THE WEEKEND REPORT 22 Jan. 2018 | Print |

THE WEEKEND REPORT

22 Jan. 2018

Dear Friends and Patriots,

We’re at the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidency.  One might hope the anniversary would be a happy one.  After all, the economy is doing very well, corporations are responding to new tax and trade policies the way Trump predicted they would, the stock markets are roaring along and have added over $1.2T in wealth in the past year, employment numbers are looking great across all statistical and demographic categories, a whole lot of conservative federal judges have been appointed to fill court shortages across the land, and then there’s always Neil Gorsuch.  There’s a lot to celebrate, but Donald Trump won’t be celebrating.
          There was a gala planned over the weekend at Mara Lago, Trump’s estate/resort in Palm Beach, Florida.  He wasn’t there.  He was in Washington, holding down the fort in the White House while the big gala celebrating his great first year was held.  Donald Trump Jr. played host in Florida.  His Old Man, our President, was too busy to come.  It might appear the Democrats and a cabal of progressives were getting cheap thrills by denying Trump his accolades.
          Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), the newest member of the Club of Senators (a.k.a. The Millionaire’s Club), cast his very first vote Friday night.  It was on the budget extension bill put up by Majority Leader McConnell and he voted “Yes,” for the bill.  Of course the bill was soundly defeated.  It requires 60 votes to pass a normal bill in the Senate, and with a 1-vote majority, coupled with the intransigence of the Democrats, that just wasn’t going to happen.  The final tally was 50-49, with five Republican voting “No” and five Democrats voting “Yes.”  These are the names of those ten Senators who didn’t line up with the majority of their party:  Republican “No” votes:  Jeff Flake (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mike Lee (UT), Mitch McConnell (KY), Rand Paul (KY).  Democrat “Yes” votes:  Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Doug Jones (AL), Joe Manchin (WV), Claire McCaskill (MO).
          When you peel the disparate votes you find Sen. Flake voted “No” because he’s . . . something of a flake and now enjoys sticking President Trump in the eye.  Sen. Graham voted “No” because he’s taken over Sen. McCain’s Maverick Chair while McCain is out on sick leave, and besides, he’s miffed that President Trump actually read over his DACA proposal and understood Graham was trying to scam him.  Sen. Lee and Sen. Paul voted “No” because they believe pretty much everything we do regarding our budget is wrong anyway, but agreeing to measures that increase the deficit and debt is chief among them.  If you wonder why Sen. McConnell would call for the vote, vote “No,” and then shriek about how the Democrats are holding the government hostage, there’s an answer for that.  Sen. McConnell voted “No” because of a procedural rule that will allow him to reintroduce the bill late on.  If he’d voted “Yes” he couldn’t do that.  Yes, the rules of the Senate are odd, indeed.
          Of the Democrats who voted “Yes” it’s easy to understand those people occupy seats in states where Donald Trump and his campaign to “Make America Great Again” are too popular to avoid.  Their “Yes” votes were strategic.   They all want to be re-elected, and they understand voting against the wishes of the President probably would end up with each of them looking for that Walmart Greeter job we always hear about.  Besides, everyone knew the vote would fail.   The raw numbers counts by the whips guaranteed that, early on.  So for the Democrats who voted “Yes” it was a no-harm, no-foul maneuver – a freebie.  It bolsters their claims to be bi-partisan non-ideologues.   I think in Manchin’s case that may be true.  Not so for the others.  Their votes are mere attempts to fool the voters of their states.  It won’t work!         
          So, now the government is in partial shutdown.  Probably 80% of the federal workforce is off the job.   They don’t want to be, but because there’s no money to pay them, they’re at home.  Or, maybe they’re hunting or fishing.  Maybe even watching daytime TV and napping.  But, one thing’s for sure, they aren’t at their desks.  Maybe no one will notice.
          The back and forth between the major parties is interesting.  Sen. Chuck Schumer has called the shutdown “Gen. Kelly’s Shutdown” because of that silly story Sen. Durbin and Sen. Graham came back with after President Trump threw them out of the White House.  They said, “Someone on the White House Staff got to the President and convinced him to renege on his promise.”  Schumer decided Gen. John Kelly could be that person, so for a bit it was the “Gen. Kelly Shutdown.”   Meanwhile Sen. McConnell decried it as the “Schumer Shutdown,” and pointed out the notion of refusing to vote for a budget bill because of DACA makes no sense, since DACA doesn’t expire until March.  Meanwhile S-CHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is already expired, and part of the budget bill would fund it and guarantee its life for an additional six years.   Sen. Schumer’s response was to change his name for the shutdown and call it the “McConnel Shutdown” or the “Trump Shutdown.”  Before long he’ll be calling it the “Ronald McDonald” shutdown because he’ll have used the names of everyone else.   Does anyone NOT think all this name-attribution stuff is pure nonsense and bad theater?     
          While all the wrangling over budget is going on in Washington other big events were happening this weekend.  It was the Second National Women’s March.  Yes, my friends, remember last year when Madonna, Ashley Judd, and Janeane Garafalo embarrassed us with their totally inane and nearly insane rants on President Trump’s inauguration day, the first Women’s March.  Yes, this weekend’s marches were memorializing the ones of last year, and had a lot of the same flavor.  There were speeches by Jane Fonda; Angela Davis, America Ferrara, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA); Van Jones, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX); Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood; Alicia Garza, Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter; Gloria Steinem; Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); Marisa Tomei; Linda Sarsour, a Women’s March organizer; Michael Moore; Scarlett Johansson; and a host of others.  The Women’s March has their own web site, which lists the names of all the speakers at this year’s events in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and other cities.  Look at all the names at:  
www.womensmarch.com/speakers/   and you’re sure to be impressed.  I know I was.
          When I turned on my TV Saturday morning to view coverage of the marches I was struck by the various topics evident by the text on the many signs I could see in the crowd.  They spoke messages of pro-LBGTQ and pro-Black Lives, immigrant rights of various subjects, women’s Right to Choose, women’s health, women’s . . . everything, anti-climate change skepticism, anti-border wall, anti –sexual assault, anti-Trump, anti-war, anti-nuke, anti-gun, anti-police, anti- a whole lot of things.  The only thing missing was any reference to pro-life.   Gee, there seemed to be a whole lot of “anti-” stuff, but very little that was truly “pro-.”  I wondered aloud, “What’s the point being made by these marches?  I don’t get it.”  A bit later I heard the same question uttered by a host on a Fox News program.  I don’t think either of us was far off.  The marches had a distinct anti-  flavor, mostly anti-Trump.  The mood of the marches was mixed.  There was a lot of shouting.  The crowd was overwhelmingly female (go figure!) and there were a lot of those silly pink knit hats around.  There were men among the women, too.  Probably 10% of the crowd were born as males.  Many of them wore those pink hats, too.  It cause me to wonder, but I won’t discuss what I was wondering.   
          Speeches at the women’s marches were mainly of the activist firebrand variety.  There was a lot of anger projection there.  There were lots of angry accusations, angry gestures, and a whole lot of malediction.  It was a bit surprising to me.  There were lots and lots of little children in attendance at the marches and speeches.  I had to think the progressives get an early start at indoctrinating their young in how to look and act angry and how to spew hateful invective.  The marches were great forums for that purpose, if nothing else.      
          President Trump made one Tweet I saw regarding the Women’s Marches.  His Tweet indicated he hoped they had a good time exercising their First Amendment rights.  To him, and to me, that’s what it’s about in the end.  In America we are supposed to have free speech, and free speech was on full display this weekend.     
           Just in case you wonder how all this Women’s March stuff is financed, you might be interested in looking at the various organizations that participate.  MoveOn.org, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, the Chicago Education Fund, the Urgent Action Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Fund are but a few of the estimated 30+ organizations partially funded by George Soros and other progressive money sources that are material in planning, organizing and staging the events. 
          Many may have missed it, but on Friday, the 19th there was another event that was covered by Fox, and maybe for a few moments by other news organizations.  It wasn’t quite the spectacle the Women’s Marches were.  I’m talking about the national March For Life marches and speeches.  Yes, just one day before the Women’s March, which celebrated the supposed right to abortion on demand there were marches and speeches given for exactly the opposite cause.  The March For Life was a celebration of life and the right to choose life over death.  President Trump addressed the Washington D.C. rally via a video link broadcast from the Rose Garden.  He pledged to stand behind the March For Life participants in their quest to end the murder of the unborn.  
          The three days from Friday through Sunday provided stark contrast.  There was the public display of Congressional sloth, disingenuousness, and disunity; one event featuring family values and the sanctity of life itself; and the third that featured some positive messaging on overdue topics, such as sexual violence, but overall had a flavor of negativity and anger to it.  I’m not sure where you are on these topics, but I do know where I am.  I’ve never had a positive view of the radical feminist movement.  There’s just too much about it that’s negative and hate filled.  There’s too much of that anti- stuff.  It’s not where I choose to be.

In Liberty,
Steve