https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/07/20/esper-trump-is-not-fit-for-office-im-willing-to-assist-any-credible-challenger/
Casting Esperians
'' The Biden Family Caricatures''
townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2023/07/21/the-biden-family-caricatures-n2626014
Victor Davis Hanson
The Biden First family seems determined to confirm every stereotype of their antisocial behavior – to the point of dysfunctionality.
During the 2020 campaign, at least eight women alleged that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in the past had serially and improperly touched, kissed, or grabbed them.
One, Tara Reade, alleged she was sexually assaulted by Biden, who denied the charge.
Yet Biden himself was finally forced to apologize for some of his behavior. Or as he said at the time, "I get it."
He claimed that he would no longer improperly invade women's "private space" and had meant no harm.
But Biden's obnoxious conduct extended well beyond the eight accusers.
Women as diverse as former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Biden's daughter-in-law Kathleen Buhle have both alleged that Biden made them their memoirs uncomfortable through his intrusive touching and embraces.
On several occasions, Biden developed a strange tic of becoming too physical with young girls. He habitually attempted to hug them while blowing in their hair.
His daughter Ashley wrote in her diary that she feared her past adolescent showers with her father had been inappropriate. Even as president, Biden has weirdly called out young girls in his audiences to note their attractiveness.
On one occasion, the president interrupted his speech to address a female acquaintance – enlightening the crowd, "We go back a long way. She was 12, and I was 30, but anyway…"
As a result, Biden has likely been warned repeatedly to forgo intimate references to young women.
He has no doubt also been advised by his handlers to stop all close, supposedly innocent contact with young girls and children – if for no other reason than to prevent his political opponents from charging that Joe is "creepy," "perverse," or "sick."
And yet, like some addict, Biden cannot stop – regardless of the eerie image he projects around the world.
Last week, the president jumped the proverbial shark by embracing a young child in a crowd while on the tarmac of the Helsinki, Finland, airport.
In his strangest act yet, Biden kept moving his mouth near the face of the young girl. He was apparently trying to nibble the youngster, almost in turkey-gobbling fashion.
She recoiled.
No matter – Biden continued at her shoulder.
Again, she flinched.
Biden then reverted to form and sought with a second try to smell her hair and nestle closer.
Had any other prominent politician in the age of #MeToo committed such an unnerving stunt, he would likely have been ostracized by colleagues and mercilessly hammered by the media.
Not in Biden's case.
The apparent media subtext was that it was either just "Old Joe" trying to be too friendly or a symptom of his cognitive decline and thus not attributable to any sinister urge.
Senescence now provides paradoxical cover for Biden's creepiness – newfound exemption for his old boorish behavior.
Also, during the president's latest antics, cocaine was found in the West Wing of the White House.
All the White House spokespeople had to do was to reassure the public that the drugs most certainly did not belong to first son Hunter Biden – despite being a frequent guest resident of the White House and a former crack-cocaine addict.
Instead, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed reporters for requesting such clarification.
Ball.
Meatball.
'' Ron DeSantis’ Big Mistake''
realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/07/21/ron_desantis_big_mistake_149527.html
Linda Chavez
COMMENTARY
By Linda Chavez
July 21, 2023
AP
Ron DeSantis seems to believe that his best chance of becoming the GOP presidential nominee is to be more extreme than the guy he needs to defeat, Donald Trump. And what better issue to flex his MAGA bona fides than immigration?
Florida’s draconian new immigration restrictions, signed into law by DeSantis two months ago, are now taking effect. They will have a devastating impact on at least two of the state’s major industries: agriculture and construction.
The new law imposes tough penalties on both undocumented employees and the employers who hire them. A job applicant who presents a false Social Security number or other documentation during the hiring process will be subject to a third-degree felony and could serve five years in jail. The statute also requires employers with more than 25 workers to use the federal E-Verify system, which has a documented history of both rejecting legitimate workers and clearing those who aren’t authorized. If employers hire unauthorized workers, they could end up losing their business licenses.
Workers are apparently fleeing the state in response – and not just those who are in the country illegally. Many immigrant families have mixed status: an undocumented parent or spouse and legal immigrants or U.S. citizens in the same household. One 2017 study estimated that more than 900,000 Floridians lived in mixed-status households, and when a family member faces the risk of becoming a felon, they may decide that staying in Florida isn’t worth the risk.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that in Miami’s booming construction industry, between 25% and 50% of local construction workers have already disappeared from job sites. The owner of a large farming and packaging company told the WSJ that he’d lost half of his employees because of the law.
Construction and agriculture depend heavily on unauthorized workers nationally and in Florida. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis estimates that almost 40% of agricultural workers in the state are noncitizen immigrants (most of whom are also undocumented), as are 23% percent of its construction workers. These employees are not easily replaceable – and certainly not with American workers. Florida’s economy will take a dramatic hit because of DeSantis’ efforts to woo the MAGA base with anti-immigrant measures.
Yet DeSantis has been touting Florida’s economy as a reason Republican voters should support him. And it’s true that Florida is first in a recent ranking that measures which states were most successful in attracting talent. The governor noted in a press release about the rankings, “Florida is leading the nation in net migration and talent attraction. As other states continue to struggle at the hands of poor leadership, people and businesses are flocking to Florida.”
The governor’s statement also boasts about the 388,000 new residents added to the state between 2016-2020. What he doesn’t say is how many of those new residents were immigrants, legal and illegal. A whopping 21% of Florida’s population is foreign-born, including about 775,000 who are undocumented. Immigrants are well represented across various occupations in the state, including 32% of service occupations and 23% of management, business, and science occupations. But the state’s tough new law may end up making Florida a much less attractive state in which to work or establish a business – certainly in industries that rely on immigrant workers.
What is ironic about DeSantis’ move is that Florida’s illegal immigration problem has improved over the years, despite influxes of newcomers from Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. According to the Pew Research Center, which provides one of the best historical analyses of immigration trends available, there were more than 1 million undocumented people living in Florida in 2007.
DeSantis is struggling to gain support, which won’t happen if he keeps being a poor imitation of the other prominent Florida-based candidate running for president. DeSantis should be trying to convince voters that he’s been a job creator in Florida and he will do the same for the country.
Making it more difficult to hire people to do essential jobs tarnishes his credentials. He ought to be telling Republicans that we need to make it easier for people whose skills we need to come to the United States legally, and that he’ll push for necessary reform of our immigration laws when he becomes president. He understands that workforce growth means more for everyone, not just individual workers and their families but the communities in which they live and spend their money. DeSantis says the 2024 election is about the future – and he’s right. But the future is not about building walls or driving workers away but welcoming them. It’s not about protecting jobs but creating them.
Linda Chavez served in the Reagan White House and writes frequently on race, ethnicity, and immigration.
Linda Lou Chavez (born June 17, 1947) is an American author, commentator, and radio talk show host. She is also a Fox News analyst, Chairman of the Center .
20
15
''The DeSantis Campaign Is Rebootying Amid Worries It May Be Too Late''
redstate.com/joesquire/2023/07/21/the-desantis-campaign-is-rebooting-amid-worries-it-may-be-too-late-n779797
Joe Cunningham
By Joe Cunningham | 12:00 PM on July 21, 2023
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.
If you look at the numbers, Ron DeSantis has faced some struggles so far in his campaign.
The Florida governor and current Republican presidential candidate has been stagnant in the polling and there have been numerous reports that the campaign is floundering. Some of those reports are suspiciously devoid of voices from the DeSantis campaign. It’s almost universally people who don’t like DeSantis or are working for an opponent’s campaign.
More recently, however, we’ve seen some changes in the campaign. There have been staffing moves and subtle messaging shifts in the wake of a good fundraising quarter. And, perhaps more importantly, we’ve seen DeSantis stretch his wings a bit with a sit-down interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, which may have been one of the best interviews of this campaign cycle.
It looks, however, like DeSantis is making two serious changes. The first is that people in his campaign appear to be more willing to talk to mainstream media outlets now, as evidenced by this NBC News story. The second is that his focus is shifting from less Florida-centric rhetoric to more American rhetoric, according to that same story.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign is planning a reboot, top campaign officials said, with a significant shift on messaging, events and media strategy.
Expect fewer big speeches and more handshaking in diners and churches.
There will be more of a national focus than constant Florida references.
And the mainstream media may start to get more access.
In short, DeSantis will be running as an insurgent candidate rather than as an incumbent governor.
DeSantis was a big and bold candidate when his campaign launched, but was immediately hit with issues, some of which could have been avoided. A non-traditional launch has the potential to be big and flashy, but it was a double-edged sword and put the launch in the hands of Twitter, not the campaign. The result was not great.
What’s more, the campaign has focused on what he’s done in Florida, but flyover states aren’t Florida, and they don’t care to be Florida. They want to know how President DeSantis will make their state better and how he’ll turn the entire country around. It seems now that the campaign has decided they went as far as they could on their initial path and are now shifting to a new one.
So where do they go from here? Apparently, to smaller and more intimate venues.
DeSantis won’t travel less, but his campaign appearances will begin to be leaner and more intimate.
This week’s stop in Tega Cay, South Carolina, served as a starting point — he held a town hall-style event with a noticeably pared-down security presence. According to figures provided by the campaign, the event cost $940 but brought in $1,600 in organic donations from attendees.
Going forward, expect fewer podiums and stages and more stops at Pizza Ranches, churches and VFW halls where DeSantis can speak directly to voters with no big platforms or barricades blocking close contact.
When it comes to state primaries, especially those early states (that know their value in these races), the voters want the hand-shaking, and they want the one-on-one chats. That’s how you get voters. People talk to DeSantis and they tell their friends he was a nice, friendly guy and the word spreads. More show up to his events and more like what they hear and see.
That’s also why they are opening up their communications with more mainstream outlets. The interview with Tapper may have been a test run for such a strategy change, but when I talked with some folks who have experience running campaigns, their main complaint turned out to be “What the hell was the campaign hiding him from? He’s good at this.” And they’re right. It’s clear DeSantis can handle himself in front of the media, so let him.
For a good many people on social media and in the press, the question remains: Is it too late?
I don’t think so. The fact of the matter is that we’re still way out from the first vote being cast. We’ll have some debates, sure, but it’s far too early to proclaim that anyone’s campaign is dead. He hasn’t seen any major dips in the polling. Some ups, some downs, but mostly steady. And with a good chunk of money, he can keep going for the moment. Sure, he needs to pick up his small-dollar donations, but he’s got no reason to worry.
RON DESANTIS & RUSSELL BRAND: Taking On TRUMP, FAUCI & The WAR IN UKRAINE - Stay Free #173 PREVIEW
https://www.youtube.com/live/Cg0ohFLjZlU?feature=share
Streamed 1 hour ago
https://youtu.be/YFfzYL2n0Kg
Colt 1911: The Incredible Gun in Service for Over 100 Years
Rand Paul’s constitutional war amendment fails: ‘It should be an easy vote to affirm the Constitution’
based-politics.com/2023/07/19/rand-pauls-constitutional-war-amendment-fails-it-should-be-an-easy-vote-to-affirm-the-constitution
July 20, 2023
Jack Hunter
July 19, 2023
On Wednesday, the Senate voted on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have made clear that only Congress can declare war despite Article 5 of the NATO agreement.
Article 5 says that an attack on any NATO nation means every member country must join to defend it.
Paul wanted to clarify that NATO doesn’t supercede Congress’s constitutional war powers.
The amendment needed 60 votes to pass. It was defeated in a final vote of 83 to 16.
“Article 5 does not supersede Congress’s responsibility to declare war,” Paul said on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
He added “I think it should be an easy vote to affirm the Constitution. To vote against affirming the Constitution actually places doubt in the Constitution.”
The 16 who voted with Paul for his amendment, all Republicans, were Sens. Mike Braun, Ted Cruz, Steve Daines, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, John Kennedy, James Lankford, Mike Lee, Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Marco Rubio, Eric Schmitt, Tommy Tuberville, and J.D. Vance.
Rand Paul: “We’re Out Of Ammo, We’re Out Of Money”
yournews.com/2023/07/20/2607960/rand-paul-were-out-of-ammo-were-out-of-money
Jul 20, 2023
Senator Rand Paul stated Wednesday that the U.S. cannot afford to keep sending money and ammo to Ukraine in order to fight a war with Russia, because the country has run out of both.
“From a fiscal conservative perspective, it makes no sense to borrow money from China to send it to Ukraine,” Paul urged, adding “It’s not like we’re sending them surplus funds. It’s like, ‘Oh, we have surplus ammo around.’”
“We’re actually out of ammo now, we’re out of money. And so, there’s no real sense in continuing to do this,” Paul further emphasised.
“This war can go on forever,” Paul continued, adding “I don’t think the Russians are ever leaving Crimea. I don’t think the Ukrainians have the might to push them out.”
“If the endpoint is Russia has to leave Crimea and all other parts they occupy of Ukraine then the war goes on, it will be a war of attrition over many, many years and the Ukrainian people are suffering horribly,” Paul further explained.
Watch:
Today I offered an amendment to the NDAA that would have clarified that Article 5 of the NATO treaty does not supersede the constitution. https://t.co/KfEwvY81Rv
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 19, 2023
The power to declare war is the most important power and the most important vote that any legislator will ever entertain. See how your senator voted: https://t.co/mkMgPRhdfD
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 19, 2023
Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.