Marco Tells It Like It Is

Foreign Policy Speech of Our Time?

At the annual Munich Security Conference, an affair best-known for platitudes and navel-gazing, Secretary of State Rubio diagnosed the roots of Europe’s decline and provided a clear vision for how America and its European allies can unite to preserve the most important alliance in human history. It could not have come at a better time.

Formed in the shadow of the Iron Curtain, the NATO alliance has underpinned American, European, and even global security for decades. It held back the march of Communism. It brought peace to a continent reeling from centuries of brutal warfare. It reunified Europe.

It is an alliance bonded by sacrifice and history. That bond remains, but, Secretary Rubio warned, it has grown weaker as our allies have pursued policies of managed decline. They have crippled their productive capacity with so-called "green energy" policies, allowed deindustrialization to neuter their defense capabilities, and neglected the very fabric of their own societies through mass, uncontrolled immigration. They have failed to live up to their end of the bargain in the alliance, and the marriage between the United States and Europe now needs fixing. Badly.

Marco articulated Trump's Red Line for Europe when he said...

"We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline."

NATO Chief Clear-eyed

Europe should be happy President Donald Trump was elected — despite his threats to take Greenland — because without him, it would never have stepped up for its own defense, according to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. 

"I'm not popular with you now because I'm defending Donald Trump, but I really believe you can be happy that he is there because he has forced us in Europe to step up, to face the consequences that we have to take care of more of our own defense," Rutte said Wednesday.

"No way, without Donald Trump, this would never have happened. We're all on 2% now". 

AOC? Not so Clear-eyed.

When asked in Munich whether the US should send troops to defend Taiwan if China invaded AOC's response was positively Harris-esque.

"Um, you know, I think that this is such a, you know, I think that this is a um — this is, of course, a, um, very long-standing, um, policy of the United States," she responded.

"And I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation — and for that question to even arise." Errr...painful.

One observer called her "at sea without a lifeboat". Another said she makes Harris look like a savant. And she's supposedly neck and neck with U-Haul for leader of the Democrat party and the 2028 nomination.

Just Like Marco...

On the opposite end, Education Secretary Linda McMahon shoots straight. Presiding over the soon-to-be dismantled Department of Education, she has no timidity whatsoever in citing the Department's feeble track record. Established in 1979 right before Reagan won from #2 ATW, Jimmy Carter, the Department has consumed billions in taxpayer monies while presiding over a steady, buy undeniable decline in the education scores of American students.

This weekend McMahon dropped a bombshell video that's got teachers' unions scrambling. She laid out the facts plain and simple: "Teachers, did you know you are not obligated to pay union dues no matter what state you live in? In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that public employees, including teachers, cannot be required to join or pay a union as a condition of employment." McMahon drove the point home: "If you choose to stay, that’s your call. The point is: the choice is yours."

As reported before...Teachers unions like the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) aren't prioritizing educators or their students. They're bloated bureaucracies more interested in politics than pedagogy. Take the NEA – less than 10% of its more than $400 million annual budget actually goes toward representing teachers in the workplace.

The rest is funneled into lobbying, executive perks and ideological crusades that have nothing to do with improving classrooms. In the last election cycle, 99.9% of the AFT's political contributions – under the leadership of President Randi Weingarten – went straight to Democrats. That reeks of money laundering for Democrats, siphoned right out of teachers' paychecks.

In a shift from gender ideology and the Founders were racist, Teacher's Unions now spend their time and teacher's money blasting out anti-ICE materials, which urge educators to rally against immigration enforcement and turn classrooms into partisan battlegrounds. The NEA and its affiliates encourage teachers to post immigration-related political signs and attend anti-ICE trainings, all while reading, writing and arithmetic scores suffer.

If public school teachers are tired of their hard-earned money funding radical agendas, it's time for them to opt out and take back control of their paychecks.

The problem, of course, is when individual teachers buck the union their heads will likely roll as administrators remain in the union's pocket. Sounds like we need an anti-union union.

Iran Update

My inside source says death toll exceeds 100,000...likely more. I sure hope we're gettin' ready to put (another) HAMMER down.

When People Chant Death to You...

It's useful to take them seriously. Newt Gingrich

So - hundreds of ICE Agents Coming to Your Neighborhood

Is an INVASION, but millions of illegals aren't?

Sure You Want 'Em to Back Off?

ICE has deported over 4,000 CRIMINAL Illegal Aliens in Minnesota alone. That's Criminal with a C. And that's without any help from local LEOs or prisons who refuse to turn over illegals already in jail.

Reports also say 3,000 "missing" immigrant children have also been located.

Guess Who's Also Coming Back?

Rosie. Seems the disadvantages of living outside the good ole USA don't outweigh her deeply held principles. Hah!

Still Coming Down

January brought a pleasant surprise buried among the fraud and violent ICE protests. Inflation was down to 2.5% annually.  Remember when Joe had it at 9%?

An Accidental Truth

Don't Look Now... but the Chief Architect of the divisiveness, WOKE/DEI fiasco and Defund the Police in this country actually spoke out about about the deplorable "state" of California.

"I think it is morally — ethically speaking — an atrocity that in a country this wealthy, we have people just on the streets, and we should insist on policies that recognize their full humanity — people who are houseless — and be able to provide them with the help and resources that they need," Barack Obama said.

"We should recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown," he added. "That’s a losing political strategy."

"We're not going to be able to generate support for it if we simply say, 'You know what, it's not their fault and so they should be able to do whatever they want,' because that's a losing political strategy," so said the Anointed One. 

Reality? He doesn't give a rat's pa-toot about any of this except as a matter of political maneuvering to stay relevant and in power.

Even Hilarious chimed in and said that the invasion of illegals during Biden was "destabilizing'. Say whaaatt?

New U-Haul Governor?

Boeing announced it is moving its Defense Headquarters to St. Louis in response to VA Governor Spanberger's multifaceted initiatives to turn the state into a citadel of WOKE crapology. Here we go again.

The Washington, D.C., office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrest of an illegal immigrant and Iranian national who had a criminal history that included multiple charges relating to sodomy.

The arrest comes weeks after Gov. Abigail Spanberger reversed by executive order her predecessor Glenn Youngkin’s 287(g) agreement with DHS that allowed the commonwealth’s law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities to share resources and information to help apprehend illegal immigrants and criminals.

DC Mayor Asks Trump for Help with Sewerage Problem

No - Not human sewerage. Real stuff. Guess she liked how he cleaned up criminals for them.

Our Undiplomatic Leader

As well-documented herein, I have been a Trump fan since 2015 when he first declared. It was then I coined the phrase "Policy Trumps Personality" because I knew he would offend many. He didn't let me down.

So what have we really gotten with this man whom we have elected twice with a colossal failure in between?

On the "Wish He Wouldn't" side we have a President, who:

• Does not suffer fools gladly.

• Holds a grudge and will openly seek retribution, revenge.

• Will bludgeon opponents with biting sarcasm.

• Blows his own horn, although not nearly so much as Obama.

• Likes to hear himself talk way too much.

• Changes his minds often.

• Confuses with contradictory statements and strategies

On the more redemptive side, we can count on Trump to:

• Do what he says and for which we voted. Promises Made - Promises Kept.

• Tell us the way it is.

• Strike palpable fear into our enemies and allies alike with strategic confusion and unbridled courage to act.

• Have the chutzpah to do the tough things, the right things, the things that need doing...badly, urgently.

• Show the wisdom to change course when things don't go as planned.

• To care first and foremost about America and Americans rather than his own legacy.

Not a bad trade off me thinks.

October Surprise Coming?

I continue to lie awake at night worrying about the midterms. In politics, whenever elections are on the near horizon, there is always the chance for an October "surprise". Some event or action that will shift the trajectory of election outcomes because it is so momentous, so unanticipated.

Could it be that Trump has one up his sleeves? Like maybe a complete overhaul of the immigration system and a pathway to legal status for those who have been here illegally for a decade or more, shown they want to be Americans and kept those nose clean?

Could it be?

No Blame Here

Trump has virtually shut down visas from certain dyed-in-the-wool America haters. Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Venezuela (will change I'm sure), Syria, Libya and the like.

Some may complain...there are many good people there who deserve a chance to escape and come here.

But here's the problem. How do you separate the good from the terrorists that hate us and will do everything possible to destroy us?

The answer is - you can't. And neither can DHS. These countries are so corrupt, their vetting so fraudulent, bribery so common that it is impossible to make accurate determinations. Only choice is to keep them all out. Why take the chance when the odds are so great? The probabilities so high?

Keep in Mind for Venezuela, Iran and Cuba

The most dangerous time for a bad government is when, finding itself in death throes, it tries to reform. Never works. See Soviet Union, the French.

What Makes Today's Journalists So Harmful

No ideas and the platform to express.

Coincidence is God's Way of Remaining Anonymous

Now think about that for a minute.

WAPO Mocks Mamdani

"Socialist utopia is expensive, but the new mayor didn’t exactly inherit a frugal city," the editorial board wrote.

"Mamdani is proposing a $127 billion budget, up $5 billion from last year. That’s a city budget bigger than the state budgets of 47 states. Even the state government of Florida (population 23 million) spends less than New York City’s. And that state is managing to attract hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in recent years."

The board continued, "The reality is that Americans may like the idea of 'free' stuff — it’s how socialists win elections — but they are less excited about having to pay for it."

On another note...Mayor Zohran Mamdani reversed his policy of a couple of weeks ago and announced that New York City will resume clearing homeless encampments after pausing the policy for a few weeks. Comrade Mamdani paused the policy in January, arguing that it did not do enough to get people into housing.

I'm telling you this guy will make Bill DeBlasio seems like Lincoln before NYers throw him out.

Heads Up

I will be sending sending a supplementary CME this week. In it I hold forth on the subject of Work. Not newsy at all. Just some views I have. You know where the delete button is.

Nice weekend even though football's over.