HALF-FULL REPORT 07/29/22
On Tuesday, President Trump kicked off what many believe is the start of his campaign to regain the Oval Office that was stolen from him.
His 90-minute keynote address to the America First Agenda Summit in Washington DC was a barnburner in content delivered conversationally, like he was calmly talking to friends in their living room. You can watch the full address here, and read the full transcript here.
I encourage you (after reading the HFR!) to watch a bit and read what you can. His damnation of what the Democrats are doing to our country is devastating. His solutions are what’s needed, such as:
“We have to rescue our schools from the Marxist teachers unions. We need to completely demolish the corrupt education bureaucracy and liberate our children.” And “We should not allow men to play in women’s sports. So crazy.”
“We want to ensure universal voter ID, but our goal should be same day voting with only paper ballots.” And “We need to break the choke hold of Silicon Valley censors and restore free speech in America.”
The audience stood and cheered when he teased:
“I won, and I won a second time. Did much better the second time. Very corrupt… We may just have to do it again.”
Yes we may because we must.
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The NY Post’s cover yesterday (7/28) is a pristine example of the slippery slope Xiden’s ersatz presidency is sliding down this week. Three headlines:
Zero Hedge: “I’ve Delivered”: New Disclosures Demolish President Biden’s Denials On Hunter Dealings.
Fox: Joe Biden Met With At Least 14 Of Hunter’s Business Associates While Vice President.
The Daily Mail didn’t let up, hammering Recession Joe yesterday: America Goes Into RECESSION After Second Straight Quarter Of Negative Growth But Biden Insists: ‘We Are On The Right Path’.
And again this morning: Shock New Research For Dailymail.Com Lays Bare Brutal Toll Of Inflation Under Biden – As We Break Down Why American Families Are Paying A Staggering $5,915 More On 45 Everyday Items
The media knives are slicing him up on orders from the Dem Establishment that knows the public wants him gone, the quicker the better. As Ramirez puts it:
So now the question is, when in 2022 – after the mid-terms, or before, as in next month? Odds are rising for the latter. Watch for AG Garland to be the Dems’ messenger boy: “Please go quietly back to your basement, Joe, for health reasons, or I’ll have to indict Hunter to the moon.”
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Basement Joe’s impending retirement may the catalyst for Joe Manchin’s cave-in to Schumer’s boondoggle climate change-reconciliation bill. It’s a bald-faced ploy to curry favor with the woke warmist loonies in preparation for his run for the presidency in ’24.
Or more directly – Manchin’s bid to be Harris’ VP. No way would she be viable in ’24, making Manchin a ’24 shoo-in. As Henry IV in 1593 said, “Paris is worth a mass” to be King of France as a Catholic, so Manchin is embracing climate madness to be president.
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Then again, Joe’s move could be a head-fake as he’s a smart guy. Schumer’s half-trillion boondoggle is a “reconciliation” bill that can pass with simple majorities. Not so fast, Chuck.
Such a bill allows for any senator to offer an amendment that must be read and voted on. McConnell can draw this out for a long time which Schumer doesn’t have. Congress’ Summer Vacation (“Recess”) begins next week, which Schumer can delay only for a few days and Mitch can wait him out.
Then, even if it passes – which it may not if Sinema balks – it goes to the House, which left on Recess today (7/29). Pelosi’s already in the air on her way to Taiwan. Congress’ recess continues all the way to September 13. By then, Schumer’s bill will be a dead letter – and Manchin knows it.
Yes, Pelosi may try to reconvene the House for a vote in the middle of August, but it would be like herding cats. And there’s another big wrinkle coming next month.
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Four wrinkles, in fact. The House has 435 Members. The vote count now is 220D to 211R, meaning there are four vacancies due to members’ passing or resigning. All four have special elections in August, with the winner immediately becoming a Member.
In all four, a Republican is expected to win: August 9, Brad Finstad in MN-01; August 16, Sarah Palin (!) in Alaska at-large; Aug 23, Marc Molinaro in NY-19 and Joe Sempolinski in NY-23.
That would bring the House to 220D to 215R. How many of those 220 Dems are on such thin ice with their voters in the face of a Red Wave that they’ll bail on the climate boondoggle? A handful would be enough. Good luck, Nancy.
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So August will be interesting in this regard, but for the most part, we all want to take a break from sturm-und-drang politics as much as Congress does. In August, we’d rather read a book at the beach and worry about more important matters like, is the inside of our forearms as tan as the outside.
We’ll want to hear pretty much only good news like this on Saturday (7/23): Georgia Ends Abortion With ‘Heartbeat’ Law After Federal Court Finds It Is Constitutional.
Or funny news, like Fox’s Charles Hurt calling out the woke left’s gender identity and tranny fascism: “Try milking bulls if you think there are 12 genders.”
At Trump’s AFPI speech, there were more GOP Senators, House Members, and Party leaders that he could mention – save for Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, and Newt Gingrich. There’s little doubt they were all there to pay homage to the titular leader of the Republican Party.
Ron DeSantis is a very impressive up-and-comer, no doubt – but my hope is that Trump will run and tap RDS to be his VP. For that, he’d have to switch legal residence per the 12th Amendment which should be a formality.
As VP, RDS would be in the catbird seat for two presidential terms, plus he could be in charge as VP of White House personnel policy to avoid Trump’s failures. There has to be someone really good and strong for this and who better than RDS, plus we’d get 12 years of him at the White House, not just 8.
As far as declaring, POTUS will certainly wait past Labor Day, and most probably wait until the mid-term results in which he can bask with his successful endorsements – who in recompense will enthusiastically endorse his ’24 candidacy.
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Near the end of his AFPI address, he bemoaned the disasters befalling the America he made great again after a year-and-half of Biden.
“Now we are a nation in decline, a failing nation, a nation that is begging Venezuela for oil, a nation that is consumed by the radical left’s Green New Deal that will lead to the destruction of our country.”
Then he continued:
“We are a nation that allowed Russia to devastate a country, Ukraine, killing hundreds of thousands of people… And it would never ever, ever have happened if I was your commander in chief, would’ve never happened.”
That is certainly true. Yet thanks to the bipartisan support of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Ukraine is rising above this devastation and death to defeat Putin’s attempt to destroy and reincorporate it into the Russian Fascist Empire.
It’s not just us – it is simply astounding how many countries in Europe and elsewhere, at least three or four dozen, are flooding Ukraine with artillery, weaponry, ammo, and war materiel with the common goal of inflicting massive military defeat upon Russia as you are reading this.
And more is coming. Yesterday (7/28): The US Congress Declares the Need to Transfer ATACMS to Ukraine: Democrats and Republicans Support the Decision. The support in the House was unanimous. Think about that.
Currently, Ukraine is obliterating Russian ammo depots and command centers with their HIMARS artillery, but only up to a range of 80km or about 50 miles, meaning deep but not all the way into Russian-occupied Donbas and Kherson.
The MGM-140 ATACMS have a range of 300km or 190 miles – meaning not just all the way into Donbas but Crimea and the Kerch Strait Bridge.
The bridge across the Kerch Strait that joins the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov is the only connection between Russia and the Crimea Peninsula which Russia militarily seized in 2014. Blow it and there is no way to logistically support Russian occupation forces there, nor those in Kherson.
Further, the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol. Blow the huge fuel depots there and the fleet has no fuel – making them sitting ducks for ATACM missiles. Kherson is already on the verge of encirclement by Ukrainian forces and would fall even more quickly.
Putin faces massive military defeat forcing his retreat once ATACMS are deployed. On Monday (7/25), Forbes reported Russia’s Artillery Is Wearing Out and Blowing Up. On Wednesday (7/27), India’s press reported Russia Reels Under Staggering Loss Of Army Leadership.
This morning (7/29), the Daily Mail reported:
- Russia is facing ‘economic oblivion’ in its financial war with West
- Business is in retreat and sanctions catastrophically crippling their economy
- Putin’s strategy of cutting gas to Europe financially unsustainable for dictator
- Every single sector of the Russian economy is flailing and outlook even grimmer
This Yale University research report, by Dr. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Lester Crown professor in management practice and senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management, and Dr. Steven Tian, director of research at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, is convincing:
Actually, the Russian Economy Is Imploding: Nine myths about the effects of sanctions and business retreats, debunked. All research sources and data is here: https://yale.app.box.com/s/cq5zinargisl3fgh9nm5swd7hmfgc9vw
On top of all this, yesterday (7/28): US Senate Unanimously Approves Resolution To Designate Russia As State Sponsor Of Terrorism. Again, unanimously. You don’t get more unified bipartisan than that.
Bottom line: Putin hasn’t got much longer to last in office than Biden; Russia’s fate will be that of the USSR; Ukraine will be fully incorporated into Europe to be free and prosper.
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Trump is well aware of all this – which is why he’s on Ukraine’s side. Yesterday in Skye’s Links, Skye suggested this as a must-read for the week: M.B. Mathews: I Was Wrong About Trump. I could not encourage you more to do so.
Mathews refers to a speech by Tom Klingenstein, Chairman of the Claremont Institute. He entitled his talk, Trump’s Virtues, describing Donald Trump as “born for the current American crisis: the life and death struggle against the totalitarian enemy” that he calls “woke communism.”
The “woke comms,” he says, “have seized every political, cultural, and economic center of power in the country from where they ruthlessly push their agenda. That agenda rests on the conviction that America is thoroughly bad (systemically racist) and must be destroyed.” He makes the case that Trump is the best and perhaps only man to do just that.
Please watch and be inspired by Tom Klingenstein’s talk, Trump’s Virtues.