On Thursday, Home Depot co-founder and former director of the New York Stock Exchange Ken Langone ripped into Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over her attacks on America&#8217;s wealthy and her extreme &#8220;ultra-millionaire tax&#8221; plan.
Langone did not hold back, calling Warren a &#8220;liar&#8221; and a &#8220;phony&#8221; and blasting the Democrat for her alleged economic illiteracy.
Reacting to a segment of Warren from Wednesday night&#8217;s Democratic primary debate, where she criticizes the rich as &#8220;free-loaders,&#8221; Mr. Langone told the hosts of Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; that he doesn&#8217;t care what the senator thinks about him.
&#8220;They can call me whatever they want. I still go to work every day, okay? What I am is a grateful American, because what happened to me in my life only happened because my grandparents came to America,&#8221; the businessman said. “She can call me whatever she wants, she’s a phony, she’s a liar — we know that. We know she’s a liar, a horrible liar.”
Mr. Langone was then asked by co-host Steve Doocy about Warren&#8217;s plan to have &#8220;super wealthy people&#8221; pay an extra tax on their wealth.
The plan, as previously reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/warren-is-lying-about-taking-2-cents-from-billionaires-to-pay-for-socilaist-plans-heres-the-truth">The Daily Wire</a>, would implement a 2% surtax on folks with a net worth over $50 million, and a 6% tax on people with more than $1 billion. The senator&#8217;s initial plan included 3% tax on billionaires, before she had to up it to 6% to pay for her radical socialist proposals.
“Look, it’s been tried before. It doesn’t work, okay?&#8221; Langone replied. &#8220;What do they say about insanity? It’s when you do the same thing twice and expect different results.&#8221;
An op-ed for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/warrens-2-cents-come-at-your-expense-11573515899?mod=e2tw">The Wall Street Journal</a> published last week similarly argued that Warren&#8217;s &#8220;ultra-millionaire tax&#8221; plan &#8220;would sink stocks, raise interest rates, and confiscate far more than she admits.”
Additionally, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/15/warrens-misleading-pitch-her-tax-billionaires/">The Washington Post</a> hit the Democrat over her lack of transparency about the plan, giving Warren &#8220;Three Pinocchios&#8221; for misleadingly boasting about the tax in a campaign ad.
Mr. Langone also leveled a charge of hypocrisy at Warren.
“She’s a phony! She&#8217;s a phony! She&#8217;s been created by the media,&#8221; he said of Warren. &#8220;She&#8217;s worth $18 million dollars. All I want her to do — I don’t want to see her tax returns [because] they’d make me sick because she does nothing to make it. All I’d like to see is how much money have she and her husband given to charity over the years, as a percentage of their income or as a percentage of their net worth.”
&#8220;What happened to me, could only happen in America,&#8221; the businessman continued. &#8220;There&#8217;s no place on earth where a poor kid whose parents were uneducated could be in this country and — look at what&#8217;s happened to me! Look at may wife, myself, our kids, our life. Let&#8217;s not flog this thing too much because it works.&#8221;
Speaking of the broader rhetoric, particularly on the Democratic side, to vilify the rich, Langone insisted that &#8220;human nature is alive and well,&#8221; noting that &#8220;one of the seven deadly sins in envy.&#8221;
<div>
&#8220;I can&#8217;t stop that,&#8221; he explained, but &#8220;the one thing I have to live with everyday is my conscious.&#8221;
Mr. Langone highlighted that he currently employs 480,000 at his Home Depot stores and bluntly stated: &#8220;The worst people go into politics, not the best.&#8221;
To watch the interview, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/billionaire-ken-langone-elizabeth-warren.amp">click here</a>.
</div>

Home Depot co-funders Ken Langone

Home Depot Co-Founder Absolutely Wrecks Warren For Vilifying The Rich, Her Extreme &#8216;Wealth Tax&#8217;

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Democratic Socialism

Elizabeth Warren

Leftism

Progressivism

Socialism

On Monday’s episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” the Daily Wire editor-in-chief talks about a New York Times column claiming that “multibillion-dollar fortunes” are “anti-democratic.” Video and partial transcript below: 
The Bernie Sanders attack on billionaires, and the Elizabeth Warren attack on billionaires, is cynical and just disgusting. &#8230;
Elizabeth Warren is worth $12 million, and there she is [paraphrasing]: “These rich people, these rich people, they must be stopped.” And you got Bernie Sanders, who&#8217;s basically a giant welfare queen living off the government for the last 30 years — what is he now, he&#8217;s 78-years-old — living off the government for 50 years of his life. He&#8217;s like [paraphrasing]: “Oh, well, you know, we can&#8217;t let any of these people who actually earned their wealth run anything. They shouldn&#8217;t run for office. Only I should! I&#8217;ve been useless my entire life, so useless I was kicked off a commune.” 
So you got Bernie ripping into billionaires, and then [you’ve] got Michael Tomasky over at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/opinion/billionaires-warren-wealth-tax.html">The New York Times</a> saying, “Bill Gates, I implore you to connect some dots.”
“The billionaire class has begun unloading on Elizabeth Warren.” 
You see, it&#8217;s a class now. Now, just to recognize a fact: Bill Gates is basically a lifelong Democrat. Warren Buffett is a lifelong Democrat. A lot of these, quote unquote “billionaire class members” are lifelong Democrats, people who&#8217;ve given tons of money to left-leaning causes. But they’re a class now, you see. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6oi-dHemkc?start=1584" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
This is pure Marxist speak where you are judged by the basis of your income — on the basis of your wealth — not by what you think, or what you do, or how you vote, or any of that sort of stuff. George Soros is a billionaire, [and he] gives a lot of money to exactly the kinds of people that Jamie Dimon doesn&#8217;t like, so treating everybody as a class based on their income is really stupid, in any case. This dumb columnist for The New York Times says: “A few days ago, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase — at just $1.6 billion in net worth, a comparative piker — said Senator Warren &#8216;vilifies successful people.&#8217;” 
[This] is true. 
“Then Bill Gates ($107 billion), in an onstage interview with The Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin, mused about what his tax bill might be in a Warren presidency and left the door open to voting for Trump should Democrats nominate Ms. Warren.”
Which makes sense, because her wealth tax proposal is baloney. 
“And then Michael Bloomberg ($52 billion), who had previously criticized Ms. Warren as anti-corporate, signaled his intention to jump into the race, obviously out of concern at her rise.”
“I&#8217;m not expert enough to judge the wisdom of Senator Warren&#8217;s proposed wealth tax.” 
Well then, what are you writing about? Like this entire thing is about her wealth tax. 
“I know, there are questions about its constitutionality and that several European nations tried a similar approach and found it unworkable (though four countries still have it). I don&#8217;t get why the candidates aren&#8217;t simply proposing to increase marginal income tax rates on dollars earned above some very high figure. That seems a lot more straightforward to me.”
The reason — the stunning ignorance of The New York Times columnist. The reason, not to justify Elizabeth Warren, [but] the reason she&#8217;s proposing a wealth tax is there isn&#8217;t enough money at the upper end of the income bracket, in terms of income earned every year, to pay for her proposals. The wealth tax is a confiscatory, nasty tax designed to pay for her garbage proposals that amount to $52 trillion dollars in spending over the next 10 years. That&#8217;s why she&#8217;s going for the wealth tax. You can increase the marginal tax rate, [but] it ain’t going to pay for this stuff. It isn&#8217;t. But this guy says:
“So this column is not a brief for Ms. Warren&#8217;s wealth tax and for her candidacy — I don&#8217;t have a preferred candidate. Instead, I want to make a simple plea to the country&#8217;s billionaires: Multibillion-dollar fortunes are often called excessive and decadent. But here&#8217;s something they’re rarely called but ought to be: Anti-democratic. These fortunes will destroy our democracy.”
Let me get this straight. You earn a billion dollars because you have a bunch of consensual economic transactions of people, and that&#8217;s anti-democratic? What is democratic is for the government to come and seize the results of those voluntary transactions? Jeff Bezos has not seized wealth from anyone, but you want the government to do that — who&#8217;s more anti-democratic? Bill Gates has not seized wealth from anyone. In fact, he&#8217;s provided jobs to hundreds of thousands of people and indirectly, probably millions of people. You want to seize the wealth he has earned on the basis of those voluntary economic transactions — who&#8217;s more anti-democratic?
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to full episodes of “The Ben Shapiro Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show">Watch “The Ben Shapiro Show” on-demand!</a>

SHAPIRO: The Left Plans To Eat The Rich

Bernie Sanders

The following is satirical.
This weekend, Germans celebrated the thirty year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall divided the German capital between a thriving, free, capitalist West Berlin and an East Berlin so mired in poverty, lack of services and government oppression that it was almost as bad as living in California.
The wall was built in 1961 when the Soviet socialists who ruled East Germany realized that if they taxed people at the levels proposed by Elizabeth Warren, those people would leave and take their wealth and productivity elsewhere. But the socialists had a plan for that, namely anyone who tried to leave would be shot dead.
This policy continued through 1988, when Bernie Sanders honeymooned among the Soviets. So as Berliners celebrate the fall of the wall, perhaps they should also remember the good times, like when Bernie sat bare-chested with their Soviet oppressors and sang, “This land is your land, and so is Po-land, and so is Czechoslovakia and so is Hungary and so is East Germany and &#8230;” Well, you know, the rest of the lyrics.
On a side note, Bernie returned from his visit to the Soviets and said of the USSR and the U.S. &#8212; and this is a real quote: “Let’s take the strengths of both systems. Let’s learn from each other.”
Which would’ve made for an interesting country seeing as the strengths of the U.S. are freedom and capitalism, and the strengths of the Soviet Union were socialism and its necessary results: poverty, oppression, slavery and mass murder.
The Berlin Wall finally collapsed when the Soviets were confronted by Ronald Reagan, a freedom-loving president the American press hated so much they attacked him constantly and even tried to organize his impeachment. Thank heavens, that couldn’t happen today.
In fact, as we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s nice to know that we have learned so much about the evils of socialism, it has been relegated to the dustbin of history — and the Democrat Party platform.

Berlin Wall Monument

Germans Celebrate 30-Year Anniversary of End of Democrat Party Policies [Satire]

Communism

Russia

Soviet Union

Michelle Malkin is a public speaker, columnist, news contributor, and bestselling author who has dedicated her career to exposing corruption at the highest, and often the lowest, points in government. In her latest book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Open-Borders-Inc-Funding-America/dp/1621579719" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Open Borders Inc.: Who&#8217;s Funding America&#8217;s Destruction</a>,” Malkin goes in-depth into the power brokers, politicians, activists, and religious leaders who are doing their best to keep the American borders open to anyone and everyone who wants to come through, even if they are a danger to themselves and to others. Not a single celebrity, community organizer, or lawmaker is safe if they have crossed the line.
Like a laser beam, Malkin exposes the players who are fighting immigration reform to make sure that immigrants come in at an alarming rate. Social justice protesters want a cause to rally around. Corporate bosses, from New York to Silicon Valley, want to keep the cheap labor pouring in so they can keep wages low. The religious Left wants to bring in people to fill their pews. Democrats want to continue bringing in voters to keep themselves in power. She leaves no stone unturned when calling out those who would risk the lives of American citizens to keep their coffers full. 
One of the most interesting things about the book is Malkin’s boldness. She has no problem naming names. While most writers dance around a suspect or drop innuendo, she lets every person know exactly what she thinks about the pandering that a person, group, or company do on behalf of the open borders crowd. Hollywood celebrities, left-wing donors, religious leaders, and even certain members of the Conservative and Libertarian upper echelon are brought to the attention of the reader – and you read scandal after scandal related to the border.  
Another sobering point in the book is the description of the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens. From public officials to ordinary citizens, the open borders crisis has lead to crimes such as destruction of property, theft, and drug dealing to much more serious crimes like rape and murder. Not lost on the reader is the mainstream media’s decision not to discuss these victims, fearing either being described as racist or to hide the crimes in collusion with the open borders advocates. Whichever it is, as Malkin notes, this does a severe disservice to the numerous victims’ families and to the communities where they lived. 
What might give the book a large impact is that it’s an easy read. Malkin avoids bogging the reader down with deep narration and focuses on relaying the truth of the situation. It reminded me of “Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies,” another one of Malkin’s books that had a way of connecting with its reader without overloading them with large amounts of repetitive data.
“Open Borders Inc.” is Michelle Malkin’s latest bold endeavor to keep the American people informed about what goes on behind the scenes with lawmakers, unelected bureaucrats, and their allies in the private sector.

Fight for Social Justice and Human Rights

Book Review: ‘Open Borders Inc.’ By Michelle Malkin

Democrats

Michelle Malkin

Social Justice

Southern Border

Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said this week that it was time for the United States to have a serious conversation about &#8220;decarceration&#8221; and &#8220;prison abolition in this country.&#8221;
&#8220;Mass incarceration is our American reality,&#8221; the former bartender tweeted. &#8220;It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, &amp; slavery. To end it, we have to change. That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration &amp; prison abolition in this country.&#8221;
Ocasio-Cortez continued, claiming without evidence: &#8220;Yesterday morning I spoke with a woman who was thrown in Rikers as a teenager. Put in solitary confinement for MONTHS, aka torture. Force-fed pills. The conditions were so bad, she too had drank out of toilets. A cage is a cage is a cage. And humans don’t belong in them.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Yesterday morning I spoke with a woman who was thrown in Rikers as a teenager. Put in solitary confinement for MONTHS, aka torture. Force-fed pills.
The conditions were so bad, she too had drank out of toilets.
A cage is a cage is a cage. And humans don’t belong in them.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1181198160045195269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
Ocasio-Cortez — who has spearheaded the &#8220;Green New Deal&#8221; and &#8220;Abolish ICE&#8221; movements — made the radical remarks in response to a story about a man who was sentenced to 10 days in prison because he failed to appear in court for jury duty and the judge wanted to teach him &#8220;a lesson&#8221; about responsibility.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has repeatedly portrayed herself as a victim of the political right, continued: &#8220;I know the term &#8216;prison abolition&#8217; is breaking some people’s brains. The right is already freaking out. Yet the U.S. incarcerates more than anywhere in the world. We have more than enough room to close many of our prisons and explore just alternatives to incarceration.&#8221;
&#8220;First of all, many people in [jail] or in prison don’t belong there at all,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez continued, apparently unaware of how the criminal justice system works. &#8220;Whether it’s punitive sentencing for marijuana possession or jailing people for their poverty &amp; letting the rich free through systems like cash bail, we wrongly incarcerate far, far too many people.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
First of all, many people in jailed or in prison don’t belong there at all.
Whether it’s punitive sentencing for marijuana possession or jailing people for their poverty &amp; letting the rich free through systems like cash bail, we wrongly incarcerate far, far too many people.
/2
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1181207074442825730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Secondly, our prison &amp; jail system is so large bc we use them as de facto mental hospitals, homeless shelters, &amp; detox centers instead of *actually* investing in &#8230; mental health, housing, edu, &amp; rehab. If we invested meaningfully, what do you think would happen to crime?&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez concluded. &#8220;Lastly, people tend to say &#8216;what do you do with all the violent people?&#8217; as a defense for incarcerating millions. Our lawmaking process means we come to solutions together, &amp;either way we should work to an end where our prison system is dramatically smaller than it is today.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Lastly, people tend to say “what do you do with all the violent people?” as a defense for incarcerating millions.
Our lawmaking process means we come to solutions together, &amp;either way we should work to an end where our prison system is dramatically smaller than it is today.
/4
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1181207079190708224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/issues/aoc-wants-to-abolish-prisons/">noted</a> that &#8220;less than 4% of state-level offenders, and less than 1% of federal offenders, are incarcerated for any kind of drug possession, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The share incarcerated for marijuana offenses is unknown, but almost certainly a fraction of this fraction.&#8221;
&#8220;In fact, 55% of all state-level offenders—who represent 88% of all incarcerates — are in prison for violent offenses,&#8221; The Free Beacon added. &#8220;Roughly half of federal offenders are incarcerated for drug offenses, but &#8220;more than 99%&#8221; were drug traffickers, according to the BJS.&#8221;

Ocasio-Cortez Calls For Abolishing Prisons In The United States

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Law Enforcement

On Tuesday’s episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” Shapiro talks about how Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposed wealth tax goes farther to the Left than even Senator Elizabeth Warren. Video and partial transcript below: 
Bernie is starting to open up his guns — as I suggested he would have to — on Elizabeth Warren. Earlier today, he proposed a super wealth tax, not just a wealth tax, a super wealth tax, in which he would reduce the ability of billionaires to be billionaires. 
He literally tweeted out, [Sanders impression] Billionaires should not exist! Perhaps we should put them on trains to very cold places, you know like Montana or something, and we will build — we won&#8217;t call them gulags, but they will be kind of like gulags, and we&#8217;ll put them there and then they won&#8217;t be billionaires anymore, and we will liquidate the Kulaks and we will unite the workers of the world. 
Bernie Sanders was really going for it. He tweeted out: &#8220;There is no justice when three billionaires are able to own more wealth than the bottom half of the entire country.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
There is no justice when three billionaires are able to own more wealth than the bottom half of the entire country.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1176492974877945856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
Well no, there might be justice depending on whether they also employ hundreds of thousands of Americans, made millions of lives better with their products, and engaged in voluntary exchange. So in his new plan, Bernie Sanders is going to go for the super duper wealth tax, and you knew this was coming, right? Elizabeth Warren proposed her 2% wealth tax, which is unconstitutional and would not raise anywhere near the kind of money she&#8217;s talking about. Because you know what wealthy people are very good at? Tax avoidance. Very, very good at it.
In fact, it&#8217;s one of the reasons why you see Democrats say stuff [like], &#8220;Well you remember back in the 1960s when the top tax bracket was 91%?&#8221; Right, and the effective tax rate on rich people was pretty much the same because rich people started taking their money and putting it in places that were not taxable. The tax revenue of the federal government versus the GDP of the United States has basically remained stable since the reduction of war spending after World War II. So that has not really changed. 
But Bernie Sanders is proposing a new wealth tax, a 1% tax on net worth over $32 million every year, 2% from from $50-250 million, 3% from $250-500 million, 4% from $500 million to $1 billion, and 8% on wealth over $10 billion. He says this will raise $4.35 trillion per decade, and then he says this would be used to fund Bernie’s affordable housing plan, universal childcare, and would help fund Medicare For All. That’s sort of a problem considering that Medicare For All is supposed to cost something like $34 trillion, so if he raises $4.35 trillion over the next decade, where is the other $30 trillion is going to come from? But this is Bernie Sanders upping the ante. 
Also, Bernie Sanders is more of a true believer than Elizabeth Warren, and you&#8217;re gonna see him make that case. So just in the last 24 hours, Bernie Sanders is drawing the contrast between Elizabeth Warren and her supposed warm embrace of capitalism and his own love for socialism. Here&#8217;s Bernie saying that people are brainwashed to believe in capitalism, someone says this to him and, of course, he fully agrees. 
[Sanders impression] Even though I have a lake house, and I love pudding, many types of pudding. Pudding is delicious.
<blockquote>AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think that the kind of brainwashing, or the idea at least that I grew up with, is that our definition of success, is like the American dream, and in capitalism, you&#8217;re rewarded for getting everything and just keeping it to yourself and not worrying about everybody else, and that&#8217;s sort of like a psychology that we&#8217;ve all been taught. 
SANDERS: I think Lizzie is exactly right, that a profound — it’s a profound point. </blockquote>
Oh it&#8217;s super profound to believe that capitalism is good. People have been brainwashed to believe that capitalism is good by, you know, the immense prosperity that capitalism has created … I don&#8217;t know how he claims that he is in favor of quote unquote “Democratic Socialism,” Norway, Finland, Sweden-style when he is ripping on capitalism, which provides the entire growth basis for the Nordic countries — as every politician in Norway, Sweden, and Finland will tell you openly. But Bernie is trying to draw a contrast with Elizabeth Warren. 
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to full episodes of “The Ben Shapiro Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show">Watch “The Ben Shapiro Show” on-demand!</a>

Alex Wong/Staff via Getty Images

SHAPIRO: Bernie&#8217;s Plan To Crumble The Billionaire Class

Ben Shapiro

Capitalism

Thomas Fahr Steyer, a California-based billionaire and leftist activist focusing on environmental issues, is a candidate for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Steyer, a longtime leftist philanthropist and prolific donor to Democratic candidates and causes, is by far the wealthiest candidate in the 2020 Democratic field. Steyer&#8217;s political activism has focused disproportionately on environmentalism and global warming/climate change issues, although he has the political profile of an across-the-board, full-spectrum progressive/leftist. As the most recent entrant into the 2020 Democratic presidential field, he does not yet register in <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/democratic_nomination_polls/">current polling for the nomination</a>.
Steyer, who has a bachelor degree from Yale University and a MBA from Stanford University, is the founder of San Francisco-based hedge fund Farallon Capital and the co-founder of Oakland-based Beneficial State Bank. In 2012, Steyer stepped down from Farallon in order to focus more of his time on environmentalist/alternative energy advocacy. In addition to his involvement with Beneficial State Bank, which focuses on community development, Steyer has been involved with other leftist philanthropic causes — including his <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tom-Steyer-says-effort-to-end-inequality-isn-t-6438690.php">2015 founding</a> of the Fair Shake Commission on Income Inequality and Middle Class Opportunity, which promotes reducing income inequality. But above all, Steyer has spent more time and resources on environmentalist activism. In 2013, for example, Steyer founded NextGen America, an environmentalist nonprofit and political action committee.
Steyer, who would become the first president with a Jewish parent if successfully elected, is married and has four children. He has an <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/thomas-steyer/">estimated net worth</a> of $1.6 billion, and has committed self-funding his 2020 presidential bid to the tune of <a href="https://time.com/5623149/tom-steyer-presidential-campaign/">$100 million</a>.
Electoral History: Steyer has never sought political office prior to his current campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. However, he has a lengthy history of involvement in partisan Democratic causes. Steyer has been a prolific fundraiser for many leading Democrats over the past few decades, including for Barack Obama in 2008. Steyer also spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, and reportedly considered a 2018 run for California governor.
On The Issues: Perhaps more so than any of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, Steyer&#8217;s candidacy revolves around one core issue: Environmentalism. He has made global warming prevention, opposition to the oil and natural gas industries, and a concomitant greater government role in investing in alternative energy sources the central tenets of his public activist profile. Steyer has a less prolific track record and history of commentary on other issues, but all available evidences points toward his being an across-the-board, full-spectrum progressive/leftist. For example, his 2020 campaign <a href="https://www.tomsteyer.com/about-tom/">website</a> also touts his work in &#8220;promot[ing] social justice and increas[ing] participation in our democracy through voter registration and grassroots organizing.&#8221;
Constitution: Steyer has a very thin public record of commenting on legal and judicial issues. He has, however, been a prominent advocate for impeaching President Donald Trump. Steyer has stated that he opposes Citizens United v. F.E.C., the U.S. Supreme Court&#8217;s landmark 2010 political speech-affirming case. He also <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/12/megadonor-steyer-abortion-rights-candidates-241563">supports</a> Roe v. Wade, thus indicating a belief in the so-called constitutional &#8220;right to privacy&#8221; and &#8220;right to abortion.&#8221; Steyer has suggested sympathy for gun control measures that would undermine Americans&#8217; Second Amendment rights, and he also supports a robust role for the federal government in economic regulation that is consistent with mainstream legal progressivism.
Economy: Steyer supports raising personal taxes and strongly opposed President Trump&#8217;s 2017 tax cut law. In his 2020 campaign announcement video, Steyer <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-tom-steyer-believe-where-the-candidate-stands-on-6-issues">lamented</a> how corporations have an &#8220;unlimited ability to participate in politics, [which] will skew everything because they only care about profits.&#8221; His anti-corporation message is also decidedly populist, as Steyer has also <a href="https://www.axios.com/tom-steyer-on-the-issues-in-under-500-words-2020-presidential-election-2e5a747a-b6bf-459d-a581-e7d1efcd75bd.html">said</a> that &#8220;the only way for us to solve the urgent problems facing our country is to loosen the stranglehold that corporations have over our politicians and return political power to the American people.&#8221; Like many of his 2020 Democratic rivals, Steyer also <a href="https://www.latimes.com/la-pol-sac-essential-poli-tom-steyer-praises-minimum-wage-hike-1459196428-htmlstory.html">supports</a> raising the federal minimum wage. Steyer, though a billionaire, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/12/this-billionaire-wants-trump-to-raise-his-taxes.html">vocally opposes</a> income inequality.
Health Care: Steyer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/tom-steyer-2020-democrats/540357/">supports</a> &#8220;Medicare for All,&#8221; which would effectively amount to a single-payer health insurance system and a de facto governmental takeover of health insurance and imposition of socialized medicine in America. He <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-does-tom-steyer-believe-where-the-candidate-stands-on-6-issues">has been critical</a> of the perceived corporate greed of large pharmaceutical companies.
Immigration: Steyer has been harshly critical of the Trump administration&#8217;s attempts to secure our border amidst a hitherto unprecedented influx there of Central American migrants. Steyer <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/392482-billionaire-steyer-to-invest-1-million-to-help-immigrants-fight">donated</a> last year to leftist/open-borders legal groups at the southern border working to assist illegal aliens facing deportation. He <a href="https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/1146079566374457344">addresses</a> illegal immigration in starkly pro-illegal alien — and not rule-of-law — terminology. Steyer appears to <a href="https://nextgenamerica.org/issues/immigration/">support</a> a pathway to citizenship for much of America&#8217;s illegal alien populace.
Foreign Policy: Steyer has a thin track record on foreign policy, although he <a href="https://twitter.com/TomSteyer/status/1005947721361121281?s=20">has been critical</a> of President Trump&#8217;s foreign policy approach. He has also taken the standard leftist approach to Special Counsel Bob Mueller&#8217;s now-infamous report: <a href="https://www.needtoimpeach.com/obstruction-of-justice/">Accusing</a> President Trump of obstruction of justice.
Abortion: Steyer is <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Thomas_Steyer">emphatically pro-abortion</a>.
Guns: Steyer has founded organizations have <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Thomas_Steyer">worked closely</a>, at times, with anti-Second Amendment organizations. He is largely seen as sympathetic to gun control initiatives.

Where Does Tom Steyer Stand On The Issues? Here’s Everything You Need To Know.

Abortion

Climate Change

Constitution

Donald Trump

Economy

Environmentalism

Foreign Policy

Last night, Robert Francis &#8220;Beto&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke doubled down, in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51718/beto-says-hell-yes-were-going-take-americans-guns-james-barrett">rather colorful fashion</a>, on his vow to confiscate from law-abiding Americans their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51381/hammer-i-will-never-ever-let-government-buy-back-josh-hammer">cherished</a> rifles whose <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44327/hammer-here-are-three-core-reasons-oppose-ban-josh-hammer">cosmetically amorphous and technically undefinable</a> features lead leftists to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50263/hammer-conservatives-must-not-go-soft-assault-josh-hammer">peculiarly label</a> them so-called &#8220;assault weapons.&#8221; &#8220;Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,&#8221; O&#8217;Rourke said to enthusiastic audience applause, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s James Barrett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51718/beto-says-hell-yes-were-going-take-americans-guns-james-barrett">reported</a>.
Last night, furthermore, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43796/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">communist</a> loonbag <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48572/where-does-bernie-sanders-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">Bernie Sanders</a> and demagogic harridan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48596/where-does-elizabeth-warren-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">Elizabeth Warren</a> each doubled down in their joint defense of a one-size-fits-all socialized medicine national health care takeover that would, in the estimate of fellow 2020 presidential contender <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49364/where-does-amy-klobuchar-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">Amy Klobuchar</a>, strip over 140 million Americans of their privately held health insurance plans. Joe Biden, the purported &#8220;moderate&#8221; in this hellish menagerie, parroted last night the &#8220;no one will lose his doctor under Obamacare&#8221; ruse — a ruse, that is, which was literally exposed by left-leaning PolitiFact as its 2013 &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; with respect to the very underlying health care plan Biden now haplessly touts.
All of this, of course, came precisely two primary debates after open-borders zealot Julian Castro decided to hail the pagan glory that is abortion for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49056/hammer-democratic-party-fundamentally-unfit-lead-josh-hammer">&#8220;trans females&#8221;</a> — which would be biological men who subjectively feel as if they are women. The careful reader — or really anyone who has ever opened a biology textbook — will note that a member of the human species with both X and Y chromosomes, otherwise known as a man, cannot possibly procure an abortion even if he desires to do so. Yet we are still reliably informed that the Democrats, who have never seen a statist economic program they didn&#8217;t tendentiously glom onto under the hectoring veneer of &#8220;climate change,&#8221; are the Party of Science™.
I am not sure if the Democrats are the Party of Science. But I do know that the modern Democratic Party, which promotes youngsters who would&#8217;ve been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49515/hammer-aocs-squad-will-destroy-democrats-2020-josh-hammer">right at home in the Soviet Politburo</a> and remains emphatically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51709/hammer-democratic-party-fatally-attracted-hardcore-josh-hammer">in the throes of its leftist base</a>, has not merely become <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/49056/hammer-democratic-party-fundamentally-unfit-lead-josh-hammer">fundamentally unfit</a> to govern the United States of America. It has also become an utter parody of its very self.
For decades, Republicans have mocked Democratic anti-gun proposals by calling them &#8220;gun grabbers.&#8221; Now, Beto O&#8217;Rourke is literally promoting — and <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/sep/13/beto-orourke-selling-t-shirts-hell-yes-were-going-/">fundraising</a> off of! — his proposal to forcibly confiscate the firearms of tens of millions of peaceful, law-abiding gun owners. In <a href="http://theresurgent.com/2019/09/13/is-beto-orourke-trying-to-sabotage-the-democrats-again/">sabotaging</a> his own party, O&#8217;Rourke has outed the Democratic id for the masses to see — and boy, is it <a href="https://twitter.com/MattMackowiak/status/1172315168446935040">ugly</a>.
For years if not decades, Republicans have ridiculed Democratic health care proposals by asserting their pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams on socializing medicine would inevitably lead to the stripping away of private health insurance for tens of millions of Americans. Now, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">two of the top three contenders</a> for the Democrats&#8217; 2020 presidential nomination, are advocating for precisely that. A major political party entertained a genuine policy debate last night on the efficacy and morality of eradicating the health insurance plans of over 140 million Americans. Think about that for a second.
For years, Republicans have sneered at Democrats that their anti-biology crusade in the realm of normalizing &#8220;transgenderism&#8221; was, ultimately, untenable. Biology, many conservatives have told their Party of Science™ counterparts, is immutable. Now, Julian Castro advocates <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51556/hammer-bernies-pagan-support-child-sacrifice-josh-hammer">pagan-esque unborn child sacrifice for Moloch</a> for a &#8220;class&#8221; of human beings who are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48927/walsh-democrats-put-their-scientific-illiteracy-matt-walsh">biologically incapable of bearing children</a>. Contemporary fealty to political correctness apparently demands such devout obeisance to the LGBTQ+ alphabet soup lobby such that science itself must be subordinated and shunned.
We are truly through the looking-glass.
Forget The Onion. Forget The Babylon Bee. Parody is here, and its name is the Democratic Party.

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HAMMER: The Democratic Party Has Become A Parody Of Itself

Amy Klobuchar

Beto O'Rourke

Global Warming

Gun Buybacks

The 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates finally return tonight to the debate stage. And boy, are the American people in store for a treat.
The modern Democratic Party is, at its core, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49056/hammer-democratic-party-fundamentally-unfit-lead-josh-hammer">fundamentally unfit to govern</a> the United States of America. In its present form, it is, as I <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/49056/hammer-democratic-party-fundamentally-unfit-lead-josh-hammer">put</a> it in July, &#8220;a ragtag potpourri of anti-nation-state/pro-open-borders activists, devoted prenatal infanticide cultists, neo-Marxist economic &#8216;class warfare&#8217; grievance-mongers, and identity politics-centric racial identitarian hucksters.&#8221; The man <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48863/who-will-win-democratic-primary-latest-2020-josh-hammer">currently leading Democratic presidential primary polling</a> is a senile liar and faux-&#8220;moderate&#8221; <a href="https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/america-freer-with-bork-on-supreme-court/">ad hominem straw man-slayer</a> with a firm decades-long commitment to perpetually reaching new heights of brazen <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/joe-biden-unfit-for-presidency/">immorality</a>. The woman upon whom a <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">plurality of bettors</a> are placing their wagers is a <a href="https://www.creators.com/read/ben-shapiro/09/19/how-the-quest-for-power-corrupted-elizabeth-warren">politically disingenuous</a>, shrill harpy with all the likability of venereal disease. And the septuagenarian loonbag who seems to be rising to near the top of much <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">national</a> and <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/nh/new_hampshire_democratic_presidential_primary-6276.html">statewide</a> polling is an actual <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43796/hammer-bernie-sanders-entire-worldview-grotesquely-josh-hammer">Sandinista-loving communist</a> radical who honeymooned in the Soviet Union and openly shilled for America&#8217;s arch geopolitical foe at the height of America&#8217;s existential standoff with that foe.
Hold aside for a moment all the sundry problems with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50152/hammer-fiscal-conservatism-dead-republicans-killed-josh-hammer">incorrigibly feckless</a> Republican Party. Focus, for now, on the profound maladies of the Left. The Democratic Party, which has never seen a <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/oregon-sanctuaries-force-ice-apprehend-alleged-child-sex-offender-courthouse/">criminal alien sex offender</a> that it hated or a third-trimester unborn child that it loved, is a political party in very, very, very bad shape.
President Donald Trump, of course, does not exactly have a sterling <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49407/will-trump-win-latest-trumps-national-and-state-josh-hammer">job approval rating</a>. More specifically, his approval rating has never surpassed the magical 50% barometer over the entire course of his presidency, to-date. Statistically, Trump is eminently beatable in the 2020 presidential election. But as my good friend Jesse Kelly is rather <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1170389245615312896">fond of saying</a>: All the Democrats have to do is not be insane, and they cannot do it.
Even Joe Biden, the Democrats&#8217; purported &#8220;moderate&#8221; choice, is being <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/us/politics/joe-biden-hyde-amendment.html">dragged leftward</a> on <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/14/joe-biden-latinos-immigration-2020-1461341">every issue</a>. And the rest of the Democratic field is a complete lost cause. Recall that the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates do not even bother to explain how exactly it is that a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48927/walsh-democrats-put-their-scientific-illiteracy-matt-walsh">&#8220;trans female&#8221;</a> — a member of the human species with both X and Y chromosomes — could procure an abortion, which can probably be easily explained by the fact that there is no such thing as a pregnancy for a &#8220;trans female.&#8221;
The American people want sanity. They want a restorative sense of comity, an end to the anxiety of the daily news cycle, and an alleviation of our <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50303/hammer-our-national-discourse-dangerously-josh-hammer">dangerously overheated</a> national discourse. But they do not want a political party that won&#8217;t even call illegal immigration a crime, categorically refuses to recognize any limits whatsoever on a woman&#8217;s (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47249/hammer-yes-alabama-legislature-right-openly-defy-josh-hammer">judicially fabricated</a>) right to kill her unborn child, shills for Hamas and Hezbollah in their joint jihadist war on Israel, and entertains legitimate debates about the policy merits of stripping tens of millions of Americans of their privately held health insurance plans.
Tonight&#8217;s debate will evince more of the same. Expect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51556/hammer-bernies-pagan-support-child-sacrifice-josh-hammer">godless pagan</a> paeans to socialism and the glories of big government. Expect contemptuous sneering at the rubes and yokels of the American heartland. And expect a superciliousness that can only come from a sheltered clerisy that has discarded the <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opinion/commentary/paying-the-price-for-breakdown-of-the-countrys-bourgeois-culture-20170809.html">bourgeoisie values</a> that have always made America great.
But do not expect anything remotely resembling a compelling vision for the future of American governance. Like a drug addict gone mad, the Democratic Party is fatally attracted to its own lethal cocktail: Leftism.

Democratic Party donkey.jpg

HAMMER: The Democratic Party Is Fatally Attracted To Hardcore Leftism

Joe Biden

Former Republican New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday for promoting policies that are so far to the left that they resemble those of socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.
“It sounds like Bernie Sanders is having his policies and statements written by the Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro,” Sununu told Fox News host Sandra Smith when asked about the presidential candidate’s new proposal to cancel $81 billion of medical debt. “I mean, this is socialism to the extreme.”
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“I think it indicates that Bernie has decided that it is down to a two-person race with Elizabeth Warren and what he has to do in order to win is to out-pander her,” he continued. “And so you’re going to see a continuing series of all of these.”
Accordingly, the Vermont senator previewed an upcoming plan that would wipe away individuals’ past-due medical bills without impacting their credit scores. The $81 billion price tag is exclusive of his Medicare-for-All plan — a keystone of his presidential campaign — which estimates indicate could cost as much as $40 trillion.
In June, Sanders unveiled a separate proposal to eliminate the student loan debt of every American — approximately 45 million people. That sweeping plan would cost upwards of $1.5 trillion.
“But the other thing that comes out of this statement — and Republicans ought to take advantage of it — is that Bernie Sanders is doing an extremely good job of telling us what a disaster Obamacare is and that Obamacare really has to be replaced,” Sununu said.
The New Hampshire governor also noted that as Sanders and fellow progressive challenger Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) battle for the far-left lane of the current Democratic presidential primary, both candidates will likely try to outdo each other on the “everything for everybody” front.
“[Health insurance] is becoming a big test and they’re all pounding Obamacare and in ways that Republicans weren’t as effective as these Democrats seem to be,” Sununu said. “The only one defending Obamacare — and it’s beginning to slip even there — is [former Vice President] Joe Biden.”
Biden, who is largely running on former President Barack Obama’s legacy, is one of the only leading Democratic contenders not to advocate for a Medicare-for-All system that would overhaul the entire health insurance market. Rather, he has vowed to reinstate Obamacare&#8217;s individual mandate to attempt to ensure all Americans obtain sufficient health insurance.
The mandate was initially part of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as Obamacare. As a way to bypass the unconstitutional requirement to force Americans to purchase insurance, the individual mandate was upheld in 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court as an income-based tax levy.
The individual mandate was repealed after President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.
“For everyone but Biden this has become an effort to be attractive to the millennials who have absolutely no idea what things cost and who have absolutely no idea that eventually — as Margaret Thatcher said — in socialism, you begin to run out of other people’s money,” Sununu added.

WATCH: New Hampshire Governor: Bernie Sanders Policies Sound Like They’re Written By Nicolas Maduro

Barack Obama

Health Care

New Hampshire

Nicolas Maduro

Obamacare

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw has been getting &#8220;biblical&#8221; in the last few days, first taking on a pastor who spoke at a Democratic National Committee event for his attempt to retrofit socialism to the New Testament, then coming to the defense of allowing religious literature, particularly the Bible, at Veterans Affairs facilities.
In response to progessive pastor Rev. William Barber trying to make the argument that socialism is endorsed by the Bible at a DNC event last week, Crenshaw pointed out the essential difference between biblical teachings on charity and &#8220;moral&#8221; socialist principles.
&#8220;When we embrace moral language, we must ask, does our policy care for the least of these? Does it lift up those who are most marginalized and dejected in our society? Does it establish justice? That is the moral question,&#8221; Rev. Barber told the Democratic crowd. &#8220;If someone calls it socialism, then we must compel them to acknowledge that the Bible must then promote socialism. Because Jesus offered free healthcare, and he never charged the leper a co-pay.&#8221;
The final line prompted DNC Chair Tom Perez and other DNC officials on the stage to give Barber a standing ovation. But Crenshaw wasn&#8217;t impressed by Barber&#8217;s biblical interpretation.
&#8220;Deliberate misreading of Biblical principles by DNC to promote socialism,&#8221; the freshman congressman tweeted Saturday. &#8220;The Bible teaches charity with one’s own time and money. Socialism teaches charity with other people’s time and money. So&#8230;.not the same thing.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Deliberate misreading of Biblical principles by DNC to promote socialism.
The Bible teaches charity with one’s own time and money.
Socialism teaches charity with other people’s time and money.
So&#8230;.not the same thing. <a href="https://t.co/9Z9bUQNntX">https://t.co/9Z9bUQNntX</a>
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1165258353053982721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Crenshaw started off the week by weighing in on another religious issue: the question of separation of church and state. The conservative congressman made sure to work in a quote from Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to drive home the point.
As reported by <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/08/26/va-lifts-ban-on-bibles-in-move-to-support-religious-freedom/">The Daily Signal</a> on Monday, the VA has recently changed its policies on religious literature and symbols at its facilities. The change was made in part as a response to the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling on a cross-shaped World War I memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, which the court ruled did not violate the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
&#8220;The VA revised directives to permit religious literature, symbols, and displays at agency facilities following a string of incidents in recent years in which individual medical centers banned Christmas carols and a Christmas tree, chapels removed Bibles, and chaplains faced restraints on religious expression. Generally, the VA had inconsistent policies across the country,&#8221; The Daily Signal reported. &#8220;Officials designed the changes to protect the religious freedom of veterans and their families. The new guidelines, which went into effect last month, referred to the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing a cross-shaped memorial to World War I dead to continue standing on public land in Bladensburg, Maryland. The high court’s decision highlighted the important role that religious symbols plays in the lives of Americans and their consistency with constitutional principles.&#8221;
In response to the report, Crenshaw tweeted a quote from Justice Neil Gorsuch: &#8220;&#8216;Offended observer&#8217; theory of standing has no basis in law.&#8221; The representative then provided his translation: &#8220;Being offended doesn&#8217;t give you the right to stop others from worshiping. Bibles, or any religious scripts, never should&#8217;ve been banned in the first place.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">“‘Offended observer’ theory of standing has no basis in law”-Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Translation: Being offended doesn’t give you the right to stop others from worshiping.
Bibles, or any religious scripts, never should’ve been banned in the first place.<a href="https://t.co/eidFDeCqNN">https://t.co/eidFDeCqNN</a>
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1166176649571971073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Before being elected to Congress in 2018, <a href="https://crenshawforcongress.com/about/">Crenshaw</a> served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy SEALs, serving multiple deployments to the Middle East, including one in which he lost his left eye after being hit by an IED during a mission in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50946/crenshaw-blasts-google-after-young-turks-amanda-prestigiacomo">Crenshaw Blasts YouTube/Google After ‘Young Turks’ Commentator Says ‘America Deserved 9/11’</a>

Dan Crenshaw

Dan Crenshaw Responds To DNC Pastor: No, Christianity Doesn’t Support Socialism

Christianity

On Monday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; Shapiro talks about the decline in patriotism among younger generations in the aftermath of the Soviet Union&#8217;s collapse. Video and partial transcript below:
Over 80 percent of Republicans say patriotism is important, compared to just over 40 percent of Democrats. Part of this, by the way, has to do with who&#8217;s the president. There have been polls that show that Democratic feelings about patriotism vary with the president&#8217;s. When Obama was president, Democrats were super patriotic — but Republicans, by the way, didn&#8217;t become unpatriotic. Like 70 percent of Republicans felt they were patriotic. Then Trump became president, and that jumped about five to 10 points for Republicans and it dropped off like 40 percent for Democrats. If you&#8217;re patriotic based on who the president is, you&#8217;re doing patriotism wrong.
Belief in God — about 70 percent of Republicans say it&#8217;s important, only 40 percent of Democrats do. Under 60 percent of Republicans say it&#8217;s important to have kids, which is a shocking number. Under 40 percent of Democrats say it&#8217;s important to have kids. Many more Republicans than Democrats believe in hard work. When it comes to tolerance for others, about 70 percent of Republicans say that that is a high value, as opposed to nearly 100 percent of Democrats. Because, obviously these are the values of difference and self-fulfillment, Democrats outrank Republicans there as well.
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So the emerging generation just does not have the same values. What does this say about our politics? It says our politics are about to get a lot uglier. Because the fact is that [Carl Von] Clausewitz, the famous military strategist, he used to suggest that war is simply politics by other means — meaning that you are attempting to get something done, you can&#8217;t get it done politically, so you go to war. Well, the problem is when you don&#8217;t share values with the people you live with, what ends up happening is that is that politics tends to be war by other means. Meaning, the only thing stopping war is the fact that we&#8217;re jawing at each other right now, that may be better than war. I mean as Winston Churchill famously said, &#8220;to jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.&#8221; That&#8217;s true. It is true to talk, and it is to war on one another, but the line is getting very thin. And if you really believe that the values that distinguish you from your neighbor are worth going to war over and that the thin veneer of civilization is all that keeps us from being at each other&#8217;s throats that’s not much of a veneer.
You need a revival vacation of American values. You need a belief in patriotism. You need to re-educate your kids about what being American means — and yes with all the ugly parts, and yes what the ugly history. But we have decided that we can&#8217;t even face up to a narrative that allows America to be the good guy in the world — which, by the way, America is the good guy in the world. America is good. And we&#8217;re not teaching young people anything. I mean our educational system is such an enormous failure. Parents are failing their kids in teaching their kids.
There&#8217;s another poll out today that shows that young Americans are warming to socialism because they don&#8217;t know what the hell it is. According to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/young-americans-embrace-socialism-miami-cubans-65179094">ABC News</a>&#8230;more than half of Americans reject socialism in a recent Gallup poll. Forty-three percent surveyed said some version of it would be good for the country — that sentiment was held by fifty eight percent of respondents aged 18 to 34, compared with just 36 percent of those 55 and older. Why? Because they don&#8217;t know what socialism is. They really don&#8217;t know how to define it. These polls always ask, &#8220;Can you define socialism?&#8221; And then they just define it the Bernie Sanders way. [Bernie Sanders Impression] It means being nice to each other. It means sharing our money a little bit.
No, that&#8217;s not what socialism means, guys. [It] means the nationalization of the means of production and then use of that nationalization to cram down whatever distribution of wealth you find fair, usually with a few people at the top to get rich off of it. What we are watching right now is a complete failure of education — a complete collapse in the inculcation of American values — and I think part of this has to do with the fall of the Soviet Union. I do not think that it is a coincidence that the generation born during and after the fall of the Soviet Union is abandoning core American values and embracing socialism. Part of that is because there is no existential threat from a Soviet Union type state, an evil empire that is threatening nuclear annihilation against the United States while simultaneously keeping its people in poverty and poisoning them with nuclear fallout a la Chernobyl.
It&#8217;s a lot easier to defend your own system in opposition to another system than to defend your own system in opposition to a vacuum. It&#8217;s very difficult to justify every action you take in a vacuum because, after all, we all sin. The United States has sinned. The United States has some grave, awful sins on its record. But when you face up to the Soviet Union, it&#8217;s pretty obvious who the good guys and the bad guys. Well the Soviet Union falls and suddenly the United States is asked to justify its own its own system against nothing, or against dreams — against utopian dreams of the Left. Well, turns out that&#8217;s pretty difficult to do, because the other side — meaning people who don&#8217;t like the American system — don&#8217;t have to defend anything. They can just club, they can just beat down people.
And this is sort of the same attitude when it comes to the Middle East — where you ignore Israel&#8217;s opponents and you just focus in on Israel as you say, &#8220;Well look at all these bad things Israel is doing.&#8221; I&#8217;m sure Israel does bad things. In fact, I&#8217;ve criticized Israel for doing some bad things, but you can&#8217;t look at them in a vacuum. You can&#8217;t look at the United States or capitalism or free markets in a vacuum. If you do, you&#8217;re doing it wrong. But this is what we&#8217;ve taught our kids to do. And again, the Left believe that America is bad mainly because they&#8217;ve never lived anywhere else, they&#8217;ve only ever seen the opposition to the United States and that is dis-unifying the country.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to full episodes of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show&#8221; on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/ben-shapiro-show">Watch &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show&#8221; on-demand!</a>

Ronald Reagan

SHAPIRO: Americans Are Losing Sight Of How Great The Country Is

Patriotism

On Friday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; Shapiro talks about Bernie Sanders&#8217; idea to toss trillions of dollars toward climate change policies. Video and partial transcript below: 
Bernie Sanders has now promoted a $16.3 trillion climate plan on Thursday. The Sanders proposal envisions a significant expansion of the government&#8217;s role in the economy. No! Bernie Sanders a socialist? No! He would offer billions in subsidies to replace gas-guzzling vehicles with electric ones by 2030, a new public system of clean electricity generation that could sideline private utilities, and an infrastructure program that would remake much of the economy and employ an estimated 20 million more Americans.
This is one of the beautiful things about being a Democrat. You just say stuff like, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to spend one bajillion dollars and it will create 20 bajillion jobs.&#8221; And we&#8217;re like, how? &#8220;It just will man!&#8221; Remember when Barack Obama was talking about shovel-ready jobs that didn&#8217;t materialize and then he was talking about green jobs that didn&#8217;t materialize. Now Bernie Sanders is doing the same thing, and the media is like [clapping].
The sheer scale of the effort, which the independent from Vermont compares to FDR&#8217;s 1940s mobilization to fight World War II, was central to his message in rolling out the plan. It&#8217;s a feature, not a bug, that&#8217;s going to destroy the American economy and force us to spend trillions because, after all, we can measure your sympathy in dollars now — your own dollars, and the number of dollars that you wish to take out of somebody else&#8217;s pocket. It&#8217;s a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Now this does result in a great irony, which is that when Bernie Sanders is called on it, he&#8217;s got nothing. So listening to these two clips is pretty funny. He’s at a town hall yesterday. He&#8217;s talking about how we have to transition away from fossil fuels, which if you are worried about climate change, then you do want a transition away from fossil fuels over the course of time. There is no way to do it right now. The technology is simply not sophisticated enough.
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There are certain things that you can do. We could explore geoengineering, building more infrastructure to prevent against rising sea levels, building seawalls. There are certain things you can do for mitigation. There are certain things you can do to heighten adaptation, making it easier for people to move from particularly low-lying areas as sea levels rise, for example. And then there is stuff that you can do to actually mitigate climate change itself. Some of that involves shooting sulfur into the air has been explored. This is geoengineering. There&#8217;s also talk about technological innovation. It&#8217;s always funny to me when people say we have to subsidize technological innovation. Ok, well you know who — the person who wins the race to create an alternative energy source that is even nearly as efficient as carbon emissions, you know what their award is? All the moneys. All of them.
If you are the person who discovers nuclear fusion, right, that does not require the heat of the sun. If you are the person who discovers that and makes it cost-effective on a small scale, then you are going to be the wealthiest person in the history of humanity. So that&#8217;s a pretty good incentive. Nonetheless, Bernie Sanders says, [Bernie Sanders Impression] We have to transition now! Now we have to! We have no choice, right this very instant!
<blockquote>SANDERS: It’s no secret that we must transition away from fossil fuel. Period. End of discussion. There ain’t no middle ground. There is no middle ground.</blockquote>
There&#8217;s no middle ground. Okay so somebody gets up and they say, well, so there&#8217;s no middle ground, why are you driving a car? And Bernie&#8217;s got nothing.
<blockquote>AUDIENCE MEMBER: You seem adamant about climate change. So what ways would you take to practice what you preach? If you were to become president, I know it&#8217;s stressful and you have to travel a lot. You have to use fossil fuels.
SANDERS: No, I&#8217;m not going to walk to California. All right. You know, look, you know I understand that, you know, we do the best we can as an example. But I&#8217;m not going to sit here and tell you that we&#8217;re not going to use fossil fuels.</blockquote>
Oh well, I thought we had no choice. There&#8217;s no middle ground. I cannot give you any one, even one specific way in which I am reducing my carbon footprint. But it is a war and we must do something, right? This is the beautiful thing about being on the Left. It&#8217;s a war against poverty. But I&#8217;m not going to spend my money on it &#8230; It&#8217;s a war against climate change. All right. I&#8217;m going to continue to fly my private jet to Iowa and out of Iowa.
And again sympathy can be measured according to Democrats in how many dollars from somebody else&#8217;s pocket you spend. So you get Bernie saying, These people are telling me, Bernie! The plan you just released to combat climate change is expensive. And you know what, they’re right! It is expensive, but the cost of doing nothing is far more expensive.
Yes, this is always the easy thing to say, right? The cost of doing nothing — it turns out, until you reach about. 2.5 degrees Celsius in global climate change — actually the cost of doing nothing is less expensive. William Nordhaus, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics last year, has an entire book I&#8217;ve recommended on the show called “The Climate Casino.” He does not reject climate change, he does not reject that the climate is changing, and he actually believes in a carbon tax. But even Nordhaus says, yeah there actually is an economic tipping point at which it is not worth it to actually invest in stopping climate change below a certain point. So, Bernie Sanders is just full of it. But again, it&#8217;s about people&#8217;s intentions in politics these days, it&#8217;s not about their actual activity.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to the full episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show&#8221; on iTunes.</a>
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SHAPIRO: The Great Irony Of Bernie Sanders’ Climate Change Plan

On Thursday, the FreedomToons YouTube account uploaded a new video imagining what an interview between noted podcast host Joe Rogan and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) might be like — and it&#8217;s utterly hilarious.
Two scenes in particular stand out. First, cartoon Rogan asks cartoon Sanders about wealth statistics:
<blockquote>SANDERS: This is a country riddled with injustices. At one time, we had slavery. Today, we have college that is not for free.
ROGAN: So, I heard this statistic&#8230;
SANDERS: What?! Who are you?!
ROGAN: And it says that in the United States, we create more millionaires and billionaires than any other country – in the United States.
SANDERS: Oh, isn’t it sooo great that the top one percent in this country has so many wealthy people! Oh, look at me! I just screwed the middle class so that I could buy a yacht that stretches three houses long! [Stammering] Um, three miles long, I meant to say. Three miles long. Joe&#8230;there’s nothing wrong with having three houses. Yachts&#8230;yachts are evil, Joe. Yachts are bad news. Joe, can we please forget that I said all of that?
ROGAN: For five bucks.
SANDERS: Fine! Fine! I’ll pay whatever you want. [Takes out wallet that belongs to someone else] Let’s see. Five dollars&#8230;where is it. That’s a twenty, twenty, fifty, hundred-dollar bill, hundred-dollar bill, hundred-dollar bill, hundred-dollar bill. Here! Don’t you go spend it all buying some democracy.</blockquote>
After cartoon Rogan asks cartoon Sanders about climate change, and Sanders goes on a rant about how all the agencies (including the CIA, the FBI, the ABC, the MSNBC, and the Avengers) agree that &#8220;climate change is colluding with the Russians to buy our democracy,&#8221; Sanders tells Rogan that the United States is the only developed nation where you&#8217;re punished for eating deodorant at the supermarket.
The second scene that stands out is about the minimum wage:
<blockquote>ROGAN: So, you always talk about raising the minimum wage.
SANDERS: It’s the humane thing to do, Joe.
ROGAN: But won’t that increase unemployment?
SANDERS: No.
ROGAN: Buy didn’t your campaign have to cut back on the number of hours you could hire for people in order to pay them all $15 an hour?
SANDERS: Uh&#8230;um&#8230;
ROGAN: Like, instead of giving them more money&#8230;
SANDERS: Well&#8230;
ROGAN: Didn’t you just cut their hours?
SANDERS: See&#8230;the thing is&#8230;you can’t always&#8230;afford to [the increasingly sweaty Sanders punches Rogan in the face, then runs off].</blockquote>
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These scenes are funny, but they also have important real-world parallels. When cartoon Sanders accidentally talked about a &#8220;yacht that stretches three houses long,&#8221; then attempted to pay off cartoon Rogan, there&#8217;s an actual story there.
Sanders, who claims the mantle of democratic socialist, actually owns three houses.
In 2007, the senator bought a $488,999 townhome in Washington D.C., and in 2009, Sanders and his wife Jane bought a $405,000 home in Chittenden County, Vermont, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-net-worth-assets-house-salary-book-sales-2019-2#sanders-reportedly-owns-three-homes-including-a-four-bedroom-house-in-chittenden-county-vermont-that-he-bought-with-his-wife-jane-for-405000-in-2009-7">Business Insider</a>. In 2016, Sanders reportedly paid almost $600,000 for a <a href="https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2016/08/08/bernie-sanders-buys-a-summer-home-in-north-hero">third residence</a>, a vacation home off of Lake Champlain in Vermont.
Sanders also has a net worth of approximately $2 million as of 2017, according to <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/bernie-sanders-net-worth-14678955">The Street</a>. A large part of Sanders&#8217; money has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-net-worth-assets-house-salary-book-sales-2019-2#however-the-senators-income-has-seen-a-jump-in-the-past-couple-of-years-3">reportedly</a> come from a book advance and royalties. When asked by The New York Times about his new money, Sanders <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/us/politics/bernie-sanders-millionaire-net-worth-taxes.html">stated</a>, &#8220;I wrote a best-selling book. &#8230; If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.&#8221;
The second scene, in which cartoon Rogan grills cartoon Sanders about his fight for a $15 minimum wage, is also reflective of reality.
Sanders has long been a proponent of a &#8220;living wage.&#8221; Announcing a plan to introduce legislation that would raise the minimum wage in November 2018, the senator <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-to-re-introduce-15-minimum-wage-bill-in-first-week-of-new-congress​">said</a>, &#8220;We have got to raise the minimum wage in this country to a living wage — at least $15 an hour.&#8221;
However, raising minimum wages can have some negative side effects.
In July, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/labor-fight-roils-bernie-sanders-campaign-as-workers-demand-the-15-hourly-pay-the-candidate-has-proposed-for-employees-nationwide/2019/07/18/3a6df9f4-a966-11e9-9214-246e594de5d5_story.html​">The Washington Post</a> obtained internal documents from the Sanders campaign revealing an ongoing wage-war.
According to the documents, union members were ready to send a letter to Sanders&#8217; campaign manager Faiz Shakir that stated in part, &#8220;[Field workers] cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages. Given our campaign&#8217;s commitment to fighting for a living wage of at least $15.00 an hour, we believe it is only fair that the campaign would carry through this commitment to its own field team.&#8221;
According to the report, organizers claimed that despite making only a $36,000/year salary, they were allegedly working 60 hours a week, translating to approximately $12.50/hour in real pay.
After internal negotiations, on July 23, Sanders announced that an agreement had been reached whereby unionized individuals working for his campaign would earn no less than $15/hour. However, according to the <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/07/19/bernie-sanders-campaign-staff-wage-15-hour-union-elizabeth-warren-campaign-wages/1781159001/">Des Moines Register</a>, &#8220;Sanders said the campaign will limit the number of hours staffers work to 42 or 43 each week to ensure they&#8217;re making the equivalent of $15 an hour.&#8221;
FreedonToons was created by Seamus Coughlin, who animates and voices every video (with animation assistance from Pat Oberle, and a rotating team of freelancers). You can follow FreedomToons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRXnOs1rjfLMYrtZ-0n29NA">YouTube</a>, and follow Coughlin on <a href="https://twitter.com/seamus_coughlin?lang=en">Twitter</a>.

WATCH: Cartoon Hilariously Scorches Bernie Sanders’ Incoherent Ideology

Minimum Wage

On Thursday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; Shapiro rebuts Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s tweet against his &#8220;plutocratic&#8221; ideas. In response to her post about the &#8220;manipulative tactics of plutocrats,&#8221; Shapiro counters, &#8220;One of the most manipulative tactics used by socialists is suggesting that free decision-making by individuals is actually the result of systemic pressures that cannot be avoided other than by people like AOC running your life.&#8221; Video and partial transcript below:
We are now in what — year two — of AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY) sniping at people and then refusing to talk to them. So, there is an open invitation to AOC anytime she wants to discuss this, or any other issue, she can come on the show. This is not &#8220;catcalling&#8221; as she put it, but she sort of &#8220;catcalled&#8221; me yesterday by her own standards. She tweeted out, &#8220;One of the most manipulative tactics plutocrats use is convincing people that the systemic issues we face are a character flaws instead of policy flaws.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">One of the most manipulative tactics plutocrats use is convincing people that the systemic issues we face are a character flaws instead of policy flaws.
Working people aren’t dumb or inferior; nor are they why insulin costs $300 or huge co’s pay starvation wages.
Corruption is. <a href="https://t.co/zyW2m5KIqf">https://t.co/zyW2m5KIqf</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1161756515662909441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Stop there for one second. Ok, &#8220;plutocrats,&#8221; like what, rule by the rich. Let me explain something, I was middle class the vast majority of my life — the vast majority of my life. I know people like to make up kind of fake histories about where I came from and all … . I was born in a two-bedroom small house in Burbank, on Ontario Street, and that small house had one bathroom and six people in it. I shared a bedroom with three sisters until I was 11 years old; we were middle middle class. We were certainly not upper class — we were certainly not rich. And you know what, my parents worked their a** off to make it so that our life was better and good for them. And they did so by working multiple jobs. They did so by making personal decisions.
&#8220;It is one of most manipulative tactics plutocrats use.&#8221; So, I am a plutocrat because, I guess, it&#8217;s plutocracy if I wish to preserve free exchange between people. But it is not hierarchical rule from above if AOC wants to take a gun, run by the government, and put it to the heads of employers. So top-down centralized control by people like AOC is not tyranny, it&#8217;s tyranny if I say that there should be free exchange between people, and how they choose to do jobs.
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She says that, &#8220;One of most manipulative tactics plutocrats use is convincing people that the systemic issues we face are character flaws instead of policy flaws.&#8221; Well no, I&#8217;m not saying it&#8217;s a character flaw to take two jobs. Obviously, I&#8217;m saying in fact that very often it&#8217;s a character benefit, it&#8217;s an attribution of great character. What I am saying is that it&#8217;s a &#8220;you decision,&#8221; it&#8217;s a &#8220;you problem.&#8221;
She is saying, &#8220;Working people aren&#8217;t dumb or inferior.&#8221; Obviously, no one is saying they are — except for AOC — who apparently believes they&#8217;re not capable of negotiating their own salary. They&#8217;re not capable of creating income mobility. They&#8217;re not capable of working two jobs to get ahead.
[AOC says,] &#8220;Nor are they why insulin costs three hundred dollars and huge companies pay starvation wages.&#8221;
I&#8217;m always confused by AOC&#8217;s bizarre understanding of economics. She says corruption is responsible for huge companies paying quote-unquote &#8220;starvation wages.&#8221; Really? Is that corruption or is that people choosing to take a job with Wal-Mart because that is a free exchange. You may not like what Wal-Mart pays. Good news, you don&#8217;t have to work there. Again, that would not be Wal-Mart&#8217;s problem, that would be a you problem. It doesn&#8217;t mean a character flaw in you. It means that you&#8217;re not wanting to work at a place, in a free country, is something that is your choice.
When I say &#8220;you problem,&#8221; I mean a choice made by you. One of the most manipulative tactics used by socialists is suggesting that free decision-making by individuals is actually the result of systemic pressures that cannot be avoided other than by people like AOC running your life. The tactic that the Left likes to use is that there is no income mobility. You can never rise. You&#8217;re being crammed into this job against your will, and that you&#8217;re a victim of circumstance, therefore give me all the power. It&#8217;s manipulative, it&#8217;s garbage, and it makes people&#8217;s lives worse. It&#8217;s just gross.
Facts don&#8217;t care about your feelings. And it is a fact that the Ben Shapiro show is the largest conservative podcast in the nation. Be sure to hit the subscribe button to stay up to date on all of our content.
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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan Testifies To The House On The Trump Administration&#8217;s Child Separation Policy

Shapiro Responds To Ocasio-Cortez: The Only One Trashing Working People Is You

A farmer in Harlan, Iowa, confronted far-left Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Thursday over her support for socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s (D-NY) &#8220;Green New Deal,&#8221; which has raised the prospect of eliminating cows to help fight climate change.
The farmer expressed his concern to Warren about changing the feed that cattle are given, warning that it could lead to more carbon dioxide production.
&#8220;I would say we shouldn&#8217;t get rid of, you know the &#8216;Green New Deal&#8217; says we need to get rid of cows, I don&#8217;t agree with that,&#8221; the farmer said.
Warren responded: &#8220;Eh.&#8221;
The farmer then escalated his frustrations with Warren, saying louder: &#8220;My point is we have become so ignorant of the basic principles of biology in food production that we have said we answer them all through technology instead of letting mother earth and having respect.&#8221;
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Iowa farmer grills Elizabeth Warren and Democrats over wanting to eliminate cows with the Green New Deal.
Warren&#8217;s response: &#8220;Ehhh.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/2yQPCJ1fCb">pic.twitter.com/2yQPCJ1fCb</a>
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1159498749854531589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/green-new-deal-would-cost-93-trillion-or-600g-per-household-study-says">$93 trillion</a> Green New Deal has been widely mocked across the political spectrum, including by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is the most powerful Democrat in the United States.
&#8220;How bad is the Green New Deal paper? Putting aside the fact that, as written, it would receive a C+ in any high school English class, it essentially articulates a magical world in which the skies rain chocolate, the world is powered by unicorn farts, and AOC dances through the gumdrop meadows to Lisztomania,&#8221; Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43194/aocs-green-new-deal-proposal-one-stupidest-ben-shapiro">wrote</a>. &#8220;The proposal calls for the United States to be free of carbon emissions within 10 years without the use of nuclear power. It calls for every building in the United States to be replaced or retrofitted in green fashion. It calls for universal healthcare, free college education, the replacement of airplanes with high-speed trains, charging stations &#8216;everywhere&#8217; (this is the sort of exactness the proposal contains), replacement of &#8216;every combustion-engine vehicle,&#8217; government-provided jobs, family and medical leave, vacations, retirement security, and the abolition of &#8216;farting cows.&#8217; It also calls for total &#8216;economic security&#8217; for anyone &#8216;unable or unwilling to work.'&#8221;

elizabeth_warren.jpg

WATCH: Iowa Farmer Grills Warren Over Green New Deal Wanting To Eliminate Cows

Green New Deal

Iowa

The &#8220;triggering&#8221; hit new levels during the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Convention in Georgia this past weekend. In leaked clips of the event, Democratic Socialists lash out at each other for various offenses, such as using &#8220;gendered language&#8221; and &#8220;whispering.&#8221; Adding to the bizarre nature of the event, which comes off as a satirical skit being laid on a bit too thick, members of DSA whine about what triggers them by first announcing a &#8220;point of personal privilege.&#8221;
&#8220;Uh, quick point of privilege, quick point of personal privilege, um guys — first of all, James Jackson, Sacramento, he/him,&#8221; a man from the convention interrupts in one of the viral clips. &#8220;I just want to say, can we please keep the chatter to the minimum? I&#8217;m one of the people who&#8217;s very, very prone to sensory overload. There’s a lot of whispering and chattering going on. It&#8217;s making it very difficult for me to focus. Please, I know we&#8217;re all fresh and ready to go, but can we please just keep the chatter to a minimum? It&#8217;s affecting my ability to focus. Thank you.&#8221;
The chair answers, &#8220;Thank you, comrade.&#8221;
The peace was short-lived, however. A loud angry male voice chimes in, &#8220;Point of personal privilege! Point of personal privilege! Please do not use gendered language to address everyone!&#8221;
&#8220;Okay,&#8221; the chair responds weakly.
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Meanwhile at the Democratic Socialists of America conference&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/fT0GfHIFFI">pic.twitter.com/fT0GfHIFFI</a>
— Young Americans Against Socialism (@YAAS_America) <a href="https://twitter.com/YAAS_America/status/1157885849796775936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In another clip of the event, &#8220;James Jackson, Sacramento, He/Him&#8221; is back for more complaining, and he&#8217;s more annoyed than ever by the un-comradely actions of his peers.
&#8220;Quick point of privilege once again!&#8221; he interrupts. &#8220;Hi, James Jackson, Sacramento, DSA, he/him.&#8221;
&#8220;I have already asked people to be mindful of the chatter of their comrades who are sensitive to sensory overload. And that goes double for the heckling and the hissing. It is also triggering to my anxiety. Like, being comradely isn&#8217;t just for like, you know, let’s keep things civil or whatever. It&#8217;s so people aren&#8217;t going to get triggered, and so that it doesn&#8217;t affect their performance as a delegate. Okay? Your need to express yourself is important, but you need to express yourself should not trump [my needs].&#8221;
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">It gets better, triggered anxiety comrade has another meltdown. Lmfao <a href="https://t.co/lljr4tF0yV">pic.twitter.com/lljr4tF0yV</a>
— Joaquin Castro is an Ass Hole (@therealShane44) <a href="https://twitter.com/therealShane44/status/1157893365268013056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Aside from no whispering and no gendered language, there were a slew of other rules assigned to DSA members. In a clip from the start of the convention, one of the leaders barred &#8220;aggressive scents&#8221; from &#8220;quiet rooms&#8221; and directed his peers to &#8220;try to be chill&#8221; and avoid talking to cops &#8220;for any reason at all&#8221; and &#8220;MAGA a**holes.&#8221; Also, their sense of charity was iconically meant to be tamed: no letting in your left-wing pals!
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Democratic Socialists of America convention rules:
No “aggressive scents” in the quiet room 
No misuse of doors 
No interacting with cops 
No talking to the press
I’m sorry, I thought this was America.
h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/Oil_Guns_Merica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Oil_Guns_Merica</a> <a href="https://t.co/CNES5jaXr6">pic.twitter.com/CNES5jaXr6</a>
— Young Americans Against Socialism (@YAAS_America) <a href="https://twitter.com/YAAS_America/status/1158088364912009216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-socialists-convention-erupts-due-to-sensory-overload-gendered-pronoun-usage">H/t</a> Fox News

Socialist

Triggering On A New Level: Video Of Democratic Socialists Of America Convention Goes Viral

Gender

Gender Pronouns

Georgia

The terrorist who killed 10 people on Sunday in Dayton, Ohio was a hardcore leftist who was pro-Elizabeth Warren and promoted Bernie Sanders, Antifa, gun control, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s (D-NY) &#8220;concentration camp&#8221; rhetoric, and strong anti-ICE sentiment, according to reviews of his Twitter account by The Daily Wire and other publications.
The attacker — whom The Daily Wire is not naming due to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27329/why-daily-wire-will-no-longer-publish-names-or-ben-shapiro">company policy</a> — identified himself as a leftist on Twitter, where he used a pseudonym and espoused many of his far-left beliefs.
CNN ran a segment on Tuesday morning calling the attacker&#8217;s Twitter account &#8220;confusing,&#8221; noting it was &#8220;very left-leaning, pro-Antifa, anti-police,&#8221; and seemingly supportive of &#8220;progressive candidates in the Democratic Party.&#8221; The shooter also retweeted &#8220;support for gun control after the El Paso shooting,&#8221; which CNN described as &#8220;confusing.&#8221;
Sean Davis, the co-founder of The Federalist, weighed in on CNN&#8217;s segment, tweeting: &#8220;Killers supporting gun control is only confusing if you’re an idiot. Evil men rarely want their targets to be able to defend themselves or others, which is why the overwhelming majority of mass shootings are perpetrated in gun-free zones.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Killers supporting gun control is only confusing if you’re an idiot. Evil men rarely want their targets to be able to defend themselves or others, which is why the overwhelming majority of mass shootings are perpetrated in gun-free zones. <a href="https://t.co/Sa6tzjHl5s">https://t.co/Sa6tzjHl5s</a>
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1158765211182125056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The attacker promoted multiple tweets from different chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a fringe far-left party to which Ocasio-Cortez belongs.
The attacker made comments stating that he wanted socialism imposed and was not willing to wait for people to come around to his way of thinking.
The attacker said that he had &#8220;crippling depression,&#8221; which he said was responsible for his drinking. The attacker also repeatedly made strong pro-Satan comments and repeatedly talked about smoking meth.
The media&#8217;s coverage of the beliefs of the Dayton shooter has been dwarfed by its coverage of the El Paso attacker — who was a racist ethno-nationalist and a white supremacist.
The El Paso attacker hated both Democrats and Republicans, held extreme right-wing views on immigration, and held far-left views on the environment and social programs.

Accident or crime scene cordon tape

Dayton Attacker Was Hardcore Leftist, Pro-Warren, Pro-Socialism, Pro-Satan; Promoted Bernie, Antifa, Gun Control.

Shooting

During an interview on CNN Thursday morning, presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) was forced into admitting her health care proposal would strip Americans of their employer-provided health insurance plans.
“You said your opponents were lying, or weren’t being honest about [your new health care proposal],” CNN “New Day” co-host John Berman said to Harris. “The issue of your private insurance — one of the things that has been charged is that you will not be able to keep your private insurance. If we get insurance though CNN, if GM workers get insurance through GM — under your plan, they will not be able to keep that private insurance. Is that true?”
“My plan will separate your health care from your employer, meaning your employer will no longer dictate the kind of health care you receive,” Harris answered.
“Under my plan of Medicare-for-All,” she continued, “private insurance companies will be able to provide coverage if they play by our rules. Therefore, what that means is that you don’t have to be wed to your employer to keep the insurance that you like and that you need.”
Harris again emphasized, “We have to decouple health care from employers &#8230; there will be private insurance, there will be private plans, but it will not be coupled with your employer.”
That seems an awful lot like kissing goodbye, under Harris’ health care policy, to employer-provided health insurance.
Berman pressed Harris about her obfuscation, iterating that she’d be taking away Americans’ employer-provided health insurance.
“Yes, they may be able to keep a private insurance, but it’s not their private insurance,” the CNN host told the senator. “Correct?”
“They get to make the choice,” Harris quietly uttered.
“No,” Berman shot back, “you’re basically allowing for a Medicare Advantage plan, where, insurers can enter that plan and they can choose it if they want to. But if you’re getting insurance from GM, from your employer, you will not get to keep that &#8230; It’s a private plan, not necessarily your private plan; there’s no guarantee that your private plan will be part of that [option].”
Harris weakly conceded in a carefully worded response, “Well, if you decide that your private plan is your employers’ private plan, as opposed to your private plan that you want to choose for yourself, then perhaps you’re right.”
The Sacrament Bee <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article233305052.html">confirmed</a> on Wednesday in a “fact check” that Harris’ plan would strip Americans of their employer-provided health care plans:
<blockquote>“Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet claimed at the Democratic debate Wednesday night that Sen. Kamala Harris intends to ban employer-based health insurance.
“Harris argued that her healthcare proposal, unveiled earlier this week, wouldn’t make anything ‘illegal.’ That is true, but it would ultimately eliminate the way most Americans currently get their health insurance: through their employer.”</blockquote>
The Bee noted that “more than three-quarters of the public have a favorable view of employer-sponsored health coverage,” <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-july-2019/?utm_campaign=KFF-2019-polling-surveys&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_1t3fBN4psl6L09NcOb62i-A3WQnhjbhw2quBMqNBru4rSww5oW85QTX7St9pHdE3BVWYEJKY9H5tM_9wYgG0vC0tW2w&amp;_hsmi=75153681&amp;utm_content=75153681&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;hsCtaTracking=bcf0ba9d-da04-46d4-ad24-7c42796758f8%7C76e313ce-ec28-4877-8812-4f49544f8e59">according</a> to July polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris says she will eliminate employer-based insurance plans<a href="https://t.co/DGjG9cXKZy">pic.twitter.com/DGjG9cXKZy</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1156992282467266560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WATCH: CNN Host Gets Kamala Harris To Admit She&#8217;s Taking Away Your Employer-Provided Health Insurance

Kamala Harris

At the two nights of the most recent Democratic Party presidential debates, 20 candidates warned in ever more alarming terms about the supposedly looming apocalypse.
“Literally the survival of humanity on this planet in civilization is in the hands of the next president,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/democratic-debate-july-31-2019/h_b8177bf26dc2fca01f55fc8710304039">said</a> on the second night. “And we have to have a leader who will do what is necessary to save us.”
Though not every candidate endorsed the so-called Green New Deal, most called climate change an existential threat and echoed the sensational headlines that we have <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2019/01/22/ocasio-cortez-climate-change-alarm/2642481002/">12 years</a>, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/beto-orourke-we-only-have-10-years-let-on-earth-if-we-dont-address-climate-change">10 years</a>, or even <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2018/01/15/carbon-pollution-has-shoved-the-climate-backward-at-least-12-million-years-harvard-scientist-says/">five years</a> to stave off the End of Days. Unfortunately for the American people, none chose to lay aside the hyperbole of climate change alarmism and use his/her platform to drive our national discourse toward the truth.
And so far, no one clamoring about this supposed apocalypse has proposed a serious plan of action.
Our national conversation about climate change remains fraught and unproductive, with both sides talking past each other rather than to each other.
The missing link is a foundational understanding of how the United States actually produces our energy. If politicians really want to switch to renewable power, it can’t be accomplished without a concrete, coherent plan to replace the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=40013">80% of our energy</a> that comes from fossil fuels — natural gas, oil, and coal.
Like it or not, fossil fuels represent the most reliable, affordable, and abundant energy sources we have. Access to these energy resources has led to the most dramatic improvements in the human condition in recorded history. After the Industrial Revolution made electricity widespread and accessible, average global life expectancy and GDP per capita <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexepstein/2016/03/28/why-green-energy-means-no-energy/#7a58741c17dc">increased dramatically</a>. People are healthier, freer, more prosperous, better educated, and more comfortable than ever before.
Meanwhile, as our energy use has increased, so has our environmental quality. The United States is a world leader in clean air, with major <a href="https://files.texaspolicy.com/uploads/2018/11/27165514/2018-11-RR-US-Leads-the-World-in-Clean-Air-ACEE-White.pdf?__hstc=123760149.a1ffad69b2a014eec1ac8a23eed19c36.1553016528347.1561662255945.1561734439873.241&amp;__hssc=123760149.14.1561734439873&amp;__hsfp=1784292781">pollutants falling nearly 75% since 1970</a>.
These are benefits we take for granted — benefits not every country enjoys, even in the 21st century — and are too often overlooked in policy conversations about energy and the environment.
At current levels of technology, wind and solar energy <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/tech-size.html">require far too much land</a>, battery storage, and backup power to become a primary energy source. It would take 27 times the acreage to replace the nation’s coal plants with solar power and more than 100 times the acreage for wind, not counting immense storage requirements — also destroying more wildlife and overwhelmingly increasing our physical footprint on the earth.
Even after tens of <a href="https://www.eia.gov/analysis/requests/subsidy/pdf/subsidy.pdf">billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies</a>, renewable energy remains impractical.
Just ask Germany, where renewable power mandates have caused <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/04/23/if-solar-and-wind-are-so-cheap-why-are-they-making-electricity-more-expensive/#2e65d8f1dc66">electricity prices to rise over 50%</a> — and where coal plants are subsidized to provide power when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. A recent study revealed that <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/publications/papers/2019/wp-19-09.html">higher electricity prices leads to more wintertime deaths</a>, as low-income and senior citizens are forced to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table.
What’s more, even switching to 100% renewable energy by 2030, as plans like the Green New Deal call for, would only reduce global temperatures by <a href="http://magicc.org/">0.04 degrees in 2100</a>. That’s according to data models used by the United Nations, traditionally one of the leading voices of climate change alarmism.
The Democratic presidential debates over the last two nights addressed none of these real, tangible concerns. Instead, candidates kowtowed to the political allure of climate change fear-mongering. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg cried that we’re nearing the “horizon of catastrophe,” despite the fact that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg/photos/a.221758208967/10156615395793968/?type=3&amp;theater">climate-related deaths have declined 97%</a> in the past century.
Meanwhile, the voters were left hanging, faced with the false choice between an unlikely doomsday and unnecessarily higher taxes, electricity and fuel costs, and overall cost of living — all for limited, if any, environmental benefit.
Instead of parroting the popular but unfounded climate change doomsday narrative, our prospective leaders should empower Americans with the clear path forward that prioritizes human flourishing. As history has shown in the United States and around the world, affordable, reliable, abundant energy is critical to that flourishing.
Our economy, public health, and quality of life depend on it.
The Honorable Jason Isaac is Senior Manager and Distinguished Fellow of <a href="https://lifepowered.org">Life:Powered</a>, a national initiative to raise America’s energy IQ. He previously served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/isaacfortexas">@ISAACforTexas</a>.

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