Back To The Streets
More than 1,300 demonstrations took place across the country over the weekend. The elated left-wing media cheered the demonstrations as an incredible backlash against Donald Trump.
Here’s the truth. America remains deeply divided on virtually every issue. But the people in the streets were not former Trump supporters. Fox News reporters waded into the crowds and could not find one Trump voter. The biggest demonstrations took place in big urban cities, not exactly MAGA country. So, this was the left organizing demonstrations of leftists.
At least 150 left-wing groups were involved in coordinating these protests. Groups like the ACLU, the Women’s March, dozens of labor unions, LGBTQ groups, radical environmentalists, pro-abortion groups, and socialist organizations.
In short, if the marchers got their way, America would be unlivable for those of us who believe in secure borders, smaller government, the sanctity of life, religious liberty, parental rights, school choice, election integrity, etc., etc.
In the little research I did over the weekend, it wasn’t hard to find people carrying signs or telling reporters they were upset that the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassin wasn’t a better shot. I saw one woman very directly describe her anti-Trump hatred. Referring to President Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcements, she said, “My liberation day will be when he dies.”
Carville Goes Crazy
The day before these mass protests, James Carville was on his podcast offering some advice to the mob. Carville is considered one of the “wise voices” in the Democrat Party, repeatedly warning not to go too far left. Well, he’s gone crazy.
Carville thought the demonstrators could use a little history lesson. Referring to companies and individuals cooperating with President Trump, Carville said:
“Do you know how this ends? Do you know . . . what the country is going to feel towards collaborators with this regime? Maybe you need to go in history and see what happened in August of 1944 after Paris was liberated. They didn’t take very kindly to the collaborators. No. It was not a very pretty sight in the streets of Paris.
“I’m not saying that these people should be placed in pajamas and have their head shaved, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and spit on. I’m not saying that, but I’m saying that that did happen. And I’m saying that these people betrayed the French nation in the same way that I think that these law firms and these giant corporate conglomerates are betraying the United States. What their comeuppance is, I can only guess.”
At the end of his tirade, Carville said, “I don’t believe . . . believe you should assault anybody.” You’d have to be really stupid to not understand what’s going on there. He went on and on stoking violence and then tried to cover his you know what.
We know from polling that one-third of Democrats believe the country would have been better off if the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassin had hit his target in the brains rather than grazing his ear.
That poll wasn’t a fluke or an outlier. A new study finds that “left of center” Americans are far more likely to support political violence, including assassinations.
Of course, I don’t need to remind you how the media would treat any demonstration involving 20,000 pro-life activists, pro-Second Amendment activists, or pro-normal marriage supporters.
If one person in that crowd had a sign that said something horrible like “Women Deserve The Death Penalty For Abortion” or “Gays Should Be Executed,” the media would focus on that one person and that one sign, even though it does not represent 99.999% of the audience.
But no “mainstream media” reporters even bothered to look for such signs at Saturday’s protests.
The people who were marching were unanimously Trump-haters, and the people reporting on the demonstrations were unanimously Trump-haters, too. So, you can’t believe anything you saw on the news about the demonstrations.
Hands Off?
The theme of the demonstrations was “Hands Off,” referring to Trump’s agenda – hands off the government, hands off illegal aliens, hands off abortion rights, and hands off transgender kids. On and on it goes.
I do agree, and so does half the country, with the idea of “hands off.” We just disagree on the issues.
Hands off our children! Quit lying to them and telling them there are 52 genders and that men can get pregnant.
Hands off our Second Amendment rights! We have a right to own a gun to defend ourselves and our families. It’s right there in the Constitution.
Hands off our free speech! Quit trying to censor us.
Hands off our religious freedom! Quit constantly trying to restrict it and force faith into the closet.
Hands off our border wall! Stop fighting against every effort to keep illegal aliens out of our country.
Hands off innocent defenseless preborn children! Stop killing our future.
Hands off our businesses! Stop pushing regulations that make it impossible to make a profit.
Hands off our police! Stop handcuffing the good guys so they can lock up the bad guys.
Hands off our money! Stop wasting our hard-earned tax dollars.
A Little History
The Wall Street Journal and Wall Street itself are blaming Donald Trump and tariffs for the very unpleasant and, to many people, scary stock market declines. That’s really rich. Let’s take a look at a little history.
The Dot.com bubble of 2000 was caused by rampant speculation promoted by big Wall Street firms in the advent of the Internet. In many cases, companies with no profits just had to add “.com” to the company name, and their stock would soar without any profits or any prospects of profits in the next year.
All this was pushed by mainstream Wall Street firms. A lot of people got wiped out. The Nasdaq, which includes many tech companies, fell 39%. The S&P 500, which tracks 500 leading companies, fell 49% -- from a high of 1,552 in March 2000 down to 768 in October 2002.
By the way, the S&P 500 began this year around 6,000. If you didn’t panic and held on to decent investments, you would have been fine over time.
The second panic that comes to mind is the 2008 subprime financial crisis. Wall Street cooperated with big government to issue many bad mortgages to people who shouldn’t have qualified for a loan. That was bad enough. But they went even further and hid these subprime mortgages in mortgage-backed securities.
Only a few people realized what was going on, and virtually no one listened to them. Those Wall Street-created instruments nearly brought down the entire financial system. There was a tremendous decline in the markets. The S&P 500 fell 57%.
Again, many people were wiped out. By the time it was all over, the big banks and Wall Street firms that created this catastrophe were bailed out, but the average guy wasn’t bailed out.
Another “talking point” you’re probably hearing a lot is comparisons of Trump’s tariffs to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the early 20th century. Historian Victor Davis Hanson reminds us that it is an absolute distortion of history to say the Smoot-Hawley Act caused the Great Depression.
What caused the Great Depression was out-of-control speculation on Wall Street in the Roaring 20s, resulting in the stock market crash of 1929. The Smoot-Hawley Act was passed after that in 1930 and didn’t take full effect until 1931.
Positive News
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said yesterday that more than 50 countries have already contacted the White House, making it clear that they want to negotiate mutually beneficial trade deals. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, D.C., today to hopefully finish a deal.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has so far stubbornly refused to lower interest rates. Powell cut rates three times in 2024 under Joe Biden, but he has not lowered rates since Trump took office. I am sure that is just a coincidence. (Sarcasm!)
By the way, oil prices have fallen recently, so gas prices are likely to fall soon. Don’t be surprised to see them well below $3 a gallon over the next few weeks.
Trump Up
A new poll by the Daily Mail finds President Trump’s approval rating up four points to 53%. It’s important to note that the poll was conducted before the stock market’s steep declines Thursday and Friday.
That said, respondents to the poll were split on tariffs: 39% support them, 37% oppose them, and 24% don’t know what they think about tariffs.
And the vast majority of respondents (69%) said they want illegal immigration “significantly reduced.” Trump has done that. Illegal immigration is down more than 90%.