship to Willie Brown?” Harris asks. “Willie Brown is not going to be
around. He’s gone — hello people, move on. If there is corruption, it will be
prosecuted. It’s a no-brainer, but let’s please move on.”
Unfortunately for Harris, he’s not gone, and the man widely
regarded as a kingmaker in California Democratic party politics decided to talk
about her least favorite topic on the eve of her first presidential campaign
rally.
Though the affair has long been a well-known fact in
California, it did not hurt her state political ambitions in later years.
However, Harris is now introducing herself to America on a national stage, and
it remains to be seen as to whether Democratic primary voters in other states
will hold her affair with Brown and allegations of cronyism against her.
Willie Brown admits it: Kamala Harris slept her way to the top
Kamala Harris, that vaunted self-righteous
feminist candidate who's using her 'year of the woman' chops to challenge
President Trump in 2020, has a little problem: She slept her way to the top.
You know, the mistress thing, not exactly
moving on up based on hard work or merit, that little advantage of good looks
(President Obama called her the 'best-looking' state attorney general), employed to their optimal
practical use. Her political patron, former
lawyer to pimps, Mayor of San Francisco, and State Assembly Speaker Willie
Brown, admitted he helped her get her political start, writing in his
bloggy San Francisco Chronicle column:
Yes, we
dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by
appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.
And I
certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. I
have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom,
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians.
Now you know where we get these people
from. Somehow Harris, who was in her late 20s or at
most 30 when she dated the 60-year-old
married Brown around 1994 did so because he was just so very irresistable.
Here's how the San Francisco Chronicle reported it on Twitter:
WILLIE BROWN: "I’ve been peppered with calls from the national media
about my 'relationship' with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became
obvious that she was going to run for president. Yes, we dated."https://t.co/xkzR0YhIl0
That of course, was in exchange for
certain kinds of favors. Her rival, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren got
her start playing fake Indian. Kamala went the old fashioned way,
sleeping her way to the top. Democrats have some pool of candidates here
in this 'it's our turn' year of the woman and out to Get Trump offerings.
Willie Brown, of course, was California's
most powerful politician, which might have had something to do with why Harris
was out 'dating' the married man twice her age. And it's interesting because
Brown, a former attorney for pimps in his pre-political days, seems to have a
taste for the kind of women often seen in a positive light by pimps, such
as this
one - who represents Brown's taste in women. Not that it
mattered that he was married, he's always had a girlfriend in the picture,
according to the article. And well, Kamala was one of them.
Other reports say that once Kamala got the
office she wanted from Brown, she dumped him. Brown made a cutesy reference to
Kamala saying she was going to ticket him for jaywalking, which sounds like
overkill, probably the kind of statement someone with a guilty conscience would
make, not wanting anyone to know about how she got her office. What's more, Harris
has kept virtually all references to Brown out of her numerous memoirs on the
market.
Some feminist she is. She slept her way to
the top and now it's out. It's actuallynot
the first time it's been out, but since
it's coming out now so early in the campaign, perhaps it was an inoculation
shot, the way that candidate Donald Trump's team must have released the Melania
Trump nude modelling shots to the New York Post to make it 'old news' so as to
assure it would not become a campaign issue the day before the election.
All the same, it's disgusting, and while
Trump is no angel on the love front, at least he never offered sex for
political favors, either to women or from women. He never cheated on someone's
spouse to get himself some political power the way she did. So now that Harris is presented as a role model and
antidote-to-Trump these days, is she going to encourage all the
little girls out there by saying that getting a politically strong
boyfriend is the way to make it big in politics now? One wonders.
Let's hope she has to answer some
questions about it from the Trump camp in what's sure to be
a pious and hectoring political campaign.
Willie Brown: So What If I Dated Kamala Harris and Gave Her
State Jobs?
27 Jan 2019977
2:17
Former San Francisco mayor and California State Assembly speaker Willie
Brown confirmed Saturday that he had dated Democratic presidential hopeful
Kamala Harris and appointed her to two state jobs — and dismissed the fuss.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, “Kamala
Harris’s career received a boost from a patronage job in dubious
circumstances.” In particular:
In 1994,
then-outgoing Speaker of the California State Assembly Willie Brown (D-San
Francisco) appointed Harris to a state board with a $72,000 salary. The Los Angeles Times reported: “Harris, a former deputy
district attorney in Alameda County, was described by several people at the
Capitol as Brown’s girlfriend.” (Brown was marriedbut separated.)
The problem was not that Brown was dating Harris, but the
apparent nepotism involved in her appointment.
Brown published a short article in
the San Francisco Chronicle this
weekend, “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?” In the article, he
acknowledged the facts but not the reasons for the controversy:
Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have
influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was
Assembly speaker.
And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney
in San Francisco. I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians.
Brown did not — as far as is known — have intimate relationships
with any of the other politicians he named.
He also claimed that Harris told him that she would be
particularly harsh on him once she won election to the office of San Francisco
District Attorney, though it is not clear why that would be relevant to the
questions surrounding her earlier appointments.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior
Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak
Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How
Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from
Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Looking to 2020, Kamala Harris Hires
Heavy Hitter Lawyer Involved With Russian Dossier
January 22, 2019
Eyebrows
were raised among Democratic officials and activists on Jan. 21 when Sen.
Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced her 2020 presidential nomination bid and
listed Marc Elias as her campaign’s general counsel.
Elias,
head of the Perkins Coie LLP law firm’s political law practice, is among the
Democratic Party’s top campaign finance experts and a recognized power-player
at the highest levels.
Described
by a veteran Democratic national campaign consultant as “the best in the
business,” Elias could prove to be both an immensely valuable asset to
Harris—and also a huge problem.
On the
plus side, Elias gives Harris’s presidential campaign one of the most
well-connected operatives in American politics and a significant boost early in
what promises to be a heavily populated, intensely competitive primary field.
Elias
and his firm currently represent every major Democratic Party committee,
including the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Governors
Association, as well as numerous individual senators and representatives.
He also
was the chief attorney for former Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2004
presidential campaign against President George W. Bush and for the White House
bid of another former chief U.S. diplomat, Hillary Clinton, in 2016.
Elias
represented former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in the sharply contested 2008
recount battle, and he has extensive litigation experience in voting rights and
redistricting cases across the country. He also represented former Sen. Bill
Nelson (D-Fla.) in his losing 2018 recount battle.
As a
result, Elias knows everybody who is anybody in Democratic campaigns, including
donors, consultants, good guys to know, and opportunists to avoid at all cost.
Given
the California junior senator’s lack of experience in national politics—barely
two years, as she was first elected to the Senate in 2016—having Elias at hand
will help her avoid costly rookie mistakes in fundraising and opening
influential doors ahead of rivals such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
That
Harris nabbed Elias so early in the 2020 campaign may also send an important
signal to former Vice President Joe Biden, that his path back to the White
House may not be as clear as conventional wisdom suggests.
But
there is a potentially devastating downside that comes with Elias for Harris,
especially in the event she wins her party’s nomination. He’s at the center of
the biggest political scandal in decades, and not in a good way.
It was
Elias who, as the Clinton campaign’s attorney of record, used campaign funds to
retain the infamous opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile what became
known as the Steele dossier on President Donald Trump, according to the Washington Post.
The
dossier was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, based in part on
information he gleaned from individuals close to Russian intelligence agencies.
Despite
being, according to then-FBI Director James Comey, a “salacious and unverified”
document, the Steele dossier was used by the Department of Justice and the
bureau to obtain approval for surveillance of Trump’s campaign.
Thus,
Elias has the distinction of being both a major player in the Trump/Russia
scandal and an attorney representing another key figure, Clinton campaign
chairman John Podesta, during his interview with Senate Intelligence Committee
staff.
Elias
also brings baggage that could hurt Harris as a result of his firm’s role in
the DNC’s response to being hacked, allegedly by Russian interests. Instead of
asking the FBI to investigate the hack, DNC officials reportedly relied upon a private cyber-security
company recommended by the Elias firm.
Finally,
Elias represented Google and Facebook in their 2011 requests to the Federal
Election Commission for an exemption from a requirement that digital political
ads purchased via the two tech giants include disclaimers revealing who paid for
them.
Google
got the exemption, but Facebook’s request was never decided and the social
media site didn’t include the disclaimers. The case could be significant since
Russian interests bought $100,000 in ads on Facebook during the 2016 campaign.
Elias told The New York Times the disclaimers wouldn’t have stopped
the Russians, who bought the Facebook ads because “they were willing to break the
law to help Donald Trump.”
Harris,
who is known, as the L.A. Times says, for her “mix of
cold calculation, relentless fundraising and force of personality” and
willingness to do whatever it takes to win, surely knows all of the upsides and
downsides of having Elias on her team.
And the
upsides are what count now in her quest to secure her party’s nomination for
the Oval Office.
Catholic Advocates Condemn Kamala Harris in Bid for Presidency:
‘Hostility Towards People of Faith’
Michael Kovac/Getty
22 Jan 201995
3:18
Associates
of an organization that promotes Catholic religious freedom are condemning Sen.
Kamala Harris’s announcement of her bid for the presidency, blasting the
California Democrat’s attacks on people of faith and her support for late-term
abortion.
“Kamala
Harris has shown she has what it takes to lose a general election,” said
Maureen Ferguson, senior policy advisor with The
Catholic Association (TCA), in a
joint statement sent to Breitbart News.
Ferguson
continued that Harris “has demonstrated a hostility towards people of faith and
a blatant disregard for First Amendment freedom of religion and association in
her condemnation of the Knights of Columbus, and has voted in favor of inhumane
late term abortion.”
Breitbart TV
CLOSE | X
In December,
Harris and her Democrat colleague in the Senate, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, attacked U.S. District Court nominee Brian C. Buescher for his membership in the
Knights of Columbus, a Catholic charitable organization. Harris and Hirono
suggested that Buescher be disqualified as a judicial candidate because his
affiliation with the Catholic group would not allow him to fairly judge cases
having to do with the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.
“This
mentality did not serve Hillary Clinton well in key battleground states like
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan,” Ferguson observed.
Andrea
Piccioti-Bayer, TCA Foundation legal advisor, said, “Kamala Harris has been
unabashed about attacking the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.”
“As
California’s top law enforcement officer, she sponsored legislation
unconstitutionally targeting not-for-profit pregnancy centers,” she continued.
“And just last week, Harris’ colleagues in the Senate had to rebuke her for
attacking a judicial nominee’s religious affiliation and participation in the
Knights of Columbus. Democratic voters deserve a candidate who respects our
Constitution and doesn’t peddle anti-Catholic bigotry.”
Ashley
McGuire, senior fellow with TCA, suggested Harris apologize to the U.S.’s 70
million Catholics before running for the presidency.
“Senator
Kamala Harris needs a constitutional refresher before seeking the highest
political office in America,” she added.
Supreme
Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus told Breitbart News in an
interview that Harris’s and Hirono’s attacks against Buescher’s affiliation
with the Knights was “hurtful to a lot of Catholics.”
“And we
really thought that kind of question was behind us with President Kennedy’s
election,” he said, adding:
But, we
don’t want to go back there as a nation. And, so we’re just going forward. I
think the overwhelming criticism of her position coming from all types of faith
communities really sent a very clear signal that the Senate just this week
passed without any opposing vote a resolution condemning that … But, I think
people of faith in many different communities understand that that kind of test
is really something outside of the American tradition. Our organization is
based on the principles of charity and unity. So, I, for one, don’t want to
make it a personal thing, but I do think we have to say, “Look, American
democracy is based on the free marketplace of ideas, so let’s go at it.” But to
say, “If your idea is connected to your religious faith, then you can’t talk
about it,” that’s someplace we don’t want to go. That’s a different
marketplace.
Dr. Grazie
Christie, policy advisor with TCA, added, “The President of the United States
has to be able to treat every citizen of this wildly diverse country with the
respect and dignity they deserve.”
“Kamala
Harris has shown her disdain for one of her largest constituencies, people of
faith, through her attack on one of America’s most honorable and long-lived
charitable organizations, the Knights of Columbus,” she continued. “Her lack of
respect for the countless good-hearted Americans who have participated in the
Knights’ charitable projects, painting all of them with ugly suggestions of
intolerance and bigotry, will be a strong mark against her in any presidential
bid.”
Kamala
Harris’ Platform Would Bankrupt America As It Nearly Has California
https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/22/kamala-harris-platform-bankrupt-america-nearly-california/
Having
officially tossed her hat in the ring for the 2020 Democratic nomination,
California Senator Kamala Harris has trotted out her initial platform to
campaign on. Keep in mind that we’re currently experiencing one of the most
robust economic recoveries in living memory with low taxes, rising wages and as
close as we’re likely to get to full employment. Ms. Harris has come out this
week with a statement letting you all know that we’ve had just about enough of
that nonsense and she’s going to turn this car around and take us
back to 2007.
(WaPo)
Sen.
Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) will run for president proposing a nearly $3
trillion tax plan, billions in tax credits to low-income renters, a
Medicare-for-all health-care system, and a reduction in cash bail for inmates
charged with criminal offenses, her aides said…
Aides
said Harris’s platform will incorporate Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-all
health-care proposal, while also pushing enormous tax relief intended to help
low-income renters and boost incomes for working-class families…
Harris, by contrast, is expected
to run on both a single-payer health program projected to cost more than $30
trillion, as well as tax benefits that would significantly reduce federal
revenue. Supporters say that reflects her willingness to try to use different
solutions to solve big problems.
Clearly,
Harris knows that she can’t afford to tick off the working class too much, so
she’s actually proposing even more tax credits that would supplement working
class people while doing little to nothing for low-income workers or those
without employment. She describes this as an incentive to reward work.
(Actually not a terrible idea if it’s balanced out elsewhere. Sadly, it’s not.)
Meanwhile, the “rich” will pay more, but nowhere near enough to offset the
additional loss of revenue.
As if
that wasn’t enough, she’s promising a single payer, Medicare for all type of
healthcare system with a price tag somewhere north of thirty trillion dollars.
You may recall that her home state of California tried to push through a
similar system a few years ago. That effort went down in flames when the taxpayers got a
look at the budget-busting cost. And now she wants to foist this debacle off on
the entire nation?
How
do we pay for that? For the most part, it sounds like she’s in the camp of
We’ll Figure That Out Later. But she has suggested that we can, “eliminating
the parts of the Republican tax law passed last fall that benefits the rich, as
well as levying a new tax on large financial institutions.” Keep in
mind that those “large financial institutions” include most of the outfits that
are hiring all of America’s workers. What could possibly go wrong?
She
also has a plan to help out people living in unaffordable, high-rent areas. It
basically boils down to just giving away money so people can pay their rent
rather than addressing the question of why rents are so high to begin with.
(Spoiler alert: It’s the law of supply and demand. If cities allowed more
housing construction prices would go down.)
This
entire package is fairly typical Democratic tax and spend insanity, replete
with giving away cash and free stuff to the masses. And, as usual, it ignores
the reality that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money. If you’re
looking for a way to completely bankrupt the country, Kamala Harris may just be
the candidate for you!
Identifying the Super-Sanctuaries
https://www.cis.org/Huennekens/Identifying-SuperSanctuaries?utm_source=E-mail+Updates&utm_campaign=8049280b33-
The
debate over the border wall rages on. The government remains shut down, and
both President Trump and Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.)
are dug in for a prolonged fight. The president's prime time address
highlighted the criminal consequences of lax enforcement policy. He noted:
In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of
aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000
assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years,
thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered
our country, and thousands more lives will be lost if we don't act right now.
The
president did not mention the draw of sanctuary
cities in his speech. But they are an important part of the
immigration enforcement equation and his administration continues to try
to reign them in. These jurisdictions shield criminal
aliens from ICE, for no reason other than politics. Sanctuary cities
actually put illegal aliens who are not necessarily the primary targets of
ICE at greater risk of deportation because ICE is forced to
make more at-large arrests in immigrant communities – at
workplaces, dwellings, and on the street, rather than in controlled
jail or courthouse environments.
Sanctuary
cities are dangerous because they only benefit criminal aliens. We
have defined sanctuary policies as those that deliberately hinder federal
immigration authorities from identifying or arresting deportable
aliens. These policies typically take the form of preventing communication
with immigration authorities, blocking ICE from contact with criminal aliens,
or rejecting ICE detainers and arrest warrants. These policies inevitably
cause the release of deportable criminal aliens back to the community, and they
are a public safety hazard.
Not
satisfied with keeping ICE out of jails and courthouses, some sanctuaries
are taking it a step further. Many jurisdictions, often major cities, are now
using taxpayer funds to actively support and assist illegal aliens living
there. Some of these cities provide free legal advice to illegal aliens
fighting to stay in the country. Others provide discounted housing specifically
for illegal aliens. Alarmingly, some dole out voting rights to their illegal
residents. These are the super-sanctuaries.
Washington, D.C.
The Pew Research Center estimates
that around 400,000 illegal aliens live in the Washington metro area. Luckily
for them, the city of Washington, D.C., and the surrounding counties are here
to help. The Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition (CAIRC)
offers legal aid to all illegal immigrants, even those fighting criminal cases.
Most of their funding comes from public coffers, according to their Form 990.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser created a $1 million fund to support organizations
that help aliens file asylum applications, exacerbating the backlog.
D.C. (along with the Department of Justice and Fairfax County) directly support Ayuda,
a law
firm that "provide[s] expert legal services so that
low-income immigrants can overcome barriers and access justice."
Hyattsville
and Takoma Park, Md., both allow illegal aliens to cast
ballots in local elections. A similar proposal for College Park,
Md., failed despite strong support from the community.
The
D.C. metro region is filled with regular sanctuary cities. Fairfax County,
Arlington County, and Montgomery County all regularly refuse to cooperate with
ICE's detainer notices. But the D.C. metro region acts as a super-sanctuary
because its communities also use public money to support illegal aliens.
New York,
N.Y.
The
city's comptroller notes that "New York City has stood as a beacon of hope
and opportunity for immigrants, holding out the promise of a better future to
millions of people around the world." New York and its surrounding area is
home to over 1.15 million illegal aliens, according to Pew, the most of any
metropolitan area.
Its
services for illegal immigrants are widespread and numerous. The city devotes
an entire website for "Immigrant
Services", largely focusing on the problems of illegal aliens. This
includes exhaustive information on topics such as enrolling illegal-alien
children in public schools. It instructs people how to act if ICE officers
speak to them. Visitors can find links to low-cost and pro bono immigration
lawyers. Those in need can find helpful links to welfare programs they or their
children may qualify for.
Recently,
Mayor de Blasio announced that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens will now
have access to health care through NYC Care. NYC Care is a publicly funded
system that will allow
aliens to access services at NYC Health + Hospitals,
the city's municipal health system. NYC Care will cost at least $100 million
annually when it is fully operational in 2021.
Illegal
aliens were able to cast ballots in school board elections until the city did
away with school boards in 2002. Legislators continue to debate enfranchising
the illegal population for municipal
elections.
New
York City offers free legal advice to illegal aliens as well. Mayor de Blasio
personally oversaw the creation of Action
NYC, a service of the city that "connects New Yorkers to free,
safe immigration legal help." Action NYC's annual budget exceeds
$30 million. That is a remarkable sum for a city that still boasts
the largest
homeless population in the country.
New
York City is one of the most open sanctuary cities in the country. In addition
to city services and legal resources, soon illegal residents will be able to
benefit from public health care. That outreach elevates New York to the echelon
of super-sanctuary.
Chicago,
Ill.
According
to Pew, over 425,000 illegal aliens live in the Chicago area. The Office of the
Mayor, currently Rahm Emmanuel, operates a website that celebrates Chicago's
status as a sanctuary city. The "Sanctuary
City Supportive Resources" website offers advice
on how to access city resources and lists a number of participating advocacy
groups for immigrants.
Additionally,
the city created the Chicago
KeyCity program to help illegal immigrants
assimilate into city life. KeyCity acts as a Chicago-specific identification
card. According to the sanctuary city supportive resources website:
KeyCity is an optional, valid, government-issued ID card offered
to all Chicago residents that will unlock many of the great things our City has
to offer. The CityKey card is a photo identification card available to all
Chicago residents which will not convey information about national origin or
legal status. For many residents who do not have an identification card,
CityKey can serve as an official government issued identification and can be
used to access city services. Additionally, your CityKey can be used as a
library card for Chicago Public Libraries, as well as a Ventra card. Presenting
your CityKey at particular cultural institutions and local businesses can also
give you a discount. CityKey is now available for free to all Chicago residents.
Chicago
unveiled a program in 2014 that awarded city high school students with
scholarships to attend community college for free. Those scholarships extend to
illegal-alien students, as well, allowing them the opportunity to study at
two-year colleges for free. A USA Todayarticle noted that
while illegal-alien students
were eligible for the scholarships, other city students, such as those
attending charter and parochial schools, were not.
Chicago
aggressively defends its sanctuary laws protecting criminal aliens. Emmanuel
has continued to fight the Justice Department over federal
funds withheld from Chicago because of their
policies. In addition to those policies, Chicago has a number of added benefits
in place to help integrate illegal aliens, making it a super-sanctuary.
California
Former
California governor Jerry Brown signed SB 54 in
October 2017. This bill made California, in Brown's own words, a "sanctuary
state". The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of
California because of the law. A federal judge dismissed that
suit in July. SB 54 took effect on January 1, 2018. The new law does many
things: It forbids all localities from cooperating with ICE detainer notices,
it bars any law enforcement officer from participating in the popular 287g
program, and it prevents state and local police from inquiring about
individuals' immigration status. While passed easily in the California
legislature, some counties have protested its implementation. Some joined
the Trump administation's lawsuit against the state.
California
is home to more illegal aliens than any other state in the country. Pew
reported last year that about one
in five illegal aliens lives in California. The
state goes to great lengths to welcome its millions of alien residents.
The
California budget allocates millions of dollars annually to the One California
program. One California provides free legal assistance to all aliens, including
those facing deportation. Its website reads:
The "One California" Immigration Services Funding
program was established in 2015-16 budget and is administered by the California
Department of Social Services. Starting in 2016, the program has funded free
immigration services, through qualified nonprofits, for low-income Californians
eligible for citizenship or some affirmative immigration remedies including the
DACA program. The 2017-18 budget increases the program's baseline funding and
expands the state funded services to include removal defense services, to
broaden affirmative relief, and to expands legal training and technical
assistance. The program will have a yearly $45 million investment through the
2019-2020 fiscal year.
One
California is a significant undertaking at $45 million a year, and free legal
assistance must be an attractive magnet. Additionally, California's public
universities make it easier for illegal-alien students to attend college. The
University of California announced that it earmarked $25.2 million over three
years to "support undocumented students". According to the announcement:
· UC's
DREAM Loan Program will receive $5 million per year for at least three years.
The program makes student loans available to undocumented students, who are not
eligible for federal aid. Students will repay their loans back into the DREAM
Loan fund.
· Student
services staff coordinators and targeted undergraduate and graduate
fellowships, as well as other financial support such as funds for textbooks,
will be allocated $2.5 million per year.
· UC's
Undocumented Legal Services Center will receive $900,000 per year.
Under California's DREAM Act,
these students qualify for state scholarships, grants, and other benefits. They
also receive in-state
tuitionto state universities, a benefit that only a handful of other
states offer.
California
does not offer free medical care to its illegal residents, but legislators
continue to introduce
bills that would make that a reality.
While
illegal aliens cannot vote in statewide elections, San Francisco allows
all non-citizens
to vote in school board elections. It is the only municipality in
California to allow this so far, but that may change soon as other towns and
counties look to follow the San Francisco model.
California's
sanctuary crusade did not end with the departure of Jerry Brown. His
successor, Gavin
Newsom, seems as excited as Brown in extending services to illegal
residents courtesy of the California taxpayers, including a proposal to extend
state-funded health care to more illegal aliens. As
the state's stance on immigration drifts further from the middle, look for
California to be the leader in future super-sanctuary legislation.
Conclusion
There
are many sanctuary jurisdictions across the country that limit ICE's access to
jails and courthouses. But these communities have gone above and beyond to
establish themselves as the highest tier of sanctuaries. Taxpayer-funded legal
advice, education, and medical care are all hallmarks of these new policies.
These communities are home to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. Their
politicians see these actions as part of a winning political strategy. As the
fight for border security and immigration reform continues, super-sanctuaries
may emerge as a new and growing player in the greater debate. While this short
list is not exhaustive, these communities continue to lead the state and
local-level fight against federal immigration enforcement. The new and creative
ways they have accommodated their illegal residents indicate their willingness
to continue the political battle over the illegal population.
Kamala Harris: Seven Key Facts About Democrats’ Top 2020
Contender
21 Jan 201911
3:46
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) declared Monday that she will run for
President of the United States.
She
is already drawing comparisons to Barack Obama, who once praised her good looks. Like him, she is a
left-wing first-term U.S. Senator with little experience and few
accomplishments in office. Harris, who declared on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
day, also has a diverse background, and is the first woman of color to be a top
presidential contender.
Here are seven other key facts about
her:
1. Kamala Harris’s career received a boost from a
patronage job in dubious circumstances. In 1994, then-outgoing Speaker
of the California State Assembly Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) appointed
Harris to a state board with a $72,000 salary. The Los Angeles Times reported: “Harris, a former deputy district
attorney in Alameda County, was described by several people at the Capitol as
Brown’s girlfriend.” (Brown was marriedbut separated.)
2. Kamala Harris barely won her first race for California Attorney
General in 2010. As in many of the 2018 congressional races in California,
Harris won despite losing on Election Night: “Los Angeles District Attorney
Steve Cooley had declared victory on election night, only to see the race
flip-flop between the two candidates in the coming days as counties around the
state continued to tally mail-in and provisional ballots,” SFGate.com reported.
3. Kamala Harris was accused of using her state office to attack
political enemies and reward friends. Harris was sued by conservative groups for forcing them to
disclose donor information that the IRS allows them to keep confidential. She
was also sued by a healthcare company that claimed she
imposed undue restrictions when it tried to buy another company because she wanted
to help her ally, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
4. Kamala Harris was criticized for financial mismanagement during
her 2016 U.S. Senate campaign. In 2015, the Sacramento Bee reported that Harris’s campaign had a
“spending problem,” and was “burning through campaign cash nearly as rapidly as
she raises it.” She won the general election against Rep. Loretta Sanchez
(D-CA) after sewing up the support of the Democratic establishment, including
then-President Barack Obama.
5. Kamala Harris has been the star of viral video confrontations,
but has done little else in Washington. In committee hearings in the
Senate, she has a habit of badgering witnesses
— then claiming, when stopped, that male, Republican Senators are trying to
silence her, and raising money off the resulting outrage. She tripped herself up in the
Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, falsely claiming that he wanted to take
birth control away from women.
6. Kamala Harris faces new questions about a close aide who
settled a $400,000 harassment lawsuit. Despite posturing as a
champion for women, Harris claimed that
she did not know about a major settlement when she was California Attorney
General in which one of her “top deputies,” Larry Wallace, had been accused of
“gender harassment.” Harris mentioned Wallace positively in her new
book, which she is using to promote her candidacy.
7. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris’s California
colleague, prefers another candidate. Feinstein has made clear that
her preferred candidate in 2020 would be former Vice President Joe Biden.
Feinstein, though lately a target of conservative criticism for her role in the
Kavanaugh hearing, is the more moderate of the two, taking pragmatic stances on
issues like water and working across the aisle — an approach Harris largely
rejects.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018
Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from
Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Senate Democrats Demand Trump Import at Least 80K Refugees a
Year
26 Oct 2018887
3:01
A group of Senate Democrats and a handful of establishment Senate Republicans
are demanding President Trump import at least 80,000 foreign refugees every
year.
In a letter signed
by 21 Senators — including Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris
(D-MA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mazie
Hirono (D-HI), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) — Trump is
requested to import nearly four times as many foreign refugees to the United
States next year instead of the less than 22,500 refugees that are expected to
be admitted.
The
Senators complain in the letter that last year, the U.S. brought in only about
22,500 refugees:
The
global community currently faces one of the largest refugee crises the world
has seen. More than 25 million around the
world have fled their homes and countries due to war,
famine, and persecution. These are some of the world’s most vulnerable
individuals, and more than half of them are children. [Emphasis added]
Yet in Fiscal Year 2018, the U.S. resettle only 22,491 refugees,
in stark contrast to the annual average of more than 80,000 refugees resettled
per year since the enactment of the 1980 Refugee Act. [Emphasis
added]
The
Senators say that reducing inflows of refugees to the U.S. “threaten the
position” of the U.S. around the world, though the lawmakers do not mention the
national security risks to Americans associated with large foreign populations
using refugee resettlement to enter the country.
“We
urge the Trump administration to reconsider [reducing the inflow of refugees]
and instead reaffirm the U.S.’s commitment to a robust refugee admissions
program,” the Senators conclude.
As Breitbart News reported,
61 House Democrats signed a similar letter in which they demanded Trump import
five times the number of foreign refugees being admitted to the country. The
House Democrats request that 110,000 refugees be admitted to the U.S. every
year, far more than the 22,5000 refugees that were admitted last year.
Democrats Seek to Import 5X the Number of Foreign
Refugees to the U.S.https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/28/democrats-seek-to-import-5x-the-number-of-foreign-refugees-to-the-u-s/ …
Democrats Seek to Import 5X the Number of Foreign Refugees
to the U.S.
The
Democrats’ plan is designed to aid the multiple refugee agencies that profit
from high numbers of foreign refugees entering the country. The plan is also
geared towards placating the party’s open borders base.
As Breitbart News reported,
for fiscal year 2019, starting October 1, the Trump administration will not
resettle more than 30,000 foreign refugees, the lowest refugee cap in nearly
four decades. This is merely a cap for refugee resettlements and does not
represent the number of refugees that the administration will resettle.
Since
2000, more than 1.5 million foreign
refugees have been resettled across the U.S. — outpacing the population of
Philadelphia. Also, there have been more than 4.1 million legal
immigrants admitted to the U.S. from refugee-producing countries since 2000.
Is
Kamala Harris Running For President Already? You Betcha
There are still many months and many
miles of campaign trail to go before the midterms, but much like the
Republicans in 2010, it’s not too soon for the Democrats to begin ginning up
their base for the presidential primary to come. Assuming that Donald Trump
doesn’t find some way to boost his popularity up out of negative territory, the
Democrats feel that he should be easy pickings. (Much as they thought in 2016.)
Today, The Hill looks at one of the
least surprising names we expect to see in that contest and one who is making
little effort to hide her nascent POTUS ambitions. That would be California
Senator Kamala Harris.
Sen. Kamala Harris is increasingly
positioning herself for a what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary
for the White House in 2020.
The former California attorney
general, who is just at the beginning of her second year in the Senate, is
taking positions that could endear herself with the Democratic base while
allowing her to stand out from a group of Democrats who might seek the
progressive mantle.
Harris voted against a Senate
immigration bill backed by centrists from both parties earlier this month,
waiting until the last minute to break with other liberals such as Sens. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who both backed the measure.
“While this bill would put
Dreamers on a pathway toward citizenship, the appropriation of $25 billion for
a border wall is a waste of taxpayer money,” she said. “A wall will not secure
our border and I remain concerned those billions of dollars may also be used to
implement this Administration’s anti-immigrant agenda — one that targets
California and its residents.”
The signs are all there. Harris is
practically tripping over herself to rush to a television camera every time
there’s an opportunity to criticize President Trump and doing so in the
loudest, most extreme way possible. And when it comes to the current gun control
debate, when she’s not going after Trump she’s describing the NRA as the
essence of all evil in the world. You may recall when she quickly got on MSNBC
after the Florida shooting to say, “We cannot tolerate a society and live in a
country with any level of pride when our
babies are being slaughtered.” (Insert here your brief reminder
that Harris is fiercely pro-abortion.)
Harris is making use of a natural
advantage she has which may serve her well with much of the base now but could
spell serious trouble later on. The younger and louder elements of the party
don’t want the same old, middle ground politics of the Democratic Party of
their parents. They want some far, far left red meat served up in blistering
hot takes. Repeal the Second Amendment, open borders… all that socialist
goodness. Coming from California, Harris is in no danger of ticking off her own
voters acting this way.
But what many of these new, younger
liberals seem to fail to realize is that hers is an act which plays well in
California, New York City and a couple of other cities… but not so well
everywhere else. If you run screaming too far to the left you won’t even be
able to carry your primary voters in a lot of flyover country or in the south.
And even if you do manage to squeak out a primary win with a platform like
that, you’re going to run into a brick wall in the general election. That’s
probably exactly the sort of candidate that Donald Trump dreams of running
against. (Whereas a Joe Biden candidacy likely keeps him awake at night, though
he’d never admit it.)
The other factor to consider is that
Harris brings with her the same “closet” problem that Barack Obama had and it
showed up constantly after he was elected. She may talk a good game, but when
it comes to executive or even legislative experience, she’s pretty much an empty suit.
She worked in the law enforcement end of things (an admirable and important
job) for most of her career before even running for Attorney General (still not
an executive or legislative role) eight years ago. She’s only been in the
Senate for one year and two months. Her governing experience is almost nil,
though her legislative experience isn’t all that much greater.
Do the Democrats really want to try
to elect another candidate who can give a good speech but brings nothing much
to the table in terms of proven experience? If so, best of luck to them.
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