Friday, December 27, 2019

op ed review 12/29


THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Rasmussen Poll: 51% Agree Impeachment Is ‘Abuse of Power’ By Democrats

One trillion dollars have flowed into the American economy as Trump’s tax law changes allowed companies to repatriate profits without tax penalty
1 in every 4 circuit court judges is now a Trump appointee

New Yorker editor: ‘(after all we’ve done) It's a source of great frustration' people still support Trump’

Democratic insiders say Bernie could win the nomination
Obama talks up Warren behind closed doors to wealthy donors
Pete Buttigieg doesn't have a plan on immigration. He has a welcome mat.
Democrats Seek To Outlaw Suburban, Single-Family House Zoning, Calling It Racist And Bad For The Environment

California public schools can’t suspend students for disobeying teachers, new law says.

Giuliani: ‘Saint Marie Yovanovitch’ Quashed Ukraine Probe Into Missing $5.3 Billion in Foreign Aid

Mexican man previously deported SIX TIMES was arrested in fatal hit-and-run of Denver mother-of-six.
Latest spending bill gives Afghan military 3X more funding than US southern border wall

Virginia Governor Northam Increases Corrections Budget In Anticipation Of Jailing Gun Owners
Over A Third of Democrat Primary Voters Favor Gun Confiscation

Sarah Huckabee Sanders ‘very seriously looking at’ run for Arkansas governor.

Breitbart Facebook Page Beats NYT, WSJ, USA Today, WaPo Combined

UK:  Transgender woman accused of 'hate speech' after wearing t-shirt stating she is still biologically male

Pope Francis tells teens they’re not a ‘disciple of Jesus’ if they try to convert non-believers.
Pope Francis Blasts Conservative Christians, Warning That: 'Rigid Conservative Christians Are Actually Creating A Minefield Of Hatred'
China instructs Bible to be rewritten as pro-communist

Nearly 200 evangelical leaders condemned Christianity Today editorial on Trump

CNN Pays 58 Airports $100,000 Each to Play Channel at Gates

Right Now, Republicans Are Dominating the Voter Registration Game in Florida

Romney, Kerry, Biden, McCain, Pelosi, Schiff, Mueller & Clinton are tied to sketchy Ukraine deals.
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COLUMN OF THE WEEK
“Give, Don't Govern”
John Stossel  12/25

This week, children may learn about that greedy man, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge is selfish until ghosts scare him into thinking about others' well-being, not just his own. Good for the ghosts. But the way Scrooge addresses others' needs matters.

Today's advocates of equality, compassion, increased spending on education, health care, etc., say "we care" but demand that government do the work. Controlling other people with the power of government doesn't prove you care.

If you want to help the poor, clean the environment, improve the arts. Great! Please do. But if you are compassionate, then you'll spend your own money on your vision. You will volunteer your work and encourage others to volunteer theirs, by charity or commerce. You don't force others to do what you think is best.

But the government is not voluntary. The government has no money of its own. Whatever it gives away, it first must take from others through taxes. If you vote for redistribution of wealth, welfare benefits, new Medicare spending or free education, you can tell yourself you're "generous." But you're not. You're just forcing others to pay for programs you think might help.

That's not generosity. That's control. The more programs you demand, the more controlling you are. In fact, you are worse than greedy old Ebenezer Scrooge. With Scrooge, people have a choice. They can work for Scrooge or quit. They can do business with someone else.

Governments don't offer us a choice. Governments say: "Comply or we will lock you up. Pay taxes and we will decide whom to help. No one may escape the master plan."

Why, then, do people react to big government ideas as if they're generous instead of scary? Because most people don't think clearly about what it means to tell the government to use force against their fellow citizens. They think about society the way their ancestors did. "Our minds evolved tens of thousands of years ago when we lived in small groups of 50-200 people," says HumanProgress.org editor Marian Tupy. "We would kill game, bring it back, share it."

The idea of everyone getting an equal share still makes us feel warm and cozy. Some of you may feel that coziness this week, sharing a Christmas meal. Great. But remember that if you decide that society's resources should be redistributed, that's much more complex than passing meat around a family table.

Seizing control of a big society's resources has unforeseen consequences -- ripple effects that are hard to predict. Back in the cave, you stood a pretty good chance of noticing which hungry relative needed a bigger share of meat. In the tribe, that sort of central planning worked well enough. It doesn't work as well once the tribe numbers thousands or millions of people. No tribal elder knows enough to plan so many different people's lives.

Today's politicians, for instance, don't know how many workers will be laid off if they raise taxes on Walmart. They don't know what innovation will never happen if they cap CEOs' salaries. They don't know how much wealth creation will be lost if they tax investors' money in order to fund another government program. The government's built-in ignorance explains how it can spend trillions on failed poverty programs, and then respond to the failure by demanding more funds to continue the same programs.

You stand a better chance of getting good results if you do real charity, close to home, where you can keep an eye on it -- and without coercing anyone else to do things your way. We can invent new ways to give to each other. Philanthropy evolves, much the way markets do, harnessing new technologies and social networks that span the globe. Innovative ideas, like micro-lending, start in one kitchen. If they work, they grow.

By contrast, the government grows even when it doesn't work. It bosses people around even when it's not really helping them. Big hearts are a good thing. Big government is no substitute for them.

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS
“Over 200 evangelical leaders have come out … against Christianity Today after their recent attack against Trump. Why isn’t CNN reporting on this as tirelessly as they did on the vicious hit job against our president? I guess it doesn’t fit their narrative.”
            -Charlie Kirk

“Exaggerated, doomsday climate predictions create ‘climate deniers’ in the same way that progressive, identity politics creates more racists.”
            -Steven Crowder
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LEFTIST WATCH
Socialism has rendered Venezuela’s currency so worthless it’s mostly being used for making crafts.
Watch Venezuela’s Dramatic Economic Plunge Under Socialism…interesting animation

Schweitzer:  Left Is Churning Through Our Institutions, Constitution to Get Trump

AG Bill Barr Calls Out George Soros For Subverting Legal System and Causing "Increase in Violent Crime and More Victims" Through Targeting District Attorney Races

Michael Moore: “White Guys Who Voted For Trump 'Are Not Good People' -- Be Afraid of Them”
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PROGRESSIVE AMERICA
Cadet Hand Gesture Controversy: Media Pundits Push Worst Possible Explanation
In search of the elusive white supremacist:  “I, personally, know hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people, but as far as I know I have never yet met a white supremacist. So the Democrats are reduced to whipping up enthusiasm among their voters, especially minority voters, with moronic attacks on Academy cadets and midshipmen and high school students. Are black and other minority Americans dumb enough to fall for this transparent ruse? I doubt it. One thing we can say for sure: white supremacism has declined a long way from the days when it was the lifeblood of the Democratic Party, and Democrats expressed their racist views by hanging people. How much more peaceful it would have been if someone had taught the Democrats the “OK” sign!”

Nancy Pelosi,  Not Just Leader of the Impeach Vote, But Leader of the Entire 2016 Coup
Stammering, Blabbering, Stuttering Pelosi Tries to Explain the Impeachment Delay

Samantha Bee Horrified That Hong Kong Protesters Like Trump and Republicans

Dem billionaires Steyer and Bloomberg already have spent a combined $200 million in quest for presidency

NBC News Smears Trump's Conservative Judges as 'Anti-LGBTQ'
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ARTICLES
Professor: No Need for a Trial in the Senate, Articles of Impeachment 'On Their Face Are Defective'
Against Impeachment for Thought Crimes

22 year FBI agent:  “Either your nation’s premiere law enforcement agency was breathtakingly incompetent when the stakes were the highest, or select officials in that organization made deliberate decisions to break the law, undermine the Constitution, and illegally spy on a fellow American. Either possibility has deeply damaged the reputation of the FBI and DOJ in addition to the reputations of thousands of honest FBI Agents and DOJ attorneys.”

“Chick-fil-A’s abandonment of The Salvation Army is yesterday’s news, but its lessons should be remembered, for they explain our cultural and political trajectory. That the chicken chain capitulated even though everyone was “eating mor chikin” is instructive regarding the power of the LBGT lobby and its allies. That they directed this power against a Christian organization dedicated to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and sheltering the homeless — including those who identify as LGBT — is even more instructive. It exemplifies how hard-liners are driving the cultural left.”

Prager:  A Response to the Editor of Christianity Today

VDH:  The Era of ‘Good’ Fascism…..”If and when fascism comes to America, it will not arrive with jackboots, stiff arms, and military uniforms. To modern progressives, laws are fluid, to be enforced when they champion the “good,” to be ignored or subverted when they empower the “bad.”
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GOOD STUFF
“You Gotta Love Boris”   Boris Johnson is like Winston Churchill, in that even his bitterest critics concede that he is extraordinarily talented.  Must see video clip where he riffs into reciting the Illiad from memory, IN ANCIENT GREEK.”

Great cartoons from Steve Kelley:

Stunning panorama of Mars reveals the final resting place of NASA's Opportunity rover

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