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Today's Commentary --- Black Friday -- Small Business Saturday -- "Huckabee" preview -- Capitalism -- The Baltic Experience 2019 -- Obama Judge blocks Trump -- "They can't handle the truth" -- Evening Edition
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READ THIS NEWSLETTER ON MY WEBSITE.
Robin,
Happy Saturday America!
It's always fun to point out the hypocrisy of your political opponents, but when Chuck Schumer somehow manages to take both side of an issue in just one tweet, he's making it too easy.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/schumer-praises-justice-roberts-for-standing-up-to-trump-obama-judges-comment-slams-roberts-for-partisan-decisions
Small Business Saturday
By Mike Huckabee
A reminder: Black Friday is over, but today is Small Business Saturday. It's a day to direct some of your holiday shopping dollars to the small businesses who create most of our jobs and support their local communities. Small business has been suffering for years, with Washington paying lip service to entrepreneurs while holding its foot on their necks. No more! Thanks to the tax cuts and deregulation, small businesses are once again thriving. Entrepreneurs are taking risks to achieve the American Dream, and we can all help them by patronizing our local businesses, today and every day. As the article at the link says, what makes America the economic envy of the world isn't Wall Street, it's Main Street.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/this-small-business-saturday-lets-celebrate-the-fact-that-it-is-main-street-not-wall-street
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"Huckabee" preview
By Mike Huckabee
Make some leftover turkey sandwiches and gather around the TV tonight for a brand new episode of "Huckabee" on TBN! I'll have a hilarious visit with Mike Rowe of "Somebody's Gotta Do It" and his mom Peggy. Newly-elected North Carolina Rep. Mark Harris will talk about his journey from pulpit to Congress. The very entertaining SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt of the bestselling "Godwinks" book series will tell us about the new Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel movie inspired by it, "A Godwinks Christmas." From "America's Got Talent," we'll welcome hilarious comic juggler Max Winfrey. I'll have commentaries, "Our Kind of Town," some crazy news "In Case You Missed It," and top it all off with a must-see musical pairing of bluegrass superstar Becky Buller and the Fairfield Four gospel quartet.
It's all coming your way tonight at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST (7 and 10 CST), and repeated at the same times on Sunday, only on TBN. To find the channel in your local area and to stream previous episodes of "Huckabee," visit https://www.tbn.org/programs/huckabee
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Capitalism
By Mike Huckabee
I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving dinner, and that it wasn't ruined by relatives' political diatribes or by some home-from-college sophomore accusing you of "fat-shaming" the turkey by calling it a Butterball.
Here's President Trump's Thanksgiving message, in case you were in a turkey coma and missed it:
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/trumps-thanksgiving-message-2-things-leftists-love-ignore-god-patriotism/
There's one thing you might not have realized you should have been thankful for. I'll give you a hint: the American Farm Bureau Federation reports that this year, the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving feast for 10 people dropped to only $48.90, the lowest since 2010. That's about 22 cents less per person than last year. That's significantly cheaper than in 1986, when it was $65.73 in inflation-adjusted dollars. That's because farmers, marketers and retailers have become so efficient and productive that food supplies are ample and prices are flat or dropping. Some of the biggest price declines have been for turkeys, sweet potatoes and milk, which is now an average of only $2.92 a gallon.
https://www.westernjournal.com/average-cost-thanksgiving-dinner-drops-lowest-price-since-2010/
So aside from giving thanks for farmers and low prices and all that, what is the thing you really should have given thanks for? Capitalism!
Capitalism is what makes it possible not only for all the suppliers to have jobs, but for all us consumers to have an ample supply of affordable food.
If you don't believe that – if you, say, got a worthless economics degree from some school that teaches you that capitalism is evil and socialism is the only way to help the poor – then I would invite you to head down to Venezuela and try to buy all the fixin's for a Thanksgiving dinner there. I should warn you that even if you could locate the food, it's gonna cost you: this month, inflation hit 830,000%, on its predicted way to 1 million percent.
Of course, the nature of socialism being what it is – a hothouse for corruption in which the rich get richer by paying off government officials – there are a handful of Venezuelans who could afford to buy a Thanksgiving feast for the entire population. Like the former national treasurer who just admitted to taking over $1 billion in bribes from a media mogul whose stations went easy on the socialist government.
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/21/669964060/venezuelan-former-treasurer-says-he-accepted-1-billion-in-bribes
He's agreed to forfeit various assets that it seemed suspicious for a "public servant" to own, including 30 watches, 17 horses, 10 cars (including a Bentley, a Mercedes and a Porsche), nine bank accounts, six Florida properties and a partridge in a pear tree.
Moral: No matter how big your Thanksgiving turkey was, it couldn't possibly have been a bigger turkey than socialism.
The Baltic Experience 2019
By Mike Huckabee
I am thrilled to announce an unforgettable trip to the Baltics for the summer of 2019! After many years of the Israel Experiences and our most recent trip the Mediterranean Experience cruise, we are bringing you another phenomenal cruise, the Baltic Experience! This all-inclusive cruise will feature some of the most beautiful places in the Baltic Sea and we will get to travel to and absorb these destinations aboard a luxury cruise ship from the Azamara Cruise line. If you have traveled with us before, you already know that all-inclusive means exactly that and there are no surprises along the way. The Baltic Experience will be no different. And when the weather is often unbearably hot throughout most of the US in August, we will be enjoying the cool and delightful weather that makes travel in the Baltic region perfect. Once again we have the entire ship and will fill our time on board with spectacular entertainment and special guests. In addition to the cruise we have multiple pre and post cruise offerings you can choose from to extend your trip. Our last cruise sold out in record time so we encourage you to get your cabin secured soon. We look forward to traveling with you soon and as always we will work tirelessly and do everything in our control to bring you The Greatest Trip.
To learn more about this exciting trip, visit my website here.
See you on the boat,
Mike Huckabee
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Obama judge blocks Trump
By Mike Huckabee
As reported Tuesday, an Obama-appointed federal judge in San Francisco has blocked President Trump (I should set up a macro to type that part of the sentence in one keystroke, it would save a lot of time) from preventing asylum from being granted to people who enter the country illegally. Trump vowed to continue fighting these efforts by federal judges to usurp his Constitutional power to protect national security at our borders, and officials from the Justice Department and Homeland Security issued a joint statement rebuking the judge. They called it "absurd that a set of advocacy groups can be found to have standing to sue to stop the entire federal government from acting so that illegal aliens can receive a government benefit to which they are not entitled." There's more on this developing story here:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-administration-vows-to-continue-fight-after-judge-blocks-asylum-ban
As an aside, I find it amazing that so many on the left constantly accuse Trump of being a power-mad dictator, a tyrant, or "literally Hitler." Yet in some ways, he has been one of the most restricted and constrained Presidents in history. A few examples: despite having unquestionable authority to fire the head of the FBI or DOJ officials for any reason, when he fired James Comey (a richly-deserved canning that even Democrats had been clamoring for), he found himself accused of "obstructing justice" and having to deal with an endless investigation – and no matter how stunningly compromised the official overseeing the investigation (Rod Rosenstein) may be, imagine the nuclear reaction if Trump exercised his power to replace him, even though he should have had the integrity to step aside himself by now.
And despite having the sole Constitutional authority to take emergency measures to secure our borders, Trump is repeatedly blocked by unelected federal judges waving their gavels like Harry Potter's magic wand. This latest ban on Trump doing his job will last at least until a second hearing on December 19 th, and how many dangerous invaders will illegally enter the US between now and then? That's precisely why the Founders put that power into the hands of one national executive who can act quickly, and not a crowd of bickering legislators or a legal system that moves slower than a turtle with arthritis. Yet Trump actually respects the legal procedure. Other Presidents, including some greatly admired by historians, might have told such overreaching judges to go whistle up a rope. And some of the same people denouncing Trump would have cheered them for their "strong stand."
Meanwhile, Democrats in the Senate petulantly refuse to confirm necessary staff positions at agencies such as HUD after nearly two years. They assail Dr. Ben Carson for not getting enough done while they block the appointments of the very people he needs to do it.
https://www.westernjournal.com/senate-democrats-block-trumps-nominees-key-posts/
And let's not even mention the White House press conferences, where reporters think they have the right to act like drunken hecklers on dollar beer night at the Chuckle Hut. When one of them finally crosses the line and gets thrown out, he begs a federal judge to force our "tyrant" President to let him back in again. And Trump actually does!
Considering the bullheadedness of his opposition, Trump has been amazingly effective at getting his agenda enacted. But the idea that he's some kind of "tyrant" or "dictator" is laughable. He's more like Gulliver in "Gulliver's Travels": a regular guy trying to do what needs to be done, but mischaracterized as a giant monster and hamstrung by a thousand strings placed on him by Lilliputians.
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"They can't handle the truth"
By Mike Huckabee
While we were taking a break, leftists had more time on their hands than usual, so they had to find something to be OUTRAGED about. That explains the attempt at virtue-signaling by declaring "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" to be racist. But it was so stupid and so utterly ignorant of Charles M. Schulz's courageous efforts at integrating comic strips that it mostly met with the derision that it deserved.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/good-grief-now-even-charlie-brown-thanksgiving-racist/
Here's some more history on how Schulz put his entire career on the line to stand up to racism.
http://victorygirlsblog.com/charlie-browns-thanksgiving-table-is-not-racist/
Luckily, the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) can always find something to be OUTRAGED about in the statements of President Trump. This year, we got a double-whammy for Turkey Day. Before I relate them, I'd like to note that these both fall into a pattern I've noticed.
Yes, it's true that Trump sometimes hands his critics ammunition by saying or tweeting things that are combative, ungracious or factually questionable (there have been a lot of politicians who've done that and gotten a pass.) But I've noticed that the most over-the-top, outraged reactions come not from things Trump says that are false or debatable, but things that are plainly, indisputably true – yet, not being a politician or diplomat, he says them anyway. He violates the sacred rule, decided in a sealed hall of power somewhere, that we're all going to pretend that it isn't true.
We've seen this time and again, as establishment politicians, pundits and power brokers flipped their wigs over Trump stating outrageous "falsehoods," such as that illegal immigration is harming American workers and people who want to come here should do it legally; that North Korea's leader was a little bully who's too big for his britches; or that MS-13 gang members are vicious animals who need to be deported and kept out of the US. In all these cases, there was ginned-up outrage, followed by polls showing that a majority of Americans agreed with him. And why shouldn't they? All those things are obviously true. Even Hillary Clinton is finally, grudgingly, sort-of admitting that nations need borders:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/38653/shock-hillary-admits-europe-needs-get-handle-ben-shapiro
Trump's critics not only can't admit that these things are true, they're infuriated that anyone in power would dare to say them out loud. This week brought two more examples of Trump critics blowing a gasket because he said something you and they and the chickens in the henhouse all know is true.
One came when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts "rebuked Trump" (that's the way the media put it, although he didn't mention Trump's name) for his criticism of liberal 9 th Circuit federal judges constantly trying to overrule his efforts to enforce border security and immigration laws. Roberts wrote:
"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for."
I don't want to throw shade on a Chief Justice, but has he been smoking something other than the turkey? That's a comment so absurd, it's downright laughable. Everyone knows there is a vast difference between conservative, strict constructionist judges and liberal, "the Constitution is a living document that I can bend to my whim" judges. That's why so many SCOTUS decisions fall along the same partisan lines. It's why liberals who want to impede Trump always go judge-shopping to San Francisco. If all judges are nonpartisan and evenhanded at all times, then why did Democrats move Heaven and Earth to slime Brett Kavanaugh? Roberts sounded like FBI Director Christopher Wray insisting that there is no such thing as a political partisan inside the FBI.
Trump brushed off Roberts' comments, tweeting, "Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have 'Obama judges,' and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an 'independent judiciary,' but if it is why are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned."
We've had three days and counting of harrumphing in media and political circles over Trump saying something that everyone knows is indisputably true. He just wasn't supposed to say it!
There was also the matter of Trump's statement that the US will remain an ally of Saudi Arabia, despite a CIA report linking the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to the highest levels of the Saudi government. Trump called it a terrible crime and said 17 Saudis known to be involved have already been heavily sanctioned. But because of Saudi Arabia's importance in keeping oil flowing, Iran in check and Israel safe; its heavy investments in America and its role in fighting terrorists and protecting the security of the entire region; it's a matter of putting "America first" to preserve our relationship.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-standing-saudi-arabia/
That statement sparked a tsunami of outrage from both the left and right, with politicians and media figures assailing Trump for putting American strategic interests ahead of taking a moral stand against the brutality of the leaders of a government we're allied with.
But again, it wasn't that he said anything new or untrue. He just dared to state what's been going on for decades, but there was a "gentleman's agreement" never to admit it out loud. Trump either doesn't know or care about diplomacy, once defined as "the art of saying, 'Nice doggy,' until you can find a rock." He just calls the growling dog a dog and tells it he's going to hit it with a rock.
Lest you think I'm being a partisan Republican Trump defender, here's an article by leftwing journalist Glenn Greenwald, hardly a Trump fan, blasting all the politicians and media people who've turned a blind eye for decades to the two-faced art of mouthing morality while supporting dictators, and who are now fulminating as if Trump invented the concept of national self-interest.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/21/trumps-amoral-saudi-statement-is-a-pure-and-honest-expression-of-decades-old-u-s-values-and-foreign-policy-orthodoxies/
I don't agree with his views of some of the examples of it, but there's no denying that he's compiled quite a list of people who've done the exact same thing Trump is being slammed for daring to say bluntly, and the list includes Barack Obama, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Greenwald calls them "purely situational opponents of tyranny and murder who pretend to hold such values only when doing so undermines their domestic political opponents and enables their political allies to be restored to power where they can continue the same policies of murder, tyranny-support and atrocity-enabling that they have spent decades defending."
He calls this hypocritical moral preening destructive because it insures such practices will endure, "by dishonestly pretending that they are unique to Trump, rather than the hallmarks of the same people now being applauded because they are denouncing Trump's actions in such a blatantly false voice, all to mask the fact that they did the same, and worse, when they commanded the levers of American power."
I think Trump's worst sin in the eyes of the media and his political opponents isn't that he's doing anything new that's awful. He's just exposing all the awful stuff they'd agreed nobody would ever talk about. To borrow a phrase from Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men," "They can't handle the truth."
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Evening Edition - November 20
By Mike Huckabee
A wrap-up of all the news you might have missed yesterday!
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