Biden’s Plan to Buy Votes
As the midterm elections fast approach, Democrats have lost a key demographic that they relied on in 2020: college-educated men. The biggest defections from the Democrat Party since the last election have been by this group, amid an overall decline since inauguration of 19 points in support of Biden by those under age 35.
The Democrats’ playbook for attracting voters is to toss them some handouts. So it is no coincidence that, six months before Election Day, Biden is working on a plan to give potential supporters upwards of $500 billion.
A half-trillion dollars is a lot of money, even by today’s standards of sending truckloads of new cash to almost anyone who asks for it. Inflation is soaring to levels not seen in 40 years.
Student debt tops $1.7 trillion, as racked up by merely 13% of the population due to overpriced higher education. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that Congressional approval is required before that debt is forgiven, which would burden all Americans.
Yet Biden plans to bypass Congress, and instead transfer these dollars to his potential supporters through the Department of Education. Biden and the Democrat Party want to claim credit for this on the eve of the election.
Biden told reporters that he has rejected waiving as much as $50,000 per student in loans, which would be more than the average student debt of $37,000. Biden can try to buy millions of votes with a waiver of $10,000 per student.
Already in default is 8% of this debt, which is not dischargeable in bankruptcy due to federal legislation that Biden supported in 2005. Changing the bankruptcy laws for those who are truly bankrupted by student debt would make far more sense than simply waiving debt obligations across-the-board.
The real culprits are the university elites, who in lockstep manner have overcharged young Americans for the privilege of being indoctrinated by far-Left professors preaching to their captive audiences. In 1971, the average cost of one year at a public university was only $1,410, which was merely 16% of median household income.
Families could afford college then without going into debt. But by 2018, the average annual cost at a public university had risen to $21,370, which constituted a whopping 35% of the median household income that did not increase as much as college costs did.
That means most families have to go into debt to put a child through a public college, let alone two or three children in college. At private colleges, the costs are far higher and thus the debt much greater.
Among students graduating from college today, more than half are in debt with student loans. Worse, good jobs are not available to new college graduates today except in mostly STEM-related fields.
Universities have made this situation worse by lengthening the time periods for obtaining bachelor’s and graduate degrees. No longer is 4 years the expected duration of completing college, as now the government considers graduating within 6 years a success.
Today less than half of students who enroll at a 4-year college actually graduate within 4 years, and only about 60% graduate within even 6 years. That winding path is enormously expensive and wasteful, as the student is typically then unable to work at a full-time job during those years of peak productivity.
Yet Biden is not criticizing his Democrat supporters who control these schools as they senselessly rack up so much debt for students. Meanwhile, these same schools bring in foreigners on visas as another way of grabbing more revenue.
Many of these foreign students then overstay their visas and never return to their foreign countries, and either take jobs from Americans here, take government entitlements funded by taxpayers, or commit heinous crimes. Graduate- level positions, many funded by government grants, are increasingly filled by the foreigners here.
In the last decade there has been a 39% increase in enrollment by foreign students in the United States. Today they total an estimated 1.1 million students in college, a third of whom are disproportionately from China, which hardly seems deserving of more handouts by Americans.
Statistically, those with college educations tend to make more money, jumping from an average of $600 per week for persons having no college education to nearly $900 weekly for those with some college education, to about $1,300 weekly for those having a college degree. The numbers are higher for those with professional and PhD degrees, averaging about $1,900 for both.
Euphemistically described as “loan forgiveness,” erasing student debt is shockingly unfair to those who went to work during their prime years or paid off their student loans. Colleges should be the ones refunding students who did not receive good jobs they were misled to expect from a liberal arts education.
Ending Censorship on Twitter
When Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump, it appeared that censorship had won. A tidal wave of additional censorship ensued, causing Twitter to become the dullest place on earth.
Free speech vanished on Twitter after excluding Trump. Last month Twitter announced on Earth Day that it will ban advertisements contrary to liberal assertions of man-made global warming, and the European Union implemented the Digital Services Act to require even more censorship by Twitter and other social media.
Initially, the San Francisco liberals running Twitter appeared to thwart Elon Musk’s takeover bid by adopting a special “poison pill” to frustrate it. But apparently Twitter’s Board of Directors had an epiphany after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and 17 other Republican congressmen sent them a letter on April 22 telling them to preserve their emails and other records as they opposed Musk.
The Republicans’ letter observed that “the Board’s reactions to Elon Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter, and outsider opposition to Musk’s role in Twitter’s future are concerning. Twitter’s Board Members have fiduciary duties to the company’s Shareholders,” the letter continued.
“These duties apply despite how many corporations’ leaders increasingly pursue progressive policy goals divorced from shareholder interests,” Jordan pointed out. Lawyers might have also advised the Twitter Board members that they would be subject to lawsuits for shareholder harm they could cause by blocking Musk’s bid.
Jordan is a former NCAA college wrestling champion who knows how to take down an opponent, and his timing was perfect. The congressmen who joined Jordan’s letter included Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), who as a Super Bowl champion defensive back is likewise fully adept at tackling an adversary.
“Why are Twitter’s board members scared of @elonmusk and free speech?” Rep. Jordan tweeted in addition to his letter. More than 52,000 “likes” of Jordan’s tweet showed how the public supports him, and free speech.
Free speech won on April 25, when the Twitter Board reversed itself and voted unanimously to accept Musk’s bid. If only a little birdie could report next on the communications among the Board members who reversed their initial opposition to Musk’s generous offer.
Reflecting the liberal political fixation of Twitter employees, after the announcement of the Board’s decision to accept Musk’s purchase one employee asked Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal whether Trump would be reinstated on the platform. Agrawal said he did not know.
Trump, however, stated he does know: he’s not returning to Twitter even if allowed back. This sets the stage for Musk to beg and urge Trump to return, which is how the free market works best.
Trump plans to work on lifting his own platform, Truth Social, by posting soon there. Trump’s platform is outside of European censorship rules, and need not cave into demands by Leftist trolls or allow their stream of vile, senseless response tweets welcomed by Twitter to litter Trump’s prior account there.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump declared on April 25. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.”
Twitter’s current Board of Directors took in a total of $3 million in compensation annually, and Musk has vowed to have a volunteer board for Twitter to save that waste. Indeed, Musk seeks to take the company private so that it will no longer be subject to intrusion by securities regulators.
But without Trump and his supporters, it is difficult to see how Twitter can recapture its spark of 2020 during the presidential election and its aftermath. Amid its increased censorship, Twitter’s stock had fallen sharply in the last nine months, and its bankers reportedly advised Twitter that restoring value required accepting Musk’s offer.
Twitter banned free speech about Covid-19, including terminating the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for criticizing the Covid vaccine. While it seems likely that Musk will unblock Trump, it remains to be seen whether he will allow free speech against the Covid vaccine or healthy promotion of early treatment for Covid.
The decline in the value of Twitter stock prior to Musk’s offer was not only due to its ban of individuals, as its suppression of speech expanded broadly to many Covid tweets. When it did not outright ban someone for Covid-related tweets, Twitter posted ugly disclaimers for disfavored tweets that were critical of vaccination.
A year ago Trump observed that Twitter “has become totally BORING as people flock to leave the site.” He added, “I guess that’s what happens when you go against FREEDOM OF SPEECH!”
Elon Musk needs Trump and his many supporters to turn that around, and he should not allow Europe to stifle free speech here. To succeed, a new Twitter needs to restore blocked accounts and end its censorship.
So Why Isn’t Biden Visiting Ukraine?
The latest outlandish demand by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was elected after a 2014 Leftist revolution there and supported by a media oligarch billionaire, is for $50 billion in new funding from the West and a personal visit by Joe Biden. The White House responded “no” to a visit by Joe Biden, but then sent his wife Jill there for a photo-op with Mrs. Zelensky on Mother’s Day.
Biden and Congress have already granted the liberal Ukrainian politicians 13.6 billion American dollars. But Zelensky is back, asking for more than three times that much in the form of grants or loan guarantees by the United States, with no end in sight for how much this will ultimately cost Americans.
Biden has entangled the United States in this conflict far worse than Congress ever authorized him to. By sending weapons to Ukraine, Biden has wrongly put our country and Americans at risk of deadly retaliation by Russia, as Russian President Vladimir Putin recently warned could happen in unexpected ways.
Some Republican candidates for office in upcoming primary elections are not supporting this war as entrenched politicians in D.C. are. One of the skeptics, J.D. Vance, was endorsed by Trump for a pivotal open U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, which Vance then won by a landslide on May 3.
The retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) is co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. A crowded Republican group of many talented candidates competed for Portman’s seat amid the worsening Russia-Ukraine war.
Many immigrants from Ukraine settled in Ohio, beginning around 1900, but most have assimilated into American culture as other waves of European immigrants from that period have done. It seems doubtful that there are many Republican primary voters who support Biden’s mishandling of this conflict.
The anti-Trump candidate, state senator Matt Dolan, was polling in a distant fourth in this race and ultimately finished third. He appeared on the Today show on April 18 to declare that he wants the United States to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, “to start off with.”
That approach could lead to the United States taking in upwards of a million refugees, particularly if Dems think they will vote their way. Poland has accepted more than 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees and seeks to relocate them.
Donald Trump enthusiastically endorsed J.D. Vance, who has criticized Biden for spending so much time on Ukraine. In an interview with Steve Bannon on February 19, Vance stated that “I think it’s ridiculous that we’re focused on this border in Ukraine.”
Trump’s endorsement of Vance was gutsy, as the outsider then trailed in third place by a polling average of 7 points behind the front-runner. Vance is a conservative populist like several other candidates Trump has endorsed, and Trump proves again that he’s not interested in backing only the leaders in polls.
A Marine veteran endorsed earlier by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Vance campaigned on rejuvenating manufacturing in Ohio, which once had thriving automobile parts and steel industries. Both are ravaged by the phony policies of free trade that have also devastated its neighboring states.
Vance stands in contrast with rival candidate Mike Gibbons, who declared last year that the middle class is somehow not paying its fair share of taxes. Vance responded by saying that Republicans should defend “middle-class people being able to raise a family and do it on a single income.”
Vance wants to break up Big Tech, which would help end the suffocating censorship that emanates from the Left Coast. So far not even the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, has been able to stop the censorship imposed by the liberals who control Twitter.
Several congressmen, also in contested primaries, have been outspoken against giving Leftist politicians in Ukraine a blank check at the expense of Americans. Both Reps. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have been leaders in opposing Biden’s senseless entanglement in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Once marginalized as “far-right,” Marine Le Pen has skyrocketed in French popularity by urging against an escalation in hostilities with Russia. She stunningly made the final runoff for the presidency of France, and cautions against pushing Russia into a closer alliance with communist China that already opposes the liberal cultural influence of Hollywood.
China recently ordered a movie studio to delete pro- LGBTQ dialog from the children’s animation Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore, and the studio dutifully pandered to the communists. This contrasts with how Disney today aggressively undermines American cultural norms, unlike the patriotism of its founder Walt Disney.
Tyranny in Prison Sentences
When an Antifa protester used an axe to violently crash through Republican North Dakota U.S. Senator John Hoeven’s office window last year, the attacker received a sentence of merely probation and a small fine, and his axe was returned to him. His attack was captured on video and there was no doubt about his guilt.
But when a peaceful man engages in a pro-Trump rally inside the Capitol on January 6, and makes every apology imaginable afterward to the sentencing court, he receives a shocking 41-month prison sentence. He was held in jail for 317 days last year without ever receiving a trial to which he was entitled.
His real offense and those of others receiving long prison sentences is to dare to humiliate the pompous Deep State in D.C. The message is clear: do not embarrass the Swamp creatures or else they will retaliate as harshly as they can.
Trump seems headed to win back the White House in less than three years, and will probably pardon all of them. But in the meantime the 41-month sentence of the harmless Jacob Chansley raises doubts as to why any of the hundreds charged should be pleading guilty before a merciless, anti-free-speech court.
The colorful Chansley had a winnable case had it gone to a jury trial, but he was brutally confined all year in a D.C. jail, often in solitary confinement that many consider to be a form of torture. He was denied a speedy trial even though required by federal law, and he endured hunger strikes to protest his inhumane detention.
Essentially, he was tortured by the confinement until he could be misled to plead guilty in the expectation that he would be released for time served. Instead, the court punished him incredibly harshly for engaging in a form of political protest.
Colonial patriots would be turning over in their graves if they could see how the freedoms they died for have been usurped by this deprivation of fundamental rights. Chansley is being punished for humiliating the powers- that-be.
His judge, Royce Lamberth, was furious that Chansley had appeared on 60 Minutes to defend himself and President Trump. The liberal website Politico speculated that the same judge punished another defendant with a surprisingly harsh sentence because a different, already sentenced pro- Trump protester dared to speak out on Fox News.
Defendants have a right to go on television like everyone else. Judge Lamberth told Chansley that he was looking at a sentence of 20 years but both the sentencing guidelines and custom point instead to minimal sentences for political protests.
Chansley explained that “I am not a violent man. I am not an insurrectionist. I am certainly not a domestic terrorist,” as a jury would have probably agreed.
Meanwhile Kyle Rittenhouse and his attorney took his case to a jury without any plea bargain. Rittenhouse was then acquitted on all charges by the jury, as presumably many of the defendants charged in D.C. would likewise be exonerated if they ever get a trial that they should have already had.
To coerce guilty pleas by defendants who felt they were doing nothing wrong, imprisonment of them in D.C. is persisting until they break. They are denied reasonable bail and even ordinary visitations.
But while the D.C. protesters, including Jacob Chansley, were unconstitutionally denied bail to remain free pending a trial, liberal defendants are often freed on minimal bail. The man who drove his SUV into a crowd in Wisconsin on November 21, killing 6 and wounding more than 60, had recently been released on merely $1,000 bail despite his arrest for allegedly running over his girlfriend too.
A Soros-affiliated prosecutor allowed that Wisconsin massacre to happen. Yet the Left is silent about allowing murderers free on bail while imprisoning political protesters indefinitely without bail.
The Capitol is a public building that should be accessible by the public. Peaceful political protests in the Capitol should not result in long prison sentences that are not imposed on Leftist protesters.
One of the better defense attorneys has pointed out that politicians make fools of themselves often in Congress, so why the bloodthirsty prosecutions of average citizens who enjoyed it as a circus one afternoon? Apparently mocking the Establishment is considered worse than merely criticizing it.
The lengthy sentence of the Shaman protester is a setback to all Americans who value our First Amendment rights. When sentences are enhanced because a protester is outspoken or humiliates public officials, all Americans suffer from that retaliation.
Nearly a half-dozen of the Jan. 6 defendants have opted to defend themselves in court, which Judge Lamberth said he has not seen done successfully in his 35 years on the bench. One of these courageous defendants observed that “it’s a governmental strategy and tactic that if they can’t convict you, they at least want to bankrupt and destroy you.”
