Back at Thanksgiving The Hogwash Report 101.0 elucidated its readers about the plight of Cuba and how the U.S. should make it a U.S. Territory. Here two months later, this is a red-hot issue.
Two months ago we wrote “We are somewhat shocked that Secretary of State Marco Rubio hasn’t been pounding on President Trump’s desk to liberate Cuba. Maybe he has, but it hasn’t been reported. It seems our country’s leadership has ignored the potential of the island and accepted the inhumane treatment of its people.
“Liberating Cuba could be the crowning moment for Rubio and another notch on Trump’s belt of wins.”
Was the liberation of Venezuela just a trial run for the Cuba expansion?
All the talk about taking over Greenland, Cuba, Canada and the beginning in Venezuela has the Democrats standing in fear of extreme aggression by President Trump.
But, it’s about time someone started taking seriously America’s right to defend itself against the insurgence of the colonization of countries in our hemisphere by dictator-led socialists who are squeezing dry once-great countries.
The Western Hemisphere is our backyard. The fifth president, James Monroe, recognized that the U.S. needed to stop any foreign interference in the Western Hemisphere. Hence, the Monroe Doctrine, which holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is a potentially hostile act against the United States.
Monroe, God rest his sole, certainly has been tormented since the 1950s by the Soviet allies in Cuba. Now China has been trying to buy its way into Panama, even to the point of trying to own the Panama docks and control of the canal that America built. Trump nipped that in the bud last year.
China was gaining a foothold in Venezuela until earlier this month when Trump put the brakes on that illicit alliance.
Venezuela has been attacking the U.S. for years with drug boats. Trump has stood up to that and it’s now pretty much dead in the water.
Greenland is in the Western Hemisphere as well. Unfriendly nations are trying to reap valuable minerals from Greenland. Trump is saying, “Not on my watch.”
Every American should be behind ending the dictatorship in Cuba that is impoverishing the people there and foisting upon them unbearable conditions — lack of adequate food, lack of adequate health care, lack of adequate fuel, lack of consistent electricity. Folks, all of this is happening just 90 miles from American shores.
Just Another Dark Day
Many times across the 109 editions of The Hogwash Report, we have questioned why the Democrats can’t just agree with Trump on a few issues that would be best for America. Why, we ask frequently, does everything Trump does or suggest have to be portrayed a bad by the Democrats.
This constant positions by the party of woe has left it having to support things that 80 percent of Americans don’t want. They are against fighting major city crime. They are against fighting rampant government fraud. They are against cutting unnecessary spending on frivolous things in foreign countries. They are against keeping the government open. They are against controlling “illegal” immigration. They are against deporting criminals. We could go on.
No, there is not a typo in the first line of the above paragraph. We did not mean to call the Democrats the party of woke, because that’s a long held truth. We meant the party of woe.
Word of the Day: Woe
Dictionary.com: Woe. (1) profound grief or distress. (2) an affliction or cause of distress.
Some of woe’s synonyms aptly apply: melancholy, wretchedness, trial, tribulation, anguish.
Again, we say, how difficult it must be for those so afflicted to wake up each morning unhappy, burdened, despondent. That’s no way to live.
Why not grab on to a few Trump proposals and share in his success, we ask.
Well, this may just have happened last week.
CBS News reported this:
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren and President Trump don’t agree on much, but Warren suggests they might be able to work together on capping credit card interest rates and potentially addressing other cost-of-living issues.”
President Trump proposed capping rates at 10% for one year. That was on Friday.
On Monday, Warren, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, made a speech criticizing Trump’s record on affordability issues and saying he should pick up the phone and do something about capping credit card interest.
Trump did just that. He picked up the phone and called Senator Warren.
Warren went on about how she lectured Trump on affordability issues while on the call.
The President hasn’t shared his version of the phone call, but you can wager it went something like, “Well, Senator, all you have to do is get me some Democrat votes in the Senate.”
Warren probably sees the likely hood of Trump getting this done and she doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of this issue. She says she has been in favor of cutting credit card interest rates for years.
If this proposal gets to the floor of both houses, there shouldn’t be a single no vote. Besides, the House and Senate members have been given sufficient warning to dump their stocks in the credit card companies.
Hold On, There’s An Update
But wait, maybe some Republican’s aren’t willing to risk losing the support of the credit card companies.
Politico reported Tuesday morning that Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson voiced skepticism on Trump’s move to temporarily cap the interest rates.
“I think that would probably deprive an awful lot of people access to credit around the country,” Thune told reporters,” Thune said, according to Politico.
So, Thune doesn’t see that a lot of people with credit card debt, with interest rates up to 30 percent, couldn’t use a break with 10 percent interest for a year. Does he really believe that poor people are served by credit at usury rates? Does he not believe that people who borrow money from credit card companies and can’t pay it back do not cause higher interest rates for everyone else?
The banking industry does have high-powered lobbyists. The average citizen with high credit card debt doesn’t.
As of the turn of the new year, Americans have a record credit card debt, hovering around $1.2 TRILLION and where essentials are making up a large portion of the balances.
Republicans in Congress need to help Trump as he works on affordability, or risk the prospect of the Republicans becoming the minority party again. God forbid.
Michigan Hogwash Revealed
Michigan Secretary of State candidate Anthony G. Forlini, a Republican, stumbled onto something as he went about his duties as the Macomb County Clerk.
Forlini found that over the past four months, his office has pulled the names of 239 non-citizens for possible jury duty with the 16th Judicial Court.
You see, potential jurors are selected from among the state’s driver’s license applicants, which is maintained by the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.
“Frequently non-citizens slip through because citizenship was not flagged in the Secretary of State database,” Forlini told The Detroit News.
Then, he decided to check to see if these folks were also on the qualified voter file (QVF), and yep, 14 of the 239 non-citizens had been registered to vote at some point. Among those, three had actually voted.
In Michigan, anyone who applies for a driver’s license is automatically registered to vote, unless they specifically opt out. They are supposed to truthfully check a box as to whether they are a U.S. Citizen or not, but their is no cross check for that.
Forlini suggests Michigan safeguard election integrity by cross-checking driver’s license applicants against a federal list of non citizens.
Why not require proof of citizenship, ie. birth certificate or passport or naturalization certificate?
Just sayin…
Things We Never Thought We’d See…
— The U.S. Supreme Court having to hear testimony and decide whether men should be allowed to challenge for trophies in women’s sports.
— Indiana University playing for the NCAA football championship. Hell hasn’t frozen over yet, but it’s cooling significantly as the big game approaches and Indiana could be the first undefeated team with 16 wins. See our upcoming Sports Extra edition of The Hogwash Report. ETA later this week.
— People rioting in the streets to keep the federal government from enforcing its laws.
— An Iranian uprising against the Ayatollah.
— A former President of the United States (William Jefferson Clinton) failing to answer a subpoena to testify before Congress.
— A bill introduced in Congress to make Greenland our 51st State.
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James Monroe was America’s first NIMBY. A “Not in My Back Yard” attitude was wise. We cannot allow our nation to be encircled by nations and forces that would endanger or destroy us, like an ever-tightening noose. Cuba next: a U.S. possession. We’ll need the cigars to celebrate same with Greenland.